A/N: Oh gosh, it's another one of those school-AU fanfics! The horror.
Yeah, I know. These things populate a good portion of Dissidia's already modestly sized pool of fanfiction. (Though personally, I think that a good thing.) I tried to vary things up a little, as each fanfiction does, but there will be reoccurring themes (and lame jokes).
That said, I admit that I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, as it's mostly just a writing exercise for me. I'll update if I get the inspiration, but I doubt I'll finish it. Meanwhile, I'd like to remind readers that reviews, comments, suggestions, and especially constructive criticisms are loved. *winkwink*
And of course, I do not own any of the Final Fantasy characters or games, and do not write this fic for any sort of monetary profit.
Recollection of Sunlit Encounters
~Clickly
AU: A country called Final Fantasy. A summer program called Dissidia. That's how Cosmos' warriors met this time, as students in a new world filled with forged memories.
-/-
Enter Onion Knight
-/-
Luneth decided that he detested Square Enix.
Howin the name of Shiva, did the company get elected to rule Final Fantasy, with its notoriously unfair policies towards the student population of the districts?
Seriously? As if the core curriculum at the schools wasn't hard enough, Square just had to add an additional summer program called "Dissidia" that students from all the districts had to attend sometime in their undergraduate career in order to graduate.
Oh sure, Square claimed many things about the program. It claimed that it was necessary for residents to be exposed to the diversity at an early age. That the youth could understand other cultures best in a community containing people from all the other districts. That it was essential in order to keep the region peaceful and unified. Containing parts from every district, Dissidia was supposedly the perfect fusion of the best from each district – featuring everything from airships, to castles, to blitzball stadiums. Every youth would feel at home! It definitely wasn't a tourist trap, built from money that could have been better used to benefit each district's taxpayers…
Needless to say, Luneth thought Square's claims were just about as truthful as his noble friend Ingus was profane. Which was to say, not at all.
With a sigh, the youth trudged out of the main meeting hall, the cloudless morning sky standing in stark contrast to the storm brewing in his mind.
A small voice within him whispered that he was just angry that he was among the youngest of the students here. That maybe he regretted making the required trip so early in his student carrier, when it seemed everybody else waited until at least their junior year of high school.
The voice was crushed ruthlessly.
He quickly told himself that those thoughts didn't matter to him at the moment. If nothing else, he knew himself well enough to know that he had the brains to make up for the age gap. He would never have signed up this year if he wasn't sure the he was absolutely ready.
Yet, ever since arriving, a strange feeling had formed like a stone in his gut.
It wasn't just the nervousness he'd never admit to, but the bubbling of something else, just below the surface of his consciousness. Like something mysterious had finally woken up inside him. He just didn't know what it was.
The feeling was odd. But it wasn't like he could materialize a chocobo and run away, so he just had to deal. Take lemons and make lemonade, as the saying went.
First things first.
"Now, if I were a cabin, where would I hide?"
-/-
Enter Cloud Strife
-/-
"Yup! Here we are!" His brunet guide, Bartz, finally stopped as he faced the large brown building that they would be living in for the next two months. "Cabin fourteen!"
Cloud nodded offhandedly, his mind still elsewhere.
It had been unnerving, to say the least, when he had first met the youth – at the entrance of the campus, the boy unmoving in the crowd, just staring in his direction. Cloud had been uncomfortable under the strange scrutiny, and pointedly wandered to a different area, until he found that the boy's gaze had followed him.
The realization soon dawned that the boy wasn't just staring at a random area, but at him specifically.
Then, the strangest thing happened. The hustle and bustle of other students seemed to dull for a moment, and Cloud got a distinct sense of hyper-reality. A rush of nausea soon followed, and then a bunch of images were flashed through his mind; so quickly that he couldn't recall any one of them. The ground wouldn't stay in one place, and the students walking around him would alternate between walking as if on fast-forward and not moving at all.
And then suddenly, the confusion in his mind stopped, as one sentence – distinct and perfectly in pitch with Bartz's voice – flitted to mind.
"When you're having the most fun, that's when time always flies."
Then Cloud blinked, and the youth was scampering away.
He had caught him not long after, approaching the boy on the basis that he hadn't attended the orientation in the morning and needed a guide. It wasn't a complete lie – even though Cloud knew he was more than capable of finding his way to the cabin, he really had missed the orientation (Courtesy of Yuffie stealing his materia again.) and needed to find out what he had missed. Having had most of his time structured around work and college, it wasn't a particularly welcomed feeling, not knowing what his schedule would be for his extended stay at the camp.
