So when I demand that Barrett and Red and Cid let me join their little scouting team, they point blank refuse, in Barrett's majestic tones stating, "Is you kiddin'? You bin sittin' in that bed fo' four days, and you esspect us to take yo' crazy ass scoutin'? You outta yah goddamn mind runt."
Endlessly pleasant and tactful, is Barrett.
After getting up at 5am the next day and pleading and begging and weeping at Tifa, she finally succumbs and says,
"Fine Yuffie! You can come with me west for supplies, if you absolutely cannot bear to go with Cloud, Vincent and Cait!"
White Rose of Wutai - 1 ; Vincent Valentine - 0
So, I give Tifa ample time to get dressed and prepped, before bounding to the door of the inn and yelling goodbyes to the rest of our startled companions resting at the breakfast table (you aren't there Vincent, avoiding me too.) Tifa probably did a little gesture to imply that I was crazy, but hey, the girl wasn't far off.
It felt ridiculously good to be freed of the confines of that room! My wounds had all but closed over, long pale scars trailing across my back, but no longer smarting and painful. The second my feet touched the grass of the outlands beyond the village, I did a cartwheel and landed on my ass, falling back so I was gazing up at the dawn sky, a mish mash of watercolours, blue and purple and red and orange, and Aerith, I was so happy to be alive (as selfish as it may seem). Tifa is quiet behind me, strapping her sharp claw onto her knuckles, and shaking hair from her eyes. I sigh, long and slow, and grin to myself.
"It's so fucking good to not be cooped up in that room anymore," I say, pushing myself up from the ground so I am sitting and gazing around the plains surrounding us, nothing moving amongst the long grasses but the feather light morning wind.
"We figured you'd have gone crazy by now," Tifa states lightly, walking to my side, hands on hips in that Mother Duck way that she has. I roll my eyes and lean backwards, using my arms to propel myself up and into a standing position. I throw a grin at her.
"C'mon Teef, you know it takes more than a few little cuts to knock me out of the game," I say, twirling Conformer in my hands, fiddling with the materia I had stacked up inside it - I had been stacking and re-stacking it the whole time I was in bed, so I knew the positioning off by heart. We begin walking, slowly to preserve energy - we don't have to meet with the others until midday - that's when we're moving on; so Tifa sets the pace, slow and calm, probably not wanting me to 'over-exert' myself (she cares so much about me, who she knows so little about.) She is shaking her head then, a nervous laugh emitting from her lips.
"Are you kidding? I mean, we didn't tell you because we didn't want to worry you, but Vincent was worried for a while that they were so deep they might have damaged some of the nerve endings in your back," she says, glancing at me quickly with her mulled wine eyes. I frown at the use of his name, dragging up that fluttering heart of two nights ago, the last time I saw him. He is avoiding me, and I am avoiding him, and I am certain that neither of us are sure why.
"Oh did he? Well, forget that, I'm all better now!"
My voice is too chirpy, too bright, and Tifa's well trained ears snap up the change in tone almost instantly, and I wish in that moment, that it was Cloud I was with, trudging along in depressive silence, but not pestering me with mental images of Vincent Valentine.
Tifa's eyes tighten a teensy bit, but it is more than enough for me to sprint towards a dense area of shrubbery off to one side of the grassy plain, towards where I know there will be a monster waiting. This causes to Tifa's eyes to snap back open as she yelps after me.
"Yuffie! What in the name of the Planet are you doing?!"
"I swear I heard something - think of the potential materia score!"
Within moments of course, I do run into a monster, Tifa arriving close behind me to help defeat it quickly and cleanly. I rush to the body to inspect for goods, but the creature is bare.
"Damn," I hiss. It always really pisses me off when I take the trouble to clean up the planet of these nasty monsters, and they don't have anything in return for me! I turn to go, but Tifa snatches at my upper arm, and when Tifa wants to hold onto something, there is no use trying to escape. She is the strongest woman I have ever met (in more ways than one, Cloud, you stupid asshole.)
"Yuffie. What's the matter with you?" Her eyes are dark with severity, her lips a thin line, yet some ethereal softness still remains around her face, soft and lovely. I bite my lip for a moment, and decide, fuck it - Tifa sees right through everyone's lies, be they little or gigantic, but I will give it my all to fool her this one time.
"I'm just all antsy from being bed-bound for four days! I just want to slay some monsters, steal some materia, eat some ramen!" I sound off, as she tilts her head to one side, shaking it slowly. Her grip loosens slightly on my arm when we hear a rustle in the bushes, and we walk slowly to the edge of the shrubbery, back out and into the plains. I pray to Leviathan that the subject is dropped, but she keeps pace at my side, her voice gentle, but solid and accusatory at the same time.
