(A/N: I'm back! Woo!!! Finally got over my writer's block. Hopefully this one will live up to your expectations! And NOW!!!
THE NEXT INSTALLMENT!!)
Brother, here's some brotherly advice
If you know what's good for you
You'll treat her right"Reno, c'mon. You can drool over the cakes later." Jayden said exasperatedly, giving Reno's hand a tug, "I don't know about you, but I'd like to find where we're gonna have this wedding if you don't mind."
"How can we think about that on an empty stomach, yo?" Reno protested, pulling his fiancé back to his side with little effort, "Besides, push comes to shove we can always just fly out to Ve-!"
"Don't finish that sentence Red." Jayden barked, trying to pull the former Turk away from the window again, "Besides weren't you the one who vetoed the ten minute Vegas wedding?"
"Damn, you were actually listenin', yo?" Reno asked teasingly, begrudgingly giving into Jayden's insistent tugging and moving away from the store window, "And here I thought I was having a pleasant conversation with myself."
"Well you stand corrected, I suppose." Jayden smirked, feeling slightly victorious as the bakery window was left behind them, "C'mon, just fifteen more minutes and we'll stop for lunch okay?"
"I get to pick where." Reno said instantly, wrapping his arms around his fiancé's waist and pressing his full weight against her back so she took a few tottering steps forwards and was forced into a stooped position.
"Okay, okay! Fair enough, Red!" Jayden laughed, trying to wriggle her way free, "Ya know, I'm painfully aware of how short I am - no need to rub it in!"
"Of course there is, Ellie. I need to take every advantage I have." Reno said languorously, resting his chin on her shoulder, "Height just happens to be one of them. But oooookay – fifteen minutes. I guess I can wait that long."
He pushed himself off her and grabbed Jayden's hand again.
"I know it's a drag, but the sooner we figure out where we're having this thing, the better, y'know." She said easily, looping her arm with his as they started walking again, "We don't want to be in a panic at the last minute cuz we don't know where we're doing this thing."
"I know…I knuh-whoa…" Reno gaped, eyes locked at an area across the street. It was over the heads of several taller people, making it invisible to Jayden, something she voiced to Reno.
"Whoa what, Red? I can't see diddly over all these tree people." Jayden mumbled sulkily, again made aware of how height challenged she was. She let out a yelp as Reno swung her up and onto his shoulder, giving her the perfect view of a park across the street.
The grass was lush and green and the flowers were just coming into bloom, trailing on vines and exploding on bushes and trees. Towards the center, just barely in sight for her, but probably in full view for Reno's superior vision, was a large fountain.
Reno reached up and gave Jayden's hand a squeeze, "So, is this place good enough?"
"More than good enough." Jayden replied, trying her best to hide the large grin on her face as she squeezed back.
"Great…so can we eat now, yo?" Reno asked, straining to look up at her.
"Can you let me down first?" Jaden asked pointedly, shifting her weight so she could slide off.
"No." Reno grinned, wrapping an arm over her thighs and forcing her back in place, "I think I like ya like this."
He gave her butt a rub making her squeak loudly and bring her fist down on the top of his head.
"If you'd be so kind as to let me down…now?" she growled, face very red as Reno allowed her to slide off, snickering as he did so.
"Relax, babe. You're not completely off limits now, are you?" he asked, eeling an arm around her waist and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"…no." Jayden smiled, butting his chest with her head, "I guess not. Sorry for overreacting. Old habits die hard I suppose. C'mon. Where dya wanna eat?"
"The Cheesecake Factory." Reno replied instantly, leading the way back to the used car they both shared, "And if I get a make out session after lunch consider yourself forgiven, yo."
"Hahaha!! Deal." Jayden laughed, breaking into a run, "C'mon! Scoot yer boot! Don't tell me your gonna be outrun by a girl!"
"Helllllllll no!" he whooped, scooping Jayden up under the knees and throwing her over his shoulder and running the rest of the way to the car, oblivious to the pair annoyed, geostigma eyes watching them.
"What do you mean they're still together?" Kadaj snapped into the phone.
"I'm watching them right now brother, and it certainly doesn't appear as though they're on anything remotely close to bad terms." Yazoo remarked coolly into his cell, taking a large bite of his sub sandwich, "I'm on my lunch break and they passed by my bakery."
"How could this possibly be?! That plan was fool proof!!!" Kadaj bellowed over the phone, causing Yazoo to hold the cell at arms length away from his head, turning over the idea whether or not to simply hang up now and be done with it or listen to his younger sibling's incensed rant.
Yazoo sighed and glanced up at the clock tower across the street. His lunch hour was quickly slipping away from him. As much as he HATED the idea of his adopted sister being joined in holy matrimony with the mother of all idiots, he despised missing even a microsecond of his hour-long lunch break just as much…maybe even more.
He sighed loudly as Kadaj's loud ranting, now garbled chittering at the distance he held the phone from himself, met his ear.
"Bro! Hey, I forgot your shop was around here!"
Yazoo snapped his head up and saw Jayden, riding on piggyback astride Reno's back, approaching him with the happiest of smiles.
"Perfect timing Yazoo!" Reno grinned as he came to a stop about five feet away from the middle Remnant, "We wanted to discuss something with you over lun…uh, Yaz? Whose that on the horn, yo? Angry customer or somethin'?"
Yazoo realized with a thrill of panic that he was still had Kadaj on the line and that the youngest Remnant was still on his incensed tangent.
"No, wrong number. I accidentally dialed up someone in Little Italy." Yazoo said smoothly, shutting the cell with a snap, instantly ending the hamster-like chittering that was Kadaj's endless tirade on the other end of the line.
