Still going back and forth on the Tseng/Cloud soulmate au ideas whether I want it to be pre Cloud at Shinra or in the middle of him being a trooper (I’ll probably end up doing both lets be real the world needs more Tseng/Cloud) BUT I was thinking for the pre Shinra one:

Cloud still going for the Soldier program once he is old enough (Both he and Tseng know that Cloud would make a terrible Turk. Cloud frankly doesn’t have the ruthlessness required of one. That doesn’t stop Tseng from teaching Cloud all of his tricks when it comes to combat, information gathering, and some less than legal skills that will help him in the long run.) because he wants to be able to protect Tseng as much as Tseng protects him and the only way he could possibly compare to the leader of the Turks (in his own mind) is to become a Soldier First Class.

Needless to say none of his fellow cadets know what to make of this blond twink who looks like a stiff wind could blow him over and who put a man twice his size on his knees with a knife they are all convinced he conjured from thin air to the guy’s throat day one when the guy decided he wanted to haze the youngest/smallest of them. They know even less of what to make of Cloud when Turks keep popping up to talk to him like he’s a part of their incredibly fucked up murder family.

The cadets (and some of the instructors tbh) are all frankly lowkey terrified of him and kind of convinced he’s a Turk plant in the program. The fact that Cloud manages to look so innocent the whole time does not help tbh.