It had been surprising when Krono had distributed the survival gear, both Sephiroth and Cloud receiving a kit to familiarize themselves with. It was less surprising to Sephiroth when, as they mastered each item's use, it was immediately confiscated.

Cloud was a little less skilled at masking his disappointment as first the fire starter, and then the canteen and water purification tablets were taken and placed back into the pouches on the SOLDIER's belt. The knives he'd said were theirs to keep, as it was something they'd likely never be without — and Sephiroth was permitted to keep the sword he'd been instructed to bring with them for much the same reason.

But with each tool taken away, they were taught how to survive without them. How to find and obtain safe water, how any water might be better than none at all, and how fast moving water was likely the safest and yet dangerous in and of itself for its ability to sweep you away. Sephiroth was fascinated with how many ways there were to create fire, such as with the Materia that Joel kept in his bracer, but his favorite was how to do so with a bit of reflective metal. They'd found it amidst the trash that seemed to have invaded even the most remote corners of the mountain they'd been slowly climbing over the last three days. And even after that, he'd shown them how to do it with two sticks and bits of shredded bark and grass as tinder.

Neither of them were prepared for what happened when Krono discovered that Cloud had managed to hide the length of paracord coiled around his hips by the simple act of twisting it to conceal it behind his belt. Sephiroth's eyes had widened when Krono had crouched down and tugged it out of its hiding place, and Cloud had gone pale and still as Krono seemed to be considering what sort of penalty such an act should have earned.

"You know what?" Krono said, slow and considering. He took his hands away from the knot Cloud had tied and nodded firmly. "Good job, you get to keep this. That means for good, even when we get back. If you can find a way to hide it without losing it back in the lab we'll see what else you come up with during the next exercise. And if it's found on you when we return I'll tell them I'm using it as part of a test."

"Sir?" Cloud had asked, hands shaking slightly as he hid the cord away again behind his black leather belt.

"One day," Krono said as he stood up, turning away from them and beginning to make his way back onto the trail they'd been following all afternoon, "you might find yourselves in a situation where you need to run and survive with only the clothes on your back. I don't think that it's news to you that there are people who would want to take you and study you. Some are already trying to figure out how they make SOLDIERs, or someone might want to ransom you back to Shinra for money or political favors."

Sephiroth nodded, even though Krono was facing away as he spoke. It wasn't something he liked to think about, and Cloud reached up and grabbed his belt as he followed him — he'd nearly tried to hold Sephiroth's hand, but he hadn't allowed such obvious weakness in months, and so he grasped the leather instead. Still not something he should be entertaining, but he admitted the thought of what Joel said made him just as in need of comfort.

"Cor-por-ate sab-o-tage," Cloud intoned solemnly, a term both of them had heard multiple times recently. There was apparently another program that was running parallel to theirs, and the scientist in charge of it was in a sort of feud with Professor Hojo. They'd been shown pictures of the man, named Doctor Hollander, and a handful of other scientists in his employ, and had been instructed to memorize their faces. They were to flee or fight if they managed to get close enough that they might try and steal them.

"Yeah," Krono said, breathing out the word more than speaking it, "that."

The tall man visibly shook himself, a similar motion to the one the guard hound took as it darted out of the underbrush. Bits of dried grass and leaves flew off of the animal's back as it trotted up to Krono's side.

"We've spent the last few days taking shelter in little caves and hollows," he said, turning back to them with his head tilting to the side. "How about we try something new and build a shelter yourselves and we'll see how well you can camouflage it?"

Enthusiasm for another new lesson was clearly enough to distract Cloud from the fear of possible capture and exploitation. He released his tight grip on Sephiroth's belt and eased around the guard hound, still wary of the well trained but still intimidating beast. Sephiroth had yet to use its name, uncertain how safe it might be to have so many secrets and needing to remember all of them. It likely wouldn't be the most difficult of them all really, since no one but Krono had even known it had a name. Much like how Sephiroth had known Cloud's from the first day, and so far as he knew, he and Cloud were still the only ones who knew it.

