A/N: Loz actually has a main part in this chapter - I didn't shun him away this time :) This is Yazoo and Loz based, so not much Kadaj I'm afraid. Thank you for the reviews I got for the previous chapter - as it was the first chapter, I'm so glad that I got lots of feedback!

Anyways, please read and review!

Note: Just to say a big thank you to 343 Guilty Spark for being the beta reader for this fic:)

Disclaimer: Characters are all copyright to Square-Enix. -sigh-

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Ameagari: After the Rain

Chapter 2: No 'Niisan'

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A few drops of rain met the three brothers' heads and shoulders, signalling the end of an afternoon shower. The deserted street had several shallow puddles, which would've reflected a clearing orange sky if the plate wasn't above them. Kadaj, who hated the feeling of rain on him, jammed a woolly blue hat on his head with unmistakable frustration. Yazoo personally thought that his youngest brother looked like a miniature thug with the hat so low over his eyes. He decided not to comment, where on the contrary, Loz stopped midway through tying his scarf round his neck and cast an incredulous look at him.

"Oy, will you be able to see where you're going? I don't want you knocking into me."

Under the shadow of the hat, behind the strands of a silvery fringe, a pair of green eyes glared up at him.

"Course I can, oaf. You're the one whose eyes are too small."

Loz raked his short hair, giving Yazoo a tired look. "See the cheek of him these days?"

"Oh yeah, just bring Yazoo into this like how you always do."

"What do you mean, like how I always do?" Loz kicked the pavement and narrowly missed hitting the back of Kadaj's leg. Yazoo wondered when it was going to stop raining.

"You need Yazoo to side with everything you say, don't you? What is he, the other half of your brain?" Kadaj turned round to face Loz, walking backwards and sticking out his tongue. Yazoo saw one slightly discoloured slab of concrete compared to the rest of the pavement. "Hang on, where's the other half? 'Cause it definitely ain't in your head."

"Oh well done, good joke," Loz muttered sarcastically, "I suppose you spent the whole of yesterday coming up with that one."

"You'd take a week." Kadaj snickered, walking backwards faster as Loz made a threatening few steps forward. "Wouldn't he, niisan?"

"Look who wants Yazoo to side with him now," grumbled Loz. Kadaj tugged Yazoo's shirt sleeve fiercely.

"Hello? Niisan?"

Yazoo started, forgetting about his muses. "Hmm, what?"

Typically, Kadaj treated him to a glare, throwing his arms up in the air in desperation. Yazoo was under the impression that Kadaj was feeling dramatic today.

"Never mind, switch yourself back off again."

Kadaj ran a few metres ahead, splashing through a particularly large puddle and cursing loudly. When Loz and Yazoo had caught up with him, they crossed an empty road and walked to the building that stood on the corner.

Since it was the early evening, it was expected for The Grape Vine to be crowded. Yazoo could smell the strong stench of beer and smoke from cigars and cigarettes, merely by standing outside of the pub. The windows looked as though they hadn't seen a sponge and bucket of soapy water for a good few years, the bricked wall outside was ready to crumble any moment, and there was the audible sound of the deep voices of men shouting.

Still, business was business.

Kadaj took out the sheet of paper in his pocket, studying it. His lips spelt out the word 'Souba' soundlessly. He heaved a big sigh – clearly, walking to the weapon store was a waste of his time.

"So, I'll meet you back here?" There was no enthusiasm in his voice at all, despite the fact that he was to be getting a nice gift and that he was allowed to walk by himself for the first time.

"That's right." Yazoo bent a little so that he was level with Kadaj, tapping the piece of paper. "You'll want to keep that in your pocket because it's still raining a little. Remember to show it to that man, Mr Frest, and be polite."

At this, Loz stifled a snort, looking away. Yazoo ignored him, and pushed up Kadaj's hat a fraction so that it didn't sit over his ears. Kadaj swatted his hand away.

"Don't go all namby-pamby on me, damnit!"

He turned on his heel and walked down the road away from them, still holding the piece of paper in his hand where drops of rain fell on it. Yazoo watched the youngster go on ahead, looking so small and out of place. Before Kadaj turned the corner out of sight, he faced his brothers and made a rude gesture with his hand.

