Gomenasai! Sorry I couldn't be like all the other nice authoresses and leave everyone with a chapter for Valentines day BUT I was at Katsucon!(And for those of you who don't know what that is, it's an anime convention) YAY! Such fun! I saw someone dressed like Riku and Sora along with other various cosplayers.
Chapter 14: Leon!
12:00 rolled up faster than everyone expected. That meant that Cloud had to drag himself to work, which he really didn't feel like doing considering he had a job at a nail salon. It was a wonder how he got that job.
Flash Back
Cloud walked around the mall looking for any place he could that would be offering a job to a high school dropout. He sighed as he threw his now empty cup of Pepsi in the trashcan. It would just be his luck he wouldn't find a job. Why the hell was he going through such obstacles to get back in school? Isn't it illegal to make a kid do this without the consent of their parents?
He was just about to say fuck it and go home when he bumped into a young woman that was running down the mall. Cloud stumbled back while the young girl fell flat on her bottom.
"Oww." She moaned while she rubbed her bum.
"Are you ok?" He asked her a little annoyed. He was already edgy but having someone bump into him at the mall made him even edgier.
The woman quickly looked behind her and stood up. She was about to run away when her face lit up like she had a brilliant idea. Whirling around, she stared Cloud eye-to-eye.
"Hey, you look artistic!"
"Excuse me?" He asked a little confused
"Can you cover for me I'm in a rush?" She pleaded
"Umm—"He started but didn't get a chance to continue. The woman in front of him began to unbutton her shirt, which he now noticed read Beauty Nails.
"Whoow! Hold up now!" Cloud started to protest but it was too late. The woman had already taken off her shirt, exposing her lacy bra.
"Look," She began while she advanced towards Cloud. "I need you to cover for me. All you have to do is wear this and act like you work there!"
"Huh!? Work were?" He asked while she grabbed the bottom of his shirt and began to try and tug it up over his head. People in the mall were all giving them strange looks. One person even shouted for them to get a room.
"Hey what do you think you're doing!?" He asked while trying to push his shirt back down.
After some serious tugging and falling on the floor. The girl managed to get Cloud's shirt off. The moment she did that, Cloud raised his arms up to cover his exposed chest.
"What the hell are you doing!?" He asked while trying to get his shirt back. Instead the woman put his shirt on and began to try and put her shirt on Cloud. That didn't seem to turn out all that well considering she was a lot smaller than him. Once she was able to get the shirt halfway on Cloud with a few busted seems and rips, she stood up and looked him up and down.
"Ok! Now all you have to do is go in that nail shop called Beauty Nails, act like you work there and wait for me to come back. No one will notice you don't work there and I promise I won't be gone for long." The girl smiled
"Hey!" Cloud said as he stood up causing a few more rips to appear in the shirt. "You can't be serious can you?"
"Don't I look serious?" She shot him her toughest mug.
Cloud looked himself over. "I look gay!"
"Yeah but who cares!" She winked to him and then ran off.
"Wait!" He called but she was already gone.
'Oh great! What am I supposed to do? She took my shirt so—' He was snapped out of his thoughts when an old lady came up to him and grabbed him by the arm. She started to drag him off to the nail salon while muttering things in a foreign language. It sure wasn't Japanese or English; he knew those two languages!
So off to the nail salon Cloud was dragged against his free will.
End Flashback
The blue-eyed teen sighed as he walked through the entrance of the mall. 'Today is going to be a long day.' He was a bit paranoid ever since that girl ran into him and started to look around to make sure no one was running in his direction.
Cloud walked until he was in front of a shop with a bright neon sigh that read 'Beauty Nails'. How could anyone miss that; it was so . . . so . . . so-so bright! Even the blind could see that shop!
He walked through the door to be bombarded with about five girls waving their hands in his face.
"Cloud! I need French Tips!"
"Cloud, can you give me a manicure?"
"I'm going to a dance tonight and I need my nails done!"
"Cloud!"
"Hey Cloud!"
This was just great. By the end of the day, this shop better be kissing the ground he walks on and wiping his ass for all the money he's bringing them! It just wasn't fair. Why did he have to be stuck doing this kind of work? And why did he have to be so good at it!? It was Sora! His idiot brother jinxed him!
