Penance

©®™ Lt. Commander Richie

((Disclaimer:If things seem odd, I'm playing the original game. I'm also making bootleg Magic: The Gathering cards. Not saying how, but it is the best program EVAR.))

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at Studio Idiot Horse, Lt. Commander Richie included. Let me just note this: I hate Mandragoras. With a passion. They look like Greens with legs. I want to catch one and feed it to a Chocobo.

Chapter 22

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!" Everyone sang, the chorus joined by everyone but Vincent. He sat next to Mira, who looked almost deliriously happy with a piece of homemade cherry pie with seven candles in it on her plate. The diner hadn't had any cake in its small dessert box, only a few slices of a meager pie. It was nearly unanimous that Mira would get a slice, though, and everyone else elected to let her be the only one. "Happy birthday, dear Mira! Happy birthday to you!"

Mira took a deep breath and blew out the candles, nearly blowing over several other things on the table and sending wax everywhere. With a quick hand, Vincent pulled the candles from the slice and handed the seven-year-old her fork. "Well done." He nodded, a slight smile gracing his features. Fork in hand, Mira dug into her pie with gusto, nearly-caramelized cherries falling slowly from the fork-shaped gashes in the hardened sides of the confection.

"Is there anywhere he could be?" Cloud whispered, and Reeve gave a shrug.

"Cait Sith could be anywhere. He may have even deactivated himself and gotten himself adopted by a little girl." With a final sigh and a small burp that she covered with one hand, Mira finished her pie. She pushed her plate away, where it collided with the pile of dishes that she and Cloud had managed to accumulate.

"Let's go look, then. It wouldn't hurt anybody if we snooped around looking for him, right?" Yuffie asked, waving for the check. A waitress quickly brought it, and the Ninja looked around the table. "I'm not paying for all this, I hope you know." She said frankly, setting the booklet on a clear spot in the middle of the table. "So cough up."

With muttered words and a smattering of nearly-silent curses, a pile of Gil quickly formed in the middle of the table. After it was counted twice and bundled around the loose change, the booklet was closed and set to the side.

"Lil' Kitty's missing?" Mira finally asked, surprised. Reeve nodded, fiddling mindlessly with his PHS.

"Cait Sith ran off yesterday, and now I'm at a loss for finding him." He supplied, stowing the cellular in one of the pockets of his blue coat and leaning onto the tablecloth.

"Well then, let's go find him!" The seven-year-old pumped a fist into the air, vibrant blue eyes shining wildly. A smirk played itself across the lips of many of the people at the table, and Cloud was the first to speak. He stood, pulling Mira from her chair and setting her on his shoulder.

"You're making more sense than the rest of us." The blond nodded, and the two headed towards the door. Vincent stood, Yuffie and Cid following. Reeve was next up, then Tifa and Nanaki. Marlene grabbed Denzel by his shirt sleeve, pulling until he acquiesced to her constant berating to stand and leave. Barret followed behind the two, tugging Marlene away from the half-empty dish of candy at the front podium as they passed it. Out in the morning air, their breaths misted in front of their faces and their fingers curled into fists to keep warm. Mira looked around, unaffected by the cold by the same means as Cloud and Vincent. Her breath misted out and blew into her face in a sudden gust of wind, and she pointed down one of the streets.

"Can I go thattaway?" She asked, clambering down Cloud's arm and using his many belts as footholds.

"I'll go with you, kiddo!" Yuffie said, bounding forward and grasping one of the seven-year-old's hands with her own. Mira nodded, and the two set off.

"Ah'll be goin' along wit Vince'n Barret, righ'?" Cid asked, chewing on the filter of the cigarette in his mouth. The blond swordsman nodded, and the three set off in the opposite direction from the first group.

"Denzel, Marlene, will you two be alright together?" Tifa leaned down to see eye-to-eye with the two children, and they nodded.

"I've got Denzel to protect me." Marlene smiled widely, latching herself onto the older boy's arm.

"Yeah, but who will protect me?" He muttered, barely heard over the whistling wind as Marlene led him away from what was left of the group. Nanaki looked up at Cloud and Tifa, his nose twitching in the cold.

"I smell something that smells a bit like Cait Sith. If you would follow me?" The red lion asked, and the two nodded and followed him as he took a running leap down the street.

