Went on a little bit of a typing spree… But that's a good thing right?
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
The next time Cloud woke up it was because he was being shaken like a rag doll. Thankfully that drink that Reno had given him that morning had gotten rid of the hang over, though he still felt a bit icky, but that wasn't something that could be helped. First of all he had to figure out why his room-mate was trying to get him to wake up at some unholy hour of the night. "What Reno?"
"Oh you're up, good. How are you feeling?" Cloud glared at him.
"Really? I've just managed to get over this hang over and now you're waking me up at…" He glanced over to his clock. "Three in the morning just to ask me how I'm feeling?"
"Are you up for a little outing?" Cloud raised an eyebrow.
"That materia that you gave me isn't mastered. Not to mention I only just figured out how to kill a camera with a small bolt spell."
"That's good enough. Apparently Tseng is out on a mission so we're going to crack his office and take the day off tomorrow."
"Don't we have classes?"
"That stalker of a Lieutenant is good for something at least. He said that we could have up to three days off so we can take you out for that earring tomorrow whenever we wake up." Cloud stared at Reno for what seemed like hours, when it was just a few seconds, before he pulled his blanket over his head and settled back into his bed. "Oh no you don't. We're not getting another chance like this Cloudy, and remember I was the one that nursed you back to health this morning so you owe me, not to mention we're going to be getting you a nice shiny earring or two tomorrow, wouldn't you like that? I nice shiny earring that you can stare at in the mirror all day long and it's all yours. Think of the shiny chickabo. The shiny!" Reno started pawing at Cloud's blankets before the halfling finally pushed the blankets off in a huff.
"Fine, just enough with the shiny. I need to go get dressed." Reno grinned before he started going through Cloud's clothes drawer, pulling out everything black that he could find and throwing them onto the blond cadet's bed while said cadet was reluctantly shuffling out from under his sheets.
"So what's the plan? I get that I have to get into a vent at some point but you never explained exactly how I'm going to be making my way to an office of which I don't even know the location of." Cloud questioned as he started searching through the pile of clothing for something suitable to wear.
"Tseng's office is on the fifty-first floor. Other than the guards that change every three hours the only other security up there are the cameras. The guy that's on tonight is apparently prone to falling asleep at around this time which means now is the perfect time to put our little plan into action."
"Your little plan, not mine." Cloud corrected as he slipped on his clothes and checked himself in the nearby mirror.
"We need to do something about that bright hair of yours." Reno waved a bottle in front of Cloud's face and the cadet frowned.
"I'm not dying my hair for this stupid, suicidal mission of yours." Reno pouted.
"Come on with all those spikes of yours we could probably even stick you in a SOLDIER first outfit and you could parade around as the Lieutenant." Cloud's frown turned into a full out glare. "Or you know, we could let you get caught because of your hair glowing in the vents." Reno quickly changed tactics and Cloud turned his glare onto the bottle that Reno was holding out to him. There were a few moments of contemplative silence before the blond cadet snatched the bottle out of Reno's hands.
"Fine." He stormed into the bathroom and locked the door behind him while Reno grinned at his back.
Inside the bathroom, Cloud giving the bottle in his hands a disgusted look. There was no way he was going to put this stuff in his hair. Tossing the bottle in the rubbish bin, he double checked around the bathroom before turning to stare at himself in the mirror for a moment. After contemplating how to do this for a moment, he released his wings and they slowly lengthened and stretched till they were almost touching the roof and the grey on the ends faded into white. It wasn't ideal but if he was going to change any part of his body he wasn't going to put some weird product on his body.
Plucking a single white feather from his own wings, he quickly retracted them and held the feather to his hair. Closing his eyes in concentration, the feather soon burst into nothing and his hair faded into a nice shade of black. "At least this way I can change my hair back to normal later." Nodding at his own appearance he turned on the shower, stuck his head under the water for a minute. When his hair was sufficiently wet he pulled his head out and watched the water for a few moments before shutting off the shower and making his way out of the bathroom. Reno let off a low whistle.
"Looking good chickabo." Cloud was quick to shrugged off the comment.
