»RECYCLED AIR♪
☆··—
Avoiding death-by-fast-moving-taxicabs, Yuffie quickly jumped back onto the sidewalk. She ignored feeling the shame of idiocy as she slumped down onto a blue bench and began lightly tapping her fingers against the lid of her paper cup. Like many other human beings, Yuffie found herself deep in addiction to what we call "Caffeine," and today's morning fix was found at the corner gas station for the skyrocketing price of a dollar and fifty cents. To her right, sat a man who had fallen asleep waiting for the bus. Not that what he was doing could hardly be considered sitting anyway; his limp body was nearly sliding off the seat and his head was leaning far off to the side.
Yuffie continued tapping on her lid rhythmically to no tune at all, scanning the area, wondering if it would rain again today. There was an overcast, which was made up of cloud and pollution –mostly pollution–, but even the slightest amount of rain would absolutely ruin her day. Granted, she did enjoy a little drizzling here and there, but bad weather did not mix well with job hunting. She leaned back in her seat slightly, and hugged her jacket closer to her body. A cold breeze was picking up and she wished she had put a beanie on that morning. Wind was at the top of her list of many dislikes.
Remembering she had also picked up a pack of cigarettes at the gas station, she glanced over at the unmoving man on the other end of the bench and frowned. Unlike a lot of smokers, Yuffie felt guilt for smoking in the presence of nonsmokers –even if they were complete strangers and fast asleep. Waking the guy up just to ask if he minded, though, seemed out of the question.
Her frowning continued as she discarded the thought of pulling the pack out. She didn't even know why she bought them. Well, besides the obvious factor that was her dependence on them, she knew now was not the time to be spending money on cigarettes. Yuffie would be a lot less broke now if she didn't waste so much money killing her lungs. Being broke meant stress, however; and stress meant needing cigarettes; and needing cigarettes to ease the stress meant being more broke; which in turn only created more stress but also ups the need for smoking…and the cycle never ends.
"…You there? Or am I talking to myself?"
Yuffie blinked, looking up at the girl who was now staring down at her, "What?"
She tucked a few strands of blonde hair behind her left ear and repeated herself, "I was asking if you knew when the last bus came by."
"Oh…" Yuffie looked down at her coffee and then back up at the skinny girl, "I just got here a few minutes ago… but it shouldn't be too long before it gets here.."
"Oh alright. Thanks."
The girl took a seat in between Yuffie and the sleeping man. Yuffie began to wonder if the guy was even sleeping. He looked like a snore-er, but he wasn't making a sound. After a few seconds of wild speculation, she decided she was best off not knowing.
"I was going to take the subway, but I always found it kind of creepy down there."
Thrown off a bit by the fact that this random girl was striking up a conversation with her at the bus stop this early in the morning, Yuffie only blinked a few several times before responding.
"I wouldn't know. I avoid underground transportation."
"Oh I see. Claustrophobic?" Nameless girl pressed on.
Now Yuffie was all for chatting up strangers, but it was seven in the morning; she was quite literally freezing her ass off because the bench was so cold; and she hadn't even finished her coffee yet. Not to mention she didn't get much sleep last night after Kairi told her about the damn iguana, but Yuffie wasn't going to snub anyone that actually wasn't being a total prick. Running into decent people in this town was a pretty rare thing.
"I wouldn't think so. If anything I'm the opposite."
The girl clasped her hands together in her lap and smiled, "Interesting."
Yuffie arched a brow, "How so?"
"Why do you live in such a big city if you enjoy being in confined places?"
Giving the girl a sideway stare, Yuffie answered honestly, "…It makes me feel small."
"I take it, you don't like attention?"
"You ask a lot of questions." Yuffie squinted, and leaned back, bringing her cup to her mouth.
"I enjoy conversation." The girl simply stated with a shrug. "So, are you gay?"
This completely caught her off guard. Yuffie snorted, almost spilling her drink, "Are you hitting on me?"
She shook her head, "I was just asking because it's a popular fad and you never can tell whose gay and whose not these days."
'Does it matter?' would have been a question to fire back at her, but Yuffie realized this total stranger was stereotyping her and calling her love for women an in-thing.
"…Do I look trendy to you?"
After a quick observation, she replied, "…Good point. So you like coffee?"
Yuffie stared blankly at her for a few moments. Unbelievable probably would have been a suitable word to describe this stranger. Another word would be surprising. The things that came out of her mouth were never expected and could have been easily taken in insulting ways, but Yuffie found them more amusing than offensive.
"You know, if I didn't think you were totally insane, I'd ask you to go out with me sometime."
"I told you, I don't date girls."
