Author's Notes: In an impulse attempt to find Kairi x Leon/Squall fiction, I found disappointment in only two good, non-AU stories, one wasn't even Kairi x Leon, more Kairi x Sora, and the other was only hinted.

Now this brings tears to my eyes, of course, being the reverse-pedophile that I am.

Any who, I am writing this fiction because it's inspired by a dear friend, which is why it's not Yuffie x Leon because I have been converted.

And sorry for the stream-of-consciousness going on in the story, I'm reading The Catcher In The Rye, and Holden has effected my brain.

Hope you enjoy, and don't read if you don't like.

Hey, Mister!

You'd think, for a town the size of a planet there would be more to do around the place… But there isn't.

The town was big, of course, but half the place was infested with heartless all the time! What a hassle when you wanted to go adventure around and have fun. Of course, Yuffie was being a good sport about sneaking out of the house and into dangerous places, which, half the time, were the most fun to be in. But our antics drove Leon and Aerith up the walls; you should see them when they're riled up! Leon clutches the bridge connecting his forehead to his nose, and Aerith gives us a great big talking to.

Of course, Leon just sighs half the time and tells us to be more careful, and that Sora wouldn't like it, and even though Aerith gives us a talking to she always serves us tea afterwards, so they're not big punishments. This is probably why we keep sneaking out anyway.

Even though Princess' of Hearts should stay indoors where it's safer - although I technically don't see the reason why it's much safer there - I tend to run towards danger more than stay out of its way. Guess that's why Yuffie and I are such great pals!

Although we don't always mess around, we do tend to do girly stuff too! We hang out with Aerith almost as much as we sneak out, so there's always a fair amount of communication going around.

But it's still pretty boring. A girl doesn't really have many options when she's feeling adventurous in such a heartless infested town.

I wish I had a weapon, that way I'd be able to fend off the heartless too! I could go out adventuring way more than I do now if I did!

I wonder why I don't have one anyway.

There was an almost magical quality about the secret waterway to Kairi. The way there was a "secret" in the front of the name. Of course, this meant that everyone knew about it, unfortunately, but usually they left it alone when someone was already inside, to make it at least seem like it was secret.

This was a great place, especially if you felt like fooling around where nobody could see you.

It wasn't a secret, but that didn't mean everyone was inside it all the time. Almost always it'd be empty because of all the heartless you have to go through to even GET to the place. Kairi barely managed to get in! She asked Yuffie if she could provide a distraction for the heartless, and she agreed. She said she needed to increase her 'super ninja abilities' anyways-

"What are you doing?"

Kairi was in such an intense concentration, she had barely noticed Leon entered the cave. He could have been there ever since she arrived, however, but she felt enough confidence in herself to believe she would have seen him had that been the case.

"Oh, heh heh, hey mister! How's it going?" Kairi chirped nervously, grinning and hiding the stick she had been playing with behind her back, hopefully out of Leon's sight.

This only made Leon quirk his eyebrows at her. He gave her the "You didn't answer my question" look that he always gave her and Yuffie when they snuck back inside their house. Hard to avoid someone in such a small house anyways, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth a shot. Besides, they technically only stayed there for the day; they managed to have more than a one-roomed house, after all. It was pretty much only a meeting place. The inn that they told her that they'd taken Sora to the first time he had come to Traverse Town was where they usually stayed. Kairi slept in the same room as Yuffie so she could 'protect' her, which usually meant she'd mess around with her and help her sneak out when the other two weren't looking.

So technically they snuck into their own room, but Leon or Aerith were always waiting. Sometimes, if they were extremely unlucky, it was Cid who was waiting for them. Boy could Cid get angry. He was always picking a fight with Yuffie, but when he had a real reason for it, he got real sour.

Anyways, this wasn't about their rooming or Cid, it was about how Leon was looking at Kairi. Quirked eyebrows and everything. He sure had a lot of facial expressions.

"Huh? I asked how's it going mister," Kairi repeated, looking up at Leon, with an unusually happy voice. She then furrowed her eyebrows at how Leon kept eyeing her. She hated it when he did that, looked all superior.

"What'd you hide behind there missy?" Leon asked, moving his head to the left to attempt to see behind her. She instinctively moved to the right to hide whatever she was trying to keep him from seeing. Leon made a movement to the right, so she made a movement to the left. An unending cycle of opposite movement.

Kairi giggled a little as Leon circled her, trying to find out what she was hiding. She felt pretty confident he hadn't seen it yet, so she kept on avoiding him.

"Hey mister, why don't you quit? You'll never get to see what's behind me!" she laughed, edging away from his recent attempt. She was slightly breathless, but only because she had been keeping herself from laughing, which was not a good combination when you were trying to keep your distance from a guy with legs almost as big as you were.

