Chapter Thirty-Eight

-Cuz We Wild We Rolling Stones

Suddenly Levei walked up to the three as they sat around watching the television. "Aw darn, and I was just about to ask you, too."

"Hey, Levei!" Zack greeted. "You going to the Awards Ceremony, too?"

"I am part of Soldier," she pointed out.

Cloud crossed his arms. "Such a waste of time."

"You don't like dressing up, Cloud?" Zack asked.

"You like dressing up?" Cloud retorted.

"I don't know, I mean, it's nice to go out looking like you're worth a million bucks once in a while."

"And how does a million bucks look?" Levei asked.

Zack flashed her a grin. "You'll see soon enough."

"We should go dress shopping together," Ryiah said.

"I doubt Levei would agree to going in a dress!" Zack said, looking at Levei. "But if you did I'm sure you'd look nice..."

"Not Twiggy, Cloud!" Ryiah corrected. "I think you should go with something sparkly."

"I'm not going, and if I did, it wouldn't be in a dress!" Cloud protested.

"Then who will be Zack's date?!"

"I'm sure he'll get one of the Soldiers he's been fancying to go with him," Levei assured her. "One wink and they're all his."

"What?!" Zack exclaimed.

"...isn't that why you've been winking a lot more lately?"

"What? No! I've been trying to imitate her!" He pointed accusingly at Ryiah. "Because she confuses me!"

"I don't know, Zack, I think my explanation sounds better..."

Cloud nodded in agreement.

"Tch, whatever, besides I think we should go as a group. This might be our last chance to do something meaningful together!"

"You sound like we're all going on some terminal mission or something..." Cloud pointed out.

"You've been to the awards before, right?"

Cloud shook his head. "I'm new, so is Levei."

Zack made a grave face. "You're in for a treat."

"I'll miss you guys when you're gone and buried..." Ryiah said. "Can I have your sword, Zack?"

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"Well, you might if Cloud and I have anything to say about it..." Levei said.

Cloud nodded.

"I'm sure it'll be worse than Zack's making it out to be," Levei continued.

"Thank you, someone finally is agreeing with me," Zack said.

"Don't get too full of yourself now...this is a one time thing."

"So we're going as a group? I don't think Sephiroth would agree with that..." Ryiah said thoughtfully. "I'm with the popular kids now, I'm going with the jocks while you three drama nerds go 'together' without dates."

"Drama nerds?" Cloud repeated.

"Hey, if Genesis is one of the 'jocks' you're referring to, I'm pretty sure you're going with the drama nerds, while Cloud and I are the jocks in this scenario."

Cloud shrugged, but nonetheless nodded.

"I'm the too-cool-for-school type, and I don't remember agreeing to go as a group, either," Levei pointed out. "I don't even want to go."

"Why not?" Zack asked.

"Because there are...certain circumstances surrounding this specific event that would inhibit my ability to find fun. And trust me, there are a lot of those circumstances."

"...I think I know what you just said, but...could you say it one more time so we can...compare notes?" Zack smiled.

"Translation: Twiggy hates you," Ryiah explained.

"What? Levei!"

"The show's over," Cloud said, pointing to the television. "I'm going to go train."

"Remember lesson 589!" Ryiah said.

"I forgot." And with that Cloud walked off.

Ryiah laughed. "Oh that kid, always joking around with me..."

Suddenly there was a Chocobo ~kwee~! and Zack took out his phone. "Oh hey...it's about my mission...to protect Levei, I wonder what's up. I'd better take this." He turned to wave at the girls as he started down the hallway. "See you guys later!"

Ryiah turned to Levei. "Ooo, Zack's in trouble."

"It wouldn't be the first time..."

There was an awkward pause.

"So...you're going dress shopping?" Levei asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah, you?" Ryiah looked the female soldier up and down. "Or should I say, are you going tux shopping?"

There was another awkward pause.

"You want to borrow one of my suits? They might be a little roomy in the chest area."

"Although I do admire your suits, and would normally take that offer at this point...I...had a talk with Genesis this morning..."

