The sun rose up early, but when Yuffie saw the light coming through the roof of the tent, she just turned around in her sleeping bag, not wanting to wake up yet. Nanaki, however, was already up and cleaned up the area where they had set the campfire. He had also packed all the bags and was basically ready to leave the misty Nibel Mountains, but Yuffie resisted and complained when Nanaki dragged her out of the tent. She did look tired, but after she drunk a couple of potions, she seemed much more hyped up. She was excited as she realised they were soon out of the misty air of the mountains.

"Soon in the sun, Red, soon in the sun!" she squealed and ran towards the big spider who guarded the last exit. Nanaki was about to warn her, but before he had gotten close enough to attack the monster, Yuffie had already killed it.

Then they reached the grass fields, the sun shone on their faces and there was a slow ocean breeze blowing through Nanaki's fur and Yuffie's hair.

"This is great. We're so close," Yuffie said, her voice filled with excitement. I can almost see Rocket Town, she thought happily.

"Not really. We'll reach Rocket Town after the sun goes down, if we're lucky." Nanaki said truthfully.

"Don't be so negative. Surely we'll get there before that," Yuffie said and covered her eyes from the sun. She tried to see Rocket Town again, but couldn't.

"I'll give Cid a piece of my mind when we get there!" Yuffie stated, more to herself than Nanaki, but he responded.

"I don't suggest you do that. He's pretty bad tempered."

"True, but he's just a harmless old man." Yuffie said lightly as they began to walk towards the woods.

"If you upset him he won't take you to Wutai," Nanaki pointed out.

"Me?" Yuffie asked quizzically and stopped walking. Nanaki stopped and looked at her. I thought he was coming with me, Yuffie wondered and furrowed her brow.

"Yes, you."  Nanaki stared at her.

"I thought you were coming with me." She couldn't help but speak her mind.

"Well, I am coming with you."

"You don't have to, you know…" Yuffie said, trailing off. She looked down. She had practically spent all night wondering. Why had Red been so nice to her? Why hadn't he been ignorant towards her like usually? Why had she been so sweet to him? All of the sudden seemed like their attitudes had changed completely. Maybe they were just becoming good friends. Yeah, Yuffie thought. We're becoming friends, because when the whole Meteor-drama happened, we didn't have the time to become friends.

But if we're such good friends now, why doesn't he want to come with me to Wutai? she couldn't help wondering.

"No, I want to visit Wutai. Learn more about its history. Wutai has always been ignored when talking about the study of the Planet" Nanaki said and caught Yuffie's attention. She woke up from her own consideration and said:

"But Wutai doesn't have anything to do with the Planet!"

"Yes, it does. If we could understand what the gold fishes are singing, maybe we could find out more about their connections to …Cetra, perhaps?" Nanaki explained, but realised he had very little point. He looked down in embarrassment, almost feeling flushed. He hardly ever talked this much. He only spoke when he had to. When he had a point. This time his only point he wanted to go with Yuffie, to Wutai. But why? he had to ask himself.

"Cetra and the gold fishes? Well, to think of it, the gold fishes and all the animals of Wutai have been living there for centuries before men came on the Planet. Maybe the gold fishes did have some connections with the Cetra," Yuffie began thinking. She was really interested on the subject and was eager to find out more. When she would arrive in Wutai, she would dig out all the history materials she could find about the ancient times of Wutai. She started planning who she would go to. Gorm seemed to know a lot and Podo as well… I'm thinking about history! Yuffie suddenly realised. Like only the most boring thing there is! She started to giggle at herself inside.

"Miss Kisaragi?" Nanaki asked. He was close and staring at Yuffie.

"Just call me Yuffie, Red." Yuffie smiled sweetly and suddenly noticed the scar over Nanaki's other eye.

"Why have you only got one eye, Red?" she asked and looked closer.

Nanaki stepped away. "It's a long story."

"Well, tell me." I like stories, she thought.

"You don't care."

"How come?" Yuffie furrowed her brow. I don't care?

"Because you never do." Yuffie hadn't failed to miss to hurt in his voice. He seemed almost... Almost... Bitter.

She turned away and felt incredibly vulnerable all of the sudden. I do care! I care about a lot of things! she told herself, as to prove that what he said wasn't true.

