Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of the Final Fantasy VII characters or any Final Fantasy characters in general. Square Enix and VII's creators Yoshinoti Kitase, Tetsuya Nomura, Hironobu Sakaguchi do, thank you.

Episode 3: The World Is Waiting

"Very good work miss Lockheart, I'm impressed with the work you've done. It's quite the challenge to portray a Nibelheim night sky as realistically as you have just done." Her instructor said as he stood over her shoulder to look at the beautifully painted canvas in front of the two of them. Its mix of dark blues and light blues, show hints of black, the carefully planned out whites for the stars seemed to actually glisten in the darker color, and the seamless hint of the town of Nibelheim in the background all dressed the canvas beautifully. It was exactly as her mind had remembered it back when she lived with her mom and dad when she was little, and it was only for a short time. It was only for three months before her father's contract was finished and they had to move on to a new town. The people she came across were all very nice and kind, the children were friendly to her for the most part—though she does remember the crude behavior they showed to one boy there—and the way of life was always pleasant in Nibelheim. No wonder why Vincent was always so calm and contempt with everything, no wonder he took everything in stride for instance, the instructor was having a hard time understanding his painting.

In comparison to Tifa's painting, the basic layout for Vincent's was…abstract. There were no obvious figures to it, just a completely black canvas with a small splatter of orange paint in the top right corner; Vincent called it 'A Mockery'. Perhaps he was serious about the name, maybe it was his way of mocking his instructors own art work—the instructor normally did work in such a way. "Mister Valentine," The instructor croaked as he jerked his head away from the canvas to look at Vincent who, sat in his stool with his eyes closed…almost as if he were meditating. "What is this?" He continued, "What have you conjured up from the depths of your mind and placed upon this valley of darkness."

Tifa's ears twitched at the sound of his way to describe the black background on the canvas as a 'valley of darkness'. It was almost as if she expected the man to say such a thing because he was so scholarly for an art teacher. She was used to the bohemians from her past college and high school as instructors but this man was something far more regal. A Victorian stuck in a world filled with hippies and beatniks, and rich kids whose parents forced them to take up art in an effort to get them to do something productive. Either way, Tifa couldn't help but laugh at the comment; her laugh blurted out from her normal silent routine then quickly silenced when the instructor looked at her.

He was on his way to letting her hear an earful about how he found that to be a bit rude but finally, Vincent spoke, "This is, my image of how I think some people can portray works like this. They look at it and think…'What is this? It's just a black paint with an orange splatter on it…and people call that art'." Vincent opened his eyes and looked at his instructor as he said, "Well Instructor Monroe, that is exactly what this painting is…black paint with a splatter of orange on it, nothing more, nothing less, nothing in between."

"Ah, I see…well brilliant young Valentine." Monroe replied before moving onto the next student beside him.

"That was, artistic Mr. Valentine." Tifa joked as she put her materials up in their bags.

"Well, I couldn't think of any other way." Vincent replied simply as he did the same as her.

It wasn't long before they were walking down the long stairway with Rikku now a part of their group. It was still cold outside so they were all bundled up in their coats and scarves and winter hats to battle against the weather. "So what are we doing today? I don't remember." Rikku asked in a perplexed tone, she rarely knew what was going on. Her mind tended to travel off into her deep imagination that was nothing more than a bundle of confusing creatures and landscapes.

"Well, I'm hungry." Tifa replied, this was a fairly typical response for her as well. Not the fact that she was hungry—she's not a slob and wants to eat every moment—instead of simple it was and straight to the point. She tried not to dwell too far off topic with her words and she only picked them carefully when trying to deal with someone who was rather difficult to understand.

"Ohhhh, I know a place, let's go to Odin's." Rikku exclaimed as she ran out in front of them. There was no turning back now, Rikku was already leading the way and Tifa and Vincent didn't care to enough to challenge the choice.

Odin's was a popular place with the students at all of the universities in Midgar. There was the much needed karaoke machine stations, the large televisions tuned into the cities sports, the bustling bar where people young and old came to have a goodtime. Many of the schools professors hung out there, many politicians, and even fragments of Shinra's undercover agency (The Turks) were said to frequent the place. However, the people didn't just come for a good time, the food was superb as well. They served a variety of meals there from typical Japanese cuisine to American favorites. It was a the place to be in Midgar and it was cheap.

