FFVII - The Cat Incident

I dunno, I always kinda liked to imagine that the transform materia did more than just shrink things and turn things into frogs.

First fanfic I’ve written in forfrikkin'ever. Kinda cracky, kinda not, light Zack/Cloud/Aerith, featuring a magic accident, inspired by this image. 

“Behind you!”

The smaller of two men spun around and held out his sword, allowing a giant beetle to impale itself. He cringed as he took a split second to shove it off before he cut down another. He’d lost track of how long this had been going on or how many monsters there had been, but it felt like it must have been upward of a thousand.

But that was the last one. The swarm was gone. Finally he could relax. Or so he thought.

The larger man turned to face him with a devilish grin spreading across his face. He raised his own sword and began to charge.

“What!? Zack, you’ve gotta be kidding me!” Cloud rolled out of the way, sending his friend continuing to charge across the room uninterrupted. It only worked for a few moments before the human bullet train had changed direction and was charging to engage him again. He blocked one strike - then another - then another. He couldn’t bring himself to strike back - only partially because he cared too much for the person he was fighting.

The other reason was that Zack was too fast, but he was also too aggressive. If he could just continue to block until he got a little tired…

Zack raised his sword high above his head. Cloud closed his eyes and pulled his own sword into Zack’s right flank. Dulled steel connected with body armor with a loud metallic grating noise, and Zack was thrown to the floor.

He stood up laughing as he removed his helmet. “Oh man, nice one! You really got me there!” He ruffled Cloud’s hair the moment he would let him near him again. “Hey, you’re getting really good at this!”

“Yeah, or you’re getting predictable,” Cloud replied with a half-laugh. “Zack…you know I don’t like fighting you.”

“This again? Come on, even if you beat me you’re not gonna hurt me. We’re wearing the same things, after all, so you’d know that from experience, wouldn’t you?” Zack teased. It was true - the first several training sessions were far from evenly-matched. A 14-year old newbie with no swordsmanship experience and no enhancements vs. a 16-year old SOLDIER First Class on whom the meaning of the words “go easy on the new guy” were totally lost wasn’t exactly a hard one to call.

But even so, Zack sensed potential in this kid from the moment he saw someone - a small redshirt, no less - managing to keep up with him in the mountains. 

“Well, I know, but –”

“Cloud, this is a private military, remember. Doing things we don’t like to do is part of the job. Sometimes we’re gonna have to do things we’ll hate ourselves for. Just…consider it practice for the harder things we’ll have to do. Best thing we can do is just minimize the damage to people on both sides of a conflict - and you seem to be doing pretty good at that!”

Cloud smiled. “So, how’d I do? How many monsters was that that I beat?”

Zack chuckled and looked at the simulation data. “…36! Congratulations, that’s a new record for you!”

Cloud sighed. “That’s all? You beat hundreds on your own without a problem just for fun, and my record that leaves me burned out is 36!? I’ll never make SOLDIER at this rate,” he groaned.

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been here since I was 12; I had to lie about my age to get in and I’ve been practicing ever since, not to mention the mako treatments. You’ve only been here, what, nine months? And you just beat me! Personally…I don’t see why they haven’t accepted you for a promotion yet. I honestly think you’re better than I was when they accepted me.” He laughed again to shake off the mood of disappointment that was building. “You did great. Now let’s put this gear away before someone decides to get on our case about ‘lollygagging in it’.”

Cloud smiled and handed over his armor, his helmet, and finally his training sword. It felt strange - it was just a standard-issue Shinra broadsword, dulled for safety, but he found himself getting strangely attached to it. Suddenly, a small, round object came out of a compartment in the pommel. Zack leaned down to examine it.

“Hm. Looks like whoever used your sword last left a materia loaded in it. Guess it’s yours now!” he said as he picked it up and placed it in Cloud’s hands.

“Wait, shouldn’t we try to find who left it here?”

“Eh. Too many of these guys need to learn some personal responsibility. They should know better than to leave their stuff laying around like that. If all the training they’re going through isn’t enough to teach them to keep track of their stuff, then maybe losing it will be.” Zack’s face hardened as he seemed uncharacteristically strict. His tone suggested he knew exactly who had done it. “…and besides, free materia!”

Cloud laughed. “Well, I guess you have a point…on that first part anyway.” He held the materia up and examined it.

“Well, what does it do?”

