The wind over the hills shifted ever so lightly. Soft, pink lips parted to form a delightedly surprised gasp. The pink flower petals danced lazily around her and she smiled to herself when a few snagged in her chestnut hair.
Zack had always told her that he had never seen flowers as beautiful as the ones that she grew, not even from his home village – Gongaga. And now she could see why as she gazed over at the small village in the distance. The mako reactor sucked the life and the beauty out of the landscape mercilessly. Trees were wilting before her eyes and the anguished screams of the Planet sky-rocketed a few decibels. She had to squeeze her eyes shut to save herself from being heard by the others.
They were staying together as a group tonight after the incident with the Black Materia back at the Temple of the Ancients; the temple of her people. Gingerly, she brushed her fingertips across her cheek. Cloud had gotten her hard there but Tifa's hasty cure spells and a few potions that Yuffie managed to part with without much protest kept her head from swelling up like a balloon.
With a sigh of trepidation and regret she turned back towards the group of friends that she would soon be leaving.
Cloud, the warrior, the brave SOLDIER. He hadn't known what he was doing at the time. She could see his arms stiffen and try to stop the onslaught of blows; his eyes were trembling and tearing up as his fragile mind tried valiantly to fight off the dark one's evil whispers. She didn't blame him. How could she? It wouldn't be fair. He was lying close to the warmth of the fire, bundled in layers of blankets and sheets. The raven-haired fighter who had fallen asleep next to him with an arm across his chest was in near-hysterics when she didn't have enough magic left to drive down Cloud's fever after giving her all to heal the Cetra's injuries.
Tifa, the dark-haired and beautiful fighter. She had much enjoyed the young bartender's company despite the confusing triangle they were placed in. Despite the fact that they contrasted so much, she would say that maybe it was because of the differences that had them getting along so well. Tifa wasn't afraid to fight for herself and the others respected her for that (though Barret still had to grumble sometimes about girls knowing when it's a man's job), and she loved that part about her friend. She was kind, gentle and caring. Silently, she prayed to the spirits that Tifa would find the happiness that she deserved.
Barret, Cid and Cait Sith. How the three of them managed to get along so fabulously confused the heck out of the rest of them. While they spent most of the day yelling and jeering at each other, they spent the nights sitting with each other near the campfire playing cards and sharing brags and exaggerated war stories. Of course, Cait Sith would then insult both of them, using his ridiculously sized moogle doll and inane fortunes. She giggled into her hand at that thought. Then Red would try to intervene.
She spied the large red cat curled up with his flame tail keeping the small campfire alive. He was an enigma, the last of his kind the same as her. He growled in his sleep and she soothed him with a mere touch. She would miss him dearly. Looking around, she spied the previously mentioned trio slumped against each other, snoring loudly; poker chips, cards and gil laid listlessly around them. Cid's cigarette was in danger of falling onto Cait's head but darn, did they look so helplessly adorable. Asleep against each other like a couple of kids tired of fighting and opting to just take a nap. Carefully and quietly, she plucked the stick from 'Captain' Cid's lips and smothered it.
She heard Vincent take off about an hour ago, probably to scout out the surrounding area as he always does. He was probably a long ways away and won't be back in time to see her leave. A sad smile appeared on her face and her emerald eyes turned downcast. She hoped to at least get a few more sentences out of him with their conversations, but sadly, that was not to be.
Picking up a small bag of provisions, just enough to get her to the end of her journey and her staff, she cast the haphazard group one last glance. It was all it took. One last heartbreaking glance over at them. The people that she had come to love and cherish. The people that made her realize that she had to fulfill her duty. If not for them, maybe she would have shirked her destiny and abandoned her ancestry. Lived a safe, boring, unhappy life.
"Goodbye, my friends." A tear escaped her emerald eye. "I love you."
With that and no more, she turned to leave. Prepared to leave them all behind when suddenly a blur of black and a slim youthful body blocked her view. Oh goodness! How could she have forgotten the new addition to their group? The young Wutaian peered at her from under her dark fringe with suspicion. The ninja had pulled her head band and arm guard off for the evening and she could now see that the reason she had that ridiculously large guard on was to hide a slightly crippled arm. Possibly an injury sustained from her childhood years. Yuffie was reckless after all.
"Why are you crying?" she asked, demanded was more like it. The girl never really bothered to beat around the bush when things came like this.
