This . . . is sort of a work in progress. We came up with this idea ages ago and it's sort of been sitting in the background. Not really sure if this is going to be a one - shot or not, but it's getting posted anyway.

I may or may not have referenced an incident that I recall from a FFVII fic I read in the past, so if you spot it, good for you. Just saying in case someone has read that fic before and thinks I'm copying.

Hope you enjoy!

Keith is Lokir's, Sparxie is mine. I might have inspired this from listening to music.

Disclaimer: Any character you recognize from the franchise, belong to their respective owners.

-o0o-

Sparxie was irritated. She was currently 4 inches high and stuck in the shirt collar of the very person she had come to see, simply because said person had forgotten to mention the movers arriving to shift him to First-Class quarters.

Since she was stuck in the small space (that had the odd, faint, odor of dog hair) for the foreseeable future while the person was bouncing around chattering to some people named 'Seph', 'Gen' and 'Geal', she stretched out her wings and settled in for the long haul.

And if she spread a little Fae dust down the back of the shirt she was occupying in order to cause an itch in a place a normal human had trouble reaching, than that was entirely the fault of the person that stuffed said Fae down the back of his shirt collar wasn't it?

Wasn't her fault, she was the one that kept track of all the schedules AND was the one that kept the communication lines flowing between members AND made sure that they could meet up to practice and to record their albums. Not her fault if SOMEONE forgot to mention the date the movers were coming to shift them to their new quarters.

She knew she should have checked with Keith first, instead of relying on this idiot to remember to update her on his schedule.

First chance she got, she was going to return to normal size and give him a piece of her mind, and a slap up the head, and possibly grab and wrench HIS wing and see how he likes it.

But first, she needed to find a way to sneak away from Zack without being seen.

It turned out easier than she thought.

-o0o-

Okay, so maybe shoving Sparky down the back of his shirt was a bad idea, but to be honest, he had panicked.

Zack was well aware of Sephiroth's laser-like eyesight, the man was a hawk at times. There was a reason why Sephiroth had broken the high scores for all the shooting games in the few local arcades that Midgar had to offer, only to be beaten by Keith who was an absolute beast with a gun.

If he had been just a second slower, Sephiroth would have certainly seen the Fae and his curiosity would have been piqued, thus cueing an explanation that neither one of them would want to give.

However, Sparxie was still pissed (Zack couldn't find any clean clothes and this one smelt the least in his mad rush to get ready for the day), and now he was trying to not look like a madman (well, more than he usually did) as he fought the urge to itch. Fae dust was the worst, it was more effective than itching powder (he had one too many run-ins with that stuff during his cadet days), and it stuck around for AGES.

"You surely must know something, Zack. You did say that you were surprised that this Sharpshooter had arrived so soon."

"I really don't want ta say, and it's impossible to beat 'em anyhow. No secrets ta his technique, nothing you don't already know or have anyway. He's simply better with guns than you."

"The statistics of such are phenomenal Zack, almost an impossibility. There must be something you can tell me, surely?"

"Well, he was a Turk before Hollander got his greasy paws in 'im. But no one looked for 'im when Hollander declared 'im MIA. Hojo's been helping 'im out with the nastier stuff, but the scores are all 'is. He actually broke the Turk range when he qualified the first time, and broke the improved range when he went to re-qualify when Hojo found 'im."

Reno snickered in the background, causing Sephiroth to glance to the red-haired Turk with a raised eyebrow, but the tech whiz was saved when Keith turned up. Of course as the man was basically the information hub of the whole Tower and Veld trusted him to some extent (meaning a whole lot more than anyone else in SHINRA or part of the Turks), he would know more than Zack.

"Keith -"

The janitor must have already known what he was going to say, as he grabbed Sephiroth by the shoulder and gave a small smile that was strained.

"Sephiroth, if you weren't informed about this Sharpshooter, then it was for a reason. Trying to pry the information out of Zack or anyone else isn't going to help. So, I would drop the matter."

The General scowled, but gave up. If his older brother figure wasn't going to tell him, then he wasn't going to get anything.

