Sorry for the wait! Here's part two. Enjoy!

Shinra was just quieting down for the night as Zack sneaked up the staircase to the fifth floor. He carried his rolled-up sleeping bag under one arm and held a flashlight in his other hand. He turned the corner, his footsteps echoing down the hall.

This is going to be soooo easy, Zack smirked as he made his way down the hall. Squinting, he could make out Cloud's silhouette as he stood by the materia lab's door, fidgeting nervously.

"Where were you?" Cloud demanded, sounded irritated. "You were supposed to be here 15 minutes ago!"

"Sorry, sorry," Zack answered, but Cloud could tell he wasn't really sorry.

"So how is this going to work out?" Zack asked, shifting his weight to his other leg. "I mean, how do you know I'm not going to sneak out of here and leave?"

"Well," Cloud started, "I guess I could lock you inside and keep the card key with me. That way you'll have to yell and wake me up when you're ready to leave."

"Very funny," Zack retorted. He was not going to lose this bet. "Where are you going to sleep?" he inquired, observing Cloud's sleeping bag leaning against the wall.

"I'm staying out here where it's not haunted," Cloud answered.

Zack grinned. "Got it. Let's do this thing!" He whipped the card key out and unlocked the door. He pushed it open, and the lights turned on overhead. Even though there were no windows in the lab, it still seemed to be even creepier than the last time they had been inside. It was probably since they had heard that all of the "supernatural" incidents had occurred at night.

"Are you sure you don't want to come in?" Zack called as Cloud watched nervously from the doorway.

"I'm not going in there," Cloud said firmly, crossing his arms.

"Cloud, look." Zack dropped his stuff on the floor and waved his arms around in the air wildly. "See? Nothing's happening. Not haunted."

Cloud didn't reply. He still stood in the doorway cautiously. Zack sighed with irritation and marched over to where Cloud was standing.

"Here. Come and see for yourself." Before Cloud had time to react, Zack darted across the room and grabbed Cloud's arm.

"Zack! Stop it!" Cloud cried out as Zack dragged him into the lab. "I don't wanna be in here!"

"Geez, Cloud!" Zack exclaimed, still gripping his arm tightly so he couldn't scurry back outside. Cloud squirmed and tried to break free, but Zack pulled him into the center of the lab.

"See?" Zack asked, still holding onto his arm. "It's fine. It's not haunted." He grinned. "Still sure you wanna keep the bet?"

"Yeah," Cloud answered, frowning. "Because I know it's haunted in here. Get off." Zack released his grip on Cloud's arm. "I'm leaving."

"Okaaayyy," Zack replied, rolling his eyes. "Have fun sleeping in the hallway all night-"

Zack was interrupted by a loud slam, followed by the click of the lock. He and Cloud whirled around, eyes wide in surprise. The door to the lab had swung shut.

"See?" Cloud cried, scrambling over to the door, "I told you! I'm getting out of here!" He pulled on the handle, but the door would not open.

"Zack! Where's the card key?" Cloud spun around, his eyes wide in fear.

"Hang on," Zack told him, digging his hands into his pockets. He froze. The card key was not there.

What the-? Zack knew he had put that card key back into his pocket. He checked the floor by his feet, hoping he had just dropped it by accident. The only thing on the floor was the dust that covered the tiles.

"Hurry!" Cloud was still pulling desperately on the door. "What's taking so long?"

"Um, Cloud?" Zack said uneasily, "I-I don't have the card key."

Cloud froze. "What?" He yelled, almost hysterical. "But you just had it! What did you do with it?"

"I guess…I guess I dropped it," Zack answered quietly, examining his sleeping bag to make sure he hadn't slipped it into the bag mistakenly. Nothing. Cloud joined in and searched the floor all around the lab. After several minutes of unsuccessful card key hunting, Zack and Cloud realized that the card key was not anywhere inside the lab. Which meant they were trapped until someone realized they were missing.

"How could you lose it?" Cloud continued to shout at Zack. "I thought you put it back in your pocket!" Then his face dropped, and he looked at Zack disapprovingly. "Enough with the joke, Zack. Give me the card key."

"I don't have it!" Zack protested, holding up his hands. "I must have dropped it by accident."

"We're gonna be trapped in here all night!" Cloud whined, pacing back and forth anxiously. Zack leaned against a table, his head hanging low.

"Just calm down, Cloud," Zack told him, "You're acting like we're gonna die in here. So what if it's kinda creepy in the lab? We'll get out of here by tomorrow morning. Angeal knows we're up here. He'll come looking for us once he realizes we're missing."

"But we're still trapped in here!" Cloud wailed. "Just because you're not scared-"

Suddenly, the dim lights overhead flickered on and off slowly. Cloud jumped and looked around the room wildly.

