10

"I hate my Scouts sometimes," I say to Vincent, who chuckles. "He's right, though. A bathrobe will not create the right impression. Remember what I said about my lack of modesty? Do you think you could emulate it and help me get dressed?" When he grins at me, I add, "It'll only take a few minutes for her to get here, so behave."

"You're no fun," he teases, and helps me get properly dressed. Before I pull my shirt on, he wraps a bandage tightly around my lower back. "Just in case," he murmurs, caressing my breasts.

I slap his hands. "Be good." Pulling my shirt over my head, I sit up in bed, and Vincent resumes his chair. When Lady Ileana Talon walks in, everything is in order. "Lady Ileana. So good to see you. My apologies for not rising to greet you, but I think Vincent would be very put out with both of us if I tried."

She is absolutely beautiful, with honey-blond hair and large brown eyes. She also doesn't have a slightly crooked nose, too long for her face, and scars everywhere. "Captain Balia. I'm sorry you're not well. I will not offend your friend," she turned a dazzling smile on him, "by insisting you do anything at all." She gracefully takes the other chair in the room. Her constant smiles and coy looks to Vincent are grating on my nerves, but that doesn't surface in my voice.

"What can I do for you, my Lady?" I smile back at her, and Vincent winks at me when she isn't looking at him. "I will probably not be able to perform missions for at least a week, probably longer. This is a recurring problem, I'm afraid."

When he's not reassuring me, Vincent is going for the statuesque approach, and it seems to fascinate her Ladyship. "Oh, excuse me." She flutters, and I wait patiently. "Your friend reminds me of someone, I think." Her eyes widen. "Wait, did you say his name was Vincent?" I grin at him as he tries valiantly not to groan. "Vincent Valentine? The Vincent Valentine?" She is addressing him directly.

"I'm fairly sure there is only one of me, my Lady," he says. His voice is polite, but distinctly cool. "My friend Tera requested my company to cheer her up and amuse her while she's trapped abed." The sideways look she gives him says a lot about her opinion of his ability to cheer anyone up.

I smile. "Vincent also keeps people from bothering me with trivial matters. As you could guess, he's quite good at it." It's not even a tiny hint, just a statement of fact, but she glances at me with alarm.

"I will not waste any of your time, Captain. I need to borrow your Reconnaissance squad. A friend of mine is missing, and no one else seems to want to do anything about it." She leans toward me and smiles. "Yours is the best. I would feel more comfortable if you were able to command them yourself, of course, but as it is a rescue mission, time is of the essence."

I nod. "As one of my dearest clients," I say, "I feel I must tell you that we are in the middle of serious reorganization at the moment, and Demetria, who you have dealt with before, is not heading up the Recon squad at the moment. Damien, the young man you just met, is well on his way to earning his Mastery, and he will be working with Recon right now."

"Far be it from me to decry your internal changes," Lady Ileana trills. "As long as they are still the best, I do not care who the leader is."

"I brought this up because there may be some conflict at the beginning. I feel sure that their professionalism and pride will overcome personal doubts, but in case I am wrong, I will assure you that anyone who does not perform to the fullest of their ability will have me down on them like Judgment Day, bad back or no." Vincent raises an eyebrow at my frankness with this woman, but says nothing.

"Thank you for the warning, Captain," the lady says. "I appreciate that you wouldn't tell this to just anyone."

"Well, you've hired Recon a few times, so you know their normal standard. If they seem to be deviating from that or causing Damien any trouble, do not hesitate to tell me." I smile at her again. "I expect no problems, but it is always best to prepare for the inevitabilities of the job."

"Of course." She stands up. "Well, I will not bother you further. I will give the name and description to Damien, then?" I nod, and she gives Vincent another measuring look. "If I could speak to you, sir?" He glances at me, and I shrug.

"Yes, my Lady." He follows her out.

Outwardly, I am quite calm and seem amused. Inside, I am repressing the need to stove in the woman's head with my bedstead. Tifa finds me in this state of mind awhile later. Vincent still hasn't come back. She takes a look at my face, and laughs. "You can drop the pretense, Tera. She's out of hearing range."

I swear quite colorfully. "She didn't annoy me so badly last time," I complain to Tifa, who laughs.

"She makes my fingers twitch, too, dear. She's talking to both of them now, so I thought I'd come up and talk to someone who understands my sudden, homicidal urges." Tifa sighs. "Does she make every woman feel like that?"

"Like a chunky farmwife with no remarkable features, covered in cow dung?" I ask. "Oh, yes. She and Demi actually get along, but she drives me straight up a wall. Probably because before she set her sights on heroes, she enjoyed tweaking Owen's and Eilen's noses. She's part of the reason they hate each other." I sigh. "Aside from that, she's amazingly competent, and she's an excellent client, because she knows exactly what she wants, and has consistent standards." I shrug. "I like her when she's nowhere near any male I have any kind of relationship with. Damien should be all right, though. His parents kept throwing women like that at him before he finally took off to be a Scout."

"Did any of you have normal childhoods?" Tifa asks.

"Not really. It's probably why we all mesh so well," I say. I grin at her. "Shall we go be jealous wenches in public? I'm bored, and if Vincent's going to follow her around like a puppy, I'll be naughty and get out of bed."

Tifa shakes her head. "You won't impress anyone if you fall flat on your face."

"Sad, but true," I agree ruefully.

