A Drabble Story

...And that’s how I managed to get into this little situation of Marlene clinging to me.

“Please Marlene.”

”No!”

Ouch. For a child, she has a grip tighter then a Bandersnatch’s jaw. It’s not like I could forcefully remove her, I could hurt her with out knowing it. It is getting harder to breathe.

Marlene, you’re choking me…and Tifa was to busy with Denzel to get the girl.

Looks like I once again to use the old comfort resort.
Since we were in the bar, it wasn’t too hard to find a place to sit with her. Though I was stuck with her in my lap…

I sat down in one of the booths along the window in the farthest corner. She sniffled into my cloak and rubbed her face against it, hopefully not leaving a trail of childish snot along the way. Her grip had loosened some, thank the gods, and she was relaxed against me. It made me uncomfortable no doubt, but she was so small and innocent, she needed this even at my own discomfort.

And too think. This child had been afraid of ‘the big bad creep looking gunman’ when they had first meet that night so long ago in Nibelheim. 2 weeks later I woke up to find large puppy brown eyes staring at me from over the side of the bed and it had startled me almost onto the floor had there not been a wall there. Imagine the look on my face when she jumped up and inched closer with grubby little hands and a dirt smudge on her face.

What was a child doing with a dirt smudge on their nose at 5:26 in the morning?

I had non-to lightly pushed the little girl away with my foot and I relieved a scowl and a small hey from her in protest before she stood and threw herself at me. We had knocked heads and my bandana had shifted lose, covering one of my eyes and half of my face. I heard her giggling as she shifted on my lap, my one eye narrowed on the nuisance in front of me. I asked her what was so funny and all she said was that she liked my hair.

I had given her my version of a annoyed look, aka a blank stare. That didn’t even phase her small mind. She did something then that almost literally scared the fucking shit, pardon my Wutai, out of me. She tackled me again, this time throwing her arms around my neck, like she was doing now, and called my Vinny which later developed into Uncle Vinny.

And that’s basically how they found us a few hours later but only we were in the hotel lobby and I had a coffee in my hand, trying to read the paper as she snored away against my shirt, curled up in my lap with my boots on the table dress and read to go. And with the mysterious dirt smudge gone too. Barret had thrown a tantrum about me being a vampire (which was normal) that was out to get the child and her virgin blood.

That part disgusted me. Do I look like I prey on humans? Let alone little children? And besides, she let herself in with out my consent, where as she would have let me in on her own. Tifa had taken a picture, much to my dismay as Yuffie coed and awed and Cloud had shaken his head and tried to calm Barret down so as to not wake the girls up.

You can sort of say Marlene and I have been ‘friends’ ever since.

When I visited on the rare occasion, I’d get glomped like the first night, our head colliding and my bandana slipping. Tifa found it cute. I found it painful. The only reason our heads collide to begin with is because for some reason she enjoys dive bombing off the stairs as I pass them as a sneak attack and soars right into me. Last time I speared myself the headache by stopping at the border and letting her fly right into my awaiting arm, so that she didn’t fall and crash into the floor.

But right now, I haven’t seen her this sad since Aeris died.

“He promised!”

I put my right hand on her back and rubbed small, soothing circles and lightly played with the ends of her braid.

“I know.”

“She said he’d come back, but I heard the explosion! It was too big for him!”

Who was ‘she’?

“Tifa?”

Marlene shook her head, sniffling starting again. She curled into a tighter ball and pulled my cloak tighter around herself. When had she gotten a hold of the end of it?

“No, the lady at the church. Miss Aeris. She told me Cloud would come back! But what if he doesn’t? We if he goes away just like her?”

I had to smile at her childish innocence. Miss Gainsborough, if she really were still at the church, wouldn’t lie to someone, especially Marlene. Even though the little girl was too young to really remember the woman, Aeris would always watch over us.

“Aeris watches over us, Marlene. She wouldn’t lie about something like that.” I placed my hand on top of her head; making her look me in the eyes. Normal people would flinch at the vermilion glaze, turning eyes away as if they had been burned but Marlene didn’t.

She didn’t know what it meant to turn away so she had no reason to. She had once said the my eye’s reminded her of roses because of they’re beauty but if you were to try and grasp one, it would be like taking the forbidden fruit and the thorns would put up defenses and would be unreachable.

Very poetic of a child.

I gave her a small, gentle smile and almost laughed at her shocked little face.

“Cloud will come back, he always does. Does he not?”

She nodded, light coming back to her eyes. She hugged me again and I let her without little problem.

That was a start.

-

Sorry Joey hun :o Its not really that long :O Ill try to make them I bit longer if I can.

Frizz: I can understand Tifa's nervousness. Of course the idea of turning into mincemeat on the roads would quickly outweigh any reservations I had. Valerus is actually a pretty cool name for the bike.

Haha well we all know Vincent's 'flight and fight' skills and how he likes to fly during battle. that looks dangerous enough. Tifa should be afraid, shes never seen his driving skill :o

And for the Sin fanart, I'm soo glad you like it XD lol I had to get that pic out of my system before I could even think of anything else XD So ill try and come up with a descent Idea of the PAPERCLIP OF DOOM. It might end up being a pic of Vincent and Reno fighting over it cause i don't have a clue on what ASOTA looks like XD