Keeping Cloud in the Bathroom
It was the beginning of the day when Cloud entered the bathroom and went inside one of the cubicles in order to do his hair without anyone seeing and then teasing him. He spent about ten minutes on it before deciding it was perfect and getting ready to leave the cubicle again.
His hand was on the lock when he heard Zack's voice and froze, listening intently and in fear.
"Spiky, where are you? Genesis told me to do someone else's hair so I wanna do yours! He wouldn't let me put these pink bows that I bought in his hair so can I put it in yours? Spike? Are you in here?"
Cloud held his breath and stayed as quiet as he could, listening to the footsteps that wandered aimlessly around the room waiting for an answer before heading to the door again. The door to the bathroom opened again and Cloud was about to let out a sigh of relief when he heard another voice and released someone had come in and Zack had not gone out.
"Zack, what are you doing?" Angeal asked.
"I wanna put these pretty pink bows in Cloud's hair! I have to practice so that... you know... if I ever got a girlfriend..." Zack trailed off and began whistling innocently.
"So you want to be able to put the bows in Aerith's hair?" Angeal asked, folding his arms although Cloud couldn't see.
"Yeah!" Zack beamed, before his eyes widened at the fact that Angeal knew who his girlfriend was. "Hey!"
"Zack, you can't honestly still believe no one knows about her." Angeal sighed, and Cloud heard him walk over to the sink. There was silence for a moment and then Zack burst out laughing.
"You spilled your food on yourself again?" Zack managed to say while gulping for air.
"No. Genesis thought it would be funny if he made my bowl of cereal flip over and into my lap. Well he very soon found out it wasn't funny." Angeal growled.
"You sure?" Zack asked, chuckling.
"Yes." Angeal snapped, and Cloud heard the sharp footsteps walking towards the door, heard the door open and close, and then heard Zack sigh loudly.
"Well, I'm off to find Cloud again!" Zack sang, skipping out the door merrily.
Cloud waited. He waited to make sure Zack was far away from the bathroom before slowly turning the lock on the cubicle door and stepping out. He paused, took a deep breath, waited some more, and then moved towards the door.
"Hey! Have you seen Cloud? Tifa Lockhart's on the phone for him!" a voice called from outside. Cloud's eyes widened and he let out a small squeak before hurriedly rushing back to the cubicle and locking himself in again.
"What? No he's..." As the people talking got further away Cloud could no longer make out what they were saying. He couldn't believe this was happening. He was stuck in a bathroom cubicle!
Leaning against the door, he waited for half an hour just to make sure there was no one looking for him standing somewhere nearby outside. He inched his way out of the cubicle and glanced around nervously. Summoning some courage, he walked straight over to the door and yanked it open.
Zack was at the end of the hall walking his way. In an instant Cloud had disappeared back into the bathroom and into the same cubicle he had been in before, locking it. Did he see me?
"Hey, Seph!" Zack yelled loudly. "If you see Cloud can you let him know I'm looking for him?"
The door to the bathroom opened halfway and then stopped as the person standing there turned back for a moment.
"Sure. What do you need him for?" Sephiroth asked from the doorway. Cloud could now hear their conversation much better.
"I wanna tie pink bows in his hair!" Zack exclaimed excitedly. There was no response from Sephiroth, unless you counted the closing of the bathroom door a response.
Cloud inwardly groaned and leaned against the cubicle door again, waiting for Sephiroth to leave. I've been in here all morning... I'm so bored.
When Cloud was just getting excited about Sephiroth heading for the door, someone else walked in.
"Hey, Seph." Genesis greeted his friend.
"Hey." Sephiroth said, walking out the door. Genesis' footsteps went over to the sink and stopped. Cloud closed his eyes and then opened them again, forcing himself to unlock the cubicle door and step out. Genesis was fixing his hair.
"Hey, Zack's looking for you. I think he's about ready to put posters up." Genesis mumbled after having seen who it was.
"Oh, really?" Cloud asked, trying to pretend he had no idea.
"Yeah..." Genesis replied quietly, sidetracked as he fiddled with a bit of hair that was sticking up. Cloud nodded slowly and began walking to the door.
"Really!? You saw him in the bathroom!? Thanks!"
Instantly Cloud locked himself back in his cubicle. Genesis chuckled.
"Spiky!" The bathroom door burst open and Zack leapt in. "Spiky, you in here?" he asked eagerly. "Gen, you seen Spiky?"
