R E T U R N I N G H O M E

Cloud Strife

i remember you

&

Yuffie Kisaragi

will you remember me?

Fully rested and healed Yuffie was back to her normal energetic self once more. It was just like any other normal day. Ever since the Sora had defeated the Heartless Hallow Bastion was slowly returning to what it used to be. Even with the worlds sealed off there were still some Heartless wandering around. Despite that the shops were opening and children flocked to the sea-salt ice-cream stand daily. Yuffie went on with her normal except…today she was on a mission. Find the Yellow Chocobo Warrior.

"Hey everyone! What's going on?"

"…"

"Soooo everyone seems a lot more quieter than usual. Is this about yesterday? OH GAWD you know that was an accident!"

Aeris smiled reassuringly at the young ninja. "No it's not that. It's just…" She stopped mid way as if she was going to say something more but started on something else. "So you better thank Cloud for yesterday."

"Cloud?"

"Yeah.Cloud. You know ridiculous blonde hair. Green eyes.Large sword.The guy who carried you in yesterday?"

"…" Yuffie just stood there looking at Aeris dubiously.

"You mean you don't remember him??"

He was about the age of ten when the heartless attacked. Hallow Bastion still had the same atmosphere it did almost thirteen years ago. Making his way past the bailey and finally finding himself in the Dark Depths looking at the Castle before him. It was a noticeable difference from the structure it was. It used to stand so tall and proud…but now it just stood there holding the memories of the earlier generations such as him. His mako eyes closed and he let out a heavy sigh. There were definely a lot of memories here. Good and bad.

For one thing the Dark Depths was completely deserted and empty. He didn't have to worry about anyone's nagging questions or curious stares. No one dared to come here and even the ones that did barely got passed the Bailey. Heartless roamed freely around here and there were rumors of him being here. They said that he carried a masmuse and had long silver hair running all the way down his back. Cloud almost scoffed at the thought. He had been looking for him for a long time and had given up when he had learned that he had vanished into the darkness. Despite all the rumors it was peaceful here for the blonde SOILDER.

With his eyes still closed he felt the wind brush his bangs away. He had wasted more than half his life looking for revenge on Sephiroth only to find out that he had succumb into darkness. He would never get his revenge for what he did to his home World. It took him a while for him to accept it and come back home. Yes, it was time for him to come home...

Inhaling deeply he let out another long sigh. At least up here he could be alone. It was nice up here. Quiet. Peaceful.

"RAAAAWR!!"

'What the fuck was that?'

Cloud's eyes instantly opened although he didn't have time to turn around when he felt an extra weight on his back push him face first into the dirt ground.

What. Just. Happened?

He laid their dumbfounded for a moment blinking his eyes several times. His cheek had made contact with the floor and his brow had a nice small cut to prove it. He found himself lying on his stomach, looking to the side, with his arms sprawled out on either side of him. It took him several moments to realize that someone was straddling his back. Even though the person weighted fairly light…no body tackled him let alone –touched- him.

"Ha! Found Y-wahhh!!!!"

In a split second Cloud flipped over using a muscled arm to wrap around the person's waist. Not bothering to see who it was he slammed them on the ground turning them over so they were looking at him. Vaulting a leg over the eliminating any chance of escape he found his sword and had a very sharp blade at the edge of….

"Yuffie?"

His usually hallow voice now had a tint of emotion albeit that emotion was confusion. Cloud furrowed his brow looking at the wide eyed girl beneath him. What had just happened? The blonde SOILDER had just been tackled down by the young ninja and he was now on top of her with his buster sword dangerously close to her flesh.

Yuffie said nothing as she looked up at Cloud with large eyes and her mouth slightly agape. She was half ridden with fear, shock, and anger. She looked helpless under Cloud's control. If he wanted he could slice her head off right then and there. Thankfully for her sake he didn't.

Getting off of her he sheathed his sword and crossed his arms still, his mako eyes observing her curiously. The ninja laid there staring at the sky for several minutes, not even moving one muscle. She seemed to be thinking of something very intently and ignore Cloud's presence.

"Yuffie. What are you doing?" he asked stressing the word 'are'.

As if she was some sort of undead zombie she sat herself up and glared at him. This caused him to raise a yellow eye brown.

