A/N: I don't own anything of KH, except for this story-idea. This story takes place during KH2. This story-idea is what you get when you're supposed to learn 1000 words, - no, it's not a typo, it's really 1000. Now you know what I mean with that teacher really like to torture poor and innocent students XD - 115 sentences and a lot of grammar in less than a week for German class, but you're not in the mood, like me (I know I'll regret this, though). Enjoy reading! :)
Oh, and the cover for this story was drawn by the lovely ~KeepCalmForKpop (on dA). Please don't use the picture without her permission!
~ It was clear that Yuffie had no idea how far Leon would go for a week of pure serenity. ~
The silent swordsman squeezed his eyes shut and opened them after ten seconds of trying to calm himself down, so he wouldn't attack Yuffie for being her usual annoying self. It barely helped.
Can't this girl ever shut her mouth, even if it's for once in her life? Leon thought, being extremely annoyed with her.
Quite frustrated, he ran a heavily gloved hand through his dark, silky smooth and shoulder length, chestnut hair. He felt much for banging his head repeatedly against the oak desktop, but knew that it would be a bad idea to do so. If he did so, he wouldn't reach anything with it, except for a headache that wouldn't go away for a week or so. If the frown on his forehead could have grown any deeper, then it certainly would've happened at the moment, but alas, that option became impossible three minutes ago.
Leon had found very important documents in Ansem the Wise's office this morning. He'd been there locked up for hours on end, trying to find a clue to what could defeat all those dangerous Heartless and Nobodies forever, and more importantly, the evil Organization XIII that was after Kingdom Hearts. So far, he had only made little progress. So it was pretty needless to say that he was quite irritated, even more than usually and that really said something. Normal people would understand immediately to stay away from him as much as they could, but apparently Yuffie couldn't be called normal, for she always seemed to want to be near him when he was having one of those dangerous moods again. Sometimes he wondered if she could smell when he would be annoyed.
Exactly half an hour ago, the only short break he had taken so far, was almost over when Yuffie decided to come along. Her visit only made matters worse for him, because after she had seen the antique checkerboard on the desk, she had insisted on playing a game of chess with him. Admittedly, this had been very strange for him, because he had always thought that such a hyper ninja couldn't play chess. He had found that it was a small miracle that she even knew the word. She claimed that the opposite was true, though, and that she was actually pretty good at it. If there would only be more modest people in this world.
He had rejected her offer as polite as he could in his famous Leon-way, because he had more things on his mind at that moment. That had probably been the main reason that Yuffie had started shouting in a far too high-pitched voice about the fact that no one ever paid any attention to her, and that everyone only used her for finishing their "dirty jobs," - whatever that might be. He really didn't want to know what she meant with that - and what not. He couldn't even remember all the shocking things she had said so far. Not that he had done his best to memorize it, but that was beside the point.
For the past fifteen minutes, he had tried to ignore her endless rant about Cid, the cursing ex-pilot, Heartless and Nobodies, the impossible Aerith, the even more impossible Cloud, Donald Duck, Moogles, eggs - don't even ask - and, not so much to his own surprise, about Leon himself.
Ignoring her had worked great for the first ten minutes, until his migraine had decided to show up again. Now he only wanted her to shut her mouth, and quick. Especially because he hadn't brought any Advil with him. Hadn't he come to work in this office for silence in the first place? Well, there wasn't much left of that anymore.
