A/N: Hiya huns!
"Your Dad's gonna kill you one of these days."
Damien shook his head; a confident smirk on his face as he looked back over his should to his friend. Yeah right, no way would his Dad ever kill him. Throw him off his skateboard, throw something at him, cap him out of his bed, things like that, but never actually harm him – his mother would murder him if he did. Though he and his Dad did have their difficulties and severe differences, they were still blood at the end of the day. They constantly butted heads and argued, but they had each others backs when the need hadn't always been that way though. His Dad hadn't always been so cold and purpose-driven. He had been like any other father, caring, comforting, easy to get on with, but it had all changed when he'd been seven. That's when the arguing and fighting had reached its' peak and his Mom had left. He remembered when things had been good, but unfortunetly the aftermath of his parents' split seemed to overshadow it. He knew in himself that his parents still cared a lot about each other, but his Dad lived for ShinRa Inc.
He could only guess that they both still cared deeply for each other by how neither had ever filed for divorce. His Mom had moved back to Icicle Inn and had set up a bar there, because of the distance he was lucky to see her in person once a year. Sure, there was always the phone, email, webcam, but it wasn't the same. He was glad she was coming back home for the party. Granted, she may now view it as home any longer but it was still the only home he had known.
That might have confused people, wondering why he had never gone between his parents despite them having joint custody, but when they had split, ShinRa has still been on its' way to re-establishing itself in the economy and business world of Gaia. An area in which the company had been missing from since MeteorFall, in its' absence other companies had flourished and certainly had not been pleased when ShinRa had stepped back into their comfort zone. It had earned the company many new enemies, his Dad had known how those companies worked; the same as ShinRa had. Hitting low to get what they wanted, going for their opponent's weakness to use against them.
That's why he had stayed with his Dad, so his Cissnei always told him anyhow. Cissnei was the only one who answered his questions, his Dad didn't, it was hard to get Rude to talk much about anything, Rod just made a joke out of things and Reno always seemed busy. Cissnei had told him that when his parents had split, his Mom and Dad had agreed that he would stay in Edge due to the Turks being there and more protection there in case any of his Dad's opponents decided to take a leaf out of ShinRa's old book.
"Damien!"
Damien snapped his head up as he registered Rach's sharp shout, he hadn't realised he's spaced out. He guessed she'd been saying something and had noticed he hadn't really been listening, probably on about Friday and the things that still needed to be done before then. He had already agreed to help out, so why was Rach still on about it? Shit, she was still talking…
"Watch where you're go-"
Rach clamped her eyes shut as her warning came too late. Now she knew why so many people hated her friends' skateboard so much, though it wasn't exactly the skateboard's fault that it's owner never paid attention to where he was going or who else may be inhabiting his path of direction. Like now, she'd called his name to stop him slamming into some on coming people. Who exactly they were was beyond here, they weren't from Edge, that much she was sure of. Thanks to her Dad's business she knew of almost every person living in Edge and their addresses.
The youngster grimaced as she watched Damien rub the back of his head, having struck the pavement after knocking both himself and one of the three people that had been walking towards them. He had banged his head pretty hard, and now found himself on his butt for the second time in one morning, not a great start to the week by any standards.
Right now she was more worried about the man Damien had knocked; he didn't seem all that much impressed at her friend's antics. She didn't blame him, of course not; coming to a new city and being bowled from your feet by a youngster on a skateboard certainly wouldn't please her. But was it really necessary to swear that much? Okay, she tended to have a sharp tongue on her at times, but only if someone was really annoying her or if she got into a bad argument with someone, but she certainly would go off on a blue streak at a complete stranger she had bumped into by accident.
"Goddamn it kid! Watch where you go with that – some of us people like to walk on the damn pavement!"
Damien stared at the man for a second or two, trying to figure out whether he knew him or not. Short greying blond hair, thick accent, a pack of cigarettes peeped out of the man's pants pocket at him; he didn't think he knew him, which meant he probably wasn't from Edge. Whoever the dude was, he had one serious anger management problem. Yeah, he had knocked him, but he'd managed to knock himself too, it had been an honest accident. Wasn't it a bit early for a bollicking? Maybe not considering the one he'd got from his Dad already, but that was different. Dads were supposed to yell at their sons, it was just a law of nature.
He really hadn't been kidding earlier when he'd said parents could really keep going at this yelling stuff when they got on a roll, he assumed this guy was a Dad anyhow. There was a woman and a teenager standing watching too, he guessed they'd been the lucky ones to avoid his skateboard. The youngster looked around the same age as him and Rach. He also looked pretty pissed off as he shot the man a warning glare before grabbing his arm and pulling him back to his feet.
"Get the hell over it already."
"Get over it – oh yeah, easy for you to say – you didn't get a face full of the damn ground, and don't y'all tell me to get over somethin! I'll get over whatever I like whenever I want!"
Rach bit back a laugh as Damien looked up to her with a frown, raising his eyebrows suggestively as he inclined his head towards the still ranting man. Though she really didn't think now would be a good time to try the guy's patience, it had already proved itself in short supply. Best thing they could do was apologize, drop off the package in her pocket to Mrs. Allows, and get back to the bar. There was still a ton of stuff to get done before Friday, so far it was only her and her Mom organizing things. Denzel would help once he got back, her Dad was being kept busy with deliveries lately but her Mom had persuaded him book off the week from Wednesday on until the following Monday. But persuasion she really meant her Mom had threatened to take Fenrir' keys and hide them until the party was over with…her Mom was the master of persuasion.
