All right! Two reviews! This took so long since high schools no picnic. Tip
for all: Juggling 3 stories, schoolwork, housework, putting up with a jerk
of an English teacher AND a SECRET relationship is hard work. Don't do it
unless you can handle large amounts of stress!
-Kuroi Kitsune
Chapter 2: Yuffie's new Life Goal (Annoy Squall)
Yuffie trudged through the castle of the Hallow Bastion kicking an invisible can as she went. Everything was going great! Her dreams of becoming more than just Lady Kisaragi, only really known for being a thief in the forest or the Daughter of Lord Godo, was shot to hell by a vacuum of darkness, a huge shadow, and a buncha twitchy shadow critters. Not only did she have her dreams taken away, her home, her father, Checkov, Staniv, Gorky, Shake! SHAKE! Yuffie knew if she EVER missed the stupid little kid she'd either traveled a little too far away from home or wondered the world for too long. However, what pulled a heartstring more were her missing friends.
Yuffie thought bitterly of the times she had did so many things that caused them more trouble than they needed and times when she would curse them to have something horrible happen to them...but this-she didn't mean-The tiny thief shook her head wildly, her eyes closed shut. 'C'mon Yuffie! Don't think about them! What's done is done and can't be undone...right?'
"Hi!"
Yuffie tensed greatly, turning on heel to meet the gaze of a girl, a little younger than herself. Her blue eyes went well with her short auburn hair and her out fit was a white tank top, a purple skort and shoes that matched her top. "Uhhhh Hi? Who're you?"
"My name's Kairi."
"Well...the name's Yuffie Saki Kisaragi, Materia Hunter Extraordinaire and The greatest Ninja in the world!" It had been awhile since she had used her FULL traveling title and was grateful when it helped lighten her mood to match other girl, Kairi.
"That's a lot of stuff to say isn't it? You do that every time someone asks for your name?"
"Naaaw, It's mainly just to impress or scare people. But all that stuff IS true mind ya!" Yuffie was already beginning to like this kid...It reminded the 'Greatest Ninja in the World' Of how she was- 'Okay okay how I AM.'
"Why'd ya want to scare people anyway?"
"Well, mainly so they'll just hand over all their gil and materia so I won't hafta have things get a little rough. If life taught me anything, it's avoid work when you can."
"What's gil? And materia?"
"Y-you don't KNOW!?" to say the very least this shocked Yuffie greatly. Children, only a little older than 4 or 5 knew about materia, and it wasn't just heard of it. Yuffie shoved her hands in her pockets, fishing for a gil or two. Luckily she didn't have to do that as long as she would usually have to, and pulled the wrinkled currency. "This is 1 gil"
"Oh! Well here we use munny!"
"Yeah everybody does kid."
"No not MONEY, MUNNY!" Yuffie blinked once, then twice.
"Uhhhh...yeah, money..."
"She's talking about the currency here." The ninja almost jumped through the roof when she heard a male voice behind her.
"AAAACK!" She spun around coming almost face to face with the man she had met earlier. However, not knowing that sooner, she was surprised and fell backwards "WHAAAA-Oof!" 'owwwwwwwww...errr' Yuffie's face was flushed a bit, most likely from anger, or maybe embarrassment, at the time it couldn't be told. "Could you NOT do that!? Sheesh your almost as bad as- Humph never mind...You'd just be a waste of my time anyway. Go away now I'm trying to teach the kid a few things..."
"Actually I was going to ask you if you've seen something that was mine." Yuffie understood the message he was REALLY sending to her which was 'GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK BEFORE I KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' This wasn't something new to Yuffie at all so she did what she usually did in the past. Her fool proof plan, play innocent.
"Sorry I dunno what'cha talking about." she shrugged putting on her best I'm-so-cute-you-HAVE-to-believe-me face. Her innocent, clueless expression, not only didn't FAZE him but he saw right through it!
"Just hand it over."
