Chapter 18.

Disclaimer: Oh how I wish I owned FFVII. Alas, I do not.

Note: Ok, this is ridiculous. It's 1 in the morning and I'm up here writing. I think I inherited some sort of insomnia gene from Mom er something. Shade, go to... http/ Copy and paste. Sowwy. Yeah, go there if you get online at like...5 in the morning Saturday. It be a Harper!

Chapter 18.

(Harper)

It was a long and bumpy ride from Cosmo Canyon to Nibelheim, but I was happy to be away from Vincent. I didn't know how to face him. What do you say to someone who hates you? We hardly stopped. That in itself was bad. I almost fell asleep as I sat behind Kadaj. And that wouldn't have gone well... We didn't even stop for the night. They were like machines, Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj—they could just keep going.

When finally we made it to Nibelheim, it was late morning and I was about ready to drop dead asleep as soon as we were off the bikes and on the coble streets of the town. The only thing that kept me awake was the fact that anyone could show up here at anytime. And by 'anyone' I mean Vincent or Cloud, as this was Cloud's hometown.

The guys seemed to notice my dilemma and booked a room at the inn. "Why only one room?" I asked as I dropped my backpack and began unbuckling any straps connecting any weapons that could hurt me in my sleep.

Kadaj replied, "It's just cheaper. Nibelheim's always been a bit over priced."

"Whatever," I said. In truth, I didn't feel like 'whatever' at all. I felt confused, and angry. I'd never shared a room with the opposite gender since I was a little girl, and I didn't feel right sharing at the age of 25. At least, not with three full grown men. After those few short thoughts, I claimed a bed as mine and fell asleep in moments, no longer caring who was there.

I woke up, and the room was empty, so I started digging through my pack to find some clean clothes. Then I went to the shower. I was so happy my hangover was over, that this shower felt better than any other I'd ever taken. In the middle of it all though, the door to the room outside opened and footsteps followed soon after. 'Great,' I thought as I turned off the water and stepped outside the shower. I began to dry off, thinking that whoever it was that was out there had enough common sense to not open o bathroom door when it's shut.

No...such...luck.—I scrambled to wrap the towel slipshodly around myself as Yazoo walked in. "YAZOO!" I screeched before he knew what he was doing.

"Huh? AHH!" he yelled when he realized he'd just walked in on me. "Harper...I'm SO sorry..." he started. Then he gave up and just turned around and left the room.

I brushed some wet hair from my forehead and sighed, "Next time he won't get away so easily..." There were some more noises outside the bathroom door. It all sounded like Kadaj and Loz had heard Yazoo and me screaming and came to see what the problem was. A minute after there was crazed laughter from the other room. "Boys..." I said to myself in exasperation, then all noises ceased. I finished dressing and exited the bathroom.

"You could have locked the door..." someone pointed out. It was Yazoo. He was sitting on the floor against the other bed.

"Yeah, well, you could've knocked," I countered.

"I've never lived with a woman before, how am I supposed to know that you guys take showers at weird times of the day?"

"You're not...hence the purpose of knocking," Kadaj helped me out. "Are you feeling ill again, Harper?" he asked, referring to the aggravated tone I was using with Yazoo.

"Well...let's see...no, I'm not sick," I said, feeling my own forehead as I combed my wet hair. "But I DID just have a full grown man walk in on me as I was finishing a shower. Me: a full grown woman." I glared at both of them. "Now do you see why two rooms would be better?"

Kadaj chuckled and said, "Yes, I do. But we really are slightly short on gil."

"Oh well. Just...knock from now on. And tell Loz, where ever he went," I said, flopping down on my bed again for another nap.

"Loz is getting our stuff together. We're leaving soon," Yazoo said.

"What? Already?"

"Yes, we only stopped because you were so tired," Kadaj said absently as he walked over to a window and looked out.

"Sorry to be such a nuisance," I said with no real apology present.

I have a feeling Kadaj rolled his eyes before he said, "We're going through the mountains, so I...we wanted you to be at your best so you wouldn't die."

"Oh, well then..." I trailed off, unsure of what I was going to say in the first place. "What's so bad about the Nible Mountains?"

"There are a lot of monsters that we could run into: no one likes going back there anymore because if you get in trouble, your only hope is another traveler. I don't think anyone will ever permanently live in the Mountains, only outside," Yazoo said.

"Loz is ready, let's go," Kadaj said and turned away from the window, heading for the stairs.

Yazoo followed suit, and I gathered up my stuff then followed behind him.

"Where are the bikes?" I asked. "We aren't going through the mountains on foot, are we?"

"How else?" Loz snickered. "The walkways are too narrow for anything but a person, and barely that."

"Well, you don't have to be mean about it," I said lowly as I shouldered my pack again.

"Just stating the obvious," he pointed out. "Let's go before it gets dark."

"Dark? What time is it?" I asked.

"Three in the afternoon, you took a long nap," Yazoo said.

"Three o'clock...you should have woken me up!"

"It was best to let you sleep as long as you could. Now, maybe, we'll make good time since we are all at our fullest?" Kadaj urged us.

My stomach growled in protest at being "full." "Eh, someone begs to differ..." I said, patting my tummy.

Loz laughed an un-amused laugh. "Like an animal we have to take care of..."

"Hey! I haven't eaten since Cosmo Canyon!"

"And...?"

"'And' I'm hungry."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Loz teased.

"Hey, we eat on the road. Let's go. Now," Kadaj said, intervening.

I didn't have to wait long for food. As it turned out, Loz was the next one to say he was hungry. Soon enough the other two did the same. So we stopped to eat not very long after we'd left. We really didn't save much time and night caught up with us before we got to the only cave suitable for over-night stay—the one with the mako fountain.

