Three Leaves Left
Volume III of the Sun series
"Why would Tseng be wanting to kill me? Because, a few years back I stole his girlfriend? Nah." Reno sipped his canned beer.
"He would have killed me by now if it were that."
Reno looked back to the television screen. "Next on Jerry Springer- midgets stole my trailer trash girlfriend!"
Reno smiled.
The telephone rang.
Reno reached over, and grabbed the receiver.
His beer threatened to tip over as he clutched the phone.
"Yeah, this is Reno." Reno spoke as he answered.
There was a pause. The television flared with the sound of angry, fat white women in nothing but mis-matched underwear.
"Hello? Fuck." The moment Reno reached over once more to his TV tray to place the phone down, a voice yelled out from the receiver.
"Reno!" The voice in the phone screamed like a hissing sun flare.
Reno took the phone to his ear once more, and dimmed the TV volume. "Yeah?" Reno grunted.
"Guess what?" The voice asked. Reno supposed it was a man's voice, but it was not throaty. It was a light voice, nearly like a husky woman's, or a adolescent boy's.
"What?" Reno lifted his beer, and eyed the can as he slouched in his Lay-Z-Boy.
"I have Sephris with me. If your not willing to help me ice Tseng, then, I may just loose my patience with you, and take it out on her, that's all."
"Reeve!" Reno sat up suddenly, knocking the canned beer over his newly cleaned carpet.
Reeve chuckled.
"You bastard. You can't threaten me. I used to WORK for Shin-Ra. I know all the shots. I was the guy who INVENTED blackmail. You moron. You wouldn't know your foot from your ass. Your supposed to be one of those Cloud Strife-following GOOD guys, you back-stabbing son-of-a-bitch!" Reno flew out of his recliner, and leapt to the window, stretching phone cord's limb to it's limits.
As he spoke, he peered through his window, just to see if Reeve was near-by, on the off-chance.
No one was on the street outside of his home.
The slanted vertical blinds created striped lines across Reno's unshaven face, as if his body were painted in black and white jail-stripes.
"You've got five days to agree to helping me kill Tseng. Otherwise, Sephris is gunna get it, Reno." He added darkly.
"I'm calling your bluff, then, jackass. I ain't helping you do nuthin'!" Reno, then slammed the phone down.
He suddenly himself into his Lay-Z-Boy recliner. Slowly, his ass was engulfed and swallowed into it's all-encompassing, pistachio-green cushions.
He turned up the volume.
Jerry Springer had the sort of expression upon his face that one gets after swallowing raw lemons.
~
Dally noticed Yuffie's complaints dwindling to near zero.
She also noticed the dark-skinned, bald man in sunglasses come around the bar and grill more often.
The other thing that Dally, Yuffie's manager, couldn't help but notice, was Yuffie actually SMILING at the bald man as she served him coffee.
Dally thought that them getting along was better for business, nothing else.
Yuffie worked late that Friday night.
The grill closed at ten, but the bar of Wutai stayed open till two am, or until everyone left.
Noises, smells, clanking ice and spilling alcohol littered every ounce of room in the Wutai bar, Turtle's Paradise.
Yuffie scuttled around, taking orders and balancing trays.
Demands were flinging at her left and right.
She smiled, accepted tips, and tried not to grind her teeth too much from the amount of pain shooting through her feet.
She was also used to the men's cat calls; usually they came after 12 am and one too many beers.
"Hey, sweet-ass, over-here, filler-up!" one man called.
Yuffie forced a grin, and refilled his beer.
Two am rolled around. Dally shoved and shoo-ed the drunks out. The noise died down, and the broken bottles and spilt drinks were eventually becoming swept up.
The raw stench of men and beer faded side by side with the evaporating moonlight.
As Yuffie bent down to retrieve a dropped tip, she felt a repeated tap on her shoulder. Her round face turned. Her sea-colored eyes met Rude's reflecting sunglasses.
His heavy, dark hand fell down.
Yuffie hesitated, looked at it, then took it.
Rude lifted her to her feet.
"Thanks," Yuffie spat out flatly as she brushed her knees off. "I mean, uhm,..." She looked at him in the face, and softened her tone, "Thank you."
"...No problem." Rude offered a thin smile.
"Do you... want to stay a little while? Dally's letting me close. I was thinking that I could put some coffee on brew." Yuffie placed her tip into her apron pocket. Then, she found herself gnawing on her bottom lip.
"Duh-de-caff." Rude nodded.
"What?"
"De-caff. No caffeine, puh-please."
"Oh, right!" She spun around, and went into the kitchen.
Rude sat himself down upon a ripped barstool at the slick counter.
From the kitchen, Yuffie spoke loudly.
"So, all these years you've had your eyes on Tifa, eh?"
"...Yes." Rude answered.
"She's engaged, you know, to Cloud." Yuffie poked her head through the kitchen door and looked at him sharply.
Rude didn't reply. He sat simply with his fingers tangled together.
"I think it's weird." She sad while dumping a pitcher of water into the coffee maker.