"NO! I don't have anything! I'm NOT a thief! I don't even know what you're talking 'bout!"
"I wasn't born yesterday, just hand over my money." Yuffie scoffed, shoving her hands in her shorts' pockets and pulling them out, only a small, red marble like gem fell and bounced on the floor multiple times before slowing in a roll.
Yuffie's frown deepened as she mumbled, "See! Oh look you made me drop Leviathan..." Kairi picked up the ruby colored marble, examining it carefully. "That's materia kid." she glared at Squall her eyes saying 'Stupid jerk!' which was "coincidently" what ran through Yuffie's mind at the moment.
Squall still wasn't convinced. He calmly strode toward her, with much protest from the disgruntled Yuffie; he pulled off her left glove, a hundred or so gil floated gently to the ground. The left corner of Yuffie's mouth went up in an awkward smile. "Uhhhh...It's my allowance?"
The former SeeD member said nothing in return, collecting his findings, and leaving just as quickly as he had come. Kairi felt somewhat out of place for a moment before laughing. "Not the best thief now huh?"
Yuffie pouted, "I AM the best thief in the world! That was a first..."she stated before muttering "or second anyway." The young ninja sighed, she noticed Kairi staring at her with a bewildered look. The old Wutai heiress coughed and brought herself to attention once more. "Well...why not tell me a bit about this place huh?"
"Yeah sure! The Hallow Bastion's a pretty big castle. You can get lost just like..."The younger girl snapped her fingers quickly "THAT!"
"Sure kid"
"Could you quit calling me 'Kid'?"
***
The tour of the Hallow Bastion wasn't as helpful as Yuffie thought it would be. In fact, it seemed to have confused her more than it would have to just wonder around aimlessly. To her great fortune, however, she was back in the same hallway she had come to meet Kairi. At that time, Kairi had left saying she needed to get to the library for some kind of lesson. Still lost, she decided that it was just best to check on Cloud, Aerith and Cid.
"They should be okay by now," she told herself, coming to Aeris' door first. Knocking a few times, she heard a rustling going on in the room before hearing a rush of footsteps getting closer and closer. Finally, the currently revived Cetra answered the door, looking slightly disheveled.
"Yuffie!?" Aeris exclaimed happily, "Yuffie! I can't believe it you're alright!" without warning she hugged Yuffie tightly as if she were a mother finally finding her child after many years. "I thought I was the only one left!" Letting go of Yuffie, who was highly relieved to be able to breath again, the angel smiled brightly.
"Nope!" Yuffie reflected her friend's happy mood. "And as a matter of fact, Cid and Cloud are too!" Both girls laughing turned slow realizing something before taking deep sighs.
"What about the others?" Aeris asked.
"I don't know" Yuffie replied, wishing that the happiness didn't have to be drained from the moment so quickly. "We're the only one's left." As if the topic wasn't depressing enough, Aeris looked absolutely broken- hearted. "I'm sorry Aeris."
"It's okay Yuffie," Aeris whispered softly, "I guess it's better to know now, but..."
"We did all we could, didn't we?" Yuffie asked, trying to cheer her up though it didn't do a thing for her to feel at all better. Aeris wiped away a few forming tears that blurred her vision and tried to look on the point Yuffie had made. They did do all they could.
'Though our best wasn't enough' she thought, remembering the minor part she played in it all. "I guess you're right, Yuffie. It's just, I don't feel like I didn't do much to help."
"Didn't do much to help!?" Yuffie screeched, completely taken by surprise. Quickly she added to her inquiry "Aeris! It's because of you that we're even alive after METEOR! You even came back and saved us a second time! It's because of YOU we made it!" Aeris didn't respond, looking as if it weren't enough encouragement. A solid, uncomfortable minute passed before she said a word.
"Yuffie," The half-Cetran girl said. "Thank you, but I have a favor to ask."
"Anything!" the younger ninja exclaimed. "I owe ya that much!"
