[For Aeris]

One of the delightful perks of being the owner of a young puppy was that they could really only go about four to six hours a night without being let out again to do their business. This lead to Zack being up at a very early, even for him, hour of the morning. It wasn't so much that cleaning the hut was difficult as it was very troublesome to discover these little treasures left by the puppy, especially when barefoot.

The nice thing for Zack was that he'd never had a difficulty with getting back to sleep. He tried to be as quiet as possible, though, to keep from waking Cloud. Since huts weren't the best sound insulators, it did require at least a small modicum of effort. Which was why Zack hadn't noticed the bedroom door was ajar. He was focused on doing everything in the quietest manner; walking, opening the door. It was the puppy who saw his chance and tore off for the open bedroom door. He wasn't allowed in Cloud's bedroom, unless invited, so obviously the opened door was an invitation.

"Puppy!" Zack growled in the quietest way possible. Maybe he should have named it already. He tiptoed toward the door and then stood in the door frame in shock. The bed was empty. Not only was the bed empty, but the room looked completely unlived in--not that Cloud ever carried much, but the two items which remained made it obvious that the completely unexpected had happened. Cloud was gone.

Some things in life just happen to you. Tabula Rasa was one of those things for Zack Fair. After staring at the empty room for a few moments or minutes or hours, he wasn't sure, he turned, punched the door frame and left the hut with the front door ajar. The puppy left completely unsupervised.

He headed to the dojo and realized it wasn't as early as it had been. The sun was already up.