Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ My Happy Ending ❯ Thinking of You ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6: Thinking of You

“Always catch myself

Thinkin' `bout the things you do.

There ain't no one else -

Got my heart set on you.

You really got me,

Baby, it's true.”

-Mariah Carey “You Got Me”

A few days later, Brad Shields was busily tuning up an engine in his father's shop. His sister was at the nearby arc welder, carefully welding a tailpipe for a motorcycle she was working on. Her welder's mask was over her face, and she wore a pair of thick gloves that went up past her elbows to prevent herself from being burned by the flame and sparks of the welder.

Brad told Raye about Shera and her story. After parting with her in Costa del Sol, Shera was all Brad could think about. He hoped that she found a path and was following her heart, and he was anxious to see if she would call him. The phone suddenly rang, and Brad looked over at it hopefully.

His red haired sister put down her welder, pulled up her mask, and picked up the receiver.

“Hello, Shields Garage and Parts?” she said to the person on the other end.

Brad listened intently hoping she would say that it was for him, but he soon realized that it was just a customer inquiring about some parts they had in stock. Raye hung up the phone and turned to her brother.

“You were hoping it was her, huh?” Raye said.

“Yeah, kind of,” Brad replied as he busied himself inside the motor.

“Kind of my ass. You have been thinking about her non-stop. What's so special about this girl?”

Brad sighed. “Honestly, I dunno. She's just…so sweet. She's a bit on the shy side, but that just allures me to her more, and oh, my God, she is so cute!”

Raye giggled. “You sound like a damned schoolboy.”

“I can't help it,” he sighed. “I want to get to know her some more, but I don't want to rush it, you know? I mean, I have never thought of any girl this much in my life.”

“I know what you mean,” Raye agreed. “Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to think about.”

Brad smiled deviously. “Yes you do.”

Raye walked over to the motorcycle and began to fit the tailpipe on. “Oh, yeah? Who?”

“That one blond-haired guy in Junon,” Brad smugly said.

“Oh, my fucking GOD! Here we go again!” Raye complained. She didn't know his name, but he sure was the farthest thing from her mind.

Brad laughed. “Oh, come on! You can't possibly tell me that you didn't at least think he was hot!”

Raye scowled. “I thought he was an asshole. He didn't even apologize to you for almost running you down with his car! Fucking bastard.”

Brad chuckled. “You still didn't answer my question.”

“Fuck you, Brad, and that's my answer. But what about Shera? I wanna meet her when you get the chance!”

“There you go - conveniently changing the subject,” Brad replied with a laugh. “But don't worry, Sis, I promise you'll meet her, but first she has to call me!”

The siblings nearly jumped when the phone rang in the shop. Raye got up and answered it.

“Hello? Shields Garage and Parts?”

“Uh…hello?” said an unsure female voice on the other end.

“Can I help you?” Raye offered.

“Could I speak with, ah, Brad, please? My name is Shera.”

Raye's eyes widened with excitement, and she turned to her brother. “It's for you!”

“Who is it?” Brad asked.

Raye grinned. “Shera.”

Brad scrambled out from the hood, dropped his tools on the floor of the shop, and ran to the phone.

“So, this is the girl I have been hearing so much about,” Raye said to Shera, turning away from Brad on purpose.

Shera giggled on the other end. “Good things, I hope.”

“Very good things.”

“Raye! Give me the phone!” Brad protested as he tried to reach around Raye to grab it from her. She finally let him have it and leaned against the vehicle Brad was working on.

“Hello? Shera?” Brad said, trying to contain his excitement.

“Hey there!” she cheerily replied. “Sorry it took so long to call back.”

“That's alright. You've probably been busy.”

“I have. I decided to stay in Costa del Sol, and I got a job as a mechanic on the docks.”

“Really? Wow! That sounds like its right up your alley. What else?”

“Well, I have an apartment, and I am going to open my own shop!” Shera excitedly told him.

“That's great! I'm happy for you!”

“Thank you! I have to go because I am working, but I wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you.”

