He's The One
Summary: Cloud is not like other cadets and that causes trouble, but nobody cared until the big guys upstairs paid a visit and Genesis found something he wasn't looking for. A puppy of his own.
A/N: Thanks to all for the support, I've been getting reviews, alerts and favourites by the bucket load and that's thanks to everyone who clicked on the chapter and thought 'well, it's not so bad.' Stay awesome!
Just feel I need to make a point about my updating. I am not the sort of person who will put out an author's note just to explain and apologise for being late. If this story is not updated, then I haven't given up, I just haven't got the time. The next chapter will have been started but not completed and I refuse to put up half-finished work. I know you guys spend ages waiting patiently, but I require you're patience because there is just not enough time anymore. I am sorry for the time taken though, .
OH, AND THIS IS SLASH! You have been warned.
A/N: Last Fic had Albus Dumbledore quotes on every chapter. This shall have a song lyric reflecting the mood or action of the chapter. I own nothing.
Sorry, for the delay.
"Is there a right way for how this goes, you've got your friends, and you've got your foes" – Scene Two Roger Rabbit (Sleeping with Sirens)
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Zack was running late. It wasn't intentional; it was all that damn paper work and Seph's glare of death. Now Cloud would be left waiting in the hallway for him. Hopefully, the infirmary staff would keep an eye on him; Zack didn't want another phone call like the last.
Zack knocked on a door in the cadets' wing. The door swung open and a Wutainian cadet, with hard, dark eyes stood in the doorway.
"Sir?" The boy asked coolly.
"Cadet. Does Cadet Cloud Strife share this room?'
The Wutainian kid's eyebrow rose. "The blonde bitch, sure, his crap is here."
Zack frowned, eyes narrowing at the attitude of the cadet in front of him. "May I ask, why you want to know, Sir?" The cadet continued, with a half-smirk, his eyes bored into Zack's without fear, containing more intelligence than many of the other cadets Zack saw picking on their fellows.
Zack ignored the question, more interested in digging answers out of the arrogant cadet. He could be subtle enough to at least do that, especially since this opportunity might not come again.
"So his stuff is here, but he is not?"
The cadet shrugged, "Gotta hand it to the little bitch, he's good at making himself scarce, but you would be if nearly everyone hated you. Not me though, I, personally, don't understand why it's such a big deal," the cadet frowned and shifted his weight, before his eyes flicked down to the floor and back up again to meet Zack's.
"Some are big, but dumb, and some are small but smart. Bitch isn't just smart, he's talented, but it's just like ShinRa to waste good resources."
Zack was deep in thought now, debating the relationship between Cloud and this detached roommate of his. Zack could presume that Cloud's relationship with his other two roommates was not nearly as cordial. Silence prevailed before the cadet appeared to grow bored.
"You came for something else, Sir, surely?
Zack blinked and stepped forward. "I came to collect Cadet Strife's belongings."
The cadet stepped aside silently and lent against a wall. Zack entered the room, going over to the bed and drawers that the Wutainian cadet nodded at. Cloud had very little to collect, but it would still be a pleasant surprise to have all his stuff already at Zack's when he collected him. There was a wallet, an empty duffle bag, clothes in the drawers, a copy of Loveless, some letters, a spare earring and a medium sized box with a lock attached.
Zack put everything inside the duffle and slung it over his shoulder. He nodded his thanks at the cadet lounging against the wall on his side of the room and made to leave.
"Sir."
Zack turned, and found the cadet lifting Cloud's mattress and pulled out a small sketchbook, which he handed to the Lieutenant. Lowering the mattress, he stole over to the other two beds in the room and came back with two hundred Gil in cash.
"On me," the cadet smirked and shut the door behind Zack.
Zack stared in shock at the closed door, before stuffing the gil into the duffle bag also, and heading back to his room.
0
Professor Hojo was furious. An experiment, an unimportant one but an experiment none the less, had been stolen from his department. Right under the Professor's slightly crooked nose, AND for all intents and purposes, it may as well have been a ghost that did it.
The Turks scoured the place and aside from the broken lock and its jumbled wiring, they had found nothing. The lab– of course– had no cameras, as having a taped record of his experiments was stupidity at best, and the main door– the door that the burglar had supposedly left through before he disappeared into thin air– had only records of Hojo's key card.
If this was the work of a professional then they were more accomplished than the Turks, and the only person who could claim that title was locked in a coffin under the Nibelhiem Mansion.
Hojo clenched his fists and shattered the beaker he held, the glass cut into his hand and blood dripped to the floor. Slowly, he uncurled his fists; a cruel smirk wormed its way across his features.
"If you can do what you have done, I wonder what else you can do?"
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Genesis wasn't intending to seem like a creepy stalker, hanging around the infirmary the way he was. It just so happened that the best coffee dispenser in ShinRa was near there, and Genesis really liked his coffee.
Perhaps, it was also the fact that Zack had yet to show up to collect Cloud. Not that Genesis cared, or was slightly anxious, or anything. He just didn't want to deal with the paperwork associated with a cadet being beaten to death. That was his only reason.
He probably could have made himself more useful and talked to the bored looking blonde who was hanging around the infirmary waiting room, but he didn't.
Cloud had so far flipped through all the magazines, had a conversation with a lovely male nurse named Henry, and was in the middle of thinking about what it would be like to be a gay snowman. Would it be the same as being like all the other snowmen, or were there special rules? Maybe all snowmen were gay? He'd never seen a snowwoman, but supposedly all you'd have to do would be to add boobs. In the movies it was generally a boy making the snowman, but didn't prove anything. What type of snowmen would gay snowmen fantasise about? Did someone ever make a Sephiroth snowman?