"...I mean, I'm still a child, I also have certain needs. But nooo, all I have to do all day, is beating the crap out of those damned Heartless and Nobodies, just because people like you are far too lazy to work overtime and come to a solution. I've already asked everyone from the Restoration Committee, and nobody wants to play chess with me! Can you believe it? Well, except for those Moogles, but everyone knows you shouldn't trust them, because they're always cheating. Always! You know, sometimes really I wonder who the real Heartless are in my life. Do you have any idea how many terrible things you're exposing me every day, Leon? Every day, I get a new trauma to cope with. I could even write a book about it and I certainly would've done that, if you hadn't been such a stubborn, lazy, leader who ruins all the fun around town, - well, especially for me - by sending me on a patrol duty, claiming that someone here has to defeat those Heartless and Nobodies. And you call yourself a true leader? Hah, you should be ashamed of yourself! All of you! You've taken my dear childhood away from me far too soon! I mean it, Leon, sometimes I really hate you, 'cause you're such a d-"
Luckily, she called him Leon this time, like everyone else did, and not that name that started with an "S." She hadn't used that name for more than a year and he was more than grateful for that fact, because that was one thing less to worry about this year. As for the other thing... He knew he would regret it soon enough, but he saw that no other option was left.
He let out a drawn sigh and braced himself for what would come if he would sacrifice his pride to shut her up. "Okay, fine. I'll play chess with you-" he interrupted her quickly, sounding extremely annoyed, but feeling defeated.
That was when it happened.
"Yay! I love you, Leon! You're the best!"
Talk about quick changes here. And yet, he already regretted it. He knew this was going to make things worse somehow. It always went this way when it was about this raven-haired ninja.
"Oomph!"
Before he could even finish his thoughts, he was almost floored by a happy Yuffie who had enthusiastically jumped on him and held him in a bone crushing hug. With much trouble, he managed to still stand upright. The brunet male could almost feel how his bones protested fiercely against this small, but painful gesture.
"On one condition," he said quickly, and with some small effort he was able to hold up a finger in the air for emphasizing what he had said prior to this.
In the mean time, he tried to wriggle loose from the ninja's steely grip. Sometimes, it still marveled him how strong she was. Yuffie looked up at him with a question burning in her big, dark eyes that reminded him of dark chocolate, and how it would slowly melt on his tongue and leave the pure taste in his mouth for at least half an hour. He was the only member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee who liked the somewhat bitter taste of dark chocolate. That was one of the reasons why Yuffie thought he was nuts.
"And what's that?" the female teen asked, curiously, almost at once.
"If I win, then you're not allowed to talk for one week."
Yuffie's eyes widened slightly. There was only one emotion written in them: pure disbelief. As soon as he saw that, he knew that she had changed her mind, which was good, because now he would finally be left alone for the rest of the day...
Or so he thought.
"What? But what if-"
"If you want to say something, then just write it down on a piece of paper, and if you don't have that, then use sign language. It's simple as that," Leon replied, in a matter-of-factly tone.
He almost wanted to add a "duh" to that sentence, but changed his mind when he thought that that could also aggravate her.
Yuffie cocked her head to the side. She pulled a funny face as she tried to imagine how she and Leon were fighting against the many Heartless and Nobodies that tormented Hollow Bastion and its citizens for the umpteenth time. One stalked Leon and wanted to stab him in the back, while she was looking like a madwoman in her pockets, trying to find a piece of paper and a pen to warn him that a Nobody behind him made rather suspicious movements toward him and definitely wanted to tear him to pieces with his sharp-looking claws.
She shook her head at this peculiar thought. She must have had too much sugar this morning... or chocolate, but that had pretty much the same effect on her as sugar did. Aerith always made sure that she wouldn't get too much of the sweet substance, but since Yuffie was quite a fine ninja, she knew the most sneaky ways to get what she wanted. And Aerith had no idea...
"And what if I win?" she asked.
Leon thought about it for a second or two, his trademark frown once again appearing on his handsome face.
He wanted to reply with "Like that would happen," but realized it was better if he didn't, for Yuffie didn't always like his sarcastic comments. Instead, he went for, "Then you wouldn't have to be silent for a whole week."
Yuffie rolled her pure-dark-chocolate-like eyes at his reply. Honestly, if everyone in the world would use Leon's logic, then everyone would die of boredom in no time. It was a good thing that she was the more creative type of the two. This way, she could show him how to loosen up a little. The guy definitely needed that.
"Oh haha. Very funny, Mr. Happy. I know something much better, though."
