My Oh My
'Butterflies and Fireflies'
It was around two-thirty in the afternoon when Kairi showed up at Sora and Riku's condo. Riku opened the door, toothbrush dangling out of the corner of his mouth, towel wrapped around his waist. Why it seemed he always had his shirt off in front of everyone, Kairi would never know. But at that particular moment, that was the last thing on her mind.
Shuffling into the condo, she waggled her hands in some sort of motion, moving her mouth to form some sort of words, her eyes half-closed into some sort of sleepy expression.
"Riku. Back."
Blinking, Riku pulled the toothbrush from his mouth and wagged it admonishingly under Kairi's nose, though careful not to paint his long-time friend with toothpaste and saliva as he said, "...You know, if you slept on a real bed, you might not have this problem."
"Back. Oww."
"Fine."
In what appeared to be the friendliest of gestures, Kairi wrapped her arms around Riku's neck, Riku wrapped his arms around Kairi's back, and...
Crrrraaaack
"OWW!"
Rolling his eyes, Riku scrunched his eyebrows together and blew a few tickling strands of Kairi's hair out of his face. "I told you, the futon isn't really..."
Snapcrackcrack
"RIKKKUUUUUU! Are you trying to break my freaking- "
Crunch.
"...Mm..." Kairi slumped forward, Riku sagged under the weight, Sora walked into the room... and proceeded to burst into a fit of giggles.
"Kairi needed her back cracked again?"
"Yes," croaked Riku, flailing his arms around and trying to heave the girl off of him.
"Hehehe... I feel much better now." Shooting Riku a grin, Kairi stretched, yawned, and shrugged her shoulders up and down as if checking the quality of the job Riku had done. Head bent to the left, head bent to the right, turn left, turn right, up, down, rotate shoulders in sockets, reach down and touch the floor, twist the spinal cord gently to the left, gently to the right, both hands on hips and press inward and...
"Thanks Riku!" Kairi chirped, closing the condo door behind her.
Sora glanced at Riku. Riku glanced at Sora.
"...Don't you feel kinda... used?" questioned Sora.
"Yep," answered Riku.
And we all know what they proceeded to do after that.
x x x
Kairi slipped into the apartment, closing the door behind her with a quiet click. It was true; her back had been driving her crazy. But her main problem was just that she thought something was wrong... with Larxene. So what exactly was Kairi's reasoning behind this assumption? Well it was all very simple.
In the morning Larxene hadn't had a cup of coffee. She hadn't talked about her mysterious visit with Naminé the other day. She hadn't even called Kairi 'Pooh.' It'd been a humdrum procession of wake up, shower, dress, and head to work, no ifs ands or buts about it. And quite frankly, it puzzled all hell out of Kairi.
That was why Kairi knew, from the very moment she set foot in the apartment, that something was strange. No Larxene draped over a sofa and surrounded by her trusty alcoholic beverages. No music, no notes, no coat on the ground, no purse on the floor. And yet still, the apartment felt like someone was in it. Someone other than Kairi. Some one, two, and now three.
Somewhatwhatwhat
"Nnn... no, keep going..."
Creak.
"Hah...hah... wait..."
Creeeak, creak...
Hmm. Those sounds were familiar.
And have you ever wondered how your body sometimes runs on autopilot at the most inconvenient of times? Seems random and stupid, but hold up a moment. You've been walking through your house or down the hallway, your mind is off and you have no idea where you're going. But you're feet do. They've been there before, the muscles have memorized the movements and they're going through the motions because the muscles (though certainly not having an independent mind all their own) know for a fact where you want to go.
And yet sometimes even muscles are wrong.
Sometimes you end up bumbling into the boys' bathroom while wandering around in a half-asleep stupor.
Sometimes you end up walking into a telephone pole you could've sworn wasn't there the day before.
Sometimes... shit happens.