It turned out, much to Cloud's surprise, that they were destined to the same place. What were the chances that the first person he talked to would be a future bunkmate? But it was a good thing, as it would give the older blond the much needed time to rethink the mystery of their meeting.
But that plan soon changed, as they walked and the brunet made light conversation. Noticeable discomfort rolled off him in waves and the brunet talked awkwardly, often times giving guilty smiles and looking away. From his observations and what he had gathered, Bartz was clearly a people person, and the fact that he was having trouble socializing was suspicious enough that Cloud felt pressed to find out what the boy was hiding.
Or more specifically, had Bartz gotten the same feeling he did at their first encounter? That for some inexplicable reason, they had met before? Or even, the nausea and the confusion?
…For what other reason would the boy have stared at him so?
Cloud reluctantly raised his voice as the brunet unlocked the building's front door.
"Bartz."
The brunet started at his voice, "Woah! The rock speaks! Geez, I thought you'd stay silent forever! I mean–"
"Have we met before?"
Bartz visibly flinched at the statement, and Cloud pinned him with a glowing blue stare.
"Yeeeeeah… about that." Bartz rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Do you mean at the gates?"
Cloud nodded in confirmation.
"I swear I wasn't stalking you."
Cloud blinked. "I never said you were."
"Oh. Well. Yeah." Bartz started to fidget, before explaining, "When I first saw you, I thought you were a friend of mine. You guys look a ton alike, it's uncanny."
Cloud furrowed his brow, scrutinizing the boy's movements. Was he lying?
"A friend?"
Very hesitantly, Bartz confirmed, "…Boko."
A fake name? "Who's that?"
The brunet bit his lip, and fidgeted some more. "…My … er… pet chocobo."
His eye gave an involuntary twitch.
Well that explained why the boy had been so hesitant. At least he looked guilty at Cloud's displeased expression.
But it was now obvious that the boy really didn't know what Cloud was hinting at. He dismissed the subject, it was probably just his imagination, or perhaps the lingering effects of the flu that had plagued him since May. Though he was pretty sure that the flu didn't invoke hallucinations. Maybe he should see a doct— No. Never. Doctors were bad. He'd just have to ask Aerith about it once he got back.
Right now he had more important things to deal with, like his stay at Dissidia.
"…No hard feelings?"
Cloud paused at the boy's question, before shaking his head, and the tension that had been between them before seemed to dissipate. Bartz started to talk about all the lookalikes he'd experienced, this time much more jovially than before. He didn't seem to mind that the older blond made no attempt at joining in on the conversation.
Cloud frowned at this change. It was as if the boy had been afraid of insulting him. Though Cloud found himself hardly intimidating, with his short stature, scrawny build and aloof disposition.
Bartz grinned, breaking off from his previous rant to ask a question. "Sooooo, do you spike it up so that it looks more masculine? Because I'm sure a girl would give anything to have hair that looks that soft!"
… Then again, maybe Cloud liked it better when Bartz was scared of him.
To avoid thinking potentially harmful things about his new companion, Cloud focused on surveying the cabin they'd just entered.
They were currently in a living area of sorts, surrounded by old couches, beanbags, lamps, and a bunch of scattered tables. It wasn't the cleanest, featuring several dark stains on the rug and the furniture was shoved in one place randomly, looked as if the previous occupants had left in a rush. But nonetheless it was spacious and well furnished. Behind it, there were two hallways. Entering one lead him to a to a kitchenette, complete with a stove, fridge, and utensil filled cabinets. The other hallway lead to ten doors, which turned out to be decently sized bedrooms, connected in pairs by five bathrooms.
It was really more like university accommodations than a summer camp cabin, Cloud thought, but he wasn't complaining. In fact, it was far better than what he had been initially expecting. The bathrooms were clean, and the bedrooms looked comfortable. But more importantly, the setup meant each student had a room all to themselves, and only had to share bathrooms with one other person. He wasn't a loner, but the privacy would be welcomed in open arms.
"Damn. This place is nice." Bartz commented, in slight awe. His luggage bag was already placed at the side of a bed, and he was getting ready to open the room's window before Cloud stopped him.
"Let's leave our stuff in the front and wait for the others before we pick rooms."
"What? Why! We got here first!"
Cloud shrugged, expecting the indignation. "I think it would be more fair. Wouldn't want to antagonize anybody from the get go, especially not over such a trivial thing."