"If that were the case, you would have gone with Cloud and the others like you always do. You know they take the darker routes to steal what they can. So who are you trying to avoid so much that you would come on the supply route with me?"
Damn you Tifa Lockhart, and your unnecessary insight into people's minds (seriously, she HAS to have psychic abilities of some description.) I open my mouth to tell her to stop being so nosy, but she has continued to speak.
"Did... you and Vincent have a fight? I saw him leaving your room a few nights ago, and he looked... upset I guess... well, as upset as that expressionless exterior of his will let him be," she amends, a slight laugh in her voice as she attempts to coax information out of me, like the sly little Mother Duck she is. I pout visibly, but in that moment, the Gods are smiling on me and they inject a sneaky little lie into my consciousness, so devious that I have to suppress a cheeky little giggle (Leviathan, I sound like a kid's cartoon villain...)
"It's not that... it's just," I begin, biting my lip and internally applauding myself for my deviousness. "Cloud has been really... weird. Since..."
I stop then, and I am suddenly sickened by myself, using it as an excuse to avoid my own confused feelings (and I am so sorry Aerith, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm still a child and I can't admit to it, not yet.)
Tifa stops walking then, standing still as though she has been petrified, her head bent and I instantly panic. Tifa is the strong one, Tifa looks after us, Tifa would never let anything...
"Teefs."
The word is soft and I suddenly forget my stupid I've-got-a-raging-girlish-crush-on-Vincent problems, and come to the realisation that I am far more selfish that I first believed myself to be (which, Aerith, I always admitted to myself was a lot.) Tifa's head is still bent, her fists clenched at her sides, as she, I can only suppose, steels herself from crying. She will not let Cloud fucking Strife let her cry, and she will not let your death make her cry, because if Tifa falls apart, we all fall apart and she knows this.
And Aerith, she is so damn beautiful, now more than ever, for reasons I can't even name.
"Tifa." I say her name more seriously now, and I can see her fists trembling and without missing a beat, she slams her fist down in the ground, falling to her knees as she does. I leap to her side, immediately grasping her now bleeding, dislocated knuckles, and stroking her hand softly. "Tifa, why'd you do that, you silly cow?" I reach into my pack and retrieve a small potion, dabbing at her wounds, when a tear falls onto the earth between us. I dab slowly, my eyes never daring to meet hers, because I am a coward, and I have made Tifa Lockhart cry.
"I'm sorry," she gasps. I continue to clean in silence, not trusting my own voice or the growing lump in my throat either. "It's just... I can't cry for her when he's there. He's going to break, completely, and I'm not going to be able to fix him, so it's all I can do to hold him together."
A tear slips out then on my side, and I curse myself.
"I know it's hard Tifa," I say, putting the potion to one side, and holding her knuckles tightly between my fingers. "But you shouldn't bottle it up, that's enough to make you go fucking crazy!"
"Don't cuss," she admonishes, still Tifa through and through even though she is broken and weeping and desperately missing you, Aerith. I sniff and laugh then, shaking my head at her.
"Hold still. This is going to hurt," I say, being as quick as I can in snapping her knuckles back into place for her. She winces, but takes it like the fighter she is, gritting her teeth. She sighs, rubbing at her knuckles, no longer crying, but still managing to look like a goddess with her puffy red eyes. "I just... don't want him to hurt anymore, Yuffie. I want him to be okay again, and selfishly, I want to be the person who heals him. But I can't."
She sounds so young, and I remember she is only 20, and not a real mother, no matter how she acts. She sounds helpless and lost, like she is at the end of her tether, and I suddenly know exactly what she is talking about, and I wish we weren't so stupid as to fall for assholes like Cloud and -
Fall for.
I have known it for a while now, but it has only become apparent in my reckless, young eyes and I hate myself and I hate you Aerith, because you knew didn't you, and you never told me?!
"I know exactly what you mean Tifa," I mumble, bitter and confused and exhausted, and she knows and I know and she rubs the side of my head and says that it will be okay and I hug her so tight I'm surprised she doesn't burst, but she clings back with just as much ferocity and when we pull away, the grass is greener, the air is sweeter and there is a daisy where Tifa's tear fell.
And Aerith, it is like you are there, crying with us, holding us close, telling us everything will be -
I honestly didn't know this little piece was gonna spiral into what is has become, but I am so glad it has! Loving every minute of writing it, so if you could take the time to drop me a review that would be great! I thrive on them. No Vincent today, but he will make an appearance tomorrow... stick around to see the unfurling of this Yuffentine loveliness!