Tifa & Yuffie

[Tifa Lockhart]

Blues chuckled softly at Sai as he and Astrid spoke. He was glad the two of them had hit it off so well.

Just then Haruka announced breakfast, appearing onto the loungeroom with a large tray heavily laden with food and drinks. As if he'd smelled the arrival of food, Lan suddenly say up, wide awake. It made even Chaud give a soft laugh.
"Dig in everyone," the woman encouraged as she set the tray down on the coffee table.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Sai looked a little indisposed to getting up, since he was rather comfortable where he was, but he knew he had to move so that both he and his love could get something to eat, not to mention little Astrid needed to eat as well. So he somewhat awkwardly pushed himself upright, looking just a little stiff from sleeping on the couch rather than in his bed, but once he'd place Astrid down on the floor he took a moment to try and stretch out the stiffness from his limbs before he made any moves to get off of the couch, tugging at his rather messy hair to try and neaten it out a little, since it was quite frizzy from sleep.
By then, Lan had already grabbed his first round of food and was stuffing his face in a fashion even more enthusiastic than usual, if that even seemed possible, so Saito went over and claimed his own breakfast, offering his mother a polite thankyou before he began eating, falling silent to enjoy his mother's cooking. Astrid was more than happy to wait for everyone to finish eating first, content to chase a fluffy pom-pom that Shuuko had tied to one of the gifts yesterday -which was now loose- across the floor. Sai alternated between watching her fondly and offering warm smiles to his twin, Blues and Chaud for a while, seeming generally very cheerful, almost child-like in fact. Once he'd finished eating he thanked his mother again, saying it was delicious as always and almost hop-skipped off to the kitchen to rinse off his dishes and place them in the dish-washer, calling to Astrid and getting her to come to him, the puppy taking only a moment to respond to her new name before she trotted over with her tail wagging. Sai then retrieved the dog food Sal had given him from where he'd put it last night (as he'd put everything away suitably then) and gave her her breakfast according to what Sal had suggested before she'd left the previous night.

((HOLY HECK! Charly look up "all that you are" by goo goo dolls. SO FITTING FOR SAI AND BLUES. I only just noticed this >_> thankyou iTunes!))

[Tifa Lockhart]

Everyone enjoyed their breakfast, but following that people began to drift off one by one. Chaud was the first to excuse himself, needing to get back to work, that meant that Blues had to say a hard goodbye to Saito. Then, one after the other, the others all left as well, until it was just Haruka, Professor Hikari, Lan, Sai, Zero, Luke and Astrid remaining.

Zero had been behaving strangely all day. He hovered away from everyone else, but never left entirely. He stayed around windows mostly, staring at the world as it went by outside. He only spoke when spoken to, and he kept his replies short and to the point - but not unfriendly.
Something seemed to be bothering him, but he wouldn't talk about it to anyone.

That night, he'd bid Lan and Sai goodnight, before climbing up onto the roof to sit in his usual spot, looking up at the stars. Celebrating Sai's birthday with him and his friends and family had really driven a few things home. Saito was Seventeen... he'd been on this earth for that many years - in one form or another.
X had been gone for centuries longer than that... he hadn't spoken to his friend in centuries longer than that... he'd been alone for centuries longer than that.
Seeing all of Saito and Lan's friends had torn open the wound that had been festering in his core. He was so horribly, terribly alone... even with all of their friends offering the hand of friendship to him, even with Saito showing him so much kindness... it didn't change anything. Ciel was gone... X was gone... Axl was gone... there was no one left to him, he could stretch out in yearning for them... but they were never coming back to him.
He couldn't sit around any longer... not when the thoughts ate away at him. He needed to act... to continue doing that which he had been built for.

So he stood, turning back to Lan and Saito's window. He entered the room and watched the two sleep for a time. Saito's face was soft this night, not troubled by the usual dreams that made him toss and turn. Even asleep as he was so like X... no matter how he looked at him, Zero could see his old friend in those features... and it burned.
He fetched the boy's PDA from his bedside table, putting a message into it for when Saito woke. It simply read:

We will see each other again, Little Hikari.

Then he turned back to the window, and disappeared into the night.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

When morning had come, Sai had gotten up early, once again back to the usual routine, though he was surprised to find a message had been left on his PDA. He wasn't sure how to react to the message he found, but remained sitting on his bed for some time, contemplating whether it meant Zero was upset with him or something. After a while he decided that the message had not seemed at all upset (not with him at least) and resolved that maybe Zero just didn't like being around other people so much. He wondered if he would ever contact him at all or not, but eventually he shook the thought and got up to continue his usual morning routine, though his expression lacked the usual bright smile, which everyone in his family had noted. They had also noted that Zero was not with him. Lan was the one who mentioned this to the boy.
"Hey, Sai? Where's Zero gone off to...I haven't seen him this morning" he asked, a little worried what his brother might have to say.
"...I don't know, but he isn't here," the other boy had replied, after a somewhat worrying silence. "but he left this" he pulled out his PDA and showed his brother the message, to which the other boy only seemed confused.
"but...where would he have gone?" he wondered, looking up at his somewhat less cheerful brother. The boy wasn't depressed as such, but he certainly did seem a bit upset that Zero had left, his expression fairly flat.
"He has a job to do, Lan...I don't know where he's gone, but he'll be out in the city following his directive. Nothing you or I would say would change his mind, so it would be a waste of time to try. I'm sure he's fine on his own, anyway" The elder twin replied, shrugging slightly, though he seemed like he might have wanted very much to try and contact Zero, despite his words.