Zack started squirming, the urge to itch just between his shoulder blades driving him up the wall.

His squirming caught Keith's attention, and the janitor raised an eyebrow, but recognition flashed through his eyes and he knew what the problem was. Keith had stuck around Sparxie enough to recognize the scent of Fae dust, and so he had a fair idea of why Zack was twitching.

The janitor strolled over, not really fussed and at a slow pace (further prolonging Zack's suffering), clapping a hand on Zack's shoulder and leaning down slightly to whisper in his ear, just loud enough for the others to hear.

"I'll talk to you later, got stuff to handle. Next time; don't try to piss off the vindictive Fae and make sure you update her on your schedule, then she won't have the incentive to leave you with a Five-Day-Itch."

Zack almost sighed in relief as he felt Sparxie scramble out of his shirt and zip up into Keith's sleeve, the man not even flinching from the residual dust. He soon left after that, strolling off like he didn't have a fuming Fae up his sleeve, and no one besides him (and Reno) had a clue.

"Fae, Zack? What are you doing involved with a Fae?" Angeal looked worried.

Ah.

Keith did that on purpose.

Zack tried to escape but was easily caught, and now he was stuck with three SOLDIER's (and a Turk) who were very interested in when and where he had encountered a Fae. They were notoriously rare and he hadn't recently been assigned a mission in areas where they were found.

His failed escape attempt didn't help his guilty expression at all (he hated lying to Angeal).

He had a feeling he was going to whine about this to Cloud later when he met up with the crew tomorrow. And ask if he could keep his big-ah-little, (it was hard to tell with the age gap) brother in check and not get him into these sort of situations.

Six hours later . . . and three First-Class SOLDIER's less.

"Hey, Reno? Can I ask you a favor?"

"What sort of Favor are ya talkin' 'bout, yo?"

"Well, the gang need a place to meet and I was wondering if I could use the fourth Gym on the 67th floor for it. No-one's booked it for weeks and no-one will be booking it for about another six months until the new Cadets get settled in."

Keith had mentioned it was open, having undergone some maintenance and wouldn't be up and running for the SOLDIER's use after they had a very . . . well, intense game of frisbee with a 20kg weight. It didn't need to be mentioned that Zack may have been the reason it started in the first place. The SOLDIER director hadn't been pleased when he got the memo.

"Sure, I can look into it."

Zack didn't want to ask Keith, since he left him to be lectured by the three SOLDIER's for four hours about why he shouldn't be looking for Fae, and was forced to explain that said Fae had instead gone looking for him.

And he didn't even want to explain why he knew a Fae.

"You sure? I mean, the last time I tried, I ended up interrupting the Cadets Materia lesson and Flyboy wouldn't pick me up for the next three times I got stranded until I offered a couple of Materia from my personal stash. That Pilot can be very vindictive, especially since the damages ended up getting the SHINRA plane budget cut. He wasn't happy with me for that when he found out."

"You call Highwind Flyboy , yo? And he lets you?! "

"Why not? We're in the same gang. We all have handles that we call each other by. Highwind goes by Flyboy, I go by Guard Hound."

"Really, yo? Why haven't I heard of this, then?"

"Well, Avalanche was really popular over in the Western Continent, but we haven't exactly started to make inroads here…"

"AVALANCHE ? Yo, I don't know man. I might have to go up to the bossman for this. It sounds like you need pretty hefty security."

"Security would be great! I don't really like remembering what happened the last time we didn't have security…."

Reno shuddered as he recalled the incident . .. . that would never be mentioned again as copious amounts of alcohol had been consumed to forget the events of that night.

"I'm not talking about that one either, Reno. The one I'm thinking of would have you fainting, not shuddering."

Well, now his interest was piqued.

-o0o-

"I'm serious Bossman. Zack definitely said AVALANCHE was the gang he was in, yo."

"This is serious, could we possibly detain him for questioning?"

"I got a better idea, yo. He even asked me for it. And we might be able to get ourselves quite the juicy intel too."

