Holy damn, I can't believe i'm doing this. No, seriously. I've always wanted to, but alwas wrote it off as too time-consuming, too headachey. Besides, I would say, there's already about fifty of these floating around here.
Pshyeah, and ninety percent of them are incomplete, and half of them are either not even out of Midgar, sub-par, and/or just totally forgotten about. The ones I HAVE read (including a really popular one that I won't mention), I intensely diliked, due to both awkward characterization of minor characters, overly focusing on minor characters (when the one i'm not naming spent five chapters on those two nameless MPs from the submarine, I gave up on it), and just bad writing in general.
So here I am, starting my own and swearing to have at LEAST one chapter up a week.
But first, the prologue. Yes, those are Cloud and Tifa's kids, as well as Yuffie and Vincent's daughter and Cid and Shera's son. They're just for the prologue and epilogue- nothing else. Don't get pissy and storm off because you don't like my pairing choices, they aren't the focus. I just needed a good framing device.
Enjoy!
Oh, PS: The CloTi kids are named Raine (the girl) and Zack (the boy), the Yuffentine girl is Haruka, and the mini-Cid is Neil. :)
The children gathered around the couch, flopped carelessly onto the floor. Outside, the rain slapped endlessly into the roof and windows of the bar.
A blonde girl with deep reddish-brown eyes smiled up at her father. "Mom said you were gonna tell us a story tonight, while the storm's out."
Her younger brother, brown-haired, with eyes the same bright, intense blue as his father's, snuggled up next to her. "I hope it's a good one…"
Their father smiled, running a hand through his spiky blond hair – a habit he could never quite kick. "Of course it's a good one. Didn't you all want to hear the story of how your mom, the rest of your parents and I saved the world?"
The four kids cheered. The third one, a pretty girl with black hair, Wutaian features, and deep crimson eyes spoke up. "Finally, we get to hear it. I've been bugging Mom about it for months."
The final one, a scruffy blond boy with his father's old flight goggles perched on his forehead flopped onto his back. "This is gonna be good!"
Cloud smiled. "Well, of course. It's got us in it." As the children laughed, he continued. "Alright, then. The story starts…on a train. Or, I guess, just a little before that…"