I miss writing simple one-shots. I should do them more often. This one is a little gift fic for a good friend by the name of Screwygirl. We've been having a blast writing our collab, but I wanted to do something special. I hope you like it, and everyone else too!
A few songs inspired this fic, so I won't name all ten of them. You guys know how I am with songs when I write.
Enjoy!
Final Fantasy VII and all its characters belong to Square Enix.
Original characters belong to me.
It was amazing how much a recovering town could change in a few short years. The city of Edge branched out further away from the crumbling ruins of Midgar as the people banded together to create their own government, free from Company-ruled politics. A council had been founded, elected by the people and Reeve Tuesti was one if its founding members. As head of the WRO, it was his duty to ensure the people that his forces would not become corrupted like Shinra had with its own army. Mako injections were a thing of the past, and any who were enlisted with such enhancements weren't turned away or treated differently, instead they were labeled a special task force and led by a man with the best chances to get the job done.
He had hated the idea at first, wanting nothing to do with people who had mako or any ties to SOLDIER, but it was a favor he was doing for Reeve and in a way, it felt like he was giving a deceased friend his due respect. Zack Fair had been a First Class, and had enjoyed encouraging those under his command, and so his living best friend, Cloud Strife felt he owed it to him to keep his legacy going. He never planned to become so involved, but after Reeve was impressed with the results with his enhanced warriors, and praise from his friends and family, Cloud accepted the position of General.
He never wanted the title, and whenever one of his men approached him he wanted them to call him either Sir, or just Strife; he always hated being addressed by his title.
Cloud was happy the day Denzel enrolled into the WRO, but not as a soldier recruit. Instead he enrolled as an on-field medic. He was taught the basic survival tactics and some defensive fighting styles, both hand-to-hand and with a weapon, though Cloud made sure he was skilled with a sword, but he was learning to heal and cure and Cloud couldn't have been more proud of him. Denzel later told him that it was Reeve who convinced him and Cloud replied, "He's good at that."
Marlene had changed as well, she was still sweet, kind and honest with a strong common sense, but she was also a teenager, and teenagers get into trouble. And thus our story begins…
This had been going on for a while; Marlene had met this boy at school. He quickly won her affection and soon her heart with his charm and charisma. He was always kind around her, picking up right away that she took kindly to nice gestures. So when he was around her he was kind to not just her, but everyone. She believed she had found the perfect one for her! Tifa was thrilled and even Barret seemed to approve of him after the man met him. Next it was Cloud's turn to be introduced to him and while he seemed polite and kind face to face, there was just something that didn't settle right with the warrior. He soon found out why from Denzel.
"He's using her," The now nineteen-year-old Denzel told his hero. "She's related to famous heroes and he's looking for status. You should hear him in the locker room."
"Locker room," asked Cloud.
"Yeah, he's in the regular army," the teen replied.
"So he's treating her like a prize to boast?"
Denzel nodded, "Yeah, and it's pissing me off. It's so hard to fight back the urge to walk over and slug him in the gut."
"You're better than that Denzel."
"I know, but you should hear how he talks about her. Anyone who didn't know who he was talking about would think he was referring to rare breed of chocobo or something. It makes me sick!"
Cloud thought this over, "Have you spoken to Marlene about this?"
"Yes, and she slammed the door in my face and refuses to talk to me anymore," he replied, pouting, reminding Cloud of the same kid he had rescued from the church all those years ago.
He wanted to give the kid some advice, but then he realized he knew next to nothing about teenage girls. He had left for Midgar before Tifa hit that stage and from what he did remember she had remained the exact same from their childhood. Sweet, encouraging, beautiful….okay he was getting off topic, but it did give him an idea.
"Why don't you speak to Tifa? She might be able to explain a teenage girl's habits."
Denzel looked up, just realizing that Cloud may have been uncomfortable talking about it. "Sorry, I guess I just needed to vent, you know?"
"I've been there," The blond admitted.
The next day the teen did speak to Tifa, but it didn't have the desired effect he thought it would. Later in the day Cloud's office received a call from the secretary of the regular division that they were sending someone up to speak with him, regarding a fight. Cloud knew even before he entered the room that it was Denzel.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. "Get in here Denzel."