And shit was exactly what happened to Kairi as she found her muscles following the sounds like well-trained bloodhounds (only following the ears rather than the nose, I suppose), her mind completely paralyzed with the horrible, irrepressible realization that 'Christ, Larxene is screwing someone and I'm about to walk in on her. I'm about to walk in or her and she's screwing someone. Larxene is about to be walked in on by me while she's screwing someone. While Larxene is screwing someone...'
Yep. That would be why Kairi was unable to yell to her feet, "No, you fools! Stop! Stay back! No, dammit!" Instead, she found herself standing there in the open doorway of Larxene's bedroom, mouth hanging wide open as she surveyed the scene before her.
Thankfully, Kairi hadn't made a stop for fat free frozen yogurt on the way back. If she'd done that... well... Let's just say she would've come back right in the middle of-
"JESUS KAIRI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!"
Shit.
Larxene shoved upwards on the man hovering above her, who only moments ago had been pinning her to the bed, working his way down the buttons of her shirt. Now he was sprawled on the floor, cursing like a sailor and shooting Larxene a look that could've been equivocated to thousands upon thousands off wee little wasps. With whips and chains and all sorts of other kinky things.
"Get OUT!" Larxene shouted again, struggling to pull both her shirt and herself together as she swung her legs over the side of the bed, stepping on the man she'd thrown there only moments ago. And in a flash, Kairi was doing just as she'd asked. ...Or at least... she was trying. She was trying very hard.
Crash! BANG!
Kairi stubbed her toe. "Ahh"
Kairi slammed the back of her head against the doorframe. "Shit!"
Kairi rammed her hip against the doorknob. "Ohmigod"
And Kairi was on the floor, scrambling backwards, feeling bruised, confused, and really, really darn bad.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing! I fucking told you not to come in here, didn't I? Why the hell are you here? What do you think you're doing!"
"Whoa, cool it Larxene. She could've joined us, yanno. You didn't have to go totally-"
"OUT! NOW!"
"What! But what the-"
"Axel, if you don't get the fuck out of my apartment, I'm calling the goddamn police and they'll tote your sorry ass into jail! GET OUT!"
'Axel' didn't take kindly to this. On his way out the door, he just happened to step on Kairi's fingers, shooting her a dirty glare which clearly said, 'Burn in hell.' With a slam of the apartment door, the fiery lover (if you could even really call him that) was quite gone. And the apartment was quite silent. Larxene stood in the center of her bedroom, hands clutching her shirt closed, oblivious to the fact that Axel had managed to get both the button and the fly of her jeans undone and he'd clearly not bothered to put it all back together before his departure.
No, all Larxene could think about was...
Oh man, she's gonna kill me, Kairi thought. Her body was already attempting to do her in, apparently. Sure. Why not. Go ahead. Why not just add Larxene into the mixture after all, right? ...But that wasn't how it happened. Because at that moment, Kairi burst into tears.
"Aww, Larxene! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I di... I di... I didn't mean to... I just c-c-came in and there were noises and I dunno... I dunno what I was thinking I was..." Kairi was losing it, that's what she was doing. And she rattled off apologies like nobody's business and she couldn't understand a word she was saying and her head, hip, and toe hurt and she had to keep her eyes shut because she couldn't stand seeing Larxene like that and she had to... and she was... and she and she and she...
And she listened as Larxene's footsteps strode across the floor of her bedroom.
And she listened to the other girl's curses and swears as fabric rustled and closet doors opened.
And she listened as the footsteps came closer.
And she listened as she continued to beg for forgiveness for something she hadn't even been aware of doing.
And she was nearly kicked aside as Larxene shoved past her on her way out the apartment door.
Kairi sat there. She shut up. She winced at the slam of the door and she winced as the corner of the doorframe ate into the flesh on her back. And she listened. As the apartment grew still and silent as she felt like she'd gone and done something horribly wrong. And, and, and, is all it was.
