You can take the girl out of wutai, but not wutai out of the girl. After the war, Yuffie is married to Sephiroth in a peace treaty. Novella.

WOW THIS HAS BEEN SITTING ON MY HARD DRIVE FOR YEARS. I finally uploaded all my stories onto a box account and then promptly forgot about them - but the best part about the cloud is that, well depending on your provider, it lives on forever. I can't believe 20k plus words have been sitting there for so many years doing absolutely nothing. Also, this is fairly unfinished, :0

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1.

There was something mystical about Wutai, even when the land was conquered, it retained its elusive qualities, as if it would never quite belong to anyone other then itself.

At least, that was what Sephiroth thought, standing at the verge of the end, waiting for the treaties to be signed, for the pictures to be taken, and for ShinRa to haul its forces out of the once great nation and back across the sea.

Wutai was to become a tourist attraction, and, most likely, a Reactor would be built and the splendor of the distant nation would be lost in the waning resources and the waste of ShinRa. It was sad, almost, to see the last frontier to be caught in the hands of the giant monopolizing electric company. There was an ethereal beauty to the place, the paper lanterns sifting in the trees and the fresh, clean air that mingled with the fire-colored leaves.

Originally, Genesis was meant to take the Wutai campaign to its end.

But the First Class Soldier had been having health issues—health issues, the mere thought of it frightened Soldier to its very core—which should have been impossible, considering the amount of mako which ran through their veins. Regardless, Sephiroth had been dispatched instead, and the long attrition was finally called to an end almost ten years after it had started.

The war had certainly taken its toll on Wutai.

Angeal found the great general standing among one of the many shrines of Wutai, a cobbled pass leading to a staircase that descended up the side of Da Chao mountain, a bright red pagoda perched at the top, strung up with dim paper lanterns.

The man looked odd, standing at the foot of it with his long sword unsheathed in his hand, silver hair almost taking a life of its own with the silent wind. He looked as if he didn't belong with the moss covered stone statues lining the stairs, the bright red of the torii he stood under or the papery fire of the lanterns.

It didn't take long for Sephiroth to feel him standing behind him.

"And the treaty?" He asked by way of greeting.

Angeal's face tightened.

"You aren't going to like it."

Considering that Sephiroth hardly cared either way what ShinRa did with this country, he supposed that Angeal was only speaking on behalf of the company. Which was absurd, considering that they had won their campaign here. ShinRa should be calling the shots here, and Wutai should be groveling at its feet with disbelief and silent anger. And regardless, Sephiroth didn't care if the treaty benefited the electric company or not.

So Sephiroth smiled thinly. "We'll see."

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2.

Zack was still rubbing his head at the thought of it all.

It wasn't like Sephiroth didn't have the war tightly fisted in his hand and suited to his every whim or anything, so the Second didn't understand why Lazard sent them as back up to Wutai anyway. But he did, and Zack and Angeal invaded Fort Tamblin, one of the last strongholds of Wutai.

To be honest, Zack was a little in awe of the architecture, the great stone walls and spiraling pagodas, the illustrious red coloring Wutai was so fond of and all that gold trimming.

But he couldn't stop to enjoy the local architecture, he had a mission, after all, and this might be his straight way ticket to First, so he needed to impress.

He had been five steps up to the entrance of the Fort, when he saw a young ninja standing in front of him.

She wasn't dressed as the guards he had been fighting, and there was something stern and defiant in her eyes. She must have been much stronger than anyone else he'd fought so far—she had one of those shoulder guards he'd seen on some of the Wutai elite, what did they call it again?—and she looked dangerous with all those weapons lined up on her belts, shuriken in hand. Hell, he'd thought, as she flipped backwards onto her hands and released a spray of knives he nimbly dodged, she probably lead the whole damn army.

And Zack's prediction was right about her.

She couldn't have possibly even came up to his shoulder, but she fought a lot stronger than Zack had expected. She was fast too, like lightning and cunning and quick on her feet—or her hands, as she seemed to fight quite well on those too—and after she had left, when fighting those anti-Shinra monsters, he'd freak out to find his pockets empty of all his materia.

Eventually, she sprung away from him, looking like she was ready to up the ante until a large bird circled above her, cawing twice.

She looked up then, eyes steely, sheathing her katana into its holster on her belt.

It must have been some sort of summons. Zack knew that Sephiroth was beginning his campaign on the main village in tandem with Zack and Angeal's attack on Fort Tamblin, so that could have been what it was for. Either way, it must have been important, because she looked like she was forfeiting their fight.

"Don't go in there." Were her words of advice.

Why was a Wutain shinobi elite going to help out a ShinRa Soldier?

Zack frowned stubbornly. "Why shouldn't I?"

She shook her head, looking annoyed. "Fine, don't listen to me then. But you'll regret it!"

Perhaps if Zack had his materia in hand, he'd have been a bit better off against all three of the monsters in that pagoda. But he'd had to fare without it, and almost lost in the process. Luckily, Angeal had rescued him and fought off the last one. Even used that clunky Buster Sword of his!

Sephiroth's attack had been just as successful—if not with more casualties—and the following day Wutai surrendered to ShinRa.

The week to come was mostly a lot of ShinRa propaganda filling the news, Sephiroth's face as the hero of the Wutai War on every channel of the news, Zack promoted to First Class and Angeal quite proud of him. Regardless of all the inner conflict going on at ShinRa at the moment, everyone in the company was pleased to see the decade long war finally come to an end.

While President ShinRa himself didn't come to sign the treaties, Rufus did in his stead, along with a convoy of Turks and ShinRa executives, including Lazard.

The good President was on the line as the treaties were being drawn, in one of the large studies of Lord Godo's sprawling palace, but aside from that, the entire thing was kept in the upmost secrecy.

In fact, Zack didn't even know of what the treaties even entailed until Angeal came out of the meeting, looking grim faced and a little sick.

Sephiroth had declined to attend—apparently, even as the winning General and face of the war, he was allowed to skip shit like that if he wanted to—and Angeal went instead, leaving Zack to maunder the palace lonely and bored without him. He could've sworn he'd seen that ninja girl again, but if he had, it was a barest glimpse before she took off again into the shadows. Those elite ninja were tricky like that; even though ShinRa had won the war, he didn't think they'd ever be able to fully divulge the shadowy nation of all its secrets.

"What's up?" Zack asked, wondering why Angeal looked like someone had killed his puppy.

Angeal shook his head. "Just concerned over all the stuff that's going on in there."

"Not good for ShinRa?" Zack scratched his head. How was that possible? They won, didn't they?

Angeal sighed. "No, no… it's good for ShinRa, just not good for…" He trailed off. "This whole war has been gathering up some serious bad PR since it started, and even with it ending it hasn't helped much. The people of Wutai are angry, understandably, and if ShinRa's going to want to use this place as some sort of tourist attraction they're going to have to find a way to appease the people."

"Yeah?" Zack looked confused. "But how are they supposed to do that?"

Angeal, again, looked a bit sick. Or perhaps, remorseful. "Well, that's the thing…" The official document in hand, Angeal decided it would be better for Sephiroth to read it himself.

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"I'm getting married."

Echoed Sephiroth, flatly, and almost too impassively, face ossified into a terrifyingly blank expression.

Angeal shifted his weight nervously. He hated to be the bringer of bad news, especially to someone like Sephiroth. One never knew how he'd take it.

"Yes." No point in trying to make it sound any better then that. "A betrothal between you and Lord Godo's daughter was part of the agreement."

"That's absurd." Sephiroth hissed, looking a bit repulsed. "The reports said that she was—

"Fourteen, yes." The dark haired First didn't seem too pleased with it, either. Sephiroth was turning twenty-one. That was almost seven years difference.

The General looked away, angrily. Angeal could see the tense lines of his face where normally there was nothing but cool indifference.

The man had every right to be angry.

It was his life they were dictating, ever since the beginning. Sephiroth was the only one of them that was completely ShinRa property. He had been since he was a baby, apparently, while at least Angeal and Genesis had their own families, last names even. Sephiroth never had the luxury of that. He hardly had the luxury to make his own decisions, even as the General of the goddamn army.

Here was another being plainly taken from him.

There was a few moments that Masamune shook so hard from his wrath that Angeal thought it might break at the hilt. Instead, one of the rock statues at the base of the shrine slid cleanly in half, the only sign of Sephiroth moving was his outtake of breath and the subsequent halting of the sword's shaking.

He sheathed the monstrous weapon, and walked past Angeal without another word.

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3.

Yuffie could remember when Wutai was beautiful.

Before the war, every year, the village would gather to mouth of the Nakano river, where the rapids were so clear that it looked like small mountains on the flesh of the water. Colorful lanterns were streamed across the trees, crisscrossing over the river, and the people of Wutai, all dressed in beautiful kimonos and yukatas, would wave their fans and clap as the festival began and the boats full of flowers would float down the river. The best part was when one fell over, and the flowers were streamed against the current. It was sort of a test, to the strongest boat, as all the children participated in their assembling to gauge them against the others on the day of the festival. But mostly, it was a testimony to Wutai's strength.

The Nakano river was notorious for being unconquerable. One day, it was calm and lazy, and the next, it had flooded all the farm lands and was raging angrily against its banks, spraying water everywhere and moving so fast it looked like Leviathan tearing through the continent.

Yuffie thought it all very beautiful, but mostly she enjoyed stealing fried unagi from the vendors and she especially loved the smell of fried food.

Even the elite ninja, who were usually dressed in dark garb and stuck to the shadows, walked in colorful clothing and smiled. One even won a kingyo for Yuffie. The young princess had been so enthralled by the quick movement of the man's hand—the paper catcher nothing but a swath of color as it moved so fast—as he dipped it in the small pool she almost didn't realize he'd caught a fish until it was flopping about in the center of the paper. She'd been so awed that she vowed to become a great ninja, and do the same one day.

She carried it in a small plastic ball the whole evening, holding it against her like it was some sort of priceless jewel.

She remembered her kimonos, too.

Every year she wore a different one, more vibrant then the last.

Yuffie never cared for them, as they constricted movement and for a budding ninja like herself, she needed the flexibility to climb trees, get into trouble, hide under stalls as vendors came after her and their stolen goods, and saving the world. But they were pretty, and she always looked more like a doll then a boy, as all her friends liked to tease her about looking.

It was the only time of year that she ever donned something other then shorts and ninja clothes, and it was almost a bit of a novelty.

Her mother used to tell her she looked more beautiful than anyone else in them.

She wondered, dully, if Sephiroth thought the same.

The Nakano river looked dead and tamed beneath her.

It had never looked so lifeless—so broken—and beneath her boat it almost seemed to be mourning the loss of its only daughter, being sent right into the arms of the awaiting demon, who stood almost carelessly at the banks. Yuffie so fervently wished that it would up rise, as it had done so many times as she played with pebbles on its banks, and knock the man right over with the great spirit of Leviathan.

But, like Wutai, the insurmountable obstacle of her childhood was dull and tamed.

Sephiroth tilted his head up.

She looked like some sort of ethereal queen, floating down the river in the grandest boat of them all, purple orchids strung up like lanterns in her hair ornaments, Uchikake a bright, fiery red (not white, because red was ShinRa color) and obi the color of the pink yukatas she used to wear, back before the war when the festival still went on yearly. The flower boats around her were filled with Wutai's most prized and expensive flowers.

She pleaded, silently, for the river to at least swallow her whole, if not take down the awaiting party of ShinRa with her.

Later, as she stood beside Sephiroth as he spoke to one of his comrades, looking like a delicate and eerily silent wallflower, she'd hear that it had taken three spells to calm the raging waters enough for the ceremony.

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4.

Yuffie hadn't been called the greatest thief of all time for no reason.

The wondrous White Rose of Wutai was known notoriously for her ability to steal anything. Once, she'd even stolen the giant jewel off of a statue of Da Chao's head in her mother's garden, as her mother hosted a party inside it. Kasumi had been so shocked to see it missing, that she actually began to laugh. Hell, if it was humanly possible, she'd be able to steal the Da Chao mountain straight off of Wutai.

Tomorrow, the ShinRa party would embark back on the journey to Midgar after all the ceremonies and official duties were taken care of, and Yuffie Kisaragi would join them.

She hadn't seen her father since she'd heard the news of her betrothal—too angry with him, for one, even though she knew that he was heartbroken to see ShinRa take away yet another thing he loved—but knew that he must be a broken, shell of the man he had been.

Even with a ShinRa General sleeping two rooms down from her (thankfully, they didn't have to share a room, or consummate, for that matter, until she was of age) she was still a ninja, and a thief, so sneaking out of the palace was easy enough.

Dressed in her Shinobi garb, she made her way to one of the many offering shrines that dotted the great mountains of Wutai, standing in sharp relief of the dwindling, starlit sky. They rose with acute peaks, and the vertical climb up them was treacherous for anyone who wasn't aware how.

The Leviathan shrine was the highest, and most beautiful shrine in all of Wutai.

Consequently the most tedious to get to, and while well worth the strenuous activity, sometimes made her dormant motion sickness reappear.

Ever since Yuffie had become a ninja of Wutai, it was sort of like her own rite of passage to climb to the top of the Leviathan shrine summit, just to prove she could.

She'd miss it, surely.

The sun was a dim, benign presence that drew gold at the cliff edges of the mountain, and Yuffie sat in the lotus position, praying to the gods to give her safe passage; and to forgive her.

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5.

Come morning, Sephiroth found that the room of his new charge—he didn't quite want to say wife yet, because that was just a tad repulsive, all things considering—was barren and empty of any signs of life.

He was surprised, and a bit impressed that the young ninja had managed to sneak past him, as he was sure she was in her room last night.

