90Sorry for the delay :P
I don't own anything, except the story.
The moon was already high in the sky and the lights of homes were dimming every passing moment, soon there would be only the occasional guard patrols roaming the streets. It's already been a couple of hours, since Claire left for bed, but Storm was still lingering on the roof of her house, just staring off into the sky, counting the stars, what else are you supposed to do when you don't really need to sleep anymore? Well, it's not completely true, he still slept a couple of times a month, but even that was only for a couple of hours.
"What's on your mind kit?" asked a menacing voice suddenly.
"Yo, Kurama, that's you?"
"No, it's the freezer looking for it's vegetables, of course it's me!" growled the voice.
"You're never going to let that one go, will you..?" sighted Storm.
"Don't ask dumb questions, when you already know the answers, so, what's bothering you kit?"
Storm sighted again, while closing his eyes. When he opened them again he was standing in a forest, with a rich green flora surrounding him - a nice change from the creepy dungeon sewer prison that it used to be.
"I see you've redecorated, since the last time I've been here, gotta say, I like the green" chuckled the guy.
"It makes me feel more relaxed and don't go changing the subject on me boy!"
"Had to try…" chuckled storm "Nothing, really, just thinking about the fun days to come I guess." Said he sheepishly.
"Oh, you mean about how you decided to try your luck in the babysitting business?" chuckled Kurama.
At that point Storm decided to look at Kurama and give the best glare he could muster at the moment. If someone were to see the sight, they'd think that he was looking at the Nine tailed mountain of a demon Fox, whose pinky fingernail is almost larger than the man, with all the hate and malice of the world and is pretty much insane for doing that. But that's where a simple persons eyes would fail them. As a matter of fact if you were to know them, you'd see that they're actually close friends when it comes down to it, you may even say that the Fox was like and older brother figure that always finds fun in teasing his younger sibling.
Sadly that's not how it always was. Back in the good old days Kurama would have loved to do nothing less than to rip Storm into tiny pieces, then connect them back up, so he could shred him up again. He'd be always formulating plans how to escape his prison, plotting ways to torture his jailer and even battling for dominance over the guys body in times of extreme anger. But as Storm was growing up, little by little he changed the Fox's ways. It wasn't until a war, which was called the fourth shinobi world war, but the name and the knowledge of the war has been long forgotten, that they finally bonded to the point, that they joined their forces and became a force of nature. From that point onwards they were inseparable and that's why after holding the glare for a minute, both the Fox and the man busted into a fit of chuckles.
"Yeah I guess you could call it like that, though I prefer the term 'Guardian', thank you very much."
"Well, be glad that I was the only one listening at the time, just imagine what'd have happened if, let's say Shukaku, would have heard it." Chuckled the Fox, while Storm felt an unpleasant shiver going down his spine from the thought.
"I don't even want to imagine the horror of a situation like that."
"So, are you going to say what's with the sudden interest in babysitting? Or am I supposed to keep guessing?"
"Actually I'm still trying to figure it out myself, it's like my gut is telling, that if I stay around this girl long enough, there'll be something big that happens in the future and you know me, if there's something big, I want to be in it, though I have no idea why I decided to interact with her, guess it's more amusing that way." shrugged the guy.
"You're babysitting because you feel like your gut is telling you to do so?" sweatdropped Kurama "I guess I shouldn't have expected a logical answer from you to begin with…" sighted the Fox.
"And what is that supposed to mean you stupid old fox!" shouted Storm.
"Exactly what you heard you moron!" snorted Kurama. 'And you're one to talk about age…'he thought sweatdropping.
"Can you two keep it down, some of us are trying to sleep here!" shouted a voice from a random direction "And stop messing with him Kurama, we all know that his gut is usually right when it comes down to it, I mean the last time he said anything about it, the war of transgression happened!" shouted another. Now that put a triumphant smirk on Storms face, that just screamed 'Victory!'
"Tch, stupid Isobu, stupid Gyuki spoiling my fun…" mumbled the fox dejectedly "By the way kit, why'd you chose a name like Storm this time, when there's no point in hiding your real one?"
"What do you mean hiding my real one? That is my true name, well, at least a shortened version of it."
"The heck are you talking? Your name is N-" The 'monster'was saying, before being interrupted.
"Yes it is, but it means Maelstrom, so technically I gave her my true name, just in a shorter form, since Maelstrom is quite long and it's hard to remember lengthy names, you know!" Rambled the self-dubbed 'Guardian'.
"Whatever floats your boat Fishcake" the fox said while laying down to rest "That'll be all for now, so you can go back to your so called 'Guardian' duties" amusingly said he.
