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[embraves]

Cloud Strife

Cloud Strife. Leave a message.

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[embraves]

off-putting?

[And then Cloud actually has to think about it, which should be an answer in its own right, indicative of the fact that he's only given it very mild thought in the past.]

you mean as in, do i feel awkward around you because of it?
the answer to that is no

[But if he really thinks about it, it does make him feel like he's nowhere even close to her league, in the grand scheme of things.]

i bet prompto told you the same thing

[doitrockapella]

I think his exact words were to ask if I considered you "boy toy status".

[There's an implicit facepalm in there somewhere, probably.]

I understand where his concern comes from. But all I ever ask is to be taken as I am, and I don't want you to be anyone other than you. I don't want all of that to stop you from being you and me from being me, because you being you is what I like about you to begin with.

...

I'd like the record to show that I'm usually far more eloquent than that, by the way.

[embraves]

[BOY TOY STATUS....PROMPTO.........he's going to have to talk to his brother about what exactly was said in this conversation, good lord.]

it's like you said, he's just being a little brother... asking too many questions

[Not that he ever knew what having a little brother was like, but it must be something like this.]

i know we haven't really known each other for that long but that's not how i think about you
judging you by your status and your wealth, i mean
or comparing myself to you in relation to that

maybe i'm just naive but i don't really care about that kind of thing
i just like you for who you are, too.

[doitrockapella]

I don't think it makes you naive. I think it just makes you the kind of person who focuses on what's important, instead of things that shouldn't matter all that much.

(Though I have to admit it's sort of cute that your brother is apparently envisioning me as the uptown girl to your backstreet guy.)

1/2

[embraves]

i can't believe you're quoting billy joel to me

[embraves]

seriously, though
don't let it bother you?

[doitrockapella]

Quoting Billy Joel to you? That hasn't happened for the longest time. (Whoa-oh-oh-oh, for the longest time.)

But all right, I won't worry about it.

...So, then. Now that we've got that settled, can I persuade you to build me a motorcycle?

[embraves]

[He laughs a little at that. Someone likes their acapella.]

you want me to *build* you one?

[um??? hell yes???]

you don't even have to ask
i just finished with prompto's scooter so i need another project to keep my hands busy anyway

[doitrockapella]

And hopefully let me drop by and watch you do it, every so often. If that'd be all right with you?

[embraves]

yeah, of course that'd be all right
if you don't mind seeing me in my grease monkey form for most of the time
which isn't all that flattering

you'll have to let me know what kind of bike you want too

[doitrockapella]

What if I promise to wear a pair of old jeans and maintain at least one smudge on my cheek at all times? We'll be even.

I was toying with the idea of a superbike painted gold and dubbed "the Chocobo", actually.

[embraves]

[He doesn't even respond tot he first half of her text. The second is too surprising, too... touching, almost, for him to focus on anything else.]

really?

[Or is she joking?]

[doitrockapella]

Is that about the jeans or about the motorcycle?

Either way — yes, really.

[embraves]

[There's a bit of a delay before the next text comes through.]

that shared dream really left an impression on you, didn't it

[oh noooo the doki feelings escalate, help he's so useless when this happens]

i'm glad it did

[doitrockapella]

It really did. And you did, too.

I'm glad I got to see it.

[embraves]

i did? because i rode around on the chocobo like a madman, you mean?

[an attempt at a joke... lord help him]

but i'm glad you were there
to help calm everything down
calm me down, i guess, since it was my dream

i don't remember if i ever told you thank you for that, so
thank you

[doitrockapella]

Of course. Why do you think I want to repeat the experience with a motorcycle? :)

[bury her here, he's so awkward and cute]

...I had wondered if that's why things slowed down when they did, you know. Not because of anything to do with the number of riders on the bird, but because you weren't alone anymore once I made it over to you.

1/??? idk let him live

[embraves]

[He isn't sure how to respond to that. Cloud isn't even certain he put that much thought into the dream itself, minus the part where he thought about the very end of it on loop for a while there. But was that the case? Had he felt so out of control, so alone on his impossibly fast trek on his chocobo, that having Carmen there was something... grounding? That someone else's presence was comforting, so that he didn't need to move forward alone and uncertain?

His mind can come up with no argument against it, at any rate.]

so it was a metaphor for my life in general you mean
that wouldn't be too far off the mark, after retrospec entered my life
so maybe you're right

[Not to change the subject, but now he really wants to ask-]

so when do you think would be a good time for me to stop by so we can talk about the bike?
just to exchange ideas and talk details

[embraves]

actually i keep saying that but it'd be nice to just
see you for a reason that isn't necessarily attached to having something to do
if you want

[embraves]

not that i mind helping or anything, you know that isn't the case
but i just

uh

[embraves]

[uh. UH WHAT. where were you going with this, Cloud]

i don't know, if you have some free time just let me know
it'd be nice to see you when it's not just in a dream

done...

[embraves]

[That sounded so cheesy and that's not even how he meant it.]

or something like that
you know what i mean right?

[he wants to dIE]

not here

[mercurio]

[SITS UP IN BED]

[ROMANTIC SENSES ARE TINGLING... BUT WHO..........]

[doitrockapella]

[She's sitting there, watching these texts roll in one after another with no apparent end in sight, and for a second all she can manage to think of is, no wonder Prompto is so adamant about protecting him.

But look at this. Look at it. Look at the way he reflects and corrects and ultimately just lays down his thoughts, a little clunky but all the more refreshingly genuine for it. Ask Cloud what he thinks and he says what he thinks — no politics, no hidden designs. That's rare, and it's charming, and it leaves her thinking about how a trait like that is worth more than all the cars and corporations and couture that sometimes saturate the day-to-day business of her life. How valuable that is, someone who just...talks to her. Gets a little flustered by her. Always seems to default back to that same natural habit of being who he is, without trying to make pretenses toward being someone he's not.

Look at that. It's her habit to give people excuses to be around her, ways to justify seeing her and spending time with her, and he offers up something like this. It'd be nice to see you for no reason at all.

She's never going to get any work done ever again, at this rate.]

Do you want to come over right now?

[is it 3 am at this point we just don't know but like BALLS if she's going to see that as a problem at the moment]

[embraves]

[Even if it is some ungodly hour (it probably is), who's even keeping track? This conversation has Cloud wide awake, feeling strangely light. He's not sure he'll be sleeping any time soon, and that's before he reads what her response is.

(He had been not only mentally facepalming, but physically facepalming too. And when he peers through his fingers to see that question staring up at him, he nearly drops his phone.)

That being said, his response comes without much delay. This is something that he doesn't have to deliberate over for too long, though he does count to five first so he doesn't sound oddly overeager.]

as long as it's not an imposition because i know it's late
but yes, i'd like that