Like The Sun, Like The Moon

Chapter Six

Dammit, Jenova. This time you've really done it.

Sipping a nice hot cup of tea, Leon sat in the kitchen and waited for the girl sleeping soundly next-door to finally awaken.

Which he had been doing for half an eternity now.

Oh well. He could understand her; the night before had in fact been quite a hassle.
Jenova had managed to take over and used his appearance to mess with the girl – What exactly she had done to her, he had no idea, but it had obviously been enough to turn Yuffie suicidal.
Which disturbed him greatly.
He'd have to set things straight, as soon as possible.

If the girl would only wake up.

Nine hours ago, after she had been sobbing into his chest for several long minutes, she had fallen asleep in his arms. According to her keys, her apartment was located in block 28, first storey, thus he had carried her there and laid her down in her bed.

Ever since then, she had been sleeping.
Ever since then, he had been waiting.
And ever since then, he had been wondering just how she managed to stay asleep with all the noise coming from outside.
At first, it had only been the sounds of drunken men yelling through the streets. But at about seven o'clock, a tune of wonderfully deafening military marches had started playing in its never-ending monotony.
Now it was nine. The music was slowly driving him crazy, and the girl was still snoozing happily.

Oh well, he could wait.
The ship to Costa del Sol was planned to leave at noon, so he had three hours left. But who knew when the girl would decide to wake up?
He took another bored look at the clock hanging above the stove and realized that only five minutes had passed since the last time he had checked. Sighing, he took yesterday's Junon Times from the table and leafed through it. No interesting news, but an amusing arrangement of articles and advertisement.
At least some people know to appreciate my work, he told himself with a slight smirk while skimming through the editorial that accompanied a picture of president Shinra and an ad presenting "Swords by Brick – break even the thickest shells!"
Lovely. Yet besides this, the newspaper didn't have much entertainment to offer – and still had he read the whole issue at least trice when he eventually heard some shuffling from the bedroom.

So the princess has finally awoken from her slumber, he mused whilst idly turning the page.

"Leon?" she asked in sleepy surprise, "What are you doing here?"

He looked up to see her standing in the doorway, rubbing her eyes and yawning all the while.
"I owe you an apology," he stated straight away.

She tilted her head to the side. "What for?"

"You might want to fully wake up before we discuss that matter," he told her and nodded towards the stove. "Do you want some tea?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Black tea?"

"Naturally."

A sleepy yet appreciative grin crept onto her face. "Good taste," she remarked and dragged herself towards the stove. Once she had poured some tea into a cup, she sat down on the table's remaining chair and took a few sips, eyeing her guest curiously all the while.

"Isn't that yesterday's issue?" she asked after a minute, looking oddly at the newspaper he was currently studying.

"Actually it is," he answered matter-of-factly, never averting his gaze from the article.

When he didn't add anything, Yuffie couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Actually," she replied, imitating his detached tone, "I need some help with the crossword."

Now this caught his attention. Looking up at her, he raised an eyebrow and allowed her to snatch the newspaper from his grip.

"Normally they aren't that hard, but yesterday's really freaked me out," she told him conversationally as she opened the daily on page 17 and spread it on the table, pointing at the upper, left corner of the huge crossword puzzle. "Just look at this," she said and read, "'Word with three letters'. How am I – how is anyone supposed to know this?"

"It's 'ace'," Leon answered without hesitation.

Yuffie looked up from the newspaper to cast a doubtful look at him. "But it could also be 'jig' or 'saw' or 'eye' or 'leg'," she protested.

"However, this time it is 'ace'," he assured her, "Believe me."

"How would you know?" she asked him sceptically, "You haven't even taken a look at it."

"In fact I have," he confessed with a shrug, remembering exactly just how many looks he had taken at it during the last thirty minutes. 182. Boredom and the absence of anything else to do had forced him to.

"But there is nothing written in it," the girl pointed out.

Leon looked at her as though she had grown another head. "I don't write comments in other people's newspapers," he informed her, sounding rather disturbed at the idea.

Now it was Yuffie's turn to look at him as though he had grown another head. "You haven't done this crossword without taking any notes, have you?" she inquired, sounding rather disturbed herself.

"Umm…no?"

Again she couldn't help but roll her eyes and returned to studying her recent dilemma that was resting peacefully on the table.
"So tell me…" she demanded as she grabbed the pen that was lying nearby to scribble 'ace' into the boxes, "who is Shinra's head of the Urban Development Department?"
"Reeve."
She wrote down the answer and went on, "Deadly, snake-like creature?"
"Midgar Zolom."
"Renowned scientist?"
"Gast."
"Lively succulent?"
"Cactuar."
"Support materia?"
"All."

Suddenly, she hesitated and looked up at him. "Yesterday I lost my All materia in the woods," she told him in a rather depressed manner, "You haven't accidentally found it somewhere?"

Not making much of a fuss about it, he removed the white orb from his Gold Armlet and put it on the table. "It took it."

