MC: Here is the final chapter of Ordinary Adventures. It's been a great ride, but like all good things it must come to an end. Since this is the last chapter I thought I'd try something a little different. This time the chapter coincides with chapter 29 and it shouldn't be too hard to tell the order of events.

DISCLAIMER: All characters and places in this story belong to Square Enix. This is a fan-based appreciation and no financial gain is being made with this work.

Ordinary Adventures

Chapter 30: Graduation, Kung Fu, and a Laundry Ninja

Yuffie yawned and stretched her arms above her head until she heard popping in her spine. Then she fell backwards and yawned again. If she had a plan, things were going according to it. Kairi just had her mock trial left and was graduating in a week. In the mean time, all Yuffie had to do was stay out of trouble.

'Actually, I probably shouldn't think that way,' Yuffie thought. She rolled onto her belly and grabbed a pillow to stuff under her chin. 'The moment I start thinking everything is going swimmingly, Leviathan likes to stir the pot.'

Her phone rang. Yuffie glared at it.

'Just like that!' She scowled at the device, picking it up to hurl it out the window. However, she thought better of it when she saw the caller ID.

"What do ya want, Leon?" Yuffie snapped. "Trouble?"

"And a good afternoon to you too," he said.

"I don't care what you're calling about, I took the week off," Yuffie said. "The whole week completely and utterly off. Zip. Nada. You look at my calendar right now and you see a black hole of nothingness. I am out of reach. Indisposed. I am—"

"—going to shut up and listen," Leon. "I'm the first to say you've been working hard and deserve a break, but this can't wait. The sooner you hear me out, the sooner you get back to your break."

"Fine."

"I got you a part in a film."

"You're kidding, right? What movie?"

"A Leiden film."

"As in Yang Fang Leiden?"

"Yes."

"Holy fuck," Yuffie said. Yang Fang Leiden was the best current master of the silver screen.

"It's a sizeable role, especially when you consider the fact you've never acted."

"But isn't that going to be a problem, because you know, I've never acted!"

"We've got that covered."

"How?"

"I'll explain that later. What I need you to do now is meet me. I'll introduce you to some of your new coworkers. We need to test the waters, just to make certain you fit in with the rest and they're only in town for a couple days."

"Leon, I'm an athlete, not an actor."

"Now you get to be both. Yuffie, believe me when I say this is exactly what you want. You said you wanted to do more with your martial arts background and this is the perfect chance to do it. Just about all these people are athletes at the top of their respective fields. This is the best opportunity to work with people of this caliber."

Yuffie sighed. He was more excited about this than he had been about anything in a while. "Alright, I'll give it a shot, but I promise nothing. And I ain't signing anything!"

"Good enough." Leon gave her the address before hanging up.

Yuffie got up and stretched a little. If nothing else, it would give her a chance to exercise a little. Her flight home the other day left her cramped and nauseated, so she needed to show the ole intestine who was in charge.

Before she left home Yuffie had to check on Kairi. "You okay under all that paper?" the ninja asked.

"Fine," Kairi said. "Just revising on my witness testimony."

"Can I do anything for you? I'm going out for a bit."

"Umm…" Kairi leaned back on her chair. "Can you pick up my dry cleaning? I need it for the mock trial, but I've got an exam in an hour and for some reason I haven't gotten around to it yet. The trial is tomorrow, so I really need this suit picked up tonight before they close."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me," Yuffie said. She waded into the paper swamp surrounding Kairi and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's head. "Course I'll get your dry cleaning. Anything I'll need?"

"The receipt's on the fridge. I prepaid, so you literally need to just show up and give them the receipt."

"Got it," Yuffie said, kissing Kairi quickly.

"One more thing, Yuf."

"Yeah?"

"Can you get off my crime scene photos?"

"Sorry," Yuffie laughed. She grabbed the receipt and fled the apartment.

It didn't take her very long to reach Leon's location. He stood in front of a big empty looking warehouse near the beach. When he caught sight of Yuffie he looked visibly relieved.

"Come on," he said, opening the front door. "We can't keep Yang Fang waiting."

"Yang Fang Leiden is inside," Yuffie said.

"Yes and you're having a spar with him, which is why I needed you here ten minutes ago."

"Why am I sparring with him? "

"That's his way of making certain you fit in with the rest of his team, which I know you will. Are you ready, or do you need more time?"

"Squally," Yuffie said grinning as she stretched, "I'm always ready for a fight."

She walked inside and looked around. While it looked like an empty building on the outside, the inside certainly was not. There were several dozen people inside the building. Most of them surrounded a padded circular ring, where a single man stood.

He was the largest man Yuffie had seen in recent memory. He was tall and broad with giant vein popping muscles covered his chest and forearms. This, combined with the fact he had a single long blonde braid from the back of his head and a thick bushy mustache, told Yuffie he could only be Yang Fang Leiden. He had a hundred pounds on her, fast, and if the movies were accurate, strong enough to break a brick wall with his fists. This was going to be an exciting fight.

