Hello! I'm alive! I swear. I just take a lot longer and only managed to write a couple of one-shots at the moment... and not even this fandom. So very sorry! *bows head in shame*
This is a change in style in a way, but I am also going more into Yuffie now. I also wanted to explore what drew her to help Reno in 'Needles', so I'm hoping I got that across.
Don't even ask me how the song fits it. I just felt it was appropriate for this chapter. And also sorry for the long wait. I got stuck in another fandom… Still am really. And there is stuff I'm writing for a project of mine in real life as well. Scary…
Also: WARNING, this chapter contains some references to rape. Further chapters will become more graphic.
Chapter 10 – Don't Cry
Talk to me softly
There is something in your eyes
Don't hang your head in sorrow
And please don't cry
I know how you feel inside I've
I've been there before
Somethin is changin' inside you
And don't you know
Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight
Give me a whisper
And give me a sign
Give me a kiss before you
tell me goodbye
Don't you take it so hard now
And please don't take it so bad
I'll still be thinkin' of you
And the times we had...baby
And don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight
And please remember that I never lied
And please remember
how I felt inside now honey
You gotta make it your own way
But you'll be alright now sugar
You'll feel better tomorrow
Come the morning light now baby
And don't you cry tonight
And don't you cry tonight
And don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight
Baby maybe someday
Don't you cry
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry
Tonight
Guns'n'Roses
It was cold. At least her brain told her that it should be cold but her body did not feel it. At least she had that much. Her shaking hands were wrapped around the one thing keeping her from falling over the brink. It had been a long time since she had been forced to use her talents as a thief for survival.
The phone had cost her. She had been forced to let them come close enough to get to it and worse, be distracted enough to not notice her small hand slide into the pocket. She had actually tried to find a weapon; something, anything to get the weights bearing her to the floor off of her sore body.
She shuddered just from the memory of it. There had been nothing that could have stopped them or their hands yanking her short hair so hard she thought they would rip off her scalp. Nothing to keep their hands from places she never wanted to think about anymore. She had fought anyway, despite her whole body having already been beaten to a bloody pulp.
By now she was not even aware of it anymore. She barely felt her numb body. Her red-rimmed eyes stared almost unblinkingly at the phone. Her fingers were cramping around it in a tight grasp.
She was pretty sure she was slipping into delirium too. There were memories coming back to her. Some things she had almost forgotten and set aside as something along the lines of a moment of teenage craziness.
She was still dangling head down from the proud statue of her people. It was degrading. Even more degrading was the fact that her supposed teammates were walking off without sparing a single look back at her.
Admittedly, that was kind of her own fault. After all, she had stolen from them. On the other hand, weren't they meant to be the good guys?
A flash of red appeared in the corner of her eyes and as she turned her head, she was confronted with a pair of aquamarine eyes inspecting her nonchalantly.
"You don't look like much of a princess to me." The fiery-haired Turk remarked, not making any moves to cut her down from the undignified position, but instead smirked as her eyes widened in rage.
Within seconds her trashing broke the sudden silence and she continued the ranting from earlier. It meant she did not have the time to realise the danger she had been in. It was what she did, how she coped.
Before she could really get started on 'interfering Turks' and she 'would have handled this herself easily she was just biding her time thank you very much'; the redhead had pulled out a switchblade from his pocket, still watching her with interest.
"Hate to interrupt, but I got some other things to do today. Do you wanna come down or would you rather stay here, 'cause that's what's gonna happen if you don't shut up?" He asked, leaning casually against the rock next to her.
She found him looking down at her in her position and she did not like it. There was something about him that made her feel uncomfortable.
"Let me down then!" She demanded, annoyed that there was still that smirk on his tattooed face. She just managed to make it widen, his otherwise expressionless eyes showing a sparkle of amusement.
"Didn't say please." He flashed his perfectly white teeth at her and she was not quite sure why she suddenly wondered how that was even possible, because she had seen him smoke those filthy things Cid liked so much as well.
"What are you? Five?" She snarled, hating that her blood flowed to her head so much in this position. It would look like she was blushing.
He said nothing, just kept looking at her, aqua-eyes boring deep into hers.
