Disclaimer: Kit Thespian does not own Final Fantasy VII or the characters therein. And she is not making any money off of this.

Review Response!

Sulphurya: No matter how hard I try, I always managed to put a ridiculous or awkward situation even in my "serious" stories. It must be my nature. But I'm glad that I managed to put in a goodly amount of angst. (breaks out the streamers) KIT THESPIAN MANAGED TO KEEP IN ANGST! YAY!

Lone Gunmen: Hojo/Lucrecia fics are sadly missed. I honestly don't think there is much in the game to support Vincent/Lucrecia. In the flashback, it looked like she didn't want to have anything to do with him. And at the waterfall, she didn't want him to come close. There was no, "I missed you, Vincent." or "I wish we could've..." or anything like that, so I wonder just how much she liked him, if at all. All she wanted to know was if Sephiroth was all right.

Foxy Blondie: I'm glad you like the idea. Nobody's BORN evil.

Suzumi: You...love...Hojo. Oo. Hey, it's all good. He's charming and all and has an overall mystique about him. It's all good.

Crystelle: You're way off. Those were all GREAT names ('cept maybe Judas). I'll give all of you a hint: Hojo's first name is so obvious that you'll wonder why you didn't think of it before. The t-shirt selection is based off one of your ideas, by the way.

edwardmorte: GASP! Another fellow Hojo fan! You rock! Thank you for the compliment. All of the other Hojo fics are the same: a mindless, perverted monster who was born with an evil gene and feels nothing towards Lucrecia and thinks of Sephiroth as a lab rat. Now, I think he got a really good eccentric gene, but not an evil one. And oh so charming. (snicker) No, his dad's not Shinra, but I'll give you a hint (or you could just go read "Up a Treehouse" and it'll be given away): Who his dad is is not so important as who his half-brother is...

Chapter Four

Birthday Presents

After using eighty degrees on the new specimen, it produced promising results. Strength and stamina were raised and it seemed to put the specimen on a rush. But it was a euphoric rush. Gast was perfectly comfortable with letting the thing out of its cage and placed on a leash. However, Hojo was the one that was supposed to walk it around. Not one to disobey an order, Hojo relented, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the creature didn't jerk him around, but instead just walked in front of him like a good dog.

"See, Lucrecia?" Dr. Gast said to his female assistant as Hojo walked the retriever to the testing treadmill, "It only takes the right dosage to produce the perfect result."

Lucrecia smiled at the dog, who was behaving as a normal dog should: wagging its tail, panting with its tongue hanging out, etc. She wrote down all the details on her notepad while Dr. Gast stood at the controller for the treadmill and pushed the start button.

"Start him slow..." Hojo said, still holding onto the leash.

"I have no intention of hurting him, Professor," Gast said.

"If he falls backwards off of this thing, guess who is going with him? I don't want an early death."

Gast did not respond but turned the speed to 5 mph. The dog trotted merrily along. Over the next few minutes, the speed gradually increased to 40 mph, and the dog was not letting up. It ran and ran. Hojo was curious to see just how the specimen could hold out, but at the same time, he didn't want it to suddenly stop, fly back, and nearly jerk Hojo's arm out of its socket and send him crashing to the floor.

For five minutes, the specimen was able to run 40 mph.

"Incredible..." Lucrecia murmured.

Gast steadily slowed the treadmill down and Hojo took the exhausted specimen back to its cage. After shutting the door, Hojo turned to find Lucrecia approaching the cage. She leaned down and started to talk in a sing-song manner.

"That's a good doggy," she said, grinning, "what a good, good doggy."

"Oh, boy," Hojo rolled his eyes.

"What?" Lucrecia put her hands on her hips, "Just because I'm giving him a little deserved praise for being such a good doggy doesn't mean that you should ridicule me. He could've dragged you all around the room and back," she turned back to the specimen and spoke directly to it, "but he was a good little poochie, yes he was, yes he was..."

Hojo chuckled while Gast shook his head. They were both beginning to realize that there was probably no way that they could ever break the compassionate streak in Lucrecia. It was not only her nature as a woman, but just a part of her.