He went to breakfast without her, dressed in a plain white yukata that barely made past mid-shin. He and the ShinRa representatives all lived in the illustrious main palace of the Kisaragi house, set in a very Wutain style. The hallways all looked upon one of the many gardens, and at night, the only sound was the dull shuffling of footsteps and the echoing of the deer scare as it filled with water, and poured out again.

Lord Godo, the official head of house still, welcomed them all 'graciously' to his home, giving them each their own room in his main house as well as permission to dine with the royal family. Considering that his wife had been murdered through the course of the war, and his daughter had gone missing that morning, it meant he and his advisors against the ShinRa executives and Soldiers in this domestic battleground.

"Ah," Began Lazard, setting down his chopsticks—how the man became adept at them so quickly, no one really knew—and breaking the terse silence. "I believe we are missing someone. Where has young Yuffie gone?"

Godo looked up then, startled out of his reverie. He, once a seasoned warrior, had begun to look more and more withdrawn as ShinRa lingered on his shores. Sephiroth didn't think that it would change even as they left, taking with them the last part of his life.

All heads turned to the silver haired General.

He lightly placed his chopsticks down (they weren't doing him much good, anyway, as he didn't know how to use them) and shrugged visibly. "She was not in her room this morning."

"That's absurd!" Cried one of the ShinRa executives. Most likely part of the PR branch. "We leave come sundown! Has anyone seen her?"

The fray began to divulge into thinly veiled threats against one another, as the Wutain advisors blamed ShinRa, and ShinRa blamed the Wutain for 'stealing' their charge as well as going against their agreement. Angeal and Zack looked cowed, staring at their food. For his part, Lazard didn't mean to have caused all this, he seemed to have been just genuinely curious and attempting to start conversation, and he picked at his tamago with a sour looking face.

Sephiroth took it upon himself to excuse himself, leaving his breakfast completely untouched. Not that he wanted to eat very much of it, anyway. It was all Wutain delicacy, rice, miso soup, salted tamagoyaki... and while he did enjoy Wutain, he seemed to have misplaced his appetite.

He supposed he might as well pack what little he had, instead of listening to the two warring states accuse themselves.

On his way back to his room, he noticed her.

He wouldn't have, had that shishi odoshi not been aggravating him. It was a new sound to him, and while most people found it soothing, for a Soldier who had been trained to snap to awareness at the drop of the pinprick, the hollow sound the bamboo made might as well have been a missile dropping every time it hit the ground. Each time he heard it, his head would involuntarily snap to the sound of the noise.

This time was no different.

Yuffie Kisaragi, the very object of the discussion that was tearing apart the breakfast table, was standing silently on the koi pond bridge, looking like some sort of wraith.

She had donned another one of those Wutain dresses—kimono, were they called?—this one was dyed a deep purple, that eventually turned lavender as it pooled around her sandaled feet. The sash was a startling white, which matched the strange stick-like hair ornament that kept her short locks up. Like the one she had worn at the… ceremony (he couldn't quite call it wedding yet, either) the ends of the stick had these ball-like colored glass attached to them.

She seemed to be staring morosely at the bright orange fish in the pond, and Sephiroth would have never known that she had ever even been doing anything but strolling around the gardens had it not been for the slip of her collar to reveal the ninja garb underneath.

He smirked.

No flush on her smooth alabaster cheeks, and no guilt in her wide, gray eyes.

He seemed to have underestimated her.

"You've caused quite the uproar." He said by way of greeting. "They seem to believe you've been kidnapped."

Yuffie must have found this amusing, as there was a small tilt to her heart-shaped lips. Sephiroth had been told she was quite the mischievous one, even though it wasn't bellied on her youthful, doll-like face.

"No," She turned her head then, looking down at the fish once more. Her eye seemed to catch on a black and white one. "I've just been strolling the gardens."

It was probably the most she'd ever said to him, excluding the bullshit lies which escaped both of their mouths that day on the river. Even at the breakfast table, the only meal that they seemed to share (as she almost always found a way out of the other ones) she may as well have been a ghost numbly eating her food beside him, for all the conversing they did.

He shifted his weight.

He was never one for public speaking, or conversation in general, and he had no idea what to say to her.

He clearly felt bad for her, almost as much as he did for himself, as she, more than anyone—even him—didn't deserve this. She was fourteen, and had a lot more to live for then being tied to the enemy of her people for the rest of her life. For her part, she seemed to take this well, understanding what it meant for Wutai above what it meant for her.

The deer scare dropped again, and his head immediately snapped to the noise, and his arm grabbed for a sword that wasn't there.

He glared at the elaborate bamboo waterfall, before turning back to Yuffie.

She was smiling at him.

"Are you all packed?" He asked, for nothing else to say.

The smile disappeared, and he knew it was the wrong thing to say.

"As much as I'll ever be." She sighed, looking lost.

Sephiroth wondered what it was like to have a home. He never had one, and perhaps that was a good thing.

At least it could never be taken away from him.

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6.

Sasuke was Yuffie's best friend.

Before he was a ninja, he was just another boy in the village who enjoyed her presence. Most of them did, as she was a girl, but she had earned her right to play with them after stomping through the mud to attempt to attack a Jayjujayme that had wandered down from the mountains.

She hadn't done much against it, but she staved it off with her rabid war cries until the shinobi came down from the trees and the monster was no more.

At the Leviathan festival, they used to steal starfish Chuanr from vendors when they weren't looking.

Yuffie had always been better at it then he was, but he was always the one who lit off the kingyo hanabi, because she was always too scared.

Once, when they were eleven, they connived a firework vendor to give them the large ryuu hanabi he had in stock, and they set it off upstream during the lighting of the lanterns.

It the biggest firework they had ever seen, although that may have been because they were standing right beneath it, and Yuffie's ears rang for days and she singed off her eyebrows, but it was well worth it to see the giant lights of fire spread through the sky like lines of stars.

As she and the rest of the ShinRa party boarded their enormous airship back to Midgar, she wondered if Wutai would begin the Leviathan Festival anew, now that the war was over.

She was out in the balcony that roped around the ship, staring down into the beauty of Wutai that became farther and farther, trying not to get sick.

"Are you okay, miss—?"

A darkhaired Soldier was leaning over her, one hand on her back, the other bracing them on the railing. His eyes were unnaturally bright, and Yuffie reeled away from them.

"I'm fine." And then, petulantly, "Go away."

She had been diplomatic up until then, standing strong and silent, trying to channel her inner-strength for her people and her father, but seeing Wutai so far away broke something inside of her, and she couldn't keep the façade up anymore.

The man pouted. "Awwh, don't be like that!" And then, with a sheepish grin. "I didn't catch your name, by the way!"

"It's Yuffie," She clutched her stomach, looking like an angry cat. "And don't act like you don't know who I am."

She was the only girl, not to mention, the only one dressed in fancy Wutain clothes. She stared reluctantly at the near floor length furisode. It was hard to think she was married now—that meant the sleeves would have to be trimmed.

"That's true." He rubbed his head. "But this is the first time I've spoken to you face to face!"

She watched him, a bit coolly. Zack supposed that it was probably because he was ShinRa. He wouldn't like himself very much either, if he was in her position. "And you are?" She asked.

"Zack Fair, First Class Soldier!" He said with so much bravado Yuffie almost smiled.

"First Class?" She tilted her head, smiling wryly. "That's crazy. Someone as dumb as you? Who would walk into a monster filled pagoda even when warned against it?"

"Hey—wait that was you?" Zack guffawed. He looked her up and down.

He remembered the great kunoichi, standing imperiously at the top of the steps, sneering down at him. Armed to the teeth with those crazy Wutai-acid dipped weapons and tons of pointy things, hair flowing in the wind. It was hard to see her, although the resemblance was clear, in the defiant, but dolled up version in front of him.

"You're so tiny!" He laughed, and she frowned, making a move for him before she got sick and covered her mouth.

"Hey…" He rubbed her back soothingly. "You're not gonna get sick, are you?"

She gave him a flat look. "What do you think I'm out her for?"

"Do you get motion sickness?" He tilted his head, before busting out into laughter and her blushing face. "How is that possible? Aren't you a ninja?"

"Of course!" She hissed at him, before saying in a lower voice. "But don't tell anyone."

"Why not? That's cool—how old are you again? Those guys are crazy good fighters." He blinked. "Wait, do you mean ShinRa doesn't know?"

She had the decency to look a bit guilty.

Zack eyed her in a whole different light, backing away cautiously. "You're not planning to attack us… are you?"

Yuffie looked at him like he was stupid. "I'm one person." She pointed out obviously. "One teenage girl. I could hardly take down the giant company which took down all of my people."

Zack looked cowed. "Well yeah.. that's true."

Whatever Yuffie was about to say was caught up by the abrupt noise from behind them, which sounded a bit like a giant explosive bomb being dropped, followed by a series of snapping, fizzling noises.

Yuffie's mouth dropped open, and she whirled around, regardless of what the motion would do there stomach, and watched with awestruck eyes as the darkening sky was lit up with a kaleidoscope of bright lights.

Dazzling dragons grew to life as ryuu hanabi took to the sky, followed by bright circles of popping light, spreading and swirling around the airship like some sort of funnel of fire, and Zack was near screaming at the sight of them.

They dwindled out, one by one, and left the sky looking dark and smoky in its wake.

Yuffie rubbed absently at her eyes, realizing her makeup was going to be smudged.

"Seishiki ni sayonara." She whispered to the darkened country.

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7.

Hollander must have cured Genesis, because the man wasted no time in berating Sephiroth for stealing his campaign, before smugly supposing that it was a good thing, as that meant Genesis didn't have to be wed to the pubescent daughter of the Wutain empire. Even Angeal found his goading in bad taste, and reprimanded him sternly until the redheaded Soldier had the decency to look at least slightly apologetic. For all his bravado, Genesis did seem to be a little sympathetic for him, after Angeal spent a good hour lecturing him about it.

Sephiroth had seen very little of Yuffie since they got here.

Obviously, ShinRa wasn't about to dish out the expenses of her living and utilities, claiming it was Sephiroth's responsibilities as the—he swallowed thickly at the thought—husband. Not that Sephiroth minded, it wasn't like he used his paycheck anyway, and his rooming at ShinRa consisted of almost a whole floor of the building to himself filled with unused rooms anyway.

He hadn't seen a wink of the Wutain princess since they got here, and wasn't sure exactly how to proceed.

It wasn't like he had prior experience with wives, or women in general, so he had nothing to base it on.

He supposed she'd have to come to him, and he could only try to make himself as available as possible.

He started with having breakfast in his house, instead of at the office or on the helicopter ride to his missions. He figured it was an important meal in Wutai culture, as it was the only one in which ShinRa and Wutai shared together. The only issue was that he couldn't cook at all, so his breakfast mostly consisted of power bars, water, or whatever instant meal he could dig up, and not the luxurious ones that he been fed on the island.

Sometimes he'd take his work home, and sit around and read through files and sign papers at the kitchen table, wondering if she'd come out.

She didn't, but he supposed it was worth the effort, as when he was tired or too bored with his work, he could go to his room and sleep instead.

After spending an entire day at home, and not seeing even a shifting shadow in his peripheral vision, he decided enough was enough and he'd drag her out if he had to. The last he saw of her, which was almost a week now, was when he'd opened the door after their long ride in the airship, and she'd scuttled underneath his arm and made straight for one of the empty rooms. A couple grunts brought her bags—which were very little, considering this was a permanent move—and he'd sort of made a vague gesture to the hallway of rooms and left it up to them to find her.

His house, which consisted of almost a quarter of the entire fifty-fifth floor, was split in two. From the main door was the kitchen and the living room, and on the left was a hallway of rooms, and on the right was a hallway of rooms. The windows lined the farside of the wall. Suffice to say there was only one room that ever saw any use, and that was his, all the way on the far side of the right hallway. He couldn't even recall the last time he'd opened another of the doors.

He threw open the first door, and found it as empty as it had always been. The same could be said for the second, third, fourth, and fifth. On the sixth, he opened it with significantly less force then the rest of them, and found nothing but a pile of bags, and the untouched ShinRa issue bed and nightstand.

He stared at it, shocked, for a few moments, until he caught movement on the far wall.

The curtain swayed in the Midgar breeze, the window wide open and bringing in a dulled sunlight from the pollution.

She was gone.

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8.

Yuffie liked Reno.

He had a foul mouth and a Midgarian accent, and he sort of sashayed when he walked, but he had a good set of legs on him and always managed to find her eventually, no matter how much she leapt or dove or turned.

The Turks had been tailing her ever since Sephiroth called in that she'd been missing.

But Yuffie was a ninja, first and foremost, and it was going to take a hell of a lot more then a couple chaps in suits to find her.

She wasn't exactly running away—where would she go? Back to Wutai, who would then be blamed for disobeying the terms of agreement?—rather, exploring the enormous, sickly looking city.

It was Sephiroth's fault, anyway. Honestly, he gave her a room with a window, and expected her not to use it? She was a ninja, she could walk on walls! All it took was a hop skip and a jump and she was out of the ShinRa headquarters and down onto Upper Plate. Not that she liked upper plate very much. It wasn't hard to pickpocket an unsuspecting rich guy and use the money to board a train down to the slums.

And the slums, well, no one was every going to be able to find her there.

She spent a lot of time just perusing the streets, looking at all the crazy stuff that made up Midgar, the stuff no one really paid attention to, like the collage of accents that made up the Midgarian one, the cheese flavored ice cream that was sold around Sector 7, all the black market goods in Wallmarket. Exploring lower plate Midgar gave her time to think, and more importantly, time to be free.

And Reno let her do that.

He caught her once, or, not really caught her, more like found her. She had been in a weapons shot, and had already slyly stuffed a couple of shuriken and kunai into her pockets, when he had found her.

He let her go, though.

Gave her fair warning that Sephiroth had sicced the dogs on her, and that she should be careful cause the Turks were on the job.