Pause.

"And...they're going to make the announcement I'm a girl. So they said I should wear a dress to the Award Ceremony...and when they say 'should', they mean 'must.'"

"Wait, you're a girl?!" Ryiah said with a sigh. "So you really do want me to take you shopping? Honestly I was just going to have Tseng whip something up for me...I guess I could talk to him for you?"

"I would...appreciate it..." She shifted uncomfortably. "I know this may come as a surprise, but I've never really shopped for, or been a fan of, dresses..."

Ryiah looked her up and down again. "I wish I could say that wasn't obvious." She pulled out her phone while staring at Levei. "Tseng, baby, I need to call in a favor...what do you mean no?! You'll actually like this one...yeah, a dress, two dresses actually...I don't know, probably flowery...and low cut...yeah, Twiggy probably doesn't like anything conservative, a slit in the upper thigh? Sounds good, see you for a fitting later tonight."

Levei waited for her to hang up. "So tonight? ...alright..."

Another awkward pause.

"I think I'm going to train and keep this normal feeling in these clothes as long as I can..."

In another room on the other side of the Shinra building, Zack was answering questions relating to his mission, Levei.

"I don't know...Levei, uh, she seems pretty stable," Zack explained.

"What do you mean by 'stable'?" Angeal asked.

"She can handle herself pretty well by now, I don't think she really needs me as much as she did in the beginning."

"So her reaction to the mako has subsided?" a man from the panel of scientists asked.

"Yeah, I mean there's hardly a trace of any side effects. I think she took to it pretty well."

The panel nodded in approval.

"Good to hear, Zack," Angeal said, smiling broadly.

"Thanks."

The panel began discussing things among themselves.

"So...I can leave now?" Zack asked, pointing to the door with an awkward smile.

The panel suddenly turned to Zack with serious faces.

"...is that a no?"

"We're very happy to hear this update, Zack," one man said.

"Yes, we have a new...experiment we think we'll be trying out very soon," another man said, smiling evilly.

The rest of the panel smiled and nodded.

"...right..."

"Okay, thank you, you are free to leave."

"Alright, thanks," Zack said as he walked out.

The first man turned to the second man and said, "You really need to stop smiling so creepily, Vexen..."

But the second man continued smiling his evil and creepy smile.

Later that evening, Tseng stood with Ryiah and Levei, helping them put on their dresses.

"Suck it in, Twiggy," Ryiah instructed as she tried to zip up Levei's dress. "For someone who trains so much, you'd think you'd be thinner."

"Stop, Ryiah, you're going to rip the zipper," Tseng said in a stressed tone.

"Al...most..." Ryiah grunted. "Wait, what is this?!" She pulled out a stuffed animal Chocobo from the dress. "Why do you have this taped to yourself?!" She handed it to Tseng, then zipped the dress up with ease.

"It doesn't look bullet proof," Tseng pointed out. "I don't see any armor benefits."

"Unzip the back of it," Levei instructed.

Tseng found a small zipper in the back of the Chocobo and pulled out a pistol, a small dagger, and a vile. "What's in the vile?"

Levei turned and smiled. "Don't drink it."

Tseng quickly and carefully put the weaponry back into to Chocobo and zipped it up.

Ryiah shook her head. "Who knew Twiggy was lethal?"

"I'm confident when I say, all of us," Tseng said.

"Come over here and get me out of this dress, Tseng baby," Ryiah said with a wink.

"I will undo the zipper, but that is all."

Ryiah turned to Levei. "Always the romantic, what a sweet talker."

"Is the color to your liking, Levei?" Tseng asked. "If not, that's unfortunate for you." He unzipped Ryiah's dress.

"He's great with his hands, too," Ryiah persisted.

Tseng looked intently at Levei, ignoring Ryiah.

"No, it's really..." Levei glanced in the mirror. "...beautiful...I'm sorry that the beauty of the dress is wasted on me..."

Tseng waved a hand. "Well, nothing we can do about that. But the blue matches your eyes, so it's not all bad."

