A/N: This is close to not being a fanfic at all. I renamed all the characters who had far out names, I changed some ages, and with some of the characters, I swapped their genders, just because I wanted to see how it would turn out. Then I put all these modified characters into a normal (I say normal, but it's not really xD) reality in an unnamed town somewhere in a small, unnamed country… Yeah, I have a fever right now, and I'm probably delirious, but hey. That said, enjoy. ; )

AND REVIEW! Please.

Part I.

Street kids! You didn't see many of them these days, yet there they were, two of them, just sitting on the church steps. The lady tutted to herself and pursed her lips. What kind of town was this, that kids could run around like that? Why weren't they in an orphanage?

Suddenly one of them, a teenaged girl with very long hair looked up and glared at her. She hurried on her way, pulling her small child along with her…

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"I wish they wouldn't stare at us." Said one of them. He was fairly tall, but thin and delicately built. Long brown hair fell down his back in a loose braid to keep it out of his way.

His companion snorted. "Ignore them Aerie." She said, before looking back down at what she had been doing. Twelve long, yellow threads hung from her fingers, and they flickered from side to side as she wove them together into a wide, flat bracelet.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a long time, until the girl stopped weaving and tied a knot in the threads. "Finished another one." She said, stuffing it into one of her pockets.

"Great." said Aerie. He stood up. "And I suppose you need more thread now."

The girl pulled a face. "Yes."

"What color?"

"Green, this time."

"Right. Come on Soph, we could get some off Shera."

Sophia stood up as well and followed Aerie along the street, her boots clicking on the pavement. It wasn't much of a life, living on the streets, but they managed, even with Aerie's strange moral aversion to stealing.

---

Cid didn't look up when the bell over the door jangled. "Shera!" he yelled, "Customers!" he waited for a few moments. "Shera?"

Then he remembered. Shera had gone too see a friend, so he had to look after the shop. He groaned, hauled himself out of his seat and stomped into the front room.

"Oh, it's you two again."

Aerie grinned sheepishly at him. Sophia scowled, but Cid was good at ignoring her by now. "I suppose you want more thread?"

"Yes please."

Cid sighed and ducked under the counter to stand on the other side. "How do you pay for it, anyway?"

Sophia and Aerie looked at each other. Sophia flicked her long silver hair back over her shoulders. "Normally we do some work for Shera in return for it. Like, painting the fence and stuff."

"Eh? Well, Shera ain't here now, and I don't have any little odd jobs for you, so you'll have to wait for her to get back. Scram."

The two exchanged glances again. "But we need it now…"

"Not my problem." Cid grumbled. He pulled a cigarette out of the box that was jammed into the band of his flight goggles. After patting his pockets for a while, he swore and said, "But I might trade you some thread for a lighter."

Sophia held up one long, pale finger. "One moment." Then turned away and started rummaging through the many pockets in her long overcoat. When she turned back, she asked, "How much could we get for a refillable lighter and a hardly smoked box of cigarettes?"

Cid grinned at her around his unlit smoke. "Ah, I can always count on you. I'm surprised you don't have a kitchen sink in that coat of yours."

"I've got a plug." She said, with a perfectly straight face. "How much?"

Cid paused for a moment, then skipped the first sentence and went straight on to the question. "I dunno. How much does it cost?" he ducked back under the counter and walked over to the arts and crafts stand. The thread they wanted was a dollar per five meters. "Twenty meters."

"Twenty five."

"Done. Gimme the lighter."

The lighter was handed over, and Cid light his smoke. "Ok, grab your thread and get out of here, you're scaring away the other customers."

---

Sophia started the next bracelet the second they got out of the shop, sitting on a park bench a few meters away from the door. She was half way through when Shera came past.

"Hi kids." She said, stopping in front of them.

Aerie looked up at the woman. "Hello Mrs. Highwind."

"How did you manage to get anything out of Cid?"

Now Sophia's fingers stopped moving, and she looked up too. "We used his addiction to smoking against him."

Shera's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

Aerie went bright red. "Yeah, he'd lost his lighter, so we traded him a lighter and some smokes for some thread."

"And where did you get the smokes?" Shera demanded.

Sophia stopped weaving again, and held up one had. "Five finger discount."

Aerie went even redder. "She stole them off Renée."

The woman shook her head and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "I swear, someday the Turks are going to find out who's pilfering from their den."

"So? They're just a slightly higher class of street gang. Anyway, Elen told us to nick them, because Renée has to quit."

"Well, I'd better get back inside. Cid's probably worrying by now."

"Bye Mrs. Highwind."

"Yeah, Bye."

---

"Where the hell are my smokes?" Renée yelled, pulling the sofa apart to look under the cushions. "That box was almost new!" she sat back down with a thud, and blew some of her flame red hair out of her face.

Elen came up behind her. "I hope you're going to clean that mess up."

Renée looked up. "Nope."

Elen frowned. "Tseng won't be happy. Remember he's getting back tonight."

A cheeky grin spread across Renée's face. "And you've just been counting down the days, haven't you? I bet you can't wait to see him again!"

Elen's blush showed up spectacularly against his pale complexion and even paler blonde hair. "J-just clean up this mess!" he shouted. "And then go die somewhere!"

Renée waited until he was gone, then cracked up laughing. He was just way too easy to pick on.

"What are you laughing at?" asked someone from behind her.

She spun around and gasped. "Tseng! You're back early Sir!"

"Yes, I took an earlier flight. Where are the others?"

"Elen went to his room, and Rudolf is getting food. And…" she screwed up her face in concentration. "…I don't know where anyone else is."

"Ok. Find them, I need to talk to you all."

"Yessir." Said Renée, snapping off a mock salute, then scurrying off.

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