The correct guess for yesterday's question of choice was age. Children are very fuzzy about their age, normally.

Now! On with the story!

It shouldn't have been surprising, really, that Tifa's friends didn't take too kindly to her new "bestest friend", it really shouldn't. Still, Cloud mused absently wiping blood from his chin, picking a fight with him the second she wasn't around was overdoing it. It wasn't as though he was refusing them to play with her, now. For some reason, he had honestly thought he could just be included in their games. It wasn't like he was slow or weak or a coward, he was actually probably the only one who really kept up with Tifa on some of her more risky endeavours.

But here he was, barely a month since Tifa had decided that Cloud should be included, no discussion allowed, and Dan had cornered him behind the mayor's house. Cloud tongued his split lip, repressing a hiss at the sting and eyed Dan. Dan had managed to get away with only a bruise on his cheek, whereas Cloud, apart from his split lip, was sporting a black eye and a twisted ankle. Dan had obviously fought before, probably with Wel and Meiday and he was taller and heavier than Cloud's diminutive figure.

In a second Dan would lunge again and then Cloud would get it. He just didn't have a clue about how he was supposed to handle this. He had never fought with anyone, had never pressed the issue about Tifa, so he was at such a clear disadvantage here, it was laughable. Except that he was at a clear disadvantage in a fight that was somehow supposed to prove friend rights with Tifa.

It didn't really make any sense in Cloud's head, but nevertheless he was glad that Dan had waited until the girl was gone. He was almost certain they'd both end with more than just bruises if she found out they were fighting for her. He shuddered.

"Little boy afraid of a little fight? I knew all your bravado was just pretend to impress Tifa. You're just a little momma's boy clinging to her skirts. Gonna run home crying?"

"You wish," Cloud shot back coldly and got ready for another round. The truth was, he had been a little clingy with his mum, seeking her out at more or less regular intervals throughout the day when he was smaller. He had stopped getting random panic attacks a few years ago, but the insult stung nevertheless.

Dan pounced, knocking him down, and Cloud's breath was knocked out of him has his back connected with the hard-packed dirt below. "You little shit," Dan cursed, putting a fist in the smaller boy's stomach.

In the end the result was predictable but thankfully no worse than Cloud could drag himself home for his mother to patch him up. The excuse of a simple fall being the cause of all the bruises was met with stoic silence. When she insisted on calling Dr. Morris he just shrugged though, pretending indifference.

He went through the inspection sitting stiff and on guard, but doing as he was told so the inspection could go over smoothly. The good doctor, of course, noticed the boy's struggle. It was far from the panic that had seized him little more than four years ago, but he was still clearly afraid. Morris commended him for his courage and didn't remove his coat. If the boy was determined to battle his fear, he would have to help the best he could, which in this case should be to prove that people in white coats weren't scary. He kept up a stream of light commentary.

"A fall, eh? Not from the well this time, I reckon. Geez, boy, you must have hit every rock on the way down to get bruises like this." Unless someone had pummelled him, which seemed a lot more likely, considering that the were all on his front. " Hmm, this one hurt, I bet. Open your mouth, I gotta see your teeth. Hmm, aside from the lip, nothing seems overly damaged. Please look into this, oh, very fine, the ladies are gonna love your eyes when you turn older. Yeah, you're fine, good to go."

He turned and walked over to where the kid's mother was wringing her hands in worry, giving her a reassuring smile. "I wouldn't worry too much, Mrs. Strife. Aside from the split lip, he only got some bruises and a twisted ankle. He gotta stay off the ankle for as long as you can make him. Sprains are tricky injuries, no telling how long they take to heal. He's gotta wear the wraps for at least two weeks. Good thinking putting ice on it at once though. Well, I'll be taking my leave! Bye!"

She blinked after him as he went out the front door, certain that he must be self-medicating. No one should be able to keep up such persistent cheer all the time. Well, none of her problem and he had taken her son's injuries seriously enough. She shrugged and turned to her son, who was sitting in his bed, pale and wide eyed still.

