Chapter Text
Kunsel knew it was now or never.
And he’d had enough of ‘nevers.’
Yes, he probably should wait for more information, but watching the fucker for last couple of months was pointless. The bastard knew he was being watched, so everything he did was fine and normal and no amount of watching gave anything away. He needed to snoop, but the fucker hadn’t given him anything. So, it was anow a matter of opportunity.
And he had the perfect one here. Drautos, their dumbass caretaker, and several others were out on a mission, which meant that even if the fucker noticed something was off, he hours away. And the chances of that were low as there was a terrible storm going outside. The homemade EMP was designed to disrupt the technology at intervals consistent with the storm. Short bursts that might be able to give him some time. He’d never try this back in Shinra—no storms would fuck with cameras and bugs that were battery powered—but these idiots were morons and that gave him some leeway. Even if Drautos sent an underling to check on the place, Kunsel would be able to use that as well. Every detail would help him figure out the fucker.
And then—
…
…
He’d know.
He’d know and have the knowledge. He knew what life was like without and was not going to risk that again.
Kunsel set off the crudely made device and broke down the vent. He made a beeline for the desk. The fucker always locking it made that an obvious location. There might be an argument that it was too obvious of a location. In Shinra, it would’ve been.
But this world was plagued with idiots.
Idiots who used extremely complicated locks. Locks that were only used by people hiding bodies or blood.
Kunsel grinned and carried all the files into the small wagon Zack made for him to move more things around in the vents. He waited for the timer to go off again before moving back out to work on the next drawer—
Empty.
Emp—
He barely made it back into the vent and seethed. If that drawer was empty… Fuck. Fuck!
The fuckers moved shit.
He—
Kunsel shook. He’d fucked up. He absolutely fucked up.
Because he knew files had been put into that drawer. He’d seen it happen. And now…
…
…
Think.
Focus.
Breathe. Breather and…
…
If I was a suspicious fucker, where would I hide important documents?
Wouldn’t be on him. Not when he was going into a battle. He could lose them, or it could be used against him.
So, they had to be somewhere in else in the building.
He took a deep breath and turned back on the EMP. Kunsel knew he was too angry to start searching around, and no one was coming to check on the office. Not yet anyway.
He’d be a fool to not explore some more.
He upped the EMP by fifteen more seconds and put it on a loop, and started to go through the cabinets on the wall. While he consistently wished for his human body back, there were certain moments where it was okay being a cat. For example, as a human he’d never be able to hide in a closed cabinet and go through the papers in it while the cameras were on.
He went through the different supplies and papers and folders. All useless. Copies of the shit on the King’s desk with no alterations. Just normal office supplies.
He opened the next cabinet and found more supplies and…
…
Why do you have copies of these book—
Footsteps.
Running.
Kunsel leapt over to the vent and securely hid himself back as two Kingsglaives entered. They spoke softly in a language Kunsel hadn’t heard before. That pissed him off, but he kept still and watched them. They looked around the office and checked all the bugs.
They didn’t look at the desk.
Or in the cabinets.
Kunsel didn’t know whether to laugh or yell at the complete display of incompetence.
He watched them leave and set off the EMP twice more to help cover his tracks before leaving. He was tempted to grab the books, but a quick scan had showed nothing written in them. If he wanted to look through them with more detail, then he knew he could grab them from the library.
…
…But he’d probably come back later. Just to doublecheck everything.
***
It might’ve been overkill to set up everything in the spare bedroom, Kunsel always prided himself on being the most careful and prepared.
…Or trying to. If you were better, then Zack and Cloud…
He shoved the dark thoughts down. He could be miserable later. Right now, he needed to go through the papers.
He laid out everything as Zack walked in with Cloud. He set him down on the pillows that Kunsel had dragged down from the bed. He looked at the papers and was too quiet.
“What?”
“…You said that you didn’t have a lot of time to scope out the place, because the fucker got jumpy.” Zack pointedly looked at the papers.
“…One of the drawers was empty. I’m going to hunt for it later,” Kunsel said quietly, feeling the failure swell in stomach. Angeal, Tseng, Reno’s voices—
“It’s okay.” The voices faded as Zack nuzzled his head. “It’s okay. It’s you. You always figure it out. You’re perfect at this stuff. We’ll win at the end.”
Zack pulled back and Kunsel swore he saw his commander and not the cat.
“No one will fuck with us again. Never again.”
“…I know,” Kunsel muttered, licked up Zack’s nose. “I know. And I will.”
“So…Like the old days?” Zack asked with a lopsided grin he hadn’t properly seen in years.
“Like the old days.”
Zack’s grin turned mildly feral and he darted out of the room and came back with a pen and notebook.
“Uh—when—”
“It was easier than dealing with the fucking printers.”
Kunsel and Cloud both started laughing as Zack just deadpanned. Neither of them would forget him almost shutting down the entire mainframe over the print.
Even the Turks didn’t know how he fucking did it.
***
Of fucking course, he’d have to get the damn books. All of the files pulled were also in a code, but it was different from the notebook. If the fucker did the key in the different books, he was going to scream. It had to be the books or the missing files. Kunsel growled quietly as he made his way back through the vents and into the Library. He jumped from the top of the stacks—
…He wasn’t alone.
The King was below him, looking at… a children’s book?
He looked both older and younger than he was as he flipped through the pages. Every few pages, tears would form in his eyes, but he didn’t let them fall.
Kunsel hopped down and met the King’s eyes. A full smile appeared.
“Ah. I was wondering if you were starting to behave yourself. I haven’t seen you in a few nights.”
“Everyone is out, so your office boring right now.”
“My mistake, you would never behave, would you?”
“Fuck you.”
The King chuckled and reached out a hand. Kunsel flinted away and then jumped up next to him.
“Ah, still so elusive. You and your grouchy Vesper.”
“Fuck you. Zack can yell at anyone he likes. He’s earned that right,” Kunsel grumbled out, looking more at the book. ‘The Golden Glow’ was the title.
“Hm? Interested this story?” The King asked with a grin.
“No.”
“…It was my wife’s favorite.” Kunsel’s ears twitched gently. Grief was ever clear in the man’s voice. “We have our gardens here and in the library because of this. She wanted our children to experience natural environments even though we knew they’d rarely be able to travel beyond the Wall.”
Kunsel loafed as the King continued to talk about his late wife and their plans for the future. It was strange. This was ruler of the land. For him to show such human emotions… Didn’t know how dangerous it was? How he could be used? And where the fuck was his bodyguard? Did he want to die?
“…Well, thank you for listening to me, little one.”
“Not little,” he grumbled. However, he didn’t move when the King reached out a hand. He scowled as the man smiled slyly and gently scratched his ear.
“…You’re a good kitty, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you.”
The King chuckled and Kunsel stood up and leapt up onto a shelf and made his way back into the vents. Clearly, he was going to need to give it a bit more time before grabbing the books—
“Hello, sneaky one!”
Oh fuck no.
Kunsel bolted down the vents as the fucking fox chittered and chased him. He was fast and mobile as a kitten.
“Nope!”
…But not faster than a stupid magical carbuncle.
“Fuck off! Let me go!”
“Nope! This is the first time Noct’s asked me for a favor!”
“What?”
“You’ll see!” The fucker sang out and literally fucking trotted down the vents. “And if it all works out, Noct can adopt the fluffy baby!”
“Fuck you! Fuck you motherfucking asshat!”
The fox just laughed as he carried him along and dropped him—
“Good job, Carbuncle!”
…In front of the Prince. And the blonde kid.
He was so fucked.