“I'm glad you called,” Brad replied. “I'll stop by and see you next time I go across.”

Brad and Shera said goodbye, and he hung up the phone. Raye jumped up and squealed as soon as he did.

“What'd she say? What'd she say?”

Brad beamed. “She stayed in Costa del Sol and is going to open up that shop!”

“Oooh! Are you going to see her again?”

“I want to,” Brad replied, “but I rarely get to go over, unlike you.”

“Don't worry. I'll figure something out,” Raye assured him. She was happy that her brother had found someone he was interested in. Raye only wished she could say the same.

Back in Costa del Sol, Shera hung up the phone near the docks. She met the owner of the marina as she promised a few days ago, was given a tour, and she now carried a list of repairs to make, and was it a long one. The engineer began to think that she would never get the list done before the end of the day, but then again, the proprietor, whose name was Harold, never gave her a deadline. Still, the woman did not want to be yelled at for being slow, and she worked faster.

A half an hour after she hung up with Brad, the owner of the marina came to check her progress. He picked up the list, and Shera braced herself for a good ass chewing as though she were still working for Cid.

“What's yer hurry, there, sweetie?” Harold asked.

“I just wanted to get your list done, but…it seems I am falling behind,” Shera nervously said.

Harold looked at Shera. Here it comes, Shera thought.

“Well, that's alright, Shera. It's better to take your time on this kind of stuff. If ya get in a rush, you'll just screw something up, so why not do it right the first time, eh? Besides, it'll give you stuff to do tomorrow.”

Shera was rather surprised by this remark, and Harold noted the look of astonishment.

“You look surprised by that. Something wrong?”

“Er, no,” the engineer replied. “I…was just used to working in a more…hurried environment.”

“And I bet ya screwed up a lot and wound up having to either do it again or have someone else take it over for you, right? And I bet it never went without an ass chewing, either. Don't worry - I been in your shoes.”

Shera sighed and dropped her eyes. “Yes, that is exactly what happened.”

“Chin up. I don't work people like that. If you don't get everything done in one day, there is always the next.”

Shera smiled a bit and kept working at her own, snail-like pace as Harold went on about other business. She was quite relieved that he didn't yell at her as other people would. He understood that perfection takes time.

Back at the shop, Raye and Brad were busily working on their respective projects. The younger brother finished with the car, test drove it, and determined that everything was working properly. As for Raye, she was now welding another tailpipe for a different motorcycle. A bell rang, but the arc welder was making such a racket that Brad was the only one who heard it. He looked up from under the hood of the car he was working on, and was very surprised to see that the customer standing at the counter of the parts wing of the family's garage was none other than the blond haired guy from Junon! Brad grinned, dropped onto his roller board, and pushed himself beneath another car. The window was out of his sister's view, and she was too busy with the welder to notice who was standing inside anyway. The bell rang again, this time more irritatingly.

Raye looked up from her work and over at her brother.

“Brad, would ya get that?” she asked.

“Sorry, Sis, I'm really tied up under here,” Brad said with a smile. He was glad his sister didn't see what was really a shit eating grin across his face.

Raye sighed, pushed her welder's mask up onto her head, and proceeded to the door, not noticing who was standing and waiting for service.

Raye opened the door to the shop and walked in. Cid noticed right off the bat who the woman was and remembered the good roundhouse punch across his jaw she had given him. The girl walked in wearing gloves that were similar to his and a welding mask on top of her head with her layered hair pulled back out of her face. The ponytail flopped as she walked, and the shorter pieces of her auburn hair fell into her facade. She was dressed in a pair of tan cargo pants with a white tank top over a blue one, and her work boots were obviously steel-toed as they thumped heavily as she walked across the floor. Cid hated to admit that she had an awesome figure as her top was rather - ahem -- fitting.

“Can I help - Oh my fucking God! Not you!” the redhead groaned.

Cid snorted. “The feeling's mutual.”

Raye turned around, opened the door, and yelled for her brother. Actually, it was more like she screamed for him, but he only replied with an “I'm really busy!” and a muffled snicker.

