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Chapter Eleven: Preparations
Cloud looked up from the corroding chapel, staring at the blue skies from Radiant Garden, he had found his way back here, and like last time he ended up falling through the small hole in the roof.
He was still in a daze of some sort, watching the time pass by. No one had come inside, which was a good thing for him, sense he of course didn't want anybody to find him like this. The paopu tree which Aerith had obviously grown had in fact grown to be of standard size, and he had landed on it.
"Amaterasu was right…" he said to himself blowing some strands away from his face.
At that point he decided to slide off the tree, and he looked around the chapel, it was still that same way he remembered it. He made sure not to land on top of Aerith's flowers or else she'd murder him or something.
The aroma of flowers it was something he never grew tired of, and he was glad he didn't.
"It's me, Amaterasu, Yomigami's sister…" the girl said withdrawing her weapon to the side.
"Yomigami's little sister…" he said repeating it slowly to himself. "How did you find me?"
"I guess it doesn't matter how I found you, but why I was looking for you in the first place…" she said watching the last Heartless leave this area.
She had missed Cloud's sword fighting. Amaterasu sat down on a crumbling pillar, this was the wasteland of Traverse Town, people stopped living here about a couple of years ago.
"Aerith asked me to find you… I can't break a promise…" she said noticing Cloud's eyes widen at the mention of her name. "She misses you a lot, boy…"
'I miss her too…' Cloud thought to himself as he walked around the chapel. He would stay here for a while to relax and then he'd be on his way. The SOLDIER yawned for a moment and cleared his throat to fight off a yawn.
"She doesn't get to see you laugh, or smile, or cry, or even get angry!" she was obviously losing her temper with him, any mother would when their child didn't listen.
"You know that's not very mother like…"
"If I was your mother, I'd tell you to go and visit her…" she said. "Now go Cloud… Please you know she's waiting for you..."
"I'm not one to say much on this subject..." he said looking back down at the scene below them, "But it'd be nice if you took your advice once in a while..."
"Cloud…" a gentle whisper was heard a bit far away from where he stood. He turned around and met the gaze of two emerald eyes. He moved forward a bit, but the girl had obviously started to run towards him.
She stopped close to his feet, and panted for a moment, giving a big smile. He noticed that she was wearing the same pink dress from last time.
"I came back…" he said.
"You landed on the tree…" she said picking out a leaf from his hair.
"I didn't want to land on the flowers…" he said looking back at the lilies. "I missed you…"
"You have no idea how much I missed you… You didn't so much as even write to me or anything…" she said hugging the blond individual. He knew of course that she was crying, and he held her tight.
Amaterasu watched from overhead, carefully so as not to fall from one of the boards on the old chapel. 'It's really a sweet sight…' she thought smiling happily. 'It's moments like this that make me feel good to be alive for so long…' As she gave out a small sigh she heard something from underneath her stomach creak.
"Ah…" she moved herself slowly, still hearing the boards from the roof crack from her weight. "Damn it…" she whispered crawling quickly to the other side of the roof.
"What are you doing, Ammi?" Gekigami asked as she patted the soil.
"Planting a tree…" she said taking the whole ordeal very seriously.
"For who?" he asked watching her handy work.
"Riku…" she said watching the storm clouds loom over the isle. "He's on this place, so I thought I'd give him a nice little reminder…"
"Why don't you just tell him how you feel?" Tachigami said watching her little sister for a moment.
"Cuz, Ammi is still under the impression that actions speak louder than words…" Kazegami said smiling at his older sister.
"What are you doing right now Riku?" she asked herself looking up at the blue sky Cloud was gazing at earlier. "Does the sky look better from your view?"
At that point the roof was starting to give way, and the young girl found herself falling back. She stared at the sky as she started to fall, not once letting her heartbeat race fast. She could hear the wind howl in her ears as she fell, and she, like Cloud, landed on the paopu tree with a heavy thud.
"Ouch…" she said blinking her eyes for a moment. "At least it broke my fall…"
"Amaterasu, what are you doing up there?" Aerith asked calling down from the tree.