"What makes you think you know?" she yelled at Nanaki and began to run towards to woods faster. Tears fell down her cheeks. I care! I do! I… just never.. show it, she thought and ran faster. Trying to swallow her tears, she suddenly stopped and turned around to see if he was following. For all she cared he could walk back to his precious Canyon. She didn't need him anymore. I didn't need him in the first place.

"I'm sorry." She suddenly heard a voice near her say. Nanaki sat there, looking sympathetically into her eyes. He had regretted his words as soon as he had spoken them. Nanaki almost couldn't recall why he had said so in the first place. It was some other voice inside of him, full of anger and bitterness towards her. The voice had said to him: She doesn't care. She doesn't care for anyone, least for you.

"Why do you cry, Yuffie? I didn't really mean it."

Yuffie gulped and looked at him. "So you wanna tell me about that eye of yours?" she then asked, arrogantly, as if to cover her own sadness.

Nanaki thought she looked too amusing to be completely serious with her arrogance, so he nodded and said:

"Sure. But let's keep walking, so we'll get to Rocket Town in time."  Yuffie nodded and they began to walk.

"It happened when I was at a very young age. About 35 years ago." Nanaki began his story.

"35 years?!?" Yuffie gasped. "Even Cid hadn't born that time!"

"Yes, I know." Nanaki said and continued: "Grandfather was away, that time he travelled quite a lot, so I was left to protect the Canyon. The Shin-Ra came, with a bunch of SOLDIERs and everything. They were actually looking for me, but I didn't know that, and thought they were after the writings about the Cetra. That time army used mostly swords instead of guns, so one of the SOLDIERs slashed my eye. But my race has always had perfect eyesight, so I didn't become blind, more like the opposite. It's still a hurtful memory, since that was the first time I met Hojo."

"Wow," Yuffie said. She looked at the scar.

"Does it hurt?" she asked and reached her hand towards it. Nanaki pulled back.

"No, but I'd rather not have anyone touching it", he then said.

"Can I pat you in the head instead? Or nose? Can I ride you?" Yuffie giggled and ruffled the fur on Nanaki's head. It felt nice and Nanaki purred, which made Yuffie giggle even more. He's actually pretty fun to be with... She smiled at him. We're gonna have fun in Wutai.

"We're soon in Rocket Town, One-eye." Yuffie said and stared into the horizon.

"Yes, we are. Hope Cid's not mad at you. If he is, he might not take us on Highwind," Nanaki stated and worried for Yuffie's sake. She wants to go to Wutai so badly, it would hurt her so much if she found out she couldn't, at this point, he thought and looked solicitously at Yuffie. Then he slapped himself with his own tail by thinking such odd thoughts. Why do you care? he asked himself and glanced at Yuffie, who was equipping her armour while walking, which is quite a skill and whistling carelessly. Why do I care …so much? Nanaki sighed.

"He won't be. We've always been great buds, the old man and me. I hate his airship and all, but he tells the best jokes and I even gave him some love-advice on that lady, Shera. The poor man's fallen for her big time," Yuffie said and grinned. "Kinda sweet, don't you think? Old people and love."

"Old people?" Nanaki repeated. "I don't think Shera and Cid are that old."

"Whatever. Gawd, I hope we get there soon. Better get a move on!" she said and began to run towards the Rocket Launch Pad. They had hardly encountered any enemies at all. Nanaki ran after her.

"What advice did you give him?" Nanaki asked when he reached her.

"Some advice on the love-zone. Told him to tell her how he feels. Maybe propose. If she didn't think it was too soon." Yuffie explained and thought about Cid and Shera. Red's right, they aren't seriously that old, she thought. Still it's very sweet, she added in her mind and thought of the way Cid looks at Shera. It's like he adored her so much he couldn't ever, ever, be with anyone else. Yuffie glanced at Nanaki. She would so love to show him her house in Wutai, plus the cathouse and the pagoda, from the outside, of course.

She couldn't possibly have a crush on Cid, could she? She does talk way too much about him, in my opinion... Nanaki caught himself wondering about the stupidest things. He got embarrassed and glanced at Yuffie for a short while, then moved his eye on the ground. Jealous? some voice inside his head asked. Jealous? Oh, how that amuses me... NOT! He snorted at himself for thinking such things and ignored the very Yuffie-like thing he had thought.