Aeris shushed her before throwing a look back at the campsite over her shoulder. Yuffie seemed to understand because she grabbed her hand and dragged her away where the camp fire's warmth wouldn't reach.
"Well?" She hissed. When Aeris did not reply, Yuffie noticed the knapsack slung on a shoulder and the metal staff gripped in tense porcelain hands. She momentarily dropped her guard and was stunned when Aeris suddenly broke down into silent sobs. Needless to say, her guilty conscience immediately gave her a quick, hard kick in the gut but before Yuffie made an attempt to garble something vaguely resembling an apology, the Ancient wrapped the younger girl in a tight hug. The metal staff was pressed harshly into her spine and the other woman's knapsack knocked against her side.
"Aeris?" Yuffie whispered, unsure and afraid over what overcame her friend.
The Ancient pressed her face into Yuffie's shoulder. Breathing in the girl's scent when the sobs would let her, she was drenching the ninja's sweater with her tears but… damn it, it hurt so much! The way Yuffie looked at her. Questioningly, confused…
… a child about to be abandoned.
No matter how much Ifalna and the others whispered encouragement to her, Aeris can no longer shake off the fact that she was indeed, leaving behind the people she loved and in return loved her. Leaving and to never return.
She still remembered the pain of losing Ifalna. She still remembered when she could no longer sense Zack's presence. She still remembered the look on Elmyra's face when she informed her adopted mother of her journey out of Midgar.
Duty or not, if she were to break another heart, then maybe this time… she'll break as well.
"Aeris?" Yuffie asked again, much softer. With a great deal of hesitancy, she placed her hands on the woman's shoulder and held it steady, neither pushing away nor returning the embrace.
"Yuffie?" She sniffed. She could feel the girl turning her head, straining to hear her voice. "Do you… do you remember when your mother died?"
Instantly, Yuffie's body tensed and the thin hands on her shoulder tightened painfully for a second.
"No, not really. I was too young to remember, heck, I don't even remember how I broke this arm." She raised her left arm and waved it about with a soft, nervous chuckle.
Silence reigned. The wind shifted and the broken petals journeyed towards the forms of the two girls locked in a final embrace. The feeling of Yuffie's small frame against her own, the feeling of Yuffie's breath down her neck, Yuffie's hand gripping her shoulder and the sounds of slumber from the rest of the family…
"Yuffie, I'm sorry." This, she tried to convey with as little sense of eternal farewell as possible. But, this as well as her chances of escaping her fate was impossible.
Yuffie opened her mouth to demand the Ancient to tell her what the hell was going and what was making her so sad so she'd go find the perpetrator and stick a fiery, good ole one-two kick-ass treatment up their smurf-hole when she felt something smooth, cold and round pressed against the back of her neck. Not too rough, almost gentle like… The power of the materia slowly set off with a whisper:
"Sleep, Yuffie, sleep."
Her eyelids were growing heavier by the second and her body was getting warmer. A sudden fuzzy haze was growing all around her and she was no longer certain where she was and what she was doing. Yuffie blinked slowly and could only vaguely make out the feint outlines of a pink dress and a pair of glistening emerald eyes. The arms that had so tightly wrapped themselves around her gently lowered her to the ground, while all the same pulling her into another embrace.
Tears spilled out of her eyes and dropped into Yuffie's dark hair as the girl slumped forward and rested her tired self against Aeris. The staff was cast way into the sea of broken petals and the knapsack slipped out of her arm but Aeris didn't care. She wept.
Yuffie moved her lips but found that talking was the stupidest thing in the world to do at the moment. Nonetheless, her subconscious mind reminded her that she still had a point to get across. What she originally stopped Aeris for.
"…a-Aer…ish… w-why ar-yoo…. cwry …-ing?" Her hands slipped from Aeris' shoulders and brushed against the grass. Pink petals caught in her hair and as she breathed in their tender aroma, she muttered in her sleep. "..I… kicka his assss….m'kay?"
Breaking a heart was never easy. This, she knew all too well as she stared into the terrified mako blue eyes of Cloud. From her kneeling position on the altar, it wasn't easy to see the others but hearing them was just enough. Garbled voices and shrill cries…
… broken petals danced across the sky as she heard the fluttering arrival of the last one, falling from the sky, conviction branded across his mad face.
Sleep, Aeris, sleep.
She closed her eyes.