I don't have an excuse. All I can say is that I edited this on a plane and then forgot to upload it and then it kinda just disappeared from my mind.

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

"Hey Cloud did you know that in the story they locked up the white crow and used her feathers to grant wishes and stuff?"

Cloud sighed in slight irritation as Zack bounced on the edge of his bed. "I know Zack. I'm still quite traumatised from the time that my father locked me in a cage to prove some kind of a point." Cloud pointed out.

"Were you meant to be female?" Zack continued on with his questioning as if he didn't notice that he was irritating the white crow.

Cloud just gave him an odd look. "Where the hell did that come from?"

Zack just sent back an innocent look. "It was an honest question. I mean the white crow in the book is female, and it said something about her having to defeat the demon king or something."

Cloud just sighed. "The demon king is meant to be some kind of destructive monster. According to the children's story he just appeared one day to destroy the world and the white crow risked her life to destroy him despite the fact that the people locked her away in a cage."

Zack let out a low whistle. "That sounds like something you would do Cloudy. Risk your life to save everyone and then die a hero that has their story told in a children's book. Hey, do you think that Seph's story would be put into a book one day? Can you imagine, someday, hundreds of years from now, the kids could be reading watered down versions of the great crow general that took down Wutai with his lovers at his side."

Cloud chuckled at the thought. "I can imagine it, but I doubt that the book would mention anything about the general having lovers. They'll probably either take you out of the story entirely, or they'd just demote you to helper."

Zack pouted. "Aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning?"

"Lieutenant, it's the weekend and you've been sprouting off random things that you read out of a kids book to me all day. Do you really think that I hadn't read that story before?" Cloud questioned. Zack just continued to pout and Cloud sighed. "Was there a point to all of this or was that just an excuse to get me to talk to you about myself?"

Zack perked up at those words. "Is there any truth to those stories?" He questioned and Cloud sighed again, already resigning himself to answering Zack's questions.

"I can grant wishes… Well, to be exact, my feathers on their own can grant wishes, but not when they've been made into my fake crane wings."

"How do you do that anyway?" Zack questioned.

"It involves a lot of concentration and a bit of magic. That's why I would have had to let my wings out if I had to summon something to save you when you fell off the highway."

"So you just did the most logical thing and just released your wings instead of summoning something?" Zack questioned.

"Either way my wings were going to show." Cloud stated in a matter of fact tone. "I just went for the option that was much safer and the fact that we were just above the train graveyard just meant that there wouldn't be anyone around to see my wings."

"Except for me." Zack pointed out.

"Except for you." Cloud affirmed.

"And then you passed out on me and I had to go find a sheet to cover your wings and then I had to carry you all the way back to the apartment. Hey, if your feathers can grant wishes, then why don't you just wish to become a SOLDIER?" Zack questioned.

"That's an abuse of power. I'm not going to waste it on something that I can get without using my magic. I learnt at a young age that wishing for things does not make anything better."

Zack stared at Cloud. "What did you wish for?" There was a long silence before the white crow finally answered.

"Friends." Cloud looked down at his hands with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face. "I didn't have very many from fear that they'd find out about me. It took me a while to get sick of it and I ended up reversing everything. Mum ended up lecturing me about abusing my abilities and then spent the rest of my childhood enforcing the fact that I should never abuse my powers."

"So you've never thought about just wishing for a million gil?" Zack questioned and Cloud gave him an odd look.

"Why don't you just sell one of your mastered all materia and you'd have your Gil there?"

It was Zack's turn to stare at Cloud strangely. "Do you know how long it takes to master one of those things?"

Cloud just shrugged his shoulders. "I've never tried. I just heard that if you master it, it sells for a really high price."

"Maybe for you, it wouldn't be so hard because you use your materia all the time, but for me it takes way too long and I've had mine for almost a year already. It's nowhere near being mastered."