In fact, Hojo never wanted that part of her to go away. He could find it within himself to be cold against his test subjects, and he found that while he was in that state, it was rather wonderful to have someone there to pull him out of it again. Lucrecia always seemed to remind him to respect life. Gast constantly ignored her behavior, dismissing it as weak. Hojo thought it to be rather noble, since it was so hard for him to react to things the same way that she did.

The President was immensely pleased with the results of the latest experiment. The three scientists' next job was to find a way to inject Mako into humans and get the same results. You see, every procedure was modified to a specific DNA structure by formula. Any one mistake in the new formula could prove disasterous. The first formula had taken weeks to develop, and this formula would be no different. In fact, Gast estimated at least two months before the next formula would be ready.

It was during these next two months that Hojo's twenty-fifth birthday came around. His grandparents had not celebrated his birthday very grandly when he was growing up, so he really wasn't expecting anything. His grandparents were dead, and he had only non-chalantly mentioned to Dr. Gast and Lucrecia that his birthday was in the three days.

The morning of his birthday, Lucrecia and Dr. Rosem greeted Hojo by the elevators.

"We've got a couple of surprises for you," Lucrecia took Hojo's arm as the three entered the elevator.

"Surprises?" Hojo raised an eyebrow, "What for?"

"For your birthday, silly. It is your birthday, isn't it?"

"Well...yes..."

"Can't have a birthday without presents, buddy ol' pal," said Rosem, slapping Hojo on the back, "At least, not while I'm around, you're not."

Hojo was still in a state of shock when Lucrecia and Rosem led him into the staff lounge. They were the only ones in the room. Lucrecia walked out, saying that she would return shortly. Hojo turned to his friend.

"Does this mean that you and Lucrecia have gotten me presents?"

"Yeah!"

"...I don't know what to say."

"Save it until you've opened the presents. It's still up for debate between Lucrecia and myself whether or not you'll like what you see."

Hojo decided not to question further. Lucrecia reentered the room carrying two packages. She and Rosem watched with tense, silent anticipation as Hojo took the one from Rosem and started to open it. The silence was unnecessarily lengthened by the fact that Hojo was trying to unwrap the paper carefully, fold by fold. Both Lucrecia and Rosem were patient sorts, but Rosem couldn't stand it anymore.

"Gosh, Hojo!" he whined, "Just rip it open. The suspense is killing me!"

Hojo finally opened the package to reveal a compact disc. He was relieved to find that it was Ottorino Kalgraria, a famous classical composer.

"Lucrecia said you like that stuff," Rosem said, "So, I figured, 'what the heck'?"

"Thank you...Thank you very much..." Hojo placed the CD aside and started to unwrap Lucrecia's package.

"Here we go again," Rosem looked at his watch and said to Lucrecia, "You think I can a burger in the time it'll take him to open your package?"

"Rosem!" Lucrecia scolded, though with a smirk on her face as she watched Hojo. She thought the ginger way he opened his package was rather cute.

Hojo unwrapped the gift and held it up in front of himself with a very funny look on his face. It was a black t-shirt, and on the front it said, "Insert coffee or face insanity." And on the back it read, "In five...four...three...".

It didn't take Hojo a moment to process the exact meaning of the humorous script, but it did take him a moment to get over the shock of receiving a silly shirt. Then something happened that had not occurred to Hojo for a very long time.

The muscles in his face tightened, and he threw back his head and laughed. As a matter of fact, he laughed so hard that his sides hurt. Rosem was surprised (to say the least) to see the "stiff" Professor Hojo enjoying a good belly laugh, but Lucrecia was delighted. She laughed too and her face glowed.

"You like it?" she asked, amidst her chuckles.

"It's a..." Hojo stopped to laugh a little more, then he continued, "It's a keeper, I must say. I shouldn't wear it to work, though. It could cause serious reprecussions."

That night...

