Summary: What to do when you're a pair of bored twelve year olds?
As it turns out, Aridai barely had to lay on the charm for them to be released early.
The SOLDIERs left them at the hospital so they could be taken care of before their release.
Angeal had brought some clothes the two could change into, bringing a few pairs of shoes for them so they aren't wandering around in socks.
Ariana and Aridai are brought back to the SOLDIER barracks that the Firsts were living in, so they could take a proper shower.
Both children are outfitted with white t-shirts and a black jacket for the nippy weather, and combat pants.
The Firsts wouldn't be flown back to Midgar till the end of the week, which gave the twins a few days before they were officially under Shinra's domain.
Ariana pouted at the loss of the broadsword, her hands clenching as if she wished she was holding something.
"I'm booorreeedd," she whined, clicking her tongue when Aridai pokes her.
"Ana…" the boy sighed, "You've been complaining ever since we destroyed the manor. Our parents are just busy, that's all."
"Yeah, I guess. And Genesis did lend me one of his extra copies of Loveless," Ariana muttered, before picking up a notepad and pen that was left out.
The twins were in a recreational area with a small library section, with a brightly red haired Turk watching them.
'Babysitting duty, more like' the Turk had muttered.
Ariana started drawing a recreation of an experiment she was fond of, back in the labs, before their escape. Unfortunately, it also had a taste for human flesh, which meant that they had to kill it after wiping out the other experiments.
"Whatcha drawing?" a curious voice asked, and the girl looked up to see a curious pair of blue-green eyes staring at her.
It was…Reno? He was a red headed teen that had hair even brighter than Genesis'.
"One of the animal experiments that Hojo made," Ariana answered, "I had to put it down after it got a taste for human flesh."
"Holy shit, yo," the older teen muttered, looking over the drawing.
"There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the Goddess. Hero of the Dawn, Healer of Worlds. Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul, pride is lost, wings stripped away," Ariana muttered, shading in a hind leg.
"Urgh, just go lift some weights or something," Aridai groaned, shifting in his chair that he was lounging on sideways.
"I have a better idea," Ariana put the pen down, standing up.
Then she approached her brother, grabbing him by the legs and his shoulder before lifting him in the air above her head.
"Ana!? Let me go!" Aridai started flailing slightly, caught off guard by the manhandling.
"You are definitely a weight," Ariana simply stated, a grin coming to her face, "And I haven't bench pressed you in forever. When I do it in spars, it doesn't count."
"Put. Me. Down," Aridai gritted out when his sister just made a happy noise.
"Say please~!" Ariana teased.
"Put me down. Please."
"Righto!"
The girl lowered him, so his feet were a few scant inches above the floor, before letting go.
"You are a menace to little brothers everywhere," Aridai huffed, fixing his shirt, which had slipped to show his stomach.
"Uh huh, and you're the best at sneaking around," Ariana rolled her eyes, "Little ghost."
"Not my fault people are blind," Aridai grumbled back, "Urgh, now I'm bored too. Want to spar?"
"Can we? Father said we should behave," Ariana reminded him, opting to gloss over the whole 'bench pressing my little brother' thing.
Twin mako green stares looked up at their supervisory Turk, who had been taken aback by the pleading expressions of the twins.
"Mister Reno, Ana and I want to spar somewhere. Can we?" Aridai laid on the kitty eyes really thick, the edges of his pupils rounding with the motion.
"Uhh—sure," the Turk had a helpless look on his face, feeling a bit out of his depth.
Luckily, it seemed like nearly every Shinra facility had some sort of training room.
This particular base had a gym-like auditorium, with padded walls and a hardwood floor. One one side were practice weapons, mostly wooden replicas to avoid creating too many needs for Cures. There was also a rack of blunted metal weapons as well, for those who were a little more reckless, with their own respective holsters and belts.
When they arrived at the room, Ariana made a beeline towards the blunted weapons, considering her options. She picked up a metal broadsword, the blade nearly half as long as the girl herself. The preteen took the sheath and corresponding belt too, strapping it over her abdomen.
Her brother went along before picking up a pair of sheathed blunted kukris, testing the weight in his hands. The holsters were then belted to his waist, fitting snugly enough that they didn't fall.
Ariana practiced some katas, swinging the sword in a one handed grip, then two. She also stretched, doing a standing backflip while holding onto the weapon. The girl then did some more stretches to warm up her muscles, hopping from foot to foot, before doing another crazy movement to get her muscles ready.
