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Reborn: Memory II

Incident 11: Run Away

Elena breathed in relief as her heart's pace slowed back to normal. The three little remnants were sitting in the lobby eating their Cheetos, Gummy Bears and Oreo Cookies from the vending machines. They were very entertained by their snacks and looked almost angelical.

"Aunt Elena, I'm thirsty!" Kadaj tugged at Elena's sleeve, staining it orange.

"I'll get you something to drink," Elena frowned at the Cheeto stain and tried to brush it off while she walked to the nearest Pepsi vending machine.

"Me too!" "Me three!" Yazoo and Loz called after her.

"Right, just sit still until I get back," the three boys nodded and pushing her luck, Elena focused on the vending machine. Retrieving four cans, for the remnants and herself, then she headed back towards the boys, holding the cans in a bundle in her arms. "Kadaj? Yazoo? Loz?" They were nowhere to be found.

Then she heard a loud scream and a rather thin man with disheveled dark hair ran past her screaming, "Sephiroth! Sephiroth! It's the children of Sephiroth!"

Elena rushed towards the direction the man came from. He ran away too fast for her to catch up and interrogate him. "Kadaj! Yazoo! Loz!"

The only reply came from a cranky nurse, "excuse me, but you can't scream like that, this is a hospital!"

"I'm a Turk!" Elena's affirmation came out more as a growl than she meant.

The nurse's eyes opened wide and she mentally kicked herself for not recognizing that uniform right away. "I'm sorry!" She fell on her knees. "Please don't kill me!" But when she looked up, Elena was already gone.

Meanwhile Reno was agonizing in a hospital bed, while the doctors discussed operating him to take out the materia. As soon as he heard, Reno jumped to his feet pretending to be miraculously cured. "You don't need to operate, I'm perfectly fine!" Another wave of pain washed over Reno and he visibly winced. "I'm... okay..." he forced the words out, but no one would believe them.

"Reno," Rude scolded with a stern look. Right now Tseng was the only one guarding Rufus thanks to Elena being busy with the remnants, though the other Turks had not yet been informed that she lost them. Reno was out of commission and Rude had to make sure he didn't kill the doctors that were trying to save him.

Reno made a sad kitten face, "okay, I'll be good," he started to lay down again but instead rolled under the bed, came out on the other side away from Rude, pushed the doctors out of the way and made a run for it.

"Reno!" The doctors gasped as they heard Rude call his partner and dash after him. They didn't even know Rude could speak that loud, since he was famous for being the silent Turk. However, Rude lost tack of Reno near the elevators. Reno could have gone to the first floor to make an escape on foot, he could have gone to the roof to escape on the helicopter, or he could be hiding in any other floor in-between.

Thus the hunt began, for thee silver haired boys and one red haired man, who was in many ways still a boy on the inside. All the while poor Rufus was dealing with his intoxication drifting in and out of consciousness.

Incident 12: Hide and Seek

"Hey... Pst... Over here!" The three little boys followed the mysterious voice to find their dear uncle Reno hiding under a table, which was covered by a long white cloth. "About that candy you gave me..." Reno chose his words carefully. If he said the materia he had to swallow made him sick, then the remnants would be offended and upset, and that could be a huge disaster. "How do you feel after eating that kind candy?"

The three boys gave the question some thought and Kadaj was the first to reply, "happy, and strong, and good!" He nodded at every word as he spoke.

Of course, the effect of eating materia on a human would be different. The reply gave Reno no clues about how to solve his dilemma, and then another dilemma arrived. The three little boys were looking at Reno expectantly, waiting for him to say how he felt about the candy. "It's the same for me."

Three curious expressions changed to smiles. "We'll give you more candy when we get some!" Kadaj promised.

"Yeah, we'll share our candy!" Yazoo joined in.

"Uncle Reno is cool so we don't mind sharing," Loz added and Reno hoped that they never got any more of that materia candy.

The three boys then joined Reno under the table. "Are we playing hide and seek?" Kadaj inquired.

"Yes, we need to hide from Rude," the remnants were with Elena so she would be looking for them too, "and Elena, we need to hide from both of them."