She gave his warning dull notice, as honestly, those guys couldn't find her unless they got lucky, and bid him farewell.

The next time he found her was in a tea shop in the Wutain section of Sector 8. She'd stumbled across it when a woman in line at a grocery market began to speak to her quietly in Wutainese. She was old, and if she had recognized Yuffie as the princess, she didn't say anything of it.

The Wutain district was filled with immigrants who migrated when ShinRa blocked off trade from Wutai and the rest of the world with their barricade. As Wutai made their money off of trade, and the sea, this had been detrimental to the economy, and many had moved to the giant capital in hopes of making money. Obviously, this was a far flung dream.

But Yuffie loved this little piece of home more than anything else, aside form her home itself.

The dull, cracked buildings were lined with lanterns, and the market there smelled like the raw fish that lay in headless piles outside vendor stalls.

Everyone was Wutain, and Yuffie blended in perfectly. She could smell the fried fish, and the papery essence of Wutai in every breath of smog filled air, and the sound of the delicate phrases of Wutainese filled her ears like lyrical, euphonious music.

Eventually, she stopped to rest in one of the many tea shops, this one smelling the most fragrant. It was stuffed to the brim with a bunch of useless items, and from the ceiling were thousands of pufferfish. The shelves were lined with hand carved teapots and cups, and Yuffie sat herself down in one the chairs and ordered a cup of Shui Xian, basking in its scent and the smell that reminded her of the garden of tea plants her mother used to tend to.

"I gave you fair warning, didn't I?" Reno said as he pushed open the door, the bell chiming with the force.

Yuffie stood then, expecting the Turk to fight her.

He didn't.

Instead, he bought a packet of herbs and left.

Forlorn, and a bit apprehensive, Yuffie paid with her 'borrowed' money and left as well.

She wandered the streets a little more, keeping a close eye out for Turks. She saw none, however, and was eventually stopped outside the stoop of a seafood store. There, beneath her, in a plastic kiddie pool full of water, were floating, swimming baby turtles, all clamoring on top of one another.

Yuffie cooed, and squatted next to them.

"Its 20 gil to try," Said a Wutain man with a face of leather, gesturing to a small bucket of kame sukui catchers, the wires of the catchers were frayed and the rice paper looked thin.

Yuffie pouted.

Even after becoming a ninja, she still couldn't win at kingyo sukui, much less kame sukui. Even when catching goldfish, she was never fast enough, and if she was, she was too fast and broke through the paper. Fish were light and agile, while turtles were a little slower and much heavier. She'd blow all her gil trying to catch one of these.

She sighed.

"Here's forty."

And then stilled abruptly, face losing its pallor.

She knew that voice.

There was nothing the young ninja could do as a strong hand dropped forty gil into the vendors shaking hands, swiping one of the catchers and slowly, carefully, eyed up the many turtles in the pool.

There was a quick swipe, and then silence, as one of the baby turtles was fished out of the pond, and was now shocked back into it's shell on top of the paper.

The Wutain hastily bagged up the caught turtle, and handed it to the General, who stood then.

Yuffie said nothing, at least having the good sense to look a bit guilty, before looking up.

Sephiroth was expressionless, but held out the bag for her to take.

When she took it, he asked, "What are you going to name it?"

She thought for a moment, looking at its dumb looking face as it peered out of its shell. It looked a bit stupid, and it reminded her of that Soldier she'd seen on the airship, who always attempted to talk to her.

"Zack." She said. "His name is Zack."

Sephiroth seemed to find this particularly amusing, as he walked down the streets. Yuffie followed him, figuring that trying to escape now would be pointless. The General cowed everyone in the street, who scurried into their shops to peer out curiously from windows and doorways, looking at the strange spectacle of a young Wutain girl carrying a turtle and the great ShinRa General, walking side by side in Sector 8's Wutain district.

"Why don't we go home?" Said the General quietly, and Yuffie thought this was the softest she'd ever heard his voice go. "And put Zack in a real bowl?"

Yuffie blinked up at him, a bit surprised that he wasn't ordering her around.

She nodded. "Okay."

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.

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9.

The real Zack was aggravating.

"But you're a ninja, aren't you?" He was saying in the deserted gym. "I bet you're wicked fast and can do all sorts of tricks!"

For a Soldier First Class, he was really sort of dim, and way too trusting.

Yes, she was a ninja. She knew eight ways to break his neck and thirteen ways to incapacitate him, Soldier or no. Zack didn't seem to understand this, though, and continued to plead with her.

"C'mon, it'll be fun! Promise!"

Every since she took to wandering the upper floors of ShinRa—she had an all access pass to them, and wasn't allowed to go down to the lower ones—he'd find her occasionally and drag her off to the cafeteria, or the lounge, or the gym, irritating her beyond belief.

"You're so whiny," She rolled her eyes. "Why don't you ever stay quiet?"

"This is payback!" Roared the First. "For stealing my materia!"

"I'm a ninja!" Yuffie scowled. "It's what I do!"

"No, you're a thief!"

"They're like the same thing!" Yuffie scoffed, and crossed her arms. "And anyway, you're a Soldier. You're like a billion times stronger then me! It'd be pointless."

Zack sighed. "But then what are we supposed to do?"

Yuffie contemplated this.

"C'mere."

Zack hesitantly dropped to the floor as she did, sitting bow-legged.

"How flexible are you?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

"Like a snake!" Zack bragged.

Yuffie looked mischievous. "Well then…"

Halfway into the monkey pose and Zack decided he wasn't that flexible at all. Yuffie was sprawled out on the floor in a forward split, back arched so that she could touch her hands onto her back leg. Zack couldn't even do a full split, let alone arch his back and make it look all graceful and shit. He tried the firefly pose, in which one balances themselves on their arms, hunched over with their legs sticking straight out until their toes were right up in their face. The side-crane pose, or parsva bakasana as Yuffie called it, was even harder, as he attempted to balance himself on his hands while bringing his knees up to them sideways—and then failed and flopped onto the floor. He didn't like the adho mukha something one either, which was pretty much a handstand—which he could do, thankyouverymuch!—on one finger. The balance, and the fact that Yuffie held her position for what could have been an hour, broke him out in a sweat and he collapsed to the floor in exhaustion.

Eventually, the girl came down, landing upright on her feet and grinned broadly at him. "What was that about flexibility?"

"What was that?" Zack screeched in his exasperation.

"Yoga." Said the ninja smugly. "It's very relaxing."

"Relaxing." Zack scoffed. "You Wutains are so weird."

"Yeah?" Yuffie snorted. "And where are you from then, hotshot?"

"Gongaga!" He exclaimed proudly.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "I bet that's not even a dot the size of a pinprick on the map!"

"So?" Zack retorted hotly.

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.

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10.

Though every time she escaped, she always made sure to come back, Yuffie never seemed to come out of her room.

Sephiroth was eating at the kitchen table—he had been doing that a lot, for all of his meals now, actually—he had yet to see her, once again. Although he had brought home Wutain take out yesterday, and came home to it half eaten, so surely she wasn't rotting in her bedroom or something.

Although what she was doing was still beyond him.

It had been almost two months since she'd been here, and aside from that day he'd gotten a call from Reno that she was in the Wutain section of Sector 8, she once again might as well have been knocked off of the face of the planet.

He sighed.

He'd let her leave whenever she wanted to, and never called her out on it. He'd become quite aware of when her window would almost silently slide open, and he could hear the whistle of the wind as she leapt out. By dawn, she'd always be back, though.

Sephiroth stood then.

Two months was a long enough time—even though she was young, she'd have to face reality at some point.

He moved to her side of the house, and noticed that, while her bedroom door was shut, the second door was not.

He opened it, and found thousands of cranes strung up from the ceiling, all made of brightly colored paper. The floor was scattered with different kinds, and a couple of cranes that had yet to be strung up. There were more then just cranes, too, goldfish, bunnies, turtles, and different kinds of birds were all strung up. He backed out slowly, and opened up the third door.

Inside was an enormous circle of rocks, and the wooden floor was scattered with pebbles. In the center was a giant stone, that was parallel to a traditional Wutain tea set. In the corner was a pile of tea boxes.

He left that one too, and moved to the fourth, which housed hand-painted lanterns that were suspended in the air with ninja-wire.

Yuffie's room was a mix of all the other rooms, all combined together to make a maelstrom of paper and rocks and altogether a huge mess. There were cranes from the ceiling, and origami creations on her dresser. Three large lanterns all at different heights and sizes, hung at the side of her bed, and Sephiroth flipped the light switch, only to find that they were connected to it.

To the left was a small pile of green painted rocks, all with different Wutain symbols on it, and at the top of the pile was a half-melted green candle. At the far side of the room, where the windows lined the wall, the edges were all painted blue, and a blue chair was propped up beside an opened window. There were two big yellow water dragon statues at the side of her doors, and her bed, which was located on the right, had white covers, along with a fuzzy white rug, and white lanterns. He noticed that the origami papers seemed to go along with the color coding of the room, and suspiciously, the messy room was completely clean in the center. Where in the hell did she manage to find all this… all this crap? He seriously underestimated her—he thought, dazedly—because it had to take a lot of strength and a hell of a lot of coordination to get all this shit up the side of a building.

He eyed the yellow water dragons again.

And also, a hell of a lot of ingenuity.

Yuffie was fast asleep in the downy covers of her bed.

Sephiroth's eyes softened, and he was about to leave the room when he caught side of her face.

It was pinkish tinged and her forehead was shiny with sweat, her pink lips parted open to draw in ragged breaths.

The walk to the infirmary wasn't very far, but it felt like every second was needlessly longer then it should be. It was early in the morning, so mostly the place was deserted, as Soldiers were on missions, and Cadets were just starting their day and hadn't the time to get injured yet. The nurse took one look at Sephiroth's almost frightened looking face, and the sleeping child in his arms, and called for a doctor and got a room.

Yuffie was running a high fever, and seemed to have caught some sort of slum infection that was going around.

It wasn't anything particularly serious, but would most likely cause her to be bed ridden for the next week or two.

Sephiroth sighed.

He put Yuffie back in her bed after the doctor gave him the OK to leave, and closed the window, where the winter chill was creeping up and frosting the edges of the glass. Yuffie's room was silent, aside from the wind chimes that were taped onto the long lines of cranes descending from her ceiling. One almost smacked him in the face as he ducked beneath it.

"Yuffie," He called. He wasn't cut out for these kinds of things.

She stirred, but didn't wake.

"Yuffie."

He called again, louder.

"Mmmm… watashi wa nemuru…" She murmured groggily, twisting away from him.

The general waited patiently for a moment, unsure of what she said. He hardly spoke much Wutainese—didn't need to, when conquering the place only took about a month since he set foot on the shores—and didn't want to move, in case she had said something important, like, "it hurts to talk," or something.

He noticed her hair had grown longer, shooting out from its boyish cut to frame her shoulders. She almost… actually looked female.

"Yuffie," He began as patiently as he could. "You have to take your medicine."

Eventually, he got her to do so without having to wake her up. He sort of passed her a glass of water, and put the pill inside it. Somehow, she managed to down the whole thing, plus medicine, and fall back asleep.

This was going to be a long week.

Usually he left her to her own devices—obviously something which she took for granted—as she was a kid, and he knew that when he had been that age, he wished more than anything for the freedom to do as he pleased. He was trapping her enough as it was, and it wasn't good for people to be caged in.

He'd have to take care of her now, even though he didn't have the slightest idea how.

He gathered all his stuff from the office, and told his secretary that he'd be working from home, and to forward any important messages to him through his PHS. Seeing as though she didn't do much, anyway, she only nodded and continued typing away at her computer.

As a First, and the General, he'd be able to decline missions anyway, and it wasn't like he needed the pay, or something.

By the second day of his 'house arrest', he'd managed to once again get a pill down Yuffie's groggy throat, although this time, she tried to push him away and almost lodged a finger up his nose. The kitchen table was a downright mess, littered with papers, all important ones that should be neatly filed, and a small community of pens that rolled off of the wooden surface and onto the chair had begun to accumulate from each time Sephiroth was on the phone, and swiped for a pen only to find none, and got up to get a new one, forgetting that they all rolled to the same place. There were coffee rims stained onto the dark coloring of it—he hadn't even been a fan of coffee until now—and for once in its short life, the table looked used.

This was how Genesis found him, engrossed in his work, laptop propped up on one leg.

"And here I thought I'd find you at your office, but no." The redheaded First let himself in. He gave one look at Sephiroth, and then at Masamune, propped against the doorway and altogether useless. "I'd never think to find you so… domesticated."

"I have important matters to take care of, Genesis." The General sighed. "Was there something you needed?"

"Your company, a lending ear?" Genesis sighed dramatically, gracefully flopping (how did he manage that?) into one of the open chairs. "You've been so absent as of late. More absent than usual. Where do you go on your lunch break? The executive branch? You've disappeared, my friend."

"I go home." He stated, wryly. "Where else would I go?"

Genesis shrugged. "You used to go out with us." He said pointedly, but Sephiroth thought nothing of it.

Since Genesis had been cured of his mysterious illness, he and Angeal had, if possible, become closer. They had always been close to begin with, so Sephiroth sort of took it for what it was, and knew he'd always be the third party in their affairs, and quietly left. He didn't think they'd notice acutely.

Genesis looked around, with a bit of a sneer. "Where's the runt?"

"Yuffie is sick." Said the General, making emphasis on her actual name. "She's in her room."

"Her room?" Genesis raised his brows, as if he somehow expected the two of them to share one. And then, coyly," Oh, is the great Hero of Wutai playing veritable husband now? The army life not enough anymore?"

Growing irritated over Genesis incessant jibes—mainly because they were hitting accurately—he shooed the man out of his house, and sat back down to spread sheets and data files and sighed, again.

