LIKE A SHOT IN THE DARK

The last thing the platinum haired teen remembered was a brilliant flash of light followed almost immediately by and intense pain which spread through his body like a wild fire. Considering the circumstances at the time, it was safe to assume he had been shot, seeing as he was in the middle of a battle of epic proportions with an almost legendary gunman.

Opening his eyes, Yazoo refrained from sitting up, knowing his injuries would quickly get the better of him. Instead, he contented himself with simply glancing around the foreign room from his place on the soft cot beneath him. For now, Yazoo decided it best to try to get better acquainted with his surroundings as well has uncover the reason as to why he was still alive.

It was not the most beautiful of rooms or the most spacious, but it served its purpose well enough, seeing as it contained a small cot (which made Yazoo glad he was of a such small build), an dresser which had most definitely seen better days, a collapsible end table (or was it a restaurant tray?), and an old ceiling fan with a few blades missing.

Still, it was better than laying outside in the constantly cool and metallic smelling Midgar air, waiting either for a death caused by blood loss or being attacked by one of the many monsters which now inhabited the area where the Shin-ra building had been.

Sighing heavily, Yazoo attempted to get a bit more comfortable, considering he couldn't feel, much less move, his battered body. Hoping the Jenova cells and years of experimentation would begin the healing process soon, the platinum haired teen soon fell into a troubled sleep.

---

Yazoo awoke to a splitting headache when he felt a soft nudge to his shoulder and something warm slightly to the right of his head, presumably on the bed side table judging by the amount of heat and how quickly it dissipated.

Opening his tired eyes slowly, Yazoo stared blankly as serpent like green met with soft natural brown. Inclining his head slightly as to get a better look at his visitor, the often solemn teen noticed the young girl sitting on the side of his bed looking down at him.

"Good morning." She said softly as she continued to look at him, her short dark brown-red hair framing a delicate porcelain face. "You've been asleep for a very long time. I brought you some soup."

Her voice was no more than a whisper, but it spoke volumes. Yazoo eyed her with a much practiced face filled with indifference, although he knew the mask would do little to detour the young girl and after a long moment of silence, he finally asked, "Why?"

Alarmed at the sudden raspy voice, the young girl seemed to ponder the question for a moment before a soft but bright smile lit up her face and a mischievous twinkle sparkled in her eyes.

"Because I wanted to." She said simply as Yazoo glared at her answer and she brought the soup to him, readying herself to feed him spoon by spoon. He simply stared at it, at her, and then back at the steaming broth which he assumed was some herbal concoction believed to exhibit healing abilities.

"…" He replied, decided instead to test if his body had done anything to heal himself during his sleep and found it was almost up to its normal strength. Lifting his hand to spoon, which in turn startled the brown haired girl as he should have not been able to move for another few weeks, he stopped when he noticed a figure standing in the doorway from the corner of his eye.

Not even bothering to make eye contact with the new addition to their gathering, Yazoo simply chose to return his hand to its place on the surprisingly soft mattress. Noticing the change and feeling something just wasn't quite right, the girl placed the soup on the bedside table and looked to the figure in the doorway as though she had been caught red handed after stealing an extra cookie after dinner.

"Marlene…" called a feminine voice from the doorway with a sigh. "What did I tell you about coming in here? What would your father say if he found you in here?"

Hanging her head and getting up from the bed, Marlene muttered something unintelligible under her breath as she walked towards the door, risking one last look at Yazoo as she went. "Hurry along and play with the other children as we have a little talk, Marlene."

Yazoo had not missed the unsaid words in that statement, nor did he miss as the woman clad almost entirely in black walked a few inches from her place in the doorway, narrowed her eyes into a deadly glare, or how she made certain to lock the door behind the retreating girl.

"Now…" she began, stepping closer, but not getting into the platinum haired teen's striking distance. Her face was contorted into a scowl, marring her otherwise pretty features, as she crossed her arms over her rather large chest. "You have some explaining to do…"