She held his gaze for as long as she could but she had been hanging up side down for quite long now and she started to feel rather dizzy with black spots dancing in front of her eyes.
She pouted. "Please." She hissed under her breath, at the same time contemplating a thousand ways of painfully removing that grin from his pale face.
She half-expected him to insist on her saying it louder, so that his big friend would hear it too, but he crouched down wordlessly and cut the ropes around her wrists.
She immediately swung her upper body up to open the bonds around her ankles herself and even managed a rather elegant flip to wind up standing in front of him as he had stepped back to watch.
That was until her body decided to unmistakably announce that it did not appreciate the abuse it had taken. The head rush made her stumble against the rocks behind her and her hands were stinging as the blood circulation started working properly again in the numbed limbs.
She felt a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Hey, take it easy. Don't want you fainting on us." In retrospect, she should have perhaps recognised the softer tone he was using, or looked up and actually thanked him.
Instead she brushed his hand away and stood up straight. "Ninjas don't faint." She childishly announced, but could not look him in the eyes for some reason, not even when she started running after Cloud and the others, leaving the Turks behind.
She was not sure if she imagined it, but thought she heard him blurt out a "Brat!" when he realised seconds later that she had snuck his wallet out of his pocket without him even knowing when she had been close enough to do that.
The sensation of the phone in her throbbing hands vibrating dragged her out of her dreamlike reminiscing.
It took her a few attempts to let go of the device long enough to try and flip it open. In the end she had to resort to putting it on the freezing floor to open it with both hands.
Her voice would not co-operate, so her soft "Hello?" sounded more like a mix between an unintelligible rasp and a sigh.
"I got Shelke here, princess." Something warm flamed up in her chest when she heard the familiar voice, she wondered how much longer she could keep that hope.
"She's gonna find your coordinates in no time." He continued. Was that worry she heard in his words?
"Yuffie?" Yes, definitely worry.
"You still there, princess?" His urgent voice made her realise that she had not made a sound since taking the call. The title which in his mouth had always sounded more like a nickname, reminded her of something; something painful.
"Turkey?" She croaked, trying to clear her throat but only succeeding in making herself cough against the dryness. A heavy knot was forming in her stomach, almost scared to voice her thought.
- "Yeah?"
"Is my father there?" She was sounding so hoarse it was just a whisper.
She had never felt she needed a parent, but in that moment, she just wanted to hear his voice at least. The feeling was a little alien to her.
There was a pause on the other end. The knot in her gut grew.
"Sorry, princess. He's trying to hold the fort in Wutai." The answer eventually came.
Her broken body did not move and yet she could have sworn someone had just dropped an anvil on her chest. "Oh." The sound escaped her without intending to. It was not like she had expected anything else. Her father was not the type to abandon his country's affairs for too long.
"Hey, brat. Talk to me." The unusually soft voice grounded her once again.
"Why isn't he there?" She breathed into the phone, a salty tear burning its way over the abrasions on her face.
The ninja did not even know why the words had burst out of her like this. It was not important right now. It was nothing new either. Her father never truly cared, nor was he there when she needed him.
There was a sigh from the other line. "I don't know, princess."
"He should be, shouldn't he?" She was not even sure anymore.
Another salty track was added to the first one and more were on the way with her powerless to stop it. It had been the final straw. Everything she had been keeping locked up inside of her was now rushing to the surface.
She let out a painful sob that was constricting her throat. The pain of her cuts and bruises was coming back to her as well.
"Yeah, he should be." She heard the anger in his voice, but it barely registered.
There were footsteps approaching.
She should have heard them earlier. It was a testament to what they had done to her for her to miss something like that.
"They're coming." Panic was creeping into her voice.
-"We just need a few more seconds, Yuffie."
"They'll find out!"
"Almost there, princess." His voice was strained now, still calm, but barely so.
She only noticed she was biting down on her lip when she broke the chapped skin and tasted blood.
There was the sound of a key in the lock.
"Got it." She heard the muffled voice of the former Tsviet and quickly broke the connection without another word, shoving the phone underneath a stone, which was jutting out of the wall minutely.
Just in time too, because the door cracked open, cold light spilling into the darkness of her cell.
TBC
... would looove some reviews because fighting serious writer's block for this story. would looove sum inspiration XD