He'd went on a mission a week ago, but had made sure it was a short one. There wasn't much action to it, more cleaning up and surveying damage, but he had wanted to get home because he didn't want to leave Yuffie for too long. She was a teenage girl, and he'd heard they had quite the ability to get into trouble. Considering that she was a sly ninja who could even out-sly the Turks, he believed that.

He looked down at himself again.

He hadn't dressed in his typical leather jacket and pants—why would he need to? He'd thrown on a shirt and a pair of sweats. He hadn't expected anyone to see him, although considering Genesis ability to forget personal boundaries, he should have figured as much from his redheaded friend.

It was noon already, and it was time for Yuffie's second dose of medicine, and he was just getting up when the door open, without knocking, again.

Annoyed and thinking it was Genesis, the General was about to mouth off to the man at his second offense when Zack Fair burst through the door.

"I heard Yuffie's sick!" He said by way of greeting, not even bothering with the fact that he had just barged into his superior officer's house without knocking. "Is she okay?"

He looked like he ran straight from the air ship bay. Sephiroth was pretty sure he'd been on a mission… one the General hadn't taken because it required him to be out for a few weeks.

"She's fine." He blinked, a bit surprised to see this much concern out of Zack.

He'd worked with the other First on occasion, and Zack was the type who was laidback and made friends with everyone. The guy had even cracked a joke with him on a helicopter ride back to Midgar, which Sephiroth found incredibly amusing. Especially because it was such a lewd and crass joke, and he knew Zack had only made it because he had nothing else to say.

Zack looked hesitant, as if he'd just stopped to think about what he'd done. "Can I see her?"

He nodded slowly, and, after bringing water and finding her medicine, he beckoned the other First to follow him.

Zack didn't seem at all surprised at the state of Yuffie's room, or if he was, he did a fantastic job hiding it. But Sephiroth suspected that Yuffie had told him of her room, as he gave a friendly little hello to Zack the turtle, who swam in circles in his bowl, unconcerned over all the fuss at his master.

"Yuffie, wake up." Sephiroth felt like he'd been saying that a lot lately. The girl gave a moan. "You have company."

"Yo!" Smiled Zack in greeting.

Yuffie's eyes opened. "...Zack?"

"That's me!" The man knelt at her bed, elbows on his knees, looking chipper and pleased to see her. "You never showed me those fireworks, so I got a little worried about'cha. How'd you manage to get yourself sick?"

She groaned. "Dunno. Guess I stayed out too long?"

"Didn't eat enough?" Zack continued. "Didn't wear enough? God knows its cold down in the slums at this time of year. Bet you didn't take any vitamins, or got enough sleep, or—

"I don't need a lecture!" She turned around, and stuffed her head into her pillow.

Zack laughed. "It's your own fault your sick!"

The ninja girl turned around slowly, looking like she was about to say something in her newly found state of consciousness, when she caught sight of Sephiroth, standing awkwardly tall in her room full of paper cranes and pagodas, holding a glass of water and a bottle of medicine. "…Sephiroth?" She tilted her head.

He nodded slowly. "You need to take your medicine again."

"Medicine?" She sat up slowly, bed head curling around her shoulders, and one strand standing straight up. "Wait, again?" She made a face. "I've been taking medicine?"

This may or may not have been their longest conversation to date.

Again, he nodded. "Twice, every day."

She made gagging noises, and looked like she'd jump out of bed and make a run for it.

"Hey!" Zack cut in. "That's not very nice! I bet Seph's been feeding you all day—he's been staying home from work ya'know—so be nice!"

Yuffie looked surprised at the information, and was staring quietly at the General, who was pointedly looking in another direction.

"Here." He handed it to her, and she took it like she was being given a decaying rat. Eventually, she swallowed it all with a face and glugged down the entire glass of water.

He wasn't very sure what came over him, but seeing her mussed head, and her big gray eyes actually filled with emotion, made him reach out and rub the top of her head, until the strand that had been sticking upright fell back down.

At the uncanny sign of affection, Yuffie stopped drinking, mouth parted, eyes wide.

Zack looked like he might have died in the corner.

He put his hand down, unsure of what to say in his defense. Eventually, he settle to ignore his actions altogether. "Are you feeling better?"

She nodded slowly. "A… little…" The words came out as if she didn't even know she'd said them, and her wide eyes were fixed on his.

"That's a relief!" Zack stood then. "I thought you might've died."

Yuffie stuck her tongue out, and Sephiroth was again struck with the gesture. It was so… human. Up until then, all of what he'd seen of Yuffie was her impassive face that could've rivaled his own, and the stoniness of her cloud colored eyes.

The two left, claiming to leave her to rest, and Yuffie sat in the dim silence, nothing but the occasional clatter of the chimes to end it. She watched one of the cranes spin on its string, wondering what had changed. Sephiroth… wasn't who she thought he was. He, perhaps, was just as much of a pawn in this great company as she was. After living with him for so long, observing him quietly from the shadows, she realized that he probably didn't want to raze Wutai to the ground, either. Those kinds of attacks stopped once he was brought ashore.

Yuffie supposed that she may have misjudged him.

And, if she could forgive Zack, who was just as much a part of ShinRa as Sephiroth was, and become friends with Reno, who had probably done much worse and then some, shouldn't she be able to forgive the great General himself?

She thought about it, before coming up with her conclusion.

Of course.

The Great Ninja Yuffie didn't hold grudges for too long, it would ruin her image of being all beautiful and wise and fair.

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11.

Sephiroth woke up and hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep.

His computer was on sleep mode beside him, still halfway into a report and not going to get any farther then that.

His head… hurt.

If he had ever been sick, he couldn't recall it. He naturally had a better immune system than most, and the mako burned away most sickness anyway. But he felt… groggy. Exhausted, perhaps, would be a better word.

He hadn't been sleeping much, trying to catch up on all the office work, while taking care of Yuffie, and making sure she wasn't sneaking out again in the dead of night when her health was compromised.

He blamed his newfound sickness when it took him a couple minutes to realize that the fire alarm was going off.

He leapt out of bed, and immediately stalked across his side of the house to Yuffie's, to make sure the girl was alright, when he heard her squawking from the kitchen.

He turned, to see most of it encased in black smoke.

Eventually, the two of them were able to air it out with some judicious ice materia and opening all the windows in the house. Sephiroth had gotten so fed up with the noise that he batted the entire machine off of the ceiling with the hilt of Masamune, and sent the thing clamoring to a halt on the kitchen floor.

Aside from that, breakfast was really sort of lovely.

Sephiroth couldn't cook to save his life—but Yuffie could.

This was probably the largest, if not the only, homecooked meal he'd ever received in his life. There were steaming bowls of rice, grilled salmon, and little pieces of rice wrapped with squared egg and wrapped in seaweed that Yuffie had called tamago. To his left seemed to be a soured plum, a bowl of miso soup, and a large plate of tamagoyaki. The amount of pickled vegetables almost made his nose wrinkle, and Yuffie dived immediately for the steamed pork dumplings. How she managed to cook all this—and set off the fire alarm—without him noticing or waking up was beyond him. He supposed she wasn't a ninja for nothing. Yuffie had most of the same for herself, and asked him whether he wanted tea or hot milk. He didn't know he was a fan of hot milk until she made him some.

"I wouldn't have set the alarm off if I knew how to work that stupid stove." She made a face at it, as if it would notice or have hurt feelings if it had been able to notice. "Why don't people just have regular fire stoves here? Why are they all like… electric-y?"

Sephiroth didn't seem to have an answer acceptable to her.

But breakfast was the most amicable they had ever been, and again, Sephiroth wondered what it was about breakfast that made it such a peaceful time.

Meanwhile, Yuffie was musing on the taste of her pickled plum.

Kasumi had taught her all the secrets of the art of Wutain cooking. It was hard, and had more to do with delicate fingers than correct ingredients, and the beautiful woman used to always tell her young daughter that it was a formidable skill to have in the realm of domesticity. Yuffie thought then, and still now, that the word in itself was horrid and never appealed to her. She liked being a ninja, liked feeling the wind in her hair (even if sometimes it made her sick) and she liked the freedom of being solitary. But she learned anyway, and was almost thankful she did.

Kasumi had always said that it was proper to cook for one's husband, and maybe she was right.

Not that Yuffie considered Sephiroth anything like her husband.

Roommate, maybe. Or caretaker. Landlord?

Not husband though.

He'd never pushed the subject with her, and for that, she was infinitely grateful.

Perhaps cooking breakfast was something like a peace offering.

She didn't want to avoid him anymore, and to be honest, couldn't stand to hold this grudge for very much longer anyway. The people of the Wutain district had taught her something very important—to move on, and adapt. She wondered if the people of actual Wutai would be able to understand that too. It was just as important to hold on to one's culture, to fight for their way of life, as it was to acclimate to modern times. Even in the heart of ShinRa, what all the people of the free world would consider to be a monopolizing monstrosity that was corrupt to the core, she had been able to find a bit of Wutai.

She found it in teaching Sephiroth how to hold chopsticks properly, even though he couldn't eat with them. In showing him the many different components of a good, healthy, Wutain breakfast, in teaching Zack yoga and Reno how to cuss in Wutainese.

When Sephiroth left for his mission, Yuffie retreated into her yoga room to spend the many hours of solitude in the depths of meditation.

Just because she wasn't in Wutai didn't mean she wasn't still an elite ninja, after all.

And just because she was now technically a part of ShinRa, didn't mean she couldn't steal from them, either.

The secret art of zen gardening had been a part of Wutai for many years, and Yuffie's father had been the one to teach her how to split open a rock through its balanced middle. Mostly, it was a show of sport to split rocks with ones hands or feet, and required careful consideration of the balance point. But Yuffie had found a better reason to use it.

After all, who was going to look for stolen materia inside of a rock?

The middle one—which had been the hardest to lug up the side of the ShinRa building from Sector 8, but definitely the most worth it—split in half to reveal a hollow center full of stolen Materia.

She fingered one, a weak fire materia, and used it to light up the bottom of her teapot.

Yuffie cracked her knuckles, settled into the lotus position, and breathed in the scent of her green tea.

You could take the girl out of Wutai, but not Wutai out of the girl.

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.

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12.

Sephiroth came home, and Yuffie could hear his boots against the wooden flooring of the house they shared together, trudging to his room. The door shut, and the mattress creaked, and there was no other movement from Sephiroth.

The mission must have been tiring.

He had been looking a little under the weather that morning, as she set down breakfast—which was quickly becoming a tradition of theirs. He had once remarked on the way she sat, in the lotus position, as it was good for one's hips and stimulated good breathing practices, and when she had told him this he had only looked at her, briefly amused. He'd asked her if it actually worked this morning, saying he could use better breathing practices.

It wasn't until about two or three at night did Yuffie hear the noise.

It was hard to sneak up on a trained ninja, but perhaps harder, to do so to a trained Soldier. The General, no less.

There was a click as the lock was picked, and then, the front door opened soundlessly.

Yuffie flipped onto the ceiling soundlessly, crawling on it silently and moving out of her bedroom. All her illegally obtained weapons were stashed in her paper origami room, and she wouldn't be able to open the room's door without it creaking.

Cursing silently, she continued her upside-down trek until she reached the main room, where she could make out the darkened figure standing in the kitchen. He seemed to be looking over something. While he was turned, she flipped off of the ceiling and landed noiselessly in the living room, looking for a weapon.

The kitchen had a set of steak knives—in the drawer. She'd be able to reach them only after passing the man, and she wasn't sure if he was dull enough to not be able to hear the sound of her passing, as well as the sound of the drawer being opened. It was worth a shot; if she could do it fast enough, then perhaps, she'd be able to catch him off guard and aim for the trachea before he could react—

And then she caught sight of it.

It had become a bit of a habit, or maybe it had been a habit to begin with, for Sephiroth to leave Masamune at the door.

Yuffie thought he may have begun to do it because of her, as a peace offering that claimed himself as unarmed and weaponless.

Regardless, he continued to do so, which meant that he was weaponless inside of his room (if once could consider the man himself not to be a weapon, as he surely was)

But if he was out enough to not notice someone entering the house, would he be awake enough to defend himself?

Yuffie weighed her options.

A weapon-less Sephiroth meant a weapon obtained for Yuffie, and it was most likely the only chance she'd get.

The man moved into the hallway, so slowly it was almost as if he wasn't moving at all.

He had just reached the first door on Sephiroth's side of the apartment when Yuffie dropped form the ceiling, Masamune unsheathed and glinting in the moonlight from the window.

The man's breath hitched.

"Trying to assassinate the strongest man in the world?" Yuffie tilted her head. "That's got to be the worst idea I've ever heard."

The man seemed to relax once he realized it was a young girl, regardless of the six foot long blade sliding across his neck.

"Step aside, little girl. I have no use of you."

Yuffie's eyes narrowed. "What are you here for?"

"Trying to interrogate me? It won't work."

Yuffie struck, and the man blocked.

If Sephiroth wasn't awake, he was awake now.

But blood pooled from beneath the man's body, as he slowly dropped onto his knees. He had parried Yuffie's first strike—hey, the sword was huge, there wasn't very much Yuffie could wield—but the girl had pickpocketed his gun in the exchange and had fired it into his chest.

Yeah.

Definitely awake now.

Yuffie lowered the long sword, which barely even fit into the hallway, and stared almost incomprehensibly at the dying man.

What the hell was he doing here?

More importantly, what did he expect to achieve?

Yuffie could have scoffed. Trying to murder Sephiroth, of all people. He could take down an army of trained Soldiers. How on Gaia could one man ever hope to defeat him? Better question—how did he even get up here?

The lights turned on almost immediately after that, and Sephiroth was more than a bit surprised at the sight of Yuffie standing in his hallway, Masamune drawn and gun in one hand.

