~Yuffie's POV~
After my and Cloud's argument, I went to the bunk room just for some peace and time to think. Why doesn't he care about us anymore? What did we ever do to make him want to die? Sighing, I sit down on the edge of the bed and rub my temples to soothe my pounding headache. Lost in confusion and hurt, I end up just staring at the wall blankly. Then I hear the sound of boots behind me, stepping slowly toward the edge of the mattress.
"Cloud, I'm not in a good mood. Go bother someone else."
"Don't worry, he's out bugging Mrs. Highwind," a voice sneers and I freeze. How... Not only Sephy came back, but now his buddies are here too?! I reach to my hip, my fingertips brushing over the throwing knife there.
"I wouldn't," I feel the end of Kadaj's double bladed katana on my back. Scowling, I pull my hand and away and stand.
"What do you want?"
"Only what Mother does," he smirks.
"That's not helpful at all," I scoff.
"Pack your bags and get ready to leave. Also, do me a favor and break up with Big Brother so that he won't be suspicious."
"How about no?" I frown. "I don't even want to know what'll happen if I go with you."
"I don't think you want to know what'll happen if you don't," he replies calmly, revealing a walkie talkie that I didn't notice before.
"Mama?" A small voice says. Kadaj holds the device out to me and I hesitantly take it.
"Kara?"
"Mommy! The bad man came again! And Miss Louise won't wake up, but Mar'ene said she'd be okay!"
"What?" I say just over a whisper, looking up and Kadaj. He smirks again and takes it back.
"You have the worst baby sitters for your children," he states. "But hurry up already. And don't get any ideas, you're the only person that can see or hear me at the moment. Go convince your miserable lover that you're sick of him and let's scadaddle."
"And she won't be hurt?"
"Not unless you don't comply."
"I hate you," I grit, pulling my suitcase out and shoving all my clothes, materia, and weapons in.
"The feeling is mutual, brat."
"Yuffie?" Cid's voice comes from behind me. "Whatchya doin, kid?" He can't see Kadaj... Curse you and your smartness, Sephiroth!
"Leaving," I force out, turning away from him.
"Why?"
"Cloud."
"He's kickin' ya out? Ya know he can't do that right? It's my ship."
"No, I'm sick of it all," I throw my hands in the air dramatically, fighting frustrated tears. Please catch my lie for once. Save me. "The whole death talk, the lies, the bitterness. I'm done."
"Maybe if ya just let 'im talk..."
"I have, and he just lies some more," I glare at the pilot. "I told you, I'm done."
"Ya don't need to tell me," he sighs. "What about his poor spiky.."
"He brought this on himself."
"Whatever," he shrugs, but I can see the confusion and worry in his icy blue eyes. Probably concerned for Cloud. Don't worry, Cidney. You're not the only one.
"Well, just one more to go!" Kadaj says too cheerfully and flops back on my bed. Not even thirty seconds later, Cloud bursts in.
"Yuffie, what...!"
"I can't do this anymore," I snap at him. Don't trust me. "The death thing, I can't... You're driving me insane!" Don't listen to a word I say. "You just go on and on... You don't talk to me about anything, you don't care, I can't..."
"Of course I care!" Please see through the lies.
"No, you don't! You want to freaking die and leave the kids behind and..." There's only one way to go about this... "You know what? Why am I getting on you about lies?" I grit for good measure. His eyes widen and he shakes his head.
"Yuffie, please..."
"I never loved you. I just... I needed a suitable and naive person to present to my father to keep him from bugging me and... You were there. You were so weak, you still are. So naive and stupid," I laugh darkly. Don't let me go.
I want to hold him tightly and cry, beg for him not to believe anything I'm saying. I'm lying, he has to know that! Right? When his heart breaks, mine snaps too. I can't lie to him like this, forcing myself to hurt him. It's something I promised him I'd never do.
"Go on," Kadaj mocks.
"Yuffie, stop it!" He demands. "You're lying!" Yes, you've got it. Just keep that attitude!
"Even now you're too desperate to realize it," I keep going, zipping my bag up. "There never was an us. It was you and me not being brave enough to tell you when Denzel was around because the brat would kill me. Honestly, I don't know how you couldn't tell on your own."
"This isn't like you," he says, still hanging onto that hope that I'm still with him. Keep holding on.
"This isn't like me? Cloud, you never knew me. You new a fake face that I put on to use you." I'm fighting the tears too, Cloud.
"So what? You just want to get a divorce or something?"
"Preferably," I shrug, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed. I can almost hear that delicate heart of his snap in half, the dangerous and sharp shards piercing his insides. One tear. Two. One more.