There was a slight possibility, if someone had found the baby blanket hidden away, that they did know that the little boy had once been called Cloud Strife by his mother. But Sephiroth had seen many papers and notes about the project that Cloud was the primary subject of, and not one of them called him anything but Subject C. Some of Sephiroth's old papers had borne his name, although all the new ones merely called him S the way the scientists did.

It wouldn't be too dangerous to call the animal by the name in private, he decided — the most likely outcome if he did was the Professor punishing him for… he tried to remember the word, recalling Hojo using it once when a long ago tech had made a sort of pet of one of the monsters kept in the cages. Anthropomorphizing, he recalled the correct word, treating the hound as something other than the tool it certainly was… but it was still a creature, and something that Krono seemed inordinately fond of.

Would the SOLDIER earn some kind of reprisal for becoming familiar with the hound himself? What would happen if Krono slipped up and used the name he'd given it in front of the scientists? That sort of thing usually ended up with the one who had become fond of one of the experimental animals being forced to put it down themselves. But the hound wasn't one of those animals in the cages, it belonged to Ballard individually. Sephiroth wondered if Ballard would even allow that to happen and order a new one sent in, or whether he would be proprietary towards the hound since it did belong to him. Would he merely forbid Krono from having anything to do with it henceforth if he found out?

For the first time since he was very small, younger even than Cloud perhaps, Sephiroth found that he cared what might happen to one of the adults in charge of them. Everyone else was too dangerous, and all intimations of affection and friendship had been suspect. It had been years since any of it had seemed even remotely genuine.

His mind was full of anxious distractions as he slipped out of the little space that Krono had indicated would be a good spot for the experiment, leaving Cloud with the SOLDIER as he taught him how to dig a hole to best conceal a fire without letting off smoke that would give them away from a distance. Sephiroth's role was to gather materials to conceal their shelter in order to hide it from at least a cursory search. Gathering things too close was inadvisable, visibly showing branches and brush stripped and placed elsewhere nearby would give them away. So he kept the campsite always on his right as he radiated out in a small spiral until he found what he wanted and began to carry it back an armload at a time.

As he returned the third trip, Sephiroth hesitated just out of sight as he heard Krono speaking in a strange tone. Edging around the thick trunk of a fir tree, he saw the SOLDIER crouched down beside Cloud with one hand resting on the little boy's shoulder.

"I would never let it hurt you," Krono was saying, and Sephiroth realized that Scramble was lying on its belly, tail and tentacle flat against its back and along the ground.

Sephiroth pulled away, placing his back against the tree and willing himself to be invisible as he listened.

"I think it would be a good idea for you to be its handler for the next couple of days til we get back."

"It's," Cloud paused a moment before properly rephrasing as Sephiroth had been encouraging him to, "It is irrational, I understand."

"Not really," Krono answered, surprisingly, "it's over twice your size, and it's built for hunting people as well as monsters. But, I believe you're in a pretty unique position for being able to control it."

Cloud was silent for a long moment, waiting as he'd been trained for an exercise to be explained without interrupting before Krono continued.

"A big hurdle that riot troopers and SOLDIERs who get assigned hounds for a partnership have to get over is learning all the hand signals. You've already got all of those memorized, so that's a skill not everyone has. Maybe one day you'll get assigned your own hound, and it will be yours to train and take care of."

Sephiroth couldn't see them, but he could almost hear the way Cloud struggled to speak properly, seeing in his mind's eye how he wanted to shift from foot to foot and pressing his lips together against an 'um'.

"Yes sir," Cloud said properly instead.

Sephiroth stepped out of hiding, placing his burden on the ground with all the rest and considering whether they had enough in order to continue the lesson.

Krono stood up from his crouch and propped his hands on his hips as he surveyed the materials Sephiroth had gathered, giving a slow nod that Sephiroth tried not to assign too much meaning to and failing horribly when pride made him nearly giddy. He kept it concealed, locking his hands behind his back to twist them together out of sight.

"I'm going to go on a patrol around the area," Krono said, unexpectedly, "so you've got until the sun," he pointed towards where the sun hovered in the position that they had learned was mid-afternoon, "is three fingers above that treeline over there, and then I'll come see how difficult it is to find you."

