Okay. I'm the latest ever. Story time! In February, there's this one week holiday, and I was all like 'Yay I can write two more chapters :D' But what did I do? I GOT A COLD. So I couldn't write at all, 'cause everything I write when ill get crappy. So, when I got better, I was tired after the cold, and my writing mood had completely faded away, and then the real fun started. Because all my techers decided 'TESTS!' so I was stuck with losta tests to study for. Two weeks ago, I had five. FIVE TESTS. Tired after that, anyone? So, basically, I was too tired to write anything at all, and I didn't have the time either. But now I'm back, my writing mood is back, and hopefully I won't have as many tests for a while. So, extra super-long chapter up for ya! It's cute, it's dramatic, it's grave serious drama, it's maybe even a little fluffy. FLUFF! Gotta love it.

DISCLAIMER: Because I always forget these, don't I? Well, anyway, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. And I don't own the Kingdom Hearts characters that appear as random-people-on-the-street, either. Even though Luxord does look Swedish. A lot. He's still not mine, sigh.

EnJoY!

Chapter 6: Childhood Friend

Tifa gave me and Alyera 5000 gil each (which made Alyera blush and stammer about not being able to take so much money and blah blah until I told her to shut up and look happy) and said to have fun. I decided that we were going to eat at a café too, and didn't care what my new friend thought. I highly doubted that she had ever been to a café, and that's almost sacreligious. To what religion I don't know, but still.

We slowly walked down the streets of Edge, looking at the people around us, the few trees and flowers, enjoying the warmth of the sun. It was August, and the weather couldn't have been any better. While we were walking, I pointed out different places to Alyera.

"That's where Vincent bought his mobile phone...though he never got the concept, he told Cloud to tell me that I had no right to call him, 'cause it was his phone... That's the best weapons store in Edge! Some of my favourite shuriken are from there. They also repair your weapons if they're broken... Don't go to that accessory shop, the owner is a filthy old man who gives young girls inappropriate suggestions... And that's where we'll be going!"

I pointed out the goal of our little travel through Edge, a clothes store I had been to a couple of times before. They had really nice clothes, at least according to my taste, and hopefully we'd be able to find Alyera something there too. I dragged her with me into the boutique, and immediately started looking for some decent clothing. I found a stand with tank tops, which I took out to look at one after another.

"Nope. No. Not my colour. Ugly. Hmm...good. Good. No. Lovely! Not this one. Not this one either. But this one, yes! And this one. And that one."

I glanced at Alyera. She was just standing there, looking at me, confused.

"Umm...Alyera? Is there a problem? You never seen anyone speedshop before?"

"I-I..." Oh great, she was stuttering again, "I have never...shopped...before. I was brought fabric, and then I had to sew my clothes myself."

"You fucking kidding me?"

"N-no..."

"Oh geez. Never did I expect that I would have to teach a girl how to shop. Look, just walk around and if you see something you like, then try it on, and if it fits and isn't too expensive, then buy it. Okay?"

"Okay." She nodded with a serious look on her face, and started walking around loking at the clothes. She acted like a robot programmed to take a shirt from its stand with regular intervals, look at it and hang it back. I sighed, decided to give her some time while picking out clothes for myself, and then go help her. She wasn't going to get anywhere in life if she couldn't even buy clothes.

When I had found some tops of various models – a white, a light blue, one in different shades of green mixing together, and a purple one with a red flower on it – I started looking for shorts. I was not going to break my trend of wearing tight tops and the shortest shorts in the history of short-short shorts. It was harder to find nice shorts, though. All people didn't love them as much as I do. There were mostly white and black ones, but I found a pair of beige ones and a pair with camouflage pattern, so I grabbed them and a pair of white shorts too, and then decided go go check on Alyera.

I found her standing looking at a long dress in crimson with golden linings. She looked like she was afraid of touching it, as if it would break if she did. It was a nice dress, I guess; I've never been one for dresses or skirts at all. It had the same colour as blood (which reminded me of Vince, and for some strange reason it felt like my heart jumped a beat), had a tight bodice in corset style with lacing in the back, a wide skirt that would reach halfway down her shins if Alyera wore it, it was shoulderless and decollete and on the bodice a pattern of golden embroidery created swirls which looked like morning mist illuminated by a rising sun. The hem at the bottom of the dress was adorned with a decimetre-thick border of the same twisting gold patterns.

"It's nice", I told her. She jumped and squeaked, apparently she hadn't noticed me approaching because she was so into staring in awe at the dress. "Chill down girl, it's only me. You gonna try that on or what? It'd prolly look awesome on you."

"B-but...it is so...elegant. Beautiful. Luxurious. Are you sure a commoner like me is allowed to buy it?"

"You fucking kidding me? We're not living in a class society, Alyera! Anyone can buy it if they want to. And you can touch it, it won't break if you do. You want it or not? Whass the price?"

"Yes...I want it. I love it. But it costs a thousand gil!"

"And?"

"That is a fifth of the money Tifa gave me..."

"And?"

"I-it is so much..."

