O hay, just found this hanging around my LJ. 306 words, worksafe, Cloud/Aerith.

*

In the depths of the Lifestream, so deep into the Planet's core that light has never touched it, there is a field where all is white; the water is clear and the sky colourless. Aerith stands in the depths, in the lake, and her dress billows around her knees. She reaches down to hold the water in her palms; and there, she can she her reflection. Not the face of the Lifestream, but the face she lived and died and loved with. The water ripples in her hands, but she does not wipe her eyes.

She has spent a lifetime waiting for this, for what was promised to her. Letting the water fall, the lake's surface shatters all around her, and the white splits, until it is all yellows and greens and every colour she has not tasted since she breathed. The ripples do not fade, will not fade; and there, for a moment, all is cold, all is calm.

With his feet on Gaia and his soles worn thin, Cloud stops moving for the first time in years. With his chin tilted towards the sky, eyes closed but mouth open ever so slightly, he hears the rain before he feels it. The heavens open and wash across his skin; and with the rainwater splashing against his face, there's no need to wipe his eyes.

The rain falls like petals, and in that instant a lifetime of searching is over. He soaks in the rain, watches it cling to the leaves and branches of the thriving Planet, until there is nothing he can do but lay amongst the long grass. Above him, the sky is grey, and he remembers. He remembers breathing like this before.

And when he is so tired that his eyes do not open, cannot open, there, for a moment, all is cold, all is calm.

Lovely. I like the kind of atmosphere you set up---something happy, sad, cold, and calm. <3

By the way, Aerith's part was particularly inspiring.

Thank you very much! I believe this was my attempt at giving them a "happy" ending. :3

Beautiful, Icor. I really love your style of writing, and I especially liked the echoes of Aerith's half of the drabble in Cloud's half, and just the vividness of the imagery. :wub: Gorgeous.