Cloud took aim at a training dummy. “Stand back, I’m gonna find out!” he laughed as the dummy was engulfed in light…and in its place, a stuffed frog sat. 'Hm. Transform.' He ran over to grab the stuffed frog and return it to Zack. “Hey, look, I found you a present too!” he laughed as he thrust the plushie into his friend’s arms.

“Though…I already have one of these. My father left it to me…along with a pretty funny photo album; apparently he used to use it for pranks all the time. It’s a lot stronger than this one, too. Do you need one?” Cloud asked.

“Nope, I’ve already got a good one too - but hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s head back to my apartment and see if I’ve got anything I can fuse it with. I’ve never tried fusing one of these before, I can’t wait to see the results!”

Cloud nodded and hung his gear back in the supply room, exactly as he found it. He had a bad feeling about this plan, but the excitement outweighed it.

—

The two arrived in Zack’s apartment and ran for the materia case. Zack dug through the compartments, searching for anything that seemed like it would make an interesting combination. “Hmm…fire? That might be dangerous…all I can imagine is being attacked by a flaming duck. Regen…maybe…disguise yourself as a sheep while you heal? …but how would you get back to human? Wait, this is perfect - cow in a tornado!” he laughed as he picked out an aero materia. “Of course, it’s usually not as simple as combining effects…but I’ve never tried it on one of these before, so I’m just trying to make educated guesses,” he explained sheepishly. “You’ve…never actually seen this process, have you?”

“No, I haven’t!” Cloud exclaimed, brimming with excitement - and a little fear. Zack removed a small device from his pocket.

“It’s really simple. Don’t tell anyone I taught you this yet, but all you have to do is take your materia, put them in the grid, close the lid, and activate it…” The device started glowing as he followed along with his own instructions, “…and in just a second, the new materia should pop out.”

But it took longer than expected. Several seconds later, the device was still glowing - and beginning to shake. “Crap…I think I didn’t seal it right,” Zack mumbled. “Or maybe it’s out of stabilizing gel…”

A loud and bright explosion tore through the room, blowing out a window and knocking over the alarm clock. 'Definitely out of stabilizing gel!’ Zack covered his face with his arms and turned his head away as his life flashed before his eyes. Before he knew it, it was over…but he was still in his room. Good. His arms were a little scratched from the sand-sized glass-like shards flying everywhere, and his room was newly sparkly - and even less organized than before. But he was alive.

He turned to where Cloud had been standing - but no one was there. “Oh no…no, don’t tell me - Cloud!? You’d better be taking cover or something! Where are you!?” He turned to look behind the bed, the closet door, outside his bedroom door - anywhere that he might be hiding to stay safe. Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from what seemed like the middle of his bedroom.

“Mrr-aa?”

He looked down to the floor. Right in the spot where Cloud had been standing was a small blonde kitten with a spiky forelock, sitting in the neck hole of a Shinra infantryman uniform. It took him a second to make the connection, but sure enough - he had just been playing with a transform materia…and here was an animal that looked like his best friend, sitting in a pile of his clothes. Yep, he was safe.

“Rraaawh…wrrah…haa'n?” Cloud-kitty choked out. He pouted as well as a cat could, highly displeased with his new vocal cords’ lack of ability to form many human words. He wasn’t quite sure Zack could even understand him.

“Aww!” Zack laughed as he picked up Cloud and began to pet him. “You make such a cute cat! Uh, I need to fix my fusion grid. But that can wait, first let’s get you back to normal! …and before that…” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started taking photos of Cloud-kitten and himself posing with him.

“Zaaarnk! Mrris a enaaarrsshin!” Cloud squeaked in protest.

“Sorry, sorry! I promise, I won’t let anyone else see these photos, okay?” Zack laughed as he put the phone back in his pocket.

“Mrrah gennrsh,” Cloud replied and grumpily curled up on the bed.

“Let me just get my other transform materia and I’ll have you right back to normal.” He felt bad for laughing so much, really - even if Cloud did make a cute cat, the overwhelming feeling was relief that he was okay. He gave him a quick scratch behind the ears before he turned back to his materia case. He pulled open the drawer for the transform materia - only to find that it was empty.

“Uh-oh…” He began to dig frantically through the other compartments.

“Mraah?” Cloud squeaked.

