A perky, black haired man entered the SOLDIER director's office where a small gathering was forming. The building was abuzz with chatter today. The first batch of new cadets would be arriving today. It was a night off for most people involved, except for a few speeches and the responsibilities of showing the new recruits around, but that was hardly considered work. He, Zack Fair, was pretty excited about it, especially since he had just recently made it to First Class and was exempt from having to ferry the little ones around.

"Hey, Seph. You've prepared that speech of yours, right?" The young man watched the General, who he very tentatively considered something close to a friend, with his bright, sky blue eyes as he waited for an answer. Of course he would be prepared, it wasn't like Sephiroth to be anything but. The powerful SOLDIER always seemed to know exactly what he was doing, a strong leader to cling to in times of strife, so there was no chance that he would be letting everybody down.

"Of course. In fact, Lazard quite graciously prepared it for me." While Sephiroth did have a silver tongue to match his hair, it was very much like the Shinra Corporation to make sure that he didn't say anything... unflattering. It wasn't a likely worry, but tales of the recent war might cause some of the young men who had gathered today to doubt their commitment to their decision, and runaways were an unfortunate menace that must be dealt with.

"Cool, just figured I'd check you were at the top of your game. Aw man, I can't believe this! I get to meet 'em all out there, see their little nervous faces... ah, reminds me of when I first got here." After letting out a short, barking laugh, Zack continued, "But I bet none of 'em will be as plucky as me, huh? Maybe I'll be cool, take one under my wing... depends on whether any look too lost, huh?"

When he turned to look at Sephiroth, the older man gave an ever so slightly derisive snort.

"I worry for their sake, Zack."

"Hey man, why have you gotta say something like that? You wound me!" All it took to quieten Zack down were those six words, easily enough to make him slump down like a scolded puppy.

"...ake u... id..."

The words pierced through Cloud's slumber, and even though he wasn't awake his brow furrowed in confusion. Despite the fact that he was asleep he parroted the sounds that he had heard, his mouth slightly open so that he was able to take in enough air to stave off motion sickness.

"wake u... ki..."

A grumble was the response given to whoever was trying to bother him. He had said that twice now and he still didn't understand what he was saying! It was irritating enough to cause his face to twitch, his body and mind waking despite how little he wanted them to.

"What?" he mumbled, his voice slurred, a hint of annoyance hidden in there somewhere.

"Wake up, kid! Jeez, I said it enough times already, don't cha think?"

With that final remark Cloud's eyes slowly cracked open, squinting around at his surroundings that, despite being more open thanks to the fact that the truck door was ajar, were still just as dark as they had been before he had drifted off. They must have been in the truck for a long time. Had they been delayed?

"Where are we?" he asked, looking up at the driver carefully. The other boys that he had shared part of the journey with were nowhere to be seen in the immediate vicinity so he couldn't help but feel nervous. Was there perhaps an attack, and rather than fighting valiantly along the other hopefuls he had simply slept through like a contented child? Maybe that was even a test that they sprung on people before they came to join the military, a means to separate the wheat from the chaff...

"Midgar, kid. That's kinda the point of the drive, see."

Midgar? They had made it? That explained the darkness surrounding him, causing the sky outside of every window to be completely dark even though it was only mid afternoon in Winter. Despite being on the upper plate, the air above was polluted through various means, causing a cloud of darkness that rose almost as high as the Shinra Building itself. Because they were in a hold used for cargo trucks and military transport they were well shielded from the lights of the surrounding city by the thick walls. In fact, the part of the car park that they were in was 'underground' in the fact that it was on a floor below the main building concealed by the dense, sturdy plate that everything on this side of Midgar was built upon.

"C'mon," the driver grunted, waving him over with a hand so that he could get all of this over and done with, get away from these lousy, starstruck kids, "You got a guy outside with the others, he's here to get you lot outta my hair." An interesting analogy to use when this man was rapidly running out of it.

Cloud followed the curmudgeonly old man in almost giddy fashion, so overcome with emotion now that he had finally made it to the city. This was everything that he had dreamed of for so, so long, and now it was finally happening for him! Any trace of the nerves that he had felt previously were dashed away by high spirits, the thought that any moment now he could go into the building and see a SOLDIER, perhaps even a high ranking one. Surely they had prepared somebody to come and talk to the new recruits, despite the war that was coming to a close in Wutai? Now that things were settling over there it wouldn't be too much of a disturbance.

Soon enough he was led to a group of other hopefuls, some of which he recognised from his truck ride – and others that must have arrived when he was asleep – along with another group that must have arrived in a different truck at around the same time as they had. From what the blond assumed there must have been several out at the same time, if not more, and he knew that there were other collection trips that were expected to happen within the next few weeks too.

At the head of the group was a helmeted SOLDIER, standing tall with his arms crossed. Cloud had never seen a real, true SOLDIER in person before, only on the television, so he was somewhat in awe as he mingled at the back of the forming crowd. If he had the uniforms right, which he was pretty sure he did after spending so much time examining newspaper articles, news reports and public television appearances, this was a Second Class. The blond could tell because of the sleeveless purple turtle neck sweater and baggy trousers that he was wearing, along with the fact that he had that sturdy silver helmet on. The blade at his hip was a Shinra standard issue longsword with a rounded hilt, strong but plain. From what he could tell from seeing footage of the army only the best of the best were allowed some deviation in the weapons they were allowed to carry, along with any modifications they might want to make to their uniform. Sometimes they were lenient with the helmets.

