Chapter 3: Calm Like a Bomb

It was just going to be one of those days, it seemed. San, having been unable to sleep the night before, had awoken in a mood that made her not one to be trifled with, as people were beginning to find out. Already that morning, while eating breakfast with the crews of the Percy and the Shez, she had snapped at Ares, who had made the mistake of teasing her and asking her if she actually ever showed any emotion. In response, San had, in very clear but not very nice terms, informed him that yes, she did have emotions and she'd show them when she felt like it, before storming out and back to her room. She had left them in a shocked silence, though she had caught a muttered comment from someone about PMS. She wasn't quite sure who that was from, but when she found out, they'd be a candidate for a good smack in the head. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was Ares...or possibly Dallas.

"Uhh...San?" she heard someone say, as her door was pushed open.

"WHAT?!" she snapped back, throwing in that general direction the first thing that she happened to see; in this case, it was a book. A particularly large, heavy one.

"Ow!" the person at her door, who turned out to be Burn, yelped. "That hit my arm!"

"Then learn to knock." she replied, picking up the book off the floor and replacing it on her bedside table. "What do you want?"

Burn, taking that as an invitation, entered the room and sat in her chair. "I was just wondering...are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm just peachy. I was only up all night unable to sleep, but other than that I'm GREAT." she replied, glaring at him. "Did Ares send you up here to apologize for him?"

"What? No!" Burn said, shaking his head. "I don't know where he went, actually..but you certainly surprised us all there. I mean, don't take offense at this or anything, but for the most part you are really calm and quiet..."

"Yeah, well, not all the time. Even the calmest, most quiet person can have bad days." San stated.

"No kidding..." Burn muttered to himself. San fixed her glare on him, and he got up. "Well, I think I'll be going then..."

"Fine." she snapped, slamming the door shut behind him. For good measure, she also kicked the door, but since she was barefoot all that accomplished was smashing her foot. She hopped up and down on one foot with tears of pain in her eyes, shouting an interesting string of swear words. She hobbled over to her bed and sat down on it, inspecting her injured foot.

"Ow ow ow ow..." she said, trying to move her toes. She heard a knock at her door.

"San?" someone called from the otherside, before knocking again.

"Now what...yeah?" she replied. The door opened, and Cloud entered this time.

"Burn warned me that if I valued my life I'd knock on the door first...what happened? I heard you yelling halfway down the corridor." he asked.

"Oh, I only just nearly broke my foot." she replied, trying to put her weight on it. It didn't work.

"How did you manage to do that?" he asked, helping her to sit back down.

"Kicked the door barefoot..." she replied, biting her lip. Cloud laughed, and suddenly San's anger, which had temporarily disappeared, returned full-force. "Shut up! It's not funny, it hurts like hell. What do you want anyway?"

"Just wanted to see what's wrong...oh, and I thought that you'd like to know that Ares got royally chewed out by Marduk for picking on you." he replied.

"Oh, yeah. Who was the dumbass who made that stupid comment as I left? I did hear that, you know."

"Oh...um...that was Ares, actually..." he said.

"I KNEW it!!!" San raged, jumping up and heading for the door. Of course, as soon as she put her weight down on her hurt foot, she stopped. "OW!!!" she shrieked.

"Maybe you should get that looked at..." Cloud suggested.

"I'm fine! Just in a really, really bad mood." San replied, laying back on her bed. Cloud nodded.

"I guess I'll go, then. Just don't kill anyone, okay?" he said, leaving the room as San shot him a nasty look.

"Fine, I won't kill anyone...but that doesn't mean I won't kick the shit out of the next person to bother me..." she muttered to herself.

"Hey, San?" she heard someone say. She recognized the voice of Barbarossa, one of the newer members of the Percy: he still primarily did surveillance duty.

"WHAT?!" she responded.

"I was just wondering if--" he started asking, pushing the door open.

"I'M FINE!!!" she interrupted him, reaching around for something to throw.

"That wasn't what I was going to ask. I was wondering if you knew when we were going to be leaving again." he said.

"Why the hell are you asking me? I have no idea. Go ask Marduk. Now would you leave me alone!" she shouted, her hands finally finding an object: one of her boots. Barb, apparently not wanting the boot to be chucked at his head, beat a hasty retreat.

"Just a warning, I think that going to bother San right now would be a bit of a deathwish." Barb said, passing Ares in the corridor. Ares shrugged, and pushed the door open.

"Now what?!" San said, exasperated. When she saw who it was barging into her room this time, she became thoroughly irritated...and threw the boot. Her aim was slightly off, though, so instead of nailing Ares in the head like she had intended, she clipped his shoulder.

"What the hell?" he said. "What is wrong with you today?"

"You want to know? FINE. I was up all night and therefore got no sleep. Then you had to make stupid-ass comments and tease me during breakfast, which I did NOT appreciate. I haven't gotten a moment's peace all day because as soon as one person leaves, someone else barges in to bother me. On top of that, I kicked my door barefoot and hurt my foot to the point that I can't walk on it. I'm just having a GREAT day, wouldn't you agree?" San shot back at just under a shout. "But you know, God forbid that calm, quiet, emotionless San is allowed to have a bad day!"

"Are you sure you're not--" Ares started saying.

"Don't even think of finishing that thought, because I KNOW you're not that stupid." San interrupted in a low, dangerous voice.

"Okay, okay...sorry, that was stupid of me to say." Ares said. "And I'm sorry about this morning, too. I didn't know it would have set you off like that."

"Yeah, well I can only hold in so much before I'll explode." she replied. Ares turned and started heading out the door, but stopped before closing the door.

"Oh, by the way, I saw Aquila and she asked me to say hi to you. She was the operator from your old ship, right?" he said. When she didn't respond, he continued. "San? You okay?"

"Yeah..." she said, laying back on her bed and turning away from the door. Her old crew...it wasn't something that she wanted to think about in her current mood, and her anger turned to depression. Thankfully no one else bothered her until that night, when Finn, the Percy's operator, came to tell her when they'd be leaving on their next assignment; they'd be leaving Zion the next day.

"Well, so much for a vacation..." San muttered to herself, before falling asleep.