"Promising Entirely."

Disclaimer: I own nothing! I'm making no money. The sheep are lying. (Moo)

A/N: So, what's it been? A week? A month? Maybe two? My muse was recently injured in a scuba diving accident, but I am happy to say she has made a full recovery!

Paper-Clip Man of Word says it looks like I'm writing a letter! It wants to help. But it didn't understand when I wrote 'Squffie' to it. Oh well.

Shout-outs:

Lain: Inspirational Q-tip of Doom! OMGWTFBBQ! Where'd you get that? Sah-weet dude. Updated, as requested! YAR.

Baffled: Eh…I'm not sure if I should be insulted or complimented but I'll take the latter since that makes me feel better. Heh. Thank you for the spelling info...I'm absolutely horrible at homonyms.

Sugacoated-Cherries: Squall? Open up? NEVER. cackles at the irony and flees

Darkness2light: I'm very glad you like it! Its always nice to hear that! But…I would never be as evil to make Squall answer that question. Could you imagine? Poor Squally-boy.

Kimou: It made you happy? is happy Hehehe…Yuffie is one of my favorite characters to write! No one beats Riku though.

Iris: You rock, dude! head slams No, no, I haven't been watching too much Finding Nemo or…or anything. Hah! I get to update SSTH now that I've updated this! Its good, because Ann was eventually going to kill me. Yes…Squall…well, I wrote that scene for my own enjoyment too, eh?

YK2: Yeah…heh…I'm going to have Aerith wonder the same thing eventually too. Maybe...you know, twenty years later. NO! You must try cinnamon and gravy yourself! It's the only way to try it!

October: Woo! U…Q? Hehehehe…its QWERTY! Because if you look at the keyboard, they're all in a line. Qwerty…you see? Yes, YES! Update your stories! I command thee! NOOOOW!

Ghettotaku: You…you don't have…poutine..in the states? AHHH! How do you LIVE!

NeonRaine: Merci Buckets! This chapter was fun to write too…because I am evil.

Anti-R: Hahahah. Sorry, Darlin'. This update took ages too…

Destiny'sPromise: Woot! Sorry it took so long!

Ann: Now, NOW you can stop the beating! Heheheh. Just kidding. Ann, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? I think you do. So many things to say….so little time…YOU ROCK, DUDE! head bonks

ShadowKairi: Merci! But Leon isn't THAT much older than Yuffie, keep in mind. I don't think age would really be a factor. Anyway, the stories not about them anyway, which is why its up to us to fill in the holes! Thanks for the re-view SKAI!

Er…er…drum roll…uh..please?


"A ball?"

"Yuffie…"

"A ball? Are you crazy?"

Aerith sighed loudly, dropping a handful of syrup-covered cutlery into the soapy pool of water in the kitchen sink. They had only just begun to clear breakfast up—many of the castle's occupants had decided to join them in order to celebrate the new engagement—and already Yuffie was pouting, refusing to do her work until she was properly satisfied. Despite what the young girl was constantly asserting, she was still very much a child.

"It wasn't my idea, Yuffie." She said, leaning against the counter. "Everyone seems so excited about this! I couldn't take away a chance for them to have a party."

"Oh, a party, maybe!" Yuffie replied. "But a party is not the same thing as a ball!"

"It does seem a bit extravagant, I admit." Aerith admitted hesitantly, glancing at her husband-to-be.

Cloud shrugged his shoulders helplessly, setting a stack of plates beside the sink. "What's the big deal, Yuffie? I would have expected you to be all happy and bouncy and hop-ish at the idea of a party."

"But this isn't a party! It's a ball!"

"So what's the problem?" He persisted, raising a slender eyebrow as her cheeks puffed out in fury. She was beginning to look very red, and he wondered if she gave out some sort of warning before self-destructing.

Yuffie waved her arms in the air for a few moments before speaking, as if sorting through a heap of reasons why a ball was preposterous.

"There'll be champagne! And dresses! And dancing!" She cried, pounding her fists on to the table with each listed object of revulsion.

Cloud, who knew full well those three things were what she hated most, excluding air travel, turned away before the rather dangerous-looking ninja saw his smile. But Aerith was not so wise and it seemed to Cloud she never learned about the potential danger that was Yuffie Kisaragi. His fiancée was leaning towards their young friend with an honest look of confusion.

"Don't you know how to dance, Yuffie?" She questioned, clearly bewildered. Cloud and even Leon, who had remained completely silent behind his newspaper throughout the entire conversation, winced.

