Welcome back! Yay for Chapter 2, I'm glad you are sticking this out and reading another chapter! Well I hope you enjoy! Let the Hilarity insue!


"All right Shazz, come on out and let me have a look at you."

Shazz stepped out of the stall of the men's restroom in the front lobby. She was decked out in full SOLIDER gear and the helmet was so heavy on her head she could barely hold it up. The boots on her feet were two sizes to big, she could hardly walk, and she just felt plain ridiculous.

"So how do I look?" she asked unamused.

"Not bad, not bad at all. I knew my old uniform would fit you."

"Well…for the most part," she replied as she took a gander at her self in the bathroom mirror. "You could have at least patched this thing up a little, there are rips and tears everywhere…and what is this?" Shazz stuck her finger through a round hole in the cloth that was on her right shoulder. "Is this from a bullet?!"

"Never mind that," he yelled as he yanked her hand away from the hole. " Will you please just focus on the task at hand!" Shazz placed two fingers at the corner of her mouth and made a motion as if she was zipping up her lips. Zack walked around her slowly, inspecting every inch of her to make sure nothing was out of place. "Well hot damn I think I did. You look like a SOLIDER in every aspect of the word. Thank god your boobs aren't ridiculously huge other wise this would have been a lot harder hahahahaha………OW!:

Zack rubbed the back of his head after Shazz's anger was show by a swift back hand upside his skull.

"Do you want me to leave?" Shazz said with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"No, jesus Shazz, a little sensitive aren't we." Zack was studying Shazz closely. The uniform looked perfect on her, but something just didn't seem right to him. "Hmmmmm something seems to be missing."

"Like what…a gun?" she asked a little bit too excitedly.

Zack looked at her awkwardly, "NO! Geez what's the matter with you? A gun? Shazz I wouldn't trust you to carry a semi-automatic weapon."

Shazz pouted and mumbled something under her breath, " People shouldn't trust you with a weapon."

" I heard that," he muttered as he was fishing through his duffle bag. Finally he pulled out a pair of folded up socks. "Here, this should do the trick."

The suited up Shazz began to snicker, "Ohhhhhhhhhhh no, no no no. There is no way I'm stuffing. You can forget it."

"But Shazz, it will complete the look…"

"I don't care, I'm not going to do it. Its not like anyone is going to be checking out my package anyway and besides," a smirk appeared upon her lips, " I don't want to set Cloud up for disappointment when he sees you naked."

Zack's eyebrows narrowed as he glared viciously at her. "You're not funny," he said in an emotionless tone as he threw the socks back in the bag.

"Oooooooooooo a little sensitive aren't we?" she said through fits of laugher

He just rolled his eyes and grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her harshly out of the bathroom, "Come on, we have work to do


Zack opened the swinging door that led her in to the locker room. When she walked in, a wave of warm air hit Shazz and it made her nose crinkle. She could definitely tell this was a man's domain because it smelled like sweat, musk, and BO.

She didn't want to go in but Zack was pulling her along against her will. She was walking through a maze of lockers and half naked men and honestly, she had no idea where she was going, or how she was going to make it out of the locker room.

"Look, there he is," said Zack as he stopped and pointed to a boy who was finishing getting dressed. He was pulling his shirt over her head and Shazz couldn't help but stare. His body was slim but well defined, his face was pale and full of innocence, his eyes were a beautiful shade of blue and they twinkled with the light of his youth, and his spiky hair seemed to pop right back even after he pulled his shirt on.

"Oh wow, he is pretty," whispered Shazz

" I know right," Zack replied with a beaming smile. He turned back around to face the boy. " Hey Cloud!" he called out and the boy smiled and waved back. Zack drug Shazz behind him and practically almost threw her at Cloud when he was about to introduce them. "Cloud, I want you to meet our newest recruit uhhhhhhhhh….Steve. Steve, this is a very talented SOLIDER Cloud."

Shazz saw a faint hue of red appear on Cloud's cheeks after he heard the compliment Zack gave him.

"Nice to…." Shazz coughed and little and remembered that she needed to lower the tone of her voice an octave. "Nice to meet you Cloud."

"Like wise." came a young raspy voice from the boy as they shook hands.

"Listen Cloud, I was hoping that you could share a little bit of your wisdom with Steve so that he can become as good a solider as you." said Zack as he placed a hand on Cloud's shoulder.

"Yeah sure, no problem Zack."

"Good, well I'll leave you to it. I'm going to hop in the shower and oh…by the way Steve, you did a good job today," he smiled as he slapped Shazz hard on her butt. He could see she was clenching her teeth and he knew she wanted to yell at him, but she couldn't. Zack new he was going to pay for that later but it was worth it, call it a little pay back for the sock comment.

As Zack walked away, Shazz leaned against a row of tan lockers and stared at the granite floor tiles.

"So uhhh, Steve…how are things going?" came Cloud's meek voice.

"Pretty good I guess," she replied gruffly

"Well you made it into a great unit. Zack is an excellent leader. He's strong, courageous, smart, and very compassionate. He taught me everything I…"

"You like him don't you?" interrupted Shazz

"WHAT!?" Cloud said nervously, "I don't like him like…"

"Oh but you do, I can tell by the way your face lit up when he said your name and not to mention the fact that you were bragging about him a couple minutes ago. Oh saying that he was smart was a dead give away…cause you know…I've heard he's kind of dingy."

Cloud's whole face was turning a dark shade of red at this point and he turned away from Shazz to try and hide it.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," she said as she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. " I mean I like dudes too."

Cloud turned to face her. "You do?"

"Ooooooooohhhhhhhhh yeah," Shazz started to scanned the room for the shirtless young men in the locker room. Each one had muscles upon muscles and abs to spare. " I love penis."