Mrs. Strife frowned, wondering what in the world had prompted the inexplicable fear of doctors and wondering if she could do anything to help. First things first though, she thought, and went to her stove to bake bread for the both of them.

It didn't take a week before he came home covered in bruises once again. The old ones had barely faded to faint yellow marks as it was, but she didn't call Morris. Bruises she could handle. Besides, his stubborn, evasive answers when she had tried asking him about his incomprehensible latrophobia made her hesitant.

Ten days later he was in a fight again and once again, there was nothing but bruises to show for it. Less than before though, she felt relieved to note, but that there were any at all rankled. It rankled even more that he wasn't telling her what it was about, not that she didn't have guesses, but that he kept telling her that he fell, when he hadn't had a fall since that time at the well was getting to her. She contemplated giving him a scolding and ground him for a month, but... She had been so worried the last couple of years. With him keeping to himself so much, following Tifa from a distance whenever possible. A boy that age was supposed to play and smile and get bruised knees and dirty clothes.

She had been so relieved and proud when he came home, his shirt covered in salty water and mucus as he excitedly told her that Tifa said he was her bestest friend now.

She just... didn't want to ruin it for him. She couldn't remember the last time he had smiled that brightly.

And now it was all just so worrisome. But he seemed so happy!

And while his mother worried, Cloud was fuming. He had almost won that last one with Wel too! Just because he was better than them in almost everything and Tifa looked at him the most. She also laughed at him the most too and worried about his bruises. He had to grimace at that, he wasn't weak! He could handle a few bruises as long as he didn't twist his ankle again. The forced inactivity had almost made him completely crazy!

When next Dan tried to corner him, Cloud would show him, he would! Dan would regret not letting Cloud just be friends with Tifa.

And so, the next time, the lithe blonde had actually managed to topple Dan when old master Zangan found them. They were both taken by the collar and swiftly carried home to their respective parents, with a brief explanation from Zangan.

Knowing that she couldn't let it slip now that she had confirmation that he was getting into fights, Cloud was grounded for a week and sternly told that he better get his act together.

Cloud remained mulishly silent during the lecture, refusing to answer her about why they had been fighting. "It's private," was all he allowed, sulking like only a boy of nine could sulk.

She didn't pressure him. If it really was as she suspected, courting right to Tifa (she had to hide a giggle at that thought) then there really wasn't anything she could do about it.

When Cloud was released from house arrest (and the mandatory chores) it didn't take him a week to find himself in another fight, this time with Meiday. And this time, Tifa's father found them.

By the time Cloud was let out again, he couldn't decide whether he was more angry at the other three boys or if he was more anxious just to see Tifa again. When he knocked on her door though, her father answered and he didn't seem pleased.

"Uh, can... can Tifa come out to play?" Cloud asked, a little prickling of fear running down his spine at the looming figure.

"I have forbidden Tifa from playing with you," he answered, voice freezing. "I thought you were different, but you really are just like your father, starting fights for no good reason, never caring about what anyone else thinks or feels."

"What? But.."

"No buts. I don't wanna hear your excuses, just get out of my sight! And you better keep away from my girl!"

"But I didn't start any of those fights!"

"I don't care! Just stay away, I don't ever want to see you near my daughter again, understand?"

Cloud didn't answer, merely turned on his heel and marched back home, slamming the door.

His mother looked up from her sewing, a few appropriate words ready when she saw the look in her son's eyes. "Cloud, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"I'm going fishing," he all but snarled, picking up his fishing rod and exiting through the back door, stamping the whole way across the floor. She looked after him worriedly.

He stomped through the forest as well, kicking random bushes and twigs that happened to be in his way. Reaching the point where the river, otherwise wild and frothing, suddenly calmed to an almost gentle flow he sat on an outcrop and plopped the hook into the water, not even bothering with bait.