"All right everybody, gather round. The name's Kunsel, and it's my job to bring you up to the SOLDIER floor for Orientation. After that we'll be letting you guys get acquainted with the place. If you've got any questions hold onto them for now, 'cause they'll either be answered at Orientation or there'll be plenty of guides there who can answer your questions. Now, since there's a lot of you, I'm gonna take you guys around to the cargo elevator so that you can all head up to the right floor at the same time."

With that everybody followed Kunsel, the murmur of the crowd as they talked to each other quite soft. It seemed like all of the others had managed to get acquainted in the truck ride there. Cloud couldn't help but wonder if he'd messed things up for himself already, as far as socialising went anyway. Sure, not everybody was talking, but quite a few seemed to have little groups going on where they were discussing what might happen next. Hopefully the cliques that could possibly be forming at that very moment weren't too exclusive yet, because he so desperately wanted to try and talk to all of these people who shared such similar dreams with him. It was just hard to do so right now when he was so full to the brim with excitement, worry, apprehension, all sorts of emotions that were fighting for dominance. Later, however, he would try his best.

Once they were all gathered into the conference room on the 49th floor the buzz of conversation was only louder, more distracting. The tension in the room was high, everybody filled with the same nervous excitement that Cloud was feeling at that moment. Their emotions were all feeding off each other, growing and growing to the point that staying in this room was quite unsettling for the solitary blond. Crowds this big weren't something he was at all used to. It probably wouldn't even be exaggerating to say that there were almost the same amount of people crammed into this one room than there were in the entirety of his sleepy little home town. That was a scary thought.

Amongst the crowd there were a couple of dozen SOLDIERs stationed, and as the bright lights in the room slowly dimmed they tried to get things in order. People were moved out of their small friendship clumps and the conversation was hushed to a quiet standstill. Obviously something was going to happen up on the platform that had been set up at the head of the room so it took less than a minute to get everybody to take notice and fall silent.

First to walk up onto the stage was the director of SOLDIER, Lazard Deusericus. Even though he wasn't a public figure who often received the limelight in any of the Shinra propaganda material, everybody in the room still knew him. It was practically a requirement if one was serious about joining up with SOLDIER, because even though he avoided the front lines he still masterminded a lot of their war plans and was in charge of every SOLDIER's assignments. A cascade of brief whispers made their way across the room before everybody was silenced once more.

"Good evening, everyone. I would like to be the first to welcome you all to Midgar. Unless," he added with a chuckle, "you're already a resident of this fine city, in which case I would still like to welcome you to the building, at least." There were a few little titters in the audience after Lazard's attempt at a joke, but for the most part people stayed quiet.

"Well, good. Anyway, back to matters at hand..."

The director talked for a good forty minutes or so, although to be fair to him that did include answers to questions that some of the boys saw fit to ask him, but eventually he was finished. Some parts had been interesting, some less so, but now they at least knew what they were doing once they got out of this Orientation gathering.

"Now that I've finished, I suppose I should introduce you all to the main event before you're all sent to unpack and have your dinner. So, without further ado, here is the General himself." The room burst into applause and excited whispers, everybody eyeing the stage, wondering who would be the first to catch a glimpse of their collective idol. There seemed to be a dark haired man standing between the platform and the door, but no Sephiroth just yet.

Once everything went silent, once again prompted by the Second Class SOLDIERs positioned around the room, they heard the click of the door opening.

There he was. The man that Cloud had so desperately wanted to see in the flesh.

Because he was quite small, blocked in by the crowd of bigger boys around him, at first all the blond caught was a swish of long, straight, silver hair that hit the light. That was enough to get his heart beating with excitement, exhilaration, almost hysteria even.

"Good evening, everyone." The purr of the general's voice could have caused Cloud to melt entirely. The sound of his slightly crackly television back at home had done him no justice, never before had he heard a sound that made his whole body feel like it was being set alight. Sephiroth's voice was like, well... the only explanation that came to the blond's thoroughly rocked mind was 'melted chocolate'. Before this point he'd just idolised the general from a purely heroic standpoint, or at least that's what he thought, but now... needless to say he had no idea what his feelings were trying to do to him.

The object of his newly blossoming affections had taken the stage, and he just couldn't keep his big baby blue eyes off him. The crowd was no longer blocking his view, for the few minutes that this speech would take he could simply gaze upon this angelic sight with utter adoration, utter worship. Perhaps the blond was laying it on a bit thick, but he was so starstruck that he'd not even realised it just yet. No doubt he would be cursing himself later.

"On behalf of the entirety of SOLDIER, and indeed the rest of Shinra's army, I welcome each and every one of your personally to our ranks." More of that wonderful, melty voice. Cloud really could die happy right now, lightning could strike him and he would drop to the floor with the biggest smile on his face. Right now, this was enough for him. In fact, he had to suppress a little gasp when the general continued, "The road ahead may be hard, but I am confident that each of you fine young men will serve this company most admirably."