"And? You don't have to pay for food or living, so those gil are for what you wanna buy, nothing else. I you want it, get it. It's a real nice dress. It's gonna look good on you..." Alyera still looked unsure. "Go try it on goddammit!"

"I will."

Carefully, as if holding a newborn baby, she took the dress from its stand and looked around.

"The cabins are over there. Come, I'll go with you. After all, I just hafta see how it looks."

We headed over to the fitting rooms, Alyera still holding the dress in an almost devout kinda way. I pushed her into one of the cabins, pulled the curtain shut and told her to be quick. She stuttered an answer, and I could her the sound of her unzipping her black dress. As always, strange thought wandered into my head.

Have you ever imagined how your friends – both male and female – would look naked? It sure is weird! For example, I have always been jealous of Tifa, because she's got the body every woman wants, while I had never had any boobs and probably would never get any. So imagining her take of her clothes and have hanging breasts that reached to her knees which she rolled together and put in a bra, kinda made me feel better, in a very sick way. But then of couse, I felt ashamed of my own thoughts and tried to make them go away, which was much harder than getting them in my head. Not to mention when I thought of how Vincent and Cloud would look naked...that made me blush like an idiot and giggle hysterically. The weirdest thought though, must be the realisation of that in order to get me, my parents had had sex. I just couldn't figure out how a pretty and graceful lady like my mother could ever sleep with a disgusting old man like Godo, even though I knew that he wasn't all that fat and old at the time that happened. It was still so weird, and scary.

So now I was trying my best to make the question 'how would Alyera look naked?' stay out of my head. Instead I managed to understand why she had that strange body shape. It was probably like this: Whilst living with her sexist dad, she hadn't done much exercising, thus becoming chubby. When she was suddenly thrown out and could no longer eat as much as before since she didn't have any money, she began to grow thin, starting with her face. She also began to fight with her katana, thus gaining muscles. The muscles in combination with the body fat she still had made her still look chubby, even though she'd be counted as perfect weight – according to how much people should weigh because of health reasons, not according to how pretty girls looked in newspapers and in commercials. I always thought is was weird. Why were skinny women considered beautiful? Some hundred years back, it was the buxom women who were seen as beautiful, because they had much more shapes than thin women. I liked being fit, but I would definitely not have anything against a little broader hips, thicker thighs and bigger boobs. I still had the body of a girl in her early teens, not that of the fully grown woman I actually was. I had finally faced the fact that I would be this short for the rest of my life. But if I could choose, I'd prefer being short, chubby, and have boobs and hips rather than being tall, skinny and without female shapes at all. Then again, tall and chubby wouldn't be totally wrong...

Alyera woke me up by coming out from the fitting room. I winced, and jumped.

"Crap, you scared me! Don't you ever do..."

Then I got completely silent. Alyera was stunning. The gold and crimson in the dress stood in perfect contrast to the silver and emerald in her hair and eyes. It looked...perfect. I couldn't find another word for it. She smiled shyly and shrugged, as if to ask me how it looked.

"Ohmigawdz you're so beautiful!" I yelled and started jumping up and down, only to finish my move with giving her a big hug. "You like it? You've gotta buy it, it's perfect on you!"

"Thank you, Yuffie. I like it, too. Do you think it is worth the money?"

"Of course! Now you have to say what you think of my clothes, and then we'll find you some more stuff 'cause you can't have only one dress, and then we go somewhere else. After we've paid."

I tried on all of the clothes I had picked, and they suited me perfectly in every way possible – style, colours and size. Alyera gave her approval to them all, but I never doubted that she wouldn't. I would've been shocked if she had told me I looked bad in any of the stuff I tried on. When we were done, we went to find her some more clothing. Basically, I pulled top after top from the stands, said 'whaddaya think?', decided it wasn't good and hung it back. Then, after fifteen or so minutes, I had found a black, tight t-shirt, a white chemise, a black knee-long skirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. Alyera said no as politely as possible to every colourful thing I could find, so I had to put up with the fact that she wasn't going to wear anything else than black, white and that dress. But at least we had enough clothes now, as long as Tifa was quick enough to wash the laundry there wouldn't be a problem.

I dragged her with me to the underwear department. There I grabbed her three pairs of socks after getting her size; a pair of white ones, identical black ones, and a pair of knee-highs in black. I also found some more colourful for myself.

"Last on the checklist: panties and bras. What's your cup size? I'm sure we can find some boring bras in dishwater grey or something..." Then I noticed that she was blushing furisously. "What's the problem? You don't know your size or what?"

"Yuffie... Is that really something you should talk about in public?"

"So that's your problem? Talking about your underwear size in a shop? Come on! It's not like anybody cares! What's the big deal?"

"I-it's just that...it is such a private thing...and it is embarrassing."

"Geez, it's not! I could prove it to you by sceaming my own size as loud–"

"No, no, no, no! Please don't! I-I will stop thinking it is embarrassing..."

"Yeah, and start talking like normal people. Seriously, only you and Vince say 'it is' instead of 'it's'. It sounds really stupid y'know."

"Okay..."

