Disclaimer: Don't own Shadow Hearts. Do own three young, impressionable minds. Such a pity…
**
"Wow, you're early, Zhuzhen," Margarete said as the Adept came in. "You come all the way from China, and you still beat Yuri and Alice." She looked at her husband. "Where are they, anyway?"
"They'll be getting here soon enough."
"How have you two been?" Zhuzhen asked.
Margarete shrugged. "Well, we had quite a few rough times during the war. But now that it's all over, pretty good."
"Few rough times…that's an understatement." Keith shook his head emphatically. Zhuzhen could understand. With both of the as spies, being called on missions and not allowed to know where the other was had to be stressful. They didn't write as often, but in Alice's letters, she described what she knew about the situation. In many of her letters, it could be gathered that Locke was living at Yuri and Alice's home, instead of with his parents, because both were away. "What about you, Zhuzhen?"
"Nothing that you haven't already heard about." Zhuzhen's letters were long and detailed, although Margarete always had to translate them from Chinese for Keith. They'd heard all about when Shanghai was finally back to normal, and when Quiha became well known for her performances. He looked around the hallway. "Where's Locke?" Zhuzhen rummaged through his suitcase and brought out a small wrapped package. "Got a gift for him."
Instead of looking pleased, Margarete groaned. "Oh god, don't give him that. We've spoiled him enough without anyone's help."
Seeing his friend's confusion, Keith explained, "We felt rather guilty for leaving him alone so much of the time. We often came back from missions with new toys."
"You do not want to see that child's toy room. It's a nightmare."
Zhuzhen was torn between pity and amusement at the parent's plight. It might not have been planned, but they must have known early on that toys were not a good substitute for their presence. But they'd continued buying with guilty consciences.
"Do you think you could just…hide that for a while?" Margarete suggested. The red package disappeared back into the suitcase. "C'mon, he's upstairs."
They walked upstairs, making more small talk, with Zhuzhen looking curiously at the changes in the castle. They found Locke playing trains with a stranger Zhuzhen had never seen before. The man was obviously a Valentine--his long, blonde hair was the same shade as Keith's, and his build was the same--but he had a mischievous expression and brown eyes.
Surrounding the trains were large buildings hastily built with blocks. Teddy bears lay scattered around. The two of them were busy ramming their trains head on. After three times, they seemed to silently decide to move on and began ramming at the buildings, sending dozens of blocks falling.
"I've destroyed one of your buildings," the man boasted.
"I got two," Locke countered, moving on to a third.
"Well my army can wipe out your army."
"But I have the teddy bears," Locke said, looking around. "Where's your army?"
His opponent considered this, then shrugged and snapped his fingers. Soon, bats started flying through the window, swooping towards the bears. Definitely a Valentine, Zhuzhen thought.
"Brother!"
Both Keith's son and brother stopped playing and looked up at the intruders. "Oh, hi mom and dad," Locke said, brushing golden strands out of his blue eyes. He glanced at Zhuzhen but said nothing.
"What did I say about the bats?" Keith asked his brother.
The other vampire only rolled his eyes. "Please, he has to learn sometime."
"Yes, perhaps when he is sixteen, like I was."
"Father taught me when I was twelve," his brother said, looking smug.
"You were the reason Father waited till I was sixteen!"
Locke's uncle waved that away. "So I played one or two pranks…"
"It was a lot more than two!"
One of the teddy bears fell back on the ground, headless. This stopped their bickering as they all looked up and saw a few bats still picking at the head that another bat held aloft.
"Would you mind putting the bears down before all of them are ruined?" Keith asked testily.
"But they can be…" Locke picked up the headless teddy bear and looked at it. "Can be…what are those things again? The, umm… 'undied'?
"Undead? You mean zombies?"
The four-year-old nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Let's make 'em zombies! We'll have a whole army of 'em!"
Keith stared at his son, then turned to his brother again. "Leon, please."
"What?"
"Stop corrupting my son."
Leon sighed and then snapped his fingers again, dismissing the bats. Four teddy bears, in various states of destruction, fell. Locke did not seem at all upset by the loss of the bears; instead, he had gone back to ramming the buildings down with his train. Zhuzhen marveled at the sheer number of toys, from all over Europe and a few from Asia, there were in his room.
There was a call from downstairs. "Keith, Margarete? We're here," Alice called.
"Anne's here!" Locke jumped up and ran downstairs. Margarete smiled and followed him downstairs, as did Zhuzhen.
They looked at Alice, standing alone in the foyer, curiously. "Where's Yuri?" Margarete asked.
"Busy with the koala," Alice said.
"Oh."
"What?"
Alice smiled at the confused Zhuzhen. "You'll see. Oh, here he is."
Yuri walked in with Anne on his shoulders. She was enjoying her piggyback ride, giggling and waving to Margarete. However, Yuri was walking a bit slow—probably because of the child attached to his leg, who made it difficult to walk forward.
"So that's Isaiah?"
Alice nodded, laughing, and called to Yuri, "Need some help?"
"He's clinging again," her husband complained as he lifted Anne over his head and down to the ground.
Zhuzhen walked over to the harmonixer and his children. "Hello."
"Hi! You're Great-great-great-great-great grand uncle Zhuzhen, right?"
Both men blinked in surprise, and then Yuri, looking very red, leaned down and whispered in the five-year-old's ear. "Just uncle?" Anne repeated. "But you said it was great-great-"
"I was just joking," Yuri told her.
"Oh. So it's Uncle Zhuzhen?"
"Yeah." He straightened up, smiling weakly at Zhuzhen.
"Great-great-great-great-great grand uncle. Nice, kid."