The remnants giggled in amusement and whispered among themselves, a fact that alarmed Reno as he considered the possible consequences of their mysterious plotting. "Let's hide in the elevator!" Kadaj suggested.

Reno didn't like the sound of that, he was all up for playing in the elevator, but his stomach hurt at the moment, so he wasn't a big fan of movement. "Why the elevator?"

"It's fun!" The three boys replied at once. Then they started their chants and whines of "we want to play in the elevator, please, please, please!"

Before strange natural disasters started to occur, Reno agreed. "Alright, let's play in the elevator. We just need to make sure we don't get caught on the way there."

Thus the group happily snuck off to the elevator. Well, at least the three silver haired boys were happy, but Reno was miserable thanks to his stomachache. He would actually be having fun getting into mischief with the kids if he wasn't in so much pain.

If it was fortunate or unfortunate, that was yet to be decided, but Reno, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, made it to the elevator without being spotted until the last minute when they heard Elena yell "stop!" from one side of the hall while Rude ran towards them from the opposite direction.

Reno pressed the button to close the elevator doors and send it up. In the worse case scenario, Reno would attempt to escape on the helicopter before Rude and the doctors caught him and tried to operate or something like that. He was in no conditions to pilot with the surges of pain, blurry senses and slowed reflections, but that was a risk he would have to take.

Then it happened, disaster stroke as it should have been expected. Sparks of electricity escaped Reno when he pushed the elevator button to go up. The elevator rushed up a few floors rapidly, then came to a full stop and went completely dark, save for glow of the materia in Reno's stomach.

Incident 13: Trapped

"Uncle Reno, it's dark in here, make the bear light brighter!" Little Kadaj complained in a frightened voice.

"Bear light?" Reno weakly questioned, the materia in his stomach was really taking it out of him, but at least he wasn't unconscious.

"On your tummy," Loz pointed, or at least he thought he was pointing at Reno's stomach, but Reno was sitting on the floor so instead Loz poked him in the eye.

"Ow!" Reno decided that it was time to put the goggles that sat on his forehead to good use and moved them over his eyes. "Why do you say this is a bear light?" Did that mean the materia would summon a bear? How did they know?

"We saw them on TV before we found daddy," Yazoo explained; which would mean that they had left their hideout at some point, but that was a mystery for another time.

It took Reno a moment to make the connection and he dreaded it. The little remnants saw him as a human version of a care bear, and that did not fit a Turk at all. "It's not a bear light it's a... ow!" It was a materia and it was painful. No matter what kinds of odd things Reno ate, nothing had ever given him a stomachache this big.

"Ow? It's an ow?" Kadaj shook his head and pointed, messing up the aim of his finger, but thankfully, Reno was wearing his goggles over his eyes this time. "It's a light!"

The so called accident happened twice and Reno was starting to think it wasn't an accident at all. Using his cellphone to brighten the elevator, he then found the explanation. As unexpected as it was, it turned out the pokes were accidents after all, because the three little remnants were shaking in fear of the dark so much that they would broadly miss the direction they wished to point at. They still did an excellent job of hiding the fear in their voices, thus Reno didn't know anything about the doom that was approaching until then.

Outside, right above the hospital, dark clouds swirled and the sky turned into a mix of gray and black. But this time there was no storm, instead the air became thick and it was hard to breathe. Being close to the source of the problem, Reno felt it strongly and, though the only thing he felt like doing was collapsing, he tried to open the emergency escape on top of the elevator and miraculously succeeded.

However, even if some oxygen that was left in the elevator shaft flew into the elevator, it was running out fast and Reno wasn't sure he had any energy left to climb to safety and take the remnants with him, since everyone would be doomed anyway unless they calmed down.

"Don't be scared, let's..." Reno's train of thought came to a stop and disintegrated in its tracks, "sleep..." Reno collapsed from extreme exhaustion and too little oxygen. For the Turks, and for the entire world, things were looking grim, yet again.

Incident 14: Escape

"Uncle Reno?" Little Loz asked in worry.

"Shh!" Yazoo scolded. "Uncle Reno is sleeping!"

