"Cloud, where on earth did you disappear to the other day?" Zack asked, running up to him.
"Uh, dunno." Cloud shrugged.
"Oh well. Okay, you will never guess what happened." Zack said, a grin breaking out on his face in excitement.
"I'll try anyway. Let's see, Lazard promoted you to First Class?" Cloud asked, then frowned and shook his head. "Nah, no way that would happen. Uh, you got a girlfriend? No wait actually I doubt you'd be able to do that either." Cloud said, looking like he was seriously trying to think of what it was. Zack stared at him, gob smacked.
"Cloud, you got it right." Zack said.
"I did? Cool! So, what's her name?" Cloud asked, looking interested.
"Who's name?" Zack asked.
"You got a girlfriend, didn't you? So tell me what her name is!" Cloud repeated.
"She's not my girlfriend! Can we please stay on topic?" Zack said in frustration, running a hand through his hair.
"I thought this was the topic you wanted to talk about." Cloud said. Zack paused and stared, blinking as if trying to remember something.
"Uh, what was I trying to say before?" he asked.
"I don't know Zack, you didn't say it! Obviously." Cloud shrugged.
"Oh yeah! Guess what?" Zack beamed. "I'm a first class SOLDIER!"
"Okay, you've had your fun. Can you tell me the truth now?" Cloud asked. Zack's smile slowly faded.
"Huh?"
"Well you couldn't possibly be a first class, so what do you actually want to tell me?" Cloud said, shrugging.
"No! Seriously! I'm a first class!" Zack persisted.
"Really?" Cloud asked.
"Yes!" Zack began bouncing up and down on the spot and Cloud stepped away slightly. "And guess who suggested I should be First Class? Angeal and Sephiroth!" Zack yelled, punching the air and doing a little dance.
"They must be absolutely insane." Cloud muttered, trying to inch away while Zack wasn't looking.
"So Cloud, what do you wanna do?" Zack asked. Cloud froze.
"What?" Cloud asked.
"What do you wanna do? I'm bored." Zack shrugged.
"I'm going to go back to my dorm, walking through a dangerous area of land mines to get there and then I am probably going to be sitting down for a while." Cloud said. "But you? You can do whatever you feel like." Zack blinked.
"Eh?"
"Bye." Cloud turned and walked off, leaving Zack to stare in absolute confusion.
"Why didn't he tell me he could speak another language?" Zack mumbled to himself, spinning around and running off as a smile appeared once again on his face.
"Zack, you're friends with that Strife kid, yeah?" Zack looked over to see Lazard holding a phone by his side.
"Sure am!" Zack said.
"Do you know where he is? There's a call for him." Lazard explained.
"Oh! Who is it? Can I talk to them?" Zack asked excitedly. Lazard sighed and rolled his eyes.
"All right. I'll go find Cloud while you're on the phone." Lazard said, passing it over.
"Hey! Zack Fair, First Class SOLDEIR speaking!" Zack answered happily. Lazard groaned and walked out of the room.
"Uh, I'm sorry. There must be a misunderstanding. I asked to speak to Cloud Strife." the person on the other end said. Zack's eyes widened in happiness. It was a girl!
"Yes! He's my best friend!" Zack said. "Someone's just gone off to look for him though, so I thought I would talk to you so that the wait was more enjoyable."
"He made new friends!" came the squeal through the phone.
"Yep!" Zack grinned. "So, what's your name?" he asked.
"Oh, sorry. Tifa Lockhart." Tifa said. "I'm from Cloud's hometown."
"Awesome!" Zack said. "So are you his girlfriend?" Zack asked, thinking it was a perfectly normal question to ask. Besides, he didn't want to start hitting on his best friends girlfriend!
"Uh.." Tifa was speechless. She was sure her face had gone bright red and she scolded herself for actually wishing she could say yes. "No, he's not. We're just friends." she said.
"Oh! Okay! That's great!" Zack beamed. Cloud walked into the room and paused seeing Zack talking on the phone. "Oh hey, Cloud's here now!" Zack moved the phone slightly away. "Spikey! It's Tifa!" he said. Cloud's eyes widened and he looked around nervously, stepping backwards slowly.
"Is he coming?" Tifa asked.
"Uh, hang on." Zack said, placing the phone down and walking over to his friend. "What's up?" he asked.
"I can't talk to her." Cloud said quickly.
"Why not?" Zack asked.
"I.." Cloud looked away, his stance showing how uncomfortable he was. "I'm busy, tell her I'm busy."
"But you're not. You were just going to go back to your dorm. Hey! You survived the land mines!" Zack punched him on the arm with a grin. Cloud stared at him in disbelief at how gullible he was.
"Whatever, I'm leaving." Cloud said, turning and walking out of the room. Zack sighed and shook his head sadly, walking back over to the phone and picking it up.
"Tifa?" he asked.
