"And you can stay right there until your Mother gets here to take you home, young lady."
"And if I don't?"
"You'll be suspended a whole lot longer. Stay put."
The girl sniffed, flicked her dark ponytail over her shoulder, and crossed her arms, giving the assistant principal a haughty look.
"'s not like she's gonna be mad or anything."
/Some time later/
"You can go now." The girl grinned, snagged her backpack, and took off like a shot for the office door, ready to throw herself at her Mother with the excuses she'd come up with. She collided with a solid chest and bounced off with a yelp.
"Dad?"
"Outside. Now," he said softly.
"But-"
"You're just digging yourself deeper. We will discuss this at home."
"Okay," she mumbled.
"Thank you for calling."
"Er…of course," the assistant principal answered, backing towards his desk. "Here. You'll need this to take her off campus." He grabbed a slip of orange paper and held out.
Student name: Valentine, Yazmin
Reason for leaving: Suspension
Time of return: Unknown
Turned over to: Valentine, Vincent (Yuffie had been scratched out)
Relation to student: Father (Mother was hastily scribbled over)
"Thank you. Let's go, Yazmin." Yazmin nodded meekly and followed her Father out into the hall. As soon as the door shut, the assistant principal slumped against his desk with a sigh. The door opened almost at once, and he straightened, then relaxed when one of the security guards hurried in.
"Is he gone?"
"Yes."
"Never thought I'd actually see 'im. Her Mom always comes in, y'know?"
"Did you assess the damage, like I asked?"
"Yep. Damage to various walls and floors, three broken windows, no broken bones, thank god, cuts, scrapes, bruises, terrified teachers, equally frightened and/or awestruck students, and an incredible mess in the culinary labs. Oh, and one distraught janitor; she went right through a bed of tulips he's been babying all spring."
"Thank you."
"Sit. We're going to- no, go to your room. Sit at your desk. Contemplate exactly what you have done for the next hour. Then I want you back down here. Understood?"
"Yessir," Yazmin mumbled. She kicked her shoes off and shuffled upstairs. Vincent sighed and dropped onto one of the stools resting under the kitchen island.
Perhaps I should apologize?
"That might help," Vincent muttered.
Alright. I'm very sorry that your daughter inherited a little bit of me as well. I am not, however, sorry that she knows and uses it.
"That doesn't help."
She's just a child, Valentine.
"She's sixteen. When I was sixteen, I was already planning on joining the Turks. I wasn't wreaking havoc at my high school. I wasn't getting myself suspended."
She isn't just yours; you can't expect her to act just like you.
"She doesn't act much like her Mother, either. At least Yuffie doesn't get caught most of the time."
But she did when she was younger.
"Not like Yazmin. It took two security guards and the assistant principal to catch her."
What was it she did, again?
"Started a fight with one of the boys from the football team, and ended up fighting with all of them. A high-speed chase ensued, involving most of the main building and causing damage to boys and building."
If they were jocks, then I'm sure they deserved it.
"This is no time for jokes."
She didn't kill any of them, did she?
"No."
Any serious injuries? Coma? Concussions?
"Trauma," Vincent offered.
A healthy dose of which is good for growth.
"What if she had killed someone? How would I have explained it? Do you honestly think I could go in there and tell her teachers what I am?"
You could, if you had to.
"Chaos, you haven't had to tell anyone. It's terrible, watching their expressions. They become afraid of me. They think I'm a monster."
They don't understand you.
"Exactly. And in addition, can you imagine what they would think of her?"
Then talk to her. Or let me talk to her. We can both do it. Help her properly understand what I am, and what legacy she shares. Perhaps, if she understands, she'll at least have the sense not to get violent on school grounds.
"You're a bad influence."
And look where I got you. Happily married with a beautiful daughter…speaking of which, have you or Yuffie talked to her about boyfriends?
"Enough. I'll do my best when she comes down, but not the boyfriends. I'll have Yuffie do that."