“It’s missing!” Cloud let out a loud, frustrated meow. “It’s okay, it’ll be okay, it’s gotta be around here somewhere, I know it!” Zack’s panicked tone wasn’t very reassuring though. He dug through the last drawer and still failed to find it.

“Crap…where else could it be?” he wondered out loud. He sprinted toward the living room, with Cloud following behind. Maybe it was out here, he did like to play with it sometimes, after all! He dug through the couch cushions, while Cloud peeked under the furniture. Nothing. Suddenly, his door flew open.

“What was that loud noise up here – Fair, you know the rules! Just because you’re SOLDIER doesn’t mean you don’t have to follow the rental agreement, which clearly says NO PETS ALLOWED!” the landlord exclaimed, glaring at Cloud.

“Oh, I’m sorry sir! He’s not a pet, he…uh…” Suddenly he remembered, materia accidents as an excuse for being caught with pets were getting as common and unbelievable as “the dog ate my homework” in this building. “He followed me home. I’m looking for his owner, I’ll take him back as soon as I’ve found them!”

“You’re looking for his owner in the couch cushions?”

“I dropped my pen! I’m…making signs.”

“O…kay…so, about the noise, then?”

“I’m sorry, I broke a window. I’ll have it fixed tomorrow.”

“All right. Very well then. Make sure that cat is out of here by then as well!” The landlord stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

“I don’t get it. He can tolerate property damage, but pets just set him over the edge,” Zack sighed, scooping Cloud up into his arms. “Well, looks like I was about as responsible as that other guy. I must have left mine somewhere at HQ…and it’s awfully late to take you in there and try to explain. Let’s see if we can find some other way to get you back to normal.”

—

“AWWW! He makes such a cute little kitty!” Aerith exclaimed, ruffling Cloud’s fur and pulling him into a hug. Cloud squirmed and meowed in protest. 'Okay, okay, I get it, you think I make a cute cat, but I’m not really a cat so stop it, please!’ he thought, wishing he could say it out loud. But no, all he could do was squirm, yowl, and fight the urge to use the claws.

“See? See, I told you you were a cute cat!” Zack laughed as he rescued Cloud from Aerith’s enthusiasm. “But anyway…we came to you because I lost my transform materia and going back into the Shinra building is kind of a last resort…he catches enough hell from the others on his squad as it is just for the fact that I like him. If they heard about this…”

“I understand. Maybe we should check the materia shop in the market; they might have another one for cheap,” Aerith suggested. “They might even just let you use it once for free…the guy there seems to like you ever since you saved that kid’s wallet.”

“…and I also did want to know if you agreed with me on what a cute cat he makes,” Zack laughed. “But that sounds like a solid plan. Let’s go!”

The three began to make their way to the market, Cloud curled up securely in Zack’s arms. Places looked different when you were just a fraction of your size and he was not willing to run the risk of getting lost. It was a strangely comfortable position. Oddly relaxing. By the time they were halfway there he found himself falling asleep and purring like a motorboat.

Aerith couldn’t help but giggle at the sight. She mumbled something under her breath that neither of the young men quite caught. Sounded something like “I knew it!” - but knew what? Zack couldn’t help but laugh a little himself.

“What?” he chuckled, giving her a puzzled look.

“Oh, nothing!” Aerith sang as she ruffled Zack’s hair with one hand and scratched Cloud behind the ears with the other.

—

“Sorry, just sold the last one,” the shopkeeper said. Zack sighed and hung his head in frustration.

“Great…what now?”

“Have you tried an esuna?” the shopkeeper asked. “If not, I have plenty of those that you can borrow.”

“Tried it. Apparently there was something about the fusion effect that makes it not recognized as an ailment,” Zack replied.

“Well, this is a pickle. I’ll keep an eye out for anything that might be able to help.”

“Thanks…in the meantime, we’ll ask around.” Zack headed off and began looking around the other shops, while Aerith spoke to some of the children running around the market. Hours later, their efforts still turned up nothing.

Zack sighed and flopped onto a bench, startling Cloud with the sudden movement. He dug his claws into Zack’s arm as he let out a loud meow. Zack let out a yelp, and Cloud cringed as he realized what he had done. He jumped out of Zack’s arms and began licking next to the wound with his tail tucked between his legs.

“I know, I know you didn’t mean it…it’s okay, I can’t stay mad at you,” Zack laughed as he scratched Cloud behind the ears. “I’m sure you’re more frustrated with this than I am. And you’re leaving on a mission tomorrow, aren’t you?” Cloud nodded.

