Pardon

Summary
Cait starts asking weird questions, and he wonders what is going on with his robot.

Characters
Cait, Reeve, and the household of the Seventh Heaven

Content and Rating:
This fiction is rated T to M due to: Language

Plays with your emotions: Not yours.
Male/Male relationships.

Disclaimer:
Don't own Final Fantasy VII, just using for my own amusement. There is no profit from this endeavour.

Acknowledgments and author's note:
After Dirge and AC are all said and to ZiggyPasta for being a great beta and friend.
A belated contest prize for crazyrobotcat... because I am slow.

Sitting on the large, pale pink belly of his mog, Cait let out a loud yawn, stretching dramatically before curling up again as if it were a normal cat.

Reeve didn't look up from his computer, as he continued to work on the budget that he had been procrastinating on, which was now due tomorrow morning. The worst part of his job was saying which department was given what amount of money. There was also the issue of trying to hide from where some of the money was coming. He had to manipulate the numbers to properly explain where some of the money went after the repairs started from the attack of Deepground.

"I need a blue cape," Cait said absently, running his gloved paws over its ears in an action that looked almost as if it were mocking how a cat cleaned itself.

"Why?" Reeve asked, not looking up from the colourful spreadsheet.

"Red is too bright of a colour. It stands out too much." Cait's tail twitched in front of the nose of the mog. It only blinked in response. Reeve was sure that it was happy not to be a regular ride now, and out of the fortune-telling-dancing business.

"Why blue, then?"

"So I can match the sky."

Reeve looked up from the computer, and frowned at the strange statement. "Pardon?"

"Then I can be a little storm cloud! All black, white and blue and a lightning bolt megaphone!" Cait excitedly bounced on the mog's belly.

Reeve started to laugh and took a minute to recover from the image, and when he finally stopped chuckling, he cleared his throat, "Well, of course. Why else?"

"Exactly!" Cait said as it curled up back onto the belly of the mog. The pinkish-skinned robot look relieved that the cat had stopped moving.

After making a quick call to his secretary to order Cait a sky blue cape, Reeve went back to dealing with the complicated spreadsheet.

He didn't think anything more of the strange request, even when Cait started to wear it instead of the normal red cape. It took him a little while to get used to it, but it became a common sight around his office. Cait referred to itself as a 'Storm Cloud Cait'! It was a strange title, but it was better than some of Reeve's robots had gained in the past.

There were a few other strange things that Reeve brushed off; an earring in one of its ears, a red crown, a sudden urge to practice using a gun, bedazzling of its megaphone, and the sudden desire to ask to be reprogrammed to learn Wutainese.

These were things that were easily brushed aside up until he caught Cait bathing in his kitchen sink. He had arrived home late after a meeting with Tseng. He was tired and hoped that Cait had remembered to bring in takeout. Walking into the kitchen, as that was the only room with the light on, he witnessed Cait in a pile of bubbles, standing in the sink and scrubbing itself. He had to stand still for a moment before he could comprehend the disaster that had been a newly remodeled room.

The normally black and white cat was a completely different colour. Its fur was matted with layers of green paint. The counter and floor were covered with bubbles, globs of green paint like goo, and he was pretty sure the globs were on every towel that he owned.

"What happened?" he was finally able to stammer out, as he took a few steps inside.

"I helped paint Marlene's bedroom!" Cait said as it scrubbed a black spot on one of its knees. Reeve was pretty sure that it was the only normal colour that was part of him.

"Did you fall in a bucket?"

"Nah." Cait waved its paw dismissively at him. "I was the brush!"

"Pardon?"

Cait dunked its paint-covered head into the suds causing more water to spill onto the floor. Instead of trying to figure it out, Reeve took off his jacket and began to help get his robot cat back to the normal black and white colours.

He would have to remember to ask Cloud about using Cait as a brush the next time that he saw him. Reeve knew he was buried in work with the WRO, and had not been directly working with Cloud with deliveries because of that. He was going to have to change that.

After fixing Cait's fur, putting a new blue cape on him and polishing his red crown, he left his disaster of a kitchen and went to bed. It was a distant memory in the morning, as work responsibilities piled onto his shoulders again.