The teen entered with his head lowered, knowing he had disappointed his father-figure and hero by the tone in the blond's voice. Cloud was irritated, but he decided to have Denzel sit and mull over his actions while Cloud tried to get his thoughts in order by pretending to finish up paperwork. After he deemed enough time had passed he sighed, set the papers down and rubbed his temples with his fingers.
"Denzel…"
He then stopped, seeing the boy involuntarily flinch. Cloud wanted to be stern with him, but he didn't want to crush the boy's spirits. His irritated tone melted away as he rose from his chair, circled his desk to lean against the front of it and appeared at ease, folding his arms and crossing one leg over the other at the ankle to appear relaxed, a pose Denzel would recognize as 'willing to listen' and 'you can talk to me'.
"What happened?" His tone was a lot softer too, any signs of disappointment and anger gone. This was another thing that Denzel always admired about him. The respect he had for Cloud went far deeper than 'he saved my life' after his parents' deaths and the events with the remnants, he had come to see Cloud as his father, and he planned to tell him one day, if Cloud hadn't already guessed on his own.
"Talking with Tifa didn't help. She said Marlene is a sensible girl and she knows who would use her in a relationship and who would treat her right. Tifa sees nothing wrong with Kaz, and she even said, 'Kaz and Marlene…that has such a nice ring to it.' It's totally sickening, Cloud! Why can't anyone else see he's just using her?!"
Cloud noticed something then and inclined his head at a slanted angle. "Denzel, look at me."
The teen did as asked and Cloud saw the ugly purple spot covering the teen's right eye.
"A gift from Kaz?"
Denzel sighed with frustration. "A return gift, after I slugged him in the gut like I said I would."
"I thought we agreed you were better than that," Cloud replied, obviously not happy.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't hold back anymore."
"Denzel, words are just empty puffs of air, they only mean something when given a name."
The teen looked up at his idol with the most confused look. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Something my mother once told me when I got into fist fights with the kids from my hometown. My situation was different though, I wasn't given the chance to walk away."
Denzel sighed. "I'm in a lot of trouble, aren't I?"
"Assaulting a fellow officer? Yeah, you are. By regulation standards this would expel you."
Denzel looked up, horrified.
Cloud smirked lightly as he raised a calming hand. "I said 'would', not will. I'm giving you another chance. Frankly this whole regulation crap is stupid, but with the title I now carry I can't just abuse my power and sweep it under the rug. You'll be on punishment duty for the next month and will report to the custodian after your classes where you will assist him. If anyone has a problem with that they can take it up with me. I don't care what the council says; I'm not going to expel my own charge. I'd never steal your dream from you, Denzel."
Denzel tried to fight back the sting in his eyes as he rose from his chair. He took a deep, grateful breath and saluted him. "Thank you, sir."
Cloud raised an unimpressed eyebrow and the teen realized his mistake. "Cloud."
"That's better," the blond smirked. There were a few people within the army he wanted to address him solely as Cloud, and Denzel was one of them. Favoritism had nothing to do with it. They were family.
"Now get back to your classes. Your punishment papers will be filled out and processed and you'll start tomorrow."
"Right," he replied as he turned to leave, and then stopped in the doorway, "Hey Cloud?"
"Hmm," asked the warrior as he moved to sit back in his chair.
"Can you try talking to Marlene, and just warn her? Ask her to be careful, for me?"
"That I can do," he replied.
True to his word, later that night when Cloud got home he heard music still coming from Marlene's room, and so he knocked. "Marlene? Do you have a minute?"
There was a lot of movement before the music stopped and the door opened revealing the teenage girl. She had her night shirt on, and a towel still wrapped around her head from the shower she had just apparently taken. Cloud instantly cursed his bad timing.
"Sorry,"
She smirked though, and shook her head, holding the towel in place. "It's fine. I was just waiting for it to dry before curling it."
He watched as she undid the towel and let her hair fall, while part of the towel rested on her shoulders as she took the other part and started ringing her hair out in sections. "What's up?"
Cloud had no idea how to approach the topic, so he decided to wing it. "I've just been so busy lately, I haven't had much time to see you…and I sort of miss our chats. They help keep my head on straight."
