A/N: The song in which Kaylee was "coming up with" in the shower is copyright to Amy Lee of Evanescence and does not belong to me, nor do any of the characters from FFVII! OCs are mine though, please ask permission before using names or traits!
Enjoy, my loyal readers!
It was extremely weird to have Odette staying with us, especially with that creepy friend of hers. I didn't like the looks of him; I don't think the light in his upstairs was turned on. It was as if he kissed the ground she walked on, but not even in an affectionate manner—he was more like her dog than her partner. When I watched them interact, I didn't even recognize the Odette I knew; the person talking down to Adam was no one even remotely close to my best friend. I also couldn't help but be a little bit jealous of her: she was gorgeous and super intelligent…and all over Cloud. From the looks of it, Tifa didn't like her too much either.
"How did you say you knew Odette again, Kaylee?" Tifa asked me. I shrugged my shoulders and sat back in the bar chair I was perched in at the counter.
"I really don't have much memory of it, to be completely honest with you. She found me after I had been beaten down by that monster, Sephiroth, and she was the one who introduced me to Yuffie also. Maybe we should ask Yuffie how she knows her, that's more of a mystery to me." I said. We both stood up and went to go find Yuffie, who was sitting in the Kids' room watching TV.
"Hey Yuffie, let me ask you something." I said as Tifa and I sat on either side of her.
"Uh oh, I don't like the looks of this." She said with a nervous laugh as she attempted to slowly get up. Tifa and I put our hands on her shoulders and slowly sat her right back down. "Alright, what is it?" she said defenseless.
"We were just wondering how you met Odette, is all." Tifa said. Yuffie sighed with relief and lay back against the sofa casually.
"Oh, well to be honest with you I can't really remember. I was walking through a dark cave in the middle of the woods once and I remember seeing a strand of silver hair before something hit me and I blacked out. When I came to, Odette was standing over me in her living room and I had an ice pack on my head. She said she saw me lying helplessly on the ground and then it all picked up from there. She's the one who introduced me to you in the first place, Kaylee!" she said. Tifa and I just shrugged it off, it wasn't what we were expecting, but it seemed useful enough.
I decided I had nothing better to do so I was going to go train. I ran upstairs and grabbed Angeline and then flew down to the basement. I cocked my gun and began shooting as quickly as possible, I had really gotten better since coming here because this training ground was so much better than the one I made myself. If I thought I was an ace gunman before, I was a novice back then! By the time I had finished I was drenched in sweat and decided to lay on the cold stone floor before going back upstairs, I was way too hot to go back into the crowded bar. As I was lying on the floor I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I didn't care who it was at this point, I was too lazy to stand up. When the footsteps stopped in front of my limp figure I opened my eyes and saw Cloud hovering over me.
"Hi there." I said with a goofy smile. He extended a hand to help me up and I took it with thanks. "Thanks for that, I don't know if I could have gotten up the energy to stand up on my own." I said as I brushed myself off. We made eye contact as he handed me a small glass of water. I smiled wide and drank it greedily.
"You've been down here for hours. Tifa wanted me to bring that to you, she thought you would be unconscious by now." He said. I nodded once to acknowledge this and then smiled up at him.
"I feel like it's been ages since we've spoken, Cloud. What have you been up to lately? You're never here anymore." I said. He looked down at his fingertips and then back into my eyes.
"I've been exploring the vicinity to see of Kadaj and his gang has been hanging around here ever since they attacked you upstairs that day." As he said this I began to blush and looked down at the floor ashamed.
"Thanks. I mean, they didn't hurt me or anything they mostly did it to…stir the place up. And unfortunately it worked, don't go too out of your way for this." I said sadly.
"I don't like this Odette character either. There's something off there, I don't trust the look of her." He said. This surprised me, I mean, for quite some time I felt nasty waves coming from Odette but I didn't think Cloud would openly admit this to me considering I had been so close to her. "Yuffie told me how she met her after telling you and Tifa, and it's strange how she just happened to be in the same cave as Yuffie and also knew she was attacked. She was already linked to you, I feel as though she brought you to Yuffie so that you could be brought here." He said. When he brought this to my attention, it sounded…kind of accurate. But Odette couldn't possibly be trying to sabotage me or these people, what reasons could she have?
"Yeah, I feel like you're onto something with that. She has no reason to want to do that though, at least not for negative purposes. She has no idea who any of you are and she's just an old childhood friend of mine." I said in a trance. The room fell silent and after about a minute of silence I realized how close we were standing, and how bad I probably wreaked. I looked up and noticed Cloud had already been staring down at me. I nonchalantly inched a bit closer without him noticing and by this point I could feel his breath on my forehead. I couldn't hide the blush anymore and it exploded across my entire face, leaving me to sweat even more. He either didn't notice it or chose to ignore it, and I smiled inwardly. As I was about to break the tension I heard a small grunt come from the steps and saw Odette standing there. She gave a small wave and Cloud quickly dismissed himself from the room.
"Sorry, I didn't know you two were having a moment, Tifa just thought you had died or something." She said slightly irritated. I shrugged and grabbed my gun from off the floor and went to walk upstairs but she put her arm across the walls to stop me. "You're acting weird. What's going on with you?" she asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I said blankly.
"It's like you're threatened by me or something. Ever since I came here you've been avoiding me and it's really starting to piss me off." She said. Acid dripped off every word she spoke, and I suddenly became extremely apprehensive.
