Answers

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters or any other intellectual and/or physical property related to Final Fantasy 7 (although I wish I did). All characters, settings, and such are property of Square Soft and by extension Square-Enix. I'm just borrowing them for a bit o' fun, so come along and enjoy the ride

WARNING: This chapter contains depictions of female nudity (and affection exchanged among females) and a WHOLE lot of WAFF, as well as a bit of teariness at the beginning, so if you are opposed to any of these things, please do not continue on.

Tifa and Yuffie had left Kalm in a hurry, or rather, Tifa left in a hurry, and Yuffie was simply in a hurry to catch up with her. When they dashed out onto the plains it was a good fifteen minutes before Tifa’s dead sprint winded her, and she had to stop.

Yuffie, still rushing along towards Tifa, soon caught up as they paused along the outskirts of Chocobo Billy’s Ranch.

“Y- Yuffie..!?” huffed a very exhausted and teary Tifa, as she took off her bracers and tossed them her way, “There’s… all my materia… leave me alone.”

Yuffie stooped down to collect the discarded bracers and slowly walked towards the woman, dropping the bracers back down at her side, “I’m not… here for your materia…” she wheezed, sitting down next to her to catch her own breath.

Tifa held her sides for a moment, then collected her bracers and strapped them back on, “What do you want then? Can’t you see I don’t want to be bothered…”

“Tifa…” Yuffie began, almost harmed by the other girl’s harsh words, “What Cloud did to you wasn’t right… You need a friend right now, and I want to be that friend. Besides, it’s not like Barret or anyone else would be able to rightly talk about this kind of stuff with you.”

Tifa had to stop herself from laughing at the thought of Barret comforting her in a situation such as this, and turned away from Yuffie to drown in her own sorrow.

“I don’t need anyone.”

Yuffie scooted back to sit next to Tifa again and hugged her, “Yes, you do. I know it hurts now… you just need to let it out. Talk to me about it… it’ll help.”

Tifa sobbed and embraced Yuffie tightly, crying on her shoulder, “Cloud… I loved him, you know? Aeris… it’s all HER fault… ALL of this is her fault! What did we have to do with stopping Sephiroth until Aeris!? Nothing… We just wanted to help the planet, stop Shinra, you know? Now all of a sudden there’s Diamond Weapon, Meteor, Holy, Sephiroth, and the Dark Materia. None of this had to happen… it’s all… her fault…”

Yuffie nodded, “It’s okay, Tifa, it’s all over now…”

Tifa retorted, “But don’t you understand, it’s ALL her fault! ALL of it! So many people dead, if only she hadn’t been involved in any of this, we’d all be happy… Everything could have been avoided!”

Yuffie stroked her hand down Tifa’s back, “Tifa… It couldn’t have been avoided, it all had to happen, the only difference is win or lose, and thanks to you, we won…”

Tifa sniveled, “Thanks, but… That doesn’t change the fact… She stole Cloud…”

The ninja-girl couldn’t think of how to feel, so she just let the words flow, “Yeah… But if you knew he would be this much of a dick do you think you’d have actually wanted him in the first place… Sicko like him’s probably more interested in Marlene than real women like us…”

The brawler couldn’t help but giggle, “Hehe, I guess you’re right… Better call Barret about that, then…”

Yuffie smiled and began to stand up, helping the emotionally-wounded fighter up with her, “Come on, it’s not safe out here, we ought to either stay at the ranch or at Junon…”

“Okay,” Tifa nodded in agreement, “We might as well head to Junon… I’d like to see some civilization… the grass is kind of itchy…” she said, wiping the tears from her eyes and making the last of her snivels. “I owe him nothing anyway…” she mumbled.

The ninjutsu released Tifa from her warm embrace and nodded, “Why don’t we head to the ranch and take one of the chocobos across the swamp and mountains… I don’t see why we should have to fight the Zolom and go through the caves…”

Tifa smiled, “Makes sense…” her head sunk a bit, “Just… just don’t make me see… her…”

Yuffie shook her head at the mention of the chocobo Cloud had so sensitively named Aeris, “Of course not… We’ve got plenty of good chocobos, we needn’t see that one.”

The two took a slow walk towards the ranch, taking time to make small talk about anything other than recent happenings. Tifa hadn’t really considered what a friend she had in Yuffie before this point, and now felt very guilty for taking her for granted.

One topic that stuck out as they journeyed was Yuffie’s materia caper in Wutai.

