Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7 > Reborn
Reborn
Incident 32: Divide and Conquer
"Let her go!" Though he was only trying to help, Denzel made the fierce tug-of-war worse.
Marlene tried to calm the chaos around her; it was all happening so fast. She felt like her limbs would be ripped right off, so this was what older people meant when they said love hurts.
"Stop that!" Cloud lifted Marlene from the center of the storm and held her up away from the boys' reach, as if presenting a jungle princess to her subjects from a king's prideful stone throne.
"Get her out of here!" Tifa urged.
Cloud nodded, "right!" He held Marlene protectively and ran.
"He's kidnapping our princess!" Kadaj shouted and the four boys gave chase.
"Reno, stop them!" Tifa ran after the boys, followed by Reno.
Cloud dashed to another aisle, where someone had spilled juice, he slipped, struggled and did a funny dance, but managed to stay on his feet.
The boys slipped on the juice as well, struggling to regain their balance. Reno and Tifa turned into the aisle, mistakenly thinking they were falling behind in the race, and ran into the boys, causing all six of them to fall in a pile.
Surprisingly, Denzel was the first to break free from the pile; he started to run down the aisle, but paused with a look of deep concentration and listened. He then began to climb the shelves, jumping down on the next aisle.
"You know, that kid could be a great Turk when he grows up!" Reno admitted.
"This is no time to think of future recruits, get off me and go make sure Cloud escapes!" Tifa snapped.
Reno jumped to his feet and scrambled to climb over the aisle, knocking down a variety of canned foods in the process.
Loz started to sniffle and become teary eyed, "did he get away with her?"
Kadaj growled in frustration, "I'm not giving up!" He rushed to climb over the shelves and Tifa hurried to stop him. But Loz let out a cry of heartbroken agony and the ensuing earthquake caught Tifa by surprise, making her lose her chance to stop Kadaj.
Loz was crying loudly, and rain began to pour outside. Yazoo's face was pained, but he wasn't crying yet. He attempted to climb the shelves as well, but Tifa stopped him. "You're not going anywhere!"
"Neither are you," a security officer stood at the opposite end of the aisle. "I was informed about the people causing chaos in the supermarket. I can understand that children can be a handful at times, but you are doing a terrible job at keeping them under control."
Tifa didn't know what to do; she acted on instinct and yelled, "run!" Yazoo wasted no time in running away as soon as Tifa put him down, but Loz was still crying so she picked him up and dashed away.
"Come back here!" The chubby officer followed after Tifa, huffing and puffing from the exercise... "Come... back... here..." He took in big breaths between each word, but somehow couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs to continue running and slowed to a jog.
Tifa didn't look back as she dashed away with Loz in her arms. All that running around seemed to calm the boy and the harsh wind, rain and thunder outside ceased, though since this time it was only Loz crying, the storm was only a third as strong as in other occasions.
Tifa found herself surrounded by dairy products and Loz saw ice-cream behind the glass doors of a nearby refrigerator. "Ice-cream!"
"Do you promise to be good and not run away?" Tifa looked into Loz glowing eyes.
"I promise!" He assured truthfully.
"Alright," Tifa put the boy down and reached into the refrigerator. Everyone knows you're not supposed to eat in the supermarket, but people still do it, claiming that since they'll still bring the empty wrapper or the opened box to the checkout and pay for it in full, it's alright, it's not stealing. Thus Tifa took a box of popsicles and showed it to Loz, "do you like sea salt ice-cream?"
Loz nodded eagerly, "I like all ice-cream!"
Tifa opened the popsicle box and gave one to Loz, "here you go," she patted his head and smiled.
Loz accepted the sea salt flavored threat and smiled back. "I like you, now you're my crush, that way I don't have to fight with my brothers."
Tifa laughed, kids certainly had big imaginations, "aren't I too old for you?"
"I don't mind," Loz smiled, "I'll grow up soon and be tall. I'll be even taller than big brother black sheep and uncle Reno."
"By big brother black sheep you mean Cloud, right? Why do you call him that?" Tifa was curious.
"Because he is our big brother black sheep!" It sounded logical enough to Loz.
Tifa decided not to question it further. Then the officer finally caught up to them, "you're... you're..." he wheezed loudly, "my heart!"
Tifa blinked, there was no way she could have the luck to accidentally make a little boy and a middle aged man fall in love with her on the same day, while Cloud remain oblivious to her advances. Then she realized that this wasn't a declaration of love and her eyes went wide. She dialed 911 and told them there was a man having a heart attack at the supermarket. As curious people formed a circle around the agonizing man, Tifa slipped away, there was nothing more she could do, even if she felt bad that the physical exertion of chasing after her had been too much for the cholesterol filled circulatory system of that poor man.
Tifa searched for the others along with a love struck Loz, who was in pure bliss with a sea salt popsicle on one hand and Tifa's hand on the other, though she was only being careful to prevent him from running off. She spotted Reno trying to make up his mind about which instant ramen to buy. "Reno, what are you doing standing there?"
"Looking at the ramen, have you tried this?" He held up a relatively new brand.
"Where are Cloud and the others?" Tifa inquired.
"I saw Cloud dash out the door with Denzel after him." Reno replied with more calmness that was appropriate given the situation.
To be Continued
There are small references to Lion King and Kingdom Hears in this chapter, congratulations if you caught them. Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to ExtremeRainbowRaiderPrincess for the idea of Denzel joining the battle for Marlene.