Aridai, on the other hand, did no flashy practice moves, throwing the kukris in the air before catching them by the handle and weighing them for a few minutes. He went through the motions of catching and releasing the short weapons, before stopping, holding them in a reverse grip. He seemed to be analyzing the length of the kukri's blade compared to his own arm length and calculating the added reach.
After ten minutes of warm ups, Ariana and Aridai both locked gazes, moving so they were standing ten feet apart, their weapons sheathed for the time being.
"Normal rules?" Aridai asked first, and his sister nodded, "Alright."
Sizing each other up, they snapped into action.
Ariana moved first, running, and swinging a tight punch straight at her brother's chest, Aridai dodging her attack in a smooth motion to the side.
When the girl overextended, the boy made a strike with an open palm to her sternum, pushing Ariana backwards and nearly off her feet.
Grunting, Ariana kicked out with her left foot, her arms falling down to catch her mass on the floor so she could dish out more force, and caught her brother straight to the shoulder, knocking the breath out of him.
Ariana flipped back in a half cartwheel, regaining her bearings. She fell into a fighting pose, rocking on her feet before doing a running high jump kick that her brother could only dodge at the last second, the boy huffing as his sister sailed behind him.
Pulling his kukris out, he caught his sister's blade, which had been unsheathed in the time he was turning around.
The broadsword's blade was caught in both kukri's wells, the blunted edges scraping each other with the force.
Aridai's blades were parallel to each other, not allowing any give, and locking the two into a stalemate.
The boy attempted to kick out before the pressure of Ariana's blade disappeared, the girl hopping back, the sword raised high, and the flat planted on her right shoulder.
Aridai wasted no time in making the next move, metal clashing against metal as Ariana met his every strike.
Ariana swung around the broadsword as if it was an extension of her body, using it with one or two hands while playing around with her brother.
She danced around Aridai in quick movements, letting the weight of the sword sometimes take control of where she fell, and swinging to deflect the blades of her brother's kukris to where she wanted them to go.
The spar went on for a long twenty minutes, both children getting out of breath once the fifteen minute mark passed, sweat sticking their hair to their skin, and their clothes also becoming slightly sticky with the exercise.
Ariana seemed to have an inexhaustible amount of energy, while Aridai was more reserved in every motion, matching strike for strike as the fight grew longer.
By the end of it, Ariana had her brother pinned down, the broadsword's blade digging into the ground beside Aridai's neck.
"Yield," Ariana growled, her eyes glowing bright with mako. There's cuts that spanned her arms and hands, cutting into her clothing and thinly lined with bright red beads of blood.
Aridai's kukris had been knocked out of his hands, the boy's stamina not as strong as Ariana's. The poor blades are discarded sadly to the side, at least three feet away from his hands.
Speaking of his hands, Ariana had pinned his left arm down with her right leg, locking him in place with very little wiggle room to spare.
"Alright, alright, I give," Aridai rolls his eyes as his sister makes a happy huff, before getting off him, yanking the blade out of the floor.
"That's forty nine hits for me, and twenty four to you, little brother," she cheerfully swung the blade, so it rested on her shoulder.
"You messed up when we started," reminded Aridai, closing his eyes for a moment before pushing up against the floor, "Missing the first strike?"
"End result is the same," Ariana smiles with a little laugh, "I whooped your butt, Ari."
Aridai groaned while massaging his arms, grabbing the kukris where they fell by the wayside.
"You are too much," he muttered, slotting the blades back in their respective sheathes.
"You're just being a baby. It's not like I'm a behemoth or something," Ariana rolled her eyes, sheathing her borrowed broadsword.
Clapping rang out in the room, and both twins stopped to remember that there were witnesses. Namely, Reno, and Angeal, plus some other SOLDIERs who were training during their downtime.
"Impressive," the black haired First said instead of a greeting, walking towards them, "I was wondering where you two ran off to."
"Papa!" Ariana grinned, having long since warmed up to the tall, black haired man, and without taking the broadsword off, headed straight for him.
"Angeal," Aridai waved slightly, walking over to the man slowly, "Don't let Ana's cute face fool you either. She's a monster when it comes to stamina. I can barely feel my arms, legs, and my stomach."
Ariana tackled Angeal in a hug, before she blew a raspberry at her brother.
"Awww! You know I love you. It's just that sometimes you bring out my Cain Instinct."
"Wow, Ariana, thanks. I feel way better," Aridai crossed his arms, a very Sephiroth like frown planted on his face.
