Light was beginning to crack the dark dawn sky open when the last guest left their apartment.

Cloud had had one too many drinks for his own sake and couldn't help stumbling towards the bathroom as his stomach twisted and he felt the bitter taste of bílis going up his throat. He leaned his head against the bathtub after spitting out in the toilet bowl, cleaned his mouth with the back of his hand. He never was one to throw up no matter how much he had drunk or how sick he felt. But this was it. No more nights out with Zack. No more drinking games with him and the rest. No more parties of this type.

This. Was. It.

Everything was fun and games when they were in college but they worked now. And he had hit rock bottom, sitting on the bathroom floor feeling like throwing his stomach up, the world spinning all around him, head throbbing in pain. Couldn't lift an arm for his life if he tried. At least if he could throw up, the nausea could ease for brief moments but no. Not even that.

His mind drifted. There was the girl... Aerith. He repeated her name in his head before the morning would come and his memory steered into fogginess.

He rubbed his eyes as they kept closing, but it was no use, his head lolled back against the edge of the bathtub and his eyes fluttered shut.

Earlier that day...

What had begun as a normal day of work for Cloud, soon became a crazy, unforgettable experience of some sort.

But Cloud should have known better. Zack's birthday was never a normal day in his life.

Every year was like this. When Zack's birthday was a month distant, he'd start planning what they were going to do or what they were going to drink. By the time the birthday actually came, Cloud was already exhausted by it and it hadn't even begun. This year was no different. They knew each other since first year of college when they happened to share the same apartment and now after living four years together through college, they rented a different apartment as they started working in the same company, Shinra.

Zack was a lawyer there and Cloud was responsible for the computer science department, he alone had developed inside the company a software responsible for the confidentiality of the data running amongst all the computer network inside the building. Thanks to Cloud, no document ever created in there could ever be downloaded or leave the company's computers, not through emails, not drive pens, nothing. The Shinra President liked Cloud so much he had offered him a life term contract in Shinra, which thousands of tiny terms he was still reading through.

About Zack, he was overall a nice roommate to live with, he cleaned up, he didn't take too much space with his things and sometimes he even cooked. Except for the ocasional girl he brought home, Cloud couldn't complain much about him. The girls thing was a problem for Cloud though. He wasn't really keen on the idea of these girls thinking they owned the place just because Zack brought them with him. There had been some mornings Cloud went to the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee and out came some girl from Zack's bedroom, gliding through the house wearing Zack's t-shirt and her panties, their legs showing up to their buttocks. They would help themselves to some apple from the fruit basket, flash a smile towards Cloud and get back to the bedroom. Everytime this happened, Cloud's eyebrow twitched and he had to calm himself down counting to ten.

So, being Zack's birthday he should have known the parties at the apartment were always a recipe for trouble. Once, someone even brought a chocolate weed cake without warning people. Everybody in the party got high and the party reached proportions that a year later everyone talked about it still. Zack was a social bomb at the Shinra building. He knew almost everyone from his floor and beyond, and the building was about fifty floors high.

He was especially popular amongst the female community working there. If he could he would invite everyone he knew to the party, but since the apartment was limited in size, he had to restringe his list of invitations to his department and only a few people more. And his department was about a team of fifty blood thirsting lawyers. But Cloud could only hope that as he aged, he would probably gain some sense not to party too hard. He was wrong.

But first things first, it was still a Friday and it was still a work day. The party wouldn't be until night.

Cloud was checking his schedule in the middle of the building's entrance hall, oblivious to the fact that his blue pen had slipped from amongst his notebook which he held folded on his hand, onto the floor.

He walked a few steps forward distractedly, eyes on the piece of paper in his hand when he felt a light tap on his shoulder, suddenly startling him.

He turned back to look at who had disturbed his concentration and was met by a pair of bright emerald green eyes, staring curiously at him. The girl whose curious eyes belonged to smiled kindly. For a second he was taken aback by her beautiful delicate features. Light-brown long hair, waving loosely down her back with bangs framing her heart shaped face. Soft pink lips curved in that beautiful smile. She was wearing a white blouse tucked in a knee length pink pencil skirt to match. Brown purse on her shoulder and she carried two chunky folders of documents on her arm against her chest.

