OK so I know there is supposed to be some stuff here something about me not owning Final Fantasy or its characters. They belong to Square Enix and yadda yadda.
This is my first story and I am a terrible typist/speller hopefully word caught most of it, so apologies in advance. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.
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As Inara made her tenth and final track lap of the morning she could not help snickering at the fiasco she cause as she past a group of first year cadets, causing the teens to trip over each other as they paid more attention to her ass than their feet. Being one of only two female first class soldiers Inara often found that with her SOLDIER toned body she could reduce most of the boys at the Shinra military complex to whimpers with a look, especially first years. The smug look on her face slowly disappeared as she thought back to her first year and the reason she joined SOLDIER in the first place.
There were only four other girls in her first year group. Most girls wanted nothing to do with Shinra, but Inara figured it was better than continuing to be molested by her stepfather. Inara's biological father had been a Turk and had been killed protecting the President when she was only four, her Mother almost immediately remarried. When she was ten her Mother died of a drug overdose and her stepfather decided Inara should take her Mother's place, this included not only the cooking and the cleaning, but the bedroom duties as well. Bile was beginning to rise in her throat and she was starting to panic.
She was trapped in this nightmare memory when she felt strong arms wrap around her small waist. Inara instantly went on the defensive, bringing an elbow up to catch her attacker in the eye causing him to release her at which point she dropped and with a sweep of her foot brought her attacker to the ground. She had sprung back to her feet before she realized who her "attacker" was.
The gorgeous spiky haired SOLDIER was immediately on his feet with a look of maniacal rage on his face, "What the fuck is wrong with…." He trailed off and his face instantly softened as he saw his girlfriend's tears, "Aww I'm sorry babe." Inara just buried her face in Zack's chest as he pulled her into a hug.
Inara felt terrible but knew there was no need for explanation. Lieutenant Zack Fair was not only Inara's boyfriend, but was also the one person in the world who truly knew who Inara Sullivan was. In fact he was the only person who knew anything about her past.
As much as it killed him to see his girlfriend cry, it also made him feel special. To show signs of weakness in SOLDIER was unforgivable. They had been on quite a few missions together, he had seen her shot, stabbed, and watched her cradle a dying comrade in her arms, but the only time she let her tears fall was alone in his arms in the officers' apartment they shared. Even then it was rare. Zack knew she had to have been caught up in a particularly disturbing memory to have allowed the watery eyed clinging in the open like this.
Sure enough as she pulled her head up from his chest any trace of weakness had disappeared and been replaced by a devilish grin; "Damn Zachary, you must be slippin. I really got the drop on you."
Zack's snarl held little real menaced as he responded; "Bite me."
"I might later if you are a good boy." At this Zack gave his girl an appreciative once over. At 5'2" Inara was a full foot shorter than him and was quite possibly the smallest person at the facility. Her body was toned and muscular, but was still soft were it needed to be. Most female SOLDIERS were butch; in fact the only other first class female SOLDIER was something of an amazon and for the most part was barely recognizable as a woman. Zack grinned knowing that despite his girl's cute and cuddly exterior, she was mean as hell and could hold her own one on one with anyone who had the balls to step up.
"Helllooo Zachary, anybody in there." Zack snapped out of his thoughts to see said spunky bad ass cutie waving her hand in front of his face. He grinned sheepishly and said "uh sorry babe I didn't hear a word you said."
"Obviously. I asked which lunch shift you had and whether or not you were on duty." Zack grinned mischievously and replied, "Ah I have the 11:00 lunch and my duty days are Tuesday and Thursday, same as yours."
"For someone who is newly promoted you sure like throwing your weight around." Inara felt some small annoyance at her boyfriend's manipulation of her life, bringing to surface a recent argument over said manipulation.
"Dammit Zachary, What are you playing at."
"What are you so pissed about."
"I was getting ready to go out with my unit when General Sephiroth summoned me to his office to tell me I had been reassigned, at your insistence."
"Why is that such a bad thing? They had an opening and you were qualified. In fact being the field units Materia specialist you were more than qualified."
"But teaching Zack, seriously if I wanted to be ogled by a bunch of perverted little first years I would volunteer for gate duty when they brought the little bastards in."
Zack immediately snapped back with an equally heated shout, "if I don't go out in the field then neither do you."
Inara shrieked becoming more and more furious, "So what the hell. Do you honestly think that I am going to go tent hopping every night? It's good to know that you trust me so much you JACKASS." With a scream she hurled her teacher's text book at his head making a hole in the wall after it whizzed by.
Zack strode across the room and grabbed Inara by the shoulders, "I trust YOU completely. We have always been in the field together and I have always watched your back. I cannot trust anyone else with your life." With his next words Zack's voice broke, "please Inara, I can't lose you."
The last of her irritation faded away as she remembered the single tear that slid down his cheek that day. "So" Inara grinned mischievously "You want me to come by on lunch and help you clear some of the paperwork off of your desk."
"Oh hell yeah." With this he planted a quick kiss on Inara's lips and a light swat on her ass as she ran off toward the showers. He watched her perfect hips way as she jogged off and decided that luch just could not come soon enough.
