Penance
©®™ Lt. Commander Richie
((Disclaimer: Back in the comfort zone! Well, maybe not for you guys out there dying of oxygen deprivation because you held your breath all week for the conclusion of this particular storyarc...))
Chapter 18
"Yuffie!" The monosyllabic scream bled into the name, the small blur of Second Class SOLDIER speed that was Mira barreling around the corner of the ShinRa Mansion with Cloud just barely behind her. The Kunoichi whipped around from her reinforcing of the walls, dropping her scroll and crouching down so as to catch the six-year-old. Cloud came up behind the rapidly tiring little girl, grabbing her around her middle and jumping over the Ninja she was about to hit. The two hit the ground rolling, diffusing all of Mira's strength and momentum. The petite girl attempted to throw the swordsman off with the strength her wiry frame could not possibly betray, but he held fast with superior strength.
"Mira! What's wrong?" Yuffie yelled over the din the small girl was making, kneeling down in front of her and pulling both the six-year-old and one of Cloud's arms into a tight hug. Mira hiccuped loudly, tears streaming down her face as she held Yuffie with the strength she had left. There wasn't much, her grip on the Heal Bell in her hand was slipping.
"Mr.-" The little girl stuttered around gasps for air, her legs nearly failing her after her super-powered run. "Mr. Vins'nt!" The Ninja hoisted Mira into her arms, disentangling herself from Cloud's arm in the process.
"I miss him too, kiddo. But why were you running?" The Heal Bell dropped to the ground, a single note ringing true with comfort. Mira tightly gripped Yuffie's sleeveless zip-up with barely-there white knuckles, fresh sobs wracking her body. Tifa came up behind them both, gently laying a hand on the crying girl's choppy hair. The six-year-old sniffled, shrinking away from the gentle touch.
"He- he went to sleep. Jus' like Mumma!" Yuffie clutched Mira tighter to her chest, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth so as to stop the flow of tears that threatened to spill. Cloud shared a look with Tifa across Yuffie's shoulder and Mira's head, nodding once. Gently, Tifa pulled the Kunoichi's arms away from the six-year-old she held and took her to her own shoulder; she gently bounced her and rubbed her back, crooning softly.
"Yuffie." Cloud said, watching as the Ninja crossed the camping area and pulled Vincent's cloak from the ground at the base of the dead Wutainese Maple, pulling her Conformer from the ground on her way back.
"I'm going." She said, gripping her weapon in a tight fist. Mira cried out, stretching for the Kunoichi in despair.
"No! Don' leave!" She screamed, dissolving into tears again. Yuffie smiled wildly, throwing her Conformer over her shoulder and closing her eyes. Two tears fell down her cheeks, dripping from her chin. She flashed a half-hearted peace sign at the six-year-old, trying and failing to be reassuring.
"Don't worry!" She called, her smile quavering. "I'll be back. I'll even bring Vincent!" Her shoes made vaguely-shaped impressions in the soft and still slightly wet ground as she turned tail and ran for the front of the mansion, the red cloak under one of her arms fluttering and snapping behind her. Mira broke into fresh tears, weak and tiny fists pounding Tifa on the chest. With a nod, the martial artist handed the little girl to Cloud, for fear of her strength returning. She grabbed tightly to Cloud's belts and straps going over his shoulders, sobbing into his shirt.
"She'll come back, you'll see." Tifa assured the six-year-old, stooping to pick up the Heal Bell from the ground. She brought it to her eye level, looking at it closely.
"I recognize that." Cloud said, awkwardly but gently bouncing Mira on one arm as she hiccuped into his shirt. "The little girl Mira was friends with, Aerith Zeit; That was hers. She gave it to Vincent when we left the Slums for here."
Tifa nodded, gently tucking the Heal Bell into the single pocket on Mira's outfit with her Materia. She then pulled the frayed red silk ribbon from where it was wrapped around her wrist, untying the small wrinkled knot at the end and then re-tying it around Mira's head. Even though it was tight, the ribbon still slid farther towards her forehead.
