The last few weeks had been enough confirmation outside of a transformation for Cloud. Between his senses becoming ever more sensitive, the silver trinket burning his fingers, and the research he had been doing on the nights he was home, and the children's odd behavior towards him...When did Denzel ever try to avoid him? Of course the boy would figure it out, he's the one who mentioned werewolves! Cloud sighed, wondering what would become of he and his family.

This morning as he had gotten his clothing on, wearing a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans, Cloud had knocked off a piece of loose jewelry from the dresser onto the floor. He stared at it, the silvery metal glinting in the sunlight pouring into the room. It was a moment of truth to him, the one thing he'd been avoiding testing out, as if by ignoring it nothing would happen. Everything would go on as usual, despite everything else that confirmed something was wrong. Kneeling down, he had gone to scoop it up, only to be greeted by the sensation of hot iron on his skin. He had dropped the bracelet with a pained grunt and shook his hand. He had looked about, and sniffing he located Denzel's scent nearby; he had quickly fetched his gloves to pick up the bracelet put it back on the dresser.

He was certain Denzel had seen.

He stared down at his maps, not really paying attention to them as much as he was the folklore book open to the side of them. Cloud had been looking for either a cure or a way to control himself somehow when the inevitable occurred, and it seemed there were ways to go completely lucid during a transformation; the books just weren't sure how. He nibbled on a piece of jerky as he turned a page, engrossed in the book's knowledge. He hated not being in control of himself, and every time the thought crossed him the past flashed in his mind. He shuddered at the memories that momentarily invaded his mind, memories of the things he had done when he wasn't sane and under Sephiroth's control. Sighing, he turned a page in the book, hoping to find something of use. He wondered how accurate the books were. They were folklore books, after all, and not an account by an actual werewolf.

Cloud was certainly worried, of course. The pictures in the books and the presumed werewolf that had attacked him almost a month ago painted a terrifying picture of what he could possibly look like during a Full Moon. He ran his fingers through his spiky hair anxiously as he thought about it; the great pain and especially the possibility of killing people out of a primal bloodlust was a worrisome thing to handle for the rest of his life. Still, he figured he'd find some way to cope; his family was counting on him. If he could overcome Sephiroth, this shouldn't stop him, either.

'Tweet tweet tweet. Tweeeeeeeet!' Cloud looked around, confused; he wondered where that high pitched sound was coming from, his ears perking. It was the second time today he had heard it, and since Tifa had left for her afternoon errands earlier Cloud had no one but the children to ask about the sound. He moved from the bar and took a few steps up the stairs quietly, trying to pinpoint the sound. It sounded again, and he took a few silent strides on the steps. Coming to the top of the stairwell, he located the source: the children's room, of course. 'Must be whatever they bought with the gil I gave them yesterday,' he thought, remembering that they had asked for some money to buy a little toy.

He cursed himself for absentmindedly giving the children gil without asking specifically for what, yet again. Yesterday he had been distracted by his thoughts, but almost a year ago he had been dead tired from a long distance delivery. They had come to him while he zoned out at his desk while trying to lay out another route, asking for a little money for a toy. He had complied in a mechanical fashion, grabbing bills out of his wallet, and continued on with his task. Not more than an hour later he had gone to check on them in their bedroom because of a funny scent reaching his nose, and everything had been covered in globs of brightly colored slime they had purchased from the store. Cloud had looked about in shock as the opaque gel coated the beds, walls, and the children themselves.

"What...the hell..." he had moaned out of his mouth, his eyes wide. Tifa was going to kill him.

The children had looked back at him from their little play fight, their faces splattered with yellow and green goo. They had frozen in place after they saw the look on his face. "Um..." Marlene had begun.

The sound of footsteps from the master bedroom had come towards them as Cloud gawked and the children tried to come up with an excuse. "Is everything alright—Oh my God, what have you two done?!" Tifa had been livid, her face panicked.

"Uh, Cloud gave us some money to buy a toy..." Denzel had mumbled. Tifa had then looked towards Cloud, the warrior slowly meeting her angry gaze with a pale face and a slack jaw. His eyes then traveled back to Denzel.