Shazz's openness made him blush again. "Well…ummmm…I might like him, a little, but I don't know if I should, I mean…he's a guy…"

"Awww to hell with that kind of talk. You like who you like so don't start putting love into labels because once you start doing that, you'll never find the one you were truly meant to be with."

Shazz's smile and kind words put the blue eyed boy at ease. "I wish I could be as open as you Steve."

"Well, it's not that I am open, I just believe that you just can't help who you fall for, the heart wants what it wants."

"But what should I do?"

"I think you should tell him because I think," she motioned for Cloud to get closer and she whispered in his ear, "He likes you too."

"Really!?" Cloud responded a little more loudly then what he wanted. He clasped his hand over his mouth and Shazz gave a hardy laugh.

"Yes of course he does, I can tell these things…remember?"

Cloud nodded his head and gave a faint smile, "But I thought he was going out with that….ummm…Shasta girl?"

"Oh don't worry about her, the only thing those two have in common is that they both like guys."

"That's good," said Cloud a bit relieved "Because I think she's…well…kind of a bitch."

A smile remained on Shazz's face though a silent rage began to cores through her veins. "What makes you say that?" she said through clenched teeth

"Well there was this one time when I came across her, I smiled and waved but she didn't even notice me and walked right past me. OH and she never smiles and she never…"

"Oh would you look at the time, I better get going huh. Well it was a pleasure talking with you Cloud and just remember, I gave you a window of opportunity so you better take it."

"I will, thank you Steve, you're a pretty good guy," Cloud said very sincerely.

"It's no problem at all." The two shook hands and both went their separate ways. Cloud left the locker room and headed towards the barracks, Shazz on the other hand, went in search for the little treat she was promised for helping Zack.


Shazz walked the long length of the locker room until she came to a little secluded alcove at the very end. There were a couple of doors with names etched in to a silver plate in the middle. She crept closer so that she could get a good look at what they said and then he eyes became wide with curiosity.

The nameplate on the middle door read Sephiroth and she could feel her heart about leap out of her chest. She supposed that all the number one SOLIDERS received their own private dressing room, its not like they didn't deserve it.

Shazz then felt her feet moving without her. She was approaching the door slowly but she didn't know what she wanted to do. " Could he be in there?" she thought to herself, "If he is, would a little peak really hurt?" Shazz could hear her heart pounding and she came closer and closer to the door. Slowly she stretched out her arm to touch the door knob, sweat starting to form on her forehead. Her fingers wrapped around the brass knob, she swallowed back her fear, cautiously she turned the knob…

"Freeze solider." came a harsh voice from behind her. Immediately her whole body stiffened as a cold chill ran up her spine. She slowly turned around, her eyes staring at the floor. She first noticed a pair of black boots covered by leather pants, her eyes traveled up slowly were she saw the outlines of a black leather coat.

Her eyes followed the metal toggles of the coat upward to where only one was fastened right underneath his a bare chest. Her hands began to shake as her vision became locked upon metal armor atop broad shoulders and wisps of silver hair that hid behind it. Then she forced herself to look up and a pair of shimmering greens eyes seemed to burn into her very soul..

Sephiroth. All that she feared and desired was standing in front of her and his gaze held her paralyzed. "Dammit Shazz, move! Do something!! You look like an idiot." Shazz forced her body to move into a rigid stance and she raised her arm in a salute. "Sir."

"What are you doing here solider?" he asked

"Sir. I am a new recruit and just want to introduce myself Sir. I'm second class solider Steve, pleasure to make your acquaintance Sir. Sorry if I disturbed you Sir." Shazz's speech came out strong and staccato. She gave him a quick salute and brought her hands down at her sides Sephiroth only nodded his head in acknowledgement and Shazz took this as a sign that he wanted her to leave. She slowly started to walk past him.

"It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well…….Miss Heart."

Shazz stopped dead in her tracks, what could she possibly do now. She was caught and there was nothing left but to turn around and face the music.

"How'd you know it was me?" Shazz said as innocently as she could

"I over heard you talking with Cloud and I knew there would be no one else in this world that would do Zack's dirty work."

"Yeah I suppose you're right," she said as she nervously combed her fingers through her hair. "Well again, I'm sorry to have bothered you, I'll go…"

"Hold on a minute Miss Heart, you do realize that it's against the rules for corporate to be in the SOLIDER's part of Shinra, especially after hours." his face was completely expressionless as he said this.

"I…I…I know…it's just that…I was helping out someone and…please don't tell anyone." Her eyes were begging him to understand her situation but he just stared at her. She waited there in awkward silence, praying to God he wouldn't slice her in half when a small smile cracked on his lips.

"I won't tell anyone Miss heart," Shazz let out a sigh of relief as he said this, "However, I do believe you should receive some sort of consequence for your actions. Don't you?"

Shazz swallowed the back the lump in her throat. "Y…y…yes?"

"Good answer." His eyes shifter away from her and Shazz felt as if a weight had been removed from her. But this relief was short lived for he started to undo the last fastened hook on his coat. "You see Miss heart, all day I have been surrounded by nothing but testosterone, egos, and body orders and when you walked past the sweet smell of your shampoo put me in a rather…hard situation." The silver hair Adonis began to slowly peal his coat off and the site of his naked shoulders was making the woman's head spin. "I've had a long day Miss Heart and all I want to do right now is take a nice hot shower and I want you to join me because it's only right that you take responsibility for the predicament you are putting me in." With his coat successfully removed, he laid it neatly over his arm and his emerald locked on to Shazz fiercely. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"I…uhhh…" Shazz was fighting for words. The sight of a bare chested Sephiroth was reducing her to a near caveman like state. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…no."

With that, Sephiroth opened the door and stepped aside and extending his arm he said, "After you, Miss Heart."