"Good. Now what's your size? You've got pretty big boobs, I'd say C. Hey, grab a few and go see if they fit. I'll be looking for some small B sizes...damn these dwarfed tits." I ignored Alyera's red face, and went away. Girl was gonna need some attitude if she was gonna live here.

I eventually found what I was looking for, and checked up on Alyera, who actually had found a couple of quite normal black lace bras, and now was looking at them with a confused facial expression.

"Whassup? Goin' well? All right, you've got yourself bras, good, now on to panties. Advise you're gonna need: Never wear string. Might be the most uncomfortable fucking shit ever. Now, briefs or hipsters are the ones you want. Maybe even boxers. Yes, there are boxers for girls nowadays, quite the fantastic society we live in, eh? Well, if you actually want to have a strap in your ass then you could always try string, but I know I'll never again..."

I kept on rambling while Alyera blushed like a maniac, and searched like a blood hound for the best underwear. I have a good eye for seeing people's size, so I chose some panties for her and told her that the colour didn't matter, since no one was gonna see them anyway. I decided that I could say that to her, since I suspected it would take a long time before she got to a situation that involved her showing her underwear to someone who actually cared what she wore. If the guy even cared. Men were more likely to be busy staring at her boobs, not her panties. She agreed to buy pink, lilac, yellow and blue panties, not only the black and white ones. When I had found some for myself, we headed towards the in my opinion most unnecessary part of shops – the pay desk. Apparently, Alyera's fancy dress cost almost as much as the rest of her clothes together. It ended with 2240 gil for her, and 1975 gil for me.

"See", I said as we got out to the street again, both carrying bags with the shop's name written on them, "you bought that dress and you still have lotsa money left! Let's go buy shoes!"

We went to the nearest shoe store, where I immediately started looking for some cool sandals. I actually found a pair, to my big surprise, that I liked. They were red, looking like normal sandals but they had knee-high legs with zippers on the inside and open squares at the outside. I tried them on, and to my big glee they sat like a glove on my feet. Like a glove on a hand, that is. I happily waved my feet in front of me, and smiled at Alyera.

"Look good?"

"They do", she answered, nodding and smiling back at me. "They suit you very well. The red colour could represent your cheerfulness and energy as well as the blood from all the wars you have fought..."

She got quiet, shyly looking at me. I just stared at her.

"Wow, Alyera, that was really poetic y'know? You oughta write! Like, poetry, and stories and whatnot...That'd be awesome!"

"I-I am not so sure of that..." she said and blushed. Oh gawd. She couldn't even take compliments. I had a hard job ahead of me – making people outta this shy and subdued young woman. I silently praised Leviathan for making me the utterly awesome person I am. Had I not been the Singe White Rose of Wutai, the Champion of the Skies and the Earth, the Conquerer of Evil, the Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi, I would have been doomed to failure. But not now. Now I knew I was gonna succeed, no matter how long it would take. I would make Alyera have normal life even if it would take me a year. She deserved it, after everything she had gone trough. I felt so sorry for her, but I'm not the kinda person who goes 'Oh you poor thing, it's okay, I'm here for you and my shoulder's always available if you want to cry you know'. That's Tifa's job, and she does it with supremacy. My job is to yell 'Cheer up now or I will fuckin' bitchslap you 'cuz I'm yer pal an' I'm jus' tryin' t'help so SMILE!' at people when they're down, make them be happy because I'm threatening to cut them with my shuriken if they're not, or act like a clown and make them laugh whether they want it or not. I had always cheered up my former comrades-in-arms that way, and I had never abandoned my ways. I did wonder though, was it going to work this time? Alyera was a special case. The others had all grown up being taught to fight in different ways – even old man Reeve is a real fighter, after all he decided to turn traitor on the Shin-Ra and be our ally instead, and that musta been a mental fight for him, especially considering his age – whilst she had been taught to be the lowest-ranking in her family, keep her voice down, act like her father told her to and not talk about 'embarrassing' stuff. One thing I was sure of: Her mum never had the mother-to-daughter talk when Alyera began to get into the teens. She had never had those comforting 'What's happening to your body is perfectly normal sweetie, no sex unless you really want it and don't you ever let a boy force himself onto you because then you knee him in the groin and laugh while he walks away crying like a little girl, don't worry you'll find a boyfriend too one day the only reason you don't have one now is because you haven't found anyone good enough for you yet, and don't walk around thinking that all the other girls are much prettier than you because beauty is on the inside' talks, and I know I would want to have had them, even now when I was going to be twenty-one in a few months. Me and Alyera were so alike in that way; our old men sucked major, and we never had a mother-kinda figure in our lives. Oh well, I had Aerith and Teefs, but they weren't always there. They weren't there when mum was ill, when I saw her wither away and die, they weren't there to heal the broken relationship between Godo and me before it was too late, they weren't there when all of Wutai accused me for having brought Geostigma upon them... And all this made me feel even more sorry for Alyera. In fact, I just wanted to cry, right there in the shoe store, but of course I didn't. Instead I just glued on the biggest Yuffie-grin I could manage and said:

"Yes it would! Come on, gotta find shoes for you, girl."

