[[Author's Note --- HA.]]

                The afternoon had turned crisp, the late autumn wind wasting no time in picking up and scattering the last of the leaves across the ground.  Most were indoors by this time, having found and been assigned their dormitories and busy fighting with their roommates or unpacking in the privacy that being older brought.

               The first few nights, most had camped out in the auditorium, placing their bags close by and curling up with their mandatory pillows.  Some had wandered off early, like Cloud had, intent on joining the ranks of SOLDIER or the Shinra armed forces.  As the processing went, however, certain groups were welcomed more readily and more quickly were assigned their rooms.  The first to be taken into account, naturally, were those staying in the elusive Shinra dorm.

                To say that the Headmaster was a bit stuck-up would be blasphemy, but to call him fair was far from the truth.  His personal opinion went further than actual merit and when the students assigned to the Shinra dorm began converging on the location, that became painfully obvious.

                "..and the blonde?"

                "Everyone calls her Scarlet.  Weapons development."

                "...you can major in that?"

                "She's a business major, of course, but that's why she's really here.  Because your father is interested to see what sort of ideas she can draw up."

                "...or is it her daring hemline..."

                Rufus rolled his eyes to punctuate his disgust, shaking his head slightly.  He and the Turks had arranged to meet beneath a singular tree a little way from the dorm, watching the door and those going in it.  The Shinra heir had always had a bit of a snobbish streak and if he wasn't impressed, he wasn't staying.  He didn't care what his father thought.

                What the boy thought of his father, though, wasn't unknown.  He readily insulted the man in his calculated, icy tones, usually not even sparing the man time to avert his attention.  Something burned inside Rufus that cause him to seethe when his father was mentioned, something that he never disclosed but that everyone noticed.  Tseng, of all people, was used to this, and secretly, he had to agree.  He wasn't fond of the man himself.

                A lot of rather generic people had filtered into the building, all shapes and sizes, though somehow all painfully alike.  Business majors, medical students, scientist wannabes and every manner of would-be politician, all of the real clean-hands job-holders-to-be that the campus was famous for.  It made Rufus sick, all these miserable excuses for business majors.  He knew all the ones who needed knowing and the rest... were just cluttering his dormitory.

                "What about the fat one."

                "...Heidegger?  I believe that's it.  He prefers no one call him by his first name.  He's actually the head of the policing division, if I remember correctly.  Not to bright, but at least motivated to his work."

                "Posing as a business major."

                "Sub-major."

                "Somehow that seems worse."

                An apple core fell then, nearly hitting Rufus on its descent.  He glanced at it, following the invisible trail it left in the air to the source from whence it came.  Reno was still climbing around in the branches, having eaten the apple he stole from the dining hall that morning and dropping it without a second thought. 

                I'll hide out there all the time, just you watch.

                Why would you want to?  It's... a tree.

                I can smoke up there, I bet.  An' they'd never even think of it!

                It was like a little boy talking of building a treehouse and only succeeding in nailing up the first piece of wood.  His sheer amount of childish energy was exhausting to everyone around him and coupled with his wonderful habit of using adult language and ideas, made him borderline infuriating all the time.

                That's how Tseng felt on the matter, at least.  He was tempted to say something when the core fell, tempted to just reach up and snap the branch he could see the redhead's foot holding against and watch him fall from the corner of his eye.  That would be stooping to levels, though.

                "And why aren't we in our suite, Mr. Shinra?  Turks?"

                The blonde didn't bother turning, closing his eyes against his churning dislike.  There were a handful of people he could not stand at any length, lead without question by his father.  But a close second was Professor Hojo.

                It wasn't so much how Hojo looked or dressed, how he intended to waste the rest of his life or the fact that he was ready to be nerd-of-the-year.  It was the way he spoke to everyone.  The way he regarded how people were, as a whole, and the individual worth of everyone therein.  And he was always polite, hollow as it was.

                "I'm not sure I'm staying, Hojo.  Regardless of whether or not it's your business to know or my obligation to stay."

                Hojo chuckled softly, standing just a little away from Rufus and staring at the doorway and the thin trickle of students entering.  He was a good bit shorter than both Rufus and Tseng, but looking over his glasses before speaking to them wasn't part of that package.  He always looked at people over his glasses, giving him some sort of haughty air, despite his humble nature.