If the situation wasn't so serious it'd be laughable.

The girl was frighteningly short in comparison to his six foot long blade. In fact, the blade probably had about ten or so inches on her. But she held it strong in her hand, and nothing bellied its weight in her grip.

Blood was getting all over the hallway carpet, and was soaking beneath her little toes, and sprayed on her little body, and there was something a bit terrifying in the thought that she had killed someone with his sword in hand, and turned her attention towards him with a startling look of indifference.

He wasn't sure why that was so horrifying, though, considering that at that age he'd done that plenty of times.

Perhaps it was because, to him, Yuffie was the epitome of innocence. She may have been a ninja, but Sephiroth had always speculated that her aim in becoming one had more to do with freedom it gave her than the license to kill it gave in Wutai. She might have been married off at fourteen but regardless she acted like a child, smiled like a child, slept like a child, all cuddly and soft and tiny and it repulsed him that her own country could sell her off like that, without knowing anything of his intentions, without caring—

"Sephiroth?"

Belatedly, he realized that may have been the first time she'd ever used his name.

"Hey—" She took a step closer, wearing nothing but a long shirt—was that his shirt? How did it get on her? Had she done the laundry again?—and for a brief, sickening moment he realized that it left nothing to the imagination, not her legs, which seemed to have elongated over night, nor her breasts, which definitely hadn't been there before. How old was she again? Birthday in November… fifteen now. He wanted to—to throw a blanket over her, or something. She was way too young to be looking like that, or to be holding a blade like that, getting blood all over the carpet and—was he going into hysterics? Yes, yes he was— "Are you okay? You don't look so good…"

He took a step back, feeling hot. Was he sick still? How could he have possibly not noticed someone entering his fucking house? How out of it was he?

And how could he stand there, looking at Yuffie like that…?

He tried to think of Yuffie, sitting at the kitchen table with her legs in that crazy position where her feet were on her thighs, smiling up at him like a little angel, of when she was sailing down the Nakano river, face like a porcelain Wutain doll, ready to break, and filled with such sorrow that even he, who had been forced into the same position as she was, felt bad for her. Tried to think of her as she mumbled in her sleep, of her stony face as he fished out a turtle for her in Sector 8. Of little, affectionate Yuffie, not this strange half-woman half-child in front of him, with burning eyes., balancing his sword in one hand and wearing his shirt.

He wondered if she did these things on purpose.

By the time he woke up again, he wondered if it was all a dream.

Then he heard Tseng out side of his room, and realized it wasn't.

There was still a stain on the carpet, looking wet and un-cleaned, and Yuffie's little footprints lead away from it. It'd have to be tossed out, at this point. He doubted it would ever be the same vanilla color again, and he doubted he'd be able to look at it again either, without thinking terrible thoughts.

Yuffie was in the sitting room, wearing clothes, thankfully, seated across from Tseng.

Reno was next to her, and Rude was inspecting the door handle.

"We don't know who did it," Tseng was saying, "Or how they managed to get in here. It was a serious breach in security, and we are deeply sorry for it—

"Tseng." He made his presence known.

The Turks all looked up.

"General." The man greeted, voice heavy with fake politeness.

He dismissed it. "What happened?"

"An intruder," Tseng began wryly. "Entered your house over the course of the night. Do you recall anything else happening? I find it surprising that you'd be able to sleep through something like that."

Sephiroth took the words for what they were—an insult. He deserved them. Being under the weather, or even slightly sick, didn't excuse that he compromised himself and Yuffie.

"I recall being called out for a mission. It was mundane and routine. Hojo expected me in his office that afternoon—he seemed to think I may have come down with that slum fever. He gave me medicine." That was the short version; and anyway, he knew everyone in this room sans Yuffie knew that was code for some serious experimentation. "However, I have yet to feel its benefits."

If anything registered to Tseng in that sentence, his face was as blank as usual.

"I see."

Obviously, he took it as an answer the same amount as Sephiroth did; which was none at all.

He moved off of the couch, as did Reno. Rude had finished with the doorknob, and Elena had taken pictures of the body and disposed of it, as well as returning for the carpet.

"We'll be in touch." Said the man to the General, moving to leave.

Yuffie caught his arm.

"Watashi wa anata ga uso o tsuite iru shitte iru." The man paused.

The two began to speak rapidly in Wutainese, and Sephiroth had almost completely forgotten the Turk's ethnicity. It was obvious to anyone who looked at him that Tseng was Wutain, but people seemed to forget that once the saw the suit. Sephiroth didn't blame them. If Tseng had any empathy for his now conquered homeland, he showed it very lightly.

But there must have been some sort of respect for it, as even though Sephiroth had no idea what they were saying, he could read Tseng's posture well enough to know that he was deferring to the young princess.

Yuffie let go of his arm after they exchanged a few quick words, and the Turks headed out.

She didn't look pleased, though.

He couldn't find it in him to interrogate her, however, as mostly he just wanted to sit down.

If he did, or if he didn't he would never know.

The next time he woke up again, he was in his own bed, and how Yuffie managed to lug his body, which dwarfed hers considerably, he'd again, never know. She was sitting crosslegged at the end of his bed, looking worried. He'd be more embarrassed at her being in his room had he already not done the same to her.

"How are you feeling?" She tilted her head. "I don't want to say you fainted cause that'd be inconsiderate and girly, but you did totally faint on the floor. And it was super, super girly."

He blinked at her.

"Luckily, you managed to get yourself back into bed, cause I don't think I could've lugged you all the way there myself."

Ah, one great mystery solved then.

"What did you talk about with Tseng?" He asked once his throat was wet enough to speak.

She rolled her eyes. "Dive right for the juicy stuff, huh? Why don't you drink something first?"

She'd made him hot milk, which was incredibly delicious today and he downed the whole thing in a matter of seconds. He'd never felt more grateful for Wutain food as he did now.

He'd never had dango, or imagawayaki before but they both tasted delicious and sweet, and it might as well have been food fit for the five great gods of Wutai themselves the way he devoured it.

That, or he was just seriously hungry.

"Good?" She asked.

"Everything you make is good." He answered, honestly.

She laughed. "I'll be sure to make more then."

Before he could interrogate her once more, she skillfully maneuvered the subject onto something he couldn't stop.

"The… President called while you were sleeping." She looked angry at the very thought of him, and he wondered why the man would bother to call him straight without simply redirecting through Lazard. "He said for you to call back when you woke up. He sounded… serious."

.

.

.

13.

Sephiroth was leaving.

A few months ago, the news would have made her leap for joy at the thought of having the entire house to herself, without anyone to hear her sneak out into the slums, to mind herself for, to aggravate her.

Now, she wondered how quiet the breakfast table would be.

He'd just about learned how to use chopsticks, too.

The worst of it was, Yuffie knew why the General was leaving, too.

She'd been right about Tseng. She'd been right about that whole, fucked up ordeal. It was just plain wrong that Sephiroth hadn't woken up, that the General had been so deeply asleep. It had nothing to do with him being sick—as if the man could even get sick, anyway—and nothing to do with the intruder being sneaky. Not only that, but how would someone even make it to the fifty-fifth floor of Shinra without anyone noticing unless it'd been intentional? But even as the princess of Wutai, and Tseng, being a man born from the great country, there wasn't much she could get out of him.

But there were other ways.

Still, the thought of this all happening to Sephiroth—he was on their side, for Da Chao's sake!—made her a bit sick, and a bit lonely, and a bit worried.

Two years was a long time, after all.

She spent most of the night puttering about the kitchen. Or as much puttering as a ninja could do. It was just as silent as it had always been, but throughout her cooking expedition in the dark she moped around morosely, almost burning the milk in her thoughts. Honestly. Burning milk.

What was wrong with her?

By the time he woke up, she was gone, and the kitchen was as spotless as usual.

Maybe a small part of him was a bit sad that she had run off so quickly. Probably to get a head start in her two year expedition into the slums. He hadn't called anyone to watch out for her—she was pretty much a grown woman, after all, even if she was tiny and a little bit immature, if she could handle Masamune then certainly she could take down any of those slum rats—didn't think she'd want him compromising her freedom like that. She'd run rampant down there, probably. He doubted that ShinRa would send someone to mind her. They hadn't up until now, so why would they?

The marriage was fraud in everything but paper, anyway.

And that was about as far as ShinRa's interest in Yuffie went.

ShinRa was sending him and Genesis globe trotting for what could be considered no apparent reason, had one not been aware of Hojo.

For the past several years, he'd been leading the company by the nose in hopes of this so called 'promised land' of folklore which was said to hold untold amounts of mako. Old man ShinRa, who made his money off of killing the planet for said mako, generously allowed Hojo to do as he pleased, as long as his usefulness didn't expire. Considering that the man was the reason behind Soldier, Sephiroth doubted that would be any time soon.

It was the main reason they'd invaded Wutai in the first place.

The traditional nation was never a threat to their trade, economy, or political stature. Wutai hardly even seemed to exist, it was so secretive. But it was the last frontier, and the last place to look for that Promised Land.

Yuffie's beloved country could have been spared, had Hojo deemed it necessary.

And now, two years of his life were to be eaten up on this extravagant goose chase.

"I'll write." Yuffie said feebly.

She was waiting for him at the air ship.

He and Genesis were being dispatched with a handful of troopers to Icicle. The other First looked just as unhappy to be there as he did. Officially, they were out hunting down AVALANCHE, which had once been just Turk business but was now officially ShinRa business. Unofficially, Hojo wanted to cut off some loose old experiments and start hunting more fervently for the land of all mako.

He was surprised to see her, figuring she was halfway into conning an apartment in Sector 8, much less actually dressed.

Yuffie wore two things—shirts and t-shirts.

She owned much more, but most of it was buried in the depths of her closet.

"I'd like that." The words came out of his mouth with frightening honesty.

She handed him a black, plastic box.

"In case you get hungry." Her face was flushed beat red, and beside him, Genesis was cackling. "I hear it's a long way to Icicle."

The troopers just looked confused, and a bit in awe.

"It's not goodbye forever." He tried to placate her, but he was never very good at it.

It looked like that wasn't the answer she'd wanted, and she fisted her hands in the hem of her dress, and before she could lose her nerve, walked up to him, and, and…

The correct term would be; attempted to wrap her short arms around the length of his torso and failed, while sobbing quietly into his chest. But Sephiroth could take it for what it was; a hug. She'd miss him. He'd miss her too, but, well, he wasn't a teenage girl prone to hormonal imbalances and emotional outbursts so all he did was awkwardly rub her back.

At this point, the entire air bay was staring.

"Don't die okay?!" She yelled, mainly to the straps on his chest, before running off.

"Well isn't that cute?" Genesis drawled sarcastically, hauling his bag onto the airship luggage bay. "Sephiroth got himself a little girlfriend."

But he wasn't in the mood for his friend's dramatics, if he was in the mood for anything at all. "She's hardly of any age to be considered a girlfriend."

Genesis skewered him with an incomprehensible look. "Well what would you call it, then?"

He didn't really know.

.

.

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13.5

The first time she'd done it was an accident.

She did the laundry because Sephiroth was always out, and she always had clothes soiled from her adventures in the slums.

Sometimes she'd creep into his room—just to take a peak!—and find all his dirty clothes in a pile in the corner. His room was as Spartan as his house, and there was nothing to acknowledge that someone lived there aside from mussed sheets and an indent in the pillow.

So when she did the laundry, she'd always try to put all his clothes back in the same pile it had been.

Although, occasionally one or two of his shirts would end up in her piles.

She slipped on a shirt as she trudged into her bed, exhausted after another escapade which involved a chase from a bunch of thieves, angered that she'd stolen their money and materia. When she woke up, she realized it wasn't hers.

The house was dreadfully empty without Sephiroth in it.

Sometimes, when it was so silent that she felt she could hear nothing but the beating of her own heart, and the distant voices of the lower plate which never slept, she'd crawl into his room and sleep there instead.

Once, Zack had come in to drag her out and found her there, and she had insisted it was because his bed was bigger and comfier.

But really, sometimes, in the darkened silence, his familiar smell just made her feel less alone.

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14.

Yuffie's first letter met him at the Icicle Inn, and was pretty short and nondescript. She said she cleaned the house, and was starting a pet project. He was a little worried as to what that entailed, exactly. But he was more worried over her friendship with Reno. The guy was a Turk, maybe one of the better ones, but anyone who'd ever worked in the company long enough would know that those guys couldn't be trusted.

He penned down a note quickly; Thank you for the food. And keep your eye open with the Turks—they are not as trustworthy as you might think.

He couldn't tell her anything about the mission. Not because it was secretive, but because, he had no idea how to broach the subject with her without angering her.

After Icicle they were making their way to Gold Saucer, where there had been sightings of AVALANCHE. And then, to Wutai, where their sources have stated that the eco-terrorist group has made their base.

But finding them in that vast country might mean having to raze it entirely to the ground.

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.

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15.

Yuffie wrote to Sephiroth continuously.

They were pretty stupid, and mostly, they were just dumb anecdotes of her day and all the things that went on in Shinra without him—which wasn't very much. Zack was now able to do half of the Scorpion pose, but usually he lost his balance and fell flat on his face. She invited Rude and Reno over for New Years Tea, which was a sort of ceremony in which lots of wagashi (of this he was a tad jealous) were eaten and the first tea ceremony of the new year was held. It was supposed to be a day you held with company, so he couldn't really fault her.

Reno ate all the dorayaki, and Yuffie had only made ten manju and they were all gone by the time the day was over. Manju could be made in many shapes like bunnies, rabbits, peaches, and mushrooms. Sephiroth wasn't sure why it was so imperative for him to know this, but she had underlined it three times.

It was weird to think that a year had already gone by.