Cloud frowned slightly in thought. "How come Genesis has so many mastered ones then? He gave me one of the spawns, so it hasn't had any use, but I'm pretty sure that it didn't need that much use to level it up."

"That's cause Gen uses his all the time. How else do you think he can blow up hordes of monsters without even breaking a sweat?"

"Have you even been carrying your materia around with you?" Cloud questioned and Zack just gave him a weird look.

"Why would I bother bringing them with me when they just weigh me down? I only bring healing materia with me just in case."

Cloud shook his head. Sometimes he wondered how Zack was so smart, yet so stupid sometimes. "Even if you're not using your materia, if you just take it with you to battle, then you should still be able to level it up."

Zack blinked. "Where did you hear that from? How come I didn't know that?"

"It's in the materia theory test in the levelling up materia section. You should have learnt it when you started studying to become a SOLDIER."

Zack laughed sheepishly. "Would now be a good time to tell you that I didn't pass the theory test for materia?" Cloud stared at Zack in shock.

"How did you become a SOLDIER?"

Zack laughed awkwardly again. "You need a certain amount of points to get into SOLDIER initially. I managed to make up for my lack of knowledge in materia with the fact that I know almost everything about everything else. Also I at least know how to use materia and apparently that was enough. I mean, I don't know the theory behind how it works, but knowing how to use is all you really need to get into SOLDIER."

Cloud really wanted to bang his head against something. "Sometimes I wonder about whoever it was that picks people for the army, especially after the General explained to me how the system works."

Zack laughed a little. "That would be the president. He's under the impression that power means more physical strength. He doesn't really get the point of having magic users because most SOLDIER's have some kind of magical ability and he thinks that that's enough. Fortunately for us he only makes the rules for who gets into SOLDIER. When it comes down to what class they are that decision is left to the labs and Seph."

"The labs?" Cloud questioned.

"They call all the shots when it comes to your health and everything. They check that you're mentally capable of handling yourself on the battle field by sticking you in a whole lot of gruesome virtual realities. If you can't get through that, then they wipe your mind of it and send you packing so they don't have to deal with any mental trauma that you might develop. After that, they inject you with Mako and they usually ask you to bring a friend just in case you have some adverse reactions to it."

"What kind of adverse reactions?" Cloud questioned.

"You know the usual itching or rashes. The worst reaction I've ever seen was some guy that was hallucinating that he was being chased down by a bunch of rabid chocobo's."

Cloud gave Zack a disbelieving look. "I'm hoping that that was just another one of your jokes."

"Nope." Zack grinned. "You can ask Seph about it next time. He was there watching with me when the guy flipped out. Seph had to hold down the guy till the Mako finished its course. He was pissed cause it meant that he had to cancel that day and reschedule his appointment with the labs."

"The general doesn't' like being in the labs?" Cloud questioned.

"He'll avoid going in there whenever he can. Not really my place to tell you, but if you ask he'll probably tell you why. I mean none of us really like the labs anyway, but Seph, Gen and Angeal have a better reason other than the fact that Hojo's a freak of nature. Even Rufus was saying that he was going to find a way to get rid of him at the first chance he gets."

"The Vice President?"

"Yeah, he's hoping that his old man will either step down or kick the bucket soon so that he can take over… I did just suggest that he just overthrows the old man, but he said that he's got enough on his plate as it is."

"I thought that all he did was attend meetings."

"Marital issues. Rufus might be competent when it comes to work, but when it comes to his relationships, it screws with his head." Cloud nodded in understanding. "So after that he's going to assess the situation and deal with the whole situation accordingly."

Cloud raised an eyebrow at that. "Are those words that you just took out of the Vice President's mouth."

Zack grinned sheepishly. "How did you figure that out?"

"It sounded a lot more intelligent than I've heard you speak before, so I figured that they weren't your own words."

Zack made a small sound of protest. "Hey, I can say intelligent things sometimes!"

"Sure you can Lieutenant."