She strode up to the ring and hopped in. This move caught the attention of everyone around her. Figuring she may as well set things in motion Yuffie greeted Leiden. "Hey there, Yang Fang Leiden!"

"Ms. Kisaragi," Yang said, nodding at her.

"Call me Yuffie, everyone does," Yuffie said, shaking hands with Yang. "So I understand I'm in if I beat you."

Everyone laughed at Yuffie's statement except for Yang. He inclined his head to get a better look at Yuffie then said gravely, "You do not have to beat me, after all this is only a spar, Yuffie. If you can hold our own tat should be more than adequate, miss."

"I hope you're not planning on going easy on me just because I'm a girl," Yuffie said, taking off her jacket and throwing it to Leon. "So are we going now or do we need to wait for something?"

"I assure you," Yang said, falling back into a crouch, "I take every interaction with utmost seriousness."

They both stood in their fighting poses sizing each other up for a moment. Then Yuffie hit the ground as Yang's foot whipped out to the point her head had been a moment ago. She kicked out at his remaining point of support, but he leapt back before Yuffie could connect. With the grace of a ninja Yuffie was back on her feet. Any chuckles from the audience about a surfer taking on the Great Leiden had vanished.

"Who taught you?" asked Yang. He edged toward Yuffie's right, causing her to move to the left.

"My father," she said, after they had exchanged places. She charged forward and struck at his throat. Yang blocked it and then the other six well-aimed strikes. She retreated out of his strike range before adding, "Godo Kisaragi."

"I remember him," Yang said. He threw a kick so suddenly it nearly took Yuffie's head off. Apparently his range was farther than she had thought. She barely dodged his leg, but did manage to jab her elbow into his calf. It felt like she had hit a rock.

'What is this guy made of?' she wondered, retreating again. Instead she asked, "Where'd you meet my old man?"

"We both trained under Master Eraqus when I was but a boy," Yang said. "He was good, but Godo and Master Eraqus had a falling out. That was almost forty years ago."

"How old are you?" Yuffie asked. "Because my pops is like ancient."

"Old enough to know all the tricks you're using," he said, throwing a fist directly at her. He was too fast for Yuffie to dodge, so she had to block. The punch sent her flying and left her ulnas feeling like they had shattered. She could not take another blow like that. "Can you show me anything new, Yuffie, or did you only learn the techniques Godo obtained before he was sent away half trained?"

'How exactly am I going to win this?' she thought glancing around the ring. A crazy thought occurred to her. It was also the best thought she had at the moment. "I don't know if this'll be new to you, but I can show ya something."

"Please do."

Yuffie zigzagged toward him. Yang Fang Leiden threw a couple of blows at her, but she nimbly dodged them. She flew past him and ran up one of the poles holding the ring together. By the time she was at the top of the pole Yang had already turned around. He kicked at her feet and Yuffie jumped off the pole and landed on his leg before propelling off the leg and somersaulted over Yang Fang Leiden's head. While in midair Yuffie used her centripetal force to slam her fists into the back of Yang's head at the base. Then Yuffie landed on her feet.

Yang Fang Leiden crumpled and hit the ground. There was a collective gasp. Yuffie turned around and looked worriedly at her fallen opponent. She had meant to knock him out, but now she was a little worried she had hit him too hard. She shouldn't have worried though, because she could suddenly hear him laughing. Within moments he crawled to his feet still chuckling. He turned to Yuffie and clapped a hand onto Yuffie's shoulder.

"Now that was an unexpected technique," Yang said, still smiling. "You have to be the nimblest woman I've met. I would be delighted to have you sign on for this film."

"I can't believe you're standing there looking completely unfazed after that hit," Yuffie said. "What are you made of?"

"Flesh and bone, just like everyone else, my dear." He smiled at her. "My wife wakes me up with a frying pan to the head every morning."

"Wow," she said. "So when does this thing start?"

"Friday," he said. "We fly out to the set on Thursday."

"Are you serious?" she said.

"Yuffie," Leon said, moving forward, "This is a great opportunity."

Yuffie hopped out of the ring. She moved forward and hissed in Leon's ear. "I can't leave in three days for parts unknown. Kairi graduates on Saturday!"

"Don't worry, Yuffie," Leon said. "Everything will work. We can probably catch a later flight and then join them on site after Saturday. Just calm down."

Yuffie pulled back, frowning. She didn't like the way things were headed, but she did trust Leon. He had never previously steered her wrong, but this just felt like it was moving too fast. Also, how was she possibly going to tell Kairi about this? Odds were, she'd be gone for something like six months or even a year. Kairi hadn't signed on to something like that.

'Heck, she doesn't like it when I'm gone for month,' Yuffie thought chewing her lip. 'How am I going to convince her not to kill me if I have to leave now for a year?'

"You seem disturbed, Yuffie," Yang said gently.

"I'm just trying to figure out how I'll tell my girlfriend about this," Yuffie said. "She doesn't know about any of this. Hell, until an hour ago I didn't know anything about any of this."

