The next morning I awoke to a very hard surface.
I'd fallen off the couch and my face was smushed against the hard flooring. I groaned and stumbled to the bathroom.
I looked like crap. Oh, man. I hope I didn't look like that when I came in last night. I ran my hands through my hair, which I hadn't cut since before Meteor and was now nearly down to my waist, and tried futiley to make it lay flat. No such luck. I sighed and left the bathroom.
Cid was awake, apparently, because groaning noises and some coughing was coming from his room. He couldn't have a hangover; I was probably right about him not being a morning person. Normally I'm not either. For some reason, the similarity thrilled me.
He stumbled out of his room and automatically went for the stove. Tea. Of course.
About an hour later, both of us felt loads better. Cid loaded me into the Tiny Bronco and took off for Wutai.
We landed just outside of Wutai City. He looked about ready to take off when I, almost shyly, asked him to come over. I must have come off sounding really stupid, but he shrugged, shut the plane off, and hopped out.
I wasn't expecting the armed guards at the edge of the city. When they took hold of Cid and put handcuffs around his wrists, I got pretty vocal.
"What in hell is going on here?" I demanded.
"This man is charged with assault of Lord Godo," (Damn, that meant he wasn't dead) "And kidnapping of yourself, Miss Yuffie."
"Does it look like he kidnapped me, you retard?" I asked, pummelling at the police offiers with my fists. "Look, I'm back, and he came with me!"
"Sorry, Miss Yuffie. Lord Godo's orders."
My eyes narrowed. Cid looked pretty dejected. I stood in front of him with my arms crossed.
"I'll take care of this." I promised him. He shrugged. I sighed.
And stormed off to my house. To get my Conformer. And then I'd go to Godo's house, and I'd kill him myself.
"So you arrest the guy who saves me from you, and arrest him for doing to you what you were doing to me? God, you're lucky he didn't kill you, you should just count your blessings, you asshole." I faced off with my father, who looked pretty pissed to have been awakened by his erstwhile daughter by a conformer to the side of his head.
"Yuffie..." He began. I hit him with the dull side of my conformer again, this time knocking the other side of his head. He groaned and stood up.
"You bastard." This time I went for a fatal blow, but he ducked away just in time.
"Yuffie, you ungrateful brat..." Godo shouted. My anger was getting worse and harder to control, and finally I just reached for the one thing I knew could release that anger: beta.
When the flames finally died down, and the embers cooled, they couldn't find a trace of Godo left.
Being the princess of Wutai, they had to listen to me. Cid was released, and he'd been roughed up a bit by the guards. That pissed me off, and I was tempted to retaliate, but they'd been following my dad's orders, and really had believed that Cid had kidnapped me. I got him settled down on my couch and used restore on him a few times; the bruieses and lacerations cleared up instantly.
"It would have been great if you had managed to kill him." I muttered as I put the materia away.
Cid shrugged. He seemed pretty thoroughly depressed.
"But on the bright side, you're officially a 'bad boy' now." I said, trying to keep some noise going on. "You have an arrest record now."
Cid cracked a small smile at that, but something was bothering him.
I busied myself in the kitchen, making tea and keeping myself away from the disconcertingly quiet Cid Highwind.
Not like I didn't watch him, oh no. Whenever I had a chance I'd sneak a peek at him from the kitchen.
Finally the tea was ready (I only had green tea but it'd have to do) and I gave him a cup. He accepted it with a hint of gratefulness and sipped at it.
I sat down next to him. I didn't know what to say. Remember, I can't really guage Cid's emotions. All I could tell was that something disturbed him, and he wasn't willing to volunteer the information.
"...Are you okay?" I blurted out. Oh, God. I have got to be the most awkward person on the planet, I swear.
"m'fine." Cid said. He sipped his tea.
Okay, now I knew where I was. "I call bullshit." I said. He snorted. His mouth was full of tea, so the results were rather spectacular. I cleaned up, laughing.