"Is this yours?" She asked, her voice soft. Cloud's eyes drifted down at what she was holding in her stretched hand. A blue pen, its cap half chewed, his cheeks felt hot at the poor condition of the pen. Even though he knew the pen was his, he still checked his Shinra logo black notebook where the pen should have been attached to and didn't find it.

"Y-yes." He replied turning his attention back at her and took the pen. He didn't know her but her face was familiar and he wondered if she was from his floor. "Are you new here?" He asked, but why did he care? Something about the kind look on her face and the way she handed him his pen, his only pen - should he had lost it he had to ask someone for a borrowed one - made him ask. He was never one to start a conversation so, what the hell?

"Awww you don't know me?" Her eyes flickered, her lips pouted slightly. "I've been working here for about three months." Her eyes slightly narrowed.

"Sorry, I don't really keep track. There's a lot of people here." It was true, the building was huge, it was almost impossible to remember everyone. He alone had difficulty sometimes remembering the people in his team, let alone from somewhere else. Cloud only about talked to and knew the people in his circle of friends, which was Zack, Tifa, Barret and maybe one or two acquaintances of them.

"I'm from the legal department, the contracts section." She said, her smile playful.

"Yeah... sorry."

"That's ok." She tilted her head. "But I sure know who you are." She passed by him towards the opposite direction he was going. She turned around and did a full spin on her feet as she walked to wave him goodbye. "See you Cloud." And she walked away, her heels echoing through the floor as she walked, leaving him looking puzzled in the direction she had disappeared into. It wasn't a surprise for Cloud if people had heard about him throughout the building because of the innovative system he had created but he doubted even the people who had heard of him, knew his face. Then... if they weren't introduced before, how did she know who he was? He shook his head, didn't care.

"Hi you!" Now that was a voice he sure knew well.

"Hey Tifa." His eyes were still locked in the direction he had lost the girl to.

"Where were you looking at?" She turned her attention at the direction his eyes had been locked on. "Saw you just frozen here since I came through the door." The entrance hall of the Shinra building was a massive marbled floor open space. There was a reception desk with four receptionists and several leather sofas scattered around the place for guests to wait. The place was so big it had an antique car exposition for people to walk through while they waited. A private collection of cars the President liked to show off to the many people who had business there.

"Nothing." Cloud shook his head.

"Anyway." Tifa stretched her arms up, it was early in the morning. They began early and left way too late for what they payed them in there, mostly in Tifa's case. "Your place at eight right?"

"What?" Cloud blinked, he almost forgot about the party.

"Zack's birthday?" Tifa eyed him suspiciously. Cloud was a very down to earth type of person, he never distracted easily. "You look a little off. Are you feeling sick?"

"I'm fine." He said. "We should get going if we want to get out of here in decent hours today."

"See you later then." Tifa waved him goodbye as they went in opposite directions. Tifa was part of the archive maintenance, the library so to speak. Every folder of every document in that place went through her and then carefully stored in the many shelves of the massive library of documents that extended through a whole floor in length. She worked with a carefully selected team of ten people to keep the archives organized and everything documented. The Shinra company owned basically almost everything, from the buildings in the city of Midgar, collecting rents from its residents, to car dealerships, the city maintenance of gardens and parking lots, garbage collecting, schools, universities, electricity power, water company, everything was run by the mega enterprise that was Shinra.

Tifa also was Cloud's childhood friend. They knew each other since Pre school due to living in the same street when they were kids and their parents being close friends. They had been each other's first everything. First holding hands, first kiss, first time making love. But they grew so accustomed to each other, a romantic relationship was no longer viable. They knew so much of one another that there was no romance anymore. But they were good at being best friends, so they kept it that way.

He was about half way to his floor in the elevator when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Taking it in his hand he checked the screen, a Zack message.

"Lunch at noon? Cafeteria?" It said.

"Sure." He typed and sent.

"Ok good. Gotta go, new hottie on the block." Zack texted back, Cloud sighed.

He sometimes didn't know how he was responsible for a whole team of lawyers. He could be so childish at times Cloud had no idea how he could lead anyone. He was intelligent though, he would give him that. Graduated from college the top of his class and Shinra almost automatically offered him the job there. But his lively personality sometimes drained the life out of Cloud, especially when he tried to hook Cloud up to random girls he met... well, as long as they had available friends in the neighborhood.

