And we're back to 3 pages long.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
"So, how did your test go?" Angeal questioned Cloud, who had his head on Genesis' kitchen table.
"He got two questions wrong on his magic written test." Genesis answered for him. "'What do you do if mini gets cast on you' and 'do status effects work on a chocobo?'"
"Why were there so many questions to do with chocobos' anyway?" Cloud questioned in a somewhat frustrated tone.
"That would be your mentor's fault." Angeal replied and somehow Cloud wasn't surprised.
"With the amount of times Zack has brought a chocobo into the complex or one has chased him in here. The president thought it was necessary that everyone knew how to deal with the birds." Genesis pointed out.
"Why didn't he just fire Zack or just forbid him from going to the stables?" Cloud questioned and the other two chuckled at that.
"Firing Zack wouldn't stop the influx of chocobos." Angeal explained. "He'd still be able to live in the complex because if his relationship with all of us, plus the president would rather deal with chocobos than lose a perfectly competent SOLDIER."
"And to counteract that, the president thought it was necessary to teach all the new recruits how to take care of chocobos?" Cloud questioned and the other two monsters nodded their heads.
"We never said that the president was intelligent." Genesis pointed out. "After all, he was the one that thought that power was everything and yet he still can't figure out why our quality of SOLDIERs is going down."
"Has anyone tried telling him?" Cloud questioned.
"I think the Vice President tried once." Angeal said thoughtfully. "I believe that the President just said he was too young to understand how the military works and left it at that. We just decided to work our way around it to rig the tests so that cadets we actually wanted could get into SOLDIER. That's how we ended up with you and Zack. The Turks are a bit different. The President doesn't even pretend to understand the amount of intellect and street smarts that are required to get into the Turks, so he lets Tseng have free range over who he lets in as long as he's confident about his Turks being loyal to the job."
"Granted, the President is the sole reason why most of the SOLDIERs in my platoon are useless when it comes to materia." Genesis pointed out. "Sure they can summon Ifrit, but they couldn't build a wall of ice even if their lives depended on it."
"Not all of them are like that." Angeal tried to reason with the other General. "Some of them have enough ability to even cast fire while building an ice wall.
"That's only two. The rest of them are just all muscle and no concentration. At least with Cloud I can kick out the most incompetent one."
"And where are you going to send him?" Angeal questioned.
"To Sephiroth. He keeps on saying that he thinks he's more suited to a normal platoon so he can go and be Sephiroth's problem."
Angeal chuckled. "Even your own platoon members know that they aren't suited."
Genesis rolled his eyes at that. A second later the crow's phone started ringing. "It's Sephiroth." He said, already recognising the ring tone.
"He's probably wanting to ask how Cloud did on his swords theory." Angeal said as Genesis hit the answer button.
"He got two questions wrong on the magic test." Genesis said as soon as the line connected.
There was a chuckle from the other side of the line. "Was it the one about hitting a chocobo with a fire spell?" Sephiroth questioned.
"No, it was the mini spell recovery and if status effects work on chocobos." Genesis said as he switched his phone to speaker.
"I don't even know why anyone would want to cast a status effect on a chocobo." Cloud said. "You don't need to when they don't even run away when you're trying to catch them."
"I think that not running away part is just you Cloud. Also, you'd be surprised." Sephiroth replied. "Once, a pretty angry chocobo chased Zack all the way to the cadet training grounds. They all thought it would be a good idea to cast sleep on it to get it to calm down. Safe to say they all got that question right when it came to taking the test."
"You'd think that they would be susceptible to status effects given that they look weak, but it just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover." Angeal said pointedly looking at Genesis.
The red haired General once again just rolled his eyes at him.
"How did you do on your swords theory?" Sephiroth questioned, changing the topic back to what he had originally called for.
"I think I did well." Cloud said unsurely.
"We haven't quizzed him on those answers yet." Angeal added.
