Hi everyone. I'm back in Wellington now.
Thank you very much DeadlySakura15 for the wonderful piece of fanart. If any of you would like to see it, the link is in the reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Cloud poked his head around the door to his and Reno's room to check if his roommate was there. There was the sound of water running, indicating that the weasel was in the bathroom. Sighing in relief, he walked into the room. Closing the door behind him before settling himself in the middle of his bed, wondering how he was going to relay what he had just heard without telling Reno that he had heard Zack talking to Cissnei about it in the lobby.
There was the sound of the water shutting off and a few seconds later, Reno was walking back in with just a pair of black pants on and a towel around his shoulders. He was using the end of the towel to dry off his hair. "Where did you go off to chickabo? You didn't come back after training. Lost you in the crowd. I thought something happened to you, but when I went back, you weren't there."
"Vice president Shinra caught me and asked me to take some papers for him to the receptionist in the lobby. I heard some really interesting stuff there."
"Really? Like what?" Reno finished drying off his hair and threw the towel on his bed before he started rummaging through his drawers for proper clothes. Cloud paused for a moment, wondering how he was going to put this. He was going to have to put all his lying skills into practise.
"There were two people discussing how to get into the Turks." Reno almost immediately stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to look at Cloud.
"What did you just say?"
"There were two people in the lobby discussing how to get into the Turks." Reno moved so that he was sitting opposite Cloud on the bed.
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah… Some girl she was wearing a suit and she has kind of brownish red hair. Don't know what kind of monster she was though. She was in her human form." Reno's eyes seemed to light up.
"She's probably a Turk as well. The only one that I know about is Tseng… You know cause he's the head of the department. There isn't really much information about all the others. What about the other person that was with her?" Cloud shrugged. Just don't think about the fact that you're lying. Just look at him normally and talk as if you really believed what you were saying.
"Some guy. He was wearing a Soldier uniform, but I don't think that I've ever met him before." There was no indication that Reno didn't believe his lie.
"So what did they say?"
"Something about proving that you're good enough to get into the Turks. The woman said something about you doing something that would catch their attention but it can't be something that would put you in any kind of spot light. Well she said 'not make a spectacle of himself' specifically."
"Himself?" Reno raised an eyebrow and Cloud was quick to follow up with another lie.
"He was asking how he could get into the Turks. I guess he probably thinks that Turks get paid better than SOLDIERS do… Either that or he just thinks that their job is easier." Reno snorted.
"Their training isn't as bad as SOLDIER I don't think. I'm pretty sure I heard that they specialise in only one weapon of their choice. Unlike in the normal military. If you're a cadet you get a gun and you're forced to learn hand to hand combat in case your weapons taken from you. If you're in SOLDIER you get a sword and materia. Turks have it way easy." Cloud shook his head.
"If you get into First Class you get to pick what kind of sword you choose. At least, that's what commander Fair told me." Reno made a face at the mention of that name. "That's why he and General Hewley use Buster Swords and General Rhapsodos uses a materia infused sword."
"Anyone tell you that the information that you have on the First Classes is really creepy?" Cloud poked his tongue out at Reno who merely laughed it off. "Anyway, what did you mean by Turks have it easy? If they don't learn hand to hand then what happens if their weapon is taken from them?" Reno smirked.
"You either run and get it or you're dead. I guess they're all proficient in using guns as well, so they might all carry one with them. I mean I don't know what Tseng uses but I'm pretty sure he wasn't just bluffing when he said he might have another gun on him when I first met him." Reno got up off the bed. Setting his feet on the ground before he messed up Cloud's hair good naturedly. The halfling scrunched up his face, pushing his hand away, causing Reno to grin. "Thanks for the information chickabo." Cloud stared back at Reno with a somewhat questioning look on his face.
"What are you going to do Reno?" The weasel grinned.
"Something Turk like. I'm going to bug Tseng's office and see how long it takes him to realise it's even there in the first place… And you're going to help me."
