Disclaimer: All characters belong to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura, Raechel is just a filler character I created for this to make a kind of bit of strife and grief for Sephiroth.

AN: This is an Edited Chapter since I'm taking to heart some reviewers words about some run on sentences and other minor grammar issues. And...to kick myself squarely in my Furry bum to get this finished. Since I've been lacking on finishing it mainly due to lack of inspiration w/o further dragging this sucker out. And...so I'm not making you guys read a bunch of angst towards the end when a happy ending should happen for our main pair guys. They really need it w/how I left the last chapter on this which is NOT the end of this fanfic. And if you're wondering WHY I added minor Hetero into the beginning of this chapter. Don't ask. Its to kinda work into a later point of this fanfic. If you've already past this point and gotten to the point I'm mentioning. You'll get WHY I added it.

Finished Edited on: January 6, 2012.

Original Posted: n/a

Chapter 4

Radio, a system of wires and tubes that gain soundwaves through the air from a radio tower. It has the ability to bring news, music, opinions through talk shows, but sometimes; it has the ability to rub the past into another's face. Cloud sat in the car, listening to the song finish as the Radio DJ came on.
"To whomever that was for, hope that you aren't stinging too badly from that request, and now, we're back to our daily line up..."
Softly sighing, Cloud leaned back in the Driver's Seat; his hands gripping the steering wheel, "...How could a song that meant so much, hurt now?"

Far and away, the caller had hung up the phone, listening to the song as it sunk in, but movement to her left brought her back to the reality of the moment, "Babe, you've got to let that stuff go, sweetie...You're with me now, let it go."

"I just like that song, and wanted to hear it, " the raven haired woman remarked as she turned around to place a quick peck to the red head's lips, "Come on, let's go out and do something..."

"But we are," the red head's arms reached to grab her around the waist, making her squeak as she collapsed back into the mess of blankets and limbs; softly giggling as she felt her lips press against hers, "Cheaper then going out and blowing cash on some movie we're going to end up making out to in the back of the theater..."

"And...I can show this off to you..."
His eyes grew wide as he watched the young woman undrape the bathroom from her shoulders to show a lacy Teddy, "What you think?"

"Get in this bed, right now, woman!"

Giggling could be heard from under the covers as the two went about their day, Sorry about that, Cloud, but sometimes a girl just needs a little revenge...

XXX

It had taken Zack a few moments to come down from the moment of utter shock even as he had watched the silver haired author listening to the red head at the table chatter on. Angeal had taken to sipping his water while making sure Zack didn't trail the author for the sake of Cloud. It was only possible for Cloud to be off at College away from home because Zack had sworn he'd watch out for Cloud . Especially after the late incident with Cloud's ex. When Zack realized that Cloud wasn't coming back, even a now and again look out to the Parking Lot for the car. He decided it best to try and call his friend, but there seemed to be no pick up on the other end of the line.
Just a lot of ringing and ringing in hopes that Cloud would pick up, "Come on, come on...pick up Spiky..."
The last time this had happened the situation hadn't been a pretty sight to drive up on, let alone, walk in on. Zack figured there were countless possibilities for why Cloud was avoiding his cell phone and any of his calls from it. .
With a sigh, he hung up, "Still no luck, Pup?"
"Nope, I guess he's still upset about earlier…"Zack shoved his phone into his pocket as he started to poke at his burger, "I just don't get it, Angeal...why did he run like that?"
Angeal had no place to say why, but he had a number of reasons why. But each of them relayed back to the situation that had happened recently. And he realized long before, it wasn't his place to interfere, let alone, let Zack interfere with Cloud's situation. He had reason to believe it was the silver haired man that was sitting bored, a couple of tables away. The man seemed stunned by the boy's words, but seemed more or less taken back by how his table mate had reacted to Cloud's crazed sentence.
Cloud was a delicate individual, and, right now; all he needed was some time alone, "He probably forgot his wallet back at the apartment and went to go retrieve it..."
"I doubt that much, Cloud would never leave without his wallet; the last time he forgot it, he ended up having a nervous breakdown in front of the cop that was bad enough for the poor guy to let him off with a warning."
Angeal simply sighed as he began eating at his salad, "Zack..."
"Yes, Angeal?"
"Just eat your lunch. We have to find a ride back to the apartment, unless Cloud comes back."

