This is my first fan fiction ever! Yippee! Anyway, please enjoy! It's set after KH2. It would work during the story, too, I think. Sorry if anyone's a little out of character. Oh, I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts 2. Well I own the games… I just don't own the rights to them.
The heartless kept coming. The sunny Hollow Bastion Streets stained to black with their numbers. Yuffie and Squall were back to back casting spells, swinging weapons, blocking attacks, and looking out for each other. The others were in a different section of the city, probably having just as difficult a time. For every one of the swarming black creatures they killed, another took its place. Cursing replaced encouragement and panting took the place of battle cries.
Yuffie's limitless energy supply was running near empty, and she seriously doubted how much longer they could hold out. Well, she doubted how long she could hold out. Squall seemed relatively unaffected by the swarms, fighting with just as much ferocity as he had started with. She, however, was becoming slower, her movements growing sloppy. As a result, she was taking more damage.
"Hey Squall, how much longer do ya think we can hold out?" Yuffie yelled over the clamor of steel smashing through armor and heartless. She may have been tired, but it would take more than that to make the ninja give up. His response wasn't exactly comforting.
"Until Sora gets here," Squall gave the expected and previously stated response. He hadn't even needed to yell. Hell, he hadn't even needed to say it since she'd heard it so much already. That was about the tenth time in the last half hour that the ninja had asked. Strangely, though, he hadn't seemed as annoyed with her questions as she would have thought.
"Maybe he doesn't know, either," Yuffie reasoned. "Figures the jerk wouldn't admit it…"
"Leon," Yuffie's stoic companion muttered.
"What?" the ninja blurted confusedly. Was he beginning to get tired, too? Yuffie couldn't recall a time when Squall was actually tired in battle. Minus the ones with Sora, he'd never been significantly, anyways. 'Is he delirious?' Yuffie thought to herself. She had a habit of jumping to conclusions.
"You called me Squall. The name's Leon," Squall retorted. He was concentrated on his opponents and didn't seem to actually be paying any attention to her at all.
"Nope, nothing's wrong with him," Yuffie muttered to herself. "Tell you what," Yuffie started louder," If we survive this, I'll never call you Squall again." That seemed to get his attention. It startled him, really, or as much a Squall could be startled. In reality, he just twitched slightly. Eyeing her over his shoulder, he responded.
"Don't make a promise you won't keep," the leather-clad warrior muttered, strangely serious. He turned back in time to catch a blow to the face and grunted loudly. Yuffie openly laughed and killed the offending heartless before her partner managed to. He shot her a distinctly disgruntled look as she burst out laughing again. Her laughter subsided when she remembered what he'd said. "Was he implying that I don't keep promises?" She thought angrily.
"Yuffies don't break their promises!" She snapped without thinking. She regretted it a moment later at the look on his face. He looked angry, furious even. Becoming uncomfortable, Yuffie concentrated on killing heartless. Trying to get on a more positive note, the ninja added," Fine, I promise you that if we get out of this, I'll never call you Squall, Squallie, or any of the variations I may have offended you with again. Got that?" So it wasn't exactly respectful. That permanent stick up his ass didn't give her much of a reason to be.
Once again he responded seriously," I'll hold you to it." His answer sounded almost cryptic. Yuffie had no time to think to think about whatever he was brooding over at the moment since the hordes of heartless seemed to double, effectively taking her mind off the subject.
A particularly fierce blow to her side left her doubting whether she'd be able to keep her promise. Blood seeped through the green tank top the ninja had taken to wearing. At her small cry, Squall quickly disposed of the heartless in front of her, scanning her for injuries. Yuffie kept her injury out of his gaze and gave him a questioning look. His eyebrow rose slightly before he took to his side again and they resumed their fight. After a few more minutes, Yuffie's gaze started to spin lightly.
Luckily, their friends appeared from around the corner of the Marketplace and joined in the fight. Aerith stayed out of harm's way casting cures, while Cid took up his spear at the heartless. Merlin fried and froze the masses while Cloud smashed and hacked them to bits. Yuffie and Squall split up and continued to fight until every last heartless was gone. By the end of it, all of them were exhausted and more than a little confused. Not only had the defense program not activated, but the attack itself was purely out of the blue.
The group assembled in Merlin's house, immediately delving into possibilities. By that time, however, Yuffie's wound was bleeding a bit more profusely and all she wanted was to get back to her room where she could treat it. None of the others had been injured, and though tired, were otherwise fine. Yuffie really didn't want to be the only one hurt and get lectured on how she should have been more careful when she could just as easily take care of the thing herself. When she tried to sneak away, however, Squall followed her out the door. Considering that all she had on to conceal her injury was a green tank top, Yuffie had no idea how it continued to go unnoticed. It irritated her on some level. It could have been all the grime from their fight, but Yuffie still felt somewhat neglected.