                "It is my business, though.  You see, your father's medical and scientific research departments are mostly housed here in this dormitory.  As such, it's my duty to be near them and to teach them when classes begin next week.  I'll be staying here too and as a teacher, I will be in charge of you all and reporting on what you're doing.  So, please be more considerate."

                "Don't call me 'Mr. Shinra' again."

                Rufus opened his eyes, allowing them to only narrowly regard Hojo from the side.  His face remained expressionless, marble and cold as his voice.

                "Furthermore, you are only a few years older than me and as being such, I'm incline to disregard your position and tell you to stay out of my business."

                The professor chuckled again, the edges of his thin lips pulling up slightly.  His gaunt facial structure always made his expressions look a tad worse than they were intended and when he smiled, he looked a tad depraved.

                It was a shame, really, considering his youth and potential for physical attraction.  It wasn't that he tried to dissuade people from approaching him, more that he just didn't honestly care.  His hair was clean cut around his high cheeks, straight as a bone and a deep brown tone, though one could only assume the former for his rumpled appearance.  He did wear glasses and in the oddest way, obscuring his mustard-coloured eyes where they sat on the end of his nose.  He was pale and lanky, rumoured to be because of his experiments and bad habit of testing on himself.  In reality, it was probably closer to being too wrapped up to remember to eat.  Any way you cut it, though, he had the potential that he could be something worth interest.  He just didn't honestly give a damn.

                Furthermore, standing next to perfect Rufus Shinra wasn't helping in the least.

                "You'll change you tune soon enough.  There's a reason that I am where I am to-day.  It's a shame you didn't apply yourself as well."

                Before Rufus could reply, Hojo was off, hands clasped behind his back, heading toward the building in question.  Both tree-standers watched him go, as if blinking would mean he would return to their sides.  Once safely tucked inside, the blonde sighed visibly, running an agitated hand through his hair.

                "You aren't the only one who finds his company appalling."

                The Shinra boy looked to Tseng, confirming it was he who had agreed and then nodded himself, not really questioning the reassurance.  He shifted slightly, switching his jacket from one arm to the other.

                "I don't care.  I will never respect him and he knows I won't."

                "Don't let him get to you.  He's just using the power your father gave him."

                "They can both rot, for all I care."

                "That's not very nice."

                "Have I ever claimed to be?"

                The interior of the dorm was disarray, bags and suitcases and random article that wouldn't fit into the aforementioned items were littered around the common room, no rhyme or reason to their placement and half seemingly forgotten completely.  It didn't seem easy to find one's room; the sheer number of hallways and floors enough to baffle just about everyone.  It was somewhat wonderful.

                Hojo stepped around an oversized stuffed dog and the suitcase it seemed to be guarding, calmly parting the semi-chaos as he walked and smiling sickly at the dozens of milling, bewildered students.  Some were arguing about what floor their slip said they were on, others were wishing they were home with their families, some just wanted somewhere to put their things so they could try and catch a late lunch.  Whatever the reason, they were all ending up right where they began and the point of Hojo's continued amusement.

                The professor slithered his way through the knots of students, making way to the stairwell.  He chuckled to himself at the ignorant fools who were all standing in the elevator and wondering why it wasn't going up.  He almost felt like interrupting their idiocy to inform them of this, but in the end, he just began his long walk upward towards the laboratory and staff floors.

                His footsteps echoed in the cavernous stairwell, tapping lightly with every ascending step and reverberating into obscurity.  His mind was already dwelling in other locations and on other things, subconsciously counting the steps as he climbed as to not interrupt himself with checking the floor number.  He'd done this for a month now, mapping out the entire building by his stride and programming it into his head, as not to bother himself with such things while he was thinking.

                The topic of thought was lying upon forming some sort of need for Rufus to respect him, some form of innocent blackmail that could keep the boy in line.  He wondered silently if the blonde was jealous of him, of the way his father had spent almost all waking hours with him in the past few years, paying for him to attend college and skip highschool all together and then even afterwards, working with him in tow on the very Midgar campus itself.  Wouldn't that just be hilarious?

                Two hundred seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven...

                Hojo turned, slipping through the doorway leading out into the hall.  Pets weren't allowed on campus, were they?  Well, that would be it then.  That would be how he pinned Rufus for at least one favour.  He chuckled to itself, the echoes replying to him and giving him the recognition he deserved.  He'd made his first big step, getting here and a job, teaching people close enough to his own age to count on one hand, all that was left was to get things squared away and to do something amazing or groundbreaking.  Something to write home about, so to speak.

