Circles in the
Dirt
Turquoise
This was the third time Yuna had run into Noir Loire this week. (She sternly admonished herself for using that nickname, even though it was particularly clever of Rikku.) He was standing outside the library at lunchtime reading a book. Yuna was appalled as she read the title on its spine--Genetics. She knew he had seen her eyes, but she hadn't known that he would research it the next day.
"Hello, Yuna," he said courteously, if a bit blankly. But that was normal for him.
"H-hello..." And Yuna ran into the library pretending it was urgent.
"Yuna!" Rikku waved at her from a table. It had a lot of dusty fashion magazines spread all over it, and Yuna wondered faintly what they were doing, especially with Paine sitting right there. Paine liked to laugh at those things.
The latter gave Yuna an appraising glance. "Leon is right outside the library," Paine remarked. "Would that have anything to do with how you just ran in?"
"Paine, be nice," Rikku scolded. "It's not her fault he's so scary."
"Um, I don't think we should talk about that so loudly..." Yuna sat down tiredly and picked up a fashion magazine. "Rikku, what are you doing with these?"
"Oh, they were there already. I'm just skimming."
Paine snorted.
Riku, Kairi, and Sora entered the library next, looking somewhat subdued. Yuna sighed.
"Hey, Sora! Hey Kairi! Hi, Riku!" Rikku waved as she shouted her hellos. It sounded much louder from here.
Riku smirked and Kairi elbowed him playfully. She said something to him, but Yuna only caught the last words as the trio passed: "...be like. I mean, as a girl."
"You know I'm sexy enough as it is, Kairi." Riku tossed his head.
"I wonder what I would be like as a girl..." Sora mused.
His silver haired friend got a look of deep contemplation. Then he answered, "I don't know why, Sora, but I'm seeing pink birds with you."
Kairi snorted. "As if Sora would have anything to do with pink birds!"
They laughed, all three of them, and Yuna wished that Paine would laugh more sometimes. It was intimidating to laugh with someone sitting silently next to you.
"And you would marry a guy named Matt," Riku finished. The younger trio settled on a table somewhat out of earshot of Yuna, Rikku, and Paine.
"You know, you've got to respect that Riku," Paine said. "Even though he's successfully skipped up a grade, he still hangs out with those two."
"Well... they are still his best friends," Yuna pointed out. This was followed by complete silence. Then Rikku turned to Yuna curiously.
"So, what were you running around for, Yunie?"
Yuna cringed. "Leo--Officer Loire."
"Don't bother, Yuna," Paine said off-handedly. "You can say his name if he can't hear you." Obviously she did not care much about it, but Yuna did.
"He was reading a book about genetics!" she burst out. It took a rather large weight off her chest, but as a result she did not quite know how to feel. Now she felt nervous and fluttery as opposed to just insecure. "I think it had something to do with my eyes."
Paine and Rikku looked at each other quickly. Then Rikku said soothingly, "Yunie, just because Leon's reading a book about genetics the day after he's forced to be your partner for that special dance class--" Yuna made a frantic shushing noise as Kairi, Riku, and Sora looked over curiously. Along with the rest of the library. "--Does not mean it's because of you. Maybe he's just well-read."
The room got very quiet all of a sudden. Then Leon walked in and put the genetics book on the return cart, seeming not to notice the complete silence--or perhaps he expected it from a library. As soon as he was gone, everyone swarmed around Rikku, Yuna, and Paine.
"Is it true?!" Selphie asked. "Did you actually dance with Noir Loire?!" She was good friends with Rikku, so Yuna wasn't too surprised at her use of the nickname.
She floundered in the sudden flood of questions, mostly from girls, and Paine gave Rikku a very nasty glare. Yuna wished she could do that, but she she knew wasn't brave enough; and it didn't help that Rikku was her cousin. Together, she and her two friends managed to slog their way out of the scene in the library. Leon, even if it had been caused by something other than himself, would have restored order in a second. However, the policeman was not outside, which relieved Yuna somewhat.
But she ran to class anyway.
-
"Hi, Yuna!" Riku seemed very cheerful
today. Yuna thought it was because of what happened at lunch. She
hoped he wouldn't say anything about it and greeted him distractedly,
returning almost immediately to sketching the face of their current
model.
Zell Dincht had been chosen today. It was a very sought-after position for some students who were either very lazy or very vain, or both, as being a model required nothing but to sit very still on a high stool as the class drew them. Zell had not been chosen at random, which was how their art teacher Edward von Muir usually chose his models: Zell had gotten a very striking facial tattoo over the summer. It had been rather swollen and red at the beginning of the year, but today his skin appeared to be completely healed and Mr. Muir had declared Zell to be fit for modeling.
Yuna was worried about messing up on the tattoo. Normally she wouldn't worry about something like this, but today she was simply trying to stop thinking about the scene in the library with Leon, and later the mess with the mostly female mob.
...Oh! Her forehead creased worriedly. She erased part of Zell's tattoo, thinking, I'm thinking about it again!
Yuna was doing a lot of erasing today. Riku saw her and showed her his drawing. "Don't worry--that part gets me, too." Upon close observation of Riku's drawing, she saw it was rather heavy-handed around the shorter lines, which made Zell's hair appear darker, but otherwise it was very good. He had not yet started on the tattoo.
"You're really good," she told him.
"It helps if I don't actually think of our model as a person," Riku said. "He's just a very lifelike thing."
Zell scowled and turned his head so the tattoo was not facing them. Riku grinned. "So..." He turned back to his sketchbook nonchalantly. Yuna braced herself for the worst. "...What was that thing your cousin said about Officer Loire?"
He never referred to Rikku by name. He claimed it was easier to keep things straight that way, and Yuna supposed it did, in a way; however she was mostly trying to find a way out of this conversation as quickly as possible.
"All we did was dance together," she answered, unable to force herself to lie and feeling that if she didn't say anything she would burst.
"I meant about genetics," Riku said.
That was very kind of him.
"What about you would be so unusual that our resident Ice King would read a book about it?"
"I have heterochromia," Yuna answered, feeling much more comfortable now.
"Really? Let me see."
She hesitantly lifted her chin. Riku had very bright turquoise eyes. Normally she would not do this, because she often felt strange compared to everyone else who had normal pairs of eyes, but she felt they were good enough friends for this. After a moment, he tilted his head slightly and remarked, "Now that is cool. I wouldn't be too worried about it if Leon's reading about heterochromia. I think I might have done that myself, even."
Riku wasn't very threatening. Yuna thought about what would happen if she saw him reading a book about genetics after this and did not feel very alarmed. Then she felt better about herself. "Thanks, Riku," she said gratefully.
"No problem."
Yuna looked back down at her sketch and realized two things. One, she was not done with Zell Dincht's tattoo. Two, the model was still not looking at them.
"Hey, Zell, could you look over here for a second?" Riku asked. Zell gave a dignified 'hmph!' and did not comply. Riku sighed. "I guess I'll just have to work from memory, then." Zell turned around very quickly at that.
Sometimes Yuna wondered if Riku was a genius under all that social ease.