"If you're referring to Cloud..." Genesis said, raising an eyebrow at Zack.
"Ya-huh! Seph said he saw him in here." Zack exclaimed.
"How intriguing." Genesis replied and then asked, "Well, do you see him?" Zack frowned and looked another scan of the room.
"Nope." he shook his head. "Spiky? You in a cubicle?"
"I doubt he's going to respond if you continue calling him Spiky." Genesis sighed. Zack pouted and rolled his eyes.
"I always call him Spiky!" he complained.
"It was just a thought." Genesis shrugged. "And as to your question, the last I saw of Cloud was when he was heading for the door."
"So he's outside now!" Zack exclaimed. "Thanks, Gen!"
Zack was out of the bathroom in a flash and Cloud slowly emerged from his cubicle again. He looked over at Genesis, who was still having an argument with that one bit of hair.
"Thank you." Cloud said.
"How long have you been in here?" Genesis questioned.
"I'm not sure, sir." Cloud answered truthfully. Genesis grunted a reply and finally made his bit of hair stay down, eyes lighting up in victory.
"Have fun avoiding the 'puppy'." Genesis gave a wave of his hand and headed for the door. Cloud nodded and waited for the redhead to leave before walking over to the mirror just to check his own hair was still alright after all this waiting.
It was.
Once more heading to the door, Cloud crossed his fingers and hoped desperately that he would make it out this time.
"Wutai troops! I repeat! There are Wutai soldiers in the building!"
Cloud's eyes widened and he backed away from the door in horror. Wutair troops? In the building? How could that have happened?
OhmygoshI'mgonnadie.
Cloud retreated to his cubicle again, trembling slightly and imagining the footsteps of a Wutai soldier coming up to the bathroom door before barging in, finding him, and killing him.
"Zack you're such an idiot!" Someone was yelling, but there was an obvious chuckle in their voice.
"Oh, come on Kunsel! It was funny!" Zack laughed.
"Is this another one of your schemes to find Cloud?" Kunsel asked.
"Ya-huh! I was figuring if he was anywhere around here and heard this, he'd come screaming in fear and I'd see him! Perfect plan, yeah?" Zack explained excitedly.
"Uh, yeah sure." Kunel chuckled.
Cloud could not believe it. He had been tricked. How had he not recognised Zack's voice? It was definitely the kind of prank he would pull.
"You coming for lunch?" Kunsel asked.
"Yeah, I guess. I can always look for Cloud after." Zack said. The two friends walked off again and Cloud unlocked the cubicle door for the umpteenth time.
"He's at lunch... I'm safe..." Cloud whispered to himself, slowly walking to the door. The thought of having Zack find him and stick pink bows in his hair was horrifying. He could hear more people walking about outside the door and hoped one of them wasn't Zack.
"Yeah, I'm here to fix the sign on the door." Someone said from just outside. Cloud froze. "Alright, nobody can use this bathroom for about three hours! I'm pulling the sign off, painting over the door, painting a new sign and sticking it up." The man sounded more like he was talking to himself rather than anyone else.
Cloud's heart sunk to his shoes and he almost cried. Would he be able to quickly bang on the door and get let out before the man started working? He'd give it a try.
He rushed over to the door and began banging, but at the exact same time loud rock music that made the ground tremble started up. The man fixing the sign obviously wanted to listen to it while he worked.
Cloud's jaw dropped open and his hand froze in mid-bang. Not fair! Not fair!
He hurriedly spun around and searched the room for a window. None. He searched for an air vent that he might be able to crawl through. None. He searched for a drain pipe that would be big enough for him to slip into and escape. None.
"What did I ever do to deserve this!?" Cloud yelled angrily, plopping himself down on the floor and leaning against the wall to wallow in self-pity.
Three hours later Cloud was sick of listening to loud rock music and wondering why the man hadn't left yet.
Four hours later Cloud was asleep against the wall dreaming about loud rock music.
Five hours later Zack walked into the bathroom and had to stop himself from letting out a yell of happiness at finding Cloud. Instead of waking his friend up, he bent down and began tying the pink bows around the blonde spikes that stuck up at strange angles.
"Yay! I tie so well!" Zack whispered to himself happily. "I'll leave them on so Cloud can see how well I did it when he wakes up."
Six hours later Cloud was found by Sephiroth screaming in the bathroom and attacking his hair.