..::Part IX::..

..::Nobody's Thankful::..

Yen's POV

P squared divided by four multiplied by fifteen…let's see, complete crap. I mentally moaned, I loathed mathematics with a passion, Geometry's easy they say…pff… sure it was easy in the first few weeks, but then when the second quarter came around soon after Halloween, I dreaded the subject. Why the hell would I care about the dog and its stupid leash's length?

Didly squat, that's how much.

"No Yen, it's fourteen times six, see, there are six sides and since their right angles-" Poor Pence, here he was attempting to get my brain to absorb this crud and his words just go through one ear and out the other. Not that I'm not trying, it just doesn't make any sense to me, it's like a virus, my brain cells don't recognize or accept the stubborn knowledge so it tries to destroy it.

In a way, it does make sense. It just mimics the immune system.

I looked idly to the left, my back slightly slouched. My eyes gazed at the clock of the Twilight High library. We've been here for four hours already? And since we were in the middle of autumn, night was coming down on us pretty fast, when winter rolled around it would've been dark by now.

"-then two times two and with this arc-"

I wonder what Axel's doing?

"-and it's a third of the circle so we times this by-"

And Seifer and Vivi and Fuu? All right, and Rai too…

"-you bring it up here and divide it by ten and-"

I still can't believe Dad invited Grandma Pinako…

"…Yen? Do you even know the difference between a circle and a triangle?"

She'll bite my head off, sure not Fuu's, MINE!

"Are you even listening to me?"

Maybe it's because I'm the only one who reacts to anything; Fuu isn't that much fun to toy with I'll admit to that. She isn't even our real grandmother, just a friend of our long now-decaying one.

"I'll take that as a no, so I'll resort to Plan 2."

At least Winry and Den will come I suppose I can be happy about that…

"Oh great, you really are going to make me resort to Plan B aren't you?"

I bet more than anything Axel will show up when Grandma's around and eh…?

My eyes were blank for a moment, I saw Roxas' face, a huge, cheesy smile plastered to his face but as my eyes traveled down I saw a rather nice six-pack and – WHOA! WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL!?!?!?!!?!?!

"I'm sorry, but you weren't paying attention. But now I see why you're grades going down in geometry." Pence explained. I glared at him harshly; I had nearly fallen backwards in the chair, if it hadn't been for Pence who caught my chair-

"Um…"

"Sorry Roxas," Pence said, I about pounded Pence, sorry my ass! My face had to be a blister-red by now!

Roxas had been the one who had truly caught my chair, staring over my head at the picture from a magazine with a man possibly on steroids where everything but the head (where a picture of Roxas' head was taped on) was clearly seen. At least the model was wearing a pair of whitey-tighties!

"Peeencceee…" I snarled, my pitch dangerously low. Pence's eyes grew wide; I wasn't in any mood for that right now. Why not you may ask? Simple, I still wasn't getting any sleep and attitude has only been worsening, and it didn't help when my 'curse of the month' came around yesterday.

"Sorry! I'm only trying to lighten the atmosphere." Pence apologized, I kind of cooled my jets then, I sighed and leaned back in the chair, where Roxas finally released his grip on it and snatched the paper from Pence's grasp.

I watched as Pence grumbled something incoherent as Roxas crumbled the paper into a ball and shot it perfectly into the recycling box. Narrowly missing a tissue paper turkey that was stupidly placed near it, it was like it was asking to be dropped into the red box. Poor guy, it seemed someone put good work into him as well.

The feathers were cool, as in purple, blue and green. His eyes the kind you glued on with little balls zooming about inside the plastic, the rest of the body brown and little pieces of wood for feet.

He looked at me blankly.

Yeah, Thanksgiving was tomorrow, and like before Halloween, I haven't seen hair or hide of Organization XIII, but that made me very nervous. Marluxia, Zexion nor Axel had made appearances and I began to think they would pull the same stunt they did to me on Thanksgiving like Marluxia did on Halloween. Axel's perverse nature didn't help that strange situation either.

However, since then I looked up these Saturanian Bloodsuckers that girlie petal guy, Marluxia mentioned.