"Now, what is it that you wanted to discuss?" Yazoo asked, blanking out his face so he wouldn't look HALF as flustered as he felt, eyeing Reno coldly for effect.
"Well, why don't we get something to eat and catch up a bit first. Then we can sort out all the formalities." Jayden said easily, sliding off Reno's back, taking his hand and Yazoo's and leading them both towards the Cheesecake Factory.
"Alright. Start talking. Why did you cut me off before?" Kadaj snapped tersely surprising Yazoo as he stormed into the bakery.
"Because J.D. was standing less than five feet away from me and the likelihood of her picking up on your Turk Tangent was pretty high because of your volume brother dear." Yazoo said coolly, striding behind the counter, switching his hair into a ponytail and tying on his apron.
"…oh." Kadaj muttered, coloring slightly as Yazoo reached for a whisk on the wall, "So…what did you all talk about?"
"…about how much it would mean to her if I made her wedding cake." Yazoo mumbled, intentionally averting his gaze from Kadaj, whose mouth was currently opening and closing like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe.
"And...and your answer was?" Kadaj managed, grabbing the counter before him for balance.
"...Yes." Yazoo said sheepishly, "Meaning, I'm out. It'd be a conflict of interest if I continued helping our brother's conspire against them if I'm working FOR them."
"I…I see. Well FINE then!" Kadaj roared childishly, storming out of the bakery, "We don't need your help ANYWAY!!!"
"How is it that I knew he'd react that way?" Yazoo sighed, walking to the back to begin prepping for an order of sticky buns he was to make for an organization of some kind's charity function.
"He's out?! You serious?" Loz cried, unable to believe what he was hearing.
Kadaj had called him and Sephiroth and said it was a matter of urgency, making arrangements to meet them as soon as possible in a bar downtown.
"Conflict of interest since J.D.'s a client now." Kadaj ground out irritably, not touching his scotch on the rocks in favor of massaging his temples to ease the tension, "HOLY, what are we gonna do now?"
"We'll come up with something." Sephiroth said easily, not in the least bit concerned as he sipped his Long Island Iced Tea, "In fact, I already have something in mind."
"Oh so? Do tell." Loz remarked, popping the top off another Heineken and lifting the bottle to his lips.
"We were on the right track before with infedelity, all we need to do is produce indesputable proof." Sephiroth replied, setting his drink on the table, "We've gone after that miserable pissant and failed...so I propose we make it appear as though Jayden is the one whose been unfaithful."
"J.D.? Cheat? HA! Not bloody likely bro." Loz snorted after draining his his beer to the halfway mark, "She's always been the one man type of girl and completely devoted. The odds of her cheating are slim and none!"
"But if we make it APPEAR as though she has been..." Sephiroth said lazily, beginning to feel the warming effects of the alchohol.
"And how do you propose we do that, pray tell?" Kadaj asked, his voice dripping with annoyance as he finally took hold of his drink and took a deep swig.
"I know of someone in my firm who used to be a theater major." Sephiroth replied, toying with the straw in his drink, "All we need is to catch the two of them in a compromising position on tape and have him do a voice over."
"...Thats so insane...it just might work." Loz said slowly, a grin spreading across his face.
"I propose a toast...to well laid plans." Sephiroth smirked lifting his glass.
"To well laid plans." Kadaj and Loz chimed in unison, raising their own drinks to clink them together with their elder brother's.
-BZZZZZZ-
"AIPE!!" Jayden yelped, dropping her watering wand and diving her hand into her back pocket, retrieving her cell phone (set to vibrate obviously) and thanking everything she knew of she was in the back of the flower corral where she wouldn't be seen.
"Who the hell would call me during work hours?" Jayden thought with annoyance, lifting the phone to her ear, "Y'lo?"
"Hey hey shorty. How've ya been?"
"KYLE!! Oh em gee, how've you been?" Jayden cried joyfully, deliberately using the chatspeak to annoy him.
"I've been great. Me and Ipo're like about a week from tying the knot and whats this I hear about YOU gettin' hitched?"
"Yeah, me and Keith." Jayden smirked into the phone, wondering if she would ever come up with an excuse so she could use Reno's real name.
"Izzat a fact. Wanna talk about it over dinner?"
"How are you gonna do that exactly?" Jayden asked inquisitively, not noticing the figures creeping up behind her until they both had wrapped their arms around her.
"Like this, keiki!" Ipo laughed, as Jayden dropped her phone and shrieked for joy, twisting herself around in her brother and his fiance's arms to hug them.
"What the hell?!! When did you two get here?" she cried, looking up at them happily, "Does mom know yet?"
"Naw, we flew out last minute. I take it by the shriek we suprised you." Kyle smirked, dancing out of the way as Jayden took a swing at his arm, "So, we're abducting you and taking you to dinner at The Pyramid Ale House, got it?"
"Yes sir." Jayden snickered, stooping down to retrieve her phone, "I'll call R-Keith and let him know to meet us there, kay?"
"Sounds good." Ipo smiled, "You both can fill us in on what you have prepped for your wedding and we'll help with what we can."
"You guys are so great! Thank you." Jayden smiled, dialing up Reno's cell, unaware that elsewhere, her adoptive siblings were making a call of their own.
(A/N: DUN...DUN...DUNDUNDUNDUNNNNNNNNNNN!!!! Sephiroth hires his actor friend and manages to sucessful catch him and Jayden in the compromising position he wanted. But after the DVD is processed, will he be overwrought with guilt? Will he feel nothing and deliver it to Reno? And what about the wedding party? Will some friends from the past recieve invites? And if so, how will they even GET there? R&R!!)