Prompt: Oops
Given by: Kryal
Setting: Radiant Garden, Post-KHII
Pairing: Tifa/Rude, Hints at Pre-Cloud/Riku
"So are Li'l Spiky and Jailbait gonna join us tonight?" asked Cid as he shuffled a deck of cards.
Cloud, who had been setting another chair out, glared at the Gummi pilot while the others did not respond. Tifa and Rude were currently whispering to one another, Reno and Zell were laughing at something the redhead had said, and Leon was carrying a case of drinks to the table.
"Don't call him that," said Cloud, "He has enough issues to deal with already."
"I don't call him that…well, not normally," replied the elder blonde. "I usually call him 'Kid' or 'Pretty Boy'. I refer to him as 'Jailbait' around you since that what he is to you."
Cloud's glare increased until it was a wonder his gaze did not burn the older man. Tifa stifled a laugh, beside her, Rude's lip quirked in his own mild show of amusement. Reno and Zell were making no attempt to hold back their laughter, and Leon was smirking at his spiky-haired friend.
"To answer your question, Cid; Yes, Sora and Riku should be here soon," stated Leon.
"Do they know how to play?" asked Zell.
"No," replied the scarred man, "But Cloud and I will teach them for the first few hands. We have enough players as it is."
"Yeah, that's true," responded the tattooed man, "At least I'll finally get to meet this kid Strife has been lusting after."
"It's not like that, Dincht," Cloud yelled from the kitchen, where he was getting another chair.
"Sure it isn't," Leon called back, the smirk evident in his voice.
Suddenly they heard the front door open.
"That would be Sora," commented Leon.
"I think Riku's with him," said Cloud as he returned from the kitchen with a chair.
"Either that, or Sora's talking to himself," added Reno.
"That wouldn't surprise me," commented Tifa.
Sora's voice drifted into the room, followed by the spiky-haired boy. "…So then the spatula got stuck, too. Hey, everybody!"
Leon and Cloud immediately turned their eyes to the silver-haired boy who entered behind Sora.
"You don't want to know," commented Riku.
Both men nodded once before turning to take their seats.
"We're going to teach you the same way as last time, okay?" Leon stated more than asked.
"Works for me," said Sora as he plopped down into the seat beside the scarred man while Riku quietly seated himself beside Cloud.
The teal-eyed boy turned to the former SOLDIER, "What exactly are we playing, anyway?"
"Traverse Hold 'Em," answered the blue-eyed man. "Each player gets two cards and you make the best hand you can out of them and the board."
"Board?" Sora asked, looking around.
"The group of cards that the dealer will lay face up in the middle of the table," explained Leon.
"This time you might want to try keeping a neutral expression, Sora," added Reno.
"Wait, how are we going to handle bets this time?" asked Tifa. "They're playing against everyone, not just Cid."
"Time seems to work," stated Cid. "I'm sure the rest of you can find something for 'em to do."
Sora looked around the table, "But what about if we win?"
"You can pass the buck," said Reno. "You know, have the loser fill in for the time you lost," he added at the young brunette's confused expression.
"I don't want some of you on the computer or in my garage," commented Cid.
"We'll take those jobs then and pass along other ones," replied Sora.
"…Or we could come up with our own projects for them," added Riku, looking at Sora.
The blue-eyed boy grinned, "Like what?"
"Well, you've been complaining about that skateboard park not getting worked on, and I have a few ideas," answered the teal-eyed boy.
"Okay, we'll do that then," said Sora, who was still grinning and appeared to be thinking.
"That actually sounds interesting," commented Zell, "We should be more creative with betting."
"Munny works for me," commented Reno.
Tifa chuckled, "Why don't we just make the time count for the kids?"
"That works," said Leon. "One Munny will equal ten minutes, alright?"
"Sounds fair," said Sora as Riku nodded his agreement.
The cards were dealt, and once again Leon was bombarded with a dozen questions while Cloud calmly murmured instructions and advice to Riku, who seemed to be paying more attention to the blonde man than to the game itself…until he won the first hand anyway.
"Hey…" said Sora abruptly as he turned to his best friend. "What are you going to have me do with the time you just won?"
"Test the program I've been working on," said Riku without a moment's hesitation.
