When they finally made us stop fighting both of us were a little bruised and battered but neither was really worse for wear. There was a look of shock spreading across Veld's face was it wasn't a disappointed shock. I heard the cheers of my crew mates all around me. I'd fought a Turk and came closer to winning than any of them could dream of doing.

"You're good, Thorne," Veld said, rubbing his jaw. I'd kicked him there, but he'd moved so the kick didn't really have much power when it hit him. It was probably for the best, I wouldn't want to know what would happen to me if I broke a Turk's jaw. "Very good, actually. You don't have to stay with this lot. There are better jo-" He stopped, I was frowning. For the first time I think I understood what Audrey was feeling when everyone said he was too good to be an airsailor.

"But I...never had to," I said slowly, still wrapping my mind around the thought I needed to express. "I wanted to. I could have had any job in the world. I chose...this one."

"Well..." Veld said softly, obviously confused. "I never..." He picked up his jacket and walked out the door. I didn't see him for the rest of the flight.

When we landed I watched the Turks go, trying to feel happy that they were gone. I guilt was eating at me for ending the fight the way it had and I wanted a rematch with Veld, just to see who the winner would be. I waited and I watched. My patience paid off because Veld was the last lingering Turk and he stopped before he passed me.

"You are the strangest...prettiest girl I've ever met," he told me, frowning. I think it was difficult for him to say that. I didn't know whether to be touched or horrified. He handed me a small piece of paper. "I don't know what good this will do; you seem determined to punished all of us for whatever you think it is that Valentine did to you." He stood there a moment without saying anything before giving me a tight-lipped smile and leaving. I shoved the paper into my pocket and didn't look at it.

That night when I was at the inn, I was taking off my clothes for bed and the paper fell out of the pocket. I'd forgotten all about it. I sat on the bed and opened it up as it had been folded. On it were three things. First was an address for some place in Midgar. Second was a phone number. Third was a small note that told me to visit or write sometime. I started to laugh, but stopped and thought it over.

I was still thinking it over two months later when I got some time off to spend in Midgar and not just some measly two days, either. In fact, I was still thinking it over when I knocked on the door to the house that belonged to the address on the paper.

When Veld opened the door I thought two things instantly. One was that I was making the biggest mistake of my life and the other was that Veld wasn't actually bad looking when he wasn't wearing that condescending air that seemed to come with the Turk uniform.

"Lieutenant...Thorne?" he asked with not a small bit of disbelief. "I didn't think-"

"That I'd come?" I asked. "Well, I like to mix things up a bit. May I come in?" Veld moved aside to allow me in. I looked around a little as Veld lead me to the kitchen but my eyes kept returning to him. I'd never seen him when he wasn't wearing his Turk uniform. I idly decided that I wasn't terribly fond of his choice in civilian clothing. Still, anything was better than having the fact that he was a Turk slapped in my face every time I saw him.

I couldn't think of anything to say once we were sitting at the kitchen table across from each other.

"So...This is where you live?" I asked eventually. Veld was about to answer when an older woman's voice cut through the air.

"Veld? Do you have guests? Who's in the kitchen with you?" The woman who entered the room had lost all her beauty long ago, if she ever had any. She wore a baggy dress that made her look small and frail, but her sharp eyes told me that she was tougher than what you'd first think.

"Who is this?" she asked when she saw me. The way she glowered at me made me uncomfortable.

"Mother, this is..."

"Claudia," I said, remembering that Veld didn't know my first name. It was just beginning to set in that I was in the house of a Turk and was introducing myself to said Turk's creepy mother. I wanted to bang my head against something to return the sense to it. I didn't move; I couldn't move.