Verna opened her eyes as the sun peered in from the window. Sitting up from her position she noticed something fall off her shoulders. Looking down, her cheeks became tainted with a light pink. It was Rufus's jacket. She must have fallen asleep at her laptop and he placed it on her. A small smile appeared on her face, he wasn't as cold as everyone said he was.
She picked up the jacket and folded it before placing it on the table. Her feet carried her to where she thought the kitchen was. If he did something nice for her, she'd try and do something nice for him. Verna opened the door and found the room Reno disappeared from the day before, her instincts were right. She opened the fridge and her eyes scanned the different items in there. She then walked over to the pantry and compared the things in there.
A grin spread onto her face as she grabbed flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, some eggs, vegetable oil, canned blue berries, and lemon juice. She quietly took out a bowl, Verna wasn't sure if Rufus was still sleeping, and began putting the correct ingredients together. She placed them in the oven and began to clean up the mess she managed to make and put the left over ingredients up. The girl bit her lip if she tried to decide if this was enough, after all she had no idea what kind of food Rufus liked.
Verna opened the fridge and got the eggs back out as well as some bacon. If they were in his fridge chances are he liked this food. She began making an omelet as well as allowing the bacon to simmer. She turned away from the stove as she noticed something walk into the room.
Verna smiled at who walked in and knelt down to the floor, "Good morning, Dark Nation!"
The panther looked at her and walked over allowing Verna to pet it. Verna laughed lightly as the panther gave a low purr. It was an entertaining creature, one that she's only seen in documentaries or books. If she were to tell her younger self that she got to pet one, she wouldn't believe it.
"Now what do you eat, Dark Nation?" Verna stood up and crossed her arms. "I'll have to ask your owner when he wakes up. Typically your kind eats meat, but I'm not sure if it'd be appropriate for me to give you some!"
"Do you always talk to animals?"
Verna looked up as Rufus entered the room, "Um…Yeah…" Verna looked away slightly embarrassed. "Why do you ask?"
"Some people say that it's a sign of insanity," Rufus stated with a smirk.
"Then those people are obviously never around animals," Verna huffed a strand of hair out of her face. "Where do you stand on that?"
"Those people would call me insane," Rufus walked into the kitchen and examined what she was making. "I talk to Dark Nation all the time. What are you making?"
"Blue berry muffins, omelets, and bacon," Verna shifted uncomfortably, "I wasn't sure what you like, sorry."
Rufus glanced at her and moved some hair out of his face, "Why are you apologizing?"
"I don't know," Verna shrugged. "I just don't want to make people mad or offend them in any way."
A timer went off causing Verna to search frantically for oven mitts. She kept looking until she heard Rufus opening the oven and pulling the muffins out with an oven mitt on his head. Verna sighed and leaned against the counter as he placed them on some heat protectors. She should have just asked him where they were.
"I hope they'll be fine," Verna stated quietly.
"I'm sure they will be," Rufus took the oven mitt off and placed it back wherever it was he found it. "Do you expect me to only eat the highest quality of foods?"
"I don't know," Verna shrugged. "I've expected a lot of things, but so far I've been proven wrong."
"What do you mean?" Rufus watched her; a glint of interest flashed crossed his face.
"I expected you to live in an overly huge mansion, with red furniture and maybe some animal's head mounted on the wall or a fur rug. You know, because that kind of stuff represents how someone is further up on the food change and is basically egotistical." Verna stopped her ramble as she got back on topic, "And I expected you to be colder."
"You don't think I'm cold?"
Verna shook her head, "I haven't really seen anything that makes you cold. You're really not as scary as everyone makes you out to be. It's obvious that Dark Nation likes you, so you can't be all that bad. Speaking of which, what does he eat?"
Rufus took out a couple of plates and began dishing some food for himself before speaking, "Meat. I, or one of the Turks, will usually purchase some steak for him to eat raw. There's some in the fridge."
"Can I feed him?" Verna looked at him and crossed her fingers, hoping that she'd be able.
"Be careful if you do," Rufus took a seat at the small table in the kitchen. "He could very well bite or claw you."
Verna nodded and took some meat out of the door, "It's okay if he does."
Dark Nation looked at the meat as he began to salivate. The panther stalked forward. Verna knelt down on the floor and held out the meet for the feline. The panther moved its large paw forward and quickly slashed at the meat. Verna flinched as the claws ripped through part of her skin, making her drop the meat onto the ground. Dark Nation grabbed it with its mouth and ran out of the room. Biting her lip Verna clenched her wrist as blood started to trickle down it. She stood up and tried to hide the wound as she pretended to simply was her hands as she examined the wound.
"How bad is it?" Verna heard Rufus's chair screech against the floor as he walked over to her.
"Not that bad," Verna hit her wrist behind her.
Rufus glared as he noticed some blood drip to the floor. He grabbed her wrist quickly and examined it. It could use stiches, but it didn't absolutely need stiches. Frowning, Rufus left the room, but not before telling Verna to stay where she was. Returning only moments later, Rufus placed a first-aid kit onto the kitchen counter and took out some bandages.
"I can do that myself," Verna spoke quietly.
Rufus raised an eyebrow, "From what I've seen you appear to be left handed and your left wrist was damaged. You would do a clumsy job at best by trying to bandage your arm."
Verna knitted her eyebrows together, "I can still do it."
"Stop complaining," Rufus stated coldly as he sprayed some cleaner on her wrist. Verna bit her lip to hold in a gasp of pain. Rufus then bandaged her wrist quickly. "There."
"Thanks," Verna nodded her head towards him.
"Now," Rufus moved closer to her and bent down to where he was whispering in her ear. "I expect some payback for bandaging that. Tell me about your newspaper."
Verna's heart pounded as she felt a lump build up in her throat. Roughly, she shoved Rufus away. Her feet stumbled backwards until her back hit the counter. Her hands shook slightly as she watched him with fear. Rufus watched her expression and hid a small smirk when he moved his hair out of his face. That was the reaction he was expecting from her. He knew how to make her fear him.
-A/N—
Sorry I didn't post a chapter yesterday…I was out buying my Sephiroth prom dress! XD That's seriously what I'm calling it...It's black and silver…Every single time I look at it my mind screams Sephiroth. Every single freaking time…Tell ya what! If I get 3 more reviews (from 3 different people) I'll take a picture of me wearing it…Photoshop the living crap out of myself to make it look like a female Sephiroth. *nods*
The real reason FFVII fan-girls want a remake: To see Cloud wearing a dress in high definition.