"Because we had so many dance-related events in Traverse." The ninja replied coolly.

"Oh, my!" Aerith clasped a hand over her mouth. "Yes, of course! I'd forgotten how young you were when…"

Her voice faltered and the silence the followed was not so much awkward or charged, as it usually was, but sad. To Aerith, it did not seem appropriate for any of them to be sad the day after Cloud's proposal. And so she cleared her throat promptly, placing an encouraging hand on Yuffie's shoulder.

"Leon can teach you." She said briskly, inwardly amazed at how business-like she could sound if she tried. Cloud's thoughts were among the same lines. But it seemed Leon was much too distracted by her actual words than the tone in which she had said them.

"No." He said, glaring up at Aerith with the special look he reserved just for her. The kind of I'm going to pour herbicides all over your garden if you don't shut up now look.

"Yes." She replied, leaning towards him with the I can easily replace your weapon-polish with acid if you don't do what I say look that was essential for these situations. "Yuffie needs to learn how to dance!"

"Cloud can teach her." He replied; I'll chop off your braid while you sleep.

"Cloud and Yuffie never get any work done." She reminded him; don't even get me started on what I can chop off.

It was this thought, perhaps, if not Yuffie and Cloud's indignant protests at being called slackers, that snapped Aerith out of their conversation. It was interesting how crude her inner-voice seemed to be.

"Leon, please?" She pleaded, clasping her hands together. "For Yuffie?"

Both he and Yuffie snorted, and Aerith had to admit that probably hadn't been the best thing to say. Not if she wanted to actually get anywhere productive.

"For me, then?" She said softly, looking down at her shoes.

"Fine." He growled, unable to resist Aerith's irresistible kicked-puppy face and also rather concerned about her latest threat. She smiled brightly at him, was given a look that clearly said curse you to the bottom of my shoe and back, vindictive bitch, and concluded the entire ordeal by gently patting Yuffie on the head.

"There, see?" She said cheerfully. "Now you'll be able to dance for the party."

"Ball." Yuffie muttered, but that was all she seemed to be able to come up with. Satisfied that she'd managed to rid Yuffie of all stubbornness for the time being, she made her way over to the sink and plunged her hands into the soapy water, humming contently.

Yuffie and Leon shared a look, one completely void of any unpleasant, fully intentional subconscious thoughts.

He sighed. "Shall we?"

She shrugged. "I guess so. But you're not getting me in a dress."

FISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFISHFI

She had never seen the ballroom before. She hadn't even been sure there was one. It was located in the bottom east end of the castle, a place she had shamefully admitted to Squall she hadn't known existed. In any case, she was quite sure she never wanted to see it again. True, it was gigantic, roughly the size of the First and Second Districts of Traverse town put together. And it was quite beautiful, stone carvings, paintings of lost artists and sunlight streaming from the skylight ceiling. And she did amuse herself for several minutes by listening to her own voice echoing back to her. But that hardly constituted for anything. Not when she was being forced so cruelly to dance.It seemed that Squall considered teaching her equally as cruel, as his words and instructions were coming from clenched teeth.

"One, two, three. One, two, three." He muttered into her ear, lips close to her ear as he attempted to guide her around the dance floor with a hand to her back. "One, two, three. Yuffie, do you know how to count?"

She sighed in aggravation, a droplet of sweat running down the back of her neck as she pushed away from him. Squall pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head with an aggravated sigh of his own.

"I can't do this." She stomped her foot. "I don't know what Aerith was thinking. I'll just stand by the punch bowl, drinking booze and occasionally adding it to the juice. That's usually what I do at parties like these."

"You never go to parties like these and your lack of alcohol tolerance is vicious." He pointed out, foiling her plan. "Besides, you're not concentrating. Relax."

She took a deep breath, attempting to carry out his request as she slowly relaxed her shoulders. Squall nodded, apparently satisfied, but the moment he stepped towards her she began to tense up again.

"What is it?" He asked, as she stepped away. "Its not like I'm going to hurt you."

"Y-you smell bad!" She blurted, cheeks red. He raised an eyebrow.

"I smell bad." He repeated.

Of all the things she could have said. Of course, it wasn't all her fault that she felt so flustered. He'd washed his hair with the shampoo he knew she thought smelt good. He'd worn that shirt that revealed just a little of his stomach, not enough to satisfy but just enough to leave little for the imagination. His hands were ungloved, warm against her arm and back as he'd held her while they danced. Squall always wore his gloves.