"Zack, stop it," Cloud's voice shook as he spoke.

"I'm not doing anything," Zack replied, holding his hands up in the air innocently.

"See? It's haunted! I told you so!" Cloud pointed a trembling hand to the light fixtures overhead as the lights continued to fade in and out.

"Cloud," Zack crossed his arms, "It's probably just the crappy wiring in here. This place is old. No one's used it in years."

Cloud wasn't comforted by Zack's explanation. "How do you know, Zack? You heard Commander Hewley! It's haunted!" Cloud protested, throwing his arms up in the air. "And now we're stuck in here until someone comes looking for us!"

"Stop whining, Cloud," Zack approached him slowly, "Whining and complaining isn't going to do anything for us now."

Cloud hung his head in defeat. Zack felt a little sorry for him. He hadn't meant for them both to get locked inside the lab.

"So I guess the bet's off, huh," Zack muttered unhappily. Darn. He had been looking forward to seeing Cloud write Sephiroth a love note.

"Well, yeah," Cloud retorted, anger still clear in his voice.

"Look, Cloud, I didn't mean to-" Zack stopped as he noticed that Cloud was staring at something behind him, a terrified expression on his face. "Cloud, what's wrong?"

Cloud reached up with a trembling hand to point at something over Zack's shoulder. Puzzled, Zack whirled around and understood what Cloud was pointing at.

Zack watched in disbelief as the numerous papers and books scattered around the lab began to float up into the air and drift around. They glided casually through the air, swooping over Zack and Cloud's heads.

"Whoa." Zack couldn't believe what he was seeing. The stuff was floating in the air. Floating.

Cloud gasped and cowered behind Zack. "I told you!" he cried.

"No way, Cloud," Zack answered, rolling his eyes. "It's probably because the lights keep flickering on and off. It's messing with our heads. That's all." But even Zack didn't feel assured by his own answer. He had been in denial about the lab being haunted before, but now he wasn't so sure.

"But they're flying in the air! That's not a trick!" Cloud told him, ducking every once in a while as books came hurtling towards his spiky hair.

"I bet it's the air conditioning in here. They probably have it turned up too high again." Zack refused to believe that the books were actually floating about in the room. Everyone knew books couldn't fly. There had to be another explanation.

"Just get real, Zack!" Cloud protested. "This place is haunted and you know it!"

"You get real!" Zack retorted, spinning around to face him. "There are no such things as ghosts! How many times do I have to tell you that?" Zack unrolled his sleeping bag and laid it out in the center of the floor. "You can stay up and worry about ghosts, but I'm going to sleep. Okay?"

Zack waited for Cloud to answer. "Cloud?" He looked up from his sleeping bag. "What are you looking at?"

Bolted securely into place on the wall was a humongous whiteboard. But Cloud wasn't staring at that. Resting next to the board was a small tray of markers. But the markers were beginning to move as if someone were holding them up in the air.

"Get me outta here!" Cloud dashed over to the door and beat on it loudly with his fists. "Someone come and help us!"

"Cloud!" Zack scolded him, even though now he was spooked. Maybe there was something going on in the lab after all. Still, he didn't want Cloud to see that he was getting scared too. "For the last time, there are no such things as-"

Zack's voice trailed off as he continued to watcher the markers fly around in the air along with the books and other papers. His blood turned to ice as he saw the cap of each marker suddenly break away with a loud pop as if someone had pulled them off. The caps clattered to the floor, rolling off in different directions. Then the markers began to write on the whiteboard.

Zack had seen enough. It hadn't been just a rumor. The materia lab really was haunted.

Zack's first instinct was to find a good hiding place. Frantically he searched for his sleeping bag on the floor. He found it, but there was already a large quivering lump inside of it. Cloud had given up on banging on the door and had taken refuge in Zack's sleeping bag.

"Oh no you don't!" Zack plunged his hand into the bag and felt Cloud's trembling arm. He pulled on it desperately with all his strength. "Get out! This is my sleeping bag!"

"No!" Zack could barely decipher Cloud's muffled cries. "I was here first!"

"Who cares?" Zack's eyes darted back up to the board, and the markers were still scribbling all over the board. He froze as he saw the words "GET OUT" messily scrawled in the center. That was all he needed to see. "Get the hell out!" But Cloud refused to budge. Zack groaned in irritation. "Then move over!"

He jammed himself into the sleeping bag as Cloud began to scream at him. The poor sleeping bag stretched out as far as it possibly could.

"Ow! What are you doing?"

"Just move over!"

"No! Get out!"

"Make me!"

"OW! Dammit, get your elbow out of my eye!"

"Oh yeah? Do you even wanna know where your knee is?"