"I see," Yang said. "My wife and I used to have similar problems, especially our daughter was young. Would you care to discuss some of the resolutions we found?" Yuffie stared at him for a moment before smiling and nodding.

Two hours later Yuffie was running across town. She had stayed with the movie people way longer than expected and now she was fairly certain the drycleaners were closed. When she finally arrived she found her suspicions were correct. They had closed twenty minutes ago.

"Fuck," she said, running her hands through her hair. "Shit, shit, fuck!" Banging her head against the glass she sighed. Kairi asked for one simple thing and that was only after she had offered. 'Now what am I gonna do?' she wondered.

xxx

"By Leviathan I hope this works," Yuffie whispered.

She breathed deeply once more then launched herself at the tiny window. It had opened inward when she pushed at it earlier, but the rectangular opening was so small she was uncertain she'd fit through. Still, her shoulders hadn't gotten any bigger than that time she had to escape through a bathroom window in Guam, so Yuffie figured she'd be okay.

Her head, arms, and shoulders went through okay, but she got stuck at the hips. Yuffie was pretty certain it was because she ran out of momentum and not because she was too fat. This was proven to be the case when she pushed on the bathroom walls and quickly slid through.

That was how Yuffie found herself hurtling headfirst into a toilet bowl. Giving herself a swirly was the last thing Yuffie wanted. She stuck her hands out and caught the lip of the seat just before her face entered the bowl. After a moment she realized she wasn't going to fall anymore and sighed. Swinging her body slightly she was able to flip off the toilet and land on her feet.

She washed her hands and silently crept out of the bathroom. Fishing around in her pocket Yuffie extracted Kairi's receipt. From the looks of the shop all the dry cleaned clothing was hung up somewhere bagged and tagged. So all Yuffie had to do was shift through the clean stuff until she found a tag that matched her slip. It might be a little more difficult to do in the dark, but Yuffie could manage. She was fairly certain she had a mini-flashlight in her pocket somewhere. Another fishing expedition rewarded her with said flashlight and the real search began.

It was annoying work. All the handwriting was spidery, which was difficult to read in the wavering light and spelled out some sort of code. Yuffie didn't understand the code, which meant she had to check every single entry until she found Kairi's instead of skipping straight to it.

Finally Yuffie found it. With a cackle she pulled the suit off the rack. The moment she did so something heavy smashed into the back of her head, which dropped her. Yuffie was fairly certain the head block knocked her out because it was a shock when she hit the floor. She was aware and reeling. She quickly rolled away until hitting the wall, trying to escape her attacker.

With a curse she realized she had dropped the suit. She saw the tip of something metal in the light steaming into the shop from the storefront window. With a well-timed barrel roll she avoided something that made a ringing clang as it hit the wall. Yuffie leapt up onto the counter and searched for her attacker, but couldn't make him out in the dark.

She grabbed a coat hanger and caught the weapon when it soared at her face. It was an oversized shuriken. She grinned. Whoever this guy was, he had just put himself into a world of hurt by choosing a weapon the Great Ninja Yuffie was overly familiar with to attack her. Sliding her hand down the flat of the blade she grabbed the weapon by slipping her fingers through two bored holes in the column. With a twist Yuffie had sized the shuriken and slashed at her attacker with his own weapon.

There was a growl, confirming the gender of her attacker to be male. Yuffie made a follow through blow and lodged the shuriken under his chin. He tried to struggle out of her grasp, but Yuffie just pressed harder.

"If you keep resisting you will cut yourself," Yuffie said. "This blade seems sharp enough that it'd probably go in quite deep." She reached around and found her mini-flashlight. Then she clicked it on and shined it in her attacker's face.

He was a young man, but he had silvery white hair. Yuffie couldn't tell if it was a dye job or if it was natural like Riku's, but probably didn't matter. He scowled nastily at her and seemed to be glaring at her, but the bright light in his eyes had him squinting.

"Hey kid, why exactly did you try to kill me?" Yuffie asked.

He tried to spit in her face, but missed. Yuffie wanted to press harder, but restrained herself. Technically, she probably shouldn't be holding him at shuriken point since she had illegally entered, but she wasn't going to let him slice her open either.

"I'm on a deadline and I'm going to be seriously pissed if I have to sit here and wait for you to calm down. Or I can just beat you until you're unconscious, although I'd rather not. It'd be for my own protection, see?"

"You're a goddamn thief!" the boy spat. "Nobody steals from my parents!"

"I'm not stealing, I'm picking up my goddamn laundry," Yuffie said. "You guys have shitty hours. I prepaid." She shifted the flashlight to her teeth so that she could hold the receipt in front of his face.

He blinked in surprise. "You still broke in."

"Your bathroom window was unlocked," Yuffie said. "Are you going to attack me again if I let you up? It's a serious pain in the ass to keep holding the shuriken steady without harming you."

"I promise," he said.

"Are you giving me your word?"

"I am."

"And why should I trust it?"

"Ninja's honor. You've gotta be one too with those moves," he said, sounding almost impressed. "I swear on my name as Edward Geraldine."

