A/N: A giftfic for the wonderful feralfairy (3 months late, per usual -_- which I apologize deeply for). Thank you feralfairy for always leaving me such long, blush worthy, praise filled reviews; I always appreciate them and value your thoughts and opinions highly. Thank you for putting up with my yaoi and my lateness on just about everything =) I really hope you, and all my other lovely readers whom I cherish and adore, enjoy this.
Prompt: A little pairing oneshot between a member of Organization XIII and someone from a diferent world
The first time she sees him she's ready to kill him, ready to eliminate him without a second thought. He's the enemy, he's an abomination, he doesn't have the right to exist. That's what Squall said, and she believes it with everything she has. Nobodies are unnatural; they exist by stealing from others. They are villains.
And so she readies her shuriken, a determined frown in place as she shifts her feet in preparation. But a strange thing happens, one that leaves her off guard: he jumps with something like alarm, as if uneasy. She can't see his face as it hides in shadows under the hood, but it is easy to read him.
"Don't kill me!" he squeaks, before whirling around and dashing off. Without a thought she chases after him; it is her duty as a protector to eliminate all the Nobodies, as their existence threatens the lives of everyone else. But as she rounds a corner into the market place she catches the tail end of his coat disappearing through a portal of darkness. She stomps her foot, breath coming quick at the exercise.
"Squall, can Nobodies be scared?" she asks sometime later, the mysterious figure's unorthodox behavior having stuck in her mind.
"No Yuffie, Nobodies can't feel anything, they don't have emotions. They don't have hearts." He scowls, irritated at having to tell her again. "And stopping calling me Squall, it's Leon."
She ignores him; if they couldn't have emotions, then how did he express fear? It was plain to see, so how did he do it? There was no point in pretending, so why…? The entire situation puzzles her, refusing to leave her alone. For the first time she questions her purpose, for the first time she questions Squall.
The second time she sees him she reacts on instinct, leaping forward with her weapon poised. He jerks out of the way, trying to keep his balance. She twists, spinning close so as to strike him down, but in a flurry of bubbles he calls a large instrument to his person, deflecting her attack. He plucks the strings somewhat frantically and shoots off a couple of water spells. She dodges them with ease and so he creates a handful of clones, leaving them to deal with her as he runs off. Slicing through them quickly she looks for him, but it is too late, he's gone once more. She screams in frustration, unsure why this Nobody keeps showing up if he doesn't want to fight her, upset at not being able eradicate him. She just wants to keep the world safe; she just wants to make Squall proud.
"Squall? Would a Nobody do anything else in a world besides harvest hearts?"
"I don't think so, reconnaissance perhaps."
"Right, because they're the enemy."
"Right."
The third time she sees him she is ready, sprinting towards him before he sees her. She runs as quietly as a cat along the rooftops, determination keeping her from reacting rashly. A tile slides from under her foot, causing her to stumble and it to shatter somewhere below on the darkened street. He is already fleeing and so she pushes herself harder. She grabs a few kunai from her boot and flings them in his direction, already knowing they are flying perfectly on course. But a shield of water flares up behind him, seeming to act of its own accord as it protects its master and the knives fall to the ground harmlessly. She growls and speeds up despite the burning in her calves, slowly coming upon him.
It is on a large, flat roof that he stops, body sagging as he catches his breath. She swings her shuriken and he deflects it sloppily with his instrument, the item large and blue. As their fight goes on it is obvious that he's getting into it, his movements more sure and his elemental attacks stronger. It is as she begins to slow, quickly worn down as she is bound by the limitations of a heart and humanity, that he is tangibly glee. He creates a melody so enchanting that she is stunned for a moment, listening despite herself and the stream of water comes out of nowhere. It knocks her to the ground and also the air out of her lungs. He takes a step back, as if surprised, and it gives her time to jump back up. But she trips over her own feet in the process -her legs sluggish- and she almost tumbles off the roof, grabbing the edge just in time. He has her now, he's going to kill her, she's sure of it. She pants and glares as she hangs helplessly, watching the cloaked figure. Surprisingly though he takes another shaky step in retreat, before turning and melting into the darkness.
She lets go, as the street isn't too far below her, and fumbles her landing onto the cobblestones, but is otherwise intact.
"Leon…will a Nobody spare a life?"
"Of course not Yuffie, don't be stupid. It is their mission to steal the hearts of anyone they encounter."
The fourth time she sees him she does nothing. Just to see what happens. She stands at the mouth of the crystal fissure, and simply watches him, waiting to see what he'll do. He twitches, fingers clenching as if ready to summon his weapon, but doesn't; not yet.
They watch each other for a while longer, the Nobody slowly backing away. His foot catches on a crystal shard jutting out from the wall and falls to the ground with a cry of alarm, his hood slipping away in the process. It's uncanny how human he looks, and Yuffie has to catch herself, has to remind herself of what he is and not to help him. He doesn't look like some killer, like something lacking a heart. His eyes are a bright color not unlike the ocean and they appear so full of emotion it's terrifying. Yuffie is sure right then that if this boy had been living among them, she'd have no idea he wasn't human.
"Are you…not going to kill me?"
His question snaps her out of her thoughts and she leans forward a little, scrutinizing him. "Maybe. Aren't you supposed to be trying to take my heart?"