Good idea.
"Now be quiet. I need a few minutes."
/One hour later/
"Dad?"
"In the kitchen." Yazmin slunk into the kitchen. Vincent was sitting at the counter. "Sit down," he said quietly, motioning at another stool. Yazmin climbed onto a stool and stared at her feet.
"Am I in trouble?"
"Why are you asking?"
"Just checking." Silence reigned over the kitchen for a few minutes. "How much trouble?"
"Quite a bit. Why don't you explain what happened. Do not leave anything out." Vincent waited. Yazmin fidgeted on her stool. "Well?"
"He was asking for it. They all were. And I had to let them have it, Dad, I really did."
"How do you justify that?"
"I just…I had to."
"Because they 'deserved' it?"
"Yeah." Vincent sighed.
"What did they do to deserve your anger? How many times have your Mother and I both told you to keep calm?"
"A whole lot. I…he said stuff. It made me mad, and I went after him, and he called all his friends, so I attacked all of them, and I really liked it. it felt good to give them what was coming to them."
I knew it. I knew I had something to do it. Battlerage, Valentine. She has battlerage geared towards her perception of justice, just like you.
Vincent stared at the counter for a Moment, processing. It certainly sounded like Chaos was right. He himself had experienced the beautiful feeling when he destroyed someone threatening his world. He knew how good it felt.
"Yazmin, has your Mother told you about Chaos?"
"She told me stories about him when I was little."
"Do you believe in him?"
"I'd like to. He sounded kinda cool. Y'know, the kind of guy that looks really bad and can act like it but is really good deep down. He just needs to get his priorities straight."
And I have, thank you very much.
"What if I told you that he exists?"
"I'd believe you in a heartbeat."
"And if I said that he lives in me?"
"Then I'd ask for an explanation."
Smart girl.
"Hojo found some way to put Chaos in my body. There were three others as well, but they are gone. We have learned to coexist in the years that we've been together. Your Mother is rather fond of him, though she often considers him something of a pet. I believe that you inherited some of him through me, which would explain the way you felt when you fought. I've felt it too; Chaos calls it battlerage. It makes it easier to fight through almost hopeless situations."
"But my problem wasn't hopeless," Yazmin interrupted. Vincent nodded and took a nectarine out of the bowl on the table, rolling the fruit between his fingers as he spoke.
"And therein lies the problem; it's not something you can control. I certainly can't, and Chaos has little more hold over it than I do. What you have to do it learn to control your emotions, because that is the basis for the rage."
"And become a rock, like you?" Yazmin snapped. Vincent looked at her.
"What?"
"Mom says that you're like a rock all the time. You never smile or laugh or anything. You don't react to anything. If being able to keep from going all psycho like I did means having to close up and quit living, then I'll stick with being a psycho. You and Mom can lock me up if I really hurt someone." Yazmin spun her stool so she was facing the other direction. "I don't know how you and Mom ever managed to get together, let alone have me."
"I'm not really sure myself," Vincent said softly, still toying with the fruit in his hands. "I don't deserve her."
"You ought to know," Yazmin pointed out, kicking her feet. "You married her."
"And if I told you that I proposed via cell phone?"
"You what?"
"Subtlety just wasn't working with her, and I spent the better part of eight hours sitting on my bed at 7th Heaven working up the courage to go and do it properly, and finally ended up dialing her number and asking over the phone."
"Dad, that's so lame!"
Took the words right out of my mouth, Yazzy, Chaos chuckled.
"It worked."
"Do you love her?"
"How did we get from your suspension to my marriage?"
"Chaos."
Don't blame me for it!
"Then let's return to your suspension, shall we?"
"Daaaaaad."
"Yazmin, my apparent shortcomings as a husband and father are not the issue. Uncontrollable or not, you attacked your classmates and caused considerable damage to the school. Your explanation that they deserved it is not good enough. I want to know why."