Kadaj looked at Reno curiously. Due to their connection to the life stream where big brother Sephiroth was, the remnants could sense certain things, and Kadaj's senses were the most accurate of the three. "Uncle Reno isn't sleeping; he's being captured by the life stream like big brother Sephy and mother!"

That meant Reno was dying, and that's all it took for the three little silver haired boys to panic even more and start crying. Outside, a terrible storm broke lose completely. They didn't want they're uncle Reno to be taken away into that place too, their new daddy was supposed to help their mom and brother escape eventually, but the wait would be worse if they lost their uncle Reno to that place as well.

Intense rain poured, accompanied by heavy hail, thunder and lightning. Although the remnants were causing the bad weather, thanks to their connection with the planet, the loud noise of the thunder scared them. That made them cry louder, and thus made the storm worse.

Then there was a light from above, and their uncle Rude came into the elevator from the escape hatch with a silly mask. He placed another of those masks on their uncle Reno and that seemed to revive him. "Don't operate..." Reno muttered half conscious.

Rude looked at the three remnants, unaffected by the lack of oxygen. "Uncle Rude! Uncle Reno!" They were glad uncle Rude had rescued uncle Reno from being taken away by the evil planet that caused so much trouble for their mother and brother.

"We should leave," Rude spoke quietly and was hardly audible behind the mask. But the remnants seemed to get the message and nodded, eager to get out of that dark place.

The next part was tricky because Rude had to hurry to climb up the elevator cable and bring each little boy to safely one by one, since he couldn't carry all three and climb at the same time. The bald Turk had to rush back before the remaining boys got scared and started crying again. Loz cried the most easily, but Kadaj wanted to go first and it would be troublesome not to let him have his way, because Kadaj had the worse temper.

Rude took Kadaj out of the elevator shaft and left him in Elena's care first, then Loz and finally Yazoo. That only left Reno still in the elevator, but when Rude went to get him, Reno was conscious enough to stand and try to push the elevator button to open it. Though the elevator was broken, he just had to try again.

Surprisingly, with another surge of electricity, the elevator doors opened and Reno and Rude where able to walk out. Though Rude felt cheated because of his hard work climbing out with the boys, who clung, kicked and wouldn't stay still all the way up while yelling "weeeeee!" in his ear, as if this was some kind of ride in an amusement park.

The oxygen masks were no longer needed once they were out of the elevator, now that the storm was gone, stopping as suddenly as it started, and the atmosphere around the hospital was back to normal. Reno checked his stomach for the light but it wasn't there. "I think I digested it..." and whatever that materia was, it increased his power. However, in the back of his mind, as un-Reno as it was, he couldn't help it but to hold on to a little worry...

Incident 15: Hair Emergency

After the chaos went away for the time being, with the unspoken promise to return; everyone went back to Rufus' hospital room to see how he was doing and were greeted by a terrified scream of "my hair!"

"Auntie, auntie! Why is daddy crying, who picked on him?" Little Yazoo, tugged on Elena's sleeve.

"Your daddy is just... excited to see you again, he's fine." Elena tried to avoid trouble, but that was not an easy task with an overacting Rufus in the room.

"You didn't protect daddy!" Kadaj pointed at Tseng accusingly, while Loz started to sniffle on the verge of tears.

"Your daddy is alright, aren't you sir?" Tseng's voice was so stern and his look so piercing, that it silenced everyone in he room. It was a side of the Turk leader that was better left unexplored and unprovoked.

Rufus nodded quietly, momentarily forgetting that he was the boss. "Y-yes..."

The young president, and unwilling father, sniffled and dried his tears, but he felt like crying again when the three little silver haired terrors jumped on his lap. "Are you okay daddy?" They asked with big concerned, mako glowing eyes.

"I'm fine," Rufus forced himself to sound composed, even if he was having a really hard time doing so. "I'm going to the hair salon, now!"

The doctors were going to do some more examinations just in case, but if Rufus was well enough to create that much drama, then he must have been completely healed. Besides, no one dared to question the hair obsessed president when he was upset, and judging by the murderous look in his eyes, he was very upset.

Without objecting to Rufus' orders, the Turks rushed back to the roof of the hospital and took Rufus to the hair salon on the helicopter. Rufus tried to clean himself as much as possible on the way, but he just couldn't deal with the sticky stuff on his hair and felt he needed the help of a professional.

