AN: I looked at the time gap between the first and second chapter and thought- I'm not gonna be that mean and wait another six months to update, epsecially when I have the chapter written out. So here's chapter 3...still kind of boring though...sorry!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Chapter 3

Onwards to Migar

Sun rays shone through the window onto Yuffie as Yumiko opened the pale green curtains. Yuffie squinted her eyes and duck under the covers in annoyance.

"Come on princess, it's time to wake up!" Yumiko tugged the duvet but no avail as Yuffie clutched onto it.

"Nghhh...fivemoreminutes." Yuffie slurred.

Yumiko sighed, and all of a sudden pulled the covers hard, ripping them away from the heiress.

Groaning, Yuffie shield her eyes with her hands. After adjusting to the light, she sat up and looked groggily at Yumiko who smiled brightly at her with the covers still in her hands.

Keiji popped his head in as he tied his dark red school tie.

"Morning sleeping ugly! It's time to get up and wear your uniform!" he greeted in a sing-song voice.

"Breakfast will be ready soon. Meanwhile, take a quick shower princess and brush your teeth." as Yuffie ignored Kei and headed sluggishly towards the bathroom, Yumiko placed the duvet back on the bed and ushered Keiji out, closing the the door behind her.

More awake after the nice, hot shower, Yuffie went over the little plan she deviced last night. With a mischievous glint in her silverly violet eyes, she turned on her CD player with the volume moderately loud. Loud enough to drown out her footsteps and doors opening and closing, but not enough for the people from downstairs to complain. Yuffie snickered as she eyed her school uniform and her shoulder length hair in the mirror.

"Foolproof plan commence!" her snickers turned into crackles as she rubbed her hands together.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Yumiko was cooking breakfast and Keiji was setting the table, both oblivious to the ongoing of upstairs.

"Hey, Yumi, doesn't Yuffie's fiance goes to the same school too?" Kei sat down on one of the chairs as he finished his task.

"Mm? I guess so." Yumiko answered, slightly distracted by the music upstairs. "It is the most prestige school in Midgar, so I would assume that President ShinRa's son would be attending it."

"Does Yuffies know?" Kei put his hands behind his head and leaned back.

"Know what?" Yumiko stopped in the middle of serving breakfast and look at him questioningly.

"Know who she's marrying." Kei leaned slightly forward and whispered.

"No she doesn't, and she thinks we are as clueless as her in this matter." narrowing her hazel eyes at him, she warned, "You better keep your mouth shut young man."

"Yes ma'am!" grinning, Kei saluted her.

"Mm. I've only seen him in newspapers. I wonder what he's actually like." Yumiko uttered while Kei nodded. His eyes darkened in thoughts, he was curious too. On hearing the music stopped, Yumiko was about to call Yuffie but Keiji beat her to it.

"OI, YUFS! BREAKFAST!" Kei yelled and leaned his chair backwards, balancing on its two back legs.

"'KAY!" footsteps thumped quickly down the stairs and padded to the dinning area.

"Morning!" Yuffie chirped, grinning triumphantly with both hands on her hips as she stood infront of them.

Stunned, Yumiko almost dropped the frying pan she held in her hand and Keiji froze as he swung on his chair. Both staring eyes wide at Yuffie who anticipated their reaction gleefully.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

'Any second now.'

Tick

Tock

Tick

'Come on-'

Keiji burst out laughing...

...and lost his balance.

"Oh shi- OUCH!" Yuffie smirked, but Kei continued to laugh, splitting his sides in the process. He picked himself up and leaned heavily onto the table for support, still shaking violently with laughter. Meanwhile, Yumiko's face turned from shock to outrage.

"Wha-What did you do to your hair! An-and better yet, what are you wearing!" Yumiko spluttered in disbelief and outrage at the madly grinning princess.

'Ahh this is the life!'

"Oh? I gave my hair a little trim and I'm just wearing my uniform." she replied, schooling her expression to a cute smile and blinked innocently at her. This caused Keiji to clutch his sides and laugh even harder.

"Leviathan!" Yumiko breathed out exasperately. Putting the the frying pan down, she pulled the chair opposite of Keiji out and sat down. Breathing deeply in and out, she tried to calm herself down.

'Dear Leviathan, where did that sweet, innocent little girl I used to know go?'

Finally calmed down a little, she took in what was presented to her. Yuffie's silky shoulder length black hair was butchered to her jaw line. And her uniform. It was an over size whiteshirt with a red tie and baggy, black trouser instead of her given white blouse with red neck tie and skirt! It was Keiji's spare uniform!

Kei had eventually stopped laughing, but his face still held a fair amount of amusement.

"Nice Yufs, I like your style!" he gave her thumbs up.

"Thanks!" she beamed in return.

"Keiji! You're not suppose to encourage her!" the older woman scolded. "And you! Princess, please just wear your uniform and let me clean up your hair."

"I threw them out." Yuffie crossed her arms defiantly, not budging an inch.

"Princess-"

"Chill, Yumi. It's fine, I think it's even better this way."

"But she looks like a boy. Nothing like a princess would, no, should look like!" Yumiko argued furstratedly.

"Exactly. No one would think Wutai's princess would be so tomboyish, it would make her safer and my job easier." but Yumiko was still unconvinced and was about to contradict him but he pressed on forcefully without a beat. "Since when had she ever act like a princess anyway? Weren't you the one who was against everyone else who kept pressuring her to be the 'perfect' princess? Wasn't it why you had worked so hard begging Lord Godo to have some sort of custody of Yuffie just so she can develope her own personality?"

