A/N: In gratitude of over 100 reviews, I've written an extra long chapter. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers for such great support, so, thank you! Enjoy this chapter!


Ame ni Matte

Wait in the Rain

Chapter 13: Blades

A pleasing unfamiliar smell wafted through the usually musty air of the house's hallway, and it was only a few seconds before Yazoo that Kadaj noticed it too. The youngest of the three immediately stuck his nose in the air, sniffing and then, apparently satisfied, flashing a cheeky grin at the brother accompanying him on the top of the stairs.

"Oh good, 'cause I'm starving," he muttered. "Loz has been cooking for ages, says it takes time in the oven or something, but it must be done now."

He bounded past cheerfully, making a move towards Yazoo's back pocket in a joking attempt to steal the gun. Yazoo shot him a glare, but since Kadaj was already halfway down the stairs, it went unnoticed. It hadn't been even an hour since Kadaj had gotten into mischief with the weapon, and hence, it still was of interest to him, though Yazoo knew that since the gun was out of bounds for Kadaj, it had become an object of great fascination to the youngest of the three.

When Yazoo got downstairs, eagerly taking in the smell and feeling hungry, he found Loz in the kitchen, closing one of the recipe books with a smug look. He opened the door to the oven, which groaned in process. Yazoo hid a smile on seeing his brother armed with mouldy oven gloves that were coated in dark brown marks that showed how often they had been used before. Yazoo decided to stick to waiting in the doorway, slightly entertained in watching Kadaj crane his neck to see past Loz into the oven.

"Out the way, brat, the kitchen's a dangerous place," grumbled Loz, "that's what it says in the introduction of Cooking Made Easy. I said, move out the way!"

"Ew, you burned it, look, it's black around the edges." Kadaj snickered, pointing at the dish Loz had now taken out.

"I'd like to see you do better," came the heated response. "Now get away, before I accidentally stick your head in this oven on purpose."

Kadaj complied, deciding to copy Yazoo and lean against the doorframe with his arms folded. His eyes – though they were genuinely wide with innocent curiosity as they studied Loz's cookery – flicked every now and then towards where Yazoo kept his gun, in a manner that was not very innocent at all. Yazoo met his gaze once, warning him without words, however all this seemed to initiate was a devious smirk.

Loz, who was blissfully ignorant of the increasing friction between his two brothers and the gun, scooped their lunches onto three separate plates, humming to himself. Yazoo, like he always did, opted to stay out of bickering arguments, losing himself in his thoughts. A few moments later, Kadaj had leapt forwards again, bringing his face close to his lunch plate, snickered and said, "What's this stuff Loz? It looks like fried caterpillars with orange bits sticking out of it."

Loz looked up, clearly offended. Yazoo quickly stopped himself from smiling, choosing to look over at rusty saucepans that they couldn't quite get any cleaner. Once he had controlled himself so that his expression was once again neutral, he saw that Loz had drawn himself up to his full height, proving to be a lot taller than Kadaj.

"It's tuna pasta bake, actually. The 'caterpillars' are called pasta, and the 'orange bits' are the pieces of tuna. If you don't like it, then don't eat it."

Kadaj merely sniggered even more, running out the kitchen with his lunch. Yazoo exchanged looks with his brother, the mutual agreement of how difficult it was to keep up with Kadaj clear in their gazes. Without another word, Loz thrust Yazoo's plate roughly into his hands before walking out the door. Not particularly affected by the cold action and assuming Loz did so because he was annoyed with Kadaj, Yazoo followed after him into the cramped living room. He found that instead of sitting at the coffee table, Kadaj had decided on settling with his lunch on the sleeping bag.

"Don't you want to sit at the table?" asked Yazoo. "It'll be a lot easier to eat your lunch Kadaj."

"Why don't you come and sit with me?" Kadaj called back. "It's warmer here."

Yazoo lifted his gaze off his lunch (which was in fact rather appetizing and threatening to steal all of his attention). The small figure on the sleeping bag that was his brother was sat so that whether intentionally or not, his back was turned to them. It made it all the more difficult to get any idea as to how Kadaj was feeling, and Yazoo was fairly sure that the youngest merely wanted to be a nuisance and resort to his usual whims of annoying for fun.