Yuffie hadn't been close to many of the Turks. Just Reno, but that was inevitable to change as she was a ninja, and out of all the personnel that walked the ShinRa halls, Turks would relate to her the most.

It helped that Tseng understood her crazy Wutain culture. If he was available, he'd join her in the afternoon for tea in the Soldier lounge.

"What's in these things, anyway?" Asked Zack one day, as he and his buddy Kunsel sauntered into the Soldier lounge, looking exhausted as they duked it out in the gym a couple floors up.

He was chewing on the end of a takoyaki stick, and Yuffie gave him a flat look.

"Do you really want to know?" The last time she'd made him traditional Wutain food, and told him what it was actually made of, he puked.

Zack paused, and then turned a bit green. "No, maybe not."

Kunsel smiled. "I think you just have a frail stomach, Zack."

"Stomach of steel!" Protested the First. "Remember that one mission in Mideel when I almost ate Chocobo guts?"

"But you didn't." Pointed out the Second.

Yuffie grinned.

Kunsel had been a little wary of her, at first. Everyone knew that she was Sephiroth's wife, and even though it was pretty much a marriage on paper and for the convenience of ShinRa, they still sort of kept their distance from her. No one wanted to piss of Sephiroth, and, well, it was all a bit strange.

But Yuffie wasn't some cold Wutain woman. She was a little girl who hung around the upper floors and always made good food for everyone to eat. She was a young Wutain princess, and eventually, everyone sort of excepted it for what it was. She was also lethally fast and always managed to swipe his materia when he wasn't looking, though she always returned it.

Now that Yuffie was sixteen, she didn't have to sneak out of her window to explore the rest of Midgar. Instead, she got a Turk body guard and a handful of clearance cards to get her anywhere she wanted on the upper plate.

Upper plate was a bore, and, depending on which Turk she got that day, sometimes she could convince them to take her around the slums. It helped that they always had some 'secret' mission to do in Sector 5, and the fact that most of them liked her, because she made them yummy food. Reno especially loved the slums—typical, as he grew up down there—and whenever they'd get into the lower sectors he'd bring out his sidewalking sucking accent and, if it wasn't for the suit, Yuffie wouldn't be able to tell him apart from all the other nasties down there.

Yuffie suspected that the main reason they took her down there though, was so that she could get Wutain ingredients from Sector 8.

The section kept to itself, as it was only about six streets worth of pure Wutain culture, and while they welcomed her with open arms as part of the Leviathan spirit, they usually watched her companions warily.

That wasn't the only thing that had changed in Yuffie's life.

Since she was sixteen now, she wasn't the little Wutain urchin that got to run rampant and do as she pleased in the ShinRa building. The President himself had hired a variety of tutors and governesses to teach her the ways of the ShinRa elite. Every couple days a strict-faced woman would come into Sephiroth's apartment and imparted on her proper speech and customs. Yuffie, who was more used to the traditional Wutain way of doing things, didn't seem to learn very quickly.

"You cut it again." Said the woman disdainfully, as she pulled at a lock of Yuffie's hair.

For her part, the young princess only scowled at her. In the opposite chair, Reno was picking his nose.

"You didn't tell me not to!" Yuffie protested hotly.

"You're not a little street scoundrel anymore—" Continued the woman as if Yuffie had said nothing at all. The ninja wanted to point out that she was Wutain royalty, and a Princess at that, not a street scoundrel, but she doubted it would do anything. "You can't just run around, doing as you please, looking like that—and back straight, head up! Haven't I told you this before?"

Yuffie had never had to attend a social gala hosted by ShinRa in her entire life, but apparently, that was all about to change. Now that she was about to come of age, she had to act like the responsible wife of a ShinRa executive—or General, in this case.

"Stop cutting your hair." The woman sneered. "It won't do for the wife of the General to look like a little boy."

Yuffie opened her mouth, ready to give the stupid woman a verbal lashing, but Reno, her moral support, was snickering under his hand. She took a breath and tried to see the whole situation with a bit of humor. Admittedly, it was a little funny.

But Yuffie pouted anyway.

It still sucked.

But she told Sephiroth nothing of this.

She doubted he'd want to hear about it, anyway. And sometimes, she wondered why she ever bothered to write at all. There wasn't much he could tell her about wherever he was now, and she suspected he wouldn't want to had he the ability to do so, anyway. He scarcely replied, and sometimes Yuffie wondered if it was because he simply couldn't, or didn't want to.

Finally, the governess left, tutting at Yuffie's every choice in clothing and general appearance, stating clearly that she would only bring embarrassment to the ShinRa fold.

When she voiced her opinion to Reno, he only shrugged.

"The bat's old y'know. Apparently, she tutored Scarlet too. How old's that bitch now? Forty? The woman's ancient. Old people don't change."

Yuffie made a pinched face at the thought of Scarlet. The woman had only seen her once, and the luscious blonde gave Yuffie a sneer as if she'd stepped on something unpleasant, before continuing on with a swish of her blonde curls. Scarlet sure didn't look that old…

"D'you think we can go down today?" Yuffie flopped in her chair. "I'm so bored! What do you people do around her for fun?"

"Work?" Reno answered sarcastically. "Babe, we don't do much aside from that."

"That's boring." Yuffie harrumphed, propping her legs on the table. "But can we?"

Reno shrugged. "My job's to do what you do. So yeah, sure."

The train ride down had Yuffie bouncing in her seat, excited for a whole day under the plate. Being cooped up in the ShinRa tower was rotten, especially for a sixteen year old girl. She had no idea how all those people could stand working there day in and day out. It must get so boring, doing the same thing, living in the same world.

She frowned at the thought.

Wouldn't that be her, in a couple years? Old and boring and not really a ninja any more, probably going to have to go to luncheons with all the other ShinRa wives and look like a fake doll and have makeup all over her face and long hair that was always pinned up in elaborate curls and would have to sit around and laugh drily about a crass joke made about all the poor people under the plate?

As Yuffie's imagination whirled around her, the train halted to a stop at the Sector 8 stop, and her and Reno got off.

They were making their way out of the terminal when Reno picked up his phone, Yuffie still imagining herself as an old, angry ShinRa woman.

"Boss?"

He gave the young girl beside him a sideways glance. "Yeah, she's here."

"What? No, she's fine. Wait—what happened? Oh, alright."

Yuffie looked up at the sound of his startled voice, attempting to understand his one-sided conversation.

"Understood."

"What was that about?" She asked curiously, as he pocketed his PHS.

Reno shook his head. "Just stupid stuff."

She pouted. "Tell me?"

He gave her a side long glance. "It wasn't anything, really. Someone was threatening Sephiroth. An AVALANCHE supporter, apparently. You have nothing to worry about there, Yuffie—don't make that face!"

She made it anyway.

"It's not like you're little boyfriend could get a scratch on him, anyway." Reno pointed out dryly.

"He's not my boyfriend!" She hissed out, but her face was flushed like a tomato. Reno laughed, and rubbed her short hair until it was mussed and stuck up everywhere.

Reno thought she might be genuinely angry—he and Zack always teased her about it. Sometimes it looked like she knew it was a joke, and sometimes she looked actually annoyed by it. It might be a sore point; Reno knew that if he was married off to the guy who singlehandedly wrecked his country he'd be a little bitter about it, too. But that wouldn't make much sense, considering how much effort the young girl made to write him those crappy letters.

"He's okay though, right?" She turned around, storm colored eyes looking more worried than Reno thought.

Above them, bells chimed with the wind, hung on laundry lines from the upper floors of the broken buildings.

Reno rolled his eyes. "Yes, he's perfectly fine."

Yuffie seemed to ponder this as she lead him around the Wutain district.

It smelled like old fish, and Reno almost leapt back when a market owner ran out of his store, chasing a flopping shark, one hand pinning its wriggling body down, the other raised with a butcher knife. Yuffie didn't seem bothered at all, continuing down the winding, craggy streets.

He had to admit there was a certain charm to the place. Every store they passed had wafted a different smell into the air. The market street smelt like dead fish, repugnant ginger and wasabi. The shopping district, lined with vendors and stores packed to the brim with junk, smelt like the nikuman and korokke, while the fringes of ramen stands held the smell of the delicious noodles. The districts only tea shop, which, like all the other shops was so full of tea and paper and rocks and useless crap that was cramped to walk into, smelt so heavily of tea it actually made Reno's nose burn.

Luckily, Yuffie didn't go into any of the stores, shifting under the lines of lanterns dotting the streets, past the children flying their kites and all the way to the end of the district, which was a mostly deserted stone stair case.

"This place gives me the creeps." He said aloud, as they passed under two red gates.

"The torii do?" She gestured to the gates above them.

He shook his head, hands in his pockets. It looked like those snake statues were glaring at him. "The whole place does!"

Yuffie looked amused. "It's a Leviathan shrine. We had one back at home… they're a place of prayer."

"A place of ghosts and creepy shit is more like it." Reno scowled, continuing up the stairs with her.

The sounds of the Wutain district below became muted the farther they climbed, and Reno thought they were about to hit the plate at the rate they were going until the reached the summit of the shrine.

Yuffie stopped at the foot of the shrine, the only sound were the chimes dropping from the roof's sloping shingles. In the center was a box full of burning paper. The whole thing wasn't very big, but Reno felt like some enormous spirit was looming behind it. Or, that might just be his imagination, which was ousting him at the moment.

Yuffie clapped her hands together, eyes staring vividly ahead to where a rope was attached to crinkled pieces of paper.

She finished, and smiled up at him. "Alright, ready to go?"

He put his hands in his pockets, scowling lazily. "I was waiting for you."

On their way out, he nearly lost her as she ducked into a trinket store, and Reno had to double back to get her.

She was staring pensively at a long line of cloth trinkets, each with a Wutain character on it and in various colors. Reno fiddled with one of the bows on them, waiting for the girl to finish whatever she was up to. She snatched one off the wall and went go pay for it.

"What was it?" He asked curiously, peaking into her bag.

She held it out for him to look at. It was dark blue with a white ribbon, and she held it up by a string at the top.

He scratched his head. "What's it say?" There was a big character stitched onto the front.

She shook her head. "It's a Kotsu Anzen. It's like… a charm, to protect you, I guess. This one's to protect travelers and see them through a safe journey."

Reno eyed her skeptically. "Why, are you planning a journey somewhere?"

Yuffie gave him a brief look, before she started laughing.

"It's a serious question!"

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.

.

16.

Sephiroth wouldn't tell a soul—although he suspected that Genesis was well aware—but he waited almost impatiently each time they received re-enforcements or more supplies, because any news from ShinRa meant a letter from Yuffie.

He was very secretive about them, going off on his own to read them in solitude, and sometimes Genesis wondered what was written in them. Maybe they were love letters. The thought wasn't entirely absurd. Sephiroth was twenty-three now, so that would make the runt.. sixteen, maybe? Girls were fickle at that age; fickle and romantic.

He nabbed one before Sephiroth could notice, and opened it to find that the most romantic thing in there was that she had made heart shaped snacks for that dumbass Zack and Angeal.

He frowned as he read it.

It was typical teenage junk.

So why was Sephiroth reading it so fervently?

Today, the letter he got was thick.

They'd been in Wutai for about four months now, scouring from the coast up for the elusive AVALANCHE. It may as well have been another Wutai War, without fighting Wutai or the publicity that ShinRa had given the last one. Lord Godo had, unsurprisingly, been very weak willed about the whole thing. Mostly, it seemed that nothing ShinRa did anymore bothered him—the man looked old and frail, a very introverted form of his once strong self.

But if there was one thing that elicited a response out of the old man, it was seeing Sephiroth.

Lord Godo seemed to hate that man more then he did President ShinRa or the company. Which was ironic, because Sephiroth was the one who had decided to stop this war with Wutai while the people had yet to drive themselves entirely into the ground fighting attrition, and ultimately he was the reason that Wutai still faired reasonably today.

Genesis supposed it had something to do with the fact that he had married his daughter.

But weren't familial ties supposed to make positive bonds?

Genesis shook his head.

They were stationed down the Southern Coast, as there had been sightings of a strange military group that had been wandering the area. It couldn't be anyone else but AVALANCHE, and they were simply going to have to bide their time to siege every city till they found them.

Sephiroth exited the tent. "Are we ready to leave?"

Genesis eyed him coolly. "Waiting for transport. We'll head north east?"

The General nodded.

It was mist season in Wutai, not that the Western country had many seasons. In the southern region, there was rain season, summer, mist season, and then summer again. In the north, it was a bit more like the rest of the planet, but considering Gaia's tilt to the sun, the southern part of Wutai was mainly humid forests.

The heat clung to the whole brigade, and Genesis was attempting to fan himself rapidly.

Sephiroth wasn't fairing too well either, in the dense heat, leather clinging to his skin.

The troopers. Well… they must be four ways to hell in that armor and padding.

It was no wonder that AVALANCHE ambushed them, right after they passed a tea shop—the only shop on the entire, dirt pass.

The first convoy was struck down with a fire materia, and even though the second housed both First Class Soldiers, he and Genesis split after one of the members summoned Bahamut SIN. He managed to take care of it alone, but was separated from Genesis in the ensuing chaos.

By the time he reached the main road again, the trucks were destroyed, and troopers littered the ground.

He sighed.

If there was one thing AVALANCHE had on them, it was tactics and higher ground. Not to mention that in a place like Wutai, playing the home turf was a terrible advantage.

There was no use standing out here, however, in the almost blinding mist waiting for Genesis. It would also be useless to attempt to make it back to base when doing so would only exhaust him and make him walk through hostile territory out in the open. AVALANCHE had some sort of mechanism which allowed them to see through the dense fog.

Instead, he backtracked to the tea shop he'd seen before, and decided that, perhaps if he asked nicely enough, he'd be able to spend the night there and wait for the reinforcements to come morning.