"Seriously." I said, sitting back down. "Something's up. What's wrong?"
Cid shrugged. He sat back on my sofa and closed his eyes, plainly not interested in talking. I rolled my eyes and stood up.
"Men." I muttered, walking up to my room.
I was sitting on my floor, trying futiley to center my chi. It wasn't working because my body was too aware of Mr. Cid Highwind a floor below me.
A soft knock. Cid. Probably coming up to tell me he was going home. I murmured a "come in," my eyes still closed.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to center my chi."
A snort. "I didn't know you went for that bullshit."
I shrugged, eyes still closed. "It helps in battle."
A soft rustling of clothes, and I opened my eyes. Cid was sitting in front of me.
"I'm being an asshole. Sorry." Cid said, shortly. He frowned and looked at some poster on my wall.
I shrugged. "Whatever."
He looked back at me and I leaned back, startled; it was that look again, the one he gave the Tiny Bronco. And I recognized it for what it was: amazement, joy...love.
He stood up and went to leave. "I'm gonna take off." He said. His voice sounded strained again; distant. I stood up and made as if to protest, but no sound could come out. And then he was gone.
I fell to the floor, wondering if I'd spend my life wondering what could have been.
One week later
This was the day.
I was being officially brought into the office of Lady of Wutai. There was a ceremony and everything. I'd contacted everyone in AVALANCHE and asked them to come. I was totally proud of myself.
I'd tried to get ahold of Cid, but every time I tried to call no one answered. I'd get a short message from the machine informing me that Cid wasn't in. I'd leave yet another message for him, informing him of the date and time.
I was crushed. Infatuation aside, Cid was a good friend and I wanted him to be there, just like I'd want a big brother to watch me graduate. This was a pretty big moment of my life.
I sighed and twitched the last part of my ceremonial robe around me. I'm not fond of traditional Wutaian garb, but it's what you wear when you're being crowned.
I walked out of the pagoda. I looked and saw all of my AVALANCHE friends, even Barret, standing there. Everyone but Cid. I frowned, then brushed that aside and smiled and waved. They waved back; Tifa seemed especially ecstatic.
The ceremony itself was kind of boring. They put the crown on my head and I turned to the crowd, symbolizing my acceptance of taking care of the people before me, when I saw him.
He was leaning against a tree, smoking a cigarette. Very nonchalant, and not looking directly at me. But he was there, and that was more than I'd thought I'd have.
Beyond him I could see construction of my new house, on the ashes of the former house. It was going to be built to my specifications; I had some ideas for it that I wanted put into effect.
Because my house was still in construction, the crowd before me flowed into the pagoda, where the celebratory feast and party would be held. I, however, didn't have to be in attendance; the feast was for the people. If I did attend, I was not expected to join in the festivities.
I walked over to Cid, the only person left in the courtyard.
"You came." I said. I felt kind of silly, standing in front of him in my geisha-like getup. My hair was piled up on my head, completing the look.
He nodded, still not looking at me.
"Are you okay? Where have you been? Why didn't you return my calls?" I demanded.
"I just got in last night." He said. "I found Shera."
I held my frown back, despite the cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Where was she?"
"Graveyard in Gongaga." He said, his tone devoid of emotion. "I guess she died of cancer about six months ago."
I nodded slowly. "I'm sorry."
Cid shrugged. "You wouldn't be if you read the letter she left me." He said. He threw his cigarette down and crushed it on the stones that lined the courtard.
I just looked at him for a few minutes. He didn't volunteer any information, and eventually lit up a new cigarette. A slightly nervous twitch had developed in his foot.
"You're missing your party." He said, eventually. I shrugged.
"I'm not really supposed to attend." I said. I started down towards my old house, where I was staying until my new place was built. I heard Cid fall into step with me. "I'm supposed to retire and start planning what's best for the people, or something." I shrugged negligently.