"Here. Set her down and get back to work, I can watch her. Cid needs your help." The martial artist said, holding her arms out. Cloud handed the six-year-old to her, smiling lightly and kissing the woman before tousling Mira's hair with one hand. Picking up his hammer from where it had fallen from his belt, Cloud made his way back towards the ladder up to the roof. Tifa gently sat Mira down on one of the broken chunks of masonry on the ground, hunkering down in front of her and putting a hand on her shoulder. With slow movements, the little girl pulled her Summon the Dead Materia from her pocket and held it in both hands, but her grip was lax and the sphere tumbled to the ground.
"Are you alright?" Tifa asked, picking up the Materia and handing it back to the six-year-old. Mira nodded, wiping her large eyes with her arm and holding as tightly as she could to her Materia. Her ribbon fell to her forehead, resting just above her eyebrows and obscuring part of the scar on her forehead.
"I'm okay." The little girl sighed, clutching her Materia tighter like a security blanket and sliding from the broken masonry she had been sat upon, landing on weak feet. Mira smiled shakily as she saw one of her favorite things, the flaming tail of Nanaki laying out from behind one of the tents. "Can I go see Nan'ki?" She mumbled, and Tifa smiled at her warmly.
"Sure." She nodded, pushing Mira in the correct direction with a guiding hand to her back. Mira looked up, Mako eyes shining with tears that threatened to spill.
"Yuffie's comin' back, right?" She asked for reassurance in such a pleading way, that Tifa couldn't help but smile wider- more reassuringly.
"Of course she is. Go see Nanaki." With stumbling footsteps that became more and more sure of themselves, Mira made her way to the large red lion basking in the sunlight.
Her footsteps echoed dully in the all-stone winding staircase, a metallic clang sounding every third step as her shuriken hit the stair above and rebounded. Fresh tears managed to find their way down the Ninja's face as she tried in vain to wipe them all away. The light in the passage below was filtered, the bulbs were burning at the last of their life and ready to flicker out. Yuffie clutched her Conformer tightly, kicking the wall in anger and making a small divot as rock dust exploded outward. She continued onward, brandishing her shuriken into the room she knew so well before herself. Nothing attacked it, and she deemed it safe.
"Vincent?" The Kunoichi asked, looking into the room. It was as black and as dark as it had been before, but she could still discern that the lid was gone from the coffin in the middle of the room. False hope welled up inside her, and with a smile she ran forward to the edge of the coffin. The sight that greeted her, however, was the same that had greeted Mira. With a scream of rage, Yuffie slammed the end of her Conformer into the ground and grasped the edge of the coffin in both hands, leaning over the still-slumbering gunman.
"Teme no bakemono!" She screamed, reverting back to Wutainese. Vincent still refused to move, sleeping deeply as his demons would allow him. Tears flew from her eyes as she blinked them repeatedly, trying hard not to cry out loud. "Why?" She whispered, sinking to the balls of her feet and resting her head on her hands that held tightly to the edge of the coffin. "Why!" The scream echoed down the hall as Yuffie finally began to cry, large sobs wracking her thin frame.
"This is... My penance." His voice was gravely, unused. The Kunoichi jumped to her feet, anger written across her features as tears fell from her cheeks.
"No! No, it's not!" She insisted, slamming a fist home on the gunman's chest in a vain attempt to wake him up. "You may think it is, but it isn't." Her fingers closed around the strip of white cloth on his arm, and she pulled it away and looked at the faded logo. With a sigh, she blew her nose on it and threw it behind her.
"I have done too many things wrong, my penance is my sleep." Vincent was not awake as he spoke, his voice even more monotonous than normal. Yuffie weakly pounded her fist on his chest again, eliciting nothing more than a hitched breath from the sleeping man.
"Your penance isn't your Leviathan-damnable sleep or this stupid old box, Vincent! It's Mira. Taking care of her. You probably thought I couldn't hear you all those nights ago back in Nibelheim, but I could. Back then, it seemed selfish to me that you were spending all this time with Mira just because you wanted to make up for everything you did wrong, but now you have to do it! You've gotten too far, you're in too deep; Mira loves you like the father she never had, Vincent!" The Kunoichi turned and sat on the cold stone ground, her knees tucked to her chest and the sleeping gunman's cloak clutched in her hands. She sat like that for a while, silent tears welling and falling from her eyes in a seemingly ceaseless tattoo.
