AN: Yo Sorry for such a late update..not that alot of people are reading >>;; well hopefully more chapters will get peoples attentiont o Well heres chapter 2, bit of a long one, but hey! better then a short one ;;; Hope you enjoy
Chapter II – The Journey Begins
'Beep beep, beep beep!'
The irritating ringing from the alarm clock caused an occupant in the bed to shift under their sheets. Soon after, a hand appeared from under the sheets and bashed the alarm til it stopped ringing. After the sound had seised ringing the other hand pulled the covers of the bed to the side. Leon lay in bed for a few moments staring at the ceiling. In his thoughts, he went through what he had planned to do in the day ahead of him. A few moments later,he finally decided to sit up on his bed. He rubbed his face with his hands to clear the drowsiness out of his head. As he lowered his hands he looked over to see what time it was. In doing so he noticed a yellow piece of material sitting neatly against his alarm. It was Yuffie's scarf that she had left behind the other day.
'I guess I have to give her scarf back today' He thought to himself as he stared over at the said item. He snapped himself out of his thoughts and pushed himself off the bed. He stood up from his bed with a bare chest and a pair of black sleepwear pants. He rearranged his pants slightly as he headed towards to bathroom to wash up and get dressed.
"Yuffie" a voice called out to her.
"… Yeah?" she mumbled her reply under her bed sheets.
"Yuffie wake up! You got to get ready for the trip"
"What trip?" she questioned.
"Remember we're going to go check out Hallow Bastion and see if Sora is ok"
"…We are!" Yuffie's eyes shot wide open and she sat up straight in her bed. Yuffie saw that her sudden movement had slightly shocked Aerith. Yuffie smiled apologetically while hearing Aerith let out a small laugh.
"Yeah, I remember telling you a few days ago, remember?" Aerith said to Yuffie.
"You did?" Yuffie asked yawning as she stretched out her arms and got up off the bed.
"I think you were too busy reading your comics to even notice" Aerith replied to her friend's question, smiling at Yuffie's huffed expression. Aerith was already holding clothes for Yuffie to wear. As Yuffie wandered over towards the bathroom, Aerith stepped towards her and held out her clothes.
"Eh? Oh clothes! Sorry, I'm 'so' not used to waking up early like this. In fact, I don't like waking up early" Yuffie complained as she took the clothes from Aerith.
"I'll be waiting outside with the others ok Yuf?" Aerith told Yuffie as she entered the bathroom. She heard Yuffie's muttering of "Yeah, yeah" as she closed the bathroom door. Aerith smiled at her friends 'friendliness' in the morning. Aerith remembered when she was Yuffie's age; she didn't enjoy early mornings either. Aerith left the room smiling as she remembered other memories from her past.
Leon exited the bathroom wearing his leather trousers and white singlet top. As he continued to put on the rest of his clothes he noticed Yuffie's scarf again. It was still sitting on the side table next to his bed. Stopping his current movement he walked over to the bedside table and picked up the yellow scarf. It was only a thin scarf, something you would wear for fashion rather then warmth. Of course that's what Yuffie would wear, something more fashionable then warming. Leon folded it up so he could carry it in his pocket. He unzipped one of the pockets on his jacket and placed it in there. Since he thought it would be wiser to carry it in his pocket then be seen carrying around a scarf which obviously wasn't his.
Leon checked that he had everything with him for the journey ahead. He re-checked his gunblade case to see that he had enough ammo and that the blade of the weapon was in good condition. Since he knew that going back to Hollow Bastion wouldn't be an easy trip.
Leon took one last check around the room making sure he had everything with him. Finally deciding he had everything he turned towards the door and headed out.
"Ah there you are! Come help me load some stuff into the ship" A gruff voice asked to Leon as he closed the door behind him. It was Cid, who was smoking a cigarette, as usual, and holding a crate in his hands.
"Alright, I'll be with you in a second Cid" Leon replied as he headed towards the shipyard just outside Traverse Town's gate. Leon stepped up to Cid's ship and stashed his own luggage inside, then turned to help Cid with loading.
"Where's my scarf!" Yuffie cried out to herself as she savaged through all of her belongings.
"Damn it! Where did I put it? …Owh" Yuffie's self-questioning was interrupted by a pain in her back. She lifted her hand up to see if there was anything she could feel on her back, though her action was cut short by a door opening behind her.
"Yuffie! Are you ready? We have to go now!" Aerith exclaimed as she came rushing into her room. Her exasperated look was replaced with a confused one as she scanned the now messy room. "…What did you loose?" Aerith asked as she already knew Yuffie's action towards lost items; tearing down the room until she found it.
