Tactics and Strategy was, in Cloud's opinion, the best class so far. It was a mixture of dissecting past battles and discussing the merits of various weapons, with a little 'what would you do in this situation' thrown in on the side. That was the last class of the morning, and afterwards Reno led him back to the cafeteria. They had the same glop for lunch as they had for dinner and breakfast, unsurprisingly.

As he settled down next to Reno at the back of the room, a certain brunette approached, eliciting a scowl from the Turk-to-be. "What you want, yo? Did your friends dare ya to come sit by the street-rat, and you did 'cause you want to prove your bravery? Did you and them think I'll rip your throat out? might want to turn 'round now, yo, 'cause I'm not in a good mood and might just consider it."

Ian sat down across from them and smiled nervously, avoiding their eyes. "Why aren't you in a good mood?" he asked timidly, stabbing his mush with a plastic fork.

"'Cause you're breathin' my air, that why!" Reno roared, getting to his feet. "So you better leave, yo, unless you're wantin' to get your organs spread across the table."

Cloud jumped up, grabbed the Reno's arms and pulled them behind him, hanging on them to keep his companion from jumping over the table. "Get a hold of yourself!" he growled lowly, struggling to restrain the angry cadet.

The red head slowly relaxed, and Cloud let go, allowing him to get back to his feet. Reno glared at him mulishly before brushing off his pants and sitting back down to attack his food. Cloud sighed and sat down as well, glancing up at the terrified cadet across from him every once and awhile. "So…."

Ian looked up at him anxiously, probably scared that he would unleash Reno on him. "I, um, wanted to apologize. For, you know, what I said earlier. About your friend."

Cloud blinked at him a few times. That was all? Huh. Ian sure is a weird kid. You probably couldn't get any of the other kids here to apologize if you threatened them at knife point, yet here he is, taking threats and abandoning his friends just to say I'm sorry? "Alright then."

Both of the people at the table stared at him, Ian doing a vaguely fish-like impression. "What!" Reno shouted, once again drawing attention to their corner. "Yo, are you crazy? I know you're Amnesia Boy, but do you have short term memory loss too? He insulted us, and you're just going to forgive him."

"He did say he was sorry," Cloud murmured, the only finding amusement in this.

Ian was still staring at him. "You're… forgiving me?"

Cloud brought his hand up to rub his temple. Had he been like this as a teenager? These people were so judgmental, and they know what people say about assuming things. "Would you rather I not?"

Ian's eyes widened comically and he gasped out, "N-no. Thanks?"

"You're welcome."

"Hold it right there!" they both turned to look at a steaming Reno. "So he insults us, and I know you're just like 'whatever' yo, but it hurts me, ya know? 'Cause I'm not just a piece of garbage to be kicked around or whatever. Then, like, two minutes later, he comes back and is all 'sorry', and you're just like 'whatever' still, which I don't really mind, 'cause that's just how you are, but then you're also like 'alright then, forgive and forget blah blah blah' like it never even happened! No, no, no! That's not how it works! He's probably just getting your trust so he can stab you in the back, yo. You're not s'pposed to fall for things like that!"

Cloud sighed as he listened to Reno's rant. "Can you stay back for a moment?" he asked Ian, who nodded hurriedly in return. Cloud got up again and grabbed the arm of the panting cadet to lead him into the hallway. Once in relative privacy he turned on Reno, more exasperated than angry. "Look, I get it, okay? I know people don't always treat you right, but you shouldn't use that against people who mean well. Before he was just trying to warn me because he thought you were one of the people who would stab me in the back. Can you just get along, please?" Cloud pleaded, his face much more expressive than normal."

Reno glared at him. "How would you know what it's like, yo? I'll bet you never've been treated like trash just 'cause you weren't born on a mountain of cash."

Cloud's face resumed its normal, emotionless mask. "I lived in a small, traditional town. My mom didn't-doesn't have a husband."

His friend's face softened a little, probably realizing it wasn't just pity or whatever he had thought. Wait, friend? He supposed Reno was kind of a friend, now that they didn't have a history or ex-megalomaniac bosses between them, but that didn't make him allowed to slip up, he'd have to be more careful. That had probably made Reno think that meant she never had a husband, and he would be right, but they were engaged before he was born. His dad had been killed in an avalanche a few weeks before the wedding. "Can you keep control of yourself now?"

"Well, I could, but it's funner not to, yo. Besides, he said sorry to you, not me, and he said all that stuff 'bout me, so I'm not forgivin' him, yo, and you can't change that."

That… actually did make sense, in an awkward sort of looking to take offense to everything possible way. And if Reno really was hurt by the comments made by the brunette earlier, than Cloud couldn't reasonably begrudge him his need to intimidate the majority of the general cadet population into submission. Then a random, Reno-related thought popped into his head.

"How old are you?"

Reno looked at him oddly, and Cloud supposed he did have good reason to, considering the seeming lack of connection to their previous conversation. "Fourteen, yo. Why'd ya get the sudden want to know how long it's been since I took my first breath in this rat infested garbage dump called a city?"

Fourteen? That would make him the same age as Zack. No wonder he was being sensitive, being two years older than most people here would most likely make things uncomfortable, especially since most of the people his age already had their Mako or had been sent to the regular army.

"No reason. Just don't bite his head off, will you? He could be helpful in the future."

