Angel propped her feet up on the bar top, then immediately took them down, deciding against it - she didn't want to upset her boss - and settled for spinning around in the swivel bar stool. She couldn't figure it out. It's been two weeks. Does verification really take that long?

Her feet unintentionally hit the bottom of the bar counter, stopping her from her spinning. She pushed off again, using the opportunity to begin spinning in the opposite direction. Her thoughts began to wander away from the original subject as she glanced down at her legs and feet. She wasn't very tall - about five-foot-eight - and the very fact that her feet could make contact with the bar surprised her enough. Well, now that she thought about it, five-foot-eight wasn't actually very short. It could actually be considered normal, if not beyond that. It was just being around all these tall people were starting to get her down.

Rae, for example, was five-eleven, practically six-foot. And the worst part was she had a tendency to rub it in, making her feel even worse about her height than she was before she met her. But she had no room to complain. After all, Rae did give her a house.

Angel sighed, stopping to lay her head down on the counter, her long dark hair slipping out of the band she had secured on the top of her head, falling into her eyesight. It was lonely at the house now, now that Rae was gone.

About two months ago, the day she arrived at Midgar after the long travel from her village, a day she could remember as if it had happened only moments ago, had been one of the hardest days of her life. It wasn't as if there were enemies to fight (which there were, if you went between Sector Slums) or rude people to deter her (also some of those, just none she met that day). The main problem had been that she had no one at all to help her. She was used to the small town settings, one where everyone knew everybody and helped everybody out. But here everyone cared for themselves, or their families if they had them. At least that was what life was like above the plate.

Below the plate, in the Slums, was where life was more like it had been at home, each Sector like its own little town. If she had known this when she had first arrived, undoubtedly that would have been the first place she would've gone. Unfortunately, she had other ideas.

Even in the name, the "Slums", it didn't sound too appealing. If she was to choose a place to live, what's wrong with it being above ground, where she could see the sky and not feel as if she was choking on pollution or to not worry about cockroaches in every corner (a problem that had haunted her since childhood) and mice in every crack? Anyone who didn't have a reason to live under should live above, right? Did her logic seem flawed?

However, after trying for the entire day to find lodging with the small amount of money she had - around 500 gil - she gave up and consented to sleeping on a nearby park bench. She slept there, or rather, she shivered there, until morning, preparing herself to return there the following night, at least with some sort of blanket or coat of some sort.

Remembering a store that was offering a room above it for rent she had visited the day before, which the old man had offered to her for a whopping 100,000 gil lease (she couldn't remember ever seeing that much money in her life), that had sold items like blankets and other home necessities, she decided for that to be her next destination. Directly after that, she may consider stealing some food, something she had never considered doing before, but now seemed necessary. After all, the food she'd packed before she set out from home probably wouldn't last another day, at best. She was lucky to still have any of the dried fruits and breads still in her homemade patched up messenger bag. She was just lucky that she hated dried fruit more than any other foods she knew of. It's only purpose to her, to keep her alive. Nothing more. At least, not usually.

But today, a slice of unrealistically chewy dried orange (which shouldn't even be considered an orange after being mutilated in such a way) served as a perfect distraction to the day's unrealistic future goals, ones that yesterday felt could've easily been accomplished, today felt like something even Sephiroth could not do. Or maybe one had to be Sephiroth to get it done. Either way, it was impossible for her.

Opening the door to the store, toning down the chewy motions as to avoid any unnecessary embarrassing noises, she peered in, adjusting to the sudden difference in the lighting and noticed that there was a girl near the counter, seeming to be asking the man a few, or a thousand, questions about the dark satin curtains she held in her arms, lifting them to allow him to see whatever she was talking about. She almost laughed at the irritated look on his face. Almost makes you wonder why some people are in the consumer service industry. Almost does.

She quickly moved over to the wall that contained various materials, some of them raw, others woven or sewn into different products like the curtains the girl up front had or, in her case, cheap wool blankets. 389 gil.

Damn it, she mentally cursed, picking up the blanket. That's just about everything I brought with me. She felt almost as if she could cry, or at least knock a hole in the wall. Maybe if she made a big enough one, she could run away with the blanket. She swallowed the orange piece, lost in the beautiful thought.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" She heard screamed into her ear. It took everything she had to stop from gut-punching the girl and maybe even killing her. Everybody knows not to sneak up on a SOLDIER.

Well, future SOLDIERs should count too.

"Ex-Excuse me?" she stuttered back, staring into the girl's dark hazel-ish eyes, or what she guessed to be dark hazel-ish as the lighting wasn't very good. From up close, she saw more details than she could from far away. Her hair color, for instance. It was as bizarre as anything she had seen, as if someone had drained the color out of peaches (just as someone had drained the moisture from her peaches) and dyed it in her hair. Angel resisted the urge to touch it.

"You can't buy that cheap old thing!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide. Angel forgot about her urge to touch her hair and now focused on the urge to incapacitate her. Even if she didn't have much money, she still had her pride.

"And why not? I have my money, and I can do whatever the hell I want to do with it. Now I suggest if you want your teeth tomorrow, you can go and focus on those expensive new curtains you've looked at this whole time and leave me the hell alone," Angel seethed, hoping the annoying little shit would back away. Or annoying tall shit. That works too.

However, to her dismay, the girl put on a giant grin and actually dared to lean in closer, cupping her hand around Angel's ear, eyeing the shopkeeper from across the room who had turned around and appeared to be taking an inventory of some sort, his bald head an abnormal red tint, seemingly from... anger? Angel took in what she could see of the girl beside her.

Who is this girl?, she asked herself.

