BunnyFarmer: I've taken into consideration what you've said so I've got one of my friends beta-ing for me. She's not into BL and doesn't know anything about FFVII but she's really nitpicky about spelling and notices all the little things that I don't.
I have changed the subheadings to English but neither one of us can be bothered thinking of a new name for the title so I've decided to leave it as that and I feel that it will be fine to just leave the prologue on its own. Thank you for the constructive criticism though.
Oh and about the smut thing… Yeah I won't be writing huge amounts of smut. The idea of them being part monster/animal and having abilities according to that animal was the only idea taken from love monster. This will not follow love monsters storyline. (To those of you that were interested, there will be no lemon. It may be implied in future though.)
Ashlan: I would make the chapters longer but then it would take a much longer time to get them out. It will take even longer once my holidays are over and university starts again. Don't let my first two chapters fool you. I am a slow updater. That prologue was unbelievably short which is why the first chapter came out much faster, because I had already written it before I started posting.
Edit: I've added to the end of this Chapter because after this there's a small time jump that didn't fit in with the next chapter. If you find words stuck together that aren't meant to be it's because for some odd reason document manager doesn't like it when you copy paste.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
"Yo Luxiere!" The man in question looked up as Zack and Kunsel approached him. Zack was waving his arms frantically as if he couldn't already see them there. It was hard to miss someone wearing a first class uniform, as well as the giant sword that was attached to Zack's back.
"What brings the two of you here?"
"I have a question for you about your teaching methods, because when I asked Seph about it he went on about how you've been teaching more than me, so you know what you're doing. Then I asked Gen and he just told me to sit down and shut up. And when I asked Angel he was all like, 'my way of teaching isn't the only way puppy,' with that deep sexy chuckle of his." Both Kunsel and Luxiere stared at Zack for a moment.
"That last part was a bit too much information Zack." Kunsel finally said after the awkward silence. Zack just shrugged and set his expectant gaze back on Luxiere, who just blinked back at him.
"And what was your question Zack?" He inquired when it was obvious that Zack was expecting him to say something. The first class blinked in confusion for a moment. Hadn't he already asked him? Actually, thinking about it now, he hadn't. Mentally chuckling at his own silliness he finally asked.
"You know that little chocobo looking cadet in your class?" Luxiere nodded.
"The crane? Though, with his abilities, or should I say lack thereof, he might as well be a chocobo. Their type are only good as pack mules."
"See! There! That right there! That's what I'm talking about! What's your deal? It's not like he's done anything bad yet."
"Alright, alright. Calm yourself Zack. You haven't even given me a chance to explain myself." Luxiere sighed as Zack's look turned expectant again. "As far as I know, Strife's a half."
"Hey you don't know that. His dad isn't listed." Luxiere raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that, but aside from that. How many monsters do you know that don't look like anyone else of their species that aren't half?"
"Er… Seph and Gen? It's weird for crows not to have black hair I heard. Also Tseng has black hair. I thought that foxes were meant to have silver hair."
"Aside from hair colour Zack."
"I've heard that some of the dogs on guard duty get their tails cut off so they aren't a hindrance." Zack shuddered at the thought. "Hojo offered to do it for me once." Luxiere shook his head. Pressing his fingers against his forehead as he could already feel a headache coming on.
"Once again Zachary that's self inflicted. I'm sure that Strife hasn't… Clipped his wings to make them look like that. Even if he did, they would have just re-grown when he wanted them to."
"Ok, fine, let's say that the cadet is half. What has that got to do with anything?" Luxiere sighed in irritation.
"I was getting to that. You see most young monsters think that because someone's half, it makes them easy picking."
"Then aren't you just encouraging them?"
"Alright, look. My classes start at 7, so if you can get up that early, why don't you have a look around the training rooms at around 5 in the morning and you'll see why." Zack pouted at the note of finality in Luxiere's tone, but he knew that the second class wasn't going to say anything more on the topic.
Zack ended up not even seeing the cadet for another few weeks. It wasn't that he actively looked out for him, in fact, he had forgotten all about his conversation with Luxiere the day after and the topic had never been brought up again.
The second time he saw him was because Rufus Shinra was dragging him down the hallways to look at something interesting he found while Zack was still half asleep. "What is so important that you have me down here at 4:30 in the morning?" He whined.
"Shush puppy, I thought that you were a morning person. God knows how many times I hear Genesis whining about how hyper you can be as soon as you get up for the day."
"I'm used to getting up at 6, not 4:30. Even Sephiroth's still asleep at this time. You're just lucky I wasn't in his room today or, president's son or not, he would have skewered you alive with Masamune." Rufus merely shrugged his shoulders.