"Call me 'Aerith' from now on, okay?"
"Why? What's wrong with just Aeris?"
"Please, Yuffie, I'll explain that when I can, right now I need some rest. I'm not fully better just yet."
"Okay," Yuffie showed respect for her request by nodding and left as 'Aerith' closed the door slowly until hearing the click indicating the closing of the door. Unbeknownst to the ninja Yuffie, Aerith had slid down to her knees, covering her face in her hands, sobbing endlessly, eventually falling asleep behind the closed door.
*** It had been sometime after running into "the greatest thief ever". Squall mentally rolled his eyes at that. After that little scene was done with, he had come to the library. The Hollow Bastion was a big castle, but had very little else to do to pass time, other than read or literally get lost. Since he's already done the latter several time since the few years he's been here, he preferred just to take another aimless look through the books.
On his entrance in the library, he walked around the several bookcases without difficulty heading upstairs. He had looked at the books downstairs a while back but none were of any interest to him. Taking his time looking through each and every book title, scanning quickly each shelf, he felt a feeling of nostalgia wash over him as he read the book's spine.
It was his first time ever seeing a copy of it. When he was in SeeD most everything was done with computers. With a leather-gloved finger, he pulled the out and flipped through it. It was indeed authentic, the procedures, rankings and such were accurate. A brief question ran through his mind of how the book got there, but he discarded it, or tried. There were other books here explaining things from other worlds as well he noticed.
Espers. materia... even a book explaining the legends of GF's were there. All categorized in their own sections on the shelf, the shelf itself even imprinted in fading letters as "Research/Discovery".
After his small observation, he sat the book down on the closest table before setting himself down in a chair. He was actually glad for once he found this book. The feelings of his old life as a Garden Student were rushing past him with the turn of each page he read.
Only minutes later, he heard the sound of the door clicking open. Getting up he looked over the edge of the second floor and saw none other than the Wutai Princess herself, trying to make here way around the shelves. He gave a small "hah" of amusement as he watched her make her way through the maze. She was like a blind bat in the middle of the day, cursing with almost every step.
It was then he admitted, "This is funnier then when Zell was always caught running in the halls for a hot dog."
***
Yuffie had checked on the others, of course. Cloud was still down and out cold. But really, who could blame him? Even Yuffie understood that what he had gone through was undoubtedly hell; the worst part of it was it wasn't yet over. She decided it best to just leave the plighted ex- mercenary alone for a long while that is until he shows signs of moving on. As for Cid, he had long since awoken and was also exploring this uncharted territory. The evidence was clear enough with his bed, but it was another way that Yuffie could tell that the old foul mouth had left his room long before. Even with the absence of Cid, the smell of either motor oil, cigarette smoke, usually both would still hang in the air long after his departure.
With again nothing to do, Yuffie wondered the hallways once more, attempting to mentally map the area around her this time and doing surprisingly well, or unsurprisingly to her. She grinned to herself, believing that one of the most important things for a TRUE ninja to know was her surroundings. However, a thought of Aerith crossed her mind, instantly bringing the joy right out of her.
"Poor Aeris-Aerith..." she whispered quietly. The two were really good friends in the past as most wouldn't have ever thought, people often thought they were the most dire of foes. Regardless of the bossy facade Yuffie had shown and the annoyance that Aerith displayed, they were like sisters. It was a sisterly like love that they had, not rivalry or hatred for one another, and thinking of how Aerith looked when she had found out that the other AVALANCHE members were gone was devastating.
Without even realizing it she had come to another set of double doors of which she had already passed. Deciding to push the depressing thoughts away for a while, a LONG while hopefully, she proceeded up the right stairs that curved left, coming across an unfamiliar door. Pausing for a minute, she shrugged and entered the room.
Yuffie blinked several times before uttering a "whoa". Indeed it was a marvel to see so many bookshelves. Not a singe shelf on any of them had any space left for even a sheet of paper to slide though. Looking about the small space she was left to walk with, she searched for a way out of the "literature Labyrinth".