"Because they're all sexist pigs," Yazmin muttered. "And I ain't sayin' anymore 'til you agree to talk to me about Mom."
"You've been spending too much time with HighWind," Vicnent sighed. He gave the nectarine another turn.
"He's fun to hang out with, and I like being up in the air."
She gets that from us. If it was Yuffie she took after, she'd never say that.
"And you're picking up his language as well."
"So?"
"Nothing. Quit stalling."
"Agree."
"I will, assuming you keep your end of the bargain, discuss your Mother with you when I decide your explanation is satisfactory." Yazmin pulled a face.
"Jeez, Dad, you sound like Tseng."
"Understandable."
"That wasn't a compliment."
"I'm sure." Vincent drew the point of one of his fingers along the seam in the nectarine, watching as the sharp metal left a fine cut and welling drops of juice in its wake. "But Turks who are dedicated to their job often pick up habits like that."
"Still."
"I believe you left off at sexist pigs," Vincent murmured. Yazmin nodded.
"Right. Anyway, Aidan was being a total jerk and I kicked him in the shins –just a warning shot across the bow, y'know?- and he started yelling and screaming and all of his football buddies came running."
"Where were you?"
"The boy's locker room."
"And why, pray tell, were you in there?"
"Aidan stole my bag, and I had to get it back."
Logical.
"Continue." Yazmin sighed and spun back around.
"All the guys came running and Aidan sicced 'em on me –he's team captain- and they all jumped on me. I got out from under them and started pounding the closest one, and it started to feel good. From there, it was either chase or fight for the next twenty minutes. Then the adults came after me, and I was so surprised they caught me before I could do anything, but I fought them anyway, and then they called Mom, and you came…where is Mom, anyway?"
"In Nibelheim, helping Tifa look for Cloud. She relayed the call to me." Yazmin made a face.
"Tifa doesn't need help. She can find Cloud on her own."
"Cloud hasn't answered his phone or checked his messages in a week. His inbox is full. Tifa is distraught. Yuffie is going as much for moral support as for the part of search assistant."
"Oh."
"We're getting off topic again, Yazmin," Vincent pointed out. Yazmin sighed.
"I told you already. That's the whole thing."
"You're not telling me something. I can tell. What happened that you don't want me to know?" Yazmin fidgeted uneasily on her stool. Vincent waited, absently peeling the nectarine and eating the skin. "Was it something one of the boys said?"
An hour in your body says that it was sexual.
"Aidan…he told me to go back to the Wutaian whorehouse where I belonged…and to take my Mother with me…when I hit him and he got his team after me…they called me things…one of the guys knocked me down and tried to get on me…I just couldn't control myself…I-I know I could have done a whole lot of damage…I could've killed someone, but what they said…Dad, I had to do it. They can't talk about Mom that way, and I won't let them step on me like that. I'm not a doormat." Vincent forgot what he was going to say. He forgot everything.
"He said your Mother belonged in a brothel, did he?"
"Y-yeah."
"Do you know where to find them?"
"Them?"
"The team. Aidan in particular, but the team in general."
"They'll be practicing on the back field."
"Wait here for a few minutes."
Yazmin nodded. Vincent got up and went to his room. When he returned, he was back in the black leather outfit Yazmin hadn't seen him wear since she was very small. Upon returning to the kitchen, Vincent fastened the long holster for Cerberus to his belt and thigh, then slid the gun into it.
"Come with me." Yazmin nodded and got up, reaching out to touch the leather reverently.
"Never thought I'd see you wear this again," she breathed.
"And why not?"
"Mom said you put it away after I was born, and you only wore it a couple of times, to make me stop crying when I was little. Mom said that it was your battle-dress."
"It was, but this is important." Vincent closed the front door behind Yazmin and crouched down. "Get on my back."
"What?"
"I don't want to miss practice."