"You know watching him is starting to get really boring." Rufus commented as both he and Zack watched from the observatory box above the training room that Cloud was in. "He's been throwing spell after spell of fires at bolts at that dummy for the past few days and all it's been doing is making the room smell like burnt material. I can almost smell it all the way up here already."
"Wonder where he got those from. He only just started throwing around level two spells so they're probably new cause I'm pretty sure his last fire materia was mastered."
"Maybe he bought them." Rufus offered.
"With the wages they get as cadets? Doubt it."
"Maybe someone gave them to him as a present?" Zack looked shocked.
"Materia? As a present? Who in their right mind would give away a present that costs like a hundred gil down in the slums?"
"I'm pretty sure that shiny new Buster on your back that your lovers gave to you for your birthday last year cost a lot more than a hundred gil." Zack shifted under Rufus' gaze.
"Yeah, well that's different I'm with them and as far as I know Cloud isn't with anyone." There was a loud crash and they both turned their attention back to the training room. Cloud had started throwing level three spells at the dummy. "You're kidding me right? Did he really just level up a materia to level three in less than a week?"
"Well it doesn't really take that much to level up a materia through the first level. He did manage to get it to level two on day two. It's taken him three days to get it from two to three."
"Yeah, but it took me ages to get all of mine mastered. Almost a month."
"His magic power is higher than an average monster. We both knew this already Zack. You probably only use your materia in combat and even then you're not using up all your magic power. He's been using the same pieces for hours every day till his magic power's nearly gone, not that he really needs it. Cadets aren't even supposed to be touching materia till they're actually accepted into SOLDIER."
"You know now that I think about it… I wonder why he's training so hard to get those mastered." Zack looked thoughtful.
"Maybe it has something to do with the weasel? After all, he did start training with that materia after you tricked Cissnei into telling you how to get into the Turks. How did that dinner go by the way?" Zack groaned at the memory as he covered his face with his hands.
"I thought she had just been joking about picking an expensive meal. My wallet had moths coming out of it after she was done. I didn't even know that girls could eat that much."
"She is a Turk. They are somewhat mako enhanced like the rest of SOLDIER so I wouldn't be surprised if she ate more than most girls that you know."
"Then I had Angeal, Sephiroth and Genesis catch me. They were all like 'what do you think you're doing puppy going out to dinner with someone else?' Then Cissnei had to go and tell them the truth and then Angeal started lecturing me about interfering with other people's business and Sephiroth had this weird smile on his face, while Genesis was just standing there looking amused."
"I thought that General Hewley would be used to you interfering with people by now."
"Genesis said something about him being annoyed that Sephiroth let me interfere but he wouldn't let him."
Cloud was mentally cursing the crow blood that flowed through his veins. Reno knew for a fact that Cloud had an obsession with shiny objects. How he found out he had no idea, but his first guess was that Reno probably figured it out when he caught Cloud polishing his materia one day. He had a habit of just staring at them once they were all clean and shiny. It wasn't like he could help it, the glow of materia was just mesmerising. Half the time he literally just couldn't take his eyes off it.
Shaking his head to stop himself from obsessing over the thought of shiny objects, Cloud threw another fire three at the dummy that was facing him.
Reno had offered to take him down to the slums and buy Cloud any kind of earring he wanted and they'd get his ears pierced if he just did this one job for him. He had claimed it was because he knew just how good Cloud was at using materia as well as the fact that he was the only one he know that was small enough to fit through vents.
He threw another fire three at the dummy in front of him before he felt his head start to hurt. His magic power was running dangerously low and it was almost time to head back to wake up Reno. It would probably take him another week to master the two materia anyway. It should have been enough that they were both at level three, but he wanted them both mastered before he started using them for their actual purpose.
Reno had given them both to him as another bribe to get him to do what he wanted. After mastering them both he'd have to start learning how to unseal and reseal vents without it looking suspicious and then he'd have to learn how to mess with a camera from a distance. He cursed again. When this was over, he was going to pick the most expensive earring he could find.