Yes, after over a year, I have returned, just like General Douglas McArthur! (Um, go Wikipedia him.) But I actually have a pretty good reason: I've been in college. I knew that updates would slow down even more than usual, but I never intended to completely ignore it. I mean, I did work on it from time to time but only finished it recently. Anyway, hopefully updates will be more frequent this summer. Enjoy!

9. Nice Dream

Cloud woke up outside at school to find out that the entirety of the previous year was all a bad dream. Relieved, he then proceeded to grow up, marry Tifa, have lots of sex with her, produce a boatload of kids, brilliantly become a millionaire, and otherwise just set himself up very nicely for the rest of his life. Oh, and Reno disappeared and died or something, which was to the chagrin of no one. The end.

…Sure.

This lovely turn of events probably had more likelihood of happening in a dream. And like his all dreams, it would have had to end badly, with Cloud waking up to find Reno alive and well in his shower or something, spilling all the shampoo and leaving nasty hair stuck all over the soap for Cloud to use.

Jackass.

He is a jackass, isn't he? Cloud thought, sitting against a fence, watching the other kids playing basketball in the distance. Reno was fucking born one. Now and forever a jackass, just like back then…

"Cloud…come on, Cloud, its okay, get up...come on, it's just a scratch…There you go. You wanna try again?"

Six year-old Cloud Strife shook his head fervently, eyes wide open in childish terror. His father smiled down at him encouragingly, though the laughter coming from behind him didn't really help.

"Reno, stop laughing at your brother," Mr. Strife said sternly. He was a short, easy-going yet pragmatic man; indeed, he would have been shorter than Reno and eventually Cloud if he had lived. But his famous resolve, along with the secure way with which he always carried himself, were always features that many of his neighbors and friends found admirable. In short, he was one of the most respected men in the slums.

"Dude, Cloud, that was funny!" Shouted a younger, but no less annoying, Reno. "You just flew over the handlebars!"

"Reno!"

"Sorry, sir."

Mr. Strife turned again to his younger son. "Do you want to try it again?"

"No!" Cloud yelled insistently.

"But don't you want to learn how to ride a bike?"

"No!" he yelled stubbornly, "bikes are for fags."

Mr. Strife's eyes widened. "Cloud, don't use that word! Geez…who taught you that?"

A little finger pointed past his father's head, right at Reno. Mr. Strife shook his head. "Young man, we are going to have a little talk later, do you hear?" he told Reno. "Go inside."

The boy nodded and sulked inside, but not before shooting a nasty scowl at his little brother. His father noticed, and barked at his son to quit. Once Reno had retreated inside, Mr. Strife sighed. He really wondered about his oldest son sometimes. He looked over at Cloud, who was staring at the ground. "Cloud, don't pay attention to your brother. You can still learn how to ride a bike."

Cloud's head stayed drooped. "No I can't."

"Yes, you can son. You just had a little setback. That's how life is, you find obstacles, you confront them, and then you just keep on going. Come on, Cloud, try it again."

"No!" he yelled again. "It hurt when I fell on the ground!"

"Well then, don't fall there again," he chuckled.

Cloud screwed up his face. "That's not funny!" The boy pouted.

"But it's true! You know that if you want to succeed, all you have to do is concentrate and not fall. Not that hard, is it?"

"Yes it is."

Mr. Strife sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. "Cloud, let me offer you a piece of advice, something you should always remember."

"What?" He asked huffily.

His father smiled. "Hey! Hey you sleepin'? Wake up!"

Mr. Strife's voice suddenly changed, and Cloud felt his father kick him in the foot. His eyelids blinked open, and he saw a very tall man looming over him.

"Hey," the stranger said, lightly kicking Cloud's foot again. "Come on now, get up."

Cloud saw that he was on the school grounds, the outdoor basketball courts standing before him. He had apparently fallen asleep. He put two and two together, and the terrible realization came to him:

"Goddamn, its fall," he said aloud.