And I feel like such a child for not knowing any better.
x x x
"These windows all around me, yes these windows who keep telling me..." Leon hated working overtime at The Emporium. But what he hated even more was not knowing why he was working overtime and not knowing why no one else was there to do so with him. Not that he wanted company or antyhing... "To rid my dirty mind of all of its preciousness."
He liked singing when he was alone, too.
Kind of like how he secretly enjoyed picking flowers. How he was sometimes still drawn to chemistry websites and textbooks, even though he could never manage to understand quite why. That life was over and done with.
"Where is my master rebel..."
Ant then there came The Sound.
"...Hello?"
Click.
"Larxene, get lost. Your shift's over."
Clickity, click, shhk.
"Unless you want to stay and lock up." Leon was getting rather disturbed, though he would never admit it. His voice took on a wary tone as he nervously called out into the apparently empty store, "Larxene?"
Flick, flick, flutter, ffft.
"...Ah..."
"Hey there!"
The voice did not come from a boisterous twenty-two year old girl. The voice did not come from a customer either. Rather, it came from... a very... little... person.
He was dressed in some rather crazy looking garb, light blues, dark blues, greens and yellows, oranges and purples, all jumbled together in threads and fibers woven into a little vest, shirt, and pants. The shirt was too big, the pants were too tight, and the vest was somewhat lopsided, but somehow it had an almost endearing quality to it, multicolored beads sewn on sloppily in place of buttons. More were threaded around his neck in some strange fashion of a necklace and the blonde gravity-defying spikes of hair completely threw Leon through a loop.
What.
On.
Earth.
"..." There were not words to describe the thoughts that flickered through Leon's mind at that particular moment in time. But let me give you a vague idea of the feeling. Certainly you have heard of the condition of having 'butterflies in your stomach'? Yes? Well. Now imagine those stomach-butterflies for me. Imagine them the size of a ten-story building with razor sharp fangs dripping blood, buggy eyes that are roughly proportional to a house (only in spherical form, of course), and holding Marilyn Monroe in one gangly insect-arm while sucking on your brain.
Having imagined these butterflies, I'm certain you all now have a slightly better feel for just what Leon was going through. Splendid.
"...Are you Larxene's friend? Does she work here?" the little monster asked, clearly not the slightest bit put-off by Leon's quietness. Instead, he seemed quite content to just prattle on by himself, all the while perched just at the tip of Leon's nose, tiny harms hugging the structure in order to keep himself in place on Leon's face as he continued to talk. "She's not here, you know. She's back where I came from!"
"I always knew she was a demon."
"Huh?"
"...Um. Nevermind."
Frankly, Leon was shocked that he'd even spoken in the first place. After all, he was talking to himself. ...Wasn't he? There was certainly no way that a little tiny man was at that moment hugging his nose and talking to him, all the while dressed in what appeared to be a reject of a Halloween costume from the sixties? ...Whoa. Wait a moment. Leon had to slow down. He had to take deep breaths. He had to...
"You have really pretty eyes," the little thing randomly noted, leaning closer towards Leon with the words, nearly splaying his entire tiny torso right against the bridge of Leon's nose. Alright then. That did it. Enough with my sanity, Leon figured.
"Who-- What are you!"
Rather than answering, the little fellow slipped from Leon's face to his shoulder, where he proceeded to bury his face in the soft choppy locks that hung just down to there. "...And hair!"
"Ow! Get off!"
"I'm sorry! It just looked so pullable so I had to pull it!" The sad thing? The little monster really did sound like he was truly sorry, from the very bottom of his mouse-sized heart. Big blue eyes (well, big only in proportion to his thimble-sized head) blinked innocently up at Leon, shocks of blonde hair sticking straight up out of his head, to the left, to the right, falling around his face in the most messy and bizarre hairstyle Leon had ever set eyes on. And so there was only one thing he could say to all of it.
"I've lost my mind."