Inara muttled through her first three classes of the morning going over first day basics; Syllabus, expectations, and the portion of the soldier exams that would be taken directly from this class. Each of her classes consisted of twenty to twenty-five kids and she had only had two girls so far. Thinking back at their defiant, smug faces Inara wondered what extremes had pushed them into SOLDIER. Not that it mattered; they would break and most likely be gone before exams. Few girls made it all the way thru. The better you were the harder it was. Boys did not like to be shown up by girls. Inara herself never would have made it thru if it hadn't been for Zack. Inara was top of their class in academics and Zack was top in combat and weapons, so it only made sense when he offered to help her in combat in exchange for her help in academics. Inara quickly developed a crush on the too cute cadet, but had no idea he returned her feelings until the night she was attacked returning to the dorms from the library.
Inara's steps quickened as she heard a rustling sound, irritated with herself for staying at the library till closing. Feeling more than a little childish she was desperately fighting to overcome the irrational feeling of fear building inside her. She glanced back over her shoulder and rounded a corner, when she turned back around her path was blocked by four boys. She recognized one as a second class SOLDIER and panicked as she saw the sneer on his face.
Zack's combat training had been excellent and she could probably take on any one cadet and beat him, but three cadets and one SOLDIER, no one cadet could do that. The biggest of the cadets knocked her books from her hands with a laugh and another shoved her backward. She stumbled to the ground and found herself being yanked up by her hair and punched sending her to the ground again. The SOLDIER of the group was a tall skinny red head who pulled her up and shoved her against a tree. He ripped her shirt and bit her neck hard enough to draw blood, with a sneer he whispered "The names Reno bitch, remember it cause you'll be screaming it in a couple of minutes."
Reno pressed his forearm against her throat and began fumbling with his belts and pants. Inara couldn't breathe and was beginning to lose consciousness. As she felt herself slipping off she heard Reno growl out, "Get her pants off of her, yo."
She woke up with a hand on her shoulder gently shaking her. Panic kicked in and Inara, keeping her eyes closed tight, attempted to push herself into the tree she was curled up against. Mortified at the whimper that left her lips Zack tried again "Inara baby it's me, Zack, you're safe." Inara slowly peeled open her eyes, looking around she saw two of her attackers unconscious on the ground it appeared that the other two had left.
She felt relief when she felt her sweat pants still snugly tied around her waist. She looked up at Zack who was desperately trying to look anywhere but Inara. He had removed his t-shirt and was holding it out to her. That's when she remembered that dick Reno had shredded her shirt and she quickly grabbed Zack's and pulled it over her head.
Zack looked down at her and chuckled, "That shirt swallows you." Inara was working up a scowl when he reached down and scooped her up to carry her to the infirmary. She was pretty sure she could walk, but hey, why walk when you can ride.
After word spread that Zack was a super bad-ass people left him alone and after he made it clear that Inara was "his girl" people avoided her too. Normally being spoken of as a possession would have pissed her off, but for some reason the thought of Zack possessing her made her stomach flutter.
Speaking of Zack possessing her, 'dammit now I'm gonna be late' Inara thought as she ran to her post lunch class. Helping Zack clear the paperwork off his desk was not supposed to take that long. Well actually the paperwork came off the desk in one fel-swoop it was the time that Inara spent on the desk that took too long. Oh well Zack was nothing if not thorough.
She rounded the last corner tucking in her shirt as she came to the door. Since she was looking down she ran smack into a cadet who was also apparently running late. Inara landed hard on her ass and shot a look at the moron that ran into her. The poor kid look terrified, "I am so sorry Ma'am." He offered her a hand and helped her up quickly ducking into class to take a seat. Inara watched in interest as she noticed him sit in a back corner away from the other cadets.
She heard one of the other kid's mutter, "Way to go Strife, could you be more of a fuck-up." Another smart ass tossed in "Dude that's Lieutenant Fair's girlfriend, he is gonna pound you."
Inara's eyebrows rose at that comment, but she let it go since she needed to get class going. Taking role she noted that the smart asses name was Alec, fitting since he was something of a smart-alec. The kid who made the fuck-up comment was named Tong and the cutie that had steam rolled her in the hall was named Cloud.
She instantly decided that there was something about the kid she liked, besides his extreme cuteness. His unruly blond spikes reminded her of chocobo feathers and his eyes were the prettiest blue she had ever seen. He was small for his age which she knew from the roll sheet in front of her to be fifteen.
He looked like someone that the other cadets would eat for breakfast, and as Inara watched him, staring out the window with his sad eyes she decided she was not going to let that happen. Zack of course would relentlessly tease her for it. He called it her lost puppy syndrome.
That evening Inara had homemade pizza ready when Zack got home. He walked in, kicked off his boots and inhaled, 'homemade pizza, oh shit what does she want.' Inara grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him. She shoved a beer in his hand and straddled him as he fell back onto the couch. She looked deep into his gorgeous mako enhanced violet eyes and grinned. Said mako eyes rolled as Zack groaned "Already, It's the first day for crying out loud." Inara put on her best shocked and innocent expression, "What."
"Just spill it, who is this semesters puppy." He then continued without allowing her to answer "let me guess…Spike." This time Inara did not have to feign confusion. Zack grinned when he elaborated, "Aka one cadet Cloud Strife."
Inara pumped a victory fist in the air. He had caught Zack's eye too. She knew he would, because he was too cute not to. Inara knew Zack swung both ways, mind you he had not swung that way in awhile since he had his hands full with Inara, but he still looked. At the sadistically wicked grin on his girlfriends face Zack just shook his head, "I knew that boy was gonna be trouble the second he stumbled into class."