The celebrations of victory within the Seventh Heaven had come to a complete halt. No one told stories now, no one was ordering drinks. Everyone was quiet and listless, a few children had decided to turn in to sleep. From all the restless tossing and turning, Tifa didn't think they were managing very well.

She could only imagine how guilty some of them must feel, being well now and one of their friends perhaps on the edge of death. It wasn't anything they could have helped, they hadn't known where Denzel was to tell him, or that he'd even needed to be told. Many were wondering now if other friends within the slums might have similarly been passed over, and if to Tifa's adult conscience, which had suffered countless battles and losses that idea wasn't fair, she could only imagine how deeply frustrating it must be in their youthful innocence.

Marlene and Barret were upstairs with Denzel, the rest of the group watching over the those who were still awake. Yuffie had finally managed to round up the last of the children who'd gone missing from Wutai, and now the need for sleeping space had grown even worse than before. It looked like all of the adults would be crashing on the floor. Tifa was fine with that though, all romantic ideas of a clandestine reception for her beloved hero had been extinguished by Denzel's collapse.

Now she simply waited with the rest, occasionally standing to pace, sometimes walking to the door and out onto the porch, into the cool of the night. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was there wouldn't be anything that Cloud could do, after all… but Denzel had looked up to him so very much, and he'd wanted Cloud to come back. Even if he didn't wake up from this, Tifa was sure Denzel would know Cloud had been there for him, one last time. But she didn't want to think like that. Better to hope the presence of his own hero would inspire Denzel to come around, to keep on fighting, at least a little longer.

Her hopes soared as the long black car pulled up in front of the bar, Cloud getting out even before it had completely stopped, Reno cursing in the front as he tried not to get the fighter killed. She rushed down to meet him, this time getting her well-needed hug, but then the other occupants of the car were disembarking, and came that flash of familiar silvery hair. Her look of confusion quickly fell to unmasked distrust, but the boy seemed to pay no attention to it, making his way to the back of the car and waiting expectantly.

Reno's look of apology was surprisingly genuine, sharing Tifa's distress and he pocketed the keys without opening the trunk. "No way, Junior, it's nothing but kids in there. I don't care what Rufus says on this one, the sword stays where it is. Pretty sure it's a policy in there anyway, then. Ain't that right, Neechan?"

Tifa nodded firmly, though from what she'd seen, Kadaj was a walking weapon in and of himself. So she didn't make a point of Rude and Reno's nightsticks, tucked beneath their jackets, even if she'd normally have taken them behind the bar. Looking up to Cloud again she hissed, "What is he doing here, anyway? Why did you bring any of these creeps around my bar?"

"Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer," Vincent's smooth velvet voice issued from the doorway, arms folded across his chest, eyes on Kadaj. "As long as he is here with us, we can be certain he isn't planning an attack we won't anticipate. …Also, I don't believe he has anywhere else to go… The orphaned sueko, once again."

Kadaj's gaze averted suddenly, and he walked away from the trunk of the car. Cloud coerced Tifa into going back inside with him, though she looked near ready to deck him the whole way, proceeding the younger warrior while the TURKs flanked on either side. Kadaj stopped on the porch in front of Vincent, just before stepping over the threshold. "Kimi… kuwashii ne." The words rung softly with the restrained resentment that smoldered like green embers inside his eyes.

"Mm. Dou ka na." The gun slinger's crimson gaze revealed nothing but mystery, a wall to Kadaj's attempts at reading him. He wanted to know how the other regarded him, whether with contempt or with pity, but Kadaj couldn't fathom him. Giving up at last he dragged his gaze away, stepped through the door, and smiled as the room fell silent.

All the happy, hopeful greetings from the children for Cloud died on their paling lips, and around the room the adults stood suddenly, tensed, unprepared for Kadaj's arrival. Several of the orphans crowded behind some one bigger than themselves, remembering well the imposing older boy and the things he'd made them do. Yuffie looked ready to leap across the room at him, if he took one false step.

But Kadaj just spread his hands and turned his back to show he was unarmed, relatively, which put him face to face with a sneering Reno for the moment. He knew better, and the red-head gave the boy a shove back around forward, propelling him further inside. Cloud was doing his best to reassure the children that they had nothing to fear while he was there, then Tifa was directing him toward the bedroom, toward Denzel.

