Day 48: Cafeteria (Breakfast)

[should_be_dead]

Luckily for Mele, the night had ended before Tenzen had changed his mind and deemed Mele appropriate for target practice. Even if the situation of who was mocking who had seemed to change into the Iga ninja's favor. Despite her behavior, perhaps the insolent woman could serve some sort of use nonetheless. He had been trapped in this place for a

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[thatdamnedninja]

"If he didn't listen to me," Yuffie had wanted to say; had started to say, "he'll be seeing stars for a week, and chocobos for a month after." But then she woke up, back in her bed, sprawled and untucked and the wrong way around. Groaning, Yuffie pressed her face into the too-firm mattress. Leviathan. Would it kill for Landel to order in a couple of futons? And had it really been necessary to drag her away from it all right then? Really? No. It had not. She'd been busy, as much as Zack's presence had jarred her

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki woke up with a start, and then a flail and his body moved in ways he wasn't used to. Still human. It was still throwing him off, like when he was falling asleep and felt like he was actually falling. Things seemed out of place and strange

[thatdamnedninja]

There was a glint of determination in Yuffie's eyes, directed at nothing and nobody in particular. It was the same old glint, the same old spark, that had been with her ever since she'd first started out in the world. From the by-gone days of wobbling across Wutai's tiled rooftops, to the age of the Materia Hunter and the advent of the new AVALANCHE. All the way up to her missions for the W.R.O. Gawd, that'd been the life. Being paid to trek across the world and snoop into other people's business? The job had been made for her.

Landel was doing his damned best to stamp that determination out of her, to turn frustration into defeat, but there was absolutely no way she was gonna let him get his claws in that deep. She was going to go out, bad weather or no bad weather. She was going to get something done. And even if she didn't, that'd just mean trying again. And again. And again. It was better than staying still. Her thoughts were just turning to the finer details, like how to do it and who to do it with (if anybody; she was totes

[flamingfurball]

Well. he thought Yuffie, of all people, would recognise him. this was getting decidedly annoying. And depressing. Had everybody just...forgotten him? He didn't look that different, did he? Well, okay, yes. Perhaps the things he recognsised about himself just seemed like coincidence to everybody else. They weren't exactly looking to see Nanaki.

But that wasn't the point.

"We are aquinted," he said, letting out and angry sigh. He put his plate on the table and scowled back at the nurse, waiting for her to push him a little closer and leave. His eyes didn't leave her until she'd done it. He stared at his food then, hoping to eat something this time round. Of course, Yuffie was watching and it was making him uncomfortable. "I'm not helping," he warned her. She was going to have to work it out herself or they weren't friends anymore.

[thatdamnedninja]

There! There it was again! That niggling sense of familiarity. It was in his voice, Yuffie thought; his speech patterns were familiar. And-there was something else. Something. With an irritated huff, Yuffie leaned a little further across, watching the kid like a hawk.

"Sure we are," she agreed, lips pursed. Because they were acquainted. Somehow. Really, if the wanderlust didn't drive her fruit loops, the guessing games would. She cocked her head, puzzling through it. If the 'previous Yuffie' had met him here, she wouldn't know him. "I didn't meet you here," she reasoned outloud, watching him watch his food. "That's not gonna eat itself, y'know. And that leaves… I know you from home!"

She had to shove the tray out of the way with her elbow to lean in a little closer. Red hair, in the weirdest style ever; gold eye, count of one; tan skin; scars; big, big hands and a whole lotta freckles. A disturbing possibility swam its way up to say hi; an impossible possibility. Yuffie's eyes narrowed, flashing with caution and burning curiosity

that icon...XD

[flamingfurball]

"Is this because I've been taking so long researching?" he growled. She was dragging this out far too much for his liking, just teasing him. Or so he thought until realisation seemed to literally strike her.

"Yes way," he huffed. He needed her to eat something so he could observe. He nodded to her plate. "Yours will also get cold."

8D;

[thatdamnedninja]

"I-" Yuffie blinked. "What?"

Researching? Since when had… Oh! Wait, yes. Cosmo was full of book-worshipping geektards, but Nanaki'd been going about his 'research' a little more proactively. She still remembered that day when he'd found her in Wutai, dragging Yuri by his ankles through the grass (and if her jaw tightened at the thought of Yuri, Yuffie wasn't going to draw attention to it). He'd stayed for a couple of days before she'd kicked him out, and then he went AWOL for, like, the best part of a year. He'd kept at it, too; his mission to see the world.

The growl in his voice didn't particularly put her off. She'd heard Barret snore, after all, and that man could make dragons sound like a basket of kittens. So, she didn't back away, not for a long while. Her brain was still trying to process the-everything. This could not be happening! No way! Except that it could be, and chances were, it was, and oh holy Leviathan, she was never, ever calling anything impossible ever again

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki was getting more than a little irritable about all this confusion and disbelief. "Perhaps, if there are more of our friends I haven't found yet, you could write something on that notice board? A warning of sorts," he deadpanned, unintentionally.

"T-that's-! Yuffie," he growled, "I do not!"

Sulking, he swatted at a sausage with his paw hand, and picking it up, awkwardly. He gave it a sniff and his stomach grumbled.

"Oh. I was with Cloud and Tifa. I don't know if they're okay. I....blacked out."

[thatdamnedninja]

"You could've got your nurse to write one for you," Yuffie shot back, immediately. He had a right to be freaked, but damn, she could've done with some warning. For all that he tried to be the wise old mystic, Nanaki sure knew how to be a doofus sometimes. Might've had something to do with him growin' up differently from the two-leggers he looked down his nose at. Or maybe it was just how he was, who knew? Nanaki was Nanaki.

