Aaaand, the explanation chapter. Sorta.

I'm not going to explain Kunsel's relation to Doctor Gast Faremis yet, that comes later. What Zack and Marian were arguing about in the last chapter is moving forward in this chapter, so if you can put two and two together you'll see why Zack was fairly upset (after all, what they're doing could make them Public Enemy #1 in Shinra's book).

Kunsel's description comes from a personal headcanon of mine. Since he never wants to remove his helmet in-game, I always assumed either A) there was something beneath the helmet that he didn't want anyone to see (i.e. a scar or something he was ashamed of). or B) his looks beneath his helmet were too recognizable, and he wanted to keep on the down-low. This one plays off of headcanon B: Gast, canonically, has brown hair and ash mauve (grey-purple) eyes. Kunsel would have gotten some traits from his mother (his light-blonde hair, for example), but the resemblance would have still been telling. If Kunsel didn't want anyone to tie him to the now-deceased doctor, he'd have to hide that.

That being said, the last chapter was meant to be a little confusing, but not that confusing. Just tell me if it is, and I'll see what I can do about making it more clear.

Word count: 1,383

Warnings: Illness in detail, mention of needles, feels.

Chapter 10: It All Comes Together

Cloud stared up at the underside of the Plate with a kind of happy contentment. No, they hadn't gotten anywhere on their argument about bringing the three Firsts into this. No, they hadn't even begun to discuss how they were going to get rid of Hojo and the President and the other corrupt officials and find a way to shut down mako reactors safely. But at the moment, he really didn't care.

Kunsel was here. He was here, very much alive and very much conscious of all he had done in the once-future. For the longest time there, Cloud had thought he was alone in all of this. He had never been so glad to be proven wrong. Kunsel had been one of the few friends outside of AVALANCHE he'd had in the past-future that truly knew what he had gone through. The snowy-haired SOLDIER had been nothing but supportive, caring, a smiling face whenever Cloud was breaking. Even when the Geostigma hit, the ex-SOLDIERs being those affected the worst, Kunsel had never given up. Not on Cloud.

And there was no one else Cloud would rather be stuck in the past with.

"I didn't know you were Gast's kid," Cloud murmured, tucking himself against Kunsel's side. It still irked him that he was smaller than the snowy-haired SOLDIER, but it was water under the bridge at this point.

"And I didn't know your mother was a former-Turk. We never knew everything about each other, Cloud. It's why this worked." Kunsel paused, then let out a kind of self-deprecating laugh that Cloud more felt than heard. "But, to be fair, I do know a lot more about you than you know about me."

And Cloud didn't even care. That, too, was water under the bridge at this point. Kunsel was here, alive, and he remembered. That was all Cloud cared about.

It took a long time for either of them to get up the energy and willpower to move away from each other. On Cloud's part, it was… well, he got like this sometimes, when there was something almost too good to be true right in front of him. He'd gotten like this when he first saw his mother again too. Clingy. Frightened, almost, that it would disappear beneath his very fingers at any given moment.

Not that he'd admit that to anyone. And not that Kunsel was complaining. He'd missed the little blonde that had all but attached himself to his side, and was ready to take every opportunity to make up for lost time.

But now was not such opportunity. Now, they had to get back to Shinra.

They had work to do.

…

Genesis sat patiently in one of the hard plastic chairs outside the Science Division, waiting for Hollander to be ready to see him. One his side of the room, there were the few people here to see Hollander today; on the other side of the room, there were those here to see Professor Hojo. There weren't that many- a calm-looking girl with steel in her eyes, a SOLDIER no doubt here for his monthly injection, and a…

A rather ill-looking, blonde Cadet who no doubt just had his first injections. Even in the small space that was the waiting area, the others seemed reluctant to sit anywhere close to the sick Cadet. Genesis's eyes flicked to the clock for a mere second before he stood and made his way across the room to crouch beside the Cadet.