"Not quite." Shooting Leon a flash of a grin, the little man, folded his arms and drifted back up towards Leon's face with several flicks of those weird wings of his. Once there, he proceeded to use Leon's bottom lip as a kind of perch, tiny lit feet standing on the pout of his mouth while he leaned against Leon's nose, various bangles and beads he was dressed in brushing just across Leon's skin in a nearly unbearable tickle. "My name's Cloud, what's yours?"
And Leon had yet to even take in the wings. The wings of the creature. Oh yes indeed, he did have wings, for he could drift and he could float. And he was precisely what brought the Monroe-napping, brain-sucking butterflies to mind. For there, squarely planted on the back of this happy little fellow, were two broad butterfly wings, slowly opening and closing, as if moving in sync with the shallow breath of their owner. Truly, they were magnificent things, despite their size. Flecks of blue and yellow darted across their surface, the hint of texture so small and so light that Leon could've sworn the wings were made of nothing but the finest silk, richly pattered and brightly colored.
But... he'd been asked a question... hadn't he?
"...Nn..."
Cloud blinked again, wondering if 'Nn' actually meant anything or not. He would've asked too, or perhaps prompted further, but he found the answer he was looking for right before him, seated upon the check-out counter. Leon's wallet. Open to reveal his driver's license. "So your name's Leon. Hello, Leon."
"..."
Once again unfazed by a lack of response, Cloud rested his bitty little elbows on the tip of Leon's nose, spending a moment simply admiring his surroundings. As his eyes came to rest on the faint scar streaking across Leon's face, Cloud's eyebrows raised and he extended one small hand, tracing the scar from the bridge of Leon's nose to his cheek and softly asking, "What happened here?"
The action itself was something Leon was completely unprepared for. And just as he was completely unprepared for it, Cloud was completely unprepared for Leon's reflexive reaction. For the next thing he knew, he had been flicked (yes, flicked) clean off Leon's face and was shooting across through the air, a tiny yelp torn from his mouth before his rather ungraceful landing. ...One would tend to think that as an animal of flight, Cloud would know how to land gracefully and without trouble. ...Well, if indeed that was the case, than one would be very, very wrong on a very, very regular basis.
"...Oh my." Leon seemed to be unable to do anything but stare as Cloud landed in a burst of sqeaks, right smack dab in a large carton of condoms. Of course. Where else would he have landed? But coming to his senses... mostly... Leon crept cautiously over towards the bin and peered in, trying to find a shock of blonde hair amidst the various other things in there. "...Um... I'm sorry. Did... Did I kill you?"
"Yes," came the choked response from somewhere amidst the stacks of individually wrapped latex accoutrements.
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"Ow."
"Are you okay?"
"No! I'm dead, you... you..." Seemingly at an utter loss for words, Cloud let out a tiny sigh and hung his head in defeat, pausing his momentary argument to ask, "What's a bad word?"
"What?'
"If you were going to insult someone, what would you call them?"
"...Um. I don't really make it my business to insult people. Everyone else says things like..." Leon paused for a moment, running through his mental filing cabinet before counting off on his fingers as the words floated to the surface, "Idiot, asshole, dip shit, dumb fuck, or more commonly, the phrase 'you're so gay.'"
"...I see." Cloud nodded several times in affirmation, his tiny little brows furrowed deep in concentration as he tapped his index finger against his left temple. It was sort of like he was trying to memorize the words by tapping them into his skull through Morse-code. "You're so gay, Leon," Cloud then stated simply.
Leon blinked.
Insightful little bastard, isn't he?
"...I think you need to explain yourself. Because either you're a very neurotic little bug that needs squashing, or I'm a very neurotic human that needs medication."
"Mm..." Cloud thought the prospect of both fates through seriously, once again tapping on the side of his head before smiling and nodding like a mini bobble-head doll. "Okay."
x x x
Naminé had pulled herself together by devoting her spare time to drawing. Her brief sketch of Larxene lay on a torn out page of her sketchbook, pinned to a drawing board, propped against the wall. Each and every morning on her way out the door, her eyes couldn't help but graze over its surface, dwindle on the marks and the lines, the contour, the empty space. It needed to be finished, but there was something that wasn't there, that couldn't be there. Not then. And Naminé couldn't figure out what it was. What am I missing?