The only occupant was an old woman, who squinted at him bat-like.

She came up to his stomach, perhaps, and peered up at him spitefully. "You part of ShinRa?"

That much was obvious. "I apologize for any inconvenience this may bring you, but—

She shushed him, looking him up and down with narrowed, squinting eyes. "Come."

He followed her apprehensively into the room, which smelt like the kind of tea Yuffie brewed and reminded him greatly of the young Wutain princess. She moved over the stove, and he stood awkwardly in the space, looking quite out of place with the mountain tapestries and low table.

"Why you stand there?" She barked imperiously, in a thick, Wutain accent. Her wrinkled hands gestured to the low table. "Sit."

He remembered the cushions on the floor from the many meetings and meals in Lord Godo's palace, and he sat on one cross legged, Masamune on the table.

She eventually wobbled over to him, tea tray in hand.

She poured, and he sipped it gently. It tasted almost a bit vile, and he wondered why the Wutain even bothered to drink this.

As if sensing his discomfort, she smiled. "It herbal tea. Good for you, bring good health."

He watched her, placing down his cup. "Why are you helping me?"

She pointed to the hilt of Masamune, which rested halfway off the small table due to its size. Yuffie had given him a good luck charm. That's what she said it was, anyway, and she told him to put it on something he wore all the time, or it wouldn't help. Perhaps she had meant a shirt or his boot, but instead he had tied it to the hilt of his sword's sheath, where it fluttered in a nonexistent breeze.

"That Leviathan spirit." She gestured to the character stitched onto it. "Kotsu Anzen. Give safe travel when away from home."

His brows raised. Yuffie hadn't told him that.

Her grin grew wider. "It give to husband to make sure he come back safe. You marry Wutain?"

.

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17.

Genesis was laughing as they found the great General come morning, who had apparently been taken care of by a frail looking Wutain woman who, as he left, imparted on him various Wutain charms and tea to make sure he would be healthy and safe for the duration of his trip. She was under the impression he had a lovely Wutain wife waiting for him at home, which may or may not be true, depending on one's speculation on whether Yuffie was really a 'wife' or 'lovely'.

Mostly it wasn't worth the effort to convince her otherwise, but he supposed he owed Yuffie a thank you anyway.

Like most of his returning letters, his was short.

He thanked her for her strange Wutain magic charm, and told her that they were almost finished up here—it wouldn't take more then a couple months until they came back.

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18.

Couple months turned into a couple weeks with the help of the Turks, but still wasn't enough for Sephiroth to arrive for Yuffie's seventeenth birthday (though she missed his twenty-fourth as well). He'd officially missed two years of her life, and he didn't know quite what to think about it.

For her part, the girl didn't seem too upset. It was his job, after all, she reasoned, and Reno took her straight down to the best lower plate bar he knew to celebrate her first day legal. He didn't know if he liked the sound of that.

Reno was sort of notorious for getting around.

And it wasn't like they were really married. Who was he to take away the entirety of a young girl's life, anyway? She still had all of it to live for, and if she liked Reno that way then, well, he wasn't about to stop it.

Of course, Yuffie left out the part that they met up with Zack and his cadet friend Cloud, as well as Rude and Elena, and Reno got so drunk he dived for Elena's breasts by accidently groped Cloud instead, and the entirety of the night was spent accusing Reno of being gay.

She also left out the return of the governess, who, now that she was legal and officially an adult, had to dress 'appropriately' as one and act like the lady she was. The governess also brought a small army of stylists and makeup artists, and apparently, Yuffie was meant to get her hair done and her face done and her toes done (and everything done!) before she ever dared to step foot outside of Sephiroth's apartment, regardless if she was just going to take a walk around the floor or not.

Also, she was officially banned from going underneath the plate, as a woman of her stature should never be seen publicly in a place like that. Unofficially, she assumed the Turks would ignore that and take her under, anyway.

If that wasn't bad enough, being an adult and a wife to the General meant taking tea with the other important wives of ShinRa's executives. She had thought that maybe she'd find an understanding ear in at least one of them, but when she brought up the subject of the almost two hour styling session that she woke up to daily, they all looked at her like she'd mysteriously grown a chocobo head instead of her face. After that, and a few other Yuffie moments in which she, in her naivety, questioned the debutant society they were accustomed to, they all promptly ignored her, and Yuffie was just fine with that. She didn't much want to talk to them, anyway.

Reno, Zack, Kunsel, and all her friends she'd made her were much better to talk to then those vapid women, and they were sympathetic to her make-over plight.

"You even look different!" Zack agreed sagely, waving to her long hair.

Governess from hell wouldn't allow her to cut it any more. Admittedly, while she looked like one of those beautiful Wutain dolls with rose-colored cheeks and snow white skin that contrasted to the crimson of her lips, she didn't look anything like the questionable girl boy gender-vague she had been before.

Her breasts were still small, though, and may have well been nonexistent. Normally, as a ninja, this would have pleased her, as breasts got in the way and made it hard to be stealthy and flexible. Now it just made her feel inadequate.

"It's the hair." Yuffie sighed, propping her feet up on one of the tables.

The Soldier lounge was mostly deserted, but had it not been, they all would have agreed with her plight as well. Men always seemed to understand her more—especially in a place like ShinRa, where all the elite woman loved being pampered.

Cissnei was guarding her today, and Yuffie could have kissed her for all her non-makeup beauty.

"See, she's beautiful!" Yuffie made a wide gesture towards the Turk, who was picking at her salad meekly. "And she doesn't spend like, a bajillion hours pampering herself in front of a mirror!"

The Turk sighed. "But I also work here." She pointed out. "I'm not one of those wives who are a part of ShinRa through other ways then being employed."

Yuffie wanted to point out that Scarlet was employed here, and the most she did was sigh dreamily and prop up her long legs for the world to see, but that may have been an inaccurate statement, because apparently Scarlet actually did things around here. "Do you think I could be a Turk?" Yuffie mused. "I'm super sly! And I'm cunning and good at stealing things."

"We know." Came the chorus from all that were gathered, who had all be stolen from before.

"But you're… kind of married to the General." Said Cissnei gently. "I don't think he'd want you running around doing Turk work. Contrary to what you think, some of it's dangerous."

Yuffie harrumphed, playing with a lock of her long, dark hair. It was done, again, so that it curled loosely down her arms. It was so long and useless that she wished she could lop it all of with Cissnei's shuriken. "He wouldn't mind." She frowned moodily, even though she didn't really know whether he would or not.

Zack and Cissnei exchanged a glance.

It was then that Angeal walked into the lounge, and Yuffie decided that he'd be the perfect deciding factor. "Angeal!" She waved him over. "Would Sephiroth be mad if I joined the Turks?"

He pulled a face. "Uh, well…" She looked so crestfallen he sighed. "Well, maybe not at you, but he'd do a lot of yelling at Tseng."

Yuffie crossed her arms. "How about, like, the science department, or something?"

"No." Came the flat, unison response.

"The… municipal waste crew?"

Zack shriveled his nose. "That's disgusting!"

"I'm trying to think of something!" She retorted hotly. "Maybe I could be a cook or something. I'm good at that. Does ShinRa have cooks?"

Angeal only shook his head, amused. He rubbed her hair for good measure, and she leapt upright, hissing and spitting like a cat. "Zack, come on, it's getting late."

The other First looked like he was being lead to his death walk, getting up glumly.

"Why are you so upset?" Yuffie asked, after successfully matting down her hair.

"We're going tuxedo shopping." Angeal said in Zack's stead, as the younger First looked like he'd just swallowed a giant sour lemon. And, to Yuffie's blank expression, "Every year ShinRa hosts a winter gala. It's a big event and while all Soldiers have invitations, Firsts are required to attend. This'll mark Zack's first year going."

Yuffie looked confused. "…Will I have to go too?"

Angeal matched her face. "Well, of course. Sephiroth has to, and I'd assume that now that you're of age you'll have to as well."

At Yuffie's almost terrifyingly blank expression, Cissnei clasped a hand over hers. "Don't worry, all the Turks will be there too."

"And I will be too!" Zack cheered. "It's not like one of those stuffy executive things, it's a company thing. That means that a lot of people employed will be going too—so you don't have too worry."

Yuffie nodded helplessly.

But that wasn't what she was afraid of.

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19.

Yuffie had always been a disappointment to people.

Not that she ever really cared. Godo wanted her to be the greatest, fiercest warrior in Wutai. She was great, and fierce, but certainly not the best. Kasumi wanted her to be delicate and graceful, deadly, but domestic. She wasn't delicate, or graceful, and while she was deadly and could cook she hated cleaning and being hospitable to people, and would never make a very good wife.

In ShinRa, people wanted her out of sight but still somewhere in the limelight, not center stage, but a perfect, still doll somewhere in the back, beautiful but coy and silent. She was loud and cocky and not very beautiful, and this December Gala was going to be the epitome of all the things she wasn't.

Yuffie wasn't scared of an entire night full of stuffy rich people from Midgar.

She was just scared of disappointing Sephiroth.

Maybe he liked that kind of thing? Maybe he liked stiffy and rich, maybe he lusted after Scarlet as she strutted into the room like some sort of old model, still beautiful but past her prime in that perfect, unavailable kind of way.

She wasn't that little girl he had to trudge down to Sector 8 to drag back up.

But, to be fair, she didn't really know what she was, either.

This was what she had been musing when she quite literally ran into Reno.

He didn't look happy.

"What's got you so glum?" She asked him jokingly, but he only shook his head. Obviously not in any mood to joke.

"Seriously Reno," She frowned as he tugged her arm harshly.

Eventually, he pulled her into a storage closet, which was small and cramped with a mop and bucket, and a variety of foul smelling cleaning supplies. She made a face at the smell, which was starting to make her stomach feel sick again. She couldn't see Reno's face in the dark, but she wondered if he realized how awkward this was.

"Are you trying to seduce me or something?" She crossed her arms irritably. "Cause its not working. You could at least take me out to dinner—

"Gaia you can run your mouth." Even in the dark Yuffie knew he was rolling his eyes. "This is important hotshot, so shut your it for a moment."

Yuffie blinked, feeling apprehensive. "What's so important then?"

"Sephiroth's coming back."

"Duh."

"No—you don't get it." He was playing with his pony tail again. That wasn't a good sign. "Remember that day, like, two years ago, when that guy broke into your house?"

"The security breach?" Her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, you accused Tseng of lying—and you were right." Reno's voice lowered conspiratorially. "He was, kind of. It was a company thing. Not a Turk thing, but a science department thing. The break in was supposed to gauge Sephiroth's reaction while he was under this medical drug Hojo had put him on that afternoon—

"But why would they do that?!" Yuffie's voice rose in surprise, and Reno clamped a hand on her mouth.

"You probably don't get it, but, Sephiroth's not exactly… he's important to this company aside from the fact that he's the General. He's a science project, alright? He was made by some poor chick getting these crazy alien cells injected into her. I know it sounds gross—please don't get sick on me—but that's why he's so strong and shit. Hojo's been testing him for a while now, and trust me when I say there's a reason that Sephiroth's been gone for two years now."

Yuffie's eyes were wide and frightened, and even though she couldn't talk, it was almost like she was telepathically relaying her fear to the Turk.

"I wouldn't have told you this unless I thought it was important. Be careful around him, alright? And especially during the ball. There's going to be a lot of eyes around there, and I don't want you getting hurt."

He let go of her mouth, and it sprung into action. "He's not going to get hurt, is he? What's wrong with him? Why are they doing this?"

"This isn't twenty questions!" Reno hissed back. "Listen, just, watch your back. You can trust me, and most of the Turks, and all your Soldier buddies. But anyone else, I would think twice about."

Yuffie nodded.

This company was a bit more than she had previously thought.

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20.

The day of the ball arrived with great fanfare and Yuffie couldn't go to the air hangar bay like she wanted to, as the governess came with a vengeance.

Whatever was left of Yuffie that morning when she looked in the mirror was now officially gone completely. She looked like one of those Wutain geisha who posed on all the Wutai tourist signs that were flying up everywhere, with pouty red lips and wide alluring eyes, claiming a tropical getaway in paradise.

It was the hair, she surmised.

The hair, the makeup, the fake eye lashes, and the crappy dress.

But Yuffie was a bit too numb after what Reno said to fully fight off the harpies tooth and nail, that, and she had sort of resigned herself to her fate. She couldn't be a badass Turk like Cissnei and Elena, couldn't be a badass Soldier like Zack and Kunsel, and couldn't be a ninja because she was no longer in Wutai. So instead, she may as well have been a glass doll spun from snow colored porcelain, dressed up in expensive chiffon ruffles and tulle skirts and glittering diamonds.

There was nothing that resembled herself in the mirror that day, and while she privately admitted that she was beautiful, she certainly didn't want it at the cost of her independence and her freedom.

While Yuffie was bitterly resigning herself as a handful of women painted her nails, plucked her eyebrows and puckered her lips, Sephiroth was stepping off the airship ready to sleep in his own bed, finally.

Beside him, Genesis was reading Loveless aloud, as he had been for the better part of the ride.

The two trudged up the many floors, and while Genesis seemed almost giddy at the prospect of the President's annual pain in the ass company party, Sephiroth was wondering if there was any available way that he could get out of it. The whole company had the day off, so there wasn't any possibility of a mission. He'd fake illness, but then that would just cause a science department fiasco.

He wondered if Yuffie had changed any since the last he saw of her.

From the way she wrote, it didn't seem like she did. Perhaps her legs had gotten longer, her face a little thinned out, but probably not very much.

He wondered why he found himself so curious, even though he knew the answer.

The General paused in front of his door.

Why could he hear so many voices?

