A/N: Since I don't know who reads profiles and who doesn't, I'm letting all my readers of my two current works know I have to move at the end of April (the landlord sold the place, and they wanted us out so their son could live here while they do renos). Unlike last time I put up a notice like this, this is the real deal and we definitely have to move. As such, updates will be sporadic (may not be on Tuesdays, and may miss weeks entirely) and will probably stop entirely for awhile around April/May, maybe into June, while we try to get out from here and set up in a new place.

No, these stories won't be abandoned if I can at all help it! That means, if they end up in such a state, it's because we didn't find a place, which we don't want, either. Well wishes and prayers (depending on how religious you are) are welcome—it's hard to find a place here at the best of times, and two and a half months isn't much time to do so. :(

Unexpected

Once again, Yufi found herself confused, especially when she saw Cloud and Tifa being familiar with the shop owner—who had that red stone on her head. She tried to think back on which High Noble families she'd learned about who had a Summon parent or grandparent, since that was the only way she'd have had a stone at all. And really, there were only three in all the dozens she'd learned about. Of course, half of the lines had died out or been killed off somehow (no one had been especially specific) over the last hundred and fifty years, but the death rate had increased in the last couple generations. Of what was left, several were estranged at best, others disappeared.

Of the three families who had recent Summon blood, as far as she knew, they were all still in Wutai and had lived in the southern region, where they'd mostly had brown hair, not black. And the looks were completely wrong, too—she wasn't a match for any of them. Really, that only left her being an unexpected survivor of a death of a whole family, and she wondered if the woman was still alive because she was in Shinra lands, not in Wutai. When a girl who didn't have a stone joined them and called the older one 'sister', she guessed they actually had at least one differing parent. What family would have qualified for that?

Right then, she didn't have an answer, so she focused on petting the very friendly, large rabbit. Cloud had joined them (more like she'd dragged him over), and she was amused to find him looking more resigned than curious or happy to be petting the monster. Then, there were the two girls in Academy uniforms, too, which made her think on Shinra Academy. She'd already been going to classes as Yufi, but would the school and the other students just accept that she was now 'Claudia'? Well, if it was the Turks, who seemed to have an awful lot of power in the Company, probably the office and the teachers would change the data. The students, though...

Then, a voice which sent chills down her back asked in amusement from the doorway, "What, are you playing babysitter to half the city today, Haruna-san?"

She started to turn, but Cloud caught her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Say nothing you don't absolutely have to—the only things keeping you safe are your new look and your claim of being my sister. Stick to that."

"So it appears," Haruna answered tiredly into the silence which fell in the shop at his arrival. "Two of the girls are actually shoppers, but now I've got an extra charge, and Tifa is here today. Tifa, give Fuhito-san a wave so he knows not to bother you, please." Yufi blinked as a very pleasant-looking Tifa gave the man a wave—then pulled Hex off the shelf she'd climbed onto and put the raccoon on her shoulder. Cloud let Yufi go, so she could finally turn enough to see the man by the door.

"An extra charge?" Fuhito asked in what passed for a curious tone for him.

"Claudia, Cloud's younger sister," Haruna replied, motioning to Yufi. "Her parents hadn't realized until they sent him out here that he was the only thing keeping her calm, so they finally gave in and sent her, too. I didn't intend to inherit another child, but..." Aeris started giggling at the words as Yufi just felt very confused by where in the world that story had come from. Haruna had said it so honestly, too...Even though it was a lie.

Yufi grabbed Cloud's arm tightly, but tried not to change her expression much—only to find Fuhito's eyes barely glancing over her. "Cloud and Claudia? Not very original parents, were they?" Fuhito asked in obvious amusement. "Very well. I need to make one of your special purchases, if you don't mind. Have anything which would qualify as acidic?"

"Bright splashes of color, you mean?" Haruna asked in a thoughtful tone, and Yufi turned to look at Cloud in confusion.

"Something along that line," he agreed, and Yufi began to wonder if he was actually just there for some fabric. Which would be really, really odd for him.

"I'll have a look at my stock in the back," Haruna agreed, then headed for the back as Elmyra—a wary-looking Elmyra—got up to move to the counter. While she'd been petting Zeal, Aeris had told Yufi about her mother, who was the one working there that day.