"Just thought I'd drop by…" she said lazily getting out from the paopu tree. "But I didn't think fate would let me do that literally…"
Cloud shook his head looking at Amaterasu, he knew why she came. It was to see if he did in fact come back here to Radiant Garden. Amaterasu apologized for ruining their moment, and noticed that the two of them were blushing a bit. They each knew what the young girl was thinking about, as perverted as her mind was, she was still in fact just a kid on the outside.
"Anyway…" she started walking out the chapel. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" she said teasing the two of them.
Aerith noticed a small smile spread across Cloud's lips and she smiled at the peaceful expression placed on his face. She was glad she could see him smile like, because it was a smile only she could see, meant for her eyes only, and just for her.
"I missed watching you smile…" Aerith said walking down the flower patch at times she would look back at the blue eyed SOLDIER.
Cloud had missed everything about her. He missed her voice, her appearance he was glad he decided to follow his heart once again, and maybe this time he'd stay with her.
"How did you find your way back here?" Aerith asked as she patted a small spot for him to sit on.
Cloud walked up and sat on one of the fairly sturdy pews catching a small glimpse of Aerith's green eyes once more. He searched the back of his mind for a while thinking of a good reason as to why he came back. 'Because I couldn't live another day without you? Or maybe because I missed the scent of flowers in your hair? This is harder than I thought…' the young man thought to himself, he looked down watching the brown sun-faded floor for a moment.
"I came back, because I couldn't live on with my light…" he said giving her his genuine smile.
Traverse Town…
"We're going to be staying in Traverse Town for a while, just until we finish getting our supplies and stuff…" Sora said looking at Riku and Kairi. He started to ramble on again. "That and well, since we came all this way I thought we'd pay Selma a visit."
'I really wish we could…' Riku thought to himself following Sora and Kairi as he was behind them. The pain in his heart was gone, which meant that the human sun goddess, Amaterasu was gone. 'Human sun goddess…' he thought to himself. That was a small nickname he had placed for her, even though he knew she wasn't a goddess.
He walked with his two friends and noticed a tree pot with a familiar plant inside of the clay pot. There in one of the pots a paopu sapling was starting to develop. 'I've been seeing these saplings all over the place…' he up ahead and noticed that Sora and Kairi were about a couple of feet farther from him.
'Maybe I can talk to her some more when she comes back… If she ever comes back that is…I hope she does…' the silver haired teen placed the headphones back over to his ears and listened to another playlist on her mp3 player. Blood + it was a somewhat popular show back home, and he was surprised to find all the theme songs in her mp3 player.
Radiant Garden…
"Reeve…" Amaterasu was a bit glad to hear the man's voice on the other end of the phone line. "I…uh… Can you meet us down by the café?" she asked, waiting for Reeve's response. "Just come right away…"
Her dark eyes watched her oldest brother as he pulled up a seat next to her.
"Miracle…" Yomigami said sipping the context from a crème colored cup. "You actually called him…" he said laughing a bit as he took another sip of his coffee. Something caught his attention for a moment. "Females… They're really weird, I mean the clothing on some of them is provocative these days."
"If I remember correctly, Neo's older sister us to dress like that, remember?" the youngest sister said hinting at something from the past. She looked her reflection in the crème color liquid, it was hard to make out but she could see it.
"I honestly forgot…" he said rather coldly. "Are you going to look at your reflection, or are you going to drink your coffee?"
"I don't know…" she said feeling tears starting to come down. "I…"
"Stop staring at me like that, people are going to think I broke up with you or something like that…" a younger Amaterasu said starting at the boy.
"Would you ever break up with me?" the younger teen asked.
"What?!" she was thrown off guard by the question. "Xeno what makes you think I'd get with you in the first place?"
"The blush on your face says something different…" Xeno said sticking out his tongue. "Anyway… Your big brother's here, it's probably time that you start getting ready for your trip…"
"I'll come back in a couple of weeks and then I'll tell you all about it, okay?"
