The Crypt

by CuteChibiChocoCloud

Disclaimer: I own Sephiroth, Cloud and a Cloud Clone: in the form of action figures. The real Sephiroth and co. are being held hostage in the evil claws of Square-Enix. Let us band together and save them!…but I get first dibs on Seph, then we'll figure out a rota for taking turns. (Who can honestly look at this and think I own FF? – thought not)

Chapter 4

"Care to explain why you and your bro's have a room full of woman's dresses, hmm?"

The silver haired mini-god glared half-heartedly at Anya. Clearly he was not amused with how she so blatantly asked her question. Yeah, he'd expected her to ask about the items of clothing in the room, but not so brashly and obviously mockingly. Though he should have known that she would have. After all, she was turning out to be quite the fire cracker under that cool façade she put on. But anyway, it wasn't all dresses…there were other types of clothing too. They just so happened to be for women.

"We have them here for occasions such as this for example." he strutted past her and stood amongst the rabid girls who were raking amongst the racks of clothes for dresses they liked. His voice was full of confidence, as if there was nothing strange about having such a room. "This is why we had this get together. It's entertaining to help choose dresses for prom like this. Ain't that right brothers?"

He shot his eyes back to his brothers. Yazoo merely grunted, a ghost of a smile playing upon his pouty lips while Loz hoisted the same brunette from earlier up on his shoulder.

"Yeah! It's fun!" Loz laughed and slapped the girls behind, making her squeak as he began twirling around the room with her still propped on his shoulder in a fireman's lift.

"You know it's not normal for dudes to do this sort of stuff, right?" she giggled, despite her mind willing herself to keep up her defensive, stoic front. Shuffling through the gaggle of girls she managed to reach Kadaj. She gasped as he invaded her personal space and put his lips against her ear.

"But we're not normal…" she swore that if this had happened in private, she might have fainted. His heady scent so close to her and hot breath teasing across her ear and down her neck. However she was in public, and there was no way in hell that she'd act like those around her. Humiliation was something she wished to continue avoiding. Pulling back from her with a grin which said 'I know how much I affect you', he held up his hands and said, "Wait here for a moment. I already picked out a dress for you."

Before she could protest he disappeared into the crowd, abandoning her in the middle of the room. It didn't take long for someone to knock into her. She held back he usual reaction of a string of insults, being in too good a mood now to do so. Instead she smiled and helped the petite but curvy girl from the ground.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you there." her green eyes glistened with a sincerity that she'd never seen before.

"No need to apologise. This isn't the easiest room to navigate in right now." the two girls chuckled, the only two vaguely calm people in the room, save Yazoo of course. This was the first time she'd felt so at ease and comfortable for a long time. There was something about this stranger that was somewhat heartening, "I'm Anya."

"Aeris, nice to meet you." the two shook hands delicately, "This is crazy doncha think?"

"Yeah. Just a bit." she began to move through the crowd beside Aeris, heading toward a rack of formal dresses, "What made you come along?"

Small nimble fingers began shifting through the dresses, occasionally pulling one out for further examination, "I'm not sure really. But you know what those brothers are like. They can be so persuasive sometimes."

"I know exactly what you mean." Didn't she know it. It was all because of a certain brother's charm that she had been convinced into coming here.

"Here, what do you think of this one?" Aeris pulled out a long powder pink dress, near translucent looking, with fabric that looked like it was fluttering. The hem at the bottom ascended in a small angle, which would reveal a little bit more of her left leg. It was had a plain v-neck which wouldn't ride too low, but would flatter her bust line.

Nodding in approval she smiled softly, "Perfect. Trust me when I say you'll look stunning in it." The russet haired girl seemed to like pink a lot, since her current outfit was a candy pink three-quarter length dress with only a lilac belt hanging off her waist. Even so, the colour suited her and the dress would give her a classy edge too.

"Thanks. I sure hope my boyfriend will like it." she blushed, holding the gown up to her chest and playing with the bottom of the dress as if she was dancing.

"Zack'll love it, I guarantee it." Neither of them saw him coming, and jumped at the sound of his arrogant but pleasant voice.

"Kadaj, you scared me you meanie." Aeris slapped his arm and pouted, still smiling all the same.

'I said something similar only yesterday…He has a knack for appearing out of nowhere…' Anya thought, scrutinising the taller boy beside them. 'On the bright side, at least I now know that he's not just picking out girls just to lure them…well, not all of them…'

Giggling, it appeared that the brunette spotted something as she stood on her tip toes to peer above the crowd, "I'm gonna go show my friend this dress, and help her get away from Loz for a little while. Hee-hee, talk to you later An-chan."

