I added to the last chapter if you haven't already seen it, please read it.

BunnyFarmer: I believe you're under a bit of a misconception. English is my first language. In fact, it's the only language I can read and write fluently. Cantonese is my second language and Japanese is my University major. (I can see why you thought that though. Also Meiyun isn't my real name.) Don't worry though, I'm aware of the fact that my writing skills aren't the greatest.

About Rufus. He's Zack's best friend in this. Usually writers tend make Reno Zack's best friend, but since Reno's been taken by Cloud, Zack's best friend is now Rufus.

Haruhaze: Nice guess, but unfortunately Cloud is not a Phoenix. (Sorry if I spoilt it for you. I just didn't want to get your hopes up only for you to be disappointed.)

I apologise for the wait. Mum decided that she wanted to be sharing so half the house including me ended up with her cold.

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.

During the few weeks that Zack and Rufus had been observing Cloud, Zack had found out a few things about the cadet. First of all, Cloud had only two magic materia; cure and fire. His cure didn't seem to be mastered and was barely ever equipped, but his fire materia had obviously been mastered some time ago. Second of all, he had three summon materia. Phoenix and Bahamut were the only two that he knew of and the last one had never been summoned, though Zack had noticed the red materia glowing eerily in one of the slots in Cloud's gold armlet at one point. That had been the last thing Zack had noticed. Cloud had a gold armlet. Once his curiosity had peaked, he finally decided to ask Sephiroth about where you could find gold armlets. Either the cadet had stopped in Rocket Town at some point and spent a whole lot of gil on it, or he had managed to find one that had been dropped by a dragon on Mt Nibel.

"I wonder how that cadet is when it comes to hand to hand." Zack almost jumped a meter in the air at the sound of Rufus' voice. He had almost forgotten that the vice president had been sitting behind him. "We've only seen him using materia." Either Rufus didn't notice Zack's small jump he just chose to ignore it.

"Maybe I should ask Luxiere how he is at it." Zack offered and Rufus raised an eyebrow at him.

"You are aware of the fact that he is going to wonder why you're asking about the cadet. After all this time you should have forgotten all about him." Zack sighed.

"Fine. How about this then… I'll ask Luxiere if I can observe his next lesson. You know, so that I can learn to be a better teacher and all that stuff. It's a good reason right?"

"Viable reason, but what would bring this on? After all, we all know that you have absolutely no interest in teaching whatsoever."

"Hey, I have an interest in teaching." Rufus sent Zack a disbelieving look. "Ok fine I have no interest in teaching whatsoever. Anyways, Luxiere is a good friend of mine and I can get Seph to back me up. It's not like he'll say no, right?"

"Whatever you say Zack. By the way, if you're going down there, you want to do me a favour?" Zack shrugged and Rufus took that as a sign that he was listening. "Look for a red headed weasel."

"Weasel?" Rufus looked a bit uncomfortable as he continued.

"Tseng's… been ignoring me lately."

"Oh?" Zack looked interested now.

"He's just… obsessed with him. I don't know what it is but apparently he can't find any background information on him and apparently he was the one that suggested that the little weasel should join Shinra. He's just…"

"You think he's cheating on you?" Rufus shook his head.

"Tseng may be a fox but he's not that sly. He'd tell me if he wanted to get with someone else… Just… Tell me a bit about him?" Zack nodded. He might as well, after all Rufus was the one that showed him where the little chocobo trained. So he needed to look for a chocobo and a weasel, but first of all, he had to convince Luxiere to let him into his class. It looked like a trip to Sephiroth's office was in order.

"No absolutely not. You can't even handle commanding a couple of cadets when the general is busy. What makes you think that I'd let you anywhere near my own cadets?" Zack pouted at Luxiere.

"Aw come on Luxiere I just want to see how you teach. Besides, I asked Seph. He said I could come observe because I might learn something for once."

"And why exactly does it have to be my hand to hand class? Can't you just… sit there and observe me while I'm teaching one of my theory lessons?"

"Because theory is boring! I'll probably fall asleep right in the middle of it." Luxiere stared at him.

"Is that why your results were only sub-par? Just scraping past the pass level." Zack just turned his eyes elsewhere, not looking at the Second. "You know what, fine, since you're so interested in how I teach, you can at least be of some use and help out." Zack grinned. "But that doesn't mean I'm not suspicious of you. I'll find out what you're scheming up eventually." Zack's grin turned into a frown at that. "Now hurry up. If you make me late for my hand to hand it'll be your head."