Kadaj followed after, and received the same tense and fearful greeting from Barret and Marlene. In fact had an arm-mounted gun trained on him the moment he appeared in the door frame, but even Barret knew better than to fire inside the Seventh Heaven unless absolutely pushed to fight.

"It's alright, Barret. He's not going to do anything," Cloud waved Barret down, and after a reluctant moment the ex-AVALANCHE leader lowered his weapon, but Marlene was still afraid. Almost covering Denzel by leaning over with her own small body, her wide eyes, brows knit upward in distress, darted back and forth between her familiar friend and his sinister companion.

Kadaj merely stationed himself just inside the door while Cloud walked further inside. Marlene vacated the chair she'd sat in for Cloud, standing behind him so that she was shielded from her former captor's gaze while the former mercenary slid his fingers through Denzel's hair, pushing back his squirrelly bangs to get a better look. It seemed almost as though some one had socked the boy right in the eye, except it wasn't the healthy organic purple of a normal bruise, but an ashen greyish black, unnatural, and from the corner of his eye Denzel slowly wept discoloured tears.

Indeed the outlook wasn't good at all. Cloud had watched many of the orphans die at this stage, before it had become too much for him, before he'd started showing signs of the infection himself and felt he'd had to leave. After all that had happened, in the last two years, in the last two days, it hurt him deeply to think that there was nothing he could do for this one boy, this one kid who had so looked up to him. If he could rescue an entire Planet, well it seemed almost ridiculous that he couldn't do anything for one small child.

It was something one could almost feel in the air, the break down of hope inside the room. It was confusing to Kadaj at first, the shift in the atmosphere with out anyone speaking, with out anyone really doing anything at all. The TURKs standing on the other side of the door had suddenly lost their fierceness though, the same with the large man with the gun arm, and both his niisan and the woman called Tifa seemed bowed under an invisible weight that hadn't been there only a moment before. Only a second later and that little girl started crying. The entire scene disturbed him immensely.

Cloud gathered the weeping girl into his arms, tucked his mouth against the top of her head and closed his own eyes to hold back the pain. After another brief and helpless moment, Reno reached over to tap the kid on the shoulder, get him to go out to the front room and give the rest a moment of peace, but he missed as Kadaj stepped forward, clocking his knuckles on the door frame instead.

As he moved closer Kadaj confirmed for himself which of the orphans they'd taken it was, able to place him and the girl-child together in his mind. These two had been the particular reason his niisan had come to the Sleeping Forest in the first place; they were special to him.

For the first time in a long time, no eyes were turned on the silver-haired youth with any sort of mistrust or suspicion. Most were unaware of him, save the TURKs who regarded him more with a curious wonder. Reaching the side of the bed, opposite Cloud and Marlene, Kadaj knelt and surveyed the rampant spread of the Geostigma for himself, silent, considering…

The sound of Denzel stirring caused both Marlene and Cloud to turn their eyes back on the ailing child. It had only been a small sound, barely a whimper, but the silence in the room was nearly deafening, and any noise was amplified. After a moment, Marlene's large brown eyes focused beyond the still unconscious boy, to the older one beside him. Something in the teen's gaze seemed to change, become less hard and narrow… Something serene and familiar suffused the Makou glow, turning it warm instead of cold. Marlene drew in a tiny breath, and looked back to Denzel.

She could watch the blackened splotch retreat. It moved back across his flesh like poison being drawn from a wound, leaving clear if still pale skin in its regressing wake. The further back it pushed, the more Denzel's eyelids began to flutter, and finally he came awake, looking around blearily. Marlene gasped.

Denzel took everything in very slowly. He registered Marlene there, and with her was Cloud, and he tried to offer the pair of them a grateful smile. After a moment though, he turned his head aside, regarding Kadaj quietly, waiting while the other's consciousness came back to the present. Blinking his own eyes a few times to clear his head, Kadaj took in one deep breath and let it go as a long and quiet sigh, once again assessing the syndrome's scar. It was small now, thin and resembling almost a seven-point star over the boy's left eyebrow. "Gomen…" and his quiet voice held genuine apology. "I can't completely…"

He sat suddenly, heavily, turning to lean his shoulders into the wall. Tifa rushed forward to see what had happened to Denzel, only able to infer that Kadaj had done something to him from where she'd stood. But the younger boy had pushed himself up as she'd run to check on him and seeing him better, the fighting girl was thoroughly confused. Hands on Denzel's shoulders still, she tore her gaze away from the greatly minimized scar at last and looked down to the young man she'd assumed to be nothing but a threat to them, not long before.

