The Pack
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN KH CHARACTERS! It makes me want to cry!
I have to say, AkuRokuStalker, I LOVE YOU! Your reviews make me smile! This one's for you!
Chapter 19
When we finally got to the bakery, Zell was fidgeting with excitement. Suddenly, Zell ripped himself from the hands he was holding and zoomed towards the bakery.
"Zell, come back! And slow down before you bump into-" There was a splattering sound as someone's coffee fell to the floor. "Someone." I finished.
I heard Squall growl under his breath and Zell stiffened at the sound.
"Zell! What did Cloud just say?" Squall asked.
"He said to slow down before I bump into someone." Zell replied nervously.
"And what did you do?" Squall continued.
"I kept running and then I bumped into someone." Zell said sounding guilty.
"Apologize to the man right now!" Squall snapped. Zell looked at the man he had bumped into and said in a very quiet voice, "I'm very sorry."
The man patted Zell on the head and said, "It's quite alright, son."
Zell, go to the table over there and sit quietly. Squall thought.
I walked over to the man and apologized again. "My son gets very excited and can't help himself. I will personally get you another half-caff coffee." I added.
The man looked a little surprised, probably because I'm sixteen and I have a kid. "You must work here." He said. I nodded and moved behind the counter. When I heard the kitchen door open, I turned to see Tidus covered in flour.
"I thought you said you had the flu?" Tidus said incredulously.
"I had symptoms of the flu, but I didn't exactly have it. I'll explain it once I get this nice man a cup of coffee." I said with a smile.
The man walked over to the counter. "Your son is very well spoken for such a youngster. I was very surprised. He doesn't look any older than four." He said.
"Thank you very much, sir. He learns very quickly." I said, feeling my chest swell up with pride at the complement. "Here's your coffee, sir. Please come again." I added. He nodded, taking his coffee before leaving.
"Explain, right now. When the fuck did you get a kid?" Tidus asked looking completely puzzled.
"Can you get Naminé out of the kitchen first?" I'm sure she wants to know as well." I said.
Tidus nodded and moved to the back. About a second later, Naminé comes out of the room looking excited.
"What are you so happy about?" I asked.
She shrugged. "I just had a really good feeling about what you are about to tell us. Call it women's intuition." She said.
I nodded and pointed over to Zell who was sitting quietly. Squall was watching him so I assumed it was some sort of time out for being reckless. "You see that little boy over there? That's Zell and he's always been my kid. Ever since Squall and I saved him from the pet store." I said.
"What? I thought Zell was a little white puppy!" Tidus said. He seemed to be having trouble wrapping his head around the concept of Loup Garou.
"He is, but he got his human form this morning. And when a baby Loup Garou gets his or her human form, the mother get's affected as well." I explained.
"And it affected you?" Tidus asked.
"Yes." I said.
Tidus and Naminé suddenly burst out laughing. Naminé was leaning over the table in hysterics and Tidus was holding his stomach as he laughed.
"And what is so funny?" I asked.
"Dude, even nature itself knows you are a mother living inside of a man's body! Oh man, that's hilarious!" Tidus laughed out.
"We're not laughing at you. We just find the circumstance to be highly amusing." Naminé said after her moment of hysterical laughter. "So you're okay now?" she asked.
"Yep. And when I tell you the pain was unbearable… I had never been in so much pain in my entire life. But it really was worth it. Because now Zell is a healthy, growing Loup Garou." I said.
"Can he come over here? I really want to see him up close." Naminé asked.
"Squall?" I asked. He looked to Zell, behave, he thought. Zell nodded and moved over to me slowly. His head was down and his overall demeanor looked dejected.
"Zell, didn't you want to come and see Naminé? She wants to play with you." I said to him when he finally got to me.
Zell didn't say a word. He lifted his arms up and tugged on my shirt. He wanted me to pick him up. I lifted him and he immediately wrapped him arms around me. He then hid his face in my neck. I frowned when I heard him whimper quietly.
"Is he okay?" Tidus asked.
I nodded. "He's just upset because he got scolded by his dad." I said.
"And that's Squall?" Naminé asked.
"Yeah. Zell, you wouldn't have gotten scolded if you had listened to me in the first place." I said and rubbed his back. I could feel his tears on my shoulder.
"Aww, come on Zell. You're a big boy right?" I asked.
Zell nodded, his face was still hiding in my neck. I placed him on top of the counter and he tried to stay latched to me. I gently pulled him off.
I looked at his faced and it was flushed. His eyes were still watery so I took a napkin and wiped his face. "If you're a big boy, then why are you crying? Big boy's don't cry?" I said.
