To Midnight; have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Fever Dream

The first day was the worst. Cloud didn't remember when he fainted, or where, only that one moment he was trudging through knee-high snow in the Modeoheim Mountains and the next he was lying in a cot back at the Shinra base at the top of the mountain. His whole body felt as if it were radiating heat, his brow shining with perspiration. Even his normally unflappable spiky hair seemed to wilt and dull in shade, though Cloud swore it was probably just his imagination.

He shivered and coughed violently. By the Planet, did he hate getting sick…

"Hey buddy, are you alright?"

Cloud rolled in his infirmary cot, looking tiredly over his shoulder. Zack stood a few steps away, offering the best of his 'don't worry everything's alright' smiles. From the way it wilted a few moments afterwards, Cloud suspected his condition looked even worse on the outside.

Not that it mattered; he got sick all the time back in Nibelheim. He was used to this by now. It still didn't mean he liked feeling sick and achy and stuffy and everything else wrong in the world at once.

"I'm fine," Cloud managed softly, dropping his head back onto his supplied pillow. He pulled the blanket over himself tighter, shivering only slightly. He felt hot and cold at the same time, and he wished his body would make up its mind on which one it wanted to fix first. "Just…need some sleep."

Zack nodded, but Cloud could see the SOLDIER looked a little nervous. Why did he look so anxious? It was just a little fever, something everyone in his platoon caught during their little expedition. Just because he passed out in the pass didn't mean…

Cloud yawned, his eyes drooping. He could take care of himself. This was just a little fever; it wasn't something that could…could…

He was standing in the center of a massive arena, a heavy sword slung behind his back and a rippling burgundy cloak wrapped around him. Cloud blinked in astonishment, looking over himself in curiosity. His hand was encased in a glove, tipped with golden spikes and plates like some sinister looking gauntlet. His clothing was shabby and worn, held together haphazardly by mismatching belts and whatever leather straps that could clasp fabric.

"What-?" Cloud turned his hands over in front of his face experimentally. They worked as he wanted, responding when he tapped his fingers to his thumbs carefully, being doubly careful of his gauntleted hand.

"KID, WHADDAYA DOIN'?"

Cloud flinched and looked over his shoulder sharply, already searching for the owner of the voice. His eyes fell onto a small squat form, with buckled goat's legs and a scowling human-like face. The little figure was bouncing up and down, pointing wildly at something. "THOSE THING'S ARE ATTACKING A ROOKIE, DO SOMETHIN'!"

He blinked once and turned his head again to where the goat-man was pointing. The once empty area suddenly wasn't empty anymore, with odd brightly-colored monsters dashing around on the ground and in the air. Cloud could see a particular group clustered around another brightly colored individual, who looked like-

"Zack-?" Cloud stared in astonishment. It looked like Zack, but it wasn't all the same. He looked too young, and brightly colored…though Cloud could imagine him wearing something that bright if he could find anything like it in Midgar.

The colorful young Zack swung around a sword, one Cloud never recalled him ever owning, haphazardly. The creatures around him floated casually out of the way, their bodies swaying fluidly on the ground and in the air as each attack failed to hit its mark.

The sheer ridiculousness nearly made him snicker. Were the colorful monsters, with bright yellow eyes and various colored bodies, playing with him, or Zack was just really that bad at fighting? He folded his arms, watching in bemusement as the little creatures continued to toy with his diminutive friend.

"Skkrtyz?"

Cloud turned his head, his eye catching a small floating creature with a red body and a yellow cap on its head, with a peculiar heart-shaped symbol on its chest. It twirled in the air, humming loudly as its spinning sped up, its hat flailing about in the air as it went. Cloud smirked, watching the thing spin. This all really was pretty ridicu-

POOMF!

He woke up and felt nearly molten. His eyes barely opened and everything was too hot and too cold! Cloud threw his blanket off himself, only to feel the unforgiving bite of cold air from outside his roasting cover. Teeth grit, and shivering violently to boot, Cloud sat upright and pulled the blanket back over himself.

Cloud coughed dryly. His lungs ached abominably; breathing in deeply only made him cough again.

