Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy

This is my first Final Fantasy fan-fic so I hope you guys like it! This is the first chapter...and if you guys like it I'll probably continue it, but I think that there will only be one more chapter after this one

The setting is three years after the metor and one year after Advent Children. The flasback is a few weeks before the Advent Children.

Single White Rose of Wutai

Cloud and Yuffie

Yuffie Kisaragi. The famous ninja. The single white rose of Wutai. The goddess and master of the shuriken. The girl who had a profound and outspoken love for materia. She was the in-your-face hyperactive teenager that had traveled with Cloud and the others on that fateful journey three years ago to save the planet. She was one of those who fought along side the others who had taken a stand in Edge just a year ago. Yuffie Kisargi was never a girl to hold her tongue, except when it came to one thing…or should we saw someone.

"Yuffie Kisaragi is here!" the raven haired girl announced as soon as she set foot on the deck Sherra. The announcement was followed by light laughter as most of the passangers on the famous airship turned her way. In truth she had been on the Sherra for quite a while now, although her motion sickness had gotten the better of her. She had been spending the last hour trying to keep her breakfast down. But now the Sherra, landed by the number one pilot Cid, was rested on the sandy beaches of Costa Del Sol.

It had come around to that time of year again. Ever since the meteor incident everyone who had fought in that great battle had a reunion ever year. They had changed the location for each reunion. This year it was the tropical setting of Costa Del Sol.

"Hey Yuffie, you ready to hit the beach?" a familiar female voice said. It was none other than the martial artists, Tifa Lockheart. She gave Yuffie a closed lipped smile as the young ninja came into view.

"You know it!," she said returning the smile. Tifa let out a small laugh before she returned to what she was doing.

Looking around she surveyed the attendance on the ship. She lowered her voice to a volume only she could hear. "Tifa…Barret…RedXIII…Vincent…Cid…duh Yuffie…of course Cid is here! Who would've flown the ship? And even Reeve is here…" she whispered to herself. "Even Reeve is here! In his own flesh and blood! Looks like he ditched the robotics today…" She mentally kicked herself for her previous stupidity and continued to search the ship. There was one person missing…a certain blonde warrior. She walked forward slowly, her sprits damped slightly, although her feelings did not show on her face. In the background she could hear her comrade's conversation, although they were not the focus of her mind.

"I'll tell you one thing, I'm not wearing that damn white marshmallow suit," Barret said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Barret, no one's forcing you to wear it. And it's not a marshmallow suit, it's a sailors outfit. Besides I thought it looked kind of cute on you," Tifa said sarcastically followed by laughter. This was responded by a rough grunt from Barret.

"I ain't wearing that shit, that's all I gotta say,"

"Will you two quit your yapping for a minute?! We're fucking already here! Damn! When I get on the beach I better not hear on word outta you two!" Cid said with his cigarette in his mouth.

Once Yuffie had surveyed the front of the bridge she was about to give up hopes. She turned around to her arguing friends. "Where's Cloud?" she asked as she immediately turned around. Her voice sounded light against the hard voices of the two arguing. This in return granted her confused stares. Since when did Yuffie ask about Cloud?

Yuffie had started to care about Cloud ever since that day one year ago. That year ago when she was in Edge, the replica city of Midgar.

Flashback

"Twenty two…twenty three…twenty four…" Yuffie counted her colorful orbs before placing them in the metal lock box. A mischievous giggle left her lips as she finished counting and put down her last materia sphere inside the container. With a small snap of the lid, she locked the chest and hugged it tightly to her stomach. Who knew that Edge would be a materia hunter's dream comes true? With large crowds in the city it was easy to swipe a matera here and there from the numerous stores.

Her eyes shifted around the streets of Edge suspiciously. Her hands clutched the her precious materia treasure like a little child with its candy. There was no way she would be able to carry this large box, along with her other packages back to Wutai. She was only in Midgar for a few days running errands for her father. Being busy she hadn't really gotten a chance to see Tifa and Cloud. By now Yuffie knew that those two were living together. They were also living together with two children…Marlene and another little boy named Denzel.

