Author's Notes: Since I hate to leave you all without one of my FF7 fics for a long time, I am going to start this. A nice chapter for a little AU that might or might not be AU at all… Okay, so I WANTED a little chapter. That kinda back fired on me. And I think only 1 person will expect the surprise at the end of this chapter.
Chapter 1: The Executive
Sometimes the world around you is merely a dream. True, it can be a vivid dream, one that comes to you every night, pulling you into a complex world where you are not yourself, but someone stronger, someone you want to be. Sometimes the dream becomes too real, and consumes you, pulling you to insanity. Other times the world turns on you, throwing you down from the top. And other times, it is just too different from the world that is reality to even help you. And when the dream turns against you, you are thrown into darkness, an evil world and you have no guide. Sometimes the dream itself was a guide, a prophetic vision of what could have been, and might still be. You get lost in it, trying to avoid the fate, or call it to you. Sometimes it is not a dream at all, but an alternate reality, a world you are a part of but can never exist in. And sometimes…
… you wake up.
A scream
mixed with the blaring music of the alarm, proclaiming an end to his
nightmare and to his rest for today at least. Quickly he sat up, hand
slamming into the power button of the alarm and knocking it off of
the night stand. He doesn't care that the thing has fallen. It has
happened before and it will happen again, so this time doesn't
matter any more than the last. He shakily throws back the covers and
buries his face in his hands, trying to purge his mind of the things
he had seen.
"That wasn't me," he told himself. "I would never do that."
Against his will, his mind flashed back to the dream. He was high up in the sky, the winds buffeting around him from the helicopter blades as he jumped down to land on steel grating. Three people regarded him with disgust and fury as he had punched in a code and told them, rather eloquently, that they were going to die. Then they had fought, and in the end he escaped as the pillar was destroyed, dust covering his navy suit, and blood marring his pale flesh…
"That wasn't me!" he shouted aloud.
"Meow?" came a questioning sound from the floor. This snapped the male out of his revere and he looked at the young kitten who intruded upon his rage.
"Cait?" he questioned. "What do you want hun?" he asked sweetly before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and smiled as the kitten rubbed its head against his ankles. "Oh, breakfast time is it?" With that the male stood, pulled on the teal robe that he had carefully thrown onto a hanger near his bed the night before, and picked the young cat up to give it a ride into the kitchen.
"Sorry that I can't give you something really good today, but I can't be late for my first day at work," he told the kitten and accepted the small mew in reply. "Thanks for forgiving that. But I'll make it up to you tonight little guy, a gourmet dinner."
The kitten purred happily at the idea and started to munch at the dry cat food offered instead of its normal boiled fish. Once Cait had food and water, he started a pot of coffee, knowing from experience that it would be perfectly ready for him once he got out of a hot shower.
While he was in the shower the cute little kitten finished what it wanted of the meal and went through the house searching for its toy mouse named, rather appropriately, Mister Squeaky for it had a squeak toy in the center. Once retrieving the beat up thing from under the green suede couch, Cait began to bat it around all over the forest green living room, rolling and frolicking with all his kitty delight. That is, until one exceptionally strong bat of the paw brought the beloved toy under the foot of his master…
When he stepped down on the toy his foot was still wet. Plastic toy plus wood flooring plus wet foot equals one dazed man flat on his back on the living room floor. Cait Sith let out a nervous meow and ran to his toy, completely ignoring his master's pain. The man growled as he sat up, but then laughed as Cait ran off, seemingly to hide his favorite toy from his owner's wrath.
The male picked himself up, dusted himself off and went to the kitchen to fetch his coffee. Black, he felt, was the only way to drink coffee. If you added anything to it, including sugar, you were merely saying that you didn't like the taste of coffee anyway, and he felt that then you shouldn't even be drinking the potent substance. Before slinking off to his bedroom with the coffee to change, he grabbed an apple, bit down on it to get a grip, and snatched up the news paper from the front door.
Gently he placed the coffee cup on the nightstand and righted his alarm clock. Then he took a big bite out of the apple before placing it beside the brew. Carefully he spread the newspaper out on the bed to ease his reading before descending the stairs of the raised dais his bed was situated on and going to take a suit out of his closet.
"That wasn't me," he told himself again before carrying the suit and an emerald green silk tie back to his bed. The male closed the dais's curtain before striping off his bed clothes due to the fact that the dais and bed were easily visible through the open curtains in his bedroom.
While he slowly pulled on the pristine white tailored shirt he read the headlines in the Shin-Ra Daily and scowled. They were running a bio on him, and trying their hardest to make him look like a new devil that Shin-Ra was employing. Somewhere in a small corner they would run the obituary for his father, calling him a great man, proclaiming that he was a hero in his day. How anyone could believe that was beyond him. Even he wasn't deluded enough to think that his father was a good man. The old bag had been corrupt and evil, and even his crowning glory, the design and construction of Midgar was as dark and grimy as his father had been. With a quiet prayer he pleaded to be a better person than his father as he pulled on his pants and smoothed them on his legs. Quickly he folded up the papers, tired of the propaganda and lies. Once the papers were out of the way he opened the curtains and moved to the mirror to put on his tie and straighten his hair.
"Meow," a small voice came from behind him and he turned with a smile to his small house-mate.
"Do I look good?" he questioned the kitten, and Cait pawed at the air in response. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."
Now the man went to the bed, finished his apple, pulled on his blazer and sat down to pull on his dress shoes. They were nice, not overly expensive and yet very comfortable, perfect for the practical man. Finally he stood, pulled on his suit-coat and clipped his temporary pass into the Shin-Ra building to one of the front lapels. Finally done with his morning routine he waved good-bye to his pet and headed for the front door, sure to grab his keys, cell phone and suit case on the way.
"Hello. How might I help you?" the overly cheerful greeter said as he walked into the Shin-Ra Tower. He merely flashed his badge and response and continued on his way to the elevators. While his keycard could get him up to the level he would be in charge of, it would not get him to the conference room where he'd first meet the President. It would be up to his new secretary to take him there.
It was a long ride up in the elevator, something he made note of and figured he'd remedy the speed of the elevators early on in his time here, along with all the other tasks he would have. When the door opened a young blonde woman was waiting for him with a smile.
"Hello sir, I'm Elena Clarke…" she began.
"My new secretary?" he questioned.
"That is correct sir. Allow me to show you around," Elena said before turning away and assuming that he would follow her. "Here we have the offices of the other designers that will be working for you. Over there in the central room off of your office is the model of Midgar and of this building. The archives are down a few levels, as are some other things, but you will be shown that by one of the other executives during your proper tour. And this is your office. My desk is right there, and as soon as you are situated, I'll take you upstairs for the meeting."
He smiled in a charming way before going into his office. His fingers breezed over the brass nameplate on the desk and smiled. Soon he'd have this place looking like his office in Junon, back before his parents had sent him here. Still, the title was what brought him here, and the chance to do something that would be remembered. He read the nameplate out loud, a smile on his face.
"Head of Urban Development, Reno Tarshil…"