Upon arriving at the hair salon, Rufus' case was tended to right away, but it would take some time for his hair to be properly washed and left as shiny and sweet smelling as he wanted it. Thus the Turks and the remnants were left to wait for the process to be completed.

"I'm bored," Kadaj announced.

"Me too," Yazoo added.

"Me three," Loz agreed.

The Turks knew they were in a dangerous situation, because when the remnants were bored, they were more likely to cause trouble, and they were troublesome enough even without being bored. But there honestly wasn't much to do while they waited for Rufus' hair emergency to be taken care of, and truthfully the Turks were bored too.

"I'll tell you a story!" Elena offered; it was the only thing she could think of to keep the remnants busy. "Once upon a time there was a girl who lived with her older sister and father. The father was always working hard and eventually the oldest girl got a job in the same place as her father. The younger sister was left behind but she was determined to surpass her older sibling. One day, the younger girl got a job in the same place as her sister. Then she got a promotion and ended up as part of a very important group where the handsome prince was the leader, the end."

It was obvious the story was based on Elena's own life, with Gun as the older sister and Tseng as the handsome prince, but it wasn't exactly how a classic fairy tale would usually go. "Oh yeah, and she had some glass slippers too but never wore them because, who in their right mind would wear glass slippers? It's obvious they'll break." The last part was completely fictional, but at least it added somewhat of a fairy tale feel to Elena's narration.

None the less, the remnants liked the story and clapped as if it was a masterpiece.

Incident 16: Hair Style

After Rufus' precious hair was restored to its former glory, the young president calmed down a little. He was still stressed which was understandable, but at least he wasn't in near hysterics. After the process of washing and drying his hair was done, Rufus took thirty minutes to admire himself in the mirror, while Rude juggled brushes and combs in the background, surprising everyone with his ability, and entertaining the three little terrors.

After Rufus was done staring at himself adoringly, at least for now, he went over to his new sons and held a lock of Yazoo's hair running his thumb over the silky silver strands and going "hmm" in thought.

Yazoo smiled brightly, infinitely happy that daddy was giving him attention. Loz pouted and looked teary eyed. He had the shortest hair out of the three, so Rufus couldn't play with his hair like he did with Yazoo's. Even if Rufus' own hair wasn't too long either, it made Loz feel left out.

Tseng cleared his throat and tilted his head towards Loz. Luckily, Rufus caught the hint and ruffled Loz's hair gently with his other hand, which made his tears disappear and a smile appear instead.

"What about me?" Kadaj cried. Loz's hair was petted and Yazoo's hair was played with, but Rufus hasn't done anything to his hair.

Rufus sighed in exasperation and petted Kadaj's hair as well. If these kids were going to be his sons, then they needed nice hair. Their silver locks where soft, smooth and shiny, but it had clearly been a long time since they were touched by a hair brush.

"Antoine," Rufus looked towards the French hair stylist.

"We, Sirgh?" Antoine had a heavy accent which Rufus thought made him sound like he was choking; it was not a real French accent. The accent of a true French person would flow out much more smoothly. However, although Antoine was French by blood, he was not raised on the language and never got around to picking up a natural sounding accent when learning it as a second language. As a result Antoine's accent was strained and a little over the top.

"Wash their hair and brush it," Rufus commanded. "Give Yazoo and Kadaj a trim too... Actually, why don't you just give them all-"

"No!" The Turks protested in a chorus before Rufus had a chance to finish what he was saying. The young president didn't have to finish speaking because the Turks knew him all too well and they felt the danger that was to come.

Rufus had a certain look in his eyes, that special look that he got during his narcissism highs, when he wanted the world to be redesigned in his image; the Turks could not allow that. Dealing with the remnants was hard enough as it was, but somehow, though it made little sense to think it would make much of a difference, the Turks unanimously agreed that it would be even harder to deal with the trio if they had the same haircut as Rufus.