Marlene smiled at that. Ever since she was a little kid he always respected her advice when he needed to hear something, whether he realized it or not. And she realized that maybe he needed her advice again now, though she suspected the reason why.
"It's about Denzel isn't it. He got in trouble."
Cloud regarded her with surprise. "How'd you know?"
"Kaz told me. He said Denzel came right up at him out of nowhere and punched him in the stomach. Kaz said he didn't do anything to him and never once retaliated, he went down hard."
Well that certainly didn't add up. "Then why does Denzel have a black eye?"
Marlene huffed. "Probably ran into a door trying to flee the scene." She then realized that Cloud had probably spoken with Denzel already and shook her head. They were sometimes too close and didn't believe that the other could do any wrong. It was time she set Cloud straight like she normally did. "Cloud, you know Denzel idolizes you, but I think you revere him too much too. He's not going to be so noble and he makes a lot of wrong choices."
"He worries about you, just like we all do," Cloud offered.
"But I'm not a little girl anymore, I can take care of myself."
"But do you know how teenage boys think, how deceptive they can be?" Cloud tried to be as civil as he could, but she really needed to know, and it didn't help that he was remembering how the boys in Nibelheim acted so sweet around Tifa and then were so nasty when she was nowhere in sight.
"Not every popular boy is a bully, Cloud. You should know that."
"No, I don't. I was never popular."
Marlene lifted an eyebrow before picking up her remote and turning on the TV. Right away there was a report about the reshaped army and the general who led them, complete with a profile picture with 'General Strife' listed below it.
"That's different," he defended.
"How? People are starting to revere you just like they did Sephiroth! There's even an online petition to start a General Strife fanclub!"
"I don't want that," Cloud replied.
"Well that's not up to you," she shot back.
He sighed, this was getting them nowhere. "Marlene, I'm just trying to-"
"To what, Cloud? What are you trying to do? Keep a promise to Denzel? Because I won't talk to him?"
"Yes! No…that's part of it. I just don't want you to get your heart broken."
She glared at him and clenched her fists as her sides. "I guess, you'll never see me as anything more than a little girl. All this time, I thought you respected me."
"Marlene, that's not it," he tried.
In her anger she shot a terrifying glare at him "Leave me alone!" With that she slammed the door in his face, forcing him to flinch.
"Marlene, wait," he tried, knocking on the door.
Marlene took the wet towel and snapped it against the door creating a loud slap.
Cloud sighed in defeat before walking away feeling worse than before. Marlene felt hot tears of anger fall from her eyes and she flung herself onto her bed, crying.
The next afternoon Cloud was in the break room back at HQ, trying to brew a stronger cup of coffee than the normal quantities would allow. Having gotten no sleep and extreme levels of mako coursing through his veins, a simple brew would only last minutes."
"Setting yourself up for a launch, I see," came a voice from the door. Cloud turned to see Reno standing in the door.
"Reno," he greeted as he added the cream. "Need me to save the world again?"
The high-ranking Turk chuckled as he entered the room. "I heard about that spat between your kid and that other punk."
"Denzel is not my kid," Cloud corrected stiffly.
Reno gave him a look, "On official paper, but face it Cloud, Denzel might as well call you papa. You took him in, cured him, raised him, trained him, gave him life advice, got stern when he acted out, protected him when he was in danger, offered a shoulder when he needed to cry, hell, you even stuck out your neck and didn't expel him. If that's not fatherly love then what is?"
Cloud shot him at sore glare in his defeat before taking a sip. "What do you want?"
"Heard from the grapevine that there's gonna be a big party tonight at Kaz's house. He invited Marlene and a bunch of his closest friends, along with the most popular kids in school. They all support him and follow along like mindless zombies."
"Why are you telling me this?"
Reno shrugged, "Just thought you should know in case things get bad. The Turks may have been forced to be a bit tamer, but we still keep vigil. We know what's been going on with the Strife family and things could get bad."
"Denzel won't crash the party," Cloud defended, "He starts his punishment tonight. You can pull up surveillance and find him with the custodian."
"I'm not talking about Denzel crashing the party; I'm saying you might have to."
"Not my jurisdiction," was the answer as he finished his coffee. He set the mug in the sink before rinsing it out and walked out of the room.