"So, kiddo, you still wanna be a Ninja?" Yuffie looked up at Mira, who was sitting on her shoulders. The seven-year-old nodded, smiling wildly. Her breath misting into her face, she looked around her higher vantage point in an attempt to find the missing stuffed toy.

"O'course!" She said, finally looking down at her current mode of transportation. "You're my fav'rite teacher!" The Kunoichi smiled and laughed, lifting Mira off her shoulders and setting her on the ground.

"Well then, your favorite teacher, Yuffie-Senpai, the world's greatest Ninja, is going to teach you how to walk on walls!" Mira pumped both fists into the air, shouting with glee. "That way, we can look for Cait Sith a lot faster."

"Li'l Kitty's 'round here somewhere, right?" Mira paused and asked, watching intently as her Ninja teacher put one foot on the wall nearest to them, then the other, and then started walking. At the roof of the single-story house, Yuffie turned so that she was looking straight down.

"Well, he's probably still in town, so let's get cracking on this!" She exclaimed, pushing herself from the wall and executing a flip before landing on both feet. Mira clapped wildly, her smile wide and full of teeth. "Start by focusing your energy into your feet."

Mira closed her eyes, trying to push her energy to her feet. She couldn't feel anything happening, and opened her eyes again. "I can't do it." She muttered, crossing her arms and sitting down on the ground.

"Well that's because you haven't been doing this since you were born." Yuffie smiled, and picked the seven-year-old and put her on her shoulders. "C'mon, let's go find that stinkin' cat." With a sudden tensing she jumped to the roof of the building, taking a running leap and landing on the roof of the next.

"Nice shiner." The girl at the counter idly snapped her gum, leaning on the counter with her head resting on one hand. "What'd you do, walk into a wall?" She sighed and switched her head to her other hand, snapping her gum again. Her uniform was garish, a light pink with a clashing red ascot, all of which clashed even more violently with her short blue Emo-cut hair. A long tuft of hair fell over one eye and tangled in her glasses, constantly in danger of being caught in her gum.

"Two Chocobo burgers and a lump of raw burger meat." Cloud's order was a little more surprising than the mundane, but the girl took it in stride. She snapped her gum and straightened her back, her one visible eye rolling.

"Unless you have a large animal to feed, I really can't sell that to you." She said, blowing a bubble and then sucking it back up. "And even then, I'm supposed to refer you to the pet shop down the street."

"I'm in a hurry, and I'm not going to feed one of my friends pet food." The blond said, leaning on the counter to see eye-to-eye with the girl. She wrinkled her nose and took a sniff, covering her face with her hands afterwards.

"You smell like you haven't taken a shower in a week. Please, sir, you're going to scare off the customers. The lunch rush is a busy time..." She trailed off, peering around the swordsman into the nearly-empty burger joint, and snapped her gum again.

"Just give me my order and we'll be on our way."

"We?" The girl looked perplexed, this time walking a few steps and peering over the counter and out the door, her eyes coming to rest on the two standing outside. Tifa and Nanaki both sat on the curb, having what appeared to be a polite conversation. "Fine." She muttered, and blew another bubble. This time it popped, and bits of violet gum went everywhere. She screamed, picking gum from the flip of hair over her eye with nimble fingers. Behind him, Cloud heard a light jingle, but he didn't stop watching the girl try to pull gum from her face.

"Ienzo! Did you pop gum in your hair again?" A blond in the same uniform peered over the back counter through the unplugged burger warmer, and her face lit up. "Hey, customers!" In a few moves the blond was around to the front counter, braids flying every which way. The blue-haired girl muttered darkly, pulling at the gum as she walked around the back counter.

"You know, service would be nice." Cloud muttered, crossing his arms. The blond, beaded braids falling in her face, looked up from where she was scratching at a coffee stain and smiled widely.

"Sorry about that!" She straightened up, adjusting her handwritten nametag with one hand so that it was straight. It was patterned with marker hearts around a bright blue name that was so flourished it was barely readable. "She's new. What can I get you folks?"

"Where's the Peanut Butter?" The blond whirled around, sticking her head through the burger warmer.

"Right where it was yesterday!" She yelled, turning back and smiling sweetly. "So... Welcome to Burger Barn, home of the quarter-pound Chocobo Burger! How may I help you?" She recited, her hands hovering over the register.

"Two Chocobo burgers and... How much meat?" Cloud asked, looking down at Nanaki questioningly. The lion put his paws up on the counter, the fluorescent light glinting off his golden bangles and various Materia clips.

