Adventures in Living

Thank you again for all the great reviews! I've so glad everyone is enjoying Adverntures, and I'm really excited to have so many reviews and views in only a few days! I'm having a blast writing this, and while I love writing for Cloud, I can't wait to get to the next part and explore the other characters. Anyway, same rules apply!


Cloud's Entry 9: Yuffie

After Cloud had eaten something, and Tifa took the dishes away, the blond decided to write at least one more entry for the day. He was in good shape, since he only had two more to go, and five months until Tifa's birthday. The last one he had to do was going to be a hard one to write… but the next one was going to be fun. Sure Yuffie could get a bit too over zealous sometimes, but she was a good person underneath it all.

He took a sip of his coffee and picked the pen up, flipping to the next page. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before setting the ink to paper.

Yuffie

Yuffie is a little ninja freak, who loves to steal materia and tends to pop up in the strangest places. She has some sort of sixth sense about where her friends are going to be, so she can show up at just the right time to help out, or sometimes just to be there for someone. Because, even if she is a little ninja freak, she's our ninja freak, and we wouldn't trade her for the world. She's brazen, quick witted, and snotty sometimes, and she can get on one's nerves when she tries to take your materia, but she usually gives it back. I think it's like a sport to her, stealing from us. She usually only does it when she wants to get our attention about something.

She's very profound for being so young, and she whines and makes faces at us old people, but she can see things with her youthful ways that most of us can't. Why do you think she engaged in a mud ball fight with Vincent? Not because she was playing, because she was trying to get him to play with her. There isn't one of us that hasn't lost more then a bit of their childhood, expected to grow up way to fast, or doesn't even remember having one, and Yuffie tries desperately to make us all look at the world with a renewed sense of wonder. We saved it, and in her eyes, we should enjoy it too.

Our ninja doesn't try to focus on the bad in the world; she turns her eyes toward the future. And she may boast and brag about her skills, and being important, she knows that she has a place here, with us, even if she decided not to rule Wutai, even if she wasn't the Great Ninja Yuffie, we'd still all love her, and accept her. There was a time, when some of us couldn't forgive what she did, but others… we saw what she was really doing, trying to save her home that had been destroyed as a power by Shinra. She was a little kid when it happened, and probably couldn't do anything to stop it. Now, she's an adult, and wants to do what she can to protect it. She's very protective of all the things she cares about.

I don't think it was a coincidence that she happened to show up at Shinra Manor just in time to save Vincent. Knowing her, she followed him there, worried about him, and stayed in the shadow to let him confront his demons. When he was about to be killed, she came out and saved him. She wasn't lucky, she was smart, and if there is anyone who can help Vincent to heal, it's her. She's a light that he doesn't have in himself, and I know Cid and Barret are concerned for her because she's so attached to an older man, but I think it's a good thing. Every scarred man still has a heart beating in his chest; sometimes it just takes an act of kindness and love to bring it out again. Yuffie is so tenacious, that I truly believe she's the only woman on the planet with the patience to get to him.

Sure she doesn't have patience for anything else, but I see the way those two work together, and worry about each other… I think he'll calm her down, and she'll help him glue his heart back together.

Most people don't actually see the real Yuffie, the one that wants to do right, the girl that can't leave a friend behind, no matter what. Someone who would stay in harms way if it meant saving one more life, and a woman that wouldn't let someone hurt himself or herself. For all the bluster and whining, she's very mature. She just uses the annoying brat routine to cover up her own heart, so she doesn't have to get hurt. If she let someone see the real her, she thinks that they won't like what they see. She thinks, falsely, that it will be easier if we all decided not to have her around, she could just tell herself it wasn't her, it was because we saw her as a child, and nothing more.

The only person she's fooling is herself. She's like a sister to Tifa and Aerith, a daughter to Cid and Barret, a confidant to Vincent and Nanaki, a playmate for Reeve… and for me she's a pillar of hope in a usually dismal world. She's proof that even after tragedy, even after everything is gone, something can come out of the ashes. I've always got the Phoenix equipped, and I think it's because of what Yuffie makes me feel. All the child like wonder I do possess, the ability to tell Sephiroth to his face that I cherish everything in my life, the reason I can see a child and not think that they are just destined to die one day, that now I can see the amazement in their eyes that life brings… that is because of Yuffie's example. I am lucky to have so many strong women close to me, because I truly think I would still be running if it weren't for them standing firm against me, to stop me.

One day, she'll take over the throne of Wutai, and I believe, without a doubt, the world will be better off with her as a leader. And we are all better off with her as our friend.

December 27

Cloud heard Tifa call his name downstairs, so he rose from his desk and grabbed him cold coffee, closing the book as an after thought. He made his way down the stairs and saw that Vincent and Yuffie were there, though this time they weren't covered in mud. Tifa turned and smiled happily at the swordsman, causing his heart to flutter once again. The hyper ninja bounced over and looped her arm around Cloud's, her head resting on his shoulder. "So," she said in a high voice, "our little Cloud finally grew some and told Tifa that he loved her. We've all known it all along, but it took him this long… wow!" She giggled and looked to Vincent, who was frowning at her.

"Yuffie, Cloud needed time, these things can't be rushed."

"You only say that Vince because you can't admit to yourself that I'm dead sexy." She laughed heartily as the gunman turned away from her, the top of his cheeks a bit darker then normal. Of course only she had noticed, because she made Vincent Valentine her business, and it wasn't much at all, but it was a start.

"Well Yuffie, what brings you two here anyway?" Tifa was always the mediator, and Cloud saw the gunman shoot her a look of thanks.

"Oh right! I need you guys to hide me. The old man wants me to come home and get married, what's up with that? He thinks I'm an old maid or something I guess. Anyway, I don't want him to find me if I can help it, and I figured this would be the best place. It's comfy, with friends and in plain sight."

Cloud shook his head a bit, "he'll look here, and I'm not sure it's right to lie to your father."

"Sure it is, I do it all the time. Anyway, Vincent is going to be my bodyguard, or so says Reeve, he doesn't want to loose his best agent to holy matrimony! So can we crash here?"

Tifa smiled, like she always did when indulging Yuffie. "Of course Yufs, our home is always opened to you. You can take the extra room, and Vincent can stay in Cloud's room." The blond could tell that Yuffie was fibbing, that her father probably wasn't looking for her, but what he wasn't sure about was why the gunslinger was going along with it.

Vincent tilted his head a bit and looked to Tifa, "then where will Cloud sleep."

The barmaid smirked, and the swordsman felt his cheeks go warm. "With me, of course…"

Then came a shriek so loud that Cloud was sure it would cause permanent hearing loss.