While the older woman didn't look pleased by Fuhito's presence (did she know something about him?), she instead turned to Maria and Elena to ask, "Have you found something you like, yet, girls, or did you need a hand?"

"Oh, I found several things, but I have to decide which one I want," Elena offered. "Maria can usually help, but this place has a better selection than the ones we usually go to, so it's not an easy choice."

"Would thinking about what you're planning to make with it help you decide?" Elmyra offered with a smile, and both of the Academy girls blinked.

"It might help," Elena agreed, then turned back to one of the aisles, heading down it with Maria following.

"So...why are so many Academy students apparently shopping in the middle of the day?" Fuhito asked Elmyra in an amused tone.

Yufi decided to pipe up then—in true Shinra child form—to say, "That's because all the classes were canceled when the higher-ups decided on a massive storage clean-up. Someone said they had pretty much not touched storage since the building was built, so almost everything shut down while all the adults ran around crazily. It was super-funny to watch!" With her huge grin, the man actually chuckled faintly.

"I suppose that would do it," the man agreed absently as he leaned on Haruna's usual counter. "I'd heard the storage rooms were more like rubbish bins, so if someone decided to clean that up, it would be a pretty major change for a bunch of mindless drones."

"Drones—?" Yufi began, bristling—only to stop as she felt Cloud's hand on her shoulder.

"Most of the office workers there actually are no better than drones, Claudia," he told her in a flat tone, and was echoed by a, "Yup, they are!" by Tifa—which made Yufi glare at them as Fuhito snorted in amusement.

"Unfortunately, I have to agree with that sentiment," Maria said as she came back to the counter side of the shop, looking amused herself. "Even a lot of our teachers are more like drones than thinking people. It can be effective for regular work, like worker bees or worker ants, getting necessary and menial things done. They shouldn't be put down for that, but it still means change is hard on them, and they're really not all that useful in emergencies—someone needs to give them specific orders to make them so." Her gaze went to Elmyra as she added, "Elena got it down to two, so she's going to do a random 'close her eyes and grab one' thing with them."

That made the older woman chuckle, but Haruna came back just then with two rolls of fabric which made Yufi's jaw drop in surprise—they were really, really expensive and splashed with random-looking patterns of bright colors fitting in the 'acidic' category. One was in colors like red, yellow, orange, and hot pink, while the other was in greens, blues, and purples. Fuhito began to unroll one as he apparently intently fingered the weave, then after unrolling some, set it aside and did the same with the other. After a pause, he set it with the other, pondering them both deeply.

"Tough choice?" Haruna asked in mild amusement, and his gaze lifted to her in curiosity. "You could always buy them both if you can't decide."

He gave a dismissing wave and said, "Tempting, except that I don't have enough cash on me to do that just now. Maybe I should start bringing along enough for double purchases, though."

"Okay, I've got mine!" Elena grinned as she joined them with a roll of fabric in her arms. Yufi wondered again why an Academy combat student even bothered to sew things herself, but set that aside—maybe that was how she unwound and relaxed.

"All right, bring it here so I can run it through the till for you. My other customer needs a bit of time to decide on his purchase," Haruna readily agreed.

"Whoa, those are, like, psychedelic! Why aren't they out on the shelves?" Elena asked as she saw the fabric already on the counter while passing hers over for purchase.

"Because they cost about ten times the price of the fabric you just bought," Haruna replied in amusement, and Elena and Maria both gaped. "The average person doesn't buy them, so I only pull them out when someone asks to see them. I can't risk someone stealing them, and there's been three times now that someone managed to walk out of here with a full bolt of fabric without me noticing until they were gone."

"Ouch," Maria muttered. "Yeah, I'd get not wanting to risk really expensive things most people won't want..."

"So those kind are the kinds I'd have to really save to work up to if I wanted them..." Elena sighed wistfully as she eyed the two. Yufi caught Fuhito and Haruna trade an amused, knowing look and wondered what that was all about.

"If you manage to, you're welcome to ask me for a kind of look you want so I can pull out some options," Haruna offered.

"We'll see," Elena agreed. "Thanks." They finished the transaction, but the older girls just moved over to Elmyra's usual workspace counter to look at the fabric Elena had finally chosen rather than leaving the shop.

