Silver Dragon: Shifty eyes Uh... Sorry for the long wait. I've had a hectic... Long time... Then the exams came and stabbed me in the back...And I promised myself I would finish writing Therra (my own story) over the summer... Er... Well, at least the chapter is longer than the rest, I think. OH! I'M IN THE DOUBLE DIGITS FOR REVIEWS! Okay, I know twelve isn't much, but I'm new at this. And there were some questions! Hurray!
Aymeleh- No, Shera is not that evil, I just made her that way. I don't like her much because she gets in the way of Vincent and Cid relationship.
Lilalou- Yes, it does mean ZackxSeph, there are also a couple of other side couples, like Cloud and Aeris, maybe Reno and Rude... You can choose on the last one, do you want it?
Disclaimer: I don't own
Enjoy! And don't be mad... Oh, I apologize before hand about being unable to make Barret act or speak like himself.
Chapter Three: Be Our Guest!
Cid was broken from his sleep when the door was repeatedly knocked on. Cid blinked a couple of times, to wake up. When had he fallen asleep? Cid sighed, he must have been tired.
The knocking on the door got louder, and then Cid heard a voice.
"Do ya want some tea? 'Cause if you don't, I have other things to do."
"Fine, come in, dammit" Cid answered.
"I can't! I don't have any friken hands ya fool!"
Cid took this as meaning the owner of the voice's hands were full, so he walked up to the door and opened it, wondering why it was unlocked now.
Cid looked out to see a trolley with a black teapot and cups on it, nothing else. He then looked up and down the hall on both sides of the door, wondering where the voice had come from. That was when he noticed the teapot had eyes and a mouth.
"Are ya gonna let me in?" The teapot asked in a gruff male voice. Cid blinked, stepped back and let the trolley in, not know what else to do.
"You're a f#ckin' teapot…"
"So? You're a blonde"
After closing the door, Cid backed you and bumped into the wardrobe.
"Watch out," said a kind and soft female voice. Cid turned around to notice that the wardrobe had a face as well. Cid's hand was unconsciously reaching for his cigarette pack, thinking a good smoke would clear his mind.
"You know, smoking is bad for you" the wardrobe told him.
"Let him do what he wants Aeris" muttered the teapot.
"Okay then Barret..."
"What the f#ck is going on here?" Cid swore loudly.
"Oh dear," said Aeris, worriedly. "Barret, give him some tea, and then we should explain."
"Whatever."
Barret poured tea into a cup, then added some milk and sugar. "Go on Marlene, and don't spill" he said softly, and kindly to a small light pink teacup.
"Okay Daddy!" Marlene said happily, and then carefully hopped towards Cid, who had seated himself on the bed.
"We can't tell you everything," Aeris told Cid. He had picked up the teacup named Marlene, and was now take sips, trying to calm down. "But we were once human, then something happened to turn us into this."
"Is there any pattern with what you turned into?" Cid asked, it seemed like a good question.
"No!" Barret growled. "I'm the blacksmith at this place, and fer some reason I'm a teapot!"
"Well, some of us were turned into something similar to our job," Aeris said. "Like me, I'm the tailor, so I guess wardrobes have to do with holding clothes."
"Reno and Rude are another two…" muttered Barret.
"What are they?" Cid asked, finishing off his tea.
"They're the mansion guards, and they were turned into suits of armour," Barret told him. "They usually hang out together."
"The one with the long red feather in his helmet is Reno, while Rude has nothing on his," Aeris added.
"Hm…" Cid said, he had finally calmed down, somewhat. "Any f#ckin' reason you're here?"
"Reeve said you'd probably like some tea," Barret shrugged, as best as a teapot with no shoulders could do.
"Reeve?"
"The chef in the kitchen, he is now a stove."
"Ah"
"Anyway, time to get you dressed for dinner with the master!" Aeris said happily. She opened her doors when moths flew out. She blushed. "How embarrassing, she giggled. "Right, I think you would look great in this!"