Meanwhile, Yuffie had been wasting away her valuable time by working overtime at the cleaners. This resulted in her learning more about her employer than she ever wanted to know. While a long list could be made of the disturbing things she discovered, I'll give you a quick recap to make your life slightly easier. For example, one morning while walking in before the cleaners' opening, Yuffie was startled to hear a peculiar sound coming from the back of the store. Somehow, her mind leapt to the conclusion of 'Robbers!' before she knew what hit her.
And somehow, that very conclusion suddenly had her stopped in her tracks, blinking at the floor. Robbers, robbers, thieves and robbers. I've been stopped in my tracks and there are robbers. Noise from the back room... is this deja vu or am I still going crazy? But at that moment, none other than Mr. Tigi burst through a curtain of clothes, mouth wide open as the lyrics of none other than Frank Sinatra's finest spilling from his mouth.
It wasn't cart-wheeling down a hallway in gym shorts. But it was singing 'Come Fly With Me' with a Chinese accent, a wooden spoon in hand, and clad in a bathrobe. And it was something that Yuffie would never forget for the rest of her life, even as she bumbled further into the cleaners, mumbling something that sounded an awful lot like an 'excuse me.' Mr. Tigi nodded happily as Yuffie made her way past him, calling out behind her, "You like Mr. Sinatra, Miss Yuffie?"
To this, Yuffie couldn't help but pause and blink, warily glancing over her shoulder and nodding slowly. "Yeah... I guess he's okay."
This seemed to greatly please Mr. Tigi, for his chest puffed up quite a considerable amount and a wide grin made itself present on his face as he said, "Ahh! He is the best, you know, Miss Yuffie. The best of the best, there is no other like him. When I was little, you see, I wanted so greatly to be like Mr. Sinatra, you see. I would buy all of his records, memorize all of his lyrics, Miss Yuffie! That is how devoted I was!"
Well, Yuffie just couldn't help herself. She had to ask him. Partly because some distant half of herself believed it was the courteous thing to do, but mostly because the more tangible half of herself just wanted to know what the hell the guy was talking about. "So... what happened? You sang at nightclubs or something?"
At this, Mr. Tigi let out a deep chuckle, throwing back his head as he did so and clapping his hands together delightedly before returning to his senses, shaking his head, and simply responding, "Why no, Miss Yuffie. No, no, no, never was I good enough, you see. Mr. Sinatra, you see... he is... he was..." As Mr. Tigi puzzled over the correct words, he ran his slightly pudgy fingers through his thinning hair before nodding again and continuing, "He was the best, Miss Yuffie. I try, I try, I try very hard, you see, but I never be good enough, you see. I never be good enough."
This not only struck Yuffie as surprisingly sad, but it was also surprisingly confusing, for Mr. Tigi refused to speak another word of the issue and instead changed into his proper business attire before heading to the front of the store to man the desk. That small, short snippet of conversation would hang over Yuffie's head for the remainder of that day, and the following days as well.
x x x
Somehow there are things that happen by chance. Perhaps they're not so farfetched as to be capable of being referred to as a part of fate or destiny, but perhaps they're nonetheless a very significant (albeit a very small) part of the intricate web of the human life. Larxene had known this. She had known this for a very long time. Naminé had known this. She had known this for an even longer time, for though no one would ever be brave enough to admit it, Naminé had a certain sense that Larxene did not.
And while Larxene sat beside her on the bench, Naminé knew that Kairi was back at the apartment, sick with worry, sick with guilt. She knew that Larxene was being selfish and ridiculous. She knew that Larxene was explaining poorly and hiding something. And yet she knew that pointing out these flaws and these inadequacies would solve absolutely nothing. That was the sense Naminé had. That was the sense Larxene so desperately wanted to tap into as they sat side by side on a rusty old bench in Shriner's Park.