"I guess, but I don't exactly like fighting, way too much effort. Plus I'm looking for Sora. Oh!" he slaps a hand over his mouth, eyes wide as if startled he shared his secret mission. He jumps to his feet and races off, leaving Yuffie confused.
"Hey Leon?"
"What?"
"Never mind."
The fifth time she sees him she's curious, a little excited even. He doesn't jump when he catches sight of her this time, merely hesitates. They are both unsure, this much is evident. They are walking a very fine, dangerous line; a line where reality and fallacy begin to blur. She does not leap forward to destroy his empty shell of a body, and he does not dash forward to steal her heart.
She honestly doesn't want to kill him anymore, not now when he hasn't done anything wrong, not when he acts more human than Leon does sometimes.
'He exists, that in itself is a crime,' a voice whispers in her head, a voice that sounds strangely like Leon. He would be furious if he ever found out.
The boy waves shyly from across the bailey and with resignation she waves back, "My name's Yuffie!"
"Demyx!" he shouts.
Leon didn't have to know; after all, it wasn't like this Demyx kid was going to tell him.
"Yuffie, see anything out of the ordinary on your rounds?"
"...No."
The sixth time she sees him she is actually waiting, not that anyone else can tell. She stays out on the streets wiping out heartless long after her shift is over, eyes darting around distractedly as she watches for the shift of deep black. She does not have to wait long, as he comes tripping out of an alleyway, noticing her just as his hood falls down again. Yuffie finds herself wondering how such clear, beautiful eyes could belong to an organization member.
It seems that every time they happen to meet there is a span of empty space between them, an empty space that will not shrink. But maybe it is for the best; they are enemies.
She watches him for a moment more before casually turning on her heel and walking away, briefly glancing back to see if he will follow. He does.
She has no idea where she is leading him, no idea what she's doing flirting with disaster like this. But she can't help herself, can't help her curiosity. He is new and strange and mysterious, and at the moment he is doing nothing wrong. So she sees no harm in entertaining a bit of odd company.
"Yuffie, where have you been this afternoon?"
"Nowhere."
The seventh time she sees him she offers a smile; and he grins with amazement in return. He's actually quite friendly, this Demyx, a complete opposite of what his kind is supposed to be like. They are still far away from each other, but have managed to shorten the space until they no longer have to yell should they feel the need to converse.
Demyx tells her of his number in the ranks, shares his precious title, and makes water dance in the air for her with childish pride.
Yuffie tells him how the others and her are like a family, and how they even have the 'dog' that keeps running away any time he's allowed one foot outside the door.
Demyx tells her about how in a twisted sort of way the organization is sort of like a family too; they're all they have left now, after all.
Yuffie understands this.
"Aerith, where's Yuffie?"
"I don't know Leon, she hasn't come back yet."
The eighth time she sees him is by appointment. They passed the point of no return long ago, that dangerous point where they can no longer deny the rules they are breaking. But she can't help it; there is a strange emotion building inside her.
They don't talk about the darkness; the strange force from which he sprung, the very same force that scares her so badly that sometimes she shakes uncontrollably.
Yuffie giggles as she tells him what her family was like before, what their life once was.
Demyx is unable to tell her what his past life was like.
They don't talk about their purposes, about what the natural order dictates they should be doing at this very moment.
She tells him what it's like to feel, and he tells her what it's like not being able to.
They are close enough to touch now, if either of them willed it. But neither takes that terrifying step. Yuffie searches those bright eyes for humanity, her mind placated with the heady smell rolling off him, the smell that embodies the ocean she's never seen. Demyx watches the color in her skin, the veins pulsing with life in her hands, his own twitching with the want to reach out and feel the real warmth he's never experienced.
"Aerith, have you seen Yuffie around today?"
"Yes I have, Leon."
"What's she doing then? She has work to do."
"…I don't know…"
The ninth time she sees him is only after she goes looking. He hadn't shown up like promised and so she goes poking around stealthily, trying her hardest not to look like she is searching. She hears a commotion nearby and forgets Demyx for a moment as she scampers to check it out, ready to lend her aid if needed.
The ninth time she sees him is as he is dying. It seems he has found Sora, as it is he who is mercilessly fighting with him. She watches in the shadows with something like sick horror, knowing she should not be worried for the enemy like she is. But she can't help how her eyes water and her lungs constrict, the way her heart breaks as Sora deals the finishing blow. She is just glad she hadn't said anything, hadn't impulsively jumped out to stop him, as that would only give her treachery away.
Demyx screams with fabricated anguish and she has to turn around, she can't bear to look as she hunkers down and covers her ears. She doesn't want to see him disappear. She tries her hardest not to cry, she has no reason to cry for a monster, she has no right to cry for the enemy. It's just not fair! It's not fair that he had to be the way he is, that he was reborn without a heart. He had no choice!
The ninth time she sees him is his last, and despite everything she cherishes that, knowing that the one person in his entire existence that cared was at least there. And then she wonders: was it really love when the other couldn't love back?
Maybe she's just being silly and stupid. Squall would surely say that she was corrupted by the presence of darkness, that she was tricked and manipulated by a heartless beast. Squall would say that the Nobody had cast a spell on her.
Perhaps he would be right in that respect.