"My yellow scarf! I can't find it Aer!" Yuffie cried out making an over exaggerated sad face.
"Well we can find it when we get back, ok? Right now we have to go; Cid and Leon are already on the ship with everything packed and ready. We have to leave soon before it gets to busy!" Aerith told Yuffie while grabbing Yuffie's travelling bag and started to put extra clothes and other items into it.
"But I want my yellow scarf! It's my lucky scarf!" Yuffie whinged as she grabbed some shuriken from her draw.
"Well, I'm afraid we can't waste anymore time Yuffie, I'm 'sure' we'll find it when we get back ok" Aerith said comfortingly to Yuffie. Yuffie just smiled back at Aerith's response and took her bag from Aerith who had finished packing it for her.
"Ok fine, we'll find it when we get back" Yuffie said as she headed towards the door with Aerith. Yuffie cringed as she swung her bag onto her back.
"Are you ok?" Aerith asked as she noticed Yuffie's slight cringe of pain.
"Yeah I'm fine just strained my back in my sleep" Yuffie lied as she closed the door behind Aerith. Aerith smiled warily at her response and continued to walk towards the shipyard with Yuffie.
"About time you two showed up, thought we should leave without ya" Cid called out as he noticed the two girls appear in the shipyard.
"You wouldn't have dared to do that because you know what you would get when you came back" Yuffie exclaimed back at him, pretending to be furiously angry with him. As Yuffie was pretended to beat up Cid, Leon appeared around from behind the ship. Yuffie stopped her actions in a split second upon seeing Leon suddenly appear.
"So are we going to go?" Leon stated as he watched Yuffie with Cid.
"Yeah let's head off, can't keep the heartless wait'n" Cid joked as he heaved himself up into the ship. The others followed his action as they entered Cid's Gummi Ship.
The ship had much improved since their last travels together. There was now a large cockpit, which could hold more then eight people. There was a medical bay and five spare rooms. Yuffie entered one of the spare rooms and threw herself onto the bed, only to realise that the bed was as hard as the ground. She groaned in pain of her new discovery of rock beds.
"You'd think that Cid would put softer beds in the ship but nooo he wants a huge cockpit to act all super" Yuffie said to herself as she rolled slowly off the bed. Yuffie lifted her bag off the floor and started to sort through what she had. Still upset about not finding her favourite yellow scarf, she continued sorting out her belongings.
"So we're heading towards Hollow Bastion, stopping off at the Coliseum and Halloween town for supplies," Leon repeated Cid's mapping of the journey.
"Yep that's the way it's sorted out." Cid said snuffing his cigarette into the ground of the airship, only to pick another one from the packet. Leon was amazed how many packets the pilot would go through a day.
"Why are we stopping in Halloween town?" Leon questioned the pilot
"I heard there was a special gummi piece made by some doctor over there that can create a camouflage around a gummi ship!" Cid informed Leon with an overly amount of excitement. Leon nodded slightly in a small attempt to pretend to understand what Cid was ranting about.
"…Where'd you hear that?" Leon questioned slightly curious to Cid's findings.
"Does that really matter? It's a gummi piece!" Cid replied snootily. Leon merely sighed silently and turned towards the exit of the cockpit.
"Oh Leon" the said person stopped in his tracks. "Be prepared to use the artillery, we might need to use them later. The Heartless are being a bitch and just keep multiplying out there. We might have to take some out to make sure the journey is somewhat smooth" Cid said.
"…Ok" Leon nodded in agreement and continued out of the cockpit into the main hallway. While he was walking he shifted his hands into his pockets and felt soft a material. 'Oh yeah, the scarf. I better go re-'
"There you are! Do you mind helping me with this Leon, it appears to be heavier then I thought" a struggling Aerith cut Leon's thoughts short. She appeared to be carrying some sort of case, which to Leon's observation was her clothing bag.
"Why do you bring so much with you?" Leon said taking the bag from Aerith with ease.
"Well, you never know when I might meet…someone." Aerith said meaningfully while looking slightly flushed from carrying the heavy case. Leon was only confused by her response but asked nothing of it.
"So, which room is yours?" Leon asked while stopping half way through the hall in front of a selection of doors.
"Umm…I'm not quite sure." Aerith said. "Let's try this one" she pointed at one of the doors and headed towards it. She opened to find an empty room. "Well guess it's mine now, since no one has taken it yet. You can put the bag on the bed over there" Aerith said while pointing to the bed in the room. The room wasn't very extravagant but designing decorative rooms on a Gummi ship wasn't one of Cid's fortes.
