Right. Sooo... I know it's been a SERIOUSLY long time since I updated, but my motherboard went foom, followed shortly by my husband resecuring our network... and forgetting to put my laptop on the "allowed" list. I'm actually at my in-laws', and the motherboard is still foom. So, don't expect updates often, but I promise I shall try. This is mostly written, it just needs polishing and sectioning. Errr... the language will only get worse from here, I'm afraid. I swear a LOT. Oh, and THANK YOU for all the lovely comments. I'm overwhelmed by how positive the response is. Love you all!

14

Damien wakes me early the next morning. "Sorry, Captain, but your brother's here, and he wants to talk to you right now."

I mutter something obscene. "Give us a minute," I tell him. "Tiarnan bloody knows I'm not a bloody morning person." As Damien closes the door, I nudge Vincent. "Come on, love. My brother's here to yell at us."

"Yay. More yelling," Vincent mutters. He gets up and helps me get dressed. "Just what we need."

"I know, but he's family. I can't tell him to go away and come back later."

Tiarnan is sitting down at the dining room table, being served a lavish breakfast by Reeve. "There you are!" he exclaims. "I was thinking you were going to take all morning."

"It's seven in the morning, big brother. I have a survey mission to do, but I was looking forward to having a peaceful morning. Silly me, I suppose." I yawn. "Please get this over with quickly. I have had both the best and worst week of my life, all rolled into one."

Tiarnan blinks. It's not like me to take the offensive immediately, but I don't want anyone else hitting Vincent. "Someone woke up cranky today."

"Did you not hear that last sentence? I think a little 'cranky' is deserved by now." Reeve shoos Vincent and me into chairs, and gives us plates. "Owen's not even up for breakfast yet," I complain. "Why should I be?"

"You don't want breakfast?" Reeve mock pouts. "Well, I could take it back. . ." I hold onto my plate, already half through the eggs.

Tiarnan doesn't even smile, and I know Tseng has gotten to him. "Dammit, can't I at least have one day when people are going to be nice to the man I love?" Everyone gapes at me in shock, except Vincent, who only touches my arm gently.

"He's your brother, Tera," Reeve protests. "He's supposed to do this."

"I'm not letting you talk to him until Cloud tells you all of what happened yesterday," I say flatly. "I have had enough of this bullshit." There's a hint of a giggle, at the back of my hearing, and I whirl, ignoring the faint twinge it gives my back. "If you do not get further away from me than you are right now, Yuffie, I swear by everything holy, I will cut your eyeballs out!" Even Vincent looks a bit startled at that, but Yuffie scrambles off.

Tiarnan sighs. "All right. I can tell there's more going on than what I know already. Reeve, is Cloud up yet?"

"Yeah. He's out back." Vincent, Tiarnan, and I go out to the yard, but not before I eat all of my breakfast, and snag some more bacon.

Cloud doesn't look a bit surprised to see us, even Tiarnan, who he's never met. "Good morning." He grins wryly at me. "I heard you shouting at Yuffie. I'll keep an eye out and make sure she stays away from all of you."

"Thanks," I reply. "That probably was a bit much, but. . ."

Cloud finishes my sentence. "But you've had it with her. I know. Don't worry about it." He looks at my brother. "You must be Tiarnan. I'm Cloud Strife. I take it you want me to tell him what happened yesterday, Tera?"

"If you would, please," I say. "I wasn't there, so I can't, and Vincent is admittedly biased." As Cloud goes over the whole thing, including things he had thought it prudent not to mention in front of Tifa and Demi, Tiarnan's face goes white.

When the impassive recital is over, Tiarnan turns to Vincent. "I'm sorry, Vincent. Tera and I have known Tseng for years, and I didn't think he'd deceive me like that." He grins at me. "Obviously, my tigress of a sister really likes you, so for her sake, I'll give you a shot."

I hug my brother. "Thank you," I tell him. "I have had the most hellacious time convincing anyone other than you and these people here," I flip my head at Cloud, who only smiles, "that you can't pry us apart with a crowbar. Tseng is being possessive, that's all. He never got over me."

"True enough," Tiarnan agrees. "If you need me to convince anyone for you, I can do that."

I see Rude coming toward us out of the corner of my eye, and gulp. "I might have to take you up on that immediately," I tell Tiarnan.

He turns to see the big, bald man come to a full stop in front of Vincent. They're eyeing each other, but I can't sense any of the hostility from yesterday, so I relax. "Vincent," Rude says.

"Rude. Good morning," Vincent replies.

"Have you slept with her yet?" I wince. Trust Rude to be blunt. Even worse, Cloud and Tiarnan seem interested in the answer.

"I'm not sure that's really your business, and I don't think Tiarnan wants to hear about his sister's love life," Vincent replies, his voice even.