"You're the one who's been acting funny. You're a guest under this roof and you walk around as if you own the place. Where do you get off showing up here anyway? Why did you make it seem like I was attacked upstairs? It's just thrown this place into chaos and frankly, I don't appreciate that." I said while stepping closer to her. At this point our foreheads were practically touching and we were both breathing heavily with anger.
"You're just jealous that I'm here. I'm competition for Cloud and you know it; you've always been jealous of me, Kaylee. You've just been too afraid to admit it." She said with a smirk. I cocked my gun in response and as I went to point it at her face, Vincent appeared behind me and grabbed my shooting arm and twisted it behind my back. I grunted in the slight bit of discomfort it caused me but mentally thanked him, I definitely would have shot her if he didn't show up when he did.
"Thanks." I whispered behind me. I felt him nod and I looked forward again—Odette was already more than halfway up the stairs when she turned around to scoff at me.
"Looks like this visit is going to be even more fun than I imagined. By Kaylee-bug, see you around." She winked at me before departing. I spat on the ground where she was previously standing and shook myself loose from Vincent's grasp.
"You need to cool down before facing her again." He said. I picked up the empty glass which once contained the water Cloud had brought down for me and sneered at him.
"Whatever. I'm going to take a shower." I said. I ascended the steps and when I reached the top I saw Odette trying to hold a conversation with Cloud, who looked like he wanted to simply gouge his own eyes out. I shook my head and put the empty glass on the counter. Tifa walked over to me and didn't look too pleased herself.
"I heard a small piece of the things she said to you downstairs. This is my bar, and as far as I'm concerned she's not welcome in it." She said. I sighed and put a hand to my forehead—I was still coated in sweat.
"We need to keep her under this roof; I think Cloud was right when he said she was dangerous. I don't trust her anymore, she's definitely up to something, there's just something not right with her nature. That guy that's here with her, Adam or whatever, he's so sketchy. I hate them both, and as much as I want them out too, it's safer to keep them here." I said. Tifa sighed with sorrow and went back to drying glasses. I went up the stairs and threw Angeline in the drawer next to my bed and wrapped myself in a towel in preparation for a much needed shower. I stepped into the bathroom and as soon as the scalding water touched my skin, I couldn't help but smile. Aside from fighting and eating, showering was one of my favorite past-times.
"I don't know why I don't shower more often. I wish the hot water would stay on forever…great, now I'm talking to myself. Oh well I'm my best listener. Maybe I can think up a new song to add to my personally-produced album while I'm in here. Let's have a go at it, shall we, Kaylee? We shall! ...
I've been believing in something so distant, as if I was human
And I've been denying this feeling of hopelessness, in me…in me…
All the promises I've made, just to let you down—you believed in me, but I'm frozen
Frozen? No that doesn't fit. Oh well, I got a couple of opening lines in I guess." I said to myself. Talking in the shower was often a comfort to me and I always got my best creativity flowing in there. As I was about to shut the water off I heard a small snicker from outside of the curtain. My eyes widened and I grabbed my razor tightly in my hand. Without making a sound, I snatched my towel from the top of the curtain rings and wrapped it around my naked form. To prevent my spy from knowing I had noticed their presence, I kept the hot water running. Clutching my razor tightly with one hand and holding the towel up with the other, I lunged from the shower and tackled my potential-attacker.
With fire in my eyes, I realized I was sitting on top of none other than my original stalker, Adam. His face turned a pale white and his pupils shrank down to nothing.
"Treacherous snake! What are you doing in here while I bathe? Answer me, you slime!" I screamed in his face while holding the razor to his throat. He began to sweat and whimper at me and I just pressed it harder into his neck until a bit of blood trickled down.
"Okay, okay, okay! I knew you were taking a shower and I just wanted to get a peek! And then I heard you talking to yourself and I wanted to see what was on your mind and maybe get some insight for a new song or something. I meant no harm!" he said with a nervous grin. God, I really hated this loser.
"You meant no harm? Oh alright, you just wanted to SEE ME NAKED!" I screamed in his face. I had yelled louder than I thought and heard thumping feet up the stairs. "Shit." I said as I stood and unlocked the door. To make sure my peeping-tom didn't move, I kicked him back to the floor and kept my foot on his chest. Without my knowledge he was right next to the cabinet attached to the mirrors—those cabinets contained extra razor blades. As I was about to open the door and reveal whoever was coming to my rescue, he grabbed one of the razor blades and left a nasty gash down my left calf.
"AH, SONOFABITCH!" I yelled in pain as I hit the ground. He ran over my half-exposed body and through the door; while doing so, he proceeded to knock down a concerned Tifa as well and sent her spiraling down the stairs.
"Shit! Now I'm done for!" Adam yelled as he went to dive out of the window. Before he could, he was met with the chest of none other than Vincent Valentine. I was able to gather all of this from the menacing rumble coming from Vincent's chest and the horrified shriek coming from Adam. I clutched my leg to my chest as it bled profusely all over the bathroom floor. The room started to spin and go dark; I was losing blood very quickly. Before I lost consciousness I saw heavy black boots come stumbling into the bathroom and slip a bit on the water. The figure ran over to the shower and shut it off before coming down to my level.
"Oh God, her right boob is out of the towel!" the person hollered before falling over onto the wet floor beside me. I recognized the voice to be Cloud's, but I was in too much agony to be humiliated.
"Cloud, you have to go to Tifa, he pushed her down the stairs." I said between breaths. I felt him stir beside me before I finally lost consciousness.