Ten minutes had passed before she had even began to think she was just roaming around in circles, rather than getting anywhere near or away from the center or exit of this library hell. At some point, she had believed she would see a minotaur, like the one's the seniors of her village would tell stories of, along with ogres, giants, and fierce dragons. To calm her ever-rising anger, she pictured a battle sequence with her and the beast, one-on-one, with the ax-welding ox as the loser, being washed away in a flood made by Leviathan.
Lost in her own world, she had completely overlooked being out of the damned maze. Only coming out of her daydream when tripping over a wooden chair. "Damn it! Whose bright idea was it to put a chair in the middle of..."She turned her head from left to right then left again? "The room." She smiled to herself once more internally proud of her great achievement, as if she was the first, and only person to walk out of the labyrinth...alive.
"What took you so long?" that voice could only belong to...
"What do YOU want?" Yuffie asked bitterly, she knew who it was; funny it was that he should be here. She looked up to the second story only to see Squall looking down at her.
"I was just seeing if I had to call someone to go get you," he replied "you looked lost."
Yuffie, though frowning outside, smiled to herself. If was trying to annoy her then she could play THAT game well. She stomped up the stairs and to the table of which the ex-SeeD member sat. As soon as she found a chair she asked rater rudely, "The seat taken?"
Right before he could even answer at all she took the seat across from him, sliding it back and falling back into it. Not bothering to sit up straight, right leg up on the table while her other leg swung back and forth as she leaned back in her chair. 'This always made Checkov have a fit!'
Still Squall did nothing except shrug and go back to reading. This didn't discourage the ninja at all. Usually Cloud or Vincent would do the same but she undeniably knew how to eventually get them to give in and at least sigh or just get up and try to get as far away as possible before she would follow to annoy them further.
"Soooooooo-what're ya readin'?"
"..."
"What're ya readin'?"
"..."
"What're ya readin'?"
"..."
"What're ya readin'?" Yuffie grinned; this was her favorite game with Vincent! who could forget those long 'hours', or as long as hours seem to Yuffie, of getting him so pissed that he would all together leave. Before he leave he usually mutters something about his sanity slipping away.
Squall looked up from his reading, his frown showed his frustration quite well with frozen blue eyes and his eyebrows coming together. Yuffie just gave him similar to the one she had given before except this one was called the "I'm-so-cute-innocent- and-curious-and-it's-in-my-nature-so- don't-blame-me" look. His scowl only deepened when he saw her careless expression as he pointed to the books cover.
It was an old book, really old. It was a dark blue hard cover book with a tiny ribbon made in the cover to serve as a bookmark. In gold letters the title read "SeeD handbook". The young ninja's feign ignorance turned into one of true unawareness.
"What the hell's SeeD?" She inquired. She scowled when he ignored her, or never even heard her. The persistent ninja still wasn't dispirited, despite her look. "Fine don't answer." She noticed the small smirk of triumph he supposedly made, which just fueled her determination to irritate him further.
And she did...
Long time much I know. Well, this was a 9-page chapter...Pretty long for me. Why am I prone to write long chapters now? And take longer than I should? Anyway I thought this was a bad place to stop but I thought that the few people, I mean two, people who reviewed this would have wanted a chapter up.
As far as information goes, I made up some stuff but tried to make it so things would make a little sense. As far as my knowledge of things, I can tell you just about everything you'd ever need to know for ff7 but couldn't tell you a thing for FF8 other than keep your life above 0 and fight to gain levels. Maybe someday I'll get my PS one to work so I can get more into the story and backgrounds of the characters lives. Luckily, who could ever forget Squall?
Finally, I need to improve something? Do you have a suggestion for me to put in that you'd like to see in this fic? Or even a something you want me to clarify? You have 2 options select to review my story, to e-mail me at yuffievinnievalentine@hotmail.com, or even do both! Either ways would be greatly appreciated!