"...How much gil did I even give you? It's everywhere." How many little tubs could they have bought? "There's no way you could have bought this much slime." He had still been a state of shock and disgust over the state of the room.

"It was on sale!" Marlene had chimed, as if that made it a little better. Tifa had grabbed the girl's squishy arm to take her to the bathroom; Cloud had put his hands to his sleepy face and moaned into them out of dread.

Cloud shuddered, remembering how much work it took to get the slime out of fabric and Denzel's hair, for that matter. He had almost resorted to cutting the boy's hair when he saw how mashed in it all was. Moving closer to their room, he pushed aside the little memory.

The door was slightly ajar, and he pushed it open the rest of the way. He locked eyes with a pale, shocked Denzel while Marlene blushed as she held her teddy bear. Cloud walked into the room, the children clearly nervous at his sudden appearance as they lounged on the far bed. He coughed. "...Was the toy you bought...a whistle?" Cloud asked with a raised brow. His arms were crossed over his chest.

Denzel slowly nodded his head, his sweaty hand wrapped around the dog whistle. Was the jig up? Was Cloud going to kill them to keep his secret safe? He held his breath in dread anticipation of what he would do next.

Cloud groaned and put a hand to his face as he looked down. "Okay, I know it was my fault for giving you money and not asking what kind of toy you were buying," he began before he moved his hand away from his face and giving an exasperated look as he brought his head up again, "but could you please play with that outside? It's driving me nuts, and I'm trying to focus on my maps." The children nodded, and Cloud smiled softly. "Thank you." He disappeared from the room, his footsteps falling further and further away. The children looked at each other.

"He heard it!" Denzel whispered. "Cloud could never hear those before." His fears had been confirmed over the last several weeks from observation. At this point, they just wanted to test every angle.

Marlene had a sad look on her face. "The stink bomb two weeks ago had him down on the ground. Tifa was worried he was gonna choke." She had set off one outside the garage doors while Cloud worked on his bike. The stench overpowered him quickly, despite not being a particularly powerful scent.

"I saw him drop some of Tifa's silver jewelry that fell on the ground this morning. He put his gloves on after that..." Denzel said with a look of devastation crossing his face. That was the biggest confirmation that Cloud was a werewolf. Cloud had gone to pick up a bracelet, only to tear his fingers from it as if it had stung him. The blond haired man had looked around, hoping he hadn't been noticed, then fetched his gloves to avoid skin contact with the metal.

Denzel stood up off the bed. "So, what do we do? Cloud's gotta know by now."

"I don't know. He wouldn't try to hurt us, would he?" Marlene held her bear tightly.

Denzel was silent for a minute, uncertain if the words Cloud uttered that one fateful night meant he would harm anyone who found out about his secret, including them. The Full Moon was coming up in a couple of days, and Cloud had been trying to act as if nothing was wrong. But he knew. He watched Cloud look around after the bracelet incident this morning, he knew he had been looking through his encyclopedia. Hell, he sneaked into Cloud's office just to see the folklore books he had borrowed from the library. He wondered if he knew that they knew.

During the nights Cloud was home, the boy would sneak over to the doorway of his office and watch him read those books with interest, mumbling in agreement to symptoms he'd been having, and sometimes, he would take walks in the middle of the night after he finally accepted what he had become. For what purpose, Denzel couldn't fathom yet. Several times he had to book it into his room, Cloud checking on them when Denzel had made too much noise, or perhaps if he had smelled the child outside of his door.

What to do? Bravado was burning in his chest. He looked at Marlene, her sad, brown eyes searching his. Then he stared at the floor. The two of them had been wary of Cloud for nearly a month, and just as the warrior had put on a mask of normalcy so had they. It was Cloud after all, and it wasn't a Full Moon yet. Maybe he was still himself, Denzel concluded. He looked up and nodded. The impasse had to end.

"Maybe we should confront him." He put his lips to the whistle, silently blowing the little thing as hard as he could.

Marlene gasped. "He's gonna kill us! Stop it!" She tried reaching for the whistle but Denzel jerked away as he tooted.

It was too little, too late. The sound of footsteps pushing through the stairwell made it to their ears. Cloud came into sight, his ears covered and an annoyed look on his face that made Denzel stop mid-toot. Cloud took a few steps forward with his hand outstretched, and he motioned for the little whistle.

