(A/N: Gomenasai Mina-san (I'm sorry everyone)! I really didn't mean for this chapter to take so long to get edited and made ready to be posted! T^T School started up and I've been uber busy and my co-author and I had to make some changes to this chapter. Because we removed a scene that made characters OOC from a previous chapter we had to make some serious changes to this chapter too… For instants, Kasumi was too OOC and some of the things said throughout the chapter just couldn't stay. I hope you can forgive us. Please enjoy the story. Hopefully, the next chapter will be ready to be posted soon. I've got a lot of editing to do for this story still.)

Dear Journal

A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction

Chapter 14

Kasumi

Kasumi had been back for a week, but she had not woken up. What was even more interesting was the Kasumi was a cat with multiple shades of blue in her coat. Luxaria watched as Cid sat in a chair beside her bed with yet another half empty bottle in his hands. Luxaria sat on the other side of the bed. She rolled her eyes at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." Luxaria said, as she strode towards him. She flashed him a smile and climbed into his lap. She batted her lashes at him, "Cid." She said in the most seductive voice she could manage.

"Lu, thought you was mad at me?" Cid said, taking a swig from his bottle.

Luxaria smiled, leaning closer to him, she whispered, "I am." She grabbed the bottle from him and hopped off his lap.

"Lu, give it back!" Cid said standing from his chair. She shook her head, made it look like she was going to take a swig; and then chucked the bottle at the farthest wall in the room. Cid let out a shout and a string of curses as the bottle shattered into a million pieces. "Wha' the hell yah do that fur!" He hollered his accent thickening.

"You do not need it!"

"The Hell I don't…you don't know what I need." He grumbled.

Luxaria glared at him, her hands clenching into fists. "You are a stupid man!"

"Who yah callin' stupid? Stupid!"

Luxaria shook her head, "That is all you can say to me?"

"I never loved you!" Cid shouted suddenly. Luxaria felt a pain in her heart, she was sure his words had wounded her. "You're too much of a pain in the ass…. Ain't nobody put up with yah." Then he added. "I was better off with the trashy blond."

"You don't know anything!" Luxaria spat at the blond man before her. Cid opened his mouth then closed it, Luxaria smirked coldly. She had the upper hand. "Yes, you know Shitto found me and … proposed to me last night." Luxaria smiled again, "And I told him yes."

Cid stared at her, blinking several times. He was completely dumbstruck. Luxaria was sure she'd broken him. He looked paler then she had ever seen him look. He was quiet for a moment. Then he shouted, "You barely know him, Lu! You hate that prick! He's the reason you're stuck here…"

"Why do you care, I obliviously mean nothing to you…and you no longer mean anythi-"

"So you're gonna marry some guy yah can't stand, just cause you're mad at me?"

"You slept with someone and I was in love with you!" Luxaria screamed at him. He stared blankly at her. She glared at him.

"Lu, if I could take back what happened-"

"What is done is done, Cid Highwind." Luxaria said heading to the door, she paused, hand on the door knob, and looked back at him. "By the way, I lied... I have yet to give Shitto an answer." She headed out the door.

After the door closed behind Lux, Cid turned towards the bed where Kasumi lay. She appeared to be asleep and to have not moved an inch, but she was wide awake, and sad. How could she help them fix this gap between them? Cid, not really thinking, broke the lamp on the nightstand, opened one of the drawers, and pulled out another bottle of some alcoholic drink. He plopped down on the chair next to Kasumi's bed and took a swig from the bottle before muttering about women and their inability to understand something or another.

Kasumi sighed and slowly sat up, but Cid didn't even notice for he was focusing too much on his drink and the pain in his chest. Kasumi looked herself over and a sigh escaped her. Why me? Kasumi muttered to herself mentally, why did the Goddess, Minerva, make me be cursed? And why am I a neko? I love cats, but turning into one? Ugh, I can't let my emotions get out of control. This sucks! Kasumi's ears flattened against her head and she looked down, miserable, and uncertain at the green blankets and yellow-green sheets on the bed. Why am I worrying about me at a time like this? What the Hell happened during the time that those "scientists" were experimenting on me? Why is the relationship between Cid and Lux falling to ruins? Why did Cid…? I thought they would be a great couple and… and… Damn it all! Kasumi glared at Cid, she wanted to know everything that happened. She opened her mouth to say "Cid, what the Hell happened?" but instead all that came out were several meows.

Cid looked up at the meowing and saw that Kasumi was awake. She was still a cat with multiple shades of blue coloring in her fur, her fur looked a lot like her hair had; her tail was big and bushy; and her ears were bigger than those of a typical house cat… but then again, Kasumi, in the form of a cat, was bigger than a normal house cat; almost double the size of one. Cid suddenly lunged forward, catching Kasumi by surprise, and started yelling questions at her that she couldn't answer due to a language barrier.

Kasumi, after ten minutes of Cid's yelling at her, started growling just as the door opened and a red haired male entered the room. Cid heard the door open and Kasumi's growl.