Zell immediately wiped away all of his tears and took a deep breath.
"There we go, that's my big boy! You know, there's a lot to learn about this situation. You wanna give me an example?" I asked.
"Listen to Mommy?" Zell asked.
I nodded. "Mmmhmm, what else?" I asked.
"Don't run inside." He said.
"Yeah, and if there's one thing I learned about running, it's to always watch where you're going!" I said and kissed him on the cheek before giving him a raspberry.
Zell laughed and pushed me away. "Is there anything else?" I asked.
"Squall is mean." Zell said.
There was a pang in my chest, but it wasn't my own.
It was Squall's.
There was a moment of silence where I didn't know what to say. I blinked a couple of times quickly before I spoke. "That's not true. You shouldn't say things like that." I said in a serious tone.
Zell looked down and I put my hand on his hat. "Naminé still wants to play with you. We'll talk about this later." I placed him back on the floor and he walked over to Naminé.
"Hi Naminé!" he said in a cheerier voice. "You smell like flowers!" Zell added and hugged her leg.
"I do?" Naminé picked up Zell and he giggled.
"Yes and you're pretty like Mommy!" he said and I laughed.
"You have to compare me to a girl, Zell?" I asked.
Naminé and Zell giggled. "Yes!" They said together.
I shook my head at them and started to move towards the kitchen. Tidus stopped me on the way there.
"Everything is in the oven. The croissants come out in twenty minutes, the other stuff comes out later because Naminé didn't want to wait for the frozen fruit to thaw!" Tidus accused.
"I did it for a reason you jerk! The pastries taste better when you cook them longer with the frozen fruit. Don't listen to Tidus, he's a noob." Naminé said in her defense. I laughed at their bickering and moved back to my previous spot near the counter.
"What's a noob?" Zell asked with a puzzled face.
"It just means a person who doesn't know a lot about something because he or she are new at it." I answered.
"Well, thanks guys… I've definitely worked here longer than both of you so you two can shut up now." Tidus said.
"Tidus isn't a noob, he smells like sugar." Zell outstretched his hands towards Tidus. Naminé handed Zell over and Tidus took him… but he held him at a distance.
"My son isn't a parasite!" I said with a scoff. I wasn't really mad with Tidus because I knew he hated kids, but still…
Tidus reluctantly brought Zell closer to him and I laughed when Zell hugged himself closer. "I like you. You're funny!" Zell said with a giggle.
"What makes me so funny?" Tidus asked. Zell was really enjoying himself, I could see his tail wagging through his overalls.
"You act like you don't like me, but you really think I'm cute. I can sense it!" Zell said.
Naminé and I laughed at Tidus' flustered face. Leave it to my son Zell to rip Tidus to pieces. Tidus was never really all that good at expressing 'unmanly' feelings. But Zell wasn't going to let him get away with keeping them hidden.
"Now you're embarrassed. The blood is rushing to your face and your heart rate is quickening." Zell said.
Naminé and I laughed some more. "Could you not expose my personal feelings like that?" Tidus asked Zell with an unpleasant look.
Zell looked down seemingly feeling guilty. "I'm sorry." He said in a sad voice.
"Tidus, that was mean! You should be apologizing to Zell! He was only being honest, unlike yourself." Naminé said.
"Alright, alright! I'm sorry, kid. Just don't do that anymore." Tidus said.
Zell smiled. "Okay!" he said and licked the side of Tidus' face. "You taste like sugar too!" Zell finished.
Tidus handed Zell back to me with a frown. "You can have him back now."
"He just gave you a kiss and you're rejecting him? That's cruel." I said with a laugh. "You know, in Loup Garou culture a lick on the face is the purest declaration of love." I said, stifling my giggles.
Tidus sputtered for a second before I took Zell from him and set him on the ground. Zell moved back over to Naminé and looked up at us as we talked.
"I don't think that would work out seeing as I'm eighteen and he's like four." Tidus said.
"Actually, he's only one." I said with a smirk.
"Well, he looks like a four year old." Tidus said.
"By the way, how old are you Squall?" I asked.
"The same age as you, sixteen." Squall answered.
Tidus, Naminé, and I all dropped our jaws at his answer. "You're kidding ri- no… you wouldn't joke about that. You definitely look older than that." I said.
"We grow much quicker than humans. We're old enough to rear children at age ten." Squall said. "We also stop aging at twenty, so whatever we look like at age twenty will be what we look like when we die." He added.
"Damn, I wish that could happen to me…" I said. "That's so strange that you are actually my age. You certainly don't act like a sixteen year old male. But I don't care about that anyway. It's just surprising." I said.