As usual, Leon ignored the "Mr. Happy" comment, not showing her that he even cared one bit for what she was thinking; there was honestly no need to, because she would tell him about it sooner or later. He only had to wait for three... two... one...
"If I win, then you have to do my dishes for a whole month."
The only reason she had come up with the dishes, was because she knew that Leon hated doing that. Said man looked at her like she was crazy, which once again confirmed her suspicions. Now that she thought about it, she realized that he often looked at her in that same way.
"Then I changed my mind. Go find someone else to bother, I'm busy now," he said in his oh so famous monotone voice that always managed to give Yuffie goose bumps.
Yuffie didn't give up that easily on him, though. She had more tricks up her sleeve. He would play chess with her, no matter what! She would make him do that, because she knew about all his weaknesses. Not that he ever acted like he had them, but she'd lived with him for long enough to know certain info about him, be it because of her awesome spying skills, or not.
With that in mind, Yuffie put her hands on her hips and looked at him, defiantly. "Oh? Is the big brave lion of Hollow Bastion chickening out all of a sudden?"
Leon frowned at that, not liking the idea of someone calling him a coward. "I'm not chickening out. I only quit because I don't think this is a fair deal anymore. A month is a heck of a long time and as you may know, I'm a busy person these days."
She had to admit that he had a point somewhere. She hardly ever saw him at home. It was as though he was pulling allnighters, but that wouldn't help him this time. He was her only hope now, so she couldn't give that up. Who else was going to play chess with her if she did? Exactly: nobody.
"Aww, is the big, tough boy scared that he'll lose?" she asked, her grin widening the instant she asked that question. "I can't blame you for being scared, because I'm gonna kick your butt, hun, even with my eyes closed."
Leon snorted, almost contemptuously. Everyone at Hollow Bastion thought there wasn't a thing that he feared.
"You wish."
"Leon is a coward, he fears the great ninja! Na na nuhnana!" Yuffie said in a loud sing-song voice.
A loud sigh escaped Leon's mouth before he could stop himself. He knew that she wouldn't stop doing this for the rest of the day. That meant that he wouldn't get the chance to look at the documents, which automatically lead to another long, weary day of fighting those monsters from Hell. It was at times like these that he believed that someone up there really hated his guts.
Why is it always me who has to deal with her?
"Okay, we have a deal," he said wearily, pinching the bridge of his nose in a rather weak attempt to get rid of his major headache.
If there was something he hated even more than Yuffie's talking (or doing the dishes for that matter), it was her singing, or rather, her pretty sad attempt at singing. Meanwhile, Yuffie did a small victory dance, which almost made him laugh, but he managed to control his facial muscles right in time.
Well, at least one person is happy with how things are going today, he thought sarcastically, although he had no idea why the ninja would like playing chess with him.
He figured that it was just another way to annoy the heck out of him, and it was needless to say that it worked very well already. And she wasn't even started yet.
"Nice! I knew we could come out of this together, like real adults would."
Leon rolled his cold, steel-blue eyes, not bothering to remind her of the fact that not five minutes ago she had told him that she still was a child.
"Sooo... do you want the white or the black chess pieces?"
He didn't really care, but Yuffie kept looking at him questioningly, so he decided to answer, "...The black ones."
"Well, well, what a great surprise," she muttered sarcastically.
"Hmph."
This proved once again that Leon was a man of few words when Yuffie was nearby. Maybe he was just shy...
Nah, what the hell am I thinking. This is Leon we're talking about. That word isn't even written in his dictionary, I'm pretty sure of that one, Yuffie thought grinning wickedly.
Apparently, Leon had seen that same grin and had interpreted it in a wrong way, because the next thing he did, was telling her in a rather warning tone, "Oh, and if you try to do something that's completely against the rules, then you can forget about the whole deal."
The ebony-haired girl gasped, quasi shocked. "Now why would I do that?" she asked innocently, quirking her eyebrows in mock wonder.
Leon gave her one of his pointed glares, saying everything in that one, sharp look. "Because that wouldn't be the first time," he remarked coolly.
Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him as a response - it was the only comeback she could think of at the moment - and he raised an eyebrow at her. She just knew he was going to say something to make her feel stupid.
"Very mature, Yuffie."
"Oh, shut up!"
Yuffie grabbed a spare chair from the corner of the room and moved it closer to Ansem's former desk, because she didn't like the idea of standing like that for at least fifteen minutes.
She sat down, much like she owned the place, and rubbed her hands confidently. "Okay. Let the game begin. I can't wait to win."
Leon snorted once again. "I see you're quite sure of yourself," he remarked again, when she gave him a funny look at his uncharacteristic behavior.
"Well, I have a strong feeling that Lady Fortune will be on my side today."
"That would be the first time," he muttered softly, but Yuffie heard him, anyway.
"Excuse me?"
"...Nothing."
Stating out the obvious only would make her more mad and Yuffie had quite the tendency to start throwing with things whenever she was furious. He couldn't have that here.
"Liar. I really heard you saying something under your breath. Be a man for once in your life and spit it out already!"
"Fine," he spat. "I said, "Stop whining!""
Yuffie wanted to stick her tongue out at him for the second time that day, but something made her change her mind. The last time she had done that hadn't been that successful, anyway.
Instead, she chose to say, "Let's just start, okay?"
"Go ahead, I'm waiting for you. White goes first, remember?"
Leon couldn't help but think, White begins, black wins.
"Oh, that's right. Almost forgot."
She snickered at her own silly mistake. It could be blamed on Mr. Grumpy, because he always distracted her.
"Are you sure you can play chess?"
She gave him a withering look, even though she knew he was only kidding. Sometimes, Leon's jokes were a bit mean, especially when it was toward her, but she was pretty much used to it by now. It was hard to imagine that there had been a time where it had even hurt and it had made her cry. That had been ages ago. Still, the look on his face had been priceless when Aerith had become furious at Leon for hurting Yuffie's feelings.
"Oh, haha. You're so funny, Leon," she said sarcastically.
"I know."
Only Leon could say such a stupid thing and still sound as serious as heck. If it had been any other guy, then she would've laughed her ass off.
"Oh, and now we're sarcastic, too? Darn, you're having heavy mood swings today."
Leon rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
"You're impossible, Leon. Did you know that?"
Once again, only pure silence greeted her from her opponent's side. "..."
Duh.
Yuffie sighed as dramatically as she could, when she realized she wouldn't get any answer out of him this time, and moved her first pawn one square forward. Leon thought for a moment, his eyes glued to the white and black chessboard, and then did the same.
"Wow, did you really have to think that long about your first move?" Yuffie asked teasingly.
"Just because you're not using your brains, doesn't mean that I don't have to, either."
"Stop acting all smart. I bet I can beat you with this with two fingers in my nose."
She knew that the next thing he would say, would be something like, "I want to see that."
"Please, tell your fingers to stay out of your nose and make the next move. The sooner we're over with it, the better."
She couldn't tell if he was amused right now, or not, since Leon was a rather unpredictable person, but his last comment made her grin. "Killjoy," she muttered under her breath.
He had to admit that she was much better at chess than he had ever expected her to be. It seemed like she already had years of experience in it. He had been planning to end this game as fast as he could, so the brunet would finally be able to continue with his work in peace, but Yuffie clearly had other plans on her mind. She had been able to thwart him every time he wanted to beat her. His king had even been in check once, but since Leon was a rather strategic man, having years of experience with different tactics and tricks, he had been able to solve all his chess problems quickly enough, much to Yuffie's dismay.
"Check," Yuffie squealed, delighted at her own, newly discovered talent.
What? Again? How is that possible? He thought, surprised, as he was trying to come up with another way to ensure the safety of his king, without having to sacrifice another chess piece.
He began to wonder who had taught her all these interesting tactics. Whoever it was, it had to be a professional. He knew that Cid couldn't play chess and that Aerith found it a stupid, boring game, because she was so bad at it. She preferred sitting between the colorful flowers, gardening until she was exhausted. You only had to glance at the Gullwings to know that they wouldn't know the difference between the queen and the bishop, so they couldn't have taught her anything useful, either.
