Author's Note:
Thanks for all the reviews (in a short span of 8 hours nonetheless), and fantastic advice! I will continue to try my best in this next chapter!
Disclaimer:
Orange juice makes coughs worse. Really. Trust me.
Chapter Two: Boys
Training was not the most pleasant way to spend eight hours of your day. Particularly if it was six days a week out in the biting cold. Especially if you were in the 27th Infantry Division. If there was a personification for all the ruthless pain in the world, it would be-
"YES SERGEANT!"
The drill sergeant stalked the front of the contingent of shivering figures, small beady eyes leaping from one hopeless cause to the next as they continued on their 500 push ups. Nevermind that the snow was calf high. Nevermind that it was 10 below outside. Nevermind that 3 of his recruits were already in the medical bay with a variety of broken limbs and frostbite.
Shinra needed soldiers. Not boys.
He watched them struggle through their 398th set, gaze falling harshly on a scrawny form in the middle of the group. He laughed inwardly at the boy's buckling elbows. This one would never make the cut.
"STRIFE. FRONT AND CENTER. NOW."
Cloud looked up from his prone position on the ground, cursing under his shallow breaths before hauling himself to his feet, staggering slightly to the front. A cruel smirk greeted him from the shadows of the sergeants face, an unwelcome teaser as to the unwarranted "extra treatment" he was about to get.
The drill sergeant made a great show of bending down so he could spit his words into the cadet's face better. "Want a break, Strife? You look tired."
Cloud stifled a sarcastic comment bubbling behind his gritted teeth, glazing his eyes over to stare blankly ahead as the words "No Sir" chimed robotically from his throat.
"Well, I thought you needed some fresh air," the superior officer sneered, circling the youth predatorily. "Give me 35 laps around the parade square."
Cloud saluted sharply then broke into a quick jog, forcing his leaden limbs one torturous step after another. The cold stung a whole lot more without being in the middle of the squad, shielded from the frigid wind. The voices of the other cadets waned and rose with each agonizingly large round he ran. His heart screamed with the effort as his body began to slip away in exhaustion.
Just five more...
He felt himself fall forwards, his ankle giving way with one false step on iced ground. His eyes squeezed shut, bracing himself for the heavy impact with the ground that never came.
A warmth began to seep gently into his arms, coaxing his eyes open again to have his vision completely filled by a soft black cloth. Strong reassuring arms held onto his small frame, bearing his weight with relative ease. The owner of the arms chuckled in a familiar tone.
"I told you that mess hall stuff was good for you."
Cloud peered up from the shirt he was half buried in to Zack who had a thoroughly bemused look on his face. The younger man stumbled ungainly to his feet with a mumbled apology before his ankle failed him again, sending him plummeting back into the SOLDIER's waiting arms.
"Sit here and wait, pup." Zack instructed, carrying the blonde to the low wall next to them, setting him down gently before sprinting in the direction of the sergeant barking incoherent orders from across the parade square.
Pup? Cloud frowned. Did he just call me a dog?
The confused boy watched the dark haired man cut swiftly across the snow covered field towards the stout drill sergeant, allowing himself a brief triumphant smile watching the tyrannic instructor offer an awkward salute to the SOLDIER 1st Class who had graced his training session. There was a brief conversation that concluded with another fumbled salute and a shrill whistle signaling the end of the training session. Zack bounded his way back across the grounds, a wide grin slapped across his face.
"Well, that's the last we're going to have any trouble from him, eh?" the SOLDIER laughed, resting his hands on his hips. His enthusiasm was greeted only by a questioning glare and a glaring question.
"What are you doing here?"
The raven haired man scratched the back of his head unconsciously, drawling in a machismo laden tone, "Well... It's six and I didn't see you at the lockers. So I came out for some air and found this drill sergeant holding cadets back by an hour. Completely against company policy."
It's six already? That bastard...
"Yeah. I had him as well when I was a cadet." Zack sighed, flopping onto the wall next to Cloud who instinctively squirmed a little further from the taller man. The SOLDIER ignored the apparent discomfort of the younger man, instead, fishing about his pocket for a slim piece of cool plastic.
"Here you go."
Cloud looked at the cellphone in Zack's outstretched palm for several seconds before having the item shoved into his hands. The SOLDIER chuckled at the absence of words coming out from the blonde's gaping mouth.
"It's a ph-on-e." Zack annunciated slowly, flipping the device open with a swift click and a light chime. "My number is on it. If you're ever alone on base with nothing to do, give me a ring and we can hang out or something. If I'm not on assignment, that is."
The cadet stared unblinkingly at the present in his hand, fingers not wanting to brush the shiny surface in fear of his first present in a long time dissolving like the snow melting on the palm of his hand. The cellphone was a simple black and silver with hardly anything remarkable about it besides the small embossed logo on the back. He cautiously clicked the phone shut, slipping it into his inner pocket to prevent scratches from the knick knacks he has stashed in his pants pockets.
"Thanks." he began quietly, a faint smile slipping across his lips as he looked up at the taller man. "But I didn't get you anything..."
Zack shushed him with a quick shake of his head, looking the younger man intensely in the eye.
"That," he smiled, pointing at the smile on Cloud's face. "Was all I needed."
With that, he leapt to his feet, grabbing the hand of the blushing younger man and dragging him off in the general direction of food.
"Dinner!"
--
The general set the file heavily on the table. Hojo's interest in any particular cadet normally meant experiments and training bordering on the inhuman. He never enjoyed endorsing these "special cases", but a directive was a directive, and he knew better than to go against orders.
"Find out where Colonel Fair is. I need to have a word with him."
The SOLDIER 3rd Class saluted briskly and exited the room, leaving Sephiroth to sink into his seat and thoughts. It was not his place to question these endeavors of the Professor that the president had supported so wholeheartedly. Would he still support these experiments if he knew about the increasing pile of files in the corner of the laboratory with the blood red "FAILED" stamped on them like marginalized obituaries?
A muffled rap on the heavy wooden door snapped him out of his thoughts as the SOLDIER from earlier re-entered the room, the thick footsteps of his boots swallowed by the carpet which Sephiroth eyed carefully for mud stains.
"Colonel Fair is in the mess hall Sir."
The silver haired general raised a quizzical eyebrow. "The mess hall? SOLDIERS have our own cafeteria with a far more decent menu."
The SOLDIER 3rd Class shrugged, equally baffled, flinching unconsciously at the thought of mess hall dinners. "He is dining there with a cadet Sir."
Sephiroth rose from his seat in a flourish of silver and black, sweeping the file off the desk and slipping out of the room in a smooth motion.
"I will have to go down there myself then."
TBC
Please review.