"Guys, this is too much...You're drivin' me crazy."

Denzel and Marlene looked at each other and then back at Cloud. The little boy fidgeted as he held the whistle. "Cloud, we um..." he looked down towards the floor. Cloud tilted his head, his face softening and conveying concern at the tone of Denzel's voice. He moved closer to the children. There was a tinge of fear in Marlene's eyes as he approached them; Cloud observed her worried eyes with a raised brow and tense jaw.

He sat on Denzel's bed, facing towards Marlene's bed on the far end of the room. "What is it, Denzel?"

The boy looked up into the eyes of his concerned guardian, the man leaning his elbows on his knees. "It's just...You seem kind of...different lately." Denzel shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"...Different?" Cloud narrowed his eyes.

"Y-yeah. You know..." His face was pale as ivory, and he put his head down as his courage waned. Marlene stood frozen as she leaned on the bed. Denzel was choking on his confrontation as he stood by the edge of Marlene's bed. He flinched as a hand landed on his shoulder softly, and it gently tugged him closer. He looked back up at Cloud, terrified, regretting his decision to broach the subject. The warrior had a serious look on his face as Denzel stood next to his right knee, his hand gently but firmly keeping him there.

"...Are you still worried about the wolf attack?" The wound had left no trace of ever existing on Cloud's arm.

'He's gonna kill us...' The boy sighed. "Yeah." His knees began to shake.

Cloud slowly nodded, and Denzel noticed that he was subtly sniffing the air. He could probably smell their terror. "I see.." He looked between the two. "You've been...watching me, haven't you?" His voice was deadly serious.

Marlene trembled. "Cloud..." She squeezed her teddy bear, her face partially covered by its fuzzy head, as if it could protect her.

"I should have known you two would be watching me from the beginning," he said, a small chuckle leaving his lips. "You're the one that watched me this morning, weren't you Denzel?" The boy squeaked and nodded, his eyes blue orbs full of fear. "I couldn't hold the jewelry in my fingers." Cloud lifted his left hand and showed the small burn marks left from the metal, looking Denzel in the eyes for a few moments with an unreadable face before turning and pointing to Marlene. "You let that stink-bomb off near the garage entrance. I recognized your footsteps before the smell hit me." The girl leaned harder into the bed, letting out a worried little moan. She knew she was unable to leave the room; Cloud could reach the door quicker than she could.

Cloud sighed and put his hand through his soft, spiky hair. "I...honestly don't know how the hell this is possible," he said as he leaned back, propping his arms near his back to keep his recline. His eyes were downcast and the worry on his face was apparent. "But...I'm going to take precautions. I don't want any of you harmed by me, if it's true." His serious demeanor had been replaced with anxiety, a feeling the children held moments before. The tense aura of the room seemed to dissipate, at least.

Denzel blinked. "So...you aren't gonna kill us?" His hands rested on the bed Cloud rested on.

Cloud scoffed as he eyed Denzel. "Why would I do something like that?"

"'Cause werewolves gotta keep their secret safe," Marlene said. She put a hand to her mouth immediately afterward.

Cloud raised a brow at the girl, a small, wry grin forming on his face. He remembered now a small passage in the encyclopedia. "You're right. Maybe I should..." he joked sarcastically. It did not translate well to the children.

"Cloud!" Marlene cried out. Denzel backed away from the bed Cloud occupied, bumping into the far bed. The warrior snorted at the reactions then shook his head. They should know him better than that, but with the situation thrown into their lives it could be forgiven, he thought.

"C'mon, you two and Tifa are the last people I'd wanna see harmed...Please, just don't tell anyone, especially not Tifa. I'm...not ready. I wasn't ready for this talk with you two. I can trust you with this secret, can't I?" He gave the children a pleading look as he hunched over, his elbows back on his knees. "At least until I'm ready to, if it's anything at all." He couldn't help his desire to keep things secret, but this time he intended to tell Tifa, she deserved that much. Even if it was a little late...He just had to make sure.

Denzel looked up at his hero, the man asking two children to keep his secret safe. "...I promise. But if you kill anyone, I'm going straight to Tifa! And I'm gonna put silver in your coffee!" The boy put his curled pinky up in the air, and Cloud slowly entwining his pinky with his, followed by Marlene.