Yuffie left him up. He rose slowly to his feet and looked at her warily. Yuffie didn't return his blade.

"I am sorry about sneaking in here," Yuffle said. "But I couldn't go home without that suit… which is now badly crumpled. Shit, Kairi's gonna kill me."

Edward picked up the suit and brushed off the front. "It doesn't look too bad," he said. "Suit's still clean, I guess I could iron it for you. Umm… for an additional fee."

Yuffie looked in her wallet and pulled out the largest bill she had. "I'll give you 500 gil if you do that and not call the cops. What are you even doing in here at this hour of the night?"

Edward flipped on the lights. "You see the rafters up there?" he asked. "They make great practice for running along narrow surfaces." He set up and ironing board and plugged in an iron to begin fixing Kairi's suit. "By the way," he said shyly, "My friends call me Edge."

"I'm the great Ninja Yuffie," Yuffie said, shaking his hand.

She got home an hour later to find Kairi reading in bed. When the redhead saw her she started to rise, but Yuffie stopped her. The ninja thrust the newly ironed suit into her girlfriend's hand.

"Oh thanks, Yuf," Kairi said, examining the clothing. "I was worried you forgot. Not that I'm complaining, but you're home a little later than expected."

"You would not believe the day I've had," Yuffie said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "First I had to fight a kung fu movie star and then a laundry ninja."

"A laundry ninja?"

"Yes, a laundry ninja. You wouldn't expect it with a name like Geraldine, but they're ninjas. Or at least Edge is. He can also iron some neat pleats."

"My hero," Kairi laughed. She kissed Yuffie.

"Are you ready to face off with Larxene tomorrow?" Yuffie asked.

"I am now," Kairi said, wiggling the suit. "Thanks to you."

xxx

"I don't get it," Yuffie said yet again. "How could Cid decide in the bitch from hell's favor?"

"I don't know, could you drop it?" Kairi said. She buried her head in her pillow.

"I mean, you're closing argument kicked ass! And you had all that great evidence. The man must be senile! I outta go and give him a piece of my mind."

"And you don't have enough to spare!" Kairi snapped. Her face crumpled like Yuffie had kicked her. "I'm sorry, Yuffie. I didn't mean that."

"You're upset, I get it," Yuffie said. She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and pulled Kairi's head onto her chest.

"What if this means Cid is failing me?" Kairi asked. "I need that ethics credit to graduate. I—I can't stand the thought of taking another semester. I just can't!"

"We'll see him tomorrow and make him give you a passing grade," Yuffie said firmly.

"We are not threatening my ethics professor. That would be an ethics violation."

"Course not, we'll just use ninja tactics to make him see reason. If he takes offense we'll just flee to Midgar."

"Specifically Midgar?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

" I kinda got a job offer there."

"What?" Kairi sat up and stared. "Doing what?"

"A kung fu movie. With Yang Fang Leiden. It's a sequel to Land of the Dragons and the filming is in Hong Kong. Leon really wants me to do it." Yuffie paused because she was getting The Look. Kairi might have also stopped breathing. She poked her side.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Kairi asked calmly. Way too calmly in Yuffie's opinion.

"They want me to fly out tomorrow, but I told them no way I wasn't missing your graduation," Yuffie said, feeling herself begin to babble. "So that means I can't leave until Saturday, or rather Saturday evening since you graduate in the afternoon, but really that just seems a bit soon so Leon get me tickets for Sunday and I was planning to tell you before Sunday obviously because I'm not an idiot."

"Obviously." Yuffie had a sneaking suspicion that her girlfriend was being sarcastic.

"But I only found out a couple days ago myself and then I met Yang Fang Leiden and then I fought Yang Fang Leiden and I thought I killed him, but he's made out of adamantium or something so his wife wakes him up with a frying pan and then I had to fight that laundry ninja and then and then and then…"

"And then?" Kairi pressed while Yuffie gasped for air.

"And then you were so sad about your case I didn't really know how to tell you because that'll make you sadder. So I goofed that up."

They stared at each other in silence. Kairi's lips had turned into this thin pencil line and Yuffie could see the tear stains from earlier on her face. She looked miserable and at least part of that was Yuffie's fault.

"I can cancel my part," Yuffie said. "I still haven't signed anything yet. I mean It's all too soon and I told Leon that, but he wouldn't listen, which is very unLeonish. Kairi, Kairi, I'm sorry. We had plans to spend time together as soon as you finished up school and this is messing them up, which is a big no-no. We'll just pretend this never happened."

"No we can't," Kairi said. She pulled out a suitcase, Yuffie's normal to go bag. "You obviously want to do this and if I made you give up your big chance you'd resent me for it."

"No I wouldn't!"

Kairi looked up at her. "Yes you would," she said quietly. "I know you, Yuffie. You love surfing and you're damn good at it, but your heart is set on being an action hero. Why else do you always introduce yourself as 'The Great Ninja Yuffie?' Half the time you seem to forget you surf professionally. This is the best chance for you to transition into a career you'd love for the rest of your life and I'm not going to stand in your way."