"If you had been in Sephiroth's room then you would have just missed out on the show." They entered one of the observation boxes and Zack seemed to wake up fully when he heard a bird cry.
"What was that?" Rufus smirked.
"Go have a look." Curiously, Zack moved closer to the glass. The virtual training program hadn't been started up so all that was there was a large metal room. Flying around in that room was a Phoenix summon and Bahamut. His eyes widened at the sight.
"Two summons at the same time? You've got to be kidding me. The only person I know with that ungodly amount of magic power is Genesis."
"If you think that's surprising you'll be even more shocked to see who's doing the summoning." As if on cue, a fire 3 was being fired at Bahamut and Zack's eyes widened in surprise. On top of the Phoenix summon was the blond cadet that Luxiere had been picking on a few weeks ago.
"You're pulling my tail aren't you Rufus? There's no way in hell that a cadet… A half human cadet could summon two monsters and fire level three spells at said summons at the same time. I don't think even Genesis could do that."
"Well you're looking at him Zack." The wolf stared at Cloud for a few more moments, admiring how easily the cadet managed to steer Phoenix away from Bahamut's attacks, before he turned his attention back at Rufus who seemed to be content with watching from a distance instead of plastering himself to the glass as Zack had a tendency to do.
"So how did you find him?"
"Father called me for a meeting at some unholy hour of the morning and I saw him sneaking into the training rooms. Let's just say that I ended up missing that meeting."
"You actually skipped a meeting just to stare at him?" Rufus merely shrugged.
"Even you have to admit that he's interesting." Zack just turned his attention back to the cadet and the two continued to watch him till there was a loud beeping noise coming from within the training room. Zack looked around, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from while the cadet almost immediately stopped and jumped off Phoenix, calling his summons back.
"What was that?" Zack turned to Rufus questioningly while the other man just looked down at his watch.
"It's 5 already. This is around the time he heads back to his rooms. He tends to stay longer on Saturdays since they don't have classes on the weekends." Zack raised an eyebrow at him.
"Exactly how long have you been watching him? Especially since you already know his timetable. He hasn't been here for that long."
"A week and a bit, saw him wandering in here on a Saturday and have been coming to watch him ever since."
"You kind of sound a bit stalkerish there Rufus. As Tseng would usually say 'such actions are unbecoming of the presidents son.'" Rufus shrugged again.
"What he doesn't know won't hurt him."
"By the way, one more question… Why are there so many spider webs in here?" Rufus grinned at that.
"I figured since I'm spending so much time in here might as well make it like home. It's not like that many people use this observation room anyways."
"Reno, it's time to get up. We have classes in… An hour and we haven't even had breakfast yet." The red head merely rolled over muttering something about chocolate and foxes. Cloud's eye twitched as irritation started to set in. "Reno… If you don't get up now, you're going to miss out on Tseng dancing in his underwear on the tables in the mess hall." At that, Reno shot up from his bed. His head colliding with Clouds and they both yelped in pain.
"The hell yo? What was that for chickabo?" Reno brought a hand up to rub the spot on his head, wincing when his fingers made contact. That was going to bruise.
"I was trying to get you to wake up. It's not my fault that you're impossible in the mornings." Cloud moved over to the mirror to see his own injury. "I thought that you were meant to be a weasel. Aren't you guys meant to be highly alert or something?"
"Hey, not everyone's the same. I just happen to be a weasel that can't get up in the mornings yo." Reno mumbled as he pushed his blankets away and stepped out of his bed. Cloud reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold armlet. Attaching it to his wrist, he focused on activating his cure materia to heal the now forming bruise. Once the magic had washed over him, he made another quick check to make sure the bruise was entirely gone before he felt something crash into the back of his head, almost hurtling him into the mirror. He glared down at the offending object sitting innocently at his feet.
"Reno, pillows are for sleeping on not throwing."
"Hey, it's not fair yo. You're not allowed to heal yourself. Especially if you're just going to leave me with this thing on my forehead." Reno pointed at the red mark on his head while Cloud turned his glare on him.
"It's your own fault for not getting up in the first place."
"Hey it's your fault for hovering over me like that yo. Come on chickabo, heal me." Cloud considered just walking off. After all, it would teach Reno a lesson about not getting up in a morning. Reno seemed to notice and his lips started forming a pout. His eyes started watering and he whined pitifully. "Cloudy…"
"Alright, fine, save your tears you damned weasel." Cloud shot a cure in his direction and Reno bounced up out of his bed and lifted Cloud into a hug.