And so I got up from the try-the-shoes-on-to-see-if-they-fit-bench, smiling and being energetic, hiding behind a happy facade, when my inner being wanted to scream out of hopelessness. That such evil towards people's own children existed! It made me so mad and so terribly sad I didn't know what to do, so I pretended like nothing bad ever happened to me and focused everything I had got on Alyera instead. I'm fleeing, I don't want to face my past and the memories of mum again, I don't want to think of my new friend's past, and hardly of her future either. Because it's hard for me - who can't look farther than my nose reaches – to see a happy one, one where Alyera is smiling and laughing and having fun, not caring whether her dad would approve of what she's doing or not. Just watching ner nervous movement from one shelf with shoes to another, seeing her twitch, wince and jump at every little sound, or whenever someone bumps into her, her gaze flying across the place like that of a deer looking out for wolves, makes me fill with despair. At the same time I realise that she can't possibly change if I'm gonna be like this, she'll have no chance in hell, I need to keep on smiling, and when I've done that for a while, when it comes automatically without the feeling that something's dying in me, then I will have lied so much to myself that I'll believe my own charade. And that's when Alyera gets her chance. When my feelings are gone, and can flash grins at her all the time and make her feel like everything's perfectly fine and that there's not a worry in the entire world, then she will have an excellent opportunity to take a part, how small it may be, of that illusion. The thing is, she won't know it's an illusion, and she'll be happy. She'll smile, and when she does, my fake one will wear off and be replaced with a true one. Until then, I have to be who everyone think I am; Yuffie who's never sad, happy-go-lucky Yuffie, Yuffie who's still a child and doesn't understand the graveness of certain matters. Yes, that was my task. And I was going to complete it, for my own sake, and for Alyera's sake. Her smile, when it is a pure smile made of joy directly from her heart, is gonna be worth the struggle to get there. I had made my decision, cost whatever it would, I was going to make her a happy person. It began now, here, in this shoe store.

"Okay, what kinda shoes do you like? I mean, it's summer, you can't walk around in those boots, am I right or what? You're gonna need like, sneakers or sandals or whatever... let's have a look around, and tell me if you see anything you like. Is it okay with you if I give you suggestions? If you don't like it, then just say no, m'kay?"

She nodded, and when we started looking for the prefect pair of shoes for her, she kept close to me, as if she feared the other cheery shoppers would attack her, and eat her brain.

"Y'know, people in stores don't tend to drink the blood of others. Only Vince does things like that, and that's only when he thinks no-one sees him. But I see...I see everything 'cause I've got incredibly kickassial major-ruling ninja sight of awesomeness. How about these?"

I showed her a pair of tan leather sandals with stripes of soft skin all over them. They felt comfy and looked stylish, but not too stylish, not snobbish-sylish. They weren't too expensive either.

"I do not know...I am not very fond of brown, I am afraid."

"'Kay, not them, then. Start using abbreviations as much as possible, it sound weird when you talk like old fancy people. These?"

I held up a pair of purple baskets for her to look at. She stared and shook her head.

"I get it, no baskets. What else have we got that looks like they're from at least the last century...I'll be damned, those were some neat shoes!"

I pointed at a pair of silver shoes in soft leather, they had the shape of ordinary ballet shoes, but there was a pattern of small flowers cut-out in them. They were discrete, the kind of shoes you don't exactly notice but when you do you realise they're damn good-looking.

"They's be awesome with your new clothes, and look, they're the same colour as your hair, could it possibly be better? Come on, try them on, okay? They're gonna look so good at you, Alyera."

She agreed to try them, and it was her turn on the bench. They did fit her, and they suited her wonderfully. I jumped up and down clapping my hands like a five-year-old.

"Oh yay! They're perfect, please tell me you like them, you're so cute in them, they're absolutely lovely, please please please like them pretty please?"

"I do like them. They are nice."

"Yay! We buy them and everything's gonna be awesome y'know, those shoes and the clothes we bought before are the beginning of your new life here with me and Teef and the kids so come on lets go pay! You'll be fine with just one pair of shoes for the moment, when it starts getting colder we can buy new ones, come on to the pay desk now!"

I pushed her in front of me all the way, and I didn't calm down until she had paid and it was my turn. I handed over the money with uncharacteristic joy; I'm a stealing ninja, I like to take money, not to give it.

"I'm hungry, let's go to a café or something," I said as we walked out from the shop. I didn't care whether she wanted to or not, but instead dragged her with me along the street. As we reached a small square, I saw a clock sitting at the wall of a fancy handbag shop. When realising how much time we had spent shopping without us (at least me) even noticing it, I stopped wondering how come I was hungry - as I had thought 'already'.

"Oh dear Leviathan, it's almost five o'clock! Damn, we must be much bigger shoppaholics than we thought we were, having spent like...long time in those stores. You must be hungry too by now, c'mon let's hurry to that café and get us some food! I hope they have some handsome waiters too 'cause I could really need some eye-candy right now. No, it's not wrong to say stuff like that, as long as you judge people by their insides, not the surface."

We continued along the shopping street, until I saw a sign hanging above a door in a small alley to our left. Café The Creamcloud, it read.

