A/N: Wow, I'm on a roll this weekend...2nd time updating in 24 hours! Woot!

As for my challenge posted for the last chapter, Riley Valentine succefully guessed Zel's last name. Congratulations, Riley, and welcome to Turk! (You'll all get it soon).

You can still guess, but if you want to know the answer, then go check out the reviews. Please play fair and only guess if you haven't seen what Riley Valentine posted please...though I have no way to know if you did or not...

This is kinda a humor filled chapter, to lighten up after the end of the last one. Hope you enjoy! Thanks to all of my reviewers and readers!

Still don't own Square Enix! And I'm only borrowing River, Riley, and Lilith...:-)

How to be Human

Lesson Five: How to Learn About Others

Shera's View

I awoke in a bed, warm and comfortable. My clothes had been changed, but this wasn't much of a shock to me. I was used to waking up in different clothes than when I fell asleep.

Is that a bad thing?

I looked around me, not too sure where I was. I knew I was no longer in my cell and Master….

Was he actually dead? I felt tears prick my eyes and slowly pave tracks down my cheeks. He was dead. This wasn't a dream. He was dead! He was dead and I was free! I was…

Free…

Why was I crying? This is what I wanted, right? I wanted to be free, and the only way for that to happen was for Master to be dead. There was no other way.

Well, there is no other way now. He's dead.

Every time I repeated it to myself, I believed it less. Sure, I'd seen his headless body and seen his blood covering the ground, but I didn't think he was dead. Something inside me made me believe that Master wasn't human, and could regenerate heads and blood and come after the cause of his death…

Me.

"Oh, Shera, why did I wait?" I shivered. Wait? What did he wait for? What would he have done if he hadn't waited? Was he talking about killing me? Or was it something worse?

I slipped out of the bed and padded to the nearest door. I opened it slightly and looked out. It opened into another room, which had a group of people all sitting around, talking and holding mugs of something.

I looked about and smiled when I saw the blonde haired Turk who'd prayed for me. Then I found Lilith and the Turk (Vincent, was it?) who'd rescued me from Master.

They were recounting tales from the night before. I knew I shouldn't but I decided to listen in. I really wanted to know more out the people who saved me, so what better way than listening to them talk.

Turks View.

Vincent sat in the corner, watching as a few more Turks filed into the room, obviously drawn here by rumors Lilith had spread minutes after he and the other Turks had gotten back. He was tired, needed a change of clothes and a shower, and was still worried about the little girl.

Something about her fainting in his arms unnerved him. Because it wasn't the blood or the sight of headless Kriev that had made her faint; it was the sight of his eyes.

The very thought made Vincent uneasy, and he didn't even know why. He was normally very proud of his eyes, just like Zel was proud of his power to drive everyone crazy without thinking.

This was what he was doing now…Much to Vincent's complete annoyance.

"Vincent! Give it back, would you!" Zel begged. Zel had been begging for Vincent to give him back his knives for the last hour. Vaguely, he wondered if he waited long enough, if Zel would get on his hands and knees to get the knives back…

That would be awkward.

"Promise not to hurt yourself?" Vincent asked, not even noticing he'd fallen back into the 'protective older brother' attitude.

"Yes! I do!" Zel said, holding out his hands. Vincent gave in and gave Zel back his knives. Zel smiled like a little kid given candy and began to pick his nails with one of the sharp objects. Vincent cringed and looked away. Damn Zel was careless.

"So, is it true you blew a guys head to nothing?" a voiced piped up. Vincent turned and was surprised to see Riley, drinking a soda, staring right back at him.

Normally, Vincent wouldn't be surprised to see any of the Turks staring at him, asking him such a question. But Riley wasn't a morning person, and the last time Vincent checked, it was four o'clock in the morning.

"Pullin' an all-nighter, Riley?" he asked, grinning slightly. She glared at him, and he knew why.

"Only 'cause I heard you got the short end of the stick, Oh Glorious Field Leader," Riley replied. "So, did you blow off the pervert's head or did Zel blow him to bits? I gotta know, because somehow I got stuck with all the paperwork…" Another glare. "Any thing to do with you, perhaps?"

"You told me that if I found Lilith in week, you'd do all the report for me for a month."

"Last time I checked, a week was 7 days, Vincent. It took you eight."

"It did not. We started looking on Wednesday and today is…"

"Thursday. That's eight days, Valentine! And here I thought you were smart."

"Shit."

"Yup. And now you have to do your own reports and clean my office for then next month."

That sent the other Turks in the room into peals of laughter. "That's what you get for taking me off the rescue mission," Riley continued. More laughter from everyone. Vincent continued to glare at her, and Riley smiled. She knew how much he hated to loose.

"So, how'd Kriev die?" she said, leaning against the wall and waiting.

"Vince blew his head off," Lilith stated. Vincent cringed. He hated that nickname.

"Oooh…with what?" Riley asked.

"None of your business."

"Please, Vincent?"

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no," Vincent replied. Riley glared at him, sticking her tongue out and finally giving up. He thought.

"Dude, did yea hear that we made Vincent pose as the pervert trying to buy Lilith? It was great!" David said. The Turks exploded into laughter again.

"Hey, why didn't we just…" Rito started

"…get Akito to go in there?" Tori finished. The Turks stopped laughing, trying to piece together what the twins were saying. Because it was hard to follow what the two of them were saying sometimes.

