Hello there again! This is, as promised, the first chapter for the sequel of ´abuse´. So if you haven´t read that, I recommend you either do, or you are reading the short summary I´ll put at the end of the chapter, for I don´t want to spoil anything yet for those who are willing to read 'abuse'...
As I said, this one will focus more on the relationship of Sephiroth and Yazoo... Ah, just read it :)
Many, many thanks to my beta j.sakurachan1, who, despite an injured hand, managed to read through this so fast again, and helped me with a title for the story! (actually, the credits for the title go entirely to her. Thanks again!)
1
It was only one more hour before summer vacation, and Loz didn't know if he should be happy or sad. First off, vacation meant: no school; which was something to gloat over, no question. Especially when he was sitting and sweating in this stupid classroom…Though he had to admit that the heat didn't come from the summer sun, since all the class rooms' had air conditioning, of course, but rather from the fact that today was the day that he'd get his school certificate. Which was another reason why he doubted that vacation would be fun, because he was sure that a certain general wouldn't approve of his grades. But, if he was lucky the man would just ignore him anyways.
Casting a side glance to his brother who sat in his seat with a straight back and waited for his name to be called with an unfazed expression (the lucky bastard), Loz let his gaze wander to the other side towards Tifa, who caught his look and smiled at him cutely. Turning a deep shade of red, Loz hastily dropped his eyes, and being so occupied in his embarrassment, he didn't even hear the principle call his name.
"Loz!" she repeated with a frown and the boy almost jumped to his feet, hastily announcing his presence.
"Yes!" Nervously he made his way towards the front desk, trying to ignore the others whispers and giggles.
"Well." The principle still frowned as she looked at his certificate and then let her sharp gaze rest on the sweating student. "I can congratulate you, you have managed to graduate with the by far worst certificate I've ever seen…"
"Ehehe, thanks?" Uncertainly scratching the back of his head Loz took his certificate, trying not to flinch under the principle's disapproving stare. He was lucky that she had such respect for his father otherwise she would have given him a good lecture. But instead she just settled with a, "Try harder next year, or do you want to trail behind your two years younger brother?" and released him.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Loz instantly packed away the offending note and waited until the principle was done praising his younger brother who had made at the top of the class again. After all the certificates had been handed out, the principle reminded them that vacation ought to be used to study even harder and prepare for the next year. She also announced that they would get another math teacher next year, not bothering to inform her students why. Then, finally, she released them into the summer heat.
Trotting through the bright halls behind Yazoo, Loz made a grumpy face, until someone was tapping him on his shoulder. Swirling around angrily, for he wasn't in the mood to get mocked by one of his stupid fellow class mates, he was confronted with dark chocolate eyes and two adoringly cute ponytails. "T-t-t-t-t-t-t-"
"Tifa." She helped him out, laughing.
Nervously clinging to his bag, Loz nodded, casting a desperate look towards his brother for help. Really, why was it always so hard to talk to her in person? It wasn't that bad over the phone! But maybe that was because he didn't get distracted by her boo-
"I see you're busy." The smooth, low voice of his sibling cut through his thoughts. "Well, then I'll see you at home. Have fun." Loz could almost hear the traitor smirking as he waved his hand in a good by and was off to his bike.
Tossing his bag at the bed, Yazoo went back to the floor, following the winding corridor quite a while through the big mansion, until he had reached his younger brother's room. Unlike Loz and himself he had finished school after the second class already, and as Yazoo suspected, had gone immediately to his room like had had always done in the past two weeks since 'the incident'.
His suspicion was proven right as he heard muffled voices from behind the door which made him cock an eyebrow. Since when had Kadaj started to speak to himself? After quickly knocking he came in, catching the boy as he swirled around from his bed and smiled brightly, albeit somewhat nervous at him. "HeyYazzy! How was school?"
"Fine." The other boy said, eyeing his brother suspiciously. Something was strange and the words 'strange' and 'Kadaj' in the same sentence usually indicated a major headache for him…
"Ah, I guess so. I bet you were the best again, eh?" the other boy beamed.