"Oh, don't look at me like that! Ari!" Ariana whined, letting go of Angeal so she could engulf Aridai in a tight hug.
"Urk! Can't—breathe!" the boy grunted, feeling his chest compress. He also staggered back, since Ariana didn't realize she still had the broadsword on her.
Come now, Ari. There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you. Even if I have to beat your ass when we spar. Ariana spoke through their link.
I know, I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
"Oh, oops!" Ariana let go, her brother shooting a dirty look at the girl.
"That was, that wasn't sincere at all!" Aridai sputtered, affronted by the lackluster apology.
Ariana waved the belt for the kukris in front of her brother's face, grinning at him. She had stolen it from him when she hugged him, unlatching the clip that held it closed.
"Kukris, huh, Ari?" she teased, pulling one out of its sheath, flipping and catching it by the handle, "I was a little surprised when you chose them."
"Unlike you, I don't like wielding big weapons. You do it because you're insane, Ariana," Aridai put his hands on his hips, "The sword's only a foot shorter than you are tall!"
Ariana just laughed, spinning the kukri in her hand, "Well, I think you're great with materia. You have an undeniable gift for Firaga. My friend, your desire, is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess."
"Ugh, more Loveless? Give it a rest, Ana."
"Never, little brother. I did use it as a bedtime story when we were little kids, so you should know it word for word," the girl smirked as Aridai rolled his eyes. Flipping the kukri again, she slipped the blade back into the holster.
"Yeah, now that you reminded me, I do. They were boring."
"Ari, you think fricken lab reports are more interesting than a love story."
"Don't most Loveless storylines end in tragedy?"
Ariana made an offended gasp, "You take that back! What is life without some love and pain?"
"Boring!"
"Boring."
Both twins said at the same time, Ariana with more enthusiasm, and Aridai in a deadpan.
"Exactly. Don't forget it, Ari."
The boy flipped a few Turk hand signals at his sister, which were really mostly twitches of his fingers.
"Yeah, I'm hungry too. Must've burned a few thousand during our spar," Ariana rolled her shoulders, "Hey, Papa Ange, Ari and I are starving."
To the side, Reno raised an eyebrow when he noticed the boy Aridai using common Turk hand gestures, and the fact that the girl understood them.
"Oh, and he doesn't want anything solid, so soup is a good idea," Ariana continued, following Angeal and Aridai with quick strides so she wouldn't be left behind, "Ari's guts probably can't handle heavy food after a spar. Something about how my hits make him queasy."
Aridai just makes another signal (situation abnormal—will need assistance) while they walk, prompting Ariana to rub his shoulder.
"Do ya need me to piggyback you?" Ariana asked, her fingers digging into his muscle to unknot them.
"…no."
"Oh, come on, Ari, live a little," Ariana giggled, before she scooped her brother up anyway, maneuvering him so he was attached to her back.
"Ana!" Aridai yelped, scrambling to get a hold of her shoulders, hitching his legs over her hips, "Warn me next time!"
"So there will be a next time!" the girl cheered, "Hey, Papa Ange, do you think I can get my own sword? Aridai already yelled at me cuz of last time."
"Stealing other people's things just because they're dead isn't honorable, Ariana," Aridai mumbled into her neck.
"Hm~! There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the Goddess. Hero of the Dawn, Healer of Worlds."
"You don't believe in heroes, Ana."
"I don't. A hero would've saved us, and instead we saved ourselves. Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost, wings stripped away, the end is nigh."
"And there's the rest of it. But, you'll always be my number one, Ana. Even if one day we're not together anymore, you're always gonna be my big sister."
"Oh, you're just the sweetest little brother ever. I was truly blessed by the Goddess when I got you, Aridai." Ariana giggled with a grin, sweet and girlish, "My friend, your desire, is the bringer of life, the Gift of the Goddess."
Aridai sighed into her shoulder, before reciting the second half of the stanza.
"Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return. And I'm not repeating anymore lines," the boy said petulantly, frowning slightly while Ariana laughed.
"I'll get you to like Loveless one of these days. The wind sails over the water's surface, quietly but surely," she confidently boasted, grinning when she felt her brother tighten his grip on her torso.
"Tch, not likely, sister!"
End Notes: So I might've been watching that Kingsglaive movie when I was deciding the practice weapons.
And if you saw Ariana's feelings about the idea of heroes, you're in for an angry rant at a later time.