To distract herself, Yufi went back to petting Zeal—only to realize the rabbit had tensed and was staring at Fuhito with an almost frightening intensity. And that was also when she realized Kurosai hadn't made a sound since the man had stepped inside. She glanced around for him as discretely as she could, but he wasn't anywhere in easy view—which was probably a good thing. After all, if Fuhito had seen a bird he was very familiar with, he may well have started looking more closely at the shop's current group of children.

"All right, I think I have one," Fuhito finally said, pushing the green, blue, and purple fabric over to Haruna. She took it, rang it through, and bagged it, gave the Wutain man a warning about color-fasting it, and sent him on his way. He gave her a pleased thanks and left, and Haruna took the remaining bolt of fabric back into the storage space in the back of the shop.

When she came back, she also sighed in obvious relief. "Well, at least you don't really like him," Aeris commented in amusement as she heard the sigh.

"You already knew that, Aeris," Haruna answered in equal amusement. The woman then pulled out some papers as she asked, "Did you manage to finish shelving things before the trouble started, by the way?"

"Sure, other than things which didn't have any replacements," Aeris agreed, and the Wutain woman nodded. "Can I have my pay so we can go get ice cream today?"

Haruna's gaze lifted to Aeris' quizzically, and Yufi was surprised to see her looking about as wary as she was puzzled. "Who's the 'we' you mean to share ice cream with?"

"Everyone here who isn't you or my mom," Aeris replied impishly. "Of course, if you both tell me what you want, I'll bring something back for you, too." Elmyra just gave her an amused look as a bemused Haruna waved her off.

"I'd rather stay here if it's all the same to you," Cloud put in. "And I'm not in the mood for ice cream, anyway. Some of Tifa's pie, on the other hand..."

"I'll make some this evening, then," Tifa readily agreed.

"Wait, are you inviting us for ice cream, too?" Elena asked in a mystified tone as she pointed at herself and Maria, which made Yufi want to giggle.

"Sure, why not? You helped protect me earlier, too," Aeris agreed with a grin at them.

"Sure, I'll go along! Thanks!" Elena grinned happily.

"I'm with Cloud and would rather stay here, though, if that's okay?" Maria put in, sounding amused. "All the rest of you girls can go have fun without the 'strict older sister' telling you to behave." The words made Elena giggle.

"Just make sure your elders know your plan following your trip before you go, please," Haruna commented in a tired tone as she pulled some cash from the till to pay for Aeris' work. "Whether you're coming back here, heading home, meeting someone later—fill that in now."

"You know I'm coming back later, unless we're so late you've closed—then I'll just go home," Hokuto answered.

"Same, and even to the same home!" Aeris grinned, and both she and Hokuto burst into giggles, which actually confused Yufi in that case. She could only guess the two were really close.

"I have to go back to work once we're done," Tifa put in. "I'll just head back to the Shinra building directly."

"I think I'll do the same—I have academic classes to study for, and one of them, I'm really not doing well in," Elena said with a face. "So I need the Library there badly."

"What about you, Claudia?" Cloud asked her, and she blinked.

"Wait, I'm going, too?" she asked in surprise, which caused several of the others to hold their hands to their heads for a moment as she blinked.

"Fine, just go back with Tifa. I'll meet you there later so I can explain a few things to you," Cloud told her. "And to be clear, Aeris did just invite you to get ice cream, too."

"Okay!" she grinned happily.

With her agreement, all the younger girls left the shop, Hex on Tifa's shoulder and Zeal and Kurosai following along behind the girls.

MB

"Is it just me or was that a definite 'What the fuck?' moment?" Elmyra asked into the silence of the girls' departure, causing Maria to dissolve into giggles, herself, as Haruna lifted her gaze to the older woman's.

"Which part was supposed to be said 'moment'?" she asked of Elmyra shrewdly.

"Besides the girls having an impromptu ice cream party, you mean?" the woman asked in amusement. Then, her gaze turned upset as she asked, "What did you mean by selling to a criminal like Fuhito, Haruna?"

Haruna had to sigh at the question, but she said, "He came in as a customer, and for the record, the only reason he's decided to leave Aeris alone is because I'm responsible for her and he doesn't want to upset me. I'd rather not give him a reason to renege on that, because there's no guarantee anyone could keep her safe if he made a serious attempt on her."

That made Elmyra blink, then ask in alarm, "What do you mean, he's after my daughter?"

