Author's note: hey people! thanks for those who read this and for those who reviewed! gives cookies so, this is chapter two, it's not filled with intense action or anything, action is still a bit later.. well enjoy:D
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Chapter 2!"Ok, so, 'Girl talk' turned out to be pretty… lame." Ashley muttered as she entered the green room, Leon, who lay on the bed on his back, looked up at her as soon as she entered.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, since when is 'I like apples! No, I like candy more!' a girl talk subject?" she questioned. He shrugged and continued inspecting the ceiling. "You don't talk much do you?"
"Guess not." He muttered.
The door suddenly burst open and Yuffie pranced into the room, she walked towards the bed and picked up the sheets and the pillow, then walked out. Both Leon and Ashley shared a look of confusion, or in Ashley's case a what-da-'ell look. Yuffie walked in again and threw a substitute of what she had taken and glanced towards the wardrobe.
"What're you doing?" asked Ashley.
"I'm moving my things, silly." she headed towards her target quickly.
"oh no you don't!" Leon sprinted towards the wardrobe and stood between it and Yuffie.
"I'm taking my things!"
"No, you're gonna try and take one of my belts and my jackets, I saw you eyeing them." Leon muttered.
"whaa? I did no such thing!"
"Not at all! I didn't catch you trying to take one a few weeks ago. You? Never!" he said sarcastically, and folded his arms across his chest.
"I wasn't going to take one!" Yuffie said stubbornly.
"Sure you weren't…"
"Yuffie, just take your things and go…" Ashley said exasperatedly.
"Fine…" Yuffie sighed angrily; as Leon stepped aside his arms folded across his chest and leaned on his side of the wardrobe.
"Done yet?" he questioned monotonously.
Yuffie didn't answer him and walked out of the room muttering under her breath.
"Night…" Ash called after her and got no reply in return. "Goodie…" she stated sarcastically. Leon shrugged his shoulders and jumped back into bed, and gave her his back. "'Night Leon!"
"Yeah, 'night."
She too jumped into bed and lay down to sleep, but sleep never came, all she did was twist and turn in her bed, her thoughts were clouded with images of her family and friends, eventually she did cry but she made no sound, and once she had no more tears to cry, sleep overcame her, and one last thought echoed in her brain.
Keep it together… no more crying… they'd never want you to cry for them… and crying is weakness and you know it… stop your damn crying and LIVE WITH IT! Life goes on…
Never forget them!
Sunlight peeped through the windows, hitting her eyes and making her wake up fully, her internal clock had woken her up just before the sun rise, but she was too mentally and physically tired to wake up to see it.
She propped herself up on her elbows, and looked around the room, Leon had apparently woken up but his jacket was thrown on his bed and his sword was still in his half opened case. She stood up and prepared for a morning walk and breakfast.
She walked out of the room and into the red room to see both Aerith and Yuffie still fast asleep, she walked into the blue room to see no one.
"Hey. I was about to wake you up." Said Leon, she spotted him in the hallway walking towards their room; Ashley gave him a smile and a nod.
"Internal alarm clock, it's very useful." She said as he nodded to her.
"Is anyone else awake?"
"No, I don't think so, both Aerith and Yuffie are asleep, I haven't seen Cid anywhere." She answered as she watched him pull on his leather jacket. "Are you up for a walk around town?"
His movements stopped momentarily, and soon nodded and resumed checking his gunblade.
"Is it hard?" she asked, he looked up at her confused, "to use a gunblade, is it hard?"
"At first yeah it is, but when you get used to it, it becomes a part of who you are." He said philosophically, she nodded and followed him outside the Hotel.
A dog barked as they walked around town, Leon turned towards the source of the sound as it got louder and was accompanied by loud foot steps, two white black-spotted dogs -Dalmatians to be exact. They approached Leon and one of them weaved its way around his legs and looked up at Leon and barked. Leon bent down and petted the dog and soon picked it up.
"Hey Lucky, why are you out here?" he muttered, half to himself and half to the dog in his arms, "Sora worked hard to get you all back to your parents."
It was Ashley's turn to be slowly tricked into picking up the other.
"That's Dipstick and this is Lucky." Leon introduced, "these guys got separated when their world vanished."
"Poor guys." she said as she looked down at them, Leon headed towards the Alleyway, and walked into a big blue double door.
"this is where they're kept, Pongo and Perdita, the parents, take care of them most of the time then either me or Aerith pass by to check up on them." Leon said, he walked around the place introducing her to Pongo and Perdita and the rest of the dogs he knew.
They sat there for a while as they petted and played with the dogs, soon enough Leon stood up and announced that they should et going before 'Aerith panics and goes on a rampage' as Leon so kindly advised.
"Where've you been?" asked Aerith eagerly as they entered.
"Walking around town, Ashley met the Dalmatians." Said Leon quietly, and he leaned on the wall near the door.
"oh? What do you think? Cute aren't they?" Aerith asked as she washed the dishes.
"Cute? Definitely!" she answered, and continued jokingly, "I want one!" earning several chuckles.
