Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 or any of the characters in any way. =( But I do however own this Fic! Hehe!
The young shinobi stared up at the ceiling while lying down on her bed. She turned on her side and squinted at the clock. It read 12:48a.m. She let out a deep sigh and continued to stare blankly into the dark. She couldn't sleep at all. She had been lying there in the dark room for what seemed like hours and yet she was still wide awake. Her mind was working overtime, mainly occupied with thoughts of her blonde friend. Lately, he was all she ever thought about. She knew she had a bit of a crush on him before, but now it had taken more of a change. It went from a girls crush to something far deeper. Maybe she... loved him? She sighed. Maybe she did. She had never really been in love before. Sure she had dated and maybe she had strong feelings for them, but she had never once ever truly been in love. So she wasn't sure about Cloud. All she knew was that she loved being with him, and the thought of him not being there tore her apart inside. She let out another long sigh. She hated the fact that she had fallen so hard for him, and at the same time she loved it.
She hated it because he was so oblivious to everything. He just saw her as Yuffie Kisiragi, the little girl who tagged along throughout their whole adventure. He saw her as a friend....hell maybe even as a younger sister, but nothing more than that. And even if he didn't nothing could ever happen between them, her best friend was in love with him.
She closed her eyes tightly trying to force her self to sleep. She didn't want to keep thinking about everything, it was giving her a headache.
"Hey wake up!" the blonde's voice shouted.
"Hmm? Go away," Yuffie grumbled while pulling the covers up over her head. Cloud narrowed his eyes at her. "Yuffie its 11:30, get up!"
The ninja pulled the blankets off from over her head and looked at the clock. 'I guess I fell asleep after all,' she thought as she began to sit up.
"What this is my free day! You better have a good reason for disturbing me!" She complained while lazily standing up.
"Well yea" Cloud replied "I didn't think you would want to just sit around here all day."
Yuffie raised an eyebrow "So then what did you have in mind?" Cloud smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know I was thinking maybe we could go to the Gold Saucer." Yuffie's eyes widened. 'Is he serious?' She thought to herself. He was the last person that she would think to suggest the Gold Saucer.
"Really!?" She exclaimed slightly jumping, "I haven't been there in such a long time! That would be so much fun!"
The blonde laughed, "I thought you might like that."
Yuffie smiled, "I'm going to get ready right now!" she exclaimed while running out of the room and into the bathroom to take a shower.
Cloud smiled, he loved it how she would get so excited about things. He thought getting her away from Wutai and all of the business related stuff would be good for her. Plus he just wanted to spend some time with her. Maybe a month ago he wouldn't have admitted it but he definitely felt something for the Wutai Princess. When he was with her he felt like he could completely be himself without worrying about being judged. When he was with her he felt happy. She brought out a whole other side of him, a side of him that he didn't even really knew he had until he was with her.He didn't know exactly what it meant, but he knew it meant something.
"Wow! It looks so much bigger and brighter since the last time I was here!" She said in awe. Cloud smiled, he was glad she was happy.
"Lead the way Lady Kisiragi," he said with a mock bow. The ninja grinned and looked around. 'Where to first?' She thought.
Cloud could see she was deep in thought, trying to figure out where they should begin their journey. He stared at her for a while. 'She really is beautiful,' he thought to himself. When he looked at Yuffie he saw a carefree, energetic lively young lady. Not some stuck up girl who thought she was superior to everyone, or some annoying young teenager as others might think.
She was wearing a khaki skirt with a dark green elbow length sweater that hung around her shoulders and black boots. Around her neck she wore a gold pendant on a red string. The pendant was of a Wutainese character that meant "serenity". On her wrist she wore a simple brown stringy suede bracelet that tied into a knot, and on her ears she wore two gold earrings that had skinny jade stones hanging from each ear.
She brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and pointed to the speed arena. "There let's go on that one first!" She exclaimed. Cloud quickly snapped out of his thoughts and looked to where Yuffie was pointing. "Come on!" She continued and grabbed him by the arm and ran over to the Speed Arena.
They went there and practically to every other attraction in the Gold Saucer. They ventured to Wonder Square and played the games there. Yuffie began to grow frustrated at the Slam Dunk game seeing as how none of her shots went inside the basket. Cloud couldn't help but laugh and dragged her away from the game before she smashed it into pieces.
They walked out of the Wonder Square laughing and talking. They were both having a great time, so much that they didn't want the night to end.
"Thanks for bringing me here Cloud," Yuffie said suddenly. Cloud smiled, "Of course. I'm glad you're having a nice time."
Yuffie nodded, "Yeah I'm having a great time."
They continued walking, somewhat in silence after that. They would say small comments but that was about it.
"Cloud I've been meaning to ask you something," Yuffie began breaking the silence as they came upon the steps of the Chocobo Racing Arena.