Yuffie gaped, her gaze shifting from her lost materia to her mystifying visitor and back. "You took it?" she finally mumbled, her disbelieving stare momentarily darting back at Leon, "As in you stole it?"

He shrugged. "We both don't need it, so what's the difference?"

Yuffie stared at him in shock. "'We both don't need it'," she snarled irritably, "Of course I need it!"

Leaning comfortably back on his chair, Leon smirked at her smugly. "Someone's got a materia fetish, huh?"

"Just what would you know!" she snapped and sent him the evillest glare she could muster.

Which in his opinion wasn't evil at all, but rather somewhat cute. In fact she looked so much like a little puppy in the vain attempt to appear terrifying that he felt tempted to pat her on the head. But no, not now. Mocking Yuffie might be a very entertaining business, but it would only infuriate her further, delaying this whole affair unnecessarily. And at least the latter, he'd prefer avoiding. Thus he finally decided to restrain himself and get to the point as soon as possible.

"Alright, alright."

He raised his hands in a pacifying manner and explained himself, "You see, I merely took your All in order to keep you from mistaking yesterday afternoon's events for a dream."
Not exactly the truth, but nevertheless a good point to start, he mused whilst watching the girl's reaction carefully

She hesitated, but eventually whispered hoarsely, "It wasn't a dream?"

"Of course it wasn't," he informed her in the usual, nonchalant tone of his, "You were defending yourself against a blue bird when I discovered you, but fainted once I had taken care of it."

Eyes widening in recognition, eyebrows furrowing in confusion, forehead wrinkling in disbelief, mouth opening and closing in silent protest.
Normally, he would have considered that expression as amusing. However not this time. He might like to annoy the girl, yet he certainly wasn't enough of a sadist to enjoy unsettling her like this.

"But if that dream wasn't a dream at all," she finally objected in a rather weak voice, staring at him helplessly, "then why did I see Sephiroth?"

He sighed. "Come on, Yuffie, it cannot be that hard to realize", he spoke somewhat indignantly as he leant a bit forward to demand her full attention. "You met him yesterday afternoon, you encountered him last night. I'm sure you have heard the rumours, and you must have noticed the similarities between Sephiroth and me, otherwise you would not have followed me to the airfield." He paused and looked at her meaningfully. "So what can we deduce from that?"

Although the mention of the night's events caused her to flinch visibly, she didn't even bother responding, but kept eyeing him expectantly.

Thus he simply went on explaining all the distinctive clues the girl simply couldn't have missed. "As you already know, Sephiroth has been supposed to be dead for five years. Nonetheless, he obviously appeared in Junon just yesterday. This either means that this one is an impostor or that he has never been dead in the first place. Which one of them is the truth, you can figure out yourself, but either way the huge, green neon signs are unmistakably pointing at me."

"Just what are you trying to tell me?" Yuffie asked with a deep frown, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

At this, Leon sighed and leant back on his chair again. "It's simple," he informed her matter-of-factly, "I am Sephiroth."

Instantly her eyes narrowed. "I can see that," she retorted, her guarded stare full of scepticism.

"I know you can," he responded in the low smooth baritone that was his original voice, not his camouflage's. And all of a sudden, it wasn't Leon anymore, but Sephiroth sitting in the chair next to Yuffie.

Immediately, the girl's eyes widened to a dangerous degree, whereas her jaw dropped several storeys downwards.

"It's such a relief to witness your glee at having me back," he remarked dryly before retransforming into 'Leon'. He couldn't risk being found here after all.

Meanwhile Yuffie had started staring blankly at his right shoulder while mumbling barely comprehensible words that lacked any connection whatsoever.
For a moment, Sephiroth/Leon tried to get the message behind "But…why…how…you…possible…yesterday…that…back…never…", but he soon gave up these vain attempts in order to continue his speech.
"As you are already mentioning yesterday," he began in an extra loud volume to regain her attention, "This is the reason I am still here."

She looked up, and finally their eyes met. However, he didn't like the haziness he was facing one bit. He might be considered detached and emotionless, but her cloudy stare was making him feel annoyingly guilty. And he despised feeling guilty. This meant he had to spirit her bewilderment away as soon as possible, and he was about to just to that.

"Concerning what I said and did last night," he told her in the kindest way he could muster despite his usually cold demeanour, "I want you to know I did not mean it. I am sorry."

By now her eyes were glassy, yet she still managed to suppress her tears. "Then why did you act this way in the first place?" she asked quietly, eventually averting her gaze from his.

He heaved a sigh while considering his options. He could either tell her the truth or he could think up some excuse. However both alternatives didn't seem very appealing, thus he spontaneously decided in favour of the golden mean, "I'm schizophrenic."

Yuffie gasped, the sad expression leaving her face within seconds in order to be replaced by a grimace of utter disbelief.

"Oh come on, don't look so surprised," he told her with a slight frown as he leisurely stretched on his chair, "Being virtually dead for five years is more than likely to disarrange people's mind a bit, isn't it?"