Tifa looks at me for a long minute, then smiles. "I'm sure she doesn't impress Vincent at all. You're more his type."

"Thanks for the reassurance," I say dryly, "but it's rather hard to believe when I'm beat all to hell, still not looking exactly like a beauty queen due to unforeseen circumstances from last week, and can't stand straight without crying." I fold my arms around my knees. "I keep telling myself I'm being ridiculous, but I've never encountered her when I had someone who was mine to speak for."

"I feel the same way, and at least you know her. This is my first encounter at all," Tifa points out, her eyes suddenly looking larger and vulnerable.

I chuckle. "This will lead to us lying down and bawling any time she gets near either of them. It has to be pheromones. Hmm. What can I do that's constructive and fulfilling here?" I look around my room. "Cleaning Shadowcat would be a bad idea, since it leads to violent thoughts, and ditto to the knives and such. Mending makes me feel even more like a dowdy housewife, and my back isn't up to cleaning." I turn to Tifa. "Any thoughts?"

She's staring at me thoughtfully. "Yeah. Do you ever wear makeup?" When I give her a puzzled look, she grins. "I want to throw that woman off-guard, and she doesn't know me well enough to be surprised by anything I do. It will be subtle, I promise, and it's fun."

"I guess so," I say dubiously, and she dashes off and comes back with a large case. "Let's see. . . Your eyes are definitely the major feature of your face."

"Really," I quip. "I always thought it was the nose."

Tifa laughs. "Stop fretting. I won't do anything too exotic. I want to surprise Vincent, too, not scare him off." I smile, and let her work. She puts a pale, shimmery eyeshadow on right after the foundation, muttering to herself. "Green or blue, do you think?" she asks me.

I think of my bathrobe and smile. "Green, definitely." She shows me a deep forest green, and I nod. "That's it." She puts a medium brown on between the two, and adds some light mascara. "You've got wonderful lashes," she says. "They're so long."

She shows me two colors of blush: a light pink, and a more sandy color. After some thought, I pick the sandy one. "Subtle, right?" I ask, and Tifa laughs.

"You're actually quite good at this," she says.

"I paint, so I'm good with colors," I shrug. "What about my lips?"

"They're already berry-colored, so I think we'll just put a tiny bit of gloss on." She finishes up, and leans back to admire her handiwork. "Well! You ought to do this more often." She hands me a mirror. I stare at myself. I look younger and yet more sophisticated. "Now, I know it's not natural to you, but you are annoyed at him for being gone so long, right?" I nod uncertainly. "Be just a bit standoffish. Not a lot, but enough to let him know he's in trouble."

I grin. "Will that work on Vincent, though? He's a bit more subtle than most."

"He's a man. I think it's hardwired into their systems." Tifa cocks her head at me. "Let your hair down." I comply, and she smiles. "Anything else you can think of?"

"Actually, yes. And it's constructive, too." I direct her to dig out my stereo and some music. "I've been told that my voice is the most incredible thing at least ten people have ever heard. Vincent's never heard me sing."

Tifa grins wickedly. "You're going to be good at this."

Indeed, when Lady Ileana leads the boys back to us, we're both sitting on my bed, singing to some rock music and completely oblivious (maybe) to the door. Vincent stops dead when he hears me with his mouth dropping open. Cloud is less surprised by me and more by Tifa, who has a fantastic voice of her own. With the bandage supporting my back, I'm sitting upright comfortably, and enjoying myself. Ileana gives me a hard stare that I pretend not to notice. She has totally lost her captive audience. "Ladies?" She tries to affect her usual carefree trill, but almost can't pull it off.

Tifa and I turn around, and I stop the music. "Oh, I beg your pardon, Lady Ileana!" I exclaim, ignoring (with difficulty) Vincent's jaw coming completely unhinged at the sight of my face. "You know about my passion for music. How wonderful for me to find another whose voice harmonizes so well with mine! We got so caught up, we didn't notice the time." Both boys wince at that, and Tifa represses a grin. "Did you get everything you needed from my Scouts?"

"Yes, Captain. I believe so." Now that we've got the music off, she's quickly regaining her balance. She knows I can whip her in that area without even trying. "These two charming gentlemen were giving me a tour, and telling me about your recent adventures." Both of us put extra nonchalance into ignoring the boys, who wince again.

"I'm glad they were so kind," I tell Ileana. "We were just going to go over a few more songs. Perhaps you gentlemen could see her out? I, of course, should avoid stairs." Vincent looks positively stricken, and Cloud, not much better.

As soon as they get to the stairs, Tifa shuts the door and bursts into giggles. "That was perfect! She looked like she'd swallowed a snake."

"More to the point, so did Vincent and Cloud," I say. "Didn't Cloud know you could sing?"

"You'd think so, since I always hum while I'm setting the bar up for the night, but apparently not." Tifa shrugs. "Boys can be so totally unaware."

"Well, I'd say this was a successful mission," I declare. "We'll have to do this again. It's entertaining. I wasn't lying when I told Ileana that I was delighted to find a harmonizing voice, though. Please come and sing again."

"I will," Tifa promises. "Can you teach me that look you half-gave Vincent? The smouldery one?"

I laugh. "I can try, but I'm not sure how I did it."

"Till next time, then," she says. "I don't want to embarrass them into apologizing in front of more than just their girls, do you?"

"No. They're not in that much trouble this time."

"Let me know how it goes," she says as she heads for the kitchen.