Author's Note: Well here I am again at chapter five. I want so bad to keep this story up so I've made a writing plan. I will write two pages of the story on Microsoft Word every day. A good length chapter is about seven pages on here, so I should have something like 1 or 2 chapters down per week. Again, I'm making no promises but I'll do my best. Wish me luck!

The Boarding House

Chapter 5: Therapy

Yuna looked around at the ensuing chaos. Sure, Kimahri had smashed the car into the side of the boarding house but it still felt good to be back. She stretched out her arms and grinned in delight. She was home again. But then she noticed Tifa running towards her crying a river.

"Yuna! (sniff)" Tifa ran into her friends arms and continued her bawling.

Yuna didn't really know what was going on but it looked like things were going crazy without her. She sighed and began the comfort phase. She could already tell that it was going to be a long night. "What's wrong? It's okay sweety. Just let it all out. So much for my surprise early arrival."

"Holy Shit! You guys Yuna's back!"

Yuna now saw that Sora was at the door screaming back into the house at the other tenants. "(Oh great. What now?) Hi Sora."

Sora came running towards her. "Yuna, you gotta help Riku. He's all--"

"Sora! What are you doing out there! Oh my God! Is that Yuna?" Riku now came blazing towards her, screaming something about being drunk.

"Riku! You stepped on my foot you son of a bitch! (Gasp!) Yuna! I need your help!" Now entered Rinoa.

"Sure, no need to help me up or anything. Just step all over me." Now Cloud rose up from the floor with a swollen cheek.

Yuna wasn't exactly ready for all of this. They all were crowding around her yelling this that or the other thing. Everyone was going absolutely crazy. Yuna couldn't take it any more. She tried to ask them to calm down, but she didn't get the chance.

"ROOOOAAAAAAARRRRR!"

Everyone looked up trying to figure out what they all had just heard. A huge blue monster was bounding towards them. They all freaked out and ran straight into the house, dragging Yuna with them so as not to get her hurt. The thing was too fast for them though. It bounded towards them and grabbed Yuna's arm dragging her back towards him. The others took Yuna from the other side trying desperately to save her from her impending doom.

Now Yuna was fed the hell up with this. She was again about to say something when up from the window someone yelled, "SSTOOOPP!" Yuna and everyone looked up at the source, which was Tidus from his room.

"How dare you all just come out of no where and start pressuring Yuna to help you with your problems! She's not here to be your psychologist! She's here to relax and see her friends again! And the big blue monster thing is trying to save her! Did it ever occur to any of you that it was driving the car that Yuna was in? And by the way big monster thing! If you've never driven in the rain than pull over when it starts instead of just blasting into our wall!" Tidus stopped and started to breath a little. He looked down at Yuna and saw that she was smiling at him. He blushed so hard that he could almost feel it.

"Okay," Laguna began from the head of the dinner table. "I think it's about time that everyone just sort of chilled out and relaxed. "Now what's wrong with everyone?"

No one spoke. Everyone had something that they were worried about, but it was all private. No one wanted to let loose their feelings. Not yet.

Laguna waited for a response from someone, but nothing came. "Fine. I'll start things off. Now Tifa. Why did you kick Cloud in the face?

Tifa stayed quiet. She had nothing to say to anybody right now. She got up and walked out of the room, without so much as a glance to Cloud.

Laguna looked at the room around him. "So what, is that just it? Fine. No more of this bull shit. Everyone is on lock down today. No one leaves the house. (I need a new god damn job.)"

Everyone just sat around for the rest of the day. Most people didn't leave their rooms. They would just hang out with their respective room mates (except for Squall and Seifer, who both were in Cloud and Tidus'room because Laguna didn't want them getting into a fight or whatever.

Cloud was on the floor sitting against his bed. Seifer was on Cloud's bed and Squall was onTidus' oneon the other side of the room, since he wasn't there at the moment. "So tell us," Seifer began. "Was she right? Do you still love Aeris?"

Cloud stayed silent for a moment. "No…but she was right."

"About what?"

"…she was a rebound. And I'm an asshole. I…I was still with Aeris when I started dating her. I knew that it was going to be over between me and Aeris soon, so I wanted to get back at her. What better way than to sleep with her best friend? I'm nothing morethan a liar. A good for nothing fucking liar. I'm not even sure I ever loved her."

Now even Seifer didn't have anything to say to that.

Tifa was with Yuna right now. She was glad that she finally had someone to talk too about what was going on in her head. But she was still not sure about one thing though. "Uh, Yuna? What- I mean, who is that?"

Yuna looked at the huge blue Ronso guarding the door behind her. "Oh, that's Kimahri. He's my body guard."

Tifa was intrigued. "Body guard? What do you mean?"

"Well…" Yuna began. "On the campus there have been some…murders. The school hired him to guard me so I would be safe."

"Oh my God… but wait a minute. Why are they only giving you one?"

"Because…the killer seems to be looking for me."

"WHAT! Yuna why didn't you tell anyone!"