The man chuckled. "My exact sentiments when I woke up this morning." He helped Cloud to his feet. He didn't seem so tall anymore, now that Cloud was up. "What year are ya now kid? Sophomore?"

It took Cloud some thought. "…Yeah, yeah, that's right. How did you know?"

"Well, you look young enough to be a freshman, except a freshman doesn't fall into the habit of slacking off quite as quickly as you do." It was an amusing comment, which Cloud would have gladly laughed at it he hadn't been in a state of uninterrupted depression for the past few months. Instead he gave the man a slight grin.

"Now, uh, I think you've got a class to go to, huh?" The man asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," Cloud answered. The man was being very patient with Cloud and his slow reaction time. Cloud certainly didn't think he deserved the politeness. "Thanks."

"No problem. But if you do that again, I'm gonna have to leave you for security. Get what I mean?" Cloud nodded. The guy was obviously a teacher. He was middle-aged, clearly didn't want to be here, and wore a very haggard face, despite the fact that his dark hair didn't possess a single trace of gray.

Cloud expressed his thanks to him again, and then walked off towards the building, fishing around in his pocket for his schedule and looking for his watch. There was still fifteen minutes left in first period, which was…Geometry, with a Mrs. Harland. Cloud sighed.

When he got to class, the first person he met eyes with as he passed through the doorway were those of the inimitable Mrs. Harland, or as everyone else called her, 'Big Bird'. This was due to her enormous nose and poofed, feather-like 60 year-old hair. In all honesty, she was probably more like Oscar the Grouch.

"I'm guessing you're Cloud Strife?" She asked grumpily, snatching the schedule he was holding out to her. Thankfully, she seemed to have lived on a desolate island for much of the summer, because she didn't recognize his name from the news.

"Yes ma'am, sorry I'm late."

"And just why are you late, hm?"

Cloud hesitated at first, but there really wasn't any other way of phrasing it. "Overslept."

As predicted, she eyed him carefully. "On the first day of school?" He nodded. Cloud could already tell that he wouldn't like Geometry as much as Algebra. Harland seemed to confirm that with a grin that was all but good-natured. A grin that seemed to say, "You have just given me permission to bury you this year." Lovely.

She let him sit down, and, uneasy, he made his way to the back of the class. With his eyes, he made a quick sweep of the class as he walked through the rows. And as he noticed the cold, unfriendly looks of his classmates all directed straight at him, he found something even more disheartening than a year of hell with Big Bird; a year of hell with Big Bird without any of his friends.

It had been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer. And it had started with the end of last year. In the aftermath of Reno's shooting, the entire school population went to pieces. School was closed for nearly a week, and once the doors reopened, many parents still wouldn't let their kids go. Students at school, meanwhile, would randomly break down crying in the hallways during passing periods. Panic and fear were abundant in the air, far more abundant than the norm at a slums school.

A lot of attention was centered on the fate of Sephiroth Hojo; vigils were held outside his hospital for three days, until he woke up. But he didn't come back for the rest of the semester. And with his father tenaciously barring everyone from visiting Seph for the next few months, it was doubtful he ever would return.

The only other person who received as much attention as Sephiroth was Cloud. For him, and his mother, everything that had happened right after the moment Reno jumped off of that building was a never ending nightmare. The worst part was at the police station, after the police questioned him and he gave his story. His mother was soon called down, and as Cloud watched her listen to the police detective's report of the situation, he witnessed one of the most painful scenes he'd ever have to watch.

He could see his mother's tears traveling down her quivering cheek, trailing in a mess of mini-mart brand foundation and mascara. He could hear her breath suspend several times through the detective's narrative, then heard it draw in slowly, as if she was afraid to take any of it in. He saw her jaw open in a look of afflicted disbelief that extended itself across the rest of her worn facial features. The twisting of her skirt in her right hand, the trembling of her other hand as it rested anxiously on the table—he hated watching that goddamned scene. A twisted pain grew in his chest.