Finally, I don't own anything.the story yes, cool characters/places/names....no
-Kuroi Kitsune
Chapter 2: Yuffie's new Life Goal (Annoy Squall)
Yuffie trudged through the castle of the Hallow Bastion kicking an invisible can as she went. Everything was going great! Her dreams of becoming more than just Lady Kisaragi, only really known for being a thief in the forest or the Daughter of Lord Godo, was shot to hell by a vacuum of darkness, a huge shadow, and a buncha twitchy shadow critters. Not only did she have her dreams taken away, her home, her father, Checkov, Staniv, Gorky, Shake! SHAKE! Yuffie knew if she EVER missed the stupid little kid she'd either traveled a little too far away from home or wondered the world for too long. However, what pulled a heartstring more were her missing friends.
Yuffie thought bitterly of the times she had did so many things that caused them more trouble than they needed and times when she would curse them to have something horrible happen to them...but this-she didn't mean-The tiny thief shook her head wildly, her eyes closed shut. 'C'mon Yuffie! Don't think about them! What's done is done and can't be undone...right?'
"Hi!"
Yuffie tensed greatly, turning on heel to meet the gaze of a girl, a little younger than herself. Her blue eyes went well with her short auburn hair and her out fit was a white tank top, a purple skort and shoes that matched her top. "Uhhhh Hi? Who're you?"
"My name's Kairi."
"Well...the name's Yuffie Saki Kisaragi, Materia Hunter Extraordinaire and The greatest Ninja in the world!" It had been awhile since she had used her FULL traveling title and was grateful when it helped lighten her mood to match other girl, Kairi.
"That's a lot of stuff to say isn't it? You do that every time someone asks for your name?"
"Naaaw, It's mainly just to impress or scare people. But all that stuff IS true mind ya!" Yuffie was already beginning to like this kid...It reminded the 'Greatest Ninja in the World' Of how she was- 'Okay okay how I AM.'
"Why'd ya want to scare people anyway?"
"Well, mainly so they'll just hand over all their gil and materia so I won't hafta have things get a little rough. If life taught me anything, it's avoid work when you can."
"What's gil? And materia?"
"Y-you don't KNOW!?" to say the very least this shocked Yuffie greatly. Children, only a little older than 4 or 5 knew about materia, and it wasn't just heard of it. Yuffie shoved her hands in her pockets, fishing for a gil or two. Luckily she didn't have to do that as long as she would usually have to, and pulled the wrinkled currency. "This is 1 gil"
"Oh! Well here we use munny!"
"Yeah everybody does kid."
"No not MONEY, MUNNY!" Yuffie blinked once, then twice.
"Uhhhh...yeah, money..."
"She's talking about the currency here." The ninja almost jumped through the roof when she heard a male voice behind her.
"AAAACK!" She spun around coming almost face to face with the man she had met earlier. However, not knowing that sooner, she was surprised and fell backwards "WHAAAA-Oof!" 'owwwwwwwww...errr' Yuffie's face was flushed a bit, most likely from anger, or maybe embarrassment, at the time it couldn't be told. "Could you NOT do that!? Sheesh your almost as bad as- Humph never mind...You'd just be a waste of my time anyway. Go away now I'm trying to teach the kid a few things..."
"Actually I was going to ask you if you've seen something that was mine." Yuffie understood the message he was REALLY sending to her which was 'GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK BEFORE I KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' This wasn't something new to Yuffie at all so she did what she usually did in the past. Her fool proof plan, play innocent.
"Sorry I dunno what'cha talking about." she shrugged putting on her best I'm-so-cute-you-HAVE-to-believe-me face. Her innocent, clueless expression, not only didn't FAZE him but he saw right through it!
"Just hand it over."
"NO! I don't have anything! I'm NOT a thief! I don't even know what you're talking 'bout!"