As Keiji finished, silence reigned the room. Yuffie chewed her lips her and clenched the hem of the shirt. She knew that Yumiko had custody of her but she never knew that it was because she had begged Godo for it. She had always thought since Yumiko had served her mother, she would naturally serve her after her mother died and be her guardian where Godo had failed to be the parent he was suppose to be.

Once again, Kei rewind his tirade and silently berated himself.

'Me and my big mouth.' he sighed.

"Do you- do you regret it?" Yuffie licked her lips and asked softy.

"NO!" Yumiko's answer was immediate, horrified at such a question. She stood up and went to where Yuffie was to embraced her. "No. Never." Returning the hug, Yuffie sniffled a little. Breaking the hug, Yumiko sighed and stared at Yuffie's uneven hair.

"At least let me clean your hair up." Yuffie nodded. "but have your breakfast first, it's getting cold."

When Yuffie and Keiji finally left the house for school, Yuffie was still wearing Keiji's spare uniform but her hair was neatly trimmed where the tips of her hair barely just passed her jaw line, cupping her face. It was almost an hour drive from their home to their school. Yumiko had insisted that they should take the train instead but Keiji stubbornly refused saying he want to drive and pointed out Yuffie might get travel sickness from the train. A this point, Yuffie had gave him an annoyed 'don't-use-me-as-an-excuse-just-because-you-want-to-drive-your-car-at-full-speed' look. In return Kei had shot her an 'Oi, hush it' look. The outcome?

Keiji drove his beloved dark turquoise car anyway.

As he drove out of Kalm, he glanced at Yuffie.

"I thought you wanted to grow your hair out." he commented as he eyed her new hair cut.

"I still do, but I figured that I would look really stupid in your uniform with long hair. Besides, it'll grow back." Yuffie examined the end of a lock of her hair.

"Excited?"

"Uh huh."

"You don't sound it." taking another look at Yuffie, he found her staring at him. "What?"

"What's wrong with you?" Yuffie scrutinize him, looking for something.

"Wrong?"

"Yeh, back then, you kind of just snapped at Yumi all of a sudden."

"Geez. Sorry for getting defensive on your behalf your royal highness."

"Kei, your mood swing is even worse than mine! One minute you're laughing the next you're all snappy and stuff. It's like you're PMSing!"

'PMSing?' Kei twitched, 'She did not just compare my mood swing with PMS.'

"We had this conversation before, and it's nothing as far as I'm aware." he sighed. Suddenly, Yuffie smiled broadly.

"I know why!"

"Why? Please enlighten me Dr Kisaragi." with out a warning, she squealed and undid her seatbelt and leaned over to him, giving him a crushing hug.

"You're in love with me!"

"Wh-WHAT!" Keiji choked.

He stepped abruptly on the break- halting the car immediately.

"Owie!" she sat properly back in her seat and rubbed her soon to be bruised left hip. "That hurts!" Yuffie whined at him.

"What did you just say?" Kei asked incredulously.

"That hurts!"

"No, not that. What you said before I stopped the car." at this Yuffie's face lit up.

"You're in love with me!" she grinned at his stunned face.

"I am?"

"Yup!" she chirped, still loosely embracing him.

Silence ensued. Keiji studied her while adopting a passive look. Just as she was about to laugh at him, he started to close the distance between them, leaning closer, closer and closer.

Yuffie blinked and shifted a little uneasily.

"Wha-what are you d-doing? I-I was j-just messing with y-you." Yuffie said nervously. She tried to back away but found a hand on the back of her head and another gripped her hip preventing her from doing so. She sucked in a deep breath and held it at this revelation.

'When did he place his hand on my hip and the back of my head?'

'More importantly, what the hell is he doing!'

Yuffie's heart hammered at her chest.

Thump

Thump

Thump

Thump

His intense blue eyes bore into hers. Breaking the eye contact,Yuffie clamped her eyes shut, her body rigid. She could feel his breath on her lips and his fingers playing with strands of her hair at the back of her head. Leaning even closer, his lips brushed passed her cheek was hovering dangerously close to her ear. Yuffie gulped.

"How's this for messing with you, hm?" he whispered and then burst out laughing.

Keiji released her to view the fruition of his revenge. He was not disappointed. There, he saw Yuffie Kisaragi, the Princess of Wutai and self proclaimed 'great ninja', frozen in shock and rendered speechless. Somewhere in her head, a fuse blew.

Yuffie gaped at him, her mouth opening and closing but no words came out of it.

"Nice imitation of a goldfish there Yufs." He smirked. Feeling that she wasn't going to snap out of it anytime soon, he calmed his laughter to chuckles and stepped onto the petal at full speed to Midgar. Some time later, the citizens at the edge of Kalm and the edge of Migar could hear a faint but a very clear furious scream.

"KEI, YOU BASTARD!"

Yufvin-valentine

AN: At least Rufus was mentioned :P Anyway, he might not be in the next chapter either but hopefully, I'll be introducing the rest of AVALANCHE crew! Please Review!

Responses to reviews!

AuraMistress - I'm trying to write longer but I'm kind of afraid of dragging on too much which I think I've already started doing...I know you want to have Yuffie and Keiji paired up, I'm sorry, I am determined to do a Ruffie pairing (though I don't really how this will progress)...but I hope you kind of like the last bit of the chapter, I thought about your review when I started to write that bit! So thanks! I'll continue to have some kind of fluff between Yuffie and Keiji if you like and perhaps major fluff in later chapters. Thanks for reviewing! I looooove reviews! XD

Magy - Sorry for the wait! I'm really lazy sometime(or rather most of the time)! Anyway, here's the update! Hope you liked this chapter even though I'm kind of dragging on a bit! Don't worry, I don't plan on dropping this fic, I'm determined to see it through! Go me! XD Thanks for reviewing! I hearts reviews, lalala!