Flash Back
Cloud was dragged into the shop by the old lady and given many weird looks for the way he was dressed.
"Dan jo taitai fowanya do." The old lady said to someone in the back.
After a few moments a woman that looked about her age (give or take a few years) came from out the back. She looked at Cloud with shock and then confusion.
"To funana kyonai rui!" she said to the old woman
"Sheou fuyu to gyapuyo!"
The woman began to laugh.
"Nai sha!" The one who dragged Cloud in said a little peeved.
"Excuse—"Cloud began but was cut off by the old lady and got his arm yanked so that he was height level with the little short woman.
"Noadh eieiro dugyataa?" The old woman asked the other.
"No!"
'Well she speaks English.' Cloud thought.
"Ehuighur?"
"No!"
"Ehuighur?"
The other lady looked like she was considering something and turned her attention towards Cloud. After her internal debate was over she walked over to Cloud and pulled him forward.
"Hey! Excuse me but—" Cloud protested only to be shut up again.
"Sit!" She said as she pointed to a table with an empty seat.
"But I—"
"Sit!" The woman glared at him.
Cloud took that as a warning and sat down. Although they were old these women looked like they could seriously hurt him. Maybe put some voodoo on him or something.
"Kisha! Kisha, come here!" She yelled throughout the shop in an angry and very accented voice.
"Yes ma ma." The girl said coming form out the back. She looked at Cloud a little confused but turned her attention to. . . 'Ma ma?'
"Sit there."
The girl obeyed and sat right across from Cloud at the table with all sorts of nail equipment.
"Now, young boy. Do her nails!"
"What!?" Cloud asked. This was not part of the plan.
"Do them or I will eat your lunch!"
"What!?"
"Do them!" The woman said as she smacked him on the head with a sandal
"Ok! Shit!" Cloud was seriously being harassed today. What the hell was wrong with the world!? He looked up at the old lady with an unsure look only for her to buck at him with the horrible plastic shoe.
The young lady across from him held her hand out to him a little cautious; she really hoped he knew what he was doing. 'Ok, I've seen this before. Rikku has dragged me to the nail salon with her many times before. I need a file.' H reassured himself before he reached for the fingernail file. The two older women looked at him shaking their heads in approval. Cloud delicately filed the girl's nails in front of him. 'So far so good.' When the nail looked about right, he moved on to the next one gaining a little more confidence in his task. After the filing he moved on to the bowl of powder and took out a brush. He wasn't instructed to give the girl a manicure but he figured that he might as well do his very best.
Time went on and customers started to come him. Some of the regulars weren't used to Cloud being there and snaked their way over to his workstation. Soon enough there were enough nosy customers to form a crowd around Cloud. This grand audience would have unnerved some but all it did was boost Cloud's confidence and soon he was working away like a pro. The two elderly women who had put him up to the job exchanged glances of awe and then averted their attention back to Cloud.
After twenty minutes of work Cloud was done. The girl slowly looked over her perfectly manicured nails in awe. The polish was so shiny; even the design on the two ring fingers was perfect; a small flower adored with rhinestones. The whole crowd gasped in astonishment. Never had they seen nails so lovely! Cloud smirked at his great work. Even he felt like he deserved to boast.
"You are hired." The woman with the evil shoe of doom said. "I am Xialen, your new boss."
Cloud stopped boasting. Did he really want to go to work everyday to the smell of nail polish, alcohol, and other things that couldn't possibly be good for his system? He sighed and extended his hand.
"The name's Cloud. Glad to be your employee."
End of Flashback
Cloud sighed as he walked to the back and slipped on his uniform jacket. At least they gave him a jacket that fits and didn't look gay. It was long, plain, and white like a doctors coat. It still wasn't clear to him how he had gotten the job. It was all to weird and no one bothered explaining to him what the whole thing was about. What kind of test had it been?
When he was done he made his way back to the front and realized that there were two more girls waiting to have their nails polished. He sighed again and took his seat at his workstation. Looking up, he pointed to one of the girls and motioned them to sit down.
"So what do you want?" he asked in a monotone voice.
"I need a manicure, tips, silver polish, and a design." The woman chimed
"Yeah ok, give me your hand."