Alice and Margarete laughed, knowing how common it was to see Yuri embarrassed by something Anne said. At five years old, Anne had quite a talent for remembering people's exact words, and sometimes quoted them word for word. This was not always good for her father.
"And hello to you, Isaiah," Zhuzhen said, looking down at the small boy who was still clinging to Yuri's lower leg. He tried to remember how old the boy was—about two and a half, he thought—and smiled as Isaiah watched him with suspicious blue eyes. Instead of responding, Isaiah pressed his face against Yuri's pants, leaving Zhuzhen to look at his white-blond hair.
"Eh, don't worry about that," Yuri said. "He's just shy." He shrugged as he said this, in a 'what-can-you-do-about-it' way. "C'mon, koala, time to get off."
"Un-uh," Isaiah said, instead gripping the leg harder.
"This is why he's a koala," Yuri said, gesturing to his son. "He clings. Like I'm a tree or something."
"Anne, come on! Let's go play in my room," Locke said. Anne nodded and raced upstairs with him. After a minute, Isaiah looked towards the stairs and finally let go of his father, sliding down to the ground. He stood and began following them, his chubby legs stumbling as he climbed the castle stairs.
"Need a lift, Isaiah?" Keith's voice could be heard echoing down the stairs as he helped the young child up the rest of the stairs, then joined the others downstairs. "Thank god Leon's out of the way," he said offhand.
Yuri smirked, knowing that Keith did not get along well with his brother. "What'd he do now?"
"Only destroyed the teddy bears."
"Well, at least it wasn't something Locke likes. That would have been a disaster."
Keith grumbled under his breath. "I wish he hadn't figured out how to turn back. He was a lot better stuck as a bat."
"That's not very nice," Alice said. "Where'd he go?"
"Oh, off flying around, as usual," Keith said, waving his hand dismissively. "How was the trip?" he asked her.
"We were set back a little. There was a pretty bad storm in Prague."
"Ah. That explains it…"
**
Author's Note: Sorry, but the chapter ends here, right in the middle of the reunion. Why? This computer's being stupid …hopefully I'll be able to upload this, although I'm not too sure about that.
About plot…by chapter seven, we should be getting into plot. And I'm pretty sure this story will be less than fifteen, at most twenty chapters. If it's longer…oh boy…
**
Reviewers:
Kimgrasshopper: Yuri would probably be a good father, but Alice would probably get stuck with discipline. I can't see Yuri disciplining his kids, unless he was really mad about what they'd done.
This story is cute? Yay! But it can't stay that way for long. Shadow Hearts cannot have 'cute' fanfics. Suddenly there'll be a storm, flashes of lightning, writing in blood scrawled on the wall…
…I'm starting to freak myself out now. Okay, so it won't be like that, but it is going to get darker.
Loki, Harbinger of Death: Well, I hope you like the fixed chapter. And there will be a new chapter with explanation for M/K…sometime soon…I'm on the third page for it…and I'm stuck!!! ::sigh::
Greyfriars: Well, I don't know if they had baby food. But, I kept it for simplicity's sake. Not like Shadow Hearts didn't have a bunch of anachronisms…and no, Locke is a blonde. I'll explain the genetic impossibility in a sec.
Actually, the dark plot is both highly original and highly unoriginal, I believe. And if you can figure that out, you're brilliant.
Nights Mistress: Although you can probably tell the 'Aw' chapters aren't really getting the plot anywhere, I'm trying to set up the characters for what will happen. Not really sure if I'm succeeding, but I'm trying.Araschid: Yuri and Keith pregnant. Now there's a humor fic in the making. I would just like to see Yuri's reaction. ::snickers::
My mom has had five children. Trust her on this. They can walk alone at about ten-twelve months, although they can walk along furniture earlier. I mentioned that Anne was walking alongside some chairs. And my little brother just turned three. He doesn't walk, he zooms around the house, and causes all sorts of destruction. We call him the 'little dictator'.
**
Isaiah was not originally planned in the storyline, but it occurred to me that at later points, it might be helpful to have a fourth point of view, almost as an observer (although he has become more involved in the storyline since he was added). Since he's going to observing the Hyuga family, it only makes sense that he would be their second child. Kinda funny though, considering that Yuri and Alice are both only children (actually, they never say Alice doesn't have siblings, do that…?). They probably don't have a clue about sibling rivalry.
Since the first child looked like Yuri, I decided he would resemble Alice (blue eyes, white-blond hair). If you've studied genetics, you should know that this is near impossible, considering Yuri's pedigree and likely genotypes, dominant alleles, yadayadayada. In fact the only couple this child is really possible with is…
::winces:: That was not pretty. Alice and Simon…::shudders::
So I kept him as only a possibility. I realized that he needed a name. Again, since Yuri named first child, he would probably let Alice name the second child. Alice would probably lean towards a biblical name. Then the problem was finding a biblical name that would not sound ridiculous next to Hyuga, like Mark Hyuga (which just sounds odd). Isaiah Hyuga…never let me name a child. But Isaiah is a pretty cool first name (or maybe it's just me).
Once Isaiah was given a name, he took form and grabbed onto my leg and pleaded to be let in the story. You should see his puppy eyes. He could get away with murder. I had to write him in.
**
And Locke. Ahh, Locke. Cursed child who everyone thinks is named after someone. He is not named after anyone! I've never even played FF6/3, and I don't know much about the philosopher. I just went through names that could go with Valentine, and I thought of Locke. Here was my train of reasoning: Valentine, Heart, Shadow Hearts, Kingdom Hearts, Keyblade, Key, Lock, Locke.
…And trust me, my trains of reasoning can get far more screwed up than that.