"Just keep an eye on your phone," Reno called out.
For the rest of the afternoon Cloud was frustrated and the rest of the staff knew it and kept a wide berth. Even his secretary avoided bothering him with the normal office calls when she could easily see the stormy namesake hovering over him.
Cloud didn't want to admit that Reno was right, but it was also upset that he had failed to talk things out with Marlene of all people. She was the one aside from Tifa that was the easiest to talk to, and she had slammed the door in his face. It left him with a dilemma. Should he prove Reno right and crash the party anyway, or trust in Marlene and let her make her own choices? She would come around eventually….right?
He had let his work pile up on him and now he was stuck there after hours trying to finish it, but he still struggled to focus. Several of the files, folders and business packets were due by tomorrow morning, but he just couldn't bring himself to care. He just felt so restless. His sword hand clenched and unclenched out of restless habit, itching to wield First Tsurugi and slice a few monsters in half. It wouldn't solve his problem, but it may help him relax and relieve some stress at the very least.
Forty minutes later, Cloud was forcing himself to get some paperwork done, writing out word by painful word. It wasn't physical pain, but it did take maximum effort to focus on it. He was almost done with the second file when his personal cell phone rang.
He looked at the caller ID and his eyes widened when he saw who it was. He didn't hesitate to flip it open.
"Marlene?"
"Can you please come get me?" She sounded like she was crying. And that pissed him off.
"Where are you," he demanded, not angrily, but his reaction was a protective reaction, not an offensive one.
"I'm at Kaz's place. You were right Cloud, Kaz wasn't…he wanted me to…" she started getting more upset and Cloud's eyes widened, trying to keep his voice calm and his rising temper in check.
"I'll be right there, Marlene. Stay away from him until I get there."
"O-okay," she replied before hanging up and Cloud stood straight up from his chair and hurried out the door, all he cared to do was shut the office light off and strap his sword to his back before storming out.
His secretary didn't dare take her eyes off the computer screen in front of her. Her boss wasn't violent or cruel to her in any way, but damn was he scary when he was mad.
On his way to the garage he passed by Denzel who was scrubbing the hallway as the custodian was wiping down the vending machine. "Cloud," asked Denzel. "What's wrong?"
"People ignored our common sense, that's what's wrong," was all he said as he stormed off. Denzel looked down, knowing things were going to be interesting tomorrow to say the least, and kept scrubbing.
Fenrir shot out of the parking garage, forcing the entire structure to echo with the powerful engine's roar.
It took fifteen minutes to get to the location Marlene had sent through the GPS and when he got there he knew he was in the right place. Teens were walking around and hanging about outside the house with the front doors open and goddess-awful music blaring.
He wisely parked his bike farther away from the house, and approached the entrance. A teen who looked like he had just rolled out of a dumpster blocked his entrance with his arm. "One-hundred gil donation to get in dude."
"That's not how donations work," Cloud corrected his idiocy.
The teen just shrugged. "Tell that to the host after you get in," he even had the gall to motion his fingers as if he still expected pay. Cloud had left his sword stashed in his bike, not needing it against a house full of punk kids.
All he did was pull out his ID badge.
The kid looked at it closely as he read it out loud. "General Cloud Strife, head of WRO Army Corp." Cloud watched as his face grew substantially pale.
"I take it I don't need permission," Cloud's reply was cold, clipped, but nonthreatening and the teen visibly gulped. "N-no general sir, you can go in."
Cloud waited as he slunk timidly by him and vanished before he entered, wondering what the hell was wrong with kids today.
He knew finding Marlene here would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and he knew better than to trust these punk kids. So he did the best thing he could think of, and the most merciful to his ears. He unplugged the DJ's turntable and set up.
"Hey man," the DJ snapped at him but stopped when Cloud glared at him. "Leave. This party's over."
"But I was promised gil to be here."
"I could have you arrested for trespassing," Cloud warned him and the man took the hint as he started packing up.
"Hey! Who told the DJ to leave," asked a not-so-sober Kaz as he appeared on the second floor balcony.
Cloud stood up next to the turntable so he could be clearly seen. "I did."
One of the other teens recognized him, "It's General Cloud!"
