chapter II: (hospital vespers)
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The Gummi Ship we were traveling in was amazing. It was like one big room divided into two halves – the front side of the ship was dedicated to maneuvering the ship and the like (Cid forbade us to enter this portion of the ship, which was separated by a small set of stairs and railings. The ship's front is entirely windows to the outside, whereas to two walls opposite of each other were covered by machinery and computer screens. As far as I could tell, the floor was covered with an unnatural plastic floor cushioning and tables set with hundreds of controls.), and the back side was for everything else. Although the two rooms were probably the same length, the backside seemed smaller than the front, probably because everything was more cluttered at the back. Two beds were set in the left corner, the longer sides of them against the wall. A large bookshelf full of tiny paperbacks was against the same wall, and bookshelves of hard covers and CDs were against the adjacent wall. Other than the only visible entrance and exit of the Gummi ship, the remaining wall had a washing machine, a refrigerator, and a stove against it. A wooden table with four chairs stacked near it covered the center area. Other than that table, which was brown, everything was blue. Light blue, dark blue, blue-green, green-blue, navy... every shade of blue imaginable.
I, however, wasn't thinking of any of this, because other than the clothes I had on my back and a couple of gil notes in my pocket, I had nothing for the trip.
"This is soooooooo cool..." Yuffie said, awed. "Sora made it?" she asked as she prodded the ground.
"That's right. Not bad for a little boy who's just hit puberty, eh?" Cid said from the controls. "Look at all of those pretty tints he used!"
"Cid... Sora's intelligent. Don't judge people by age," Aerith said softly as she took a seat at the table.
"Meh. I'll do whatever I want, thank you very much," Cid said. He turned toward the controls.
"... Um, how long is this trip supposed to be?" I asked. No one bothered to make immediate eye contact with me. I rolled my eyes.
Yuffie, who was sitting at the table, looked up, her eyes wide in eagerness. "... I KNOW!!! What about this roadtrip last forever and ever?!? Oooooh!! Ohmygawd... ohmygawdOHMYGAWDDD!"
Both Cid and Aerith looked up from what they were doing and turned to Yuffie. Yuffie stared right back at them as her grin widened.
"Yuffie..." Aerith said slowly as she reached for a styrafoam cup that was neatly placed on the table.
"Yes?"
"How old are you again, stupidhead? You have no such sense of responsibility!" Cid butted in. Aerith, who's mouth was slightly agape, quickly closed it and thinly smiled, as if Cid's comment satisfied her need to say anything. Yuffie just stood there, staring at Cid with a dull look on her face.
"Pfeh!" I snorted, my brow furrowed in annoyance. "Hypocrites," I said in a lower voice.
Cid shook his head before he faced me. "Excuse me?" he said. After looking directly at him and rolling my eyes, Cid roughly slammed his wrist onto a tabletop in the control room, and uglily grimaced at me. "I'm sorry if I confused you, but I'm not a stupid tween that likes to go on ego trips that last a lifetime of disappointment. I know I have my responsibilities, but I also have my sanity and my attention span. It's not just all work or all play. YOU, Leonhart... you just see the world in fuckin' black and white all the time. That's your own problem though."
I was too focused on Cid's philosophies to bother to come up with any sort of a rebuttal – not even a plain 'shut up' or 'fuck you.' I only got back to my senses when I heard Yuffie chuckling in the background.
"Yoooooou got owned!" she said loudly. I rolled my bottom lip over my teeth to hide a smile.
"Cut yer hair too, you jackass," Cid spat at me. Dead silence. He turned back to the controls. "... Whew, that felt good. I'm all done. Don't beat me up, Leonhart – I wouldn't like it. Men going through their midlife crisis are allowed to have their moodswings. ... Yep... yep..." Cid set a duffle bag full of his belongings onto one of the countertops and shuffled his hand through it as he used the other to start up the engine. "... Damn, I forgot my toothbrush."
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Hours lingered slowly in the ship. Cid's small tirade seemed to have cast a spell over everyone in the ship – no one seemed to dare to talk to anyone else, even something as much as exchanging silent glances was a rare occurrence. Cid was humming loudly as he steered the ship, with one of his arms holding onto the back of his seat. Aerith was sitting in a corner, hiding behind the paperback bookshelf as she furiously wrote in a notebook she had brought along. Yuffie was on one of the beds and doing repeated sit ups mechanically. I was sitting at the table, and playing with a small handful of tea leaves from a bag that Aerith had put on the table. The situation was in no way awkward, but it annoyed me nonetheless. I wanted to say something, but I was afraid that my timing would be bad. Or something. ...