"What's wrong with you two?" Lilith asked, glaring at the two Turks. They both grinned at her.

"Then we coulda…"

"Killed him with everyone else."

"Two birds with one bullet!" Rachel yelled, explaining what the twins were trying to say in five words, and all the Turks laughed. It was easy to see they were all in a good mood. That probably had something to do with them actually getting a chance to save lives instead of totally initiating everything.

And no one noticed Riley slowly creeping towards an unsuspecting Vincent.

"This mission was a total success!" Kyra yelled, smiling.

"Yeah, that's one less sex slaver out there, tainting the world!" Lin cheered.

"No more Dog Fights," River agreed. Everyone nodded, noticing Zel almost slip with the knives and cut his finger.

And still no one noticed Riley.

"Kriev had it coming," Verdot stated.

"He had it comin'. He had it comin'…" Sang the girls in the room.

"Ug, no Chicago references, okay?" Legion moaned. More laughter.

Even still unnoticed, Riley was almost upon her target…

"Guys, were did Riley go?" Lin asked. Almost immediately, they got their answer. In the form of two guns being simultaneously drawn and aimed.

"Get off me," Vincent said. His gun was shoved into Riley's chin. She was sitting on his lap, gun pointed at his temple and hand reaching for something…dangerously close to you know where.

"Not until you tell me what you killed him with, got it Turk?" Riley replied. They glared at each other, scarcely noticing the provocative-like position they were in.

"Ew, guys! Get a room!" River shouted, much to the enjoyment of the others. Riley glared at the other female Turk and looked back at Vincent.

"Just let me see it," she said.

"No."

"See what?" Zel asked. The others laughed. This could be taken so many different ways, and everyone but Zel (And Shera, but they didn't know she was listening) was taking the conversation the wrong way.

"His gun." David and Kilick both chocked on their coffees. Lin and Kyra exchanged a look, blushing and laughing.

When Riley heard the chocking and laughing, she reached over, grabbed the shotgun Vincent stored on his waist, and jumped to her feet.

"This gun, you idiots," she said, holding the bloodstained weapon in front of her. Vincent looked quiet relieved to have her off his lap.

"Sure, sure…" Rachel said. The twins laughed, whispering something to each other. Vincent had a bad feeling there were going to be some new rumors floating around the building soon.

"Can I have that back…" Vincent asked, standing up and reaching for his gun. His reach failed to make it to the gun, however, and accidentally brushed her chest and Riley's reflexes kicked in. She slammed the butt of the shotgun behind her, hitting Vincent in a very sensitive spot. She stood there fuming for a moment before she'd released she'd just hit the guy in charge of her payroll in the family jewels.

"Ooh…that had to hurt…" Tori said. Rito was doubling over with laughter.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" she said, whipping around and looking worriedly at Vincent, who was shaking on the floor. He was in serious pain.

"I-i-it's….c-c-cool…" Vincent replied, voice three octaves higher and strained. Riley stood there, biting her lip as Vincent forced himself to stand. "I…deserved it…" he spat out, sitting down in the chair again. Riley smiled meekly and backed away, taking the shotgun with her.

"Dude, Vincent, you that bad in bed?" David laughed. The next thing he knew he was staring down the bloody barrel of Vincent's shotgun, in the hands of Riley. "I-I was just kidding!" Riley lowered the gun, glaring at David before sitting down at the table in the center of the room and proceeding to take the gun apart.

"What are you doing?!" Vincent said, looking up at her. Riley grinned evilly. Two things about Vincent Valentine everyone knew. Mind his personal space and don't touch his guns.

And, as Riley just noticed, she'd just broken both those rules.

"Oh, Vince, you're such a gun whore!" she said. Vincent looked at her, mortified. "I'm just cleaning it, Damn it!" Vincent was about to protest… "Unless you want the blood of a pervert on your person for the rest of your days." That comment stopped all protests, and Vincent watched mournfully as Riley expertly took apart his shotgun and proceeded to clean it.

"Can I put it back together?" Zel offered. Riley nodded, smiling at the child-like Turk.

"Heard you went "Dark" for a bit. You okay now Zel?" she asked. All the other Turks went silent, wanting to hear the answer.

"Huh…oh…yeah…N…no one died, right? I mean…before I blew the place sky high."

"Yes Zel, no one died," River reassured him.

"Phew…"

"Wait, we missed…"

"Dark Zel?" Rito and Tori commented. Both of them had a frown on their faces.

"Yeah, why?" Legion asked.

"Oh man, we wanted…"

"Pictures…" Zel glared at the twins, who smiled back at him.

"Why?"

"Future reference," they answered in unison.

And once again, the Turk's Commons was filled with the sound of laughter.

Shera's View:

I smiled from my outpost. I couldn't help it. These people…

I didn't understand everything they laughed at, but they seemed like great people, and a good group of friends. I wished I had friends like them.

Still thinking this, I decided to pretend that I'd just woken up and walk out into the room. I pushed open the door and padded slowly into the room, looking around me. The laughter stopped and everyone stared at me. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable until the blonde haired Turk-Zel- smiled at me.

"Mornin', Princess. How did you sleep?" It was something in his voice that calmed me down.

For the first time in my life, I was not afraid.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. Just so you know, when Rito and Tori talk, Rito always speaks first unless noted otherwise. :-) Please review, if you get a chance. The button's getting kinda lonely...