As much as he tried to listen with earnest, the blond began to focus more on looking at Sephiroth instead of deciphering the words that left his mouth. He was still listening to his voice, of course, but less attention was paid to the actual words and more to the tone, that delectable purr, the way he pronounced certain sounds that made him sound so refined and, most of all, the way his lips moved as he formed his words. Luckily all of the others in the room also had their complete attention turned on their general, else they would notice the strange, dreamy expression that had almost entirely taken over Cloud's face.

"Hey, spike. You all right there? Everybody else is up and about, you're gonna miss your tour." The voice shook Cloud out of his daydream, and it wasn't until then that he realised the little parting speech was over and all of his peers were getting into groups with the Second Class around the room. In front of him was the black haired man who he'd seen hanging around near the platform at the front earlier, before Sephiroth had arrived. He wore the uniform of a First Class SOLDIER, the black sleeveless turtle neck and baggy trousers that denoted his rank.

"I... what? Oh, the tour! I'm sorry, sir, I completely... how should I put this... I kind of zoned out."

The man in front of him let out a barking laugh, grinning wildly at him afterwards. "Wow, you're just full of surprises, aren't you? First you call me sir, which I can safely say I've never heard before, and then you tell me that you actually managed to zonk out during that speech! Ah, tell you what, kid. You come with me, hm? I'll get a little group together and take you guys around, 'cause I'm so generous like that. And on my evening off, too!" Before he could quite register what was going on he felt a strong hand in his hair, ruffling his already nearly unmanageable spikes into utter disarray.

"Am I... not supposed to call you sir?" Cloud couldn't think what he'd call him otherwise, he hadn't given him a name. Besides, this was one of his superiors. Surely it wasn't okay to be so flippant when addressing him.

"Well yeah, you can call me sir, in that it's a thing that you can do without the world just ending, but I don't think it suits, you know? It's okay. You can call me Zack."

"Zack... well, okay. If you're sure." Even then the blond sounded hesitant, clearly not quite ready to come to terms with such an idea just yet. It would take him a little bit of time to be truly comfortable with it.

"Good! You're getting there! Now, let's get you all set up, yeah? Everybody's leaving and we've gotta make sure you know where you're sleeping, where you're eating, where you're getting a phone... sorry, you don't have a phone already, right? You don't look like the phone owning type." Already Zack had put a firm hand on his shoulder and was guiding him away, chattering endlessly as he went. It seemed that the man either loved the sound of his own voice or simply had so much going on in his head that it wouldn't all fit in there, and the less important remains of such thoughts instead came tumbling from his mouth.

Without much complaint, Cloud went along with him, nodding along with every little detail about their surroundings or SOLDIER life that he saw fit to bestow on him. He was told about the routines, what would happen if he was late (an area that Zack seemed to be particularly knowledgeable in) and what kinds of freedoms he could expect. It was nice, despite the rigorous training schedule they still had a few hours to themselves in the evenings, as well as having the weekend mostly free apart from a few drills on the Saturday morning that weren't nearly as taxing. Zack seemed happy to impart all of his wisdom, and the blond was all too happy to receive it as well.

A couple of hours later they parted at his dorm room, where Cloud was able to quietly unpack. His things had been taken up to the bedroom for him and it seemed that his other room mates had yet to arrive. Perhaps they had more questions, or the people in charge of showing them around weren't quite as experienced around the block as Zack was. Either way, it meant that he had a little bit of time to himself.

December 13th, εуλ 0000

My new dormroom!

I can't believe I finally made it! The journey kind of sucked, but when I got here... wow. It's hard to even write, my hands are shaking so much. There were so many people, and they all looked so different, but then... oh, I still can't believe it!

Sephiroth! I actually saw him, in the flesh! I knew they'd bring somebody important in to talk to us, but I never really thought it was going to be him with the war still going on. Don't get me wrong, I hoped, but that's all it was. Hoping.

When I saw him my palms got all sweaty, I couldn't breathe... I don't know what happened, to be honest. I can't deny that I wouldn't mind it happening again, though. For once the flipping in my stomach didn't just feel like nerves. Well, maybe a little... it was freakin' Sephiroth!

Zack was a pretty nice guy. It was strange to have somebody be so friendly with me. I've got to say, I'm not quite used to it yet. Hopefully he doesn't think that's weird... what am I saying? He probably didn't even notice. Seems like the oblivious type.

Still. It's nice to have at least one friend in this place so far. Maybe things really are looking up. I just have to try not to jinx it.

I should go to bed now, I think, and stop writing in this thing. If any of the other guys catch me with it they might think I'm strange. There's a lot to be done tomorrow, anyway.

I can't wait!

So, my chapters just seem to be growing. That's a good thing! Sephiroth was finally seen as well, so I consider that a plus.

I'd like to thank everybody who's alerted, faved or, hell, even read this story so far, because I really appreciate it (I tend to grin with glee whenever I check up on my stats), and extra thanks to Tobirion, who gave me an absolutely lovely review. That thing made my morning. :)