Not a handsome bunch, similar to Medusa they can turn their victims, excluding users, into stone and swallow them and still find them nutritional. That's a hardy plant for you. Yet since no one could ever get a shot of them, there was never a picture, seeing as the users/gardeners preferred to keep it that way so they didn't give any illustrations either.

Sure was friendly of them, but that didn't matter, I couldn't see one anyway unless I had a death wish and ran across Marluxia again.

"Still with us Yen?" Pence said, I blinked and snapped my head towards him.

"Uh…now I am." I replied, smiling nervously. To top it all off, my friends were starting to get suspicious. Like you can blame me, when you're confronted by a dark order and get tangled into something you can't help or understand, you would start acting a little weird too. And I wasn't a good actress.

Hayner caught on first, than Olette and sure to follow Roxas and Pence. Fuu never gave me any indication she has noticed and I haven't been around her gang enough for them to give anymore care about me than before. However, Seifer was a different story. He hadn't gone near me since before Marluxia came around.

In fact, I'm almost a hundred percent sure he has been avoiding little old me. Whenever I turned around and see him, he would obviously see me first somehow and already be out of earshot. I wonder if he was more than suspicious, thoughts that came to me and scared me more than what my friends were thinking.

Could Seifer possibly know what's going on?

Well, not all of what was going on, I didn't have the complete story yet myself. Maybe he had an inkling and he was keeping watch from a distance, which would explain to me, the feeling of being watched the past several weeks.

"Hey Yen, Hayner wanted me to ask you whether you've seen Olette lately? He says she hadn't been looking very well since fourth block and he hasn't seen her since she excused herself from the room." Roxas explained to me, our eyes locking.

Olette going missing? Could this possibly be another task pulled off by the Org.? Nah, she isn't reckless at all. However, those stupid vanishing and reappearing black holes those guys have do come in handy… No matter how I looked at it, I got all the more concerned.

What would they want with Olette anyway? That crossed my mind a lot, but another question roared back.

What did they want with Clover in the first place? That was the opposition, but nothing connected. Was Organization XIII truly a dark band going out for young girls for pleasure? If it was, why was Clover unharmed? Sure, she had a few cuts and scrapes, but compared to what she could've gotten, well…it didn't happen so I didn't think more of it.

It just disturbed me greatly that things were getting worse, these guys were involving my friends, and even if I didn't know Clover, I knew she was a good kid. She was volunteer-happy yes, but she spent as much time caring for her sick mother at home and taking on strange jobs such as pet sitting.

She was a sweet girl I realized the day after Halloween when she woke up, she thanked both Seifer and me with her utmost gratitude, even if all I did was cause more of burden. However, at least she managed to get through to Seifer, where I couldn't even get near him.

Next to that, she was starting to hang around us more, preferably Pence, who flushed each time she asked to sit next to him at the table. I found it amusing, seeing as not only me, but Hayner, Olette and Roxas peering over at Pence slyly. Each of us telling him to make a move.

But being Pence, he hasn't even gone far enough to ask her out. Pence was a good guy, a little on the chubby side but overall, a guy you could depend on. Sure he wasn't what you would call hot, but cute and reliable. VERY reliable.

"I haven't seen her, but I'll help you look." I stated, Roxas cast a quick glance over to Pence, who looked back strangely.

"He said that Olette wished to use the restroom, we would've probably found her by now, but seeing as she's a girl and we're guys…" I rolled my eyes, I've been here for a long time, do they really think Olette would still be in there-

"Hayner's been waiting outside of the restroom doing homework, asking a girl to see if she was in there, she said she still was. So, do you think you can go and check it out for us?" Roxas asked, sounding worried too. My shoulders slumped, such adorable puppy eyes…I envy him for it.

"Fine, I'll finish my homework later." It's been four hours, that's enough work to make it look like I did it anyway.

"Olette?" The sobbing I heard as soon as I opened the thick door came to an unsettling stop, the boys behind me listening. I shrugged them off and stepped inside, shutting the door behind me. Earlier I strictly told them to fend off anyone who wanted to come in; there were five other restrooms in this huge school anyway.

The lights were thankfully still on, I was thinking in this sort of dark atmosphere that Olette would be angsty enough to turn them off too. I sure hope she wasn't doing anything stupid…

"?" A sniff came to my ears; she was in the last stall. I carefully walked down the lined toilets, being careful not to alarm her too much.