"About a pound will suffice." He said, and the girl faltered for a moment before nodding.

"For here, or to go?" She asked, rapidly pushing buttons and printing a receipt.

"To go." Tifa confirmed, smiling warmly at the girl. The blond nodded, and returned to the burger warmer.

"Ienzo! Two Chocobo Burgers and a raw one-pound patty!" She yelled, then paused, as though she was staring at something. "No, you doofus! Mayonnaise is for getting out skunk stink! The peanut butter is for gum in your hair!" Braids flinging everywhere, the girl smiled widely and then ran around the back counter to help her friend and to prepare the food. A few minutes of uncomfortable silence passed, a few curses coming from behind the counter as one of the girls managed to break something. Finally, the blond came back with a large paper bag and a plastic bag, putting them both down on the counter. The plastic bag made more of a plop, but all-together they smelled rather nice.

"Your total is twenty-seven Gil, please have a nice day." She said, reading from the receipt in the register. She ripped it away and stuffed it in the paper bag, taking the money offered and placing it in the till. With a nod, the trio left the small burger joint, the bell on the door tinkling merrily as the doors closed.

"That was definitely odd." Tifa said, sitting down on the curb and pulling her burger from her bag. Cloud nodded in agreement, setting Nanaki's sack of meat down on the curb next to him as he sat down and reached into the bag. He unwrapped his burger, taking a large bite. Nanaki dug into his own meat, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing and taking another bite.

"I'll call Reeve after this." Cloud nodded and took another bite of his burger, not so much for taste as for warmth since the day had yet to warm up even at noon.

"About them, or Cait?" Tifa asked, puzzled. She sat her burger down on its wrappings, sucking some sauce off of one of her fingers. "These things are so messy, I can't understand how Cid can possibly eat one of these without getting the sauce everywhere."

"Cait. I'll see if there's been any change in his whereabouts." The blond finished his burger and stuffed the wrapping into the paper bag, picking up the empty and ripped plastic bag that had housed Nanaki's patty and doing the same to it. He held out the bag, and Tifa stuffed her burger's wrappings into it with a shove. Cloud balled the trash into a lump and threw it into the nearest trashcan, a small plant-like creature with spindly legs and arms crawling out and hissing at him for invading its personal space. Tifa stood, sucking the last little bit of sauce from her fingers, and the trio headed down the sidewalk. In passing, Cloud gave the little Mandragora a hearty shove back into the trashcan, the plant squeaking and landing in the trash with a thump.

"Maybe we should check up on Marlene and Denzel." Tifa said, going for her PHS. Only then did she realize that she had left it at Seventh Heaven, and she turned to Cloud. "Let's find them, maybe they've found Cait."

"They're fine on their own, it's not as if this town is going anywhere." Nanaki assured, butting Tifa's hand with his head. She smiled and scratched him behind his ears, and he shook her hand off. "Besides, Denzel is a courageous boy. He'll protect Marlene." The lion noted, giving what passed on him as a smile.

"He's right." Cloud nodded, and pointed down an adjacent street. "We haven't tried there yet. C'mon." He gave something that was almost part of a smile, and took Tifa by the hand. The two turned the corner, Nanaki following behind.

I swear to you, I JUST wrote this. As in, like, post at 12:30 AM, finished at 12:20. Maaaan, I had a panic attack there for a minute. You want an answer as to the Burger Barn part? Simple! I had sloppy joes on the mind, and I watched an emo pop gum into her hair. Yes, I understand that in cameo-ing both Rikku and Ienzo I made Ienzo a girl, but I really don't care. It's funnier. As in, comic relief.

I think I have a vendetta against Chocobos. Must be because it took me seven tries to stop scaring the damnable things off when I went to catch one to pass over the swamps. I almost got caught by the Midgar Zolom at one point, too. It was pretty funny, I saw the giant snake coming towards me and all of a sudden I'm screaming 'No, no LEFT you STUPID GIANT CHICKEN!'

If you can't tell, I got FFVII. I feel happy. Especially since I'm about to go get Vincent out of that moldy old coffin. Had to go all the way back to Junon from Corel because I forgot Yuffie. HOW DO YOU FORGET YUFFIE? YUFFIE. I feel unloyal to my own fandom.

Oh, and happy birthday to Yuffie, whose birthday was on the twentieth.