Leon stopped and smirked at her, crossing his arms with a knowing look on his face. Kairi froze and her smile dropped, a confused expression on her face.

"Hey, I didn't mean it mister! This was fun," Kairi pouted, a bit disappointed that he actually listened, but the look he had on his face made her think that maybe he had already won the game. Wait, when'd that happen?

"Hey missy, why are you hiding that stick anyways? Do you have something you want to ask us?" Leon looked down at her, a questioning look on his face. This guy really did have a lot of expressions. A lot of people thought he only had one, but that was his serious face, the one he got when he talked to new people. When he lightened up around you, he had a lot of expressions.

"What? I'm not hiding that mister! Hey mister, what makes you think that?" Kairi babbled, looking up at him nervously, a cheeky grin on her face to try and avoid the answer he wanted. He'll never get it outta me! Never!

"I saw it when I first came in, you were swinging it around, like you were fighting something," Leon stated bluntly, his questioning look never leaving. He really was curious, it seemed. But Kairi would not let up.

"Yeah, what of it? Hey mister, you never did answer how you were doing," Kairi tried to change the subject, but it seemed Leon was glued. She never was good at changing the subject. Riku and Sora usually laughed when she tried to change the subject, because she was no good, no good at all. They'd be talking about star fish and she'd change it to the drawings on the rocks all of a sudden, or the mushrooms growing in the tree house. They got a real kick out of it.

"You want to learn how to fight? You could have asked if you wanted to, you know," Leon said, his questioning look melting into one of mild amusement. Kairi didn't find that fun at all, so she glared at him. She didn't like people being amused by something she was trying to hide, not at all. Why did they think she was trying to hide it?

"Hey mister, what makes you think I want to fight? I could of just been swinging it around, y'know!" Kairi pouted, taking the stick from behind her and glaring at it. Why'd I have to go swinging it around in the first place? Why I gotta always do stuff like this?

"It's not a bad thing to want to learn how to fight! In fact, that's a good, no, great thing!" Leon gasped, trying to make amends. He noticed Kairi's sudden lack of enjoyment, and sudden mood change. Kairi sniffed a bit, and turned her back on him.

"Y'know, I was never a good fighter… Sora and Riku fought all the time, with their little wooden swords… I'd always want to fight too, but they said I couldn't because I wasn't a good fighter," Kairi threw the stick as far as she could in the water. Towards the shallow end, because the moon drawing was in that direction, so at least she had something pretty to look at while she did it. "Y'know, I don't know if they were right or not, but they probably are now. I'm too young to suddenly become a good fighter now…"

Kairi felt horrible. She was just playing, and then Leon had to go and ruin it. Way to go, mister.

"Hey! I'm not saying you're a bad fighter, I'm just saying it's good to want to learn. You can fight all you want, but that doesn't make you a good one! Hey missy, how about I give you a private little lesson? Would that cheer you up?" he asked, putting a hand on Kairi's shoulder, but she shrugged it off, turning away from him and pouting in a different direction. The wall was dark and you couldn't see anything in that direction though, so now she wasn't distracted.

"C'mon, I mean it! We can get Yuffie too, would you like that?" He kept trying to persuade her, because it really was a good idea to learn how to defend yourself, with so many heartless around, and half of them trying to take her heart in particular.

"No, I wouldn't," Kairi suddenly said, rubbing her eyes a bit. Leon panicked and looked around, as if something – anything at this point – would save him from having to deal with a little kid crying. But he was saved from having to do anything by Kairi turning around suddenly and smiling as brightly as if the whole conversation had never happened.

"Hey mister, was that a proposition to teach me to fight there? Hey mister, we don't have to invite Yuffie, this is a secret cave y'know! We can totally do it alone, so you don't have to go through the," Kairi giggled in the middle of her sentence, "humiliation of Cid and Yuffie finding out. They'd get a real kick out of it, y'know mister?"

Leon stared for a few seconds before shrugging his shoulders and sighing. He clutched the bridge of his nose again, a pained expression on his face.

"Y'know missy, you really are something. You really shouldn't do that, you could just ask."

"Yeah, but making a scene is way more worth it. Besides, I got a real kick out of it, getting you all panicky."

"That's not nice missy, I might have a heart attack."

"Yikes, maybe I shouldn't call you mister anymore, you're starting to think you're old now."

"No, don't, if you stop, I'll have to stop calling you missy, and you're not old enough for me to stop saying that."

"Hey! That's not nice at all!"

"Ouch! But it's true! Hey! How'd you suddenly get the stick back?"