By Crimson
*****
Chapter 1- Do I know you?
Everyone turned, pointed, and laughed. Why? There was some girl, dancing on the table. Whoops of joy came from the crowd, spurring her on. Cloud turned around... what was everyone looking at? This was a busy club, and he should have been used to drunken table dancers by now, but he couldn't help staring. Was it? Could it be? He pushed his way through the crowd, to the edge of the table, yelling at the girl.
"C'mon miss, it's time to get down now."
She turned and poked her tongue out at him, then wiggled her ass in his face. The crowd screamed in delight.
Suddenly, as if realising something, she turned back around.
"Do I... know you?" She had to yell, to make herself heard above the wolf whistles.
"We can talk later... if you'll get down."
Reluctantly, she took his hand and dropped from the table, slipping into obscurity among the dancing masses while another girl, egged on by her whooping friends, climbed up onto the table to take her place.
Cloud led the girl outside.
"Right, what's your name, miss?"
She mumbled something.
"Speak up!"
"Yuffie Kisaragi." She spoke fast, trying to confuse him, but it didn't work.
Cloud took a step back. So it was her...
"You look a lot different. How old are you now?"
Her eyes darted about, seeking escape.
"Do I know you?"
Cloud saw something... something in her eyes... something else he should've been used to by now.
"Are you afraid?"
"A bit," she confessed.
"Do you remember me?" he chided.
"I... I know your face," she replied. "But I don't know where from. And... I'm 21 now."
He smiled at her, and she smiled ruefully back.
"Come with me..." he said. "I know someone else you might remember."
*****
Yuffie woke up in some place she'd never been before, with a pounding headache and a foul taste in her mouth. A girl came over to her.
"Are you awake?"
Yuffie grunted a reply, and the girl helped her to sit up, handing her a glass of water and two aspirin.
"Take these."
She did as she was told. The girl ran up some stairs, yelling something, something too loud for Yuffie's mind to process. She fell back, laying back down. The bed was comfy... something she wasn't used to. Questions were racing through her mind... where was she? Who was the hansome man she vaguely remembered who'd brought her here? Why was a ten-year-old girl in a pink frock giving her aspirin? She pulled the pillow over her head, trying to block out the questions, when she heard a voice.
"Yuffie?"
It was a voice she recognised, just like that man's... except this was a girl. Now that her mind was working properly, she began to place it...
"Yuffie, are you awake?"
She removed the pillow from her head, and looked up into big brown eyes... eyes that she remembered.
"T-Tifa?"
"S'me."
Yuffie relaxed. So these were the strangers... they were her friends. She hadn't seen them for five years... it was a coincidence that Cloud was the newest bouncer at her favourite club.
"God, we were worried about you. Cloud said you were paraletic... out like a light as soon as you got into his car."
Tifa was busying herself with something, something Yuffie couldn't see.
"I was worried about me... I had no idea where I was, or who had brought me here!" Yuffie admitted. Tifa smiled. "Who was the little girl... who brought me the aspirin?"
"Marlene," stated Tifa. "Didn't Barret ever tell you about her?" Although her mind wasn't yet functioning properly, Yuffie began to remember Barret's tales.
"Oh yeah... so who's here?"
Tifa walked over to the bed, and sat on the edge.
"Me, Cloud, Barret... Marlene... everyone went their separate ways, I don't know where anyone else is. Except you."
Yuffie had to smile, it was all true. Everyone had left after they'd got rid of Sephiroth. Cid had gone home... so'd Red. Vincent had gone back to Midgar, trying to rebuild a life, but no one had heard from him since. Cait Sith... well, Cait Sith had been put out of use, since the ShinRa were no longer around. Barret, Cloud and Tifa had taken Marlene and gone to live in Nibelheim.
Yuffie had done a tour of the world. She started off in Wutai, and went back there as often as she could, but then she'd gone to Mideel for a year... then Junon... then she got a job at the Gold Saucer, and after another year there, she went back to Mideel. In the recent year, she'd been doing a tour of clubs... and had ended up in Nibelheim for the past three months, staying in a hotel in the mountains, the converted reactor. She'd visited 'The Mansion' club every night, but never realised that the others were still living there. Until now.
"So... you guys done anything interesting since I last saw you?" The two girls were struggling to keep the conversation alive, but Yuffie was determined to try.
"Not much... we've kinda just lived here all the time," Tifa confessed. "Not doing much. I mean, Cloud's got his new job and everything, and Barret's been working in the store, while I've looked after Marlene."
Yuffie realised that there was a sad tone in Tifa's voice... this was nothing like the adventure she'd become accustomed to... and it was worse than her life as a barmaid in the slums.
"One thing I noticed..." Yuffie encouraged, "...is the distinct lack of a decent bar in this particular village."
Tifa looked woeful, and her fists clenched up.
"I know..."
Oh, so she'd thought about it as well, Yuffie noticed. Thought about it, refused it... and now she was regretting it. Regretting ever having to admit that she 'wasn't doing much'. It was just so unlike Tifa. They'd only been talking for five minutes, and already Yuffie had noticed a distinct change in Tifa's character since they'd parted.
"You... okay?"
"Mmmmm." Tifa got up. "Barret's upstairs... I'll get him to say hi." She was distant now, and Yuffie knew she'd said the wrong thing. She grunted, bored of having to tread carefully around people. She'd suffered it for long enough, trying not to offend Cloud with anything she said after Aeris'd died. Now, she didn't really care anymore.
"Yuff?"
She looked up the stairs, to see the concerned face of Barret staring down at her.
"Hey... come on down." He did as he was told, while Yuffie swung her legs round so she was sitting on the edge of the bed.
"So... how are you?" He was finding it difficult to speak to her... Barret always found it hard when he hadn't seen someone for a while.
"Okay, I guess. I think I just offended Tifa."
"Whad'ya say?" He began to relax, this was a subject he could elaborate on.
"I said... I hinted she should start up a bar here. She just looked so depressed... it was only a suggestion..."
"Don't worry." Barret finally understood why Tifa had been so blunt in asking him to go and see Yuffie. "She's gotten touchy. Just saying anything like that... well... she gets a bit upset."
"How come?"
"She... she never really got over Cloud. She put the moves on him a number of times since... y'know... and he refused every last one, he was still tied up on Aeris. She looked so sad... so I suggested she start up another bar, a taste of her old life, and something to take her mind off Cloud. She blankly refused... saying she'd prefer to sit at home and think it out... but she's never really got on with her life. It makes her sad, just thinking about how she could've ended up, but she refuses to do anything positive about it."
"Aww..." Yuffie sighed. It was the first time in her life she'd ever felt sorry for Tifa, she always used to envy her, all that time ago when she had a crush on Cloud. But Tifa... Tifa had more than a crush on him, and she wasn't about to let it go.
"Couldn't she..." Yuffie began to realise that no matter what she said, she couldn't convince Tifa. But Yuffie had never been a quitter. Barret saw the determination in her eyes.
"I'll give you six months," he said. "Try and do a better job than I did."