Sunshine in Winter
Chapter One
"Miss Kisaragi, I'm afraid you have only one safe option. I would never
do this to you if I did not feel the need, but I feel that for the sake
of your life we need to ampu - "
"No."
I suppose Dr. Bannon was a nice man normally. He had a lot of dull,
fair hair and brown eyes and glasses and a nervous twitch in one eye.
Apparently he'd set up a clinic in Gongaga due to Reeve's orders for
the like in every city after Meteor. That was the reason for the lack
of good old Gongagan faith medicine. I couldn't have given a flying
fuck; in fact, at this point, I felt like screaming for the good old
Gongagan faith medicine.
"Miss Kisaragi, hear me out." His voice was still steady. Patient man.
"This infection is spreading; right now we can amputate below the knee.
But you have been severely infected, and poisoned; you are incredibly
weak and your white blood cell count is going to have a severe setback
due to the antidotes used for the poison. I have no other choice I can
make in good faith but remove the wounded leg before the infection
takes your life."
"No."
Blank, quiet and a monotone was the way to go. That way I didn't have
to think. That way I didn't have to face anything.
His voice began taking on a pleading tone. "Miss Kisaragi, you have a
matter of months."
Silence.
"Miss Kisaragi, you will die."
Silence.
"Junon has some excellent prosthetics," he offered, obviously taking my
silence for obedience. "Totally natural-looking - "
Did he know where he could put his prosthetics? "No."
He walked around to my bed slowly and pulled up a chair. I rolled away
from him.
"Dying of a bacterial infection isn't pretty," he murmured. "I can't
tell you whether it will be quick or slow. If you're lucky, death would
come quickly; if not, you'll linger on, losing your bodily functions,
so slowly, lying in bed and waiting to die - "
"Shut the hell up!" I screeched and burst into tears.
He talked on and on. Most likely another disease would carry me off;
most likely I'd slip into a coma by the end of it. By the time he was
finished I had cried myself out of tears and was on to dry hacking
sobs, the kind babies cry when they throw tantrums. He was led out by
the nurse eventually and I heard raised voices in the corridor; I
didn't care. The sobs didn't stop, hysteria, throat closing... they
gave me an injection, I think, because I slipped away into darkness.
When I awoke, there was porridge for me, and murky orange juice, and -
Vincent. He was sitting beside me, even more quiet than the tray
containing my breakfast, and although my stomach grumbled it was him I
focused on first.
He looked exactly the same as he had when I'd seen him last, when we
all parted ways; he'd dropped the clothing, however, and had tamed his
wild mane of ebon hair into a ponytail. I was rather disappointed; I'd
always admired that lightless, blue-black flow. His clothes, although
black as his hair, were somewhat more normal than ones of old. However,
after first inspection, I tired of analyzing his appearance and got
straight to the point.
"Why are you here?"
"...I live here," he said simply. "Here's your breakfast."
"Don't want it," I sulked. My leg was throbbing, pounding, hurting so
much that it seemed like a different entity. "Going to die. May as well
go of starvation."
"Starvation is a long process," he noted.
"Oh, go away." I took the bowl and began to eat the contents within.
Although it was sweet, there was an underlying bitterness to it that
notified me that there was medication crushed within.
After a few spoonfuls, I became aware of his eyes still trained on me,
and I glared at him indignantly. "What the hell're you staring at?" I
accused him. "What is this, 'watch the dying person' week?"
He looked at me then, and for some reason I flushed and had to look
away. Damn, did I ever hate his deep-red eyes; something within them
touched me, told me, 'I know all your secrets.'
"You are not going to die, Yuffie." It was the same voice tone as
always, soft and whispery, but there was an edge of firmness to it.
I gestured to my leg, swollen and swathed in bandages, in all it's
unsightly shades of reds and greens and bruise-blues where the angry
skin could be seen. "If you wanna hear the whole gist of it, go talk to
that fucking doctor. He can tell you the step-by-step process!"
"He is merely... worried, Yuffie. It is your only satisfactory chance at life,
I hear."
"I don't want to be an amputee," I said heatedly. "I don't want to walk
around on sticks, I don't want to be ugly! You don't understand!"
"..." He raised his arm, the golden-burnished-copper claw.
"It's not the same," I practically sobbed in frustration. The
medicine in my porridge had taken the pain away and thus the bite from
my anger, but now I was merely deep-down in the throes of self pity.
"My leg is my life! How can I fight? I'm a ninja! I need this leg. I'd
- I'd rather die, and that's my decision, damn it."
He nodded at that, smooth and calm. "Yes... that is a decision you are
allowed to make."
I took the orange juice and sipped at it. It was too sour for my
tastes, but it was liquid and cool and tasted wonderful, even with the
underlying sour tang. It was a relief that Vinnie wasn't going on at me
about how my body'd look nine months from now; of course, he was
sitting there looking morose, but I was used to that and he was
definitely talking more than nor -
"However, you will be going back to Wutai."
I spat out a wad of orange juice into my glass, snorting citrus up my
nose, my sinuses burning but I was too surprised and angry to care.
"What the fuck?!" I swore.
He remained totally calm. "As you are still under the legal age of
twenty-one to look after yourself in Wutaian law, you will be required
to be with your father. I will be escorting you there to make sure you
don't have different ideas along the way. You will not make a decision
like this so lightly, Yuffie, without Godo. Asa can perform any surgery
you need, and also look after you, medicinal-wise."
