What's this? Two chapters in two days? Did I spell check this properly? Probably not, but I did read through it twice.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Cloud was quick to check around to see if there was anyone he recognised as he settled down in a corner of the cafeteria, far away from the front door so that he wouldn't be seen. He sighed in relief, leaning back in his chair when he realised that there was no one that he knew in the room. He knew that the generals or at least one of the Turks would find him eventually, but for now he was going to take a much needed break away from the training rooms.
So far his weeks had been packed full of training. If he wasn't learning hand to hand or sword arts with Zack, he was getting materia lessons with Genesis. If he wasn't doing that, then either Reno or Rude or both Turks would be attempting to see if he could break into Sephiroth's apartment in broad daylight without getting caught by security. He had only managed it once and that was purely by dumb luck. He had also been caught by Sephiroth at the end of the whole excursion. No one had told him that the general would be in his office at the time and he had come dangerously close to being skewered by Masamune. Both he and the Turks got a long lecture after that from Angeal while Sephiroth had held onto Cloud so tightly that he was surprised that his bones hadn't broken from the pressure.
He almost immediately snapped back to attention when he noticed someone sliding into a chair at his table. He felt his whole body go tense when he realised who it was sitting opposite him. "You…" Cloud honestly still didn't remember the name of the rat that had attacked him months ago.
"Belias." The rat offered when he realised that Cloud seemed to be struggling to remember his name. "I would have at least thought that you would remember the name of someone who's attacked you before."
"You're going to have to forgive me for that. I was a bit more worried about the knife that you were holding in your hand at the time." Cloud shot back.
Belias grinned. "I'll give you that."
Cloud glanced around the cafeteria. He was lucky that it was mostly full so if he tried anything he hoped that at least someone would come to help.
"Don't worry so much. I'm not stupid enough to attack you in a room full of people. I just wanted to ask you a question."
Cloud turned his full attention onto the rat. Not really believing that he didn't have ulterior motives.
The rat pretended not to notice the distrusting look on Cloud's face as he continued to talk. "It's about Johnny…" He paused, looking for a reaction from Cloud. He continued on when he decided that he wasn't going to get much of a reaction from the other monster from just that name. "I'm curious. What is it about you that makes Johnny so interested that he'd risk a chance at SOLDIER."
"Would you believe me if I said that I didn't know why he does anything?" Cloud questioned.
Belias gave him a pointed look. Obviously not.
Cloud sighed for what had to be the hundredth time that day. He didn't even know why he was going to tell the rat this, but he guessed that he could see it as therapeutic. "Johnny and I are from the same town…"
"Nibelheim right?" Belias interrupted and Cloud nodded his head in agreement.
"It's one of those small monster only villages in the middle of nowhere." Cloud added on. "There was another cat around the same ages as us living there. The Mayor's daughter."
Belias nodded his head to signal that he understood all that.
"Her name was Tifa. Now, you probably would already know all of this considering I'm from the country side, but my family wasn't well liked, due to the way that I was born."
The rat crinkled his nose at the mention of Cloud's birth as if he was only just reminded that the person in front of him was half human.
"Tifa didn't really care about that, but Johnny seemed to have taken offence to the two of us being friends, so he made it his life mission to make sure that I had nothing to do with Tifa. I don't know when the line had been crossed and this turned into some weird unhealthy obsession with me, but that's all I know about this whole obsession with me."
Belias looked thoughtful at that. "All this for some female?" The rat questioned.
"Well, I wouldn't call her some female. We were all in the same class in school, so we all knew each other before this all escalated into this whole situation. Johnny used to have his own group of lackeys then too. That all changed when we left elementary school. His lackeys all grew up and got married. Not bothering to pick on me anymore because it was childish. Johnny, I guess, just decided that he didn't need to grow up." Cloud shrugged his shoulders. "Tifa refused his advances in his one attempt to be an adult and turned her attention in trying to strengthen our friendship and he took offence to that." He didn't mention the fact that Johnny had also once seen him in his crow form. Luckily there had been no people at the time and Cloud had been able to erase his memory. He didn't know how or why, but after that whole ordeal Johnny had started ignoring Tifa altogether and that had been the start of Johnny's full blown obsession with him.
"It's worse than I thought." The rat said thoughtfully. Resting his head on one hand while his fingers tapped against the table. "Tell me, did Johnny express any interest in joining SOLDIER before you both left Nibelheim?"
"Not that I know of." Cloud replied. "He didn't jump on the helicopter with me from Nibelheim, so I'm guessing he came later, otherwise he would have left at the same time as me."
"So you're telling me that he couldn't care less whether or not he can get into SOLDIER?" Belias questioned and Cloud furrowed his eyebrows as he thought of the question. Would Johnny really care?
"I don't think so… What's with all the questions anyway?" Cloud asked suspiciously. At that question the doors to the cafeteria opened and a very annoyed looking Rude walked in. Thankfully without Reno and the Turk started scanning the crowd of cadets.
"I don't like you."
He was snapped out of his thoughts when Belias started answering his question. "But I know better than to ruin a potential entrance into SOLDIER for someone that's obsessed with someone else. I just needed confirmation on something."
Cloud turned his wandering eyes away from the Turk that hadn't spotted him yet and focused on Belias. "And did you get the answer that you were looking for?" He questioned.
"Not the one that I wanted to hear." Belias replied. "But one, I guess, that I needed to hear. Just for that I'll give you a warning."
Cloud tensed a little, but didn't say anything.
"You probably already know this but Johnny hasn't given up on you."
"I figured as much." Cloud replied.
"As far as I know, he doesn't have any help, but he's dead set on finding some kind of a way to get to you, I'd suggest that you be careful." Cloud nodded. He was careful anyway, but it was nice to know what he needed to look out for.
"You're not expecting me to mention this whole exchange to the generals are you?" Cloud questioned and Belias once again screwed up his face as if he was disgusted with the thought.
"I can make my own way into SOLDIER without your help." There was the sound of footsteps coming towards their table and Cloud looked over to the direction of the sound and saw that Rude had finally spotted him.
"Thank you for the talk and the warning then." He said as he started getting up from his seat.
"Cadet Strife. Your trainers have been searching for you for approximately two hours." Rude informed him and Belias looked honestly surprised to see the Turk standing there.
"Let me guess. It's you and Reno today?" Cloud questioned. Rude just remained quiet and Cloud guessed that he was right. "You know I still don't know what's wrong with getting a few hours to myself every day." He mumbled out as Rude started leading him out of the cafeteria and towards his usual training rooms.
"If it's unbeneficial to your training then it isn't needed. We already know how much break time you need to recharge, so don't bother using that as an excuse." Cloud could swear he could see a small, somewhat sadistic grin on his lips.
Back in the cafeteria Belias was still in a slight state of shock. Just exactly who was Cloud for him to have a Turk looking for him to go to training?