1. That claaassic moment, when he singles him out in the lineup. "So you wanna be in SOLDIER, kid?" It just filled his chest with pride and he felt more determined than he'd ever felt in his life. Watching him make that speech was incredible. 2. Zack took him out drinking once! He was a complete lightweight, but he drank more than he'd ever managed to before anyway with Zack's retarded encouragement, and they talked about stuff they were frustrated about and cheered each other on. Zack had to nearly carry him back to the barracks and a group of women AND men tried to pick Zack up, and watching him handle it was pretty amazing. Cloud felt bad, because he got the distinct feeling Zack only turned down the girls because he was taking care of Cloud, but Zack had a way of not making him feel like a burden, or even like taking care of Cloud would be better than taking off with some random chicks. It couldn't be true, but it made Cloud feel good anyway. :( And he really appreciated it, because boy was he ever sick later. 3. Cloud was patrolling the slums one day when Zack was running a mission in the same area, and they mostly hung out that day. In order to impress a girl, Zack got too excited and started doing squats in the middle of the street while on duty, completely weirding the girl out. DETERMINED TO MAKE THIS WORK he turned on the puppy side and pleaded with her annnnd he got shot down straight out. Cloud had never seen him so turned down, and he started laughing so hard he got in trouble with his squad leader. 4. After a DASHING VICTORY on a mission, Zack got too excited, yanked Cloud right out of duty in front of his squad leader (who at this point tolerated it with a long-suffering attitude, because it's not like he can tell a SOLDIER 1st class to get lost, and Cloud always got nailed with extra duty but what can you do?), and swept him up for a bearhug. He then proceeded to regale him with tales of his mighty victory for an hour. Cloud remembers the whole thing, though mostly because he remembers the way Zack told it, full of wide gestures and flailing and dramatic poses. 5. Cloud has fuzzy, solid memories of Zack talking to him while he was poisoned - the flashes we see of him looking up at Zack while Cloud was incapable of speech or mobility are examples. All the talking helped him immensely; if he hadn't woken up to Zack dying, he would have recovered with time. The five years they spent subjected to experiments are a sort of blur, but he has a huge pile of here and there memories of the two surviving the ordeal. Zack squeezing his hand, or smiling at him through the glass, or small discussions they had before they both pretty much lost it in the last year or so. One of them goes like this: He remembers being dragged out for more tests at the same time Zack was being put back into suspension, and Zack - not exactly all there himself at the time - lashed out towards him, knocked him away from the scientists, and hovered over him protectively to the scientists' bafflement cause he was already so drugged. He had the whole place in an uproar until they finally shot up with tranquilizers powerful to knock out a marlboro, and pried Cloud out of his unconscious arms. That moment was so striking that Cloud held onto him when they pulled them apart and said his name despite not having shown any other cognitive response for months, something that had the scientists taking notes for quite a while.
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(Anonymous) 2009-02-11 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
1. That claaassic moment, when he singles him out in the lineup. "So you wanna be in SOLDIER, kid?" It just filled his chest with pride and he felt more determined than he'd ever felt in his life. Watching him make that speech was incredible.
2. Zack took him out drinking once! He was a complete lightweight, but he drank more than he'd ever managed to before anyway with Zack's retarded encouragement, and they talked about stuff they were frustrated about and cheered each other on. Zack had to nearly carry him back to the barracks and a group of women AND men tried to pick Zack up, and watching him handle it was pretty amazing. Cloud felt bad, because he got the distinct feeling Zack only turned down the girls because he was taking care of Cloud, but Zack had a way of not making him feel like a burden, or even like taking care of Cloud would be better than taking off with some random chicks. It couldn't be true, but it made Cloud feel good anyway. :( And he really appreciated it, because boy was he ever sick later.
3. Cloud was patrolling the slums one day when Zack was running a mission in the same area, and they mostly hung out that day. In order to impress a girl, Zack got too excited and started doing squats in the middle of the street while on duty, completely weirding the girl out. DETERMINED TO MAKE THIS WORK he turned on the puppy side and pleaded with her annnnd he got shot down straight out. Cloud had never seen him so turned down, and he started laughing so hard he got in trouble with his squad leader.
4. After a DASHING VICTORY on a mission, Zack got too excited, yanked Cloud right out of duty in front of his squad leader (who at this point tolerated it with a long-suffering attitude, because it's not like he can tell a SOLDIER 1st class to get lost, and Cloud always got nailed with extra duty but what can you do?), and swept him up for a bearhug. He then proceeded to regale him with tales of his mighty victory for an hour. Cloud remembers the whole thing, though mostly because he remembers the way Zack told it, full of wide gestures and flailing and dramatic poses.
5. Cloud has fuzzy, solid memories of Zack talking to him while he was poisoned - the flashes we see of him looking up at Zack while Cloud was incapable of speech or mobility are examples. All the talking helped him immensely; if he hadn't woken up to Zack dying, he would have recovered with time. The five years they spent subjected to experiments are a sort of blur, but he has a huge pile of here and there memories of the two surviving the ordeal. Zack squeezing his hand, or smiling at him through the glass, or small discussions they had before they both pretty much lost it in the last year or so. One of them goes like this: He remembers being dragged out for more tests at the same time Zack was being put back into suspension, and Zack - not exactly all there himself at the time - lashed out towards him, knocked him away from the scientists, and hovered over him protectively to the scientists' bafflement cause he was already so drugged. He had the whole place in an uproar until they finally shot up with tranquilizers powerful to knock out a marlboro, and pried Cloud out of his unconscious arms. That moment was so striking that Cloud held onto him when they pulled them apart and said his name despite not having shown any other cognitive response for months, something that had the scientists taking notes for quite a while.