"Hn." Yazoo affirmed distractedly, searching the room for something out of place. As he couldn´t find anything suspicious, he focused his attention back at the younger, asking with slight interest "And? How about you?"
"Oh, I did okay…" the boy waved a hand, grabbing his certificate from the bed and handing it over to his brother who looked over it with an approving look. ""You did well."
"Ah, thanks." Giving the note back, Yazoo shot another look around the room, for Kadaj's nervous fidgeting didn't quite convince him that the boy wasn't planning something mischievous.
"You alright?" he asked warily.
"Of course, why shouldn't I?" the boy answered, blinking innocently.
"Hn." Yazoo grunted.
"Meow."
"Excuse me?"
"What? I didn't say anything." Kadaj smiled perplexedly.
"No, I mean there was just a strange noise right now, didn't you hear it?"
"Nooo." The boy stretched questioningly, looking at Yazoo as if he was mental. "You must have misheard. Hey, I know, why don't we go down and celebrate your awesome certificate with some pancakes?" licking his lips, the boy pushed his irritated brother towards the door, when another sound came from somewhere in the room.
"Meow."
Narrowing his eyes, Yazoo stopped. "I heard it loud and clear."
Looking at his younger brother accusingly, he inquired "Kadaj, what are you hiding in here?"
"Ah, it´s really nothing, something must be wrong with your ears, I bet it´s all the stress from learning-"
"Meow."
Yazoo ignored his brother's attempts to drag him out of the room and instead crouched down before the bed, lifting the blanked from the bottom.
"Meow." There from under the bed stared two green glowing eyes at him, not much unlike his own.
"Kadaj." came the exasperate growl as Yazoo reached for the creature and pulled out a small, silver haired kitten, that looked innocently up into the blank face that was staring down at it.
"Ah, that…"
"Yes?" Shifting his piercing gaze towards his younger brother, Yazoo demandingly lifted his chin.
"That´s… that´s Bernhard Heinrich Eisenherz von Stieglitz."
"Berhard Heinrich…" Yazoo echoed with a raised eyebrow, looking at the kitten that was dangling from his grip.
"Yeah… I found him on my way back from school… He has no home, I think his mother might have fallen victim to a car, and now he´s all alone and he´s so very small and frail, I bet he will die if we leave him on his own, so… Can I keep him?" the boy explained in one breath, giving his brother the puppy eyes.
"Keep him? I don´t think so-"
"Pleaaaaaaaaaaseeee?" Yazoo was suddenly attacked in a tight hug that almost made him drop the kitten. "I promise he won´t make any trouble, and I will look after him all myself, so please, please, please?"
"Kadaj-" Yazoo tried to breathe, unwrapping his brother's arms from his waist.
"Oh, sorry." Kadaj laughed sheepishly, letting go of his brother and taking the kitten out of his hand to cradle it against his chest.
"Kadaj…" Yazoo tried to reason with the desperate boy. "Look, if it was me, I wouldn´t mind. But you know father… I doubt that he would be very excited to have-"
"But he wouldn´t mind if you´d ask him, I´m sure of it!" the boy interrupted, frantically stroking the kitten's soft fur.
Looking at the boy for a moment with an unreadable gaze, Yazoo finally let out a tired sigh. "Fine. I´ll ask him."
"Thanks!! I knew you were the best!!"
"Yes, yes. But don´t expect too much…" Shaking his head, the long haired boy stroked over the cats head, eliciting a purring sound from the fur ball. He still didn´t quite like the idea of having a pet in the house, but on the other hand, Kadaj seemed quite attached to it already and therefore it would make a good leverage. Just in case Kadaj decided to try something stupid again… Inwardly he prepared for a hard battle.
So, after the dark ending of abuse, I felt for something a little more relaxed... But don´t worry, the M-rating hasn´t been chosen for nothing...