Asa was the wisewoman-cum-doctor in Wutai, looked three thousand years
old (she was probably older) and had probably delivered everybody in
the entire village.
I was too angry and too shocked to speak. My face was burning red, and
I spluttered incoherently, trembling in rage.
"Godo has been informed," he said coolly. "Cid arrives tomorrow morning
with his airship... We'll be at Wutai before noon tomorrow." Without
any goodbye, he stood and approached the door.
"You rotten bastard!"
I flung the now-empty glass of juice at his back. The door shut before
it could connect, and it shattered into a million pieces on the earthen
floor.
I didn't sleep that night, fuming. I lay awake in the cool darkness and
watched the window until the pale light of dawn was forming outside,
waiting to hear the familiar roar of engines from the Highwind dimly
spinning outside Gongaga. Gawd, would I give Vinnie a piece of my mind
in the morning! I'd tug his fake arm off and beat him to death with it.
Then I'd drag him around a bit and jump on his stomach, and, and...
Thinking these happy thoughts, I calmed slightly and dozed off.
I was awoken what seemed only a minute later by my bed jerking
erratically; I sat up immediately and rubbed at my eyes.
"Gaw-#!&#-damnit," grunted a familiar figure, none-too-gently wheeling
my bed out of the makeshift hospital. "Vincent told me you'd have your
ass asleep."
"Stop it," I squawked feebly. "Put me back. I'm not going on your awful
airship, and if I am I am sooo going to puke over it, so help me Gawd,
so you better put me back - "
Cid smirked, flicking ash from his cigarette to the side. "Ha! You
wish, punk! The moment I heard that you were gonna get on my ship, I
knew you were gonna blow your chunks everywhere, so I got a rubber
sheet. Nice leg, b'the way," he guffawed.
"I hate you," I whined.
"# that," he said absently. "In my day, we didn't give ya punks a
choice. We just sawed the damn leg off. And no goddamn talk of
prosthetics - you shoulda seen one of the guys in my engineering sector
back in Shinra. The #-head sawed off his whole damn hand and he
stuck a file in there later for kicks. We called him - "
"File-hand?" I suggested sarcastically.
Cid blinked, then moved his cigarette to the other side of his mouth.
"Nah, we just called him #-head. Damn git shoulda seen what he was
doin' with the saw. It was kinda fun to see him peelin' apples,
though."
I sighed. Cid was always just that, vintage Cid. I perked up out of my
lethargy and propped myself up on my elbows as he led me through the
misty road out of Gongaga, empty and still and quiet as the dawn that
was barely poking through the clouds. "Where's Vincent?"
"Gone off t'get his stuff."
That alarmed me. "I thought he was just escorting me there, not
staying."
"How the hell am I supposed to #ing know? I'd bet fifty gil he
didn't say fifteen words to me on the PHS." He began wheeling me up the
ramp - the one that I'd swung and cartwheeled up and down so many
times. I began to feel infirm and totally helpless.
"He mouthed off to me," I complained. "In fact, he just never shut up!
Ordering me off to Wutai, bossing me around..." I sighed. "It's
probably not Vincent. It's an evil zombie."
"Vincent's an evil #ing zombie," Cid commented.
"Yeah, but this new one's less apathetic."
"I am... flattered, somewhat," Vincent responded dryly, stepping out
from the top of the ramp.
Cid spat out his cigarette and glared at him, pushing my bed into his
airship with a surprising jerk as I squealed in un-enjoyment. "#!
Damnit, man! Stop sneaking around everywhere!"
Vincent turned to me, looking at me with his blood-dark eyes, asking
questions without voice. I hmphed and turned my head away - catch me
talking to some meddling vampiric jerk who was shipping me back to the
last place I wanted to go!
He merely raised a raven eyebrow and turned back to Cid.
Cid secured my bed in the bridge, which had no threatened rubber sheet
- but it did have a large steel bowl. "If she tosses her chocobos over
my bridge, I'm gonna shove my Gospel up where it ain't comfy f'you," he
threatened Vincent, who was sitting on the far side of the bridge.
I looked out the window next to my bed and sniffed. "I'm not feeling
ill," I said haughtily. "You won't need to injure Mr. Valentine." I'll
get to do all that.
"Mis-tah Valentine," Cid mocked, and entered a quick conversation with
the lone pilot sitting in his seat reading a magazine.
Mis-tah Valentine fumbled in the pocket of his shirt for something and
approached me, pressing something into my hand. "...Medication," he
answered my wary stare.
I suspiciously sniffed the pills, then popped them into my mouth and
crunched away at the bitterness, swallowing down. I was fast becoming
quite adept at swallowing pills.
The Highwind lurched and I groaned slightly as it took to the air,
burying my head in the sickly-sweet medical smell of my pillow. I was
quite quickly becoming drowsy; that shithead Vincent must have slipped
me sleeping pills. "Bastard," I murmured, but he had already slipped
away.
Pain - and consciousness - ebbing away, I forced my eyes open and I
watched the clouds quickly come into view as we rose up into the skies.
The sun was rising, and warmed my face as I stared out the window; dawn
was so beautiful. It occured to me that I had to ration my sunshine,
now, as apparently my sunshine days were numbered...
Oh, stop being such a pathetic loser, Yuffie Kisaragi.
With the rising sun on my face, Gongaga behind me and Wutai before me,
I once again succumbed and fell asleep.