"F#ck! I'm not wearing that, for two f#ckin' reasons. One, that's a dress" Cid pointed at what was a blue dress.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Aeris apologized. "I really should check before I pull out something-"
"Two, I'm not going." Cid interrupted Aeris. Barret and the pink wardrobe looked at him as if he had grown another head.
"You hafta be crazy!" Barret almost yelled. "To turn down dinner with him!"
"I f#ckin' am, and you won't change my mind."
"Might as well jump off a cliff while you're at it," Barret warned. "Come on Marlene, let's go get cleaned up."
"Coming Daddy!" The small teacup hopped after the black teapot.
"Barret!" Aeris called, Barret turned around before he left. "Say hi to Cloud for me!"
"Fine, fine." Barret mumbled when he left, when he did, the doors closed behind him.
"Are you sure you're not going?" Aeris asked, hoping Cid would change him mind.
"F#ck yes"
Vincent paced back and forth in the dinning hall, seething. "Where is he?" He growled.
Up on the mantle above the fireplace of the dinning hall, Barret and Zack exchanged glances.
"He did just lose his sister and everything, remember?" Zack reminded him.
"Let him have some time, Vincent" Barret said.
The beast stopped his pacing and glared at them. "Don't call me that," he said. "I am monster, not who I once was."
"Oh come on! Everybody knows it isn't your fault that this happened to us!" Zack exclaimed. "So stop blaming yourself!"
Just when Vincent was about to reply, the door opened slightly. Everyone in the room turned to it, hoping to see a certain person, but their gazes were met with a silver clock.
"Where is he?" Vincent asked.
"He said he wasn't coming," Sephiroth said, he had always been to the point.
There was a slight pause of silence before Vincent rushed out of the room with out saying a word.
"Oh crap," Zack said, jumping off the mantle to follow him. Barret and Sephiroth ran, or in Sephiroth's case, speed walked out of the room after him.
The three of them caught up with Vincent, to find him banging on Cid's door. "Open the door!"
"No f#ckin' way," they heard Cid's muffled voice say.
"Why aren't you down at dinner?"
"I don't f#ckin' want to be there!"
"You come out right now!"
"NO!"
"Fine!" Vincent growled. "If you won't come out now, you can just stave to death!"
"F#ckin' fine with me!"
Vincent turned and glared at the three people, err… Objects, behind him. "Make sure he doesn't leave this room, ever!"
"You sure you can't be a bit more kind?" Zack asked, Vincent never has gotten mad like this before, it was king of scaring him.
"No!" With that, Vincent stalked off down the hall.
Sephiroth turned back to the other two after Vincent turned around the corner. "Right, you heard him, Zack, you're on first watch." Sephiroth commanded. " Don't screw up."
"I don't screw things up!" Zack countered, but went to stand in front of the door.
"I'll go back an' tell the others to clean up…" Muttered Barret.
Sephiroth sighed. "I'm coming with you, but I need to check on Strife."
Vincent climbed his way up the stairwell. It led towards the place he had denied Cid, the West Wing. When he had walked into the only room in the Wing, he went towards the balcony. Vincent stepped over and around the littered, ruined furniture. Then he came upon the only good conditioned table, which had the rose that the sorceress had given him years before.
Vincent looked down at the sad rose; its peak of beauty was a long time ago. Now it was slowly wilting.
Beside the glass dome, which kept the rose safe from the outside elements, was a mirror. Not only did it allow you to see your reflection, but it had magical properties too.
As another petal fell, Vincent picked up the mirror. He wanted to see what Cid was doing. "Show me the man."
The mirror's frame crackled around, the magic doing its work, until a clear picture appeared in the reflective glass. Cid was sitting on his bed, beside him was Aeris.
"Come on, if you give him a chance," Aeris told the pilot. "He is really nice if you get to know him."
Vincent smiled, Aeris stood up for anyone. She didn't care what they looked like or who they were, monster or not.
"I don't f#ckin' want to, dammit!" growled Cid.
Vincent frowned, why had this man decided to become his prisoner? Oh yes, to save his sister. He must really love her to give up his own freedom to help her.
The beast put the mirror down and walked onto the balcony. His thoughts were on what it would feel like… To be loved.