"It's Maelstrom, not fishcake!" mused Storm, before leaving the place in a blink of an eye – literally, which left an amused Kurama 'Wonder when he'll realize that there's no storm in maelstrom'.
Opening his eyes in the outside world Storm looked around to determine the time 'Only about an hour passed, great!' thought the guy sighting 'Means more time to stare at the sky and recount the stars,- again!'
The next day Claire Farron was feeling really annoyed. The moment she woke up, her sister was right in her face wanting to hear everything about her 'Guardian Angel', since apparently she heard her talking with him yesterday. Of course, like any other sane person, she freaked out and fell out of her bed to say good morning to the floor, before abruptly getting up like nothing happened. After that Serah was stuck to her like a tail, going everywhere she goes, never allowing to leave her sights. At first Claire tried ignoring her, but that didn't seem to work, since with every ignored question, her younger sister came back with ten more, so now she was pondering on how to, at least, calm her down.
Her mother wasn't much help either, all she did was smile and say how cute she was having an 'imaginary friend', like really? And to make it worse, she was asking about him as well! So there wouldn't be any assistance from her either, more than likely she'd only fuel the fire just to make her embarrass herself. It wasn't until now that Claire noticed, that it was awfully quiet behind her, it made her hopes rise, that maybe, just maybe Serah decided to quit and finally leave her be, but that's where she was wrong, because as soon as she turned her head around, she came face to face with the most dreaded weapon in the world, that no one could withstand – the sad puppy eyes technique, which Serah was a master of.
Already she could feel her will leaving her, No she wouldn't give in, not again!
"Sis."
"Serah, I already told you, that I'm not talking about it."
"Come on Claire, pwetty pwease!" the effect increased tenfold and the older Farron couldn't resist any more, at least she lasted a couple of seconds longer than the last time.
"Ok, fine, I give up, I'll talk! Just please get rid of that look before I turn to jell and fall to my knees!" sighted the now wobbly Claire.
"Yay!" squealed the younger of the duo, before doing a small victory dance and jumping in to hug her sister.
"Now ask away before I change my mind and start running as fast as I can" Chuckled the older pinkette.
"Then I'm not releasing you from the hug and besides, you said you're gonna talk, don't tell me you lied about it Claire!" pouted Serah.
"I'm just kidding, when I said I'll talk, I meant it, so you can release me from your death grip already!"
"Now let's see…" said Serah adopting a thinking position and tapping a finger on her chin "How does he look?"
"He's a big white fluffy bunny with long pointy ears, a small wiggly tail and a carrot in his mouth, that he was munching the whole evening, or maybe he was a rabbit, can't really tell the difference."
The younger sibling blinked a couple of times "Really? You think he'd allow me to pet him, if you asked really nicely?" Claire had to sweatdrop at her sister's naiveté.
"Of course not, why'd he look like a bunny anyways?
"Then stop making stuff up you big meanie and answer truthfully!" whined the girl while playfully hitting her sister.
"Ok, ok, I'm gonna answer truthfully from now on, at least for the most part" chuckled the older Farron, while mumbling the last part.
"Could you repeat that last part, didn't quite catch it."
"Ohh don't mind that, I was just thinking of how to say, that I don't have the slightest idea how he looks like." Sheepishly replied Claire making her sister stumble on her feet.
"Are you being mean again? You just said that you'd give real answers from now on!"
"No I'm not and I just did" said the pinkette while sticking her tongue out.
"Don't do that Claire, you know it's inappropriate!" scolded Serah "And how come you don't know what he looks like, didn't you see him when the two of you were talking?"
"He didn't 'feel like' revealing himself, so he was invisible the whole time or something…" pouted the girl.
"You didn't get any specific traits about his looks, ok, but what about other things? You had to find out at least something!"
"Well, he gave me his name, wait, no, scratch that, he didn't reveal even that, all he did give me was his nickname, before you ask, It's Storm and then, after a lot of hard work on my part – his age!" the last part was said almost proudly.
"His age? You mean you know how old he is?"
"Well not really, he said that he doesn't know it himself anymore, since he stopped counting somewhere after 20 millennia."
"So in other words, the only thing you got out of him is that he's an extremely old and wrinkled geezer? Well that's gotta be fun for you!" chuckled Serah.
"There is one other thing that I got out of him…"
"Aaand that thing is?"
"He said, that he didn't age a day, since he was 23 and still looks that age."
"That means he's like popcorn, right?" wondered the smaller girl.
"Popcorn...? Why popcorn of all things?" asked the confused Claire.