"Thanks chickabo." He buried his head into Cloud's hair, making Cloud giggle before he set him back on the ground.
"I'll head to lunch first."
"What you're not going to wait for me?" Cloud shook his head while he unclipped his armlet and put it back in his pocket. "Fine, go eat first without me. I'll be a few minutes yo. Have to have a quick shower first." With that Reno disappeared into the bathroom while Cloud started making his way out of their room and towards the mess hall. This past week Cloud had gotten into the habit of going to sleep at the usual 9:00, despite Reno's protests that he went to sleep far too early. The weasel had quickly learnt that trying to force Cloud to stay awake was not a good thing to do. A well aimed fire 3 and a cure later, Cloud had been sleeping peacefully, while his room-mate would have been found hiding in the bathroom; traumatised by Cloud's other personality. Following Cloud's early bed time, he would regularly get up at 3:00 in the morning before heading to one of the training rooms to train with his materia. Once it hit 5:00 he'd head back to his dorms and proceed with the long process of waking Reno up before heading to breakfast and then attending lessons where he would be constantly ridiculed by the other cadets and ignored by his commander.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The little Halfling going to lunch all on his lonesome?" Cloud fought off the urge to freeze at the sound of Johnny's voice and kept on walking. "What's wrong Halfling? Too good to talk to someone from the same town as you?" Cloud stopped and turned, setting a glare on the taller boy, who simply smirked in return, happy that he had finally got Cloud to react.
"Listen Johnny, I don't know what's up with you. I don't even know why the hell you followed me all the way here to Shinra. All I know is that I'm not dealing with your crap. So either leave me alone or else I'm calling you in for harassment." The next thing he knew all Cloud could feel was pain as he collided with the wall behind him. The other boy was holding his arms down while his face was a mere inch away from his own.
"Listen to me little Halfling. I don't ever want you talking back to me like that ever again. You belong to me and me alone."
"You disgust me." Cloud spat in his face. Enraged, Johnny raised an arm and Cloud closed his eyes, bracing himself for the contact… It never came. Slowly he opened his eyes again, only to find that someone was holding Johnny's arm.
"What is all this in the hallways? I'm sure you know what the consequences are for insubordination and harassing your fellow cadets." Cloud blinked in surprise. It was Commander Luxiere.
"S… Sir." Johnny stuttered.
"I don't want to hear any excuses. I can already tell what's going on here. Don't make me send you both to General Sephiroth, because that's what I'll do if I catch you in this kind of situation ever again. Now put Strife down and get to the mess hall." Johnny was quick to drop Cloud, who landed on the floor with a dull thud, having lost all use of his legs. "You alright Strife?" Cloud blinked up at the hand that was being offered to him before he hesitantly took it. Luxiere easily lifted him up and helped him stand still, till he was able to do so on his own.
"I'm sorry you had to see that sir."
"You should make do with your threat Strife." Cloud blinked again in surprise. "Calling him in for harassment that is. I know it's not one of the most manly things to do, but it would save you from a lot of grief. People like him are not needed within the SOLDIER programme, but without evidence, we can't do anything about kicking them out. We've had a lot of cases like this in the past and lost a lot of good potential SOLDIERS in the process, while we got stuck with idiots that are all brawn and no brain." Cloud sure hoped that his mouth wasn't hanging open in shock at what Luxiere was saying.
"Er… Permission to speak freely sir?" His commander nodded. "What are you saying? I mean I thought that you hated me, but now you're telling me that I should report someone for harassing me?" Luxiere grinned at that.
"I don't hate you Strife. It's a standard teaching method." Cloud blinked. "You went to monster school right? I mean, of course you did. There's no way a monster could go to a normal human school without revealing themselves, whether it's by accident or not. You ever do essay writing or some crap like that?" Slowly, Cloud nodded his head. "You ever get told your work was total crap and that you should do it all over again only to get an A+ in the end?"
"Well… I've gotten close to one." Luxiere shrugged.
"Same method, after all, you've been training really early in the mornings haven't you? I'm sure that was you I've seen sneaking out of the dorms at 3 in the morning." Cloud just kept his mouth shut. They had strict protocols here. You had to be in your dorms by 10, but there had never been a specified wakeup time. Luxiere seemed to realise this and he chuckled. "Don't worry about it Strife. There's nothing in the rule books about not being allowed to get up at some ungodly hour just to train. You might want to head breakfast though. My lesson's in half an hour and you really don't want to train on an empty stomach." With that Cloud dashed towards the mess hall, not before throwing a quick 'thank you sir' over his shoulder and Luxiere's grin just got wider. "Heh… Cute kid. Kind of reminds me of Zack when we started out."