"What? Back ta give me more grief?" Cid yelled as he turned and threw Kasumi at the intruder. Much to the surprise of Cid, the intruder didn't move out of the way and ended up kissing Kasumi; both had a look that screamed surprise, shock, and horror.

Kasumi fell to the floor and disappearing in a cloud of smoke and a flash of light just before landing, causing Cid and Reno to cover their eyes. There was a loud thud and groan as Kasumi, now a human, landed on wooden floor.

When Cid and Reno opened their eyes, they saw Kasumi, completely clothed, laying on her back with a pained expression on her face. "Ouch," she muttered as she sat up. "Goddess, help me. Cid, did you really have to throw me at Reno?" Kasumi glared at the blond haired Captain. Cid still had a bottle of alcohol in hand, Kasumi noticed and her anger continued to grow. Oh no, you don't! Kasumi thought as she got to her feet and moving quickly snatched the bottle from Cid's hand.

"Kasumi, give that back!" Cid yelled his words slurring as he lunged for the bottle. Kasumi hopped backwards until she was out of the pilot's reach and set a chilling glare on
Cid.

"Hell no, Otousan," Kasumi snapped before rushing out of the room, Cid close behind; Reno looked after them for a moment before following. Reno couldn't help but wonder what she had said before leaving; he knew the first two words, they had been said in English, but the last word? It had sounded a lot like the words that Luxaria often used, but different… Maybe Yuffie could understand it?

They ran down the hallway and stopped briefly at the top of the stairs. Cid was still yelling at Kasumi, who yelled back in the foreign tongue. Cid took a step forward and Kasumi did a backflip and landed in a crouch at the bottom of the stairs, glaring up at Cid. "Cid, calm down, yo." Reno said, only to get a glare and a bit of a lecture from the drunken Captain.

Cid then ran down the stairs and Kasumi jumped backwards, moving deeper into the bar. Reno followed more slowly and stopped at the bottom of the stairs and sat down. Vincent sat in the nearest booth and just like everyone else was watching Cid and Kasumi. Tifa was behind the bar with Denzel and Marlene, they were making lunch. Yuffie and everyone else, minus Luxaria and Cloud, were sitting at various tables around the room. "Kasumi, give me back my drink!" was what Cid meant to yell but it didn't quite come out right. Kasumi shook her head and yelled back at him, she was speaking in what was called Japanese in her world. He lunged forward again, trying to get his drink; but Kasumi had jumped backwards, out of his reach.

After a few more attempts, Barret commented on how Kasumi was bouncing around a lot like Yuffie.

"Kasumi, what's going on, yo?" Reno questioned from his spot on the stairs. "I get what Cid is sayin' but -" He looked over at the little hyperactive ninja. "Yuffie, can you understand her?"

"Well, kinda." Yuffie scratch her cheek slightly. "She seems to be speaking a language similar to that of Wutai."

Reno laughed loudly which caused Cid to turn and look at the redhead. "What the hell is so damn funny?"

"Nothing," Reno said as Cid turned back to face Kasumi. "You getting what you deserve." Reno muttered under his breath.

Kasumi chuckled at that before jumping over Cid's head as he lunged again and ran into a wall. "You shouldn't be drinking alcohol, Otou-san!" Kasumi exclaimed before running towards Reno.

"She called him 'Father'?" Yuffie questioned slightly, her eyes wide. At this Reno's eyes widened in surprise as did everyone else who had been listening to Yuffie.

"Why?" the usually silent gunner of the group asked.

Yuffie shrugged, "I don't know but that's what she said."

Cid yelled something at Kasumi that was unintelligible and Kasumi shouted back at him. "Baka, baka, baka!" the next words to leave her mouth were said too quickly to be understood.

"I think she just called him 'idiot, fool, stupid'," Yuffie said, "But I couldn't make out the rest."

Reno grinned, "Hey, I'm not the only one who thinks he's an idiot, yo!"

Kasumi, looking over her shoulder at the red haired man, smiled before jumping to the right and slipped. As she fell, Reeve reached out to catch her. "Are you alright?" he asked. Kasumi's face turned bright red and she nodded.

"Give me that bottle, Kasumi, now!" Cid started forward.

"Hell no, Cid!" Kasumi snapped as she moved away from Reeve and the others before throwing the bottle and watching it shatter upon impact with the floor. She then turned back towards Cid and began yelling at them in Japanese. It was then that Kasumi realized that Cloud and Luxaria were missing. "Tifa-san, where is Rose-san and Strife-san?"

"Luxaria went out with Cloud to get something; no telling when they'll be back. You put those two girls together… Well, they'll be gone for a while." Tifa replied.

Reno made a face. "Hey, leave him alone! It's not like he can help it."

Kasumi laughed slightly, "Gomenasai, Reno-san." She smiled slightly at him before yelling at Cid some more about his drinking problem and for what he did to Lux.

"Hey, Cid. She wants to know how you could be so cruel to… her mother?" Yuffie translated.

"Her maw? I ain't got any idea what she's taking about." Cid shouted.

In reply to this Kasumi shout at him. "She says that you were arguing with her "maw" this morning." Yuffie translated.