"Creamcloud? Sounds hippie enough, let's go there!" I exclaimed and went into the minimal alley, which was surrounded on two sides by tall brick buildings, with the tiny café squeezed in between them, its light brownish grey sandstone looking like it belonged in a village like Kalm, not Edge. There was a small window next to the door, and as far as I could see, the interior looked nice. I grinned at Alyera, opened the door and let her enter first before closing it behind us.

It smelled like newly baked bread, tea, coffee, cookies and chocolate, all at the same time. There was a small desk in front of us, and to both sides of it glass monters with all sorts of deliciousnesses on their shelves. To the right there was an entrance to a rather small room filled with couches and chairs in dark honey wood with crimson clothing, grouped around several tables in the same warm brown colour. The lower part of the window was covered by a curtain of thick, velvet-like fabric in a slightly deeper red than that of the furniture. I could only see two guests; a young couple sitting in the far left corner, both leaning over their table and talking, looking very much in love. The boy, who was facing me, slowly stirred in his cup, watching his girlfriend's every move like that was what fed him instead of food. I doubted he had even noticed me and Alyera coming into the café. One who had, was the man standing behind the desk. He seemed to be maybe twenty-two or twenty-three, he had platinum blond hair, light blue eyes, a tuned goatee, some softly glimmering silver earrings and damn, he had muscles. He smiled at us, bowed and spread his arms.

"How may I be of service, ladies?"

Alyera seemed to be shocked by the fact that men could be polite, but I had met some nice guys before in my life, so I just smiled back at him.

"Hello! We're here for a very late lunch inbetween the shopping, can you recommend us anything? We're sooo hungry, and choosing something by myself would take me ages!"

"Well then ladies, newly baked bread made of sungrass flour, seasoned with thorndew-berries, and filled with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, egg, ham and mozzarella. Sound good enough for two fancy ladies like yourselves?"

I giggled in that special kinda way that'll make any guy feel like he's something extra, and nodded enthusiatically.

"Yeah, that sounds good enough, definitely! Right?" I looked at Alyera, and she nodded. "Yep, two of those yummilicious-sounding sandwiches please! I want tea, Wutai-style. What do you want?"

"I-I'd like some tea, too..." Alyera stuttered.

"What flavour? I've got vanilla, forestberries, strawberry, jasmine..."

"J-jasmine would b-be fine, please."

"All right then, ladies! Just have a seat and I'll bring you your tea and sandwiches as soon as I can."

I smiled ever more brightly at him.

"Thank you...um..." I looked at the little badge on his chest. His very muscular chest. "...Luxord."

I flashed off a last cute and girly grin before taking Alyera with me into the parlour. I looked around, not being able to decide where to sit.

"Where do you wanna sit?"

"By the window."

Her answer was quick, her voice steady and without the slightest sign of stammering. I looked at her, surprised, and she shyly met my gaze.

"I-I mean...Please? I like to watch people walk by..."

"Of course we can sit there, I asked you, didn't I? You don't have to say 'please' if I let you choose, especially not if we're friends, and we are, right? By the window it is, then."

We sat down, me facing the desk. Now I could oh-so-innocently glance at Luxord every now and then. Across the room behind me the young couple giggled and kept speaking in low voices. It was rather cute, because it seemed like the only thing they were talking about was what they liked in the other.

"I love your beautiful eyes, and your smile, and your laughter is like a purling brook, and your hands are so soft, and you're so smart, and so kind..."

I smiled to myself; it wasn't very often you got to hear a teenage boy talk like that. I had judged their age to about sixteen when looking for a table.

"So, then Alyera. Do you want me to tell my story? It's long, I know, but it's awesome and exciting and thrilling and everything."

She nodded.

"Okay. Is it cool with you if I call you Allie? Alyera's so long to say." She nodded again. "Great! Well then, Allie... Where to begin? I guess it's best I take it from the beginning. Okay, here goes. I'm born in Wutai, November 20th, 1991. The year after I was born, the Wutai war started. The Shin-Ra wanted to build mako reactors in our land, but we didn't want their Lifestream-killing machines there, so we fought them. When I was four, mum got ill. I don't know what was wrong with her, but she...withered away. She died when I was six. Three years later, the war ended, Wutai lost and turned into a vacation resort. Being the princess wasn't worth anything anymore, because I didn't exactly have a country. It was Shin-Ra that ruled Wutai, dad was just the face that gave the orders when President Shinra pulled the strings.

Still nonetheless, I was the princess, and dad believed that a good education would make me able to save our country one day. You see, we got this pagoda, and it has five floors. Every floor has its champion, my old man's on the highest one. Dad's got four right hands, and they are the Masters of Power, Speed, Magic, and Weapons as well as a floor each. They were my teachers, especially Chekov, and she was the one I liked the best. Gorki tried to teach me about history and other boring stuff, Shake tried to teach me...well, I really don't know what that silly little man was trying to make me understand. Staniv was supposed to teach me maths and how to behave properly, and he failed hard at both. Chekov gave me basic skills in combat, and also taught me about some more interesting things, like how to survive in the wilderness, or Wutai traditions – not the boring ones, Chekov was smart enough to understand that I wouldn't learn anything anyway if I didn't like it, so she only told me about the interesting ones, and also about the Leviathan legend. That's an awesome story, I've gotta tell it someday. Anyway, I also started to train to become a ninja. Actually the most of the training I did on my own. Basically, you could say I'm self-learned.

