Life, or Something Like It
Chapter Three: Life Outside the Box


Sora burst in through the front door, his breathing coming out harsh and raspy. He ran up the stairs three at a time, still clutching the bag of stolen money. He found Riku in the room sitting on the floor playing cards with Wakka and Tidus.

Riku looked up from his hand of cards. "Took you guys long enough. Ansem's in his office," Riku informed. Then a frown creased his forehead. "Hey, where's Yuffie? We still haven't given her her gift. She probably thinks we forgot about her birthday."

Sora came to a stop beside Tidus and began to stammer. "We were running-then there was this light-cops after us-jumped the fence-Yuffie's pants got stuck-I couldn't help her-she told me to run-they took her away and now she's gone."

"Did anybody understand that?" Tidus asked blankly, hoping for a translation.

"The cops got Yuffie?" Riku guessed, dread settling in the pit of his stomach.

Sora nodded, struggling to catch his breath. He finally felt the fatigue of running nearly two miles non-stop. "What are we gonna do?" Sora asked miserably before plopping down beside Riku. He couldn't help but feel as if Riku would blame him for Yuffie getting caught. He supposed, in a way, it was his fault. If he'd only been faster…

"What can we do?" Wakka wondered aloud.

"Get her the hell out of there," Riku said determinedly.

"We won't be able to bust her out. They wouldn't lock her up in a regular cell. She'll probably be in some sort of detention center."

"Wakka's right, Riku. We have to tell Ansem. He's the only one who can get her out legally," Tidus pointed out.

Riku sighed. He knew Yuffie could take care of herself perfectly fine, but for some reason, he felt the need to make sure she didn't do anything reckless and get hurt. He couldn't explain why he felt the way he did.

"I definitely don't want to be Yuffie when Ansem comes storming into the police station. But Yuffie's a big girl. She can handle herself," Wakka added quickly to reassure Sora and Riku, who had lapsed into a steady, stony silence.

Sora couldn't meet Riku's gaze. It was his fault Yuffie was probably never coming back. "It's getting close to midnight. Ansem's gonna be wondering where Yuffie is."

Riku lifted his eyes to settle upon Sora. For the strangest reason, he had an urge to knock Sora a good one and yell at him for not being able to help Yuffie. But it wasn't his fault. It was no one's fault. Unless…an angry blush lit his pale cheeks. Unless Yuffie had planned to get captured so she'd get out of the orphanage.

"If you don't watch out, Ansem will-"

"-kick me out," Yuffie finished. "Which, might I add, wouldn't be so terrible."

She wouldn't…would she? As he had thought earlier, he definitely wouldn't put it past her. So she'd gotten the one gift he'd never be able to give her --freedom.

Riku's face hardened. "So? What can we do? You'll just have to tell Ansem what happened."

Sora's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets. Was Riku mad at him for Yuffie's arrest? He thought that his best friend had been trying to come up with a way to avoid telling Ansem the truth. It didn't bother Sora that he usually lied to Ansem; Ansem was never truthful to him, so what reason could there be for Sora to be truthful in return? But now…the truth was all he had.

Sora sighed. He prayed that Yuffie had enough sense not to open her mouth.


Yuffie rest her head against the window. Damn, these handcuffs bugged her! Rain splattered against the window, dampening the cool November night. Tears threatened and burned at the corners of her eyes, but she was used to threats. She received them about seven times a day, at the orphanage. She had to stay strong. She'd made it this far.

Her eyes focused on the two cops sitting in the front. One had silver hair that rivaled Riku's and was almost as long as Ansem's. The other had blond spiky hair that stuck out in all ways imaginable, and he had vibrant blue eyes. He vaguely reminded her of Sora. She felt her stomach drop. Sora. Riku. Her family. During her stay at the orphanage, she'd learned that family goes much deeper than blood. It was a trust that could only be established through love. Yuffie smiled. She knew Sora and Riku would never outwardly admit it, but she knew that they loved her too, in their strange, brotherly sort of way. Together, the three of them were practically Siamese triplets. Yuffie giggled softly at the image. She noticed that the silver haired cop looked at her in the rearview mirror with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I'm not psychotic, if that's what you're thinking," she said to him. She could tell he didn't believe her, but she didn't care. What business of his was it whether she was sane or not?

Sephiroth smirked and settled his gaze back on the road. That's what they all said...

Moments later, they pulled into the parking lot of a police station. She recognized this parking lot well. She'd watched some of the older kids as a young child get hauled away in cop cars, sirens blaring, tires squealing. But she never thought that'd she'd be the one in the car. The blond haired cop opened the door for her. She climbed out and stood still for a moment, letting the raindrops soak her hair.

