At a Walking Pace

By: The DayDreaming

Warnings: AU Bit of filler. Threatening letters. Theft of delicious smoothies. Sacrilege of the Dewey-decimal system.

Summary: AU"There's dusk in your eyes." In cases of unrequited love, Yuffie is Queen. What does she do to fix this? Try to snag the most unattainable guy ever. Even as she tries, her life seems to only fall apart. But, she'll do it, even if it kills her. It will.

This chapter has not been edited for mistakes. If there are any, please notify me and I'll try to rectify the situation whenever I get off my lazy ass.

-x.-X-.x-

PREVIOULSY:

Yuffie gets caught in a storm and has a strange encounter with some mysterious black creatures. Taking shelter in a run-down library, she meets Zexion, an uptight young man that doesn't seem pleased by her presence. Zexion says that the creatures don't exist and Yuffie is left wondering whether or not it was really her imagination after all…

-x.-X-.x-

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arc II: dusk in your eyes

chapter eight: dust in your throat

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Yuffie awoke, groggy and stiff, the next morning. Lukewarm heat spilled across her open face from one of arched windows placed in the vast library.

She blinked, confused in her sleepy haze as she looked blearily around, not recognizing her location at all.

Wait, she thought to herself, library?

"So, it wasn't a dream…," she mused aloud, pulling herself up from the sticky leather of the couch that had taken to clinging to her damp skin at some point in the evening, "Too bad. That guy is a real jerkwad. Speaking of jerkwads…"

Zexion, if she remembered the name correctly, was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared from his previous position on the couch opposite hers. The wounded cat was also missing.

Just as Yuffie was about to stand and search for the MIA pair, a folded piece of paper caught her eye, laying innocently on the glass-top of the coffee table she had tripped over just the afternoon before. She picked it up, making a small, unintelligible noise in the back of her throat before slipping lithe fingers into the open spaces between the neat foldings of the paper. It opened up like a flower, perfect, neat lettering tracing the crisp planes of the sheet.

It read:

To the person who likes to break and enter into other people's properties,

I have left to run some personal errands. I assume that, since this library isn't your current residency, you will be leaving at some point in the near future. I trust you will leave everything intact, and in its proper place and order (if you do not, prepare to suffer imminent consequences if you dare to show your sorry excuse for a face ever again).

And I swear by the gods, if that mangy cat so much as even dares to urinate or excrete any biohazardous waste materials in my library, I will seek it out (and you), and skin it alive and shove its remains down your throat.

Have a nice day,

Zexion

P.S.: You have ruined my couch with your incessant dripping and cat blood. You will be footing the bill for a new one, as I am going out today to obtain your personal information and can therefore send you the fees. Begone.

Yuffie read the neat writing of the note carefully, eyes widening the further she read.

"Have a nice day…?" she muttered to herself after reading the rather threatening after-note, "This guy is nuts…and bipolar…"

Yuffie folded the note and put it away in her pocket for safe-keeping (y'know, in case she ever needed proof in court that it was Zexion who had force-fed her a cat corpse and left her asphyxiated corpse in a ditch). She let out a heavy sigh, stretching to try and get the kinks out of her back. The satisfying pops of her vertebrae led to a little relief, but overall she was still extremely sore and tired.

She moved away from the small, open lounge area, looking around the now lighted library's interior. It was morning, to be sure; the thin yellow rays that had so rudely awakened her slithered through the intricately paned windows, alighting upon rows and rows of books stacked organized and neatly into their respective shelves. The place was much bigger than she had imagined it would be, stretching on for a while before her eyesight was blocked by some inconveniently placed shelves. Almost all of the books looked incredibly thick and old as well.

The thought that Zexion had kept addressing the library as 'his' seemed to strike a discordant note in Yuffie's head. Either Zexion was a mega-nerd and needed an entire library to hold all of his books, or he was the librarian. If the latter was the case, than Zexion was a really crappy one, since, despite the fact that everything was in order, the place was as dusty and dirty as hell. How did the guy not have constant asthma attacks in this place?

Deciding that the chain of thoughts was too boring to follow, Yuffie turned her attention to the fact that the injured cat from the night before was missing.

"KIIIITY!!!! Come out! Zexion the jerkwad is gonna get you and read about quantum physics out loud if you don't come out!"

