Author's Note: Written for Farferello on Livejournal for the holidays.

Playdate

"Did you see him, Yazoo?" Loz asked, staring out into the woods.

"I saw him," Yazoo responded evenly. It had been a few hours since the fight, but Loz's excitement was still nearly palpable.

"The way he moved..."

"I was there too, Loz," the younger brother pointed out, a smile tugging at his lips. He risked glancing away from the forest to look at his elder.

Loz looked like he was ready to fly. His bright eyes darted about, momentarily focusing on even the slightest sounds in the silver forest before them, and his right leg seemed to have developed a twitch. Even as Yazoo watched, Loz reached up to adjust Dual Hound on his arm, full of nervous energy.

"Sorry," Loz mumbled, glancing over to Yazoo and visibly trying to reign in his enthusiasm. Yazoo didn't give him much chance of success.

They returned to watching the woods from their position high above the ground. Cold wind swayed the branches they sat in, but they only swayed with them, watching for the telltale movement of something in the forest not bound by the wind.

Below them, Big Brother's motorcycle lay on its side like an animal killed in the hunt.

He'd come back for it. They were certain of this.

Loz managed to contain himself for entire minutes before speaking again. "I wanna play with him, Yazoo," he said with a sigh that came close to whining.

"Hn." Yazoo ducked his head to hide his smile.

The motion made his brother defensive. "What?"

"Earlier today, you said the same thing about his woman," the younger reminded.

"Oh." Loz was quiet for a moment. "That... was different..."

"Was it."

"Well, yeah." Loz straightened, speaking as though anyone with eyes could see the difference. "I mean, this is our brother. He's - he's strong. And he's getting stronger - you saw how much stronger he got since we played on the motorcycles..." He trailed off, and Yazoo noticed that his breathing was a little faster than it had been.

"Do you think he'll join us?" Loz asked, fidgeting with Dual Hound again. "Then we could play whenever we wanted. We all could. Together."

"I don't know," Yazoo murmured in response, and wondered if he was lying.

Leaves rustled below, and Yazoo cursed himself for paying more attention to their conversation than to the forest. Both of them went still and silent, completely on alert.

Before long, there was a glimpse of gold among the silver and pewter and dark below. Big Brother had returned for his motorcycle.

The blond stepped cautiously up to his bike, shrewdly looking about everywhere but up. Yazoo nearly laughed. Humans almost never remembered to look up, and Big Brother spent all his time with humans, so it made sense that he'd forget to...

He heard a small gasp, and then Cloud's head snapped up, his gaze focusing directly on them. Yazoo realized why - the little girl that Loz had brought as witness was there. So that was where she'd gotten off to. Big Brother had had her helping him keep watch. That had been clever.

Yazoo did not smile.

He heard the creak of Loz's leathers as he tensed. "No, Loz -"

Loz pushed himself from his branch and dropped to the ground, landing lightly on toes and fingertips.

Yazoo bit his lip. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. They were only supposed to watch, and then go catch up to Kadaj. If Big Brother had been more prompt - what had Big Brother been doing with his friend with the red cloak all this time, anyway? - they would've needed to slow him down for Kadaj, but that time was past. There was no need for confrontation now.

Cloud had one of his swords out in an instant, holding it defensively and motioning the little girl behind him.

Loz approached, tilting his head as he and Big Brother skirted the motorcycle in opposite directions. Yazoo tensed, slowly moving his hand back to draw his Velvet Nightmare, but Cloud glanced directly at him, and he froze. Loz was right - Big Brother was getting more powerful. If only they could figure out why...

Now that he was turned enough, Yazoo could see Loz smile for the little girl, but she didn't smile back. Loz looked vaguely disappointed and Yazoo rolled his eyes; predicting human reactions was not his older brother's strong point.

"What do you want?" Big Brother demanded. He didn't sound like he was in any mood to put up with... well, much of anything. Not that he ever was, in Yazoo's experience.

Loz could catch on to that much, at least. Big Brother would need coaxing. With a creak of metal, Loz brought one foot down on the front of the motorcycle as though pinning it. "Play with me," he said, smiling again. "If you want it back."

For a long moment, Cloud only stared at him, grip tightening on his sword. Yazoo tensed again.

Big Brother finally glanced at the girl behind him, then back at Loz. "We'll play later."

Yazoo's jaw went slack for a full second before he caught himself.

Loz grinned broadly and stepped back, releasing the bike. He leaned against one of the trees, only watching as Cloud righted the machine, mounted it, and pulled the little girl up behind him.

Big Brother glanced back once as he revved the motorcycle to life; then he was on his way.

The moment he was out of sight, Loz whirled, grinning up at Yazoo. "C'mon, we gotta catch up to Kadaj! Maybe we can get to the city before Big Brother!"

Yazoo smiled down in near-wonder at his brother before leaping from his perch. "Yes."

Disclaimer:The Final Fantasy VII compilation (in particular, Advent Children), its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.