Morning couldn't have passed by any slower. Cloud ran a scanning software through his server to check for any dangerous spy ware which took him all morning, so when it was lunch time he embraced the hour and a half he had to rest his eyes off the computer screen for a bit. Maybe drink a cup of coffee, it was going to be a long day and a longer night apparently.

He reached the cafeteria they usually used to hang at, the building had four, and searched for his raven spiky haired friend.

"Hey Cloud!" He heard his voice. Cloud's aquamarine blue eyes ran the place until he saw a stretched hand up in the air waving at him in the direction the voice had called his name. He walked in his direction until he could make out someone else sitting beside Zack. A girl. Go figure.

Damn it Zack.

Cloud wasn't in the mood for new acquaintances. Especially ones that would be around the next morning stealing his apples from the kitchen basket.

But wait.

He knew her.

Reaching the table, he saw the girl from earlier at the entrance. The pen girl. She was sitting next to Zack. A half eaten sandwich in a plate in front of her, her brown purse sitting idly on top of the vacant chair on the table. She reached for it and placed it on her lap so he could take the seat. Was it too late to turn around now, he really wasn't in the mood.

"Take a seat." Yup, too late to not look like a complete asshole leaving. "This is Aerith, she's a new addition to the team in the contract section. She's been here a while but I only met her about two weeks ago. Isn't that funny?" Zack grinned and the girl smiled warmly back at him, she was already hooked, Cloud thought.

"Nice to meet you Cloud." She said and her smile turned towards the blond who swallowed nervously as she looked at him. Why?

"Wait, I haven't told you his name yet." Zack asked dumbfounded.

"Well, first of all, you just called him." She giggled. "And second, you haven't stopped talking about him on the way here." She replied snickering. "He really admires you." Aerith turned to look at Cloud again as he sat down on the chair realizing he was still standing up looking at her elegant, graceful movements, what was wrong with him? Except for Tifa no other girl had ever as much as caught his attention.

"That must be it." Zack laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"Nice to meet you." Cloud's voice seemed to interrupt their own capsule of dialogue. They seemed at ease with one another.

"Oh, that guy there!" Zack stood up all of a sudden, as his eyes found a guy he knew and wanted to invite to his party. "Be right back." He left them.

They sat there silently for brief seconds, Cloud cursing his friend for leaving. Why would he invite him to have lunch if he already had company?

"Wow this place really is overwhelming huh?" He heard her voice.

"Sorry what?" He asked, his eyes drifted over her face. Glancing at her had become a new hobby of his apparently. She rested her chin on the palm of her hand and stared out the windows. The garden light illuminated her smooth skin.

"This place, Shinra. It's overwhelming." She tilted her chin towards the windows of the cafeteria. It was a continuous wall of glass from the roof all the way to the floor and the view was one of the six indoor gardens the place had. If you asked Cloud he'd say he never noticed but the one they were next to was the biggest one, with pine trees the size of three floors, a gold fish pond, vegetation all around, flowers of a beautiful white color and even birds flew around the trees. They were high up in the 45th floor so the garden could catch a bit of sunlight from the open atrium.

"Yeah, I guess so." Cloud had become used to its grandness by now. He had been working there for almost a year and anything that he saw there didn't surprise him anymore. He guessed if someone just got there, they would be bewildered at the many secret places and rooms it had. "So..." he needed to know. "You knew who I was because of Zack?"

"No, that's not it." She shook her head, stuck the tip of her tongue out.

"Then?" He lifted one eyebrow.

"Not telling."

"Come on!" He exclaimed, his body shifted uncomfortably.

"Alright, if you really must know." She closed her eyes for a second, breathed in. "I've visited your floor a few times before. My team leader asked me to write a whole article about your methodology of working. I have been interviewing your team members for the past..." she squinted her eyes. "Three weeks or so. Something about the company wanting to use the software you invented in their business outside this building. They need to know everything about it so we can start writing the contracts. Saw you pass by a couple of times, that is all."

"Huh." Cloud listened to her intently. His fingers playing absentmindedly with the surface of the table. "Why didn't you come to me first hand?"

"I am about to next week." She said cheerfully.

