Chapter Text
“Now come on Zack, it’s rude if you don’t come along to meet our new neighbors.”
“Aw, come on!”
Tall for his young age of eight, Zack Fair was still no match for his mother, who towered over him with a glower and her arms crossed.
“I was just gonna go play out back, Mom, plus Dad isn’t going!”
Zack’s mother narrowed her eyes, giving her son a stare he immediately shrunk back from as she lightly tugged at his ear. “You know your father’s at work! Now, stop making excuses. Besides,” she added, “I hear that they have a son that’s your age”.
At that, Zack immediately perked up and rushed to grab his shoes. “Jeeze, Mom! Why didn’t you say that earlier? Come on come on come on! Jeeze!” His mother couldn’t help but look slightly amused at the way he tugged at her arm in a complete attitude reversal. Though that was to be expected, she thought, that someone as high-energy and playful as her son would be excited to finally have a playmate close by. After all, a ten minute walk down the wooded road was nothing compared to a twenty minute or thirty minute drive into town.
Zack’s mother had to keep calling after her son as they went, reminding him that she didn’t have the energy to run after an eight year old. “Now remember your manners” she muttered, Zack bouncing on his heels as she rang the doorbell. After a minute or so, a woman with blonde hair and shorter than Zack’s own mother answered the door. “Yes, hello?” Her voice was a bit softer than his mother’s as well, Zack noticed.
“Hello! Ms. Strife?” Zack’s mother smiled as she quickly reached down to grab the back of her son’s shirt before he could run into the house. “We just came to wish you welcome to the neighborhood.”
“Oh…Oh yes! You must be…the Fairs from down the road?” She smiled, looking slightly embarrassed. “I’m sorry you’ve caught me when I’m so frazzled, the movers just finished bringing in the boxes so the house is still a bit of a mess…”
“Oh don’t worry at all! I understand it must be stressful- Zack, behave!” She sighed in exasperation, pulling her son back as he tried to peek around Ms. Strife into the house, obviously for any sight of the mysterious boy within. “I’m so sorry, Zack’s just so excited...”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” She smiled down at Zack. “You can go inside and say hello if you want. Cloud’s upstairs in his room”
“Really?!” Zack grinned excitedly and quickly loosed himself from his mother’s grip as they both walked inside the living room.
Zack zoomed around boxes and up the stairs, barely paying attention to the rest of the conversation that floated from the room. “I’m sure Cloud will be happy to have someone to play with. He hasn’t really been taking it well, the situation with his father and the move…”
“Well, he’s a handful and sometimes I wish he’d use his head more often, but Zack’s a good boy…”
In a flash, Zack was up the stairs, skidding to a stop to prevent a sudden crash with a stack of boxes. “Whew, that was close.”
He glanced around until he spotted a door slightly ajar, light streaming out into the hallway. With an excited grin he ran over, remembering at least to knock before he entered. “Hey, hey new neighbor!” He called excitedly. After deciding that two seconds was too long to wait, he pulled the door open and bounded inside.
Cloud, on the other hand, had been spending most of his time holed up in his room since he and his mother had arrived. He didn’t expect his experiences in this new town to be any different than the ones he had just left, which was probably why he thought of meeting the other people in the area with a sense of dread. His mom had mentioned something about a family down the road with a son, a thought that made Cloud cringe.
Hopefully he’ll just ignore me. It would be hard for him to bother me too much if he has to walk all the way here, right?
So the last thing he expected while lying on his bed, staring outside the window, was to suddenly be snapped out his daydreams by a boisterous voice and knock on the door. “What…” He turned on his side just in time to see a slightly taller boy with spikey black hair practically leap onto the bed, landing with bright blue eyes a few inches from his own.
With a cry of surprise Cloud jumped back, nearly falling to the ground in the process. “Ah! Sorry, sorry! Didn’t mean to scare ya there!” The boy swung his feet over the side of the bed, swinging them idly as he grinned widely. “You okay? My name’s Zack! We’re neighbors! Ah, but I guess we don’t live right next to each other…But ten minutes is easy to walk! It’s definitely not too far. What’s your name? Oh wait! Your mom mentioned it, hold on…
The sentences all came tumbling out at once and Cloud barely had time to register what was being said as he stared at him, utterly stupefied. “Uh…”
“Started with, what it was, what was it…Oh yeah!” He shouted so suddenly that Cloud jumped again in surprise. “Cloud! Right? It’s Cloud?” He turned his face towards the blonde boy, smiling expectantly.
After a few seconds Cloud realized that the question was directed at him. “Oh…yeah. It’s Cloud” He nearly bit his tongue the moment the words left his mouth and braced himself for ritual mocking of his name.
Instead, Zack leaned forward even more and Cloud could swear his eyes were actually shining in excitement. “Really?! Like clouds in the sky? Ah, so cool~! So I could say ‘Look, a cloud, Cloud!’” He laughed, leaning back on his hands slightly. “I’ve never met anyone named Cloud! My name’s not as exciting though…There’s gotta be at least twenty other people out there named Zack.”
“Twenty?” Cloud blinked. “No, you’re the first one I’ve met.”
