So this is going to be kind of short, but it's for the heck of it. For those who are super fans of FFVII, this will NOT be accurate as it's a crossover with elements from FFX and FFVII with altered histories, etc. Credits go to Naruto0116 as well since the idea came from a roleplay we did. I just fell in love with the characters, I haven't actually played the games. Don't hate me for it. XD
Jello
This is a rather unusual story. In the midst of a country wrought with grief, there are still those who smile. A land where death is commonplace and the only hope is the temporary reprieve known as the Calm. These people suffer from an affliction, the same one that has haunted them for the past millennium. And yet, there are those who still fight for the people to protect them from this threat. This monstrous beast known as Sin that destroys and renders places desolate, void of life, giving only grief to both the living and the death, begetting only death, and fiends from those who die. This tragic world is called Spira. Within this world is a universal struggle to survive. By both the living and the dead, and almost always ends up in tragedy.
It was in one of these factions to protect the living that our story begins. A segment that works with the Crusaders, known as SOLDIER. Each given a sort of serum to enhance their physical bodies to become strong enough to fight Sin and hopefully destroy it one day without the sacrifice of a summoner. This particular camp was led by the commander, Sephiroth. A cold man, but caring and protective of his subordinates.
It was dusk, the shadows having grown long in the evening, the sun setting and the moon already visible in the sky when the tiny creature shuffled past the unknowing sentry. This figure was on all fours, small limbs with five digits on the front limbs that seemed to be carefully choosing where they were placed to avoid making even a single sound while entering the forbidden ground. Stealthily, the small beast approached the closest tent.
Hunger. That was all that drove this stealthy little one. There was only the hope that there would be food in these things that they called packs. So, greedily, but ever so careful to be silent, the ransacking of the bag under the cot began.
Now Cloud, a younger recruit had been left at camp to patrol it and make sure that nothing got inside while the others are out hunting for some fresh meat. Well, his best friend and senior, Zack Fair was tending the fire at the moment and soon to take his shift and let Cloud go to bed and get some sleep before the commander returns.
Cloud was leaning against the nearby small oak, scrub oak if you will. He had not realized that the camp had been infiltrated. But then again, he's a rookie, prone to rookie mistakes. The only problem is, that he's probably going to be in trouble, as in, major trouble if Commander Sephiroth finds out about this blunder. So Cloud kept watch, having not the faintest idea that his watch had already been compromised by the little beast. Therefore the blonde waited, losing track of the minutes as the last of sunlight disappeared over the horizon.
"Hey! Blondie, get some beauty sleep!" The voice of Zack snapped the youth out of his reverie of thought. Zack, the tall and well build man with the dashing blue eyes and coal black hair was grinning childishly at the younger Cloud. "Oho? Is little mister big shot thinking too hard? Don't do that too often, man. You'll use up what few braincells you've got."
"Oh shut it, Zack." The blonde boy huffed as he playfully shoved the older one's shoulder. "Be careful. Wouldn't want YOU getting in trouble with Sephiroth." He added in cheekily as he walked back down to his tent to do just as Zack had instructed. He was pretty tired. It was quite cold out, and if he hadn't been one of those with the super soldier serum put into him, he'd have trouble handling the temperature right now.
But there was nothing like living to protect the people of Spira. He felt so patriotic over that. For a guy who didn't have much of a childhood because of Sin, he felt like he had found his purpose in life. As he was contemplating this fact, he pulled the tent flap to his tent open and froze.
Strangely enough, the items of his backpack were strewn across the ground, everything he had had been rifled through by someone uncaring of the order. It was as Cloud studied the interior of his tent that he realized he could hear something breathing other than himself. He didn't hear any other movement than that so he drew the large buster sword from his back, pointing it toward the sound of the was inches away from a dirty brown colored ear. Or what looked like an ear.
The creature's eyes widened under the cot at the sight of the blade so close to this small beast. Even the breathing in the figure's lungs had paused as the boy spoke in a dark voice full of deadly intent.
"Get out where I can see you, or I'll kill you." He still may do it depending on what it was. He's thinking it was a fiend of some kind. But what crawled out from under his cot was not what he was expecting. Covered in a tattered cloak with some kind of creature ears sewn into the top of it, and two buttons to serve as eyes was anything but a monster. From under the hood of the cloak was a very dirty, but very human face.