Bartz contemplated the suggestion, before commenting. "Wow… I didn't even think of that. It would really suck you came, and didn't get a say in which room you got." He promptly picked up his bag and shot Cloud a grin. "Good thing you're here to look out for me, huh?"
Cloud quietly followed Bartz as they made their way to the front again, though ironically the compliment made him suddenly unsure of his decision. He knew that he didn't mind which room he got, or who he shared his bathroom with, but what if Bartz secretly did, and was hiding it so to appear polite? He didn't want to force his decisions onto others, and in this case, if for some reason their other cabin mates were uncooperative, he would have taken away the brunet's chance at first pick.
Bartz didn't seem to be the type that would blame him in that situation, but the self-inflicted guilt would be overwhelming.
Well, it wasn't like he could turn back now.
The brunet sprawled himself on one of the larger beanbags in the living room space, luggage carelessly thrown to the side. His eyes followed Cloud as the blond repositioned another couch so that the two were next to each other, placing his own luggage carefully by the couch's armrest.
Bartz gave a low whistle when Cloud carefully set down the exceptionally large black bag that had been strapped to his back. "Wouldn't have guessed that you were a musician."
"I'm not." Cloud replied, with a small shake of his head.
"Then why carry that huge thing around?"
The perpetual frown on Cloud's face deepened as he eyed the large instrument that he had been carrying around all day. He considered it surprising that the thing was still in one piece, considering how much he had banged the shaft into random objects. Zack had insisted that he bring the cello, despite how cumbersome and fragile the thing was. What, so he could garner weird looks? When he was trying to fit in? Not to mention that Cloud didn't even play cello. Sometimes Cloud just didn't understand his friend, or why he yielded to that idiot's request anyway. At least now that he reached his cabin, he could stuff it in the corner of a closet somewhere, and hopefully never have to touch it until he had to leave.
"…It's a long story." Cloud muttered. Then, before Bartz could give a response, Cloud continued with his more pressing issue, "Could you tell me what I missed at the orientation?"
Bartz shrugged, "Not that much actually. They introduced Cosmos and Chaos, and then the instructors selected from each of the districts."
Everybody knew Cosmos and Chaos, the two camp supervisors, but the sudden reminder of the instructors' presence made Cloud turn stiff. "Do you remember anybody from District Seven?"
"Eh. I kinda zoned off at that point." Bartz frowned, seeming to have picked up on his apprehension, "Why, you looking for a specific instructor?"
The mocking smirks, sending shivers down his spine. The demeaning comments, spurring his insecurities anew each time. The sight of long silver hair, making dread and fear pool in his stomach. The reason he didn't come to Dissidia with Tifa last year. It wasn't worth it, facing that man, even if it meant being separated from his friends.
Cloud's expression darkened. "It's more like I'm hoping I don't see him."
Bartz picked up on the change in mood quickly, and gave the older blond an understanding smile. "I see how it is. Don't worry, there are a lot schools in each district." Bartz encouraged, "I know that personally, I only know one of the many instructors from five. And he's a friend of mine too."
Cloud looked away, not daring to hope. There was nothing to assure that lightning wouldn't strike twice.
And with his luck, he had to be ready for the worst case scenario.
There was a long pause, before Bartz seemed to remember something. "Oh yeah, and there's a themed dance every Friday."
Cloud snapped out of his ruminations, and shot the boy an incredulous look. Bartz just smirked, as if liking the fact that he could garner at least one reaction from the quiet blond.
"Well, you're supposed to have fun here, aren't you?" The brunet teased, "Pick up a girl and all that."
The blond pressed a hand to his temple, fighting a blush that was threatening to take over. He was not having this conversation.
The motion only seemed to encourage the brunet. "I mean, a stud like you, I'm sure you'll have a free pick among the ladies."
Ignore.
"And I mean, if there's nobody here that knows you, it's not like anybody will find out back home either."
Ignore.
"…Not even your girlfriend?"
Ignore.
Bartz gave a defeated sigh, his attempt at getting another reaction failed. "Well, there's time before you actually decide to date anybody." With a halfhearted shrug, he tried to make amends, "You know, the first dance is meant to be silly. I mean, what was Cosmos thinking, making the theme crossdressing?"
"What?" Cloud sputtered, uninterested exterior lost instantly.
Bartz blinked, before simply breaking down into hapless laughter.
It was going to be a long two months.
-/-