                "Which means to get rid of you, Gast."

                "...what about Gast?"

                The scientist frowned a little, turning to look behind him.  A girl was peering out of one of the staff rooms, a look of buried hope in her face.  He looked what he could see of her over, not finding her to have any readily available deformity to speak of.  She was obviously a student.

                "You're probably going to be his pupil and should not be near this floor until you are summoned for classes next week.  Before you mess anything up, I suggest you go back downstairs and start looking for your room in a different manner."

                The girl furrowed her cinnamon coloured eyebrows, stepping out into the hall.  She was wearing a Shinra labcoat, a clipboard clutched to her chest in a sort of nervous habit.  Her long brown hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and away from her confused features.

                "I.. I'm sorry.  This is my floor, though, I'm sure of it.  The Headmaster showed me here himself, looking for Professor Hojo and Professor Gast.  I don't think it's a mistake."

                "Why was the Headmaster looking for Hojo and Gast?"  Curiosity was getting the better of him.  Besides the fact that he was finding the girl subtly charming in her hopeful honesty.

                "He had some sort of agenda for the first set of experiments.  And he wanted to assign Professor Gast an assistant."

                "Mn.  You don't say.  What about these experiments?"

                The girl glanced down at her clipboard, not pulling it from her chest, but rather just reassuring herself of what she already knew.

                "He wants them to teach about the properties of Mako and begin experiments with it and organic lifeforms.  He said he had further but didn't want to disclose the project to anyone but them."

                Without so much as a thank you, Hojo turned and began walking back the way he intended, slinking down the hall at his same pace as if he'd never stopped.  He almost ignored the approaching footsteps and as they slowed next to him, he nearly didn't stop at all.  Somehow he thought it would be wiser to just humour the girl.

                "Wait, do you know where I could find one of them?  I really need to deliver this to them and find out where I'm working."

                The scientist snatched the clipboard, flipping through the first few pages and then placing it in one of the large pockets on his labcoat.  The girl was ready to protest, the sound catching in her throat as he addressed her directly, looking over his glasses in disdain.

                "I am Professor Hojo, Gast is somewhere else doing something else and I don't honestly care at the moment what or where.  Thank you for giving me the clipboard and now I'd like to ask you to please leave this floor and find your correct hall."

                She looked stunned a minute but gave a small bow of the head, her hands closing around Hojo's at the same time.  His eyes automatically narrowed, even as the puzzled, hopeless expression on the girl's face melted into a smile.

                "Oh, good!  I've been looking for one of you for hours now and I was beginning to wonder if I didn't have the wrong building!"  She paused, laughing slightly at her own outburst.  "I'm sorry...  My name's Lucrecia.  I'll be working here with the two of you while I study."

                Hojo had a dozen insulting things to say to this girl, ready to fire off each in succession that would leave her stunned for several moments before she began to cry.  He opted against it, retrieving his hand and resuming his pace.

                "If that's the case, Lucrecia, I suppose I'll have to show you around this level and hope we find Gast."  From the corner of his eyes, the professor caught a glimpse of Lucrecia's warm smile and the relieved tilt of her eyebrows.

                "Thank you, sir."