That's the spirit. Hang on, Yazzy. We're gonna show those bastards the meaning of fear!
None of the boys on the field noticed the tall black and red figure standing by the fence, nor did they see the girl beside him. That was how Vincent wanted it.
"Yazmin, do you know how to handle this?" Vincent asked, bring a small pistol out from under his cloak. Yazmin nodded. "I want you to count to ten. Then point this straight up and fire off two shots. When you have the team's attention, re-direct it at me."
"Okay." Yazmin took the gun, testing the weight experimentally. "Where will you be?"
"Don't worry about it. Ready? Go." Vincent vanished. Yazmin took a deep breath and four steps out onto the field. Then she raised the gun and squeezed the trigger. The first shot halted all motion on the field. The second drew all eyes to her.
"Back again, bitch?" Aidan yelled. "There's nobody out here to save you this time!"
"Sure there is," Yazmin called back. "Look up!" The team looked up. A dark shape was falling towards them.
Ready, Valentine?
Let's do this.
Vincent hit the grass on his feet and straightened up.
"Which one of you is Aidan?"
"Me," Aidan answered. "Who're y-agh!" Vincent grabbed Aidan by the collar and hoisted him off his feet.
"I am Yazmin's father. You are scum."
"Y-you can't do this," Aidan whispered. Vincent smiled coldly.
"Can't I?"
My turn.
Go ahead.
It had been a long time since Vincent had truly wanted Chaos to take over. It had been even longer since he had reveled in the feeling of his body changing, becoming someone else. He allowed his consciousness to fall back into the rising tide of power and closed his eyes, feeling the wings begin to form. Aidan was screaming. The other members of the team made to run away.
"Don't move!" His voice was a strange blend of Chaos and Vincent, a deep, growling voice that made all the boys stop in their tracks.
"What are you?" Aidan wailed, flailing wildly.
"I am very angry," Chaos growled. He spread his wings out and bared his fangs, reveling in the fear rolling off the boy. "You've disgraced my family. You've hurt my daughter, insulted my wife, and put my host in an awkward situation. You tried to take Yazmin. You drove her to rage, and then you pretended to be innocent and let her take the fall."
"She's crazy! You're crazy!"
"Perhaps. But at least I'm not a coward. I don't need to have a group of lackeys behind me so I can pretend to be a big man. Which is worse, do you think? My position, or yours? Anyone?" Chaos looked at the rest of the team. "Hmmm?"
"Er…his?" one of the boys ventured.
"Very good. At least one of you hasn't taken too many hits to the head. Now tell me…what are you going to do to convince me not to tell my daughter to point that gun in her hands and fire?" All heads turned to look at Yazmin. She smiled in spite of herself and showed them the pistol. "She's a crack shot, you know. I taught her myself, and I can hit a dragonfly on the wing." Aidan glanced wildly between Chaos and Yazmin. Yazmin smiled sweetly and gave him a little wave.
"Please, please I'll do anything," he said frantically.
"Just you? What about your team? One of them tried to mount her; what will they do?" Chaos smiled lazily and brought his claw up to Aidan's throat, running the tip of one finger across the skin. "It's so easy to slit a human throat. All it takes is getting between the ridges of the larynx and pulling straight across…the gush of blood is beautiful." Aidan began to cry, holding as still as he could to avoid the touch of the gold claw.
Aren't you laying it on a little too thickly?
Hush. I'm having fun.
Just don't kill anyone, and leave no evidence.
Will do.
"Don't kill me!" Aidan blubbered. "We'll all do whatever you want, just don't. Won't we?" Frantically, the rest of the team nodded.
"I see," Chaos drawled. "Well then…for starters, I want all of you to beg for Yazmin's forgiveness. You have done her a great wrong…perhaps she'll forgive you."
"Do it!" Aidan yowled. "Go apologize to her!"
"You too, little boy. I want to hear you tell her from here. Go on…you first." Chaos turned so that the dangling Aidan was facing Yazmin.