Lonely engines of some cars, trucks, or whatever screaming through the town, just across the only and only highway that fell anywhere nearby. With the approaching darkness, the world almost shrank, growing smaller and smaller by the minute, by the second. And oh with all the shrinking, where on earth can you really run before there's nowhere left to go?
"You can't force yourself to be anything greater than you're meant to be, yanno?" Larxene prompted, elbows resting on her knees, jacket pulled taut across her shoulders as she leaned forward, fingers lacing together as she tried so hard to think and sort and figure it all out.
But Naminé just shook her head and quietly said, "I don't believe you."
"Well why the hell not?"
"...Do you really believe it yourself, Larxene? Come on now, you can't believe, deep, deep down at the bottom of your heart... that this was what you always wanted to do with your life..? When you were little, you had dreams. We all have dreams when we're little..." Naminé trailed off, her voice sounding distant, her gaze being pulled away by the setting sun and the rising moon and the realization that everything was not, in fact, perfectly okay.
It's a disturbing realization, let me tell you.
"Yeah," Larxene bit back, mouth puckering into a frown as she said sarcastically, "When I was a kid, I had great dreams."
"Like what?"
"...I wanted to be a rock star."
"...Really?"
"Yeah. Pretty dumb, huh?"
"No. It's not dumb."
"...Well. Seems dumb now."
"How can being a rock star look dumb from where's you're sitting?" Naminé asked, turning to look at her friend, a frown now drawing itself across her own face as she responded with, "You're sitting on an old park bench in the middle of some go-nowhere town. You're sitting in Shriner's Park, Larxene, and you have no idea what on earth you've done and you have no idea what on earth you're going to do."
"Stop acting like you know me, brat."
"..." Naminé swung her legs back and forth, stretching them out in front of her so it looked like she was closely examining her shoes in the fading light. In reality, she was actually trying to figure out whether or not she really wanted to press the issue any further. Clearly, she chose to do so, seeing as her next words were, "Maybe you're just upset because I might just know you better than you know yourself."
She'd braced herself for the wrath of Larxene in its full, unbridled swarm of anger and frustration. But all she got was what was left in the other girl, the dregs of guilt and scraps of self-pity.
"Yeah. Well. Fuck you if you're right."
"...I thought you weren't going to-"
"I'm sorry, okay? Forget it."
"...Okay."
The two continued to sit side by side for some time. Neither knew how long, really. The sun was gone and the stars were one by one blinking into view, the time for wishing on the very first long since gone before either one of them finally spoke up again.
"I do bad things. You know... crap no one knows about. Because if they knew about it, they wouldn't even want to know me anymore."
"That's not true."
"Wanna bet?"
Naminé said nothing.
"So how 'bout if I told you... What would you do if I said I'd robbed a bank?"
"I wouldn't hate you for that."
"What if I ran over a dog?"
"It wasn't like it was your fault."
"What if I
did it on purpose?"
"I still wouldn't hate you."
Larxene stayed silent a moment, seeming to debate back and forth with herself inside her head.
"So what if I killed someone?"
The park was quiet, but the fireflies were out. Naminé cocked her head to the side and stayed silent for a moment.
"Sometimes things happen, Larxene. It's like growing up. Things happen because they do and because there's nothing we can do to stop them. In this life or any other it could have happened. If not now than later."
A firefly looped in drunken circles towards the pair, visible in short bursts of light, hovering and twirling, dancing and spinning in midair. Hypnotizing in such a simple way it could've been call primitive, but it didn't quite reach back that far. One would never call ballroom dancing primitive, would they?
After a moment of silence, Naminé added to clarify, "No, I wouldn't hate you for that."
Larxene...
Couldn't figure it out. She just couldn't possibly manage to understand someone like that and it really bothered her. Bothered wasn't the right word, but she couldn't place her finger on a better one. How could Naminé possibly hold such feeling towards her that she wouldn't hate her for something so horrible? There was nothing between them- hardly even friendship, right?