Hey, I'm a girl; I would do the same thing if I heard someone calling for me in the restroom if I were crying too.

Now, if you and I both knew Olette was a nice girl with good grades, you would have to wonder why she would lock herself in the restroom long enough to confirm she was playing hooky. At least the teacher didn't give it much of a thought as Hayner said; saying Ms. Signe wasn't all that caring to begin with.

I lightly knocked my knuckles against the stall door, the only locked one.

"What happened? We're all worried you know." It was a clear statement, you weren't a friend if you didn't worry for those you called 'friends'. Unfortunately, the most of a reply I've gotten was a cross between a sniff and sob.

How bad is this? A tiny voice in the back of my head said that I should be very grateful that she wasn't kidnapped like I was originally thinking. I had to admit though, the voice was right. At least I knew where she was and I didn't have to worry about gaining some munny to get to Sunset…

"Olette, c'mon…it's only me, the guys are outside though. No worries about getting interrupted that way." I reassured her, something must have been bothering her for a while if she went this far being the goody two shoes she is.

"…" Ugh, come on Olette I feel like I'm talking to a big, thick, very thick, brick wall. No walls talk but just to emphasize it a little.

"Do you want me to get Hayner or-" Click! She's unlocking the door; I stepped back, waiting for it to open. That was rather sudden, was it because I mentioned Hayner that would prove there was something going on between them. They would make an adorable couple now that I think about it…

When I saw flesh, I saw only fingers curl around the edge of the door, like she was depending on it to support her.

"You don't have to tell me…but if something had gotten to you this bad…I mean, you're going to have to talk to someone, you can't keep it bottled up…it'll hurt." I said reasonably, the only times I ever really think of what I'm saying are in these kind of situations or a serious crisis of some sort, like with Vivi.

"Whatever it is, it's hurting you – bad. Does it have something to do with Hayner?" I asked, trying to quiet my voice, even though the door to the restroom was relatively thick, Hayner and Roxas could've pulled out a sensitive hearing aide or something. You never know.

Still no response but a cracked sob, yes, my woman intuition (I do surprisingly have one), tells me it has to be something with a guy and that said guy is no other than Hayner.

I sighed; turning around slowly, I took a step towards the door when something caught onto my wrist.

Aw, so she's still alive. I looked around and spotted Olette's tear-strained face peering up at me, begging it seemed, to not get Hayner. I could've started crying with a face like that directed at me. Her cheeks were redder than tomatoes and her usually semi-tanned complexion looked sickly pale.

She's crying herself sick, I have to get someone…but… I can't just leave her, what the hell happened!?! Olette was NEVER EVER EVER like this for as long as I have known her. Who ever did this to her was going to pay for possibly their lunch munny and allowance, but also a lifetime of misery.

"Who was it? Who's on your mind that's making you this way?" I had to ask it severely irked me not knowing the pain-giver.

"…" I sighed.

"ACK! YOU BURNED THE TURKEY! HOW CAN YOU BURN THE FRIGGIN' TURKEY!?!" I ducked as a sizzling frying pan flew at my head, oh; I love my 'grandma' Pinako. So much I would rebound that cooking metal back at her, but I might miss, seeing how small she is…

"I wasn't paying attention-" I muttered back weakly, I shouldn't really have bothered…

"Of COURSE you weren't! You have the attention span of a rodent!" In case you were curious, we weren't really related in a grandparent-grandchild way, my dad, Asante, somehow 'befriended' the old hag in his kid days. Saying he had a fatherly role over Grandma's granddaughter, Winry Rockbell.

She's my unofficial cousin. Not even linked therefore unremoved, if she was somehow connected to our family more than just being family friends, she would've been removed for constant warfare with automail tools against the town gummi shop employees and just for her sudden tempers, only Grandma could cool her down.

"HORRIBLE." Ah, my dearly beloved sister, Fuu.

"Hiya Sis," I greeted as I handed her the oven mitts, she took them without a blink or refusal. "You're insult is greatly appreciated, in such said way you will take my place." I then zoomed off with Grandma Pinako shouting after me-

"She could cook pigs bigger than this house blind-folded and one hand behind her back!"

