Postponing the Inevitable

Disclaimer: Sadly enough I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any other Final Fantasy characters that may appear in this story.

Summary: When a war is proclaimed on Yuffie's home of Twilight Town she flees with her step-brother Cloud in hopes of finding and new and better life. What will this new life bring her? love? Friendship? Or is it just postponing the inevitable. SQUFFIE!

Chapter 1: Attack

"We're under attack, your highness." Yuffie's eyes shot towards the tall, lean man in the doorway.

"A..attack?" She stammered out.

"Yes miss" The man answered "We're surrounded."

"It's not him is it? He hasn't found us…has he?" She asked, her eyes shifting towards the second person in the room. A short, stout man dressed in rich clothes in need of an iron, he had a tired face that wore a frown and was criss-crossed with lines from week's worth of worry. "Father?" Yuffie's voice quavered with fear.

"Is the escape gummi ready?" He asked calmly. Again she shifted her gaze, to the third and final man residing in the room. Sitting next to her, her stepbrother Cloud. His face was as emotionless as ever, but his stance was stiffer then usual and caution was written throughout his eyes.

"Yes your highness" The first man replied. His name was Nida and he was the co-pilot on the royal gummi-ship. He held his head high to appear calm, but his hands were shaking.

"Good." Was her fathers reply, Yuffie looked back towards him. "Cloud." His voice was cold and held a tone of distrust. "Take Yuffie and get your things, Nida will take you to the escape gummi."

"Yes Godo." Yuffie rolled her eyes. No matter how long Cloud had known Godo he refused to call him father, or even add a respectable sir to the kings name.
"C'mon Yuffie" Cloud diverted his icy stare from Godo and turned a warm one on Yuffie. He took her hand and lead her out of the room, Nida following. They walked down the hallway turning this way and that. Yuffie followed Cloud silently, lost in her thoughts 'It can't be him, there's no way he could have found us.' CRASH.

"Owww! What the!" She yelled from her position on the floor, but quickly drew quite as she realised just who she had bumped into. "Sorry." She mumbled while picking herself off the ground, her face turning red from embarrassment. Almost as red in fact as the hair of the man standing in front of her. Reno, long-time crush and pilot of the royal gummi-ship.

"Hello miss Yuffie." Yuffie caught herself staring into his eyes and shook her head.

"H..hello." Smooth.

"Cloud, Nida." Cloud nodded in acknowledgement, and Nida continued to stare at the floor. Yuffie took this chance to bring Reno's attention back to her in attempts to make up for her earlier stupidity.

"So, Reno what brings you down here? Shouldn't you be yea know..flying the ship?" Reno chuckled a little at her statement.

"Oh we 're not going anywhere at the moment." He flashed one of his dazzling grins, and Yuffie could feel her knees buckling. "I came down to talk to the King." Cloud scoffed at the title, and Yuffie shot him a deadly glare. Nida, feeling rather forgotten, addressed Reno on the matter.

"He's down in the…"

"I'm right here." The group quickly turned around, the two siblings separating their heated stares. "You two." Godo gestured towards Cloud and Yuffie, "Have things to be done, now Reno what did you find so important that it was necessary to leave your post in the middle of this conflict."

"Ah…well, yes, why don't we take a walk." He looked at Yuffie and smiled, "I'll see you later Miss Yuffie." Her face started to once again turn red, and she quickly diverted her gaze towards the floor.

"Bye." Was all she managed to get out, it was answered with nothing except Clouds laughter. She looked up to see Reno already halfway down the hall. " Great." She muttered while simultaneously rolling her eyes. She turned and entered Clouds room; Nida waited in the doorway. Yuffie seated herself on Clouds bed, as he pulled a bag from his closet. He walked around his room and began stuffing things into the bag.

"Hey, Cloud are you gonna bring your sword?" Her question was answered as he pulled his Buster Sword from his closet.
"Ah..sir?" Nida said, sounding more then a little scared. "I'm not sure the King will allow you to um..take that with you." Cloud began walking towards him, and Nida's eyes grew wider with each step he took his gaze flickering between the Sword and the menacing look upon Clouds face. Cloud stopped as Yuffie's hands grasped his arm. He looked down at the annoyed expression written across her face, and a look in her eyes pleading with him as if to say 'please don't make this any worse then it already is.'

"Beating him to a bloody pulp isn't gonna solve the problem." He sighed and shouldered the Buster Sword then continued to walk calmly from the room, continuing down the hall towards Yuffie's room. As Yuffie passed Nida, who was still shaking in the doorway, she put an arm around his shoulders in an effort to comfort him and lead him down the hall directly after Cloud.

Upon entering her room, Yuffie grabbed a duffel bag from her closet and began packing it with random clothes, none of which she liked, a picture of her mother, her journal and with a quick glance behind to make sure Nida wasn't looking, she stuffed in her most prized possession, her shuriken. "Okay, all done." She spun around, duffel bag swinging in her grasp. THUD. Her eyes locked with Clouds as Nida hit the floor. Yuffie's eyes shifted over to Clouds right hand, which was holding the lamp from her bedside table.

