Author's notes:
This is something I've been tossing around for awhile, and I finally went through with it. You'll want to beware of mild OOC, explicit language, and random acts of violence. Big thanks to randomsome1 for beta-ing for me.
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"Are you alright?"
Was I alright? Was that some kind of joke?
Because it wasn't funny.
"I'm fine," I snapped at the face staring down at me. It was an outright lie. I wasn't sure where I was, I didn't know what the hell I was supposed to do with my life, and one of my best friends in the world had decided to shoot me in the back. I was really anything but fine.
The man turned away from me and yell out at people I couldn't see, "Tuh'd funno, cra'c veha." He then turned back to me. "We were worried," he explained. "There were gunshots outside, and many of us rushed out to see what was going on. We found you lying on the ground...I shall spare you the more gory details, but needless to say, you required several phoenix downs and a number of potions to revive you."
"Was..." my voice was half caught in my throat. "Was there anyone else there?"
He shook his head. "No, you were the only one we found Miss..."
I took that to mean he was looking for my name. Which meant that, more than likely, all of my ID was missing. "Paine."
"...Miss Paine. Why, should there have been?"
Instead of answering, I asked "Did you find my sword? And my sphere camera?"
"We did indeed find a sword, I've placed it over there," he pointed to where my sword was balanced on a chest of drawers. "As for the sphere camera, I am afraid we did not locate it. Was there anything..."
"Not important," I answered. I finally sat up and put my hand to my pounding head. "Thanks for the help."
"Ah, yes, my help," the man nodded. "My help, even for such a lovely young lady as yourself, is not exactly free."
He was going to charge me. It figures.
"How much do I owe you?" I asked.
"Well," he responded, "after the phoenix downs, the number of potions we had to use, the amount of time you have been staying here, your total comes to...about 100,000 gil."
If I had been able to reach my sword at that point, the whole story would be over there.
"I'll send it to you," I said as I started to stand up.
"I'm afraid that's not going to do it," he replied, sternly. "I'm afraid I will have to ask for the payment in full. Before you leave."
I grit my teeth. "I don't have that kind of gil on me. I'll send it to you once I get a job."
"You must understand Miss Paine, it's not that I don't trust you..." he began.
I cut him off and grabbed a hold of his throat. "I am NOT in a good mood right now. I don't care if you trust me or not. Right now, I don't trust ANYBODY. You will get your damn money when I have it."
To his credit, he didn't panic. He gulped slightly and then simply said "I'm afraid I cannot let you do that. However, if it is a job you are looking for, that I can provide."
I don't know what possessed me, I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just still confused by everything that had happened. But that's not important.
What's important is that this was the day I met Rin. And I took the job he offered me.
At that point, there was still some of the old Paine left. Even getting shot by her best friend hadn't completely destroyed her. She was stronger than that. She still had some faith in humanity.
Then, I worked retail.