“Well… I didn’t know any of you all too well back then… That aside, it had been my plan to dupe you guys all along… I needed the money to save Wutai… All those fools just sat by while Shinra and the tourists took over… It was always ‘tradition this, customs that’ in the town, and they never even bothered to think of their own wellbeing. I thought if I had the materia, I could sell it all and we wouldn’t need that dirty money… I know it’s no excuse…”

Tifa smiled and shrugged, “I remember being so sore with you back then… I’m sorry about that, for all it’s worth now, you should’ve sold it on the market and made your fortune in gil… Besides, what’s materia to a good ol’ fashioned one-two punch?”

Yuffie frowned and stared at her feet, stopping suddenly, “Still…”

The fighter paused and hugged her, “Don’t worry about it. What’s past is past. From here on out we let everything go and start over, okay?”

“Promise?” the ninjutsu asked.

Tifa nodded, “Yes. From here on out we don’t talk about that… or him and her, okay?”

Yuffie agreed and they continued on their way towards the ranch.

***

A few hours later, the women arrived at the ranch, exhausted.

“Okay,” Tifa giggled, “I changed my mind. Screw civilization, I’m tired.”

Yuffie nodded. It was no small trek from Kalm to the Chocobo Ranch, and they had sprinted at least half the way there, if not more. Both girls were extremely exhausted.

“Let’s arrange with Bill to stay the night, then we can set out in the morning,” said Yuffie.

“I figure we’ll set out with Alma and Agrias tomorrow?” Tifa said quizzically, referencing the two gold chocobos they had bred and raced for quite a long time. Alma and Agrias had quite the affinity, and were two of the chocobos they had used when they ventured to Round Island.

“Alma and Agrias, eh?” Yuffie inquired rhetorically, “Should get the job done without a problem.”

The two walked into the small house on the ranch after a rap on the door, and were greeted warmly by Chocobo Bill.

“Welcome! Just the two of you kids stopping by today?”

“Yep,” Tifa replied, adding nothing about what had happened in Kalm, “We’ll be taking Alma and Agrias to set out for Junon in the morning.”

“Alright then, does that mean you two are gonna stay the night?”

“Yes,” Tifa was quick to answer again, “How much is the fee?”

“No fees for heroes,” said Bill, shaking his head.

“Nonsense,” Tifa retorted, shoving a fistful of gil into Bill’s hands, turning around to enter the guest room followed by Yuffie.

Yuffie suddenly saw the red, smeared marks on the back of Tifa’s shirt and sought to raise the point with her.

As the ninja-girl entered the room she closed the door and plopped down on the bed, “Tifa, once we get into Junon maybe we should see a tailor about new clothes…”

Tifa, forgetting what had happened, simply giggled, looking down at her top, “Why? Have I worn through this one already?”

“No…” Yuffie said with a bit of a stammer voice, “The blood…”

The fist-fighter’s memory was suddenly jogged and she remembered the bloodied embrace she had with the blonde swordslinger she’d rather forget…

“Oh, that…” she noted, turning her head backward to look at the extensive staining the red, almost purple blood had left on her pure white sports bra. She nodded, “I suppose that might be a good idea. Time for a new look, anyway.”

Yuffie nodded as she unfastened the large armguard she wore and set it next to the bed on top of her large, four-pointed ninja star and began taking the long hair ties out of her hair. “I think I’d like to try something new, myself.” She tugged gently at the small, turtleneck olive green half-shirt she wore and released it, allowing the fabric to snap back to its normal position, constricting her well-sized breasts and the upper part of her toned stomach. “This old thing is turning into a rag.”

Tifa carefully slipped her gloves and bracers off and placed them on a nightstand before she began to unlace her boots, “We’ll have a regular fashion show!” she chimed in.

The girl from Wutai laughed, and almost hurt herself as she slid the bindings out of her hair, letting it fall down and hang at about shoulder’s length, parted at either side. “Tifa…” she began, starting to undo the belts holding her shoulder pad, leg guard, and armguard in place.

“Yeah?” the brawler responded, slipping off her boots and socks as she began to undo her suspenders.

Yuffie removed her protective gear and set it aside, then swiftly removed her high socks and shoes without untying them, something Tifa found a bit quirky. The ninja folded her arms at her sides and pulled her fuzzy green shirt up over her head, setting it on top of the rest of her gear. She unnoticeably blushed a bit as she was left in a simple black bra and her normal tan shorts, looking over at her friend, “What do we do when we’re done at Junon?”