"Because popcorn is frozen in time!"
"I still don't understand the idea behind it."
"Just think about it, when the corn explodes, it freezes, so you could almost say that it's an explosion frozen in time!" chirped a happy Serah, while at the same moment a certain Trench Coated Storm suddenly sweatdropped feeling that someone, somewhere was comparing him to food again.
"When you put it like that, it does make sense, in a way." While Claire was conversing with her sister, she didn't notice something, or someone sneaking behind her, until a menacing shadow stretched in front of her and a sudden loud "BO!" was said close to her ear. After that an ear piercing shriek was heard throughout the house and a couple of laughing voices soon followed. The pink haired girl felt both angry, shaken up and embarrassed for being scared like that.
"Mom… don't… scare me…. Like… that, ever again!" shouted the still panting Claire.
"Can't make any promises dear, it's too big of a temptation to just pass by when such opportunities arise, so what where my two angels talking about?"
"Not telling!" was the instantaneous reply from the older of the girls'.
"About Claire's new an-mhmgfh." The rest of the answer was quickly muffed by said girl's hand.
"As I said, not telling, so you can stop trying to get something out of us, right Serah?" a distorted 'Yes' came as confirmation.
"Ohh really now?" their mother asked raising a challenging eyebrow "Serah, I'm going to give you twenty chocolate cookies if you tell me." She barely managed to finish before getting a reply from the now free mouthed girl.
"We were talking about Claire's new guardian angel friend, whose name is Storm, well actually it's a nickname, but you get the idea. Also he's not an extremely old and wrinkled geezer, can I have the cookies now?"
"Traitor…" mumbled her now pouting sister.
"It was a choice between you and the chocolate cookies, it was a tough decision to make, but the cookies won in the end!"
"Yes, because making really hard decisions takes you less than a second."
"Look on the bright side Claire" commented her mother.
"What bright side?" grumped Claire.
"At least you won't have to hide the knowledge of him from me anymore!" chuckled the woman.
"I'm gonna ask again, what bright side?" deadpanned the girl.
"Don't mind her Mom, she just knows that you'll tease her, that's all." Laughed Serah.
"Well you know what they say – Knowledge is power!"
"Now let's go get the cookies, because they're not gonna eat themselves!" shouted the small girl, while dragging her mother behind her.
"That escalated quickly." Sweatdropped Claire, before going after them.
The rest of the day went relatively normal to the girls, well at least for the most part. Serah destroyed the pile of cookies that their mother promised her. Then they played some games like hide n' seek around the house, though Serah had a hard time staying still after consuming so many sweet cookies, so it was pretty easy for Claire to find her, all she had to do was follow the giggling and it would lead straight to her. It was amusing the first dozen of times, but after a while it became really boring without the challenge, so they changed to a game of catch, which the older Farron came to regretted dearly, because one does not simply play catch with someone high on sugar. Serah was all over the place, she not only managed to constantly evade being caught, but also found time for jumping around, crawling, skipping and god knows what else. So there's no wonder, that at the end of the day, Claire was so exhausted, that changing to her night clothes was the last thing on her mind and she just fell on her bed falling asleep before even reaching her pillow.
Though sleep came relatively quickly, the dreams that followed, weren't that pleasant. At first everything seemed normal, her family was on a plane readying themselves for skydiving and that was when everything started going downhill. While they were traveling to the designated jumping location, the sky suddenly darkened and out of nowhere, the aircraft was hit by a flash of lightning. At first, it seemed like everything was fine, that is until everything started flashing red and the captain ordered everyone to jump out of the plane if they wanted to have at least a slight chance of surviving, but when they jumped and it was time to open up the chute, Claire noticed, that during the panic, she forgot to put hers on and now she was freefalling to her death screaming her lungs out.
Then suddenly, the next thing she knows, is that she's back in her bed all covered in sweat and still shaking from the dream, wait no a nightmare.
'I guess I won't be going back to sleep for a while…' thought Claire, while shakingly getting up from her bed and going to her balcony. The moment she was out, a wave of fresh cold night's air hit her face and she looked up at the stars – they always had a calming effect to them.
"Shouldn't you be in your bed sleeping at this hour?" came the curious voice of Storm surprising her.
"Could say the same about you…"
"Well, for one, I don't have a bed and secondly I don't really sleep."
"You don't sleep!? But don't you get tired, like at all?" asked a genuinely interested Claire.
"No, not really."
"Then what do you do at nights, I mean I can't think of much to do during them, except maybe play videogames... wait, don't tell me that you actually do that!" exclaimed the girl.