"Sure…" he said giving her his trademark smile. "Ammi…" he said softly.
"Yeah?" she turned around slightly to look at him.
"You know I love you, right?" he rubbing the back of his head.
"Yeah…" she said, blushing a bit. "I-I… I love you too…"
"I guess that means we're together then…" he said laughing a bit.
"What, no!" she said shaking her head. "You know what it's over…"
"At least know I know you would break up with me…"
"Xenoh-!"
She was brought to reality by her big brother. It pained Yomigami to see his sister get all worked up. It had been three days since she returned from Traverse Town, and when she came back he had noticed Cloud Strife was with her.
Amaterasu had locked herself up in a spare room Reeve Tuesti had in his home. She only spoke to the male members in her family, while Tachigami found out by means of her twin brother.
Amaterasu sighed heavily, just looking at her older brother while forcing a smile to play across her lips. Both of the siblings sipped their coffee, and then they each heard a familiar voice. They both turned around trying to figure out where the noise came from, there were a couple of people walking around the area. A man in a white shirt with formal black pants walked to their table.
"And I so did love your blue suit…" Yomigami said sarcastically.
Reeve gave a good hearty laugh as he pulled another chair to sit next to the two of them. The two siblings just blinked at each other for a moment, they weren't use to seeing Reeve in civilian clothing.
"What's the occasion, Amaterasu?" Reeve asked looking at the young teenager for a moment. "Surely you didn't call me down here to drink coffee with you and your brother?"
"Yes… and no…" Amaterasu said rubbing her eyes slightly. She ordered a cup for Reeve even though he told her not to, she still did.
"Are you paying for me?" he asked her.
"Right now I'm not really in a sarcastic mood…" Amaterasu said slowly drinking her coffee. "Just accept the coffee…"
"I take it this has to do with your little rendezvous from Traverse Town?" Reeve said. At that moment the waiter came out with Reeve's cup of coffee.
"Riku knows…" Yomigami said preparing Reeve's coffee. "He knows her real name… Besides he's a smart boy, he probably figured out that she's a Chaser… or rather was one… Stupid Lucifer was kind enough to give a brief explanation for Jack Sparrow…"
"Captain Jack Sparrow…" the younger one said.
"It's not like he cares what we call him…" Yomigami said handing Reeve his cup of coffee. "That's not the point… Long story short, Riku knows and Ammi's been having a nervous breakdown since she came back…" he said all in one breath.
"It's not a nervous breakdown…" she said responding a bit sourly to her nickname.
"How are you feeling physically?" Reeve asked sipping his caffeinated liquid.
"Okay, I guess…" she said looking up at the blue sky for a moment. "I mean I'm still eating. Besides it's been only three days I'm sure I'll get over it…"
"Why does this remind me of Xeno all over again?"
"It's not like that, Reeve!" she said slamming her hand down on the table. At this point her mother like title went out the window. "I guess I'm just worried or something…" she really couldn't explain everything that was stirring inside of her. "But it's not like that at all… I wanted to ask you, the real reason why I asked you to come over, was to ask you, if you'd be willing to arrange a meeting with King Mickey and the rest of us…? If it's not too much trouble..."
"From what I know the king is busy…" Reeve said placing a serious expression. "We haven't been able to contact the king for about two weeks now, though that's what one can expect when the darkness is starting to grow strong… But I can arrange a meeting with the next best thing, the Keyblade Master."
"Well from what I can tell they'll most likely be in Traverse Town…" she said thinking about it for a moment. "I'll just take everyone over there."
"You'll be in time for the festival over there…" Reeve said thinking about the whole event. "It's marking the second year of light… At least that's what they call it 'Festival of Light.'"
"Don't tell me you're going?" Yomigami asked.
"Probably…" Reeve said smiling slightly. "The HBRC deserves to take a break once in a while."
"We all deserve a break…" Amaterasu said sighing for a moment. "You know who I miss the most?"
"Riku?" Reeve and Yomigami asked in unanimity.
