A Good Other

VI

After the encounter with one Zack Fair, you walked back towards your apartment building in order to squeeze in a shower until you decided to head towards the Mall. To see if there was something interesting in there before going to see Tifa.

When you got out of the shower, putting on a simple graphic t - shirt and a pair of shorts you moved yourself out into the living room to find Rikku sitting at the island facing the living room with a dead look on her face. A cup of something was sitting in front of her as she was rubbing her face. Blonde hair was sticking out all over the place, reminded you of Cloud's hair from yesterday.

"Someone had a rough night." You smiled and walked over towards the woman who looked up with a blank face. You couldn't help but grin and giggle at the look she was giving you.

Rikku found herself pouting and glaring at you. "Well Pops and Brother have no idea what they were doing yesterday so I was stuck there until two in the morning and had to crash at Brother's place! Let me tell you it's scary there. I just got in."

Your grin faltered slightly, you wanted to chalk up the night terror as just that, a nightmare. But there was something telling you that it wasn't one. "Get some sleep then KK." You mumbled softly looking down at your foster sister with a concern look in your eyes.

Green eyes with slight spirals looked up at you with a little bit of surprise, then she smiled a little bit and sat up straighter. "You haven't called me that since we were kids.."

A warm feeling was moving inside of your chest when the look of reminiscing melted onto the Al Bhed's face.

Rikku nodded her head a little bit. "Yeah, sleep sounds good. I gotta start going back to work soon... Pops is giving me some time off since we found you."

Moving back into the living room you sat on the main couch and turned on the TV to the local news channel. "I'm heading to Tifa's in a bit, I'm testing out a job possibility." You didn't catch the surprise look on the young woman's face.

"Y - You don't have to work so soon ya know! It isn't like, healthy!" Energy returned to the woman as she walked over towards where you were sitting. She caught that look in your eyes though.

"I'm fine, KK, I need to fall back into a routine. More I go back to normal, I can remember things." You noticed the time and decided to find something possibly appropriate for a waitressing job.

Disappearing down the hallway, Rikku stood there next to the couch. A distant look was on the Al Bhed woman's face as the news became simple background music. "That's the thing though... you're not you, not the [Name] everyone knew." Green eyes looked over towards the hallway. "You're... changing."

Ten minutes later you appeared back at the front door to find the TV turned off and Rikku not in either rooms. Smiling slightly, you figured that the tired woman went off to take a early morning nap to catch up on her rest.

The subway was quiet, no Zell running into you again, no red head guy missing the subway train again. Just silence. When you came to surface at the mall, you were wondering what you could do in order to kill off some time, you had basically forty five minutes to kill. Figuring that it would be best to stick with the main floor you explored.

Majority of the stores were clothes related, there was a single bridal shop, some small food vendors. You came to a stop though and stared as some people walked by at a single spot in front of a fountain on the main floor.

A girl with long auburn red hair stood in front of you, anger was shimmering in her blue eyes as they glared at you. Wearing a slightly different school uniform than you and Yuna. Wearing a white sleeveless blouse with light blue embroidered letters of K A. She wore a mixture of a majority baby blue, white and black pleated skirt and high white knee socks and dress flats.