"I beg to differ," Tiarnan says, his voice harder. "I'm rather interested in finding out."

Cloud glances at me, and when I nod very slightly, he takes me aside. "A moment, lads," he says. "But I'm going to talk to Tera about this real quick, so we can spare her the mortification."

"Too late," I mutter. My face is burning, and Cloud smiles at me.

"When?" he asks me softly.

"Last night. It's been that kind of week, Cloud." The other three guys are watching us in bemusement. I look down at my feet, waiting for the explosion, which doesn't come.

"Well your timing could have been better," he sighs, "but you couldn't have known. What should we tell your brother?"

"I don't know," I laugh, almost hysterical. "It hasn't come up before." Vincent gives his friend a concerned look, and Cloud shakes his head.

"Well, your best bet is to come right out and tell them, and hope for the best, I guess." He doesn't sound at all certain, though.

"Hope for the best?" My voice cracks. "This is my brother and Rude we're talking about, Cloud! They'll probably kill him."

Vincent walks over. "What's wrong?"

I snort. "We're trying to save you from getting your other eye blacked." I sigh, then walk over to the other two. "I seduced Vincent last night, okay? He wouldn't have done it if I hadn't, but I did." I wince as my brother's eyes narrow. "I'm not lying to you, Tiarnan!" I snap. "When have I ever lied to you about something important?"

"Never. . .yet." His reply is cool.

"Oh, fuck off," I reply. "It's none of your business anyway! I'm a grown woman, Tiarnan; I can seduce whoever the hell I want to." When he takes a threatening step toward Vincent, I step in front of him. "Last time we had a throw-down I was thirteen," I say in a low voice. "I won that one, and I wasn't even a Master yet. I've been a Master for ten years. Do you want to try me again?"

He stares at me. "I'm just trying to take care of you!" he shouts.

"Maybe I'm sick of people trying to take care of me, and I want to try to do it for myself for a change!" I shout back. "I'm not a little girl anymore, and I'm not that much younger than you. What is the big fucking deal, anyway? Is it because it's Vincent, and not Tseng?"

Rude says, quietly, "I would say I'm sorry I started this, but I think it would have happened anyway. For what it's worth, I'm satisfied. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

I cool down. "Thank you, Rude, and you're right. He's been wanting this fight all morning." I hug my big friend. "You're the only person besides Reeve and Tifa who hasn't rejected this."

"Not surprising," he says, snagging my brother by the arm before Tiarnan can lunge at Vincent, not changing his voice at all. "We're all the people who are concerned about both of you." He grins at the surprised look exchanged between Vincent and Cloud. "I just want someone who won't try to contain you."

I chuckle. "You and me both."

Tiarnan has stopped struggling, surprised by Rude's last comment. He considers for a moment, then blushes. "Sorry, Tera. I let my overprotectiveness have free rein again. You're right; it's none of my business." He hugs me. "I hope you still can have a good day."

"I get to ask random people stupid questions," I reply impishly. "That will be fun enough."

To my surprise, both Rude and Tiarnan hug Vincent. "Take good care of her," Rude says. "I rather think she'll be taking care of you, but nevertheless."

Vincent laughs, and doesn't reply. I lean on his shoulder. "Good gods, why am I up?" I moan. "And I have to stay up."

I brighten up as we go inside. The recruit I'm working with today reminds me a lot of me, just a bit older than I was. Her name is Calli, and she's waiting at the door. "Good morning, Captain," she says. "Aren't you glad to be up and about again?"

"Oh, yes," I reply. "Even if it is just to do a survey."

"With respect, Captain, will people really answer these questions?"

"You'd be surprised," Demi says. "It's confidential, so people won't be afraid of giving their opinions. Everyone thinks they know exactly how to run things, if someone would only ask them. So we're asking them."

"Ready?" I ask, after getting all kitted out. "We'll be gone until midday, at least, so get everything you think you may need. We'll tell you if it's unnecessary."

Vincent hauls me aside as Demi helps Calli. "Are you sure you don't want to take Cerberus, just in case? I know you will take every precaution, but your knives won't stop everything."

I smile at him. "We're just going a few blocks today. I'd rather not go anywhere near corporation HQ right now, and the only other way out of the center of town is blocked off after that last storm."

He nods slowly. "I said I wouldn't pen you up, but. . . Just be careful, okay?" He kisses me. "I love you."

I smile at him. "I love you too."

The minute we're out of earshot of the building, Calli giggles. "Wow. I'd give my left arm for any guy to look at me like that, much less Vincent Valentine."

I laugh. "Can you believe he didn't believe me when I told him he's hot? I had to have Tifa confirm it."