"You're not in my way," Yuffie said, getting up. "You are my way."

Kairi stroked Yuffie's face. "I love you and I know you love me. That hasn't changed in the five and a half years we've been together and I don't think it will any time in the future. Or it won't as long as we don't wreck each other's dreams and this is one of yours. I know it is because you are more like your father than you will ever admit."

"Kairi," Yuffie whined.

"I'm not going to be mad with you if you do this," Kairi said. "In fact, I might be mad with you if you don't, especially if it's only because of me. "I'm used to you being gone, Yuffie, it's a fact of our life. Six months to a year is an exceptionally long period, I'll give you that, but there are worse things in life. Like you being miserable."

Yuffie took Kairi's hand in hers. "I'd never be miserable with you."

"And I don't want that to change. End of discussion, at least for now. I really don't want to fight with you over this, it's not worth it."

Yuffie wanted to say something, to keep arguing, but she couldn't figure out what to say. She also had a sneaking suspicion that anything else she said would only lead to more conflict. So she pulled Kairi into her arms and hugged her tight. Kairi hugged her back, which had to be a good sign.

"I'm coming with you to see the coot tomorrow," Yuffie said. "United we stand, you know?"

"I know," Kairi said. "And now I want to be alone for a bit. Can you respect that?"

Yuffie nodded, letting Kairi go. The redhead crawled back into bed and nodded and Yuffie. The ninja walked out of the room and shut the door. She kicked the couch feeling frustrated. She couldn't tell if she was angry because Kairi was mad with her or if it was because Kairi wasn't angrier.

'This whole situation sucks!' Yuffie thought storming out onto the balcony. She wanted to scream. Instead she decided to yell at the person who was at fault for the entire situation. The moment he picked up Yuffie snapped, "Why the hell didn't you tell me you knew Yang Fang Leiden?"

"What are you going on about, girlie?" Godo asked.

"Yang Fang Leiden, the fighting monk," Yuffie said. "You know him and he knows you. So why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"You never listen to me when I tell you important things! Why should I bother telling you unimportant things? You'll just keep ignoring me!"

"I'm listening now!"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Afraid to admit you're a quitter?"

"Is that what he told you, that I quit?" Yuffie could hear him bristle. That comment had seriously offended him.

"Leiden said you left in disgrace before completing your training," Yuffie said. "That sounds like a quitter to me."

"I was sent away in disgrace with no option to return."

Yuffie scanned the city before asking what for.

"While I was a student of Master Eraqus I developed a new move," Godo said. "It was such a good move Master Eraqus decided to appropriate it as his own. I argued this because I felt it was mine because I created, even if it occurred while I was still under his tutelage and he ignored me. When I still pressed the issue he expelled me."

"Are you serious?" Yuffie said, aghast.

"Yes, Yuffie, and that is why we do not associate with Eraqus or his students."

"That's not cool."

"No, it is not. Now what brought up this subject for you, child?"

"I'm probably doing a movie with Yang Fang Leiden," Yuffie said, "and he mentioned you."

"You cannot work with him! We do nit associate with those people!"

"Your people aren't my people."

"I'll disown you!"

"You mean like you did when I broke mom's vase? Or when I decided to go to college? Or when I came out?"

"This is different!" Godo hissed. "This is about Family honor!"

"You mean your honor."

"They branded me a liar, which means they consider you the daughter of a liar!"

Yuffie stiffened at this. "Then I'll just have to prove them wrong. Goodbye Godo." She hung up before he could respond.

Yuffie tapped her phone against the railing and sighed. She knew her ninja sense were right, this job was more trouble than it was worth. Now she not only had to decide if she was taking the job, but also stabilize her relationship with Kairi, and restore honor to her family. Honor her father conveniently forgot to mention he had lost.

"Fuck, this is getting confusing," Yuffie growled. Giving up for now she went for a run.

xxx

"You look beautiful," Yuffie said, smiling gently.

Kairi bit her lip, trying to hold back a smile and failing. Yuffie liked how a simple compliment could still make her girlfriend blush. A light dusting a pink across Kairi's nose and cheeks looked adorable on her.

"It's just a cap and gown," Kairi said. "Nothing really that special."

"Nonsense," Yuffie said, snapping a picture. "You're graduating today and that makes this super extra special. I want to remember every moment. There's just one thing I don't get."

"What's that?" Kairi asked, taking off her mortarboard.

"Why is everything white? Isn't it supposed to be black?"

"Our school colors are black and white," Kairi said. "Twilight puts the undergrads in black and the grads in white for the ceremony. That includes the law and veterinary schools. It's to show we've completed a higher level of education."

"That makes sense."

"Come on," Kairi said, pulling off her robe. "We need to pick up my parents. Their plane arrives in an hour." She folded up the robe and packed it into a bag with the mortarboard. "I don't want to be late."

"That means we've got forty minutes," Yuffie said, taking her hand. "And we are going to spend those minutes here because thinking about your mom drives you crazy and I plan on distressing you. Leviathan knows when I'll get another chance."