"Yeah, yeah, we can't have you acting all late and flustered in front of your cadets can we?" Luxiere glared at him as they headed down the hallways towards Luxiere's usual training room. Zack quickly got over his annoyance with Luxiere at the thought that he'd see the chocobo like cadet up close and personal. He wondered how amazing Cloud's hand to hand would be.

Cloud really hated Reno right now. He had already knocked him back on his ass five times and spent the whole time grinning at him. It was at times like this that Cloud honestly wondered if Reno was part Cheshire cat or something… Did Cheshire cats even exist? He bet if they did, they would look just like Reno. Before he could think more on the subject, he felt himself being knocked back again and braced himself for the impact. It never came.

"Whoa there don't you think you're spacing out a bit too much there spikey?" He blinked and turned around to face his saviour, only to find himself face to face with Zack Fair. He could feel the blood rushing to his face and he turned away to hide it, catching a glimpse of Reno, who's grin had turned up a few notches.

"Spikey? Looks like you got a new nickname chickabo." Cloud glared.

"Shut up Reno." Zack grinned. He had been surprised at first when he saw how bad the cadet was at hand to hand, but if his materia use didn't make up for it, his attitude would have. "Stupid weasel, just because you grew up in the slums where you had to learn to fight." If possible Zack's grin got even wider. It looked like he had found Rufus' weasel as well.

"Just because you were brought up in a town in the middle of nowhere, where the most fighting you had to do was with a chicken, doesn't mean you have to take it out on me yo." Reno shot back with that grin still on his face. If Cloud still wasn't being held, he would have hit Reno… Which reminded him, Lieutenant Fair was still holding onto him.

"Um… Er… Sir…" Damn, he was stuttering. Zack just looked down at him questioningly. "Could you… let go of me?" Zack blinked before realising that he was still holding onto the cadet.

"Oh sorry Cloud, didn't realise I was still holding onto you." He let him go and Cloud stepped away from him, petting down his hair in the process. "It's a bit dangerous daydreaming while you're practising hand to hand, also you need to stop trying to just charge at your partner all the time, you're full of openings." Cloud nodded his head before Zack bounded off. Cloud felt Reno wrap his arms around him as he was pulled up against the weasel's chest protectively. He looked up at Reno confused while the other boy was glaring at Zack's retreating form.

"Not that your affection is unwanted Reno, but I thought that you were in love with that Turk?"

"You should stay away from the Lieutenant." Cloud blinked in confusion.

"Why?"

"Just stay away from him." Reno didn't really think that it was anything to be worried about, but the fact that the Lieutenant had known Cloud's name without anyone telling him was enough to put him on edge.

Having accomplished his mission, Zack waved a goodbye to Luxiere, signalling that he was leaving before he headed out the doors. He flipped his PHS open during the process and dialled Rufus' number.

"What is it Fair?" Zack pouted as he made his way towards the elevators.

"What? Not happy to hear from me? After I tell you that I saw that little weasel your lover's so interested in and that I found out some interesting things from that one lesson?"

"Well?" Zack clicked his tongue at him.

"Say please."

"Stop playing around Zack, just tell me."

"Well the chocobo's terrible at hand to hand… Maybe I should mentor him or something, that might be fun. I can get to know him at the same time. On the other hand the weasel seems to not like me."

"What do you mean not like you?"

"Don't know, but I could practically feel his glare on the back of my head when I was leaving. By the way, funny fact. The weasel and chocobo are friends."

"Ok… Is that it?" The elevator dinged, signalling that it had arrived and Zack stepped in, hitting the button for floor 51.

"Well what did you expect? It was only one lesson. It's not like I'm going to be able to find out that much about them in less than an hour."

"So are you going to go again?"

"That was the general idea." The elevator dinged again as it stopped and Zack ran his fingers over the buttons casually before he stepped out, not even feeling sorry for the unknowing cadet that stepped in as he headed towards Sephiroth's office.

"So what's your game plan?"

"Go to a few classes." Zack swiped his stolen keycard before pushing open the door to Sephiroth's office and made his way over to the desk, obviously taking advantage of the fact that there was no one there. "Maybe get to know him a bit and I might even find some information on that little weasel of Tseng's." He ignored the annoyed sound that came from the other side of the phone. "Then we'll see what happens from there. If all goes well, I'll have this cute little chocobo like cadet all to myself to train." He started shuffling through the desk and pulled out a piece of paper with a triumphant yell.

"Zack… what are you doing?"

"Oh, you know, the usual."

"Which is?"

"Breaking into Sephiroth's office, stealing one of those papers that he uses for official stuff and forging his handwriting." There was a sigh from the other end of the phone.

"The things you get away with…" Zack just grinned.