Okies, so you convinced me to post another chapter, thank you for all the reviews! *hands out flower shaped cookies*
Let me quickly take the time to bow down before my awesome beta Chephren and then:
Enjoy!
2
The next morning Kadaj came to the breakfast table, Benjamin dragging behind him, falling with soft sounds down stair after stair.
The sun was shining through the large windows into the warm house, and despite the early time, it was heating up again. The heavy, sweet smell of mums came through the open patio door, mingling with the delicious odors dancing into the corridor from the kitchen. The cluttering of plates could be heard, as well as the distant noises of singing birds and bicycles down the alley.
It seemed like such a perfect Saturday morning.
"Mornin´" Kadaj announced, rubbing his eyes as he came into the kitchen, crawling onto his chair and yawning at his bowl of cereal.
Only then did he have a look around into tight faces and the untouched food, finally acknowledging the gloomy, tense atmosphere sweeping above their heads in heavy waves.
"...Something wrong?" he blinked, looking up to his mom who stood at the stove, making some pancakes in her white apron.
"No, nothing, dear. Eat your cereal, will you?" She turned around with the flipper, a forced, cheerful smile on her beautiful, but tired looking face.
Vincent brushed his clean mouth with a napkin and laid it beside his full plate, not partaking in the 'conversation' at all. He seemed unusually tense and stiff, whereas normally he´d be sitting at the table with his legs crossed, hidden behind the newspaper with a content expression, drinking coffee, and telling Sephiroth to finish the sports section already.
The conversations would be lively and they would make plans on how to spend the weekend.
Today however, it was anything but.
Yazoo just kept pushing his pancake around with a fork, Sephiroth didn´t even pretend to eat at all. Upon Kadaj´s questioning look, Loz just shrugged, forcing some food into his mouth even though he didn´t feel hungry either. He had no idea what was going on, but the tension was killing him, and he hated it when his parents were cranky and he didn´t know what he had done wrong now. Though today it didn´t seem like they were particularly angry with him. Maybe angry wasn´t even the right word…
Lucrecia came back to the table, placing a ridiculously large plate of pancakes in the middle and sitting down as well. She took one, decorating it with a tiny droplet of syrup and then just nervously stared at it, scratching with her fork over the china.
Kadaj winced.
They sat like that for about ten minutes, silently, before Lucrecia exchanged a brief look with her husband and piped up a bit too loudly and chipper,
"Kadaj, Loz, how about we go to the zoo today? We haven´t been there for quite some time!"
"Can Benjamin come too?" Kadaj asked, pulling his stuffed elephant closer and taking another spoon full of milky, puffy cereal. Whatever was going on, he decided it was adult business he didn´t understand anyways (and didn´t particularly want to, if it meant everyone was sporting a tight, haunted expression), so he´d just make the best out of it. And the zoo was his favorite place to go! He remembered that one time when they had been there and Loz was feeling smug, making funny faces at the monkeys and one of them spontaneously peed on his brother. It had been hilarious, and he and Yazoo and Seph had been rolling on the floor, while mum had tried to clean poor crying Loz with a napkin and Vincent had just shaken his head at them!
"Of course!" Lucrecia readily agreed.
Loz shifted in his seat. "What about Yaz and Seph?"
There was another quick visual exchange between husband and wife, and this time it was Vincent´s deep voice booming through the room as he said neutrally, but not quite able to keep the dark edge out of his tone. "I´m afraid they won´t be able to come with you. We have to fetch some stuff from the mall."
"Can´t we all go to the mall and then to the zoo together?" The youngest disappointedly pouted his lower lip out, letting the spoon sink back into the bowl.
"Ah dear, I´m afraid that´s not possible," Lucrecia sighed, nervously playing with her necklace. She and Vincent had decided to keep this incident between the four of them until they had figured something out... They didn´t want to disturb the other two, not before they knew what was actually going on here. To distract the little one, she got up, holding out her hand to him. "But we can visit the pet zoo too and buy lots of fodder for the little kids, hm?"
"Awesome!" Kadaj breathed, bouncing off his chair and grabbing her hand to drag her upstairs.
Loz cleared his throat, standing up as well. "I guess, I´m... getting ready as well..." He shot an unsure glance at his father, who gave a short nod.
"You do that," Vincent said in a friendly manner, adding with a wink, to make his son feel not too uncomfortable, "And take care of your mom and your little brother for me."
It didn´t fail to take effect as Loz´ cheeks flushed proudly. He was very protective when it came to his family, a trait of character Vincent greatly admired about him. "Of course dad! You can count on me!" With his chest puffed out and his features set in determination, he left the kitchen as well to get ready.
Sephiroth stirred his tea a bit, watching the dark fluid swirl, and remarked with a lifted brow,
"You want me to take good care of my little brother as well?"
Vincent´s features tightened again, as did his fists and he emphasized, rather unnerved "Shut. Up. Get into the car."
Yazoo immediately stood, but Sephiroth took his sweet time being defiant, leaning back in his chair and still slowly moving his spoon in the tea.
"Now!" The growl was accompanied by flashing, angry eyes, making very clear that Vincent was indeed not in the mood for power games right now. Usually Sephiroth was a polite boy, when he didn´t have one of his testosterone boosts. And usually Vincent was also quite patient with him, seeing that he was being trapped in the deepest pits of puberty, but today he had no understanding for that, even though he suspected that his son wasn´t feeling half as smug and cool as he pretended to be. He probably just tried to hide his insecurity…
After a pressing look from Yazoo, the oldest rolled his eyes but finally got up to do as he was told and waited in the car.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Vincent drew out a shaky breath, before he pushed his chair back, quickly cleaning up the table and then fetched his wallet from Lucrecia´s purse as well as his cell phone.
