Trying to get into the swing of things again. Been working on a few stories, and this one has always been my favourite to work on in terms of getting the brain back into gear, so to speak. Hopefully will have a few updates on some golden oldies in the coming week or so.

Cloud reached behind him and scratched at the back of his neck. An inner part of him cringed slightly as he felt a few flakes of skin come away underneath his fingernails. After all he had been through in his life, he was still put off by the thought of sunburn. He almost smiled at the thought. Nanaki let out a huff beside him, before a long tongue emerged from the Cosmonian's mouth and licked at his own nose.

"Fuck this heat!" Cid snapped, voicing what the rest of the group had had on their mind since they'd arrived in Costa Del Sol. The pilot grumbled to himself a little more, as he peeled off his denim jacket and slung it over his banana lounge, leaving himself in a sweat stained singlet. Nanaki wrinkled his nose, and swished his tail across his back, swatting a stray fly from his hind quarters.

"I'll never complain about the glaciers again..."

Cloud did let a small smile through this time, as the Cosmonian flopped over onto his side and let his tongue loll out.

The group had met up across the fields, and despite Tifa's best efforts to drag Cloud off on his own, the collective decision had been to stay at Costa Del Sol and soak up some sunshine before making their trek back to their glaciers. No one mentioned the words, but each party member knew that it may be the last time that they had this opportunity to unwind together at the beach, and they were cherishing it all in their own rights. Tifa and Yuffie were playing beach volleyball against Barret, and despite the numbers being unbalanced, the gunman was still dominating the girls. Cid was reclined on a banana lounge, a token cigarette hanging loosely from his lips as he cradled a glass of scotch in his hands, his gaze a little distant as he looked out across the waves. Nanaki had curled up on a towel between Cloud's lounge chair and Cid's, and now had his paws over his nose, shielding his eyes from the relentless sun. Cloud was more interested in Vincent, however, who sat a few metres away, beneath a palm tree on a small patch of grass. The ex-Turk's gaze was even more distant than Cid's, as he stared across the ocean, one knee raised, his arm hanging loosely across it, whilst his back remained propped against the trunk of the tree. There was a slight breeze, and it was flicking hair across the gunman's face. Vincent, however, seemed to pay no attention to this, and even from the distance away that he was, Cloud could see that Vincent's eyes were hazed with an endless stream of thoughts.

"Oi Valentine!" Yuffie called, as Vincent snapped out of his musings and turned a stoic gaze her way, "Barret's kicking our asses. You want to lend us a hand?"

Vincent slowly raised an eyebrow, whilst lifting his clawed hand, and Yuffie's expression dropped slightly at the realisation. The situation was so absurd that Cloud couldn't help the small outburst of laughter that fell from his lips. Vincent's lips curled slightly in an amused smirk, and Yuffie huffed.

"You guys are assholes!" She snapped, as Tifa hid a chuckle behind her hand and Barret let out a hearty laugh, the Wutaian princess kicking sand in frustration. It drifted on the air slightly, and found its way into Nanaki's nose, who startled and sneezed, directly into Cid's scotch glass. The pilot let out a string of expletives then, as Yuffie finally saw the funny side of the situation, collapsing onto the sand in hysterics, Nanaki looking on in mortified apology. By that point, the composure of the collective group was lost, as Tifa giggled freely, and Barret boomed his laughter across the beach. Cid was smiling too, now, though still offering expletives, and even Vincent's smirk had grown behind his collar.

...This is what we need... Just a little while to forget...

Costa Del Sol's tourism industry had been falling in the past months, and so, they were almost the only people there aside from two couples further down the beach. Cloud assumed it had something to do with the fact that no matter how beautiful the waves were, no matter how pure the sand was, and no matter how pristine the waters were, the continuous presence of meteor in the sky was a pressing reminder that things were not well. It had been the same with most places that the group had visited of late. Most citizens of the world had taken to spending most of their time indoors, with their loved ones, a constant fear of the unknown literally looming over the heads. Cloud had spoken to a few people since meteor had first been summoned, and many had admitted that they feared going outside because they never knew when the threat would become a little too real. Cloud shook the thought of meteor from his mind, as each time he would dwell on the subject, he would feel Sephiroth in the back of his mind, and the presence was not exactly welcomed.

"Cloud?" Nanaki asked softly, as the blonde turned to face his traveling companion.

"Mm?"

"Your eyes are greened..." the Cosmonian said quietly, concern along his features, "Are you alright?"

The blonde removed his cell phone from his pocket and held up the black screen as a mirror, frowning slightly as he confirmed Nanaki's statement. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to will the mako away, and he saw Sephiroth's face smirking as soon as his eyes shut. He snapped them back open, and turned to face Nanaki once more. Nanaki said nothing, choosing instead to rest his head on Cloud's arm and let out a small puff of breath. The blonde absent-mindedly rest his hand on the Cosmonian's head briefly, before turning his gaze back out to the ocean.

"He's always with me. I don't think anyone else could understand how that feels. To have another presence living inside you..." Cloud frowned, and Nanaki shook his head.

"You're wrong. I know at least one other."