Gast kept Hojo and Lucrecia overtime. At five o' clock, Rosem stopped by the lab to say "See you tommorrow," but Gast wasn't finished yet. After an additional three hours of mathematical calculations and scribblings on notebook paper, Gast was finally ready to call it a day. It was long past twilight and the stars were out when Hojo walked Lucrecia to her car, with his new shirt on his shoulder and his CD in his coat pocket. Funny though, that I mention the stars were out. In the city you couldn't see the stars very well.

Right before they reached her car (one of three on level three of the lonely parking lot; Hojo's was on the other side), Lucrecia looked up at the sky and stopped. She sighed in awe. Hojo tried to find what she was gazing at, but he didn't find anything special.

"What is it?" he asked.

"The moon..." Lucrecia cooed, "It's beautiful."

Hojo saw the moon, and it looked the same to him as it always did: a large, white sphere set in the sky, spinning around the planet. In fact, he could tell Lucrecia the exact calculations of the moon's orbit, its rotation, and how far away it was from the Planet at a certain time of the year. He searched her face, and wondered what was so glorious about the moon that it could invoke such a beautiful expression.

The moon was a non-living thing, a satellite of the Planet, and yet it had managed to bring such tenderness from Lucrecia that it doubled her beauty, taking Hojo's breath away. He was overcome with a desire to bring such emotions out of her himself. He wanted to please her, and for her to adore him, like she was adoring the moon just now.

"If I could only...Lucrecia..." Hojo's thoughts ran as he reached over to Lucrecia's face and brushed a finger against her cheek. She turned her attention from the sky, surprised but not unpleased. Her green eyes were silently questioning him, and instead of shyly pulling his hand away as he probably would have done before, he softly brushed the hair on the back of her head.

He tried to ignore the tightness in his chest and throat, and said, (feeling rather foolish, but going through with it anyway) "Lucrecia...You are beautiful. You're the most beautiful woman I know," He then took his hand away and averted his eyes. Lucrecia stared at him, looking puzzled. He stuttered, "I only wish I...we..." He shook his head and started to walk away, "I'm sorry; I'm being ridiculous. Good night, Lucrecia..."

"Hojo, wait!" Lucrecia went to Hojo and placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and found her standing right in front of him, a little close for comfort. She cupped his face in her hands and said, "Hojo, I didn't know...I mean, I knew that you liked me, but I didn't know that you cared...so much. And you do care. I can see it in your eyes." She put her hands on his shoulders, "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Don't be scared..."

She stood on her toes and kissed Hojo on the cheek. It wasn't a peck, either. It was a gently put, warm kiss. After she finished, she said, "I feel the same way about you..." She leaned her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. He looked down at her, and at the same time, she glanced up and their eyes met.

It was a perfect moment. Moments like these came along only once in a while, so they both decided to take advantage of it. Lucrecia embraced Hojo's neck and kissed him fully on the lips. Hojo rubbed his hands along Lucrecia's back, and then caressed her hair.

It has long been debated whether or not Hojo would have asked Lucrecia to marry him then and there if it weren't for a slight interruption.

"Excuse me..."

Lucrecia jerked away from Hojo, her lips still puckered a little from the kiss. Hojo looked and saw their boss standing about thirty feet away.

"I didn't mean to intrude," Dr. Gast said, "but it's difficult not to notice the couple in the parking lot."

"Dr. Gast, I...I mean, we..." Lucrecia's face was as red as a beet.

Hojo knew that Lucrecia was scared to retort to her boss, for fear of risking his anger and therefore her post at Shinra Inc. But he was hardly afraid of Gast.

"Lucrecia and I have feelings for each other," he said, "That is not a crime, Professor."

"Hmph..." Gast started to walk away, "Good night, Doctor."

Hojo didn't dignify him with a response as he turned to Lucrecia.

"Don't be afraid of him," he whispered.

"I think I should go now..." she murmured; then she looked up, smiling coyly, "See you tommorrow, Hojo."

Hojo leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, "Tommorrow." He looked up, "You know, now that I think about it, the moon does look quite beautiful tonight...Quite beautiful..."