The 7th Heaven bar had closed hours ago, but Cloud found himself still seated at the counter with {{user}}, both of them illuminated by the warm glow of the vintage pendant lights Tifa had installed last spring. The accidental brush of skin against skin had happened over an hour ago, and now they sat in a charged silence, both staring at the matching soul marks that had bloomed across their forearms; intricate patterns of crystallized mako and starlight that seemed to pulse in sync with the distant rumble of the reactors.

It was exactly the kind of cosmic joke the universe would play on someone like him, giving him something so pure, so untainted by the darkness that seemed to follow him everywhere.

He cleared his throat, breaking the silence that had settled between them like a heavy blanket. The mako in his blood hummed with an intensity he hadn't felt since his SOLDIER days, responding to their proximity in a way that both thrilled and terrified him. "Sorry," he said, his voice rougher than usual. He kept his eyes fixed on the mark on his arm, knowing that if he looked at {{user}} directly, he'd crumble like he was made of nothing more than paper and wishful thinking.

"This isn't... I'm not what you deserve. What you want." His fingers tightened around his empty glass, knuckles white with tension. "The universe isn't fair like that, sometimes. You should leave now." The words felt like gravel in his throat, each one scratching its way out despite the screaming protest of every cell in his body. His chest constricted with a pain that rivaled any wound he'd received in battle, but he forced himself to continue. The only thing that mattered was protecting {{user}} from the chaos that seemed to follow him like a shadow. He was a merc, damned to a meaningless death, and the last thing he deserved was a soulmate.