It didn't take long before the first tear fell and he wiped it away angrily. Big boys didn't cry and he had always known he had to be big, so he wouldn't be a burden to his mum. The next tear fell soon after though, and no matter how many times he wiped them away, they just kept coming. In the end he gave up and just let them fall.

Astrid hesitated, still half-hidden by the trees. She had gone to Lockhart, wondering if he could tell her what had happened to make her son so upset. What he had said had made her slap him. Hard. It had been extremely satisfying and she had smiled a little as she stalked away.

Now any shadow of a smile had faded. She had probably just proven it to the idiotic man that Strifes were all no-goods. And she had a son to worry about.

She couldn't hear his weeping over the sounds of the gurgling water and the tall firs swaying in the wind, but from her vantage point she could see his shoulders shaking and the way his hands were almost desperately clutching the fishing rod.

He had obviously gone here for privacy, but as his mother she couldn't just let him be alone, especially not now. She walked quickly but carefully out on the rocks, sitting down next to him and taking the rod from his shaking hands to place it securely next to them.

He looked up at her then, his eyes red and puffy, tears continually streaming down his cheeks, his nose was running and his lower lip quivering with still repressed emotions.

"Oh, Cloud." Gently lifting him into her lap, she put her arms around his still trembling shoulders, dragging him close. "Ssh, ssh, baby, it's okay, I'm here, it'll be okay..." A never ending stream of words flowed from her lips as she stroked his hair reassuringly and he finally let go, sobbing brokenly into her chest, clinging for all he was worth.

She would have to go see Lockhart again. And this time she would do her best not to slap him.

"Mum?" She heard after awhile. His weeping had subsided to the sporadic sniffle or hiccough, but she wasn't letting him go before he pushed her away. And he wasn't doing that yet.

"Yeah?"

"Was... was father really like.. like Mr. Lockhart says he was?"

"Hm..." She contemplated how to tell him this. It was difficult to explain to a nine-year-old after all. "I can guess how he would describe Donner. The two of them were always bickering or fighting about something or other. They just had very different opinions. Your father cared a lot for the forest and the animals but Mr. Lockhart.. well, he thought we should try and expand the village to make it safer for the children. In the end it didn't make much of a difference because no one wanted to move out here. But regardless, they were both very passionate about it."

"Oh. So they just disagreed a lot?"

"Yeah. They just disagreed a lot." She smiled and kissed his hair. They sat there for awhile, just listening to the water, as it flowed over the rocks before Cloud finally pushed her away and stood.

"Well. I won't catch anything like this," Cloud stated, winding up the fishing line. His mother looked fondly at his sudden activity before she too stood, thankful that her trousers hadn't gotten wet. She made her way back to the village, determined to make an attempt to make the stubborn Lockhart see reason.

She didn't notice the three boys hiding in a shrubbery a little further up the river, but still within sight.

- - -

"I truly am sorry for losing control of my temper before," Mrs. Strife smiled, hoping he wouldn't notice that she wasn't apologising for slapping him. His cheek was still red and it might even bruise. She still felt a weird sort of satisfaction at that, despite the fact that he was agreeing to give her son a second chance, provided he "didn't get into any other fights with Tifa's friends." She had to wonder if he had any sense of reality at all sometimes. She really hoped it was worth it.

Ducking under a leafy branch, her smile froze as the river bank came into clear view and she saw Cloud surrounded by three boys. Not good. They were obviously taunting him and he was obviously doing his best to keep his anger in check. Nevertheless, his chest was heaving and his eyes were alight with fury.

Then suddenly one of the boys, the dirty blonde one, said something. She couldn't hear it but obviously Cloud could. He went completely still, a snarl twisting his face into something vulpine before he bent down, scooped up something and threw it with unerring accuracy at the other boy. It hit him in the head, causing him to sway dangerously. Astrid started running, tripping over fallen branches and rocks, but managing to stay upright nevertheless. She got there just in time to catch the boy, Dan? Before he would have fallen and hit his head even worse.