"Did you not have anyone to pick you up?" he asked softly, clearly startling the boy. Clouded blue eyes blinked open in alarm as the boy tried to flinch back and only succeeded in causing himself more pain. Genesis's hand's moved to hover over the boy's shoulders, not touching but there if he needed to. He asked his question again, and the blonde Cadet finally seemed to hear him.

"No," the Cadet whispered hoarsely. "Friends on missions. Everyone else still sick. Didn't want to… bother anyone." Genesis sighed sharply. Of course, the boy had to be a martyr of sorts. Not wanting to bother anyone.

The door to Hollander's office opened, and Genesis whirled on the man quickly. "Reschedule it," he ordered with hardly any preamble. Hollander looked indignant.

"I can't just reschedule it! There are tests to run and-"

"Reschedule. It." Genesis made sure to use his "angry-cat voice", as Zack called it- the same voice he normally used with insubordinate Cadets. Even Hollander fell right into line. The scientist hurried off, muttering about bitchy attitudes and such.

Genesis turned back to the sick Cadet. Poor thing was drenched in sweat, and Genesis could see that the shivering was about to set in. SOLDIERs take care of each other. Those had been Genesis's words just as much as they had been Angeal's, even if he didn't say them near as often, and he was going to hold to them.

Gathering the boy carefully in his arms, Genesis began the tedious trek back to the SOLDIER floors.

…

Kunsel waited exactly forty-five minutes before heading down to Genesis's office. Their ploy to gain his friendship- or , for Cloud to gain his friendship, since Kunsel pretty much already had it- was actually fairly simple; Genesis was fond of small, cute things, and Kunsel was certain Cloud fell right into that category. Cloud probably wouldn't appreciate being called small and cute later, but it was insignificant compared to how far this would go in securing his friendship with the three Firsts.

Forty-eight minutes, Kunsel knocked on Genesis's door, not even waiting for the response before letting himself in. It was a normal thing between the two of them- Genesis had a habit of barging into Kunsel's room at the most inappropriate of times, so Kunsel had made a game of doing the same to the fiery First.

But the moment he stepped into Genesis's office, he stopped cold in his tracks. Said fiery First was kneeling beside the leather couch in his office, trying to coax a reluctant- and no doubt violently ill- Cadet to drink a potion, and Kunsel was completely unprepared for the surge of jealousy he felt at the sight of someone else doting over his Cloud. It was unreasonable, he knew, because Genesis wouldn't make a move on Cloud in a million years, and it wasn't that he and Cloud were anything close to committed but that didn't stop him from feeling it.

He did his best to squish it down as he moved across the carpet to Genesis's and Cloud's side.

"There you are, Cloud," he said softly, as though he hadn't known where Cloud was this entire time. Genesis gave him a judgmental look, no doubt wondering where Kunsel had been while his friend was getting poked with needles and filled with the most corrosive substance to organic life in existence, and Kunsel shrugged defensively. "I just got back from a mission. Here's the report." He handed the file off to his superior, kneeling down on the carpet as he turned his attention back to Cloud. "Sorry I wasn't here, buddy," he cooed softly, brushing damp hair off of Cloud's forehead and smiling. "I hope GenGen wasn't too much of an ass."

"He can't hear you, you know," Genesis pointed out from his desk. Kunsel shrugged.

"I feel guilty, alright," he defended, trying and failing to keep the sharpness out of his voice. "I promised him either Zack or I would be here for his first injections, and both of us ended up having to go on a mission."

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of one sick SOLDIER-to-be, you know."

Kunsel paused as though he didn't quite know what to say- which was partially true. He hadn't expected Genesis to warm up to Cloud so quickly, especially not before their first real conversation, but he wasn't about to look a gift Chocobo in the beak. "Sorry," he said, ducking his head. He left the empty potion bottle on the table beside the couch before moving to Genesis's desk to give his post-mission report. When he was done, Genesis glanced over to Cloud and smiled a bit.

"So, is that the little blonde Cadet Zack won't stop babbling about?"