"It's nothing," he retorted as she apologized. Though if anything it was a reflex response simply due to not wanting an apology. It was to try and jog her memory at best, but acknowledging it before dismissing it was fair enough as is. If anything, despite all their hardships, that accident had helped to motivate him and mold him into the man that she may have remembered fighting alongside one day. When she asked about when they became friends, it was difficult to pinpoint but he knew that a real turning about of their bond together was one of his most precious memories. If she were to remember it, it was one of hers as well. So on that note, as his mako-infused gaze found her ruby-flecked pair, Cloud could picture it perfectly in his mind.

The stars were out and...to be honest? They looked almost the same as they were on that night he made that promise to her.

"When we got closer...was probably that one night I called you out to the well in the middle of town. I didn't know if you were going to come or not, but...you did. That was the night I told you that I was going to leave and join SOLDIER- so that I could get stronger, like Sephiroth." After his last encounter with his nemesis, the name wasn't even spoken with any sense of spite in it anymore. If anything, the name brought about sadness and pity, emotions that followed his hatred of the man that he had finally put away within his memories; hopefully forever. Suddenly Cloud smiled as he remembered this next part, but he wasn't certain how much of it would mean anything to her either.

"Don't know if you'll remember this...but you made me keep a promise to you that night as well. If you were ever in trouble, that I would come and save you when I joined SOLDIER."

It sounded so childlike in hindsight, but that was the beauty of that promise in the end. Children were pure and honest.

"Like a knight in shining armor."