You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy, when skies are grey

The weather was miserable again. The sky was a brooding purplish-grey, the colour of a ripe bruise. And god knew, Cloud had seen enough of those to know. And Cloud? He was thinking. Times like these, when the sky held the promise of storms, before the rain came to wash it clean, these were when the memories found him. He stood in his room, facing the window. The door was locked, a habit born of the many intrusions that living with two children brought.

Of course, he knew what would have been said, six years ago. Had it really been six? Three had been lost to that mako-tank, then another had been spent in and out of dreaming.

"Oi! Soldier!"

His lips parted as he gasped for breath. The words, inside his head, had taken on an almost realistic strength, as if the emotion tied to them had made them real.

"Yes, sir?" he mouthed, feeling the hot rush of tears behind his eyes.

"You're doing it again. What did I tell you about making that face?"

"Never-" his tongue tripped over the words, even though they were so familiar, "-never to make depressing faces unless someone's died. But yo-" Half-turning, half-smiling, then suddenly everything changed. There was a warmth at his back, a soft breath next to his ear.

"Don't turn around."

Arms looped around him, crossing at his waist and pulling him back against a firm chest, their strength filling him even as his tears finally broke free to course down his cheeks.

"But you died," he finally choked out.

"Do I sound dead to you?" The voice was low, intimate. He could feel the words formed a hair's breadth from his cheek.

"No, but-"

"No arguing with a superior officer!" There was a laugh hidden in the words, a light teasing, and he found himself smiling back.

He allowed himself a pause, then, a moment to believe that the arms holding him wouldn't melt away as soon as he turned his head to look at their owner.

"It's so hard," he admitted.

"What is?"

Odd, how memories of talking with Aeris like this sprang to mind.

"Life. Just...getting up in the morning is harder without you here."

"'Without me'? Whoever said I was leaving you?"

"But-"

"Geez, Cloud, is that all you ever say?" A squeeze of arms, and he felt a little stronger, a little more whole. "I never left you, I just...changed a little."

Deep breaths. Eyes closed against the emergence of more tears.

"You-you'll always be here?"

"Of course."
"Promise?"

"On my honour as a SOLDIER." A short laugh. "For what it's worth."

"Everything," he breathed.

Another moment, tension easing out of his chest to be replaced by a warming lassitude.

"Tifa's calling." The words had no place here, no meaning.

"Hmm?"

Arms uncurled, made ready to leave him completely.

"Not yet," he almost whimpered, "just a few more moments."

"Silly." Lips pressed against his cheek, and he turned his head, eyes still shut. Hands held his face, gently tilting it upwards as those lips returned, brushing over his forehead, his eyelids, his mouth. So faint that he barely felt it, like air against his skin, then a little firmer.

"Clooouuud!"

"Zack..." the name left him in a rush of air, his eyes fluttering open of their own accord. The pressure against his skin melted away, leaving only warmth to show where it had been.

"Clooouuuuuuud! Phone for youuuu!" Tifa's voice, with its singsong quality, grounded him, coupled with the rattle of his doorhandle.

"Just a second!" he called back, one hand flipping the latch as the other dashed the last tears from his cheeks. Feeling a warmth at his back once more, he glanced behind him. Funny, the sun was shining.

You'll never know, dear, how much I love you,

So please don't take my sunshine away.