So that meant that only Merlin was left. But that was quite strange, too, - not to mention hard to believe - because Merlin never had been good at beating Leon with chess, and Leon was the chess king of Hollow Bastion. Only Cloud made a solid opponent for him these days, if only he could stop doing all angsty about Sephiroth long enough... And everyone knew that that never happened in real life.
Another few minutes passed in pure silence, but then Leon suddenly broke it by saying, "Check."
He almost surprised himself there, but he was able to hide it for Yuffie's prying eyes. If only his voice hadn't betrayed him this time...
"Huh?"
Yuffie inspected the chessboard thoroughly, with faintly narrowed eyes. It made her look somewhat... cute. Was that the right word here? Leon shook his head, trying to get rid of those weird thoughts. If he didn't focus now, Yuffie would be able to actually beat him, be it thanks to cheating or not.
She decided to move the king to an un-attacked square, so he was out of danger. "You know, when Cloud used to play chess with me when I was little, he would always let me win. Isn't that just sweet? Guess that gentlemen like that don't exist anymore, huh?" Yuffie said, looking at him sharply, almost as if she was giving him a hint.
Oh, right. Cloud. He had totally forgotten about the possibility that the blond ex-SOLDIER could have taught her this in the past, when he hadn't been all in 'Kill-Sephiroth-Mode.'
Leon shrugged it off. "Things... change."
Yuffie shook her head. Seriously, what kind of a dead, vague answer was that? It was only typical for Leon to say such a thing and not sound like he was totally on crack.
"Yeah, unfortunately it does, just like people."
The corner of his mouth twitched, but he kept his eyes focused on the chessboard. He knew what direction she wanted to go. It was the direction he wanted to avoid at all costs. She would pay for making him think about his past again, even if that was the least he could do.
The battle on the chessboard continued in pure silence now. The tension between the two chess players grew thicker, up to the point that it was almost palpable. Only the soft sounds of a chess piece that make contact with the board could be heard every now and then. Leon quite forgot about his surroundings and only concentrated on the game. To be honest, even Cloud didn't make it half as difficult for him as Yuffie did at the moment. He started to believe that he wouldn't be able to win this time. Oh, the humiliation! He couldn't let himself get beaten by a seventeen-year old girl that lived on sugar. What would the others think of him? He'd rather fight a thousand Heartless all by himself than to lose from someone like Yuffie.
Suddenly, he saw something that made him feel a small twinge of hope. There was one thing that Yuffie apparently had missed. Of course, it could be a trap, set by herself so Leon would fall for it, but he should take that risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
He moved the rook, hoping that Yuffie would fall for this. It seemed that Yuffie was all wrong and that Lady Fortune was on Leon's side today, because Yuffie did exactly what he wanted her to do. The same went for the move after that.
The always taciturn young man simply couldn't believe his luck. "Check," Leon said again, now more confident of himself.
Of course he wouldn't lose. What was he thinking? He hadn't lost in years. The only man who was able to beat him was Laguna, his father and sometimes Cloud.
Yuffie's voice made him return to reality. "What?"
She looked incredulously up at him, then at the board and then back at him again. The small grin on his face was hard to miss, even for her.
She narrowed her eyes, before she moved the king a square to the left. "Not so fast, Leatherpants. Can't beat me now, huh?"
"Don't be too sure of that." Leon then made another move and said, almost triumphantly, "Checkmate."
"What? No!"
She widened her eyes in pure disbelief. Suddenly, something slammed hard against Leon's shin. He groaned from the pain (he already had a bruise the size of a tennis ball there, so it actually did hurt) and looked under the table to find the source of the thing that had caused him pain. There was nothing strange to see there, but he had a dark suspicion that Yuffie had kicked him, on purpose. Who or what else could it be?
He gave her a withering look from over the table, and she looked back at him, innocently. "You're a liar. That wasn't a checkmate," she said accusingly, crossing her arms.