"I was looking for you," she replied with every word dripping with venom. Obviously she had some hard feelings towards him for holding a sword to her throat.

He didn't respond but just stared at her as if his words had no effect on her. His silence caused her to jump up and shove and accusing finger in his chest.

"Well aren't you even going to pretend to be sorry? Or apologize!? You held that stupid huge sword to my throat! You could've sliced my head off! One wrong move and that would be the end of Yuffie Kisaragi…how tragic. Do you want to be responsible for my death? Is that what you want!!?!!?"

Now with the raven haired girl in his face Cloud's gaze faltered for a moment before looking back into her almond eyes. When he didn't say anything she placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head towards the side.

"You are such a spikey-headed jerk!!" she said failing her arms up in the air and turning around to look at the scenery.

Cloud let a few seconds pass to soak in her insult. It wasn't that he hadn't been insulted before, it was her choice of words. They were…unique. He then opened his mouth for the second time.

"Sorry."

His voice was deep and sent chills down her spine. She wasn't sure if his apologize was for being a moron or for almost chopping her head off. Nonetheless it was an apology. It was good enough for her. She quickly turned around smiling slightly at him.

Her smile seemed to make him uncomfortable because he started to shift weight uneasily. She didn't say anything…just stared and smiled. What was wrong with her?

"… ... … what?" he finally said breaking the silence.

"What what?" she chirped back.

"What?" he asked obviously confused by her contemporary answer. This caused her to smile again letting out a few giggles.

'Christ does she smile a lot…" he thought to himself looking over to the side.

"Hey…so I just wanted to thank you for that whole carrying me saving me thing yesterday… … …" She paused for a moment letting one hand from her hip drop idly to her side. "Thanks Cloud!" she said.

There she went…smiling again. Smiling at him. What the god-awful reason did she have that made her smile so much? It was like --- wait…she had said his name? Did she remember him? His eyes flashed as he looked at her trying to figure her out. She couldn't have. One of the others must've filled her in. With a curt nod of acknowledgement he turned and began to walk away.

"Hey! Hey! Wait! Where are you going Cloudy?" she questioned jumping towards him and then beginning to circle him. He winced slightly at the nickname.

His eyes followed her in a semi-circle but he didn't bother to continue looking at her when she jumped behind him and out of sight. He bit his tongue from saying something rude such as 'Anywhere…away from here and your god-forsaken hyperactivness.'

When he didn't answer she jumped to a stop in front of him. Even at her full height she came up to his chin and had to tilt her head to look at him.

"So…?" she eyed him questioningly.

"…So…I'll see you later…" she said putting a hand on her shoulder as if to anchor her movement as he stepped around her.

"Really?" Her eyes lit up seemingly pleased at his answer.

"Okay! So I'll see you later Cloudy!" she yelled out to him waving an arm up in the air.

He winced once more and turned to look at the ninja. "Cloud…" he said relaying his name and his only name to her.

"Cloudness?" she asked looking at him innocently.

Silence.

"Clouwy?"

"Spikey-headed jerk?"

He looked at her…and she was smiling…again! Even he saw her smile several times it seemed each smile she had was different. This smile looked like an innocent puppy smile begging him to give in. He let out an annoyed sigh as he finally surrendered.

"Fine," he said stepping forward trying to get away from whatever he was sucked into.

"Really? Spikey-headed jerk??!!" She was actually surprised that he would allow her to call him that.

"No…" he replied not wanting to relay any of the nicknames she had called him before. "The first one…"

"Cloudy!" she said jumping up gleefully. He just rolled his eyes and turned to be on his way…wherever that was and leaving her to do…whatever she did.

There was no way that she could've remembered him. If she did she would remember that when they were little she was the only one he allowed to call him by any other name. She was the only one he would allow to call him 'Cloudy.'

Disclaimer - I do not own Kingdom Hearts

I hope you guys like this chapter. I know it's starting out kind of slow...but I promise more Yuffie X CloudY interaction in the future chapters! If there any other characters or suggestions that you guys have please let me know! It's leaning towards a Clouffie -- but you all know that Leon is still there!!

Thank you everyone who reviewed on the last chapters. I really appreciate it and I hope that you like the story thus far.