Cloud was startled. His blue eyes met the gaze of dark brown ones staring right back at him. But something was very different about those brown eyes, they were as dead looking as a corpse's. The teenager lifted his sword to return it to his back, but the movement startled the small child into backing up to avoid what looked like it would be a slash.
"No, no, no." Cloud said in a gentle tone as he set the sword down to the side slowly so that the child would not be frightened by the thought that he might be trying to attack. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you." He called out, reaching a hand out toward the little one, who recoiled toward the back of the tent to run away like a frightened rabbit. So he retracted his hand and stared at her thoughtfully.
As he studied her, trying to see what the best course of action to earn her trust would be, he noticed how gaunt the child's face and hands are. That's it! Food! He reached into his pocket to withdraw a piece of meat he had saved from his meal earlier in the day. Considering it was fresh, unlike any of the dried things that had been in the bag, it was especially tantalizing to the starved figure who's eyes immediately locked onto his hand with the food and took a hesitant half crawl forward, closer to him.
It was working! Except that the child paused but a short distance from him. He waited a long moment, waiting for her to come closer. Which she did slowly, then just as she was within arms' reach, she paused and looked up at his smiling face, as if trying to decide whether he'd grab her or not when she goes for the food. Apparently she decided that he was trustworthy enough to approach and suddenly opened her mouth and clamped down on the meat... and his hand.
Cloud had been smiling in a gentle, friendly way... until she bit his hand. He resisted the urge to not only smack her, but cry out to his colleague. She didn't mean it, he could tell from the desperate way she's licking at his fingers, as if trying to get every last bit of the meat that he had been holding. Cloud's gaze softened as he watched her finally satisfy the fact that he had no more and slowly backed up from him, still wary even though he had just given her food with no incident.
Cloud gave a quiet sigh and smiled at the child and sat down on his cot. This child is probably freezing cold. He's a supersoldier, so he hasn't really noticed, but it's extremely cold. He picked up his blanket and held it out for her. When she didn't react, he just set it on the ground for her to take at her leisure. Then he laid on his cot to get some shuteye before morning.
"Goodnight kid. I wouldn't recommend wandering outside, Zack may attack without identifying first." He told his silent tent companion as he closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.
His guest had indeed taken the blanket and climbed onto the backpack to sleep, since it was warmer than the cold, frozen ground below.
By the time that the girl opened her eyes from underneath her cloak hood, she was met with the grinning face of a certain blonde soldier. She let out a squeak and did the first thing that came to mind. She socked his nose with her small fist as hard as she could, which... considering her weakened state in her already frail body... didn't do much.
"So, last night, I didn't get to introduce myself." The blonde said as if he hadn't just been punched in the face, and as though he hadn't been up close, watching her sleep for who knows how long.
"I'm Cloud Strife." He said with a cocky grin on his face as he offered his hand to the girl, expecting a name and a handshake.
"Yuffie." Came the simple response with a hoarse voice that had obviously not been used to form words in quite some time. But she did not take his hand, instead looking over his fingers to see if he had more food for her. She looked up at him when she saw nothing and moved back out of his arms' reach and sat on her haunches. She looked like some four legged creature. But she had spent a lot of time crawling, so it's a bit of a natural position to be like this.
"Well then Yuffie, can you trust me enough to come with me?" He asked as he continued to hold his hand out for her. Mentally he's wishing she would hurry up and take her hand. He's only got so much of a window until Commander Sephiroth returns from the hunting trip with the others!
Slowly the tiny hand took his. So Cloud lifted the girl up and placed her thin frame onto his shoulders, grinning at her as he did.
"First off, we're going to get you a bath... you smell terrible." Cloud informed her bluntly. Yuffie honestly didn't care. All her smell did was blend her in with the environment, well, unless she's around people. He wasn't about to ask her what all the stains were on her clothing. Some looked like it might have been blood, but he couldn't tell, it was all kind of the same shade of brown and dirt. He also grabbed a towel, a soap bar, and a spare shirt of his. He's big enough that his shirt will fit her like a dress considering how frail she is.