We reached my house and I opened the door, stepping aside to indicate he should enter. He did, sitting on my couch. I sat next to him, not even bothering to change my clothes or wipe the stupid makeup off, or take my hair down.
Eventually the silence grew to be too much, so I lit a cigarette. Cid let out a short laugh.
"What?" I asked.
"Sorry, I get a chuckle out of it every time I see you light up." He shook his head. "I'm a bad influence on you people."
"Right." I said. "I'll be sure to remember that."
Eventually I finished the cigarette and put it out, then unabashedly looked at Cid. His profile looked almost haggard. He looked ...almost sad.
"Cid.." I began. His head jerked up at the sound of my voice, and the intensity of his gaze really startled me. It was that look again, unrestrained.
He must have seen something in my eyes; I know that at that look my heart lept and my throat went dry. Instead of leaving, like I thought he would, he blinked, then slowly leaned towards me.
And kissed me.
I've had my share of kisses in my life, but none quite matched this. Most of them were inexperienced, people my age. This was a man who had quite a bit of experience; at least, more experience than I. He kissed me quite thoroughly, and I kissed him back. I almost regretted having to come up for breath.
I would have liked to gaze into his blue eyes for hours, but instead he stood up and started pacing.
"What, exactly, is wrong?" I asked, almost acidly. If I couldn't look into his eyes for hours on end, the next best thing was stripping down to nothing and...well, you get the idea. And neither seemed about to happen, and it was really annoying now that we'd gotten past the whole mental foreplay of this.
"I'm old enough to be your dad, kid." Cid said, pacing still. "Look, Yuffie." He said, sitting down at the look on my face at the use of the word "kid." "It's true. And...well, there's no guarentee this isn't some sort of weird mid-life crisis. This crap could all go down the tubes in days, weeks. I don't know. I haven't..." He looked away. "I dunno. I don't think this is a good idea. I'm going to leave." He stood up. "Sorry."
I stood up and blocked his access to the doorway. "I don't think so." I said, determinedly. I crossed my arms. "I'm tired of fucking pussyfooting around with you. I don't care if you're old enough to be my dad. I don't care if this is a mid-life crisis." I stepped closer to him. "I..." I trailed off. What did I?"
Cid looked very, very disturbed.
I made a noise suspiciously like a growl in the back of my throat, and lunged at him with my lips. I had to stand on tiptoe to kiss him, but I managed it. My arms encircled his waist. He stood there for a second, and I felt my heart stop...then his arms threaded their way around me.
When we separated, Cid looked at me for a minute, then picked me up, geisha gear and all, and headed up towards the bedroom. I made a pleased sound, and he snorted.
He threw me on my bed, which I rather enjoyed (I'm only eighteen, lemme have my childish pleasures, okay?) then he crawled in with me. I felt a tiny spike of nervousness, then I relaxed.
He kissed me...softly, totally unlike the hungry kisses from earlier, and reached over and unbound my hair. It cascaded down my shoulders.
I slipped my hands under his shirt, and felt horribly inexperienced. Cid seemed to realize, at that point, that I was a virgin, and stopped.
"K...Yuffie...?" He asked, looking at me as if to ask "Are you sure?" I smirked and tugged his shirt off.
He took that as an answer and kissed me again, all the while tugging at different parts of my robe, loosening this knot and untying that one. After a while I lay naked on top of it, feeling a little exposed. Cid kissed me one last time and then knelt between my legs.
That, I hadn't expected. EVerything I'd ever heard about sex had mostly involved the guy penetrating and pretty not much doing anything for his partner beyond some thrusting. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd heard about oral sex, I just never expected to meet a guy who wanted to do it.
Pretty soon, though, I forgot all about that and leaned back into my pillow, gasping. I'd already been really turned on; the fact that Cid was managing to do even more than that was...amazing.