"I wasn't born yesterday, just hand over my money." Yuffie scoffed, shoving her hands in her shorts' pockets and pulling them out, only a small, red marble like gem fell and bounced on the floor multiple times before slowing in a roll.
Yuffie's frown deepened as she mumbled, "See! Oh look you made me drop Leviathan..." Kairi picked up the ruby colored marble, examining it carefully. "That's materia kid." she glared at Squall her eyes saying 'Stupid jerk!' which was "coincidently" what ran through Yuffie's mind at the moment.
Squall still wasn't convinced. He calmly strode toward her, with much protest from the disgruntled Yuffie; he pulled off her left glove, a hundred or so gil floated gently to the ground. The left corner of Yuffie's mouth went up in an awkward smile. "Uhhhh...It's my allowance?"
The former SeeD member said nothing in return, collecting his findings, and leaving just as quickly as he had come. Kairi felt somewhat out of place for a moment before laughing. "Not the best thief now huh?"
Yuffie pouted, "I AM the best thief in the world! That was a first..."she stated before muttering "or second anyway." The young ninja sighed, she noticed Kairi staring at her with a bewildered look. The old Wutai heiress coughed and brought herself to attention once more. "Well...why not tell me a bit about this place huh?"
"Yeah sure! The Hallow Bastion's a pretty big castle. You can get lost just like..."The younger girl snapped her fingers quickly "THAT!"
"Sure kid"
"Could you quit calling me 'Kid'?"
***
The tour of the Hallow Bastion wasn't as helpful as Yuffie thought it would be. In fact, it seemed to have confused her more than it would have to just wonder around aimlessly. To her great fortune, however, she was back in the same hallway she had come to meet Kairi. At that time, Kairi had left saying she needed to get to the library for some kind of lesson. Still lost, she decided that it was just best to check on Cloud, Aerith and Cid.
"They should be okay by now," she told herself, coming to Aeris' door first. Knocking a few times, she heard a rustling going on in the room before hearing a rush of footsteps getting closer and closer. Finally, the currently revived Cetra answered the door, looking slightly disheveled.
"Yuffie!?" Aeris exclaimed happily, "Yuffie! I can't believe it you're alright!" without warning she hugged Yuffie tightly as if she were a mother finally finding her child after many years. "I thought I was the only one left!" Letting go of Yuffie, who was highly relieved to be able to breath again, the angel smiled brightly.
"Nope!" Yuffie reflected her friend's happy mood. "And as a matter of fact, Cid and Cloud are too!" Both girls laughing turned slow realizing something before taking deep sighs.
"What about the others?" Aeris asked.
"I don't know" Yuffie replied, wishing that the happiness didn't have to be drained from the moment so quickly. "We're the only one's left." As if the topic wasn't depressing enough, Aeris looked absolutely broken- hearted. "I'm sorry Aeris."
"It's okay Yuffie," Aeris whispered softly, "I guess it's better to know now, but..."
"We did all we could, didn't we?" Yuffie asked, trying to cheer her up though it didn't do a thing for her to feel at all better. Aeris wiped away a few forming tears that blurred her vision and tried to look on the point Yuffie had made. They did do all they could.
'Though our best wasn't enough' she thought, remembering the minor part she played in it all. "I guess you're right, Yuffie. It's just, I don't feel like I didn't do much to help."
"Didn't do much to help!?" Yuffie screeched, completely taken by surprise. Quickly she added to her inquiry "Aeris! It's because of you that we're even alive after METEOR! You even came back and saved us a second time! It's because of YOU we made it!" Aeris didn't respond, looking as if it weren't enough encouragement. A solid, uncomfortable minute passed before she said a word.
"Yuffie," The half-Cetran girl said. "Thank you, but I have a favor to ask."
"Anything!" the younger ninja exclaimed. "I owe ya that much!"
"Call me 'Aerith' from now on, okay?"
"Why? What's wrong with just Aeris?"