An-chan…her friends used to call her that. It was like a blast from the past hearing someone refer to her like that. She'd missed it, being called An-chan. Other nicknames and alterations of her name had cropped up, but most of them were stupid and she ended up getting annoyed with her friends. But simple An-chan was good, it was something only her closest friends had called her. That was until now.

"You 'kay?"

"Eh, yeah, cool." She closed her eyes momentarily, smiling as she took a single breath, "Just thinking about the past."

"Excellent." As if the previous conversation had never existed, he whipped out something from behind his back, "I picked this out especially. I knew it was for you when I saw it."

"Heeeeeeeey! That is so cuuuuute 'Dajy!" the garment was whisked from his grasp into the hands of the stealthy raven-head. Large, deep brown eyes widened even bigger as she cross-examined the dress. "I gotta try it. Give me a tick…" Without any concern about whoever else was in the room, the tiny girl began throwing off her clothes, leaving only her undergarments on.

With a little cough, Anya turned away and pretended that the girl was not stripping off in the middle of a crowded room. Secretly she hoped that Kadaj wasn't staring at her. I mean, she was with him first after all. Hold on, was she getting jealous? Nah that wasn't it. She was just appalled by the young girls lack of a sense of decency.

"Ta-da!" the girl yelled, shooting her arms up in the air and doing a twirling jump with one leg bent at the knee. Wobbling as she went back to her normal position, she quickly regained composure and winked at Kadaj, "Looks good on me, no?"

Okay, now she was jealous. The girl was admittedly looking rather good in the small dress. Although the deep turquoise blue with black lace weren't really her sort of colours, the way the dress' neckline dipped low enough to flash a little cleavage and the back was similarly cut as it ended almost dangerously low suited her quite well. The black mesh like tutu skirt added to the look of false innocence which she exuded. There was no way that something like that would look nearly half as good on her anyway. Also it was a bit risqué for her tastes.

"No," the two girl's jaws dropped to the floor in shock. Both of them hadn't expected that answer. With a disinterested look on his face he continued, "The colours are not you at all, and you don't have the figure to pull it off. Also this dress is already taken, so if you don't mind."

Huffing she nearly tore off the dress and as good as threw it back at the neutral faced Kadaj, who at that moment looked like he could compete with his older brother for 'stoic expression of the month'.

Putting back on her green tank top, mini beige shorts and finally her headband which was vehemently tugged into a knot at the back of her head she spat, "Gawd, I don't know why I even bother."

Anya watched as the asian looking girl stomped off, fuming away with various curse words as she went. Fingers crossed that they wouldn't meet up again after that. If they did there was gonna be a helluva lot of tension between them - mainly from the girl. A part of her felt sorry for her, but the other side was doing a victory dance, tongue stuck out and all. It made her feel good that he had chosen her in a sort of way.

"Here, I believe this is yours." he shoved the dress now neatly back on it's hanger into her hands, grinning madly. Amazing how fast his mood swing had changed. Maybe he could even beat her at it?…perhaps not…

Remembering how scanty it had looked on the other girl - who was shorter and petite - she decided to respectfully decline the offer.

"I really don't think it'll suit me, so I'll find something else instead." she quickly garbled.

She tried to hand it back over to him but he wasn't going to take no for an answer, "Nonsense. You have the perfect figure to carry it off, and that shade of blue really complements your eyes." Cheeks going red, she was about to insist no but was cut off, "You're going to wear it and that's final. I would be hurt if you didn't." He put on puppy dog eyes: full lips pouting for all their worth.

Defeated once again she threw up her arms and sighed, "Fine, fine. I'll wear the stinking dress."

He smiled again, putting an arm around her shoulder and patting her, "I knew you'd see my way."

"Brat…" she whispered, but loud enough for him to still hear.

As usual he acted as if he hadn't heard a thing and brought her over to a shoe rack, "Now, I know exactly what will go with that dress of yours…"

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I am aware that this depiction of Yuffie is utter bollocks, and at least one person has been offended by it. The problem here was, that the character in my dream was kinda pivotal to the build-up of the relationship between Anya and Kadaj. That makes it important for this story too. The last thing I wanna do, is add tons of OC's and bore you guys to death. One OC is torture enough me thinks. I love Yuffie as a character, and feel terrible that I had to shove her into that persona, which is nothing like I imagine her. In my redrafting I found I couldn't alter it at all without ballsing the whole chapter up. Sorry for that again. I hope you understand.

Sayonara!