Like The Sun, Like The Moon

Chapter Three

The faint noise of footsteps in the distance.

Growing louder.

And louder.

And louder.

"Darn, can't you be a bit quieter!" she yelled in annoyance, jerking awake within half a second.

"What the hell…"

There was no one even remotely near her. Maybe those footfalls had only been a part of her dream? Even though she couldn't remember what exactly it had been this time, when asleep she usually witnessed utterly weird, most confusing things which made no sense whatsoever, hence it wouldn't be much of a surprise.

However she could still hear some footfalls, although not as clearly as before. Turning her head eastward, she noticed a group of five people marching audibly through the woods.

Immediately, a nasty grin spread on Yuffie's face. Passing the woods like that was like screaming "Rob me! Rob me!" at the top of one's voice.

Well, being the helpful girl she was, she'd do them the favour.

Without a second though, she picked her shuriken from where it had been resting next to her on the ground and dashed off towards her latest victims.

Ten minutes later she was sitting in a tree, happily counting the money she had just earned. Granted, she had been defeated by them – what else would you expect from a three against one battle? – but that hadn't kept her from outwitting them. That idiotic blond should have told her his name before asking for hers, really. How bad manners could one have?

Well, his horrible behaviour had cost him 700 Gil.

Honestly, she should have taken more. The petty amount she had stolen was nothing compared to what they had to be carrying around with them. Just look at all the shiny, expensive armour they were wearing! But sadly, they were gone now. She would have to live with a few Gil less, there was just no way she could change it right now.

…or was there?

She might simply ambush them again. And this time, she wouldn't even give them the chance to notice her presence!

Now, where have these guys gone?

After pondering for a moment, she remembered watching them continuing their way westwards, which meant they were headed to Junon. Even better. It was slowly getting dark and she would have to return to her apartment anyway.

…

Wait a second.

It was slowly getting dark?

What had she missed?

She couldn't have slept all afternoon, could she?

How come she had let her guard down like that anyway? Taking a nap in an open area like this, where millions of hostile fiends were residing, wasn't something she tended to do very often. In fact, she had never done something like this in her whole life. Up until now, that is.

Just what the heck had happened?

Perhaps there had been something in her food? Yeah, that was likely. Maybe a Caterpie had been in one of the apples she had eaten earlier. Oh well. That at least explained it. And as obviously there weren't any consequences besides some lost hours, she'd just look over the incident and turn her attentions to the more important issues.

Like following a spikey-headed jerk to Junon in order to gain some easy money, for example. Yeah, ripping them off for a second time would definitely be a hell lot of fun…

… But somehow, she couldn't muster the malice to rob them once she discovered them saving a little girl from drowning. Mister There-Is-More-Gel-Than-Hair-On-My-Head might be a tactless jerk, but at least he had a heart, somewhere inside of that lilac cuboid he called a chest. Thus, she wouldn't rob him again.

At least not right now.
Maybe later.
Probably later.
But not right now, no.

Instead, she went straight to the Shinra guard in charge of the elevator and greeted him with a rather lazy wave of her hand, "Hey Pierre, how is it going?"

The brunette's bored expression brightened in an instant as he recognized her. "Yo Yuff!" he responded with a somewhat relieved grin. However, he went on much less enthusiastically as he reported to her, "Today's been a real mess. Because of the president's death, the whole management is panicking. His murderer is still on the loose, and they say he's heading this way." He laughed nervously and let his head drop. "In times like these, I really hate guarding the elevator."

"Oh, c'mon, how bad can it be?" she offered, patting him reassuringly on the shoulder.

"I guess not too bad," he responded, apparently regaining his good mood, "As long as you are here, that is."

"So," she spoke in a low, somewhat joke-seductive voice, "you want me to wait here until your shift is over?"

"Well, actually, yes," he simply answered, releasing an appallingly cute, innocent smile at her.

"And then what?" she inquired in rather sceptical manner, as she graciously ignored the infamous expression of his that regularly managed to persuade just about anyone.

Yuffie excluded.

Nonetheless his sheepish smile never faltered as he suggested, "A nice dinner for two maybe?"

At that, the ninja tilted her head, pondering. "Actually, I was planning on drinking my head off right now," she finally pointed out. It wasn't that she didn't like him or anything, but she really needed that alcohol. Badly. She had eaten a poisoned apple, she had had to deal with an annoying blond, and then she had even lost her All materia. Her good mood might not exactly have suffered from these incidents, but – damn, she had lost her All materia! – they had definitely spoiled her day. And at the moment, she saw the only way of getting over it in a huge glass of vodka. Which she needed right now.

"Can't you wait a little longer?" Pierre pleaded, "My shift is ending within a few minutes, and then we could both drink till we drop." He watched her expectantly as she considered her options. Drinking alone or sharing her misery with a good friend? The decision really wasn't that difficult. She'd always prefer good company. Thus she spoke, "Sounds like a plan."