"Eww!"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

By this time, Zack had managed to squish himself into the sleeping bag alongside Cloud, who had given up trying to keep him out. They lay inside the sleeping bag nervously, waiting for someone to come and help them. Zack could still hear the faint squeaking sounds of the markers against the whiteboard. He was still in shock that the lab was really haunted.

"Did everything stop yet?" Cloud whimpered, still trembling.

"Why don't you get out and check?" Zack retorted, trying to stay calm. But it was impossible inside of a haunted materia lab. Zack and Cloud continued to hide in the sleeping bag, wondering if the long night would ever come to an end.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing Zack saw when he awoke was a faint glow of light inside the lab. Puzzled, he poked his head outside of the sleeping bag and glanced around.

He was relieved when he saw where the light was coming from. Standing in the doorway, holding the card key, was Sephiroth. Angeal hovered behind him nervously.

"Sephiroth!" Zack exclaimed. "Hey, Angeal. Man, am I glad to see you guys!" Zack slid himself out of the sleeping bag and got to his feet slowly.

"Zackary, you have entered a restricted area without any sort of permission from the Director. You-" Sephiroth stopped as his eyes became fixed on a head poking out from the sleeping bag. Cloud turned his head to face everyone, rubbing his eyes wearily.

Angeal burst into laughter, clutching his sides as he leaned against the doorway. Sephiroth stared at Cloud for a few moments, then looked back at Zack with an expression on his face that Zack couldn't even describe. Zack turned to face Angeal, who now had tears streaming down his face. It took Zack a few moments to comprehend what was going on. Then he understood.

"No!" Zack yelled, horrified. "That's not what happened! Nothing happened! I-"

"You were in the same freakin' sleeping bag!" Angeal cried, wiping a tear from underneath his eye. "Whaddaya mean nothing happened?"

Zack glared at Angeal, who ignored him as he continued his laughing fit. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sephiroth and Angeal had everything wrong. There was nothing going on between him and Cloud. No way. He looked back over at Cloud, whose face had turned a deep shade of red. Zack knew that Cloud didn't want Sephiroth to think that he was with Zack. Poor kid.

"Sephiroth, wait!" To Zack's horror, Sephiroth had left the doorway and was now marching down the hallway. "I can explain-"

"That's alright, Zackary." Sephiroth didn't even glance behind him, "You don't need to."

Oh my god. Zack was cursing himself for getting into the whole mess. All he had wanted to do was prove Cloud wrong about the materia lab. But he had been wrong. And now everyone in Shinra was going to think that he and Cloud were together. Oh my god.

Angeal had calmed down and was now grinning at Zack devilishly. "Aerith's gonna be jealous, Zack."

"Shut up!" Zack yelled, but Angeal just laughed and started down the hall. "That's not what happened!"

"Whatever, man." Angeal disappeared down the hallway, leaving Zack and Cloud alone in the lab.

"Oh my god!" Zack groaned. "Angeal's gonna go tell everyone we're together! What's Aerith gonna think?"

Cloud stared down at the floor silently, a horrified expression on his face. His beloved General thought that he and Zack were together. Cloud didn't think there was any chance now of his crush on Sephiroth becoming more than a crush.

"What are we gonna do?" Zack wondered aloud, holding his head. He knew they were going to get in so much trouble for being in the lab. Zack gulped. He could only imagine what the rest of the week at Shinra would be like.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was late in the afternoon as Zack stretched out on his bed in the 1st class SOLDIER quarters. He had just gotten back from a stern lecture in the Director's office. Sephiroth had filled Lazard in on all the details. All of them. And Lazard hadn't been too pleased. Zack had never seen him so angry before. But he didn't understand how Angeal had avoided getting in trouble. It seemed that in all the commotion, everyone had forgotten that it had been Angeal who had let Cloud and Zack into the lab in the first place.

Zack jumped at a sudden knock at the door. If that was Angeal again, he swore he was going to…

As Zack opened the door, he was surprised to find Cloud standing in the doorway, a nervous expression on his face. Zack couldn't believe his eyes. Cloud, of all people.

"Cloud? What are you doing here?" Zack cried, glancing around wildly. "Do you know what people have been saying about us?"

The word had spread fast at Shinra. All day long, SOLDIERS and Shinra employees alike had stared at Zack and whispered to each other in hushed tones. Angeal was going to pay. Big time.

"Well, yeah," Cloud shifted. Zack could tell that he had been harassed just like he had. "But I wanted to ask you something."

"What?" Zack demanded. "Make it quick. We can't let anyone see us together."

"Well," Cloud stared down at the ground anxiously. "I know the bet was off and everything, and that it was supposed to be a punishment, but…" Cloud's quivering voice trailed off.

"Cloud, what are you talking about?" Zack had no idea where Cloud was going with this.

"I've been thinking," Cloud took a deep breath, "W-will you help me write that love note to the General?"

Thanks for reading! ^^