Cid's door opened slightly and his head popped out. He looked down the hall on both sides cautiously. Satisfied that he didn't see anybody, or anything at that matter, he stepped out of the room.
Cid had gotten hungry since his 'host' came banging on his door, demanding him to come down. Cid would be damned before he went and asked the beast for food now. He decided that he could find his own damn way to the kitchen, and make himself something. Cid walked off towards the stairs.
There was a slight muffing behind a wall tapestry. Then Zack's head appeared from behind it.
"Oh crap!" Zack swore. "He's getting away!" He hopped out from behind the tapestry. "We have to go after him!"
"You know, this is your fault," came another voice. "If you hadn't come on my shift, this wouldn't have happened."
Zack turned and watched as Sephiroth came out from behind the tapestry as well. "Come on, you know you want me," Zack joked.
"Stop it, now let's follow him."
"I cook up a great meal!" Reeve complained, which he didn't do a lot. "I was hoping for someone other than Vincent, who doesn't eat much in the first place, eating. In the end the meal gets wasted!"
"The smoker doesn' seem to like Vince much," muttered Barret.
A blue standing coat hanger looked up from it's work of cleaning the dishes. It picked up a small chalkboard, which was always around it. With a piece of chalk it wrote: Well, the smoker, or whatever his name is, hasn't seen a lot of Vincent. All he knows is that Vincent is a monster that took away his freedom and made a prisoner of his younger sister.
Barret and Reeve read it over, and then nodded.
"Ya know? It's really annoying you can't talk in that form," Barret said.
I know, Cloud wrote.
"That as it may be, Cid never really gave Vincent a chance for him to get to know Vincent," Reeve pointed out. "If Cid had given him time, then maybe this mess wouldn't have happened."
Cloud looked as thoughtful as a coat hanger could be. Yeah, to bad that didn't happen.
The kitchen door opened, by none other than Sephiroth and Zack, who came running in. "Did we beat him?" Zack gasped out.
Who? Cloud asked.
"Cid!" Zack exclaimed. "He's coming this way! Good thing we beat him here."
"What does that fool want?" Barret asked.
"Food. Why else would he be coming to the kitchen," Sephiroth answered curtly. Barret growled.
"After he turned down my last meal? No," Reeve stated.
The kitchen door opened again, and Cid walked in. He blinked. "F#ck, I didn't think all you guys would be here."
"Someone has to clean up the food that went to waste…" Muttered Reeve.
Cid caught what the stove said. "Sorry, but I didn't want to eat with that guy."
I'm pretty sure we have some food left over, like bread and milk… Cloud wrote, and then he put the small chalkboard down, moving towards the breadbox.
"No!" Zack yelled suddenly, making everyone jump, except for Sephiroth, who would never ever do something so undignified. "He is our guest! We should make him feel welcomed! We can do that better with a proper meal."
"He is going to get mad if he hears us," Sephiroth warned.
"Then we'll be quiet!" Zack said, then he started hopping towards the door. "This way Cid! To the dining room!" Cid followed the candleholder out.
"Well, let's do it, we don't have anything else to do," Barret shrugged.
Zack led Cid into the dining room. It was a vast long room, with a table almost as long as it.
"Sit here," Zack told him, as he jumped onto the table. Cid sat down in the chair Zack had mentioned. It was comfortable and was at the head of the table.
Cloud walked up and set the cutlery for his spot, then handed Cid a napkin.
"Thanks," Cid said.
No problem, Cloud replied, and walked back towards the kitchen.
"Now, what is a dinner without theatre?" Zack asked no one in particular.
Sephiroth, who had walked in when Cloud had left, heard this, and came rushing forward. "What? No Zack, no singing please."
"Are you saying I can't sing!" Zack gasped, then he began to pretend to cry. "He doesn't like my singing…"
Sephiroth hit his forehead. "It isn't your singing-"
"Yay!" Zack said jubilantly. When Sephiroth climbed onto the table, Zack launched himself at the clock, and hugged him fiercely.