“Well…if I have to make an excuse for you, I’ll make an excuse for you. Hey, at least we’ll have more time together, right?” He pulled Cloud back into his arms and stood up - slowly this time to avoid another accident. “Well, you know to hide from my landlord…you’ll be safe staying in my apartment for the night. Maybe we can figure something out in the morning.”

“I’ll keep looking too. The kids love to use those things for pranks,” Aerith chimed in. “There are other kids out at other times…I should be able to find someone willing to loan me one if all else fails.”

“Thanks, Aerith. Good night, and good luck,” Zack said, turning to kiss her on the cheek before he headed back to the train station. Cloud’s fur bristled, and Aerith stifled a laugh. 'Oh, no need to be jealous~! We love you too…whether he’s ready to admit it or not.’

—

Cloud shook in frustration and began attempting to groom himself upon being let loose in Zack’s room. Somehow he had a feeling that being smuggled in under a jacket was probably more trouble than it was worth. And so was this grooming thing. 'Ew, I’m swallowing hair! How do cats stand this!?’

Zack brought out a hairbrush and began to help. “Sorry, buddy, but we couldn’t risk my landlord seeing you. It’ll be okay…if all else fails I can make up some story to excuse you and grab your materia when your squadmates are out.”

Cloud began to purr and rub up against Zack. A few seconds later he suddenly realized what he was doing, froze in place, and felt that he was probably blushing profusely under all that fur. Zack couldn’t help but laugh. “Aww, come on! You’re a cat for now, you’re allowed to do things that would seem awkward otherwise!” Zack teased. Cloud headbutted him in the side and looked up at him with pleading eyes. Zack laughed and ruffled his hair.

“Let’s get some sleep. We’ve got an…interesting day tomorrow.” Zack placed the hairbrush on his nightstand and tucked himself in. Cloud wasn’t entirely sure what to do or where to sleep. The floor? He tried laying down there, but the carpet felt scratchy and uncomfortable. Maybe the windowsill? No way, with the glass blown out he’d slice himself open or fall out. Everything else was covered in all kinds of stuff he knew he probably shouldn’t mess with. Another room was out of the question; if the landlord came in and found him he would probably be better off on the windowsill. 'Zack needs to move somewhere that the landlord has an ounce of respect for privacy over property…’

He really had no other choice than the one he didn’t want to admit he wanted. He climbed up onto the bed and tried to find a spot where he’d be unobtrusive. He laid down on the bottom corner of the bed…and slipped off, landing on his side with an awkward splat. He winced and his tail began to twitch. He climbed up again, this time laying closer to Zack’s feet - until he twitched in his half-asleep state and kicked him. He hung his head in defeat and crawled up closer to Zack’s chest, stretching out and leaning into him - it was what he wanted to do all along, but it just seemed too awkward.

But Zack didn’t seem to be complaining. He wrapped his arms around Cloud and smiled as he drifted off.

Cloud was conflicted. On the one hand, this was awkward. This was his best friend. He had a girlfriend. His girlfriend was a great person that he didn’t want to hurt by being a wedge between them. Whatever this weird feeling was would pass, he was sure of it. He was sure that at most it was a silly little crush, and those always go away in time - and really, for all he knew, it was just gas. 

But, for now, it sure did feel nice.

—

Cloud woke up to the sound of running water. Zack had gotten up on his own to take a shower - and slid pillows where he had been lying to keep from disturbing him. He laughed as well as he could with a cat’s vocal cords and decided to give the apartment one more sweep for that materia.

As he entered the living room, the front door swung open. The landlord was standing there with the maintenance man following behind him. He tried to dart under the couch and avoid being seen, but it was too late.

“You! You’re still here, you little rat!?” The landloard darted over to the couch and grabbed Cloud by the scruff of his neck. “I told that kid to get you out of here…well, if he can’t find you another place to live I’ll take you to someone who can!”

Cloud struggled, trying to reach any part of the man’s hand, arm, body, anything with his teeth or claws, but it was no use. He was carried down to the lobby, shoved into a cage, and thrown into the back seat of a car.

'This is going to end badly…’

—

As Zack was rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, something caught his attention in the soap tray. Something about the same color as the bar of soap, right behind it - at first it looked like the remnant of the last bar, but no, it was too shiny and strangely glassy. He picked it up and instantly recognized it - his missing transform materia! He shut off the water and rushed to get out of the shower. He wrapped his towel around himself such that it served absolutely no purpose other than a censor bar and ran out to find Cloud, still soaking wet.

