(A/N: Hey all! I apologize that this one took so long! I was gone all weekend and yet another job interview! Sigh, my schedule's getting hectic, ne? At any rate, READ ON!)
"Hey…hey, um…lady?"
"Mm-nuh-uh-y-yeah?" Jayden mumbled in her sleep, not even pretending to be awake as she rolled over onto her side.
"Can…can we sleep here tonight? Everywhere else is packed."
"Mnuh-bm-hm-sure…" Jayden burbled, snuggling further down in her covers without even cracking open an eye to see who she was talking to.
"Thanks."
What came next was a rustling of sheets and a series of annoyed grunts, followed shortly after by contented sighs.
"Good night lady."
"Mn-hmm…night." Jayden murmured, still not waking up as she nestled even further under the covers and brought her fists up under her chin. However, the next morning, she regretted not waking up.
Before she even pried her eyes opened, she wondered why her waist felt so…heavy. When she finally did open her eyes, Jayden had to bite back a scream. Loz was asleep in her bed with his arm over her waist like she was a stuffed toy, Yazoo was draped across her chair and Sephiroth was sprawled out on her sofa.
Jayden tried to control her breathing. These were a trio of very dangerous, albeit psychotic men, all three were fully capable of popping her head off like a cork and all three were in her room…and luckily so were Tifa and Yuffie.
Jayden could only hope one of them would wake up soon and help her get the hell out of her room alive. Until then, she wasn't going to so much as twitch. After all, this may have been a light grip for Loz, but it was still like being squeezed to death by a boa constrictor.
Finally, after seemingly endless minutes of waiting, Tifa began to stir and loosed a loud yawn. Jayden inwardly did a happy dance as Tifa pushed herself upright and stared blearily at her…eyes going wide in shock.
She opened her mouth to yell, but the quick zipping action Jayden pulled across her lips silenced her.
"Help me out of here!" Jayden mouthed, looking at Tifa desperately, "I can't get out on my own!"
"I'll see what I can do." Tifa mouthed back, looking at the One Winged Angel and Remnants apprehensively, "I don't know how light these guys sleep though."
"Just do what you can, okay? This guys squeezing the life outta me!" Jayden mouthed as Tifa stepped carefully over Yuffie and made her way to the edge of the bed. She surveyed the situation ruefully – Loz had a death grip on his…stuffed toy…and it would take some work to get Jayden free.
Tifa swallowed hard moved in cautiously, working each one of Loz's fingers one at a time until they loosened their grip on Jayden's waist. Finally the last one loosened enough for Tifa to grab the skinny girl in one arm and shove a pillow under Loz's hand with the other as it clenched tightly around the space Jayden used to be.
Tifa then snatched up the still snoozing Yuffie and tiptoed warily, some how avoiding all the creaky spots, out of Jayden's bedroom and down the stairs and upon entering the living room, breathed a noisy sigh of relief.
"Let's never do that again." Tifa mumbled, setting Yuffie and Jayden on the adjacent sofa before flopping down on the couch.
"Sounds like a plan." Jayden murmured, curling up on her side and preparing to go back to sleep…that is until –
-KRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK-
Jayden had a spaz attack on a global scale that caused her to fly off the sofa at the sudden noise (Yuffie slept right through it) as Cid and Barrett broke the door to the garage down and came waltzing into the living room.
"Wonder how we wound out there?" Cid mused as he walked across the discombobulated door and into the living room.
"Beats th' shit outta me dude." Barrett shrugged, stepping over the door and walking towards the kitchen to get something to eat.
Mikayla stared at the ceiling, wondering if it held the answers to her questions. She replayed what she could recollect from the night before on her mind again, turning it over and over again as she picked it apart in search of solutions.
From what Mikayla could recall from the muddled mess that was her mind, she vaguely remembered Jayden saying something obscenely stupid…along the lines of the exchange students were pixilated.
That in and of itself should have convinced her it was a dream, but then there was that itty-bitty portion where Jayden had shown her some pretty convincing proof…it even outted that sweet man Reeve as being non-existent.
Mikayla really wasn't sure what to think. Whether this was Jayden venting internalized stress from being in closed quarters with so many people or just a very realistic dream, it left her feeling very confused.