Maybe it wasn't really about the hair, but about the resemblance. It seemed that the fact that he was stuck with the remnants had finally started to fully sink in for Rufus and he was trying to make the best of it in his own way. That gave the Turks a whole new mission, as if they didn't have enough to deal with already. Their mission was to make sure the world didn't end up with three miniature Rufus, because that might be even worse than three miniature Sephiroths.

Incident 17: Shiny Hair

"Why shouldn't they have the same haircut as me?" Rufus pouted, his expression matched that of his three adoptive sons and the Turks were worried.

"It wouldn't be original?" Reno offered, being the only one daring enough to speak first.

"Are you saying my hair is unoriginal?!" Rufus yelled with exaggerated offense and the remnants pouted some more, if that was even possible.

Tseng gave Reno an urgent and stern look, pressuring him to fix what he said immediately. Though Reno wasn't too fond of the idea of continuing to feed Rufus' ego, as none of the Turks were, they all knew it had come to be part of their job. "That's not what I meant at all. It's just that... um... well..." At a loss for words, Reno blurted out the first thing that came into his mind, like he often did, "they're not blond!"

"Hmm..." The look in Rufus' eyes made it clear that he was plotting, and if Tseng's guess was correct, the young president's plan involved blond dye.

The Turk leader couldn't allow the remnants to become three little copies of Rufus. It was true that he had his obligations to Shinra, but his obligations to his own survival came first, contrary to common belief. Tseng had decided that he would not allow himself or any of his dear Turks to be on the verge of death ever again; and hopefully he would also save them from insanity. "Gold... blond on silver would look like gold, very shiny gold."

At first the other Turks gave Tseng some confused and concerned looks, wondering if their usually composed leader had finally snapped and started babbling gibberish. Surprisingly, Reno was the first to catch on and join Tseng's plan. "Oh yes, very shiny, amazingly shiny!"

Elena blinked and decided to play along even if she was still a bit confused about what the other two Turks hoped to accomplish by saying such things. "I agree; shiny gold..."

Rude nodded quietly, "shiny."

Rufus' expression went from stubborn to worried, and he quickly shook his head, his blond hair bouncing from side to side as he did. He then combed his hair with his fingers in his trademark gesture. "Maybe they're too young for dye. I wouldn't want their precious little heads to become irritated."

What Rufus' didn't want was for someone to have a shinier blond than his. Silver was a whole other story, but if anyone was going to have golden hair, or as close as possible to it, it would be Rufus Shinra. He had always thought himself to be superior to Cloud because his hair was far shinier than the delivery boy's hair. Sure Cloud won in spikes, but spikes didn't interest Rufus and shine did.

The Turks nodded in unanimous agreement, and though the remnants were not too sure about what was going on, they did hear their daddy use the word precious and interpreted that he was referring to them. The 'adult talk' was confusing, but if their dad was calling them precious, then it was a good talk none the less. Thus the silver haired trio remained calm and happy, at least for the moment being, and their hair remained silver.

Incident 18: Pieces of Me

When the time came for shampoo, Kadaj insisted on being the first to wear the silly cape and sit on the high chair. The stylist washed, dried and brushed his hair, while little Kadaj sat contently, happy that he was seemingly the center of attention. The other two remnants watched the process in awe, looking forward to when their turn came.

Though the silver haired trio had once been grown up, they held no memories of such events. Their rebirth was blurry and their sense of passing time was not too accurate. The three of them simply existed, and they would continue to exist while Sephiroth stubbornly clung to the memory of his life deep inside the life stream. They were there, out of basically no where, and since they simply existed, they did not have experience living a normal life. As a result, most of the things they were experiencing now were completely new to them.

Before they came to live with their father, the remnants lived a simple life. Their oldest brother and mother would care for them from the life stream, sending them some very unusual materia to feed on. When they got dirty, a swirl of light would appear and clean them up, when they were cold, the land would heat up beneath them providing them with warmth, when they were hot, a soft breeze would blow to help them stay cool, and when it rained, they had many abandoned structures to use as shelter in the Forgotten City. That's the way it was, day in and day out.

The feel of water on his hair while his head was softly massaged was new to Kadaj and it was rather pleasant. The scent of shampoo was not something he had experienced before as the bubbles formed on his hair. Finally this person, a friend of his father, Kadaj assumed, brushed his hair gently.