The young woman held her hand out for Cloud and when he saw it, he almost screamed. She had these bony, extra pale hands with cracked nails and dry skin. He didn't know how he was going to make her hands look beautiful; he didn't even want to touch them. But, a job was a job. Man this was going to be a long day.
The shot went off and everyone on the bus screamed. Even the man firing the gun let out a yelp. Leon stared at the bullet as it made it's way in his direction. Everything seemed to go in slow motion; even his breaths were slowed. All he could focus on was the bullet and his self. He watched, as the bullet made it's way straight to his body and pierced his left arm. At the exact moment the bullet made contact with his body, life seemed to speed up again. Leon didn't even flinch as blood seeped out of his wound. He had experienced a deep wound before in the 4th grade when one of his classmates, Seifer was whirling a pair of scissors on his finger trying to be 'cool' for his two cronies when it flew of his finger and cut straight across poor Leon's face causing a deep wound that need 25 stitches and to this very day, did not completely fade. Of course he did the smart thing and threw the scissors back at the blond. But anyway, instead of screaming and yelling about being shot, he turned and glared at the man across from him.
"You dumb ass!" Leon started as he made his way towards the frightened man. "You can't even aim right! Here a man is asking you to kill him while he standing right in front of you and you cant even aim for his heart!?" Leon extended his hand a snatched the gun away from the punk in front of him.
"Has someone been shot?" A policeman asked from the helicopter. Well that was a stupid question. Leon looked out the window to see channel 5 News outside. Just what he needed: to be on the news?
"Is anyone injured?"
Leon growled at the annoying helicopter that was driving him crazy with the sound of the spinning propellers. He then looked over to the man driving the bus whom was literally shaking in his boots.
"Move!" Leon ordered.
"What!?" The man asked back.
"I said move damn it!" Leon aimed the gun at the man in the seat.
"Ok! Ok! Don't shoot me!"
Leon pulled the man out of the seat and sat in his place before the bus went completely out of control.
"Ok everyone listen—" He began.
"Young man, are you going to save us?" The zealously religious man asked.
"Ha!" Leon laughed. Out of all people to ask him to save them, it was the man who told him he was going to hell for being gay. "I am going to work!"
Rikku and Irvine sat on the couch together halfway playing Scrabble and halfway flipping channels on the TV.
"Mercury." Rikku said not really looking at the board but looking at the TV. She had turned to the news while flipping to hear the man on the TV talking about someone hijacking a bus. It was about the most interesting thing on TV so she left the channel on.
"Smut." Irvine said smirking to himself.
"What? Only you would make that word." Rikku rolled her eyes.
"I had the pieces so . . . "
Rikku rolled her eyes again but this time she rolled them over to the TV where she saw the bus speeding down the highway.
"We have been told that there are women and children aboard. A shot has been fired but we do not know who has been shot. We may think it's the man driving. If we get a close up I think we can see who he is."
The camera zoomed into the man driving the bus. Rikku's jaw dropped to the floor. Irvine who was looking around the room waiting for Rikku's turn noticed that she wasn't going. He looked at her and noticed her eyes were glued to the TV set. He followed her gaze until he saw who was on the screen.
"OH MY GOD! LEON!" He exclaimed.
"We don't know where he's driving the bus or when he'll stop. We are trying to block roads though to prevent him from moving far." The reporter continued.
"Go get Sora and Riku!" She yelled.
"Right!" Irvine stood and ran up the stairs. When he reached the door, he didn't even bother to knock he just barged right in.
"Guys—"He started but stopped at the sight before him. A naked Sora was currently under and naked Riku whom had a tube of lube in his hand. Both were heavily panting and out of breath.
Irvine stared with his mouth wide open.
Riku cleared his throat to get Irvine to wake up and stop drooling.
"Whoow! Um . . . ." Irvine had forgotten what he went upstairs to say. The sight of Riku and Sora in the middle of sex was very arousing.
After a few seconds, loud footsteps were heard coming up the steps.
"Irvine what the hell is taking you so long to—"Rikku stopped when she bent the corner to see her baby cousin and his boyfriend hot and sweaty on the bed.
"For heavens sake, make yourselves decent!" She yelled while turning around. "I just came up here to tell you that Leon's on the news and he's hijacking a bus—"
"What!?" Riku yelled as he zoomed out the room naked while dragging Sora right behind him. And for all the viewers of this story, Riku had a giant blur mark across his unmentionables. Sora at least tried to dignify himself a little by covering his untalkables with his hands.