"Get off Zack," Sephiroth growled, trying to pry the black candleholder off, but with no prevail.
"Okay!" Zack said as he got off Seph. "Now, for the dinner theatre!"
"What? No!"
Zack mastered the art that is called ignorance long ago, as it was proven here. Even through the mists of Sephiroth's yelling, death glares, and threats of bodily harm, Zack gathered his things.
He stood in the middle of the table, with a matchstick in hand, pretending it was a cane. He slowly looked up. "Be… Our… Guest, be our guest!" Zack slowly began to sing, his voice climbing higher.
Cid was surprised, to say that least. Zack did have a good singing voice for who Cid thought he was. In Cid's mind, Zack was kind of like Yuffie, except male, older, and acted his age more than she did. That and Yuffie couldn't sing to save her life, which is what surprised Cid about Zack's voice. The blonde felt a sudden pang of homesickness; he hoped Yuffie was alive and safe.
"Dun dun dun! Dun dun dun!" Were the words that awoke Cid from his thoughts. He had thought he was hearing them wrong, but Zack was really saying: 'dun dun dun'.
"What the f#ckin' Hell?"
"Ignore him, here comes your meal," said Sephiroth, who was standing close by.
Cid looked down to see that there was his meal, but there was something bothering him. "Why is he saying that?"
Zack, who was listening to their conversation, decided to jump in. "I forgot the lines!" Then he began to laugh… In rhythm with the song.
Sephiroth sighed and rubbed his temples. "Stop laughing, it's really creepy when you do it like that."
"Aw, come on Seph! Lighten up! Live a little!" Zack said, and with that, he grabbed Seph and danced with him.
"Let me go Zack,"
"Never!"
"Zack…"
Cid watched this little argument go on, as he ate his dinner. After awhile Zack had let Seph go, and called on Barret to sing. 'I don't sing, ya damn fool!' was his reply. So, Zack went on singing, adding in the words when he remembered them.
After Zack finished singing, he bowed overdramatically, in the directions of the people in the room. "Thank you, thank you."
Cid couldn't help but clap. Zack's performance was very good, despite the lack of words.
Zack straightened up from his bow, and smiled when he heard the sound, then smiled even more when Sephiroth and the others joined in. Seeing how there were only five of them in the room, Zack felt as if there was a whole audience clapping for him. "This is the happiest day of my life, do I get a prize?" He turned to look at Seph especially.
"… Fine, but later," Sephiroth answered. Zack jumped up and down happily, and then he ran forward and wrapped his arm around Sephiroth's shoulders.
"Well, I don't know where to start, but I'd like to thank my parents, even if they aren't here to see me," Zack said, pretending he had won an award. "Oh ya! I'd like to thank my friends and to say that, without them I wouldn't have gotten this far."
"Stop it Zack, and don't flatter yourself." Sephiroth told the other, cutting the candleholder off from saying anything else. Seph shrugged off Zack's arm and looked over at Cid. "I think its now a good time for you to go back to your room."
"What? F#ck that, no way." Cid said, annoyed. "If I'm staying here for the rest of my life, I might as well know how to get around."
He has a point Seph, Cloud 'said'.
"Fine. Zack and I will do that," Sephiroth agreed. "You know, you've been acting differently ever since you lost your ability to speak."
Whatever, and with that, Cloud picked up Cid's plate. They all watched as he went into the kitchen.
"Anyway! Let's go!" Zack said, jumping off of the table and towards the door. Sephiroth jumped off as well, and followed the black candleholder.
"F#ck, wait up!" Cid swore, he got up and jogged to catch up with them.
Sephiroth and Zack had given Cid a tour of the mansion. As they got closer to the end of the trip, Cid was still as lost as he was before hand. It didn't really help that Sephiroth had talked about how the mansion was built, but he did stop when he noticed neither Cid nor Zack were listening.
They had come to an intersection of two corridors when Cid heard the sound of clinking metal.
"What's that sound?" Cid asked, seeing how the other two didn't seem surprised by the sound.
Zack blinked. "Oh, that's Reno and Rude," he answered. "They're probably doing their round for this area."