"You see," the girl whispered, "when I was looking through the fabrics over here to find something to decorate my home with, I noticed a stain the size of my hand on that 'expensive new' curtain you saw. That's something very rare to find in this caliber a shop, so I confronted the owner up there. I got him to drop some very convincing clues about why it was stained."

Curious, Angel nodded for her to continue.

"I think that everything in this store is stolen."

The girl pulled back and stood there with that creepy grin on her face. Angel stood there confused. How did a stain turn to stolen goods?

"And?"

"And what?"

"How did you get that conclusion?"

"From his clues."

"What clues?"

"The clues he told me."

Angel stared hard and strong at the girl, telepathically demanding she tell her details before she actually asked for them, as if she was warning her. She took a deep breath and decided to take a different approach.

"You need to be careful. He may try to have you killed if that's true."

"Oh, he doesn't know I know."

"But I thought you said he accidentally let some clues go?" Angel said confused.

"He did. They were just so subtle he didn't realize he said them."

"Then how can you be so sure?" She gritted her teeth from frustration.

"Are you from out of town?"

Angel was so taken aback by the question that she almost forgot what they had been talking about before.

"Y-Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"You look lonely," she replied simply.

How many physical restraints it takes to keep from slapping a single girl, the world may never know.

"Here," the girl said, reaching out her hand. "If you stay at my place, not only will it solve that problem, but it will get those bags out from under your eyes."

At mention of them, Angel's hand flew up to her face. She was right though. She didn't get hardly any sleep last night. Winter had been setting in, and the park bench might kill her in another week or two...

The very thought snapped her into action.

"I need to know your name, age, if and how many other people are living in the house, how much rent is, and any chores or duties I have to do," she said hurriedly.

The girl's wide grin somehow spread to be even wider, and laughed.

"I'm twenty-four. No one lives with me. My brother used to, but he recently moved out, so it gave me an extra room. No rent, but only if you do some manual labor that I'm not strong enough to do myself I'll consider it fair," she said, wiggling her arms in the thick green sleeves of her sweater, trying to get them to look like noodles. Angel couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"Nineteen and I'll be more than happy to work for the room. Better than sleeping outside," Angel gave a smile. "Name's Angel. And yours?"

"Rae. Spelled R-A-E not R-A-Y. I am a girl; I'm not a guy. You best remember that 'til ya die," she said, winking at her rhyming.

"Not bad," she giggled back.

"So you don't mind working then?" Rae asked, suddenly serious.

"No... Why?"

"You see, I live in the Slums, in Sector Eight, and the other day, the darndest thing happened..."

Oh boy.

"A piece of scrap fell from the sky and landed on the roof of my brother's room, causing it to cave in. So he moved out of the house to live with a buddy 'cause he's too lazy to fix it himself and left it all on me-"

"So you want me to fix it," Angel eyed her.

"I figured if you really wanted a room, you wouldn't mind fixing up the roof on it. You can sleep on the couch 'til its done, and I'll pay for supplies and everything," Rae pleaded.

"Alright, alright."

"Great! You just saved me millions of gil! You're a lifesaver!"

"Yeah, yeah."

She must be an evil mastermind, she concluded, half in awe, half in frustration.

Rae had been the one who had helped her adjust to her life in Midgar. She introduced her to everyone who could help her out in any way and get her higher up on the social ladders. She even introduced her to her boss Cameron and got her a job working at a local bar joint. Once she got her funds up to a steady 20,000 gil ratio, she began to start on her original plans: To be part of SOLDIER. Once she had come home from submitting her application, while she was dressing for her night shift at the bar, Rae had given her some startling news.

Rae had recently gone to work at Shinra, not for her muscle, but for her brains. She was a good steady worker inside the building, and had made a good impression too, but she had not been working there long enough to get anywhere before they decided to move her.

"What do you mean you're leaving?" Angel panicked. They had become good friends the previous month and a half. Plus she really didn't want to find a new place to live yet.

"There's a reactor in a town called Nibelheim a ways away from here. They shut it down awhile back. They need someone to maintenance it, to make sure nothing goes wrong. They need someone they can trust inside it without removing someone from a position they already have at Shinra," Rae said carefully.

"So that's why they chose you? You're a nobody and your trustworthy?"

"And I'm capable. Don't forget I'm capable."

"Do you want to go?" Angel asked. Please say no. I don't have a lot of money now... Please say no.

"Angel... I've lived in Midgar my entire life. I don't know much about the outside. So truthfully, yes, I'm thrilled to go."

"Oh," Angel slumped down in the chair. Maybe Cammy'll let me crash at the bar, she thought gloomily.

"Angel. I have something I want to ask you," Rae said, sadly.

"Huh?" she said looking up.

"You're a good person for someone so young," Rae started.

Great, Angel thought. She's chastising me about my age again.

"We're not that different in age," Angel started.

Rae smiled, but ignored the remark. "You remember my brother, correct?"

Angel almost grimaced, that perverted, idiotic, childish freak of nature. She wouldn't dare tell Rae this though. Rae loved him too much. Almost as if she felt he could do nothing wrong in her eyes. She nodded slowly. "I know Dan."

"Then you know how... immature he is? He's doing fine at his friend's house, but I don't want him to come alone into this house. So I wanted to know if you could watch the house until I return. If that's ok with you." Angel jerked her gaze up from the floor in surprise to look at Rae.

"And then Angel looks up suddenly, glistening with hope!" Rae giggled.

"Shut up. Don't make fun of me," Angel snapped, blushing. "Of course I'll do it."

And two weeks later, no reply from Shinra. And no more Rae. Angel closed her eyes. She sent a letter to Zack earlier in the day - the sixth time since she moved here - and hoped that he might actually come today. She might kill him if he doesn't.