At a Walking Pace

By: The DayDreaming

Warnings: Alternate Universe. Motorbike sabotage. Angsty-ish Yuffie. This fic is supposed to be multi-chaptered, though I may or may not continue based upon whether or not people would like me to proceed with the story and if I feel like it.

Pairings: YuffiexCloud (one-sided in the beginning), YuffiexZexion (one-sided on Yuffie's part), possible ZexionxDemyx (because I've fallen in love with it)

Disclaimer: I'm only going to say it once in this fic. I don't own Kingdom Hearts' story or characters, nor do I own any of Square Enix's characters.

Summary: AU "Hello, Yuffie." Yuffie never believed there was anyone quite as unattainable as Cloud. He was a distant star, and she was microscopic space dust on the bottom of his shoe. But she was still foolish enough to fight for a happy ending. YuffiexCloud, Zemyx, one-sided YuffiexZexion

This chapter has not been edited for mistakes. If there are any, please notify me and I'll try to rectify the situation whenever I get off my lazy ass.

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chapter one: to be worthwhile

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"Hello, Yuffie."

There's a kind of way you say hello to a person that just screams your despise of that person's very being. Maybe it was the voice, that barely held back snarl. The lips, perhaps, would also come into play; nothing said hatred so much as a quaint greeting with a sneer on one's mouth. Most of all though, the affecting factor would have to be the eyes. The sharp angling of eyebrows, the squeezing of thin lids and the brush of lashes on smooth cheeks really amplified the fiery intensity of a spiteful, send-you-to-hell glare.

Cloud never was the most subtle of people, especially when it came to hiding his emotions (if he happened to be feeling anything other than utter emo-tastic despair). Cloud never was the type to greet his enemies, though, so how was it that Yuffie was on the receiving end of such a distinctive utterance as that which had just came forth from the aforementioned man?

"Hey, there…C-Cloudie…?"

She smiled back sheepishly at her next door neighbor. This wasn't good. The only time Cloud Strife ever noticed her meager and annoying existence was if she had done something terribly, terribly wrong concerning his life, property, or friends.

The black-haired girl let her half-hearted smile drop when she noticed the quiet seething displayed in Cloud's narrowed eyes.

Perhaps it would be best to step away from the extremely nice motorcycle sitting innocently next to the curb, black paint shining dazzlingly in the mid-afternoon haze of Radiant Garden. Inching away, she wondered if Cloud was angry at her for stepping too close to the two-wheeled vehicle, lovingly named Fenrir, or if he had noticed the large, shiny-black-paint peeling scrape on the side of his prized mode of transportation.

"N-Nice weather, huh?" She inwardly winced at the guiltiness in her tone. It had been an accident, right? Why was she so scared? Damn it, she was better at lying than this!

The glare pierced further into her being as Cloud stepped forward towards Fenrir, menacing theme music playing softly in the back of Yuffie's mind. She bit her lip at the sight of Cloud's eyebrows further furrowing at the sorry sight of the motorcycle, idly wondering if such extreme eyebrow extending hurt his nose at all, before quickly snapping to attention when Cloud turned his eyes back on her, silently gesturing to the large mark on Fenrir's side.

"I can pay for that," Yuffie quickly supplied, nervous smile twitching at her lips, "R-Really! I'm so sorry!"

Maybe not. The sorry part, she supplied in her mind, was merely to placate the blonde's rage while she attempted to formulate an escape plan. She had done the dirty deed on purpose, not that she'll ever let him know.

Cloud eyed her distastefully, before turning away to enter his house, "You'd better."

That could have gone better, Yuffie thought to herself, gaze lazily slipping back to the bike. It really was a very pretty piece of machinery. If she ever got up the guts (technically it was more like held them down) she would like to ride it someday, preferably with the blond owner sitting in front, with his hair dramatically swaying in the harsh wind and her slender arms (more like skinny, wimpy, stick-figureish – basically any word that can be used to describe her puny, muscle-mass non-existent limbs) wrapped comfortably around his mid-section.

What a nice fantasy, she thought to herself, if only I weren't so retarded that it would come true. Yuffie was usually an optimist, key word being usually; today, though, wasn't one of her 'oh my gosh, I just feel so good and happy, and I am just so uberly awesome that I could probably save the planet from a falling meteor and snag a handsome prince with my eyes closed' kind of days.

No, instead, it was one of her entirely so infrequent that it was almost considered a legend 'I'm in a slump someone help me I can't get up, close the bathroom door so I can slit my wrists in peace' kind of days. (It should be noted that Leon, a man that was usually more oblivious to the world than a comatose wall, if walls could have comas, had actually taken initiative with his surprisingly tiny attention span towards Yuffie, to categorize all of her moods, incredibly long titles included, into a very precise list, exactly two-and-a-half pages long.) (It should also be duly noted that Leon carried this list with him wherever he went, and it was of Aerith's opinion that he was writing a book on Yuffie to be put into print sometime in the near future.)