Tifa paused a moment to think and answered, “Hmmm… I’m not quite sure… I always just thought I’d return to the Seventh Heaven… But, well… That doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. I don’t think I’d want to go back to bartending and waitressing again, anyhow. I suppose I’d like to help out with the Midgar restoration- for a time at least… And then… I guess maybe I’ll travel and help out people in need…” she chuckled, “I guess I got kind of accustomed to the wandering hero’s way of life…”

The ninjutsu smiled, “That’s exactly what I expected you to say… I’m going with you. Besides, what kind of let down would it be to stop the fun now?”

Tifa smiled at Yuffie with an inaudible, “Thanks…” as she removed suspenders and held up her tight black skirt, pulling off her top, revealing her large, well-formed breasts and their nickel-sized pale pink nipples, causing Yuffie to blush a bit more. “It’s nice to be able to sleep in the nude for once, don’t you think?” she said before dropping her skirt and pulling down a pair of white cotton panties which matched the top she wore, stepping out of them and revealing even more of her now entirely naked body. She seemed to strike a pose worthy of a supermodel even though she hadn’t done anything at all before she sat back down on her bed and removed the small tie at the tip of her hair causing the fish-tail hair split.

Yuffie took the moment to study the beautiful form next to her. The older girl had extraordinarily deep, gorgeous red eyes, a killer smile, large, perky breasts, a smooth, slender, and shaped figure, and even a cute, maintained patch of black pubic hair. Not to even mention her brilliant sense of humor and humanism. How could any guy, let alone that blonde punk, Cloud, turn down this visage of a woman?

The usually swift ninja felt she had hesitated a bit too long, and quickly snapped back to reality with a hurried response, “Oh… of course… Well, now that it’s just us girls and that perv Cid isn’t around…” She figured at this point it would be rude to sleep dressed, so she unclasped her bra, laying it out delicately next to the rest of her things. Without the hindrance of the undergarment her medium-sized bosom heaved gently, tiny dark-pink nipples displaying prominently in the moonlight shining through the window.

Tifa giggled, watching the younger girl undress was starting to get her a bit hot… she shrugged it off though, and attributed it to the feelings of frustration she had been feeling ever since Cloud’s rejection of her… As soon as she remembered that event, she pushed it straight out of her mind and resigned herself to watch her friend disrobe in the bright darkness, which she found intriguing, anyway.

Yuffie hooked her thumbs into the waistline of her already unbuttoned and unzipped shorts and pulled them down, taking a bit of a hop out of them (which prompted a small exhale of laughter from Tifa).

By now the blush that she had on her face was all but gone as she, too was nude from head to toe, with the exception of her headband, which piqued Tifa’s curiosity as she eyed up her companion.

“Do you always wear that headband?” Tifa asked with innocent interest.

The Wutai native smirked as she noticed Tifa’s gaze extending from her top to bottom just as she had done to her not too long ago, realizing Tifa’s eyes lingered a bit longer on her breasts and at the small, tended area of brown curls above her most sensitive area. Maybe Tifa wasn’t as cold to her as she had initially thought.

She nodded immediately, “Yeah… it’s a very personal heirloom, handed down from generation of ninjutsu to generation of ninjutsu… I haven’t been without it in years.”

Yuffie flicked off the light and made to get into bed when she heard Tifa’s voice faintly, at a position closer than she had been at before.

“Yuffie…” Tifa started as she walked up to Yuffie.

“Yes?” Yuffie replied.

Tifa softly wrapped her arms around Yuffie’s waist and hugged her closely.

And then, almost without hesitation, she leaned her head around and kissed Yuffie’s cheek fondly.

“Thanks.” Tifa said lightly.

“For what?” Yuffie asked, partially seeking what exactly it was she did to receive this moment of perfect bliss.

“For being here for me,” she responded with the same wistful tone before she walked back over to her bed and lay down, covering herself in blankets, “Good night,” she said a bit louder.

Yuffie lingered a moment, trying to savor the moment as long as possible, and eventually settled into bed herself, replying in a serene voice, with a smile on her lips, “Good night…”


Author's Note: Whew! That was a long one... Yes, I'm aware that scene of them changing and going to bed is probably the longest scene so far and I probably overemphasized that way too much, and underemphasized everything else. I think I'll go back and do any necessary editing tomorrow. So anyway, please read and review! Tell me what's wrong tell me what's right, just say hi, I need the encouragement, I suppose, hehe. Also if anyone who reads this is an FF7 expert, I haven't played the game in about 8 years and have only recently restarted, so I'm checking myself for anachronisms with the game script and by playing the game again (although I'm only just at Junon for the first time)... so PLEASE tell me about that, I want this to be as perfect as possible.