Cloud could literally see his mother's heart breaking.

The relentless media coverage was just as unnerving. The next morning, Reno's face was all over the news. As early as the afternoon, the Strifes found their front step swarming with reporters, all of them prying and intrusive and none of them genuinely sympathetic. They were there for several days, and their constant snooping eventually drove Mrs. Strife to lock herself inside, unwilling to leave the house. Pissed, Cloud attempted to force them away himself, but whenever he went outside to do it, they would drown out his voice with their constant barrage of questions. Eventually, the police agreed to post a guard outside to stop the reporters from bothering them.

And school? In a word: hellish. For a whole month, no one would speak to Cloud except for Zack; Reeve and Aeris had been among the kids forced to stay at home by their parents. And though Zack proved to be fiercely loyal and had tried his best to distract him from it all (until he had to go back to Gongaga for the summer, that is), Cloud couldn't avoid that aloofness and fear he sensed among his classmates. It seemed like no one quite knew what to think of the brother of the guy who gunned down Sephiroth. Even Tifa seemed to be avoiding him. It was terribly depressing. The fact that Mrs. Richter had scheduled "therapy" sessions with him everyday after school didn't help either; it only seemed to indicate that everyone had started seeing Cloud himself as a psycho too.

And after a while, Cloud started to wonder if they were right.

After a painstakingly slow morning (accentuated with the always delightful dirty looks thrown at him by classmates), Cloud sauntered by the lunch room, trying not to attract attention while thinking to himself. He was wondering if sitting outside and going hungry was preferable to walking in, sitting down, and eating while enduring shouts of "fag" and "dickhead" and other various threats. Starvation was looking attractive.

"Oh my god, Cloud!"

Cloud had no time to turn around before Aeris lunged at him with arms wide open, engaging Cloud in a great, big, Aeris-bear hug.

"A-Aeris?" Cloud gasped, fairly surprised to find that she could hug so damn hard. It also occurred to him that this was the first time she had ever hugged him or any of his friends. This was a pretty sharp contrast from the first time she met them last spring.

"Oh my god, oh my god, I am soo sorry!" she was saying as she squeezed him, as if he would disappear if she didn't. "I wish I could have visited you after that night! You must have had the worst summer!"

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't apologize in the same way, Cloud," said Reeve, walking up to them with Zack in tow. "Uh, Aeris? You wanna stop strangling Cloud like a godless killing machine?"

"Shut the hell up Reeve," she said, still not letting go of Cloud.

"I think Cloud forgives you, Aeris," Zack told her, looking slightly peeved at this scene.

"I do, really!" Cloud panted, suddenly very aware of how her hug was affecting his blood circulation. Finally she let go, and he started breathing heavily, as if he'd just ran a few miles. But truthfully, he was happy to see them. It was a sight for sore eyes, really, and it distracted him from all the memories of that fateful—

"—Do you hate us?" Aeris asked, interrupting his thoughts. She looked at Cloud worriedly.

"For what?" Cloud said, rather quickly.

"For, you know, making no contact with you since the basketball game," said Reeve, who appeared genuinely concerned. "Seriously man, I feel really terrible about it, honest."

"We both feel terrible, Cloud," Aeris added. "But the day after that my mom withdrew me from school, and forbade me from visiting you or going to Sector Six."

"Same here. Actually, it was my dad, and then it was only the first part, but yeah, same difference. Uh, so…" he started cautiously, "…are you alright, man?"

---------------

All three of them watched Cloud carefully, as if they were diffusing a delicate bomb or something. Very much aware of this, Cloud, to their surprise, snorted. "Uh…heheh, that depends," he said.

"Er…" Zack started, confused. "Depends on what?"

"Pssh, on what you idiots give me for my birthday, obviously!" Cloud exclaimed, punching Zack playfully in the shoulder. "Fuck, it was a week and a half ago, remember?"

Zack let out a relieved laugh. "Aw damn, it was, huh?"