The day had seen everyone a little sombre, Saito particularly cheerless, but he'd not seemed upset otherwise. In reality he wasn't at all sad that Zero had left, he understood perfectly that Zero just had a directive to follow, he'd known since the start that Zero wouldn't be staying with them for good...what saddened him was that the reploid hadn't said goodbye...he'd just left in the middle of the night without giving any of them a chance to tell him goodbye or wish him well. He had contemplated more than once calling the reploid to ask him why he had just left and why he couldn't have waited to say a proper goodbye in the morning, but he didn't...somehow he doubted the man would answer even if he had. So instead he just trusted that Zero had meant what he'd said in that message, that they would speak again soon and that Zero would at least keep in touch and tell him how he was doing every now and then...in a way, Sai supposed he was worried about Zero, he didn't want him to get himself into trouble or anything. He'd thus spent much of his day in his room with the book Maylu had given him, laying comfortably on the floor with his pillow to read, though he'd been distracted more than once by his fretting over Zero's safety.

The following day had seen him and Lan at school again following the weekend, and Sai had finally found something that actually managed to keep his attention better than his musings on what Zero might be doing. On the way home, Jan and Helen had walked with the two twins back home, attempting to question into why Sai had seemed less than cheerful today, questions he simply avoided and insisted he was fine, which he kind of was, at least. Upon arriving home, the two were surprised to see their father was home early, sitting on the couch watching the news.

((is this okay? XD))

[Tifa Lockhart]

Professor Hikari turned from the TV as Lan and Saito arrived home, and he gestured for them to join him.
"You're going to want to watch this," he explained to them. "You in particular Saito."

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Sai pulled a somewhat confused expression, putting his bag in the usual place in the hallway, before he wandered over to join his father, his twin looking more surprised than confused as his hopped over to lean on the back of the couch curiously. "see what?" the younger twin asked, peering interestedly at the television, wondering what his father had for them to see.
Saito didn't see the need to speak since Lan had already asked the question he'd been about to ask and instead he watched the screen with a curious and confused look on his face, not sure what his father wanted them to see, not saying a word besides a greeting to his dad as he approached.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Yuichiro turned back to the TV and unpaused the news segment. It was a breaking news coverage of something that had transpired earlier that day.

"We're here at the scene," the reporter said. "Where an overturned fuel truck has set the entire bridge alight.
Behind her things were as she reported, great flames leaped everywhere around the bridge filled with cars.
'Rescue services managed to rescue most of the people stranded in their cars, but now the flames are dangerously close to igniting the tank and causing a vicious explosion."
She stepped aside then, so that her camera man could zoom in on a family that stood on the roof of their car amidst the flames.
"All except this family. Emergency services can no longer get close enough... things are looking grim here."
Then something happened in the frame that no one had been expecting. There was a blur of movement, and the family seemed to flinch in surprise.
"What's this! the reporter exclaimed. "There's someone out there! Eddie, are you getting this? Can you see?" she demanded.
A figure appeared atop the car with the family for a brief moment, before it vanished again, taking the smallest child with it. Hurriedly the camera man zoomed out and shifted his focus to the side, where the figure had reappeared, and was carefully setting the weeping child down. Before the camera could catch more than a brief flash of blond hair, the figure vanished again.
"This is amazing!" the reporter exclaimed, her eyes wide. "There is a man somehow infiltrating the vicious flames and rescuing the people trapped! I can barely see them!"
The camera captured it as the rest of the family were finally rescued. Only as the mother was set down on her feet - the last to be saved - did the camera man finally get a good shot of their rescuer.

It was Zero. He was just turning to leave, when the little girl grabbed his hand. Though confusion was evident on the reploids face, he stopped, and turned to kneel before the little girl who sought his attention.
Are you getting this!?" the reporter could be heard shouting in the background as the camera man zoomed in on the scene.
The little girl stretched up and placed a kiss upon the reploids forehead. That's where the frame froze, before zooming back out to the studio reporter.
"And those were the images from the scene earlier today folks," she explained. "The Mystery hero vanished without saying a word to our reporters or any emergency personnel shorty after those images were captured. It has been brought to the studio's attention however, that this man is known as "Zero" and is the newest invention of Professor Yuichiro Hikari. Not much information is available on the being, but all this reporter wants to ask is: Does Dentech have its very own Guardian Angel? This was Mirai Jira reporting for Channel 3 news."