"Yes sir," the boys said in unison, giving crisp salutes that Cloud was a little too eager to practice as his fingers tapped the side of his head and he winced.

"Good luck, I know you'll do a great job," the SOLDIER said, returning their salute with one of his own before he turned and walked slowly into the trees. For someone so big, he seemed to be able to disappear quickly when he wanted to.

"Let's get to work," Sephiroth said, looking down to find Cloud's face turned up to his, green eyes shining with excitement.

"Yes!" Cloud exclaimed, "We'll do so good, he'll never find us!"

As if sensing the boy's excitement, Scramble made himself known as having been left behind with them instead of following the SOLDIER as Sephiroth had expected. But, then again, he'd just given Cloud orders as to its direction, hadn't he?

"Um," Cloud said, nearly subvocal as his expression dropped for a moment.

Again he muttered a confused sound, shoulders hitching up before he brought one hand up and gave the signal to sit — a signal that, until this moment, he had been the one required to obey.

The hound sat instantly. Its ears were pricked up, tail and tentacle going motionless from where they'd been waving gently back and forth.

"Good," Cloud said hesitantly, pointing down with one finger, "lay down?"

It didn't seem to notice Cloud's trepidation, or its training was too good to respond to it, merely flattening itself against the ground with its eyes rolled up and watching for any further orders.

"Stay," the command was soft, but the hound was watching for the signal of Cloud's palm facing towards it. Cloud looked up at Sephiroth, and the watching and waiting expression on his face was effectively the same as the hound itself.

A little noise caught in Sephiroth's throat, burning in his chest as the sound burst against teeth clenched to try and keep the little laugh in. When was the last time he'd made that sound? He genuinely couldn't remember — for all his irrepressible excitement, even Cloud never actually laughed either.

The sound wasn't necessarily forbidden, but with it would come questions of what was so amusing, and accusations of not taking whatever experiment was being carried out seriously enough.

Cloud's tiny chuckle seeped through lips closed against it, but then both of them were staring so hard at one another as they tried to fight it, and failed. It wasn't even funny, nothing amusing had happened, really, had it? Both of them struggled for a moment, Cloud stepping close and leaning against Sephiroth's side as his shoulders shook for a few seconds before they regained their composure and got to work.

If the tiny smile on C's face had been like sunshine, the hastily repressed sounds of rusty laughter was like the first light after days of black clouds and midnight patrols. Joel leaned against a tree, staring off down the mountain as rushed sounds of industry broke out when the boys began to set up their little hideaway.

He had fond memories of being a kid living near Kalm, building haphazard tree forts and dugouts that were just as likely to fall apart as not. These kids had soaked up every bit of information he'd been giving them like sponges, paying serious attention to every word and watching him build examples and set traps with focused patience. They'd both recreated each miniature shelter and flawlessly copied the traps he'd explained were good for game, or for people, or for both. The little one made a mistake here or there, but S would destroy C's mistakes with ruthless efficiency and then C would copy his movements precisely. The first time S had wrecked the failed trap and forced C to start from scratch, Joel had nearly stopped him for being so brutal about it, but C had thanked him earnestly and hadn't seemed upset at all.

He could hear them speaking quietly as they worked, and as they'd done each time they thought he couldn't listen in they had far more to say unsupervised than they'd ever done with him as witness. He knew why the troopers thought the kids might be 'cyborgs', or otherwise blank slates used for experimentation and combat training. It was simply because they hid every aspect of their personalities as much as possible. They were silent, obedient, and never complained where anyone would ever hear. The fact that they were under constant scrutiny, and knew it, meant they rarely had the opportunity to do so even in what privacy they might have had.

Joel was infinitely glad he'd managed to talk the scientists into letting him take them on this little adventure. They'd flourished in the chill weather and painfully blue sky, relishing in catching and foraging their own food, and putting the skills they'd learned from books and discussions to practical use. That little smile the first day hadn't been the last, even though they did their best to hide the expressions if they ever thought he was looking.