Sephiroth chuckled again. "Let me guess. Gen got to him first and threw all the magic theory questions at him."
Angeal gave him an affirmative hum and Sephiroth let off another chuckle while Genesis gave both Angeal and the phone a glare.
If looks could kill, Cloud guessed that both would have been on fire by now.
"I'm sure he did fine." Angeal pointed out. "We can go through his files later to see his test results."
"Might take a while." Genesis said. "Zack went to go hassle Luxiere about marking Clouds papers first so that we could know his results. If he pisses him off enough he might just mark Cloud's papers last just to piss him off."
"Do I need to talk to him?" Sephiroth questioned.
"Who? Zack or Luxiere?" Angeal asked back.
"I was going to say Luxiere." Sephiroth replied and Cloud could imagine the grin on the general's face. Angeal sighed at that.
"I was hoping that you would have said Zack. You know that it's unfair for him to use his rank to get what he wants."
"You never know. He might just be using his position as commander Luxiere's friend." Cloud said.
The two generals turned to Cloud with a look that clearly said 'do you really believe those words that just came out of your mouth?' and Sephiroth was silent over the phone, but it was obvious that if he was there, he'd be giving Cloud the same look.
"Neither of you really hold Zack in high regard do you?" He questioned.
The three generals let off small chuckles. "It may be just that you have too much faith in him." Angeal pointed out. "If it was anything else, then we would be more inclined to have more faith in him, but this isn't that important. It's a given that he would try to use the easiest option."
"I can't believe you just said that my grades weren't that important." Cloud pointed out.
"Of course your grades are important." Sephiroth was quick to fix Angeal's mistake. "It's just finding out your results early isn't that important at this point." As Sephiroth said this, the apartment door opened and Zack walked in with a huge smile on his face.
"I got Cloudy's test results." He announced.
"Did you pull rank on Luxiere again?" Genesis questioned.
"No." Both Genesis and Angeal looked surprised at that. "I just said that Sephiroth and Gen would be extremely unhappy if I was to go home without knowing what Cloud's scores were."
"I told you that you had too much faith in him." Angeal said and Cloud just shrugged.
"He didn't pull rank."
"But he did use his position to his own advantage." Sephiroth pointed out over the phone.
"Oh hey Seph. I didn't know you were there." Zack said.
"I called to see how Cloud's results were." Sephiroth stated.
"Well, he passed with flying colours. He wasn't quite the top in his class, but he was way over getting a passing grade." Zack stated with a proud note in his tone.
"Tell us something we didn't already expect." Genesis said.
"Someone with a name starting with a B got the top marks. I don't quite remember the name, but Luxiere said that Seph would be interested." Zack said as he face scrunched up while he tried to remember the name.
"Belias?" Cloud questioned
"Yeah that sounds about right."
"That rat?" Genesis made a face of disgust. "I'm surprised he could be so smart despite his idiotic actions."
"There's a difference between being street smart and book smart, remember Genesis?' Angeal questioned.
"Just because some people can be one thing and not the other, doesn't mean that everyone is." Genesis pointed out. "Some can be both."
"And not everyone can be perfect like you Genesis." Cloud added on and the red headed crow grinned as he pet Cloud on the head.
"As long as you understand that then that's fine. If you grow a few more inches and spend a few years in SOLDIER, then you might be able to just see what the beginning of my level of perfection is like."
"We really need to teach you not to stroke Gen's ego." Zack cut in. "If his head gets any bigger he might not be able to fit through doorways anymore."
Genesis glared at the wolf while Cloud, Angeal and Sephiroth just laughed.
Cloud was surprised when he saw Belias standing outside the waiting rooms for their practical test. It was obvious that he had been waiting for him because he approached Cloud as soon as he spotted him. "So, you did pass." Belias said, not sounding surprised at all.
"Did they not put a list up for cadets that passed?" Cloud questioned. Genesis did say that they would put one up in the cadet barracks.