So Yazoo turned to the elder brother, smiling slightly at the fact that Loz's lunch was almost gone. It seemed that the three of them were hungry from their day's hard work in cleaning. Over the course of the next few minutes, Yazoo finished off his tuna pasta bake appreciatively and Loz, who had finished a long time ago, edged nearer to him with an eager expression.

"Did you like it, Yazoo? How's my cooking?"

Yazoo gave a brisk nod, but it was a good enough compliment for Loz. The eldest puffed out his chest proudly, eyeing his recipe books fondly and reaching out a hand to pick up one of them.

"You know, cooking's actually quite fun – I'm glad I learnt the basics of it with Elmyra."

It took Yazoo several moments before he remembered who Loz was talking about – a friendly woman who had taken care of his two brothers. Apparently – to the extent of how reliable Loz's gushing was – Elmyra and her daughter had taken such great care of them, they would be people Loz and even Kadaj would truly miss. And considering Kadaj rarely had strong attachments to anything besides his brothers, the fact that this was changing aroused some unwanted feeling of very deep jealousy inside of Yazoo.

It was not however, as though Yazoo wished he had taken his brothers with him to the labs. It was simply because, Yazoo told himself firmly, he had endured a long time of no compassion at all. And he had his brothers now, and that meant compassion. Yazoo brushed aside the trivial emotion of jealousy as Loz showed him a particular page in his book.

"This'll be dinner I think. I want to try something quite simplistic but nice at the same time…tuna pasta bake takes way too long…"

Yazoo flicked through the cookery book with rising admiration. He was already confused by the instructions. He wondered to himself why there were such precise measurements for ingredients, such elaboration on how to get the optimum taste. Where Yazoo thought food was simply food, and everything was black and white, Loz had always been the opposite. The eldest had a knack to be able to see the beauty in anything, no matter how insignificant or impossible it seemed. Loz, through his acquisition of such an emotional personality, could feel so much and see so much. And that in itself, Yazoo smiled, perhaps explained why Loz could enjoy cooking, or cleaning, or anything at all.

In the lingering silence as Yazoo turned the pages of the book randomly, he pondered what life would be like if he were to see it through Loz's eyes. The book would actually interest him for one thing.

"Well, I know for sure that if I were to cook, it wouldn't be half as good as what you made, niisan," Yazoo said earnestly. Loz grinned, and typically, his eyes were becoming watery. "Oh for goodness sake, there's no need to cry about it."

"Sorry," Loz muttered. "I can't help it. Elmyra said that I cooked really well at her house, a-and she said t-that she really hoped we'd find you, and you could try my food, you know…"

Loz was at it again, Yazoo smiled tiredly. Making a big deal out of such small things, affected so strongly by mere words. He patted his older brother's shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. Loz gave him a faint grin, reaching out a hand to push back Yazoo's bangs.

"Your fringe's getting long," he commented.

"I know – it gets into my mouth sometimes because it's so long." The silver tresses flopped back in Yazoo's face as Loz moved his hand away, and in doing so, Yazoo glimpsed Kadaj sat over at the other side of the room. He had moved his head round to look over at his brothers, and Yazoo wasn't certain, but from what he saw, Kadaj appeared to be quite hurt by something. Before he had any time to dwell on this though, Yazoo quickly fixed his attention back onto Loz, who had leapt to his feet suddenly.

"Here, I'll cut the fringe for you."

Loz took his and Yazoo's plates to the kitchen, and during the time Yazoo waited for Loz to return, he shifted a little from his cross legged position, leaning over the coffee table. Kadaj's plate was completely empty, and raising his voice a little so that he could be heard, Yazoo called, "So you liked Loz's lunch as well, did you?"

"I was hungry, and I eat anything when I'm hungry, even live things." Kadaj had at least turned around, and despite the distance between the two, Yazoo made no mistake in seeing the malice in the green eyes staring at him. He got to his feet, crossing the room and sitting next to Kadaj.