To summarize, everything was peaceful bliss until the stylist cut Kadaj's uneven ends. It was a mere inch of hair, but his brothers looked terrified, while Kadaj remained unaware of what had occurred. "Algrigh! We'rg done now, young Misstergh Shinra." (Alright! We're done now, young Mr.Shinra.)

It took Kadaj a moment to realize that the stylist was referring to him, because his father was Mr. Shinra, not simply Rufus to this person, and thus that made him young Mr. Shinra, or at least that's what he could interpret over the stylist's forced accent. Kadaj felt very proud being called a Shinra like his father, but he also felt disappointed that the new experience was over, and most of all confused by his brothers' frightened expressions. Without losing his smile, Kadaj asked, "what's wrong with you two?"

Trembling, both Yazoo and Loz pointed at the floor wordlessly.

Kadaj followed his brothers' fingers to the area of the floor they were referring to. There were silky pieces of soft silver on the floor and Kadaj gasped. "That was mine!" More pieces of silver slipped from the odd cape Kadaj was wearing into the floor. It was all over, how did he not notice this before? He had been injured, and in his father's presence no less! Not his father, nor his uncles and aunt tried to save him, and his brothers were too frightened to even speak.

"Do yuu want me to purgt the hairg in a plas-tick barg forg yuu so yuu can take ith homes?" (Do you want me to put the hair in a plastic bag for you so you can take it home?) The stylist innocently asked.

"Daddy!" Kadaj wailed. "This mean person cut off a piece of my body!" After the dramatic declaration, Kadaj started crying uncontrollably. Fearing that they would suffer the same fate, Yazoo and Loz cried as well.

Incident 19: Don't Cry

Thunder echoed and lightning crashed, then all the expensive electric hair equipment, such as dryers and etcetera, started to short circuit. Kadaj continued to cry desperately as did his brothers, while Rufus flailed around, running in circles and the stylist fainted at his feet.

"Calm down president, you must take control of the situation, I think you're the only one who can," Tseng urged.

Rufus nodded and picked up little Kadaj, though the remnants were children, not toddlers, they were still small, making it easy to pick one of them up, but impossible to carry all three at once. Rufus held Kadaj in his arms, allowing the boy to rest on his shoulder, and gave him soft pats in on the back as if he were a baby. "He won't stop crying!"

Elena shook her head, "he's not a baby, he's a child; you don't need to hold him like that."

Meanwhile Reno was curled up into a ball of self pity in a corner, due to his sudden tummy ache. Maybe digesting the materia wasn't the end of the problem after all.

It was up to Rude to step forward and save the day. He rarely spoke, but when he did, everyone had better listen, "Kadaj..."

The little boy curiously looked at Rude through his tears. His crying didn't cease, but it was rare to hear his uncle Rude's voice so he felt he had to look.

Then Rude stuck out his tongue, with his hands on the sides of his head, thumbs touching his face, he waved the other four fingers of each hand.

Kadaj blinked then let out a soft giggle which evolved into a laugh, "uncle Rude is funny!" Yazoo and Loz had similar reactions being calmed by Rude's unexpected funny face.

Reno stood open mouthed, having forgotten all about his stomachache, as if he were healed the second the remnants calmed down. Elena, Tseng and Rufus had similar expressions, shocked beyond words, since they had never seen Rude do something like that.

Then the silence was shattered when Rufus finally spoke, "well, now that it's settled, it's Yazoo's turn," and all the chaos broke loose once again.

"Look what you did!" Elena scolded, with her hands on her hips and stomping her feet.

Rufus put Kadaj down and picked up Yazoo. He tried to make funny faces at the child, but that caused him to cry louder, "daddy doesn't like me anymore!"

"Rude, help!" Rufus desperately called, while Reno was rendered out of commission again.

Rude shook his head, tired of all the antics. He made a funny face again and Yazoo laughed, then hiccupped and asked, "is daddy mad at me?"

"Of course not," Rufus replied.

"Okay," Yazoo nodded and smiled.