"You know this will probably make us late." She sounded serious, but Yuffie could see the huge grin on Kairi's face. Her protest was only for form's sake and Yuffie knew she would soon say yes. By Bahamut Yuffie loved this special limited time only responsibility-free Kairi.

"Ten to one odds their plane will be late." That was all it took. Much to Yuffie's surprise Kairi jumped her.

In the end though, Yuffie was wrong. Mr. and Ms. Hart's plane arrived early and Mrs. Hart was most annoyed with the both of them when they showed up late and bedraggled. Personally, Yuffie didn't understand why they had to meet Kairi's parents at the airport, since they didn't have a car to take them home in, but there were weirder things out there. Her own father insisted on checking closet in the house for burglars before going to bed, including the three closets they kept locked specifically to cut down on burglar hiding spots. At least Yuffie could see Kairi was full of mirth. While her mother squawked about irresponsible behavior on the trolley to campus Kairi leaned over and nuzzled Yuffie's neck.

"You're in a good mood," Yuffie whispered.

"I'm actually in a state of terror," Kairi whispered back. "I've never not been in school before and how that's over. So I may look cool as a cucumber, but on the inside I'm panicking."

"You hide it well."

"I'm focusing on you."

"Then you're not mad at me for the Leiden thing anymore?"

Kairi sighed and looked away. "I haven't had time to think about it and now there isn't any," she said.

"Well, we don't have any other time."

The trolley rounded a corner pushing the passengers into each other. Yuffie could see the university now and knew they were about to arrive. She needed an answer now.

"Kairi?" Yuffie asked.

"This is our stop," Kairi said. She repeated this to her parents before herding them off the trolley. "We've got to separate now. Will you make certain my parents get to their seats?"

Yuffie nodded, although she wasn't happy.

Kairi hugged her parents then kissed Yuffie's cheek. "You'll make the right choice, Yuf. And no, I don't know what that is," Kairi said. "Although if you do go, you'd better stick around long enough to say a proper goodbye." Then she was gone.

'Well, that was no help,' Yuffie thought. She pulled Mrs. Hart's bag out of her hand and said, "Come on, I think I know where we're going."

Leading Mrs. Hart was like herding cats. Yuffie tried to move forward and Mrs. Hart would stop to look at a mural, or talk to a student, or complain about the size of the campus. Whenever the ninja tried to direct her Mrs. Hart insisted she knew better and went the opposite way. She refused to believe Yuffie knew the campus, despite the fact Yuffie was the one with a map. It took over an hour to get the Harts to the proper auditorium where the law school's graduation ceremony was to occur.

'I never thought she would inflict her mother as a deadly weapon,' Yuffie thought darkly as Mrs. Hart wandered into the ladies' restroom. 'This is totally payback for flirting with that job.'

"I want to thank you, Yuffie," Mr. Hart said.

"What for?" Yuffie asked, surprised out of her murder fantasy.

"For taking care of my wife and me," he said. "I know you would much rather be with our daughter right now."

"It's no problem, Mr. Hart," Yuffie said. "I'd be stuck out here in the stands even if I was on my own."

"Frank," Mr. Hart said. At Yuffie's inquiring look he added, "I want you to call me by my first name, Frank. You make my little girl extremely happy and while I am often out of the loop, I have a suspicion you two will be together or many years to come."

"Okay Frank," Yuffie said, feeling weirded out.

"I just wanted you to know you're family, even if we don't always make you feel that way. If it helps, my wife ignores Kairi the same way she ignores you."

"Got it."

They lapsed into silence, standing there for another minute before Mrs. Hart emerged. Another direction battle ensued before Yuffie and Mr. Hart managed to situate Mrs. Hart on a bleacher. Yuffie looked around. The auditorium was crowded and people were still trickling into the room. They were situated in the upper balcony seats, where the stage was far away and tiny. Yuffie was glad she was gifted with ninja eagle eyes so that she could see okay. Mr. Hart had brought a camera with a powerful zoom function, while Mrs. Hart had opera glasses. They were ready just in time, as the first law graduate began to walk before Mrs. Hart could start complaining again.

'If anyone ever tells you graduations are exciting they are lying their asses off,' Yuffie thought as yet another white robed person walked across the stage. 'I mean, everyone is stuck in uncomfortable seats listening to long rambling speeches that go on forever."

She looked down and tried to spot her girl out in the crowd. It was difficult, but she was fairly certain Kairi was sitting third from the end in one of the middle rows. There weren't that many people with bright red hair, natural or otherwise.

'I wonder if she's going to go prematurely grey?' she thought, staring intently at the probable Kairi. 'People with that natural shade often do… Kairi'd probably look good with grey hair, a light grey. By Ixion, why have they only reached D?'

The ceremony continued to drag on. A single person would be announced, walk across the stage, shake the hand of this pudgy old dude, and exit down the center aisle only to return to her original seat. Diplomas weren't even passed on the grounds there were simply too many people to get that in the proper order here. At least that's what Kairi had said when she explained how the process worked. She was expecting her diploma to arrive via postal service in about two weeks.