Yuffie sighed, disheartened at the situation she had gotten herself into, though it was entirely her fault. Part of her wanted to plead that it really was an accident, that the thought of wanting to harm Cloud Strife's precious Fenrir had never crossed her mind, that she merely wanted to clean the motorcycle of any gained dirt and grime accumulated from aforementioned blonde's frequent rides through the nearby country, just to gain his favor. But then, the niggling part of conscience whispered her dark thoughts throughout the crevices of her mind, stating that she had really meant it, that she had known that steel-wool wasn't used to clean cars or motorcycles, that she maybe wanted the outstanding event of ruining Fenrir to stay at the forefront of Cloud's mind when he remembered her, because it was so much more memorable than the slightly creepy washing of the ebony motorcycle to gain his attention.

And that was the problem, wasn't it? Cloud was almost as oblivious as Leon. He wouldn't notice Yuffie, even if she was bashing his head in with a steel pole while doing the polka. They had been neighbors for over five years now, and he only knew her first name (mostly because it was frequently shouted by the enraged people banging against her front door). He probably didn't even realize that they went to the same university, let alone shared two classes together.

Yuffie gave another long glance at the poor, abused motorcycle, sitting pristinely on the curb, looking for all the worlds like it belonged there more than she did. It would be hard; her parents definitely wouldn't pay for such a big mistake, even if she was their only daughter. We have enough to worry about, she was sure they would say, and haven't you made enough mistakes by now to learn to not be such a wiseass?

She heard a loud clank come from Cloud's house, eyes instantly focusing on the mint-green exterior (as mind-boggling as the color choice was, Cloud didn't seem to care when he moved in with several other housemates, and it had stayed the same shade; Yuffie was sure that the tenants of the house had actually touched up the fading color here and there), before letting out another long-suffering sigh at the complete hopelessness of her situation in general. Had she actually just hoped that the noise emanating from the small house was actually Cloud Strife, coming back to politely apologize for being so harsh, or to continue roughly scrutinizing her and his motorbike?

Yuffie turned away altogether, trying to push down her mixed feelings, leaving a hard knot in her stomach where butterflies were usually welling up at the mere thought of the handsome blond. She headed back the short distance to her house, hollowly going through the motions of opening the door and stepping inside, forgetting about the bucket of soapy water and package of steel-wool sponges sitting beside Fenrir.

This was her life now: a mere empty existence full of longing glances at white-curtained windows and a mint-green house, dreams of a blond man with stunning blue eyes stopping on the sidewalk and helping her pick up some conveniently dropped books, and desperate and humiliating attempts at gaining attention, that mostly garnered the occasional creeped-out twitch in the eye or stalwart glare.

Such was the life of Yuffie, one girl/ninja/stalker extraordinaire, who was completely and undeniably head-over-heels for one mysterious, tall, dark, and brooding Cloud Strife. Not only did he not acknowledge her existence in any way, shape, or form, nor did he show the slightest interest in her at all, but he now hated every single fiber of her being and was probably placing her on a to-be-killed-in-the-future list.

I'd do anything, she mused, looking at her face intently in a mirror hanging lopsidedly on the foyer wall, to have him really look at me, and see someone worthwhile.

Unfortunately, unrequited love never quite works out that way.

-x.-X-.x-

Okay, so, I'm not exactly sure what this is. Oh, by the way, it's been a while. Hi guys! I guess this just kind of came out on its own. I felt like typing, but couldn't decide what to work on, so this evil spawn spewed forth from the pits of hell to nestle into my Word document folder.

I'm sorry if the writing is poor; I'm extremely rusty, and I believe my writing has degraded in coherency and diction. Life hasn't been exactly strenuous, but I've been in a slump for quite a long time. It might actually be a mild case of depression; things seem to have started to head downhill in my personality, my friends have become almost non-existent and nothing more than acquaintances to me, and I'm isolating myself and sleeping a lot. I constantly think about death and am having nightmares about murder and torture. But I shouldn't be ranting here.

I really needed something light to write, so this should tide me over. I actually might decide to continue this fic, as this definitely isn't the end of the story; I love happy endings. If you didn't read before, this is in an alternate universe place, kinda sorta. So if things don't make sense, ask me, or I'll probably expound upon things in later chapters, if I decide to continue. Please tell me if you would like for this story to continue; I really don't like updating stories that no one wants to read.

I've never really written romance that well, so this is a bit foreign to me, but I hope I don't mangle things too horribly.

Hopefully, until next time! Please review! The DayDreaming out!

P.S.: Can anyone guess which videogame series I stole the title from? (hint: the title is the Japanese translation, but the actual English title is something entirely different.) Also, from which Disney movie did I steal the ideas for the second-to-last paragraph in the story from? Guess both first, and win a cameo appearance!