'If this wasn't Squall,' She thought, 'I'd think he were trying to seduce me.'

The thought alone sent a tiny tickle of hilarity through her, hardly replacing the shaky feeling of nerves but just enough to dampen it. She took another deep breath, this time to calm her heart, and looked up at her partner with a teasing smile. It was vital that Squall never figured out the thoughts behind her odd behavior.

"Yes, you smell bad!" She cried, pinching her nose. "Like leather and dust and wet socks."

"I can't imagine why I would smell like leather." He muttered sarcastically, taking another step towards her. "Are we going to finish this or not?"

He heard her sharp intake of breath, and paused his steps again, confused. Yuffie was acting very strange.

"What, Yuffie?" He growled, crossing his arms. "Does your ankle hurt or something?"

Her ankle? Men really were stupid.

"No." She muttered softly, looking at her feet.

He frowned. "You're giving up?"

She was silent.

"Since when does the Greatest Ninja Ever give up?"

"I don't!" She snapped, looking up at him.

"Aerith is counting on you." He said seriously, extending his hand to her. "Are you going to let her down or not?"

She stared at his hand. Once he thought he saw her hand twitch at her side, as if she had almost decided to take his. Eventually, she shook her head, taking another step back.

"I don't want to let Aerith down." She said, rubbing her arm. "But can we…uh…take a break or something?"

Squall sighed, nodding his head and watching as Yuffie skipped off to their stuff piled near the door. They had just had breakfast so he wasn't hungry, and he knew Yuffie wasn't either. All the same, she pulled out the foil-wrapped packages Aerith had given them for lunch, sat against the nearest wall and unwrapped hers, taking a large bite of a sandwich. Hoping that maybe some food would cure Yuffie of whatever was making her act so weirdly, he headed towards her.

Yuffie had hoped the same thing. She'd relentlessly stuffed food into her stomach even if she knew it was still jam packed with pancakes. If more food didn't give her strength, maybe she'd make herself sick so she wouldn't have to go to the ball at all. Squall must have thought the same thing, ordering her to slow down as he tossed his hardly eaten sandwich into the garbage bin. In any case, taking a break hadn't helped as she thought it would. In fact, Squall's silence as she ate was only making her twitchier.

"Squall?" She muttered through a mouthful of cheese.

"Leon." He grunted, eyeing her smacking mouth with disgust. "Don't chew with your mouth open."

She swallowed. "Sorry."

He shrugged, looking away. "Whatever."

"What's it like to be in love?" She questioned, taking another large bite of her sandwich. She'd have to know someday, right?

He whirled around to stare at her. "What?"

'Okay," She thought, relieved. His reaction to her question hadn't been nearly as bad as it had been the night before.

"You heard me." She grinned, throwing her arms over her knees and leaning towards him with interest. "What's it like to be in love?"

"I've never been in love." He said, meeting her gaze unblinkingly. He was a practiced liar.

"Liar." She accused, frowning. "You were in love with Rinoa."

He looked at her sharply, disapprovingly. It had no effect, as usual. Yuffie was the only person who wasn't afraid to mention Rinoa in front of him. It had always been like that.

"We're not having this discussion." He muttered.

"Yes, we are!" She persisted, poking his arm. "We're having it now. What's wrong with talking about love?"

He snorted, waving her off. "Nothing."

"So?"

"So go talk to Aerith about it or something!" He snapped angrily, pushing himself to his feet. "Get up, we're finishing this now."

He kept his back to her, and through years and years of attempting to break through his defenses, she could tell that she'd upset him. She knew that pestering him was not the way to go when you wanted something from Squall. She could see, even from across the room, that his shoulders were tense. She would have to drop this.

For now.

"Hey, I was just wondering." She said with a smile, approaching him slowly. "I thought you'd be the safest to ask. I have a feeling Aerith would go into a winded speech about it."

"I'm not a good person to ask." He said, glancing at her. "I have no heart, remember?"

She winced slightly, having said that in one of their many verbal fights back in Traverse. She hadn't cared about him so much back then and she'd never been concerned about hurting him. He brought it up at every possible chance and now she regretted it.

"No," She said, still smiling slightly and stepping close. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "If you had no heart, you'd be a heartless."

He wrapped his arm around her back. "You dance with heartless?"

Their free hands touched and Squall raised them into the air. Their fingers intertwined ever so slightly, and a light tickle spread through her palms touching his, moved up her arm and settled somewhere over her chest. She glanced into his face, heart thumping, eyes wide and smiled.

