I was trying to get this out before Christmas (I even wrote some of it during my lunch breaks at work) but I guess I have to settle for posting it on Christmas day... Merry Christmas everyone~!
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Zack was already regretting getting Cloud to join the mentoring programme. Not that he really regretted doing it, but he would have preferred it if his plan didn't come with a whole lot of conditions. Well it was just one condition but it was still a big job. I mean, so what if there were pizza boxes everywhere and maybe some weird thing growing in the fridge and a full sink of dishes. It wasn't like having a messy apartment ever killed anyone, but Cloud was insistent that if he was to stay, either the puppy cleaned his apartment or Cloud would do it for him, which would be fine if Cloud's way of cleaning wasn't, 'if it looked like useless junk, it was going to go in the bin.' He honestly wondered how Reno managed to stay with Cloud for as long as he did.
"Actually Reno was pretty good. Despite his attitude and how he looks, Reno was a lot cleaner than you think."
Zack stared at Cloud in disbelief while the Halfling shoved some empty pizza boxes into a rubbish bag. "You're kidding me. He totally doesn't look like the type."
"You'd be surprised. He was almost cleaner than me. The only difference between him and I was that he never saw a point in making his bed every morning so I'd end up doing it for him." Cloud opened another pizza box to see a half-eaten pizza inside. Scrunching up his nose at it, he shoved it into the rubbish bag.
"Hey, we could have kept that it looked edible." Zack protested while Cloud gave him a look.
"Lieutenant…"
"Zack."
"… Zack. We don't know how long that box has been in here. Even if you're now immune to eating week old junk, it doesn't mean that it isn't detrimental to your health. Not to mention it wasn't even in the fridge to stop bacteria from growing on it."
Zack stared at Cloud for a moment.
"Just a question Spikey… But are you a little bit OCD?"
Cloud froze for a moment before he nodded his head slightly.
"So like… How OCD are you?"
"I'm not that bad. Just some things I'm a bit finicky about. Ingesting stuff that's been out for over a day, putting weird products on my body."
"What about that piercing? Weren't you scared about that needle going in?"
Cloud reached up to touch the piercing. "Reno explained it to me beforehand. The needles are all sterile. Also I've been cleaning it every day and night to avoid infections."
Zack seemed to stare at Cloud for a moment. "Right…" He turned his attention back to what he was doing.
There was a few moments of silence as the two continued to clean before the front door flew open. Cloud seemed to freeze in place while Zack perked up at the sight of the person at the door.
"Angeal!"
"If I had known that letting you have a student would make you clean your apartment I would have suggested it sooner puppy."
Zack pouted momentarily, then grinned as he brought Angeal's attention over to where Cloud was still frozen. "I haven't properly introduced you to my student yet have I?"
Angeal shook his head.
"Angeal, this is Cloud Strife. Cloud this is Angeal, just so you know he comes up a lot more than Genesis and Sephy do."
"Speaking of Genesis…" Angeal looked a bit unsurely at Cloud. Sephiroth had already told him about that incident in the hallway with Genesis and Cloud. "He may have followed me up…"
"Zackary!"
"… Here…"
The red haired General appeared at the doorway not looking at all happy about the fact that Cloud was in the wolf's apartment. The Halfling paled at the sight of him.
"What is the meaning of this Zachary and why did none of you tell me that he was planning on training this abomination Angeal?" Genesis looked at the other general accusingly.
"Now, now, calm down Genesis, Zack decided this on his own."
"And this abomination as you call him…" Cloud looked surprised at the pissed off look on Zack's face. He had never really seen the Lieutenant that angry before. "Has a name. His name is Cloud Strife, now either you respect him Genesis Rhapsodos, or I don't want to see you in my apartment ever again."
Even Genesis and Angeal looked a bit taken aback at Zack's attitude. After the initial shock at his lover actually getting angry at him, Genesis' expression turned back into a glare. "I'll accept this for now Zack, but you better not bring that thing down to our apartment, ever. I don't want it contaminating everything."
"Out Genesis, now." At the Lieutenant's words, Genesis gave one last glare at Cloud before he strode out of the room.
Once he was out of sight, Zack went to shut the door before giving Cloud an apologetic grin. "Sorry about that Spikey…"
Angeal patted Zack on the back. "I didn't think you had it in you puppy. When Sephiroth said that you'd deal with it, I didn't think you meant that way, but are you sure that was the best idea? After all that, Genesis isn't going to be happy with you for a fairly long time."
"Gen will live. I'm hoping that he'll just get used to the idea of having Spikey around and he'd stop it with that whole… What was that thing that he called you the first time you meet Cloudy?"
"A transparent charlatan."
"Yeah the whole transparent charlatan thing… What the hell is that anyways? It sounds like a see through whore or something like that."
Cloud couldn't help it, despite the fact that he was in front of his superiors, he started laughing. Zack looked surprised at the sound for a moment before he broke out into a grin. "You finally laughed Spikey."
"I'm sorry…" Cloud said through his laughter. "A see through whore?" His laughter started up again. "Only you would think up something like that Zack…"
Zack feigned hurt. "What do you mean? It sounds legit right?" Cloud just started laughing again.
A soft smile appeared on Angeal's face as he watched the two interact, it seemed as if Zack had everything under control from his side, it was just, as Zack said, a matter of getting Genesis used to the idea of having the Halfling around.