"Nothing like that" chuckled Storm "And you're right, there's not much to do during the nights these days, usually, so I tend to waste my time recounting the stars in the sky, mostly."
"That sounds a bit boring… Have you actually managed to count them at least?" skeptically asked the pinkette.
"A couple of times a night actually."
"Really! Then how many are there?" asked the girl still feeling skeptical.
"At this time? – 1881" answered the guy without a moment of hesitation. "So, why aren't you sleeping?"
"Had a scary dream…" sighted the young Farron.
"Well that explains both why you're up at this hour and why you're shaking like a leaf – wanna talk about it?"
"I don't know, it's stupid…"
"If it were stupid you'd probably be back in your bed by now, so come out with it, you'll feel better, you'll see!"
"I was falling." Came the straightforward answer.
"When I said talk about it, I meant with a bit more detail than that, since from what you just said I could assume you were constantly falling out of your bed or something, though I guess that could count as a nightmare, an annoying one, but still a nightmare… Were you in a constant loop like that?" asked a thoughtful Storm.
"No nothing like that… wait, someone has nightmares like that? Never mind, what I meant is that I was freefalling to my death after jumping a plane without a parachute."
"Well that's a stupid thing to do." Laughed Storm.
"Stop laughing!" scowled the pinkette.
"Sorry, couldn't stop myself." Said the 'angel' still chuckling.
"It's not like I was in control of my actions or anything." Said the girl pouting.
"Of course you weren't… But you should remember that it was only a dream and dreams, while sometimes may seem scary, are still just that- dreams, figments of your mind playing tricks on you." Answered Storm with a sense of wiseness. "So there's nothing to be scared of."
"Yeah, it's easy for you to say, when it felt just as real as now!"
"Ohh and how do you know that you're not actually dreaming at the moment as well?" came the ohh so irritating chuckle.
"If I was dreaming right now, you'd have shown yourself instead hiding like you're doing now!"
"Good point. But look on the bright side, at least you're not shaking from fear anymore." After hearing this Claire blinked a few times till she realized that he was actually right, all the lingering fright from the dream was gone.
"But, what if it repeats itself? What then?"
"In that case I'd usually have a bowl of Ramen, because you know what they say, a good bowl of ramen before sleep, keeps the boogey man away, though that's only me and I seriously doubt that you're even closely ready to taste it!" which made the girl pout, since after hearing about it, she was seriously beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, this "Ramen" was her salvation from nightmares, especially the way "her Guardian" was talking about, but alas, her hopes were crushed. "But, you should know this, the next time you have a bad dream, remember that you have me and if I have say in it, I won't let anything happen to you, and that's a promise and if there's one thing you should know about me is that I never break a promise, dattebayo! " finished Storm proudly.
"I think I'd better try my luck with this 'ramen' you were talking about."
"Wha… That actually hurt you know!" came the pretend hurt voice.
"I was hoping for it!" happily replayed Claire.
"You're a mean little squirt, aren't you…"
"You promising stuff is good and all, but for all I know you could just be a fegm… umm… figmin… - my mind playing tricks on me, like you mentioned before and this whole time I could've still been asleep dreaming! And don't you call me squirt I already told you I'm 8!"
"Aaaaand that doesn't change the fact that you're still a squirt, squirt!" sang Storm to his amusement and the girls annoyance "Though how about this, I'll give you something of mine, so you'd know that I'm actually real and not a dream?"
"Something of yours, like what?" questioned the pinkette.
"Close your eyes and you'll find out and no peeking!" the moment she closed her eyes, her 'angel' was busy scrambling around for something do give and there wasn't much to choose from, it was either his Katana or his scarf and he couldn't, not to mention wouldn't give a weapon to a kid! 'I guess it's goodbye scarf!' dejectedly thought he. After checking that she had indeed closed her eyes, Storm draped the scarf on her head, while the girl could only squeal a surprised "What the!"
How else is a person supposed to react when he's not expecting anything to happen and then a cloth is suddenly dropped on their head? Well they usually try to get free as fast as possible from the evil objects grasp and, following her initial expression that was exactly what Claire did, by flaring her arms wildly and jumping around till she finally got free and the evil thing fell down on the floor. Storm was enjoying the show until he saw his bellowed scarf fall down, which resulted in a,- "Hey, don't go around just dropping it, not ten minutes after I gave it to you!"
Though only after hearing that did Claire realize that the evil cloth thingy was actually the item that Storm wanted to give her. So, ignoring the shouting 'Angel' she moved to pick it up. The first thing she noticed it was Red, upon touching it, the girl was surprised how pleasant the material felt, subconsciously imagining that clouds would probably feel something like it. Upon closer inspection the pinkette noticed that the cloth was rectangular and quite wide.