"What, here," asked another.
"No way!"
Cloud fought the urge to roll his eyes. He didn't care for this right now.
Another teen raised a glass that Cloud was convinced was filled with a strong alcohol. "DJ Cloud! DJ Cloud!"
Some of the others picked up the chant before the whole room joined in on it.
With a calm exterior, Cloud picked up the microphone, turned up the volume and the bass, before pulling out his phone. He made it look as if he was taking a selfie before the flash aimed towards the crowd. He then spoke into the microphone. "Anyone still here in thirty seconds will be taken into the army's custody where your parents will be able to bail you out. Twenty-nine…"
He didn't have to count any farther as the teens scattered, running in any which way they could to leave. It took about seven seconds to clear the main room before Cloud smirked, looked up at an enraged Kaz and proceeded to drop the mic.
The bass pulsed loudly and echoed before it faded.
Kaz stormed down the steps. "You have no right to barge into my house and break up the party!"
"The house is under your parents' names, not yours. Secondly someone called me here."
"Who," Kaz cut him off.
"You are also enrolled into the army, right?"
Kaz huffed, "Yeah, but not under your command. You got no say-so over me!"
"Maybe not, but it is my right to come to someone's rescue when they ask for my help. Now, I'll only ask this once, where is Marlene?"
"Oh her, she dumped me, so I locked her in the food pantry."
An ominous aura suddenly surrounded the warrior. "Say that again."
Kaz only shrugged, ignoring the order and the danger that was staring him in the face. Cloud closed his eyes and focused, trying to hear the faintest of sounds in the house. He heard the sniffles of someone quietly crying and he was able to pinpoint it.
Cloud made as if to head for Marlene when he turned on the kid, pulled out a pair of SOLDIER-strength handcuffs and clamped one around the kid's wrist and the other to the metal stair rail. "Hey! Why!"
"False imprisonment for starters, there's more, but I'll go over them later, once the Turks take you in for me to deal with in the morning. I'm sure your parents will also appreciate the mess they'll come home to."
"I can't believe I looked up to you," Kaz shouted as Cloud turned and headed for the kitchen. He could honestly care less.
He glared at the locked that was over the door to the pantry and crushed in it his gloved hand, it dropped to the ground and he opened the pantry door. When Marlene saw him, she flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and cried. "I tried to leave, but he wouldn't let me. He said I'd come around by the end of the night if I just cooled off for a bit. Cloud, I'm so sorry! I'm I'm so…" she just cried into his shoulder and he hugged her to him, rubbing her back gently for comfort.
"I'm not mad, Marlene. I was just scared." He pulled her away and looked her right in the eyes. "Did he try anything?"
Marlene knew that look and shook her head. "He wanted to, but I said no. He tried to make a move and I slapped him, that's when I took off and called you. He found me a few minutes later and shoved me in there."
Cloud didn't see any trace of a lie in her eyes, which was lucky for Kaz. His parents would confront him in a jail cell and not a hospital bed.
"Come on, let's go home, Marlene."
Cloud opened his phone and sent a text to Reno, admitting that he was right and he asked him to swing by with a few of his friends to handle the clean up while also sending the picture he took of all of the teens in the room. He wasn't able to get everyone, but it was a good chunk and he wagered a few of them would rat out the others with enough motivation.
Over the next few weeks things changed quite a bit. Denzel and Marlene were super close once again, Tifa apologized to him as well and Denzel was even relieved of his punishment duties because he was being replaced by another for a judge sentence of community service, the one serving was Kaz and Denzel didn't envy him. Rumors spread throughout the compound that sometimes, General Strife himself would oversee the teen's sentence when it got too late.
Late one night, after Cloud had gotten home and was kicking off his boots by the door, Marlene appeared, looking guilty. He wondered what was wrong. "Marlene?"
"I'm sorry, Cloud. I should have listened to you about Kaz. You and Denzel were both right about him. I was just too blinded to see it."
Cloud walked right over to her and placed a comforting hand on her head, just as he always used to do. "It's not wrong to fall in love, but love is also family. You may not always like what we have to say, but we say it because we care."
She smiled and wrapped her arms around him, he returned the hug. "Thank you."