Rufus put the child down and looked at his three sons. Kadaj's hair had already been washed and the ends had been cut. His hair was just touching his shoulders now, free to grow without the evils of split ends. Loz's hair only needed to be washed, which could be done at Healin Lodge where he might feel safer if it couldn't be accomplished at the salon, but Yazoo's hair was a long tangled mess and Rufus couldn't leave it like that. Then he noticed that Loz's eyes were beginning to water even if he didn't need to worry about a haircut. "Loz, what's wrong?"

"You didn't pick me up," Loz sniffled.

Sighing, Rufus picked up Loz and held him for a while. Being a father to three mutant little boys, with an absent alien mother, and two sword wielding psycho older brothers was not easy.

Incident 20: Practice

Since Antoine, the hair stylist was out of commission and Rufus was too picky to have a secondary stylist, he decided to make a deal with Yazoo to rid the boy of his split ends. "Yazoo, you need to cut your hair just a little bit. It won't hurt, I promise. Be brave, I'll do it myself." Yazoo looked frightened but at the same time he was glad to be the center of his father's attention. The little boy gulped and nodded slowly. "That's a brave boy," Rufus reassured.

Kadaj and Loz didn't know if they should be jealous or concerned for their brother, but they settled for being jealous. "Daddy!" Loz clung to Rufus.

Kadaj pouted and tried to pretend he didn't care, "daddy doesn't like me anymore, but I don't care," and he continued to pout holding back tears.

Rufus sighed in frustration, "I already told you I love you all the same," he insisted with a less than loving tone.

"This might not be such a good idea," Tseng finally voiced the mutual concern the Turks were feeling when they saw Rufus pick up some scissors, confirming that he wasn't going to change his mind about giving Yazoo a haircut.

"It'll be fine; someone with great hair like me should have the skills to do this." Rufus picked up a lock of Yazoo's hair and prepared to cut it, while the Turks shook their heads frantically. "I'm telling you it's fine, don't you trust me?" The Turks didn't stop shaking their heads.

"Maybe you should let Rude do it," Reno suggested, making the others wonder why he would recommend Rude. After all, Rude was bald, how much experience could he possibly have with hair?

"Rude?" Elena looked back and forth between Reno and Rude as if searching for the right words to express her curiosity. "Rude?" She repeated again. Elena didn't want to bring up the fact that Rude was bald, even if it was completely obvious, because she didn't want to sound offensive, even if she was only stating a fact. "Rude is... he is..."

"Bald, he's bald and we all know that, just say it already," Reno got impatient.

"I... ah... Well, I thought it would be rude to say it just like that, I mean there's nothing wrong with it, it's just that..." Elena rambled in circles while Rude remained silent and Tseng wondered if anything he said at that point would make any difference.

"You thought it would be rude?" Reno laughed, "you didn't want to be rude to Rude?"

Elena realized her mistake, the accidental play on words, and tried to fix it, "I didn't... that wasn't..." but she couldn't find the proper words to fix the so called mistake that no one else was making a big deal out of anyway, especially not Rude himself.

The silent Turk extended his hand and kept it that way until Rufus finally gave him the scissors. Then he proceeded to cut Yazoo's hair like an expert, while assuring the small boy that, "your daddy will wash your hair," so that one of the tasks that needed to be done still fell upon Rufus.

"Where did you learn to cut hair?" Elena curiously asked, and Tseng decided that maybe he was better off as an observer for the time being.

"Reno," Rude replied.

The redhead had been known to have some strange and uneven hairstyles over the years. Eventually his hair seemed to improve as did Rude's skills; until Rude finally talked Reno into growing his hair, if only to lessen the work load to a trim now and then, instead of haircuts every time Reno's hair grew out.

Elena then looked curiously at Reno, but he shook his head and kept his reasons for asking Rude to take care of his hair instead of going to a professional a secret. "Not telling." If anything, it made Elena, Rufus and Tseng more curious.

End of Memory II

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII, Cheetos, Gummy Bears, Oreo Cookies, Pepsi or Care Bears. Special thanks to sareyva for ideas used on Incident 12. Due to my OC, Antoine, using such an odd forced accent, I wrote his quotes on Incident 18 with the words how he pronounces them, then the normal sentence in a (parenthesis) to make sure everyone understands.