Cid turned his head to where the sound was coming from, and two suits of armour appeared. He remembered that Aeris and Barret mentioned that the two suits were on of the few that got turned into something close to what they did.
Both the suits were a dark coloured blue, and they looked almost alike, except for the few, but distinct, differences between them.
The one on the right had a red fuzzy thing coming out of their helm, and it fell down to about mind back, like a ponytail. It also had a black visor, but it was kept up, somewhat like how Cid wore his goggles. Cid didn't see a face underneath the visor, just complete darkness. The suit on the left just had the black visor, but it kept it down, as if it were wearing sunglasses.
Both the suits stopped from their walk, Cid guessed that they had noticed him. He also had the feeling that they both had one eyebrow raised, even if they didn't have them anymore.
"Well, well, whose this?" Asked the one with the red 'ponytail'. Cid then remembered that Aeris said that his name was Reno.
"This is Cid Highwind," Zack introduced. "He is going to break the curse."
Cid was about to ask that curse he was supposed to break, when Reno walked up and started to look him up and down.
"What f#ck do you want?" Cid growled, he didn't like the way Reno was circling him. Rude, as Cid remembered, had moved forward, but was standing still, near the silver clock.
Reno completely ignored Cid, and turned to Rude. "So, what do you think?"
"Possibly," was the one word reply from the other suit. Reno nodded, then turned to Zack and Seph.
"Are you sure? Vincent-" Reno had started to say when Sephiroth gave him a death glare and Zack mouthed: 'don't say Vince's name, Cid doesn't know it and Vince will probably get mad… Again.'
"Vincent? Is that the bastard's name?" Cid asked, none to nicely.
"No, anyway we have to finish our tour," Sephiroth said a little too quickly, and Cid got suspicious. Why would they try and hide their master's name?
"I'm pretty sure he will," Zack told Reno. "He is the last chance we've got."
"Whatever you say, but we'll see in the end," Reno shrugged, and then he and Rude went to their beat of the mansion.
"What the f#ck is this you were talking about?" Cid asked.
"Nothing that concerns you," Sephiroth answered again. This clock was getting on his nerves, so was not getting the correct answers to his questions.
Zack decided it was a good time to change the subject. Unfortunately, his choice of topic wasn't the best. "This is the West Wing."
Cid's head shot up and he started to walk towards the stairs. There was a strong possibility that some of his answers were up there. "Can we go up there?"
Sephiroth and Zack leapt in front of the pilot. "Uh, no, we can't."
"How come? It doesn't seem bad," Cid countered, stepping past the duo. "What is he hiding up there?"
"Nothing, nothing at all," the candleholder said quickly. "Is there anything else we can interest you with?"
Sephiroth decided to help him, which was sometimes rare. "The armoury? Very nice weapons." Cid shook hi head, and took another step.
"How about the workshop?" Zack asked desperately. "Great place to build stuff."
That caught Cid's attention, but he thought that whatever was up there was more important. He took a couple of more steps. "I don't know..."
"How about the library?" Sephiroth asked, not losing his cool. Then again, the Great Sephiroth never lost his cool.
THAT got Cid's attention, in more ways than one. He stopped. "A library?"
"Yes! We have a library. With tons and tons of books! About everything you could think of," Zack said, happy with relief. "We could show it to you right now." He linked arms with Sephiroth, and walked down the stairs.
Cid followed at a slower pace. He wouldn't have minded going there, but whatever was up there seemed more important. When the pilot was sure that the other two were further away, Cid turned around and walked up the stairs.
The hallway didn't seem different, but the feeling and look was much more darker than the rest of the place. When he got to the end of the hall, he found a large door. Cid hesitated before opening it, but went through with it anyway.
Inside was a room, or at least what was left over of one. The room was destroyed; furniture was turned over, or broken apart completely. There was the bit and pieces of a bed, which probably resemble his own if it were still one piece, in the corner. Cobwebs and dust were everywhere; Cid began to wonder what was so special about the place.
Cid walked through the mess, stepping over any objects in his way. There was one thing that stopped him in his travels towards the balcony at the other end.