"Whuh-what is?"
"That you have liked someone for so long that you don't even know." A blossom of pink bloomed onto her cheeks and ran hotly down her neck as she spoke. She always had a thing for Cloud. She felt as if she were eating her own words.
Again, Rude was silent.
A trickle of motor-oil-brown liquid began to spill into the coffee pot. Yuffie returned, and faced Rude from the far side of the counter. A wall of green, brown, and clear glass bottles was stacked like a icy mountain behind her.
"Cat's got your tongue?" She asked.
"...No."
"Then, what is it, why so quiet all of a sudden?"
"Got nuthin' t' suh-say."
Yuffie crossed her arms and leaned into the bar.
"Bullshit. I bet something is on your mind. Why don't you ever take off your glasses?" Exhaustion crept up the spines of Yuffie's eyes as she leaned in closer to Rude. It was obvious that she long to talk, but at the same time, yearned to go home and rest after a night's work.
Rude tilted his glasses, showing her his eyes.
The look on Yuffie's face reflected the horror that began clawing up from her stomach, and into her brain.
She backed up into the glass bottles, nearly knocking them down onto her in a crashing, knife-like avalanche.
"Oh... my god!"
~
"Oh, my god!"
"Oh, he's beautiful..."
"Let me... hold him." Tifa begged as she weakly sat up.
The doctor handed her the new child after he was wrapped into a blue blanket.
Then, the doctors gently took the child from Tifa's motherly spiked fingertips.
Tifa didn't want to let go. Not now, not ever.
Cloud's face looked like a pale, passed thunderstorm. It seemed as if fear, excitement, and joy were brewing in the cauldron of his head. And all were mixed in such an extreme, it was as if he was going to erupt in a blast of sleep.
He was collapsed into a pile in a chair beside Tifa's bed.
The doctors weighed and measured the new child, cut his umbilical cord, cleaned him off, then wrapped him into a blew blanket. Upon his disproportional, large head, they tucked a blue wool cap on.
As the nurse cradled the child in her warm, fat arms, she smiled at Tifa while asking,
"So, what's he going to be named?"
"Zack." Cloud blurted out in a half-opened-eyed state.
"Keter." Tifa groaned.
The nurse blinked.
"Uh, maybe I'll leave him nameless until you decide." The nurse scuttled out without another word.
Cloud slept in the chair beside Tifa as the doctors tended to Tifa's weak body.
Everything went well.
They had a brand new baby boy.
His hair was as black as a raven's wing, and his eyes were like two blood drops in his head.
Volume III of the Sun series
"Why would Tseng be wanting to kill me? Because, a few years back I stole his girlfriend? Nah." Reno sipped his canned beer.
"He would have killed me by now if it were that."
Reno looked back to the television screen. "Next on Jerry Springer- midgets stole my trailer trash girlfriend!"
Reno smiled.
The telephone rang.
Reno reached over, and grabbed the receiver.
His beer threatened to tip over as he clutched the phone.
"Yeah, this is Reno." Reno spoke as he answered.
There was a pause. The television flared with the sound of angry, fat white women in nothing but mis-matched underwear.
"Hello? Fuck." The moment Reno reached over once more to his TV tray to place the phone down, a voice yelled out from the receiver.
"Reno!" The voice in the phone screamed like a hissing sun flare.
Reno took the phone to his ear once more, and dimmed the TV volume. "Yeah?" Reno grunted.
"Guess what?" The voice asked. Reno supposed it was a man's voice, but it was not throaty. It was a light voice, nearly like a husky woman's, or a adolescent boy's.
"What?" Reno lifted his beer, and eyed the can as he slouched in his Lay-Z-Boy.
"I have Sephris with me. If your not willing to help me ice Tseng, then, I may just loose my patience with you, and take it out on her, that's all."
"Reeve!" Reno sat up suddenly, knocking the canned beer over his newly cleaned carpet.
Reeve chuckled.
"You bastard. You can't threaten me. I used to WORK for Shin-Ra. I know all the shots. I was the guy who INVENTED blackmail. You moron. You wouldn't know your foot from your ass. Your supposed to be one of those Cloud Strife-following GOOD guys, you back-stabbing son-of-a-bitch!" Reno flew out of his recliner, and leapt to the window, stretching phone cord's limb to it's limits.
As he spoke, he peered through his window, just to see if Reeve was near-by, on the off-chance.
No one was on the street outside of his home.
The slanted vertical blinds created striped lines across Reno's unshaven face, as if his body were painted in black and white jail-stripes.
"You've got five days to agree to helping me kill Tseng. Otherwise, Sephris is gunna get it, Reno." He added darkly.
"I'm calling your bluff, then, jackass. I ain't helping you do nuthin'!" Reno, then slammed the phone down.
He suddenly himself into his Lay-Z-Boy recliner. Slowly, his ass was engulfed and swallowed into it's all-encompassing, pistachio-green cushions.
He turned up the volume.
Jerry Springer had the sort of expression upon his face that one gets after swallowing raw lemons.