So, when I was a fully-fledged ninja, dad sent me away. He wanted me to gather as much materia as possible, because we both believed in that materia would save Wutai. And so one day when I was prowling around Junon, I found this group of five wanderers. I tried to fight them, but well, they were five, I was one. They were grown-ups and much more experienced than me, who was only sixteen. Oh well, Nanaki would've been my age if he was human, but he was so mature. So, um, yeah, they beat me. I agreed to join them, my only reason to steal their materia. That was when my journey, the journey of my life, began."

I was interrupted by Luxord who came with our food. The sandwiches were huge and smelled wonderfully, I could feel the sweet thorndew-berry scent even though the tea smelled a lot too.

"Your 'lunch', ladies. Enjoy!"

"I'm sure we will, thanks a lot!" I said and grinned. He smiled back at me and walked back to the desk, being watched by me all the time. "Damn that's one sexy piece of ass," I whispered to Alyera, who got a little red but giggled. I took the first bite of my sandwich and was immediately overcome by the extreme deliciousness. "This is so good!" I said with my mouth full.

I ate one fourth of the huge filled bread before continuing with my storytelling, taking a bite or a sip every now and then. I didn't exactly notice that the young couple stopped chatting after some time, and instead sat quiet, listening. I told Alyera everything, from the battles we fought to the bickering in the evenings, when we tried to decide who were gonna share a tent. Being somewhat of an outsider, I often ended up having to endure Cid's and Barret's snores all night without getting any sleep at all.

"Have you any idea what it souns like? Okay, it's like a two-man orchestra. Barret is the brass part, he sounds like a roaring bear, or a malfunctioning tank, or a chainsaw, or when he does those strange bassoon-sounds in his nose, and then he would randomly go rolling thunder and start bellowing like a horny behemoth for hours. Cid was the string part, he made these wheezing sounds, and then he whistled, and made this wheeeeeeeooouwww sound, and he was darn good at imitating a Jas Gripen-plane, too. In the morning, I was so tired I thought I'd fall down and die on the spot, but I forced myself to keep on walking, thinking of all the lovely materia that hopefully waited for me at journey's end."

Then I continued with telling about when I stole their materia, but they chased me down and forgave me like the wonderful and nice people they are, and how I fought all my former teachers and eventually my own father in the pagoda, acquiring the power of Leviathan after having done so. I told about the Temple of the Ancients, and Aerith's death. I could hear my voice trembling when I did, but I managed to refrain from crying. I continued with how our search for Sephiroth brought us north, to the Northen Crater, and then back to Junon. I told about the Weapons of the Planet, about the submarines, about our repeated meeting with the Turks who seemed to be just about everywhere. I described the planet's core and our final battle with Sephiroth in detail, especially how the Lifestream arrived to aid us when we thought that all was lost, that our seemingly neverending struggle had been in vain. Without any notable pauses, I proceeded with the second Jenova War, and after that the DeepGround War. When I got to the part when Shalua gave her life to save her sister, the tears were trying to force their way down my cheeks, but I fought them back and did my best to keep my voice steady. I told Alyera about my worry, when I thought that Vincent was dead, but when I did, I felt something strange inside me. It was as if the mere memory of that uncertanity made me worry again. How curious.

When I was done, I took a deep breath and smiled at Allie.

"Done story-telling. Sure took me some time."

"Excuse me..." a girl's voice said. "Are you Yuffie Kisaragi?"

I turned my head. The teenage couple, a blond boy with spikes that looked like Cloud's but smaller, and an even blonder girl, both with striking blue eyes, was standing next to our table, blushing and fidgeting.

"Yeah, I am", I answered.

"Oh!" the girl cried out, smiling. "Can I please have your autograph?" She nervously held up a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Of course you can!" I said, taking the paper and scribbling down my utterly awesome signature on it. "What's your name?"

"Naminé!"

"Okay. 'To...Naminé'. There you go."

"Can I have one too?" the boy asked.

"Sure thing! Name?"

"Roxas!"

"Alrighty! 'To...Roxas'. There!"

"Thank you so much, miss Kisaragi!" the girl said, shining like the sun, before both she and her boyfriend almost rushed out of the café.

"Damn, I'm famous around here, eh?" I said, watching the couple walk away through the window.

"Seems so. You ladies done eating?"

Luxord came up to our table, and took our tea cups and plates without answer when he saw that they were empty.

"Yep, we are. I'd like to pay, too."

"Well then, lessee... For two pretty ladies like you, it's a hundred gil even. And an autograph."

I grinned as I gave him one as well as the money. He bowed as thanks, and even followed us to the door.

"Nice to have you here. Come back some time!"

"Yeah, we will if we need a good café!" I answered as me and Alyera walked down the alley towards the main street.

