Chapter Text
Cloud admired his mark in the mirror. It was a nice mark, the symbol of the future pack that would love and accept him. Unlike his peers here in Nibelheim . Which was fine. He didn’t want their dumb acceptance anyway. His mark was quite unlike anyone else in town, so he knew his future wasn’t here. Ma said he should make sure he found his pack first, and not get attached to others until he did. That way he wouldn’t accidentally hurt them by loving someone outside the pack.
Like she did.
Ma said it was a good thing there was no one with his mark among the other children of Nibelheim. That meant he’d have to travel to find his fated pack, but that also meant seeing more of the world than their small corner of it. The gods and the fates would see to it he found them, even if he had to roam far to meet them.
If need be he could wait until he presented and meet them in their dreams to get a better idea of where to go. As an omega he’d be able to reach out through their dreams and find them, so it was ok that he was here now.
It was ok if no one liked him here.
It was ok if no one but Ma wanted him here.
Someday he would go to sleep and meet joy and love and acceptance. Ma promised.
Be patient, Ma said. Think of the future and be content with the now.
So Cloud waited, and grew.
Cloud bit his lip to keep any sound from escaping as his back hit the dirt. Kyle loomed over him, fist still raised. At 13 Cloud was still small for his age.
“Scram runt!” Kyle yelled, angry at Cloud for, apparently, the audacity of existing. Kyle shared a mark with three other kids in town, but not Tifa. Tifa, like Cloud, was unmatched to anyone in town. It gave them something in common, which tended to make alphas like Kyle jealous. Pretty and the mayor’s daughter, Tifa was someone most of his fellow kids had hoped would be in their pack. Her birth pack had most of the town’s most important people in it after all.
Cloud just had Ma.
“I bet your mark doesn’t match to anyone, anywhere.” said another kid, one of Kyle’s packmates. “Who’d want you in their pack anyway?”
Cloud felt a wave of anger overtake him. “Shut up! My pack will be the best! I bet they’ll be so cool and powerful, you’ll wish we were friends!”
“Yeah right,” said Kyle, “dream on runt. That’ll never happen.”
Cloud trudged home after Kyle and his pack wandered off, laughing. He sighed to himself as he entered the kitchen. Ma was sitting at the table, clutching a newspaper, a happy little smile on her face.
“Oh Stormcloud, you have to see this.” she said, voice excited. “I just know this is a sign.”
She thrust the paper forward. There on the front page was a picture of a handsome teenager.
SOLDIER Prodigy Saves Town! The headline read. The boy stood facing the camera, one hand behind his head and the other holding up two fingers in a victory sign. He was grinning wide, some substance or another splashed across him. It didn't detract at all from his handsome face and fit body. his spiky black hair reminded Cloud of his own. His shirt had clearly suffered in the fight, torn across the chest.
His mark was mostly on display, just clear enough in the photo to make most of it out. Cloud recognized it instantly. He saw the same mark every day in the mirror.
Cloud stared at the photo, hand reaching up unconsciously to splay across his own mark. This was it, the moment he had waited his whole life for. He’d found one of his packmates, and he was a Soldier! A hero! The article mentioned his packmate, one Zack Fair, was just a couple of years older than Cloud himself. Protege of First Class Soldier Angeal Hewley .
Cloud’s face fell. His packmate was so strong already. Ma noticed his change in mood. “What’s going on in that head of yours, my Cloud?” she asked.
“He’s strong and popular already. A Soldier. I have to catch up somehow.”
“Can’t he help you with that?” Ma asked. Cloud thought for a while, quiet and deeply pensive all through dinner.
He thought late into the night as well, wondering if he was ready to go and stake his claim. Could he face this handsome stranger as is? He was his fated packmate, so he’d be responsible for him regardless, but was now the right time?
By morning he’d made his decision.
“Ma, I’m going to train! I’ll get stronger, and practice magic a lot, as much as I can.” They had just one materia, but if asked Tifa the right way, she could sneak him more to practice with from the town’s defensive stores. So long as they put them back, her dad wouldn’t notice.
“I’ll go to Midgar after I’m stronger. You can join Shinra at 14, so if I work a whole year I can be stronger and old enough to be a cadet. Then I’ll be able to find him.” It would be a lot of work, but worth it to present himself to Zack ready to become a Soldier alongside his packmate.
His Ma just smiled, and carefully cut out the picture of Zack from the paper. Cloud hung it on the wall beside his bed, so he could see it every morning and remember who was waiting for him.
Then he trained.
He trained his body every day after school, running, lifting rocks, and climbing trees. Anything he could think of to get stronger.
Every weekend, early in the morning with the sun barely up, he met Tifa behind her house, where she handed him a materia snuck out from her father’s safe. He would practice casting until Brian Lockart showed signs of waking, returning the materia for Tifa to sneak back into place.
And at night, he would gaze at Zack’s picture, and dream.