It's nice to be loved, don't you think?

Okay, I'll admit it; coming to Winry in time of boredom isn't all that great. Instead of getting a good time of talking to her, I get a possibly endless list of how 'automail is the greatest invention on the planet'. I've never been this bored; it makes me recall memories.

"And here this gadget helps as a joint in the knee, these are the screws you have to be careful which one you'll pick, too small the knee will fall apart, too big it won't move at all-"

Winry seemed to excited; too bad I couldn't share the same enthusiasm. I hadn't an inkling of what she was going on about, something about building Ed together again…

Ed and Alphonse Elric, she talked about them often in these kind of 'conversations'.

Was I asleep yet?

"There you are, I knew you would be with Winry." It was Grandma Pinako; Winry was the only one of the two of us that managed to greet the old lady with a full-fledged grin.

"You need something Grandma?" Winry asked, Grandma Pinako edged out of the door and into the garage.

"I need you two to go and fetch another turkey, it seems the last one went up in flames – literally – and it's not really edible…" I could feel the old lady's eyes on me, boring a hole in between my shoulders.

Sure, blame me, even if it is my fault, still, don't blame me. No cooking skills whatsoever, did I mention I burned soup once?

"Sure, will there be any left?" Winry asked somewhat worriedly.'

Ha! No… I thought.

"Possibly not." She replied.

"Then what's the point of going?" I asked without turning around.

"Just so you get the feel of spoiling everyone's dinner tonight?" She didn't mean it, it was in a joking manner because she laughed at herself for it, but it did make me feel a little guilty.

"I'm sure there has to be at least a few or so left unsold." Winry tried to sound optimistic wasn't working really.

"Yeah, the bad ones." Grandma Pinako stated roughly. I mentally growled, just one blasted turkey right?

"Why don't we just go and hunt one? They're native here," I said. Winry looked at me.

"Really?"

"No."

"That wasn't funny Yen,"

"Wasn't meant to be, just being sarcastic."

"Well, get your sarcastic ass out of here and find a turkey and walked around feeling guilty, there is still everything else to get done so you might as well do something almost productive." Grandma Pinako stated as she went back inside.

"Here, I'll go with you." Winry suggested.

Woopee…

About twenty minutes before dinner was bound to start, here I was still treading up and down the streets of Twilight Town on Thanksgiving Eve, if there ever was such a thing. It wasn't really that bad, I was thankful that Winry was with me, to spoil the silence that was following me for a while.

However, it didn't distract me from the incident with Olette the other day. It still saddened me…

It turns out, Olette hadn't gotten this depressed in a matter of moments, she had been holding in something for a very long time.

Flashback

"Y-You know I like Hayner don't you?" Olette asked, her sobs quieting down a little.

"It was obvious that you two liked each other yeah, why? Were you rejected or something?" Such bad timing, Olette almost broke down from that, I jumped and rushed through my brain for something comforting to say.

"What happened Olette?"

It took her a moment, but she finally replied.

"This morning…after getting a little brave, I spotted him in the hall…and…and I went up to him, he was alone so I thought…it might be a good opportunity to ask him – out…and, when I finally did, he looked at me coldly and told me he could never like anyone like me more than a friend." She said the last so quietly I had to strain my ears.

I had to strain them even more and have her repeat herself to believe what they told me.

Hayner would say something like that? No way, he would never say something like that…Hayner didn't think that way.

"Forget about it Olette, I'll talk to him-" She clung to me for the second time, eyes big.

"Don't talk to him Yen, I'll talk to him…"

"If you don't, I will, I'll give you till tomorrow okay?" I wasn't going to go easy on something so un-trivial, Olette's heart was breaking, she needed to get the antidote and she was the only one that could fetch it.

"All right…"

The funny thing is, when she told me to leave and let her be for a while, when I walked outside, the guys were standing there. Hayner among them the most concerned, did he really say something like that? He looked too worried and didn't look regretful, something must have happened that Hayner wasn't apart of.

And I had a strong sense of who could be behind it all…

End of flashback

Organization XIII, the only solution that came to me, they could stop time and summon man-eating plants, why not clone someone and use them to their advantage? Perfectly capable no? Because I wouldn't believe, not even for a second that Hayner would do something so cruel.

