I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 01: Chapter 26: The Don and I

"Yeah! She's a Turk, I'm royalty, you've got the frickin' Shinra army hunting you 'shoot on sight' and all you can do is obsess over marrying someone?" Yuffie agreed. She looked down at the henchmen "Seriously guys, your boss is a melonhead!"

At Yuffie's feet, under his breath, she could just hear one of the men say "The princess here may have a point."

"Totally." The other whispered back. "But, he's payin' for this. As long as the gil holds out he can be as dumb as he wants." Finishing the knots, they stood and walked to Coreno's side.

"Just you wait 'til my partners get here!" Elena shouted.

"Nonsense!" Coreno insisted. "No one will find us here! Now then, you men go back into town and arrange a room for me and my bride at the Turtle's Paradise!"

"Gosh boss, are you sure that's wise?" One of the men asked. "You'd be all alone up here. If they do find you..."

"Bah! I'm rich, I'll pay my way out if so! Now go!"

"Great." Yuffie thought to herself. "What was I thinking? I just wanted what was right for Wutai... Now I've lost my friends, put the planet itself at risk, and gotten captured by some kind of lecher king..." She sighed and wondered how she was getting out of this one.

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=== Resume First-Person P.O.V. ===

Following Coreno out the back door, we found ourselves in the city's main square. A broad expanse of cobblestone paving surrounded the Pagoda of the Five Gods. Coreno was nowhere to be seen. "Damn. Fast for a smarmy loser." Barrett said. "Which way'd he go?"

"I can get no scent." Red said. "This place is too open."

Then what're we gonna do?"

Before anyone could reply, Reno and Rude stepped out of the building behind us. "You're gonna stay outta our way yo." Reno said.

"Not happening." Vincent answered.

"Oh? And what makes you think we'll give you a choice in the matter? Besides, what'dya you care about the Don anyway?"

"I could ask you the same." I said. "I mean, sure, it's your job to catch or kill him. Fair enough. But you seem... personally invested..."

Reno stared at me for several moments before surprising me by admitting "Yeah. I guess you already saw the jerk's got Elena. Not that I care about her or nothin', but she's still a Turk yo. We gotta get her back. And you?"

Cloud shook his head. "Coreno's got Yuffie too. And Yuffie's got all of our materia."

Reno laughed. "Figured as much. So how we gonna handle this?"

Cloud replied "Same as before. We've already agreed to leave each other be for now, right? Let's just keep that up."

"Keep it up with the stipulation that if we find Coreno first, we won't harm Elena, and if you find him first you won't harm Yuffie." Red added.

Nodding, Reno said "Alright. That works. Let's get to it, yo."

"One more thing... Have you any idea where Coreno might have ran to?" Vincent asked.

Reno glanced pointedly in the direction of Da Chao. "Let's just say it's a place that stands out." He and Rude ran quickly towards the mountain.

"Do we follow?" Red asked.

"Do we have a choice?" Cloud answered. "Let's move..."

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