Kite Rowe

While the rest of our ragtag group had already chosen their rooms, Markus and I were left to negotiate. One room was roomier, with a bigger bed, while the other one was small and plain, clearly for a temporary visitor. It didn’t even really have any decorations like the other room. Either room would’ve been fine for me; I was used to an old mattress back home so I didn’t even care if I had to sleep on the floor.

But I wanted to know how it felt to have a bigger bed.

“I guess I’ll take this room,” Markus said while pointing to the bigger room.

“Hold on, why that room?”

“I’m big. I don’t want to turn over in my sleep just to fall out the bed.”

I hung my head. He had a point. “Fine.”

A pause before Markus said, “We could Rock Paper Scissors for it if you really want it.”

I had to hide my smirk. “Just take the damn room.”

He turned and winced, rubbing his leg. “You kind of owe me anyway.”

“For what?”

“For putting that sledgehammer in my landing spot.”

My eyes rolled up while I thought about what he was talking about. Now that he mentions it, he was rubbing that spot when we were in that creepy…

“You’re still hurting from landing on it? Sorry about that. Thought you would’ve recovered from it by now.” My own body was aching all over from the fights, especially the back from when it hit the wall when Nova flew into me.

“I’ll be fine.” Another pause, then I jumped when he put his hand on my shoulder. “Get some rest. I bet you’ll feel better about everything in the morning.”

I rolled my eyes. He must’ve been talking about my fight with Nova. “Seriously doubt it but good—“

“Nova!”

I turned my head just in time to see Alex practically glomp Nova. My cheeks burned from the embarrassment of rising jealousy. “Good grief, just marry her already,” I grumbled as I retreated to the small room, slamming the door behind me.

The bed was like heaven, no matter how trivial it probably was to the owners of the house. My body became as heavy as lead while the exhaustion took full hold of my body. What a night. What was all that crap about l’Cie? Why do I suddenly have powers, and why do I feel like I’m the only one out of the loop? My education about the fal’Cie was limited but I didn’t need the knowledge until now, although I did deal with their technology from time to time.

“Bad…bad feeling,” I muttered as I fell asleep.

Must destroy… must destroy…
breaking crumbling falling roaring
It all must be destroyed?
destroy destroy Destroy DESTROY

“NO!” I yelled, finally waking up from the nightmare and tumbling out the bed from the shock. Sweat had covered both my body and the pillow. My legs didn’t want to move. There didn’t seem to be enough air in the room to fill my lungs, and every breath I took made me more nauseous.

And on top of all that, I suddenly needed to pee.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t gone since all that chaos happened back at Ramblum,” I said to myself as I slowly rose just enough to sit on the bed. “Ugh, thought I’d feel better after some sleep.”

What was that I was dreaming about? Too vivid to be a normal nightmare, and I didn’t eat anything weird before falling asleep so it wasn’t one of those dreams. It was almost like it was telling me to do something. Was that what I thought was falling? Why would I do such a thing?

I stayed still until the dizziness and nausea went away, then stumbled to the bedroom door. “So hungry I could eat a whole—“

“Beep!”

I looked down at the small ball of yellow fluff. “Chocobo chick?”

“Beep!” the tiny repeated. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. “Beep!”

“Nope, ain’t dreaming.” I crouched in front of the chick, blocking its path with a hand when it tried to make an escape. “I don’t remember seeing you anywhere when I got here. Do you belong to one of the group?”

It almost seemed to nod. “If you did, then how did you manage to get through all that mess with the fal’Cie?”

“Beep?”

I held out my hand and smiled as it walked onto it. Its bright blue eyes looked up at me. “You’re a cute little thing. You kinda remind me of someone.”

“Beep?”

“Yeah, there was this woman who Cid used to visit in the entertainment district. Had eyes just like yours. What was her name? Bonnie? Bunny? Baby?”

“Beep!”

“No, that wasn’t it. It was Babe… no, Babs. Her name was Babs.” I groaned as my bladder reminded me why I was out the room in the first place. “Hold on, Babs. Gotta take a leak.” I set her down in the hallway and went in the bathroom.

After… you know, I took the time to examine the bruises I had gotten. Chest, back, arms, leg… thigh…

“Wait, what’s this?” My eyes were glued to a strange tattoo on my right calf. Either someone was playing a prank on me, or it happened during my trip through the fal’Cie’s lair. New powers and a new tattoo? Okay, now I definitely need some kind of explanation.

My panic was derailed as I heard Babs chirping excitedly. “So this is where you wandered off to. How did you get up here?” I heard Nova say through the door.

My mood crashed. So it’s his chick. Okay, deep breath. You can be civil for one day as long as you don’t say much to him. Just ask someone else about the strange mark. I counted to three and opened the door just as he was asking about who was in the bathroom.

There was an awkward silence as we stared at each other. I would’ve been looking at his face but I was too occupied with his chest.

And it wasn’t just because he was shirtless.

He also had a strange tattoo on his body.

“Kite?” Nova finally spoke. Something landed on my head. “Get down from there, Babs.”

I snapped out of it. “You actually named it Babs?”

“She looks like a Babs.” He took her off my head. “You were looking a little spooked a second ago.”

My mouth opened and closed while I was silently debating whether or not to ask him about the mark. I finally decided to ask him with the promise that I punch him if he decided to repeat his previous mistake. “I have a question, and if you do any of that dodging shit I will lay you out flat. What’s with the mark on your chest?”

Don't kill me, Becki! *runs off*