Chapter 4
Marlene exhaled, blowing her bangs off her forehead trying to get them to stay in place. "Look what you did Denzel! Now what?" The girl asked irritated at her brother -in-bond.
"Hey, don't be blaming me that Barett lied about him majoring in English!" Denzel tried defending himself.
The girl rolled her eyes," He was kidding, Denzel. Gosh, you really have to stop hanging with Cloud." Denzel opened his mouth in protest. She was NOT bringing innocent Cloud into this. She continued, "His denseness is rubbing off on you. And before you know it, you'll have Chocobo hair like him, blonde and everything." He shut his mouth. Marlene had a point there.
They were seated on the floor, their heads rested against a wall. They sat there in silence mentally debating with them self wether they should;
A: Put their heads together to work on their homework.
B: Find some other adult that might be just as helpless
Or C: Just steal one of Auntie Yuffie's Fire Materia and obliterate their homework into next week.
Right now, choice C sounded more delicious then Tifa's homemade chocolate cake. There was no way the second option was a good idea. It was just pointless. And forget about the first, It just wouldn't end well.
The sound of splashing broke their thoughts. They looked at one another, their eyebrows lifted.
The sound was coming from behind the door infront of them. The bathroom. They scooted closer to listen.
"Heh, Shera, ya can't swim for beans and bacon!", came the familiar southern accent."Hmm, that actually sounds pretty darn good right 'bout now..." Cid murmured to himself. Denzel and Marlene shared a knowing look and broke into silent giggles. They had heard Cloud telling Tifa about Cid's "bath time adventures".
They cupped their hands to their ears and leaned against the door. Auntie Yuffie's eavesdropping classes were really coming in handy.
The muffled southern accent lifted an octave and a half producing a mans VERY annoying attempt at trying to copy what sounded like a deformed-like woman's voice. "Don't be such a meanie, Tiny Bronco!" An onslaught of spit filled explosion and heavy artillery sound effects commenced and all was silent. Then violent splashing and a shrill shriek of, "Drown, Bronco! DROWN." Cid was heard coughing hoarsley, no doubt from the change of voice.
Right when Cid started to play his role as Highwind, the door down stairs to the entrance of the bar flew opened and Denzel heard something shatter. The boy tore away from the door and sat at alert straining his ears to hear what was going on below him.
"Do beards that are like, Dumbledore long get frizzy and curly when it's raining outside, Vinnie?" came the sound of Yuffie's surprisingly loud enough voice to be heard clearly from Denzels spot. He tensed.
Vincent was back. And Yuffie was with him!
He had to go down there and save Auntie Yuffie. If her hand got chopped off, who else would be the awesome Aunt in his life who would buy him a jumbo pack of candy for no reason and encourage him to eat it?
But...he was too afraid to go down and warn her. He liked his hands.
A soft sound was heard, possibly a sigh from Vincent. Marlene was too absorbed in Cid's shananigans to pay any attention to Denzel.
"Yuffie, how would I possibly know that? I do not have a beard." Vincents soft sounding reply held a layer of irritation under his mellow tone.
Denzel could just hear Yuffie roll her eyes at him,"Don't be silly! I saw that picture of you back from before you were a Turk in your room. You had a beard then!"
A pause, one filled with a shudder or a cringe from Vincent. "How many times have I told you that creeping into someone's room while they are asleep is not sending the right message?I knew I should have burned that photograph..."
As Yuffie was chattering on about her thoughts on long beards and how conditioner could help with the problem, Denzel started to panic. Vincent's frying pan-like footwear started to clunk towards the stairwell. And then they started to slowly ascend them...
Denzel took in a breath he didn't realize he was holding and blurted,"Sorry Marlene, gotta go change my socks, bye!" coming up with the first (lame) excuse he could think of for abruptley leaving, lunged for his things and dashed down the hall in the opposite direction of the stairs.
Marlene stopped her soft chuckles at Cid's expense and watched Denzel dash down the hall, tripping over his exposed toes that weren't wearing any socks to begin with.
She shook her head.
Boys were so weird.
Turning a right, then a left, Denzel came to the door to his favorite spot. It was only his favorite spot because it was one of his favorite person's favorite spot.
The boy eagerly grabbed at the door knob and pulled it open, the hinges creaking slowly. It was a door to another set of stairs that led to the roof of the bar. Denzel should find him there. After all, that's where he was always chilling.
Denzel remembered that he used to be so frightened of the dark stairway, always feeling paranoid that a monster would somehow pop out of thin air and attack him in the cramped space. But that was all when he was younger and weak. Now he was older and stronger thanks to Cloud's words and training sessions.
As he climbed the many stairs, light filtering in from the opened door behind him in a way that was perfect for a horror movie scene, he thought about all the good times that happened on this stairwell.
How he and Marlene would have slinky races, but instead of slinkys, they would use their sticky fingers and snatch some stray Materia they found around the household. And the time where he slipped on someones toy car (which was NOT his, by the way. It was probably Cids...) because of the plastic wheels and fell back, but how Tifa was behind him and caught him. He could have broken his leg and not have been able to play football with Cloud for a month or two.
Tifa and Cloud never usually aproved of the children going up to the roof by themselves because they were 'irresponsible' even though they weren't little anymore. But that's probably why they acted that way, Denzel thought. They miss us being little and now we're almost grown up. He was a big kid now and he could take care of himself, slaying any stray boogeymen (or stray toy cars that he-, I mean CID didn't play with anymore) that stood in his way.
Denzel paused in his trek up the rickety stairs. What's up with all the sappy thoughts? It's just some old, cobweb infested stairs. He shook his head. Starting to turn into a girl...
The stairs stopped, a sign of Denzels journey coming to an end. He felt for the door's knob in the almost complete shroud of darkness.
The boy blinked a a few times trying to get his eyes to adjust to the bright daylight outside (bright for Edge anyways..) And smiled at when he saw who he was looking for lying on the flat slope part of the roof admiring the clouds above him.
Can anyone guess who the mystery person is in the end? *Chuckles evil-y*
Anyways, Review please and tell me what you thought of this chapter! And as always, i'm open to any ideas for this fanfic or a prompt for something entirely different, like a new oneshot. Once again, I have a poll on my profile. Check it out! I promise to get the next chapter up ASAP, that is, of course, if I get a good amount of reviews ;D
~Sabby-Sama