I mean, for a dream, it was pretty realistic. Mikayla could have sworn she had felt the carpet beneath her feet as she walked down stairs, felt the smooth pages of the book against her fingertips…Mikayla even swore she smelled something rancid as she passed the trio cowering in her family room.
All in all, very vivid…but still, it wasn't as though she hadn't had some pretty lucid dreams before. Mikayla was just surprised she hadn't sleepwalked to Snohomish again. If had done that again…oh lord, Charlie would have been so upset.
But then again, if got out of bed, and those silver haired, somewhat smelly, boys still happened to be afoot…well then, someone was going to have to dial up the wacko basket and inform them they were getting a new addition.
Mikayla didn't think she'd handle…computer programming coming to life all that well. But, what if those three did still happen to be about and they were just a couple of Jayden's friends? It was all too frustrating. For the moment, Mikayla was going to go about her business as though she and her daughter had never had that conversation…after all, she wasn't entirely certain they HAD held that little talk at all, so why complicate things any further?
"Oh quit being sucha baby! Hold still!" Jayden snapped, giving Loz a pinch on the back of the neck, "Don't make me get Cloud over here, because I swear I'll make'im pin your arms down."
"But I don't wanna dye my hair!" Loz whined, looking up at her with childlike crossness, tears dancing in the corners of his eyes from the strong fumes, "I like my hair exactly the way it is!"
"It washes out ya nit!" Jayden said exasperatedly giving him a noogie on the back of the head, "Besides, do you really want those fangirls t' mob you again?"
"NO!" Yazoo yelped from his seat at the kitchen table, waving his hands frantically, "Definitely not. No. Nope. Never. Noooo. That would be a big negatory good buddy."
"Then you should shut up and let me do this, ya wussies." Jayden snapped, grinding her fingers into Loz's scalp…not that it really mattered, it barely registered on his pain scale anyway, "Alright, now go let it set until the egg timer goes off. Sephiroth, get your candy ass over here."
"…no." Sephiroth said bluntly, staring at Jayden sullenly from his chair, "I drawn the line at altering any part of my physical appearance, even for the sake of avoiding those Holy forsaken fanatics."
He wasn't exactly thrilled that he had been forced to bow and scrape to Cloud, Sephiroth was even LESS pleased when his Masamune had been confiscated yet again and was now in the possession of Vincent Valentine. But really, he did take pride in his appearance and the thought changing his hair color really didn't sit well with him.
Jayden then stared Sephiroth square in the eye as she stalked over to the phone and dialed a number. She never broke eye contact with Sephiroth as someone picked up on the other end of the line.
"Hello, is the Silver Haired Men Fanclub?" Jayden asked, watching as Sephiroth's pale face went liquid paper white, "Yes, I have some valuable information regarding a trio of hoary haired bishies that might be of interest to you."
"Alright, alright! I'll do it! Just hang up the phone!" Sephiroth hissed, causing a tiny smirk to appear on Jayden's lips as she pressed the END button on the phone.
"I'm glad we've reached an understanding." She said dryly, walking over to Sephiroth and pushing him towards the sink, "Now sit down, shut up, and let me get this over with."
"Whuz goin' on?" Reno yawned as he entered the kitchen, eyebrows raising as he watched Sephiroth's face twist into a very interesting expression as Jayden ground some strong smelling gunk into his scalp.
"Oh, nothing. Just the demasculization of three full grown men." Vincent sighed tiredly from his seat on the living room floor.
"Huh." Reno mumbled, a drowsy smirk appearing on his lips as he grabbed a chair and sat down in it backwards, "Sounds entertainin', yo."
"Yeah, I'm surprised you slept through Loz's bitching and moaning." Rufus smirked, shaking his head, "Lord, I've never seen a grown man act so…so…what would you call it when a man acts homosexual but isn't?"
"Metro." Jayden called from the kitchen, not even looking up from the task in front of her. Lord, Sephiroth could be such a toddler at times! Even Loz didn't put up this much of a fight, "There, now go sit down…away from me. Yazoo, get over here."
Muttering under his breath, the long haired Remnant stalked over the sink, taking his time in making his way there by shuffling his feet, pausing to yawn then check his nails for dirt before finally reaching the sink.
"Nice t' see ya finally made it Hop A Long." Jayden snorted, grabbing the back of Yazoo's head, "Now c'mon, times a wasting."
"Why the sudden burst of proactivity?" Cloud asked, abandoning his seat in the living room to enter the kitchen, "You seemed so dead set against anything to do with them yesterday."
