Chapter 2 - Silent Communication
Kako retrieved her sword from the wall and stored it back in its case. The lesson was over for the day and she needed a shower.
"You're getting better, Kako," said Reeve.
"If that were true, you wouldn't have been able to sucker me with that last move," she grumbled. She didn't like false flattery and this felt like false flattery. She took the damp towel off her neck and wiped the sweat off her face. She threw it down on the chair in disgust.
Reeve chuckled as he watched her. She was probably harder on herself than he could ever be, which is what made her a challenging student. She had refused to allow her father to continue to teach her when she realized he wasn't willing to teach her the more advanced moves.
Reeve had wandered by the school one day, looking for a job now that Turk was defunct, and offered to continue her tutelage, but he had to talk Cloud into it by promising that he would never let her get hurt. She didn't know about their deal, however. If she had, she would have gone elsewhere for her training and Cloud knew it.
"Don't be so hard on yourself. That's a move I usually reserve for my older more experienced students. You're very advanced for your age," he replied.
"Yea well, it won't happen again," she said. She turned to him and looked him in the eyes. He was always struck by her coloring; long yellow-blonde hair and deep burgundy eyes. "What a combination," he thought to himself. She grinned at him and punched him in the chest.
"I stink. I'm gonna take a shower and go home for some lunch," she said good-naturedly. She could never stay mad at Reeve for long.
She slammed the door of the bar open and yelled "I'm home, where's lunch? I'm starving."
"It's in the kitchen, waiting for you to make it," said Tifa, not looking up from her ledger. Kako grumbled and threw her sword case down on the bar. She walked back into the kitchen and stood in front of the open refrigerator.
"Where's Dad?" she yelled back at her mother.
"He's lying down trying to recover from that last move you made," Tifa said with a smile. She loved teasing Kako.
"Ha, ha, very funny," Kako mumbled under her breath.
"What's so funny about it?" asked her father from directly behind her. His voice made her jump and she dropped the jar of mayonnaise she had picked out of the refrigerator.
"Shit! Dad, look what you made me do," she complained.
"You better clean that up before you mother sees it," he replied with a grin on his face. "And stop swearing."
Kako grabbed a damp towel from the sink and wiped the greasy spill off the floor.
"Reeve pulled a fast one on me. I told him it won't happen again," she said, not looking up at Cloud.
Cloud smiled down at his daughter and sat on a stool by the counter to watch her clean up the mess she had just made. He was amazed at how like Tifa she was. Except for her blonde hair, she had all of Tifa's features; she was a bit taller but just as muscular and slender at the same time. She moved with a grace that belied her years and attested to the long hours she spent at the school.
Tifa and Cloud had started the school shortly after returning to Midgar with the infant Kako. It was Tifa's idea. Cloud needed something to keep him busy and out of trouble; he had become bored pretty quickly with just helping her run the bar. He now employed several tutors, Reeve being one of them. Reeve had appeared one day out of the blue, asking for work. He claimed to have left Turk but Cloud could never get the straight story out of him as to why he had left. He finally gave up and allowed Reeve to stay on as a tutor but under probation. That was five years ago and Cloud had never had occasion to regret his decision to trust his former adversary.
As far as Cloud could tell, Reeve was a quiet man who kept pretty much to himself. He was a competent tutor, even as good as Cloud with a sword. He was secretly glad that Reeve had offered to take over Kako's schooling because he didn't have the stomach to teach her what he knew she needed to know.
"And do you think that's the only trick he has up his sleeve?" he asked Kako.
She stopped mopping the floor and looked up at him with a pained expression on her face.
"No, I don't, I'm just saying he won't be able to pull that particular one on me again," she said through gritted teeth. She stood up and threw the broken mayonnaise jar in the trash.
"Mom needs to show you something," she said absentmindedly.
"Cloud, I need to show you something. Can you come up here for a sec please," Tifa called from upstairs.
Cloud cursed under his breath. "God I hate when you do that," he mumbled and walked out of the room, rubbing his arm.
Kako bit her lip and turned to apologize but he had already left.