"Fair enough," Cloud said with a smile before suddenly scooping the children up in a hug as they let their guards down. They squeaked in surprise, but returned the affection moments later. "I'm...sorry, I worried you two like that," he said as he slowly released them onto the bed, flanking him. His arms were draped upon their shoulders, his hands gently holding their arms.

"So, what're you gonna do? The Full Moon is almost here. My encyclopedia said you'll probably try and kill anything you can get your hands on." Denzel kicked at the air casually. Marlene looked up at him expectantly.

"I'm going to hide out somewhere I can't get out of easily," Cloud said slowly. "I was thinking an old motel deep on the other side of the Midgar ruins. Sector 8 should do it." He thought for a moment. "I'll say it's for an overnight delivery..."

"You've checked it out already?" Marlene asked.

Cloud nodded. "Yeah. It's far enough away and the ruins there are a pain to navigate by foot, even for me. Then there's an abandoned motel there, it should keep me busy long enough if anything happens." He swallowed, the conversation was surreal. He snapped out of his thoughts as the sound of the bar door opening greeted his ears.

"Guys! I'm home!" It was Tifa.

"Remember, not a word." The children nodded solemnly.

Cloud paced in the dark, lonely room he had chosen in the gloomy depths of the Midgar ruins, wearing nothing but his boxers, not wanting to ruin his clothing. The articles were neatly folded on the other side of the queen sized bed, his belts and black apron hanging from the dusty bed post. He was anxious and felt stupid at the same time, like some sort of lunatic that enjoyed roaming chilly ruins in his boxers. He sighed as he glanced at his phone. 10:51pm. He paced some more, wanting confirmation one way or another.

Maybe it was all suggestion. The dreams, the wound, the silver...The silver is what made him doubt his skepticism the most. That totally wasn't normal at all. At least the kids agreed to be quiet about it all, and he had been convinced to buy them some ice cream during the weekend for it; they had talked some more about his secret, trying to reassure him as only children could. Cloud absently scratched at one of the many scars that marred his torso, wondering how much longer he had to wait until it would start, and he would become some drooling, human eating monstrosity.

'This is stupid...' he thought, sitting down on the old rusty bed and sighing heavily as the springs protested beneath him. He looked up at the wall, a large mirror greeting him with his reflection. His gently glowing eyes reflected back at him in the darkness, but he noticed something else...Cloud lifted himself from the bed, crossing the room and leaning on the wall next to the mirror; the dresser barricaded the door in the windowless room.

Adjusting his eyesight a little, he took a look at his ear. Rubbing it with his fingers, he noticed it seemed almost pointed and slightly deformed, and he frowned worriedly. Pulling at the side of his mouth, an enlarged canine pulsed in his gums, the pink flesh dribbling a little blood onto his tongue; finally he looked towards his eyes, and the sclera seemed to be darkening, and dark circles grew under his eyes. Finished with his dreaded inspection he turned away, not wanting to see any more, his eyes wide with anxiety. He had a heat burning and growing in his chest and his fingertips ached as he nervously flexed the digits. He could feel his quickening heartbeat as his breath hitched in his throat. '...This is it.' He closed his eyes tightly as he waited for the inevitable, hoping to Gaia that he didn't kill anyone tonight.

He suddenly doubled over from a shock-wave of pain and his abdomen seized up violently, his muscles felt like the were on fire as they warped and grew. Cloud fell to his side while he grimaced and shouted in agony as his bones warped and cracked into new positions they shouldn't be in, as his skull flattened and lengthened and grew sharp, flesh rending teeth. Panting heavily, his voice box warped from grunted screams into deeper throaty growls as fur and thick hide grew upon his body, save his new, dark snouted face and digits; the sounds he uttered caused him to panic further, and a feeling of helplessness he hadn't felt in years rushed into his racing heart. 'I don't want this...!'