As the second day in the mountains rolled around, I was pretty glad that they'd let me sleep as long as I had as there was not much time spent asleep in the cave. And I knew it would have been insane to ask if we could rest for the night on the trail.

The trail itself wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but not as bad either. At least there was enough room to walk comfortably if not side by side. In truth though, I don't think anyone would have done so even if we could have fit that way. The only color on the road and the mountains was a death-like grey. Any other colors were found in the skin or fur of the creatures lurking there and the mako fountain which we'd left far behind hours ago. Any other life was also found in the creatures we passed and fought.

Finally, at the end of the second day, we came to the bridge between the mountains. "Ack, can we please stop? It's almost night again..." I complained.

"I told you," Kadaj started.

"'We can't sleep out here.' Yeah, I know. But can't we stop?"

"No," Kadaj said firmly.

"Why not? Just a rest," I pleaded. "My feet are killing me."

"It doesn't seem like you're dead yet, so we will continue as long as possible. The Nible Mountains are not the best place to be for a long time."

"Fine," I said, giving up. We proceeded to cross the bridge to the opposite mountain. "Are you sure this bridge is safe?" I asked. "I remember what Tifa told me a while back...when she, Cloud, Sephiroth and those other SOLDIERS came through here. The bridge snapped."

"The boards are replaced every once in a while now. And back then the ropes were only ropes. Now they have wires run through and around them. Since they did that, they've had no problems except for a few rotten boards. No one has died from them," Yazoo said. He was trying to get back on my good side still from a few days ago. So far, it wasn't working.

"Nice of them to think of making it safe."

"Well, Tifa got hurt; she may have even died if no one had been with her. I suspect they didn't want anymore townspeople to have that happen to them," he explained further.

"Ok," I said meanly.

"I'm sorry, Harper..." he told me for the one-thousandth time that day.

"Suck up," I said under my breath.

"Stop it you two," Kadaj growled from ahead of me.

When we made it across the expanse, we all paused for a moment. The bridge was long, and even though they wouldn't admit it, the men were ready to take a break. Of course, did they? No.

"Kadaj, this is really no fun. Let's stop now?" I said/pleaded.

"We can't stop. Not until we get out and into a city. The closest one is Rocket Town. We'll be there sooner than you think," he said drearily.

"No we won't," I said. "It'll take another two days if we go on this tired. Have you ever considered setting a watch at night so that those of us who ARE tired could sleep?"

"That would take longer."

"No, it wouldn't." We stopped fighting and kept walking. I walked by myself until the path widened, then Loz shuffled up beside me.

"No one said this would be a fun trip," he pointed out.

"I know that. I'm just aggravated," I said, looking more at my feet than at the road in front of us.

"I can tell. Other than by Kadaj, Yazoo's never been this verbally abused before," he mused.

"..." I turned partially to face him as best as I could on the path. "You've never seen a really tired, worn out woman before, have you?"

"Never had the occasion to see one," he answered. "Once we get home, we won't be going out much."

"Home?" I asked.

"The—Kadaj will tell you when he thinks it is time."

"Oh, come on. Why is it that important that I don't know where we're going? I'm going to find out when we get there, you know? I'm not that stupid," I grumbled.

Ahead of us, Kadaj stopped and turned, saying, "Well, you want to know why we won't tell you? What if you were to run into Valentine again and somehow he got the destination out of you... You want him to follow you?"

"...No..." I hadn't expected such a violent answer. I hadn't expected an answer at all really.

"Then, I guess you'll wait to find out now?" Kadaj asked.

"Yeah, sure," I shrugged then I lowered my head to continue walking. But as I took a few steps forward, I ran into Kadaj.

He held me at arms length by both my shoulders in a reassuring sort of way. "We're stopping," he said. "Yazoo—"

"Yes?"

"You've got first watch."

"What?"

"You're least likely to complain," Kadaj explained. "Sorry to pull you from whatever deep thoughts you were entertaining yourself with."

All Yazoo said as he set his pack on the ground at the edge of the trail by the mountain side was, "Oh."

It took us only a few minutes to set up the two tents we used that night. One tent for the guys, and one all to myself. I couldn't help giggling at the thought of the three of them cramped together in the tight space a tent provided, and I was infinitely happy that I hadn't been assigned a watch at all. Finally, after what seemed a lifetime, I drifted off to sleep again.

Kadaj was the one who woke me the next day. The sun was up and casting its gray "Nible light" as I later came to call it. The dust we kicked up seemed never to settle, not even over night while we slept. Though we were all in better moods, none of us said a thing that day other than "This way," or "Let's eat." That was OK. What was better was the fact that we didn't encounter any monsters. 'Maybe they know none of us feel like dealing them a good fight. I'd personally just kill 'em right off...don't know about the other three...though I'm sure they feel the same way.'

In my head I began going over songs I'd learned over the years to keep my mind off of the day that still remained. One particular one I remembered was the slow, sad song of Cosmo Canyon. Truth be told, I got annoyed with it in my head all day, but on the other hand I enjoyed knowing that I had been to Red's hometown. 'And Cloud's...' I realized. 'Ugh, and Tifa's. Soon Cid's too. What am I gonna do? Go to each hometown before I finally make it to this "destination?" I hope we don't go to Wutai...I don't think I can take any more Yuffie's than there already is...' Aside from the songs, that's what I thought that day on our way out of the mountains.

Note: THIS CHAPTER HAS TAKEN ME WAY TOO LONG TO WRITE. And I'm sorry. I am REALLY sorry for Shade08, whose newest chapter got erased... hugs If I knew what you'd written...I'd write it again for you... weak smile looks around What are you all staring at? Mew.