"Please, Yuffie, I'll explain that when I can, right now I need some rest. I'm not fully better just yet."
"Okay," Yuffie showed respect for her request by nodding and left as 'Aerith' closed the door slowly until hearing the click indicating the closing of the door. Unbeknownst to the ninja Yuffie, Aerith had slid down to her knees, covering her face in her hands, sobbing endlessly, eventually falling asleep behind the closed door.
*** It had been sometime after running into "the greatest thief ever". Squall mentally rolled his eyes at that. After that little scene was done with, he had come to the library. The Hollow Bastion was a big castle, but had very little else to do to pass time, other than read or literally get lost. Since he's already done the latter several time since the few years he's been here, he preferred just to take another aimless look through the books.
On his entrance in the library, he walked around the several bookcases without difficulty heading upstairs. He had looked at the books downstairs a while back but none were of any interest to him. Taking his time looking through each and every book title, scanning quickly each shelf, he felt a feeling of nostalgia wash over him as he read the book's spine.
It was his first time ever seeing a copy of it. When he was in SeeD most everything was done with computers. With a leather-gloved finger, he pulled the out and flipped through it. It was indeed authentic, the procedures, rankings and such were accurate. A brief question ran through his mind of how the book got there, but he discarded it, or tried. There were other books here explaining things from other worlds as well he noticed.
Espers. materia... even a book explaining the legends of GF's were there. All categorized in their own sections on the shelf, the shelf itself even imprinted in fading letters as "Research/Discovery".
After his small observation, he sat the book down on the closest table before setting himself down in a chair. He was actually glad for once he found this book. The feelings of his old life as a Garden Student were rushing past him with the turn of each page he read.
Only minutes later, he heard the sound of the door clicking open. Getting up he looked over the edge of the second floor and saw none other than the Wutai Princess herself, trying to make here way around the shelves. He gave a small "hah" of amusement as he watched her make her way through the maze. She was like a blind bat in the middle of the day, cursing with almost every step.
It was then he admitted, "This is funnier then when Zell was always caught running in the halls for a hot dog."
***
Yuffie had checked on the others, of course. Cloud was still down and out cold. But really, who could blame him? Even Yuffie understood that what he had gone through was undoubtedly hell; the worst part of it was it wasn't yet over. She decided it best to just leave the plighted ex- mercenary alone for a long while that is until he shows signs of moving on. As for Cid, he had long since awoken and was also exploring this uncharted territory. The evidence was clear enough with his bed, but it was another way that Yuffie could tell that the old foul mouth had left his room long before. Even with the absence of Cid, the smell of either motor oil, cigarette smoke, usually both would still hang in the air long after his departure.
With again nothing to do, Yuffie wondered the hallways once more, attempting to mentally map the area around her this time and doing surprisingly well, or unsurprisingly to her. She grinned to herself, believing that one of the most important things for a TRUE ninja to know was her surroundings. However, a thought of Aerith crossed her mind, instantly bringing the joy right out of her.
"Poor Aeris-Aerith..." she whispered quietly. The two were really good friends in the past as most wouldn't have ever thought, people often thought they were the most dire of foes. Regardless of the bossy facade Yuffie had shown and the annoyance that Aerith displayed, they were like sisters. It was a sisterly like love that they had, not rivalry or hatred for one another, and thinking of how Aerith looked when she had found out that the other AVALANCHE members were gone was devastating.
Without even realizing it she had come to another set of double doors of which she had already passed. Deciding to push the depressing thoughts away for a while, a LONG while hopefully, she proceeded up the right stairs that curved left, coming across an unfamiliar door. Pausing for a minute, she shrugged and entered the room.
Yuffie blinked several times before uttering a "whoa". Indeed it was a marvel to see so many bookshelves. Not a singe shelf on any of them had any space left for even a sheet of paper to slide though. Looking about the small space she was left to walk with, she searched for a way out of the "literature Labyrinth".