"Why am I bothering?" She finally croaked, her voice raw from her screaming. "Here I am, talking to a sleeping man about a girl he only cares enough about to let down. Man, Yuffie, you sure know how to pick 'em." With a large sigh, the Ninja wiped her nose on her one long glove, pulling herself to her feet and turning to look down at the man sleeping in his lidless coffin.
"I'm sorry." His lips barely moved as he spoke, his voice seemingly coming from nowhere. Yuffie bit her lip, looking downcast as she rested her hands on the lip of the coffin again.
"You're so unfair." She finally decided, one hand moving to brush along the contours of Vincent's face much like a child would trace a picture. "Here I am, trying to stay mad at you, but it's just not working. I need to, though. For Mira's sake. For my sake."
"Yuffie." His mouth moved visibly that time, and Yuffie snapped her hand away from his face like it had been burned. He said nothing else, however, lapsing back into the silence of sleep. The Kunoichi gave a cry of anger, finally hauling off and slapping Vincent as hard as she could on the face. Her hand left an angry red print on his nearly translucent white skin, and with her other hand she reached down and picked up the red cloak from the floor. She threw it into the coffin, wrenching her Conformer from the ground.
"Fine! See if I care. Sleep." Yuffie paused her tirade and her slow gait towards the door, looking over her shoulder half-expecting to see Vincent standing there, buckling his cloak. But all she saw was the open coffin, gleaming darkly in the nearly nonexistent light. She stood there several minutes, trying to discern nonexistent figures of darkness in the equally inky blackness of the underground room, but there was nothing there. She groaned cheekily, letting her Conformer fall to the ground with a clatter and crash as she ran back across the room and leaned over the coffin, her hands resting on Vincent's chest as she stared him in the face.
"Listen. I promised that I would come back with you. Since I'm not going to sleep for eternity in a box, like you, I'm not going to go back empty handed." The Kunoichi grabbed the gunman's nose in one hand, squeezing a few times. His breaths were hitched for a moment, but he refused to wake up. It was then that Yuffie noticed the painful-looking red mark that was still on his cheek, she put her her own hand over the mark softly. "Ouch, man. Vinnie, I'm sorry, okay? But you're just being so mean to everyone, especially Mira. So I'm apologizing in advance, alright?" She asked, moving her remaining hand from the sleeping man's chest to the lip of the coffin. "Wait..." The Ninja paused, worrying her bottom lip. "Why am I apologizing to you? You never apologized to Mira."
Yuffie leaned forward, so far as to feel the shallow and barely-there breaths from the gunman on her face. She smiled lightly, still worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. A few tears dripped from her eyes, landing on Vincent's neck, before she closed the distance between them. She touched her lips to his lightly, the hand she kept on his cheek sliding back into his hairline. She pushed harder, closing her hand on the lock of hair she had grabbed. Suddenly, a single gloved hand was in her own hair and he was returning the kiss, albeit shyly and with hardly any motion. Still Yuffie pushed harder, trying to get him to respond. Finally, when he refused to be any more than chaste, she broke the kiss.
"I'm sorry." His red eyes shone with worry, with concern, with regret.
"I swear to Leviathan, Vincent, if you go back to sleep I will haul Red's furry ass down here and have him give you a good talking to." Yuffie suddenly became serious, her smile melting away. Her grip on his hair, which at one point had been almost loving, was now nearly ferocious.
"My sleep is my penance." He said, almost apologetically. Yuffie worried her bottom lip more, refusing to let go of his hair. The same was true for the otherwise-stoic gunman; his hand had not yet left the side of her head.
"You said it yourself, Vinny. Mira's your penance. Get out of the damn coffin before I pull you out by your hair." The Ninja commanded, giving a sharp tug to the hair she held. "I'm taking you back up there with me." Vincent remained silent, closing his eyes again. Yuffie clutched at his hair harder, leaning down once more and kissing him. He reciprocated with more force, his hand sliding from her head to the back of her neck. The kiss deepened, Yuffie pulling on Vincent's hair for all she was worth. He rose with it, sitting in the rosewood and velvet prison he had refused to leave and forcing the Kunoichi to sit on the lip. Almost apologetically, she was the first to pull away. Her hand slid from Vincent's hair, a few loose strands falling from her fingers into her lap. The gunman's metal gauntlet, which had moved from his chest to the side of the coffin, clenched. Wood splintered, and Yuffie smiled.