"I'm sorry!" he yelled. "I didn't mean it! I take back everything I said about you and your mom! Really! Please forgive me!"
"Now the rest of you."
The field resounded with frenzied apologies and pleas. Many of the boys got down of their knees, hands clasped. Yazmin surveyed the spectacle with no expression. The pleading increased.
"At least you have the sense to bow before her," Chaos sniffed, giving the still sobbing Aidan a shake. "Women are goddesses given flesh. Never forget that. When I release you, you will all report yourselves to the principal. You will tell him exactly what you did to my daughter. You will assist in the repair of the school. You will never bother Yazmin again. If she needs something, you will get or do it for her. If she is being harassed, you will see to it that the trouble ceases. Yazmin will, in turn, not abuse your service. Understood?" Aidan nodded frantically and the team mirrored him.
"Yes sir," Yazmin said. Chaos gave a small, satisfied grunt and dropped Aidan. He hit the ground and rolled onto his knees, prostrating himself at Chaos' feet.
"Thank you for not killing me," he said, not looking up to meet Chaos' eyes. The demon sighed.
"Go."
Aidan and the team were gone in an instant. Chuckling, Chaos turned to Yazmin. She smiled and ran over to hug him tightly.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Don't thank me, Yazzy. Thank him." Chaos let his form melt away into Vincent's once more. The gunman was momentarily taken aback, then smiled ever so slightly and returned the hug with one arm.
"Let's go home."
"Okay."
The following week, after Yazmin's suspension was up, the Valentine household received a phone call from the office at the high school requesting a meeting with Yazmin and her father. Never one to be late, Vincent arrived five minutes early and went to pick Yazmin up from her class. He knocked politely, then answered the summons from within and stepped through the door.
"Oh…um…can I help you?" the teacher asked slowly. Vincent nodded.
"I'm here to pick up my daughter."
"Coming!" While Yazmin packed her things, Vincent fell into the Turk's standard resting position, hands clasped behind his back, and surveyed the room.
Some of those girls are checking you out, Chaos observed.
Nonsense.
I'm not kidding. They've got hearts in their eyes. Congrats, Valentine. Thirty years in a coffin and you can still knock 'em dead.
You're imagining things.
Not unless the six foot one inch exTurk in the black jeans and red button-up standing at the front of the room isn't you. Face it. These girls love every inch of you. You're the poster boy for the Mr. Tall, Dark, and Drop-dead Gorgeous pageant.
Stop it before I blush and give these poor girls something else to coo over.
That's the spirit!
Yazmin came up to stand beside her father.
"Let's go."
He heard the collective sigh as he let the door shut behind them
"So…any idea what this meeting is for?" Yazmin asked. Vincent shook his head.
"The office didn't say. We'll have to find out when we get there."
"All the girls in my class are hopeless," Yazmin muttered, abruptly changing the subject.
"Why do you say that?" Vincent asked, unfazed.
"All it took was a look at you, and that's it. I'll be hearing about how hot you are for weeks."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"When you're my Dad? Yeah."
Upon arriving in the main office, Vincent and Yazmin were ushered into the conference room, where the principal, the two assistant principals, and several others waited.
"Mr. Valentine," the principal said at once. "Please, sit down." Vincent pulled out a chair for Yazmin before settling down himself.
"I assume there is a reason for my presence here?"
"There is, in fact." Vincent turned to survey the somewhat plump woman near the other end of the table.
"I don't believe we've been introduced," he murmured. The woman flushed, and Yazmin sighed. It was class all over again.
"I…I'm Aidan's mother, Melissa."
"I see. Then perhaps you might enlighten me? I wasn't told why I am here, and I have business to attend to elsewhere."
"These parents have reason to believe that you threatened their children," the vice principal said quickly. The principal nodded, wishing he was anywhere but the conference room.
"Threatened them to do what?" Vincent asked.