XXX

Raechel hadn't stopped laughing since Cloud's sudden departure, "Oh boy, Seph, you really can pick them as I said...I hope that kid had all his shots."
"I'm sure...he was just...lost..."
"Yeah, lost like he needed a road map back to the Asylum."
Once Raechel got on a roll, there was no stopping her mouth, and of course, Sephiroth was now her captivated audience. There was no point leaving the Cafe now; if he even tried, she would find a way to guilting him into stay to talk business. As it was, she was still talking on and on about the book. As well as the elements that went into making it happen to be a success. All he heard was the promotional work and getting his cut of the profits. It was all in the language of, money, money, money. It seemed, money and more of it, was all that mattered to Raechel. And it seemed to be the reason why she was still single at her age. No singular man's checking account was going to suffice her greed.
Raechel could talk and talk, but all that was on Sephiroth's mind was the book that he had found once the young man had left. He held the abandoned book in his hands; he remembered writing the tale himself. It had been his second greatest success after his first best seller, and from the looks of things, it had seen much wear and the pages appeared as if it had been well read. Each time his fingers caressed the bends and runs in the cover; his mind replayed over the scene of Cloud vanishing off in a flurry of nervous words. The book had fallen to the floor. Once the hurricane of noises and voices had settled down, Sephiroth had bent over to pick up the book. It seemed that his readers weren't entirely all females; he had a small percentage of male readers. Particularly a blue eyed, spiky blond haired young man who seemed to like toast.
"Sephiroth, are you listening to me?" Raechel noticed that at one point in her rambling speech he had become quiet, meaning, "Admiring your own work?"
He softly shook his head, "No...that boy from earlier left this behind..."
"So? Its not like you haven't sold countless copies of that book, why does one copy from a crazed fan matter?"
Something seemed to stand out him about this copy of his own work; his eyes glanced up from the book to the table where Angeal and Zack sat eating lunch. They had gone looking for the boy when he had ran away.
"I think I'm going to call it a day...I'll see you later, Raechel."
She waved him off, "Yeah, yeah, see you at the first Book Tour Date."

XXX

Angeal's attention was drawn back to Zack when he felt a tugging at his sleeve, "Angeal? Are you alright? You haven't said anything in a while..."
"Yeah..."
Zack seemed to look at Angeal as if his mind seemed somewhere else, "So, what are we going to do about getting back to the apartment?"
"I guess we're going to walk..."

XXX

Once Sephiroth found he had a decent distant between him and Raechel; he managed to let lose some of the pent up rage he had been holding back. Raechel tended to rail down anyone that stand up to her standards. It was a personality quirk of hers that he had learned early on that had been formed when she was younger. No matter what he said, she would always put business before anything else. Especially people, once he had reached his car; he set about slamming his hands upon the steering wheel. The horn occassionally honking of the horn in his rage, and the car alarm going off as well to put a cherry on top of it all. People walking by saw the crazed situation going on and proceeded to walk on by, ignoring the crazy man losing his mind in the car.
"Damn it, Raechel…" his hands slammed down on the steering wheel, the book discared to the passenger's seat, "Just…She infuriates me to no end…"
In Sephiroth's rage and the car shaking, a small slip of paper slipped from the book; falling onto the passenger's seat, "What the…?" it was a bubble gum wrapper with the silver side up.

"Who the heck uses these for bookmarks?"

Cloud had odd little quirks that he had inherited as he grew up. There was only one type of hair gel he used on his hair because it worked compared to the other cheap, generic stuff. That cheap stuff made his hair frizz like he got plugged into an electric socket and not allowed to brush it out. He was a stickler for making sure his drawers were arranged in a way that he could find what he needed, should the moment call for a quick there were the quirks that drove Zack nuts. Cloud was adamant about the bed sheets being just perfect, not a single wrinkle in them. But the bubblegum wrapper in the book? That was a new quirk he had developed when reading, but one thing Cloud had forgotten about his newest quirk was; his bookmark had his cell phone number and name written on it.
Maybe as a way to let someone know who the book belonged to should it get lost, but at the moment; it was going to be an open door to a world that was yet to be entered.

