Club Fantasy

Cloud groaned as he got off Fenrir outside Seventh Heaven’s back door, stretching out he gave a soft whimper of relief as his back popped back into place before he went inside.

He almost sighed in relief when he saw Barret Wallace behind the bar, he and Cid Highwind were some of the few bartenders that really looked out for the dancers.

Barret used to own Seventh Heaven, he was a good boss, the older staff said, but he ended up selling the business after his wife had vanished, leaving him to raise Marlene, his daughter, alone.

He had taken a part-time job to maintain an income, and keep an eye on the dancers.

The new owner was less than stellar, he rarely came in to check up on the staff, and he never did background checks.

This was proved when a new girl was yanked off the stage a kicked to death by her ex for being a “Tramp”, The bartender never used the designated signals for potential danger, and he took ten minutes to call the police.

Designated signals were signs between the dancers and bartenders, for example, an order pen put in an upright position, with the lid off, meant a drunk that was showing signs of aggression, a foot turned upwards, instead of pointed, when a leg was wrapped around the pole, meant that one of the patrons was a little too intent on one particular dancer, in a dangerous way.

A green post-it pad on the counter, like the one there now, gave a sign that almost all the dancers wanted to see.

Recruiter.

Ever since the new boss had bought the club, the dancers had been having trouble, drunks that used to be removed before they got violent with the dancers, now had almost free reign, angry ex’s could come and go as they please leaving some of the boys and most of the girls scared of retaliation.

Barret and Cid did their best, as did a few others, but that was only a few, most of the rest just ignored the violence until it became unignorable.

Cloud ignored the green pad, most recruiters wanted to move him closer to where their place of business was, but they usually refused to move his surrogate family.

And since Cloud refused to move without them....well, you get the picture.

Waving to Barret, he moved to the dressing room to put on his newest outfit, groaning when he saw it.

“A School-GIRL uniform Yuffie?”

Yuffie was not a dancer, but she took great delight in creating the costumes for the club.
He jumped as Yuffie practically bounced into his arms, a huge grin on her face as she squealed at him.

“But you’ll look so cute in it.”

Cloud sometimes wondered if Yuffie had medication she wasn’t taking.

He might love her almost like a sister, but surely a normal person wasn’t that bleeding happy all the time.

Cloud sighed and went to get his costume on, at least it wasn’t that massive feathered monstrosity she’d tried to make him wear when he first applied for the job.

Of course she’d made it so there was no mistake he was male, the skirt only covered half his backside, and the underwear, while pink, where both plain and too tight to hide anything, the shirt had simple press fastenings, which would pop open as he pulled on the edges.

It was a good design, but why did she always have to dress him up like a girl?

Squirming a little in the getup, he made his way on stage for his first set, each set was half an hour and rotated between 10 acts until five am, it was hard work, but it paid for food and rent.

Twining himself around the pole, he kept an eye out for potential danger, mostly ignoring the obvious recruiter in the corner.

The recruiter was wearing a SOLDIER mask, which obviously made him an outsider, no self respecting SOLDIER, retired or otherwise came down here unless they where looking for something.

Time seemed to pass really slowly for his set, and he was glad when his first break finally came, heading over to the bar, he grabbed the drink Barrett had made for him.

Orange juice with a splash of water from a vodka bottle, the tips were always bigger when the patrons thought you were drinking.

He sighed as he saw the recruiter make his way over to where he was standing, they always seemed to want him until they found out about his family.

Not wanting to draw it out, he turned to the masked man and said.

“Look, not to be rude, but from the looks of it you’re from above the plate, so you’ll want me to move, I have three family members I’m not going to leave behind so you might as well leave it.”

The man stared at him for a second.

“We’ll see.”

With that cryptic statement, he returned to his seat.
Through the night it became clear this man was from a high-class business, he only chose two other acts to approach the entire evening, Squall, whom Yuffie had put into full Goth getup, and the triplets.

The triplets were a unique act, with Loz barely moving at all while Kadja and Yazoo turned him into their own personal dance pole, ignoring the stage poles entirely.

A quick look also told Cloud that Yuffie had been asked about as well.

The thought that she’d be able to get closer to her dream of designing clothes for films made Cloud smile for her.

Finally the night was over and Cloud could go home, he’d be back just in time for Tifa’s waffles and Chaos’s bleary-eyed glare over the his first coffee of the day.

He didn’t notice the speculating look the masked recruiter gave him as he waved to Barrett and Cid, the two men having a chat before the shift change, Barrett would be home in time to get Marlene up and to school, before crashing until it was time to pick her up.

Cid would start serving the first morning customers, as few as they were, while waiting for the day staff to come in, Tifa being one of them.

Seventh Heaven was a twenty-four hour bar after all.

Popping his head into Yuffie’s room, he checked to see if she was getting home alright, she waved him off, saying she’d caught a ride with the triplets.

Duty done he got on his bike and headed home, barely paying attention to the masked man who was dialling up his phone.

Kunsel watched as the small blonde drove into the distance, waiting for the person on the other end to pick up.

“....Ello.”

“Morning Zack.”

There was muttered cursing on the other end, before the sound of a coffee pot switching on passed through the line, Zack was hyper after his coffee, before he was the walking dead.

“Go ahead Kunsel.”

“I found a few good ones, but one may take a lot more convincing, he has a family he doesn’t want to leave behind, and I doubt he’s going to change his mind.”

“Right, when’s he on again?”

Kunsel walked back into the club, catching Barrett as he was walking out the door, he quickly asked him about the blonde.

Getting his answer he went back to the phone.

“Bartender say’s he’s in every night except Sunday.”

“Right, today’s Tuesday, yes.”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’ll check him out tonight, if he’s as good as you seem to think, I’ll make arraignments for moving his entire family.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Kunsel, we’re not in SOLDIER anymore.”

“Yes Zack.”

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds.

“DAMMIT KUNSEL, DON’T TEASE ME BEFORE MY MORNING COFFEE.”

Kunsel smirked.

“I wouldn’t dream of it Zack.”

TBC