Disclaimer: I do not own KH or any of the FF7 or FF8 characters! If I did, I'd be planning my next major FF game!

Characters may seem out OOC at times, but bear with me, I've got this idea in my head and I want to write it out to see if it comes out half as good as it is in my head.

Distance

Chapter 1: Remembrance and Goodbye

I remember my home… before Hollow Bastion… before Cloud and Aerith and Cid, before Merlin and Sora and Riku and Kairi…. Before Squall…

It was a beautiful nation once… one might have even called it peaceful. Prosperous, even. The Palace was the crown jewel, gleaming radiant colors in the sunlight around grass as green as emeralds, houses right out of a masterpiece and water that was a gleaming blue-green and rivaled the moon in it's beauty, and grand temples that radiated old world tradition and infinite faith.

How I long for home…

But no matter how I long for it, that won't make it return to the way it is in my memories… nor will it remove the memory of how the darkness swallowed it without warning, and only I survived. To this very day, I can't understand… why was I spared?

No. Please don't ask me to share my thoughts on that subject any further. Why? Because I'm sure I'd frighten you. I may not give off the impression that I can actually terrify people without violence, but I can, and I hate to do it far more so than I hate to cry in front of people. So please, don't give it another thought.

I remember what it was like, the night Hollow Bastion was overtaken by The Darkness. A full year after my own home was taken.

I remember the way The Darkness crept up silently in the night. Houses as far as the eye could see, were illuminated as families were getting ready to sit down to dinner, watching TV, playing games… until one by one, the darkness started to overtake the houses.

I remember the way people were screaming as they ran from their houses, the way people came flooding out of their houses to see what was going on. They were rushing for the Gummi Hangers, no concern whatsoever for the things they were leaving behind, safety, stability, family, familiarity, hope… happiness. Things I had left behind, a year previous. Many were lost that night, Aerith lost her mother, Cloud his family… so many lost… so much blood… so much darkness… so much pain…

So many lights were extinguished that night…

So much fighting after that…

So many wounds on the soul…

The threads of fate had been woven into a destiny that was not to be, but had to be played out in order to be straightened out. The Door of Darkness was supposed to have been sealed forever, or so the folktales of my home world had said. If I remember right, the folktales had said The Door of Darkness was supposed to have been on my home world… probably just old wives tales, but I can't help but wonder and worry… could it be true?

Despite what Squall and the others may think about me, I'm not what my mask shows. Constantly happy, utterly uncaring, a complete thief, clumsy and stupid and reckless to boot. I'm the best actress around… a chameleon in every sense of the word… a ninja. Young I may be, naïve I am not. Sometimes I worry Squall is starting to catch on, and the only reason why I worry is because I don't want to get my hopes up that he actually sees me, as in sees that I'm not a kid. Sees that I'm worth the time of day, sees that I'm worth his attention. More so of his affections and even his love. Sees that I'm worthy of his complete and utter trust. It stings that he doesn't trust me the way he trusts the others, and it stings that he can put up with Cloud's sarcastic remarks and quick comebacks but he loses his temper whenever I argue with him or try to get to know him better!

It stings when I catch him staring discreetly at a pretty girl when they pass by him. It stings that he'll never see me as a pretty girl who could possibly be the love of his life. It stings to think that I'm merely a weed in a garden of lush blooming flowers that have so much to offer and me so little.

But it truly hurts me when he's constantly belittling me. We argue sparingly, but when we do, it's usually the result of several events over the course of several days if not weeks and it's not just the get it out in the open, huff and puff, rant and rave and roar, and then get over it argument, oh no! It's one of those, arguments that spouts insults and cheap shots, ducking and throwing things (him ducking, me throwing), screaming at the top of our lungs, tears (which I successfully manage to hide) and then we end up not talking for a week and then eventually apologizing mainly for Aerith's sake.

Those arguments have been growing more frequently as of late. And though I purposely antagonize Squall by calling him by his true name, which is Squall and NOT Leon, it's always been Squall who's started the arguments, and they've been turning out more and more vicious. I never knew I was capable of being as vicious in an argument as I had during the last one. And I don't think Squall, or Aerith or Cloud thought me capable either, because they were all gaping at me as I stormed out of the castle, breaking the door to the living room as I went. I went and stayed with Merlin for two weeks, to vent off the sheer RAGE I was harboring. If I hadn't, I might have done something I would have regretted. As if shooting Squall's insults and cheap shots back at him weren't bad enough. Eventually Cloud and Aerith made Squall come apologize to me and bring me back to the castle.

I'm 18 years old, and I'm still treated as a child, and I'm feeling stretched more and more as the days go on. I don't know what I've done to deserve to be at the firing end of the gun, but I'm getting sick of it, fast. Aerith's been snapping at me for every little thing, Cloud rarely talks to me anymore, Squall is set off by things that are completely ludicrous even by my standards, false front or not!

And did I say that I was 18? I'm sorry I correct myself. I'm 19 years old. My birthday was two days ago, and all I got were lectures, screams, arguments and the cold shoulder. I'll bet it hasn't even occurred to them that my birthday passed.

I suppose they're my friends…

No, they ARE my friends…

Aren't they?

If they're my friends… why do I feel so completely alone and unwanted? Why do I wake up in the butt crack of night in a complete panic that one day they'll get completely fed up with me and cast me out? Why do I feel like I need to leave everything I've ever come to cherish behind? Why do I feel like I have to hide what I remember, and what I'm truly like?

Why do I feel so weak and ashamed?

Maybe it's time I struck out on my own… find out where I truly belong. Find out who I truly am. Writing down these thoughts and feelings and insecurities in this journal has helped a lot, but it's not enough, and I'm almost out of paper.

I'm at the one place I least expected to be: the end of my rope.

I'm fed up with feeling as though I don't belong just because I'm not closer in age to the others.

I'm fed up with feeling like I have nothing to offer the one I love most.

I'm fed up with feeling like there's nothing worthwhile anymore.

I'm fed up of being alone.

I'm so sorry, but I can't stay here any longer, surrounded by the way Cloud and Aerith look at each other lovingly, and the way Squall discreetly stares at the pretty girls.

Leviathan forgive me, I'm so so sorry.

Forgive me.

Please.

I've read many stories in which Yuffie has been abundantly happy and bouncy and annoying… and hey that's the Yuffie we all love, or she starts out happy, then goes through being sad, then angry and insecure and then being reassured all too quickly, and I'm not knocking anyone's story, I promise! But I got to thinking when I was listening to Believe by Staind, what would it be like, to write Yuffie as more than what she appears? Let me know what you think! Reviews equal faster updates! Constructive criticism is always appreciated, and flames will be used to make smores!