“Dammit. Alright. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I would like to have some parts. After all I am standing in a parts shop!”

“Dually noted, smart ass,” Raye replied curtly. “Oh, and by the way, nice bruise I left you.”

“Oh, fuck you!” he nastily replied, slightly rubbing his jaw. Yup. It was still a tad sore.

“Anyway, your parts?”

Cid produced a list of parts he needed from his pocket and gave it to Raye. The girl removed her gloves and mask, and she picked up an ink pen on lying on the counter. She had to admit that the man had rather neat handwriting, and she could easily read what he had. Of course, Cid couldn't resist another smart-ass remark to pester the young woman.

“Are ya sure you can read that? I mean, you did go to school, right?”

Raye shot Cid an evil look. “Yes, I went to school, and yes, I can read! “

“Ah, you're not as dumb as you look,” Cid replied coolly. He was pleased he was getting on her nerves.

“Too bad I can't say the same for you,” Raye returned.

Cid gritted his teeth and balled his fist as Raye tried her hardest to stifle a laugh. He walked right into that one, and she knew she had gotten the upper hand on him, which pissed the pilot off to no end.

Raye was about halfway done copying Cid's order when she suddenly heard a huge crash coming from somewhere in the back. The family's house was behind the shop and garage, and there was a back door in the rear of the stockroom that connected the business with their house. The red head jumped and slowly turned toward the direction of the door. She soon heard muffled voices of “Uh-oh” and “Sis is gonna kill us when she finds this!”

She turned back to Cid.

“What the hell was that?” he asked.

“I dunno,” she replied uneasily, “and I'm afraid to find out. Excuse me a minute.”

Cid watched Raye put down her pen and calmly but quickly walked back into the stockroom to the back door of her house. He soon heard a slew of cussing and yelling from the back, and he couldn't help but to wonder what was going on.

Suddenly, a boy about twelve years old came dashing from the backroom.

“Don't you run from me, you little DEMON! Get back here!” the woman hollered.

Cid looked at the boy who was obviously panicked, and he frantically looked for a place to run or perhaps hide. The lad finally scrambled over the counter past the confused aviator and ran out into the garage where Brad was. Cid turned to find that Raye was running up toward the shop dragging along another boy, identical to the first one, by the collar of his shirt.

“Not so rough, Sis!” the boy protested as he struggled against his older sister. He managed to break free from Raye's grasp, and broke into a run. However, Raye was too fast for him.

“I don't think so!” the older sibling replied. The boy jumped across the counter with Raye sliding across the top hot on his heels. The young boy and his sister ran circles, and Raye finally tackled the youngster around his legs, the both of them coming down with a loud `THUD' on the hardwood floor of the shop.

Cid watched in amazement as Raye wrestled her brother up, shoved him into a corner, and held him there. She was about to open her mouth and start yelling when Brad finally came in holding the first boy, and Cid could clearly see that the two boys in question were identical twins!

“What is going on here?!” Brad demanded as the first boy squirmed in his brother's grasp. “What did you two do now?”

“Oh, you don't want to know,” Raye said, agitated. She looked sternly at her other twin brother. “You! Get your ass into that other corner, NOW!”

The other boy reluctantly slinked into the opposite corner of the shop from his twin. Raye produced a piece of chalk and drew circles in each corner, slightly higher than the boys' noses. She instructed them to stand and keep their noses in the center of the circle, which made the boys have to stand slightly on tiptoe to reach. Cid remembered this punishment from his own schoolboy days when the teacher made him stand like that in front of his class for throwing paper airplanes when her back was turned. The task was a difficult thing to do, even though it didn't look it, and he remembered how tired his legs and feet felt after standing that way for so long.

Once she placed them in punishment, Raye explained to Brad that they knocked over an entire shelf of breakables by playing football in the house, something that the sister had apparently told the twin boys repeatedly to never do. Brad returned to the shop, and Raye went back to placing Cid's part order for his plane. She had most everything in stock, bit some of the parts the pilot needed Raye had to specially order from other locations.