Suddenly he noticed that the window was fixed. 'Uh-oh…’

“I got impatient,” the landlord said as he appeared in the front doorway. Zack nearly jumped out of his skin and grasped the towel to ensure it still covered him. 'I really do need to move…’

“Yeah, uh, thanks. Just add the amount to next month’s rent.”

“Of course. And that little rat bastard of yours is at the pound. Fair, I’m giving you two options. You can let him go, or you can go fetch him and move!”

Zack fought back a panicked squeak. It was about time for him to act like he’d never acted before. “I guess it’s for the best. They’ll probably have better luck finding his owner than I would.”

“You’d better hope so,” the landlord growled before storming off. As soon as he was gone, Zack scrambled to get dressed. In his panicked rush he actually spent more time on this task than usual, first putting his shirt on backward, then his pants on inside-out, and finally his boots on the wrong feet - but he managed to pull himself together and rush out the door, taking off on foot straight for the pound.

—

“Was there a little light yellow kitten brought in here earlier? Blue-green eyes, medium-long coat, funny spiky forelock?” Zack demanded as he threw himself on the counter and struggled to catch his breath.

“Yes, I believe I remember seeing that one! He was very unique-looking; I’d never seen a cat like him before! Let me look him up,” the woman said, and began typing away at her computer. Zack tried to relax, but no matter what he did, his legs kept shaking so badly he could hardly stand.

“Yes…you just missed him. He was adopted just 15 minutes ago.”

“WHAT!?”

“Yes…the man who brought him in said he was his kitty and he wanted to put him up for adoption right away. I’m very sorry…he was lying, wasn’t he?”

“Yep.” Zack collapsed to his knees, still holding onto the desk. 

“I’m terribly sorry. We’ll do whatever we can to help get him back to you.”

“Thanks…” Zack sighed. He took a piece of paper and wrote down his phone number. “Call me there if you have any luck. I’m gonna go home and see what I can do.”

“Good luck!”

The door slammed behind him without another word.

—

Zack flopped on his bed, fighting back tears. “What do I do? If I get caught looking for him or bringing him back, I’ll get evicted. If I don’t look for him…he’s…Cloud is…just…” He punched the pillow before breaking down into sobs. A moment later, he sat up with a new resolve.

“No. Screw this place. This bastard can take his pet-stealing policies and shove them. I’m sure I can find a much more pleasant place to live,” he growled as he stormed over to his desk and began drafting a sign, complete with one of the photos he had promised not to share - this was a bit of an emergency after all. Hopefully the people who adopted him would do the right thing…

Hopefully…

Another wave of despair washed over him and he slammed his fist down on the desk. Even if he did this there was a chance he’d never find him. That he’d be facing eviction for nothing.

Still, he had to try.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at it, hoping it was the pound - but no, it was just Kunsel. He decided to answer it anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Zack, it’s me, I think I found something of yours down at –”

“Look, Kunsel, this is a really bad time, can you call me back later?”

“– down at the pound.”

Zack’s eyes widened in disbelief. “I’ll be right over!”

—

“Yeah, I was down there with my niece helping her pick out a pet, and she spotted this little guy. Well, I heard the explosion, I heard our landlord pitching a fit about a cat that I knew you didn’t have, and I noticed how familiar this one looked…”  Kunsel pointed to the little blonde spiky-haired kitten sitting up, half perky and half asleep on his table. “It wasn’t too hard for me to put two and two together. Real materia fusion accident?”

“Yep.”

“Well, you two should both be thankful I found him when I did. When my niece picked out her cat and we got to the counter, they’d just taken him to the back and made the first incision to, uh…” Zack winced and crossed his legs. “Yeah. That. I was able to beg them and pay them to cancel that and stitch him back up intact. Which reminds me, you owe me big time.”

“How much?”

“1000 gil for the adoption fee, 500 for the spay/neuter waiver fee, 1500 for the anesthesia that was already done, 2000 for shots –”

“That much!? I’ve never heard of vaccines for a cat costing that much before!”