"Is that what you've been doing with the time you won in the last game?" asked Cid.
"You built your own program on Ansem's computer?" Tifa asked, clearly impressed.
"That is one of the most complicated and non-user friendly pieces of equipment I have ever seen," remarked Leon. "How are you doing it?"
"Did you get Tron to help?" asked Sora.
"No, I prefer to do it myself," replied the silver-haired teen. "DiZ set up his computer in Twilight Town similarly, so it's not hard for me use."
"What does the program do?" asked Zell.
"You'll see when it's finished," responded the teal-eyed boy with a small smirk.
"Fine by me," said Cid as he finished shuffling the deck. "Now can we get back to the game?"
Both teens murmured brief apologies before returning their attention to their 'mentors'.
Leon spent most of the next round explaining the value of different hands to Sora and constantly reminding the boy to keep quiet on what hand he holding.
"It doesn't really matter anyway, Leon," commented Zell. "The kid has the worst poker face I've ever seen."
"Actually, I can't tell what he has, since his expression keeps changing," said Tifa as Rude briefly nodded his agreement.
"She has a point," Reno's eyes flicked over to Riku. "That kid on the other hand, shows nothing, but I think he's always like that."
"I don't know," said Cid. "I seen him smile at Spiky a few times…Kid even laughed at something he said the other day."
Riku, looking slightly uncomfortable at being the topic of discussion, shrugged lightly; "He's funny."
Everyone looked up from their hands and started at the adolescent.
After a brief moment, Zell spoke. "You think Strife is funny?"
"He can be," Tifa chimed in, and Riku nodded to the statement.
Next to Riku, Cloud wore a small smile as he watched the teal-eyed boy. After a moment, he glanced at the others. "Are we going to continue playing, or what?"
As if suddenly remembering what they had been doing, everyone return to the game.
The next round was won by Sora, mainly because he announced what a good hand he had (much to Leon's exasperation), causing half of the others to fold right away.
Reno and Riku each won the next two rounds. Sora seemed to catch on that he needed to learn some discretion for this game and he returned to quietly (at least by his standards) asking Leon questions.
A kicker had to determine the victor between Reno and Riku again for the next round.
"You know kid, you're pretty good," commented the Turk as he gathered his winnings. "I should show you a few tricks."
"Like the card in your sleeve?" question the teal-eyed boy with an expression of vague interest.
Again, everyone stopped and looked at the boy…then their gazes moved to Reno.
"Oops…How did that fall in there…?" commented the redhead with a strained chuckle as he pulled a card out of his right sleeve.
"Reno," said Rude disapprovingly.
"Yeah, I know…" commented his partner before returning his winnings from the previous round as he muttered. "Geez, the kid's almost harder to slip past than Cloud is…"
"I'll take that as compliment," murmured Riku.
"You would," Sora muttered under his breath just as he raised his drink to his mouth, causing only Leon and Riku to hear. The elder quirked an eyebrow as he looked between the two boys, while the silver-haired adolescent flushed and suddenly found the chips in front of him interesting.
...Until Cloud leaned closer to him, placed a hand on his shoulder, and continued speaking to him in hushed tones.
Tifa won the next round. "Good, the tavern could use a good cleaning," she commented as she smiled at the two boys.
By the end of the evening, Sora and Riku had still won the most often. Cid commented that he was looking forward to seeing what Riku was up to on Ansem's computer, which seemed to please the boy (that was about as close to a compliment as one received from the Gummi pilot). Sora was excitedly prattling about the skateboard park as he followed his friend (who paused to say goodnight to Cloud) out of the house.
"Oh, I almost forgot," commented Leon with as close to a mischievous grin as he was capable of producing, "Sora was mentioning how difficult Archimedes was being, you know he doesn't like kids very much, plus it's pretty crowded at Merlin's place, so I invited him and Riku to stay here with us."
Cloud paused in the middle of folding the spare table they had used, looking more torn than Leon had ever seen him.
The brunette was definitely grinning now. "They'll bring their stuff over tomorrow. I'm sure you don't mind." The scarred man continued to grin as he turned and headed to his room.
The look of mixed shock, concern, and delight remained on Cloud's face as he headed to his own room.
The next week was going to be interesting.