"Sora'll be here in a few hours." Cid muttered sleepily.
"yeah, it's been a while." Leon muttered as he stood up and walked out the door, "…going to train."
"hey Ash? Wanna bake a cake?" Aerith asked.
Ashley nodded as the two began baking a cake even though Ashley never could bake, most of her the time it resulted in bad experiences but that was back at home.
"And we're done!" Aerith said as she clapped her hands together, they had finished covering the cake with chocolate syrup. "It looks delicious!"
"Sora'll arrive in an hour or so." Ashley announced.
"I guess we can wait for him." Aerith said, as she picked up the cake and placed it on a platform and covered it up with a top.
"what about Lunch?" Cid asked, Ashley's stomach sounded at the mention of lunch.
"Ashley? Can you go get Leon so we can eat?" Aerith requested.
"But there isn't any food!" exclaimed Cid.
"I'll make some, by the time those two come back, it would be ready." She answered calmly, "Now, Ashley, can you go?"
"Will do. See ya later, guys!" Ashley said as she walked out the door, grabbing a towel on the way, and into the streets. From what she heard, Leon liked to train somewhere in the Alleyway, something about the sewers.
She finally located the area, and entered it to see Leon training tirelessly in front of a small lake. Naturally, she stayed quiet and watched as he swung his Gunblade left and right, with such expertise that it seemed as if he was born to use it, elegant in his flexibility and strength, Ashley held a new sense of admiration towards the man.
Choosing to snap out of her reverie, she ran up to him, and sadly interrupted him in mid swing.
"What?" he asked as he took the towel from her hands, "thanks."
"Cid's starving, and Aerith wants you to come back home so we can eat." She stated.
He nodded and sat down on the ground, trying to regain his breath, his arms keeping him up; Ashley sat down beside him Indian style.
"Can you train me?" she said, he looked at her in confusion, "I'm not that good at fighting, so can you train me? Blaze- I mean, someone taught me how to fight a long time ago, and I'm a little bit rusty, so can you train me so I can get better at it?"
He nodded in response, silence ensued after that.
"If you use a gun and a sword, why not use a gunblade?" he asked. Ashley had a momentary look of surprise but it quickly vanished, it was the first time he began a conversation with her.
"Because It's too hard, and I love using them separately, guns for long distance," she said as she held up her arms and did something resembling firing a gun, "and the sword to do the rest." She let her hands drop by her side after she did a swooshing motion that resembled a sword.
"Nice combination." He said, nodding. He stood up and pulled her up with him, "c'mon, Let's go."
Lunch was delicious, Sora arrived moments after they washed the dishes, Ashley and Sora's first meeting was quite entertaining.
"I'm baaack!" yelled Sora as he entered the Blue room.
"You're baaack!" exclaimed Yuffie as she jumped up to greet him.
"Welcome back, Sora." Leon said quietly.
"Welcome back." Aerith greeted kindly.
"I see you're back." Muttered Cid.
"Why's everyone ending their sentences with 'back?'" Ashley muttered to herself, "So, you're Sora, huh?"
"Yup, that's me!" Sora said, as he pointed to himself.
"It's nice to finally meet you; I'm Ashley, Leon talks a lot about you." She greeted.
"He does? Waaw! I never knew Leon liked me so much." Sora teased.
"Well, that's a first!" exclaimed Yuffie.
"Don't get so happy about it, she's joking." Leon sighed exasperatedly, looking towards a chuckling Ashley.
"I couldn't help it!" she mumbled.
"Sure you didn't." he muttered sarcastically, and closed his eyes as if to block the world.
"Okaay, so, what's Ashley's story?" Sora asked enthusiastically. Ashley began to tell her story in short form, just as she had before when she told the others.
"At least you belong to the same world as this lot." He said positively.
"True." She nodded, "anyway, Aerith and I made a 'welcome back and good luck on your adventure' present for you."
"Really?" he asked, grinning big.
"Yeah, here y'go!" Ashley said as she helped Aerith bring out the cake.
"Waaw! Thanks guys!" grinning bigger than before, if that could even happen.
The group dug in, as Sora began to tell them all about his adventures, Donald, a duck who happens to be a wizard, and Goofy, a dog-like creature that held a shield, joined the gathering.
"I'm going to finish this once and for all, I'm going to find Maleficent, I heard she's in Hollow Bastion." He ended.
"I'll install the navigation gummy for ya." Cid suggested.
"So, we're finally going back home?" Yuffie asked excitedly.
"Don't get too excited, it might not work, it all depends on you guys." Leon said as he pointed to the trio before him.
"But between the three of you, Maleficent doesn't stand a chance!" Ashley said trying to lift up their spirits, Aerith and Yuffie nodded to back her up.
"I'll install the gummi as soon as I'm done." Cid said as he pointed towards th piece of cake in his plate. A while latter, after most of the cake had been devoured, and many stories had been told, Sora, Donald and Goofy, with Cid, stood up to leave.
"Thanks for the cake! It was great!" Sora said happily. "Nice meeting you, Ash!"
"Pleasure's all mine!" Ashley called after him.