She lowered him gently. She wasn't a big woman and the kid was several sizes bigger than her own son, whom she could barely lift by now. She raised her eyes to Cloud's, noting that he seemed almost as shocked as everyone else, although anger was fast returning to his all too expressive eyes.

Opening her mouth to scold him to within an inch of his life for throwing rocks at other children, she was interrupted by the gruff voice just behind her. "Well. That's all the proof I needed. Goodbye Mrs. Strife, I hope you learn to keep him in line." And with that, he picked up Dan like his weight was nothing and left, the other two boys trailing after him and throwing vindictive looks back at the pair.

No one had ever called Astrid Strife a formidable woman. She had always been something on the smaller side, slim and almost fragile-looking, but just then, as her flashing eyes turned to her son, he would have given almost anything to face a Nibel wolf instead.

"What in the name of the Planet did you think you were doing?!"

He visible shrunk under her ire, all the anger from before going out of the set of his shoulders. "I... I just... I didn't thi... meant to..." She was tapping her food in irritation at his stammered reply, wondering if he even had an excuse. Would that make his situation better or worse? She didn't know. She supposed it somewhat depended on his excuse. He took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. "They provoked me," he finally got out, quietly, probably knowing that that wouldn't make the cut.

"They provoked you?" She said, voice dangerously low. "So they throw a few words at you and you throw them a stone?" He gulped, eyes flickering. "I don't care what they said, Cloud. You don't ever throw stones at other people. Ever."

"They said I was a crybaby," he interjected hurriedly. "And... and then Dan called you a skank." Some of the anger from earlier had returned, fuelling his defence. "I knew it would be bad if I got into another fight, I-I tried not to get angry because they're just so, so childish, but then he called you... called you that and I just wanted them to go away. I didn't really mean to hit him."

She crossed her arms, staring him down until he began fidgeting again. Then she sighed, her shoulders slumping before she knelt down in front of him. Maybe she could cut him a little slack since he was probably still upset from earlier. "Okay. I understand. Trying to avoid a fight was very honourable of you, but throwing rocks isn't how you do it, okay? What if it hadn't hit, do you think they would have left you alone?"

He averted his eyes and shook his head.

"Good. And you're still grounded for the next week." She had to smile a little at his outraged squawk as she took his hand and led him back to their house.

He threw himself into his chores after that, sometimes even doing more than she asked of him, which didn't shock her, really. Now he wasn't allowed to stalk Tifa or be her friend, he was probably trying to find other things to do. Once he was no longer grounded he started roaming whenever he got the chance, which meant whenever he wasn't in school (which they called it in Nibelheim, but in reality it was just the major teaching the children basic reading, writing and maths every other day). He never stayed out after dinnertime, but came home to eat and help her with the dishes.

There might have been cause for worry, but with no alternatives for him to do, Astrid kept quiet and let him do as he wished. Besides, he always told her if anything interesting had happened and from what she could gleam from his tales, he never went near Mount Nibel, just roamed the valley.

When he was twelve, an early summer evening, where the sun was still showing over the mountains despite it being late afternoon, he announced his intention of joining SOLDIER.

"I'm gonna be a hero just like general Sephiroth! And then everyone, even Mr. Lockhart, will see that I'm not someone they can just push around." She told him that she would look forward to seeing him in the papers and ignored the ache it brought to her heart to know he would be leaving her.

His roaming took on a different purpose then. She didn't know, since he kept his stories light, but he began doing more challenging things, climbing trees and cliffs, taking more and more risks. Instead of walking through the woods, he started jogging and he started hunting. Small things, since he didn't really have any weapons and didn't want to ask his mother for any, but he learned pretty fast how to walk without a sound and stand absolutely still for hours at a time, waiting for a rabbit or a vole to peek from a hole in the ground.

