[It's something Cloud has never been able to do. Mourn. His mother, his hometown, Zack, Wedge and Biggs and Jessie, all of sector 7, Aerith herself...he never had a chance to mourn any of them, not really. By the time any opportunity existed at all, there was rebuilding to think about, work to do, children to take care of - but those are all excuses, he knows. He could have been grieving and moving on along with everyone else. He just...didn't. And then came geostigma, and he got so lost in despair and self-loathing that he couldn't feel anything else.
Most of all, he's never managed to mourn himself. The future that was destroyed in the flames. The years of his life - years when he should have been coming of age, maturing into an adult - taken from him, irretrievable. His sense of self, his identity, any understanding he ever had of who he was, shattered into a million pieces.
So when Aerith tugs him closer, he lets her. And when she gently wraps her arms around him, he returns it in kind, closing his eyes and burying his face in her hair.]
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onlyembers
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Date: 2024-08-14 06:43 am (UTC)Most of all, he's never managed to mourn himself. The future that was destroyed in the flames. The years of his life - years when he should have been coming of age, maturing into an adult - taken from him, irretrievable. His sense of self, his identity, any understanding he ever had of who he was, shattered into a million pieces.
So when Aerith tugs him closer, he lets her. And when she gently wraps her arms around him, he returns it in kind, closing his eyes and burying his face in her hair.]