"Say sorry idiot…"
Damien winced as Rach's elbow hit him sharply into the side of his ribcage, gee thanks for all she knew he could have hurt himself there or something! He'd hurt his head alright…not that she cared, nope, if he told her she'd probably just hit him there and then tell him to apologize, why did people like hurting him lately? He'd started off the painfully early morning with a lovely wake up call from Rod and floor, then a two hour board meeting, okay maybe that hadn't exactly physically harmed him, but one hundred and twenty minutes of listening to pompous, big headed disillusioned and morbidly obese men would leave him with psychological scars for years to come…especially when one had brought his wife, she'd only been a few years older then him and Rach. Seriously, he wasn't exaggerating on that, it was pretty simple what she had seen in the president of Gurden Inc., it certainly wasn't his greying and receding hair line, nor had it been his inch thick glasses…he doubted very much it was the man's seniority in age, what he could fathom a guess at it being was the lovely fat pay check that rivalled the man's belt girth.
"Damien!"
Ha, he'd dodged that time! Sucker, he wasn't about to take another bruise this morning. He was already pretty sure the wake up call from Rod and the floor had earned him friction burns on his elbows from the carpeted floor in his bedroom, his Dad's unexpected presence on his escape route had earned a tumble head over heels before colliding with the wall…and now along with a bump on the back of his head Rach was hell bent on hurting him too. Damien stuck his tongue out as he kicked his skateboard up into his hand, shooting Rach a mocking smirk as he dodged yet another elbow before turning to face the still fuming man.
"Look, I'm really sorry; I kinda spaced out and wasn't paying attention, if I hurt you I apologise – hey!"
Now it was her turn to frown...she hadn't meant to push him that hard. Though judging by the look he was giving her from where he now sat on the ground once again, Damien was far from impressed. She'd only pushed him teasing, well he shouldn't have been leaning on his skateboard then, if he hadn't been then he wouldn't have lost his balance so easily. Technically that meant it was his fault, not hers. For some odd reason though, she severely doubted he would see the logic in her reasoning. For want of a better action, along with the want of distracting Damien from the fact she'd just knocked him over, Rach looked back the three people, a small smile on her face as she watched ShinRa's vice president pull himself up from the ground for the fourth time that morning.
"Sorry again…"
Tifa glanced up from where she stood washing several glasses in the sink to the wall-mounted clock. Mentally counting down the minutes, just like she had done every five minutes for the past hour. Her stomach was already in a knot, on one hand she was wishing the minutes would pass faster but on the other she wished they would slow down. Friday was the party, but everyone had organized to arrive in the following few days instead of all at once only shortly before the party. The first were arriving today; Cid, Shera and their son Mike.
They had been the second to move away, granted Cid had always retained his home in Rocket Town, but the pilot had also spent a lot of time in Edge in the years following Sephiroth's last blow and the Geostigma epidemic. Going back and forth had been relatively easy for him due to his airships, but once everything had quietened down and remained quiet, people had began to drift. For a while it had been like no one had wanted to be the first to part ways, all holding out to see who would be first to leave the city they had watched build itself up from nothing. Once Tseng had announced his and Elena's imminent departure it hadn't taken long for everyone else to leave also.
She had tried to stay in contact with them all for as long as she could, but time just seemed to work against friendships at times. Last she had heard Cid had set up his own company, specialising in airship manufacturing and general engineering. She should have guessed he would, it had been a no brainer really, what else would Cid have done? The man's passion had always been machine based, and by all accounts he had signed a contract with The WRO as manufacturer of all their airships. To the best of her knowledge, Mike had pretty much taken after his Dad and helped out in the business. She wasn't one hundred percent sure of that, but Rufus had mentioned something about them a few weeks back.
"Y'know, watching the clock won't make it go faster Mom."
Even Cloud looked up as the door separating the bar from the living section of Seventh Heaven swung open, allowing Denzel to walk in. Cloud shook his head as he watched the young man walk behind the bar, head straight to the fridge and pull out a bottle. A hi or at least a hello, I'm home wouldn't have gone astray. He goes on a delivery for several days, then just randomly walks in and grabs a drink. As much as Cloud hated to admit it, Denzel had become as bad as, if not worse than he had been for answering his phone. Just so long as he didn't treat Abbie the same way he had treated Tifa, then his ignorance of his phone could be over looked. Denzel hadn't been the easiest of teenagers to deal with, arguing with teachers, arguing with he and Tifa, arguing with pretty much every person going, nothing had got through to the youngster, his head had been up his butt to a painful degree, but then he'd picked up with Abbie. After only a week or two of the start of their relationship and the confrontational youngster had reverted back to his laid-back and talkative self.
"Geez kid, you still livin here? Of have you taken up squatters' rights?"
Denzel laughed as he looked up, leaning his elbows on the counter of the bar, staring at the three new individuals who had just walked through the bar door while his parents had been staring at him. Welcome back would have been nice, anything was better than being stared at as if you had two heads. He'd forgive them though, they were stressed lately, well his Mom certainly was, which in turn was putting pressure on his Dad. It usually took a lot of things or something extremely major to stress his Mom out, the last time he'd seen her this jumpy had been when Marlene had left for University. But it was different this time, all the people he remembered from when he'd been a kid were going to be arriving back in Edge, it was kinda odd that they were all going to be coming back when there was no baddies to fight or planet to save.
He still sounded the same as when they had permanently moved away. Still the same as the first day he'd met him when Bahamut SIN had attacked the city. He still looked pretty much the same, granted the blond of his hair had whitened and greyed somewhat, more lines had become present on his face, but his eyes had remained the same. Sharp and bright, ready to deal with whatever came his way. Denzel shook his head as he straightened up, Shera he recognised no problem, she was the only woman he knew who had more patience than his Mom. The young man bit back a laugh as he caught sight of a packet of cigarettes in the pilot's pocket - old habits died hard.
A/N: Thanks for reading huns!