"Yuffie, we still don't know what happened. You're not the only one of us who's tired. You need to get back in so we can go over the data that was collected," Squall lectured impassively. Yuffie got the distinct impression that he'd rather be resting, too, but was obligated to stick around. In pain, however, Yuffie didn't exactly feel the need to get obligated into anything.
"You guys don't listen to me much anyways. Why do I have to stick around? I've got to make sure nothing happened to… to the ducks! Really, Sq-Leon-,"Yuffie cut herself off, having almost broken her promise minutes after making it. She left him at the door, heading towards the hotel they stayed at during the renovation.
Feeling quite weak at that point, Yuffie barely heard him warn her," Don't forget. I'm still holding you to it." Vision swimming, Yuffie cursed herself for trying to avoid his lectures in the first place.
"They're really unavoidable…" She thought snidely before audibly responding. "You might not have to," She murmured, trying to be as cryptic as he always seemed to be. Her quip turned out to be a bad move on Yuffie's part when a confused Squall cut her off at the doorway to the cheap hotel, intent on dissecting the reasoning behind Yuffie's change in attitude.
"Which means what? What the hell are you on about?" The gun blade wielder snapped. His gaze was trained on her and he seemed to notice her inability to concentrate. "Yuffie?" Was all he managed before she collapsed on him, knocking him into a wall as he grabbed her arm to pull her away from him. "What's wrong?" Squall cursed as he finally looked past the grime on her body to the wound on her side. He wondered absently when that had happened. "Yuffie, what's wrong?"
He pushed up her shirt lightly, peeling it from her side. Hissing softly, he tore at her long socks, pulling them from her legs and bunching them up only to hold them tightly to her side. With his other arm he supported her weight, dragging her somewhat up the stairs and into the room he shared with her.
After Traverse Town, all hope of getting Yuffie to share a room with Aerith died when the pink loving healer convinced Cloud to move in with her. No one felt like getting another room and, being a minor to some degree, Yuffie couldn't rent one herself. Over all, it was just the most convenient set up and no one particularly bothered themselves thinking about it.
Squall hefted Yuffie onto her bed propping her up as he reached for the medical kit in their shared night stand. He figured that a Mega-Potion would fix most of it, and he could just bandage what was left. Pouring a little of the mixture onto her wound, he lifted the bottle to her lips and poured the liquid down her throat. Yuffie coughed and hacked a bit, but her wounds almost immediately healed. All that remained was a shallow but jagged cut that he had no trouble cleaning and bandaging. By the time he had her cleaned up and in a night shirt, indigo eyes opened blearily.
"Leon?" Yuffie asked groggily. Leon almost cringed at how his adopted name sounded from her. It really just didn't sound right. "Leon, what the hell?" She tried again, saying his name easily. It still sounded foreign to him. She sat up, groaning slightly. All it took was one hand on her shoulder to push her back down.
"Why does it sound wrong?" he wondered to himself. All she was doing was saying his name. It was probably because she never had before. "Whatever," Squall said to himself, going on to answer her. "Why the hell did you not tell Aerith you were hurt?" He asked quietly, eyes boring into hers. She seemed to be looking for the right words. Strange, Yuffie had never been particularly tactful in the past.
After a prolonged pause, she replied," I didn't feel like a lecture. I thought that I'd just fix it up myself. It'd be easier, you know Leon?" Her eyes avoided his, but he had a feeling she wasn't lying.
"Collapsing on me after abandoning a meeting is hardly what I'd call easier," Squall returned. She'd said his name again. For the third time since she'd woken up, Yuffie had called him Leon. The feeling of wrong returned. The ninja looked down at his accusing glare.
"I would have made it if you hadn't made such a big deal about the stupid meeting," she grumbled. He cut her off before she could say anything more.
"If I hadn't followed you, you would have bled to death," the gun blade wielder snapped harshly. He stood and walked briskly to the door, stopping at the sound of Yuffie's voice.
"Sorry…" She hadn't grumbled or apologized sarcastically. She actually sounded sorry. It was such a change. Squall turned just enough to fix her with his penetrating eyes. There was something about a sad Yuffie that bothered him. She was looking down again. Yuffie never did that. But then again, she never called him Leon either. "Leon, I'm really-"
"It's Squall," he finally muttered, cutting her off. "My name's Squall." A smile lit up her face as she chuckled at him.
"I knew you'd get sick of that, Squallie," Yuffie grinned. "So, am I free of that promise? You know, it's bad to break promises," She teased lightly. A grin tugged at his lips. Her eyes grew huge.
"Promise me that you'll never call me Leon again," he said seriously, resisting the urge to smile at her dropped jaw. After a small silence, he ordered again," Promise me."
Eyes still huge, the ninja answered," I promise I'll never call you Leon again. You'll regret that, Squallie. Maybe Squallie-wallie? I promise!" She started to giggle evilly at the prospects of future torment, catching another grin on his face as he walked back toward the bed. He bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips.
"I'll hold you to it."
It's done! That was my very first. I hope you liked it. Please Review. Thank you.