Chapter 12: The Upcoming Storm

Theris quietly listened to the waves around the pale yellow boat. It was early in the morning and Bennett had just started to sail after he woke up. It has been three days since they left Daddy's Boats.

Then she heard heavy footsteps and turned her head to her right.

"What are you doing out here?" Loz sat across from Theris. The two of them were in the back of the boat sitting on the edge. "Feeling sea sick?"

Theris glared at him for seeing right through her. "Only a little bit," she said. "Yuffie's the one who can't really handle it if she was here."

"Why are you mentioning her? I thought you hated her," he said, observing her reactions.

She looked across the water and up at the sky. "Yeah," she said. "I do, but you know what? I still like the childhood experiences she gave me. I cherish the old Yuffie very much." She sharply turned her head to him. "What are you doing here so early in the morning anyway?"

Loz rubbed the back of his head, moving one of his eyebrows higher than the other. "No reason," he replied. "…Did you crawl your way here?"

"Of course not!" she slapped the back of his head. "Bennett helped me."

"You let him touch you?" he exclaimed, standing up.

She gave him a calm look. "Yeah, did you want me to crawl that bad?"

"You could have asked me," he said, slowly sitting back down on the edge.

"Oh, you want to touch me?" she asked, half glaring at him.

"No!" he said, slightly blushing. "I just think you shouldn't be troubling others! I mean, I wouldn't mind if you ask me… since I didn't come in time to help you at that time…"

She sighed heavily and slapped his head again. "Don't start feeling guilty," she glared at him.

He rubbed the place where she hit him. "What do you…?"

"It wasn't your fault that I got hurt," Theris said, looking at him intensely in the eye. "If you feel like you should help me out every time, well… you don't have to, got that? You just worry about renewing the bandages around my legs, okay? So stop trying to do this and that! It's freaking annoying!"

Loz looked like he was about to cry. "But I…" he started.

She blushed when she noticed a little tear in his left eye. "Oh my god, don't tell you're going to cry again! This is the eleventh time since the first!"

He held back his tears and stared at the ground.

Theris bit her tongue, feeling uncomfortable. She looked away, irritated by each minute. If my legs weren't like this, I would have walked away many times by now! She breathed through her nose, frustrated.

"It's not like I feel guilty about it," Loz mumbled.

"Bennett does a better job than you anyway," she quickly said. "You know, since he told us yesterday that he used to be a 'minor' doctor back in his younger days. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't really know how to keep my legs from hurting. Therefore, he's more useful than you."

Loz sighed in frustration and stood up with an angry grunt. He walked away, heading back to the front of the boat to the door that leads down the boat.

"Hello, Zack?" Kadaj was on the phone. He sat on a wooden chair with his legs on the worn out table.

The cabin was about fifteen feet in both length and width. The only things in this room were a round table in the center, six wooden chairs, and six beds along side of the walls.

Loz glanced to his left. Yazoo was staring off into space, entirely bored with nothing to do. All he was doing was leaning against the wall on his back and arms crossed.

"I thought Kadaj didn't want to call Zack," Loz said, walking up to Yazoo.

Yazoo shrugged. "Since you went up to the deck, he's been trying to get a hold of our father wannabe. I didn't ask why."

Kadaj sighed. "Shut up. Stop talking as if we have been away for too long. How's mother doing?" he asked, concerned.

"That could be why," Yazoo said. He was rather worry about their mother too since Kadaj had told them that she had some kind of weird illness before they left the little village in the forest.

"Oh, right," Loz remembered. He had been too distressed with Theris that he had forgotten his mother. Loz walked up to Kadaj and leaned in to hear the conversation on the phone.

Kadaj stood up, "What do you mean you're not looking after her?!"

"Calm down," Zack laughed nervously. "Cloud's with her. Tifa and I just went to find something to eat out here in the wild."

"Zack, there's an apple tree over there," Tifa's voice was distant. "I'll go and get some."

Kadaj and Loz were shock. "Why did you leave brother alone with mother?" Kadaj asked, whispering.

Yazoo's ears picked up and he walked over to huddle and listen to the phone.

"Mom told me that she liked brother," Kadaj said, sounding a bit upset. "More than a LIKE too!"

Zack chuckled. "What do you mean? Oh, Tifa! There's a monster up in that tree!"

"Hey, wait a second, you father wannabe!" Kadaj shouted angrily.

"Sorry, call again later when you get some information," Zack quickly said. Then he hung up.

