The Hojo's

Chapter: Aftermath of the Aftermath of the Aftermath... OR How long can an Authoress stretch one joke?

Sephiroth opened his mouth, and all that came out was a perfect E flat.

“Beth, tell me he didn’t eat his piccolo today.” Lucrecia sighed.

“No Mom... he didn’t eat it, I shoved it down his throat.” Beth smiled.

“That was mean...” Lucrecia said.

“Sure it was,” Beth smiled, “But I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t mean.”

Sephiroth tried again to say something, but he again squeaked.

“Yeah, listen to your brother...” Danielle said, “I think he said ‘Squeak’”

Sephiroth shot her a glance and hiccuped. Then, he tried to scream a string of profanities.

All that came out was ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’

Lucrecia hummed in time to the music.

Danielle laughed. “Oh, this is too much.”

Lucrecia sighed, “Beth, do me a favor, get that flute out of your brother, it’s expensive!”

Sephiroth glared at his mother and mouthed, ‘I’m not?’

Danielle laughed, “It’s a piccolo, Lucrecia...”

“Of course you are dear...” Lucrecia said, “That’s why I want that damned thing out!”

Beth smiled evilly.

Sephiroth tried to run, but Beth caught him and drug him through the house to the sparing room.

Sephiroth’s scream woke Nanaki, who was napping, and Cait, who was napping upstairs.

Beth brought out the bloody piccolo and handed it to Lucrecia, “Here Mom...”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Lucrecia said.

“What does it look like? I got it out!” Beth said.

“How? Or do we even want to know?” Danielle said.

***

Sephiroth sat at dinner with a band-aid taped across his stomach. Eugene gave him a weird glance as he handed him the food.

“I have to go to Midgar next week.” Eugene said, “I’d like Sephiroth and Beth to stay here, and you to go with me Lucrecia...”

Lucrecia’s face turned pale white. “Are you sure the children can stay here by themselves for so long?”

“It’s only a week, I’m sure they can make it...” Eugene said.

“Oh, I know they can make it...” Lucrecia said, “It’s t he whole party factor... will they have a party or not?”

“They are almost twenty, I think we can trust them.” Eugene said.

“YEAH! You can trust me!” Sephiroth said.

Eugene and Lucrecia shot each other worried glances.

“Danielle, I’d feel safer if you were to stay with them, can you?” Lucrecia said.

“I’d love to!” Danielle said, eating some steak.

Sephiroth and Beth looked at each other, a week alone with Danielle?

“So dear, when do we leave?” Lucrecia said, taking a second helping of potatoes.

“Friday night.” Dr. Hojo said, “And we’ll return Friday morning next week.”

Danielle shot both Sephiroth and Beth a ‘we are so having a party’ glance.

That improved Sephiroth’s mood and almost made him forget about Beth’s unauthorized surgery earlier that day.

***

Thursday came after an uneventful Wednesday, and Beth and Danielle went to the court date with Vincent and Cid. And there, in the courtroom, was Yuffie and Shera. (Who’d a thunk it?)

Beth sat down with Vincent, and Danielle sat down with Cid.

Shera turned her body, still in casts, to glare at her ex husband and his new woman.

Yuffie glared at Beth, she still had water in her ears from Beth’s last attempt on her life.

The judge called forward Yuffie and Vincent to begin their divorce hearing. He would give each person what he saw they should have.

“Mr. Valentine, what do you wish to receive from your ex wife?” the judge asked.

“I do not wish to have anything but what I had to begin with... some clothes, some dishes and my pride.” Vincent said.

“And Mrs... Valentine?”

“I want the car, the house, the dog, the cat, his collection of triple chocolate fudged rabbit ears, the black velvet portrait of Elvis, the do it yourself juicer... the...”

She continued for four hours, until the judge shut her up.

“Miss, please... I understand what you want.” The judge said quietly.

Then the judge thought for a few minutes. He said, “I give Vincent everything, Yuffie gets absolutely nothing.” He banged his gavel a few times.

Yuffie stormed out of the room, “WHAT THE FUCK!”

Beth smiled happily. Vincent nodded happy too.

***

Shera had nothing to show from the divorce either, Cid got it all.

Outside of the courthouse, Shera ‘ran’ into Cid and Danielle.

“I don’t care about you Cid, I just don’t wish to have you hanging around this little slut!” Shera said, glaring at Danielle.

“Who? What did you call me?” Danielle said.

Beth and Vincent were just a few feet behind her, and Beth knew what was coming, so she grabbed Vincent and drug him to the bushes.

Sure enough, Danielle’s eyes started to glow red, and Beth grabbed Cid and pulled him into the bushes as well.

Cid fell face first into the cement sidewalk, before being drug into the hidding spot.

Danielle yelled, “HELL’S FURY!”

A hole in the ground opened up, and a small demon asked, “What level?”

Danielle smiled, “Six!”

Beth almost jumped, she had a crush on one of Danielle’s level six demons.

Hell’s fury was Danielle’s only limit break, in which she opened up a hole in the ground and called upon demons of any level to attack.

Shera screeched and tried to climb a tree.

Cid watched from the bushes as four level six demons beat the crap out of Shera, making the ex-wife look like something a dog would vomit up.

***

“Bye Mom! Bye Dad! Have a nice week in Midgar!” Sephiroth was saying. “We’ll take good care of the house!”

“Don’t worry about a thing!” Danielle said, “I am here.”

Eugene sighed, “That’s why I am worried...”

Lucrecia looked out of the buggy that would drive them to Costa Del Sol, “No parties!”

Beth nodded, “Bye Mom!” Lucrecia didn’t see the three of them had their fingers crossed behind their backs.

The three of them watched the buggy leave over the mountains.

“Now.” Danielle began.

“Yeah? We gave a lot of invitations away yesterday in school...” Sephiroth said.

“Yeah, so tomorrow night.” Beth smiled. “This place is party central.”

“On one occasion...” Danielle said.

“Yeah.” Sephiroth asked.

“Name it Danielle”

“You guys have to help me clean up on Sunday.” Danielle said.

“Can we clean instead of going to church?” Beth asked.

“What’s Church?” Danielle laughed, “Sure!”

“Let’s start with the preparations!” Sephiroth said, happily, running into the house.

“Waaaait...” Danielle said, “We have to give them enough time...”

“She’s right.” Beth said, “Otherwise they may come back and catch us in the act...”

Sephiroth nodded, “What do we do until then?”

“Go to school.” Danielle pointed at the bus, that was coming over the hill.

“Ugh.” Sephiroth sighed.

“No, we need to hand out invitations today... come on!” Beth grabbed Sephiroth’s ear and pulled him towards the bus.

“LEGGO! OUCH! Come on Sis!” Sephiroth whined. “That’s my ear!”

Beth shrugged, dropping him and grabbing him by the hair.

“OKAY, OKAY! THE EAR WAS BETTER THE EAR WAS BETTER!” Sephiroth cried.

“Bye Kids, have a nice day at school!” Danielle laughed, looking around before she went into the house to set up the party.

((A party? Sounds good to me! Let’s go!))