With that, the Cosmonian lifted his head and nodded in Vincent's direction, without saying a word. Cloud looked over at the ex-Turk once again, who was no longer staring at the ocean, but had his gaze fixated on his clawed hand, flexing his fingers in a morbid kind of fascination.

"Well, I tell ya one thing," Cid suddenly chimed in, drawing Cloud's attention from Vincent as the pilot stretched and rested his hands behind his head, a fresh cigarette dangling from his lips, "I reckon if I had some kook living inside me, I would be making him pay board, if you know what I mean."

"No one ever knows what you mean!" Yuffie teased, before slamming the volleyball over the net. Cid scoffed, before taking a long drag of his cigarette.

"What I mean is that you don't just idly sit by and let the guy get away with it. You gotta be getting something out of it as well. You don't let someone into your house and then shrug when they piss all over the floors," Cid shrugged, "You clip em by the ear and you tell them to start scrubbing or you evict the fuckers. No one should get a free ride."

"Piss on the floors? You're some crazy ass old man, I tell you that much!" Barret laughed, giving Yuffie the perfect opportunity to score a point. Cloud, hlowever, remained silent.

As loathe as Cloud was to admit it, Cid's analogy had actually made sense.

The blonde let out a heavy sigh and sat up, chancing a glance outside the window and seeing the silhouettes of the palms outside bending slightly in the breeze. He listened to the ocean and shook his head to no one in particular.

"Maybe it's less of a matter of not giving up, and more of a matter of doing the right thing... Is it so wrong to just... to want to do both? To have both?"

He muttered the words out loud, knowing no one could hear them, but hoping he'd still receive some kind of an answer. None came. In those kinds of situations, he often resorted to the memory of Zack and whatever his beaming face would blurt out with one hundred percent confidence. Anytime it had been about Sephiroth, however, Cloud's memory was grey. Even Zack hadn't been at Sephiroth's side by the end of it, and something about that thought alone brought Cloud's mind spiraling down once again. Times had been so much easier when it had been Cloud and Zack against the world. Fighting alongside Sephiroth and taking down the bad guys, just like any young boy's dream. But, Cloud thought, who determined who the bad guys were? Who gave the rule as to who was more evil than the other? Maybe Cloud was more in the wrong than even Sephiroth was, by letting his former hero fall from grace like he did. Maybe Cloud could have done more.

Cloud was startled from his thoughts by the sound of two gunshots, and the shriek of a beast shortly thereafter. He leaped off of his bed and slung his sword over his back, before flinging open the door and searching for the source. Vincent was on the beach, his gun barrel smoking as he stared down at a lifeless form on the ground. Cloud shut the door behind him and headed over, as the ex-Turk lifted his gaze to the blonde.

"Perhaps I should reconsider my choice of weapon during the evenings..." the gunman said dryly, and Cloud offered a small smile, tapping his ear.

"Enhanced hearing."

"Ah... Of course."

Vincent then turned his gaze back to the beast before him, and Cloud shifted his gaze downwards also. The beast was deformed beyond recognition, but if Cloud were to take a stab, it seemed as if it may have been a wolf of some sort.

"It attacked with no provocation," Vincent explained, rolling the beast over with his shoe and gesturing at a bullet wound on the animal's side, "It looks like borderline mako poisoning."

Cloud watched as near fluorescent green seeped from the wound, and his brows furrowed unwillingly.

"I... well, Zack... Zack was once told by Sephiroth himself that mako made monsters..."

Vincent then held Cloud's gaze and shook his head.

"I believe we may have had this discussion before. It is an individual's actions that make them who they are," the ex-Turk explained calmly, kneeling beside the beast, "Like this beast here... He was no monster. He was a beast, as he was born to be. However, those who altered his form? Those are the monsters."

"...Do you feel the same of Chaos?" Cloud asked, not sure if he was crossing the line by asking. Vincent looked very briefly surprised, before a small smirk graced his lips.

"A man's demons are a different story."

The pair stood in silence for some time, then, before slowly walking back into town. Cloud took a seat on the wall along the beach, and Vincent wordlessly perched beside him. Neither had any words to say, but it was far from an uncomfortable silence, the two of them looking out to sea.

"When I was very young, I used to want to be a sailor..." Vincent said suddenly, and Cloud raised a curious gaze to his friend's face, but the ex-Turk merely continued gazing out towards the sea. Vincent very infrequently spoke of his life before he had joined the party, so to hear such a seemingly spontaneous statement was somewhat of a privilege.

"Why?"

"Freedom."

"What stopped you?" Cloud asked, and the gunman let out a small 'hmph' of laughter.

"Reality."

"Reality?"

"You're not just given freedom. You have to fight for it..." Vincent then dropped down onto the sand and turned towards town, "If he doesn't want to fight for it, then perhaps he doesn't deserve it."

Cloud watched then, as the gunman made the trek to his dwellings, and the blonde merely let the ex-Turk's words set in. He wondered briefly if that really had been a young Vincent Valentine's wishes, or merely an opportunity for the gunman to get his message across. Then the blonde realised: it didn't matter either way. Vincent was right.

Cloud threw a final glance to where the body of the slain beast still lay, before he turned and headed back to his villa. He'd be needing the sleep, for there wouldn't be much time for it in the nights to come.