As we blended together with the masses again, I started laughing. I couldn't stop it, it was so hilarious everything; the shopping, the café, Luxord, the autographs... Alyera looked at me, worry shining in her emerald eyes.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah...that guy, Luxord...he was just so funny. That's all. Let's head home."

She nodded. "Home". I had called 7th Heaven home, and she had nodded without reacting. Maybe this was our new home, for both her and me. Maybe we'd both find shelter from the raging storms there. Maybe there'd be someone who'd love us, take care of us and appreciate us there. Yeah. There would. At 7th Heaven, there would always be pople who'd welcome us with open arms, letting us into their family, defend us. People who'd let us have our home there. Everyone needs a home, no matter how many travels they've been on, no matter how many friends they have who'll let them sleep on the couch, no matter if they moved from home years ago. Everybody need a safe place to return to, whenever they want. A place that'll greet them with joy, making them feel secure. My home, and Alyera's, was now 7th Heaven. And who could ever know, maybe we'd stay there for years? I wouldn't mind. And I hoped that Alyera wouldn't either.

-TWR&TH-

When we reached the bar, it was well over eight o'clock. We hadn't exactly made haste when walking back, instead we took an unnecessary long route through a small park, past some more shops and Marlene and Denzel's school. We entered 7th Heaven panting, since all the bags we carried made it hard and very unomfortable to walk. Tifa looked up at us from behind the bar counter, smiling when she saw us.

"Had fun, girls?"

"Yeah!" I responded. "We gotta go get these things upstairs, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. Proceed, employees!" she laughed.

We headed upstairs, ending up in my room where we fell down on the floor, exhausted. Alyera had been given one of the unused guest rooms, it didn't have much furniture except the bed, so my room was much comfier. I started digging in my bags, happy like a child on Christmas.

"Let's try it on, and go show Teefs!" I exclaimed. "Put on that dress and the shoes, you're gonna be gorgeous."

Alyera nodded and carefully took the box the dress was in from its bag and placed it on the floor. With a religious look on her face, she lifted the lid off and took the dress from its hiding. It was fun watching her, since she still seemed to believe it would break. I turned my eyes to my own clothes, and decided to flash everybody with my stunning beauty dressed in the white shorts, the white tank top and the boots. Without thinking, I pulled my dirty top over my head. When it lay on the floor, I noticed the huge blush on Alyera's face and how she turned away.

"Oh for Leviathan's sake! We're both female, aren't we?" I yelled, and managed to crawl out of the shorts too, before even taking off my sandal boots first. Then, when sitting in just my underwear (which Vincent had seen, I remembered and blushed slightly myself) and ignoring Alyera, I put on the new clothes, after removing the price tags. It felt lovely to wear something new and clean and fresh, for a change.

"Hey Allie, you gonna change or what? Come on, don't be shy – if you go to the beach, it's the same thing, only in a bikini." I knowingly overlooked the fact that when Vince had told me just that not so long ago, I had disagreed with him.

Still red in her face, Alyera got out of her dress and then quickly put on the new one, and finished with putting on the silver shoes too.

"Great! Come, let's go show Teef, and then we move your stuff into your room – good thing you have a wardrobe – and then there will be only peace and happiness in the world come on now!"

I dragged her with me downstairs. Tifa turned her head when she heard us coming, and squealed with joy when she saw us.

"Oh you're both so beautiful!"

"Yeah I know! And it's all thanks to me 'cause without me Allie wouldn't have bought a thing, especially not that dress but I told her she looked gorgeous innit so she did and then we bought these awesome shoes look and then we went to this really hippie name café and there was this dude there and he was like all muscles and eye-candy and there were these cute teenagers there and they asked for my autograph because I told Allie everything about our travels and then..."

-TWR&TH-

It was not until ten, when we started getting ready for bed while Teefs closed the bar, that I realised something.

"Ohmigosh! Allie, we forgot to buy nightgowns! Whaddar we gonna do?"

Alyera stared at me, the horrible truth sinking in.

"Okay, don't panic", I said. "I'mma ask Teef if she's got two to spare."

I went downstairs. Tifa was just locking the door, and turned to face me when she heard my footsteps.

"Tifa, we forgot to buy nightgowns. Do you have any?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, but I only have two, and I need one for myself..."

"Hmm, okay, Allie can have the other one, then? As for me...does Cloud have any t-shirts that are big enough for me to sleep in? I figure sleeping in a tank top won't be very comfy."

"I'm sorry Yuffie, Cloud's not the t-shirt kind of guy, and the few he's actually got are quite tight, and since he's not all that much taller than you..."

"Okay, they'd be too small to use as a nightgown. Crap."

"But I think Vincent has some t-shirts I bought for him ages ago, he hardly never uses them...you could ask him to borrow one."

"Yeesh, sleeping in Vincent's clothes? What if I wake up only to find that I've got pointy teeth and a sudden lust for blood?" Teef glared at me. "Okay, I'll ask Mouldy", I sighed. Guess it was better than nothing, and anything in Vince-size would be much to big for me, so one of his t-shirts would probably be a perfect nightgown. But I wasn't going to admit that to him.

