Mid-winter in Midgar was a wet, grungy affair. Sludge built up on the sides of the roads, spat there by spinning tires. The lower sector's houses had never been built to withstand precipitation of any kind, but the plate had been ripped away when Meteor came; there would be an occassional roar as a house collapsed under its own weight, and silent quick funerals for the nameless, homeless dead afterwards.

Winter was, in a word, miserable.

It was into this that Cloud stepped firmly, Yazoo and Kadaj close behind him and Loz behind them; another silver head rose between them, eyes hidden by darkened lenses. They pressed close enough to hold him up if he tripped, their worried gazes watching every careful step. He didn't stumble. The cane under his hand thudded on the frozen pavement, sliding a little on the ice. Cloud stopped outside the garage and looked over his shoulder. Sephiroth nodded to him, once, and then lifted his face to the sky.
"It's blue," he breathed wonderingly. "Midgar's sky is blue."

"Yes," Kadaj agreed, not sure why it wouldn't be so. Cloud threw open the garage doors with a bang, making the triplets jump. The four bikes inside had been well-maintained from sheer boredom over the past months and they gleamed in the sharp winter light.

"Let's mosey," he murmured half to himself, smiling a little. Tifa was watching them from the window, and he nodded to her. She waved and smiled back. He swung onto his own bike easily, backing it out to the others. Yazoo moved to one of the others, picking out his own with a small smile to Loz, who hesitantly moved away from Sephiroth to get his own. Kadaj moved away only when Sephiroth gave him a wordless look.

Cloud looked steadily at the sunglasses, knowing this too was a test; he knew just as surely he would pass. The triplets looked on nervously, breathing a collective sigh when Sephiroth carefully slid behind Cloud, tucking the cane under a flared wing of the bike.

"Let's go," Cloud said, hiding his smile in the roar of motor as they raced for the hills, crisp wind lifting around them as they darted playfully around each other in an exhilarating dance. Kadaj threw his head back and laughed, high and bright and clear, and it was for all of them.

This was how it should be.