Disclaimer: The characters used in this fic are the sole property of Square-Enix, Tetsuya Nomura, and anyone else with copyright on the Final Fantasy series and characters. I own nothing, save it be my own plot ideas and original characters.

Day 2: Black Cat

A/N: I was going to update this some time ago, but I forgot. :/ Anyway, I've decided to go with the 7-day countdown. So, Countdown will be comprised of 7 chapters, or days, leading up to Tidus and Auron's encounter with Sin in Zanarkand. And I'm sorry this chapter is so late. :(

Tidus awoke with a heavy yawn, rolling over to glance at his alarm clock. It was 5 am. Too damn early for anyone, except Auron, to be up and around. With a grunt, Tidus pulled the blankets over his head as the strong, overwhelming scent of coffee and alcohol hit him in the face.

"What the hell is he doing?" Tidus muttered bitterly. "It's freaking five o'clock, and the old man's already experimenting with everything. I swear, Auron never knew what coffee was until he showed up here."

With a sigh, Tidus rolled out of bed, and stormed into the kitchen. As the teen had expected, Auron was at the counter, hovering over some foul concoction of coffee, alcohol, and whatever the hell smelled an awful lot like fish. "Auron!"

"What?" the older man said without turning around.

Tidus rolled his eyes. It annoyed him to no end when people didn't look at him while he was talking, and Auron knew that. Crossing into the kitchen, Tidus stood on his toes to look over his guardian's shoulder. The foul-smelling mixture must have had a lot more in it than just coffee and alcohol, as the stench was even worse than it had been in Tidus' room. Taking a few steps back, Tidus ran to the back door and stuck his head outside, gathering as much clean air as possible before venturing back into the stench that had overcome the kitchen.

"Geez, Auron!" Tidus whined, waving a hand in front of his face. "What the hell are you doing making shit like that? Are you trying to kill me?"

"Not exactly," Auron muttered without turning around. "But it's a tempting notion."

Tidus glowered at his guardian's back. So, Auron had made a joke of sorts. Whoopie. But that still didn't explain why he was playing "chemist" with random amounts of drinkable fluid. With a sigh, Tidus turned and headed back to his room.

"Just forget it!" he said, loud enough for Auron to hear. "I'm going back to bed!"

"Does that mean you're skipping out on practice? I thought you wanted to get up early."

Tidus stopped dead in his tracks, and walked backwards into the kitchen. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Whoa, hold up," he said. "Are you saying that you mixed up this foul shit just to wake me up?"

Auron sidestepped the teen, and walked into the living room where he took a seat on the couch. "Well, I never said I didn't, now did I?"

"Damn you, old man!" Tidus sprinted down the hall to his room, shoved his gear into his duffel bag, and sprinted out the door without another word. Unknown to Tidus, he had certainly provided his guardian with quite an entertaining start to the day.

0 - + - 0 - + - 0

When Tidus arrived at the docks, his friends were already there, waiting for him to show up. "Wow, Tidus," Arlan snickered. "It's a new record, guys. Forty-eight minutes late. Congratulations, ya slacker! You even beat Teyron's record!"

"Shove it, Arlan," Tidus shot back, kicking the blitzball at his friend's head.

Szera sighed, stepping between Arlan and Tidus before they could begin their "crotch-kicking contest of manliness," as they called it. "Now boys," Szera said, commanding attention as if she were the mother of three stupid ducklings, "let's make one thing perfectly clear, shall we? I am not in the mood for any of your shit today. So, let's just get this the hell over with so I can get on with my fucking life, okay?"

As Szera seized the ball from Arlan, Teyron leaned on Tidus' shoulder. "You don't wanna know what's wrong with her, man," he said. "I dunno what the fuck her issue is, but I'm betting my money that she's got some severe PMS or something. So, just lay off. Otherwise, you won't be in possession of any means of reproduction."

"Eat this, bitches!" Szera shouted, back flipping to kick the ball to Arlan. The white-haired teen grunted as the ball made contact with his stomach. "What now?"

Tidus laughed, grabbing the ball from Arlan. "Did you guys hear about the Black Cat? I heard they all got nailed for trying to enter the Torlat Club the other night. Man, are they dumb bitches or what?"

The others nodded. The Black Cat was the worst group of juvenile delinquents on the east side of Zanarkand. The only thing that made them scarier than that, was the fact that they were all psychotic girls with a bad reputation for attempted murder, among other things. Szera and named the group of girls "Black Cat" due to the fact that they brought anyone near them horrible luck.

"Damn. Why can't the cops just put those bitches in the slammer where they fucking belong?" Teyron muttered, pouring his water bottle over his brown hair.