He opened it, to find the kitchen and living room looking much like he had remembered it. After two years, Yuffie kept it in pretty good condition. There were sticks of dango in the middle of the table, and he immediately dropped his bags at the front door and swiped a few of them.

It was then that he realized there was something under the table.

It was large, about as wide as the table and as long as a chair, and resembled an enormous rock. He thought it might have been one of Yuffie's attempts at turning the kitchen zen, until it moved.

He leapt back immediately, a stick of dango hanging from his mouth as he reached wildly for Masamune.

It was a fucking giant tortoise.

"Zack!"

Or it was a turtle he'd won two years ago, turned rabid.

He was wrong about Yuffie.

There was nothing he remembered in the beautiful, heart shaped face framed by long dark hair. Her eyes were big and framed with dark lashes, smoky shadows on her upper lids. Her lips, if possible, looked more tantalizing then they did before, colored red and open in an 'o'. There was nothing Yuffie in the long hair that fell in soft curls, framing her face and her thin shoulders.

And never, ever, would ninja-Yuffie have been caught dead in the short pink bathrobe.

The turtle, as if realizing its name was called, lumbered out from under the table and hunkered down in front of Yuffie.

"Oh, Sephiroth!" Even her voice was hardly recognizable. "When did you get home?"

"Just now."

It was funny, he'd never called it home until Yuffie came here with him.

Her smile was small and pleasant, but looked wrong when he'd seen its large, grinning counterpart. "How was the flight?"

"Long and tedious."

"Miss Yuffie!" A woman poked her head out of the first door, looking frazzled. "Could you come back in please? We need to finish your hair."

She gave an apologetic look to Sephiroth, before being pulled back in.

She left Sephiroth and Zack the enormous giant fucking turtle alone to themselves, and Sephiroth looked down at him.

The turtle looked up with a flat, bored expression.

"What else has changed?" He sighed, mostly to himself.

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21.

The truth was, though, that Yuffie didn't really change.

Circumstances changed around her, and Yuffie had just become really, really good at adapting to it all. She didn't even fuss as rollers slapped against her head, or when the woman picking at her nails sliced at her skin.

But hey, she looked pretty when she caught a brief glance at her in a passing reflection.

Sephiroth was in there, somewhere, and suddenly Yuffie wondered if it would be a replay of their wedding ceremony, which she had blocked out of her memory for the most part. Her, standing there, silent and emotionless, while he politely maneuvered through a crowd of high class people. If so, Yuffie was more then prepared to vomit all over her dress and claim sickness, at least for a reprieve from the night's festivities.

The room was huge and packed entirely with people.

Lucky for Yuffie, she almost immediately found Elena, and latched onto her like some sort of insect.

She looked down at her questioningly.

"Everyone here scares me." She hissed.

"They scare me too." She pried Yuffie's fingers off her arm. Elena wasn't dressed in her typical blue suit, but a long ballroom gown that was dark like midnight and most likely concealed every deadly weapon she had on her person. "But you don't see me about to break into tears."

Yuffie said nothing to this, but didn't leave, either.

Elena raised her brows. "Where's your husband?"

"Dunno." Yuffie bit out.

"Are you going to find him?"

"Probably."

A beat of silence, and then, sarcastically, "Would you like me to find him with you?"

Yuffie sighed and shook her head. To be frankly honest, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to see Sephiroth. "I think… I think I'll be okay now, thanks."

With that she moved off (read: tripped in her heels) through the crowd of moving people, until eventually she found herself spat out near the free bar.

Reno and Rude were sitting there, looking like they were seriously going to play up the 'free' in that sentence.

She sat next to Reno, in a space between him and a blonde man. "I see you've made some headway on ShinRa's good charity."

"Hey, Uncle ShinRa wants to give me some free drinks, I ain't about to stop 'em." Ah, Reno must be seriously getting drunk if his Midgar accent was coming through. Yuffie thought it had a hint of Mideel in it, but she'd never been there so she'd never really know.

She only leaned over to look at Rude (who was still wearing his sunglasses inside). "You're watching out for him?"

Rude gestured to his glass of water.

Yuffie nodded, leaning back.

Reno threw an arm around her. "You need to stop looking like someone killed your goddamn puppy."

Yuffie wanted to point out that it was Reno, albeit a sober Reno, which had insisted she keep her guard up. "And I think you need to stop looking like a shit-faced drunkard—oh wait, you can't help that."

She gingerly pushed his arm off of her, but he slapped it back on.

"I believe the young girl looks like she'd rather leave."

Reno blinked, before hastily removing his arm, looking considerably more sober then he had moments prior. "My apologies, sir."

"Don't apologize to me." Shrugged the blonde man.

Yuffie watched him shrewdly. He looked oddly familiar, with suave slicked back flaxen hair and aloof blue eyes. But Yuffie couldn't quite place where she knew him from.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met." She said, dazedly, but at least she managed to sound marginally polite.

Thank god.

"Rufus ShinRa." He nodded to her. "And I believe we have."

.

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22.

It was one thing for Yuffie to be hanging around Reno.

Reno was stupid, but he trusted the redhead to a degree, as he was a Turk and Turks usually steered clear of him as much as possible. They didn't want to mess around with the General, for even though they were in high favor with the ShinRa family, so was he. Generally, they did what they wanted, and while he didn't appreciate the lanky boy's arm around Yuffie, it was much better than if the man to her left had done the same.

It was just as bad that Rufus ShinRa would be talking to her, regardless of if it was just pleasantries or not.

"Don't look so worried." Smiled Genesis breezily, behind his flute of champagne. "They're probably just discussing the weather."

"Doubtful." Answered Angeal before he could, standing opposite of him. "Rufus ShinRa is notorious for one thing only, and we all know it."

"Relax, the both of you." Genesis looked like he was appalled that their fellow First, whom they hadn't seen for almost two years, would care so much about the Wutain princess. "Everyone knows that since he was appointed Vice President Rufus' infamous reputation has become nothing more than a legend. The girl is fine."

And, with narrowed eyes. "As if he'd try anything when dear Sephiroth is obviously so smitten with her."

He wanted to deny the claim, and point out that she was his responsibility and it was natural to want to look after her, but the words didn't quite make it out of his throat.

Fortunately for him, they didn't have to, as Zack came to whisk her away, off to the dance floor most likely.

It was fortunate for Yuffie as well.

"You looked so green I thought you were going to puke on his shoes." Zack joked as he twirled her a bit too fast.

She steadied herself and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no kidding. Someone coulda warned me I was sitting next to Rufus fucking ShinRa though. Thanks for that."

"You didn't ask!" Zack laughed. "And it's not like I know him on sight. If he wasn't looking so fancy and wearing the ShinRa crest I'd have thought he was just another asshole."

"He is just another asshole." Yuffie pointed out. "Just with a lot more money."

"Got a point there."

They danced for a few more moments, rather, Zack lead her and she tried not to step on his shoes. Eventually, he just told her to stand on his and he lead them on a merry chase around the floor, Yuffie laughing loudly at what a spectacle they made—when she wasn't ready to barf on the floor.

Zack figured out that she was about to at some point through their third song, and let her down before she hurled.

He was chortling at her. "I can't believe a ninja can get motion sickness…"

"It's not funny." She said, as she clamped a hand over her mouth. "And it's a secret; don't tell anyone!"

"I haven't told anyone yet, have I?" Which was true. Since that day on the airship, Zack had kept his word. Of course, it only took knowing her long enough to figure it out. It wasn't like all the Turks didn't know about it, anyway.

"This is true." She agreed.

Yuffie looked around the room once more.

She'd been doing it discreetly for the better part of the evening, keeping tabs on Sephiroth. Sometimes he was with Genesis and Angeal, or he was being chatted up by various executives, wives on hand like draping toys. She made faces at them all; and hoped that wasn't what he was expecting her to do. Cause he could kiss her ass if he did.

She didn't see him this time though.

"Have you seen Sephiroth?" She looked around fully this time, not seeing his eye-catching hair.

Zack nodded sagely. "Why yes, he's right behind you."

She whirled around so fast that she could almost feel food working up her throat from spinning around in circles the whole night.

True to Zack's word, the man was making his way towards them after what seemed to be a veritable polite excuse to leave a boring conversation.

"Mind if I take this one?" He asked Zack charmingly, and Zack looked as if he understood the man's plight.

"As long as I don't have to talk to Heidegger in your place!" Smiled the First, before taking off.

Ah, so that was Heidegger—the man with the horse laugh. She remembered his wife, who shared his incessant, disturbing cackle.

While the next song was slow enough that she wouldn't be tossed around like a limp ragdoll, the people around them moved in skillful circles and wide arches, and Yuffie suddenly realized something which hadn't been much of an issue with Zack.

"I can't dance." She muttered a bit helplessly into the fabric of his shirt.

"Step on my shoes then."

She glared up balefully at him.

He raised a brow. "You didn't have any trouble doing it with Zack."

"Zack wasn't a billion times taller then me." She pointed out, uselessly, as she did so anyway.

He hummed in agreement, spinning them—slowly, as he recalled that she'd told him once she got motion sick easily and didn't want it all over his clothes. "You've grown."

"Not particularly."

"Your hair's grown longer." He remarked.

"So's yours." She rebuked, before frowning. "And it wouldn't be, if it wasn't for that stupid…"

Sephiroth frowned too. "Stupid what?"

She blew out hot air, which fanned against her bangs. "Nothing."

He looked down at her, and she was pointedly looking in another direction, cheeks flushed. The lids of her eyes were smoky and sparkling. "And you're wearing makeup." He surmised.

She pouted further, but said nothing.

"When did you start doing that?"

Silence.

"I suppose it's normal for you to change so much." He mused aloud. It shouldn't have came to a surprise to him. She couldn't be the little runt who scampered around the house wearing whatever she liked, uncaring of her hair or her glossy lips, natural beauty so evident that sometimes it was hard to look at her. She couldn't always be his little ninja.

"I haven't meant to." She retorted, honestly.

For some reason, it almost sounded to him like she was apologizing. "It's alright." He blinked, surprised. "It's natural."

"But it's not," She whined, sucking in a breath. They twirled some more, and he set her down from his shoes to spin her around, until she was laughing so hard she was sick.

"That's not funny!" She giggled.

She looked happier then he'd seen her all night.

Wait.

He paused. "You're unhappy."

There was recognition in her eyes, as her smile dimmed and once again she looked away. "Since I'm of age and stuff they said I've got to do all this dumb stuff now." The song had ended, and she stood beneath him, kicking at the floor and scuffing her pretty heels. "Like get my hair done every morning—and I'm not allowed to cut it, either! And I have to get my makeup done and they do my nails and put weird pasty stuff on my face before I sleep and every day I have to go to these stupid luncheons with all these dumb looking ladies and sit there like a blow up doll or something and—

"Who are these people?" Through the rant, Sephiroth looked continuously more alarmed. "Who says?"

"ShinRa." She crossed her arms. "Since I'm like," At this, she flushed deeply, "Your wife and stuff, I have to go with all the other executives wives and be just like them." Her eyes were wide and imploring. "I didn't want to change."

"You don't have to." He wondered why he felt so much relief. For a moment, no, this whole night, he had thought that Yuffie had grown up right under his nose, and had become some sort of crazy beautiful alien whom he didn't recognize. But, he realized, underneath all that sparkling powder and fluffy hair, she was still Yuffie.

And that was good to know.

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23.

There was only one person who would sic the crowd of harpies on Yuffie.

It didn't take long to find Scarlet.

"What's this I hear about you taking over my charge?"

He successfully cowed off all the young men that she had been so charmingly enticing, and they all scampered off into the crowd, leaving Scarlet without a male entourage. This didn't mean she looked any less imposing, or dangerous, for that matter.

She looked up at him with those big brown eyes, her red dress, if it could even be called a dress, was so tightly painted onto her that it may as well have been a sheet that covered the bottom of her breasts and the very top of her thigh, and he could see almost clear through it while looking down at her.

"Charge?" Her eyes lidded, as she took a slow sip of her sparkling beverage. "Don't you mean wife?"

"That really isn't the issue here."

She sniffed, crossing her arms. If possible, the gesture made her breasts nearly double in size. Men lingered around them for the view, but to be frank, it mostly repulsed him. "Isn't it, though? She runs rampant like a little street urchin. Don't think the President hasn't noticed how she does as she pleases. He's had to call me in to… fix a few things."

"Well it isn't needed any longer." He frowned at her, coldly. "Call them off." The, you stupid whore was left off tactfully.

"Don't act like you don't let her do the same, even when you're in town." She scowled. "Your wife…" And then, with a sly smirk. "But can she even be called that?"

"What do you mean?" His voice was flat and left no room for questioning.

"What do I?" She echoed coyly. "Please, don't act like you've consummated. You know, you're not the only ShinRa dog lying around here to abide by the treaty; you just happened to be the only on available at the time. I hear Rufus has been looking for a new… consort."

Most likely the dumb bitch didn't know how judiciously she had struck a chord, and, while his expression turned stormy, he wasn't about to let her know, either.

"This conversation is far from over." He sneered down at her, and for once, it seemed to have some sort of impact on her, as she looked at least a bit cowed. "If I see any of you're entourage in my home I'll kill them all myself."

Scarlet may have just been jabbing at air for the duration of their conversation, trying to goad a response out of him, but her words held a tinge of truth. Consummation was sort of like that final barrier that Sephiroth was fairly sure he couldn't cross—wasn't even aware he wanted to, until recently. But that meant that his marriage to Yuffie was pretty much what he'd been saying it was all along; a scrap of paper with both their names on it. It held no meaning, and was good for the press and relations with the ninja nation but aside from that, was virtually worthless.

If Rufus really wanted to, he could easily convince his yellow-bellied old man to nullify the arrangement for his own purposes.

And Sephiroth wouldn't take that chance.

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