Something I've been working on for a while now. Probably is going to lead to ASGZC.

Cloud had been faking it since grade school. The board up front had always been fuzzy. Everyone else seemed to read it fine, but Cloud just assumed that it was his own fault he couldn't read it. His mother didn't catch on either. He didn't want to worry her with his stupid problems.

Nothing would ever be clear and crisp to Cloud's eyes and that was that.

Until he reached Midgar. He could still fake it pretty well. He wasn't the best shot, but he hit the target enough times that no one even thought it was his eyes making him miss. He was just an "okay" shooter and that's all they wanted.

The only person who actually looked up close at Cloud's problem was the one-of-a-kind Zack Fair. It was just a simple training exercise. Some simple sparring since Cloud was better at swords than the rifle (he could see the metal glinting in the light, it was a good hint at what was happening). Zack had held his blade flat and it disappeared in Cloud's vision. He saw Zack's blob waving in front of him a few times.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cloud asked.

"Just a sec," Zack said, "quick question."

"What?" Cloud asked, wondering what the hell was going on.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Zack asked.

"Two," Cloud responded. It was always fucking two.

"And now?" Zack asked.

"Two again," Cloud said drily, "Can we just spar some more? I have curfew in an hour."

"Wrong." Zack said and brought his fingers up to Cloud's face until the nonexistent fingers became four fuzzy phalanges.

Shit.

"Why haven't you said anything?" Zack asked, "I mean…your bad scores on the exam…this is the reason, isn't it?"

"Does it fucking matter?" Cloud asked.

"Well yeah," Zack said, "First of all, it's kind of dangerous. I could have sliced you in half and you couldn't see it coming. Second, this is totally fixable you dumbass."

"Huh?"

And that's how Cloud was dragged to an optometrist who was more impressed rather than upset about Cloud functioning with his eyesight.

"How do you even read?" she asked.

"I can kind of tell which letters are which," Cloud said, "and I get bigger fonts when I can."

She figured out what sort of prescription he needed and then gave him the bad news.

"You're going to have glass lenses for at least six months."

"What?" Cloud said.

"I'd give you contacts, but I want to give you time to adjust to seeing what the world actually looks like. Contacts might make you dizzy and disoriented," she said, "six months max. Then you can come back."

"Isn't there, like, corrective surgery or something?" Zack asked.

"He has to be twenty-one. Hormones affect your vision. Once he's an adult he can have the operation without reverting back."

"Well…let's see what frames they got," Zack said.

"This is humiliating," Cloud said taking off the third pair of girly pink frames Zack had shoved on his face.

"You can barely see what it looks like."

"The mirror magnifies my reflection," Cloud pointed out, "and you say I'm blind."

"You have a prescription that proves it," Zack said, "Alright though, getting serious."

Zack did get serious. He had a pile of frames for Cloud to try and a stream of semi-helpful commentary as Cloud tried them on.

"No. Makes you look like my grampa. No. Maybe. That's kind of cut-no? Okay no. Maybe. Makes you look like a chocobo with glasses. No that's not all of them! Okay maybe a little. No."

Then Zack halted.

"What?" Cloud asked, glancing in the mirror they provided.

"Those are the ones," Zack said. Cloud didn't see what Zack was seeing in his reflection, but admitted that these didn't make him look as much as a major dork than the rest and took them so he could go home and mope.

The receptionist, far too bright and cheery for Cloud's tastes, happily informed him that his glasses would be ready for him within the week. Cloud almost choked when she told him the price.

"Don't worry," Zack said, "I got this."

"Zack no-" Cloud started.

"I'm making you get them so I will pay for them," Zack said, "Odin knows you wouldn't have done it on your own." Cloud admitted Zack had a point there.

A week later, Cloud returned, or Zack dragged him back.

The first weird thing that happened what that the receptionist kept saying she had to adjust the ear thingies (Cloud wasn't going to learn the name of every bit of his glasses). He started to get the feeling that she just wanted an excuse to touch him.

"That feels good," Cloud assured her.

"Oh," she said, "okay. Have a nice day." Cloud forgot about it when he actually started looking around.

"Holy shit," he said.

"What?" Zack asked.

"There's so much…the trees have actual individual leaves on them!" Cloud said, "I can read those signs!"

"I told you!" Zack said. Cloud was staring at his hands as if he hadn't really seen them before. Cloud had to admit that he had the best walk home he could remember. Everything seemed so new.

He wasn't really looking forward to how his squadmates would react, but for now life was actually really fucking cool.

"How am I supposed to fight with these on?" Cloud asked.

"You're probably going to have to wait for contact lenses," Zack said, "although I think they make helmets that are supposed to help keep them on. I can check it out. Angeal will know."

Cloud could feel eyes on him as he entered the barracks, but no one really said much of anything. His CO wanted to know why he had the glasses and Cloud fessed up that his eyesight sucked.

"…That's actually rather impressive," his CO admitted, "I'll see if we can get you a helmet to keep them in place." Cloud thanked him, a little surprised and went along his way.

That evening had a lot of his platoon suddenly trying to talk to him. Several of them had never even looked his way and all of a sudden wanted his name. Cloud felt uncomfortable, but didn't see anything wrong with it.

He wondered what was up.

Zack knew. Zack knew without a doubt.

Cloud was super attractive with his glasses on. He still looked kind of like a dork, yeah, but the adorable kind. The kind you wanted to kiss until they loved you. That kind of a dork.

Cloud was very nerd chic. And he played the part to a fucking tee. He'd have ladies crawling all over him. Hell, he'd have men crawling all over him too.

"You're so fucking cute man," Zack said the next time he saw Cloud. Cloud rolled his eyes.

"You're the third person to tell me that," Cloud said, "I haven't brushed my hair in four days and smell like patrol uniform. What the hell is cute about that."

That angry flush behind your glasses, Zack thought.

None of them could really explain the fixation. One day, they had been ignoring the nameless faces of troopers and the next…one stood out.

One bespectacled face stood out.

They were supposedly monitoring a training session for SOLDIER hopefuls, the second chance surprises, it was called. Why hadn't he worn them the first time.

It didn't really matter, as all three SOLDIER commanders found themselves watching the blonde with glasses practice from the sanctuary of the observation deck.

Him bending down for a short break, wiping away some sweat beneath his eyes. The sin of sins, pushing his glasses up to tangle in his hair to rub at his flushed face more effectively. Taking them off to wipe away fogged up glass on his shirt and sliding them back on his nose where they belonged.

"Who is he?" Genesis asked.

"…I'm not sure," Angeal said, "he hasn't been up to see me yet."

"Cloud Strife," Sephiroth said, "the glasses are a recent acquisition." They all breathed in the realization. The glasses were a new thing.

"Zack knows him," Genesis said, "Angeal your puppy knows him."

"What?" Angeal asked, but then saw Zack giving the kid a noogie.

"Call him," Genesis said, but Angeal was already dialing.

"Hey Ang," Zack said, "sup?"

"Who's the blonde kid?" Angeal asked, cutting to the chase.

"…You too huh," Zack said, "A trooper I'm friend's with. His eyesight is pretty damn shitty and probably why he's not a Third right now. He's wearing lenses for six months until he can handle contacts." Zack paused.

"You wanna meet him?" Zack asked.