There was no reply or emergence of the cat, and Yuffie huffed angrily. She certainly wouldn't want that guy to read her quantum physics. This cat just had no common sense.

With a groan she moved forward, toward the direction of the lobby. If she didn't find the cat on the way, then it would just have to stay here and eat dusty mice and pee all over Zexion's book. Actually, that last part sounded like a good idea; the guy needed a slice of reveng—er, humble pie.

When she reached the thick wooden doors leading to the lobby, she spotted a familiar ball of fur, curled up against the crack between the two double-doors. The cat opened one eye, peering at her lazily before rolling it slightly, as if say, 'Oh, great. It's back.'

"Hey! That's no way to greet your savior, you stupid, ungrateful cat!" Yuffie shouted, pointing her finger at it in outrage.

The cat graced her with a hiss of indignation.

"Hmph, see if I ever save you from scary black monsters—THAT TOTALLY EXIST, no matter what that stupid butthead says!—ever again!"

Yuffie turned her head away from the now-growling feline, towards the nearest bookshelf. All of the books were lined up in alphabetical order by author, and then by book title. This Zexion guy was a neat-freak, albeit a lazy one, judging by the state of the dust-collection enveloping the library.

She fingered the note in her pocket for a moment, and then began to smile deviously.

"Proper place and order, eh…?"

-x.-X-.x-

"Hey, Yuffie!" Demyx shouted, waving frantically at the girl as she passed by the NeverWas café, holding something in her arms. He waved a bit more as the girl turned around from her brisk walk and saw him at one of the cheap tables residing at her current workplace.

"Demyx!" she replied back, equally as loud and making the cat sulking in her arms hiss mildly at her.

He pointed to the seat situated across from him at his table, and Yuffie obliged by walking up the cracked cement steps of the run-down café. She carefully placed her 'little bundle of joy' on the table top; Demyx stared at the bandaged cat in confusion.

"Uh, do I wanna know?"

"It's a long and really weird story," Yuffie replied, eyeing the cat with a bit of distaste (and perhaps a little, teensy-weensy bit of affection), "Some really weird shit happened yesterday…"

"Ah-huh," Demyx said, trying to pet the growling feline on its head without getting bitten (he was failing), "I bet. That was a pretty good storm, by the way. Totally flooded the lower parts of the city, I hear. I was gonna check it out later, wanna come along?"

"Ah, sure," Yuffie said, stealing Demyx's drink from right next to his elbow while he was busy with the cat. Luckily, it wasn't coffee, but some kind of smoothie. She couldn't quite place the flavor, but it tasted good, and she didn't complain.

"So, what happened?" Demyx asked, finishing his attempted play with the irate feline sprawled unceremoniously in front of him. He reached around blindly for his drink for a couple of seconds before spotting it in Yuffie's sticky grasp. He let out an indignant squawk and tried to grab the cup of smoothie, but Yuffie quickly pulled away from the table, sucking the entire drink down as she leaned back in her cheap plastic chair, balanced on only two legs.

He huffed, but conceded defeat as the empty cup was thrown at his head, "That was mine…"

"I know!" Yuffie replied brightly, grin spreading across her face and lighting up her eyes, "It was a good something of yours, too. Remind me to indulge in your things more often. What was it, by the way?"

"Sea-salt ice-cream smoothie or something. I just asked for the pretty blue stuff in the blender. You should know, shouldn't you? You work here."

"Ah, the mysteries of the menu, my good friend! Nobody knows what's on there, not even Saïx, suck-up that he is," Yuffie replied. She idly picked at a stray strand of skin next to her nail, before letting herself down from her tilted position on the chair, "Anyways, about yesterday…"

Yuffie proceeded to tell Demyx about everything that had happened, from her wandering into unfamiliar territory in the city (she had managed to stumble her way out onto more familiar streets after she left the library; being able to see where she was going without a torrential downpour really helped in the becoming-not-lost process), to the strange creature that had attacked the cat currently laid out sunbathing on the table; she had ranted heartily on the dark weather that still seemed to swirl about their heads in the form of forbidding gray clouds, and then about the mysterious, dilapidated library and its owner, whose name she chose not to mention, instead referring to the man as 'jerkwad' or 'butthead.'