Ten minutes had passed before she had even began to think she was just roaming around in circles, rather than getting anywhere near or away from the center or exit of this library hell. At some point, she had believed she would see a minotaur, like the one's the seniors of her village would tell stories of, along with ogres, giants, and fierce dragons. To calm her ever-rising anger, she pictured a battle sequence with her and the beast, one-on-one, with the ax-welding ox as the loser, being washed away in a flood made by Leviathan.
Lost in her own world, she had completely overlooked being out of the damned maze. Only coming out of her daydream when tripping over a wooden chair. "Damn it! Whose bright idea was it to put a chair in the middle of..."She turned her head from left to right then left again? "The room." She smiled to herself once more internally proud of her great achievement, as if she was the first, and only person to walk out of the labyrinth...alive.
"What took you so long?" that voice could only belong to...
"What do YOU want?" Yuffie asked bitterly, she knew who it was; funny it was that he should be here. She looked up to the second story only to see Squall looking down at her.
"I was just seeing if I had to call someone to go get you," he replied "you looked lost."
Yuffie, though frowning outside, smiled to herself. If was trying to annoy her then she could play THAT game well. She stomped up the stairs and to the table of which the ex-SeeD member sat. As soon as she found a chair she asked rater rudely, "The seat taken?"
Right before he could even answer at all she took the seat across from him, sliding it back and falling back into it. Not bothering to sit up straight, right leg up on the table while her other leg swung back and forth as she leaned back in her chair. 'This always made Checkov have a fit!'
Still Squall did nothing except shrug and go back to reading. This didn't discourage the ninja at all. Usually Cloud or Vincent would do the same but she undeniably knew how to eventually get them to give in and at least sigh or just get up and try to get as far away as possible before she would follow to annoy them further.
"Soooooooo-what're ya readin'?"
"..."
"What're ya readin'?"
"..."
"What're ya readin'?"
"..."
"What're ya readin'?" Yuffie grinned; this was her favorite game with Vincent! who could forget those long 'hours', or as long as hours seem to Yuffie, of getting him so pissed that he would all together leave. Before he leave he usually mutters something about his sanity slipping away.
Squall looked up from his reading, his frown showed his frustration quite well with frozen blue eyes and his eyebrows coming together. Yuffie just gave him similar to the one she had given before except this one was called the "I'm-so-cute-innocent- and-curious-and-it's-in-my-nature-so- don't-blame-me" look. His scowl only deepened when he saw her careless expression as he pointed to the books cover.
It was an old book, really old. It was a dark blue hard cover book with a tiny ribbon made in the cover to serve as a bookmark. In gold letters the title read "SeeD handbook". The young ninja's feign ignorance turned into one of true unawareness.
"What the hell's SeeD?" She inquired. She scowled when he ignored her, or never even heard her. The persistent ninja still wasn't dispirited, despite her look. "Fine don't answer." She noticed the small smirk of triumph he supposedly made, which just fueled her determination to irritate him further.
And she did...
Long time much I know. Well, this was a 9-page chapter...Pretty long for me. Why am I prone to write long chapters now? And take longer than I should? Anyway I thought this was a bad place to stop but I thought that the few people, I mean two, people who reviewed this would have wanted a chapter up.
As far as information goes, I made up some stuff but tried to make it so things would make a little sense. As far as my knowledge of things, I can tell you just about everything you'd ever need to know for ff7 but couldn't tell you a thing for FF8 other than keep your life above 0 and fight to gain levels. Maybe someday I'll get my PS one to work so I can get more into the story and backgrounds of the characters lives. Luckily, who could ever forget Squall?
Finally, I need to improve something? Do you have a suggestion for me to put in that you'd like to see in this fic? Or even a something you want me to clarify? You have 2 options select to review my story, to e-mail me at yuffievinnievalentine@hotmail.com, or even do both! Either ways would be greatly appreciated!
Finally, I don't own anything.the story yes, cool characters/places/names....no