It all came flooding back when Cait walked through his office covered with sticky glitter and silly string. He decided it was time to get to the bottom of all the strange occurrences and behaviour from his robot.

"What happened this time?" he asked as he picked up Cait. He was aware that he was soon going to be covered with glitter himself. It looked like a rainbow exploded over the black and white cat.

"What do you mean?" Cait said, moving its head back and forth, spraying glitter everywhere as it did so.

"You're wearing ribbons and are covered with glitter!"

"Oh that. We had a cheer-up-Vincent dance party!"

"We?"

"Uh-huh. Vincent was being all gloomy-woomy. Mr. Grumpy-Grump needed to cheer up! Marlene and I thought some glitter would make him smile, ya."

"Glitter?" Reeve chuckled. "You put glitter on Vincent?"

"Well, we tried. Tá sé didn't seem to like it." Cait shook and more glitter fluttered out of its fur, and some silly string fell off of the blue cape, and onto his desk. It looked like Scarlet's make-up case blew up all over with all the different colours of glitter, string, and powder.

Questioning Cait would not get him the answers he wanted, so he went straight to the source of the answers. It was not hard to access Cait's memory banks to find out what actually had been going on, and quickly became amused and intrigued by what he found.

He could believe Marlene convincing Cait that the robot would make a good paintbrush, or even Denzel being whimsical and talking about flying in the clouds. Glitter was something strange, but that could have been left over from a princess unicorn party that Marlene had put on a while ago, but involving Vincent ... And why was Vincent even there? He thought the gunman had retired to a house in Wutai and always conveniently forgot to plug in his phone.

Vincent had taken up the spare room in the Seventh Heaven, it appeared. For a man that proclaimed that he always wanted to be alone, he was spending a lot of time watching the children, helping Tifa in the kitchen, attempting to help Cloud with his bike, and sleeping in the back spare room. There were other things that he noted that made him smile. These were things that he had to confirm firsthand, and hoped that he wasn't seeing things.

"Well, that was certainly interesting," Reeve whispered as he put a chip back into the slot that was under Cait's ears, before reassembling the robot and turning it back on.

Cait blinked and smiled up at him. "So, what we gonna do now?" it chirped at him.

"I think we shall go drop by Seventh Heaven for a drink. After all, it has been overdue for a visit," Reeve said as he scooped up Cait into his arms and was about to fetch his jacket when he realized that he was still covered in glitter. "After we get cleaned up."

Seventh Heaven had changed since he last saw it. It had newly painted walls and the chairs around the tables looked to be a more comfortable style. None of these walls were the same shade of green that Cait had been coloured with. Cait pulled out of his arms and bounded ahead of him, announcing their arrival.

Marlene popped up from behind the bar and scooped up the robot into her arms. "I was wondering when you were going to come back. You're late! We need to start working on that fort pronto."

"Sure thing, lassie. Let's go!"

Smirking at Cait and the little girl, Reeve chuckled as the robot grabbed Marlene's hand and ran through the bar to go out the back door. He walked to sit at the bar where Tifa stood with a book on the counter and a pen between her teeth. "How's it going, Reeve? I haven't seen you in a little while. Cait's been coming by nearly every day."

"I've been rather busy, but I hear from Cait that you have been busy here as well," Reeve said as he sat on a stool. "Been redecorating? It looks good in here with the new wall colour."

Tifa nodded. "Yes. Business is good and it was time to lighten up the place. We even redid each of the kids' rooms."

"Yes, Cait came home all covered in green paint," Reeve stated and chuckled.

Tifa giggled. "I'm sorry, Reeve. I saw the pictures of Cait after. Everyone was covered in paint. I was expecting an angry phone call from you. The wall in Marlene's room is," Tifa rolled her eyes, "interesting."

"No harm done. I was able to clean up everything. I'm sure you had a bigger mess to deal with." Reeve seated himself at the bar. "I was also told that you had a guest, and he has been around for quite a while."

Tifa rolled her eyes again, and leaned against the bar. "Oh, right. Vincent." She put one hand on her hip and gave him a hard glare. "He's hanging out around here, teaching the kids bad habits, wrecking my stove and trying to get Cloud to teach him how to use a phone. Cloud is the last person in the world that should teach him how to use a phone. The Chocobo Head doesn't know how to answer it."