The program then concluded.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Lan had looked dumbstruck by the sheer speed Zero had shown and was (rather loudly) bantering to his father about how amazing that was and wondering how on Earth he was able to just get through those flames like it was nothing. Sai on the other hand had stood completely shocked through the entire news bulletin, before he finally smiled after it was over, looking happy for Zero.
"hey, someone's cheering up~!" Lan teased, punching his brother playfully in the shoulder, the boy just laughing in reply.
"hey, come on...I'm just happy Zero's found a way to follow his original directive even in our time, okay?" the older boy replied, gently shoving his brother in response to the punch.
"oh, so you were worried he wasn't going to be happy here, were you?" Lan asked, interpreting that assumption from his brother's response.
"what? no! I've been upset because he went and scarpered while we were all asleep, idiot!" Sai immediately retorted, seeming a bit irked that his brother was poking in his business. "I'm happy for him, yes, but I still think he's got some nerve for just up and disappearing without saying goodbye first!" The boy remarked, standing up and folding his arms, still looking a little miffed about the whole event. He promptly ruffled his brother's hair and informed him that he was going upstairs for a while, and that he'd be back down a little later.
Sai had been surprised to find the Astrid was waiting for him upstairs and had promptly tackled him as he turned the corner into the hallway upstairs, the boy greeting her cheerfully enough before he picked up the pup and carried her with him to his and Lan's room. He sat down on the bottom bunk then, with Astrid sitting happily in his lap whilst he petted her and pulled out his PDA to attempt to call Zero...not that expected the reploid to answer, though, since he was 1: busy and 2: probably not too keen on risking Sai trying to beg him to come back home, though that wasn't even the boy's plan.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zero had scaled one of Dentech's largest buildings, and found himself a nice spot to sit. He had a beautiful view of the whole city from here... he could keep an eye on things.
Then the buzzing started, and he looked down at the device Saito had built into his arm. According to it, Saito was trying to call him. For a moment he considered not answering, but then with a sigh, he did. He didn't speak straight away though.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Sai seemed surprised that the reploid had actually picked up, obviously not having expected the other to actually do so. "oh! you answered after all!" he began, looking mildly caught by surprise. "well good! 'cause if you didn't I was just going to keep bugging you until you did!" he remarked, though he quickly got back on subject. "we just saw you on the news you know, that was quite a stunt you pulled, people are calling you a Guardian Angel...you were very impressive" he commented, his small smile just barely visible on the small screen on Zero's arm. His expression promptly turned irritated though. "but I'm still not happy with you, Zero!" he frowned, not looking like he was going to explain why until the reploid made a reply, fixing a rather intense, dark-eyed gaze onto the man's face, as if to guilt-trip him into some sort of response.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zero blinked down at the tiny screen for a moment before he lowered his arm and turned his eyes out onto the sun setting over the city.
"Sorry," he replied simply. He had a good hunch why he was in trouble.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Sai huffed slightly in irritation. "you had better be!" he replied, still scowling. "You know you could have at LEAST woken me or something! Leaving without saying goodbye or anything...you can be a bit of a jerk sometimes" he grumbled, but Zero had apologised, so since his lecturing was done he gave a soft sigh and softened his expression a little. "I can understand why you had to leave, but it would have been nice if you had given me a chance to say goodbye and everything. I don't like it when people just leave...it makes me feel like I did something wrong, and that really ticks me off when I know that I didn't" he explained, tilting his head a little and offering a slight frown. "why didn't you say anything?" he asked, sounding somewhat upset now, confused and somewhat sad dark eyes meeting Zero's sky blue.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zero's eyes became sad as Saito asked why he didn't say goodbye. They were tinged with a soft orange from the sunset he watched, but even that merry colour couldn't hide the obvious sadness.
"I do not say goodbye," he replied, his voice soft. "Friends never say goodbye."
His eyes narrowed slightly, he was fighting back the sorrow that surged in his heart. "They never said it, so why should I?"

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Sai's expression fell immediately, knowing automatically who Zero was talking about. "...they didn't say goodbye..." he repeated, his eyes dropping from the camera then in both melancholy and deep thought. 'so...he never got the chance to say goodbye to all his old friends...' he mused to himself, looking up again after a moment with slightly teary eyes. "I...I'm sorry. I wish that I could help you have the chance to see your old friends again...but...I-I don't know how yet. I wish I did." he said, softly, likely referring to his yet-undiscovered and likely limitless capabilities as Ultima's successor, and his lack of the capacity to use any of the being's incredible powers. "but I promise that I will try and give you the chance to see them one more time some day..."

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zero glanced down at Saito in his communicator briefly, before he looked away again.
"I accepted the last time I woke that I would never see them again... at least I had X there for a little while... talking to him helped."
But losing him hurt more than anything ever before...
"I have no illusions about seeing them again... but I can't sit around, I have to keep busy."