Stand

Cloud

Zack opened the large doors to the hall and stepped in. He couldn't count the number of times he had been in here, but the room never ceased to amaze him. The walls were completely plated in something with a silver shine to it. I couldn't be metal because it never got very cold. But it was hard at the same time. The ceiling didn't look as though it was low enough to fit in this part of the ShinRa building, but somehow it did. The floor, walls and ceiling all looked like the same piece. It all had to be coated in something.
Zack walked up to the stage where the recruit's new enemies, their officers, would stand and give their speeches on what was expected. He sat down on a step that seemed to have no real purpose to it. He took his buster sword off his back and leaned it against the wall next to him. Now it was time sit and wait. He leaded back and tilted his head so he could look at the ceiling. There was nothing there, but it because of shadows and shaded areas it looked like a sky full of clouds. Something stirred with that thought. Not knowing what he pushed it to the back of his mind. Looking at the ceiling always calmed him, and quite often Zack would come here before he would leave for a mission. This was his spot.

The next thing Zack knew the doors of the hall were flung open and the recruits were filing in. He stood to get a better look at all of them. It was a pretty plain group. Most had various dark shades of hair and wore bland colored clothing, like most of the people in Midgar. When they were all in the room again and the door closed they all began to talk. It sounded like a bunch of bugs chirping. There had to be at least 150 of them. Not an extremely large group but it was bigger than normal. Zack hopped off the stage before he was noticed, or so he thought.
In the back left rand corner of the room a pair of strikingly blue eyes had been watching him closely. These eyes watched as Zack made his way through the crowd along the right hand side of the room. Zack stopped every so often to talk to the recruits. He knew they would be standing in here for quite a while before anyone cared to come in and get things moving along. Most of the recruits were about 15 or 16, some were younger and a few were older. But none joined after 17. Zack had found that the recruits could follow along with his foolishness much better than the rest of SOLDIER who just thought he was an idiot.

Blue eyes continued to watch him move about the room. Isn't he Zack, the SOLDIER First Class? Their owner wondered. He had heard about the SOLDIER's infamous curiosity about the new recruits. He was completely amazed, but didn't know why. What did he think the General's right hand man would be like? He knew that he would not be stiff and uptight. But still the man walking through the crowd of recruits still surprised him.

Zack rounded the back of the room and looked up over the crowd, which was pretty easy considering that this was a large group of many people shorter than him. As his eyes scanned the crowed something popped out at him, something that looked like blond spikes. In the sea of grays, black, and browns, the blond hair stood out. He smiled and headed over there. It was now time to have some fun.



The blue eyes saw him coming. Great, he thought, I've been spotted. He had seriously considered dying his hair that morning. The spikes stuck out enough but why did he have to have such blond hair!? He began to back up a bit towards the wall but when his back hit it there was no where left to go. He didn't want to talk to the SOLDIER, in fact, at the moment he didn't really want to talk to anyone. He sighed and slid to the ground, trying to make himself at least physically comfortable. The social discomfort that was about the take place could not be helped, he had not gotten used to Midgar yet. He was not used to talking to many people he had not known all his life.

Zack was almost where he saw the blond-haired recruit, but this time when he looked over the crowd he didn't see him. "Must have sat down against the wall," he said out loud. He moved over to the wall directly behind the spot the recruit was first seen at. And there, sure enough, was exactly what he was looking for. Sitting on the ground doing something that seemed to be dangerously close to pouting was the blond-haired recruit he was looking for.
"What is with that face?" Zack asked the recruit.

The recruit looked up and stared at Zack with his blue eyes. This made Zack's own eyes widen quite a bit. The recruit had eyes that were bluer than the clearest sky he'd ever seen. Poor kid was going to have it rough here. He was very small, and had almost girlish features. He was going to be put through a lot by the other recruits, Zack had seen it before, but this one definitely looked like he would not just put up with it. He had a look of dead determination on his face that was probably forever rooted. Zack smiled, this was going to be fun.
"So kid, how old are you? Fourteen?" Zack asked knowing full well that well that the recruit would not like being called a kid. He was hoping for some type of large scale reaction. But all he got was a small glare and the one word answer.

"Fifteen," he told Zack. He knew that the SOLDIER was looking for some type of reaction. He could tell by the look on his face. The recruit had to hold back a smile when Zack's face was taken over by disappointment. He looked like a puppy that had just gotten his bone taken away. The recruit refused to show any kind of emotion, knowing that it was the best way to get the SOLDIER to give up.

Zack was not going to back down; this kid was way too interesting. He had to find out who he was. At this point Zack had learned that he was going to get nothing from the recruit, so he sat back against the wall near the recruit. Maybe if he sat there long enough the recruit would relax and talk. After sitting there for a while, Zack was not sure how long; he decided to try talking again. He looked over at the recruit. "So you know who I am right?" he asked. A nod was all he received for that one. "Then why do you refuse to respond to you commanding officer?" This one earned a worried look from the blond. He had not thought that this SOLDIER First Class really cared about such a thing, but what if he did? What would happen then? He went to open his mouth but was stopped by the sound of Zack's laughter.
"I was just messing with you Spike." Zack said after calming down.

The blond-haired recruit downright glared at Zack. He hated being given nicknames like that.
"The name is Cloud," he told the raven-haired SOLDIER. Cloud hoped that giving his name to the man would prevent it from trying that one again in the future.



"Cloud huh?" Zack thought back to his earlier ceiling musings. Was that what struck me? He wondered. He had been thinking that the ceiling looked like clouds when his heart seemed to do tricks there in his chest. No, that couldn't be it, nothing about that made sense.

Just then the assembly hall door slammed open, almost hitting a couple of recruits who had been standing a bit to close. Zack stood up and stretched, getting the kinks out for sitting so long.
"Well Spike," he got a sharp glare from the recruit on the floor, "I mean Cloud, I have to get back up front before they make me start as a recruit again," he joked and took off.

Cloud watched him disappear through the crowd. He wondered what made Zack come down here all the time. There had to be some reason for it, curiosity was not an answer. What was he curious about? What was it about the recruits made him come down there for so long? When Zack jumped up onto the stage upfront with the recruits new "slave drivers" the room went silent. A few whispers were heard throughout the room. The recruits figured out that they had actually been talking to and joking with a SOLDIER First Class. And on top of that, it was not just any First either; it was Sephiroth's right hand man, Zack. Cloud chuckled a little before controlling himself, when he saw that Zack was looking at him and smiling, looking like he had just come up with something devious. Uh-oh, now I've done it! He is going to make my time here hell. Cloud thought to himself, sighing a little.