Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and its characters belong to Square Enix and many others. Sadly, I'm not one of them.

Revised and edited January 7, 2007.
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Metathesiophobia or, Moving Forward
By Lady Calliope

Part Six: Phasmophobia

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Something terrible had happened. She knew it the minute the girl walked into her bar at five minutes to closing.

"What did you do this time?"

Feigned offense. "You impugn my honor as a ninja of Wutai!" A raised eyebrow in response. "Can't a girl just drop by to say hello to her best friend?"

"Not with that smile on your face." Yuffie looked just like she had right before running off with all the group's materia years ago. Oh no…she didn't! "Who'd you steal from? What'd you take?"

"What makes you think I was the one who stole something?" That mischievous grin had returned: the one that foretold nothing but trouble for everyone else. "What if something's been stolen from me?"

Ruby eyes rolled towards the heavens. "Right. Like anyone could steal something from you."

"He did!"

He? Interesting…

"Okay, I'll bite. What did he steal?"

A pause ensued—obviously for what the shorter of the two thought was dramatic effect. Then with a great sigh: "My heart!"

What?! "What?!"

"You heard me! My heart."

"Are you drunk?"

An irritable huff. "Why is this so hard for you to believe? I'm in love!"

"Because the only thing I've ever seen you fall in love with is treasure." Only half-joking, really.

"Tifa!"

She was getting genuinely distraught at this point, so the bartender decided to take the high road. "What's he done that's got you in such a good mood?"

"Nothing special. He's just…him!" Certainly her distress had passed her by: her eyes were practically glowing. "Tall, dark, mysterious, all-business kind of guy. He doesn't smile much, laughs even less. Dresses in red, totally obsessed with guns—"

"—And this makes him so perfect for you because why, again?" This man sounded an awful lot like a tormented gunfighter they both knew, and Yuffie seemed to have as much in common with him as Tifa did with Sephiroth. "What could you, of all people, possibly see in a guy like that?"

Her companion didn't answer for several moments. But what she initially took for speechlessness at her words of wisdom turned out to be one of her friend's rare contemplative silences.

"He balances me." A pause. "When…when he smiles at me or laughs at some stupid joke I've made it's like…it's one more ghost he's let go of and left behind. He's hates artificial stuff so he doesn't expect me to be anything other than myself. When I'm with him…it's not because he needs me for something. It's because he wants me around."

Now it was her turn to taste silence on her tongue. "Wow, well…wow." She smiled. "You've really grown up a lot, haven't you?" Her face faltered just so slightly. "I'm sorry I haven't noticed 'til now." Too busy looking at the way things were.

She shrugged in response. "Maybe. I don't know. Things just kind of fall into place when he's around."

"Sounds like it."

"I mean, that's what it's like for you when Cloud's here, right? Sometimes, things are just so…complicatedly simple."

"Yeah, kind of." Her smile slipped again. "At least, they were when he was around…"

"He's not back from that delivery job?"

"Not yet."

"Don't worry, he's fine. Some old lady probably lost her cat up a tree somewhere. He'll be home soon."

"I know."

There were storm clouds gathering in those ruby eyes. With more perception that most gave her credit for the ninja decided her friend needed some time alone more than she needed a friend to lean on. Those were spiraling thoughts creeping in on her. "Look, I've got to run. But I'll stop by again later this week, okay?"

"What?" Head shake. "Oh, right. Of course. Thanks for visiting." She tried to smile at her again—rather weakly, Yuffie noticed.

"No problem." She hopped off the bar stool. Before turning the handle she looked back a last time. "He'll be home in a few days, Tif. He always comes back." The bell tinkled in the quiet after the door creaked closed.

"He balances me."

Yuffie was wrong. If anything she was always out of balance around Cloud. He never did anything in particular that warranted the feeling, but every time he was near she spent all her energy attending to him and his past and fighting off his ghosts for him.

She was beginning to think that, maybe, he kept his ghosts around for a different reason: he wanted their whispers, their cold breath in the night.

He specifically sought the company of ghosts.