InsaneJournal

- t -

1^st Class SOLDIER.

That was all Cloud wanted to be.

And so his journey began as a cadet. He didn’t do anything bad to get himself in trouble. He always tried his best and he studied and trained very hard. Many people praised him for his excellence and soon enough, even though he didn’t want the attention, he felt all sorts of eyes watching him.

But while he could understand the judging eyes of Sephiroth, he could not understand the scrutinizing eyes of a blond haired boy adorned in a clean and white suit. As far as he knew, the boy didn’t belong here and yet Cloud found himself noticing the boy wandering around the training areas as though he owned those places.

For all Cloud knew, that might as well be true, but one of these days, he’d like to talk to that boy. For now, he would continue to do what he was meant to do:

His destiny.

- k -

So the blond cadet had finally noticed that Rufus was watching?

How perceptive of him.

When he would walk around the training areas of Shin-Ra, people would gaze upon him in awe and in respect because he was his father’s son. And yet, this pretty little blond haired boy from Nibelheim had looked at him as though he had no status, as though he didn’t fit in here.

But look who was talking?

That boy looked too delicate, with his pale pale skin and his soft blue eyes, to be here. Rufus wondered then, how long the boy would last. Would he crack under the pressure of being the best? Of competing with the others? Of the little talks, the little rumors that went around his back?

Rufus was almost tempted to break the blond’s sense of reality.

- n -

They bumped into each other in one of the many many hallways of Shin-Ra. Cloud rose to his feet fast and offered a hand to the white-clad blond sprawled across the floor. Thank god there weren’t many people around or they would have laughed at their misfortune.

Taking that hand, the white-clad boy stood up, dusted the dirt off his shoulders and said politely, “Thank you.”

“I’m really sorry,” Cloud said with a small laugh, scratching the back of his head in what seemed to be embarrassment. “I’m in a hurry and it seems that you are too.” He turned around and was about to dash off, but a strong grip around his wrist held him back.

“Wait, may I know your name?” the white-clad boy asked, his blue eyes gleaming strangely.

“If you tell me yours,” Cloud said with a small smile.

“Hmm,” a pause, “Rufus Shinra.”

“Cloud Strife… wait, the Rufus Shinra?” Cloud asked, shocked.

“The very one,” Rufus said with a small bow. He repeated what Cloud did earlier and shook hands with him. “But I suppose you should get going. I don’t want to hold you up.”

“Oh, thank you,” Cloud said with another laugh. “I’ll see you later!”

And he was off, leaving Rufus behind.

“I don‘t doubt it.”

Because destiny was like that; it tied all sorts of people together.

- t -

For every action there was a reaction. For every decision made, be it good or bad, had consequences.

Cloud had learned that the hard way when he became friends with Zack Fair. Soon his bunk-mates, his teammates and many of his peers had started to dislike him. They ostracized him and he became the target of many jokes and rumors.

They had even assumed that he was sleeping with his new best friend.

But why would he do that? It didn’t make sense. Of course, he admired Zack Fair and Sephiroth and all the other ones superior compared to him, but that didn’t mean he’d sleep with them just to get ahead.

He liked to do things the hard way and maybe that was his tragic and fatal flaw.

- k -

Being with the Turks during his childhood taught Rufus that the world was not nice. From studying, from watching the others and from analyzing his father’s treatment to him and everyone else, the world was a dysfunctional place, all so full of greed. People would do anything for money, but he knew something else that would work just as well, if not better.

Fear.

The Turks had decided to train him in all of the subjects he had studied and learned. His “mission” was to take a person and break and form and shape him or her. This was to test his control and his ability to manipulate his way around.

And it was only fortunate, for the Turks to pick a suitable and familiar target:

Cloud Strife.

- f - i - n -

A/n: God knows if I’m going to continue this.