"You know I'm right." She chided, tilting her head to the side so that she caught Vincent's arm between her head and her shoulder. Her smile grew wider as she traced the fingers of one hand along his cheekbone, getting only the slightest hint of color from his skin.
"I know."
Once again, the afternoon had clouded itself over. The clouds looked ominous, gray and foreboding as they threatened to rain down upon the campsite outside the ShinRa Mansion. Mira sighed, her breath misting in the air, and pushed her hair ribbon up on her head. It promptly slid back down to just above her forehead, and she left it that way. Her fingers clutched her Materia tightly, starkly contrasting between white knuckles and cold red fingertips. Her back, however, was warm and fuzzy; she had Nanaki as a back pillow. The lion slumbered gently, his tail laying on the ground in a small circle of scorched earth.
"I'm alone." The little girl decided, voicing her opinion to the open air. The decision misted into the air in front of her, making her Materia seemingly glow brighter. Nanaki growled a bit, one of his ears twitching as he snuffed the ground. A rustling came from the bushes as several twigs snapped on the ground, Mira's head whipped around so fast at the sound that she had to pull hair from her face. A hulking gray wolf pulled itself from the undergrowth, long thick and fluffy fur whipping gently in the breeze. Mira smiled wildly, pulling herself to her feet and stowing her Summon the Dead Materia back in her pocket. Nanaki started, looking around for the small figure that had just left his side. He snuffed on the ground, and turned. Mira stood several feet away from the large gray wolf, unafraid.
"Get away from her." The lion ordered, getting to his feet and growling menacingly. The wolf turned its head and growled back, baring large fangs; several crisscrossing ropey scars bunched across the animal's muzzle as it did so, and Mira moved between the two warring parties.
"He saved me." She said, a sense of finality in her voice. She then turned to the wolf, running the last few steps and latching herself around its neck. The side of her face was lost in the wolf's downy neck fur, and as she sank to the ground the wolf did so as well. It protectively wrapped its paws around Mira's back, turning onto its side. The six-year-old giggled and snuggled into the hulking animal, pulling one its giant paws over her side like a blanket. Nanaki laid back down on the ground, watching carefully; his tail swished mesmerizingly back and forth as he waited for the wolf to make any sort of wrong move. He started as the wolf opened its mouth and turned its head towards the little girl in its grasp, but then it did nothing more than lick at a cowlick that she had in her hair.
"I don't trust it, I hope you know." Red growled, and Mira nodded solemnly.
"I know, but I don' care. He saved me from the guys that got Kyra, so I like him bunches." The six-year-old smiled, laying herself over the wolf's fur with one of its paws as a blanket. She was soon asleep, but the wolf wouldn't go. Nanaki watched intently, waiting for it to make any sort of move. Finally, it did, slowly but surely extracting itself from the jumble of small and thin limbs that was Mira Leirbach. Once again, the lion started forward as the wolf went to her head with its jaws open wide, but it only gently picked her up by the scruff of her neck.
"Put her down." Nanaki ordered, getting up on his paws. The wolf drug Mira over to the lion, bowing its head and setting her down gently at his feet. Its gaze was coldly blue and calculating as the wolf retreated backwards, never taking its eyes off the six-year-old at Nanaki's feet.
Take good care of her, cat; or else. The message conveyed was full of malice as the wolf growled, baring its fangs once more and making its ropey scars bunch across its muzzle.
"I always do." Nanaki nodded, setting himself down and curling up around the sleeping child at his feet.
AWROIGHT! Storyarc conclusion underway! T3h wolf of awesomeness is back, and -le gasp- it can talk? Mira has the Heal Bell that Aerith Zeit gave Vincent, but does it do ANYTHING besides heal?
No. Not really.
Q'aplA!
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ AND SAVE ME THE HEADACHE: There may not be an update next week. Me mam took mah computer and now I'm working one chapter ahead of posting. This one chapter ahead is halfway done. But don't worry, the story is kind of almost done. It's going to end when they find out who Mira's father is, and then I'll probably either write a sequel for Dirge of Cerberus or prequel for Before Crisis, World Crisis and Crisis Core.