A/N: Thank you for reading up to this point. Remember you can tell me if you like it or not. My feelings won't be hurt. I can take it.

I'm not making a profit from this. Square Enix owns their respective characters. I own mine.

P.S. The OC has an interesting vocabulary. If you can't handle it you should probably stop now.

Cass glanced back when she heard the door open. She hoped her hair disguised the earbud currently resting in her ear. Gast had already told her not to listen to music while she was working, but a quick concerto here and there never hurt anyone. Her self-proclaimed cat-like reflexes had ensured that the music was safely off this time.

It wasn't Gast who had opened the door. The light from the hallway illuminated someone a lot shorter and much younger.

"What's happenin' short stuff?" she asked. While pissing off Hojo was easy and fun, putting Sephiroth in the middle of it was most certainly unethical. Better get the kid where he needed to be. He was really quiet for a long time. She looked back up at the screen, knowing he would answer sooner or later.

"They locked the doors so I can't get outside," he said. Gast had informed her of Sephiroth's obsession with rain. It was weird, (and her lecture about it probably didn't help at all) but understandable. Some things in this world were just plain awesome. If Sephiroth decided rain was his awesome thing, then it could be awesome for him. A faint rumble from outside agreed with her sentiment.

"Awww," she said, "how come?"

"Hojo doesn't like it when I go outside," Sephiroth said, "he says I'm not ready yet." Cass called bullshit in her head, but said nothing. It wasn't really her business. Sephiroth was not really her responsibility after all.

"So why are you here?" Cass said. Sephiroth fell quiet again.

"I'm not ready to go back yet," he said quietly. Cass turned around. Goddamn it, he had a cute pouty face. She'd take one more hit for him, he wouldn't be cute forever. Hopefully.

"Tell you what," she said, "you can hide in here. I'm going to put both earbuds in and turn my music up all the way. If anyone asks, you snuck in and I never saw you. Deal?" Sephiroth looked up at her, shock clearly evident on his face. He nodded quickly and shuffled over to a chair. Cass turned back and fumbled with her headphones for a minute before it was situated into her ear. She reached into her pocket and Sephiroth heard a small click. He could faintly make out something playing quietly. He watched the images on the screen for awhile.

He couldn't make sense of what they showed. It looked like a bunch of random dots to him, but Cass paused every now and then to take notes on something, before moving along. She hummed along quietly to whatever she was listening to. He didn't make sense of that either.

Something was different about her. He couldn't figure out right away what is was. She wore the same lab coat as everyone else. She wore a similar outfit as the other women here. Nothing was really different. Then he looked at her face and he realized it. Her hair was down, well lower than before. She usually had it wrapped up really tight behind her head. Now she had it back in one long coil in an intricate, yet loose knot at the back of her head.

Sephiroth tried to untangle the knot in his head. He decided her hair would be just a little longer than Hojo's, but she actually took care of hers. It looked kind of...pretty? He'd heard someone say that word before. He hoped that's what it meant. Her's looked neater and more appealing when compared to Hojo's.

He sat quietly for a long time, staring at his feet again. All of the bruises had gone.

Then Cass sighed and took pulled out wires from her ears. The room was quiet again.

"Doesn't look like they're looking very hard," she said. She started pushing buttons and the screens started going dark. "I think it's about time we got you back." Sephiroth slid off the chair as she got up from hers. She stretched quickly and ushered him out of the door.

"Where's the old fart lurking today?" she asked him. He pointed half-heartedly down the hall. She started walking. He followed behind, clinging to the end of her coat. She slowed and looked down at him. She held out her hand. He stared at it.

"Come on," she said, "we both have to face the music." Sephiroth hadn't heard that expression before. Music certainly wouldn't be a word to describe what he would have to face, but he understood what she meant. He thought. He took her hand. She walked by his side like last time. He felt a warm squeeze. That made him feel better for some odd reason. Some weight felt like it had been lifted off him, but he couldn't say why.

Hojo glared up at the intrusion. Cass bit back her snipe about him hogging the main lab. She was already in the doghouse for being with Sephiroth. Sure enough, his eyes took a dangerous glint.

"I'm returning your little bundle of joy," Cass said, "He was hiding in my new office."

"I thought I told you to keep away from Sephiroth," Hojo said.

"You said you didn't like me talking to him," she corrected, "and I was staying away from him. He came into my office. I didn't bring him there, he came to me."

"What's going on?" Gast came in. The gods were happy today.

"Your nosey assistant is fraternizing with Sephiroth," Hojo spat. Cass rolled her eyes.

"Hojo, you can't be upset with everyone who meets with Sephiroth more than twice," Gast said, "It's a little inevitable you have to admit. He lives where we work after all."

"I just don't want people encouraging him for his bad behavior," Hojo said with steely glare at Cass, "I can't have him running around like this anymore."

"Don't blame me because you can't keep track of a five-year-old," Cass said.

"What did you say?" Hojo said.

"You heard me," she said, "either keep a proper eye on him, or hire yourself a babysitter, then we won't have a problem with us 'fraternizing'."

"Are you telling me how to do my job?" Hojo spat.

"How long as Sephiroth been missing?" she asked. Hojo didn't respond. "I thought so," she said, "you didn't even know he was gone. So yes, I am telling you how to do your job."