"Do you think I overdid it with the hat?" Yazoo asked his brother. Loz placed his hands behind his head, stretching.

"Just a tad. You were getting a bit – what's the word, namby-pamby – with him." Loz chuckled. "Namby-pamby. Kadaj picks up on strange vocab all right."

"Think he'll be alright?" said Loz after a few moments. "He's never been out by himself. He might get abducted."

"Then pray that the potential abductors have the sense not to pick Kadaj," Yazoo replied, adding, "for their sake."

Loz nodded fervently, and headed up the grey steps to the waiting door. The pub was familiar to both brothers, and some men who were already there nodded their heads in greeting. Of course, only Loz greeted them back, whilst Yazoo kept behind him, looking elsewhere.

"How you doin' Loz?" A burly man in his early twenties, who, if Yazoo remembered properly, was called Kirk, lumbered over to the eldest brother and took out some money from his pocket. "What's in the bag today, mate?"

Loz set the bag down on a chair, which groaned under the weight in protest. Out from it came several razors, can openers and batteries. A gruff voice – one that was alarmingly close to Yazoo – spoke up from behind him.

"Why've you guys got all that stuff?"

Kirk answered his question, handing some money over to Loz in exchange for a razor.

"What d'ya think? It's their living, innit. They sell these, I buy 'em at a good price. Razors these days are jus' too damn expensive." Kirk scratched the side of his neck lazily. "That right, Loz? We're business partners."

"You could say that," Loz replied, taking a generous amount of money from another man, who wordlessly took a load of batteries and skulked off to play snooker again. "We sell at less than half price to that of normal stores."

Other people were becoming more interested, crowding round; Kirk's booming advertising wasn't helping either. Yazoo ducked under someone's large elbow and took a seat at a table for two. It was situated in the corner of the pub, away from the bustle and shadowed into darkness. Yazoo was glad to be out of sight. Moments passed as he studied the menu card in front of him, then the empty ashtray. Thoughts wondered to how Kadaj was, whether the youngster had seen Souba yet.

Yazoo knew that from the kitchen window, Kadaj would watch his brothers train together. Though this was never mentioned between any of them, it was clear that Kadaj felt left out. And at the age of twelve, surely Kadaj was old enough…Yazoo wanted to train with Kadaj too, see his brother's genuine grin once more with that childishness of his…

"You're drifting. Again." Loz slumped down on the chair diagonal to that of Yazoo's, stretching his legs out and sighing. "What's on your mind?"

Yazoo moved his gaze away from the blackened ashtray; Loz's eyes were kept on him. Nearby, several young women giggled stridently, passing pints along to one another.

"…There's a lot on my mind, niisan," Yazoo chose to answer.

"Kadaj, huh." Loz tapped an index finger against his chin. "Kid's been a lot more distant lately. Were we like that at that age?"

Yazoo gave his brother a shadowy smile, giving Loz a bit of time to make sense of the question he had just asked. Loz then laughed quietly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Okay, so you've always been distant," he admitted. "But for Kadaj to, you know – start shunning as away…I don't really like it."

Yazoo watched concern flit across Loz's usually untroubled face. A fine line creased the area between his eyebrows, and eyes glazed over.

"Can I get you gentlemen anything?"

It took Loz around three seconds to realise that he and Yazoo were the gentlemen in question. He jumped, his elbow knocking the menu card and sending it off the edge of the table. The waitress who had addressed him was doing a poor job in hiding her laughter, watching Loz pick up the card, flustered. The temptation to treat that waitress to one of his fierce glares crossed Yazoo's mind, but he refrained from doing so when he noticed Loz was also laughing.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, "I'm not usually jumpy --"

"No worries," the waitress answered. She jiggled the pen in her hand, dark eyes flickering as she batted her eyelashes. "What can I get you?"

"Hot chocolate and black coffee," Loz answered promptly. Yazoo peered out of the musty window whilst waiting, once again lost in thought. He could hear his brother talking to the waitress animatedly (something along the lines of hot chocolate – food was Loz's favourite topic), and with very little attention, Yazoo ran a finger across the pearl handle of his Velvet Nightmare, lodged against his thigh and hidden under his long white shirt.

