Alternating

The worst part was always waking up. It was that half-lit place where he still thought of himself as the hero, but saw the hospice around him and didn’t understand.

Cloud shook his head to clear it. The hospice didn’t go away. He wondered briefly if Shinra had captured him again before the headache set in and with it, the knowledge that Shinra didn’t have to capture him. He tried to move, but he was held tight. Wet, freezing fabric… cold packing.

He heard a door open and twisted his head, trying to see. White uniform and blonde hair came into view, long straight ponytail he locked the door behind him.

“Seth,” Cloud muttered.

The blonde turned and walked over to where Cloud lay. “Oh, good, I’m not Sephiroth anymore. You’re back.”

“So let me out,” he glared up at the nurse.

“Now Cloud, you know better than to give me orders.”

He knew he couldn’t do anything and he hated it. “Are you going to let me out?”

“You get to earn your way out,” Seth said, brushing his hand over Cloud’s cheek and then reaching for his belt. “Are you going to follow directions?”

“I don’t really have a choice,” Cloud answered, and then he couldn’t speak.

++

“Good morning, Cloud.”

“Good morning, Professor.”

“And where are we today?”

“In the hospice,” Cloud answered, rolling his eyes.

“Ah, good, I’d hoped we might be here today. Have a seat,” Isaac Hojou invited his patient to the couch. “I was wondering how you’ve been getting along with the new people in the ward.”

“You mean Doctor Reeve?” the younger man asked as he sat down.

“It must be very strange for you, to have one of your doctors end up a patient,” Hojou said to him. “How do you feel about it?”

“He’s a traitor,” Cloud spat.

“Is he?”

“But he’s a traitor to you people, so he’s on our side now,” Cloud continued, more thoughtful. “We can’t trust him, but he can be useful.”

“That’s a very… mercenary attitude,” Hojou smiled.

Cloud raised an eyebrow at the professor. “Sometimes I think you’re trying to encourage me.”

“Encouraging you to talk, my boy, nothing more.”

++

“Hi, Cloud.” She spoke fast, as if she was hoping to get each moment over with. Rather than walk up to him, she stood behind and slightly to the left of the armchair he was perched in.

“Hey, Tiff,” he answered without looking up from the window. He’d been on the verge of slipping away all morning, he could feel the mountains outside of Nibelheim trying to close in on him. The fields outside were flat and sparse and staring reminded him where he was.

Professor Hojou had told him this was essential to getting better, learning to hold everything back.

“Am I Tifa today? Or Tiffany?”

“What does it matter to you?” She was quiet long enough for Cloud to spot a squirrel outside and watch it run all the way from the dumpster to the tree line.

When she finally spoke, her voice was very quiet and very sad. “When I’m Tifa, I’m pretty.” Cloud looked up at her as she smiled awkwardly, the skin around her mouth still too stiff with scar tissue to allow her to show her teeth properly. He almost pushed her away, but he knew how the tears would gather on the thickly scarred skin and he hated the way it looked and the way it made him feel.

It was, after all his fault. He closed his eyes and relaxed, lettings the other world snap into place around him, Hojou’s orders be damned.

When he looked back up at her, she was whole and smiling properly, no burn marks marring her face or neck. “You’re always beautiful to me, Tifa, you know that.”

She hugged him tightly. “Oh, Cloud.”

“There’s no time for that, we need to go up to the reactor and check out those rumors.”

Tifa hesitated for a minute and then nodded, resolved. “Whatever you say, Cloud. I’d follow you anywhere.”