A/N: Dude! I completely forgot about the plate collapsing! Moonshine's Guide, thank you for reminding me! I'll have to shove that in after...

How could I be so stupid (whacks self in head repetitively) I haven't played the game, so that might be it. And it was only recently I found out the Cloud had to cross-dress in order to infiltrate a mansion and rescue Tifa! I was in hysterics.

Oh yeah - Don't try guess who Mr. Somebody is in this chapter. He's just a random :) And Eki-Kyabe may well be a real medicine out there. But meanwhile, let's just say I got it from xxxHOLiC.


Chapter 4: Good Day Good Friends


It was cold, and it was windy, and I was wearing a long, swishy sea-blue skirt and a thin, long-sleeved white skivey.

I barely noticed where I was going, and quite frankly, I didn't think I cared. I had my arms wrapped around myself as I just walked and kept on walking. I think it was somewhere around six o'clock. Stressing myself out was taking its toll. My claustrophobia had gotten a little worse, which is why - for a brief moment - I felt that I had the whole of Gaia at my feet when I stepped outside into the dim evening light.

There were others outside in the cold as well - and the now ever present SOLDIERs. I hurried on past if I saw them, my breath catching in my throat. I let my feet lead me blindly onwards, and I had no idea where they were taking me. A straight road here, a left here, an entrance to the slums there, left, right, a dividing sector wall... When I finally stopped, realising that my way forwards was obscured, I looked up and found myself in a dead-end alleyway.

"Great," I muttered to myself, tapping my foot on the ground. I think I was somewhere in Sector Seven. Look, there was the entrance to the Slums over there. Ah well. Better than being in Wall Market of Sector Six. Who knows where that might lead. Time to go back the way I came then. I sighed, turned around, walked forwards and promptly crashed into someone.

I stumbled backwards and mumbled an apology.

"Hey," a voice said. I looked up at the man I'd run into. He looked dirty and ragged and tall, and most of all mean. Like the type of person you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley. Although, taking into account my predicament...

There was a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth. And he was drunk. I could smell it. I blinked worriedly. Was he an AVALANCHE member? I couldn't tell. Then again, there are also Shinra opposers full-stop, and not necessarily members of AVALANCHE.

The man looked down at me, scowling darkly.

"You're a Shinra worker," he said abruptly. It wasn't a question. I couldn't say anything. I was too scared to. The man growled and the next thing I knew, he'd grabbed me by the collar, forcing me to look up at him. I let out a terrified squeak.

"I'm tellin' ya, missy," he snarled. "You'd better tell President Shinra," and he spat the last two words out like poison. "To quit taking energy from the Lifestream! And I've heard the rumours about his science department's experiments with Mako! You'd better stop that too, d'ya hear me?"

I nodded hastily, but inwardly I was thinking 'How can I? I'm just the Delivery girl! I haven't even heard the rumours about Hojo's science department!' I tried to pry his fingers away from my collar but his grip only tightened painfully, and he even lifted me a little off the ground. I gave a choke and spluttered, unable to breathe.

"Do you hear me?"

I was growing faint. I couldn't even give a fragment of an answer.

"Hey!" another man's voice shouted. The grip on my collar relinquished and I fell to my hands and knees, gasping for breath. Footsteps approached quickly. I was too weak to look up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the stranger demanded. "She's only a kid!"

"She's a Shinra worker!" the first man replied harshly. "I can tell!"

"And you're drunk! I can tell! Now clear off or I'll do you some serious bodily harm!"

"Keh!" the first man exclaimed, kicking me in the arm. I cringed and curled up tighter. The first man walked away with a crude remark and the second man ignored them, coming to crouch down beside me. He shook me gently.

"Hey," he said gently. I shivered.

"Hey!" the man prompted, shaking me again. "Are you alright?"

I made a small sound. More footsteps passing the alley, then stopping and backtracking.

"Claudia? Claudia!" I heard Kaoru's voice shout. Running footsteps this time. "What happened to you?"

"She was cornered by some drunk," the man's voice said bitterly. "He had her clean off the ground by her collar when I saw."

"Damn..." Something cold pressed against my cheek suddenly and I let out a gasp.

"It's fine, Claudia. Just a bottle." Kaoru said. I felt him pat my head. The cold, slightly condensated glass bottle brought me to my senses and I looked up and smiled shakily at my friend. I looked to my left to see the second man. A young man in his late twenties or early thirties, perhaps, with messy brown hair and bottle-green eyes looked kindly back at me.

"You okay?" he asked. I managed to nod.

"Thank you," I said hoarsely. The man smiled.

"No worries. My name's Francis. Francis Milton. What's yours?"

"Claudia," I said. "Claudia Freeman,"

"And you, good sir?"

"Kaoru Miyouji. Pleasure."

"The pleasure's all mine."

"Claudia, are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"A drink would be nice..." I mumbled hazily. Francis smiled.

"You're in luck - there's a good place nearby. Here, I'll take you."


It was a bar in the slums of Sector 7. 'Seventh Heaven', I think it was called. Despite being in the slums, it was a nice bar. Busy, but not to busy, noisy, but not too loud. At first, it was just one little drink at the bar to clear my head, but then everything else caught up with me - the claustrophobia and mild depression and such. Then it was three drinks. Then four. Then five.
Yes, okay, I'll admit it. I was trying to drown my worries in drink and drink them all away. I'd heard it worked, but that's probably because no-one was ever sober enough to be able to think straight anyway, much less focus on your worries.