"Because, tomorrow we're going out to my grandfather's wolf ranch." Jayden said irritably, thankful that Yazoo wasn't squirming around as much as his brothers, "He's doing some renovation and he needs help with clean up. So we're going to help him out for about a week or so."
"Did you say wolf ranch? As in…there'll be wolves there?" Yuffie asked, tearing her gaze away from the television.
"You got it. And lots of them." Jayden grunted, pushing Yazoo away from the sink, "Okay, now go wait…somewhere over there."
"Óki (1) Pop-Pop!" Kyle called to the older man about twenty feet away. The man turned to reveal deep russet and long, graying black hair.
"Óki, ayashe (2). It's good to see you again." John Blackfeather said with a broad smile, hugging his grandchildren tightly before moving on to his daughter, "And my daughter, you're looking so well."
"Oh Dad." Mikayla smiled, giving her father a tight hug, "I can't believe how much work you've done to the place…has the noise upset the wolves any?"
"A bit, but they've relaxed after they realized that it hasn't been coming any closer to their enclosure." He replied, glancing at the huge party behind them and smiling, "I see you've brought some extra hands."
"Yeah. These are our exchange students and a few of their friends. They're here to help out with the construction clean up." Jayden said gesturing back behind her, and shooting a look back at the Remnants and the One Winged Angel that clearly said, "smile, nod and keep your traps shut!"
This look wasn't aimed at the AVALANCE resistance or the Turks as they were being a lot more compliant these days.
And the fact that they were the only ones getting stared down wasn't lost on them and the three took to sulking, grateful for being hidden from fangirls, not so thankful that they were being coerced into doing manual labor.
"I see. Well, good to meet you all. I am John Blackfeather, but just call me Pop-Pop. Everybody does." He said genially.
"Everyone but me, Gramps." Jayden teased.
"And me G-Man." Charlie chimed innocently.
"And me Dad." Mikayla grinned.
"Oh, knock it off th' lot of ya!" Pop-Pop said laughingly, "If you have this much energy in you just to contradict me, I can't wait to see how much of it can be put towards cleaning up sheet rock."
"In a minute. I'm gonna go say hi to my babies." Jayden grinned, dashing off towards a fenced enclosure.
"…her...her babies? She's a mother?" Tseng yelped, paling slightly. His reaction was enough to make Mikayla and Pop-Pop loose a short laugh.
"In a way, yes. She helped hand raise several of the wolves here." Pop-Pop snickered, "So in that way, they're her babies."
Loud braying soon met their ears and Kyle and Charlie snorted, shaking their heads.
"Ah, it seems that they're having a touching reunion with 'mom'." Charlie smirked, "Somebody pass me some tissues…no, seriously. Hand'em over. She'll be covered in wolf drool when she gets back."
"GAH! It's getting everywhere!" Rufus yelped, dancing aside as a shower of white dust came cascading towards him as the expanse of sheet rock he attempted to lift snapped in half.
"Oh, don't be such a priss, Shinra!" Jayden snapped, walked by with her arms loaded down with sheet rock and naily boards, "Even Tifa, Yuffie, Elena and those Silver Haired Metros are pulling more weight than you!"
"Hey, they aren't silver haired at the moment, yo." Reno teased as he passed, "Not since you gotcher mitts on'em. I do believe they're more of a red-headed trio…maybe even a brunette-headed trio!"
"If you value your miserable life Turk, you will hold your tongue." Sephiroth hissed, snapping the two by fours he held in half, "Don't think I have any qualms about killing you just because I'm taking refuge with-"
"Hello, Silver Haired Men Fanclub? Sorry! The battery died on me earlier!" Jayden said into her cell phone eyeing Sephiroth pointedly.
"I'll be good! I'll be good! Just hang up! Hang up now!" He hissed, eyes wide as saucers as he clung to the front of her overalls.
"Okay, okay! Just geddoff me! I kinda need those later and you're invading my personal bubble!" Jayden cried, snapping her cell shut and bapping Sephiroth on the head until he let go (once again, doesn't matter as it barely registered pain wise)
"Hey, your grandpa said to throw the ones that didn't have nails on them somewhere…" Elena trailed off, eyes locked on the strangeness of the scene before, "Um, do I even wanna know?"