With a renewed shiver, Cloud rolled over in his cot. His mouth felt dry and fuzzy…some water would've been nice to have. He settled down in his new position, dropping his head back onto his uncomfortably warm pillow. He stared.

An empty chair sat next to his bed, with a canteen sitting innocently on it, along with a small bottle of medicine.

With a weary shudder, Cloud reached out feebly, his hand clasping the water first. He untwisted the cap, downing as much of the bitingly cold liquid as he could. It burned, but in a strange good way Cloud couldn't quite understand. With a sigh, he capped it and exchanged the canteen for the medicine. It looked suspicious, with a nearly neon green composition and suspended bubbles in the mixture. But, upon opening the cork, he was assailed by a pleasant citrus scent and drunk the concoction anyway.

He gagged and nearly spat the stuff out, his tongue curling in his mouth from the nasty taste. Grimacing, Cloud sat the empty bottle back on the chair, taking back his canteen to wash the acrid taste from his mouth.

"Looks like someone's awake!" Zack's perky voice invaded the room. Cloud glanced up from the canteen, offering a small smile in return. The SOLDIER sauntered over, hands shoved in his pockets and silly smile already present. "How're you doing today, sunshine?"

Cloud mumbled a noncommittal noise, placing his now empty canteen down on the seat with the empty medicine bottle. The bitter-sour taste of the medicine still lingered in his mouth, despite the volume of water he drank.

"That bad, huh?" Zack asked. He laughed shortly, picking up both items off the chair before sitting down himself. "The first couple days are always the worst, but you'll be fine. You're a tough guy, Cloud!"

"I'm not tough," Cloud mumbled, gazing at Zack through half-lidded eyes. He started to feel a little cooler, though now it was getting hard to keep his eyes open for very long. "Just…me…"

"Well you are still tough, SOLDIER or not. Hey, you know what? You're one of the toughest guys on the platoon! Did you know that today, that one guy, you know who I'm talking about, well, while we were on duty out in the Chocobo Marsh, he…"

Cloud sat up and grimaced. His cheek felt like it was burning, and his head pounded unmercifully. The little thing floated triumphantly over him, buzzing incoherently as it circled around and around. Cloud watched the thing, his eyes narrowing as his arm reached over his shoulder.

The sword swung like a cleaver, slicing the red buzzing thing in half. It squeaked in surprise, its body immediately disintegrating into black smoke and red energy. Cloud stood with a scowl, holding the sword in front of him as he looked at the other monsters buzzing around the arena.

A crackle sounded out, and suddenly Cloud was floating. Another crackle and he shot off, speeding towards the small monsters with his blade at the ready. One swing, one gone. Two swings, two gone. It was a blur of electric energy and a flash of a sword, but at the end of it, Cloud landed on the ground, feeling very satisfied, puzzled, and slightly disappointed.

If only he could do that back home. He'd make it into SOLDIER with that kind of skill…

"Wooooooooowwwww…"

Cloud blinked, his head turning slightly to see the young Zack, standing only a short distance away. His sword was clutched weakly in his hand, his shoulder drooped and mouth hung open in shock. Cloud stared right back. He was still here?

"I can't believe that! You were all 'WHOOSH' and they went 'POOF' that was sooooo cool!" Zack's eyes lit up with childish glee, which were oddly appropriate now with his supposed age. "You must be some kind of hero, huh?"

"Hero?" Cloud never thought of himself as a hero, not even someone exceedingly heroic. He couldn't even make it into the SOLDIER program, for the Planet's sake! And now Zack, a real SOLDIER, was calling him that? He felt his face flush. "I'm not a hero. Heroes save people."

Young Zack jerked a thumb at himself, grinning sunnily at him. "Well, you saved me! That's something, right?"

Cloud blinked, completely baffled. Even in his dreams Zack still confused him. "You needed saving from those things?"

"Hey! They're really tough!" Zack protested. Cloud smirked, thinking back to the cutesy things he sliced through. Zack sighed, bowing his head and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, a gesture Cloud was familiar with. "Okay, yeah, I still need some training…it's really hard when nobody will take me as their apprentice, though."

At once Zack's head bolted up, a smile nearly illuminating across his face. Cloud frowned in response.

"Could you-?"