"He found out about her unique abilities from somewhere and heard the same false myths about 'the Promised Land' as Shinra did, so he wants her for the same reason. We had intervention the first time he brought it up," the Wutain woman offered. "But Elmyra, Fuhito isn't sane even if he's a master tactician, and right now, I'm a definite deterrent to him bothering her. I want to keep it that way. Don't you?"

The woman's brow furrowed in thought and apprehension, but after a minute, she admitted, "Even if I don't really like it, yes, I'd rather there be something keeping her safe than nothing but luck." She sighed and went back to her work, muttering under her breath as she did so.

As Haruna turned back to her own work, she noted Maria still in the shop and wondered why—and got her answer several minutes later, when the fifteen-year-old blond approached her. Leaning over the counter and keeping her voice very low, Maria said plainly, "You're Tseng, aren't you?"

No matter how hard she tried to hide it, a moment of shock penetrated her mask, and she had a mental breakdown, trying to figure out how the young woman had worked it out—only to see her smirk knowingly. Right. Maria and Tseng had actually been really good friends through the Academy, and had stayed friends, even after Tseng had joined the Turks. She knew him better than anyone currently living (except maybe Kariya), and it was highly likely she'd worked it out by watching for Tseng's tells, which didn't just all go away because he was in his female form.

She reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose as she felt a headache coming on, then replied quietly, "Not a word."

"Absolutely," Maria agreed evenly.

"How?" she asked, and Maria's brow rose a bit.

"Your sister Haruna, the stone on your head, you really looking like a female Tseng, little things like a specific motion or something I'd seen you do a lot...Just a lot of small things like that," the Academy student offered with a shrug. "You'll have to tell me sometime how you're actually female right now, though. How'd it turn red, by the way?" she asked as she motioned at Haruna's head—or, more specifically, the stone there.

"When I re-accessed some of my childhood skills a bit ago, it returned to the color it had been before the incident which brought me to Shinra in the first place," she admitted, but didn't plan to explain 'what' made her re-access them. The fewer people who had a link between Weiss' Alexander savior and Tseng, the better.

Maria hummed, then gave a nod and said, "I'll stop by every now and again so we can talk. I've missed you lately, especially since you up and vanished from the building awhile ago."

"Then I'll give you my home address so you can go there after work hours, rather than being here during them," Haruna sighed faintly, pulling over a business card so she could write hers and Hokuto's home address on it. She then passed it to Maria. But, after the observational skill Maria had just shown, she also had to do something else, so called, "Cloud, come join us, please."

"Yeah, what's up?" he asked as he stopped beside Maria at the counter.

"Take Maria back to the office and have her formally tested as a Turk," she told him softly, and Maria blinked.

"Why?" the blond boy asked as quietly with a dark frown.

"Because she just figured out something she shouldn't have been able to," the Wutain replied flatly, and his brow furrowed for a moment—then his eyes widened in realization before he looked up at Maria for a moment.

"Fine," he agreed with a small sigh, looking back at her. "I'll take her back and tell them to test her. I can't guarantee anything more than that, so the rest is in her hands."

"That's fine," Haruna agreed. "And tell them to call her Emma if she passes."

He sighed faintly and commented, "That would probably happen anyway. It did with Ruluf."

Haruna huffed a chuckle, but agreed, "I would hope so, but that would just speed the process since they have a ready-made name. Especially if Veld's not back yet."

"He's on his way, but won't be here until morning. And then, even with Vincent taking a lot of his work, he still has days of paperwork waiting for him," Cloud commented. "If Maria passes, having a ready-made name will probably help along the process a lot with the current circumstances. But what will the President think?"

"He probably won't, not unless we suddenly hired several new people at once," Haruna answered in amusement. "Well, unless we have a sudden rash of deaths, which we've been avoiding so far, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"...So, Maria but not Elena?" Cloud asked, and Maria blinked again.

"Besides the fact that Elena's not fourteen yet, you mean?" the Wutain asked in reply, tone dry. He blinked, but nodded, so she explained, "There's something we need to see from her first—it's been an issue all her life, but it's a correctable one. Maria doesn't have the same issue, and she's over the age of majority, so she can be brought in. That doesn't mean we won't get to Elena when she's fourteen, just that we're not going to try to bend that rule when she's not quite fit for the role yet."

