/Sorry guys, I had some things going on and it was really hard for me write, but for now I'm taking a break from writing my old stories (except this one, this one will continued to be updated).
So now I'm just working on some stuff to get me back in the mood /haha, I could totally go wink/wink/nudge/nudge/ but I hope you enjoy this chapter. Though I'm not too sure how I feel about it.../
Oh- and thank you all for your wonderful reviews! Your feedback is what makes my head pound and explode into a cloud of glitter, rainbows and unicorn barf!
.Line Break .Cloud Strife POV{
Chapter Four: Transition
}
When Cloud woke the next morning after sitting down with Cid and having a cup of evening tea he dully registered the dip in the mattress he laid on, so blearily blinked away his weariness, his eyes focusing on two dark blue irises with dark indigo splotches around the dark pupils. "Whoa!" Instinct took over, and he half rolled, half jumped in the other immediate direction, the problem with that escape route, well it was that there was none. Just a wall.
Dazed, Cloud groaned, shaking his head as if that could ease the throbbing in his head away and glared at the his red haired roommate who had exploded into a fit if laughter as he aimed a camera phone at the scowling blonde. "Good morning sleeping beauty." Zack sang with a shaky breath with horribly stifled snickers.
"Reno. Zack." Cloud said with a deadly calm, slowly peeling away the covers.
The neighboring students jolted awake when the resounding cry could be heard throughout the entire hall; "No! Tseng's phone!" And a series of thuds and shouts followed.
Cloud sighed, sending another glare to Reno and Zack who were looking just as disheveled as him after their little scuffle, though Reno didn't react as Zack did- who grinned mischievously- the red head sulked, hands shoved deep into his pockets, one of which held the broken phone of a certain head of the disciplinary committee who was walking around the corner with an indifferent expression on his face.
"Here ya go boss." Reno grinned, nervously, and tried to walk past the older as quickly as he could. Cloud couldn't help but snort when Tseng spared a glance at his phone before he put into his pocket without a thought and took a step. Then he stopped. Slowly, he retrieved his phone from his pocket. And stared blankly at the cracked screen while Zack and Reno escaped around the corner.
"Reno!"
Cloud wasn't really surprised when he stepped into his first class of the day to find Reno already sitting in a seat glaring at the board that read about the seat change that would happen once class started and a graded test paper laid in front of him. "Cool." He said, peeking over at the 'A+' in red pen.
"Thanks, I guess." Reno shrugged, looking away quietly with a hand under his chin, drawing from concern from Cloud. Shrugging, Cloud turned his attention back to the test the hunched professor laid on his desk, ignoring the quiet drone if hushed conversations as more students filled the classroom before the warning bell rang.
The silence continued, even when they were walking quietly to lunch side by side, Cloud was still having trouble coming up with the words to say. "Cloud!" The blonde jumped, snapping his head back to see a paniced Zack running towards him. "Run man!" The elder rested his heavy hands on Cloud's shoulders. "She crazy man! Ya gotta run!"
"What?" Cloud asked in confusion, looking back to see a smiling Aerith with a blue dress on her shoulder. "Oh Cloud~" she sang, and the blonde took a step back.
"Oh hell-" Reno cursed, taking Cloud's wrist and pulling the blonde along. "Come on Blondie." Cloud stumbled along, too surprised to think about voicing his surprised when Reno jerked to a stop on the main hallway, opened a locker swiftly and shoved them both inside.
After a few minuets of tense silence and distant voices Cloud began to feel a newly ignited annoyance towards the red head in their new 165cm×60cm space.
"Why?" Was all he could ask. Much to Cloud's chagrin, all Reno did was shrug, wincing in discomfort and reply; "I saw it in a video game." Silence returned, and Cloud's discomfort became even more obvious when Reno shifted once more, crushing Cloud's foot in the process. "So, I heard Rufus complaining about somethin' about your crazy uncle last night. The guy skip a gene or somethin' in the Shinra pool?"
Normally, Cloud would answer this question in good humor, but being trapped in a locker with another person usually didn't incite 'good humor' for unhappy occupants of a shared small locker space. "I guess." He replied lamely.
"But he was the guy who taught you all that machinery stuff, right?" Reno whispered, sending a panicked glance through the slits of the locker when he heard Genesis Rhapsodos's voice drift closer. "Well..." Cloud began, thinking back to when he was first introduced to his uncle.
.Flashback .Cloud Strife's P.O.V{
Transition: Chapter Four;
}
"Cloud hun, there's no reason to be shy." His mother assured softly, but Cloud wasn't shy- no, he was glaring up at the blonde man who stared down at the child with his blue eyes filled with bemusement as he lazily smoked a slightly bent cigarette. "Don't be a brat, say hi." She chided.
"Hi." The eleven year old scowled defiantly as the man blew out a puff of smoke with a grin. "So you're the brat." He laughed, flicking aside the stick and ruffling Cloud's stubborn spikes. "Get a hair cut kid, you look like a damn Chocobo."
"Kweh." He drawled dryly, though it still seems to vastly amuse the man how mother had called Cid. "While you're at it do something' about that chip on your shoulder too." Cid added, tapping the blonde shoulder. The younger simply glared in response, following the adults into the man's cluttered work space.
It was a mechanic's heaven.
Almost everything had been hand tools, unlike the quick power tools and grumbling machines that Shinra gave out like candy- there were Volkswagen's, trucks and even a sleek sports car that Cloud had only seen in a magazine. "Yer balls done exploding kid?" Cid barked knowingly, earning him another glare as the blonde stubbornly sat down on a relatively less oily stool.