Veld didn't look all that fussed, Keith would have talked to him if one of his wayward sons was involved with the terrorist group, in fact, he actually looked rather amused at Reno's panicking, and told them to go right ahead.

Omael and Keith couldn't deny him a reunion with his 'dead' partner, and so it would be quite entertaining to watch his second in command and Keith's other wayward son discover the 'gang' that Fair was a part of.

Judging from the quiet chuckle he heard from the vents, Vincent was of the same mindset.

Perhaps they could record it . . .

-o0o-

Cloud wasn't happy. Cloud was the exact opposite of happy. And it had everything to do with those bumbling muscle-bound meatheads SHINRA called some of their finest SOLDIERs.

First, they had insinuated that he wasn't strong enough to lift anything simply due to his appearance. Then, after he had yelled at them for that, they had started tossing around the transport crates and boxes like there wasn't sensitive and expensive electronics inside them oh Gaia are they STUPID . Finally, after he had yelled at them for that they had proven to have a malfunction in memory retention because they had started in on his strength yet again .

Needless to say, Cloud wasn't impressed by the very military he had dreamed of joining the first time around.

The Turks were everywhere, which was surprisingly comforting, and there wasn't a sign of any 'adoring' (read, rabid and vicious) fans around. Cloud could find himself relaxing if he wasn't careful, and he needed his guard up so that the idiots he'd been put in charge of didn't destroy the rather sensitive equipment.

He, honestly, couldn't wait until he could start practice. There were several songs he wanted to tweak the vocals on, and he had several others he had just finished that he wanted opinions for music on. He was looking forward to the next album, as he had decided to include his true vocal range in it, and he was sure that he would be shocking so many of his 'adoring' fans with how he could truly sing. It was actually one of his favorite stress-relief activities before returning, and finding out his range had been included in the 'up-grade' package when he had returned to this time was only the icing on the cake.

Keith was busy with work stuff, so he wasn't there to sort these idiots who had the gall to call themselves military men and whip them into shape (all the SOLDIERs feared Keith after a rather memorable wrestling match with Angeal that left the burly First sporting a dislocated hip, no one should be that flexible), which meant Cloud had to deal with this mess for another hour, probably two given the rate of progress they were making.

He was nearing close to screaming in frustration and calling Keith up to deal with these morons, when his saving grace came in the form of their resident brooding vampire.

Vincent of course was dressed in his usual red cloak, but wore a typical Turk suit underneath, causing the newbie Turks in the area to do a double take as most of them hadn't seen this Turk before.

"Had fun spooking the staff?"

Cloud was quite sure from the unholy smirk on Vincent's face, the ex-Turk (now a full fledged Turk once again) had visited an old colleague of his that certainly would have a heart attack at the sight of someone he had shot dead and experimented on waltzing into his office.

"Quite." Was Vincent's reply, the crimson-eyed man glancing about and frowning at the rather obvious progress (which wasn't much) the SOLDIERs had made.

"Yeah, I know. It's a nightmare." Cloud gestured to the few boxes that hadn't been tossed around like toys stacked in a neat pile while the other boxes were spread haphazardly around the room.

"Well, you know what they say. If you want something done right, do it yourself. Here, I'll help with your rig if you help me with mine."

"These dickheads think I can't lift a thing. It's both irritating and mortifying that they think I can't lift a single box."

"You are rather . . . petite."

"You know that doesn't mean a thing."

"Too true."

Cloud had plenty of chances to test his skills hadn't gone rusty, and unfortunately Vincent had been the only one of the team in close vicinity for him to practice on.

Speaking of said SOLDIER's . . .

They had all paused to stare at the Turk that had strolled in, abandoning their task and Cloud just snapped.

"That's it, I'm calling Keith."

Said man was not happy to be interrupted as he had been gutting a vent that had been clogged due to another of Hollanders blunders, storming down ten minutes later with a screeching monster (that was some mix of a lizard and bird if Cloud's guess was correct) perched on his shoulders, and took out his frustration on the SOLDIERs.

Needless to say, they picked up the pace very quickly.

