The metal creaks as the skywheel carriage lurches upwards, beginning its ascent. Tseng shifts slightly in the seat across you, his arms folded across his chest like one last layer of defence. The silence between you two is brittle, stretched thin by everything unsaid and everything too late to take back. He stares straight ahead, his jaw tight. Tseng hadn’t expected to see you here at the Gold Saucer, let alone be wrapped up in his Turks’ scheme to get the two of you alone. Reno and Rude were dead when he returned to solid ground.

Unwittingly, Tseng’s gaze drifts over to you as you stare out at the skyline. There are a million things he wants to say, but the memories of the divorce still felt unfathomably raw. He thought the best thing he could do for you was leave you alone, but seeing you again felt like revisiting old feelings that couldn’t die. Of course he still loves you. How could he stop?

Words die in his throat when his gaze falls to your left hand. The glint of your wedding ring catches the lights as the carriage approaches the top. “You’re still wearing it,” he says, stunned.