It was a painting, there was claw marks scratched across it, so you couldn't see it properly. Cid tried to fix it as best as he could, and saw what it was. It was a man, who, from what he could tell, had long black hair. The skin was extremely pale, but that just seem to add to him. He was really handsome, that was when Cid noticed his red eyes. They matched perfectly with his host's… There was no way that they were the same person. This man seemed to look nice, while the monster was rude… But there was something in Cid's mind telling him otherwise.
Leaving it alone for now, Cid continued walking to the other side of the room. That was where he found the only undamaged thing in the room.
A table in perfect condition, but that wasn't what caught Cid's eye. On that table was a rose. It was a deep red, prefect for it's type, but it's wilting and the petals around it seemed to pull away from its beauty, making it look depressing. Cid walked closer to it, and wondered why it was behind a glass dome.
When the pilot was in front of it, he noticed a mirror, but he didn't care about it. Cid lifted the glass off of the rose and placed it on the floor. His hand reached forward, and he was about to touch it when a gust of wind passed and the glass dome was slammed down onto the rose again. If Cid hadn't gotten his hand away in time, he probably would have lost a couple of fingers.
Cid had a sinking feeling that he knew who put the glass back down and stopped him.
"What are you doing here?" Vincent growled, advancing on the blonde. "I told you this place was forbidden."
Cid took as many steps back as the beast took forward. "I wanted to know why it was f#ckin' forbidden." Cid stopped moving backwards and stood his ground. "I live here now, don't I? So I should have every f#ckin' right to explore my home!"
"I allowed you to go everywhere else but here, isn't that enough freedom?" Vincent asked, receiving a glared in return. "So much for me believing you would allow me to have my privacy…" Vincent massaged his temples with his claws, he didn't want, or need, this right now.
Cid blinked, it was weird, seeing the monster do such a human-like action. His eyes shifted between the destroyed painting, to the beast before him. There was no way that they were the same person…. What was it that Reno called him? "Vincent?"
The said person's eyes snapped open, and they were glowing with anger. "Get out." The growl was so low Cid almost missed it, but he got the point when Vincent began to advance on him, with his claws in a striking position.
Cid took a couple of steps back again, surprised. Why was he acting this way, Cid only said his name. "What's a matter?"
"Get out," Vincent repeated, louder this time. He shoved a broken chair out of the way violently. "Get out and never say that name again."
When Cid didn't move, Vincent roared and threw an already destroyed table into the wall. Cid jumped, began to back up, then he spun around and rushed out of the room.
Cid ran down the stairs, grabbed his coat, which Cloud was holding when he came by. The said coat hanger was shaking his head somewhat sadly. Cid had the coat on by the time he came to the bottom of the main staircase.
Zack and Sephiroth had to duck when Cid decided to jump over them while he ran down the hall to the doors.
"What the..." Zack said when a shadow leap over them. When he looked up, he saw Cid. "Where are you going?"
"I don't give a damn about the f#ckin' deal, this is f#ckin' stupid!" Cid called over his shoulder as he opened the door. It was slammed shut loudly.
"He is running away…" Sephiroth muttered, then he returned to getting up the stairs. Zack stared at the door for a couple of moments longer, before he followed Sephiroth.
Vincent, after chasing Cid out, slid to the ground. Ever since he first met the pilot he noticed that he never showed hear in his eyes, just defiance. It had annoyed Vincent at first, but then he began to envy Cid. Cid was able to keep his cool and stay himself even when he was faced with the impossible. Unlike himself, Vincent thought sadly, he ran and hid. The beast turned man sighed, disgusted with himself, but he knew that long ago.
Now Vincent was more disgusted because of what happened. That was the first time he saw any hint of fear in the other man's eyes, and he had caused it. He really was a monster now.
Beginning to get a sinking feeling in his stomach, Vincent stood up. He was going to get Cid back, for other reasons than the deal.
To be continued
Silver Dragon: For some reason Cloud appears to be somewhat all knowing... That worries me... Ah well, whatever. Review pretty please with a cherry on top. : )