"Whoa, that's right, the 28th!" Reeve concurred, happy that they were able to settle back into their familiar banter so quickly. He enjoyed banter. "So whatcha want, some porno mags?"

"Oh, of course, I'd love some handpicked from your private stash, Reeve," he answered bemusedly.

This prompted an approving hoot from Zack. "Looks like you're the one who got served for once, hahah!"

"Nah, not really," said Reeve nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Cuz your mom's in the mags."

This prompted yet another snort from Cloud, then a round of laughs from all of them. Even Zack thought it was funny as hell, mainly because was too happy to see Reeve and his dumb face again to care about preserving his mother's dignity.

The only one who didn't laugh, however, was Aeris. She had been silent and, frankly, very very confused, the entire time. It didn't make sense. "So, Cloud, seriously…are you okay?"

Cloud was still chuckling. "Heheh, what? Oh, pssh, yeah, don't worry about me, I'm just glad to see you and these two stooges again." He looked strangely happy, even for his usual self.

"Hey, let's get some lunch," said Reeve, leading the way into the cafeteria. "I was reading this book on food products this summer, I can give you guys an extreme and unnecessarily detailed analysis of the common ingredient in both the sloppy joe's and the fish sticks."

"Dude, that's disgusting," Cloud said, somewhat repulsed. But he followed Reeve anyway, telling him that he needed to stop reading books by crackpot conspiracy theorists that lived in their parents' basements. Zack was about to follow suit, when he felt a hand hold his shoulder back.

"Zack, did you think that was weird?" asked Aeris, sounding concerned.

Zack didn't catch on as quickly, mostly because his heart started doing back flips in his chest when Aeris touched him. Unfortunately he still hadn't gotten over her, despite a summer of separation. "Er, um, what was?" he stammered.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe Cloud's freaky readiness to forgive us for practically abandoning him all summer?" she started. "He doesn't usually take things like that so lightly."

"Oh, uh, you know, that wasn't really our fault," said Zack, struggling just to get on topic. His eyes were wandering around the hallway just to concentrate. "He probably, you know, understands that your mom's kinda overprotective, and he knows that Reeve's dad is a douche."

"No, with Cloud…I don't think life is quite that simple…" she said, pausing to think. "Hey, you stayed till the end of last year, right?"

Zack had to think hard about that, the poor boy. "Uh…yeah. Yes. I did indeed do that." He said this in an awkward monotone.

"Well, how was he? Was he depressed? …Zack!" His gaze quickly redirected straight to her, alert. "Stop daydreaming, pay attention! Was Cloud okay after the shooting?"

"Er, well…" And out of the blue, he sighed heavily. At the mention of the shooting, he suddenly became somber, disregarding any distractions. He looked at Aeris seriously. "Man, I don't know. The day we came back, I asked him if he was okay, but he wouldn't answer me straight. He was sort of quiet and sullen the entire time. People in the halls would yell shi--er, insults at him, and he would just kinda take it. I was the one who was yelling back at them and getting into fights for him."

Aeris listened silently, taken aback by Zack's unexpected honesty and sincerity. "Oh my god," she started. "I didn't know this…I mean I guess it's kind of obvious with him, but I didn't really think…" She sighed. "Poor Cloud…So, he didn't do anything about it…at all?"

He shook his head sympathetically, thinking about his friend for a moment. "I guess you can't really blame him though; even if he did fight back, they probably would have started claiming he was violent too and written him off as a Reno carbon copy. That's sort of what Richter figured; she signed him up for 'therapy' towards the end of the year. But everyone else, I figure they basically would've used that as an excuse to kick him out of school. Geez…now that I think about it…I guess everyone was pretty much after him then."

"At least you were there for him," Aeris told him reassuringly. And she really was happy for that fact.

"Yeah, well," Zack said, somewhat resigned. "I have no clue whether or not that helped."

Yes, Reno will return too. Don't get your panties in a wad!