It wasn't my fault! Chaos reminded him.
"To admit to false crimes against your daughter!" Another parent snapped. Vincent bristled.
"False, you say?"
"Yes, false," Melissa said firmly. "Our boys would never-"
"Never what?" Yazmin interrupted. Vincent shook his head.
"Not now, Yazmin. Let her speak."
Yazmin snorted and slumped back in her chair.
"Our boys would never say such things, never mind attempt what was reported."
"But if they did?"
"Not possible."
"Then you suggest that my daughter fought them for no reason?"
"Now, now, let's not get too hasty," the principal pleaded. Melissa and Vincent ignored him.
"Yes, I do. And I suggest that you threatened my son and his friends with severe bodily harm if they didn't turn themselves in under false pretenses to put your daughter in the clear." Looking smug, Melissa crossed her arms and gave Vincent a chance to get a word in, confident that she had won.
Vincent smiled politely.
"Then you would be mistaken. I know when someone is lying, Miss Melissa. My daughter did not. Further more, she has been taught not to resort to violence unless the situation calls for it. In order to have felt the need to attack your son, Yazmin had to have been provoked, and I believe the insults directed at her and her mother were more than worthy of such a response."
"And the threats?" a balding man two seats down and across the table demanded. "What about them?"
"I simply told your boys to apologize at once and turn themselves in. Perhaps my appearance was intimidating, but I never threatened to hurt them in any way."
I did, though.
"By intimidating appearance, do you mean a weapon of some sort?" the assistant principal prodded. Vincent shook his head. "What, then?"
"The battledress I wore before I was married. It can make me look…almost inhuman."
"As if some silly outfit would scare my son," the balding man snorted.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes."
"Then perhaps I should show you what I was wearing." Vincent took his wallet out of his back pocket and extracted a photo, worn soft around the edges. "I am on the far right."
The photo was passed around, followed by soft murmurs when Vincent's companions were recognized.
"So," Melissa said after seeing the picture. "You wore that ridiculous outfit to intimidate the boys. And, if I'm right, that get-up includes a weapon."
"You would be right. However…my choice of dress aside, I have a question for the parents here."
"Go ahead," the principal murmured.
"Thank you. Now, I do not know if the actual insults and racial slurs my daughter was subjected to were recorded or not, but they are the reason for my question. These days, the people of Wutai are accepted and treated normally. Yazmin was called a whore, and someone suggested that she and her mother return to the Wutai brothel they had come from. Other, similar slurs were used; I haven't heard them from the mouth of any member of the current teenage generation. Ever. In fact…I haven't heard such language in twenty years. So…where did they learn those words? Who taught them? Someone older, obviously. Someone who would known the slurs when they were still in use."
"Mr. Valentine, please-" Vincent ignored the principal's attempts at interrupting him.
"Their parents, perhaps? People who might think it wrong for me, born and raised here on this continent, to marry and have children with a woman from Wutai?"
"You're getting off topic," Melissa simpered. "Yuffie has absolutely nothing to do with-"
"You will refer to her as Ms. Kisaragi," Vincent hissed.
"You are married, aren't you? Why not your name? Unless you've had that daughter of yours out of wedlock."
"Her bloodline will continue in name as well as blood. Mine will not. Do not call her by her first name again, unless she gives you express permission." Vincent wished he had a gun. Chaos shrieked curses.
"I'll call her what I want to call her, and nothing you say will make me-"
"Mom!" The door banged open, admitting a gaggle of boys.
"Where did you come from?" the principal asked. As usual, he was ignored.
"Matthias told me what was going on in here," Aidan announced. "Quit it. Everything Yazmin said about what we did is true, okay? Her dad came out to practice that same day and told us to apologize. That outfit freaked us all out, yeah, but you're all making it a big deal, and it's not."
"Matthias, I am very-" A slender brunette shook his head, cutting off the balding man's reprimand.