"Put some clothes on damn it!" Rikku demanded
Riku and Sora finally put some clothes on and then were instantly glued to the TV watching Leon zoom down the road.
"Where the hell is he going?" Riku asked in amusement.
"You find this funny don't you?" Irvine asked him.
"I just asked where he's going." Riku tried to play it off.
"What's more important is why he's hijacking a bus." Rikku stated.
"What's he doing uptown?" Irvine said noticing the scenery.
"I don't know."
"Maybe he took the wrong bus, didn't realize it till later, the bus got hijacked by some geeks, he cracked and then took the bus over." Sora shrugged as if he had it all figured out. There was moment of silence followed by an overall agreement that it wasn't possible.
All four of them continued to watch the screen while trying to figure out why Leon would hijack a bus.
Cloud worked on his third customer's nails when he looked up at Kisha who was standing near the TV.
"Hey Kisha, can you turn the TV on please?" He asked her.
She looked up at him and then nodded her head. She pressed the power button and the TV turned on.
Cloud was dumbstruck. There on the TV was Leon speeding a bus down the high way.
"Oh my gosh." He gasped dropping the bottle of sea foam nail polish he had in his hands.
"We have new news that the bus is headed towards the downtown Grocery store?" The reporter said.
"OH MY GOSH!" Cloud yelled as he stood up and ran out the nail shop.
"Hey wait!" A Woman called out. "I still need my nails done!"
Back at the house, the only sound was the sound of the TV on. Everyone had left to get downtown to Leon.
Leon drove the bus until he was in front of the Grocery store. The police had been telling him to pull over the whole time but he refused to listen. When he was finally at his destination Leon hopped out the drivers seat and opened the door. Jumping down the steps of the bus Leon fell on his butt. He had really lost a lot of blood.
Cloud ran down the street to the Grocery store. Since he was at the mall, which was only a few blocks away, he was able to get there fast.
"Leon!" Cloud yelled as he ran through the crowd of people surrounding the store.
An ambulance pulled up followed by a taxi. Out the taxi jumped Riku, Rikku, Sora, and Irvine. They ran into the crowd but couldn't really push through; it was too many people.
Leon stood up to walk to the store. As soon as he stood up, he wobbled like he was going to fall back down.
"Leon!" Cloud yelled as he ran up to catch him as he fell. "Leon What the hell is your problem!?"
Once Leon made contact with Cloud's arms, he instantly blacked out.
"Leon? Leon!?" Cloud looked down to notice Leon was bleeding.
Riku, Rikku, Sora, and Irvine finally made their way through the crowd of people that couldn't mind their business. Once they could see Leon and Cloud, Rikku screamed in horror at the sight of blood.
"Leon!" Riku yelled as he ran to the two. "Leon wake up!"
"Make way! Make way!" The paramedics yelled as they ran up to Leon with a stretcher. "Excuse me sir, we need you to let go of the injured."
Cloud obeyed and let the men lay Leon on the stretcher. They picked him up and ran over to the ambulance.
"Wait." Riku called to them as he ran after. Cloud was not too far behind.
"Excuse me but you'll have to stay behind." They stopped him
"Bullshit! That's my brother!" the teen demanded
"We sympathies but—"
"No! I'm going with him! He's the only family I got!"
The paramedic looked at him and then sighed.
"Ok! You can come but only you! You'll have to tell your friends to come a different way." He said looking back at the other four.
Riku hopped up in the truck, mouthing sorry to everyone who couldn't come. The paramedic closed the door and the ambulance was off ringing with the sounds of sirens throughout the town.
Tragic ne? Sorry for all the seriousness but I'll try to throw some humor in the next chapter.
Those evil plastic slippers that they give you at the nail salon are sooo ugly! XD
R&R Revisions 11/12/04
I think I may be slacking off since I've been doing nothing but basically reading and fixing mistakes. I really want to get to where I left off but I know I have about three more chapters to go. I found a few run on sentences, missed words, and the works. I still have the question of how anyone read this story in the back of my mind . . . but what can I say? You guys loved it no? That makes me happy enough.