"Is this some kind of tablecloth?" asked Claire confusedly.
"T-t-table cloth!?" shouted Storm dumbfoundedly "How dare you! I'll let you know that that's my precious scarf and not some sort of tablecloth as you described it!"
"A scarf, how can this be a scarf? It's short, wide and not even woolen!"
"It's practically your height and you're calling it short!" deadpanned the guy "And it's wide, so it would cover up a larger area of my neck. Why it's not woolen – not every scarf is supposed to be, there's no rule saying otherwise. And yes, it's a scarf, I've had it long enough, that I'm pretty sure I'd have realized that I was carrying around a tablecloth!"
"But how is it supposed to warm you up during winter if it's not woolen?" With a tilt of her head asked Claire, genuinely confused. It would have looked cute, if Storm wasn't still miffed about her thinking that the scarf, that his wife gave him so long ago, was a tablecloth.
"Haven't you seen people walking around with scarfs during summer?"
"Yeah, I have and I always thought they looked weird, with them when it's not even cold."
"Well, just like the one I gave you, those scarfs aren't meant to warm you up, they're more for fashion"
"Fashion? That's when someone wants to look good, right?"
"Yes, yes it is."
"Don't see how wrapping around a tablecloth can be called looking good, but I'll take your word for it" smiled the little rascal wrapping the scarf around herself. Storm was seriously thinking of strangling her right now and only the loud voices in his head were stopping that from happening right now. That is, until a sudden "Thanks." Interrupted his musings.
"Huh, thanks for what?"
"For this" Claire said pointing to the scarf "You might be a guardian angel, but you sure act silly sometimes!" laughed the girl.
"You're welcome I guess…" replied Storm warmly, previous thoughts completely forgotten.
While they were talking, they didn't notice the gathering storm clouds above them, so when suddenly a lightning bolt illuminated the night's sky, it was no surprise in hearing a loud "Eep" from Claire.
"You should probably go back to bed, before it starts raining." Stated Storm looking at the gathered clouds above, knowing that any second now it would start pouring.
"How about you, will you be alight if it starts raining?" asked the girl concerned.
"Well who do I think I am little lady, a little rain won't do anything to me." Boasted the guy. "Now go along, you should have been dreaming your 10th dream at this hour."
"Then - goodnight Storm and don't let the bedbugs bite." Said the girl finally retreating back to her room
"Sleep well Claire." Replied Storm as soft as the wind.
Storm didn't know it at the time, but Claire would constantly wear the scarf he gave her whenever she felt scared, stressed or depressed. It gave her comfort and calmed her down. Even if it was something like today's nightmare, she would put it on and go back to sleep, knowing that her 'Guardian Angel' would sweep the bad dream away, and leave only the good ones behind, just like a Storm. And she would continue to do so, long into the future.
But those storm clouds above, weren't any normal ones and Storm knew it, they came a bit too suddenly for his liking and the only times that happens when they're foreboding something bad to happen in the future. He didn't know what it could be, but he did hope that whatever it was it was still far away into the future.
Nothing even remotely close to that nature happened during the following seven years. Claire was growing up as a happy girl. She made it her obligation to bother Storm (as he would call it and chatting as she would call it herself) almost every evening, sometimes she would pester the guy for more information, but mostly she just talked to him like one would with his best friend. It didn't start off like that though, in the beginning she started seeking him out strictly just to interrogate him for more details about him, but little by little it turned from that to mainly her talking about how was her day and what happened during it without her even noticing herself.
Storm would be lying if he said he didn't like those small evening talks, though sometimes he did feel like at this point he knew more about Claire than sometimes she herself. It sure as hell was more entertaining than counting stars, but he couldn't help the nagging feeling in the back of his gut, that something would happen soon and that soon would not be good for the girl. And when the pinkettes mother suddenly fell ill, he knew what would be the outcome of her disease before even the best doctor could tell and he knew that what would happen would probably break Claire and he could do nothing about it but watch.
Hope you liked it, and yeah I'm done with the 8 year old Claire.
And I promise that the next one won't take so long :P
Thanks to: "Clucky vs The Log", "Frozen Starlight 1", "TheBlackSpot0" and "Dark Dawn Golden Sun" for some wonderful ideas for the future! If someone has more, feel free to share, it'll just mean that it'll be easier to write a new chapter for me :D.
Review and favorite if you liked it :), criticism is also appreciated, no flames though.