'I can never ever tell her I regret sitting through this,' Yuffie thought as some dude with blue hair shook hands with the pudgy man. She thought he might be one of the guys from the mock trial, but Yuffie couldn't be certain. As for the pudgy man, Yuffie had no idea who he was. He was probably a president or dean or something like that.

"Look alive," Mr. Hart said, tapping Yuffie's shoulder. "That was the last of the Gs. Kairi should be up soon."

Yuffie straightened up and began paying attention. She finally accurately located her redhead. She was second in line about to cross the stage. She looked good, confident and collected, like an ideal graduate. The moment had arrived. Yuffie forgot about her own personal discomfort and focused on the love of her life.

"Hart, Kairi," the pudgy man boomed.

Kairi stepped up onto the stage from the left side. She glanced down to be certain of her footing and then strode confidently forward. She looked up to her right and seemed to stare straight up at Yuffie. Yuffie gave a loud whistle and waved. Kairi reached the fat man and shook his hand. He seemed to say something to her before letting go. Then Kairi turned and gracefully walked down the steps before strolling back to her seat. Before sitting down she winked at Yuffie.

Yuffie silently thanked Leviathan, Santa Claus, and the rest of the pantheon for allowing her to be there for this moment. There was nothing on earth she wanted more than to watch her girl succeed. It was in that moment Yuffie knew there could never be a substitute for Kairi. It was her or nothing.

The rest of the ceremony wasn't worth mentioning in Yuffie's opinion. It was long and boring and there was no longer any reason to pay attention. Thankfully, it finally ended and Yuffie was reunited with her girl. There was a plethora of photos taken. Some with Yuffie and Kairi, some of Kairi and her parents, a few of all four of them together, and even a couple of just Kairi.

Eventually the four of them were able to escape the great auditorium. They were among literally thousands fleeing the scene, yet there were still many people milling about and chatting. Kairi even had to stop several time and chat with other graduates. Most were people Yuffie had never even heard of, but she still found herself being introduced to each new person. It was hard to be cheerful and outgoing with every new person, as she couldn't feel her butt anymore. It was completely numb.

It looked like they had run out of people to meet. Yuffie shook her arms and legs, hoping to get some feeling back in them before she hauled Kairi over her shoulder and made a dash for the trolley. Instead she heard a familiar voice shout at her and stop her in mid grab.

"Get back here you little shits, just because you graduated doesn't mean I'm done with you, Hart." That could only be Professor Cid Highwind. When he caught up nodded at Yuffie and said, "Ninja girl."

"Crazy old coot," was Yuffie's response.

"Congratulations, Kairi, I'm very proud of you," Cid said, shaking Kairi's hand. "And you won't believe who I found skulking around." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to reveal Cloud. "You wouldn't believe it to look at him, but Strife is also happy for you."

"I am delighted with your progress," Cloud said, smiling. Yuffie couldn't remember the last time she had seen him genuinely seen him smile at something other than Link, so it was worth noting.

"And who are these men, Kairi?" Mrs. Hart asked.

"This is my favorite professor, Cid Highwind, and my boss, Cloud Strife," Kairi said as she began introductions.

Yuffie could tell this conversation was going to take a while and possibly turn into dinner. So she shot Cloud a salute, because Kairi was took busy keeping her mother in check to pay attention, and wandered off. When it was time to go Kairi would yell for her or call her phone.

As if on cue, the moment Yuffie wandered up to the street a black limo pulled up. Before Yuffie realized what was happening, two martial artists—a petite blonde girl and a muscular man, also blond—jumped out of the car. They grabbed her and threw her in the back seat before leaping in themselves. Before the door was even shut the limo drove away.

"Do not tell me I was just fucking kidnapped," Yuffie snarled as she righted herself.

"Fine, I won't," the girl laughed.

Yuffie turned to glare at her, but stopped short when she saw Yang Fang Leiden and Leon seated in the limo. Both looked uncomfortable about what had just occurred, but obviously, neither had stopped it.

"You," she snarled, pointing a finger at Leon. "You let this happen?"

"We waited until after Kairi's graduation was over," Leon said, but even he wasn't buying his excuse.

"You people kidnapped me off the street!" Yuffie shrieked. "Kairi's probably freaking out right now and I'm supposed to be at war with your family, Leiden!"

"Why's that?" the girl asked.

"Ursula," Yang said in a warning tone. "Ms. Kisaragi's nerves are already frayed from our poor treatment. Do not provoke her."

"Who are you people?" Yuffie demanded.

"This is my daughter Ursula," Yang said, "and our costar Sabin Figaro."

"Hello," Sabin said. He sounded like what Yuffie thought an Italian would sound like.

"I still don't understand why you had to go and kidnap me," Yuffie snapped.

"We were worried you wouldn't make up your mind in time," Leon said. "Mr. Leiden already pushed the departure date back several days for your convince. I knew you'd decide to do this, so I decided we would help you get there."

Yuffie punched Leon in the face. It happened so fast no one reacted until there was blood dripping from Leon's nose.

