"Well…what’s Yuffie like?"
"I didn’t spend much time with Yuffie either."
Lyria giggled. "Not your type of person? Her name sounds rather outgoing."
"It suits her."
"I see…well…do you think the others will be up? Breakfast is about ready…"
"Cid’s swearing probably woke Shera up."
"What about Cloud and Tifa?"
"I don’t know. Tifa might be awake."
"Hmm…well, I’m going to start putting plates on the table for breakfast…they can come down if they’re hungry."
--------------------------------------------
Shera opened her eyes to see Cid stomping into the room, egg yolk dripping from his hair.
"Cid?" Shera giggled. "What happened?"
Cid muttered something that sounded distinctly like "The goddamn bitch in the kitchen, that’s what happened…"
"Cid! That was an awful thing to say!" Shera chided him, slipping out of bed and putting on her glasses.
"She smashed an egg on my head!"
Shera gave up and laughed out loud at her fiancée as some of the egg yolk dripped onto his nose. "Cid…you…hee hee…you have egg on your face…"
"Oh shut up Shera…" Cid grumbled and entered the bathroom to have a shower.
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"Cloud, wake up!" Tifa nudged her husband in the ribs sharply. The former waitress was already fully dressed and wanted to go look for Lyria.
"Tifa…leave me alone, I’m sleeping…" Cloud mumbled, pulling a pillow over his head.
"Oh get up. It’s almost eight in the morning and we have to head to Wutai."
"Eight? Eight in the morning? God, Tifa, just lemme sleep…"
"Just get up Cloud."
"Argh…fine…I’m getting up."
Tifa went into the bathroom to brush her hair as Cloud got dressed and then came into the room behind her.
"Nice hair," Tifa commented.
"Yeah, whatever…" Cloud’s hair was always unruly in the morning, and throughout the rest of the day, because he didn’t do anything with it except spray it with hairspray and let it do what it wanted. Tifa often wondered how it was humanly possible to have hair like Cloud’s.
"Let’s go find Lyria," she suggested, laying down her brush and taking Cloud’s hand. Pulling him out the door and into the hallway they met Shera.
"Morning, Cloud. Morning, Tifa," Shera said cheerfully.
"Hey, Shera. Have you seen Lyria?"
"I think she’s in the kitchen. I was just heading there to make myself some breakfast."
"I need to talk to her, so I think I’ll come too." Tifa followed Shera, still leading a half-asleep Cloud. Tifa entered the kitchen to find Lyria bustling around setting plates at the table at the end of the room where Vincent was sitting.
"Good morning…are you all hungry?" Lyria pulled a plate of blueberry pancakes from the oven.
"Lyria! This is incredible!" Shera exclaimed, looking wide-eyed at all the food Lyria had prepared.
"I was up early so I figured I might as well make breakfast…" Lyria looked curiously at Cloud, who had turned about three shades paler. "What’s the matter Cloud?"
Cloud didn’t respond, but instead turned and ran out the door as though he hadn’t heard her.
"What’s wrong?" Lyria asked, confused at Cloud’s behavior.
"He has motion sickness," Red answered, entering the kitchen. "He nearly flattened me running down the hallway."
"Oh…well, I’ll go deal with that, you guys can start on breakfast." Lyria left the room and everyone began heaping food on their plates.
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"Cloud?" Lyria came out on deck to see the mercenary kneeling by the railing, sick as a dog.
"H-hi…no offense or anything, I just can’t even stand the sight of food on trips like this…even just the thought…" Cloud weakly turned back to the railing.
"Oh. Well, I can probably help you out there…" Lyria pulled a small bottle of white pills from her pocket and displayed them proudly.
"What are these?"
"They’re a cure for motion sickness…an old doctor I know invented them. He was an incredible man…Dr. B. S. Levi, remarkable the sorts of drugs he came up with…"
"They really work?"
"I swear it on my medical diploma. I’d be having the same problems as you if I wasn’t taking these beautiful white gems." Lyria looked fondly at the bottle and handed it to Cloud.
"You’re giving them to me?" Cloud took the bottle and examined the label. "Don’t you need them?"
"You think I only have one bottle? I’ve got at least six…"
"Thanks a million Lyria…"
"No problem." Lyria turned and headed back below decks, smiling to herself. She reentered the kitchen and noted that Cid had finished his shower and was eating with everyone else.
"Hiya Cid. I see you got all the egg out of your hair…" Lyria greeted the pilot.
Cid glared at Lyria while he took a bite of toast.
"I see…you’re mad at me? Well, I prepared a peace offering, just in case." Lyria went to the fridge and removed a bottle of beer. "Here, Cid. Forgive me?"
Cid’s eyes lit up and he laughed. "How could I stay mad with someone bearing alcohol?" Cid stood up and took the bottle from Lyria. "Beautiful, just beautiful…"
"The beer or me?" Lyria laughed.
"Both of ya’, darlin’."
Just then Cloud came into the room grinning and sat down at the table next to Tifa.
"Cloud! Aren’t you sick?" Tifa asked as her husband kissed her lightly on the cheek.
"Not anymore, thanks to Lyria…" Cloud beamed at the young doctor.
"It was honestly no problem, Cloud…" Lyria glanced at Vincent who was looking at her with an arched eyebrow. She smiled a rather guilty smile and winked.