Immediately a huge grin spread on the guard's face, but before he could state any smart remarks, Yuffie cut him off, "And no, it's not a date. But yes, you are paying."

She smirked at him. He grinned back, "What else would I expect of my favourite Yuffers?"

The last few hours had been…annoying.

He had been striding aimlessly through Junon, checking out every store, every pub, every everything that somehow happened to exist in this tin can of a fortress. He had even paid a visit to his old apartment. Apparently, it was inhabited by an ambitious but dumb ShinRa employee by now, a fact he considered as mildly annoying. Neither really annoying nor not annoying. But mildly annoying.
Yet his old apartment had only been one among many locations he had visited on his little tour through Junon.
As a matter of fact, he had been everywhere.
Everywhere.
If there was still one single person in this fortress who hadn't noticed his presence yet, he'd eat a broomstick. Really. Maybe only a chocolate one, but still – he'd worked hard to make the people around him notice his presence.

Ironically, he absolutely hated being the centre of attention. But sometimes it just couldn't be avoided. For example if you had to make sure a certain puppet would find some clues and therefore be able to follow you. It had been exhausting to wander around as though you were some homeless lunatic, but it had been worth the while.
He had accomplished everything humanly and in his case even inhumanly possible to let his pursuers know where to go. Furthermore the ship wasn't going to leave for another eighteen hours. Thus, he had a lot of time to finally lean back and relax.

While strolling through town earlier, he had discovered a comparatively nice pub in block number 29. The place had a comparatively comfortable atmosphere, but still seemed somewhat anonymous. Just the way he liked it.

And what was even better, nobody would ask strange questions. Why, you ask? Because he wasn't the ex-General Sephiroth right now, but Recruit Leon Meyer.

Once he had decided to settle down and have a beer, he had changed his appearance into that of a random male and gave his new identity an equally random name.

Yes, possessing Jenova's body definitely had its pros.

As his original form was presently residing in the Northern Crater, he had been forced to take over a body that was easier accessible. And since the reunion with his Mother was necessary to accomplish his Mission anyway, occupying her body was the most obvious choice.
And well, even though it might be somewhat disturbing to know you are currently travelling around as a pink, tentacled something, the advantages it provided more than compensated for this little, insignificant nuisance.

After all, who else could drop an arm and 'regrow' a new one within seconds?
Who else could 'fly', 'disappear' and 'walk through walls'?
Who else could change his/her appearance by simply projecting another picture into the onlookers' heads?

Right, you get the picture. Life was a lot simpler that way. And a lot more complicated at the same time, considering he had to accomplish his Mission whilst permanently battling Jenova's will inside of his head.
He could identify with her preferring to control her body herself. Honestly. But knowing her, he assumed she would instantly annihilate half the planet's population if given the chance. And this was something he'd favour avoiding.

He might have hoped to drown her complaints in a good mouthful of rum, but as this body wasn't even partly human, it didn't react to the alcohol at all. No big surprise there. What had he expected?

"Hey Leon, where didcha say ya'd come from?"

While he waited for his mind to return from the Realm Of More Important Matters, Sephiroth – no, it was Leon now – lazily turned his head towards the drunken redhead who had been lingering next to him for an hour already. He had no idea whether the guy had decided to keep him company due to the pub's current lack of unoccupied seats or because the persona of Leon had a somewhat…attracting effect on him. As he found himself shivering involuntarily at the latter thought, he realized he really didn't want to know the other's reasons.

"Midgar?" the redhead guessed while knocking back another beer, "Kalm?"

"Actually, I'm from Gongaga," Leon claimed with a rather reproachful frown. "And I've just told you that five minutes ago."

His drinking buddy raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he wondered as he idly watched his bottle's contents while swaying it in front of him. "Dun quite r'member," he mumbled and let his head drop onto the table, "Gotta be the alc'hol."

"How come I don't believe you that?" Leon spoke, not even bothering to hide his amusement. His companion wouldn't notice anyway.

And just as predicted, he didn't. Instead he merely turned his head counter-clockwise to send a puzzled look in his pal's direction. "What d'ya mean?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Leon retorted, his eyebrows furrowed as though he was completely serious, "I meant what I said."

With a thump, a certain redhead hit the table once again. "Pleeeaase, b'ddy, dun c'nfuse m'even more, willya," he mumbled against the wood underneath him, completely oblivious to the pleased smirk on his so-called buddy's face.

Twenty minutes ago, when he had started feeling mildly annoyed by the other's never-ending monologue, Leon had invented a new game called Tangle The Turk. Ever since then, he had been providing his new friend with lots of paradoxical pieces of information. By now he had claimed to be a gold-digger from Midgar, a merchant from the Gold Saucer, the chief accountant of a flower shop in Kalm, the owner of a tomacco farm in the southern Wutai area and a chicory vendor from Gongaga – everything at the same time, of course.
Furthermore, he had managed to make the poor turk believe Barret, Shinra's new president, was about to have a holiday fortress called New Junon built somewhere in the south, directly inside of the Northern Crater.