"Cloud Strife…?" Sephiroth seemed intrigued by the name, especially the way the name was written, "Well, Mr. Strife, I've got your book hostage…let's see if you want it back?"

XXX

His fingers fumbled about in his pocket for his phone as he began to press into the keypad the numbers on the slip of paper. The phone began to ring as he listened to the dial tone and it wasn't long before he got his answer. And that answer, would be one step closer into a world of unknown that was bound to tie their fates together.
Maybe I was too quick to judge the Goddess...this may end up being a good thing...

"And that was 'U Got It Bad' by Usher by request. Now! Onto the next selection…" the Radio DJ's voice seemed to fade out as Cloud pulled into the parking spot at the apartment.
Cloud sighed as he heard the car shut down as the engine turned off, "Even miles away...she still manages to haunt me...Heh. Scorn one girl, and you live to regret it."

You had a bad day

You sing a bad song just to turn it around

"Now what?" Cloud's eyes rolled as he heard the cheerful tune play on his phone; there was only person it belonged to and he knew who was responsible for it, "What is it, Zack?"
A soft chuckle came over the phone, Well, I'll give him this much...he's naive to the possibility his phone is set to ring on a tune for all others.
"I'm not sure if that's my name, but I have been called far different names then 'Zack'," the voice spoke over the receiver of the cell phone.

Cloud nearly dropped his phone, "W-Who…Who is this?"

"The person who found your book this afternoon at the Café.I was hoping to return it to a…Cloud…Strife?" Sephiroth thought it would be a little fun to play with the little cute fan,"Is this Cloud Strife?"

Cloud's mind began to play over varying scenario's how this random person found his number. Or what the person could be like. For all his shocked mind knew, it was some random street person who had found the bookmark that may have fallen out of his book. This person was probably looking for a way to track down Cloud's home address and do things to him in the night. Or this random person could be Zack playing tricks on him. When Zack and Cloud had been teenagers, Zack had been prone to watching horror films quite often. And Cloud ended up the unwilling victim to sit through the movies. Many of them invovled the themes of a young girl, half clad as she ran away from a crazed stalker in the rain as he chased after the girl with an axe. At the moment, that scenario was running through his head, but he wasn't a half nude female running from an axe murderer.
While on the other hand, it could've been a trick,"Come on, Zack, I know it's you," Cloud was trying to sound convincing .

Sephiroth wasn't sure who this 'Cloud Strife' was or why he thought he was someone else, "I'm sorry, I don't know a 'Zack', but are you Cloud Strife?"

This was getting serious.

"Whatever joke this is of yours, Za-"

"I didn't know someone else liked spearmint and cream bubblegum…I thought I was the only one with a liking for it," Sephiroth began sniffing at the wrapper and Cloud's blood nearly ran cold,"I guess I'm not the only one…"

"What is this about anyways and how did you get my number?" Cloud inquired as his mind wandered off into a gutter.

Sephiroth lightly chuckled as he pocketed the slip of paper and placed a better bookmark between the pages, "You know, if you don't want random strangers to get a hold of your number. I suggest you don't leave your cell phone number on the back of bubble gum wrappers. Especially lodged between the pages of a pretty good book. I've heard some good reviews about it and that the author is kind of a…"

He couldn't bring himself to talk about himself on the phone to a random stranger, for all he knew, Cloud could be the axe wielding murderous stalker, "Never mind…if you could come back by the Café, I'll return your book to you."

"…Right, I'll come right back and retrieve it…"Cloud sounded certain about his choice of words, but yet again; he had left his roommate and his best friend's boyfriend back at the Café.

"Good, I'll be waiting at an outside table; you probably remember which one…"Sephiroth deviously smirked, "And for future reference…I like toast, too."

Click.

Cloud all but dropped the cell phone, "…Oh sweet merciful Goddess, please tell me that wasn't who I thought it was…?"