"CLOUD! What did you do?"

"C'mon." Cloud grabbed her arm in one hand and his gear in the other. "We're leaving." Yuffie turned her head and took one last look at the room, and Nida's unconscious body. 'I hope he's alri…oh who am I kidding, he annoyed the hell out of me.' Coming back to her senses about the matter at hand she wriggled her hand out of Clouds grasp.

"Cloud! What the hell is going on?"

"We're leaving."

"Then why did you attack Nida? I mean I know you didn't like him but…"

"We're not leaving with Godo."

"Then how?"

"There's more then one escape gummi, we're going to take one and leave all of this…leave everything." He turned to face Yuffie; his eyes pleaded with hers. He was right, they had talked about leaving so many times before, now was the perfect chance. What did they have if they stayed? Their family? No, their Kingdom? Not anymore.

"Let's go" The words rolled off the young girls tongue, and it felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. They ran down endless halls, turned countless corners until they turned one more and stopped. Before them was a door, not an ordinary door, one with a circular handle and numerous locks.

"Cloud? How are we gonna get it op…" But before she finished her question metal clashed with metal, sparks flitted through the air and the handle lay on the floor, the Buster Sword resting just above it. "Oh." Cloud kicked the door, and walked through. Yuffie followed hesitantly, quickly glancing behind her. Through the door was a small hallway leading to the Gummi-ship door. This time Cloud had no need for the sword, as the door swung open under his touch. The Gummi-ship was minuscule compared to the one they had been living on for the last week. The main room was colourful and bright, a drastic change from the cold, drab grey of the previous vessel. There was two doors leading off to what she supposed was the bedroom and bathroom. Cloud had dropped his bag in the middle of the floor, and had propped the Buster Sword against the wall. He currently resided in the pilots seat.

"Sit down, they'll notice the door soon enough." His voice was forceful, but not harsh. Yuffie took the seat next to him.

"You can drive this thing?"

"I learned a long time ago." He started the engine, and Yuffie fastened her seat belt. She was instantly pushed backwards as Cloud hit the pedal. Colours and shapes whizzed past the window and then they were gone, and replaced by the blackness and emptiness of space. Yuffie let a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "We're free" Cloud looked at her and smiled, a rare sight for him, 'I hope he'll be doing a lot more of that now.'

She unbuckled her seat belt and walked to the back of the cabin. She looked out of the window, and in the fleeting distance she could see the Royal Gummi-ship, now swarmed by hundreds of black ships. Explosions were going off, and fires were quickly spreading across the ships body. 'I hope the others are safe.' She didn't care for the others much but she certainly didn't want them dead, there had already been to many deaths. 'They'll be fine, Reno is an excellent pilot, he can get them out of this.' She turned away from the window unable to watch it any longer, tears threatening to spill from her weary eyes. Yuffie closed her eyes; she wouldn't allow herself to cry not now, now when they were free. No longer tied down to responsibility, not under Godo's grasp or being watched every second of the day, they were free. 'Now we can do what we want when we want, where we want, wait..where are we going to live?' She voiced her last thought, she could tell by the expression on Clouds face that he hadn't thought that far ahead.

"There's a map in the front here, why don't you pick." 'Nice recovery' Yuffie walked back up to the front, sparing one last glance out the window, she was met with the inky blackness of the empty sky, the Gummi-ship was no where in sight. When she reached the front she pulled out the map and plopped down into her seat with a light thud. She unfolded the map carefully, her eyes widened at the sight.

"There's so many! How do I choose?"

"Anyway you want." 'Well that was helpful. I know! I'll use my fail proof system.' She closed her eyes, stuck out her index finger and waved it around in the air over the map, she stopped and lowered her finger. As her skin made contact with the smooth paper Yuffie opened her eyes and looked down.

"The Coliseum, what's that like?"

"It's a stadium where people fight other people in tournaments."

"Oh boy, lets go there! No one would stand a chance against the Great Ninja Yuffie!" She leaped from her seat and landed in her fight position. Cloud looked as if he was holding back laughter, She glared at him and sat back down.

"I'm sorry Yuffie, but the coliseums off limits, everyone knows how much you love to fight, that would be the first place they'd look for us."

"Fine." She grumbled. Again she used her system, when she opened her eyes her finger was on "Destiny Islands, wow that sounds perfect!"

"Okay…hmm the system can't seem to locate it. That's odd."

"Fine, fine. Third times the charm!" She closed here eyes, 'This had better work, my fail proof systems already failed me twice.' She opened her eyes. "How about this one?" Yuffie glanced at Cloud, he turned his head to meet her gaze.

"Which one?"

"Traverse Town."

Laurel Leonhart