"Sorry little friend. This one is mine." Gently but firmly Cloud nudged the big dog aside with his knee and took another bite of his hotdog. His stomach grumbled with hunger and the hotdog was just as he liked it; hot and spicy and covered with onions and ketchup. Shiva knew where Midgar street vendors even got meat for their hotdogs these days but it was just the thing after a long day of deliveries.

A whine and a scratch at his leg made him look down again. Huge, liquid blue eyes stared up at him. The dog pawed at his leg again, whining and licking its chops. It was a big dog, huge even, with a ragged black fur and the signs of a hard life on the street apparent in a few scars but it didn't seem aggressive. The bushy tail wagged and the almost exaggerated behaviour made it look like a puppy. If it was a puppy, then Cloud feared to see what kind of huge monster it might grow into one day.

It cocked its head to one side, ears erect and eyes eager.

"No. Mine. Go away." There were hundreds of street dogs in Midgar. He couldn't feed them all. He had enough trying to get food on the table for his little 'family' as 7:the Heaven.

The dog whined again and its tongue lolled out of the mouth. The eyes darted from hotdog to Cloud's eyes, blue and begging. Blue eyes…well, there were some breeds that had those, mostly up in the North Continent and who knew what had mixed into this behemot? Probably somewhere along its ancestry there were at least one Niebel Wolf. Still the eyes bothered him. They seemed far to clever, to sentient for a dog. And there were something else strange with them to…. Acting on a sudden nostalgic impulse, Cloud broke off half the hotdog and reached down, half expecting his fingers to get bitten off. But the enormous dog carefully took the offering between huge teeth. It woofed as if saying 'thank you' but instead of wolfing it down it started carrying the hotdog away, into an alley. Perplexed at the odd behaviour, Cloud frowned at it. Then he followed.

The dog went deep into an abandoned alley and up to some trash cans. Sitting on top of the trash cans and daintily licking a paw was the biggest, whitest cat Cloud had ever seen, its tail a perpetual waterfall of silky-looking white fur. The dog went up to it and placed the hotdog in front of the cat's paw. Green eyes looked down on the offering with distain, but then it started to gnaw at it with needle sharp teeth. The dog looked on with its mouth opened in a doggy grin.

Cloud just stared. This was all…erringly familiar. Cursing himself for being a sentimental pushover he took the last piece of his hotdog and held it out to the dog which woofed happily and swallowed it whole.

"You two are weird." Carefully he petted the dog's head, but it was enthusiastically friendly, rubbing its heavy head against him and licking his still hotdog greasy fingers with a wet tongue. "Both of you." He reached out to pet the cat, but it spun around with a hiss. "Ow!" Four parallel scratches bled freely on his hand; the cat had moved so fast he had barely seen it. "I think I like your friend better." Cloud muttered, sucking at his hand. The dog rubbed against him and pushed its head under his hand to get petted again as if to make up for the bad behaviour of its cat friend. The cat at the other hand ignored him disdainfully and kept eating its sausage. "Well I have to go back. See you around."

His belly still grumbling with hunger, Cloud started back to the bar.

It became a kind of routine. Not every day, but most, Cloud went to the same hotdog seller after work. Most days the dog showed up, and, cursing himself for his soft heart, Cloud gave it his food and followed it into the alley where the cat continued to treat him like a dirty peasant. The dog however became if possibly more friendly, woofing and jumping around him, finding sticks and old shoes to play fetch with. One day it even jumped its forepaws up on his shoulders staring deep into his eyes with its own disquieting blue ones. The dog was heavy and tall; with its paws on his shoulder it was almost a head taller than Cloud and its teeth was very white and big so close to his face. But it didn't scare him. Instead, looking into those blue eyes staring down on him, the ruffled fur and the slowly wagging tail, Cloud felt…strangely at peace as if something inside him settled down.

A night a few weeks later Cloud was awoken by a sharp pain on his nose.

"Ouch!" He sat up with a startle and the cat fell from his chest into a pile of angry silver fur. "What the Hell?" he stared down at the cat - THE cat - most certainly the same one that he'd seen with the dog these last weeks. There were no way there could be two of the regal creatures. But something was wrong with it. Usually it was so serene and haughty but now its silver fur stood on end, the magnificent tail bushy and it was jumping around on his lap, hissing and spitting as if it was trying to tell him something. The green eyes were…distraught and panicking. "What's wrong? Why are you even here? You don't even like me." Cloud added a bit sulky, still clutching his bloody nose.

The cat yowled in angry exasperation as if it couldn't believe he was this daft and then it did something strange. Cloud almost recoiled as it reached up, put its front paws on his cheeks and, almost as the dog had done, looked him deep in the eyes. These eyes were not blue, however, but burning green and much more intelligent than any animal should be. This time Cloud did not feel peace and that strange light-headedness. This time he felt awe and a bit of fright. The silver cat, the green eyes….and the flecks of blood on its face, much more blood than could have come from simply scratching his nose.

