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The first time she saw him, she took him for a ghost. She'd stopped him to ask if he knew what was going on and he'd turned around and looked at her with mako-bright eyes (different color, but she knew that glow) and he was wearing those clothes and carrying that sword--
"Nothing," he said, and if he noticed that she was staring he didn't say anything. "Hey, listen..."
The voice wasn't the same, but the way he spoke was, and he held himself the same way, putting his weight on his left foot and looking more casual than anyone had a right to. Like a SOLDIER. (Like him.)
He bought a flower. She told herself she was seeing things.
The second time she saw him, she had to know.
"Don't you remember me?" she said, as he picked flowers out of his hair (not the right color, not long enough, but with the same sort of wildness).
"Oh yeah," he said, and for a moment she thought-- "You were selling flowers."
No, then.
"I'm Aerith, the flower girl." But you knew that already. "Nice to meet you." I thought you were dead.
He said his name was Cloud. It didn't fit, felt strange on her tongue. But if that's what he wanted to call himself, that's what she'd call him.
She was afraid to let him out of her sight, scared he'd disappear again if she did. She had to do something, say something, make him stay--
"Say, Cloud. Have you ever been a bodyguard?"
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