A/N: I don't own any of the characters, Square-Enix does. For those of you who read Megalomaniac, I'm sorry I haven't posted...I started on the next chapter and realized it was heading in a different direction than I had originally planned, so I'm taking some time off. Please review!
Grazed Knees
There was something odd in the way his Wutainian subordinate looked at his pet project. It wasn't hatred or jealousy. He just seemed curious about the small girl training to be a Turk. Maybe he wondered what Shinra would want with such a young girl, or maybe he wondered how that same young girl could outperform him in almost any training task.
Whatever it was, Veld was sure Tseng didn't deserve the coldness he received in return.
Cissnei was almost cruel to the young man, ignoring him unless given a direct order to do otherwise and did what she could to injure him in training. So Veld cornered her one day, demanding an answer. All he got was a frown and a quiet, "You like him better," from the normally articulate girl.
Then, suddenly, they were inseparable. Cissnei followed Tseng wherever he went, to the point that Veld had to invent errands to give her so the poor teenage boy could get some air.
One day, years later , when Cissnei was barely a preteen and Tseng was nearing his twenties, Veld finally asked what had happened to make her change her opinion of him. "Grazed knees," he answered simply, taking a drink of his coffee. "She fell hard on the outdoor course and no one else was around."
Grazed knees. To think, if it hadn't been for that, Cissnei probably would have still hated him.
Watching his subordinate trying to stifle the smile attempting to break through, Veld's glad she fell that day.