"Sometimes there are things that aren't really classified as friendship and aren't really classified as romance. Sometimes there are things on the in-between and the outside. Sometimes there are, but sometimes there aren't. Don't you think those are the most important things, Naminé? The things we can't define or describe? Aren't those still somehow the things you hold closest to your heart? ...They are for me."
Larxene stood up from the park bench and Naminé figured that was that and the other girl would be gone with a scuff of her shoes and a flip of hair. But instead, she was most surprised to find Larxene suddenly standing in front of her, though her back was towards her. Crouching down, the other girl muttered, "Hey. Hop on."
"...Huh?"
"Don't make me stand here all day, Pie. You know how a piggy-back ride works. Just get on already or I'll leave you behind and you can just forget about it."
Pie?
Well she didn't mean to, but Naminé giggled anyway as she wrapped her arms around Larxene's neck and was lifted clear off the ground. Larxene really was considerably taller than her. Hooking her arms around Naminé's legs, Larxene couldn't help but wonder, When was the last time I ever did anything this weird? And she couldn't give herself an answer. And somehow, she didn't really care for one all that much anyway.
The two plodded along through the park, and though Larxene wasn't sure where she was going, Naminé seemed to be in no greater hurry to get home than she herself was. In fact, Naminé ended up resting her chin on Larxene's shoulder, her eyes dropping shut as the first drops of rain began to fall from the sky.
Did either of them honestly care?
More importantly, did you really think they even would?
"...Thanks, Larxene."
"Whatever. Just be glad I'm big and strong, got it?"
"Mmhm. I'm glad."
"Fucking good."
"Larxene..."
"Oh for crying out loud!"
The rain grew stronger, Naminé fell asleep, but Larxene didn't mind either, because Naminé's tiny little body kept her warm and dry.
...You and me in Shriner's Park. Trying to make some sense.
x x x
"So let me see if I've got this right. ...You're a... faerie."
"Yep."
"And your name is Cloud."
"Uh huh."
"And you decided to come home with me because..?"
"It's a long story." Cloud nodded emphatically, clasping his hands together and resting his chin on them. After a moment of sitting like this, Cloud grinned and confessed, "...Okay, so it's not really. I need your help Leon." The two of them sat in the kitchen of Leon's small and sparsely furnished home, Cloud perched on a pin cushion he'd dubbed as his sofa and Leon perched on a stool, staring blearily at the little blonde boy on his table as Cloud continued. "Just like you need my help. We can help each other, you know. And Naminé, Yuffie, Kairi, Larxene... we can help them too."
For the first time ever, Cloud actually seemed affected by the blank stare he received from Leon in return.
"...Um... Maybe I should explain. Even though it's not a long story, it still might take a while. Is that okay?"
"I see." Leon seemed to seriously think about it for a moment before nodding once, veeery slowly, and rising to his feet. "I think I need a gin and tonic." As he headed towards the liquor cabinet, he heard a chirped agreement from Cloud, who then started merrily whistling an oldies song with a swingy sound and an upbeat tune. He turned around momentarily.
Cloud waved cheerfully at his host.
Leon turned back around and shook his head.
"...Nevermind. Just the gin'll do."
x x x
It was eleven o'clock when the phone rang.
Kairi... was reasonably drunk by then.
She would later claim that it wasn't her fault. That she was distressed because Larxene hadn't come home and it'd been nearly five hours. That she hadn't heard from the other girl or anyone else, for that matter. That she was lonely, worried, and feeling guiltier than she'd ever felt in her life. And that Larxene had offered her the alcohol earlier anyway, right? Right. Exactly. Precisely. That was what Kairi would say later. And Larxene wouldn't mind. She'd get quite a kick out of it, actually.
But right then, Kairi didn't say a thing.