Demyx seemed amused and troubled by the tale, staring uncertainly at Yuffie. Yuffie knew that Demyx would believe her, no matter how far-fetched it sounded; he probably just wasn't very comfortable with how much he believed her. As much as Demyx had missed being Yuffie's close friend, it had still grown awkward between the two, much to both's chagrin.

"That's really something, Yuffs," Demyx finally said, once Yuffie had calmed from her heated rant about properly labeled street signs, "You…don't think it's going to happen again, do you?"

"Huh?" Yuffie replied intelligently, snorting just a bit too much of the sea-salt smoothie she was drinking into her mouth. She had insisted that Demyx buy her one, or two, or three, since she was poor and she was his guest, so to speak. She shrugged, pouring some of the smoothie onto her palm and placing it in front of the cat, who began to lap at the drink (he seemed quite taken with the drink as well, despite his dislike of the fact that it was Yuffie who was feeding him), "I hope not. Those things are seriously creepy, and I am not crawling into another dark alley to save some ungrateful little cretin again."

The cat deigned not to reply to the jibe, continuing to lick at Yuffie's hand.

"I think it likes you, Yuff," Demyx surmised, after coming up with nothing else to say on the rather bewildering topic of yesterday afternoon, "He's not running away, is he?"

"Hardly! I think he's just a free-loader, encroaching upon the benign and inherently good will of a good Samaritan, such as me," Yuffie replied, taking her hand away from the cat when it tried to bite her upon finding that there was no more smoothie left in her palm.

"Does he have a name?" Demyx asked, taking a sip of his own recently-bought smoothie, after Yuffie had finished his, "You're gonna keep him, right?"

"Ha! Keep 'im?! You're outta your mind. This thing'll probably chew my face off in my sleep. Besides, my parents would never let me keep him. My step-mom hates animals," Yuffie replied simply, leaning back in her chair, "Why don't you keep him?"

"I would," Demyx laughed, "If he didn't seem to hate my guts so much. Cats just don't like me! I can't figure out why…(1)."

Yuffie 'hmm'ed, tapping the side of her smoothie cup. What was she going to do with it? The thing was completely helpless with its side torn open like it was. It would probably die from starvation, the elements, or an infection if somebody didn't take care of it.

"Well…Hm, I'd probably name him Red XIII or something," Yuffie finally managed to muster a reply, mind still wandering on the topic of who was going to be taking care of the feline.

Demyx blinked, then wrinkled his nose as the name sank in, "'Red XIII?' What kind of name is that?"

"It's easy," Yuffie said, sitting up and leaning over the cat, "He's got thirteen," she pointed to several places on the cat's relatively white pelt, "red spots. Red XIII. There."

"That's stupid. Those are splotches of blood! Blood!!" Demyx said, waving frantically at the aforementioned stains, "You don't name a pet with something like that!"

"Oh," Yuffie spat, looking offended that Demyx had called her logic 'stupid.' She tilted her head, looking at him with narrowed eyes, "Then what would you call him, pet-name expert?"

Demyx pouted at her, rubbing his chin in thought, "I don't know…I kinda like 'Nanaki.' What do you think?"

"Where the hell did you come up with that?"

"Don't make fun of it!" Demyx protested as Yuffie went about sipping on her drink again, laughing slightly at the name, "Nanaki was a great warrior from the Gi tribe in another world. He's famous for being the last of his kind and defending his home world from an evil mad scientist that thought he could play god and make everyone his experiments."

"I don't know, Demyx," Yuffie smirked, looking pointedly at the cat lying languidly on the table with its legs flopped over the edge, "That's quite a name to put on someone like this lazy slob."

"Well, better than Red XIII," Demyx said flippantly, getting up and tossing his empty smoothie container into a nearby bin, then doing the same when Yuffie tossed her also-empty cup at his head.

"Whatever you say, name-guru," Yuffie laughed, also getting up. They had been sitting for the better part of two hours; Demyx probably wanted to go check out the flooded areas (damn him and his strange fascination for things dealing with the destructive nature of water) before it got too late in the day and all the areas were drained completely.

"You just gonna leave it there?" Demyx asked, as the pair made their way down the café's stairs.

"Hm, yeah. Someone'll pick Nanaki up, right?" Yuffie said, arms folded behind her head as she descended the last of the steps. Demyx seemed to waver for a moment, looking at the cat before following behind Yuffie.