"You should compliment Loz – he's taking such good care of us. He looked after you whilst I was gone, didn't he? He cared for you more than anything else whilst I was at the labs…"

"Don't."

Yazoo softened, ending the conversation with a quiet "…Sorry."

Kadaj didn't feel like acknowledging the apology by the looks of it, choosing instead to twirl his fork in his fingers. Then, in a way that was almost tentative, Kadaj reached for Yazoo's fringe, letting the strands slither through his fingers and bounce off Yazoo's nose afterwards. Yazoo rested a hand on top of Kadaj's silvery head, looking up as Loz walked back in, a pair of scissors in his hand.

"Knew there was a pair hanging around in the kitchen somewhere – it was behind the bread bin," he said. He sat down opposite Yazoo, setting a stained cloth over their laps to catch the falling hairs. Kadaj, who had moved aside a little, continued to play with the fork with very little interest.

"'Bout here, okay?"

"That's fine niisan."

Loz brought the scissors up carefully. "Don't move now, or else it'll all go wrong."

"I won't." Yazoo shut his eyes, hearing the scissors squeak open and then snip slowly at his fringe. He ensured he sat as still as he could, eyes firmly shut, but on hearing a small scuffling next to him, he reopened them and saw Kadaj leaving the room. He explained himself with a single word.

"Toilet."

"Okay," Yazoo replied, looking past Loz to see Kadaj toss the fork behind him onto the coffee table.

"I told you don't move!" Loz hissed suddenly. "You're turning your head to the side! Do you want your fringe to be wonky or something?"

Yazoo straightened his head again as a few more silver strands fell down slowly onto the waiting cloth. When Loz next spoke, he was a lot quieter and the annoyance he had previously had gone.

"What's wrong with Kadaj? He's been a bit funny this afternoon you know." Loz shifted his gaze to look into Yazoo's eyes, curiosity and concern clear on his face.

"…Concentrate on my hair please, niisan," he replied politely.

"Oh yeah, sure…"

Yazoo waited for his fringe to be cut, waited for Loz to finish folding up the cloth before saying anything about Kadaj. Only when Loz and he had nothing else to occupy themselves with did he admit to his older brother about Kadaj finding the gun and his fascination for it.

"You know what he's like," Loz sighed after hearing Yazoo's story. "He finds anything new to be interesting. He's curious, that's all."

"Still, I think I was a bit harsh on him," Yazoo muttered. "It was meant to be a joke after all, but I suppose I couldn't see the funny side of it. I'm far too uptight."

"S'not a bad thing," Loz replied sagely, "that's just the way you are…I mean, when we were over in Kalm…"

Loz's voice was abruptly blocked out by a strong feeling that overwhelmed Yazoo. It was as though an invisible hand inside of him had squeezed his heart, squeezing it mercilessly. He could hear his heartbeat, unnaturally loud, and there, in front of him, was not Loz but Sephiroth, his slitted eyes flashing, reflecting emotion that was none short of rage.

"He's angry," Yazoo whispered. He leapt onto his feet, grabbing the door handle as Loz crashed into him from behind, calling in confusion, "Who, Kadaj? Where is he?"

"Kadaj!" Yazoo shouted. He gripped the bathroom door as he reached it, turning it and turning it. It was locked. He looked over at Loz helplessly.

"Kadaj?" The oldest brother brought his face to the door, speaking gently. "Kadaj it's okay, it's me, Loz. Open the door, yeah?"

Yazoo's heart was hammering, and he was glaring incredulously at Loz. They had to get in the bathroomnow! If he had just seen Sephiroth, that meant that Kadaj could have seen him!His little brother was probably hurt, they had to get to him now!

"Move out the way niisan," Yazoo instructed loudly. Without a second though, he took the gun out of his back pocket (at this point, Loz yelped and scurried halfway down the hallway), took aim at the lock, and fired. For the first time since his escape from the labs, Yazoo heard the deafening bang emitted from the weapon, the contact of metal on metal penetrating the air with an ear piercing screech. And though Yazoo was used to the sound of it, he immediately sensed revulsion and sickness he hadn't felt before. Loz was stood nearby, eyes wide and watery, mouth wide open in horror. And someone was screaming, a muffled sob that sounded worse than the gunshot itself.