"I deserved that," he said.

"You ever pull a stunt like this again and I'll fire your ass," Yuffie yelled. "I am not the type of girl who gets kidnapped!"

"Well, it looks like you are now," Ursula laughed. Yuffie ignored her.

"You mentioned being at war with my family?" Yang said, trying to change the flow of the conversation.

"My father says your sacred master stole a move he made and then exiled him," Yuffie said. "That's more than enough to start a feud between different martial lineages."

"Master Erquas would never do such a thing!" Ursula said.

"Do you have any basis for your accusations?" Yang asked.

"My old man's a drunk and the most stubborn man alive, but he's no liar and no cheat," Yuffie said. "I'd bet my reputation on it."

"And it is a good reputation" Yang said gravely. "I will have to think about this. Which move is in question?"

Yuffie began describing the complicated move her father developed in his youth. Yang listened intently and seemed to understand exactly what she was talking about. The other three seemed to tune her out after a moment, but Yang understood. When she finished he sat there and thought for a moment before responding.

"I recognize that move," he said. "And I remember my master performing in on many an occasion. If I recall correctly, he claimed the move as his, but never said that he created it. While that may be a small distinction, it is a distinction and it is in your father's favor."

"I see," Yuffie said slowly.

"If you were to perform that move in our film everyone would assume that the move is yours, which would return it to the Kisaragi family."

"Then I accept my role," Yuffie said. Everyone in the car relaxed. Apparently she was more valuable to this film than she had realized. "But I'm not leaving for Midgar tonight."

"Why not?" Yang asked.

"Think you're too good to fly with us?" Ursula asked.

"You kidnapped me in front of my girlfriend," Yuffie said. "She's freaked and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

"So?"

"I promised her I'd say goodbye and an honorable person always keeps her promises." Yuffie flicked Ursula on the nose. "I'll catch up with you people in a few days after I've packed."

Yuffie lunged for the door, kicked it open and fell out of the moving vehicle. They had been going about thirty miles an hour, so she rolled several times and bruised herself. Still, she was quickly on her feet and waved the limo goodbye. As soon as the limo was out of sight Yuffie whipped out her cell phone and called Kairi.

"Yuffie? My god, Yuffie, are you okay?" Kairi said as soon as the call connected.

"I'm fine, babe," Yuffie said. "Leiden's people just decided to kidnap me so that we could settle the terms of our agreement. Are Spiky, Cid and Link joining us for dinner?"

"Yeah," Kairi said. "So what did you decide?"

"I'm doing the film, but I'm not flying to Midgar until I'm fucking ready," Yuffie said proudly.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you. Umm… can someone come pick me up? I just jumped out of a moving car and I don't know where I am."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Kairi promised. Yuffie believed her.

xxx

"So I think I'm packed," Yuffie said. She thumped her suitcase. "Can you believe I got six months of stuff into only three bags?"

"You beat me," Kairi laughed, gesturing at her own four.

"I'm going to miss this place," Yuffie said, looking around the apartment. "Are you certain it wouldn't just be easier to move?"

"No, it wouldn't," Kairi said. "I'm only going to be in Midgar for a couple months until my papers come through with the Bar. Two, maybe three, months isn't worth it."

"I still can't believe you've coming to Midgar with me," Yuffie giggled.

"What can I say? It made sense," Kairi laughed. "I'm joining an environmental policy law firm, I may as well get some practice in with an environmental activist organization while I still can't practice law."

"I thought AVALANCHE was an eco-terrorist group."

Kairi shook her head. "You're thinking of the fringe extremists. The main organization, which is located in Midgar, is composed of legally abiding citizens who care about the environment. Cloud was a part of AVALANCHE when he was in college. I think Tifa's still a member."

"That would explain why she's against paper napkins," Yuffie said brightly.

Kairi just laughed, then groaned when she saw the clock. "I hope our cab is downstairs. We need to leave now if we're to catch our plane. Is Yunie in her carrier?"

Yuffie groaned. "I'm not ready to be airsick for four hours."

Kairi laughed and kissed her girlfriend's forehead. "You know what, you're going to be horribly sick for the entire flight and want to die."

"Thanks babe."

"But on the bright side," Kairi continued, kissing her Yuffie. "I'm going to be right next to you for the entire flight taking your mind off the fact we're hurtling through the air at fifty thousand feet. Then we are going to arrive in Midgar and we are going to have so much fun and get into so much trouble because that's just what we do."

Yuffie brightened at this foretelling. Kairi was right. There would be momentary discomfort before they could experience something grand. And Yuffie was going to be in a kung fu movie! No matter where she went or what challenges they faced, Yuffie knew that she would have Kairi at her side. Together they would turn this life from something ordinary into something extraordinary. Yuffie grinned at Kairi; she knew they were on the best adventure in the world.

That's a wrap. Congratulations for finishing the 30th and final chapter of Ordinary Adventures. This has been a long running work I started writing almost six years ago and I am delighted to have finally finished it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter or the story as a whole. Reviewing only takes a minute. Thank you for reading my story.