Finally Yuffie regained her voice. "But you can't be schizophrenic," she contradicted doubtfully, "Or else you wouldn't recognize, let alone admit it."

"You've got a point there," he confessed with a light chuckle, "but that still doesn't explain the split personality, you know."

And again, it was Yuffie's turn to gape incredulously. "Split personality?" she coughed in shock.

He simply nodded. "I don't know about you," he told her in an uncharacteristically casual way, "but frankly, my dear, I don't even remember just what I did to you last night. I only know that it must have been something awful, or else you would not have reacted the way you did."

"You…don't remember anything?" she inquired hoarsely.

"Not quite," he answered with a shrug.

There was a long silence between them.

Yuffie was frowning, Sephie was watching.

"I really don't know what to make of all this," she finally exclaimed in frustration, sounding exactly as lost as she felt, "First you come to Junon to stir up all those old memories, then you tell me that you really are Sephiroth – which I'm still unsure about – and now you're telling me you're a madman with a split personality and don't even remember last night." She looked at him helplessly. "You don't really expect me to believe all this, do you?"

"No, I don't expect you to," he assured her with an intentionally misplaced smile, "And I don't mind either. However, I owed you an explanation. Or rather an apology, whichever way you want to put it." With that, he suddenly got up. "I didn't want yesterday's events to disturb you too much, therefore I felt obliged to clarify some things. But now that this is settled, I ought to take my leave." Nodding his goodbye rather than directly voicing it, he strode to the door in few graceful paces, only to be stopped by Yuffie's sudden yell.

"Don't you dare leaving already!" she snapped, "You've brought up more question than you answered!" She glared after him and only went on when he returned her stare, "You haven't really told me what happened five years ago. You haven't told me how and why you are here. And beyond that, you haven't even told me how the heck you can transform into someone else!"

She glared warily, he grinned wearily.

"If you really insist upon knowing it," he began with a sigh before adapting her once again phenomenal speech speed, "I burnt a town and was, let's say, killed in the process. Yet thanks to Shinra's cover-up policy, this little occurrence didn't quite stain my reputation. That's why I've come back – to completely ruin it once and for all. Just ask the puppet and you will know what I mean. Last but not least, about my magnificent form-changing abilities – they come with the second personality. However I advise you not to try this at home, as it has got some nasty side effects." Glancing briefly at the clock, he went on without delay, "Now if you excuse me, I've really got to leave." He formally bowed to her and once again turned to go.

"Oh, and by the way," he added quickly and looked back at her one last time, "If I were you, I wouldn't try following me."

And then he was gone, not even giving her a chance to protest.

Of course Yuffie stormed after him. However she simply couldn't to find him anymore. It was as though he had vanished into thin air. Which he probably had, considering he might run around as just about anyone else but Sephirth or Leon right now.

If he doesn't want to be found, there is nothing I can do about it, Yuffie had to admit as she plopped back into her chair after twenty minutes of fruitless searching, It's so unfair…

The impact of her rather forceful sitting down had caused the table in front of her to tremble, which drew her attention to the white orb that suddenly started rolling around on top of yesterday's Junon Times.

And this was enough to confirm the decision she had already made the evening before.

She had to follow him.

She couldn't allow him to leave her like that, after all this controversial pseudo-information he had given her.

And in any case, stolen was stolen. He couldn't simply return the materia. She would have to give him back her All, and that was all the "logical" reason she needed to simply jump up, grab the most necessary items and leave for the port.

If he had really meant for her not to follow him, he shouldn't have been careless enough to tell her where he was headed to.

Really.

End Of Chapter Six

A/N: I really wish I could have updated earlier, but Real Life kept interfering in the most annoying ways. But let's not get into details about this right now… coughs

Now some explanations regarding this chapter: Do you know those situations, when you feel compelled to explain yourself or someone asks you unpleasant questions and you simply can't get yourself to tell the truth, because you belief omitting/changing some facts about it is so much easier for both of you? (phew, what a long sentence…) Anyway, just to prevent some confusion beforehand, this is what happened here. Because Jenova has more or less traumatized Yuffie, Seph feels obliged to set her at ease somehow. But I guess you can imagine that justifying himself isn't exactly one of his hobbies, so he happens to prefer declaring himself schizophrenic to telling her the truth about Jenova, which is also why he acted the way he did by the end of this chapter.

But in any case, this little issue is going to be treated in the next chapter anyway, I only wanted you not to be too disturbed with the idea. :p

So how did you like the chapter? Tell me your opinion in a review!
Because reviews are great, and the people reviewing are even greater! But what's greatest are LOTS of people reviewing!

I'm still amazed at the eleven reviews I've got since the last time I posted – Thanks to Music Lover Always, saharasfury, Sonicron, Chasing Enlightenment, Jillato, Myotis, Tavon Jackson, Choatic Rei, chibified kitsunes and SAMPSON12187! You guys are incredible!

So keep the reviews coming! I'll be trying to update ASAP.

Greetings,
Linnya