Chapter Five

Nicolae

The sound of cartoons playing downstairs woke me up. With a groan, I looked at the clock beside the bed. It was midnight. What was Aria doing watching television at this hour? I sat up on the bed, rubbed my tired eyes, walking from the room. Once I arrived in the living room, I saw the child was coloring on the floor. I sighed. "Aria? What are you doing awake? It's midnight?"

The child looked up at me. "I'm sorry, daddy. I couldn't get to sleep."

"And why is that? Did Yuffie and Cid cause this?" I clenched my fists, biting the inside of my lip.

"No, daddy. I'm worried about you, you seemed upset when you put me to bed earlier, so I got up and drew you a picture to make you feel better. Did I wake you up?"

I exhaled a sigh. "No." the lie coming to the child who wore a smile seemed legit, but I couldn't tell her she had woken me up. Her attempts to make me feel better made it hard to remain angry or anything against the child who was only looking out for someone. I sat on the couch. "I'll be fine, Aria. You really should sleep. You can draw me a picture in the morning."

The girl looked at me, then back at her artwork, her focus once again on me. "Can I sleep with you, daddy?"

I looked at the child; the smile went from her face. The child seemed to worry about something that either I was aware of or unaware of. "Very well then." I stood up as the child collected her items. "Don't worry about it, leave it until morning." She looked up at me, standing to her feet as we walked upstairs. Once we arrived at my room, Aria ran to the bed, getting covered up. I turned the light off and walked over to the recliner, sitting down.

The room was silent, and I felt myself going back to sleep only for the child to say. "Goodnight, daddy."

"Goodnight, Aria."

I leaned back in the chair, closing my eyes. The sound of Aria sleeping brought me to my world of sleep.

***

The sound of the town coming alive outside the window woke me from my sleep. I saw Aria still sleeping snug under the covers as I got to my feet, quietly leaving the room to start breakfast. Once in the kitchen, I made preparation. Soon, the smells of eggs, bacon, and sausage hovered in the room.

I took my seat at the table waiting for the food to simmer; I looked at the large, sealed manila envelope lying in the place that I had tossed it yesterday after Rude had given it to me. The thoughts of the horrible evening I had yesterday flooded back into my mind. With a sigh, I picked up the envelope, placed it in the drawer underneath the microwave, and shut the drawer, going back to my tasks. Despite Yazoo's theory of my fear of a child's origins, there was no fear that crossed my thoughts. It was more like, I would rather not know, if I had to get the information about a child, I was housing, I would like to get the information from a reliable source. Not from Rufus ShinRa. Leonard had filled me in on enough information about the child when he pushed her into my home, handing me a Leonard Guide 101 on how to become a parent. Leonard made sure that he told everything about the child that he had found in ShinRa's clutches. I don't think he could have left anything out with the laundry list of information that he discussed for hours. I stood to my feet and walked over to the stove, getting plates from the cabinets, and preparing the plates. The sound of Aria walking down the steps caused me to look up as she entered the kitchen. "Good morning, Daddy." The child got her chair taking a seat.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Did you sleep well last night?" I asked as I placed Aria's plate of food in front of her, placing the glass of milk beside it.

"I did, daddy. Did you?"

"Yeah, I slept well."

The sound of a knock on the front door brought my attention to who could be behind it. I walked to the door and opened it to see a young woman with long blond hair and blue eyes. "Hi, I wanted to come here and tell you I'm sorry for my father coming here and attacking you yesterday. I gave him a good talking, too."

I looked at the young girl, who appeared three years younger than me. "Who are you?"

"Charmaine! I missed you!" I heard Aria exclaim with great excitement as she ran into the arms of the woman on the front porch.

I looked at her. "You know this woman, Aria?"

"Yeah, daddy, she's like a momma to me. She kinda took me in when uncle Leonard took me to his house."

"Then why did you leave her?"

"Reno, he wouldn't let her take care of me." the child looked at the ground.

"Now, I have my place, but seeing as how the general took you here, it seems like you have a better home than I can give you. It smells good in there." The woman smiled as I looked at Aria, who was looking at me.

"Can she come in, daddy? If you let her, I'll do my chores."

I chuckled. "Aria, you don't have chores, but if you want her to eat with us, that's fine with me. If it's alright with her."

"Will ya, Charmaine, please?"

I looked at the two as Charmaine smiled. "Alright, lead the way." The three of us walked back to the kitchen, taking our seats, as I prepared a plate for Charmaine, who sat beside Aria. The three of us ate our food. "Wow, this food tastes delicious. Did you cook this all by yourself, Nicolae?"

I looked at her. "Yeah, I'm not about to let a six-year-old behind the stove. She tried making herself cereal yesterday, and that proved to me she shouldn't be cooking."

"True. She has many talents but cooking, sadly, isn't one of them."

"What talents do you have, Aria?"

"I'm good at chess. I can clean a little."

"Aria, don't give yourself that little credit, you're cleaning is marvelous, especially for someone your age, and your chess abilities. I have the trophies you won when you were four, as well as last year."

"How did you get those? Do you know who her parents are?" I looked at the woman that sat across from me as she sighed.

"Yeah, I know them really well."

The child looked at Charmaine, curious at the woman's words. "Do you know my daddy? What's he like?"

Charmaine looked at her. "Your father is well. What do you want to know?"

"Is he strong and kind? What's my momma like?"

"Your father isn't what you would call kind, he's as strong as those who are around him, your mother, she's made some mistakes that she feels like she could have done better in solving but she loves you very much, and she is very proud of you." I looked at the woman and placed my fork on my half-empty plate. Charmaine swallowed the lump in her throat, looking at the two of us gently. "I'm your mother."

I looked at Charmaine, who looked at the table.