"Yes? Is this still Zack?" she asked.
"Yeah, sorry," Zack paused and then sighed again. "Cloud's busy right now." he lied.
"Do you know when he can talk? It's really urgent." Tifa said anxiously.
"Uh," Zack thought desperately for something to say, knowing he didn't want to betray his friends trust but he didn't want to upset this girl either. "I have no idea. Would you be able to call back another day?"
"I don't think so," came the sad reply. "don't worry about it, just tell him I hope to hear from him soon, kay?" she asked.
"Sure, I'll do that. I promise." Zack said, nodding his head even though she couldn't see.
"Right, well, I should go then." Tifa said.
"Okay, bye!" Zack said.
"Bye." Tifa hung up and Zack slower lowered the phone, clicking it off and leaving it on the desk, walking out.
Late night training session, Clouds legs killed from running and he wished he could just flop into bed and sleep the week away. However, he had to report back to the sergeant, put some things back in his locker and then go to the next late night training session.
After reporting back to the sergeant, he headed to the locker room, keeping his head down and going straight to his. Opening it, he stuffed his things in and then shut it, turning to leave when he felt a fist connecting with his head.
"That'll teach you to beat me at the cross country training." he heard someone say. "I guess it's time to put you back in your place again." he felt someone grip his arms tightly and he was shoved into a locker again, the door swung shut and the key turned.
"Oh man, not again." Cloud muttered as he heard everyone leave and carefully felt his nose for a break. Looking down at his hand and holding it in the light that was coming in through the slats, he saw it was covered in blood. He rolled his eyes and sighed, leaning back. "I wonder if Sephiroth will randomly walk into the locker room again. Probably not, it's almost midnight." Cloud thought aloud.
Sephiroth was taking the late night training session. The really late night training session. He was tired, grumpy and just wanted to sleep. But he had to deal with the trainees who were also tired, grumpy and wanting to go to sleep.
"Great." he muttered, walking into the room and standing in front of them all. He began training them, drilling them hard and making sure none of them slacked off even the tiniest little bit. He constantly annoyed them by finding every single thing they were doing wrong and making a big deal about it. What annoyed them even more was that they weren't allowed to talk back as Sephiroth could instantly authorise that anyone leave ShinRa for good.
"What kind of SOLDIER's are you trying to be?" Sephiroth asked angrily. "You are never going to make it if you can't look after the small things first."
"Why do the small things even matter?" someone asked unwisely. Sephiroth slowly walked over to him and looked down, becoming instantly intimidating.
"One small thing that is overlooked could get you killed." he said. "If you don't mind getting killed on your first mission in the first few seconds, then by all means, ignore what I say." The trainee gulped and nodded, looking down. Sephiroth walked away again and everyone continued training.
"Seph, you seen Spikey?" Zack asked as Sephiroth walked out of the training room, finally finished with the late night session. He glanced at Zack with wide eyes.
"What are you doing up?" Sephiroth asked. "The kid's probably asleep like you should be."
"Oh, right. It's just, I've been looking for him for ages cause I wanna talk to him about something. I just wanted to see if he was okay." Zack shrugged.
"Ask him in the morning." Sephiroth said. "Besides, Zack, why are you so obsessed with him?" he asked.
"Because, my friend, he has a female friend who is not his girlfriend. Are you following me?" Zack asked, a grin on his face. Sephiroth groaned and turned to walk away. "Hey, can you hear that?" Zack asked suddenly. Sephiroth paused to listen and there it was. The faint sound of banging. Once about every second.
"That stupid kid." Sephiroth muttered angrily, walking off quickly. Zack raised an eyebrow, smiled, and skipped along behind him.
Soon, they had reached the locker room and the banging had grown louder. Sephiroth went quickly to one locker and smashed the lock. The banging stopped abruptly.
"You seriously need to learn how to look after yourself- uh, oh man. They broke your nose too?" Sephiroth pulled Cloud out roughly with a roll of his eyes.
"Yeah." Cloud muttered.
"Oh my gosh! Who did it? I'll bash them up!" Zack said. Cloud looked up, only just noticing him.
"Some of the other trainee's, I think." Sephiroth shrugged. "Look, the kid needs to work things out himself so don't worry about it Zack."
"Okay.. what do we do about his nose?" Zack asked.
"You can't brace noses, they heal by themselves. He can deal with that too." Sephiroth grabbed Zack's arm and dragged him out of there, leaving Cloud behind.
"Great to know I have such loyal friends." Cloud muttered, slowly walking out after them although they had already gone due to Sephiroth's long strides.
The bus that left Nibelheim was the same one that always did. The bus driver was the same guy that was just trying to make some money and most of the passengers were regulars. Except one.
She tucked her brown hair behind her ear, biting her lip nervously and staring out the window with hopeful eyes.
Mr Lockhart wouldn't realise she was gone for a few hours yet.