Yazoo ran into the door shoulder first, stumbling into the small tiled bathroom. Whatever he was expecting, it was not this. Drops of red had stained the sink, the grey floor and the edge of the toilet seat. Sat with knees tucked up to his chest, curled up under the sink was Kadaj. His hands were pressed firmly onto his ears, eyes squeezed shut. Blood was seeping from one of his hands, leaking slowly and trickling down his hair and dripping onto his kneecap. The fear in Kadaj...had Kadaj seen something horrible? Or had he endured horrible pain? No, Yazoo noted with a sick feeling churning in him, it was because he had fired the gun in front of him. How terrifying must that have been for such a small boy?

"…Shit," Loz gasped, "shit Kadaj what the hell have you been doing?"

Yazoo scanned the room, finding at Kadaj's foot a pair of scissors. Not the big scissors Loz had used to cut his hair, they were a small pair, with friendly handles ideal for young children who were creative. Yet the innocent item had been blemished as the two blades were split, leaving it in a position that was dangerous. One of the blades were darkened a dull red.

"…Don't point that thing at me, niichan," Kadaj whimpered, looking up. Yazoo noticed something, a minute detail of Kadaj that had changed. "Put the gun down niichan."

Yazoo did so, with deliberate calm and slowness. The gun was not a toy, and Kadaj seemed to know it. He was staring at it with an apprehensive gaze, no longer with fascination. Yazoo knelt down, moving the scissors away. Loz had already come forward, shaking out the cloth wrapping Yazoo's hair and covering Kadaj's hand with it. Yazoo got a quick glimpse of the hand, sporting a long red gash. His loose hair fluttered down to rest on his and his brothers' knees.

Kadaj swallowed, looking up guiltily at them both. "…I was only trying to cut my hair too."

Yazoo nodded, for he had seen that part of Kadaj's fringe was significantly shorter than the rest, tarnishing his hair somewhat. Kadaj's eyes displayed a mixture of hurt, embarrassment, but most of all, fear. His gaze darted between Yazoo and the gun, and his lower lip began to tremble. Loz, who had wrapped Kadaj's injured hand in the cloth securely, now had the youngest brother in his arms protectively. And it was then that Yazoo realised that Loz was also looking at the weapon that lay idly near him. Had Yazoo overdone it by firing in clear view of his brothers? A simple pair who had not seen anything that could taint their innocence so easily…

"Did it hurt?" Yazoo took Kadaj's bandaged hand.

"No. I just slipped. It just sliced, and didn't hurt when it did." Kadaj shrugged lightly. "Hurt a bit afterwards, like a sting, but it's gone now."

He sniffed quietly, but it was audible. Yazoo exchanged looks with Loz, and together, they aided their brother out of the bathroom. Yazoo opted for silence whilst Kadaj admitted that all he wanted to do was try something new. Loz offered a few comforting words – to both Kadaj and Yazoo – talking lightly as though he was afraid someone would hear him. Kadaj was a difficult one to understand, both Yazoo and Loz knew, but at times, they would simply have to go with the flow of the youngest's conflicting emotions.

Kadaj's uninjured hand had lifted itself up slightly so that it linked with Loz's as they walked into the living room. Yazoo felt encouraged and warm seeing the two so close, but once again, inside of him somewhere, a tinge of envy rose in him. He had changed since being at the labs. He was no longer the brother that he used to be. He had attained unintentional feelings of jealousy and aloofness, such impassiveness when handling deadly objects…was that what his brothers had suddenly grown fearful of?

The gun was left in the bathroom, and it remained there for the rest of the evening.


A/N: I did a fun, happy chapter last time, so I thought I'd change it to something darker this time. I think Kadaj would switch from mood to mood very quickly, and I wanted Loz to have a bigger part too. As for Yazoo, the effects of the labs are beginning to show up in him now - a new plotline - this story's still got a while to go, people! There's also a very vague reference to Souba with the scissors having a dark and light blade, but that's for the next chapter.

Please review this chapter if you have the time. Til next time!