"Look kid, I don't give a fuck about whatever you have going on," Cid started, "or your shitty attitude but if ya wanna work with 'em, ya gotta try not to act like a brat." The two held gazes for a long minuet, one glaring, and the other bemused, the younger scoffed and grumbled, "fine."
"Good." The mechanic grinned, pulling a large metal box into his arms with some soft curses about it being 'too damn heavy', ripped out a few wires and placed the smoking machine into the child's unsuspecting arms. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this!?" He snapped when the man turned to go talk with his mother in the kitchen where Shera offered cups of tea.
"Fucking figure it out!"
.Line Break .Cloud Strife's P.O.V{
Transition: Chapter Four;
}
"I wouldn't say taught..." Cloud said with a scowl, shifting in the small space they were hiding in and cringing when the sound of footfalls drifted closer. To the gods, he swore if it Zack gave them away he would ruin every single disc in the upperclassman's gaming shelf- and put a virus on his computer!
"But," Cloud continued in whisper, "Cid isn't related to Rufus or Lazard, he's my Father's brother; and my ma is Rufus's aunt, and I'm technically only related to Lazard by law." Cloud's scowl grew deeper. "But I'd rather be related to Lazard than that spoiled rotten pervert anyway."
Reno sent him a helpless expression, one Cloud could easily recognize as 'You talked for too long, so I zoned out and started thinking about space cats on the moon country line dancing' kind of expression. Either that or the senior he thought had a nice rack. Yeah, probably the cats.
"So, who's that Valentine guy?" Reno inquired nonchalantly, leaning to press his ear against the metal door as distant voices carried over to their metal cupboard. Cloud stayed silent, thoughts drifting to the stoic dark haired man before he finally answered; "Pretty sure he was an emo vampire before it was cool." He shrugged.
"Now that's a book I'd pay to read." Reno grinned, an before Cloud could stop himself he said; "you? Read? What a travesty!" The red head rolled his eyes, about to open his mouth when the locker opened, and a random person stopped mid reach and gaped at the two occupants. "How rude!" Reno balked, slamming the door shut. "People these days..." He huffed. ""Don't have any manners."
"...Can I at least get my history book?" Came the hesitant inquiry the other side of the metal door. Reno sighed, as if he were the one being inconvenienced, reached behind Cloud and threw the textbook at the student when he opened the door and promptly shut it close.
Cloud almost felt a little sympathetic- almost- but he quirked a blonde eyebrow at the Reno and said; "I thought this was your locker." The red head's quick reply was; "pffftttt- I don't have a locker."
"Oh where of where may my Cloud be~" They heard Aerith sing from outside their hiding space and Reno shrugged. "Sorry man, I tried," he stepped out pointing at a stupefied Cloud and shouted; "I found him!"
Reno, you stinking traitor.
'Nuff said, that was how he need up in the auditorium wearing a suffocating blue dress and glaring daggers at Genesis who fussed over his makeup with Aerith and a silent Sephiroth silently observing the exchange with an amused smirk. "Smile, Miss Cloud. You'll ruin your pretty face if you keep scowling like that." Aerith scolded, brushing though his wild locks and somehow miraculously taming them. His mother would be so jealous.
"Maybe you do deserve to get impaled on a six foot sword by a silver haired chick." Cloud grumbled. "Excuse me?" Aerith raised an eyebrow while Cloud quickly said nothing and returned to his silent sulking.
"Awe, little Miss Cloud looks so cute." Zack cooed. Out of spite, Cloud reached under his dress and flung the garter belt he'd been forced into at the older's face- unsurprisingly, Zack avoided the projectile, watching it land on the unsuspecting Angeal who simply sat with the most gobsmacked expression on his face while Reno pointed and laughed at him.
"Um, Cloud?" Tifa called, shyly standing with a puzzled expression on her face as Cissnei tried to stuffle her giggles with her hand. As you can tell, it wasn't really working all that well. "Why are you wearing a dress?"
"Because the club president is a sadist- and a pervert who likes making little boys wear suffocating dresses in front of an entire audience." Cloiud replied dryly, fluffing out the flared petticoat skirt of the dress for emphasis. "You're a sick, sick man, ya know that?"
Genesis merely rolled his eyes and quipped; "of course patient zero, I've been afflicted with the most contagious illness through the most horrific means." He said dramatically as he plucked the lace garment from a still flabbergasted Angeal. "Garter belts."
"Could you go over there and poke Reno then?" Cloud replied in his most deadpan voice and sent an icy glare to the red head who gasped dramatically and held a hand to his chest. "Cloud, Buddie! I thought we were friends." So then Cloud did what any 'normal' person would do in revenge, a bright (horrible, and absolutely stupid) idea that popped into his head (because of what Genesis said).
He hiked up his skirt. Walked over to the edge of the stage. And promptly dropped the layers over Reno's head and screamed; "die of Cloudnitus dickwad!"
Reno, being the perpetual genius he is quickly nodded and replied with a hint of sadness; "yep, still can't see Cloud Junior from here."
The ensuing silence did nothing to help the blush on his cheeks.
/Funny thing though, that last part happened between two of my friends a week ago. Though, its enough to say that the dress was burned the day after the skit and used in a bonfire to roast some tasty marshmallows./
Well anyways, thanks for reading, and reviewing, I love you all (maybe a little too much) so have a wonderful day filled with sunshine and dying endangered species. Wow. That was actually really depressing... Uh... Have a great day...