How many things have I messed up today? Let's see... I probably walked in on Sora and Riku about to have sex. I did walk in on Larxene and what's-his-face about to have sex. I pissed Larxene off and made her run away. And now I've raided her wine coolers. Damn but those things are tasty. What's left for me to mess up?
Ah yes, that phone ring there.
Kairi somehow managed to shove herself away from the island counter in the little kitchenette and scoot her stool several feet over towards the phone. Granted, she whacked her head against the wall in the process (don't ask how), but she could hardly feel a thing anyway, so ultimately, it didn't really matter all that much.
"Hello?"
"...Um... Kairi?" It was Yuffie. ...Who else would it have been?
"...Mmmmhmmm. That's me."
"...Are you okay?"
"Peachy. Peach flavored, in fact. Like ah... that bottle there." Kairi squinted at one of the various bottles littering the countertop. She was pretty sure it was peach flavored. She wasn't exactly sure though. By then she'd had about six too many drinks. She wasn't at the top of her game, you know. But that's been stated and explained before.
"You sound kinda... um... drunk."
"Naaah."
"Are you sure?"
"Mm... no."
"Oh. ...Where's Larxene?"
"Dunno. Kinda worried. Walked in on sex. Lots of anger."
On the other end of the line, Yuffie was getting a bit freaked out. Why couldn't Kairi be a happy drunk like most people? (Actually, she'd only met several happy drunks in her entire life. But they were very pleasant people, really, and Yuffie couldn't wait to meet more of them. ...But she wasn't really thinking of that at the moment.)
"Hey Yuffie..."
"Yeah?"
"Can you come over?"
"Um... Ah... I can't stay long or anything, but- "
Fifteen minutes later, Yuffie was holding Kairi's hair back as poor Kairi was bent over a toilet yacking her guts out. There went her damn breakfast.
x x x
It was later that evening that Yuffie received a certain call from a certain someone. Now, assuming that you were being dangled over a pit of lava by your earlobes and you had five seconds to save your life before being consumed by the bubbling mass of molten rock... well, let's just say you had to answer a question. And let's say that question was: 'Who's calling Yuffie at two in the morning?'
Would you be able to answer correctly?
Or would you tumble to your death, crying due not to your unfortunate fate, but to your sadly stretched earlobes?
Well, assuming you would have shouted, 'Irvine, you dick!' at the top of your lungs, you would've been saved. Not so sure about the rest of you. But the Irvine-you-dick-ers would have been perfectly fine. Come to think of it...
"Yuffie!" It was Irvine. Yuffie couldn't help but snarl. It was something that came close to a reflex of sorts.
"Irvine, you dick! What are you doing calling me at two in the morning!" she snapped, glaring icily at the wall as she talked through the phone. It was late (or rather, 'early' would have been the proper terminology), she was grumpy, and she'd recently been sorely reminded of the fact that she had no sex life. On a regular basis, that last one wouldn't have gotten to her at all. But the fact that it was Kairi who pointed it out with her tale of Larxene... well, that just put the sting right in it.
But Irvine's voice didn't hold its usual jaunty, cocky, boyish nature. In fact, Yuffie was almost worried by the tone she heard over the phone. And sure enough, her worries were confirmed in ten seconds.
"Yuffie... It's Mr. Tigi. He's in the hospital."
x x x
Anyone catch the Raspberry Heaven reference? Also, the scene at Shriner's Park is based on the song by (oh come on, you saw it coming) Melissa Etheridge, called 'Shriner's Park', of course, and the song Leon's singing in The Emporium is Rufus Wainwright's 'Rebel Prince.' There we go, I think that covers it.
Aaaannnnd I'm just gonna stop doing chapter previews because while they can be helpful for me and you, I rarely stick to them. Clearly. So it sorta defeats the purpose, ne? XP My Oh My has five chapters left, so heads up everyone! From here on out, it's plot overall, angst through Larxene and Naminé, fluff through Yuffie and Kairi, and... uh... yeah, well, Leon and Cloud are mostly plot puppets, what can I say.