"So we’re heading to Wutai?" Red asked.
"Yeah, who’s all coming?" Cloud asked, taking large helpings of everything on the table.
"I’d like to come…" Lyria said.
"Me too," Shera added.
"Cloud and I are definitely coming."
"I think you’ll need me too…what about you and Cid, Vincent?" Red asked.
"I’d rather stay."
"I got work to do with the engine, I’ll stick around here."
Lyria looked a little hesitant when she heard Vincent was staying, but decided it might be for the best for her to get out and stretch her wings. Her biological clock was already starting to slip back into normal time.
"We better be leaving soon then, if we’re going to get to Wutai and back," Cloud said, through a mouth of eggs.
"Don’t talk with your mouth full," Tifa scolded.
"Sorry."
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Vincent stood at the railing of the grounded Highwind, watching the five who had decided to go pick up Yuffie disappear over the horizon.
"Gonna miss ‘em?" Cid asked.
Vincent didn’t answer, as usual.
"I’m gonna miss my Shera, she’s never been out in the field before, I shoulda made her stay."
"Would she have listened to you?"
"Huh?" Cid’s tone was mildly confused.
"If she was doing something that put her in danger and you really didn’t want her to, would she do it anyway?"
"What the hell is wrong with you? All of a sudden you’re talkin’ to me…"
"Never mind…"
"Whatever. You gonna come help me in the engine room?"
"No."
"Tch. You know what your problem is?"
Vincent evidently didn’t care what his problem was, but Cid continued anyway. "You’re #$&%--------------------------------------------$ antisocial."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I dunno…I thought maybe there was an outside chance that you’d care."
"I don’t."
"You should. There are people who are worryin’ about you. Like it or not, they all care enough to wanna help. Even Lyria. She’s hardly known you three days and she wants to help more than any of us."
There was no answer, Cid knew well enough not to expect one so he sighed and headed back down the stairs to the engine room.
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Lyria’s eyes widened as the group entered Wutai. The towering mountains, the beautiful old buildings and the sparkling river flowing through the village took her breath away. "What an idyllic setting…"
In contrast to Lyria’s statement there was a sudden commotion as a young girl with short hair and a shuriken in one hand burst out of one of the shops and sprinted for the town’s entrance.
"Stop! Thief!" the shopkeeper yelled, pointing at the girl.
Cloud unsheathed his sword and stood in the girl’s way. "Yuffie!"
"Aw, hell!" Yuffie skidded to a halt and looked about frantically for a method of escape. Cloud walked forward and firmly held onto her arm while the shopkeeper caught up.
"Cloud, lemme go…c’mon, I’ll go fifty-fifty with you on this stuff if you lemme go…" Yuffie pleaded in a whisper.
"Yeah right, Yuffie." Cloud held her a little more firmly as the shopkeeper approached.
"Young lady! I can quite firmly assure you your father will be hearing of this!" the shopkeeper scolded Yuffie.
"If you’ll excuse me, sir," Red interjected smoothly. "Perhaps we can help straighten out this mess?"
"Yeah, we’ll pay for the stuff Yuffie took and any damages she may have caused if you don’t press charges…" Tifa added.
The merchant looked tempted and nodded his head. "Fine. Now get the little ruffian out of my sight."
Yuffie glared daggers at the man as Cloud handed him some money and dragged her out of town. "You’re more trouble than you’re worth Yuffie. Come on, we gotta get back to the Highwind."
"What the hell d’you think you’re tryin’ to pull here? You can’t just abduct me! I was…"
"You were in the middle of skipping town," Tifa finished for her.
"Yeah, well…"
"Yuffie, we need your help," Red said and explained the entire situation.
Yuffie was silent for a while after Red finished. "Soooo…you need me?"
"Yes."
"Well…I guess I could help you out…you people are always getting yourselves into scrapes and ol’ Yuffie has to come along and save the day."
"Can we hurry back? We have more people to get…" Tifa said.
"Sure. Just one question…who’s this?" Yuffie jerked her thumb at Lyria.
"I’m Lyria Kindred, me and Tifa are old friends…" Lyria extended her hand and Yuffie shook it amiably.
"Yuffie! Give it back!" Cloud scolded sharply, noticing Yuffie palm one of the rings Lyria had been wearing.
"Aww…Cloud, you are absolutely no fun." Yuffie handed the ring back to Lyria.
"Thank you…I’ll have to keep an eye on you…"
"You’re damn straight you will… ‘cuz I’m YUFFIE! BEST DAMN MATERIA HUNTER EVER!!!" Yuffie shouted the last few words and took of at a run, tossing her shuriken high in the air and catching it as it came down.
"She’s quite…extroverted…" Lyria remarked.
"Trust me, it’ll get irritating within the hour," Cloud promised.
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Vincent pulled himself from the ground and leaned heavily against the wall. Again Chaos had tried to take him, and, again, he had resisted. He even managed a weakly triumphant smile as he stumbled to the door with the intention of going back to his room. Hand inches, from the doorknob he froze. No. Not again…it couldn’t happen again…Vincent could barely summon the strength to try and fight. He could feel Chaos. It was coming. He fought. Even sinking into the darkness he tried. And failed. And begged forgiveness from whoever would fall prey to Chaos.