Chapter Two:

A Family

"Hey," the boy's voice echoed in the silence of his dark room. "Hey, Sora! Are you sleeping?"

Not anymore. "No." Sora whispered back from across the room.

"So since you'll be staying with us for now on, are you going to be my brother?" Sora could see Denzel's eyes light up.

Sora smiled. "If you want!"

"Oh! And don't tell Cloud but can you teach me baseball? He's no good at it."

"Sorry, I've never played."

"Then I guess I'll teach you." It sounded like a nice offer until Sora heard Denzel mutter under his breath "Some big brother."

What was a big brother supposed to be like? Sora grew excited at the thought. He would have his back soon. Especially now that he had a mentor. He was one step closer to getting stronger, one step closer to bring his brother back.

Sora spent his night dreaming of what his brother would be like.

"But Cloud-"

"Sensei," Cloud corrected.

"Sensei, Shouldn't we be sword training or running laps or something?" Sora complained.

"Putting up flyers is something." He handed Sora a stack of twenty flyers for "Cloud's Delivery Service" before adding, "Be back by noon." Cloud kept a stack for himself and left the bar.

Sora sighed and resigned himself to his boring task. It wasn't until he went to put the first one up that he noticed what was on them. It was a plain white background with the slogan: "Need something delivered? Call Cloud". He couldn't help but laugh, these were definitely made by his mentor.

After putting up his final poster, a red-headed man in a black suit spotted him. "Cloud's hiring?"

The guy reminded Sora of Axel. "Not really, he is my mentor though."

He took one of the pull tabs from the poster. "If I ever feel like bothering him." The man said, waving it over his head as he walked away.

"Do you know anyone with bright red hair like this?" Sora flailed his hands over his head, trying to signify spikes.

"Reno." They walked side by side down the street of a shopping district. Heading…somewhere. Cloud hadn't said. Sora hoped it was a place to eat, he hadn't had lunch yet and his stomach continued to growl with protest.

"Did you make those posters yourself?" Sora asked, even though he knew the answer just by looking at them.

"Tifa copied them and made the pull tabs." So all Cloud did was made his terrible black bolded slogan on white paper. Sora had to still his laughter again.

Cloud turned to enter a shop and Sora followed….and stared inside with awe. This shop was filled head to toe with weapons of all kinds.

"Cloud!" The store keeper started from out behind the counter at the back. "I just finished ordering those buster swords you requested!"

"Thank you," Was all he said in response.

The shopkeeper glanced down at Sora. "Now, who's this?"

"I'm Sora!"

"He needs gloves and biker's goggles." Cloud explained.

"I have just the thing."

Thirty pairs of goggles later, Sora was fitted with a pair just like Cloud's only smaller and a pair of jet black leather fingerless gloves.

When they got home Denzel told him that it was Cloud's way of saying "Welcome to the team". He held a bat at the ready.

The back yard was the size of Cloud and Tifa's bedroom and Sora would have been afraid of the ball flying out if it wasn't for the large wall around it. The wall itself was one story (for privacy according to Denzel).

Sora tosses the ball towards him. Denzel hit it and it came flying back. Right at him. "Ahh!" Sora fell backwards upon the impact of the ball to his face.

"You're supposed to catch it dummy!"

Tifa called out the window at them. "Dinner's ready!"

The two rushed inside to get to the table only to be sent to the sink to wash their hands.

At dinner they laughed and talked about their day. Tifa had to settle a bar fight, Denzel did well on a math test, Marlene played with her friends after school.

"Cloud and I tried to attract business." Sora added and Cloud nodded in agreement.

It turns out that Denzel is an orphan and Marlene's dad was often away. Still this group was like a family and Sora was glad to be a part of it.