                   It took forever for Rude to return from his errand, his well-paced strides not getting him anywhere within any amount of time. He did finally arrive, an envelope in hand. Reno was the first to spot him, alerting everyone else by swinging down from the tree and nearly taking off Tseng's head in the process. He was overeager, true, but he had a good reason.
                   Rude was brandishing the keys to the suite.
                   He sprinted over the second he was on solid ground, circling the shaven Turk and firing off half a million questions. Where was it, was it at the top of the building, how many rooms did it have, when is he gonna give out the goddamned keys, can we go get food? The elder of the pair said nothing in reply until he reached the others beneath the tree. The redhead wasn't all that amused. He vaulted off the ground and his arms wrapped around the taller Turk's neck. He hung there, sinking his teeth into Rude's shoulder and growling around the mouthfull of cloth.
                   "Gimme a fuckin' key, let's go, let's go!"
                   "I'm not sure we're staying Reno, so I suggest you calm down."
                   Rufus shook his head, taking the envelope from Rude and shaking a key into his hand. He turned to the building and gave it one more scan before pocketing the key.
                   "Yes, we're going in. But I'm steadily building reason to leave now and we'll all be back home before you can say 'Sector 7 Trainstation.'"
                   That said, the blonde slipped the rest of the keys, still in their envelope, into his pocket. He readjusted the jacket on his shoulders and nodded slightly to Tseng, moving past him towards the dorm. Reno made one last outstretched grab and then settled back, wrapping his legs around Rude's waist. Unfettered by his newly acquired cargo, Rude fell into line behind the others and following silently.
                   The bustled of the commonroom was still in full swing and no one cared that Rufus was the headmaster's son now. That became quite certain as the stout little green suited student, identified as Heidegger, pushed past him and knocked him clear off his feet. The blonde fell backwards, saving himself and none of his dignity with a desperate grab to Rude's jacket. He swung slightly, hitting him in the knees and falling completely to the floor afterwards. Rude swayed slightly, taking a step backwards to keep his balance, and stared down at the boy at his feet.
                   "Out of my way."
                   Heidegger's grunt was the last of him as he disappeared from sight into the mesh of bewildered students. Tseng made a brief grab for him, darting back and forth in a futile attempt at following him with his eyes, before settling back onto his heels again with a soft growl. Rude, meanwhile, had offered a hand to Rufus, who denied it for some bit of pride and stood up himself.
                   "We're leaving."
                   Tseng turned, blinking in a slight state of shock at the sudden decision. Even Rude couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, his usual silence still in place. The oriental-featured Turk shook his head a little, as if chasing the surprise from his expression, stepping towards the injured business major.
                   "Shouldn't we at least look at the suite? It's hectic down here right now and it'll be better after everyone else finds their rooms." He paused, gaging how his reasoning was going over. It wasn't. "We can just stay up there until it's time for classes. Nothing says we have to interact with them."
                   "I won't do it." Rufus replied, shaking his head and turning for the door. "I've seen enough to convince me I don't want anything to do with my father's idiotic notion. We're going back home to finish at some sort of respectable school."
                   The blonde kept moving, walking straight and haughty as ever. It wasn't unnoticed when the jacket slipped from his grasp, pulling from his loose fingers. He turned sharply, finding only the back of Rude's head to accuse. Reno was gone, now standing closer to the ebony-haired boy.
                   "No way, Rufie. I'm goin' up there, I'm checkin' in and I'm ridin' this for all it's worth. You can go ahead and try to stop me."
                   The redhead darted away, slipping into the crowd as Heidegger had and working his way for the stairwell. Unlike the dwarf-esque student, his red hair was easy to follow, though physically was another story entirely.
                   "Reno! Get back here, we're leaving! RENO!"
                   The business major's eyes were burning with a sort of cold fire, the defiance adding more insult to his injury. He was willing some sort of heavy object to fall from the sky and land right on top of the redhead, thoroughly and completely crushing him beyond recognition. But, naturally, there was no such good luck and no matter what he was willing to happen, it wasn't. And it was obvious.
                   "...we're leaving without him, then."
                   Rude's eyebrow joined the other, both peeking over his sunglasses in suprise. He looked for a moment like he had something to say, but it got lost on the way to his mouth and he just stared from behind the shaded glass.
                   "...we can't just leave without him."
                   The blonde narrowed his eyes on Tseng, meeting the cool grey with his own frigid blue. His hatred was turned without dampening on the older Turk, wordless and fine as being such.
                   "I'm leaving NOW. If you aren't coming with me, you might as well just stay here for eternity, you are NOT coming near me again."
                   Tseng closed his eyes, a mental count to ten running by in a loop. He turned, calmly walking towards where Reno had gone, Rude following behind him. Rufus gaped, his anger slipping into more of a complete bewilderment and shock. His lips moved a few moments before his senses arrived to put sound to them.
                   "What are you DOING?!"
                   "...there aren't any more trains to-day. You might as well come up to the suite. Unless, of course, you want to sleep in the auditorium."
                   With that, the remaining blue suits were gone, sliding into the stairwell and walking upwards. The Shinra boy turned, stalking toward the double doors, intent on leaving still. He paused, his hand resting on the push-bar, mind milling around what had just transpired. He growled softly, whirling on his heels and running after his roommates. Logic had prevailed.