He had his head tilted back now, eyes closed softly, and was bringing his hands up to his ears. Covering them as though to shut out some harsh and grating sound, his lashes pressed tighter against his pale cheeks, and a frown tugged at his soft mouth briefly, disappeared, then returned. Marlene suddenly broke from Cloud's arms and rushed around the bed, ruffling the train of Tifa's skirt with the speed of her passage. Crouching next to Kadaj, she rested her small hands on one of his armored shoulders.

The leather didn't seem to do anything to dull the touch though, as Kadaj's eyes flew back open, looking straight to Marlene, for a moment lost in her wide amber gaze. Gradually he lowered his hands from his head, watching the little girl intently, seemingly fascinated with something that was completely lost on the rest in the room. After a moment he murmured a bewildered, "Arigatou." He didn't even take offence that Barret was suddenly pulling Marlene back, just shook the trance and took the hand Reno offered to help him off the floor.

The TURK regarded the rouge Avatar a moment, then nodded, for the first time giving the kid a break. The red-head didn't understand exactly what had just gone down, but it was obvious enough Kadaj had helped the kid out some how. What had motivated such an uncharacteristically selfless action, Reno couldn't fathom, unless he considered the possibility he didn't understand Kadaj's entire character after all. That would definitely complicate things, but… Hell, things were already complicated.

The problem was, even Kadaj didn't really know what was happening any more. He was acting with out a point of reference, the best he had to work from was his niisan, doing what he thought Cloud wanted or expected of him. It was all too soon, all happening too fast and not the way he had expected it, no, not at all. Kadaj didn't know what he wanted from this world any more, who he was, or where his loyalties stood. But until he figured that out for himself, he knew he needed his niisan's help, and that meant trying to play good. Cloud obviously thought something of this world, of its people, considering the way he fought for them, willing even to die for them. The fierceness burning in those cerulean eyes when he'd feared all that might be taken away...

Kadaj let Rude and Reno lead him out into the bar now, taking a seat at one of the tables with them, resting himself in the corner of the booth. He was thinking too much and trying not to. He didn't want to remember any more, the thoughts, feelings and sensations of the last couple days behind him. Sleep might have been a welcome escape except that Kadaj was afraid to dream… He was certain all that awaited him was the memory… the empty coldness of a soulless mind…

When the silver-haired kid finally slumped over, sinking gradually into Reno's shoulder, the red-head just shrugged and sighed. Across the table, Rude did his best to suppress a smirk, especially when his partner shot him a warning look. Flicking his gaze down to the sleeping boy though, Reno couldn't help but think how remarkably innocent the kid looked when not awake and glaring at the world. The little cupid's bow smile that gradually dawned across his lips was nothing less than precious.

Clearing his throat and looking away, Reno searched the bar for Tifa. She was probably still back there with that kid Denzel, but damnit, the TURK sure could have used a shot of something hard.

Author's remarks: I don't really have much to say, except isn't the picture of Kadaj passed out on Reno's shoulder just adorable! I just love picturing him fighting sleep and losing, like a stubborn little kid. Which is really kinda what he is. :3 And now that he's zonked out, Cloud's gonna have some 'splaining to do, bwahaha.

Translations:

Neechan – Literally means "Big sis" but is often used by guys to call young women, kinda like "Baby," "Babe," etc. If you don't know a young woman's name and need her attention you can call her "Oneesan" which is the more polite form, Reno's just being a punk.

Sueko – Term for the youngest child in a family. In the Japanese hierarchy of siblings the Chounan, or eldest son is the most important and bears the most responsibility, thus receiving the most attention. The younger siblings have more freedom to pursue their own interests, but can feel inferior and jealous depending on how much emphasis they put having their parents' approval.

"Kimi… Kuwashii ne." - "You're… pretty knowledgeable, huh." Just sounds much cooler in Japanese. Cloud calls Vincent kuwashii in A.C., regarding the brothers' existence and plans.

"Mm. Dou ka na." – "Hm. I wonder." Vincent's just being evasive.

Gomen – I'm sorry

Arigatou – Thank you.