Squall just nodded and looked out of the window. 'Are you okay?' I wondered.
Yes, I'm fine. He replied before adding. I'm just listening.
I nodded and looked to the door. Customers were approaching. I looked down at Zell. "Zell, why don't you go back over to your Dad. Mommy has to go back to work." I said.
Zell whined and shook his head. "I don't wanna." He said.
"Zell, I don't have time for this. Go now." I said firmly. Zell finally got the message and stomped over to the back table. I could see that Squall was getting a little aggravated with Zell. And to honest, what he had said earlier was irking me.
I moved to the kitchen and removed the croissants out of the oven. The other things would need another ten minutes. I placed the parties in a nice basket and moved to the front to put them in the display window.
"I would like a coffee and… one of those." A lady said and pointed to the basket I had in my hands.
I smiled. "Be careful when I give it to you. It's coming straight from the oven." I said and put it in a back for her. I handed her the back and she took it carefully. "Thank you." She said.
"You're welcome, please come again." I said and I waited for Tidus to take another person's order. Naminé was wiping the tables clean when I heard the next order.
It was a simple chai tea so I moved to fill a cup with hit water and place the tea bag in it. I placed the top on the cup and handed it to the customer. She thanks me and I nodded.
"Mommy! Can I have one too?" Zell asked from across the room. Rather loudly.
Some of the customers looked over to Naminé with questionable looks. I sighed.
Zell. Squall thought and Zell immediately quieted, looking guilty again.
"Zell, I need you to be quiet okay? Mommy's working right now." I said.
ALL of the customers gave me a weird looks. I shrugged them off and continued working.
I don't like the way they just looked at you. Can I kill them?" Squall asked.
'Sorry, love. You know the rules. No killing the humans.' I thought as I continued to work.
When I finished the espresso someone had ordered. I looked to find the man leaving the bakery. I ran out of the door to catch him. "Sir! You forgot your coffee." I said.
"I don't take coffee from freaks. Get away from me." He said harshly.
I frowned. Damn… that hurt. I blinked before shaking it off. I took a sip of the espresso and smiled. "Nice doing business with ya!" I said before going back into the bakery.
I could feel Squall's anger radiating from him. I smiled. "I'm okay. Don't worry about it."
Zell started whining. "Mommy's sad again!" he cried tears coming to his eyes.
Zell for the last time, stop it! Squall snapped.
Zell wiped his eyes and sat quietly. I moved behind the counter and finished with everyone's orders. Some decided to stay and others left with their purchases in hand. I sighed and moved back over to Zell. He looked really upset.
I picked him up and moved to the back. I placed him on the kitchen counter and starter crying again. "Mommy is sad and Squall is mean!" he sobbed.
"It makes me sad that you think that your dad is mean. It even makes your dad sad." I explained.
"But he always sn-snaps at me!" he added.
"That's because when you are with humans, you have to be really careful about what you say and do." I explained. "He's only making sure that you're safe."
"But he doesn't like me and he never lets me cry." Zell said.
"That's not true. You're father loves you more than anything. But it's his duty as your father to rear you as what you really are. You are Loup Garou and that means you have to be tough and strong. You have to be able to hunt and run and protect. It's the coolest thing ever. But you can't become a well rounded Loup Garou if you're crying all the time. And it's not only your father that wants you to be who you are, I want it too." I said.
"Well if being Loup Garou means being cruel like Squall, then I don't want to be one!" Zell yelped.
There was a crashing sense of pain that enveloped my heart at that moment. I knew Squall was really upset by that statement.
And so was I.
"Don't you ever say that again. Do you hear me?" I said in an asserted tone. I was actually mad at Zell for such an irresponsible and selfish statement. "You are going to sit at the table with your dad QUIETLY until my shift is over. I don't want to hear a peep out of you, got it?" I said angrily.
Zell seemed surprised by my sudden anger but then realized what he had said. He knew it was bad and so he silently got off the counter and moved out of the kitchen.
I sighed and leaned against the counter. I couldn't feel bad about scolding Zell. He needed to know how terrible his words were. I covered my face but turned quickly when the door opened again.
"Mommy?" Zell said in the quietest voice.
"Yes, Zell?" I asked, irritated.
"I'm sorry…" he said,
"Do you understand, Zell? I don't think you do yet." I said.
"Mommy?" he said again.
"What?" I asked.
"Squall… dad isn't at the back table anymore. He left." Zell said.
I covered my face again. "Alright." I said. "Stay by me okay?" I said.
Zell nodded.
I hope your okay Squall… I thought mostly to myself.
A/N: Hopefully that wasn't too evil! REVIEW!