She paused before deciding the girl wasn't too big of a creep to introduce herself to, "…My name's Yuffie."
The blonde girl smiled, "Hello, Yuffie. I'm Rikku."
☆··—
It only took about a day, but the fact that that she was no better than those old guys sleeping next to shopping carts out there on the streets and alleyways – save for the beards – slowly sunk in as Yuffie found herself sitting outside Sora's apartment door. She'd been waiting for a little over an hour now and was regretting turning down the extra house key. Much to Yuffie's dismay, the large polluted cloud that hung over the city decided it wasn't done leaking sewer water on the little people below yet, and brought her hunt to an early end. Not to mention her now damp hair was exactly what she needed to top the whole "I'm homeless" look.
She had to find out where she would go to next. Her dad always had a saying about guests: "Guests are like fish. After two days they start to stink."
As incredibly lame as that sounded, it was more than often true. And Yuffie did not want to overstay her welcome. After remembering more things the old geezer used to say, she remembered why they were no longer on speaking terms. Yuffie leaned her head back against the wall and gazed up at the ceiling. She wasn't sure what irritated her more; the fact that most the negative things he said were true, or the fact that she never made the effort to prove him wrong.
Footsteps, along with two voices, could be heard coming from the stairwell and Yuffie could only glance in the direction. She gave up standing up at the sign of people approaching because she'd done it too many times now and was disappointed to find it was never Sora or Kairi. Life hated Yuffie, though, so this time, as she remained on the checkered linoleum hallway floor like the lost puppy she was, one of the persons turned out to actually be the red-headed temporary host of hers.
"Yuffie." Kairi proceeded over to where the older girl sat, the blonde boy accompanying her followed behind. "How long have you been out here?"
A quick look at her watch told her: one hour and thirty-seven minutes.
Yuffie rose to her feet, "Not long."
"Oh, I'm sorry I couldn't be home sooner."
"No don't be. I wasn't supposed to be back in this early..."
Kairi shifted the messenger bag over her shoulder uncomfortably, "Ah—Sorry. Yuffie, this is my friend Roxas. Roxas, this is Yuffie."
"Hi," he greeted her and shook her hand in a way Yuffie could only describe as 'kiss-ass-ish'.
Like he obviously had no interest in meeting her or who she was at all but was more than willing to act like he did because for all he knew Yuffie could have been a really good chum of Kairi's and to better his chance of getting in her pants he had to kiss up to Yuffie, or anyone else Kairi introduced him to.
Yuffie only half-smiled and shook his hand correspondingly.
"Well I guess I should get going."
"Thanks for helping me carry my books up."
"Oh no, it was my pleasure." He leaned in and gave Kairi a friendly hug before heading back towards the stairs. "I'll see you around. It was nice meeting you Yuffie."
Yuffie smiled and nodded wordlessly and wondered how she got to become such a fake. It wasn't like she said 'Oh my gosh, it was nice meeting you too,' or anything, but she wasn't saying, 'Yeah, you too, pal. Sorry I just cock-blocked you by accident.' Nobody walked a girl up seven frickin' floors just to get a petty hug and be off on his way.
Inside, Yuffie dragged her feet as she sauntered towards the couch; removing her jacket and scarf. Kairi had gone to her room and Yuffie figured that'd be the last that she would see of her for the night. She had to remember she was staying in this house for the time being only because Sora had a bizarre heart of gold and Kairi didn't have to be friends with her, much less talk to her.
Not only that, but she sensed awkwardness between the two of them. Like the kid was afraid of her or something. Was Yuffie intimidating? Well all right. Maybe she was a little… but she couldn't help it if she was.
Yuffie ran a hand through her hair, which was nearly dry now and began rummaging through her black garbage bag of belongings.
She didn't mean to scare Sora's little lover, though. Kairi was kind of cute…and to be honest, when she was obviously uncomfortable, she looked even cuter. Yuffie felt like a creep for declaring that in her head. Pulling out a clean shirt, she started unbuttoning the dampened one she had on. She needed a dry shirt. She needed an alcoholic beverage above all things, but settling on the only thing in reach, she decided a clean shirt was the best way to go.
"Hey Yuffie, I was thinking about—Oh…um I'm sorry."
Only glancing over her shoulder slightly, Yuffie laughed, "Uh…It's ok?" She pulled the plain t-shirt over her head and could not help but laugh again. Kairi had her hand shielding her eyes and stood uncomfortably facing the wall. Someone obviously missed out on public school locker rooms.
Yuffie walked past her, into the kitchen saying, "You know, I don't understand why women get embarrassed being seen in their underwear. Most of them show off more in bikinis when they go swimming anyway."