With her free hand she reached into her pocket. She pulled out her dark blue phone with a small chocobo keychain. She pressed speed dial three and the name 'Cloud' appeared on the screen of her phone. As she had suspected she had gotten his answer machine.

"Hey! It's me! Yuffie! I know you're there…you're probably going to listen to this right after I hang up the phone. I have something really important to ask you. Will you give me a call back? …." The girl fell silent for a moment. "You know if you don't call me back I'm just gonna keep on calling…and calling…and calling and calling!" With that Yuffie shut her blue phone and stuffed it back in pockets.

She dangled her feet of the edge of the ledge, still holding her treasure protectively. A few minutes later, just as she suspected she heard her phone ringing. Flipping open her phone, she looked at the finger printed screen. A happy smile emerged as she saw the name 'Cloud'

"Hey Cloud!" she said into the phone.

"Yuffie?" he responded in a low voice. His tone was calm and collected, the opposite of the girl on the other line.

She let out a small laugh before answering. "So you figured you might as well have called me huh? Wise decision Spikes! You know I really would have called and called and called and ca-"

"Yuffie I'm hanging up," he said cutting her off from her ranting.

"No no no! Wait! I'm sorry! I really need you're help! Hello? Cloud? Are you there?" she yelled in the phone.

On the other side Cloud held the phone slightly adjacent to his ear. A heavy somewhat annoyed sigh left the blonde's lips. "Yes…Yuffie. I'm still here. Now what do you want?"

"Well uh…I kind of have this…box…filled with…stuff…" The young girl paused for a moment to track her words. "I have to get back to Wutai today, and I can carry it with all the stuff I have, so can I just leave it with you for a few days?"

"No," he simply said.

Yuffie blinked somewhat shocked by his blunt response. "What why? Wait…are you serious?"

"Yuffie I have to go…"

"Wait wait! Cloud please! It's really important to me…" she said in desperation. There was no way that she was going to throw away all this materia. The girl held her breath as she heard only silence from the other line.

"Yuffie-"

"Cloud please!!!!! Please Cloud please!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. This caused a few strange glances from the people walking by. She narrowed her eyes as she gave the towns people a death glare, which made them proceed along with their day.

Cloud contemplated the consequences of his decision if he would accept. He let out another heavy sigh knowing that Yuffie would not quit pestering him unless he gave the teenager what she wanted.

"Fine..."

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!" she said all in one breath.

"Meet me now, at The Seventh Heaven."

With that Yuffie heard him hang up the phone. With that Yuffie jumped off the ledge for joy. With the metal box still in her hand she ran through the streets of Edge. Weaving through the crowd of people, it was a miracle that she hadn't bumped and tackled someone to the ground. It only took a few minutes to reach the bar, she knew all too well. Feeling at home she walked up the steps and inside.

"Hey! I'm here!" she announced as she opened the door. Her calls received no response.

"Hm…I guess nobody's home…don't mind if I take a look around…" she thought mischievously.

The Wutai native made her way towards the counter and had placed the box down. She looked around the abandoned business taking a look at the numerous liquor bottles behind the bar. Curiosity overwhelming her she grabbed on of the wooden stools taking it behind the counter. Putting down the chair she felt that one of the legs were shorter than the other three, making the stool wobbly. "Eh whatever…" she thought. "What are the chances of me falling?" Stepping carefully atop the wooden chair she looked at the bottles on the very top.

It wasn't long until the sound of a familiar motorcycle filled her ears. A smile crept up on her face as she swung around the stool to face the entrance. She froze, although she didn't know why. Her face expression seemed to freeze as her mouth was slightly agape.

And there he was, he looked exactly the same. He had changed his attire, although it was somewhat similar to what he had used to wear. One unique feature of his outfit was the one sleeve draping over his arm.