"What're you waiting for?" Blondie asked gruffly. "It's raining."

"Brilliant observation, Watson," Yuffie grumbled, following Quicksilver inside.

As soon as they were situated in an office, Sephiroth began drilling Yuffie for answers. "Name."

"Yuffie Kisaragi."

"Phone number."

"Don't have one."

"Parents' phone number."

"Don't have any of those, either."

"Where do you live?"

"An orphanage. On 32nd and Forrest."

"I see," Sephiroth said, filling out a form in his elegant penmanship.

Yuffie took the opportunity to glance at Blondie. "Can you get these stupid handcuffs off me? I'm not about to break out. And even if I did," Yuffie added, "I have nowhere to go."

Cloud didn't react to Yuffie's request. Great. He was Watson as well as deaf.

"Birthday," Sephiroth continued in a clipped, business man tone.

"November 20th, 1986."

Pause. "Seventeen?"

"Yep."

"Happy birthday. Sorry you have to spend it like this," Cloud said softly.

"Thanks." Then a thought crossed her mind. Had Riku and Sora forgotten her birthday? They hadn't mentioned it at all. On her previous birthdays, the first thing she awoke to in the morning was a badly sung chorus of "Happy Birthday". Ok, so she herself had sort of forgotten, but she never gave her birthday much thought. As the years wore on, her birthday became less and less important.

Sephiroth leaned back in his seat and clasped his hands behind his head. He'd received similar reports of someone with this girl's description mugging and pick pocketing people. He was nearly sure that this girl was responsible for those other reports. But she was an orphan, and orphans had to do whatever necessary to get by. If it meant stealing, working for gangs, or becoming prostitutes, it was natural human instinct to survive, no matter what.

He also knew that there had been a few phone calls from concerned neighbors about screaming and sounds of breaking glass coming from the Eastside Orphanage. He hadn't been able to do anything but send a cop over to the neighborhood and check things out. He didn't have enough proof for a search warrant.

This girl might turn out to be all the proof he needed.

Cloud could nearly see the wheels turning behind Sephiroth's green eyes. He wanted to shake his head in disbelief. This man never stopped working. It was obvious why he was head of the police department, but Sephiroth was nearly bad as Squall when it came to "relaxing." Both didn't seem to know the meaning of taking a break.

"So…Miss Kisaragi," Sephiroth began, leaning forward and placing his elbows on his desk. "You're an orphan?"

Did I not just establish that? she thought. And this guy was supposed to be the Sherlock of the two cops? "Yeah. My parents had died in the disappearance of my home, when I was seven or so."

"Your home?"

"Hollow Bastion."

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Cloud knew that this, "Oh?" was directed towards him. He, too, was from Hollow Bastion. Cloud studied the girl more thoroughly. She seemed faintly familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"I see…so you ended up here when you were seven?"

"That's right."

"How did you get to the orphanage? New York isn't quite the best place for a seven year-old to be running around by herself."

"A man named Ansem took me in," Yuffie answered, her expression darkening slightly.

Sephiroth noticed this. "Why the sour look?"

Yuffie shifted uncomfortably. She knew she was being cross-examined. She herself was an expert at avoiding questions and cross-examining others. But for some reason, this guy was different. It was as if he knew that he'd outsmart her anyways. "He's not the easiest of people to get along with. I'm sure you know the type," Yuffie said pointedly, smirking slightly.

Cloud managed to quickly disguise his bout of laughter as a prolonged cough.

Sephiroth wasn't fazed at all. "How is life at the orphanage?" he pressed. "Are you fed regularly? Do you get enough exercise? How about your education?"

"I have a fast metabolism, I was fast enough to keep Blondie over here huffing and puffing," Cloud glowered at this, "and two plus two equals four."

"What about sleeping?"

"What about it?" Yuffie asked evasively.

"Do you have a bed to sleep in?"

"What good is a bed when you can't sleep because of a raving lunatic who's beating up harmless little-" Yuffie cut herself off. He'd done just what she was hoping he wouldn't do. He'd gotten her to admit that there was something going on at the orphanage.

"He's abusive, isn't he." The words came out as a statement instead of a question.

Yuffie looked away. "Will this stay confidential?"

"We will keep your identity secret, and you will be kept in custody, in case this Ansem character decides to hunt you down."

Yuffie's face paled. Sephiroth sighed. Perhaps that wasn't quite the best choice of words.

"He beats us," Yuffie said suddenly. What good was lying going to do her now? They already knew what was going on, and maybe it'd get her and her friends out of the orphanage -- for good.

"He?" Cloud asked.