"You know what I think?" She said softly, as they whirled over the dance floor.

"Nothing good." He replied immediately, and smirked as she clicked her tongue.

"I think you've got a heart." She told him, moving her hand so it touched his shirt where his heart would be. "A big, goopy heart."

"Goopy?" He glanced down at her. "What makes you think that?"

"I've known you for a long time." She reminded him with a large grin. "You were born with it."

He snorted. "I think I'm more comfortable with being called a Heartless."

"Nah." She said, reaching up to tousle his hair. "The claws wouldn't suit you."

He slapped her hand away, shoving her aside. She tripped over their slightly entangled legs and was sent sprawling over the ground. She sat up with an enraged curse and glared at him. He ignored her, swiping his hair back into order. He seemed to like pushing her to the ground a lot. (A/N: Ooooh, the innuendo! This is what studying Shakespeare does to you..)

"Where are you going?" She huffed, brushing herself off as she stood. All she had done was touched his hair!

He held up a music disc for her to see and she brightened.

"I'm getting good enough for music?"

"No," He said dully as the grand music filled the room and he made his way back to her. "I just thought music might stop you from talking."

SHARKSHARKSHARKSHARKSHARKSHARKSHARK

"Yuffie!" Aerith cried, almost six hours later. "You look gorgeous!"

Yuffie blinked and turned in a full circle to examine her dress. The blue skirt wasn't as puffy as most of the dresses she knew she'd be seeing tonight. In fact, her dress wasn't much like a ball gown at all. But as far as Yuffie was concerned, wearing a dress at all had exceeded expectations. She felt oddly self-conscious. Especially with her hair done up and away from her face.

"I don't know…" She murmured, feeling her own shoulders tense. "I feel…stupid."

"Stupid?" Aerith smiled, rushing up the stairs that lead away from the ballroom and clasping Yuffie's upper arms. "Don't be silly. You look fantastic."

Cloud ascended the stairs in a much calmer fashion, although he too was smiling. "You prepared?"

Yuffie grinned, baring her teeth like fangs, and flashed a shuriken at him from the laces in her top. The blond nodded his approval.

"Good work." He said seriously, and Yuffie giggled.

"What do you need weapons for?" Aerith questioned, confused as they made their way down the stairs and to the ballroom doors. Cloud smiled down at her as Yuffie pushed open the doors. The entire room seemed to turn towards them as they entered. Herds of young men stormed towards the door, swarming a startled looking Yuffie as she made her way into the crowd.

"That." Cloud murmured into Aerith's ear. He grinned as her face flushed a light shade of pink, took her gently by the hand and led her on to the dance floor. His hands smoothed away the soreness in her back, birthed from the frantic preparations for the evening, with simply a gentle touch and he smelled wonderfully. Suddenly, her fiancé seemed much more important.

Leon, in the meantime, had found a nice, comfortable spot on the wall. His suit itched and the woman by the hors d'oeuvre table hadn't quite mastered the art of concealing the fact that she was looking at his butt. Granted, he was leaning against the wall. It was probably quite difficult for her to get a good view from there. Still, he wasn't quite sure how Aerith had managed to talk him into this. Certainly, he'd told Yuffie that whole bit about doing this for Aerith but did that really apply to him?

The kind woman was currently twirling in her lover's arms, cheeks flushed and eyes alight with happiness. Remembering a young and sad Aerith, filled to the brim with inner strength, and seeing her now, so happy, made him smile. He knew why he was here, why this ball had been organized in the first place. Everyone loved to see her smile. Aerith deserved to be happy.

But that didn't mean he had to like it.

He stiffened as Yuffie paused to talk to Aerith, breathing hard and cheeks redder than ever Aerith's. There was a herd of young men waiting behind her, practically pushing to get into the right position so they could have the next dance. He'd noticed her, like everyone else, when she'd first stepped into the room. It was hard not to…not because she looked nice…because he'd never seen her in a dress. And she hadn't had a moment by herself all night, so surrounded was she by men.

Not that he'd been watching her or anything…

"If looks could kill…"

He turned to see a grinning Tynan, hair pinned back and sparkly dress swishing around her. This was an even greater shock; he'd never seen Tynan in a dress either. The young girl leaned beside him, squinting out at Yuffie with great interest and, it seemed to him, amusement. He crosses his arms, looking out at the young ninja as well.

"What do you mean?" He asked coolly, watching as a tall, lanky man touched Yuffie's revealed back.

