V Day

The alarm would not stop ringing. No matter how much she tried to block out the noise with her pillow, no matter how many times she rolled over, no matter how many times she psychically wished it to just shut up, it kept ringing, each beat pounidng away inside her head.

If that thing kept ringing, she would have to take matters into her own hands. She'd give it another minute. Two minutes, tops.

Thirty more seconds passed, and her head was pounding so hard, she thought it might explode.

She blindly waved her hand around underneath her bed; she felt the cold metal of her sword handle wedged between some boxes. She yanked it free, swung it up into the air, and then straight down, tip first, into the alarm clock. Probably right through her beside table too.

It stopped ringing, and Paine breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't even had to open her eyes this time - an achievement even for her.

Hang on. Wasn't there a reason why she'd set the alarm in the first place?

She sat up. Running her fingers lazily through her hair, she slid out of bed and rummaged around in her bedside table for something to wear. The 'nightie' she was wearing was a gift from Rikku. Her apartment had low C/A as it was. Enough said.

She pulled out a greyish shirt she'd found in the bottom drawer (the only one she hadn't sliced through and therefore the only one she could open) and put it on. It must have been one of the shirts she'd ended up with from the Crimson Squad. The guys weren't bothered about who had their stuff as long as it was one of them, and so Paine had found several items of the guys' that she wasn't too sure about throwing away. By the size of it, she would have guessed it was Nooj's, which was a bit of relief. She wasn't too comfy with wearing one of Gppal's shirts - and she was sure Rikku wouldn't be either.

She slid on her slippers and padded out of her bedroom. Admittedly, her new apartment was tiny - a bedroom, a bathroom and an open kitchen/living/dining area. But that worked for her. Less to clean that way.

She wracked her brains as she brewed some coffee. There was definitely a reason why she'd set that alarm. Maybe today was a special occasion? She was too tired to try and figure out the date in her head. The calendar was on the wall near the Telesphere. Leaning out from behind the counter, Paine squinted, trying to read the date from the other side of the room.

She read it. Then she read it again, a horrible sinking feeling making her breathing turn heavy. Her eyes couldn't leave the calendar.

It was Valentine's Day.