Lucrecia had come down again to see him off, wearing a white dress and hugging her curvy form with a worried expression.
Seeing her leaning against the doorway, he took a moment to pull her against his broad chest, kissing her forehead and murmuring, "Don´t worry, it will all work out. Reeve is the best, he will know how to deal with it."
"I hope so," she replied, worrying her lip between her teeth, looking not very convinced.
"I promise. Have fun at the zoo."
"I´ll try." She sighed, giving him a kiss and then gently pushed him out of the door.
When he got to the neatly trimmed, flower rimmed front lawn he could see Sephiroth saying something to Yazoo in the backseat of the car. Speeding up, Vincent roughly pulled the door of their black van open to interrupt their ongoing conversation.
With a sharp nod, he ordered "Get up in the front seat." Despite not wanting them to cook up some convenient story they would try to butter Reeve up with, Vincent also couldn´t bear seeing them close together right now. He still had these horrible images about finding them in his head and hadn´t been quite able to wrap his mind around the concept yet. There were so many unanswered questions, such confusion and things he blamed himself for…
At least this time Sephiroth just obliged, wordlessly getting up from the backseat to sit beside Vincent.
The engine roared to life and they quickly left their quiet, nice suburb. They slowly drove down the road, Vincent feeling obliged to nod at a mowing neighbour every once in a while with a forced smile. He wondered what was going on in their houses behind closed doors…
They also passed by the houses of Angeal Hewley, a serious young man Vincent was quite fond of, and who was a close friend to Sephiroth. Right beside him lived another acquaintance of his son, Genesis Rhapsodos, but the dark haired man wasn´t sure what to think of the slightly melodramatic, poetry-obsessed teen…
"Where are we going anyway?" Sephiroth suddenly interrupted the silence. He had leaned his head against his knuckles, wearing a blank expression as he looked out of the window and the small houses rushing past them, becoming bigger and dirtier as they neared towards the inner city. The shops were open and the streets were buzzing with people and families heading for the parks or the shopping malls, laughing and chatting and everything seemed so very uncomplicated… At least everything outside of the driving vehicle.
Vincent just threw him a short look before he concentrated back on the traffic, driving around a huge monument.
"I got an appointment for you with Reeve."
"That shrink friend of yours?" his eldest snorted, disbelieving, as he turned his head towards his father.
"You brought that onto yourself" the raven haired man replied flatly. Frankly, he was glad that he could delegate this problem to a professional, and he trusted Reeve with this. It was still embarrassing and highly disturbing, but it was easier to let someone handle the situation who knew his kids since they´d been toddlers than to try and explain it to a complete stranger…
"Great." Sephiroth turned back to his window, his morose expression declaring this conversation over.
In the rearview mirror, Vincent observed his other child glancing at Sephiroth, before he became aware that he was watched and quickly averted his eyes.
The rest of the drive was spent in thick silence, until eventually Vincent pulled into the parking lot in front of a high late Victorian building that stood in an alley of closely hugging, similar high class buildings. Reeve´s business was definitely paying...
"Let´s get this over with," Vincent muttered, after he had blankly stared at the street for a minute, gathering his strength and thoughts and finally got out of the car with a secret, heavy sigh. This day could only get better.
Tbc?
Hm, I know there seem to be some similarities to some of my other stories, and I am sorry about that, but it will change, I promise. Also Reeve... I can´t help but think that he so looks like a shrink XD
BlackDomina: Thank you XD I haven´t written that much yet, but I hope I can continue this one ^^ And yeah, Sephy is pretty cocky, he´s a teenager, full of hormones XD
Soyna: Ah, I think Lucrecia and Vincent went home earlier than their kids had expected, because the play was so awful XD Hm, you´re right, I left a lot of openings, but I hope to close them soon^^
Natzilla: Hehe, Vince´s comment about the blankets was a pun, because Lu said they were getting old, and you know…. Old people use these blankets ;) Ew, it´s not nice to be caught by your parents at all, but with your own sibling? Hell, I´d rather die!
Gismo1: Awwwww *lends you some nails* I´m glad you liked it! Okies, so here was the second chapter, I hope you enjoyed that too!
Lenko: Ah yes, I can see what you mean. However, this won´t be like in Golden Lotus. Sephiroth is a very complexe creature, and he won´t be like in Golden Lotus at all here, so no worries! And Vincent and Lucrecia will take care of their sons of course! I must warn you though: usually, the way I write Yazoo he´s not quite such an innocent and good boy XD
Aeriths-Rain: Yay, thank you! I will see how much response I will get with this fic XD So far I have no straight plot set, so I can finish as soon as interest in it is waning XD I hope however, that I can write something people keep enjoying^^
Oztan: Oh, Cid Raines…. Never heard of him, I gotta google him XD Thanks for the idea!
IA1979: Awww, thank you so much! The same can beside vice versa: I can´t live without your awesome reviews, so I´m happy you got internet too!!! Ah yes, incest is a very sensitive topic… Personally, I think it shouldn´t be forbidden between siblings as long as it is consensual. Hehe, you´re right Teh Allure is powerful indeed ;) I hope I can answer all your questions within the next chapters!
Sweetciel: Okies, so this chan gets moar XD Hope you liked it!!!
Soooo, you still want to read more?