“Really?! Then I’ll make a great impression!”
Cloud was beginning to wonder if that smile was ever going to leave the dark haired boy’s face. Strangely though, he didn’t exactly find it annoying. Instead, the more that he talked to this boy, the lighter he began to feel. Without meaning to, a ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he replied.
“You seem pretty sure about that”
Zack laughed brightly and Cloud felt a flash of relief that he hadn’t offended him. “Of course! Haven’t I already started making a good one? You even smiled!”
Cloud flushed at that, glancing to the side. “I…”
“Hey, don’t get embarrassed! Smiling means you’re happy right? It’s a good thing!”
“I dunno.” Cloud looked down at his feet, his voice quieting slightly. “I dunno if I have a reason to be happy right now. I mean…” He trailed off.
Great, now he’ll just think I’m whiny he thought with a sigh. When he glanced over at Zack, however, his eyes widened in surprise when he saw the other boy with his head tilted, listening curiously.
“You mean what?” Zack probed, watching Cloud’s face carefully. “You not happy about moving here?”
Cloud nodded despite himself. “Yeah…”
“How come?”
“Well…” He trailed off again. Talking about his inner thoughts and feelings out loud had always made Cloud uncomfortable, especially when doing so in front of a person he’d only just met. “I just…I guess I don’t know. What’s going to happen…” Cloud began tracing light, invisible patterns on the bed sheet. “It’s just scary, I guess. Not knowing what it’s like here…or knowing anybody.” His voice had softened to just barely above a whisper so that Zack had to lean in to hear him.
After a few seconds of silence, Zack’s brash voice pulled Cloud from his thoughts for a second time. “That’s not true though!” Blinking in confusion, Cloud looked up at the other boy, whose face went from slightly serious to smiling gently. “You know me, right?” He grinned. “I’ll show you all the things you need to know, so you don’t have to worry about not knowing! Since, well, that’s what friends do, right?”
Cloud felt as if he couldn’t breathe for a moment, that if he breathed or blinked or did anything what Zack said would disappear as if it was never there at all.
“….What?”
Zack blinked. “What what?”
“I mean, we’re-?“ Cloud tried to get the words out but they seemed to be stuck in his throat.
“Friends?” Zack finished his sentence with ease, nodding with a smile. “Of course! Well, as long as you wanna be, of course.” He scratched his cheek, looking slightly abashed.
For the second time that day, Cloud felt a tug at the corners of his mouth and, for the first time, he thought that he might try smiling a little more if he could see the other boy’s eyes shine and face brighten in response.
“Zack?” His mother called out from the hall as Mrs. Strife opened the door with a cautious smile. “Come on, it’s time to go. We need to give them time to settle in.” She added the last part quickly, before Zack had time to make an argument.
“Ah jeeze…” he rubbed the back of his head, pouting. “Guess I have to” He hopped off the bed and then, with an energy that Cloud still found fascinating, spun around to run backwards out the door. “See you tomorrow!”
The door closed soon after him and the sound of Mrs. Fair ushering her son out the front door soon followed.
“Well, he certainly had a lot of energy.” Cloud’s mother looked to him, smiling gently. “Did you two get along in here?”
Cloud replied with a quiet nod, leaning his head back against the pillows again. He turned his eyes to the window once more, staring out of it.
Sensing her cue to exit, his mother sighed lightly before heading back out the door. She was stopped just as she was about to shut the door by the quiet sound of her son’s voice. “He said ‘See you tomorrow’” Round blue eyes turned to face her own and for the first time in at least a year she saw hope exuding behind them. “Does that mean he’ll come back here?”
With a light smile she nodded before closing the door. “If that’s what he said.”
The next morning, a groggy Cloud was sitting at the breakfast table, eating toast off of the recently-unpacked plates when there was a quick knock at the door. “Now who could that be this early?” his mother wondered, slowly rising to answer the door.
“Morning, Mrs. Strife!” Cloud could practically feel his ears perk up at the familiar voice. “Uh, my mom wanted me to make sure you didn’t need Cloud’s help or anything before I asked, so can Cloud come out?”
Mrs. Strife laughed lightly, stepping back to let the spikey-haired boy run in. “No, that’s fine, Zack.”
“Hey, Cloud!” Zack practically jumped into the chair next to him, leaning his elbows on the table that Cloud knew was supposed to be bad table manners. “You’re still eating? You almost done?” Cloud blinked, looking down at his half-eaten breakfast before stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth. “Almost.”
Zack laughed at that, slapping Cloud’s shoulder and almost making him choke. “You don’t have to stuff it down! But if you’re done…” He grinned, hopping down from the chair. “Then time to go!”
“Go?” Cloud questioned, sliding down off of his own chair.
“Yeah.” Zack replied with a nod before holding his hand out. “Let’s go play, Cloud!”
For a moment Cloud hesitated, wondering why he felt the need to go with this boy who he barely understood or knew. But the feeling of grabbing the other boy’s hand and the comfort of how their fingers fit together seemed to erase all his worries as he was pulled out the door and down the road by Zack, laughing in a way he couldn’t help but find contagious.