Parenthood'z Nightmare

Chapter XXIII - The Dreamscape

The rain fell all day, flooding in deep puddles outside. It was the best of days in Sephiroth's opinion; Gillian's stove heated the kitchen, warm soup was served and blankets were brought downstairs as wet pattered on the window and blew at the door.

Alice built a fort upstairs, he helped her tent a sheet over the mattress and line the space with all things comfortable so she could sit in a land soft as clouds and play to her hearts content.

He smiled, watching her scribble shapes, mash coloured dough and have her bucket of tiny toy monsters roar at each other, building their world out of blocks, tented books and dough cut into shapes as Pancake loomed in the corner, a mascot overlooking the crowd.

He half joined her in her tent at one point, his legs stretched out across the floor, his arms and head inside, content to just observe her at play and do his best to keep the sheets clean of pen ink and pressed playdough.

He had never seen her so content... and it had been a long time since he had felt such contentedness himself.

"I've fought all of these monsters." He told her, looking at the twenty-four tiny plastic figures spread around the mattress, the rolled up duvet made a wonderful circular padded fort, filled in with pillows and cushions. "This one, right here," he laid a finger on its head, "is a Black Dragon. Very rare, it keeps mostly to the mountains. And this one is an Allemagne, its eye makes up more than half its body weight and it's large enough to carry sheep."

She silently held a purple mushroom up to him.

"Hm, excellent choice. This is a Battery Cap; magic is its best weapon. I took it down alongside a Behemoth once, that's this larger monster here, it's very difficult for most men to take down..." his mouth pulled into a smile, "but I'm sure you'll have no problem with it when you're older."

"Cat!" She pointed to her family of Cactuar's stood upright in a patch of yellow playdough.

"Almost right, these are Cactuar's, irritating little things. Quick and mischievous." He grinned, amused with memory. "Once, when Angeal, Genesis and I were in the desert, a Cactuar snuck up on us," he pulled the large one from the playdough and moved it to sneak up on a line of three cars, "it threw all its needles at Angeal and then ran away. Guess why he couldn't sit down afterwards."

Alice giggled. "His butt!"

"That's right. He was in a bad mood for days because he couldn't' sit down."

"Where Uncle Angel?"

He put the Cactuar back in the dough. "He's in Wutai with Genesis, fighting a war."

"Why?"

Why...? He didn't know what to say. Why was life's greatest question. The world had been at war with Wutai for so long, the Materia Wars when he was a boy became a political fight for a Mako Reactor. Why was it important? Why were they fighting? He could easily fight without a reason, but he didn't like questioning it. Questions were distracting.

"Because they've been told to. And a good SOLDIER always does as he is told."

She reached for her sword, pulling the blade straight from its compact hilt. "I' a SO'DIE?"

"No!" He practically ripped the sword from her hands, giving it back to her immediately. "No," he said, much calmer. He had no need to fear her joining SOLDIER, the Mako didn't react very well in females; it caused too many hormonal disruptions to enhance them. SOLDIER disbanded women during its fifth year, a month after Posie was blinded. "But you could be a monster hunter, with a real sword and lots of Materia."