It was Reeve's turn to raise his eyebrow. "Oh."

"I spent three hours cleaning up sparkles, confetti and spray string from the spare room where the kids and Cait decided to 'cheer' up Vincent. The ghoul then went into mutt mode and is now pouting on the roof." Tifa stood up straight and had both her hands on her hips. "Who would have thought that such a quiet and brooding man would be such a bother? He gets Cait, Marlene, and Denzel to do his dirty work by giving them ideas that they shouldn't have, and then he has the nerve to ask me to get the sparkles out of his cape and hair!"

Reeve shook his head at the antics, while covering his mouth at the thought of Vincent being so bothersome. "Cait hasn't been filling me in on everything. It's a good thing that I came by, so I can catch up." He didn't mention that he figured out a few things as he went over Cait's memories, but he didn't want to make it appear that he was using his robotic cat to spy on his allies ... this time.

They drank coffee and talked. Reeve found out that there was so much more mischief that Marlene and Cait were a part of in regards to Vincent. He was filled in on the gaps that he missed, and the conclusion that he had come to was even stronger.

"I swear! Vincent does it on purpose to antagonize Cait!" Tifa sipped her coffee and let out a sigh. "Maybe you can talk to Vincent and see what's going on. Cloud isn't good at conversations, and he shrugs it off like it's not a big deal. I might as well be trying to talk to Vincent in his coffin. Hopefully the idiot will talk to you."

"I haven't talked to him for awhile. Every time I tried calling him, his phone was dead or his voicemail was full, so I honestly haven't tried in awhile. I was quite relieved to hear that he was staying here. I don't like the idea of him being alone in Wutai. It's so far away."

"I was glad to see him at first, too, but I'd rather have him haunting some other place." Tifa rubbed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. "I like Vincent and all, but he is so," she paused, waved her hands in the general direction of the roof, where he was known to sit, "gloomy. Now, I'm going to have to get him off the roof before the bar opens. If he's being a gargoyle, he'll scare of the customers."

"I'll deal with him," Reeve said as he stood up from the stool. "I need to talk to him anyway."

"Thank you, Reeve. You need to come by more often. You've been working yourself too hard." She tilted her head and gave him a beaming smile. "Maybe you can teach both Vincent and Cloud how to use their phones."

"Yes, Ma'am." He chuckled to himself. Tifa reminded him of his mother quite a bit. He would have to visit Seventh Heaven more often.

He wandered outside to see if he could spot Vincent on his perch. The gunman was easy to spot, but he was not on his perch. He was holding Cait by one leg and dangling him over Marlene who stood with an angry pout on her face. Vincent was not wearing his cape or his head scarf, and was only clothed in his normal black leather and belts.

"Put him down, now, Vincent," Marlene demanded and dramatically stomped one of her feet.

"Why?" Vincent said looking down.

"Because it's rude to hang people upside down!"

"Cait's not a person."

"It's still rude!" Marlene pouted.

"Damnú ort!" Cait cursed.

"Covering me with sparkles and silly string was rude," Vincent grumbled.

"Ya need to smile or your face will freeze that way!" Cait bellowed and swung its white-gloved hands toward Vincent, who was not even bothered by the wiggling of the robot.

"I think his face is already frozen that way," Marlene blurted and crossed her arms in an angry pout, before stomping her foot again and pointing to the ground. "Put him down, Vincent. I need him to help me with my fort!"

The fort that Cait and Marlene must have been working on was a pile of boards leaning against the wall of the garage that resembled nothing more than a pile of leaning wood. There was an old sheet that had the words 'fort' written on with a felt maker that covered the door. Loose tools lay scattered about the small area of ground, along with some soda cans that seem to be the type that are full of sugar and was fueling Marlene.

"Yeah," Cait said, "I gotta get the blankets!"

"And I have to get the pillows, so put Cait down so we can finish!" Marlene stomped her foot yet again. "Vincent!" She let out her best whine that almost hurt Reeve's ears.

"Now, now. Vincent, if you could please," Reeve said as he approached the three. The dark-haired man let go of Cait's, and it fell to the ground with a loud mew, yelp, and some Gaelic curses.

