Nesting
Chapter 1: Straight From the Chocobo's Beak
"Hello! This is Kadaj.In case you're wondering, Cloud can't come to the phone right now. He's busy, though I will not hazard to guess with what." The teen giggled smugly. "Leave a message if you want, and I will personally make sure he gets back to you."
Yuffie snapped the phone shut and tossed it onto the table with a huge smirk. "See? Think they're, you know, together?" She went red and tittered helplessly at the thought.
Cid hardly looked surprised at all, just took a long drag from his current cigarette, leaned back in his chair and nodded satisfactorily, "I knew he was gay."
Vincent's bright red eyes widened considerably in startlement. He folded his hands primly on the table, the fingers of his claw clicking lightly on the wood. "How?"
"Isn't it obvious? The whole affection-starved pretty-boy attitude, the clothes, the hair! Geeze! Does nobody but me notice these things?" The pilot threw his hands up in exasperation as Vincent shook his head numbly and Yuffie once again dissolved into helpless giggles behind her hands.
"I'm not sure I understand." Red said calmly, fiery tail flicking from side to side. "Why would a male want to mate with another male? They can't have cubs, can they?"
Yuffie was shrieking with laughter by now, face bright red with embarrassment. Vincent had gone even whiter than usual. Cid rolled his eyes at the absurdity of it all. "There are lots of things you don't understand Red. Hell, there're lots of things I don't understand. Some guys just like other guys. That's the way nature works."
"I know something interesting!" Yuffie suddenly piped up, gasping for breathe. "Forty-five percent of all ducks are homosexual."
The young shinobi's companions were silent, staring at her.
"What?" She glared at the two men and lion-like creature. "It was on Animal Planet."
Cid snorted. "Kid watches too much TV."
Yuffie stuck her tongue out at the blonde man, and then straightened up, looking around with surprise. "Hey, where'd Tifa go?"
"She left before you started dialing the number." Vincent said, staring at the Wutaian girl pointedly. "You know she isn't taking this well."
"Oh." Yuffie sat down hard in her chair."Gaia. I hadn't realized."
"She'll have to get over it eventually, kid. Don't worry too much." Cid grinned crookedly at her over the table.
Silence ensued as Yuffie lost herself in guilty thoughts. Vincent said nothing, but then, he rarely did, so that wasn't much of a surprise.
"Call them again." Red said, breaking the uneasy quiet. He stretched languidly and resettled on the carpet. "Tell them they need to come back."
All three humans glanced at the fiery creature apprehensively before their eyes flicked back to the stylish black phone on the tabletop. Yuffie's eyes flew from Vincent's crimson ones to Cid's sky-blue. Neither of them made a move.
"Run away, run away, run away and save your life. Run away, run away, run away if you want to survive. Run away, run away, run away and save you life. Run away, run away, run away if you—"
The phone sang to life, making all four of the Avalanche members jump. Though it was her phone, Yuffie made no move to answer it. Cid snatched it up with a snarl, flipped it open and pressed it to his ear.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end of the phone was unmistakable.
"Oh. Cloud. Hi." Cid said, barely believing that it was actually the ex-Soldier's voice. All previous attempts at contacting Cloud had only been answered by stony silence. Until Kadaj's message had shown up today, at least.
"Have you been trying to call?" The spiky-haired swordsman's voice sounded concerned.
"No shit. Every day for the past two weeks." The pilot said, keeping his voice uncharacteristically calm and seething with worry at the same time.
"I'm sorry. I've been busy."
"So we've heard." Cid practically growled. "We—"
"—who ya talkin' too, Cloud?" He was cut off by the same, cynical, purring voice that they had heard before that evening.
"IT'S FUCKING FLYBOY HIGHWIND AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT, PRETTY BOY!!" He shouted into the communication device. There was silence, both on the other end of the phone and in the room where Cid was sitting. Pleased with himself, Cid put his feet up on the table and continued in a much softer voice, "Anyways, we want you to come home. Both of you. That means you too, pretty boy."
More silence. And then Cloud's voice came again, incredulous and disbelieving. "Really?"
"Yeah, o'course! Can't live without ya, Cloud! We'd like to accept your friend into our little family too, if you'd like." He broke into a crooked grin, echoed happily by Yuffie. Even the corners of Vincent's usually solemn mouth was quirking upward, if only at the corners.
"Great!" The swordsman was ecstatic. "We'll be home tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, if you want us back so bad..."
"Well yeah, but... tomorrow...?"
"Is there a problem?"
"No, no, of course not." He said archly. Just Tifa.
"Great! HEY KADAJ, GUESS WHAT!!"
"See you and the pretty boy tomorrow then." Cid flipped the phone shut with a groan. "I think we have a problem, kids..."
- - - - -
Notes: Not much to say, yet again, only that I'm happy to finally be getting this up.
Yayz! I have lots of ideas and stuff, so I promise you won't be dissapointed.
If you're confused and have no idea what's happening, then you should probably go read Poison...
Many apologies if Cid or Yuffie or any of them are OOC... haven't played the game in a LONG time.
Also, I will be leaving for to Staff for a Leadership Camp in about two weeks, so I might be a little slow to update...
Much love,
-Dove
(D-O-V-E. Got it memorized?)