Looking over his face he still had that boyish expression, but the demeanor of a SOILDER. Yuffie's eyes grazed to the curves of his face, to his intense blue make eyes, to his untamed spiky blonde hair. Her gaze slowly lowered to his eyes again, then following the curves of his cheeks down to his pink lips. She felt her cheeks get hot as she couldn't take her eyes of his lips.

And suddenly Cloud's lips parted as if he was speaking, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. She just couldn't, couldn't stop staring.

"Yuffie!" Cloud said louder causing Yuffie's head to jerk up. He was wondering why she was behind the counter…on top of one of the stools...with one hand grazing the bottles of liquor on the very top. She looked up at Cloud with a bewildered look on her face. Her cheeks felt hot and she felt extremely weak. What had just happened?

"Yuffie are you alright?" he asked in a deep cooled voice.

"Huh?" she managed to stutter out. Her eyes hadn't left the swordsman's face and her mouth still had managed to stay open.

"Are you feeling alright?" Cloud asked her with a look mixed with confusion and worry. He shifted as he started to make his way over to her. The sound of his heavy boots hitting the wooden flooring filled her ears. She sat silent as she felt like she was hearing an echo as he got closer…and closer…and closer…until the echo stopped.

"Yuffie? You're really freaking me out," he said as he loomed over to her.

He looked up at the teenager before him as she looked down silently at him. She was much taller than him with the height of the stool. It was Cloud's turn to look. She too had changed her attire just like he had. She had traded her green mid-drift turtle neck for a black flower tank top that stopped short of her belly button. Her shirt was complimented with a unzipped vest, tanned shorts, and white laced up boots. His blue eyes looked at her up and down. Did Yuffie always look like this? It had been two years since he had seen her. But she looked older and more mature. But no, it wasn't that, something was different about her. He made eye contact with her dark brown almond eyes, and looked at her with an unblinking gaze.

It seemed like they stayed locked in that position for what seemed for hours, but was only a few seconds in reality.

Don't stop…don't stop looking at me the way you do…the way you're staring at me right now…

Once Cloud had realized what he was doing he quickly averted his gaze, blinking out of confusion. Yuffie too had snapped out whatever it was and returned to her normal self.

"Cloud! You're here!" she yelled too loudly. Cloud's head jerked to the Wutai native as her loud call grabbed his attention. The ninja wasn't even expecting for her voice to come out at the volume and had surprised herself.

"I'm right here Yuffie, you don't need to shout," he said in his borderline monotone voice.

The girl giggled slightly as she jumped off the stool. "Heh yeah sorry about that!"

"Yuffie get down from there."

The girl rolled her eyes and smiled. "Eh don't worry, I'm not breaking anything," she protested, but listened to his words. She shifted to jump down, but didn't expect the stool to stumble under her weight. The uneven stool buckled from the sudden movement, completely falling from underneath her.

Yuffie let out a small cry of distress as she closed her eyes. She prepared herself to come into a hard impact with the ground, but instead her fall was stopped short. The girl didn't even fall halfway before she felt something warm warp around her waist. She felt like she just fell atop a soft brick wall. Reluctantly opening her eyes she saw a dark shade of purple color. Once her mind had focused she felt the warmth around the bare skin of her mid-drift a strong arm holding her.

Looking up she saw Cloud looking down at her. He was so close…so close She had never been this close to him…except that one time. The one time she asked him to keep her company that night at the golden saucer. That was two years ago… That night she made a daring move to give Cloud a kiss on the cheek, and followed by a slap due to his stupidity. But that was different; there was no attraction, it was just something she wanted to do, just pure impulse. But now…this was different too…something different from impulse…

She could feel his hot breath brush against her cheeks. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand as she saw his mako eyes from up close. She felt the heat from his body rush upon her like being wrapped around a warm blanket.