Marlene went to pick Cait up and stuck her tongue out at Vincent before running back to her fort.

"Reeve," Vincent muttered as he dipped his head. Normally it would be half hidden by his cape, but since it was being laundered, it only moved his hair to hide his eyes. "It's good to see you."

"There is no need to terrorize Cait," Reeve said and stroked his beard, "So you can talk to me. You can pick up a phone to do that." It was hard trying to keep the smile off his face when he wanted to be serious.

"I broke my phone," Vincent muttered as he turned his head to the side and avoided eye contact with him. "It fell down a mountain."

"I see." Reeve turned his head to match Vincent's. "And how did that happen?"

Vincent shrugged. "I went for a walk and encountered some monsters. It fell."

"Why didn't you come to me sooner?" Reeve asked as he allowed himself to smirk. He knew why well enough. "I would have got you a new phone, and had all the numbers you need already programmed inside." He wasn't going to say that he had it in his pocket ready for him, because it was what he expected to have happened. Vincent has proven over time that he was bad with electronics.

The way the gunman's head was turned, Reeve noted that there still were sparkles in his hair. He obviously didn't get them all out. Reaching up, Reeve brushed at the piece of his hair with the sparkles, causing Vincent to jump slightly. "Sorry. You still have sparkles in your hair." He showed Vincent that his hand was now speckled with sparkles. "They must have dowsed you with a truck load."

"I won't be able to sleep in that room," Vincent said as he ran a hand through his dark hair, and he looked like an anime character in a show with all the sparkles floating around him. "Those two are quite a nuisance."

"They seem to enjoy tormenting you. Why don't you come to my place? It will be quieter, sparkle free, and I will be able to tell you how to use your new phone." Reeve watched as Cait jumped out of the fort with a pillow case over its head. "It will probably do your nerves some good."

Marlene followed with a pillow case cape, as both the robot cat and little girl ran to the garage, yelling for Cloud. A roar of a motorbike could be heard at a distance that was unmistakably Cloud's. Vincent nodded and his shoulders slumped. "I will get my cape and guns."

Reeve chuckled. "Normally people get their bags."

"I'm not normal."

Reeve followed behind the brooding man as he went inside. He informed Tifa that he was taking the gunman off her hands for at least the night. She didn't bother to hide her relief. Cloud and Denzel joined the conversation, and Cloud asked them to stay for dinner. Reeve was about to take them up on the offer, but the pained look on Vincent's face made him turn down a home cooked meal. Reeve told a little white lie that he already had dinner plans.

They drove in a comfortable silence to his house, and once they arrived, Reeve asked the question that he was dying to ask. "You really could have called me. Cait was acting so weird, and I didn't understand why until I downloaded his memory."

"Downloaded his memory?" Vincent raised an eyebrow at him as he retrieved his guns from the back seat of the car.

"Yes. It would have been less of sparkles and paint if you did."

Vincent chuckled. "I didn't think Marlene would actually use him for a brush. Seeing the green blob throw itself at the wall to paint was amusing." Vincent shifted the load to his shoulder and smirked at him. "Did you get the paint all out of its fur?"

"I had to buy new towels," Reeve said as he opened the front door. "And I was never fond of the colour green."

"What colours would you prefer?" Vincent asked as he slowly walked around the house. Reeve was used to how he was when he entered new places. He had learned the fatal consequence of not watching his surroundings.

"I prefer colours like red, blue, and earthy browns for my décor," Reeve said as he turned and waited until Vincent looked at him. "Now, do you really want to tell me what happened to your phone?"

Pulling his gauntleted hand out of his folded cape, he produced a phone. It looked like it was in good shape. "I lost the charger."

Chuckling, Reeve took his phone. "That can easily be fixed." He went to his hall table and plugged the phone into his charger, and laid his phone there as well. "Is there anything else you want to do while you're here, other than having your phone charged?"

He could feel the taller man behind him and it caused Reeve's heart to jump in his chest. "You promised dinner."

"I did." Reeve turned and looked up at Vincent's whose eyes were not as red as they should have been. "We should actually eat before you dine."

A simple nod and a hand on his shoulder told him that it was going to be a long night.

Reeve and Vincent are a scary and wonderful pair...