I apologize for the delay. I work at a major grocery store and am an essential worker. Things have finally started to calm down a bit, so I'm back to writing. Sorry if this chapter is a bit all over the place or rushed. Enjoy. Rated T for language, I don't own Final Fantasy VII.

Xander and I split up as Zack began to drag me away.

"Thorne! I'll pick you up at Zack's house after work, OK?" Xander called out as Zack eagerly pulled me towards the building.

All I managed was a wave before be dragged inside to our section of the school. School for lack of a better word, was boring as hell. Granted I was an adult in my twenties stuck in a 5 year old body, so I didn't need to learn all this again. I almost never paid attention to anything that happened. I learned early on that children in this village became independent at an early age, so they learned things at a different pace. Thankfully living in a small village meant that the amount I had to learn was minimal. Besides the basics in math, reading, and writing, half of our classes focused on what was important to our village. History would become important when we were older along with learning basic plant life, animals to be wary of, basic sewing and first aid.

On the days we spent learning about stuff I already knew, I usually spent it on my own reading whatever book I could find. Thanks to my "intelligence" I got away with not having to pay attention in class. Word spread quickly (thanks to my parents bragging) about how much of a fast learner I was, my teacher didn't really focus on me much. Since today was a day we would focus on writing and such, I easily zoned out. Instead she had a couple of more advanced books about plant life waiting for me. Well, it was more like what I would be learning in two years anyway. It was surprisingly a very interesting read. Maybe I would look more into studying plants when I was older in a few years. Considering how much different this world was, I was happy to find something that generally interested me.

The day went by fast while my nose was buried deep in the books. As usual I sat next to Zack in class, only pausing in my reading when he really wanted to show or tell me something. When lunch time for us rolled around he dragged me outside to say goodbye to Xander. Since he was older, his school days were shorter. Instead he would go to work in whatever field he choose to study in. I couldn't remember which he was going to today, but I came to say goodbye and wish him a good day. Maybe I should ask him about it later, from what I knew picking two fields wasn't all that common.

The rest of the day was uneventful, to the point that it blurred together. The teacher teached, Zack occasionally talked, and I read my book. Until it came to a surprise spelling test that Zack was already whining about. The teacher skipped me as she began. I think the adults around me could somewhat sense I was over it, but I had to still sit here and wait anyway. She would walk around the room and say a word aloud, and everyone else would write it down. I may have casually but silently pointed out specific words in the book I was reading to Zack when her back was turned though. Being in a small class with less then ten children, her back wasn't turned for long. At least Zack could write fast. Hey I'm sure everyone has gotten stuck on the word 'because' or 'about' before.

Immediately after the surprise test the teacher dismissed us to all go home. One thing I could be happy about was that school days for young kids were only 5-6 hours long. Xander only had 4 hours because of his job fields, and had left halfway through our time. It beats the 8-9 hour days from back home I can tell you that much. Zack practically dragged me out of the school building straight to his house as soon as the teacher gave the word. He spent the entire walk rambling about wanting to show me something. Gods how could 6 year old Zack be so tiring yet adorably entertaining at the same time? I was almost afraid to see how much energy he would have when he hit puberty.

By the time we made it to his home, I thought he would be out of breath from talking so much. He wasn't.

If anything he was just more excited the second we stepped through the threshold. With a quick but quite hello to his mother, as she was once again watching a few infants and they would be napping at this time, we went straight to his room. He ran straight to his window where a couple little wooden boxes sat, while I shut the door, so not to disturb any of the sleeping babies in the other room.

"Thorne! Look wha' my Papa brought home!" he exclaimed loudly while holding the boxes out to me.