"Let's just go and get this over and done with." Grinning, Reno tossed Cloud an ear piece before pulling out a card that he probably swiped and copied off some high up executive.
"To the fifty-first floor!"
The first thing that was going through Cloud's mind was that he was glad he didn't have his wings out. It was easy enough getting into the vents considering that the guy that was meant to be on duty wasn't even there. It only took him a minute heat up the vent so that it would come off and put it back so that it looked like it was stuck on. Now it was just a matter of getting through these narrow vents without making that much noise and trying to figure out which way it was to Tseng's office. "Hey chickabo, can you hear me?" Reno's voice sounded through his ear piece.
"Loud and clear… Unfortunately." By the indignant sound Reno made on the other side, the weasel apparently had heard that last part despite him mumbling it. "So where am I going? Or am I just going to pick a random office and stick this mic under some random persons desk?"
"Have you gone past an office yet?"
"Going past one right now."
"That's Lazard's office. The one after that is Sephiroth's… Bet you'd love to go in there." Cloud scowled.
"Just hurry up and get on with it. I'm not exactly fond of being in a dirty, cramped up vent."
"Yeah, yeah Cloudy, you can clean and preen yourself after we're done, after Sephiroth's office take the first left vent and Tseng's office should be the first one on the left." Rolling his eyes Cloud continued on through the vents.
"By the way I have a question."
"Yeah chickabo?"
"Exactly how do you know where the vents are and which office is where? Did you steal a map or something from somewhere?"
"I may have taken a trip down to the archives on the forty-fifth floor and taken a few pictures of the fifty-first floor's layout a few days ago."
"And how exactly did you get onto the forty-fifth floor?" He could hear Reno chuckle just as he went past Sephiroth's Office.
"The security down there is surprisingly lax. As long as you give them a reason for going down there and you let them pat you down for a camera they just let you on through."
"So the pictures were from…"
"They forget that PHS' have cameras." Reno's laughter had Cloud shaking his head. Wasn't Shinra meant to be one of the most secure places in the world? Well at least the important stuff was all tightly locked up… That is if you didn't think the layout of the Shinra building wasn't important. He took the turn to Tseng's office and stopped just beside the vent.
"Right, stop talking I need to concentrate on this camera… Then the vent and then I have to get out of here before the guard comes down to check the camera…"
"Good luck chickabo." Cloud rolled his eyes. The things that he did for his friends.
Trying to make as little noise as possible, he crept towards the vent and concentrated on the bolt materia on his armlet. Thankfully the camera that he was aiming for was meant to be just beside the vent and so it wouldn't pick up the small spark that he sent at it.
Once it was off, he heated up the vent till it slid out of its place and he jumped down, landing on the balls of his feet. He double checked that the camera was still off before tugged on his glove to make sure that they were on securely before he pulled out one of the drawers on the desk and stuck the listening device underneath it. Sliding the drawer back into place he released his usual short wings and jumped back up into the vent, using them to gain some height before pulling them back in just as he pulled himself back inside and slid the metal cover back into place, heating it a little to ensure that it was stuck like it should be. He quickly started making his way back just as he heard the doors open and the lights in the office turned on.
"Yo, chickabo, how's it going?" Cloud almost jumped at the sound of Reno's voice in his ear, though he didn't reply just in case the guard heard him. "Well, by your silence you've either got caught or you're scared that someone's going to hear you, let's go for the latter. Anyways, you've got a few minutes before the guard figures out how to turn on the camera, assuming that it's the same guard that's patrolling the floor, so get out of that vent as quick as possible and we'll see if my mic is working when we get back to our dorms." Cloud made a small sound of agreement as he took the turn back to Sephiroth and Lazard's offices.
"Oh, so you are alive. So how's life in a vent chickabo?" The irritated noise that came from Cloud's throat seemed to send Reno into a fit of laughter. "I'm just playing with you chickabo. Well, at least we know you're doing fine." Cloud stopped at the vent that he had started out in and slid it open. As soon as he was out he slid it back into place and secured it back.
"Alright, I'm out, heading back to the dorms now."
"I'll be right here to welcome you back home chickabo." Rolling his eyes, Cloud quickly made his way back to the dorms.