The monster occasionally spitting out acid was a great motivator, and it's screeching was murder on the ears.

-o0o-

The rest of the crew arrived later that evening; Cid having been the one to pick them up since he was the pilot. No one trusted Yuffie to drive any sort of vehicle without crashing it; point in case their first drive to Rocket Town from Costa del Sol. (They praised every god in existence that Cid knew how to fix truck engines and Yuffie was banned from driving from that point on).

Luckily none of the equipment had been broken from their mishandling, the few boxes that had gotten damaged held bunches of wires and cables, although they nearly lost a bunch of guitar stands and Keith went ballistic at the loud crash they made when the box tore open.

But that had been the fault of the SOLDIERs that hadn't heeded the warning Cloud had given, and so Keith had the pleasure of 'discipling' them.

The janitor was fuming in a corner, joining Cid and stealing a smoke from their favourite pilot, the monster still perched on his shoulder and seemed to be enjoy chewing on the longer strands of Keith's hair. At this point, Keith didn't really care and absentmindedly petted it every now and then, further freaking the SOLDIERs out whom fled once Cloud decided they were causing more harm than good.

For such a petite little thing, he sure was strong. Evidenced by the way he had thrown a First-Class that was heavier than even Angeal through two walls as well as the doors to the gym. Cloud just levelled his best snarling glare (which was surprisingly effective) at the rest of the troublemakers and sent them fleeing after that.

Sephiroth had made a note of the troublemaker's names. They were going to find themselves back in cadet classes alongside the cadets seeing as how they couldn't bring themselves to take orders properly from the designated 'Mission Head'. That is, if the Tower survived the chaos that was coming. Seph hadn't gotten a good look at what appeared to be metal braces, the wires were indicative enough of the contents of the other crates, but he was surprised that the only casualty was the idiot that had gotten himself thrown through two walls and nothing else bar the Draconic Blonde had blown up.

-o0o-

Hearing that Zack was in some sort of gang was hard enough for Angeal to believe, but once seeing the equipment being unloaded into the warehouse put his mind at ease.

Well, only to some degree.

Those crates of wires, and that metal bracing really worried him. The amount of boxes there were definitely something to be concerned about.

Although he was surprised to see Cid Highwind back in Midgar after the last confrontation between the pilot and Heidegger. It had been nice to see the portly man put in his place (Angeal had long since given up trying to find any good in the Department Head).

Angeal head snapped around at the shout his precocious puppy had let out though.

"Cloudy! I hope you brought the stuff! AVALANCHE is going to be a BIG hit here, I just know it!"

Nope, he spoke too soon.

"Sharpshooter has yours, and I made sure to include the new electric. Now be a good Guard Hound and let the Ultima situate the Set uh?" The rather draconic blonde had given a small, fondly amused smile at the black haired SOLDIER.

Both Genesis and Angeal leapt to restrain Sephiroth who had almost lunged at the small blonde, apparently still quite insistent on knowing about this Turk despite Keith's warning.

Said janitor was still sharing a pack of cigarettes with Highwind, and Angeal didn't even want to know what specimen Keith had wrangled off of Hollander, apparently not giving a rat's ass about the chaos that was sure to ensue.

After the black-haired Sephiroth look-a-like had set up the crates where indicated by the scrawny powerhouse, the infamous puppy leapt at them like his namesake.

Upon ripping off the lid, the ravenette then let out a whoop and grabbed one of the metal braces from the broken box before running back to the crate and setting up a very expensive electric guitar.

"Who thought it was a good idea to let the Puppy have access to an instrument?" Genesis muttered as they finally managed to get Sephiroth to sit down on a chair, hands firmly on his shoulders to prevent him from approaching the blonde with the intention to pry for information.

Angeal could only shrug at this, he had one experience with letting Zack try an instrument out, and still suffered from tinnitus at times due to his student wanting to test out the range of an amplifier. Not to mention the damage fees he had to pay the shop as all the windows had been blown out.

That's when the drum kit was brought out and set up. The symbol on the front of it promptly caught Sephiroth's attention.