"...Fine," Cloud agreed with a small sigh, then looked up at Maria. "Are we going right now, or are you staying for a visit first?"

"A short visit, at least. I don't want to take overly long," Maria replied.

The blond nodded and agreed, "I'll be by the door. Let me know when you're done." He then went back to his place—near the door, and where he'd been when Haruna had called him over—with Tyra following him loyally, much to the Wutain's amusement.

"So...Cloud is a Turk? At twelve?" Maria asked in amusement.

"He counts as 'staff' to them, not as 'a Turk'," Haruna answered in some amusement, making the blond girl blink in surprise. "So does Tifa, and Claudia for that matter, though she's more like...a very young trainee, sort of like Neirine."

"Hmmm..." Maria murmured thoughtfully. "She looks Wutain in some ways, but then, actually, so does Cloud. Do you know if they have some Wutain blood somewhere in their line?"

Shrugging, the Wutain offered, "If they do, it's very far back, because the background checks we did on them before taking them showed no trace of Wutain ancestry. It's possible, I guess. There were always an odd few Wutains who left Wutai throughout history, or ones who were exiled or some such."

"And he just happened to get the facial features of a Wutain, which no one really notices because of his complexion," the young woman mused thoughtfully, then nodded. "I'm glad to know where you are, though, because I have a few things I've wanted to talk with you about for awhile. Not for here, but when you're done work one day in the near future. And honestly, with how busy you've been lately, I've missed you even before then—I know better than to interrupt your training or time you're spending with young Mr. Shinra. If anything, you being here is the most chance I'll ever have to visit with you."

"Just make sure you keep an Academy uniform or casual clothes to wear when you visit, then," Haruna offered with a small smile. "It'll be good to talk with you again. Things have been really hectic for the last several months, and there really hasn't been a lot of breathing room. Honestly, I'd half forgotten about most of my friends outside the Turks in the chaos. If you make it, they'll get you up to speed on why, and I'll fill in the rest once you've got the basics from them."

"Fair enough," Maria agreed with a small smile. "Since some of yours and Cloud's discussion really didn't make much sense, that's probably related to what they'd need to bring me up to speed on?"

"Yes," the other woman agreed, going back to her papers—she'd gotten most of the inventory done, but still had a few things to mark. "And as much as I like Elmyra, she's not in on anything, so discussing details here isn't a good idea. I'll tell you this—you've got all the skills you need, and our only deterrent has been your age."

"Great," Maria chuckled. "And Elena's, so I can tell her to work on it? Her air-headedness, right?" When Haruna frowned in puzzlement, she clarified, "Like how she keeps forgetting things, like her bag?"

"No, actually," the Wutain answered with a dark frown. "That was never a part of it, and I have no idea why you're so fixated on that part of her while she's a child. It's like you've forgotten about all the times you and I forgot things somewhere when we were younger." Maria's eyes widened in surprise. "No, her issue is her habit of 'parroting' things she hears, regardless of who's nearby—especially how she parrots things which, in other circumstances, would have been classified orders. You've always been more reserved and secretive while she's more social, so she needs to learn the difference between something she doesn't say and things she's free to."

"...Oh," Maria sighed faintly. "Yes, that would be much more of a deterrent to a Turk than just forgetting things." She paused with her brow furrowed, then asked, "But isn't it also really dangerous for Turks to leave things laying around, or forgetting to take along an item they were after, or whatever?"

"She doesn't, though. What she forgets are unimportant things which, while annoying to lose and have to replace, aren't actually going to have any bearing on things like her education or her health. Unlike most children, she only ever forgets something important once, and there's a definite division in her mind between what is and what isn't. Her house keys or a project could make or break her—random things in her bag won't. And you're not seeing what all the Turks know—she'll bring back what she was intended to," Haruna told the blond flatly, and Maria winced.

"Okay, then I'll tell her about the parroting thing...And try to remember not to comment about her forgetting things so much," Maria agreed, looking a bit pained. But then, she gave the Wutain a small smile and commented, "And this is why I need you back, so someone can point out when I'm being stupid about something."

Haruna smiled faintly and commented, "Don't think I don't get my fair share of that from others—I can be very stupid, too. You'd better head out, then."

"See you," Maria agreed with a smile, heading for the door, and a moment later, she'd left with Cloud.