"Hojo," Gast said, "Ms. Durmont is only looking out for Sephiroth's well being. She doesn't feel that it's safe for Sephiroth to be wandering around by himself and has taken time out of her busy schedule to make sure he is safe. You berate your own staff for letting him go out in a rainstorm. How is what she doing any worse?" Hojo didn't reply to that either.

"Here he is," Cass said, "Safe and sound. Please keep a better eye on him in the future, or else stop accusing me of inappropriate interaction." Sephiroth let her go and stepped towards Hojo. He glanced back as Gast followed Cass back out.

"I'm sorry he keeps threatening you," Gast said once they were outside.

"He hasn't threatened me yet," Cass said, "Just yelled at me. It's not your fault he's an asshole."

"True enough," Gast said, "and thank you for being so patient with Sephiroth."

"He's a good kid," Cass said, "Really quiet, really smart."

"How long were you watching him?" Gast asked.

"I wasn't, he snuck in," she replied.

"You were listening to your music again, weren't you?"

"...Maybe."

Cass had almost one glorious week of Hojo free interaction. Sephiroth drooped obviously when the passed in the hall, (He'd gotten quite a tongue lashing from both Hojo and Gast) but Cass still gave him a determined hello. Mama would flip on the day when Cassi stopped doing that. Even with a ridiculously high IQ, Mama would expect proper manners from her baby girl.

Too bad the kid never responded. He was far too quiet for a five-year-old.

That wasn't what occupied her mind at the moment. She had created an equation that even she was questioning the solvability of. She'd question if it was even real, but she had created it. She'd even drawn out the steps to be sure. It was real all right and a stumper for sure.

It was wonderful. The stuff she only dreamed of. Simply beautiful.

She wrote it out large and legibly on her new window, the one with a backlight. Thank the gods Professor Gast allowed her some leeway on how she worked. His insistence to the higher ups that she have a better workspace was really paying off. She loved it. Her old one was decent. This was paradise.

"The results you've given me are so much higher than anything I ever hoped for," Gast had told her, "I don't care how strange your methods seem. They obviously work better than what we've tried before."

She leaned back in her chair and just admired what she had created. Just basked in the beauty of an equation that was her proper match. It was simply...beautiful.

There was a knock on her door.

"It's open," she called back. She wasn't ready to tear her eyes away. The door opened.

"Hard at work, I see." Son of a bitch.

"How can I help you Professor Hojo?" she asked, turning around. Since I haven't been near your precious Sephiroth for a week, she thought to herself.

"I have considered your ultimatum from our last meeting," he began. Praise Bahamut, she thought, now all you need is an ass whooping.

"You may be correct," Hojo said. That must have hurt.

"It happens more often than people think," she said. Hopefully the apology is next, she thought.

"I'm here to ask if you would care for Sephiroth when I am otherwise occupied," Hojo finished. Or not. She nearly shot to her feet.

"You...what?" she said, "I...what?"

"It was a simple request," Hojo said.

"No, no, no," she said, "you told me you didn't want me around Sephiroth anymore. Now you change your mind? That's not right, that's...that's suspicious."

"You obviously have the free time," Hojo scoffed.

"Yeah, because you hold up the line," she said, "and now I actually have something to work on." She stole a glance at her beautiful equation. "Why do you want me to babysit?"

"If you must know," Hojo said, "he claimed you were the most qualified."

"I...I probably am," she admitted, "but you of all people don't believe that." She saw something in his face twitch. She was right.

"He refuses to behave for any of my staff, or for Professor Gast at this point," Hojo said, "and our progress with this particular experiment needs my full attention. I cannot be disturbed to discipline him each time he misbehaves."

"Ahh," she said, "I'm the last person you've asked, aren't I?" Hojo didn't reply. Serves you right, asshole, she thought to herself. She sighed.

"All right," she said, "I'll keep an eye on him. Just run him over when you're done with him."

"Why should he come here?" Hojo snapped.

"Because, I have things to work on and I'm not going to work on them under your supervision," she said, "Sephiroth will be less than 100 yards from you at all times. I assure you, he'll be fine." Hojo fumed for a moment, then let it go. She might refuse otherwise. She really had been his last resort.

"Very well," Hojo consented, "but there are things that I will not allow-"

"I won't take him outside, I won't teach him any inappropriate, I won't do anything to affect what he does with you if I can help it, I'll just keep him safely occupied," she said. He glared at her, but nodded.

"Good, then if that's settled," Hojo stepped outside.

"Please shut the door behind you," Cass said. She heard the soft click as she turned around. Then she let herself shiver. Hojo gave her the creeps. He was slimy and greasy and gross and her dislike of him increased as he got closer. Hopefully this would be the first and last time he was in her office.

She briefly reconsidered taking back her generous offer, of playing babysitter for Sephiroth. She brushed it away. Gast approved of her interactions with the boy, and as far as she knew, Gast was currently the man in charge. Besides Sephiroth wasn't that hard to look after. Why everyone else had problems with him, was beyond her reasoning.

It wasn't that hard to distract a five-year-old. Some mindless chatter, maybe some reverse-psychology, something to do for an hour or so. She considered herself socially inept, but even she could comprehend the basics. Leave it to a self-proclaimed genius to screw that up, though she suspected deep in her mind that everything Hojo touched started oxidizing on contact.

She looked back up at her lovely creation and sighed. At least with this arrangement, Sephiroth could be in contact with someone who could explain the more awe inspiring actions in life. She had been the one to recognize what he was doing out in the rain after all.