"Yes, it was. Just look at the board."
"Why don't you look at the board for yourself to see what I mean?"
"Yuffie, stop these stupid games of you. I'm getting sick of it," he said, almost snarling at her.
Leon looked at the board for himself, though, only to find out that she was right. Somehow, the king suddenly could move to two other squares, without any risk.
There was only one explanation to that one. "You cheated," he noted, his voice sounding as neutral as ever.
He wasn't surprised at all, because he had expected her to cheat when she would almost lose. She always did that when they would play cards, too, so it was nothing new to him.
"No way! What makes you say that?"
And still, she acted as if Leon was wrong, while both of them knew what had happened. He wasn't stupid.
"You can't fool me, I've known you all my life. I can see it when you're lying."
"How dare you!" she exclaimed indignantly.
At this point, Leon had started to grow impatience with her antics. "The evidence is here, almost right in your face," Leon said sharply, pointing to the board.
He had raised his voice slightly. Did she really think that she could fool someone who had known her from the day she was born?
"Well, not anymore."
Yuffie swiftly got up from her chair and swung the other chessmen away with her hand. Two of them fell on the ground, but luckily, they didn't break. Leon managed to catch the third and forth piece right in time. Ironically, it was a black king and a white queen.
He set them upright on the table again, before glaring at her. "Hey, watch it! This isn't even your property. You want to break it?"
"I don't care, and I certainly won't shut up!"
She clenched her hands into fists, looking angrily up at him, as if she was daring him to say something about the matter.
"You'll have to, that was the deal."
"Well, the deal's off. I'll shut up on the day you kiss me."
Yuffie had said that on purpose, because she knew Leon would never kiss her, not in a billion years. Yes, it hurt to think that, but it was the truth and she had learned to live with it a long time ago.
"You were right, you're still a child," Leon spoke in a calm voice.
"Hey! Take that back, you big, mean-"
Yuffie gasped softly when Leon grasped her arm and pulled her with all his strength toward him. She almost tripped over her own feet in the process, but he didn't let go of her, keeping her upright. He bent forward slightly and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before she could even protest.
She gave a surprised cry, her eyes widening once again, but Leon put his forefinger on her lips to silence her. "Shush. A week. That was the deal."
Yuffie gave no response to that, but her mouth dropped open. Smirking at his victory, he grasped Yuffie's shoulders with both gloved hands, and turned her, so she was facing the door, while her back was facing him.
He pushed her toward the door, - Yuffie didn't object. She was too shocked to react - opened it, and pushed her gently out of the room, while softly squeezing her shoulders. "Oh. One more thing, I would buy a pen and a notebook, if I were you. You'll need it this week," he whispered in her ear.
And with that, the highly satisfied man closed the door, leaving a very confused Yuffie, who wondered if that really was the Leon she had known for so long, in the hallway. It was clear that Yuffie had no idea how far Leon would go for a week of pure serenity. But for the first time in her life, she didn't feel sorry for losing, because the prize she had gained for losing was something she had wished to happen for quite a long time now. She blinked a couple of times and touched the spot where Leon had kissed her.
Okay... that was really unexpected. Hmm... I wonder if he would want to play another game of chess with me. She pulled and pushed at the door, but it wouldn't open. Huh? What the-
"Nice try, Yuffie. I locked up myself from the inside. Good luck with opening it!" Leon's voice said from the other side of the door.
Crap!
She stuck her tongue out at the door, despite the fact that she knew Leon couldn't see her.
"Very mature, Yuf," Leon called.
Yuffie's eyes widened once again in shock, wondering how Leon knew what she had done. Was it because they knew each other so well? She shrugged and stomped off, while trying to come up with another way to annoy Leon, this time in silence...
A/N: Seems like I can't write short one-shots anymore. Oh well. So, what do you think of it? Was it good? Horrible? So-so? A review can make my day, you know (especially when I'm having a major headache from trying to memorize all those words... ). ;)