"Well, I didn't want you getting worried. I knew that if I told any one that there would end up being a whole lot of chaos and stuff."

"Are you serious? Yuna, someone wants to kill you."

"Well with Kimahri here no one would try to do anything. He's been guarding my dorm room for months and I sort of asked him if he wouldn't mind coming here to stay with me."

"Well…I suppose no one would try to get to you if they saw you with this guy."

"Exactly! Now why don't you tell me why you're so mad at Cloud.

Tifa looked down at the pillow in her arms. It was soaking in her tears. "He still loves Aeris. I know it. He may not admit it but he does. I know that I could never hold a tee to her. That's why I should have known that he never really loved me in the first place. I was nothing but a one-night stand that lasted longer than he thought it would. Then he probably just stayed because he felt bad. And what's worst of all, is that I'm sure it's true because he lied to me. If he lied about one thing than what's to stop him from lying about something besides that? Like saying that he loved me."

" I see. Well I have to say Tifa. If you really do think that you and Cloud are done than I can't stop you from breaking up with him. I do have to agree that you might just have been a revenge on Aeris. But do you really think that a revenge lasts forfour months of someone's life?"

"Well Cloud's an enigma! Who knows what he's thinking. For all I know, it could have been!"

Yuna couldn't argue with that. Cloud was never one that could be explained in one sentence. "Well look at it this way. If you're really going to dump him then end it like a real woman. Cloud never treated you badly so you have no grounds whatsoever to kick him in the face. I say you march over to his room and end it, for real. And do me a favor and don't get mad at Aeris, okay? It wasn't her fault that any of this happened. I know that it's mean to say it, but this mostly falls on Cloud being irresponsible."

Tifa knew that Yuna was right. She got up and gave a quick nod to her friend before heading out the door. She walked down the hallway to Cloud's room and was about to open the door, when he opened it first. They stood there awkwardly looking at each other for a moment. Tifa was the first to speak. "Cloud I…I know that you've been lying to me. But it's okay. You just didn't want to hurt me. It was my fault for rationalizing this."

"…Tifa."

"Let me finish. I shouldn't have kicked you and I'm sorry, but I'm glad this all happened. I don't want either of us just living a lie, so I'm going to do something for both of us. It's over Cloud." Tifa turned around quickly to hide the tears starting to well up in her eyes.

Cloud wasn't sure how he felt about all of this but he couldn't protest it. He knew that it was all true. He turned around and went back into his room. Squall and Seifer sat there leaning forward with looks of interest on their faces. "You heard her," Cloud said. "It's over. For good."

"Whoa."

Cloud and Seifer stared at Squall in surprise. Whenever Squall spoke, everyone listened because it happened so rarely.

"This has all given me a revelation. I shouldn't be rationalizing like this either." Squall got up form the bed and headed towards the door.

"Wait a second! What are you doing!" Seifer yelled after him.

"Something I should have done a long time ago," Squall said more to himself than to anyone else. He marched down the hallway just like Tifa had done but this time he wasn't going to end something. He was going to start something. He stopped when he reached Rinoa and Kairi's room and raised his hand to knock on the door…

"So tell me," Yuna began once again. "What's up with you guys?" She was inside of Sora and Riku's room. They had been the next two on her list of people to problem solve for.

"It all started yesterday when we all were coming home from work and all that crap." Sora said.

Riku continued for him. "Since Kairi is here now, there was no room for Aeris to have her own seatso she ended up sitting on my lap. It was at this point that I noticed her luscious curves and somehow I started to get a little…excited."

"Oh...Oh!" Yuna nearly shrieked, realizing what he had meant. "Wow. I guess Aeris is a pretty big highlight today. Alright, keep going." They told Yuna the rest of the story (inway too many details, to her discontent.) "Okay," Yuna started to say when they were finished. "It seems to me that you are just scared, Riku. You're scared that you'll end up being a twenty-woman man. But this could be the beginning of a new era of your life!"

Riku looked up in shock. "What?"

"Riku, you say that you should call Aeris and let her know that you're sorry, but I know that you never planned to. You just wanted to make it look like you would because you're scared that you might really like a girl, and to you, a steady relationship is suicide. But trust me when I say that it's not. You should let this keep going. Make your trick into a reality.You need to call Aeris right now, dammit. Apologize to her and bring back your confidence when you do it."

"…Yuna. It's good to have you back!" Riku got up with a new look of determination on his face. He headed outside with his cell phone.

"Okay, now it's on to Rinoa. You coming Sora?"

Sora shrugged and followed Yuna out of the room.

Yuna turned into the hallway and saw Squall in a conversation with Rinoa. She smiled to herself knowing that she wouldn't have to work at all. Squall went back down the hall to his room and Rinoa went back into her and Kairi's room trying to hide a huge grin on her face.

"I know now. Everyone in the house is doing something all cool." Sora said in excitement. "Well now it's my turn! I'm gonna do what I now that I should do!"

Riku came back up the stairs jumping for joy. "Friday night at seven! I did it! Thank you Yuna. I owe you one!"