The first time he managed to catch anything he let it go again, not quite determined enough to twist the rodent's neck (besides, it was looking at him with absolutely mournful eyes, pulling the cute critter card).

The next time he closed his eyes and felt the fragile spine of a water vole snap beneath his fingers. The animal let out a high pitched squeak before it became completely limp.

Frowning, Cloud wondered what to do with it. It wasn't like water voles were exactly something he could bring home for his mum to cook. He thought it was probably edible, but... well... if it had been a rabbit it wouldn't have been so weird, but a water vole? He knit his eyebrows together, thinking..

In the end he had left it in front of a fox den where he knew there were kits an decided to go after rabbit the next day.

His mum looked shocked at the animal, hanging limply in her son's hand, then sternly told him he had to clean it himself, if he was going to bring dead animals back. She showed him how, skinning it and removing its guts before hanging it so the blood could run off. He refused to be sick and brought home a peafowl with a broken wing he had found a few days later. She showed him the differences this time as well as how to pluck it.

The next time he came home with a rabbit, he cleaned it himself. It took forever, but he didn't have to resort to asking his mum again.

The night before he left town, he called Tifa out to the old well.

She had barely seen him in the past few years. He had graduated from the major's basic classes faster than anyone else and he never seemed to be in the village. At least he hadn't gotten in any more fights since almost five years ago. Dan and the others had tried telling her how violent he really was, but she had never believed them. She hadn't believed her father either, but he hadn't cared, just told her flat out she was not to see him again.

"Hey Tifa," he called quietly. Both were aware that it wasn't that late and neither wanted Tifa's father to interrupt.

"Hi Cloud," she called back, smiling widely. "S'up?"

"The moon?" He replied jokingly, not wanting to tell her his news immediately.

"Ha, ha, very funny."

"It's been awhile, hasn't it?" His tone was wistful, almost mourning.

"Yeah, it has." There was no reason she should be so sad. They had been friends for only like... two months. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well. Mountain air's good for you and all that, what about you? I think I heard something about you starting lessons with Master Zangan?"

She nodded. "Mmh, it's awesome! I'm learning all sortsa things about how to defend myself and stuff." Which was the only reason her daddy had let her. If she told him she was learning how to kick butt he would remove her at once.

A flash of teeth betrayed Cloud's mirth. "I hope that 'and stuff' means you also learn to hit back."

Surprise flashed over her face, then she laughed, sharing his mirth. "Just you wait, in a few years I'll be kicking your butt all over the place."

"Ah, but I'm afraid I cannot let you do that." Mirth faded and he was looking anywhere but at her. "I'm leaving tomorrow."

"WHAT?!" Wincing, he tried to shush her so they wouldn't find their first real conversation in five years cut short. "What? Why? Where?" she had lowered her voice, but the finger poking him in the ribs told him that she was no less insistent for that.

"To Midgar. I'm gonna join SOLDIER."

"SOLDIER? But you're only thirteen! You have to be fourteen to join the army."

"I know, but the next write-up isn't in another six months and.. well... I'm gonna join SOLDIER and be a hero like General Sephiroth! Besides, by the time the paperwork's gone through and the actual schooling starts, I will be fourteen."

"Really?" He nodded. "You're gonna be a hero?" Another nod. "Then you gotta promise me something, 'kay?"

"Sure."

"You gotta be my hero and come save me, right? Like you did on the bridge five years ago."

He tried to blink the intense feeling of deja vu away, nodding his head in acquiescence. "Promise."

NOTE:

… I dunno if Cloud would really break down that easily. But you know how it is when you're upset and then someone dares to offer sympathy. And being nine, it's a little easier to let yourself cry than when you're 20-odd years old.

Latrophobia should be fear of doctors according to my sources, but... well, if it's not, please don't shoot me XD

Donner means thunder/fierce temper, Astrid means god's strength/beautiful (aditionally, strid is the Danish word for strife so I thought it fit)

I love reviews! You're my heroes! *kisses all her sweet reviewers*