Cloud sat in his room, tapping his pencil lazily on his desk. He knew he should be studying. He knew he had a math test the next day. But his mind seemed intent on not staying focused. Every time he was convinced he was close to grasping a concept, blue eyes and soft lips took over his conscious mind and he ended up tapping his pencil again.

Stretching far enough back that his chair almost tipped over, Cloud decided it was time for a study break. His roommates were missing for now, out at their classes. This was Cloud's early day, all his classes being done by noon. After flopping on his bed, picking up a book, putting down said book, turning on the tv, turning off the tv, and pacing Cloud decided that he was so high strung he couldn't even take a study break.

On one of his laps around the small barrack room Cloud saw the small pouch he kept on his belt while he was out sitting on his desk. It also happened to be where he kept the materia that Zack had given him.

Zack. Black hair. Eyes. Mouth.

Cloud shook his head to try and regain his focus and walked determinedly up to his pouch. Reaching in he felt one of the smooth materia gems and pulled it out seeing that it was the lightning material. Random lightning bolts in his room would probably attract unwanted attention. Fishing around in the rest of the odds and ends in his bag, Cloud felt a constriction in his chest as he couldn't find the ice materia.

He quickly dumped the entire bag out on the carpet. Sorting through everything three time he realized that he had lost it. He had lost Zack's favorite materia.

Fighting back the panic that was creeping up on him, Cloud started scouring the room, starting under his desk. Then he heard a group of voices outside his room getting louder and louder. They sure seemed excited.

Darting up, and subsequently hitting his head on the bottom of his desk, Cloud darted out of his room, the lightning materia safely stowed in his jeans pocket.

As he turned the corner to where the voices were coming from, Cloud paused just enough to make it look like he was not running like a bat out of hell in that direction. The group consisted of about four guys that Cloud was not fond of. Familiar guys. The ones who'd locked him outside in the rain. He wondered whether or not he should actually thank them for that…after all, he got to meet Zack.

"Dude, how do you make it work?"

Cloud realized that there was one chubby boy in the center of the growing crowd, with his hand proudly held out, palm up. In it was a small glint of green.

"Oh shit," Cloud muttered as he cautiously approached the outer edge of the group.

"I'm working on it okay, just shut up and let me concentrate," the chubby one sniveled and closed his eyes, obviously focusing very hard on using the materia in his hand.

Looking carefully around, Cloud saw that the crowd was hanging on this boy's every word. Apparently none of them realized that it took an immense amount of practice and skill to use the type of materia that this first year was holding.

"It ain't doing nothing." A faceless voice called from the mob, which everyone quickly agreed with.

Slowly the mob grew more and more impatient, a few people even reaching forward and trying to snatch the gem out of the boy's pudgy fingers. At this Cloud became nervous, a few of these boys were even more experienced than him, and could very well use the materia. If only he could get a hold of it, he could send this group scattering like a bunch of cockroaches.

"Ah!"

Cloud's head snapped up from where he had dazed off in his vengeful thoughts. The chubby one was backed up against the wall, cradling his hand. It was a sickly shade of blue and the tips of his fingers seemed to be covered in frost. His focus flickered from his hand to the harmless looking gem of materia on the floor. The crowd had retreated at his cry of pain.

Suddenly Cloud felt the chill go through his body. As if he had actually been holding the materia. He concentrated, and the floor beneath the materia turned to ice, slick as glass. It spread out in tendrils, and the students backed up, clambering over each other to get away from the path of the ice.

Laughing hysterically as the morons tripped and fell on the slick ground, Cloud calmly walked forward, keeping his balance on the ice, and picked up the materia.

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Cloud practically ran across the Shinra camp. Fellow troopers gave him sidelong glances, but it wasn't very different from what he normally got.

As he sprinted past the end of the barracks he took the turn that would lead him to the first class Soldier's apartments. For a second he paused, feeling the breeze from a truck that he had very nearly been run over by. But he was far too hyper to care about near death experiences now. He patted the materia in his pocket again just to be sure it was still there.

Scaling the stairs two at a time he was thankful that he didn't meet up with any of the other Soldiers in the building. When he arrived on Zack's floor he stopped to catch his breath and walked slowly past the closed doors, suddenly feeling out of place. He never went to Zack's apartment unless he had been brought there.

As he found himself outside of the door to Zack's apartment he was surprised that it was open. Just a crack, but that still struck him as odd. Soldiers didn't forget to lock their doors. Feeling a bit braver than usual, Cloud snuck the door open a few more inches, just enough that he could peek in.

His view was blocked on one side by the counter that surrounded the kitchen of the apartment. But he could see into the small living room and had a decent view of the couch which was against the wall. On the couch was a very familiar man with long spiky black hair wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants.

Cloud's…interest…was now thoroughly piqued.

Zack held his head in his hands and seemed to be shivering. Even without a shirt on, it was warm enough that he couldn't be cold. Slowly he rose up, his body trembling even more before he dropped his head onto the back of the couch.

"Man, I feel like shit."

Cloud ducked back a few inches, his breathing coming fast. Did Zack hear him, or see him?

"Just relax. You want a glass of water?"

He recognized that voice. It was Sephiroth. Any cadet would know the voice that gave them their commencement speech every year.

Soon enough he was positive as a lithe silver haired man sat on the couch next to Zack and handed him a glass of water. His hand was also shaking.

"Man, turn down the lights," Zack groaned as he sipped water from the shaking glass and covered his eyes with his forearm.

"I can't. It's the sun."

The two looked like death warmed over, both shirtless and pale, shivering in the warm summer air. Cloud inched forward, trying to get a better view, trying to understand what was wrong with his mentor and his idol.

Only when he strained his eyes could he see the blue streaks running up one of Zack's arms. It seemed to be on Sephiroth's as well. The lines crawled up their arms along their veins, as if their skin had become see through.

Then Zack's words came back to Cloud. He was going to have a mako treatment today. In fact, he hadn't waited the night before for Zack to tell him a time to show up for training. He must not have planned to deal with Cloud at all today.

Why would they give us something that's so obviously bad? It looks like its tearing them up, and they're first class Soldiers. What would that stuff do to us cadets?

Suddenly Zack stood up, wobbly on his feet. Sephiroth extended a steadying hand, but Zack just laughed and brushed him off, heading toward the kitchen. Afraid of being caught spying on such a private moment, Cloud quietly retreated and darted down the hall as fast as he could. He would just pretend he hadn't seen anything.

Or maybe ask Zack about it some other day.

Although, despite seeing his teacher in obvious pain and discomfort…Cloud couldn't help being disappointed at not being able to make out with his constant source of distraction.

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SOOOOOO sorry for the delay. college took up a ton of time. A lot more than it did first semester. Anyway, I'm working on like four fics at a time now, so I will be updating, just give me a little time. And there will be more "action" in the next chapter.