"Riku!" Sora said running to him. "I know what I'm going to do now! I'm having a revelation too!"

"Ahh," went Riku. "So your gonna ask Kai--"

"I'm gonna call those losers and except the offer! Come on! We gotta start planning Riku!" Sora dragged Riku off into their room.

Yuna leaned back against the wall. She could finally just calm down.

"You okay?"

Yuna turned around and saw the only person that hadn't pressured her that day, Tidus. "I'm fine. Thanks for what you said earlier. I almost got my arms ripped off. So how've you been?"

Tidus shrugged. "I'm okay I guess. I little mad that your first day back had to be like this."

"I don't really mind much. They're just doing what they feel they have too. Idon't want them to feel like they have no hope. But you misunderstood my question. How have you been?"

"…I don't know. I'm just kinda in need of something lately."

Then out of nowhere the same big blue beast came walking up to behind Yuna. It stopped and glared down at Tidus. Yuna looked up at it in confusion then looked at Tidus. "Sorry. He doesn't really trust you…or like you."

Tidus tried not to be intimidated. "Uh, that's okay. It'll understand me when I talk right?"

"His name is Kimahri, and yes he'll understand you."

"Right. I'M SORRY FOR WHAT I SAID KIMAHRI," Tidus said in a low and slow voice.

"Say Tidus? Would you want to, I don't know. Do something this Friday?"

Tidus looked up in shock he tried to give a reply but nothing came out of his mouth. She had asked him out. "Duh-well-ah-"

"Uh huh. So is that a yes or a no or what?"

"Well, it would be a yes, but blitz ball tryouts are this Friday."

"Oh…well it's just that I'd like to do it Friday because I have tickets for Friday to this movie and I wanted someone to go with me."

She was trying even harder to get him to go! She could easily have given Kimahri the ticket but had chosen him! He couldn't pass this up. Not even for blitz ball. But then again, he couldn't pass up blitz ball either. "I suppose that if I getto the tryoutsearly I could make it to the movie depending on what time it is."

Yuna's face lit up. "It's 6:45. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. So I'll see you then?"

"Yeah." Yuna ran up and gave Tidus a hug. "It's good to see you again."

Tidus knew that he was blushing now. He said a quick, "You too" and just about ran back to his and Cloud's room. He slammed the door shut behind and took a moment to breath and bask in his euphoria. He started to dance in joy. He had a date with Yuna. Then he opened his eyes and saw Cloud, Seifer, and Squall all staring at him. "What? If you had a date on Friday you'd be doing the same thing. But you don't! Hah!"

"As a matter of fact," Squall started to reply. "I do."

Everyone looked over at Squall. "With who?" Cloud asked.

"Rinoa."

Tidus clapped his hands and congratulated him. Cloud smiled and commented on how it was good that at least his day was going well. Seifer on the other hand didn't exactly praise him. "What the hell did I tell you the other day!"

Everyone looked at him in confusion. Everyone except Squall, that is. He simply ignored him and started to walk out of the room.

"HEY! Don't walk away from me! What did you do? Forget what I said?"

Squall stopped now, and turned around. "I'm not gonna deal with this." That was all he had to say. He turned back and left the room.

Seifer just sat there. He was as pissed off as ever.

The man got off of the boat and looked around at the port that he had arrived at. There were people everywhere moving around in the hustle of their everyday lives. He looked up at the clouds above him, happy at what he'd just accomplished.

The summoner woman had led him right to where he needed to go. She had never even expected him to be tailing her. The murders at her school had worked well to get her to go to her former home. But she wasn't the one that he wanted though. She had just been a pawn in his plans.

He walked past all of the boxes and sailors getting ready for things at the port, his hair flapping in the wind. He left the port and found himself in Luca's huge market area. All of the stores were located here. He didn't need to be here though. But he could still use a map. He went into a nearby gas station and picked one up. Putting some gil on the counter he turned to leave and bumped into a lady that had been walking up behind him.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" said the woman. She was wearing a red jacket and a pink dress and had her hair braided down.

"It's fine." He replied. She was of no importance but he found himself stalling instead of just getting out of there. He thought that he might as well use this situation to get a little info. "Pardon me, but do you know where I could find the Golden Chocobo Boarding House?"

"The boarding house? What a coincidence! I go there all the time! What are you going there for?"

He went over the reason in his head for a second and smiled. "An old friend of mine lives there. Do you think you could tell me where to find it?"

"I guess so! But you know what? I'm really in a hurry and telling you where to find is a little complicated. There are a lot of turns and stuff. Why don't you just give me your number or something and I'll call you when I'm not busy."

"Very well," He took out a piece of paper and scribbled it down for her. "I didn't get your name."

"It's Aeris," she replied. "And yours?"

"… it's Sephiroth."

There's chapter five! I'm doing pretty damn good with this story if I do say so myself. Please R&R. Chapter six'll be up soon. This is usually where I get so glad that I've actually been keeping up with the story that I say "It'll be okay if I break for a while." And then I never get back to it until five months later. Well not this time guys!