He had a small stack of three boxes stacked on top of each other. The largest on bottom was rectangular and looked like it would hold quite a bit. It was about the size of those metal tins everyone's mom has filled with sewing supplies instead of cookies. It was a deep brown, almost black in color and looked a little worse for wear. The two on top were the same size, small and could easily fit in our six year old hands. One was a lighter shade of brown with sharp, crisp edges like it was just carved. The second was da dark polished brown with a golden latch in front. Whatever was in them clearly wasn't heavy since Zack could hold all three with no effort. He set all three down on his bed and we both climbed up to look at them. Zack had a big smile on his face the whole time. If I had to guess, he already knew what was inside each one and couldn't wait to see my reaction to them.

"Which one first?" he asked practically bouncing in place. Dammit why did he have to be so puppy like?

I pointed to the large one first, might as well get that one out of the way. Instead of nearly bursting from excitement like I expected him to, he seemed to calm down a bit. Almost as if he was disappointed? Weird. Nonetheless he still opened it and held it out towards me to see it's contents. Inside the large mystery box was...

"Materia?" I asked a little dumbfounded.

Zack shook his head excitedly. Inside sat two small green orbs I could already tell by looking at them, that the size was greatly exaggerated by the game. Each was about the size of a lemon, and seemed to have a bit of a glow to them. Zack took one out and handed it to me. Taking the magic orb from him I was a bit disappointed to find that I felt nothing from it. Yes it was a bit cool, but I was expecting to feel something.

"Papa say he traded for 'em! I don't know wha' they are though. Aren't they pretty? He sai' when I get big, he show me what they do!."

"Yeah, pretty." I wish I could see what they did now. The magic in this world is something I found interesting. It always seemed so simple yet complex-

"You can keep one!"

I snapped out of musings when Zack spoke. He has a huge grin on his face. Did he really just offer me one of these materia? Not that I'm going to turn it down. "Really? What about your Papa?"

"S' ok! Papa won' mind. You can have one of the pretty rocks." Yep he had no idea what he was offering me. What did I expect though, he's five. He shut the box and set it aside as he moved to the next one. Next he held out the smaller worn out box. Without waiting he opened it to reveal... a bunch of teeth? Ok those were kind of cool looking. "Lookit! They're from a wolf my Papa help hunt. He said he can make necklaces from them."

"Can he make me one?" I asked. I had to admit, the teeth looked pretty cool. I've seen wolf teeth before but these looked bigger then normal. The canines were at least four inches long. They were more like little knives.

"Uh huh! We can ask Papa when he come home."

Just like the first he quickly set it aside and showed my the last box. He shoved it into my hands and started bouncing on his feet. He really was excited about this one huh? He looked like he was going to burst if I didn't open it soon. Pulling the latch I opened it up, to be met with a sweet melody. It was a a little music box. The music coming from it was a slow melody. It seemed sad, yet soothing at the same time. I felt like I recognized it, but I wasn't sure from where. The inside of the box had a carving of a bouquet of flowers inside. It was lined in gold giving a sharp but nice contrast to the dark wood the box was made of. A smile slowly broke out on my face as I listened to it. The smile on Zack's face stretched until I was sure his face would split in two.

"Do you like it? I kno' it's not your birthday yet but I wan' you to have it." Damn his smile was contagious. I couldn't help but smile back as I shut the box.

"Yes Zack I love it. Thank-" my words were cut off as he wrapped me in a bear hug. I couldn't help but hug him back. Man he was so sweet.

"Welcome! Your my best friend."

"Thanks Zack. You're my best friend too." He laughed again before we finally parted. I was never close to anyone in my past life like I was with him. Granted we were both five and things were bound to change. But I wanted to enjoy this while I can.

Even just spending these few short years around him, I questioned why I thought avoiding him was a good idea back when I couldn't walk. I knew I would be sad when he eventually left for SOILDER, so I should make the best of it now. We spent the next few hours in his room playing until his mother called for dinner.

"You wanna spen' the night? Let's ask Mama!" he asked before dragging me out of the room.

I knew I was not going to handle growing up with him.

I tried to write little Zack and give him some type of trouble with talking. He won't be talking in complete sentences like Thorne can. And no one can tell me that baby Zack wouldn't be this outgoing and sweet.

11/18/2020 Stay tuned for double upload