Leon entered the room with the luggage, as he entered the room another door opened behind him and footsteps were heard walking off towards the cockpit.
"Thank you very much Leon" Aerith said bowing slightly with gratitude to Leon. Leon nodded in reply and headed out of the room.
"Man! You'd think the old geezer would put some colour in this place" Yuffie stated while observing her surroundings as she headed towards the cockpit. The cockpit doors automatically opened as she entered the cockpit. She saw the old pilot sitting at the controls smoking his usual cig. Yuffie sniggered at his expected appearance as she took a seat near the back, beside the window. She began staring out the window, drifting off into thoughts.
'There are fewer stars out tonight…I remember when I tried to count them all, and would loose count heh…course now I would probably be able to keep track…there's so little left-' Since it was still early in the morning Yuffie's fatigue caught up with her and she slowly drifted off to sleep.
"Don't stay out for too long!" a mother called out to a young girl running out into the open air.
"I won't mumma!" the little girl replied. She kept running until she came to a stream, which flowed down into a waterfall that gushed out over the falls situated at the end of the town. On the other side of the stream was a young man with short brown hair sitting under a shady tree. He was reading a book of some kind. The little girl didn't know him very well though would always see him at that tree every time she went out for a walk.
The little girl thought she might go introduce herself but another person came up behind the young man. She retracted her step and decided to walk on her usual trip to the flower garden that a young woman down the road cared for. She turned back to where the young man was. The person who walked down was now sitting next to him. He looked uncomfortable with the person but seemed at peace at the same time. The little girl didn't think anything of it and continued walking down the track.
Half way down the path a storm started brewing up in the sky. The little girl decided to hasten her pace to get to the small shack-like house that the flower carer lived in. The girl started to get anxious when the storm was getting stronger. Loud crashes of thunder started bellowing from the clouds along with strikes of lightning up above the tall castle on the top of the falls.
The little girl finally arrived at the florist's house and anxiously banged on the door to see if anyone was home. She kept banging until someone answered. She started to whimper when the rain started to pour from the skies. She continued banging until finally the door opened up. The little girl lunged onto the young lady and hid her face into the florist's clothes.
"What are you doing here missy?" the young lady asked harmoniously as if to comfort the frightened child. The girl only whimpered and began a muddled description of her journey. Suddenly the two girls started hearing screams coming from the castle on the top of the falls and the town where the little girl had come from.
"…it's happening." The young woman muttered under her breath. "We have to go on a little walk now ok, I want you to hold onto my hand and not let go, ok?" She said to the small child softly. Just as she said that people were running past the entrance of her house in a crazed panic. She took the little girl by the hand and headed out onto the pathway down to the edge of the falls where the air shipyard was.
The little girl didn't understand what was going on she just held onto the florists hand and walkedalong her side. The pace was somewhat faster then what she would normally walk so she was jogging everysecond step in order to keep up beside the lady.
Just as they were gaining some distance from the florist's house a frightened villager sprinted past them knocking into them both, causing the little girl to loose balance and fall over. The floristbent over to tend the little girl. Just as she didthe villager who had sprinted past soon was running back at them just as petrified as they were when they ran past, though this time the villager was halted to a stop when a dark claw punched through their chest. The villager silently cried out as they soon faded into nothing leaving a crystallised heart which soon faded after him. The little girl and florist stood there paralysed with fear.
The florist was the first to snap out of it but just as she did she saw one of the creatures edging its way towards them. The creature leaped at them with its claws bared. The florist covered the little girl with her body.
"Believe in yourself and your heart will bare a light that will protect you" she whispered into the little girl's ear.
"Battle stations everyone! We got some little basterds heading our way and I wont be able to dodge them all" Yuffie was snapped back into reality at Cid's loud announcement on the speaker phone.
Leon's current action of putting his own belongings in his apartment was cut short at the sudden announcement.
"Leon! Hurry the hell up! Get to the nearest shooter! They're coming in fast!" Leon hastened his actions at Cid's order and ran out the door to the shooter seats.
As he was running out he saw Yuffie running towards the other shooter. He could predict Yuffie starting a shooting contest as they got in position. She always seemed to love random mini games. She did it while in the Coliseum as well, though he always prevailed with the contests. This always made Yuffie annoyed at him, though strangely enough she would never stay angry with him for long.
"Ok, I'm in position Cid" Leon announced on the headset he had placed onto his head while entering the shooter seat.