Right now, I think I was drunk. Sad, isn't it? Seventeen and drunk. Guess that says a lot for my alcohol tolerance. I'd had probably around six or so drinks now, and my emotions were on overdrive. I was pretty upset, and it was obvious on my face. Kaoru was trying to console me and persuade me not to have any more drinks, while trying to get a little support from Francis, who was just sitting there watching me with a look of interested amusement on his face.

Whenever the barmaid passed by (a pretty woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes) she seemed sympathetic. Whether this sympathy was directed towards me (as here I was, pouring out my heart and soul) or Kaoru (who was trying to calm me down, somewhat unsuccessfully) I couldn't seem to tell.

"It's getting dark now, Claudia. It's nine-thirty now. Don't you want to go home yet?" Kaoru asked me, in the desperate voice of a man who was running out of options.

I shook my head in much the same way a stubborn little child would. After the third drink, I'd spent more time talking than anything else. The most I'd garbled on about through the night was about how I felt about things. I'd mentioned how terrified I was of the Turks and how I kept on running into the red-haired Turk (who kept on calling me 'Little Mouse'. Francis seemed to find this funny). I'd talked about some of the interesting things that had happened to me (like deciding to climb up an elevator shaft) and about some of the people I had met (like Faeyii and the dark-haired woman in Testing and Training).

But the most embarrassing of all had to be this by far - Here I was, drunk, and slumped all over the bar. I can't remember how many drinks I'd had at this point in time, but I remember that Kaoru was finishing up his second, and Francis had finished his third.

"Hey," I'd slurred, beckoning Kaoru and Francis closer. "You wanna hear a secret?"

Francis said nothing, and simply inclined forwards with a grin on his face. Kaoru looked ready to slap him about the head. He held himself back though, and lifted his glass to his mouth, taking a long drink. Seeing that I had at least one listening audience member, I let my hand flop back onto the bar.

"You'd better not tell anyone, alright? Else I'll strangle you wi' the strap o' my satchel!"

I lowered my voice so that only those in very close proximity could hear.

"I might not agree wi' his ideals," I half whispered, half hissed. "But I got a crush on Vice Presiden' Shinra!"

Kaoru choked on his drink and almost spat it out in his shock. Coughing violently, he pounded himself on the chest with his fist while Francis burst into laughter. I'd grinned foolishly and rested my head on my arm.

Kaoru was finally able to stop coughing, and he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He set his drink down, trying to ignore Francis.

"You are so going to have a hangover tomorrow," he said to me disapprovingly. Ignoring my childlike protests, he grabbed me and slung me over his shoulder, tossing a handful of coins onto the bar counter and giving a brief bow to the barmaid and starting to walk out of the bar. I grizzled miserably and flimsily pounded his back with my fists.

"Francis! We're going!" Kaoru called, tilting his head sideways as to avoid being feebly slapped in the face by me. Francis stood up and leant forwards to meet the barmaid.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality, miss!" he said politely. The barmaid smiled back at him.

"You're welcome!"

Francis and his charisma. Sigh.


"What a lonely little apartment!" Francis exclaimed as Kaoru lay me down on the bed.

"It's small, and th' air conditioning's broke," I mumbled. "But s'enough for me."

Francis grinned and shook his head.

"You should move in with me sometime," he said. "I've been looking for a roommate for ages. Having a friend around would probably make it a lot less lonely, right?"

Kaoru had raised an eyebrow at Francis as he sat down against the bed.

"She's a teenage girl that you just met a few hours ago. Are you suggesting something?" he said testily. Francis had laughed.

"I ain't got no Lolita Complex if that's what you mean - and besides, I just don't swing that way," he'd said lazily. After a moment of thought, he'd added, "Well, okay. I swing both ways. But I know what's right and what's wrong. She's too young to be anything else but a friend, if you're willing to give a guy like me a chance."

He'd winked at me.

"You're pretty though. Probably attract a lot of boys later on."

I'd smiled sleepily. "Thanks."

Then Francis had looked at Kaoru with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"And you... You're not so bad looking yourself."

Kaoru looked positively mortified. I gave a tired chuckle and closed my eyes to sleep. The boys let themselves out.


Kaoru was right. Well, okay. Partially right. I woke up with the worst migraine ever. Forget hangovers - this was bad enough. I felt vaguely nauseous, but dragged myself along to work anyway. I stumbled in through the main entrance and bade Melissa a good morning. She'd smiled, returned the greeting and held up a brown paper bag.

"A delivery?" I asked hazily, taking the bag and turning it over, looking the pink sticky-note that would probably burn my eyes out this particular morning. There was none, only a sticker sealing the folded-over top of the bag that said 'Green Drugstore'. I looked up at Melissa, confused.

"Who's it for?" I asked. Melissa chuckled quietly.

"You," came the reply. I opened the bag and tipped it over. A small brown glass bottle fell out into my open palm. I read the white label and couldn't help but smile. I held the bottle up to my ear and shook it, listening to the liquid inside.

"Who's it from?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Melissa's smile widened a little.

"Kaoru," she said.

The label read 'Eki-Kyabe - Hangover medicine'.