"Yuffie, please tell me you're lying. If this is a joke, it's not funny," he begs me.
"I'm being honest and, no, it's not funny." Don't believe anything, okay? I love you, you know that. I move around him with my back and head toward the kitchen. Kadaj follows behind Cloud, who's desperately trying to think or something to say that might bring me back.
"Where are you gonna go?"
"Shawn knew all about it. Guess I could go to him."
"What about our baby?"
"It's mine now," I shrug, filling a glass with water.
"Yuffie, cmon. Please, you're not making any sense." I know. I'm trying not to.
"Cloud, I'm leaving and that's final. I'm not coming back and nothing you say will change that. I never loved you, I used you, yatta yatta yatta. Happy now?"
A small scream passes my lips as I duck instinctively. His fist slams into the cabinet inches away from where my head was previously and he curses loudly.
"Fine! Just go! What the heck is wrong with you?! You can't play with people like that!"
"I...I.." I stutter and he pauses, staring at my terrified face and sighing.
"Yuffie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." He starts, swiping an unnoticed tear off my cheek. I shove his hand away in mock anger and step around him.
"Fine. I'm going," I scowl, glaring at Kadaj before storming out of the kitchen. Once we get to an empty place in the hall, I turn to look at him. "Can I just use the bathroom before we go to...."
"The forgotten city. You have three minutes and I'm inspecting it when you're done," he smirks and I nod, locking the door behind me. I've seen this be done in movies and read it in the few books I've actually taken an interest in. Unrolling a long strip of toilet paper, I look around desperately for a writing utensil only to find none. I sigh, discouraged, only to remember Tifa's liquid eyeliner. Please tell me she left it. And she did. So I quickly scribble my note and nod with satisfaction.
FORGOTTEN CITY. HELP.
~YUFFIE
Then I flush the toilet, roll the toilet paper back up, and turn on the sink for good measure. The second I open the door, Kadaj stomps past me and looks everywhere. I hold my breath until he seems pleased and comes back out.
"Here we go."
He grabs my arm and I look around reluctantly once more. You're doing it for Cloud and the kids. Avalanche. The babies Tifa and Vincent could be making at this moment. What? It's true! Then we vanish, appearing instantly in the forest of glowing trees. His grip tightens as he pulls me, my suit case rolling behind me. We end up at the pool Aeris was 'buried' in. Kadaj pulls me around into the building behind him and then shoves me in, locking the door behind him. I can already see his brothers and Sephiroth smirking proudly at him.
"Convinced her to do it then?" Sephiroth speaks first.
"Yup. Poor guy's ready to comply with your death wishes for him."
"What about Kara and Marlene?"
"You actually believed that?" Yazoo taunts. "Stupid humans."
I want to kick myself many times. It was a trick! I can't believe it! This is not okay!
"So you went through all that just to make him a suicidal tool?"
"You were the one that did it," Kadaj says with a shrug.
I bite my lip until I draws blood and glare at the floor. Kill them. I yank my Conformer out and slash it at them. The Remnants dodge it easily and Sephiroth simply steps to the side. When I comes back, I go straight for Kadaj. It gets him straight in the arm, and two of my knives get his brothers easily. Suddenly, I'm slammed back into the wall by my neck, someone clenching my throat so that I can't breathe.
"You'd better calm down, Kisaragi," Kadaj hisses in my face. "Wouldn't want to hurt your only memory of schmoopsypoo, would we?"
"It's Strife," I wheeze past his grip.
"If I remember correctly, you told him you wanted a divorce," he sneers. I fight back angry tears and shove him away, gasping for air.
"Be gone," Sephiroth says finally. The remnants vanish at his command. Ghosts? Powerful ones...
"What do you want with me?" I scowl.
"Nothing with you. It's all your ridiculous leader," he waves me off.
"So you'd waste the chance of revenge on me?" I call when he starts to walk away. Then he turns to smirk down at me.
"Now that'd hardly be an entertaining fight, now would it? No, I think I'll save it for when everyone watching will be able to see that creature growing inside you's little home."
"So what am I supposed to do? Just sit here until he decides that he wants to die? With the kids there, he'll want to live for them."
"Hardly. I have a feeling he'll havr Wallace or Highwind take car of them. Possibly Lockhart."
"Why do you call us by out last names?" I roll my eyes and sit against the wall. Why am I having a conversation with my worst enemy? No, my worst enemy is drunk Reno. But Sephy is a close second.
"A general's habit," he shrugs. "And I didn't think we were exactly friendly enough to be calling each other by first names."
"Okay, Crescent," I sneer.