Great.

See, now, Cloud had chosen a mathematics career exactly because he didn't want to work with people. He only needed a computer to do what he knew best. Even coordinating his team was by written directives he sent them by email from the comfort of his single office. Once in a month was all it took to a more eye to eye contact with his team when they met for redirections about their work. There were many attempts at breaking the security of the Shinra network system so every day they kept busy updating and restructuring their firewalls so there wouldn't be a breach in electronic security.

The idea of having to sit there for a few days being interviewed by someone he didn't know, or had just met, and that by chance was about the most beautiful girl he had to admit he had ever seen, wasn't entirely the best plan ever.

"Is that really necessary?" He asked at last.

"Well, sure, it's your work." She nodded a little surprised at his lack for praise. "I have to say though, your team members hold you very high in their consideration."

"That so?" He asked nonchalantly. He wasn't interested in what his co-workers thought about him. It actually kind of surprised him that they even said anything good about him, he barely talked to them, more than what was necessary.

"Oh shoot. I have to go now." Aerith stood up as she glanced at her watch. She picked up her paper filled folders and her bag. "Here, this is for you." She handed him a flower shaped gum wrapped inside a clear pink little package. "You shouldn't chew on your pen. The plastic in it is bad." She winked, her flower perfume wafted in the air as she got up, and his heart skipped a beat.

His eyes followed her as she walked through the cafeteria, her shoulder bumped lightly on Zack's and she waved him goodbye looking back. Zack immediately disposed of the guy he was talking to and ran up to catch Aerith as she left. He walked backwards along side her, told her something and laughed and she laughed back by the way her shoulders lifted up.

Zack ran back to Cloud's table and sat down on his seat, heart racing.

"Sorry I bailed out on you for a bit." He said, taking a bite at his rice bowl. He swallowed. Then grinned. "She's the best right?"

"Who?"

"Come one man. Aerith!"

"Oh... don't know, don't know her." Cloud shrugged.

"Yes but, you talked to her right?" Zack asked, his mouth full of salad.

"A bit." Cloud said, and took a bite at his own sandwich he had brought from home. "Gonna have to talk to her more apparently. She's going to ask me some questions next week."

"Ah right, the contract thing she's working on." Zack gulped from his glass of water. "Lucky bastard. You're going to be all alone with her in your office."

"How's that lucky?" Cloud was dead seriously unimpressed.

"Sometimes I don't understand you man." Zack snickered but decided to leave it at that.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Judging from the bumping glasses sounds he heard when he opened the door to their apartment, Zack was already displaying the alcoholic drinks he had bought on top of the kitchen table when Cloud got home from work.

"Cloud?" He called out from the kitchen.

"Zack?" Cloud answered back.

"Thought I heard the door. Everything is almost ready." Zack poked his head from the kitchen door, flashed him a grin. "The others should be here soon so we can start our night. How was the rest of your day?"

"You know, the same." Cloud shrugged, tossed his shoes and notebook aside in his bedroom and went back to meet Zack in the kitchen, kicking some golden balloons slowly floating around the place as he went by.

"Here." Zack handed him a glass of a clear alcoholic drink he grimaced to after sniffing. "To loosen up a bit." Zack chuckled at the look on the blond's face.

"This tastes terrible." Cloud almost squirted the drink off his mouth after taking a gulp. He cleaned his lips with the back of his hand.

"That's pure vodka." Zack smiles widely.

"At least mix it with something sweet." Cloud shuddered as his throat was still burning with the drink. "At this rate I won't even get to the birthday song."

"It was just a sip so you could forget all about work and start our weekend." Zack retorted. "It's my birthday at midnight after all so, expect a lot of drinking these couple of days."

"As if you hadn't spent the whole last month talking about your birthday." Cloud rolled his eyes.

With that, the doorbell rings and Cloud walks over to open it.

Tifa and Barret stood at the door. Tifa grinned and lifted her hands to show him a bottle of champagne and a birthday themed bag with what Cloud guessed would be Zack's present inside. Fuck, he had forgotten all about getting him a present.

Cloud sighed.

And so it began...

A/N:Hi! Thank you for reading, the next chapter will be the birthday party! This one was more about the introduction to the story. Do let me know what you think about this chapter :)