And strangely enough, Reno wouldn't even question those statements. Maybe he had really had a drink to many?
But the word 'non-alcoholic' printed in big, bold letters on the label of the very bottle the turk was currently sipping on strictly argued against that assumption.

So just what had that man taken?

Or maybe…a behaviour like this was completely normal for him.

Not that Sephiroth, or rather Leon, really minded. Messing around with Reno was fun, he couldn't deny it.

Maybe he should transform into his true self later on, directly in front of the turk's eyes. The reaction he'd get would certainly be worth it.
Hm, not a bad idea. He'd have to keep that in mind.

"Yo, L'on, buddy," he heard the redhead burble and turned his attention back to him, "Why don'tcha talk an'more? Yer not mad a'me or somethn, are ya?"

"Actually," Leon replied nonchalantly, choosing his words with care, "I rather enjoy your company."
Sometimes even stating the truth could help bewildering people further.

But only sometimes.

He should have employed a much longer sentence, then there wouldn't be a turk clinging to his neck right now, babbling things like "Oh, yer such a gr8 buddy!" or "I wurv u 2!" repeatedly.

He really should have employed a much longer sentence.

In moments like these, you might expect Sephiroth to be somewhat grateful that Jenova's serially included form changing program contained a tool which caused people to believe they were actually touching what they were seeing. But oddly enough, he wasn't grateful. On the contrary, he'd rather the turk actually felt he was hugging a slimy, pinkish alien. This might reveal his true identity, but at least he would finally get rid of that unnecessary physical contact. Or maybe he should just accidentally slam his bottle of rum into his buddy's head? This might do, even though it couldn't be considered the funniest way of ending this little game.

Oh well.

Leon was just about to discreetly grab the bottle when he heard a voice from somewhere near the entrance.

Not just any voice, but a certain voice.

A familiar voice.

A terribly familiar voice.

And it was shouting from the pub's entrance, "Reno, stop harassing the poor guy already!"

Which meant the girl was going to stay here.

For the rest of the evening.

………

…………

…………… Damn.

End of Chapter Three

A/N: Here I am again! Admittedly a tad later than predicted, but I've got an excuse: The initially small, cute and fluffy chapter turned into a giant monster the more I wrote and it just come to an end. When it weighed already 4500 words and still wouldn't stop growing, I decided to split the chapter into two, far less enormous ones. Granted, some people don't consider 4,5k chapters as long ones, but I like it short and handy.
Which follows, is that a) I can update the story right now and b) you won't have to wait for the next chapter very long as it is mostly finished. It only needs some final words and a bit of editing, and then it'll be up.

Now, some further notes that aren't really a must-read, but contain some useful information:

As regards Pierre…
Yuffie living in Junon and not having any friends is a thing of impossibility. That's why I took the elevator's guard, named him Pierre (better don't ask me why, I myself don't have a clue) and turned him into and Yuffie's companion. Which isn't that improbable as she has to use the lift every other day to leave and enter Upper Junon after/before her little heists.
So she either keeps bribing the guard, or she befriends him.
Obviously, I made her choose the second option, and apparently she and Pierre became quite good friends. If not a tiny little bit more...

Now to the Disguise-as-Leon-thingy…
I don't like the idea of them simply running into each other like that:
Yuffie: Boah, man, watch your step!
Seph: …Likewise.
Yuff: Hey, wait, aren't you… Sephiroth?
Seph: Actually, I am.
Yuff: Don'tcha recognize me?
Seph: Indeed I do.
Yuff: Then say something!
Seph: Umm…sorry I didn't send you a postcard?
And so on.
Yeah, I guess you get the idea. Too boring, too quick, less dramatic.

Now, concerning Seph's actual disguise: as he chose a random male appearance, you can imagine him whatever way you want to. But as I ended up naming his alias Leon, you might want to consider him as some kind of black-haired clone of Squall (FF8) or rather Leon (Kingdom Hearts). It wasn't really intended but I couldn't think of another nice name that wouldn't make Seph's new appearance look weird in my imagination (just think of a Carlos or Hans sitting in Leon's place and you know what I mean).

Oh well.
Long A/Ns are a curse, thus I'm going to suppress any further unnecessary notes and get to the important ones straight away:

Review!

As you know already, reviews are what keeps a story alive. So review! because if you review, I'll update much quicker and you will be mentioned in the next chapter along with all those of other great reviewers:

Thanks you, saharasfury, Music Lover Always, Gining, navi the rabid pixie, yuffie259 and Vermillion Dragonness! You guys are awsome!

Now, thanks for reading and reviewing, and see you all in the next chapter!

Greetings,
Linnya