"No…" she said flatly. "Shelke and Vincent…"
Traverse Town…
"Mr. Valentine, we should probably start going now…" a young girl roughly around the age of ten spoke to the older man.
Riku paused for a moment and watched the two of them. The taller older man and the young girl, standing side by side one would think they're related somehow, but truth be told they weren't.
"Our gummi ship is all ready repaired, why are you procrastinating our leave?" she asked in rather gentle tone.
"I thought I felt her presence around here…" the man referred to as Mr. Valentine said.
"It was here, but that was days ago, Vincent Valentine." The girl said staring at the man in disbelief for a moment. "She has probably left this world and had simply gone to another one… Don't you think that's true?"
Riku walked on knowing that it was rude and awkward to be eavesdropping especially when you would be caught eavesdropping. Another song popped into his headphones and it brought back a feeling of nostalgia.
'She was obsessed with this song…' Riku thought to himself, he looked around and noticed that Sora and Kairi were out of his sight. 'Damn it…' he thought to himself sitting by one of the nearby benches and pulling out his cell phone.
He dialed Sora's number by memory and waited to Sora's voice on the other line. It took after three rings, and Sora finally picked up.
"Where are you, Riku?"
"In First District…" Riku said looking at the coffee shop, it brought a poignant memory to his heart. "Hold on I have another call…"
"Riku…" it was Amaterasu. "I'm making this brief…" he could hear other voices in the background.
"Are they whistling?" Riku could hear Yomigami's voice. Apparently he was singing a little rhyme.
Amaterasu sighed heavily and Riku could hear Yomigami whine a bit. "I want you to postpone your leave from Traverse Town, we have to talk to Sora…"
"Wait, who's 'we'? Ammi…" Riku could barely speak. "How did you know I was still in Traverse Town?"
"It's the power of the paopu fruit buddy… Ah, 'we' you know who 'we' is, come on Riku, I know you're not dumb, but anyway I'm roaming so I have to go, Riku."
"Roaming…?" somehow Riku fond this a bit comical. "Anway it's nice hearing your voice."
"Same here see you in a couple of days…" and the line was cut.
R I K U
See a lot of people would mostly likely start giving me their opinions on the whole matter. Many would be saying, why are you still talking to her if she's causing the problems you're trying to fix? Call me crazy or something, but I know she wants me to stay with her, and I'm going to stay with her till the bitter end of it all.
At least she called me, and I'm glad at least she's not mad at me, I really thought she was after the second day, but the third's the charm.
I yawned for a moment and sighed heavily, I was getting a bit sluggish for some reason, just feeling really lazy, but as least what would keep me going was the fact that she was coming in a couple of days or so. 'Losing your love…' it was a lyric that popped into my head.
"Losing your love is without sunshine…" I sang to myself remembering the song on Ammi's mp3 player.
Amaterasu… It's a name that I won't be forgetting anytime soon, but I still have an urge to call her ' Selma,' even though I know it's not her real name. It's only been three days since I saw her, and it feels like it was only yesterday.
It might as well have been yesterday the wound in my heart is still fresh, but I'm not letting that affect me. Still I have feeling that our friendship has somehow created a bigger gap than what happened days ago.
With time I'm afraid we might have to start off from scratch again, and if it ever does come it'll be hard on her, no doubt. 'Don't bite me now with your teeth of fear, I'm searching… All I want is pleasure…' I thought to myself moving to rhythm of the music I had in my head.
So what if I looked pretty random, I liked the song a lot, that and because the title of it was pretty strange, it was named after a fish, Barracuda.
"Riku!" I looked around blinking slightly.
"Riku!" Again another person called out my name, but it was a male voice this time, I spotted Sora's spiky hair from about ten feet away, he's so easy to pick out from a crowd.
I saw Kairi and Sora finally come up to me. They smiled slightly and Kairi showed me what Sora had bought her, it was a ring from the accessory shop. 'Oh yeah, I have to start buying some items soon… I wonder if that Moogle still has those Earrings of Destiny, if they do then I got a good gift for her, which is a miracle because I actually have enough money…'
"What are you thinking about Riku?" Kairi asked breaking my train of thought.