He listened quietly to soft suggestions from C and even more gentle orders from S as they worked.

"Nuh uh, that knot won't work, this one is stronger and more flexible," C murmured, with S agreeing as he redid it.

"Weave it in this way, so it looks more natural," S said, "otherwise it's too even."

He watched the sun creep across the sky and, as it neared the position he'd given them as their goal, he got back to his feet and began to walk around the area in a circle. He didn't want them to realize he'd stayed so close, not just because he didn't want them to know he'd heard everything they'd said, but also so it looked like he'd had to search a bit harder.

Anyone other than another SOLDIER might have had trouble finding the little lean-to, he had to admit. He could hear them breathing, very slow and quiet as they hid behind the woven branches and leaves, but a normal human wouldn't be able to notice that. They'd done a damned good job. He wondered, for a brief moment, why the greenery was so wet when it hadn't been before… perhaps they'd tested it to see if it was waterproof?

He turned his head to the side and hid a smile, knowing they must be waiting for him to find them. Scramble had given them away, even though it was lying inside with them perfectly still and silent, its tail peeked out of one side the smallest bit. It was too well trained to wag when it sensed him, at least.

The hound's presence made him realize what they might have done by wetting the leaves. Cold water plus cold air would make a bit of a shield against a guard hound's, or their monstrous cousins, blood taste's heat sensing capabilities.

"You can come out now," he said, and both boys poked their heads out of concealment, both wearing blank expressions that told him more than blatant fear that they were nervous to hear his judgement.

"You did great," he said, and watched a flicker of confusion blend into pleased excitement before it was wiped away. If he hadn't been watching so closely, he might have missed it.

"The cold water from the stream," he reached out and ran a finger over the wet leaves as he spoke, "would definitely help hide you from a guard hound for hopefully long enough for a tracker to get confused and miss you so long as you cover your scent the way we learned the first day."

S crawled out first, standing strictly at attention with his hands behind his back, mirrored quickly by the smaller boy at his side. He was pleased to notice that C made the correct hand gesture to make Scramble follow them out and sit at canine attention alongside him. He still seemed nervous of the animal, tensing as the hound trotted over and sat with its ears pricked up attentively. Both boy and dog watched one another from the corners of their eyes, C clearly still worried the animal might attack him, and the hound watching for orders and doing its best to sit still when it wanted to go to its more familiar handler instead.

The corner of his lip twitched up as he looked them over, and then turned towards the very well hidden shelter behind them. "However, let's make it a bit bigger so I can fit in there too." He thought that, if they dared to, they might have laughed again.

Evening came on fast, the sun disappearing behind the mountain more quickly than it had the last time Sephiroth had climbed it. They'd been making a very slow ascent for this mission, focusing a great deal on concealment and basic survival more than attempting to get there quickly. They had four more days of training, with orders to report back to the laboratory by sunset of the seventh day.

He could hear the sound of a deep river rushing over rocks not so far away, and there was a brief moment as he lay beneath the shelter when he remembered the last time he'd heard it. A feeling of weak dizziness fell over him and made the shadows behind his eyelids spin as he recalled that day in the early spring.

There was much he'd missed, he thought, several hours passing from the moment he left the back gate of the mansion and threw himself headlong in the direction that something in the back of his mind knew Cloud was hidden.

The sound of the river brought one of those lost moments back, the feeling of the long bridge beneath his feet swaying as he bounded across it. The wood had been worn under his feet, the ropes creaking from the strain of just his weight resting on it. His other assignments, following the tracks of monsters and dispatching one or two of them for practice, had never gone so far before then.

Sephiroth couldn't remember if there was any other way to get to the other side of the river and thus the caves full of Materia above, other than the way through the mountain that Wolf had shown them and was thus a dire secret in case she hadn't left the area after all. He was more than a little concerned whether the bridge would hold him and Cloud together, not to mention the much larger and heavily armed and armored adult.

He opened his eyes when the odd spell of vertigo passed, blinking into the darkness of their shelter until his pupils adjusted and drank in the light creeping in around the edges of the shelter. The guard hound lifted its head and turned towards him, its red eyes gleaming in the dark as it went back to staring out into the night on its own sort of watch.