On with the promised, short SUMMARY for those who aren´t willing to read through the whole 28 chapters of 'abuse':
Elena, a teacher at an elite school receives a homework from one of her pupils, Kadaj, that indicate that the older brother of his, Yazoo, is being abused by his adopted father. Together with a fellow teacher, Tseng, she decides to explore the case, despite Yazoo´s assertions that there is no such thing as sexual abuse. Elena visits the boys home, where she finds out that the boys father is none other than the famous general Sephiroth. After their encounter, Elena is certain that everything had been a misunderstanding, and wants to leave the case alone. Tseng however isn´t quite convinced, and after an emergency call from Loz, the third brother, he takes the boys in, as he finds Yazoo bloody and injured in the generals bedroom. After taking them to his apartment and after a discussion with the boys (for Yazoo still refuses to accept any help), they finally agree to go over to the dorms for the time being. Intending to expose Sephiroths crude ideas of parenting, Tseng doesn´t count on Elenas loyality towards the general. She tells him where he can find his children and Sephiroth can convince Yazoo to come back with him again, what results into the dismissal of Tseng. Not one to give up, Tseng decides to bring about the downfall of Sephiroth no matter what, when he gets a visit from Yazoo. Trying to persuade the boy to finally speak up and free himself from the generals influence, the teacher must learn, that Yazoo isn´t being 'abused', but that he doesn´t mind Sephiroths treatment at all. After revealing his true, rather vicious nature, Yazoo finally kills Tseng with a poison he got from Sephiroth, for he doesn´t want the teacher to spill any of their secrets. His brothers, however remain ignorant to Yazoos double game and loyaly, albeit becoming suspicious.
That´s it, basically.
Reviews of the reviews from the epilogue of 'abuse':
Flawed Imagination: Hope you got my pm and sorry about Tseng, but... I´m sure he happily watches us from above, if that helps anything? ;)
CrippledAngel: Thank you for compliment! I was most concerned for Yazoo´s character because I wanted him to be IC so bad! (he´s my favorite and therefore caused me most headaches...). I´m so glad you think it worked. Hope you will like the sequel too!
CountessKitsune: Here it is, hope you like it too, and thanks for reviewing!
leyna: I´m glad it worked, because I feared that the ending might be too prompt and unrealistic. I tried to wok in enough hints without spoiling too much but sometimes I thought it might not be enough. But then I didn´t want to sojourn with too many details either... So I´m glad you found it plausible!
whitelanc3r: haha, you were the 101 reviewer, that´s a nice number too :) If you want to put it with wrong and right, you could say that yes, 'right' lost. But we aren´t done yet, so maybe the good will make a spectacular comeback... And you are right, in my opinion it as quite a 'happy' ending for I got my favorite pairing together :D
YinYangWhiteTiger: I´m sorry because of Tseng, but you could say that he was a necessary casualty of war... Sadly I don´t know much about Genesis, for I haven´t been able to play Crisis Core yet, so I doubt that he, if at all, will have a major role... The rest of your ideas were VERY good and got my brain cells working, but for the most part, I have other ideas for the characters, but thanks a bunch for the suggestions, though! And Rufus will play an important role later one, because I just love his arrogance ;)
Li-Bai- Opus 3 No. 2: Sorry for killing Tseng... Actually I like creepy things quite a lot too! It changes perspective... Thanks for reviewing and I´m glad you enjoyed reading my story! (By the way, you have a really interesting pen name, I´m alays wondering if it refers to some real composition...)
Xyleel: We actually discussed this before, so I´ll just take the time to thank you again for your detailed review and fr pointing out flaws. And I promise I´ll do my best to update faster rom now on!
Yazoo IS superior: Thanks for the reviews and I hope you´ll like the sequel too!
silenceinlight: I´ll do my best to put in as much Kadaj as I can, because originally this story will focus on Yazoo and Sephiroth. But as Kadaj is an important character I´m sure he´ll have much screentime :) I´m glad you liked the ending. I actually feared that most people would be repulsed by it, but fortunately it doesn´t seem so.
j.sakurachan1: I´m glad you did! Thanks again and again and again... You get the picture;)
REVIEW please?