He went lax under their fingers, causing both fellow First Class to glance down at the silverette wondering what on earth could have quenched his thirst for knowledge.

Only to find him with his eyes rolled right back into his head and a slight pool of saliva on his collar from his open mouth.

It took them a good minute, blinking in disbelief, to realise that their friend had actually fainted.

It was needless to say that they both panicked.

Sephiroth had never fainted before, but apparently this was the first of many such incidents to come.

-o0o-

Zack had looked over at the yell his mentor had given off.

The sight of Sephiroth unconscious had the rest of the room freezing.

Cloud, meanwhile, just cocked an eyebrow and went about helping the others set their stations up.

It was to this that Reeve walked into the room, helping his robotic 'pet' haul in the pieces to a portable recording studio.

He took one look at the unconscious General, before huffing a laugh and producing a small bottle of smelling salts.

"Here, try this. He's been obsessed with the music discs I had given him, so it's no surprise that he fainted when confronted with the source of said music."

Zack suddenly went very still, and began staring at Sephiroth while not moving a single muscle.

Angeal had to shiver, he had seen that look in Zack's eyes only once before and had no desire to learn the cause of it.

"Alright, Seph's fainted. He'll be fine. He did the same thing when I introduced him to a Nibel Wolf when he was two." Keith had strolled over while they had been freaking out, snubbing the butt of his cigarette on the bottom of his boots and flicking a finger gently on the General's cheek.

There was a small twitch but Sephiroth remained unconscious, Keith ran a hand through his hair (not at all bothered when he found the spit covered strands) and exhaled.

"He'll probably be out for another five minutes I would guess. Might be a bit jumpy when he comes too, so I would step back a bit."

Zack merely glared, stepping up to be a little aways in front of the silverette.

"Why did you introduce him to a Nibel Wolf when he was two?" Genesis asked, intrigued while Angeal was somewhat horrified.

"Omael let me babysit him, and I smelt like the wolves from the night before. Seph was interested in the smell and Omael trusted me to keep him safe. So I thought I would educate him on the wildlife. Those wolves actually took a liking to him once he got used to their presence."

"Remind me to never let him babysit my kids." A technician nearby muttered under his breath, only to freeze when Keith's eyes settled on him. The janitor raised an eyebrow and the technician fled the room.

Sephiroth suddenly bolted upright, coming face-to-face with a very still Zack that had an aura reminiscent of the Code Green Angeal had when Zack had gotten mixed up in an office mistake involving the mission assignments when he was a third.

"Zack?"

"The last time I introduced what I thought was a friend to the gang, do you know what they did?"

"No?" Sephiroth's voice went to a slightly higher pitch than usual, clearly needing a few minutes to reboot after fainting, but Zack was sort of in his 'move it or lose it' protective mode which many had seen before when it came to cadets getting bullied.

"He snuck into the camp we had set up. Ransacked through our bags to find the dirty laundry. Then had the hide to ask an underaged pre-teen girl, an underaged master martial artist, and an underaged scrawny mercenary that can wield a sword bigger and heavier than even 'Geal's BUSTER, to sign their own dirty underwear so he could have souvenirs that functioned as proof of the meeting."

Keith coughed awkwardly in the silence that followed, as if he had already known about this and obviously hated it when the 'incident' was brought up.

Reno made a gargled choking noise in his throat and promptly fainted into his partner's arms.

Rude was so shocked that he actually showed expression on his face as he hauled Reno's limp body over to a chair.

And the SOLDIER's?

Well . . .

They were at a loss for words. THAT is what got Lieutenant Third-Class Sinclair decommissioned?

-o0o-

A/N: I seriously do not remember how this came about, but we both decided to chuck it up and see what response there was. So I hope you've enjoyed, it's absolutely boiling over here, what the weather like for you guys I wonder?

LiulfrLokison out! :3

I mentioned a song that I like (Skinny Love by Birdie, now that I think about it) and mentioned a scene with some characters from FFVII. It ran away with us, and we didn't even get to use the very scene that sparked this whole thing off.

ChaosBalance signing out!