Well, it took him awhile of walking to reach a river. "Alright, Yuffie, we're here." One problem with this situation... Cloud has no idea that Yuffie is a girl. As he set her down, he explained what he was about to do, since the smell kind of indicates she hasn't had a bath in quite some time.
"Okay, so you're going to have to take off your clothes, then I'll show you how to clean yourself so that next time you can do this by yourself." Yuffie nodded and pulled off her ragged cloak to show her sloppily cut short hair to keep the lice that often plagues the homeless like herself away. Then she began to undress, not noticing the look of pity in Cloud's eyes when he looked upon her tiny form. She's smaller than she should be at her age, growth having been stunted by years of near starvation.
But something stopped Cloud completely short as she stood completely disrobed before him. She's missing something extremely important. His eyes widened in shock and he visibly recoiled. Considering she had been wearing brown, dark blue and gray that wasn't even girlish, he had figured that she was a guy... Slowly he swallowed and looked at her face. She's not even concerned with the fact a guy is seeing her naked?
Then again, why would she? She probably knows nothing of what that means or anything like that. Cloud decided that he would bear through this and pretend like she's not a little girl. He can only hope that no one sees them and think he's molesting a child when he's actually trying to teach her how to bathe.
"Okay, so first you get wet, then you scrub down with soap, like this." He took her by the wrist and dipped her hand into the water, then lathered some soap on it, moving his fingers in a gentle scrubbing motion to get the layers of dirt and grime off.
"Pretty simple, right?" He laughed nervously and handed her the soap bar to finish the rest of it herself. She slowly began to replicate the action he had shown her over the rest of her body while he sat on the bank of the river with his back turned. She figured that he meant the same with her hair so she did that too. Ever silent, she stood there, slowly cleaning her body. Something that hadn't been done in a very long time.
After several minutes went by, Yuffie walked onto the shore and tapped Cloud's shoulder with her wet hand. She handed him the soap bar, then stood very still as he placed the towel on her head and began to rub the moisture out of her hair and into the towel. After he had thoroughly dried off her head, then moving to her body, he wrapped her up in the towel and moved it back and forth to get the most of the water out. Then he handed her the shirt.
"Sorry I don't have better. Tomorrow, I'll take you to get some new clothes." He explained with a smile as he pulled the shirt over her arms to cover her body. He wrapped the towel around her head to make sure that no more moisture could get to her hair. Now he picked her up and held her close in his arms. He doesn't want her to freeze to death. As they headed to the camp, Yuffie had already fallen asleep in his arms despite the freezing temperatures. He had disposed of her old clothing. He didn't want her to get sick or something that could be on the fabric.
He managed to sneak her past the SOLDIER on sentry and to his tent. He had arranged her small body on the cot, wrapping her up in the blanket to make sure that she was warm. Now that he thinks about it, he should have probably brought the blanket with him to the river to make sure that she had something to be warm with on the way back. Too late now.
Cloud didn't know why he was doing this... Sephiroth may make him leave her when he finds out, but he can't help it. It's just so very sad to see a life so young but so... empty. There is nothing behind those brown eyes. Like she had quit viewing life as though she were alive. She may still be breathing, but she was void of life. And someone like that... It reminded Cloud of how lost he had been and found his purpose by helping Spira. Zack had been the reason of his smile. But now, Cloud wanted to bring a smile to a child's lips. Although she'd only even said one word to him this whole time, maybe he could reach out to her and teach her that life isn't just about surviving.
Even as Cloud was watching her sleep, he reached up to stroke her little head of hair. Such a pitiful existence. If she had run into Sephiroth first, he would have probably killed her just to end the suffering she was in right now. Yuffie was just another of those poor children who had either been abandoned by their parents or orphaned by the creature known as Sin that often caused such miserable lives. It made Cloud angry just to think about the pain that creature causes and reminds him of his purpose to protect the people of Spira. A grim look was on the boy's face as he gave the girl's hair one last stroke and stood up to return to his duties. He'd be back later with food for her.
"Sleep well, Yuffie. I'll help you, I promise..." He murmured quietly as he exited the tent, allowing the girl to have the rest she probably needed sorely. As he walked out, he came face to face with a familiar set of blue eyes. His heart promptly sank.