"Trust me, unless you want your I.Q. to drop several point, you're better off not knowing." Jayden sighed, "And he wants them set against the house."
"Okay. Does anyone know where Vincent got off to?" Cid asked, striding by with a huge beam balanced on his shoulder.
"In the house." Cloud replied, ducking quickly as Cid swung around and nearly clocked him with the nail-encrusted rafter, "You know how bright sunlight gets to him. He started getting lightheaded so he went to lie down."
"Man, that cracka needs t' toughen up, y'know whud I mena?" Barrett snorted as he walked by with a section of wall, "Don't see me lyin' down on th' job."
"Yeah? Well that 'cracka' could kick your ass…so watch yourself, Barrett." Rude said evenly as he walked by, "Remember, people are like theread. They can only take so much before stress they snap."
"Um…what should I do with this?" Loz asked, holding up a huge handful of fluffy pink fiberglass insulation…barehanded.
"First off – drop it." Jayden said, not saying a word until the seemingly harmless substance was out of Loz's hand and on the ground, "Secondly, go in the house and carefully rinse your hand off, then come back here, okay?"
Loz stared at her curiously, then moved towards the direction of the house to do as he was told.
"Aww…worried about him? What about me, yo?" Reno pouted jokingly, poking Jayden repeatedly in the spine with a dowel.
"For the last time Red, go get a hooker, and leave me alone." She snapped, glaring at Reno angrily at him.
"Okay…if you reeeeeeeeally want me to, then I guess I have no choice." Reno said vaguely, striding off with a very nail laden board in his arms towards the dumpster.
"What was that all about?" Tifa asked, returning from the dumpster with empty arms.
"Nothing. C'mon, I need your help splitting this one so it's easier to carry." Jayden said quickly, indicating a huge expanse of sheet rock.
"Way t' change the subject." Yuffie smirked as she trotted after Tifa, "Want some help? One time offer!"
Sometime later, Loz was whining about splinters (and the only reason they registered on his pain scale was because they were about three inches long and wedged themselves in nerves) and kept trying to pick up fiberglass barehanded and so, this led to Jayden scouring her grandfather's house for an extra set of work gloves.
She had had them on her person earlier that day…but between early that morning and this afternoon they had mysteriously disappeared to parts unknown. And Jayden knew it was parts unknown because she could find hide nor hair of them.
"God, where in the hell did I leave those damn gloves?" Jayden muttered to herself as stalked down the hall, "Maybe in the boy's room when I helped Vincent inside!"
With a sense of purpose she strode to the third door on the left and slid it opened. The sight that met her eyes made every last once of blood in her body freeze…Reno…with a strange woman…that was most definitely a prostitute.
And there was no doubt in her mind as to what it was they were doing. It was obvious to even a stupid person they were having sex, and that this was a place she shouldn't be right now…but at the moment, Jayden's body wasn't responding to her synapses all that well (for all those wondering, Vincent was on the third door the the right)
Finally she managed to backpedal her way out of the room and quietly close the door. In that brief instant, she had forgotten completely why she had come to this end of the house in the first place and so, made her way back outside and into the wolf enclosure.
"Jayden, did you find those work gloves?" Pop-Pop asked, approaching his granddaughter who was currently wrapped around the neck of the alpha male Beowulf.
"No. There weren't any." Jayden mumbled into the black wolf's thick fur, threading her fingers though it.
"I beg your pardon, ayashe?" he asked politely, not following, "I was certain that I saw you with them earlier when you handled Freya."
"No it's not…I found them…but I just didn't grab them…" Jayden muttered incoherently into Beowulf's neck, continuing pet him so he wouldn't get agitated.
"Issotan…are you alright?" placing a glove encased hand over her own bare one.
"Hwuh? What was that?" Jayden asked, lifting her face away from Beowulf to look at her grandfather.
"Ayashe…has something happened?" the aging man asked, cupping her chin in his hand and staring into her eyes.
"…no. Everything's fine…just fine." She murmured, twisting her face free and returning it to the shield of Beowulf's fur, "…just…perfect."
(1) óki – hey!, hello! or greetings! are all acceptable.
(2) Ayashe – little one; a term of endearment.
(3) issotan - grandaughter
(A/N: Reno notices a change in Jayden's behavior - she wont look at him. The One Winged Angel and the Remnants begin asking tough questions. R&R!)