The three silver haired guys stood in silence. Kadaj slowly put his cell phone away and looked at Yazoo and Loz with an uncomfortable look. "This is bad," he finally said.

"I know what you mean," Yazoo nodded, rubbing his chin. "Our brother and mother… alone together… and they like each other."

Loz glared and formed his hands into fists. "That's just wrong! What if our brother makes a move on mother? That's… that's…!"

"Forbidden," Yazoo finished for him.

Kadaj walked around in circles, troubled. "If only I have wings! I would fly over and interrupt them! Damn it!" he said, cursing under his breath. He looked at Yazoo and Loz with determined eyes. "Guys, we have to hurry and get this mission done in the Dark Mist Town! Then after that, we head straight to the capital to meet up with them!"

"How do you plan on stopping them?" Yazoo inquired. As much as he agreed with Kadaj there had to be a bulletproof plan.

"Why don't we pretend to be kidnappers and take mother away?" Loz suggested.

Kadaj shook his head. "No, I got a better idea. You know that girl, Theris, has a thing towards Zack, right? Let's get her and Zack together."

"What?" Yazoo asked. "I thought father wannabe likes mother."

"Let me finish," Kadaj hissed. "Mother likes Zack too right? Let's get her jealous of Theris so that way she'll realize how much she likes Zack. Then she'll tell our brother that she really wants to be with Zack… as much as I dislike him being our father, but it is the only way."

Yazoo nodded, "I see. What do you think, Loz?"

The two stared at Loz's face. He was speechless and shock. His mouth was half open. He realized they were waiting for his reply and he shook his head to snap out of it. "Theris… uh… I'm not sure," he said.

"Do you have any better suggestions?" Kadaj half glared at him. "We still have time to think this over before getting to town, but…"

Loz slightly nodded back and forth. "It's fine, it's fine… we'll go with that plan," he said.

"You don't want Theris to be near Zack, huh?" Yazoo asked, seeing right through him.

"I… no!" Loz said. He turned his back on them. "That's not what I'm thinking about. As if I like that ruthless woman. Speaking of which, she should probably get back inside. Who knows how long she has been out there. She'll catch a cold!" Loz quickly left outside.

Kadaj and Yazoo exchanged empty looks. "Maybe we should go with another plan," Yazoo suggested. "I don't think he wants that girl and that father wannabe together."

"Loz said it was alright," Kadaj protested with a smirk.

"Then how are you going to get the two of them together…?" Yazoo questioned.

He smirked again, "We'll think of something."

The clouds in the sky were starting to gather slowly. Loz stood at the door, staring at the dark sky. It was still in the early morning but he noticed it was not getting any brighter for a while now. He groaned, rubbing the back of his head. He never got used to the green sky in this world. He just felt colorblind.

Then he heard a stomach growling.

He walked around the boat and Theris was blushing in embarrassment. "Do you want something to eat?" he asked, walking up to her with caution. She could hit him at any time. Through passing time, he found out that she didn't like it when people heard her stomach growling. A couple of times she got angry and denied that she were hungry. She even hit people because of it.

"I'm picky about what I eat," she said, avoiding his eyes. She lifted her head to look up at the dark sky. "I think something's wrong with the clouds."

"I think so too," he sighed. "Why don't you come back inside?"

"Bad news!" Bennett shouted. He walked down the little stairs. Up there where he was controlling the boat. "A storm's coming this way!"

"What?" Loz angrily looked at him. "You said the storm wouldn't be coming for a few weeks, didn't you? It was only been two to three days since we left the land!"

"Hey, I ain't God," Bennett stated, walking around to gather equipments. "Go back inside. The wind gets pretty tough and can blow a person off… which would be after an hour."

Loz grabbed Theris in his arms and started to walk off. She called, "What about you Bennet?"

"I'll be fine!" he assured with a wave.

Back down into the small room, Loz set Theris on one of the beds.

"What's wrong?" Kadaj asked. He was back on the chair with his legs on the table. He was bored with nothing to do now. There was round brown bug on the table and he had been torturing it with tiny wooden sticks.

"The man said a storm was heading this way," Loz explained.

"Huh," Yazoo said. He was not sure to take it seriously or not. The wind started to pick up and blowing around them. He went to shut the door close.

Lying on the bed, Theris pulled the blanket over her. Last night she could not sleep because of the pain in her legs. She felt so tired and closed her eyes to take a nap. I hope the storm will be over by the time I wake up… She thought soundly.