"I'm only doing what I should be doing. We did some really messed up stuff to Yazmin; we would've done worse if she hadn't fought us like she did. We deserved what we got, and we deserved to be yelled at and told to report ourselves."
"And you guys are the ones who called Yazmin's mom a whore," another guy near the back added.
"Yeah!" the others chorused.
"What?" Vincent asked softly.
"Aidan, this is a private meeting. All of you, get-" Melissa began. Vincent stood up and went over to look at Aidan and his team.
"Is this true?" he asked softly. Aidan nodded. "What did they say? And when?"
"It was at a parents' meeting- for the team, y'know? And Yazmin had been hanging around the bleachers at practice, 'til her mom came to get her, and our parents were there, so I guess they saw her then. At the meeting, they were saying how disgusting it was that she'd be allowed to have kids…that people from Wutai were mixing with other people. And then someone remembered that she was part of…the whole saving the world thing, from Meteor, and that there was only one other girl…Mom said she had huge boobs and looked like a whore, so Yazmin's mom must be one too…and there were a bunch of guys traveling with them, so they must've been rooming together, and sleeping together, and…"Aidan trailed off. Matthias picked up from there.
"And then my dad said that if Yazmin's mom was a slut, then so was her daughter, and that he bet Miss. Kisaragi wasn't married and only claimed to be, and brought men home for money, 'cuz a lot of guys will pay a whole lot of money for a mother-daughter team. And we were all there and listening."
"Matthias, I never-"
"Silence," Vincent growled. He turned to fully face the boys, putting his back to the room. "I'm impressed. It takes a lot to say those things."
"Matthias said something…after you left," Aidan fumbled. "About how, y'know, the football team is supposed to be made up of the good guys. We're supposed to be the role models for kids coming to the high school…an' stuff. It never really works but…it looks really bad if we act like animals. It makes everyone look bad. We decided to fix what we could." He went quiet again, backed by agreeing murmurs from his teammates. Vincent turned back to the room.
"I think this meeting is over. I will ignore the wrongs done to me and mine for now, in respect to the confessions of these boys. After all…children disgrace us by behaving in public as we do at home, do they not? If I hear of any punishment for what these young men have done…well, it would be safer to not even consider trying it. Gentlemen, you are welcome in my home. I will be leaving now. Let's go, Yazmin."
Yazmin got up quickly and joined Vincent at the door. Vincent ushered the football team out, then urged his daughter to follow.
Now, Chaos. Let them know fear.
With pleasure.
The change was quick this time, the huge wings snapping out to their full length momentarily, before Chaos folded them neatly against his spine. He turned back to grin at the assembled adults.
"How sad," he purred, reveling in the fear rolling off all of them. "Your children have grown up in the space of a moment and you can't even see it." Then, with a casual wave of his claw, he went out the door, changing back even as he closed it.
The rest of the day was uneventful…with the notable exception of Yazmin's request to join the football team. Vincent didn't know what to make of it.
She been accepted, you moron. You managed to make her and that team- Aidan and Matthias in particular- very fond of her, mostly in a 'she's really great and wow, she can run' kind of way. It's only natural for her to want to be with the people she knows like her for her.
But football? That's like organized war!
And she's got bones like concrete. Trust me. I should know. Let her be.
What about locker rooms?
Either she'll be allowed into the girls' locker room, or the guys on the team won't be dumb enough to look. She's safe, either way. Quit worrying.
Then what do you suggest I do? Yuffie is gone and Yazmin is out. I'm bored.
Consider what you'll do about the first girl Yazmin brings home. They're all gaga over you.
I beg your pardon?!
Weren't you listening? All the girls from that class are utterly enamored with you, and 'there's no way he can be your dad' and 'he's your brother, right?' and 'Ohmigawd, tell me you have more of those at home!'. You're doomed.
Vincent groaned and hid his face in a copy of 'Dante's Inferno.