Tidus scowled and nodded in agreement with his friend's statement. The girls really did belong behind bars, but they wouldn't be caught anytime soon. They never were, no matter what hell they caused for people. The only thing they'd ever really been nailed for was the attempted murder of their school principal. And even after that, the girls had only received probation. But Tidus really couldn't blame the cops for not going after The Black Cat. They were complete lunatics, after all, and there weren't many people he knew on the east side who could actually stand them, let alone be near them. And the weird thing was that Auron was only person he could think of who wouldn't be bothered by the lunatic girls.

Arlan snickered. "Aw, come on, guys. You know as well as I do that the authorities don't have enough evidence on them."

"Don't look now, guys," Teyron muttered, blocking Arlan's attempt to kick to him in the face, "but here come the unlucky bitches themselves."

Sure enough, the Black Cat came strolling down the docks, in all their psychotic "glory," towards Tidus and his friends.

The girl in front, Lillai, stepped forward, glowering at Tidus from beneath her dyed hair. "Hey, pussies," she sneered, throwing the finger at them. Playing your queer little ball game, are we?" Tidus flinched as she spoke. It was damn clear that the burn of her Black Cat symbol in the side of her face was fresh, as were numerous lip piercings that clicked against her teeth as she spoke. "Or is this just another one of your excuses to get away and have a good fuck?"

The more the girl talked, the more Tidus found himself wanting to plow her in the face. Lillai wasn't even slightly attractive, and only seemed to destroy what face she had left with all the crap she carved herself up with. He didn't understand why Lillai and her stupid friends couldn't just leave them alone. Whatever their reasons, it certainly didn't give them license to antagonize Tidus and his friends at every opportunity.

"Hey, bitch," Teyron snarled, stepping forward, "why don't you and your little cronies go play one of your twisted games in a back alley somewhere? It'd save you the pain and trouble of having your face ripped off. So get lost."

Lillai grinned as the other three girls behind her began to laugh. "It won't be much of a game without at least one guy player to suck off." She paused, glancing menacingly at Tidus. "What say you, Blondie? Wanna come with? We could really use a boy toy, after all."

Before Tidus could respond, Szera's fist lashed out, catching Lillai right in the nose. As the girl fell, a bright red stream of blood poured from her nose, causing her friends to shriek in horror. As Szera stood on the dock, seething, Teyron, Arlan, and Tidus could only stare in shock.

"What the hell was that about?" Arlan said with a laugh, throwing an arm around Szera's shoulders. "Looks like our girl here has a crush on dear old Tiddy! What do you say, Szera? Sound about right to you?"

Szera ducked out of Arlan's grasp, grabbing him by the shirt. "Say that again, and see what happens," she hissed. "I fucking dare you, Arlan."

"You psychotic bitch!" one of Lillai's friends, Dreanne, shrieked as she grabbed Szera by the hair. "I'm gonna beat your face into the ground!" True to her word, Dreanne threw Szera to the ground, face first, and proceeded to step on the back of her head. "Eat dirt, bitch!"

"Hey!" Tidus jumped into the fray, easily knocking Dreanne into the water with a well-placed shoulder tackle. The blond quickly pulled his friend to her feet, brushing the dirt from Dreanne's boots out of Szera's hair. "You okay?" he asked, as the rest of the Black Cat retreated.

She nodded, spitting dirt from her mouth. "Oh, yeah, Tidus," she said bitterly. "I'm fan-fucking-tastic, thanks for asking. I only got my face slammed into a dock, and my head stepped on by a psychotic bitch with combat boots. So, of course I'm fine!"

One thing was for sure: Szera was pissed beyond belief. One wrong move, and she'd tear Tidus' head clean off his shoulders.

As Dreanne emerged from the water, Teyron burst into hysteric laughter. "She looks like that evil chick that comes out of the TV in that movie!" he said, falling to his knees.

"Don't think this is over!" Dreanne shot back, shaking a wad of seaweed from her hair. "You're not getting off the hook that easy! You hear me?"

Arlan rolled his eyes as he picked up the blitzball. "Yeah, yeah. We hear you, Wacko," he said, tossing the ball from hand to hand. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll get the hell out of here before I use you for my target practice."

Dreanne gasped and took off in the direction her friends had gone, leaving a wet trail behind.

"Come on," Tidus said, throwing a towel around Szera as Arlan and Teyron gathered up their things. "We should probably get you home so you can change."

Szera: pronounced as "Zera"

Teyron: pronounced as "Terran"

Arlan: pronounced as "Arlyn"

Dreanne: pronounced as "Dreen"

Lillai: pronounced as "Lileye"

Yes, this took longer than I thought, but things happen. I'll try to have the third chapter up sooner. And Szera, Teyron, Arlan, Lillai, and Dreanne all belong to me. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!