"Her name is Jenova."
"For goodness sakes, Sephy! Your mother was a human!"
"Do not call me that."
"Does it offend you?"
"If you wish to hold your child at least once, I suggest you stop."
That shut me up, though I have no idea why I'm here. Why not just kill me? Cid's more likely to wipe his butt with the note than for Cloud to find it. Besides, he'll still be mad. It shouldn't be long until they find it though. There's six of them on board, and Shera is always cleaning the ship. I just hope Cloud will manage to be normal until they find me. Even then he might be mad, might think I meant it all.
~Cloud's POV~
I glare at the cabinet as she leaves the kitchen, fighting the urge to destroy everything on the freaking airship. I was so stupid. How could I have believed someone as young and immature as her had actually ever loved me? But she showed it. You saw it in her eyes. Can you fake a glimmer of the feeling in your eye? I don't know. I don't want to believe it. I can't accept it. Something is up, the way she started crying... She wasn't crying because I scared her, crap like that happened all the time back in Wutai. She was crying like she was utterly heartbroken at causing me pain. I hear a shuffle behind me and turn, hoping to find her running to my arms and apologizing a million times over just so I could hold her and tell her it was alright a million more. But it's just Shera. Shoot. I forgot she was in here.
"Cloud?" She frowns, inching toward me.
"What?"
"You okay?" I want to say yes, but that'd be a lie. "The lies! I'm done with it all!" So I shake my head dejectedly at the floor, inhaling shakily. "What just happened?" I just shake my head again, sitting at the table and resting my folded arms on top.
"Could I just be alone for a bit?" I request quietly and she nods.
"Yeah. I'll let the others know not to bother you."
The second the door closes, I break down and cry into my arms, my shoulders shaking. What did I do wrong? Why am I so stupid? Where is she going? Why does love hate me? Every time I think I'm done, a happy memory or something I regret doing to her comes up and it starts all over again. Something isn't right with that. I don't think Yuffie would do that to anyone unless it really was a prank. Then again, she said I never knew the real her.
"You alright, kid?" I ignore him and try to hold back the water that's pouring from my eyeballs. No such luck. "Hey, she'll be back," he says as gently as a Cid Highwind can.
"Nope," I finally spit bitterly.
"Why not?"
I force myself to tell him everything that happened, starting with the first fight. I don't know why I'm telling Cid of all people, but at least he's listening and not judging my puffy red eyes.
"Sounds bad," he states, leaning back in his seat and lighting a cigarette. For once, I don't mind the smell.
"No duh."
"So that brat's just a brat, huh?"
"I guess."
"Boy, I'd say she was either messin with you, or we've all been seein things, cuz nobody looked at you like she did."
"Maybe it was just a face she managed to pull," I frown at the tabletop.
"Maybe. But you ain't gonna sit around and mope all the time, correct? First, yer gonna fix my cabinet. Then yer gonna show the kid you can do without 'er."
"I've been thinking about the S-cells." He drops his caring expression and pulls up a glare.
"He's lyin', Cloud. I wouldn't..."
"I'm not you," I snap. "I can make my own decisions, dang it!"
"Calm down, I was just sayin it's not a good idea."
"Does it matter? I honestly don't care if he's telling the truth or not. What if I want this?"
"Oh gosh, now he's so desperately in love with a liar that he'd rather die than see another day," he sighs sarcastically to himself. "What about yer kids?"
"Tifa would do anything to have Denzel around again."
"Kid," he groans. "You ain't dyin, okay? We won't let ya."
"How would you stop me?" I raise an eyebrow.
"I dunno," he shrugs. "How would I?"
"You wouldn't," I stand.
"Where do you think your goin?"
"Gotta blow my nose," I mutter, heading toward the bathroom. The pilot probably doesn't believe me and huffs something about gun sounds.
"Ugh," I grumble. "There's black smudges all over the freaking toilet paper."
I reach for another sheet because my nose is still all stuffed up and freeze.
FORGOTTEN CITY. HELP.
~YUFFIE
Yuffie, you genius! I knew something wasn't right! I grab the note and run back to Cid.
"Cid!"
"Don't wanna know what came out yer nose holes," he says boredly.
"Look! She left a note!"
"What, is this some... Holy shoot, you were right kid. Guess we gotta go save her behind now, right?"
"Yeah," I nod.
"Let's get going then," he sighs.
She was lying! I knew it! Though some part of me can't help but wonder if she really meant it.
YAY! SHE DOESN'T ACTUALLY HATE HIM! OH KADAJ, WHY MUST YOU SUCK SO MANY CHICKEN WINGS?
V
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