Lucrecia Crescent walked beside me in silence on our way to the weapons shop. I envied her in silence. I loved my life on the airship but I missed being pretty. I knew I would never be as pretty as Lucrecia even if I wore dresses, had long and silky hair, spoke softly and walked daintily.
"How old are you?" I blurted unthinkingly, wondering what it took to become a scientist's assistant.
"Haven't you ever heard that it's rude to ask a lady's age?" Lucrecia asked back.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I wasn't thinking. I was just curious."
"I'm twenty-one," Lucrecia told me.
"I thought you didn't want to say," I said, bewildered.
"I was joking," Lucrecia replied.
"Oh… You need to work on your delivery a little." I was amazed that Lucrecia would joke with me. She was so different from me that I'd thought it was obvious that she would dislike me.
"What about you, Claudia?" Lucrecia asked.
"I'll be twenty-one in two months," I answered. "Please don't call me Claudia, though. I usually go by one of my nicknames."
"May I call you Rosie, then?" Lucrecia asked.
"Rosie?" I asked. "Why?"
"I don't know—it suits you," she answered.
"All right," I said. "But then I'll call you Lu." I didn't really think I'd see Lucrecia again once I left Nibelheim so the nicknames wouldn't really be useful anyway. Still, it was nice to call her Lu because the name, which didn't really suit her, made her seem less perfect and more human to me.
We entered the weapons shop acting much chummier than we had been when we left Dr. Valentine. Lucrecia faltered when she actually saw the weapons, though.
"You're going to actually use those?" she asked me hesitantly as I picked up a knife to look at it more closely.
"That is the plan," I answered.
The owner of the weapons shop was very helpful. He got a lot of good custom from the airsailors and, knowing what a tightly knit group we were, he didn't want to risk that by scamming me. I left the shop with a sturdy little gun, a dagger and a knife.
"The gun and the dagger, I lost over time," Claudie said. "I still have the knife, though, and it has served me well." She reached down and removed a knife from her belt. It had been so well concealed that neither Yuffie nor Shelke had noticed it until Claudie reached for it. She carefully handed the weapon over to them.
The knife was old and it had clearly seen a lot of action as scratches that scarred its gleaming surface demonstrated. The leather which wrapped around its handle had been recently replaced because it looked new. The blade itself was sharp enough to draw blood when Yuffie wasn't careful in handing it over to Shelke. Shocked, the ninja stuck her finger in her mouth.
"Do you still use this?" she asked.
"Absolutely," Claudie replied.
"But you're old and dying," Yuffie said. "Don't you want to go home and be safe or something?"
"No," Claudie answered. "I want to live and since I want to live for as long as possible, I don't let that little knife leave my side. Anyway…"
Lucrecia couldn't stop expressing her shock at my needing to use weapons, even after we'd left the weapons shop and gone to lunch…which was my treat as thanks for helping me find the shop. She couldn't imagine having a dangerous career herself her imagination couldn't stretch enough to think that someone else might actually enjoy action. I certainly couldn't say I hated it.
Lucrecia was determined that we should become friends. She asked how she could keep in contact with me. She wanted to know how she could contact "her protector". I knew why I was her protector just as little as I knew why she needed protecting. All I knew was that I'd just made my first female friend since joining the Blackbird.