Incident 32: Divide and Conquer
"Let her go!" Though he was only trying to help, Denzel made the fierce tug-of-war worse.
Marlene tried to calm the chaos around her; it was all happening so fast. She felt like her limbs would be ripped right off, so this was what older people meant when they said love hurts.
"Stop that!" Cloud lifted Marlene from the center of the storm and held her up away from the boys' reach, as if presenting a jungle princess to her subjects from a king's prideful stone throne.
"Get her out of here!" Tifa urged.
Cloud nodded, "right!" He held Marlene protectively and ran.
"He's kidnapping our princess!" Kadaj shouted and the four boys gave chase.
"Reno, stop them!" Tifa ran after the boys, followed by Reno.
Cloud dashed to another aisle, where someone had spilled juice, he slipped, struggled and did a funny dance, but managed to stay on his feet.
The boys slipped on the juice as well, struggling to regain their balance. Reno and Tifa turned into the aisle, mistakenly thinking they were falling behind in the race, and ran into the boys, causing all six of them to fall in a pile.
Surprisingly, Denzel was the first to break free from the pile; he started to run down the aisle, but paused with a look of deep concentration and listened. He then began to climb the shelves, jumping down on the next aisle.
"You know, that kid could be a great Turk when he grows up!" Reno admitted.
"This is no time to think of future recruits, get off me and go make sure Cloud escapes!" Tifa snapped.
Reno jumped to his feet and scrambled to climb over the aisle, knocking down a variety of canned foods in the process.
Loz started to sniffle and become teary eyed, "did he get away with her?"
Kadaj growled in frustration, "I'm not giving up!" He rushed to climb over the shelves and Tifa hurried to stop him. But Loz let out a cry of heartbroken agony and the ensuing earthquake caught Tifa by surprise, making her lose her chance to stop Kadaj.
Loz was crying loudly, and rain began to pour outside. Yazoo's face was pained, but he wasn't crying yet. He attempted to climb the shelves as well, but Tifa stopped him. "You're not going anywhere!"
"Neither are you," a security officer stood at the opposite end of the aisle. "I was informed about the people causing chaos in the supermarket. I can understand that children can be a handful at times, but you are doing a terrible job at keeping them under control."
Tifa didn't know what to do; she acted on instinct and yelled, "run!" Yazoo wasted no time in running away as soon as Tifa put him down, but Loz was still crying so she picked him up and dashed away.
"Come back here!" The chubby officer followed after Tifa, huffing and puffing from the exercise... "Come... back... here..." He took in big breaths between each word, but somehow couldn't get enough oxygen into his lungs to continue running and slowed to a jog.
Tifa didn't look back as she dashed away with Loz in her arms. All that running around seemed to calm the boy and the harsh wind, rain and thunder outside ceased, though since this time it was only Loz crying, the storm was only a third as strong as in other occasions.
Tifa found herself surrounded by dairy products and Loz saw ice-cream behind the glass doors of a nearby refrigerator. "Ice-cream!"
"Do you promise to be good and not run away?" Tifa looked into Loz glowing eyes.
"I promise!" He assured truthfully.
"Alright," Tifa put the boy down and reached into the refrigerator. Everyone knows you're not supposed to eat in the supermarket, but people still do it, claiming that since they'll still bring the empty wrapper or the opened box to the checkout and pay for it in full, it's alright, it's not stealing. Thus Tifa took a box of popsicles and showed it to Loz, "do you like sea salt ice-cream?"
Loz nodded eagerly, "I like all ice-cream!"
Tifa opened the popsicle box and gave one to Loz, "here you go," she patted his head and smiled.
Loz accepted the sea salt flavored threat and smiled back. "I like you, now you're my crush, that way I don't have to fight with my brothers."
Tifa laughed, kids certainly had big imaginations, "aren't I too old for you?"
"I don't mind," Loz smiled, "I'll grow up soon and be tall. I'll be even taller than big brother black sheep and uncle Reno."
"By big brother black sheep you mean Cloud, right? Why do you call him that?" Tifa was curious.
"Because he is our big brother black sheep!" It sounded logical enough to Loz.
Tifa decided not to question it further. Then the officer finally caught up to them, "you're... you're..." he wheezed loudly, "my heart!"
Tifa blinked, there was no way she could have the luck to accidentally make a little boy and a middle aged man fall in love with her on the same day, while Cloud remain oblivious to her advances. Then she realized that this wasn't a declaration of love and her eyes went wide. She dialed 911 and told them there was a man having a heart attack at the supermarket. As curious people formed a circle around the agonizing man, Tifa slipped away, there was nothing more she could do, even if she felt bad that the physical exertion of chasing after her had been too much for the cholesterol filled circulatory system of that poor man.
Tifa searched for the others along with a love struck Loz, who was in pure bliss with a sea salt popsicle on one hand and Tifa's hand on the other, though she was only being careful to prevent him from running off. She spotted Reno trying to make up his mind about which instant ramen to buy. "Reno, what are you doing standing there?"
"Looking at the ramen, have you tried this?" He held up a relatively new brand.
"Where are Cloud and the others?" Tifa inquired.
"I saw Cloud dash out the door with Denzel after him." Reno replied with more calmness that was appropriate given the situation.
To be Continued
There are small references to Lion King and Kingdom Hears in this chapter, congratulations if you caught them. Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Thanks to ExtremeRainbowRaiderPrincess for the idea of Denzel joining the battle for Marlene.
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