“You know,” Cid ventured. “I remember my teacher doing that punishment on me when I was a kid. It's a lot harder than it looks.”

“I hear you there, man!” one of the boys said.

“Hey! Turn around! Nose in the circle!” Raye yelled. “I don't wanna keep you there all night, but I will if I have to!” She turned to Cid. “Yeah, but luckily I never had to do it. I was actually pretty good, if you can believe that.”

Cid snickered a little. “I'd have to see that to believe it.”

“Well, that was when I was little. Now high school, on the other hand, was an entirely different story.”

“Yeah, I kind of assumed it would be too good to be true.”

“Shut up.”

Cid grinned toothily at his own remark as Raye finished his parts order.

“Alright,” she said. “I'll have to wait a few days for the other parts to come in, but when they do me or my dad should call you. I believe he's got your address in our computer.”

Cid took back his list from Raye and placed it in his pocket. He thanked her, and was about to walk out the door when Raye's father came in.

“Well, I'll be damned!” he said. “If it ain't the Captain himself!”

Cid smiled and extended his hand toward the other man. Rick was his name, and he heartily took the pilot's hand and shook it.

“Where you been, old fart?” Cid asked with a smile.

“Same old shit, just a different day.”

Rick Shields was a lot older than Cid was, probably by at least twenty to twenty-five years, and he was tall. He had graying brown hair and dark brown eyes that always held a sparkle to them. Cid and Rick had gone way back to the construction of the Highwind as Cid had ordered his parts from Rick, and the elder man even helped on the project.

“Well, it's been a long ass time, and its good to see ya! We should go have a beer sometime.”

“We should. Say, how's that airship of yours?” Rick asked.

“Crashed and scrapped at Junon. The shit that went down in the North Crater tore her up real bad. I'm working on the blueprints for a new design of her, though,” Cid explained.

“That's a shame,” Rick replied. “We worked real hard on it, too.”

“Well, what can ya do?”

“Say, Cid, it's getting late. You wanna eat with us tonight and stay?” Rick offered. “I figure maybe we can catch up.”

Raye, who was listening in on the conversation, muttered under her breath, “Oh, God…”

Cid looked hesitant. Please say no! Please say no! Raye pleaded in her head. The pilot looked at his watch.

“Sure,” he finally said. Raye's head dropped down in exasperation. “I'm starving, and I'm pretty tired.”

Rick turned to his daughter. “You mind an extra person tonight, Raye?”

Raye faked a smile, looked up, and said rather pleasantly. “No, not at all, Dad.” What else could she say? She really didn't have much of a choice in the matter, anyway.

Brad came in from the shop, wiping his hands off on a rag.

“Hey, Dad,” he said in passing.

“Cid, go in with Brad and wash up.” Rick noticed his two boys in the corners as he was talking with Cid, and he wanted to see what it was they were in trouble for.

Cid left, and Rick turned to his daughter. “What'd they do now?”

Raye explained what happened to her father, and he turned to them.

“Boys, come here,” Rick sternly said. The two sulked from the corner and stood before their father. “How many times does your sister have to tell you not to play ball in the house?”

The twins turned to face the older man, and they looked down to the floor and offered no answer.

“Well, answer me.”

“She shouldn't have to,” one of them ventured.

“You damned right about that. If you do it again, I will personally whip you,” Rick replied. “Your sister and your brother are in charge when I ain't here, so you best listen to both of them, understand?”

“Yes, sir,” they each said.

“This is the second time this week you've broken things in our house. Third strike's a spankin'. Now go on in and wash up and be sure to clean up your mess.”

The twin boys slunk off into the house, and Raye knew it wouldn't happen again. If they wouldn't listen to her, they would definitely listen to their father. Rick didn't put up with any shit in his house, and neither did Raye, for that matter.

“Lock up, Raye, would ya?” Rick asked.

Raye took her keys from the pocket of her pants, locked the door to the shop and the garage, and joined her family inside the house. She was none too happy about having Cid over for dinner, but she figured she could put up with him for just an evening. The thing that worried her was surviving suppertime with her nutty family.