"Same here! Get ready for some sharp shoot'n! You're going down Leon!" Yuffie proclaimed shortly after Leon's announcement. Leon smirked inwardly at his own prediction of Yuffie's actions. Grabbing the joystick of the shooter Leon moved into position.
The heartless ships almost immediately appeared on the scanners. Yuffie was already firing on her side of the ship. Leon soon joined the battlefield as well.
"I've taken down five! Beat that Leon! Oh crap!" Yuffie's boasting interrupted her concentration as a fire hit the ship.
"Yuffie! Stop screwin' around and just shoot the buggars!" Cid yelled out strongly as he was trying to maintain the ships movement.
"Sorry!" Yuffie apologised on the speaker as she maintained her focus again. The heartless ships were significantly increasing on the screen which was starting to make it harder to maintain the ships flight pattern. The inertia of the airship was making Yuffie queasy.
'Man! I though I got over air sickness' Yuffie thought. "I think…I think I'm going to...be sick" she stammered out as little black spots were appearing in her vision.
"Yuffie keep it together we need to get rid of some of the heartless to go into warp drive!" Cid yelled out.
"Was this room always slanted… or is it just me?" Yuffie said out loud.
"Aerith! Go help Yuffie!" Leon spoke out. Yuffie didn't take much notice of what was being said now; she was too busy trying to not barf. She had let go of the joystick and was lying back against the seat trying to calm down her stomach. Aerith soon arrived at her side with a bucket and some water.
"Here drink some of this." Aerith cooed, handing a glass of water to Yuffie and placing a bucket on her legs.
"Thanks Aer" Yuffie said appreciatively. The airship was still being bashed about by the heartless and the mindless cursing over the speaker phone was incomprehensible. Aerith comforted Yuffie as she tried to hold in her stomach.
"Argh! Persistent basterds! Ah! Finally! Ok everyone we're going into the warp drive! Hold on!" Cid called out before the body of the ship was pulled back by the force of the warp engine then shot forward. Soon afterwards the ship came to a stop and there was still.
Yuffie couldn't help but let her self go after the warp engine had seised. Aerith stroked her back as Yuffie was wrenching into the bucket. Aerith saw Leon approaching and shook her head to silently tell him to go away. Leon nodded at her and turned back towards the cockpit.
"So what's the damage?" Leon said as he arrived at the cockpit. His question was answered by a few words and rendition of curses. Leon just folded his arms and watched the crazed up pilot flame around the room muttering about the system frying and trying to find spare parts. "Do you want any hel-?"
"No! You don't know where anything is and it'll be a waste of your time. Dont worry I can fix it!Where are the bloody hell spare parts!" Cid yelled out while rummaging through a clutter of cases situated at the side of the cockpit.
Leon sighed and decided to leave the room to see how everyone else was going. He heard Aerith's voice in one of the rooms so he decided to go check it out. When he arrived at the doorway Yuffie was lying on her bed with a pale complexion. Leon merely stared blankly at her and Aerith.
"Is there something you want Leon?" Aerith questioned him. Leon only blinked at her questioned before finding the words to answer her question.
"Just came to see if everything was ok, since Cid is having…problems" Leon stated with the same expression as before. Yuffie was flushing slightly at Leon's spontaneous kindness. If that's what you could call kindness. For Leon, it was.
"What kind of problems?" Aerith asked slightly anxious.
"Something that he can fix…or so he says" Leon replied folding his arms and leaning against the door. Aerith smirked at his response to what Cid would say about something broken on an air ship. No one criticises Cid's engineering skills unless they plan to have a quick trip to the hospital.
"So we'll be floating around until then" Leon continued still looking at Aerith and Yuffie. There was a small silence before anyone said anything.
"…Anyone up to play some cards?" Yuffie said breaking the silence. She seemed to be mostly recovered now as she sat up carefully on her bed. "You reckon you could grab my cards Leon. They're in the case next to the door." She said to him pointing at a small bag at the door. Leon sighed and bent down to grab the cards.
When Leon came to pick up the cards he noticed thatitwas a packetTriple Triad cards. He remembered playing the game when he was young with his friends. But how did Yuffie know about the game. He thought only people at his school knew about it.
"You just going to sit there staring at the cards or you going to bring them over?" Yuffie interrupted Leon's thoughts.
"…whatever" He replied walking over to the bedside where Yuffie and Aerith were.
"Well I don't know how to play so I'll just watch" Aerith announced as Leon sat on the bed beside Yuffie, leaving a gap to play the cards down on.
"You know how to play?" Yuffie asked Leon with a giddy look. Almost as if she was already winning the game. She handed him a pile of cards to play with.