"That's got to be the sixteenth one." She continued, as the man pulled Yuffie into a dance.

"Sixteenth what?"

"Suitor!" She giggled slightly, pushing away from the wall to look at him. "And you should see the way you're glaring at them!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He muttered, after a long pause. Tynan nodded, one eyebrow raised. He supposed he should have come up with a quicker come back.

"Why don't you ask her to dance?" She said, as if she hadn't heard him.

The look he sent her was absolutely livid, and Tynan grasped the material of her dress in her hands. An awkward pause, Tynan picked at her hair distractedly, and Leon realized whom exactly he was talking to. Aerith had warned him against terrifying young people.

He sighed, taking her by the shoulders and leading her in the opposite direction. "Go spike the punch or something, okay?"

"Okay." She said cheerfully, brushing his hands off her shoulders. "But if you ask me, I think you're jealous. The way you were seething and all."

"I didn't ask you." He said, his tone cold. "And I wasn't seething. Now scat."

She scat, and Leon was against left alone with his thoughts. But now they were tainted, fully aware was he of the taut muscles in his shoulders each time he caught sight of Yuffie dancing by with another young man, or suitor as Tynan had called them. He snorted. There was no way that Yuffie would consider them suitors. Yuffie wasn't allowed to have suitors.

But what if she did? There were an awful lot of young men for her to choose from. But then…what did it matter if Yuffie had a boyfriend? In fact it would be good. She would be too distracted by her lover boy and she would leave him alone. That was good. Yes, good.

Wasn't it?

"Hello, boy."

He jumped, staring at the woman leaning towards him from his left side. She'd been sneaking along the wall to him this entire time? She was stunningly pretty close up, and her perfume was intoxicating as she leaned even close to him.

"You're pretty good looking." She purred, stroking his arm. (A/N: This woman was not inspired by Battle for the Bishies…not at ALL)

He frowned, inching away. "Thank you."

"You wanna dance?"

"Sorry, ma'am. He's already got a dancing partner."

Then he was being tugged by the wrist away from the wall and the woman, pushed into several groups of people, whirled around and pushed on to the dance floor, and was suddenly in the hold of Yuffie Kisaragi. She grinned up at him.

"Felt like I had to save you." She said, slipping an arm around his shoulders and taking his hand. "You're obviously not used to being hit on."

"You seem to be well educated on the subject." He replied, as their feet moved in a practiced sequence they had been working on all day. Quite a few young men were glaring at him now.

"I don't get it." She muttered, shaking her head. "I haven't ever been chased after by these guys, even though I practically live with them, and now I show up in a dress and clown paint and suddenly they're interested?"

"Yeah, well." He looked away from her flushed face, an odd feeling in his stomach he couldn't place. Was he going to be sick? "That's usually how the male mind works."

"And my teacher doesn't even try to dance with me." She teased, "Don't you want to see the result of all your hard work?"

He grunted, and they fell into silence amongst the soft music and the chatter. Squall couldn't seem to touch her without feeling he was going somewhere he shouldn't go. Perhaps it was because so much skin was showing. But that wasn't all. Her skin looked pale and soft, and although Yuffie had never deprived him of physical contact in the long years he had known her, he had a longing to touch her, as if he had always been deprived of her.

She slipped closer, wrapping her arms around his back, and he was having difficulty breathing.

"Is something wrong?" She asked quietly, patting his back. "You're being really quiet."

"Yuffie, I'm always quiet." His voice was barely more than a whisper. "Why would you think something was wrong?"

She pulled back and smiled, and somewhere deep in his chest, his heart skipped another beat.

"Because you haven't looked away from my feet in at least ten minutes." She told him, tilting her head to the side.

Her feet?

"Scared you're going to step on mine." He said, voice hoarse. "You're clumsy."

She grinned, and slipped her arms around him again, head resting on his chest. It seemed the attention of so many people had reinforced a strong confidence in her. He swallowed, palm brushing against hers as he almost tripped, to his mortification, over his own feet.

She laughed. "I'm going to have to call your bluff there, Squall."

He blinked down at her. "What?"

She stuck a pose. "Ninja!"

"So?"

She winked. "Ninja's aren't clumsy."

Whatever he might have said to that was interrupted when a short and plump man stood up on stage, presumably where Ansem's chair had once sat, and brought the microphone to his lips. It squealed loudly, and he cleared his throat, gazing apologetically at the deafened people who had been standing right near the speakers.