I went upstirs again, gathered some courage and then walked over to Vince's door and knocked. He opened within seconds. Was he like, standing behind the door all the time, ready to assault people who went by? He looked at me questioningly.

"Ehh...um, well, the problem is this: Me and Alyera forgot to buy nightgowns, and Teefs only have two, so I don't have anything comfy to sleep in, so Teef told me to ask you if I could borrow a t-shirt...?"

I tried not to blush and die, this was so awkward, but Vinnie only nodded and went back into the darkness in his room. After half a minute he returned with a black t-shirt, which he gave me.

"There. It should be big enough for you to use as a nightgown."

"Thanks, Vince. I'll give it back once I've bought a real one."

He only nodded again, and closed the door. I went back to my room, slowly, clutching the piece of clothing in my hands. When standing next to my bed, I quickly undressed, but hesitated before putting on the shirt. Looking around the room for uninvited guests stalking in the shadows, I lifted it to my face and inhaled the smell. It smelled just like Vincent; dark chocolate, cinnamon, and sun-warm raspberries. There also was a scent that reminded me of earth, when it's just rained. I sat down on the bed, still with my face buried in the fabric. I liked the smell. It made me feel warm and safe, it made me think of Vincent's clumsy try to comfort me on the boat. It made me think of that time in Aerith's curch, when her water cured Denzel's Geostigma, and I had turned to Vince to ask him if it wasn't wonderful, and saw that he actually was smiling. That was the first time I had ever seen him do that, and it had stunned me completely. The memory made me smile, and I drew a deep breath. Then I suddenly realised what I was doing. Okay, this felt weird, really weird. Vincent was my buddy, my comrade-in-arms, my eternal victim for picking on. And now I was like, using his t-shirt as blanket? Wrong, wrong, wrong. I acted as if I was in love with him, and I sure as hell was not. Never. Absolutely negative. I unfolded the shirt, stared at it. It was a normal, black piece of clothing, nothing else. Now it was gonna be my nightgown for some time. Yeah. It was a t-shirt. A normal t-shirt. Nothing else. Stupid Vincent, smelling like chocolate. I put it on, and crawled down under my duvet. Even now, when I was wearing it, I could feel the smell. Damn that vampire.

Oh well, I thought, at least I'll sleep good with this on.

-TWR&TH-

It was near midnight when I suddenly woke up. Alyera was standing next to my bed, dressed in Tifa's a little too small white nightgown. She looked like a ghost in the pale moonlight, which illuminated her silver hair and ivory skin. I squeaked out of surprise, and she immediately brought her hands together, a worried expression on her face.

"Oh I am so sorry, did I scare you? It was not my intention, forgive me, Yuffie!"

"Yeah, I will, if you just tell me what the hell you're doing in my room?"

"It is just that...I could not sleep, and then I came to realisation of something. I understood why we felt like we had met before. We have! Do you not remember? In Wutai, during the first years of the war. The fence between us, you were dirty because you had run from home and fallen into a mud pool..."

I sat up in the bed. The memories came flahing back, everything. I remembered the little girl who was trapped in her garden, surrounded by that fence. Her huge blue-green eyes and her hair, like gold in the sunshine. She knew a little Wutai, I knew a little Common. And since her name wasn't writable or pronouncable in Wutai, she had presented herself as...

"Ariera?"

"Yes, Yuffie! So, you do too remember! For a few days, you always came to visit me, even though I was never allowed outside of the garden. Then the war accelerated, and we moved from Wutai because it was not safe there... I was five. It was one year before..."

"Yeah...I remember now. I remember how you looked. But you're prettier now. Not many people have that hair colour. I remember everything! My mother was very ill, and I worried a lot, but talking to you made me happy, you were my best friend, until you disappeared...I never understood why or to where, but just two weeks later, mum died, and I forgot about you, like children do. It's really you! Amazing!"

She nodded, smiling. Then she grabbed my hands between her own.

"We were destined to meet again, Yuffie. After all, we are childhood friends."

Sooo... What do ya think? Like it? Hate it? Review either way! Oh I know, Alyera's an annoying innocent little bitch, isn't she? But just you see, some time with Yuffie and she's sure to change...to the better, let's hope. And I could sooo imagine Luxord running a café with a hippie name. I love that man. I thought of having Sora and Kairi as the teenage couple at first, but since I really don't like any of them, I chose their Nobodies instead 'cause they kick major ass. Maybe more KH characters will appear later when I need more random-people-on-the-street. Especially Organization XIII, I love them. Xemnas = failed poet, anyone? Oh, and I figure they don't have Jas planes on Gaia...but whatever, they're Swedish, so am I. And you've gotta admit it; imagining your parents having sex is the weirdest thing. The guys in my class sometimes discuss that subject very loudly in the corridors. Yeah, well, anyway. Hope you like it. I'll be faster with updates in the future, hopefully. School finishes in two months, so then...no more tests! YAY!1!1!1!1!11!1! I hate tests. Especially since I cry if I get anything lower than 'passed with distinguish'. That's why tests make me so tired; I worry myself crazy. Don't do that, kids! 'Tis not good for you!

Love,

Shade Lamora