Kairi blinked momentarily, wary of removing her hand from her face. She hadn't really thought of that before, but it made sense. …Kind of. "Still, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to walk in on you—"
"Kairi." Yuffie interrupted.
"Yes?"
"Is it ok if I grab a soda out of the fridge?"
"Oh! Yeah…go for it. I was actually coming out here to ask if you wanted coffee; I was going to make some…"
"I've already had a good amount of coffee for the day."
Kairi clasped her hands together and twiddled her thumbs, still standing in the same spot. Yuffie watched her, in all her awkwardness, and began wondering if she was really that unapproachable or if Kairi was just naturally this weird around people she didn't know very well.
"You know, it's really unfair." Yuffie hopped up onto the counter.
Kairi quirked up an eyebrow, "What is?"
"You've seen me in my underwear twice now and I haven't seen you."
"Huh?!"
"Well the other night I was in boxers. I do believe that counts."
"But—I didn't mean to, and I figured they were just shorts. …I'm—"
Realizing the poor girl hadn't the slightest clue what a joke was, Yuffie decided to end the torment. "I'm kidding."
She didn't understand why it was so fun embarrassing Kairi this way. Kairi sighed, before nearly jumping out of her skin at the sound of Sora opening the front door. Yuffie smiled, taking a swig of her soda.
"Hey. What are you two doing?" The brunette entered the house with a pizza box in hand.
"I just caught Kairi peeping in on me while I was changing."
Sora arched his brow before deadpanning a "Ha-ha" and shut the door behind himself, "That's a bit hard to believe."
"It's true. Tell him what color my bra was, Kairi."
The redhead scratched her head and laughed nervously, "I'd…much rather not." Clearing her throat she decided to steer the conversation towards a different subject, "What's that?"
Locking the door and turning around with a now very much confused face on, Sora replied, "Ah, I had dinner with a friend so I thought I'd grab a pizza for you guys."
"Well that was nice of you." Kairi smiled, as he handed her the box.
"Actually, Yuffie," He turned towards the ebony-haired girl sitting on the counter top, "The friend I had dinner with was Riku. I ran into him on my way back from work and he invited me to grab something to eat. …He was asking if I'd heard from you."
"Holy… You two still keep in contact?"
It was a surprise they still talked. If they were still hanging out with each other to this day, Yuffie was going to be pretty pissed to hear they never included her.
"Well, yeah. We talk here and there…but you know our circle of friends pretty much split up after high school."
Take Sora and Yuffie, for instance.
Yuffie grimaced, "True."
"Anyway, he was worried the other night when you took off. He says he didn't mean to piss you off…"
"Yeah, well he shouldn't have been lecturing me like I was some dumb kid." Yuffie muttered, twisting the pull-tab on her soda can.
"Maybe you should call him?"
Poor Sora. Always being turned into the messenger boy because Yuffie and Riku were too immature to actually talk things through. Actually Riku probably would have done it but Yuffie preferred to shun him whenever they had a falling out and the only way to get a message across was through Sora. No one could ever be mad at him.
With a final wind, the pull-tab snapped off the can and Yuffie gazed down at it. "I'll stop by to see him tomorrow…"
☆··—
Sitting in the car with Sora the next day, as they drove towards Riku's apartment on the other side of town, had been a bit…well; Yuffie could only call it unanticipated. For one, she had assumed she'd be taking some form of public transportation there. She also didn't expect Sora to say what he did, when they pulled into the parking lot.
"…I didn't suggest that you see Riku today because I'm hoping you two will make up and you'll leave to stay with him."
Yuffie stared at him, a bit taken aback.
"I'm pretty sure that's what you were thinking, and I want you to know that wasn't the case at all. He just worries about you and I don't want you two mad at each other."
Yuffie adverted her gaze out the windshield, surveying the familiar parking lot. Sora's constant need to please everyone was irritating sometimes because he had a tendency of going above and beyond. Case in point:
"What do you think about moving in with me and Kairi?"
☆··—
»No, I'm not planning any Yuffie x Rikku.
I'm just as surprised as you probably are that I continued the story. I was looking at my hair because I'd just recently got it cut real short—Yes, I know, talk about stereotypical lesbian—and for some strange reason or another, that reminded me I had a story I hadn't looked at since April. Moreover, I apologize for the Slow-moving story. I'm a tad rustier than I thought.
On another note: Does anyone have any suggestions on writing music? I like listening to music when I work and…I've pretty much grown tired of everything in my iPod.
Big thanks to Tyler (Star of Sorrow) for proof reading this chapter for me. Poor Echo's computer is down right now.