"Uh… Nothing!" I said laughing nervously. "Nothing at all…"
"Hey…" Sora popped into the conversation. "How did your talk with Selma go?"
'What can I say it was bittersweet? How did my talk with her not go? It wasn't what I was expecting, in fact I didn't expect for that to fall on me, knowing she's an ex-Chaser, I'm worried about her more than I ever was before. I'm scared for her, and I know she's scared for all of us… And I couldn't find a way for her to stay with us, I can't force her, but I wish she could be right here for now…'
Aerith's house…
"You're going to have to give me two days at the minimum," Aerith said watching Cloud lean against one of the blood red walls. "But why that one?"
Cloud watched Amaterasu take off her pink sweater, underneath it she wore a long sleeved red shirt with white designs. She took off her shoes and rested against the black colored couch. Amaterasu eyed Cloud for a moment, and noticed he seemed different somehow. For one he wore blue tight jeans and a black muscle shirt. Aerith once told her that black was a good color for him since it brought out his eyes.
"It's either that one or Sora ha itsum naite iru," the young girl said. Cloud had made a slight look of distaste at the mention of the second option. "Your pick, Cloud."
" Santa Fe," Cloud said looking away from the black couch. "I like that one," he noticed the pleased smile on Aerith's face. "I'm only agreeing to do this because you're a good kid."
"Kid?!" Amaterasu whined slightly. If there was anything she hated more it was either being called short or a kid.
The other slightly older people just smiled seeming pleased with the look on the girl's face. Amaterasu asked, in a rather serious voice, if Cloud was going to share a paopu fruit with Aerith. At that moment the man with the black attire just covered his face with his hand.
"Ah, Ammi…" Aerith said taking Cloud's hand away from his face, "You want to practice it right now?"
"You have it with you?" she asked poking her head to view the others. "Aw, that's cute he's blushing!" he dark colored eyes caught sight of the light red hue on his face.
"So, when are you going?" Aerith asked trying hard not to poke fun at cloud.
"In 3 days, I hear also HBRC is going too," she noticed Cloud's eyes lit up a bit. "I see Cloud's kinda happy about it," she smirked a bit. "Anyway… If you want to practice it right now I'm up to it."
"Hey Cloud, are you still good with the bass?" Aerith asked in a sweet tone. He didn't say anything but she knew the answer already.
Cloud followed behind her as Aerith led both him and Ammi to a smaller room. Amaterasu hummed a bit as she walked, but from time to time she would suddenly think back to what had happened a couple of days ago. 'I'll be seeing you soon, Riku…' she thought to herself.
A/N: Here's a little preview of what's going to happen in the next chapter…
"Hey, Ammi?"
"What?" she turned around to face Riku for a small moment.
"Do you remember when you asked me if I thought Amaterasu was pretty?"
"You don't really have to answer that…"
"Well…"
"Riku…"
"I'm just being honest, I mean come on…"
"I'm going to stuff popcorn in your face if you answer…"
"No you wouldn't." he said looking at her for a moment. "Besides I'll answer it anyway…"
"Fine…" she sighed. "So, did you think she was pretty?"
"Before or after I knew it was you?"
"Both…"
"You really want me to answer?"
A festival, a couple of confessions, a fifty dollar bet based on the answer of the question… Riku playing the guitar…
Riku: I don't even know how to play that…
Ammi: Now you do congratulations Riku…
All that and more in the next chapter… Some suggestions would be nice, I'll give you guys cookies or something…
Riku: She's kind of running out of some ideas, I think…
A/N: You know what to do you guys, so um, thanks!
Amaterasu: Hey I didn't get a POV shift!
Me: Sorry Ammi, but I was running out of time…
Amaterasu: Liar, you just didn't want to give me one because I didn't let Riku comfort me… It's not my fault, in part… Anyway read and review you guys!