~
Dally noticed Yuffie's complaints dwindling to near zero.
She also noticed the dark-skinned, bald man in sunglasses come around the bar and grill more often.
The other thing that Dally, Yuffie's manager, couldn't help but notice, was Yuffie actually SMILING at the bald man as she served him coffee.
Dally thought that them getting along was better for business, nothing else.
Yuffie worked late that Friday night.
The grill closed at ten, but the bar of Wutai stayed open till two am, or until everyone left.
Noises, smells, clanking ice and spilling alcohol littered every ounce of room in the Wutai bar, Turtle's Paradise.
Yuffie scuttled around, taking orders and balancing trays.
Demands were flinging at her left and right.
She smiled, accepted tips, and tried not to grind her teeth too much from the amount of pain shooting through her feet.
She was also used to the men's cat calls; usually they came after 12 am and one too many beers.
"Hey, sweet-ass, over-here, filler-up!" one man called.
Yuffie forced a grin, and refilled his beer.
Two am rolled around. Dally shoved and shoo-ed the drunks out. The noise died down, and the broken bottles and spilt drinks were eventually becoming swept up.
The raw stench of men and beer faded side by side with the evaporating moonlight.
As Yuffie bent down to retrieve a dropped tip, she felt a repeated tap on her shoulder. Her round face turned. Her sea-colored eyes met Rude's reflecting sunglasses.
His heavy, dark hand fell down.
Yuffie hesitated, looked at it, then took it.
Rude lifted her to her feet.
"Thanks," Yuffie spat out flatly as she brushed her knees off. "I mean, uhm,..." She looked at him in the face, and softened her tone, "Thank you."
"...No problem." Rude offered a thin smile.
"Do you... want to stay a little while? Dally's letting me close. I was thinking that I could put some coffee on brew." Yuffie placed her tip into her apron pocket. Then, she found herself gnawing on her bottom lip.
"Duh-de-caff." Rude nodded.
"What?"
"De-caff. No caffeine, puh-please."
"Oh, right!" She spun around, and went into the kitchen.
Rude sat himself down upon a ripped barstool at the slick counter.
From the kitchen, Yuffie spoke loudly.
"So, all these years you've had your eyes on Tifa, eh?"
"...Yes." Rude answered.
"She's engaged, you know, to Cloud." Yuffie poked her head through the kitchen door and looked at him sharply.
Rude didn't reply. He sat simply with his fingers tangled together.
"I think it's weird." She sad while dumping a pitcher of water into the coffee maker.
"Whuh-what is?"
"That you have liked someone for so long that you don't even know." A blossom of pink bloomed onto her cheeks and ran hotly down her neck as she spoke. She always had a thing for Cloud. She felt as if she were eating her own words.
Again, Rude was silent.
A trickle of motor-oil-brown liquid began to spill into the coffee pot. Yuffie returned, and faced Rude from the far side of the counter. A wall of green, brown, and clear glass bottles was stacked like a icy mountain behind her.
"Cat's got your tongue?" She asked.
"...No."
"Then, what is it, why so quiet all of a sudden?"
"Got nuthin' t' suh-say."
Yuffie crossed her arms and leaned into the bar.
"Bullshit. I bet something is on your mind. Why don't you ever take off your glasses?" Exhaustion crept up the spines of Yuffie's eyes as she leaned in closer to Rude. It was obvious that she long to talk, but at the same time, yearned to go home and rest after a night's work.
Rude tilted his glasses, showing her his eyes.
The look on Yuffie's face reflected the horror that began clawing up from her stomach, and into her brain.
She backed up into the glass bottles, nearly knocking them down onto her in a crashing, knife-like avalanche.
"Oh... my god!"
~
"Oh, my god!"
"Oh, he's beautiful..."
"Let me... hold him." Tifa begged as she weakly sat up.
The doctor handed her the new child after he was wrapped into a blue blanket.
Then, the doctors gently took the child from Tifa's motherly spiked fingertips.
Tifa didn't want to let go. Not now, not ever.
Cloud's face looked like a pale, passed thunderstorm. It seemed as if fear, excitement, and joy were brewing in the cauldron of his head. And all were mixed in such an extreme, it was as if he was going to erupt in a blast of sleep.
He was collapsed into a pile in a chair beside Tifa's bed.
The doctors weighed and measured the new child, cut his umbilical cord, cleaned him off, then wrapped him into a blew blanket. Upon his disproportional, large head, they tucked a blue wool cap on.
As the nurse cradled the child in her warm, fat arms, she smiled at Tifa while asking,
"So, what's he going to be named?"
"Zack." Cloud blurted out in a half-opened-eyed state.
"Keter." Tifa groaned.
The nurse blinked.
"Uh, maybe I'll leave him nameless until you decide." The nurse scuttled out without another word.
Cloud slept in the chair beside Tifa as the doctors tended to Tifa's weak body.
Everything went well.
They had a brand new baby boy.
His hair was as black as a raven's wing, and his eyes were like two blood drops in his head.