The place where Cloud had lain pressed against him for warmth was cold, and Sephiroth startled as he looked across the small space between them where the SOLDIER lay sprawled on his side. He had a slim book open close to his face, using his enhanced vision to read as he remained awake on the second watch after Sephiroth had taken the first. Somehow, during the scant hours Sephiroth had rested, Cloud had rolled over and ended up curled along the SOLDIER's side with his face pressed into Krono's knit shirt just above his stomach guard.

Sephiroth's eyes widened and he swallowed dryly, taking it in with a quick intake of breath through his nose that was far louder than intended. Krono's free hand was resting on Cloud's back, as casual as though it was perfectly normal, natural, the way an adult was supposed to treat a child.

They were not children, Sephiroth reminded himself.

He should remind Krono as well.

The scientists had certainly told him so, particularly in the first week or so that he'd been assigned as their trainer. Sephiroth had never been a child. Cloud…. He'd never been one either, even though he was so much smaller and appeared more fragile. They looked like children, it was true. They'd never been treated like children, which was also true. It was why the child development texts he'd found when he was much younger had never been utilized, of course. They were special. Their existence and survival was a miracle of science and the procedures done to them would help to advance all of humanity. At least, that was what Professor Gast had said, before he'd left the project and Hojo had taken over.

He was staring so hard at Cloud's small form, his shoulders rising and falling under Krono's hand, that he didn't notice at first that he was being watched in turn. His eyes darted up to meet the faintly glowing amber of the SOLDIER's. Krono's mouth curved into a perilous shape, the movement doing something to the corners of his eyes.

Smiles were dangerous things, Sephiroth told himself.

Smiles were hard, and sharp, and reflected on dirty lenses pushed up a greasy nose. Smiles meant that the scientists were pleased with the results they were getting. They meant that whatever it was that hurt so badly would be attempted again to be certain they would get the same results. Of course, obviously, they couldn't just do something once, it had to go through trials, and needed both subjects to undergo it numerous times to be certain the procedure was replicable, and then they needed to do it at least once more to be sure.

Krono wasn't a scientist. He was a SOLDIER, a Second Class, Sephiroth's commanding officer. He hadn't ever hit them, hadn't hurt them — even when Sephiroth was certain they'd earned a punishment it was always something a little too easily accomplished. He'd thought all this time that it would happen eventually, that the seemingly friendly and caring mask would drop. It had been so maddening all these months, waiting and waiting and it hadn't happened.

Cloud had argued with him a few days ago, a thing the other boy rarely did. He'd said that Krono was like them, that they were all SOLDIERs together. It wasn't only Sephiroth who had begun to internalize the words of brotherhood, camaraderie, and the hope of one day having somewhere they belonged. Cloud had overheard the infantryman who had been assigned to patrol the outside of the mansion reporting to Hojo and Ballard. He'd said they were watching Krono, making sure he didn't go sneaking down to the village in order to tell… someone, something? That hadn't been clear, and Cloud hadn't heard the entire conversation. But he'd heard Hojo say he was glad the SOLDIER was loyal and obedient. Ballard had agreed, saying he didn't want to have him shot and start all over again with someone else who could more easily be explained to disappear.

Krono, Cloud had insisted, was like them — under surveillance, a sort of subject who had a name that hadn't been taken away.

Yet.

Sephiroth's heart was beating strangely in his chest.

"Hey," Krono's voice was low and rich. There was so little space between them, and his arm was long enough that he could reach across and put the hand he'd been cradling Cloud with on Sephiroth's shoulder. "Breathe."

Sephiroth sucked in a sharp gasp of air, blinking furiously at what he'd spend the last decade keeping inside. His vision swam in front of him wetly, shadows creeping in at the edges of his vision.

Krono didn't jerk his hand away, didn't strike him for showing weakness and fear and a thousand and one emotions he didn't know how to handle since he'd never let himself feel them. Except for Cloud, he'd always felt so much for Cloud, for his, his…

"It's alright little brother, just breathe, let it out."