I'm sorry, but courtesy of one of my Beta's friends, my wrist was rendered unusable for a long time. This chapter was written very slowly due to pain and edited on a very shaky plane ride.

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

Reno was mentally cursing saying those words to Cloud after that assembly with the General and Luxiere. It seemed that he had jinxed himself because now, he was walking towards Tseng's office being led by some blond female Turk while Cloud was left walking back to their dorms on his own.

The Turk lead him down a familiar corridor until they were standing before what he recognised as Tseng's office. The Turk opened the door and before Reno knew what was going on, he was shoved into the room and the door slammed shut behind him.

Looking around the room, there was a filing cabinet in the far corner, a small table in the other corner that looked somewhat out of place and right in the middle was Tseng, sitting behind a large desk, staring back at him with a somewhat calculating look on his face.

"Take a seat." The fox gestured over to the chair that was situated on the other side of the desk. Cautiously, Reno took the seat, taking notice of a desk that had been split in half that was sitting behind Tseng's chair. There was a sound of something hitting the desk near Reno and he looked down to see his mic sitting before him.

"I believe that this belongs to you." Tseng's voice brought Reno away from the small black object.

"I don't know what you're talking about sir." He answered automatically. He had already had this conversation planned out in his head a long time ago.

"I commend you for your efforts. It took me a while to find the melt markings on my vents and you did a good job of wiping off your fingerprints off the mic. None on the vents either, so I'm guessing whoever you got to crawl through the vents for you was given some good instructions."

Reno could feel his heart speeding up and practically fought to keep his anxiety off his face as he replied as fluidly as he could. "I still don't know what you're talking about sir."

"Your acting skills could probably even give Knife a run for her money, but you still have some holes in your technique." Tseng pulled out a file from his desk and threw it onto the table.

"Approximately three weeks ago, the day that I went on a three day mission, you were seen going into an electronics store in the slums. That night the camera was shut down for approximately ten minutes. By my observations the only one that could have possibly fit through the vents is that crane that you seem quite attached to, but the most damning evidence is this." Tseng threw a small plastic bag onto the desk. Reno could see a small silver battery inside and silently cursed himself.

"You need to learn to wear gloves when putting batteries into things."

Reno sighed and lent back against his seat. "I knew I forgot something."

"You just need to polish up on your technique." Tseng pushed a button on his phone and a bald Turk walked into the room. "Meet Rude. He's going to be your partner. Rude, this is Reno, he shouldn't be needing too much training. I expect you both to get along because you're going to be room-mates from now on."

As happy as Reno was, he was cursing in his head at the same time.

Now who was going to look after Cloud?

Cloud jumped and hastily shoved something under his pillow as Reno stepped into their room and practically bound over to the weasel as Reno shut the door behind him, thanking whoever was out there that his room-mate hadn't noticed.

"How was it Reno? Did they find the mic?"

"Yeah."

Cloud almost immediately frowned at the sound of Reno's voice. He didn't sound very excited, did he not get into the Turks? "What happened?"

"I got in."

Maybe he was just in shock and it just hadn't sunk in. "Shouldn't you be grinning like an idiot then? You've been aiming for this haven't you?"

Reno nodded and hesitated a little before he spoke. "I have to move out of here as soon as I can…"

Ah, so that's what was making Reno so uncharacteristically unhappy. Then again with all the weird stuff that was happening around him, even Cloud was a bit edgy about being alone. Despite his own fear, Cloud grinned.

"Don't worry about me Reno. I can take care of myself. Besides, I'm going to be in soldier. You don't need to watch my back at every turn."

Reno looked somewhat surprised and Cloud thought he saw a small bit of hurt in Reno's eyes before it disappeared in a split second. Then a grin plastered itself on Reno's face. "You're right chickabo. You have that shitload of materia on you right?"

Cloud fought the urge to wince as he remembered leaving his gold bangle in the generals office in his rush to get out of there.

He really needed to get that back somehow.

"Yeah, like I said, I'll be perfectly fine on my own. If worse comes to worst they'll have Bahamut nipping at their heels."

Reno laughed a little, shaking his head in disbelief. "Only you and your mad amount of MP."

Cloud pouted. "Do you have a problem with my mad amount of MP?"

Laughing, Reno shook his head before grabbing the Halfling into a hug. "You'll take care of yourself right chickabo? I'll come and see you whenever I can."

Cloud nodded against Reno's chest. Now also wouldn't be the best time to tell Reno about that letter Zack had given him, which had been hastily shoved under his pillow when Reno had arrived.

Once Reno had finished packing his things and was dragging them to wherever his new room was, Cloud cautiously pulled the letter out from under his pillow. In a neat scrawl that was signed by the General, it stated that he had been recommended for the mentor programme and should he accept, he would be moved and placed under the care of Zack Fair. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that Zack had been the one to suggest him and get the general's permission.

He was just about to pen a reply on the answer form when there was a knock at his door. He jumped a little, hastily shoving the letter back in its hiding place under his pillow and rushed over to the door. He was surprised to see commander Luxiere standing there.

"Sir?"

"Can I come in cadet Strife?"

Cloud hesitantly nodded his head while taking a step back to allow his commander to step in and closed the door behind him.

"Was that Reno I saw dragging his bags upstairs?"

"Yes sir, he's just been accepted into the Turks sir."

Luxiere blinked in surprise. He hadn't known that Tseng had his eyes on Reno. Then again he never really interacted with the head Turk. Zack knew more about him, with him being best friends with Rufus and all.

"I guess I should be getting a folder of some sort from Tseng saying that Reno's been pulled out of the cadet programme… Anyway, that's not what I'm here for cadet." Luxiere reached into one of his pockets and placed something in Cloud's hands. The cadet looked surprised to see his gold bangle sitting there. "The general said that you left this in his office a while ago."

"Yes." Cloud was still staring at the piece of metal in awe. "I rushed out of there without even picking it up and I was just thinking about how I was going to get it back because of…" He trailed off when he remembered who he was speaking with.

"I apologise for not bringing it back to you sooner. It did slip my mind a few times and when I did remember, I wasn't in a position to return it to you. I hope nothing went wrong while you were without it." Cloud stared at his bangle for a few more moments before he turned his attention back to his commander.

"Nothing happened." He confirmed. "Thank you for returning it commander." With a nod of his head Luxiere left the room, closing the door behind him with a small click.

Cloud sighed before he turned back to his bed and pulled out his letter from under his pillow for the second time. His reply now more firmly set in his mind.