"Alright, everyone!" He said joyfully, a bead of sweat dropping from his forehead. "Its time for…The Contessa!"

Squall and Yuffie pulled apart and stared as the people around them began to cheer wildly. They were dividing into groups just as a fast beat began to blare from the speakers, and they all began to dance in synchrony.

"You…uh…didn't teach me that one." Yuffie said, aside to Squall.

Her companion shook his head and she giggled slightly, watching the wild dancers amusedly before turning to him.

"Want to go outside until this one is over?" She asked brightly, "I'm boiling."

He nodded. Outside was dark. Dark was good.

RIKURIKURIKURIKURIKURIKURIKURIKURIKURIKU

She leaned comfortably against the railing, gazing up at the stars with awe. It was so clear tonight! Squall stood uncomfortably behind her, unsure what to do with himself. It was an unusually loss of poise and he really, really did not like it. She hoisted herself so she was seated against the railing, smiling at him and patting the spot next to her. He hesitated before sitting beside her with some reluctance.

"What's with you tonight?" She asked, poking him. "You're really…twitchy."

"Thank you." He replied grudgingly. "It's the suit."

She smiled. "You know, you've changed." (A/N: looks back and forth between Tidus and Yuffie in confusion.)

He glanced at her, take aback by this random comment. She wasn't even looked at him, tilting her head to look up at the sky.

" For so long…even a few weeks ago you were so angry and upset all the time. I thought you hated us a lot. Spending time with any of us was like a death sentence to you. But now you're…you're different."

He stared at her and she shrugged. He thought back to what Tynan had told him, what he'd been thinking afterwards, how he'd wanted to touch Yuffie's back only a few minutes ago. How she'd looked, walking into the ballroom. And even yesterday, when he'd seen the debris falling from the unstable house, how he'd felt when he'd pulled her out of harms way…

"I guess you're right." He said softly.

"Maybe its just tonight." She said cheerfully, hoping off the railing and turning fully to look at the sky. "We're both in weird moods."

They fell into silence again, Yuffie staring at the sky, Squall staring at her. Then the music changed inside, followed by a light cheer, and Yuffie turned to head back inside. Squall slid down, off the railing, watched her retreating back. That odd feeling in his stomach intensified and he reached out to grab her wrist.

"It feels wild, crazy." He blurted out desperately, "Like all your emotions are mixed up and touching, and all you want to do is mix yourself in it and lose yourself because it feels so incredible. Like nothing can bring you down from what you're feeling and you get so caught up in it that you can't breathe. And everything…everything just…mixes and it feels like you're spinning out of control. But you don't want it to stop."

"Squall…" She whispered, turning to him. His hold on her wrist was lax but he didn't let her go.

"It's the one thing in the world that can keep you alive no matter what and yet there isn't life without it." He let her go and took a step back. "Its really…really…amazing."

She looked into his face, and when he looked at her he saw that her eyes were brimming with tears.

"You told me once that love doesn't last forever." She whispered, her voice hitching as she looked at him.

He closed his eyes, unable to stay locked with hers any longer. "I lied."

She let the tears fall as Squall stood and brushed past her. She slumped against the railing and attempted to wipe them away, but they continued to fall at a steady pace until she just let them go. It had been unexpected, at a moment she never would have anticipated. It seemed so insignificant that now would be the time that she would find what she'd been looking for since Squall had first stepped back into her life.

He'd let her in.

She could feel it, exactly the way he had described it, a kaleidoscope that hummed against her skin. She hated him, wanted him, she despaired over his sadness and was terrified with the knowledge that she would easily die for him, without a second thought. It was intense, way too intense. But she couldn't stop it. And now she knew exactly what she was feeling.

She was in love with Squall Leonhart.


Well, I'm not too sure about this chapter just yet, but I had to get it out there so Ann would stop beating me.

Hope you liked it. Yuffie's finally realized what we've all known all along! Initially, I was going to have Squall realize he loved her, but I thought that would be a bit too unrealistic. And it would be kind of funny if Squall realized he loved Yuffie before Yuffie realized she loved him. Especially since this story is essentially supposed to be about how far Yuffie's love goes for him, considering she's loved him (even non-romantically) since they were children.

Also, I hope this wasn't too OOC, but the ball atmosphere is supposed to put them in a weird, reflective, love-realizing mood.

And Tynan, of course, was through in there for manipulation purposes. And to spike the punch.

Any-too-hoots…Please tell me what you thunk! (Think, yes.)

Bert. (hehehe..ehe..)