I lay there, trying hard not to wriggle and cause an interruption in these...these...glorious feelings, when a small fluttering in my belly alerted me to a change. My entire neither regions went white-hot, and I shuddered.
A wave, a flood of ...something... rushed over me, and left me gasping for breath. I cried out unconsciously, unable to hear anything, including my own breathing. I closed my eyes and let whatever it was rush over me.
When I opened them, Cid's face was over mine, kissing my neck, unbuttoning his pants. I craved what was in those pants, wanted it more than I'd ever wanted anything before, and I spread my legs out.
"You sure?" He asked me, one last time. I cried out, exasperated that he was delaying the moment even one bit, and surrounded him with my legs, trying to bring him closer to me. He was strong, and held out until I nodded yes. I doubt highly that I could have spoken coherently at that point.
I wanted him to slam into me; instead he took it slow. I felt the tip brush against me, and then he guided himself inside. He encountered a blockage.
He looked at my face one more time, then, closed his eyes and...pushed.
White-hot pain flashed through me, and then he hit something...inside...that made me cry out.
He thought he'd really, severely hurt me, and stopped. I looked at him, confused, and saw th concern in his face. I pushed up, trying to get him to move, and he did, slowly. I wanted it faster...Faster! I clawed at his back, but he still went slowly. Did he want me to beg?
"Faster." I gasped out, into his ear. He chuckled but obliged. Oh, gods! Through the rushing in my ears, I could hear his rapid breathing, his contained moans, the slapping sound of our bodies coming together...and it just turned me on more.
I started coming up to meet him, closing in on him every time, trying my best to make it good for him as well as me. I kept forgetting occasionally, losing myself to the sensations, but he didn't seem to mind at all.
"Oh, God." He mumbled at one point. "Oh, God, baby." I smiled; I never thought I'd hear those words coming out of his mouth. It was incredibly sexy.
Presently, I felt that fluttering in my belly again. I gasped and felt myself tightening involuntarily. A long, drawn-out groan from Cid let me know that he had felt that. I leaned back, ceasing movement entirely as that wave encircled me again. Somewhere in the distance I could hear Cid crying out my name, feel him holding me and shuddering, but it was in the distance, because all that I was paying attention to was this...blissful thing.
We lay there like that for a good five minutes, just getting used to the idea of being near each other like that. Then he slid off and out of me and to the side of my bed, leaning back.
I was still panting. My eyes closed, and I felt a kiss on my forehead before I fell asleep.
When I woke up, I was covered by a blanket, tucked in for all intents and purposes. I frowned, knowing something extraordinary had happened but not remembering it. Then I felt the warmth beside me on my bed and remembered, grinning.
Oh, we'd have to do that often.
I got up and used the bathroom before climbing back into bed and cuddling up to his side. I had all day--today was a day of reclusiveness from the public, until tomorrow, when I formally took office.
Tomorrow...when I would be pretty busy and unable to spend any time with my new lover.
Cid stirred and then opened his eyes, looking over at me. I smiled and put my arm over him. He smiled, too, knowing I had no regrets.
Wutaians from Wutai don't generally date outside of Wutai. It's not considered proper. So the announcement that Yuffie Kisaragi of Wutai, the new Lady of Wutai, was engaged to Cid Highwind, sixteen years older than her, white with blond hair and blue eyes, wasn't taken very well. But people got over it when it was announced that I was pregnant, and the kid would be born to married parents. They like that kind of stuff.
Barret was pretty pissed about this; his buddy marrying some eighteen-year-old little bonehead...I believe those were his words. But he agreed to come to the wedding.
At the moment Cid's planning everything; I've got too much shit to do for Wutai to plan a wedding. Besides, he says he's enjoying the bartering over services.
And so, in two months, I won't have the last name Kisaragi anymore. You know, if someone had told me when I joined AVALANCHE that my name would some day become Yuffie Highwind, I'd have punched them. But now...now it doesn't seem so bad.
And I have no regrets.