Cloud's eyes drifted around the room, as his mind wandered, not taking anything in until they stopped of the windows set into the infirmary door. Cadets were peering in. His two roommates, big lugs that they were, the tall boy that Cloud called Rat –in his mind, of course– and the twins, Ren and Fen. Unsurprisingly, Hiro wasn't among them.
Cloud let his eyes drift past them without batting an eyelash. Cloud could easily stay here until Zack came to pick him up. The lovely nurse Henry trudged over again.
"Sorry laddie, but you'll have to be moving on. You're discharged and the bosses don't want you hanging around where you don't have to be. Besides, you look like you've been contemplating what piss and snow tastes like and that's a bad sign."
Henry offered a large smile and trudged off again. Cloud slumped into the chair, swung his feet under him and stood up. He walked aimlessly to the door, opened it and stepped out.
Immediately, a meaty fist grabbed his shirt and threw him into the nearest wall. Cloud knew they were waiting, he knew what was coming, and he knew that it wasn't worth running. Rat would easily catch him. Cloud glared fuzzily at the group of bigger boys and clambered up quickly to his feet. Higgins was right in front of him, Kelvin to his right, Rat to his left and the twins behind Higgins.
"We heard you were gettin' selected for mentorin,' bitch. Now you know better than to spread filthy lies like that," Higgins sneered, reaching again for Cloud. Cloud grabbed his wrist and twisted harshly, hearing a satisfying snap before Higgins punched him. Though Higgins was injured and his good hand out of the game, there wasn't much fighting Cloud could take, his body still sore and recovering from their previous altercation. Cloud had to try to end this quickly.
Rat and Kelvin restrained his arms, while Higgins recovered against a wall and the twins advanced. The tight grips on his arms tightened further the closer the twins got. Cloud twisted, trying to break his arms free. Ren kicked him in the stomach and it was those grips on his arms that stopped him from falling to his knees. Cloud glared up at the two and hooked his leg behind Kelvin's, pulling his balance off, jerking Rat with them down to the floor. The grips loosed and Cloud scrambled to his feet, taking less than a minute to stomp his foot on Kelvin's ankle until a cracking sound was heard. Kelvin screamed and Fen tackled Cloud to the ground. Fen pinned him to the floor and smirked, squeezing the wrists he held captive.
"We like you the best because you always put a fight, but as always you loose. There's no fun in beating someone who doesn't bite back."
Cloud thrashed, trying to dislodge the older boy, before giving up and head butting Fen. The boy didn't move an inch, he didn't recoil and his grip never loosened. Ren knelt behind Cloud's head and replaced Fen's grip on Cloud's wrists with his own.
"We'll get you kicked out long before you make Soldier. After all, we know who you really are and we know why you hide what you know. If all else fails…well, I think you can guess how far we'll go," Fen threatened, ripping open Cloud's uniform and trailing his favourite knife down Cloud's chest.
"Let's see you bleed this time."
Fen pressed the knife harder into Cloud's skin, not yet to the point of breaking it, though. Cloud's eyes widened, as Fen was suddenly gone and so was the pressure from his wrists. Scrambling off the floor, Cloud saw Zack holding Ren against the wall, glaring daggers at the cadet and Genesis holding Fen, Rapier across the cadet's chest.
Genesis' eyes blazed with fire, while Zack's were dark pools restrained fury. Cloud slumped against the nearest wall, trying to calm the wave of irrational fear he felt at the sight of the knife. He barely registered Sephiroth and Angeal arriving on the scene, having been contacted by lovely nurse Henry when the fight broke out. Angeal and Zack carted the twins away, while the infirmary staff dealt with the boys Cloud had injured.
It was Sephiroth who extended a hand to pull Cloud off and away from the wall, and it was Genesis' arm around his shoulders that steadied him when his legs began to feel like jelly. Lovely nurse Henry gave Cloud the all clear to leave, with the administering of a few medium strength medicines, and he was quickly hauled away from the scene.
"You seem to have a talent for finding trouble, cadet," the General remarked with a slight twitch of the lips, as he lead his Commander and Cloud to his office.
"You are mistaken, sir. I don't find trouble, it finds me," Cloud replied tiredly.
The elder men chuckled and sat the cadet down in a chair facing the General, while Genesis leant coolly against the wall. The General sorted through a small collection of papers, before presenting one to Cloud.
"Now cadet, read this and sign here if you agree."
Cloud skimmed the sheet, eyes widening as it dawned on him what was being offered. Cloud put the document on the desk and leant back in his chair.
"This isn't some hallucination that I appear to be having, is it? Because if it is, that is just cruel."
The General smirked. "No cadet, this is real and we do require you're signature for the paperwork to be filed accordingly."
"Right, yeah," Cloud said absently. He was feeling a little fuzzy now, dazed but buzzing with energy. He picked up the pen and scrawled his signature in the box. He felt like going for a run, a long run– with Nibel wolves nipping at his heels to make him run faster– or collapse into bed and just sleep for weeks, whatever.
"Is that all, sirs?"
Cloud was feeling rather lethargic and sleepy now and the chair he was in was getting comfier every second. He poked absently at his already bruised wrists, wincing at the slight flair of pain.
Sephiroth added the paperwork to a pile and nodded at Genesis. Genesis pushed off the wall and came to squat in front of the drugged up cadet.
"Cloud Strife. I'm Genesis, your mentor, which makes you my protégé."
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Sorry for the obscenely long wait, time is just something that apparently doesn't exist in Year 12.
I hope you enjoy and leave a review if you feel inclined.
Happy Easter.
Tawny