"Hey," I said. It was directed to Cid, but the two girls almost immediately stopped doing what they were doing and turned to me. "... Cid?"
"Whaddya want kiddo?" Cid kept steering, his arm still in that annoying position. If everything was muted, you wouldn't be able to tell that Cid was speaking.
"Where are we going?"
"Yea!" Yuffie chirped. "I don't wanna go to some creepy place or something."
"Silly, we're gunna see sunlight. Remember?"
"Oh yea," Yuffie said. "........................ Does it really take this long?"
"Yeh," Cid said.
"Ahhhhhhhh... I seee..." Yuffie said, nodding her head to the rhythm of the syllables that she spoke. Cid started humming again.
"Hey, Cid..." this time it was Aerith speaking.
"Geez. What d'ye want now?""There are only two beds."
"I know. Your point?"
"Well...
there are four people, so there aren't enough beds for us," Aerith said
in a painfully slow voice, as if she was trying to explain something
for the fifth time to a four year old.
"What are you talking
about? You, Leonhart, and Yuffie'll share a bed. And I'll sleep in the
other one. Before we sleep, I'll be sure to move my bed away from you
just in case you want yer privacy and if you guys disturb my beauty
sleep by make funny noises. Okay?"
"Ewww! That's disgusting! You're a pervert, Cid!"
Cid started humming again.
"What about I sleep on the floor and you guys could decide who gets he beds?" I offered. "Besides... this floor looks awfully comfortable." I smiled idiotically as I reached towards the ground and pushed my hands against the cushions.
"Yea, and just in case you get cold, Yuffie will be more than happy to snuggle with you. ... Actually, I think it might get a bit steamy, I—"
"Oh my god! I'm not like that, Cid! And besides... Squall doesn't like me! It's totally obvious he likes Aerith," Yuffie stated in a very bitter tone.
"... Whatever."
"Yea... whatever!" Cid pressed a large button on the control panel that was labeled 'cruise control' and turned to look directly at Yuffie. "And the name is Leon, not Squall. Get it right, lowbrow."
A nasty exchange of glares took place after that comment.
"Weren't you saying something about not being a 'stupid tween,' Cid?" Aerith asked, apparently wary of the level of immaturity displayed by the three of us.
"Yea, that's what I said," Cid assured with a nod. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"... Nevermind." She said, sighing. "So... who's going to get the beds?"
"I'm getting one of them, obviously. Since, one... this is my ship, two: I'm steering while y'all are sticking your thumbs up yer asses, and finally... I'm cooler than any of you. Combined." He smiled. "...The girls can catfight over the other bed."
"... Cid, you're sleeping on the floor!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Get off of your high horse. You're too cocky for someone that's old."
"'High horse?'" Cid snarled. "Where'd you learn all this great jargon, Yuffie?"
"Cid! Act your age, PLEASE." Aerith said. "This trip was for us to sit back and relax. You guys are supposed to be friends ... act like it!"
By looking back at Yuffie, I could tell that Yuffie was about to say something. I could also tell that there was something on her mind. By the recent events, it seemed predictable that it would be something along the lines of 'I hate Cid!,' but uncharacteristically, she didn't seem to want to share her thoughts with anyone. Instead, she leaned back onto the bed and hugged the pillow to her chest. "This is my bed," she declared before stifling a yawn and falling asleep.
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AN: I know, I know. This chapter sucked in comparison to the other ones. Major suckage there then, hmm? Yea... argh. I live in Florida, so Frances kicked our asses and I'm not in school now. (which, I guess, is a good thing, because I hate high school) Which is probably the only reason why I'm writing this. I'm hoping to finish the next chapter later tonight, proof read the shit I've written so far for Earthshine, and let all you eager readers chew it all up and spit it out. Heh...
So, Final Fantasy VII... I met Yuffie and I definitely had problems getting her into my party. I think I portrayed her okay-ish. She seems a lot smarter than I put her up to be. I still have yet to meet Cid... eh. Oh yea, if any of you have a 2nd disc of FFVII that they'd like to let me borrow/have/buy/trade, PLEASE do so. If money or trades are out of the question, I can, um, let you give me ideas for this fic or I'll write you a fic if you present me with a storyline? Haha... that was worth a try.