Cloud was out of the bed so fast the cat fell over again, but it found its feet before he had even got his shirt on, rushing out the bedroom door like a small silver arrow.

"No wait!" Forgetting all about more clothes or weapons, Cloud rushed barefoot and shirtless after the animal that was no mere animal.

The cat led him through the dark street were only thieves, murderers and Turks still prowled at this hour. No one messed with him, though. He'd liked to think it was because of his reputation as a world saving hero, but more likely it was because a half naked man following a bloodied cat in the middle of the night made even most night time people turn the other way.

The dog lay in the alley, the same alley where they always used to meet. A pool of blood was spreading around it, warm and sticky and as Cloud stepped closer blue eyes turned towards him. Burning blue eyes, Blue mako eyes, dark ruffled hair, a pool of blood. Cloud's heart almost stopped. He rushed forward, falling to his knees in the sticky pool. From the look of it, someone had shot the dog, probably at close quarters. Cloud's blood felt ice cold. A dry tongue came out to lick at his unsteady hands before the dog closed its eyes. The cat screeched with fright but Cloud shoved the huge dog up in his arms, the fur and blood warm against his naked skin.

"He's still breathing." He told the cat as he started running back towards Heaven. The cat ran beside him, easily keeping pace.

"Cloud? What is this?" Tifa came running down the stairs as the door was kicked open and Cloud ran in, carrying what appeared to be a wolf in his arms, the animal's blood all over him. A strange cat jumped all around the both of them as Cloud carefully laid the wolf down on the floor. Cloud looked up at her, his face betraying too many emotions, fear, desperation, awe, a boundless sorrow and a strange hope.

"It's…." Cloud started but fell silent. There were no way he could explain this. No way he could explain who the wolf was. "I just have to do this. Get me some bandages, please." The cat hissed at her as if to make her hurry.

Tifa didn't argue. You didn't argue with the look on Cloud's face.

A few hours later the dog - or wolf - was bandaged and sewed and Cloud had managed to get it to drink a potion and some water. It was sleeping now, exhausted, with the cat curled up on top of its neck on an undamaged spot, watching Cloud with suspicious green eyes. From time to time it affectionately licked the wolf's ear with a pink tongue. Cloud had left the pair alone long enough to take a shower and put on some clean pants but now he sat down next to them. He watched the strange couple, the huge wolf with its spiky black fur and mako eyes and the regal silvery asocial cat. It was all too familiar to be coincidence. Even the wolf's snores were familiar.

"It's you, isn't it Zack?" He said quietly. Blue eyes opened a sliver and the bushy tail wagged once before the wolf went back to sleeping. "And that means you are….Sephiroth." He reached out a hand towards the cat, but it hissed and swatted at him. "I'm sorry, general Sephiroth. Sir." Cloud quickly withdrew his hand. The cat seemed mildly mollified by this amends and went back to watching him, more curious now. "I guess there is nothing for it. You two are staying here now." The cat blinked. Then it started purring.

"He sleeps in your bed, he sheds, he eats a ton a day and he's not neutered." Tifa shook her head. "I don't know Cloud. We have responsibilities enough as it is."

"Yes but…" Cloud stumbled for words to explain what really sounded like madness even to himself, but he didn't have to bother. Zack the wolf padded over to Tifa and put his big head on her lap. Soulful blue eyes gazed up at her and he whined pitiful. Tifa started to melt.

"I suppose we could do with a watchdog though." Zack barked and jumped, his long tongue hanging out in doggy glee. Tifa laughed. "Oh you are a good dog, aren't you? Yes you are!" She leaned down to ruffle him behind the ears, causing the wolf to press his face at her boobs, panting and looking more than a little happy. "And you did find me that towel after I had showered, didn't you?"

Cloud fought the urge to roll his eyes. Even as a wolf Zack was no different than he had been.

"And the cat won't make much trouble." Tifa continued as she gave Zack a belly rub. He had to find a way to talk to her about this, Cloud realised. Zack was getting way to perversly happy about the whole belly rub thing. "And they are both males, so at least we don't have to worry about puppies and kittens."

Sephiroth chose that exact moment to walk in the door, tail held high even though it looked like he'd been in a fight from the scratches on his side. Behind him three silver kittens tumbled in, yowling and fighting. All three looked up at Cloud and hissed.

Cloud buried his face in his arms as Sephiroth gave him a smug cat-smile and dumped the smallest kitten in his lap where it immediately started ripping his shirt to shreds.

"Oh, you got to be kidding me…."