Don't let go…don't let me go…

Her hands were crumpled in fists pressed against his chest, just like the rest of her body was being pressed against his. She felt his sleeveless arm wrapped around her. The skin from her bare mid-drift brushed against the bare skin on his arm.

I like this feeling

As he shifted she felt his arm caress the skin on the side of her stomach. Using his other arm he steadier her and held her until she had regained her balance. Once he saw that she was stable he had dropped his hands from her waist and looked at her with that same expression, like it was nothing.

When Yuffie was standing on the stool she was taller than Cloud. Now without the height of the stool, the raven haired girl stood at her full height, which wasn't very tall. She had to cock her head up to look at Cloud, who in turn bent his head down to see her. Cloud wasn't very tall, but he was definitely taller than her. The eighteen year old girl only came up to his chest, and full head shorter than him.

"What…was that? " she thought to herself. "What is...this…what am I…what am I feeling?"

"So?" he said breaking the silence.

That was enough lay way for Yuffie to break her out of her awkward thoughts. "Right! Cloud I need you to keep something for me."

"What?"

"Glad ya asked!" She scrambled to the front of the counter and grabbed her treasure box. Making her way back to Cloud she had a huge smile on her face, almost completely forgetting about the previous event. Her petite hands held out the large container to him.

He looked at the box then looked at her questioningly.

"Don't give me that look!" She said narrowing her eyes at him. She opened the box to reveal numerous colorful orbs of materia. "Keep this for me…until I get back?"

For Yuffie to give her materia willingly to someone was a rare event.

"You sure you want me to take this?" he asked almost asking if there was some kind of catch.

"Yeah, just until I get back. You better not let anyone touch it okay?" she said poking him in the chest which failed him make the man stumble even slightly.

Cloud looked at the box as Yuffie locked it again. He was pretty sure that she would be back for it in a couple of days anyways. He nodded as she handed to box to him.

"Sure," he said simply.

"Sure? That doesn't sound very convincing…" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You better promise not to let anyone else touch it okay?! Please yeah?!" she said looking up at him with. She almost sounded desperate, almost scared that someone would steal her materia.

Then the unthinkable happened. A rare event, more rare than Yuffie handing over her materia. Cloud's lips formed into a closed lipped smile as he let out somewhat scoffed laugh. He had never seen someone so desperate for matera besides the ninja before him. It was…almost cute…

"Yeah I promise," he said holding the box with his sleeved arm.

She jumped for joy and clapped her hands. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!" she said. Cloud nodded as Yuffie smiled up at him.

End of Flashback

"Cloud's not coming…" Tifa said calmly. "He had some deliveries to do, so he said he'll try to make it later."

Yuffie couldn't believe it. There fearless leader wasn't coming? "But he always comes!? How can he not come!" she said loudly, a little louder than she had expected it to come out. "Eheh…I mean he should be here. I mean this is the only time all of us are together out of the whole year!"

"I know Yuffie, but you know Cloud," Tifa said shouldering her bag of belongings. Everyone followed Tifa's lead and started to pick up their packs.

"Yeah…royal pain in the ass…" she said rolling her eyes.

Why did she care so much? Since when did she start caring when Cloud came to these stupid reunions anyway? She shook her head mentally as she decided not to think of it. They were in Costa del Sol! She wasn't about someone's absence spoil her fun right? And she knew how to have fun – especially in a sunny-beach-tan resort. She was Yuffie Kisaragi! She was definitely going to have fun on the beach flirting with shirtless guys in her bikini!

What are these feelings that I'm feeling…?

"Aw c'mon Yuffie. Cheer up! What do ya say? Let's go hit the beach?" Tifa asked putting her hand on Yufife's shoulder.

"Hell yeah! This is Costa Del Sol! Let's get this party started!" she yelled as she was led out of the Sherra by Tifa. Despite her outer behavior she still couldn't shake the feeling inside her pit of her chest.

"Yeah… let's go have fun…" she said a little softer.