The House of Immortality

I made it to my special thinking place pretty quickly. Mom's grave, out in the fields not too far away from the pagoda, but far enough so that my dad was too old to walk all the way there anymore. Flowers had started to naturally grow around the gravestoned that said 'Kasumi Kisaragi 1964-1997 The Golden Sunflower of Wutai.' and I sat directly in front of them, cross-legged, and began to talk about how life had been. Yeah, you could call me weird if you wanted, but when I was little, my mom was the only one I could talk to about my problems and she'd be able to help me, and now I had no one, unless I visited her grave and talked to her there. Besides, I was pretty sure that, wherever she was, she could hear me. "And that is why my life is majorly confusing right now!" I concluded, taking a deep breath since I had said it all without stopping. "So mom, should I marry Hayden, or let the fear of taking such a big step at such a young age make me wait a little longer?" Silence. Utter silence. And the only movement seemed to be the swaying of the flowers in the gentle breeze. "Gah!" I exclaimed, uncrossing my legs and flopping back onto the ground, my eyes closed. "I really need you right now, mom. A little assistance would be nice!" But who was I kidding? I was only talking to a gravestone. Mom wasn't here to help me. No one was.

"Hmmm... Sounds like you've got a tough decision to make, my little princess."

That voice! No... I must've been hearing things. I sighed and ignored it.

"Yuffie, don't fall asleep. I can't stay for very long..."

My eyes snapped open and looking down at me, with a small smile spreading across her face, was my mom. No way! It wasn't possible, was it??? I mean, I know Cloud mentioned something like this happening to him, and we all saw Shelke briefly turn into Lucrecia and give Chaos the protomateria he needed, but was it really honestly possible? "M-Mom?" I asked as I sat upright.

"You cut your hair short." Kasumi commented, moving behind her daughter and kneeling down, gathering Yuffie's hair up so it formed a tiny ponytail. "When did you decide that you didn't like it long?"

"Shortly after you... Uhhh... Went." I answered, going along with the weirdness of it all. "I decided that I wanted to be different from everyone else." That and the fact that dad could hardly look at me without bursting into tears, because with long hair I looked a whole lot like mom.

"Oh, I see." Kasumi smiled and then let go of Yuffie's hair, moving around to Yuffie's front so that she could look her daughter in the eyes, stormy grey meeting stormy grey. "Yuffie, I know you'll probably think I'm crazy... But I think you should marry this boy, Hayden." She sighed at Yuffie's confused face and sighed. "The way you speak of him... You always sound so happy and proud to be his whenever you mention him. It reminds me of you and your father, and fear shouldn't come between two soulmates, especially when it comes to marriage."

Soulmates, huh? I'd never really thought about Hayden and I being soulmates... but it was possible that we were. "But mom, I shouldn't be getting married young, I'm only 20! I'm really young!" It sounded as if I was just making up excuses now, but I wasn't, I just had a lot of worries about getting married.

Kasumi chuckled at her daughter. "Yuffie, you're 20. Although you are still growing up in your mind, you're an adult now. You're not too young to get married. And besides," Kasumi sat upright, a small smirk on her face. "You're my daughter, you can handle anything, just like how I could handle your annoying father... And how I now have to handle with being able to hear what you and Hayden get up to in the middle of the night."

I laughed, half embarrassedly and half because I just found my mom funny when she talked about having to handle hearing me and Hayden, and leaned forward to give my mom a hug. "I miss you." I whispered, closing my eyes when I felt her run her hand through my hair a little.

"I miss you too, my white rose. But always remember that I'll be listening, and I'll always be here." Kasumi hugged her daughter, said her goodbye and then disappeared.

"Wait! You'll come and watch, right?" I called out. No reply. Obviously... I sighed and flopped back onto the grass, thinking through what just happened. Mom wanted me to get married to Hayden. She thought I was ready, that I could handle it. She said that I shouldn't let fear get in the way... Ok, I knew what I had to do... Pulling the engagement ring out of my pocket and taking a shakey breath, I slipped it onto my finger before getting up and heading back to the village. I wondered whether Hayden would notice the ring. Probably, but even if he didn't, I couldn't just sneakily change my mind. There was no going back now, I had decided my future.