He and Loz had got into a fight with some other pub goers once. Whilst Loz had tried to reason things out sensibly and fairly, Yazoo could remember himself reaching for Velvet Nightmare as though it was second nature to him, shattering the vibrant chatter of the pub into piercing screams. Yazoo assumed that people naturally felt wary around him and his brothers for who they were – or who they weren't, for that matter – and for the reason of safety, Velvet Nightmare never left his side.

"Good job I ordered that coffee for you, you look a bit sleepy."

Yazoo looked away from the window to where Loz sat diagonal to him, arms behind his head, leaning on the back legs of his chair.

"Sorry, niisan," Yazoo said, "I was gone again."

Loz's chair dropped back onto four legs, making a dull noise. The oldest brother leaned forwards, head ducking down slightly so that he could see past Yazoo's curtain of hair.

"If you're worrying about Kadaj, he's just going through his moody stage…they call it puberty, and--"

"I'm glad you've read Family Health from cover to cover," Yazoo interrupted, shaking his head, "but I don't think that explains what to do when your younger brother feels more at ease talking to someone in his head, rather than us."

The two were silent for a moment. A group of men cheered as someone performed a snooker trick.

"…I never knew Kadaj still did that."

"You wouldn't. You're always asleep, niisan." Yazoo prodded Loz's elbow teasingly, a smile creeping onto his face. He found however, that a rare look of abrupt shyness had come onto his brother's face.

"…That reminds me of something, Yazoo." Loz clasped his hands together, resting them on the table. Yazoo was under the impression that Loz was being very business-like. "I, uh, I'd…"

"You don't have to feel nervous around me." Yazoo kept his voice level and deferential, but it seemed to be having an adverse effect on his brother.

"I know, I know," he muttered, waving a hand. "It's just…I don't particularly, I mean, not particularly, but…"

Yazoo had never seen Loz so inarticulate. Loz took a deep breath, raked his hair, and tried again.

"…I don't want to be called niisan anymore." Loz eyed Yazoo nervously, his gaze apologetic. Yazoo was surprised, to say the least. He had always called Loz 'niisan', always…

"Why not?"

Loz became more uncomfortable, but Yazoo forced himself topay no mindit. He had to know why it was so wrong to say 'niisan'. He stared at Loz until their gazes met.

"…It don't sound right anymore," mumbled Loz. Yazoo edged a bit closer so that he could hear him. "We're nearly the same age, and I don't like being reminded I'm older than you…Don't look at me like that Yazoo."

Yazoo stopped looking at him altogether, rubbing the side of his neck and watching some people play snooker together. He often wondered how that game worked. Feeling irritable and slightly offended, he said nothing for a while, keeping his eyes on the rectangular table, as different coloured balls shot across it, and several people whooped and cheered.

"…Plain old Loz will do."

Yazoo let a resigned sigh escape his lips. "…All right then. If it makes you feel more comfortable, I'll call you Loz."

"Thanks, Yazoo."

The silence returned, only to be interrupted when the waitress returned with their orders. She seemed to make a bit of a fuss in aligning Yazoo's napkin, where Loz commented teasingly that Yazoo had got himself an admirer.

"You've forgotten our No Girlfriend Policy," Yazoo replied smoothly. "Kadaj'd do his nut if one of us got a girlfriend."

Loz was about to reply, but something more significant had caught his – and admittedly, the whole pub's – attention. The door had burst open with extreme force, banging against the coat pegs on the wall.

"Shit, there's a third one!" Kirk had dropped his snooker cue in surprise.

"Ain't he a bit young to be in a pub?"

Yazoo leapt to his feet, as had Loz, to discover that Kadaj had stormed inside, and on closer inspection, noticed that the youngest brother was struggling to fight back tears.

"Kadaj, what happened?" Loz stretched out his arms in what was meant to be a comforting gesture, but Kadaj was having none of it. His eyes displayed nothing but fury, and to Yazoo's surprise, they were locked on him.

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A/N: I remembered from the AC movie that Yazoo calls Loz by his name, so that's why I stuck this part in. Hopefully, it shows that Yazoo's a bit more open with Loz :) As a side note, the inspiration for shoplifting came from one of my psychology classes (which was actually interesting for once) – it's been recorded in Britain that the most commonly stolen good is the razor :)

Anyways, please be nice and leave a review – I need to know what you think!