They both trudged back into the cafeteria, where the unhealthily pale Ian was waiting for them. It's strange, Cloud thought, he seemed much more confidant earlier. It was probably because Reno wasn't there before, and he had probably had the support of his friends. Now that he thought of that, was there a reason he hadn't gone back to his friends? "Ian."

The cadet snapped straight up and stared straight at him, it was actually a bit creepy. "Uh, yeah?"

"Was there anything else you wanted?"

Ian looked down. "Well, not really."

Cloud nodded his acceptance and picked up his tray to go throw it away, not even sparing a backwards glance at the cowering boy.

"Wait!"

Cloud turned around. Ian had gotten half up out of his seat, and Reno had sat back down and was eating again, scowling at the both of them. A pale eyebrow rose on an otherwise vaguely impatient face, though inside Cloud was amused.

"Um, well, can I walk with you to the next class? Not because, you know, Reno can't show you, just because, well, I don't know."

Cloud realized he was staring and turned to dump his tray in the trash before looking back. What was it with Ian? First he's cocky and telling Cloud who to be friends with, and now he's cowering at their feet. "Sure."

Now both of his companions were staring at him. "Really?" they asked at the same time, before Reno glared at the other cadet and Ian winced in return.

If Cloud had been a little younger, a little less messed up, and a little less Cloud-like, he might have rolled his eyes. As it was, he just shook his head slightly and walked away, before realizing he didn't really know where he was going. He stopped and pivoted back to face them. "Again, would you rather I didn't let you?"

Reno leaped to his feet and shouted "Yes!" before running towards Cloud and grabbing his arm to drag him off to the other side of the building. Cloud stood his ground, however, so Ian had a chance to catch up.

They walked on for a silent moment, Reno glowering at nothing and Ian shifting nervously every other step. "So," Cloud asked the person who was at least trying to be amiable, "what are the afternoons like?" He himself was very much not the master of small talk, but he was genuinely curious about the rest of his day and felt a bit sorry for Ian, so he decided to make an effort.

"It's alright, but it's really tiring. The first section is just running and drills and stuff, but the officers who do it are really… enthusiastic." Ian seemed calmer now that Reno wasn't being quite as actively hostile. "We have a new one every few days, so we're all hoping for someone more laid back, but we haven't had luck so far. One day we had a SOLDIER Second, and he worked us crazy hard, kept saying if we wanted to be SOLDIER we had to run like a SOLDIER. He was sent off to Wutai a day and a half later. After that we have marksmanship, which all we've done so far is learn about guns, but I think we're going to start cleaning them soon. I think the only reason Shinra lets so man cadets in the program is because they get almost free manual labor. Then it's close combat, which is two hours instead of just one, where we're doing hand to hand. You haven't missed much, really."

That was good. He would just have to pretend to know nothing instead of trying to figure out how much he was supposed to know, but had he shown too much of his future skill sparring with Reno? The Turk to be hadn't said anything, but he had noticed that his fighting was a bit off. That was probably because his mind was more used to a bigger body, so it went signals that weren't really possible as his younger self. It made him kind of clumsy, like he had just been through the growth spurt he never really had, just in reverse.

They got to one of the gyms and waited a few minutes before everyone else got in. Then came the instructor. He was probably about thirty five, with short black hair and a scarred up face; he was the picture of a stereotypical, crazy, thinks-he-knows-better-than-everyone-just-because-he-shot-some-Wutaians-way-back-when war veteran turned drill sergeant. Not that he didn't respect veterans, but some of them were a bit too cocky for his tastes. And since he had constantly looked like he was in his early twenties, they were always trying to impart their 'wisdom' upon him when he met one. That is, until he looked them directly in the eyes and they got creeped out by his glowiness. Creeped out? Glowiness? He was spending too much time in the company of pre-teens.

The group of recruits assembled at attention as the man paced in front of them. "Alright ladies, we're doing four miles today, but I doubt half of you wimps will be able to make even three." Here he wrinkled his nose in disgust. "And we're taking the stairs, dimwits. If you like elevators you should've been some office worker. You're in the ARMY, girls!"

The military definitely did not change much in the next couple centuries, Cloud thought as they filed out the door. The yelling, the insults, the physical exertion; you would think they would find a more efficient way of doing things.

Dreams of the Morrow, Chapter 8: Assuming. Updated July 17, 2011. 2,100 words.

I'll have the next chapter out in a few days, because it's already written, but it'll be short because it's more of an interlude, but whatever. Do you think I went a little overboard on Reno? I was going to go back and change it a little, but then I figured he wasn't a Turk yet and in the begining of his teenage years so he has permission to be a little crazy with all the hormones running through him. The reason Ian's shaken up is revealed in the next chapter by the way, and he does have a reason. Also, I've been trying to write with different word choice and stuff when it's from different perspectives. Is it working? This chapter was all from Cloud's, but part of his mind is still 12, so I figured I'd put a little of that in there.

Side note: I saw the last HP movie! Snape's pretty awesome in this one, he does this thing that reminds me of Vincent. He's my fith favorite character, after Sirius, Fred, Nevile, and Hedwig.

Other side note: I had a lacrosse camp all day for four days, and the sunscreen I used didn't work. I never notice before how much people touch your shoulders.

In case you were wondering about the supposed length: I don't count the Author's Note as part of the chapter, so if you add up all the lengths I type at the bottom of the chapter, it won't add up to however long my story technically is.