"Yeah" Leon replied blankly looking through his cards and sorting out the best ones.
"Really? Awesome! I always wanted a worthy challenge" she exclaimed grinning in her usual mischievous way. "Lady's first!" Yuffie said while putting down her first card, it was the Siren card. Leon knew someone who played that card first all the time. He never really thought about it till now.
"Yo, Mr. Blankface it's your turn" Yuffie said waiting impatiently on the other side of the bed. Leon didn't reply and placed a Diablos card to the left of the Siren to take a point.
"Grr! Take this!" Yuffie stated before placing a Leviathan to the left of Diablos. Leon didn't hesitate to place his next card down. Soon the game was playing along with 3 wins to Leon, 1 to Yuffie, with Yuffie loosing a bit more of her sanity in each game.
"Damn it! You're not fair!" Yuffie cried out before whining more about Leon winning another game.
"Now Yuffie, you can't win them all" Aerith said trying to calm down Yuffie. Leon smirked inwardly at Yuffie's useless diversions as she tried helplessly to make him loose his concentration. Ranging from the 'I think I heard Cid call you name!' to the 'Look! it's a flying Cactus!' In the end it was Cid who interrupted the game with a brief statement.
"Well the warp engine is fried for now, but we are close to the Coliseum anyway so we can just rest there" Cid announced pausing briefly afterwards. "What are you three doin' anyway?"
"Cards" the three of them said in synchronisation but all with different tones. Aerith with her joyous tune, Yuffie with her frustrated, annoyed tone and Leon with his neutral tone.
"…righ'…" Cid said confused with everyone's attentiveness in a small card game. "Well better get this baby on the ground then" Cid said wiping his nose in his signature fashion.
"Yeah" everyone murmured back in reply to Cid's message, Cid just walked off shaking his head wondering what was so special about a card game.
"Hah! I've got you now!" Yuffie called out after Leon's last move. "Yeah! Another win for the Yufster"
"Yufster?" Leon and Aerith said looking perplexingly at Yuffie. Yuffie just looked backat them with the same confusion.
"What? … It's a new saying! …" Yuffie replied sweating from the stares of confusion.
"Prepare for land'n kiddos" Cid announced on the speaker phone. After his announcement the ship began to shake with the entry into the planets atmosphere. Aerith propped herself against the wall and sat down holding onto the bed legs to keep herself from being thrown around the room. Leon stayed on the bed, gripping the edge to keep balance. Yuffie sat on the bed thinking Leon wasn't holding onto anything so she thought she would play a game of 'Who could keep balance without holding on to anything'.
"Aren't you going to grip something?" Leon questioned Yuffie who looked like she was concentrating for once in her life. "You do realise that we're going to hit some turbulence" Just as Leon finished talking the airship was rocking up and down.
"Woah" Yuffie cried out when she was flung about with the ships turbulence.
"Ah Yuffie!" Leon yelled out in annoyance as she rocked around the bed with the ship. Leon grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards him to hold her down on the bed. Yuffie flushed red when she felt his actions take place. He had hooked his arm around her own and got her to hold onto the bed by placing his hand on top of her own hand.
Leon didn't seem to be affected by his actions; Yuffie on the other hand was flushing bright red and could feel her face pounding with embarrassment.
When the ship finally came to a stop, Leon detached his arm from Yuffie and stood up and headed to the door.
"Well I'm going to go help Cid with finding airship parts." Leon stated as he turned and left the room. Yuffie and Aerith just looked at each other and shrugged. It was normal for Leon to get to work hastily, so Yuffie and Aerith were used to his abrupt exits.
"Well I think we should go for a walk" Aerith said patting off her dress has she stood up from the ground. Yuffie nodded in responseas she too stood up from the bed. Still red from Leon's actions she grabbed the glass of water on the bed side table and skulled it. Aerith laughed at Yuffie's embarrassing event .
"Oh shut up Aer!" Yuffie said laughing with Aerith.
"You're so cute!" Aerith said giving her a hug.
"Now you're rubbing it in" Yuffie said shrugging Aerith off. Aerith smiled and grabbed Yuffie by the arm and headed out the door, out of the airship and into the open air.
"Let's go have a wander shall we?" Aerith said as both she and Yuffie headed into the Coliseum.
AN: heheh anyone notice that Triple Triad is the card game in FFVIII? P I went to extreme lengths to get the cards accurate! hahaha ; maybe not 'extreme' >>;;
Well I hope your enjoying it sofar. Comments/reviews are much appreciated :DHopefully I can get the next chapter done faster :-\