His ears continued to lengthen and rise to the top of his head, increasing his headaches until they finally reached their new resting place; they twitched erratically from the waves of pain that traveled through them. He watched in horror as his hands snapped into some swollen hybrid of a paw and a hand, the deadly claws moist from emerging out of his swollen fingers as if formed from lengthened bone. Tough pads formed on the underside of his new hands and he instinctively flexed them as they finished; his feet responding to the transformation in much the same way, curling them as they cramped and grew and the digits transformed into something suitable for fast movement. His arms and legs lengthened, causing him to snarl and pant in pain; the fur growing on his limbs was less dense than on his torso, and his growing muscles could easily be made out if there was light in the room. He felt his ankles pop and crunch, growing with his legs and bringing more helpless misery to the despondent man.

A pain traveled into his pelvis as he stumbled to stand, discomfort causing him to attempt to relieve it by standing. He heard the tearing of his only article of clothing as his leg muscles thickened. The boxer band began to dig into his furry hips before he slashed it away with a claw hurriedly, the itchy discomfort of cloth on fur finally dulling. With a final crunch as his spine corrected itself, Cloud let out an inhuman scream, blacking out from the stress and pain of the transformation. His last memory was a final look into the mirror as he stood on his hind legs, glancing at the monster he had become in such a short period of time.

Pacing, pacing...The room was so small, and he wanted to go out so badly. Something blocked his way out. He began shoving the lightweight furniture out of his way, and clawing at the pathetic door that would release him into the world. A hole formed in the door, and he gnawed at it, enlarging it with his bites. The hole was just big enough for his head to slip through, and now all he had to do was rip the rest of the door to shreds to get out of his new lair. There were scents, scents of old carpet and dust and a distant scent of a sickly human coming from somewhere. That scent interested him the most. He wanted to explore, he really wanted to hunt, he wanted to...He thought hard, his leathery brows wrinkling together. He paused at his work on the door as his brain churned. He took his head out of the hole and blinked.

Pack. Family. Be with a pack. Where was his pack? He tilted his head, and put a paw to his face.

Think harder. 'What am I doing?' He shook his large head. He felt like he was in a dream. 'Who am I?'

'Wolf...Right?'

A certain scent reached his snout, different than the ones beyond the door, and he traveled to the source. He jumped on to the springy old bed, a small snap coming from beneath him; there was something on it. Human clothing...His clothing. It smelled like himself, didn't it? That meant it was his. He took a long whiff of the shirt and pants, his nose lingering on them. It smelled like someone else, too. A claw came to inspect the clothing further, lifting the article by a hole in its side. A woman, children...scents billowed out. The scent of flowers...? He shook his head again.

'Who am I?'

'I...'

'I...am...'

'Cloud...Cloud. My name is Cloud.'

He collapsed onto his clothing, rubbing his head into it sadly as he held them tightly in a pile to concentrate the scents. His family. He remembered just enough.

The two children whispered in their room as Tifa shuffled to her bed, the woman not thinking anything wrong with the overnight delivery Cloud said he had to do. She had been curious, considering he had told her recently that he'd rather keep away from distant jobs for the time being and he certainly never did deliveries during the night.

"A delivery, tonight? Where do you have to go?" She had inquired.

Cloud looked down. "A village on North Continent. Said they really need the delivery bad."

Tifa had stared at him, thinking of any possible thing that it could be an ulterior motive for, or excuse. She really couldn't think of anything he would be up to, so she just nodded. "Well, just be careful, then." She had flashed him a soft smile, and Cloud blinked several times, staring at her as if unsure she really had said that.

He gave her a hug right after, but it felt different than his usual ones; in fact, it reminded her of the ones he would give after he returned home after defeating Sephiroth again. Searching hugs to make sure everything was alright, that he was forgiven for his abandonment. Was he searching for reassurance, she wondered? Reassurance for what? Was the route dangerous? Regardless she had returned the hug happily, then gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. "I'm sure everything will be alright, Cloud."

Cloud had given her a gentle smile, as if her words were what he had needed to hear from her at that very moment. "Yeah."

The kids knew what the "delivery" he spoke of actually was, and the anxiety from it kept them up; they were worried for Cloud, and if he would return the same person they loved after tonight. Marlene shifted in her bed, looking over at Denzel.

"I hope Cloud's okay."

Denzel nodded. "I hope so, too."

"Do you think he'll be back in the morning?"

"Yeah." He was more certain this time around.