"Ansem." Yuffie paused. "If we didn't steal money and other things for him, he said we'd get thrown out. He had told us as kids that we were paying our rent. We give him money, we get a place to sleep, eat, and live."

"How long have you been at this orphanage?" Sephiroth asked.

"Ten years."

"You've been stealing and breaking into places for ten years?" Cloud asked incredulously.

Yuffie shrugged. "It's not as if I'd asked to do this." It was then she'd noticed the small microphone planted on a coffee cup on the desk. "I'm being recorded! I thought you were supposed to ask for permission for that!"

Sephiroth took the microphone. "Would you have told me all those things if you'd known you were being recorded?"

"No."

"Exactly."

"I don't need a damn appointment to get in there!" someone roared from outside Sephiroth's office.

"Three guesses who that is," Yuffie muttered. The door flew open on its hinges and hit the wall. A six foot ten figure with a full head of platinum hair that matched Sephiroth's for length, and a pair of angry-no, pissed-golden eyes shooting daggers at Yuffie stormed into the room.

"Gentlemen," Ansem greeted the two officers with a voice that sounded much calmer than he seemed. "What is the problem?"

"You," Yuffie answered before either Cloud or Sephiroth could say anything. She was through with taking his crap. There were two policemen in the room. She could talk back to him all she wanted and not get punished for it.

Ansem chuckled. "I'm not the one who stayed out past curfew."

"I wouldn't be out after curfew if you'd pay off your own stinking gambling debts," Yuffie retorted.

Ansem's smile grew wider. "Silly girl, what are you talking about?" He rolled his eyes as if to say, "Kids these days".

This time it was Yuffie who smiled. It was a sadistic grin that did not please her gentle features at all. She knew she probably looked like a loony, but she really couldn't be bothered to care. "You know, if I were you, I wouldn't be smiling right now. They know. I've told them."

Ansem's smile dropped almost as quickly as he'd put it on. Yuffie knew that'd wipe the smirk off his face. He turned several shades of red before making a grab for Yuffie.

But Cloud was ready. He lunged forward with his nightstick and struck Ansem right where his shoulder and neck met. Yuffie still sat in the chair, too stunned to move. Ansem plunged his hand into his trench coat, and that's when Yuffie finally regained the ability to move. She leapt out of her seat and ducked behind the desk. Sephiroth was no longer sitting behind his desk, but was now gripping Ansem's wrist before any weapon could be removed. "I can and will charge you with attempted assault," Sephiroth said in a voice colder than the one he had used when speaking to Yuffie.

Ansem met Sephiroth's gaze. The two men stared each other down, neither one relenting. They both seemed to be daring the other to back down. Ansem snarled angrily and pulled his wrist away roughly. He strode over to the door and left.

"By the way, I'll be over to investigate in three days' time."

The only answer Sephiroth received was the slamming of the office door. Sephiroth massaged his temples to gather his wits. He had to choose the night shift. "Strife, take the girl somewhere safe, then head straight to the orphanage. We'll put the rest of the kids in a shelter until we can transfer them elsewhere. I'll send in backup first to surround the place."

Cloud nodded and motioned for Yuffie to follow him.

Yuffie blinked. Everything was happening so fast. "But won't I need to go back to the orphanage?"

"No. We can't risk it," Sephiroth stated flatly.

"But my friends, my stuff, are at the orphanage," Yuffie protested, standing up from her crouch behind the desk.

"See you in an hour," Sephiroth said to Cloud, ignoring Yuffie.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Yuffie called after him as he left. "Listen to me dammit! Some of the very few things I own are at the orphanage!"

"Let's go," Cloud said firmly.

Yuffie suddenly felt very, very tired. She stuck out her hands, which were still bound by handcuffs.

Cloud unlocked them and wordlessly made his way into the parking lot. Yuffie followed, splashing in the puddles as she walked. She climbed into the backseat and took a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts. Now that she was finally free from the prison known as Eastside Orphanage, she couldn't help but wonder if the world outside the box was much more dangerous than the one she grew accustomed to.

It was just so cold, so cold. She pulled her leather jacket tightly around her for warmth, shutting her eyes tightly. She couldn't hold it in anymore. There was no more Ansem to berate her for showing weakness. She was safe. A single tear escaped her eye, and it landed on her hands, which were folded on her lap. Soon one tear turned into two, and two into four.

Cloud looked in his rearview mirror. He watched the girl lose her composure and break down. He settled his eyes back on the slick road. He couldn't help but feel a pang of pity towards the girl. Cloud himself had a rough time after losing his home nine--no, it was ten, now--years ago. Luckily, he was taken in by a man named Cid, whom he now referred to as his uncle.

But not everyone was as lucky as he was, and Yuffie was proof of that.


TBC