Tifa and her group of buddies managed to get a booth at the far end of the restaurant away from the festivities that were occurring on the other side of the building past the bar. The baseball team from their university was celebrating a pre-game feast; they were about to begin the exhibition season before the actual one began. All the players, including Cloud were there enjoying their meal and drinks and making quite the noise. Reno could be heard screaming at the top of his lungs about a woman's boob he saw the other day.

"Is it normally this busy?" Tifa asked rubbing her ears a bit from the noise.

Rikku, who sat by her side in the booth, patted her on the back saying, "Yeah, but the baseball team is here today so it's a bit noisier than it would be on a normal Wednesday night."

"My roommate is on the team." Vincent added. He was utterly bored and it could be seen in his body language. His arms hung over the top of the seat and his eyes made it seem as if her were sleepy. The food hadn't arrived and he couldn't exactly hear anything the girls were saying to him.

"Yeah Cloud, he's supposed to be the best player on the team. The Shinra Weapons are already trying to sign him to a major league deal. Apparently he won't join though…" Rikku informed Tifa.

"Why not?" Tifa asked.

"Well, he's not sure if he wants to do it for a living. Though in my opinion, I don't think he knows what he wants to do with his life at all. He actually talked about joining the military for a bit last month…he wanted to be a SOLDIER." Vincent shrugged afterward and continued to say, "I think he needs to find someone who can just show him some kind of path. He thinks he's free but really he's a prisoner to his own indecision."

"He sounds kinda sad," Tifa replied as she looked over toward that table in the distance. She could see everyone there as they sat and enjoyed there meal. Most of them were excited and having an obvious good time except for one, the blond with spiky hair. "Let me guess, the crazy-haired blond is him?" She added.

Vincent didn't even have to look over there, he knew it had to be him, "Yeah, that's him."

"Do you two get along?"

"Yeah we do."

"You know, Cloud is pretty hot." Rikku randomly added as she stared at their table.

"…Rikku, why don't you just go over there and introduce yourself then?" Tifa joked.

"I think I will." Rikku jumped from her seat and began on her way toward their table but stopped when she heard Vincent's voice.

"Are you sure you are ok with doing what you are about to do? It could be a mistake…I know Cloud and he doesn't take well to women approaching him like that."

Rikku froze and turned to face them again with a perplexed look on her face, "Fine, come with me Vincent."

"And say what?" He replied quickly.

"Um, say…say that you saw him and wanted to say hi or something…" She shrugged but in defeat she began on her way back to their booth.

"Its ok Rikku, the guy doesn't look that interesting anyway…you should probably find other artist to date, not attractive jocks." Tifa said as Rikku sat down.

It wasn't long before their food was on the table for them to enjoy. Vincent and Tifa both had shrimp tempura while Rikku enjoyed a large burger with a side of fries to go along with it. They were enjoying their time together but Tifa found it relatively suspicious that Vincent hadn't mentioned the time he had with Lucrecia last week. "Vincent, it's nice to have you back with us after last week."

He grinned briefly before eating some of his food to stall time for him before he answered anything. Once he finished chewing he looked at Tifa and Rikku, who waited in anticipation, and said, "It was nice to be with her again."

"And…" Rikku blurted.

"We did what loving couples do…" He wasn't embarrassed by saying this but it was interesting to watch the girls beam with anticipation.

"Was Cloud there while it happened?" Rikku added.

Vincent nodded and immediately afterward Rikku shouted, "Oh my god! Vincent! Wow…someone must have been a horny bastard last week."

Tifa covered her mouth as she laughed at Rikku's reaction to the situation. Vincent only shook his head and answered, "I made sure he was sleeping!"

When they finished their food they all stood to leave the restaurant and head out to their homes for the day. As they were leaving the baseball team was as well. This made it easy for Cloud to notice Vincent and his group of friends. "Vincent."

"Cloud"

Cloud looked at the two young women and nodded to them both before returning his attention to Vincent again, "Are you heading back to the dorm?"

"Yeah I'm going to walk them to the train station then go back to our place."

"I guess I'll come along if that's ok."

"Sure, it is." Vincent looked to Tifa and Rikku. "Is it?"

Tifa and Rikku both stared at Cloud for a good moment before they both replied, "Ok."

It was cold outside so the two girls bunch themselves close to Vincent in order to keep warm. Cloud kept close but he wasn't touching any of them he didn't think he knew those two well enough to do anything like that. Also, he didn't think it was cold enough for him to resort to such action. It would be spring in a few weeks and that also meant he only had a month until he had to find a girl to be with for the bet. He wasn't sure of what he'd do.

"Cloud." Vincent called out for the fifth time to finally snap Cloud out of his trance.