"So are Turks able to attend? Technically you are employed by Shinra, are you not?"

"Who do you think is handling the behind the scenes lighting and technical work?" Tseng said.

"I was supposed to be on curtain duty...but I had to ask for the night off," Ryiah said, grinning at Tseng. "Special circumstances."

Tseng took her dress as she slipped it off from behind a screen.

"How...unfortunate for the curtains," Levei said.

Tseng shook his head.

"I wonder what Sephiroth is thinking, anyway. The publicity thing is not very stable after...that interview we saw earlier. There must be something else."

"Maybe he just likes me," Ryiah suggested.

Tseng laughed, and Ryiah threw him a glare. He quickly composed himself and turned back into his statue-like expressionless face.

"I mean...if our faux relationship isn't public anymore...why would he want me to be his date? Do you think there's another mission?"

"Could be... He does bleed for this company, and he hasn't had much of a social life...ever," Levei pointed out. "Besides his friendship with Angeal and my brother, he could just be called 'Shinra', because that's all he's about." She paused. "But maybe he just...hasn't met the right girl?"

"There are things you don't know about Sephiroth..." Tseng said. "Meeting the 'right girl' is not a concern of his."

Ryiah sighed. "If only...we'd have the best love story. They would make a movie out of it, I'm sure."

"I don't think so."

"Who would play Sephiroth? I don't think there is enough hair in the world to make a wig that long..." Levei muttered.

"We're done here, please take your girly chatter somewhere else," Tseng said, folding the dresses over his arm. "I'll have these dresses hemmed and finished in time for the event."

"Tch, you know you love it, being updated on my personal life," Ryiah said.

"Not in the least bit." Tseng turned to leave.

"You Turks never cease to amaze me..." Levei stopped when she noticed Ryiah's smirk. "And not in the way you're probably thinking..."

"You amaze me, too, Twiggy, in the sense that you never amaze me," Ryiah said with a grin. "Bye Tseng baby! I'll come visit soon!"

Tseng shut the door behind him.

There was an awkward pause.

"So...what now? Do we go find Cloud and Zack? Or do you have Sephiroth business to take care of?"

"What business? Did he say something about me?" Ryiah checked her phone before sighing. "No, of course not...oh yeah, Zack had that meeting...about his mission."

"Yeah, I wonder how that went...if his results—" Levei pointed to herself. "—were satisfactory. I'm sure those weird scientists just let him go...I'm not a fan of some of them."

"Tell me about it, I dated one of them," Ryiah said with a shake of her head. "Not one of my finer moments. What a creeper...he had an awful laugh."

"What...attracted you to him to begin with? Did he have dreams to become a hero?"

"To be honest...I think I was blinded by the white of his lab coat...and his promise to introduce me to a real hero..." Ryiah sighed. "If you haven't noticed, I'm a little shallow when it comes to fulfilling my life goals."

"I...wouldn't call it shallow. I feel like you're a little smarter than that..." Levei looked away nonchalantly. "I mean, you are a Turk. They don't let in just anyone. That's Soldier." She tried to smile at her.

"Alright, fine, here." Ryiah held out her hand to Levei, her fist clenched. "You can stop trying to butter me up, I won't fight you for it."

"I...huh?" Levei held out her hand, a puzzled expression on her face.

Ryiah dropped a small Chocobo charm into her hand. "I saw you eyeing it the other day, and had to have it for myself...it's so shiny..." She smiled. "I didn't get around to buying a chain for it yet, so...you're on your own."

Levei looked down at it with a big smile, then quickly composed herself, and looked at Ryiah with a normal smile. "Thanks..." she said with a little laugh. "I half expected you to drop something weird in my hand...thankfully this was a nice gift, not a joke gift..."

"Oh, it's not a gift, you owe me now. I expect something to replace this." Ryiah pointed at Levei. "Something even more expensive. And shiny. Now, let's go convince Zack he's going to win the award for 'man you least want to run into the showers.'"

With that, Ryiah dragged Levei out of the room.