"Your name wasn't on either the pass or the fail list, so I guess that they don't bother if you're applying while going through a different programme.
"I guess that's reasonable, considering I don't even live in the barracks anymore." Cloud said thoughtfully. "By the way, congratulations on getting the top marks,. Lieutenant Zack told me about it."
A look of surprise flashed across the rat's face and he was quick to cover it up with a small cough, but Cloud could already see his face turning red.
"It's not like you would have been far behind, considering the amount of times I've seen you studying in the library." Belias said.
Cloud let off a small chuckle. "According to Lieutenant Zack, I was just a few points behind you. I didn't do as well as the generals expected when it came to guns. But at the same time, I still don't get why anyone would want to shoot at a chocobo in the wild."
"If you're hungry and you're out of supplies, then a chocobo is better than eating any other kind of monster out in the wild. Chocobo's only eat greens and you don't know what other monsters have been eating out in the wild." Belias pointed out. Cloud made a somewhat disgusted face and Belias chuckled. "It's probably because they look so similar to you that it grosses you out. I mean if you think about it, if you were to eat Chocobo it'd almost be like cannibalism."
"I'm not a chocobo." Cloud stated.
"Sure you aren't." Belias replied with a small laugh. It suddenly occurred to Cloud that he and Belias were getting along and he was becoming painfully aware of how weird the whole situation was.
"So," Cloud began. "Is there a reason why you're standing out here?" The crow almost immediately regretted his decision to question the rat because his expression suddenly turned serious.
"I figured that you'd want to know that Johnny passed and he's in that room." Belias said as he gestured over to the doors where they had to wait for their practical to be held. "There are no instructors in there because they all have to go and watch us do our tests."
"Thank you for the concern, but I doubt that he'd do anything in a room full of cadets." Cloud said.
"I know, but he's been talking crap about you ever since he walked into the room. Are you sure you want to deal with that?" Belias questioned. Cloud look sceptical.
"What kind of crap?"
"Probably every cadet in there now thinks that you cheated on your test and that you've slept with all the generals and the Lieutenant." Belias stated.
"Well that's reassuring." Granted in Cloud's opinion it wasn't all that farfetched. After all he had made out with Genesis and Zack all in one day before, and Sephiroth after he had found out that Genesis and Zack had gotten to him first. Angeal had just shook his head at the time and told Cloud that he wouldn't push him into anything but he wasn't against the idea. Cloud had been too shy to instigate anything at the time, especially because it had been right after Sephiroth had jumped him. That had been an interesting week to say the least. "There's nothing much I can do about that though. I mean, people will think what they want to think." Cloud said finally and Belias frowned at that.
"I don't see why you don't ever stand up for yourself."
"There's no point in trying to change the way someone thinks about you. Especially if they're the type to be set in their own ways. The most I can do is prove his words wrong with my own skills and hopefully no one would be stupid enough to believe everything that comes out of Johnny's mouth. After all, there is a viewing screen in that room right?" Cloud questioned and Belias nodded his head. "I can deal with shit talk for a few hours, so don't worry about me."
Belias sighed. "I can see why that weasel always stuck to you now. If you're not careful one of these days you're going to get in a whole heap of trouble."
"My mentor does say that I have a tendency to get myself into trouble, but his mentor says that like him I have an incredible amount of dumb luck."
"And you let your mouth run a little bit too much at times." Belias added.
"That's something that I picked up off Reno after living in the same room as him for so long." Cloud said, grinning slightly before they both made their way into the room.
There was dead silence and about a hundred cadets from both Luxiere's class and some other classes were looking at them, well, Cloud in particular. In one of the corners Cloud could see Johnny staring at him not looking pleased at all.
"Is there a reason why he doesn't look happy despite the fact that he was talking shit about me a little while ago?" Cloud questioned quietly enough so that only Belias could hear him.
"Probably the fact that we walked in together. After all, he does think that you belong to him." Belias replied and Cloud sighed.
This was going to be a long few hours.