She glances down at the survey. "Is that what started this?" I grin. I don't recruit stupid people. "I'll have to thank him. I was thinking we were never going to get out of there."

"Owen driving you crazy?" I ask, chuckling. "He does that. It's startlingly effective at getting people with no patience out of our hair."

"I bet." We make our way to a small market square, and start handing out our surveys. When we've handed most of them to random people, we then set up a stall, with a box for people to put the finished ones in. "This is the boring part of this job," I tell my greenie. "Waiting takes up most of a Scout's missions, though, so get used to it now."

As people come up and shyly drop off their surveys, or ask questions, we smile and use our people skills. Calli is very good, but there's a reason I'm a Master. When one solemn-faced lady in her middle years asks, furtively, "Can I put down that I think Vincent Valentine is the most gorgeous man alive?" I have to send Calli off before she explodes from trying not to laugh.

"I happen to agree with you, ma'am," is my straight-faced answer, "and I know for a fact the information will be useful."

She beams at me. "I can't blame that your friend for giggling at me. I know it's foolish, but something about that young man sets fire to my blood." After she leaves and Calli comes back, I duck behind the booth to laugh quietly till I cry.

We gather more than five hundred surveys before lunch. "Excellent," I say. "Since you'll be helping me analyze this, do you think this is enough to keep you busy, or do you want to go out again after lunch?"

She laughs. "This is enough for now. If I get any more people like that dear lady, I might not be able to stop laughing. How did you, of all people, control yourself?"

"I've had fifteen years of training," I remind her dryly. "I could have someone come up and tell me they want Vincent to do dirty things to them all night long and I'll restrain myself." She giggles at that, and we're gossiping about the different people we saw when we enter the dining room.

Owen takes the stacks from us. "Whoof! Did you ask everyone in town?"

"Well, we gave some out to people at market, and they must have told their friends. We've got about five hundred just this morning. Calli says that's quite enough for her for today, so I can take someone else out for a short run this afternoon." Vincent is looking at me intensely, and I grin. "Late this afternoon." We discuss the results over lunch, and Calli is the one who mentions the middle-aged woman. Vincent turns scarlet, and I laugh almost as hard as I did the first time. "She also said something about you sets fire to her blood," I drawl, and he gives me a hard look. "She did! I could probably go find her again. . ." He mutters a hasty negative, and everyone laughs. I look around, and realize Yuffie is gone. "I don't mean to starve the girl, Reeve. Did Yuffie eat earlier?"

"Why, yes," he replies, surprised. "She said she had an errand to run."

"Good." When I see how everyone is looking at me, I roll my eyes. "I'd go real far in this job if I wasted time being vindictive. By her own reasoning, Yuffie has every right to dislike me." I shrug. "It's not like I'm going to give over and become very best friends with her, but you guys have known her for long enough for her to matter to you."

Cloud smiles. "Thank you for that. She does have her redeeming qualities."

After lunch, Vincent almost drags me up to our room. And it is our room, I see. He's spent the morning moving in. "I missed you all morning," he murmurs, and I stop thinking about interior design as he pushes me onto the bed and starts taking off both of our clothes.

Awhile later, I wander downstairs to find my next recruit. Owen smirks at me, but I ignore it. "Where's Michel?" I ask Damien, who at least has the decency to try to stop snickering. "Oh, knock that off. If either of you gets laid ever again, you won't hear the end of it, you hear me?"

Owen snorts. "Fat chance." When I raise my eyebrow at him, he shrugs. "Haven't met anyone, at any rate."

Damien says, "Michel is set up and ready to go by the door."

Nanaki pulls me aside as I approach. "I saw Yuffie talking to this young man, earlier," he tells me. "I don't know what it was about, but be on your guard." He turns as if to go, then turns back. "Also, when she left, she seemed to be going toward where you went with Vincent and Owen the other day."

"Bugger," I mutter. "More complications. Thank you, Nanaki. I'll be careful. If we're not back in five hours, at the latest, send Damien and a couple of the Recon guys after us, okay?" he nods, and I approach my greenie. I've felt uneasy about him for awhile, but am not sure why. It might just be that he's always just on the verge of open insolence. "Hello, Michel. Ready to go?"

"Why are we doing this, Captain?" Like that. The words are innocent enough, but the tone comes just short of setting my teeth right on edge.

"Reeve has been nice enough to let us crash his place, so I thought we'd combine training with giving him a hand. You'd be surprised what people will tell you when you actually ask."

We head off a different direction this time, toward the storm blockage. "There's an open-air entertainment arena down this way," I tell my recruit. "Should be plenty of people there."

He laughs, nastily, and I whirl. Too late. A thug hits me over the head. "You forgot about on the way, Captain." I fuzzily realize that his voice and face are somehow different, but I pass out before I can figure out why he still sounds familiar.