A plaintive yowling filled the air, loud and carrying down the street. Yuffie screeched to a halt upon hearing it; it was exactly the same as when that dark creature had been attacking the feline. A heavy weight seemed to settle on Yuffie's chest as the yowling grew even louder.

She huffed and turned around, stomping back up the stairs of the café and glaring at the annoying feline, still lying flopped over and pathetic-looking on their vacated table. The cat looked pissed and bewildered at the same time, which was strange, because Yuffie never thought herself proficient at reading the emotions of a cat.

The two held a small glaring match, Demyx watching amusedly in the back ground.

Finally, an aggravated sigh tore out of Yuffie's mouth, before she shouted, "I don't want you!"

With another world-weary sigh she scooped the cat up and proceeded back to Demyx's side.

There was going to be hell.

-x.-X-.x-

Zexion returned to the library much later that day, arms stacked with important documents, a roll of gauze wrapped around his forearm, and a folder suspiciously labeled 'Yuffie Kisaragi.'

He went through the lobby doors of the quiet library, sighing in relief at the calming aura that surrounded him after a stressful day under the attentions of that gods-forsaken king. He looked around the sunlit room, the cavernous enclosure appearing gold in the afternoon sunlight.

Nothing seemed out of place, Zexion thought. That annoying Yuffie girl didn't appear to be around either. He walked to the open lounge area where he had found the girl, plopping all of his paperwork down and whimpering at the pain in his bandaged arm. He turned and 'tsk'ed at the sight of the ruined sofa, eyeing water stains and small cat hairs all over the furniture.

He hated the sight; he really did, but…

"Too much effort," he decided aloud, closing his sharp eyes and sitting in an un-marred recliner, trying to relax and fall asleep.

Everything was quiet and calm, nothing but the inanimate dust (which he really should do something about, but…too much effort) to bother him. Minutes ticked by. He tried to snuggle down into the comfortable recliner. A nap was what he really needed, right now.

He waited a few minutes, trying to ease his mind into rest, but it didn't work. He tried to make himself more comfortable, but that didn't work either. Something kept niggling at the back of his mind, something tiny and bothersome. He couldn't think of anything that could be causing it, though.

He let out a small sigh of frustration.

Then, it hit him, like a ton of bricks.

His eyes shot open and he jumped from his position on the recliner. He irately made his way toward the front of the library. Here, he knew, was where the Dewey-decimal system of organization began, at the shelves at the very front, in plain sight of the lobby entrance. He knew his eyes had briefly scanned over the covers of the books in the shelves as he had passed by earlier.

He came to the very first shelf and allowed his eyes to pass over the spines of the books, noting their positions, until, at last, his eyes landed upon the very far side of the shelf, where all the books whose author's names began with 'A' were. He almost screamed at the sight he beheld.

How dare that little runt! How dare she place Alfred Abernol before Hardy Abernaler?!

Yuffie would pay if he ever saw her again. She would burn. Unfortunately, Zexion could foresee a lot of visits from her in the future.

Revenge would be his.

-x.-X-.x-

(1) This is a reference to the fact that Demyx controls water, lame as it is. Cats don't like water, so I figure that they wouldn't like him, either.

-x.-X-.x-

Yay, finito! I didn't think I would ever get it finished at the rate I was going. Sorry for taking so long! Things have been crazy. Hopefully, the next one won't take as long.

What's up with Nanaki? – Nanaki is from FFVII. I think I read somewhere that Yuffie and Nanaki were pretty okay with each other during the game, so I figured, why the hell not? At least the cat has a name now.

What's up with Zexion? – I think I also read somewhere that Zexion is a lazy genius. The kind of guy who's pretty much about order, order, order, but is still extremely lazy. So, he really cares about the organization of the books, just not maintaining their pristine condition. Though it isn't very funny, it's still Yuffie's perfect revenge against him for being a 'jerkwad.' I like him, though.

Next chapter is definitely going to be about school life! Definitely! By the way, I posted always-kh's prize fic! Go check out Returner, it's my gift to her!

Do you guys think I should write a Christmas one-shot? It's coming up, and with how fast I write things, it would be better to start now, rather than later, if I do one. What do you think? Yes, no?

Thank you for being so patient with this story, and thank you for reading! Please review, also. The DayDreaming out!

By the way, how do you guys like the new summary? I really suck at making them up, but I hope it's better than the first.