"Go ahead," Cloud said as they sat down on the steps.
Yuffie took in a deep breath. "It's just...well. You came to Wutai to look out for me and everything and....I'm sure Reeve and all them are going to get to the bottom of whoever is threatening him. And when they do then that means I'm not in danger anymore and....you'll leave. I just...I don't know will I see you again after that?"
Cloud was quiet for a minute. He wasn't expecting her to ask him that. He could see she looked a little scared of what his answer would be. He smiled and nodded "Of course Yuff, when I leave I'm not going to lose contact with any of you. Believe me those two years were enough for me to realize that I need you guys. But this whole thing with Reeve may take a while, so I don't think I'll be going anywhere soon."
Yuffie quietly let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "Good" she began "because I'd miss you." Her heart jumped. 'Damn it! Did I really just say that!?' She thought as she felt herself go red. She quickly turned her eyes to the floor.
Cloud smiled "I would miss you too," he said sincerely as he slowly placed his hand on top of hers. Her heartbeat quickened and she silently prayed that this wasn't another one of her torturous dreams. But reality soon hit her and she realized that it wasn't a dream. They sat there like that in silence for a while before the fireworks started to go off.
Yuffie leaned over and rested her head on Cloud's shoulder, as he wrapped his arm around her. She wanted so bad to tell him how she felt right there, but she didn't want to spoil the moment. And besides, was she sure of how she felt? Did she actually love him?
She closed her eyes as he stroked her hair. Just being there with him like this was enough to drive her absolutely crazy.
"Yuffie I think we have to go," Cloud said quietly. He didn't really want to leave but if they didn't go now the Gondola would close.
Yuffie sighed, "Okay," she said as she pulled away from him slowly. Cloud stood up and extended his hand to her to help her up. Once she was up she was expecting him to let go of her hand but to her surprise he didn't. He held her hand the whole time as they walked through the Gold Saucer. Yuffie felt like she was floating on air, and at that moment she knew that she really truly loved him.
They made it to the Gondola to hear one of the park employee's say there was a malfunction and the Gondola would be down for the night. The person repeated this message over the intercom a few times, which gained a lot of whines and complaints from the crowd of people around the Gondola.
"Now what?" Yuffie asked while looking at the unhappy people before her.
"I guess we're just going to have to stay the night then at the Ghost Hotel." Cloud explained.
"The Ghost Hotel?" Yuffie asked unsurely. She hated to admit it but that hotel gave her the creeps. Even though she knew it was fake she could never seem to sleep with those eerie laughs and sounds, but of course she could never let her friends know that.
"What's wrong? You scared?" Cloud asked half teasing.
Yuffie shook her head "No! Of course I'm not scared!"
"Auntie no I don't want to stay there!" A little girls voice cried.
"Honey don't worry it'll be okay Auntie's going to be right there." A woman's voice replied. A very familiar woman's voice.
The little girl began to cry, while the woman tried to calm her down by saying assurances to her over and over again. Yuffie looked around. 'Where are those voices coming from?' She thought.
"I don't know Cid" another woman's voice said, "Imara's not going to be able to sleep with all of that stuff in there, she's going to have nightmares!"
"Well shit what do you want me to do fix the fucking Gondola right here on the spot!?" A man's gruff voice replied.
Finally the people walked into view. There standing in front of Cloud and Yuffie were Tifa, Marlene, Cid, Shera and Imara.
"Hey you guys! What are you doing here!?" Shera called out cheerfully while carefully hugging her two friends while holding her daughter.
"Well shit look at this," the pilot said.
"Cloud, Yuffie!" Tifa exclaimed. She was going to give them hugs but she had a terrified Marlene clinging to her leg.
"Hey who else is here?" Cloud asked.
Tifa shook her head, "It's just us. I brought Marlene because Barett doesn't really like coming here."
"Yeah and we thought it would be nice to bring Imara!" Shera said cheerfully.
Cid began lighting up a cigarette "Yeah so what brings you two here?" he asked
Yuffie smiled, "Oh nothing, we just wanted to do something, you know get out of the house," she said a little nervously. She saw Tifa looking at something and suddenly realized that her and Cloud were still holding hands. She quickly let go and scratched the back of her head.
"Well since the Gondola' broke looks like were all stuck at the Ghost Hotel." Shera said.
"Yeah we were just headed there actually," Cloud replied.
"Well let's go 'cause I'm exhausted." Cid said as he motioned his wife to start walking. Tifa took Marlene's hand and followed after shooting Yuffie an uncertain look.
'Oh gawd' Yuffie thought to herself ' this isn't good.'
"Yuffie?" Cloud asked with a confused look. She shook her head and smiled and followed the rest to the Ghost Hotel.
Authors Notes: Dun dun dun!! Eeek! What's going to happen! Read& Review! And o yea Ezri I'm still waiting for that sequel! So hurry hurry!