"No." It was already weird enough that Zack was young and inexperienced, Cloud didn't want to be his teacher on top of all of that. "Sorry."

Zack slumped dejectedly, releasing a loud sigh. "Oh well, can't say I didn't try…"

Cloud rolled his eyes and turned away. With that finished, he could go back to having a normal kind of dream. At once, he became aware of the weight in his hand, the sword he wielded while cutting through each of those colorful monsters. He glanced down curiously.

The massive sword he held was Zack's, the blade wrapped in gauze and its weight nearly indiscernible to him.

He woke up feeling slightly better.

Zack was there already, but it must have been late. The SOLDIER was drooped in his chair, head hung back and eyes closed, snoring softly every so often. A book sat in the SOLDIER's lap, a raggedy old thing that looked like it saw better days.

With a yawn, Cloud rolled over, pulling the blanket over his head. If he slept a little more, he figured he would be over the sickness completely. At least this couch was comfortable. He hated the cots issued from Shinra.

"So listen-"

"No."

"Just-"

"No."

"But-"

"Not interested."

Young Zack slouched with an unhappy pout, looking up at him with shining blue eyes. "Come on, please?"

Cloud slung the blade over his shoulder and turned away, his face flushing again. Why did Zack have to look so cute with that face?

"Pleeeeeaaasssse?"

Even turned away, Cloud could still envision that pleading puppy dog look. He sighed and lazily flicked a stray strand of blond hair away from his face.

…What the hell, this was a dream anyway.

"Fine."

A pair of stringy arms flung around him at once, a joyful squeal coming from his assailant as he bounced up and down. "Yes-yes-yes-yes-YES! Oh man, thank you so much! This is great-!"

Cloud sighed. Zack let him go, beaming brightly up at him.

"One day, I'm gonna be a hero, just like you! You'll see! I bet with your help, I could make you proud, Cloud!"

Cloud awoke with a jerk, sitting upright in an instant. He shivered and coughed, pulling the blanket around him tightly as he trembled. His eyes burned and his head drooped, his teeth clenched tightly together.

Not that dream, he didn't want that dream again, why did he have that dream?

"Cloud…what is it?"

A soft touch grazed his arm and Cloud flinched, turning his head away sharply. It was getting worse. He'd have to leave Seventh Heaven at this point…

Cloud parried each slash and slice easily, but his heart wasn't into the fight. Zack was still sloppy, overextending himself and generally flailing around like a windmill with a sword. With an easy shove, Cloud knocked him away and sighed.

Zack stooped over, breathing heavily from the exercise. "You're…really good at this…Cloud…"

He only stared unhappily at him. "Zack."

"I mean…I can get better at this eventually, right?" Zack continued. "Just, some practice and-"

"Zack." Cloud frowned.

"Hm?" Zack glanced up, his impossibly large eyes shining brightly at him. The young version of his friend frowned slightly, straightening from his stooped position. "What is it Cloud?"

Cloud sighed, placing the sword back behind him. "I can't do this anymore."

Young Zack blinked at him, already visibly confused. "Can't do…?"

"I can't see you, I can't train you, I'm…I'm done," Cloud shook his head, turning away from his friend. Or, rather, his friend in his dream. This Zack never was real, and he hated it whenever it came back. It was silly and childish and just stupid of him, some self-fulfillment he indulged in since he was a trooper in Shinra.

Dreaming he could be as great as Zack, that he could be the mentor for once, the dominant one, the one he would look up to. And Zack, a bumbling puppy-like representation of him who couldn't even hit a cartoonishly colored dog?

Cloud was sick of it. He was sick of being the hero. He was sick of seeing Zack in some degrading way. He was also sick of getting sick enough to have the dreams in the first place.

"I'm not a hero, and I'm not training you," Cloud said again, before the dream Zack could respond. With his brow set, he walked onwards, across the dirt of the arena and to the two open doors at the end. A bright light shone out of the doors, nearly blinding him from staring directly into it.

"Cloud, no! Please, wait-!"

Nerves steeled, Cloud stepped through the doors, and into the blinding light.

Cloud opened his eyes, and shivered, resisting the urge to cough.

He hated those dreams. They made him miss Zack even more.