"You still with me Yen?"

"No – I mean yes, yes, what is it?" I asked; jumpy. Winry sent me a strange look.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just a little out of it is all." I couldn't really just go and spill my guts, mind you Winry wouldn't possibly get the gist of it anyway.

"Oh, all right. Hm?" Winry looked up ahead of us, her eyes getting big. I looked up too, just to fell the soft breeze freeze and Winry stock-still.

Axel.

"You don't seem so happy to see me," Axel said, hands behind his back.

"What are you up to?" I asked curiously. Axel gave a shrug of his shoulders and sent a charming smile towards me, I felt my cheeks burn, I cursed my skin for being fair.

Then as fast as the time came to a halt, it came rushing back just as fast.

"Yo," Axel greeted, it surprised me he hadn't up and vanished. I watched him suspiciously.

"Hello?" Winry replied, sort of confused herself, though not for the same reason.

"I'm just here to deliver a package for you two, heard that you were having some poultry crisis at home." Axel said, I raised a brow and Winry cocked her head to the side. Of course he would know, he's stalking ME.

"A package?" I questioned, Axel stepped closer and I heard Winry hold her breath, she apparently had as much trust in the pyromaniac as I did. Wait…pyromaniac?

He shifted his arms behind his back and pulled them around, an already roasted turkey in his palms.

"Are you serious?" Winry asked, both of us caught by surprise. Axel went through the trouble of getting and cooking one for us, or was it just me? With this untamed kind of guy, you could never tell could you?

"For you, safe, and completely free." Axel said.

"What's the catch?" I asked, my voice very suspicious.

"Tsk, tsk, I'm only being a friend." Axel said, looking at me, I was very thankful he wasn't sending me another one of those smiles, they seemed to be my only blush turn-on.

"Oh, you two know each other?" Winry asked, taking the turkey, Axel, obviously happy being free of the bird burden happily straightened up.

"You could say that," Axel said in a conspicuous tone, Winry glanced at me with a knowing look.

"You two going out?" she asked, just being curious but her questions were harmful.

"No," I said quickly, Axel waved a hand; smirking at me. I tried not to smack him, I really did.

"Not yet," Axel concluded.

Do not lash out and hit him with all your might, do NOT lash out and hit him with all your might, DO NOT lash out and hit him with all your might…I mentally repeated this phrase over and over as Axel continued to smirk and Winry got starry-eyed.

"I'll take my leave, work needs me. Later my Albino Weasel." He said as he hurried off and around a corner, possibly to vanish into a dark hole.

Then Winry turned on me.

"YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND!?!" Winry cried energetically.

"No."

"What's his name?!"

"Axel. He's not my boyfriend."

"He's hawt Yen! You're so lucky!"

"Not really."

"He called you Albino Weasel!"

"Is that really a complement?"

"It's a petname!"

"It's an insult."

"He said 'MY Albino Weasel'!"

Winry was the true hopeless romantic of the two of us.

When we got home, Winry pretty much announced it to my parents, my sister, her grandmother and the dog, Den. And the turkey and dinner that was set nicely at the table.

"Yen's got a boyfriend!"

I sincerely wanted to melt into the ground and die. Or it could work the other way around too. I just hated the way Grandma Pinako was laughing her head off and scoffing me at the same time about my inability of attracting any straight guy and my parents questioning me on when their meeting him and what he's like. These were the times I loved Fuu, she didn't question anything. But now, she broke that love code.

"NAME?"

"Yeah, what was his name?"

"Axel."

"Isn't that part of a wheel?"

"Look! He even gave us an already roasted turkey!"

"Sure was nice of him…"

"He's smitten with you Yen! I mean! He gave you a TURKEY!"

God, I would be thankful if I could summon those stupid black holes right now and vanish into Oblivion.

Happy Thanksgiving to me…

A/N:

Late Merry Christmas! Yeah, day after X-mas and I posted a Thanksgiving chappy. Sorry, I'm slow on the typing and motivation. Anyway, I'm perfectly happy right now except for the fact I have to get up at 4:30 AM tomorrow to baby-sit, yay, but other than that, I got an Ipod Nano, YAY! Okay, I'll see you guys later!