"Yeah?"

"How are you going to have an exhibition game in this weather?" Vincent asked, he was one of the few none-baseball friends who actually cared about the sport and how Cloud felt about the game.

"Well, as long as there's not a blizzard or raining we can play…it'll suck but we'll play." Cloud sighed after those words and placed his hands into his pockets. "Oh well, I've been doing this for a long time."

"Do you enjoy it?" Tifa asked him.

Her voice was new to Cloud's ears, soothing compared to Rikku's harsh vibrato; when he turned to look at her, see was pleasing to his eyes as well. That was the first time he actually took the time to look at her while with the group and he wasn't sure why. It was normally for him to just never paid attention to any of Vincent's girls. "Well, I think I do…I know I use to but it seems like the fun is gone. It's turned into a battle were I'm only looking for the kill. Not the game I played with friends."

Tifa watched him carefully as he told them that; she couldn't help but sense the sadness in his voice and face as he looked away. There was something bothering this young attractive man and she couldn't put her finger on it—because she didn't know him well enough—but it was in her nature to want to help people. He'd captivated her enough to want to get to know him better but it was too late for the night. Before she knew it, she was at the train station giving her parting hug to Vincent and a firm handshake to Cloud after that, she was gone back home.

It was the afternoon in the cool sunlight and cold chilling wind on the Midgar University Highwind's Field. The baseball game was in the top of the 9th inning and the Highwinds were leading by a run with only one out left in order to claim victory. They had their great closer on the mound and of course, it was Cloud Strife. Not only was their wonderful hitting third baseman, who also was wonderful defensively, he was also the best closer the school had ever had. All he had to do was get this last batter out and he only needed to throw his best stuff to do so.

He took his step onto the mound and bore down at the catcher as he used his fingers to show pitch selection: one finger, fastball; two fingers, curveball; three fingers, slider. Finally they settled on the fastball to the outside bottom corner of the strike zone. Cloud got into his wind up position with his eyes still focused on the catcher's mitt, and then suddenly his body reared up and launched the ball from his hands onto the target set forth.

"STRIKE ONE!" The umpire called out enthusiastically.

Cloud and the catcher repeated the process over again: bare down, pitch selection, delivery. This time however, the pitch was a curveball that swooped into the strike zone in the inside part of the plate.

"STRIKE TWO"

Finally it was almost time to end this long game, and once again they repeated their routine. The pitch, a slider, slid toward the plate and fell under the swing bat of the opponent to strike him out.

"STRIKE THREE, BALL GAME OVER, HIGHWINDS WIN!"

The catcher ran up to Cloud after taking of his mask to reveal himself as Zack; he handed Cloud the ball and patted him on the back. Instead of giving him the normal congratulations, Zack said, "Found her yet?"

Once again, Cloud was pulled out of his competitive spirit and brought back to the pointless pressures of the normal world. The normal pressures giving from all his baseball buds about the women and the parties and the other trifling things (in Cloud's mind) they brought upon him. It didn't get any better after he left the stadium either; he was approach by Rufus and a group of his agents.

"Cloud." Rufus said in his normal ass tight professional voice.

"No, I'm not signing any contracts with you guys." Cloud's answer was quick and to the point; he'd been asked so many times before it became second nature for him to say no to everything Rufus asked him.

"Well, there's more to this proposition…" Rufus continued, "You see, we can offer you a chance to meet the great Sephiroth and become his disciple. You see, The Shinra Weapons will need a new star player and with Sephiroth contemplating retirement in five seasons we must put you in now to build up hype. You know, it'll bring in more money."

"I don't want to play baseball for you Rufus, it doesn't matter what you do. I'm not playing for you!" He was getting impatient with this charade, each time they would try to up the offer and each time it didn't appeal to Cloud.

"We'll fix your bike too."

Cloud paused briefly before continuing on his way; Rufus knew he thought about it and could potentially take the deal. With that thought on his mind he stopped following Cloud and waited until he was out of sight. Rufus then turned to his two agents and gave them high-fives shouting, "Fuck yeah! Boys, we got ourselves a baseball player!"

Episode 4: Changes

Now Cloud needs to make up his mind; he has so many offers on the table and so many decisions to make. Either he can take fame and fortune and his bike back or he can stay were his friend's are and finish the bet he made with Zack. For anyone else it would be an easy choice but for Cloud, both of the choices annoy him monumentally. He needs something or someone (other than Vincent to get his mind off of these things…all of those things. Things Cloud only wants separate himself from.