"Is it - just me - or is he getting heavier?" Aerith puffs, and Cloud makes an amused grunt of agreement and tries not to hear Zack's squawk of protest somewhere in the back of his head.
She's not wrong - unconscious, Zack's nearly two hundred points of SOLDIER-forged muscle, not the kind of burden you can sling between two people and expect to move quickly, and even Cloud's starting to feel the weight a little. But Zack carried Cloud all the way to Midgar, and that was without an Aerith to help hold him up, so Cloud figures this is payment in kind.
(some kind of Zack-lives AU)
She's not wrong - unconscious, Zack's nearly two hundred points of SOLDIER-forged muscle, not the kind of burden you can sling between two people and expect to move quickly, and even Cloud's starting to feel the weight a little. But Zack carried Cloud all the way to Midgar, and that was without an Aerith to help hold him up, so Cloud figures this is payment in kind.