His stammering outrage was just enough to make up for his (perfectly justified, not that she'd admit it) thoughtlessness. "You so do." She rocked back in her seat, affecting a thin veneer of smug satisfaction that only just reached her eyes. Behind it, her mind was still chasing itself 'round in circles.

"Cloud?" she asked, perking up. So he had found somebody! Phew. That was one person off the to-be-kicked list. And Tifa, huh? Man. Was Landel going after the full set, or what? "If they were okay when you blacked out, they'll be okay now," Yuffie explained, glancing from Nanaki's-Nanaki's!-face to the sausage he

[flamingfurball]

"I doubt she would cooperate," he huffed. "If you don't want to, that's fine." He'd try. Maybe. What would he say, though? And holding a pen...? He'd only just gotten used to texting, and that took a lot of effort just to press buttons. Of course, that was with paws.

He chose to ignore Yuffie, hoping that would end her teasing. He did NOT look like that Turk. Speaking of which.... "Tifa said it's not ShinRa. She spoke to Rude

[thatdamnedninja]

"She will if you're convincing enough," Yuffie countered easily. "Try it. I've seen nurses write notes for people before." He'd have to work something out, one way or another. There were enough AVALANCHE members around to make playing messenger more trouble than it was worth. She sure wasn't gonna do it.

She let it slide for now, in favor of rolling her eyes. "Yeah," Yuffie drawled. "I've been here for, what, seventeen days now? Found all that out a long time ago." Seventeen days. She was practically a veteran. "What else did she tell you?" There was a lot to know, and even if Tifa'd spoken to Rude, she couldn't know all that much. Probably. "If you've got any questions, I'm the one to ask."

It was still weird to think that she was more in the know than Cloud, but that thought flew right back out of mind at Nanaki's next-display. Yuffie grimaced. "Ewww!" she exclaimed. "Use your hands if you've really gotta, but for the love of Da Chaos, please don't do that again. Ever." She'd even said please! Her! Yuffie Kisaragi, saying that

[flamingfurball]

Again, Nanaki decided to ignore her. So maybe he would try. Or ask somebody else. or just let people deal with it when they had to.

Seventeen days didn't sound like a long time, but he supposed seventeen days of being locked up was a lot for somebody who'd never experienced that before. Nanaki had done well over a year with Hojo. This place certainly seemed a lot more pleasant.

"She arrived shortly before me. Who else is here? Who's in charge?"

Nanaki tilted his head, not sure which bit had made her act that way. The spitting out or the re-eating? He always hacked up furballs and grass in private. Until the forest...the cubs.... Nanaki felt a pit of darkness in his stomach and looked away quickly. Yuffie was here. Familiarity. Life.

He calmed down and watched her eat. He couldn't see her jaw working as much as a cows so he moved the lump over to his cheek where his teeth could grinding it, chewing and chomping loudly, mouth open until he got the rhythm of it.

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie was quiet for a long while, picking through her food. She chewed slowly, swallowed slowly, kept up her demonstration just in case it was needed. Her attention, though, was inward. She knew what she had to tell him, but how to tell him was a whole other ball game.

"Well, it's Martin Landel who runs this place. And his bitch, Nurse Lydia." There was a pinch between her eyebrows, and she reached up to run it away before she could stop herself. "I've never seen either of 'em; they just like taunting us over the intercom like a bunch of sissies." Sadistic sissies, but sissies all the same. It was galling just to think about! If she could just get her hands on Landel, even for one second…

"Anyway," she said, jerking herself out of dreamland. "Anyway. Before I tell you anythin' else, I've got a question to ask. It's important, so pay attention." She waited until he'd swallowed his mouthful before she went ahead and asked, "Have you noticed anythin' different about me

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki watched Yuffie, trying to mimic her actions. He managed to swallow the food (it was all mushy and weird now), and pulled a face as it went down. He still had to tilt his head back but he was getting there. He bit his finger as he tried to get another piece into his cheek between his teeth.

The information wasn't very useful to him. He didn't know these people, their purpose or weaknesses. "What do they want?" he asked, mouth full.

She asked a question. A strange one he hadn't realised had been nagging him. Just a little. Something different about her that he couldn't placed and blamed the clothes for. He was starting to panic, but tried to tell himself she'd just had a hair cut or another of those silly things humans got excited about.

"....what is it?"

[thatdamnedninja]

"To screw with us," Yuffie answered, honestly. What? It was the truth! "Just-I'll get to that in a bit."

She shifted in her seat, impatience biting her. No, not impatience; that was there, yeah, but it wasn't Nanaki's fault. The question had been a weird one. A really, really weird one. And for somebody who wasn't even used to being a human, maybe she'd been asking too much. Or, at least, asking the wrong thing. "Nanaki, I'm nineteen. I dunno how old I was when you last saw me-sixteen or seventeen, right? Shorter hair, not so narrow here?" She poked herself in the cheek that wasn't playing host to an impressive set of scabbed-over scratch marks.

Time to take the plunge. "Before I got brought here, it was the year 0010." And she'd been in the middle of the biggest outright war since Wutai versus Shin-Ra. Fun and games for all involved, not.

[flamingfurball]

Nanaki's head went light and Gilligan felt more like a snake now, crawling and coiling about in his stomach, pressing hard against his lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make it go away. But the only familiar thing near him that could calm him down was unfamiliar now. He'd been too wrapped up in his own problems to realise it.

"I... I wasn't gone that long," he said, quietly. He wanted to get up and leave, find Tifa or Cloud, check them, see how different they were. But he was too unsteady on his feet and he wanted to make Gilligan go away, he didn't want Yuffie to see him so afraid, so....childish.

She couldn't grow up without him. Not so suddenly.... The cubs weren't that old, not that much time had passed, he'd been so sure....