Chapter Three

Yazoo

I looked at my brothers, who had remained silent since Leonard and Graceona left. "What was that about? What did you two say to her?"

Kadaj looked at me. "They wanted us to move back in with them and we told them we wanted to stay living on our own and Graceona, being the ticking time bomb that she is, went off. She's the reason I don't want to go back and live with Leonard. If it were just the four of us without her, I wouldn't have a problem going back and playing babysitter. Kourtney is a decent kid considering who her mother is." He sighed, taking a bite of his burger. A sigh from Loz caused me to look his way.

"What is your excuse, Loz? Do you hate Graceona as well?"

"Well, she's not the easiest person to get along with."

I sighed. "You two are pathetic. Just to get this family tree to levels where idiots can understand, Graceona is our older sister. Someone that Leonard seems to enjoy. It couldn't be the four of us for the rest of his life. He wanted a family, and now that he has it and he and Graceona are happy together, you two are jealous of his happiness. Either you two are jealous or you two can't stand the thoughts of seeing the two of them happy, which is it?" The two of them remained silent. "And another thing, Loz. If you can get along with Kadaj as well as myself on my bad days, you can get along with Graceona, because here are some interesting facts to put in your heads. She came from the same man we came from. Who would have thought?" I sighed, gathering Leonard and Graceona's dishes, leaving the two of them to sit, making my way to the kitchen. I placed the dishes into the sink, pinching the bridge of my nose with a sigh, gripping the metallic sink.

"Yazoo, you forgot your payment." I heard Sierra say from behind me as I looked at her. She handed it to me, and I placed it in my shirt pocket. "Something wrong?"

I looked at her. "No, I need to close up in an hour. Graceona and Leonard want to take me shopping. I won't be in town for a while. While they are at work, I will stay with them to help keep an eye on Kourtney. I'll still come and see you when I can."

Sierra wrapped her arms around my neck. "Don't worry, your family needs you. I can come and visit you from time to time. You didn't get the chance to tell them, did you?"

"No, but I will."

She smiled, getting my hand playing with the ring on my finger. "We can still have our date nights. You do what you need to do. I'll be here when you come back. You'll find me where you always find me."

I looked at her, stroking her hair. "I love you, Sierra."

She looked at me with a smile. Soon wrapping her arms around me, I returned the gesture. Once the embrace broke, she looked at me. "Why don't you leave early? I can take it from here. Get some sleep while you have some time."

I looked at her. "You're an angel. Remember to close in an hour. Then take the money and go get you some nice things."

She looked at me. "I'll close in an hour, I'll leave the money in the register, and lock up. I have to meet my dad. I promised him I would spend the day with him today."

I looked at her with a sigh. "Alright, tell Reno I said hi."

"I will."

I kissed her lips, leaving.

Leonard

I looked at Graceona, who was looking at the shirts on the stand. "Grace."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry that I lied to you twice."

She stopped and looked at me. "It's alright, I'm angrier at my brothers than I was at you."

"But why? What did the two of them do? They deserve to be happy, and being with the two of us wasn't what the two of them wanted. They are young. No one wants to live with whatever the two of us are to them all the time. They want to discover who they are in life. You can't be angry about that."

"They let you down. When you wanted their company, they rejected you."

I sighed. "Grace, is this what the issue was about earlier at ShinRa's office? I knew when you sighed like that, you were lost in thought. But with that sigh, it had tears hidden behind it. Have you assumed that you have somehow let me down?"

I looked at her as she sighed. "I was just bored."

"Who's the one lying now, Grace? I know your bored sigh and your angst sigh. Plus, not long after that, you brought up a time that I would rather forget, asking me to bring back someone I would rather not. You can't hide it, Graceona."

Graceona looked at a silk red button-up shirt on the stand, picking it up, placing it in her basket. "It's nothing, Leonard. Come on, let's do some shopping. It's Monday. All the best clothes are out. Let's get them before all the good stuff gets cleaned out."

I sighed as she walked into the store. I followed her. She looked around, getting a pair of leather fingerless gloves. "You're still into this stuff, aren't you?"

I looked at her. "Yeah." She put them into the basket. "Are you just going to shop your worries away? After lecturing me about keeping me up all night to drill my mind, perhaps you're the one that needs the lecture."

She sighed. "The sigh was from the continuing thought of me letting you down. I let a young man full of promise down. I left him alone in a cruel world, and now I don't have him. When Kadaj and Loz rejected you, I thought of my guilt. I wasn't any different from the two of them to that boy that was happy and carefree."

I sighed. "Graceona, let the two of us get one thing straight. Winning your friendship back then was the only reason I stayed in AVALANCHE. You never let me down. No one did. All of you held my hand and got me through the rough times. No one let me down. I remember one woman, the daughter of the man that had caused my injuries, staying up half the night, her tears though she thought she was hiding them. She fooled everyone except me. That same woman would always give me a shoulder to cry on, an ear to vent to. Graceona, I loved you then, and I love you now. I kind of wish you would stop treating me like I'm going to get broken like glass. I wish you knew how much I love you and have zero memories of you letting me down. I wish you could get a glimpse of that. Then you would understand that this mind game that you put yourself through is nothing but lies."

She looked at me. "Leonard, I saw you injured once, and I thought I lost you. That's why I treat you like a glass figure."

"Graceona, I was hurt physically, but now I'm more experienced. I'm not going to break as easily as something like glass. Let me be free of this overprotective side of you and let me breathe. I won't go into a breakdown if someone hurts my feelings. That's all I ask is you give me room to breathe and be me. You promise me that, and I'll let you shop and enjoy yourself."

She looked at me with a sigh. "Alright, I can do that."

I smiled, relieving her of her basket, holding her hand.