Failed Plans and Gold Fishes
By Vera Priscaleth
Disclaimer: Hey, I own none of the characters or the locations or the world (those are all copyrighted to Sony), but this text is mine.
Author's Notes: I decided to re-write this. It's my NanakixYuffie-fic and as far as I know, it's the only one around… If not, let me know! =) This is post-game, so it's pretty much spoiler-some. Rating should be… PG-13, just to be sure.
"Phew! The planet is saved..." Yuffie said to herself while looking out of the window.
The weather was calm and smooth; you could smell the freshness in the air when you walked outside. The breeze came from the Planet; it's beautiful, newly born soul, which had destroyed all of Mako on the Planet and gathered it to the Lifestream. This was all due Aeris; her spirit had summoned Holy and saved the Planet. What Yuffie and AVALANCHE had done was destroy Sephiroth, which had been a natural step in the process of the resurrection of the Planet's spirit. Yuffie gazed into space, eyes fixed on the view ahead of her; she was spending time at the Rocket Town. Cid hadn't been able to fly her home yet; he had been too tired and said he needed his cuppa before flying off somewhere to experience more of what he called "?&¤!%/¤%# adventures".
This upset Yuffie greatly. Stupid Cid, she told herself. Why can we not get a move on already?! Wutai is waiting for me! Wutai is waiting for its heroine! She smiled at herself. Yuffie of Wutai, Lady Yuffie Kisaragi of Wutai, daughter of Lord Godo. Father would be so proud. But she didn't care too much for her father's opinion. The most important thing right now was to get to Wutai. She huffed. Where the heck was Cid?
Yuffie went to the kitchen, where Shera was serving Cid tea. Gawd, why does she serve this old man? she wondered. It's all so… disgracing.
If I get married, if I ever get married, I will not be a slave to my husband, Yuffie considered. She gladly accepted Shera's request to join Cid for a cup of tea, because at the table she could ask him about their plans of going to Wutai.
Just as Yuffie was about to bring up the subject, the door went and Red XIII ran inside. He sat down beside Shera. Yuffie glared at him instinctively. It was no secret to either of them that they never really liked each other. He thought of her as a brat; a quite popular opinion, Yuffie knew. She thought of him as a cat that can talk. He was way too serious and always acted so smart. Nanaki was... weird. He was like an adult; still Tifa had told Yuffie that in fact he was only 16 in human years. He knew a lot about the Planet, but that was just because he was born in Cosmo Canyon, where everyone studied and where the elders knew much about everything. Cosmo Canyon is such a drag, anyway, Yuffie thought. The dude at the Materia-store was sleeping, for crying out loud! Yuffie didn't want to learn about the Planet any more than she had to know. This little adventure with Strife and the AVALANCHE had provided Yuffie with more information than needed.
Suddenly Yuffie was flooded with embarrassing memories of her failed Materia-theft in Wutai. One incident, she tried to convince herself. It doesn't mean you're a lousy Materia-hunter.
Truth to be told, she didn't believe that right now. There was no more Materia left in this world. The only thing she could do right now was go to Wutai and make her father proud. Or just hope for the best. The days of Wutai's glory… She wanted to believe they weren't over. She wanted to believe… So hard…
She noticed Nanaki's eye on her. He was annoying her and it was pissing her off, that he was here. Stuck at Rocket Town with Paws, for Holy's sake, she thought bitterly.
Rocket Town was a dull place. It was like Mideel before the Lifestream-accident and Yuffie agreed with the kids in that one house, who just sat around complaining about their boredom. The place was full of old people. Everyone was talking about Cid and what happened to the Meteor and how Captain was there beating Sephiroth. Blah blah. Right now Yuffie just wanted to get home. She loved Wutai, even though it was in crap condition at the moment. She had beaten her father (oh the fun memories) and gotten to the last floor of the pagoda. But now it could all be different. Yes, hopefully, it would be different. She just had to get to Wutai. Yuffie glanced at Cid.
"I think I'll go outside," she said with a wide smile. "Otherwise I won't get to catch a glimpse of this wonderful town before we head off," she added sarcastically, but nor Cid or Nanaki bothered to notice. Yuffie stood up and walked out of the room.
Nanaki watched Cid sip his tea with Shera in the
kitchen. Bugenhagen was still on his travels and Nanaki had no idea of where he
was headed or when was he coming back. This made Nanaki pretty nervous, but
right now all he wanted was to get back to Cosmo Canyon. He had to protect the Canyon now, for it was his duty.