She's pretty, he thought as he glanced at her. He was glad he wasn't human, otherwise he would be as red as a chilli pepper.

He's only got one eye, Yuffie revised the facts. But the eye that he's got is very pretty, she stated in her mind. And he's, well, an animal, she thought. No, not an animal, she quickly decided. A different race. She felt her face getting all red. But he's so wonderful... What am I thinking? I like him, but we're just good friends. Or are we? Does he hate me? Oh gawd, he hates me and thinks I'm a stupid brat. She worried and tried to concentrate on the fact that they were killing some enemies. Rocket Town was close. Hooboy! I'm in love! Yuffie thought as missed hitting the opponent while Nanaki killed the last enemy.

"I-is something wrong, Y-yuffie?" Nanaki said with a confused stutter.

"Now, I'm just still a little bit tired, you know, got up so early this morning", Yuffie babbled on.

"Yeah, it happens, well, Rocket Town is very near and it isn't even dark so looks like we don't have to share a tent tonight," Nanaki said nervously. Thank Holy she doesn't know what I was thinking just now... He sighed slightly and glanced at her raised eye-brow.

"What is it?"

"You said 'yeah'," Yuffie pointed out.

"And…?"

"You never say 'yeah."

"Oh."

The next five hundred meters they walked in perfect silence, both thinking about the uncomfortable guest beds in Cid's house and how they wouldn't mind sharing a tent for tonight.

Cid welcomed them both reluctantly. Shera, however, was far friendlier and offered them so much tea they could hardly hold it in. Yuffie was seriously grossed out by the fact that once Cid and Shera had started to settle down on their own, Cid had taken Yuffie's advice and now he was throwing suggestive comments to Shera. Shera just blushed and said 'Oh, Captain'. Nanaki found sipping tea not really suited for him, so he settled with some biscuits on the table. Yuffie spilled her tea and Nanaki spit out his half-eaten biscuit as they both noticed Cid feeling Shera up. Yuffie's eyes were as big as plates, when she hurried to clean up her spilled tea with a napkin.

"I think I'll call it a day, what do you think, Red?" she hurried to say and glanced at Nanaki, mouthing "Let's leave, fast!".

"Good idea, I'm awfully tired as well. Thank you for the lovely biscuits, Shera," Nanaki hurried to explain and hurried away from the table.

"And thanks for the tea, too!" Yuffie yelled from the door before Shera had the chance to say anything back.

They both ran to the small guest rooms, upstairs of Cid's house. Before Nanaki went into his room, Yuffie commented:

"I take back the thing I said about 'old people and sweet love'. Definitely", she added. Nanaki laughed. Yuffie was not amused, grossed out, more like.

"But love is sweet in other cases, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, it is. Like with Cloud and Tifa."

"Or Cloud and Aeris," Nanaki added.

Yuffie grinned. "You a Cloud-Aeris supporter? Curse you!"

Nanaki shrugged. "Two minds, both right."

Yuffie looked puzzled. "Don't get it."

"Me neither." Nanaki admitted. Yuffie smiled.

"Love is sweet with people, like our age," she said.

"Ever been in love?" Nanaki suddenly asked. He regretted it the next second.

"I don't know," Yuffie said and blushed. "You?" she asked awkwardly.

Sweet smile, not a grin. Though her grin is cute too, Nanaki thought and shook his head. "I don't know either."

"Love is odd." Yuffie sighed.

"Indeed." Nanaki looked down.

"Well, goodnight, One-eye. Tomorrow; Wutai, you coming with me, then?" Yuffie asked. I don't really want to go alone anymore, she thought. She blushed. It really didn't use to matter.. Now it does.

"Yes, I am." Nanaki said and headed towards his room.

"Night," he turned around and said.

"Night," Yuffie said and went inside her small guest room. She closed the door and leaned against it. She thought about gold fishes. Tomorrow she would show Red her own prize-winning gold fishes. Then she would make them sing… Songs of the spring. And love.

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Story Notes: Well, after a million day break, I've finally re-written this story, edited it and will now be writing 2 NEW CHAPTERS. So yay?