“It was only 250 for his, the other 1750 is for the ones the vet needed after he bit and scratched the living hell out of him,” Kunsel started, trailing off into a laugh. “On second thought, you can keep that, it was worth it just to see the guy storm out grumbling about him!” Cloud let out a quiet growl and Zack laughed sheepishly.

“Well, thank you. We’re both thankful, I’m sure,” Zack said, looking to Cloud. He was beginning to sway as though he were drunk and looked liable to flop over on the table at any minute. “I brought my transform materia and his clothes, so…” Cloud hissed and did, indeed, flop over on the table. “Uh, could you go to the other room for a minute?”

“Who are you telling to go to the other room? It’s my apartment!” Zack rubbed the back of his neck and headed to pick Cloud up.

“I’m just messing with you, I understand!” Kunsel laughed as he headed off for the bedroom. Zack sighed and helped Cloud to the floor, giving a warm smile.

“Ready?”

Cloud nodded, and only a split second later he was engulfed by light. As it faded, his naked human form was laying on the floor. Zack knelt down and gave him a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re back!”

“Hey, remember, his junk is still healing, so be careful!” Kunsel teased. Zack threw a shoe at the bedroom door, which was met with hysterical laughter.

“…nah, you’re basically drunk, I couldn’t take advantage of you like that anyway,” Zack laughed as he took Cloud’s shirt and wrapped it around his shoulders. “How are you feeling?”

“Well…drunk, like you pointed out…and dreading when this wears off and…it…starts to hurt…but relieved to be back to normal,” Cloud laughed.

“I’m glad. I’m relieved too.” Zack began helping Cloud get his clothes back on, to be greeted by protests.

“Hey, I may be drugged to hell and back, but I can still dress myself!” he exclaimed as he slipped his shirt on over his head - inside-out and backward, with the collar hitting him in the face - and he could not, for the life of him, figure out what was wrong.

“…okay. Maybe I could use some help,” he admitted.

—

“Strife, are you drunk!? You know the rules about being intoxicated when leaving on a mission!” the squad leader demanded. Cloud cringed and turned away.

“Well, I, uh - sir, I –”

“He just got out of the hospital. I think the drugs haven’t quite worn off,” Zack interrupted, appearing behind the group of infantrymen.

“Sir! I – why wasn’t I informed of this?”

“It just happened last night. I took him out for dinner for the last night before a big mission and a bunch of drunk guys jumped him while I was in the bathroom. The doctors were able to fix him up mostly by magic, but he still needed some other help. He’s even still got a few stitches under his clothes.”

“And I’d rather not say where,” Cloud chimed in. Zack stifled a laugh.

“In that case, Strife, I have no choice but to excuse you from this mission,” the squad leader groaned as he began signing papers. “Go home, get some rest, and stand by for your next orders. Dismissed!”

Cloud sighed for relief and stumbled out the door, with Zack following behind. “Thanks for that. Community showers…with, well, this…would not have been fun.”

“After that adventure, especially with the drugs still working, I figured you could use a bailout. Guess we’re still getting more time together after all,” Zack laughed. “But don’t expect this to be a vacation! I need your help finding a new apartment. I am NOT taking a chance on that happening again! Any of it. Including the landlord walking in on me naked.”

Cloud burst out into laughter. “So that’s what I missed while I was at the pound, huh?”

“Yeeeah. Furthermore, we’re picking up your training tomorrow, right where we left off! Meet me in the training room at 0800 hours - I fully expect you to break that record you set yesterday!”

“WHAT!? Zack, you can’t be serious - with me like THIS!?”

“Would you prefer a 30-point sparring match?”

“Zack, come on!”

“I’m just messing with you. I wouldn’t blame you for being a little off still tomorrow. But we’re still gonna train - to whatever level you can handle.”

Cloud laughed a little. “Zack…why do you like our training sessions so much?”

“It’s simple, really. I like spending time with you. I’m spending time with you there - and if we can get you to where you can beat your performance anxiety and you get promoted, we’ll get assigned to even more things together.” Zack smiled and ruffled Cloud’s hair.

“Well, I can’t beat that for motivation.” Cloud blushed and looked away, somewhat regretting his word choice. Especially the fact that he had meant every bit of it.

“So, tomorrow, 8:00. See you then?”

“Of course!”

“In the meantime, breakfast and apartment-hunting?” As if on cue, Cloud’s stomach growled.

“Sounds perfect to me,” he laughed as Zack wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “Let’s make sure to find one that allows pets - just in case.”