Just like Seto, the great warrior.
"Hey, Red, we're going now!" Cid murmured to Nanaki and walked out of the door, giving Shera
a look and a little grin. Shera smiled too and Nanaki followed Cid outside, where Yuffie
was standing, looking impatient.
"C'man,
Cid, let's go, let's go!! Wutai's waiting!" she said and tried to push Cid further up the ladder
that they climbed to get to Highwind. Cid cursed and kept climbing up before Yuffie. Once they were
on board, Yuffie started feeling sick again, but kept repeating "Wutai's
waiting for me" between the vomiting. Nanaki decided to be with her on the
deck, just so that he could feel the air and see the Cosmo Canyon and the Nibel-mountains.
The sights were so pretty after the Lifestream had gathered to Midgar. He did
love this Planet. More than he had ever realised.
"Wutai!!!" Yuffie yelled and reached over the deck to see her
hometown. "H-hey, we ain't going to Wutai, where are we heading?!"
she yelled in disappointment at Nanaki. What is this?! she thought,
outraged. Why aren't we going to Wutai?
"We're going to Cosmo Canyon first." he said and looked away from Yuffie, knowing
that she would get mad.
"Cosmo Canyon?! Why the hell?! Wutai's
waiting for me!" she yelled, frustrated and she would've probably done
something more, if she hadn't vomited at that very moment on the deck. Nanaki
stepped back and looked at his paws. All clean, thank god.
"Cosmo Canyon's waiting for me
as well..." he mumbled, but unfortunately Yuffie heard it.
"I don't care, Red!" she replied and turned away. Stupid furball,
stupid stupid furball, she cursed silently. Wutai… Wutai's waiting for
me…
'Of course you wouldn't.' Nanaki thought, a bit bitterly. He had known the
flight with her wouldn't be a pleasant one. She was probably the biggest and
the most annoying human being he had ever encountered. Such a brat, he
added. Does she ever think of anyone but herself? Anyone other than Yuffie Kisaragi? He snorted. Of course you don't care.
* * * * * *
"Watch your paws, because if one of them lands on my foot, you're dead," Yuffie bitched as they climbed off the Highwind. Nanaki sighed at this. Her anger towards him had only grown larger, the closer they got to Cosmo Canyon. He wanted to ask her if she hated him because he was different species or just because she was a snotty little brat, but he didn't allow himself to say such insults. It wasn't very… him. There were better things to worry about.
The little area covered with grass was crowded from all the people of Cosmo Canyon who had come to welcome Nanaki home. Especially the elders were glad to welcome Seto's son back to Cosmo Canyon. Yuffie had decided to rest at the second floor of the pub, and had borrowed some gil from Cid. She was really exhausted and her head hurt as she walked through the crowd that was warmly welcoming Red XIII back. Yuffie rented a room from the inn and sat down on the bed, but could not fight sleep much longer. The last thought on her mind was Wutai. And how she'd be home soon… Soon…
Nanaki was happier than ever to be back at the canyon. Everyone was wishing him welcome and they all sat down near the Cosmo Candle, as Nanaki told everything they wanted to know about the final battle against Jenova and Sephiroth and how the Lifestream gathered. He even answered all the silly questions the children asked (How long was Sephiroth's sword? Did Barret have green hair?). Nanaki stayed at Bugenhagen's house that night and thought about the future, the elders' words about it. He wished to visit the observatory, but only Cloud Strife and Bugen himself knew how to use it. Hopefully grandfather will come back soon, Nanaki thought. He must know all about the Lifestream accident… He can tell me… More about Seto… And with this, he wandered off to sleep.
Yuffie woke up before the sunrise and didn't know where she was until she saw the red sand outside. Canyon? Then she remembered the happenings of yesterday. Dammit, Red, she cursed and sat up on her bed, yawning. Soon she began to play an old Wutain nursery rhyme in her, which cheered her up and soon she was outside the Inn, looking around for Cid. I have to get going! she thought excitedly. Wutai cannot wait!
But Cid was nowhere to be seen. She tapped her foot on the sandy ground, annoyed. Then it struck her. She was supposed to go for a nap at the Cosmo Canyon inn, not sleep all night. Cid had told that he would wait for her until it started to get dark, and when it would be dark, he would fly back to Rocket Town. Yuffie hadn't paid so much attention to him, because of her dysphoria. So she had slept all night and now Cid was in Rocket Town and she was a million miles away from Wutai. Yuffie kicked the air and mumbled a small curse between her lips. This wasn't her day, week or month. Apparently.
