Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters or locations.
Chapter Ten: Fluffy InterludeYuffie stared out the stained window, wet with rivulets of rain streaking down its front. The sun was blotted out with large menacing clouds of a miserable gray, covering the world in its woe. The storm had been going on for days, and had yet to show signs of letting up.
How long had she been here? Years, it seemed. But no, Sora had come in a two hours prior and told her it had been about a week. One week of hell, at that. She had done nothing since that day when she had fainted in Aerith and Cloud's bedroom. The only people she saw were from the frequent visits from her doctor, and the even more so visits from her friends.
"How long have you been there?" Yuffie asked distractedly.
"A few minutes," Squall replied softly, benign movements bringing him to her side. Yuffie tensed slightly under the thin white blankets that covered her lower body. He was getting harder and harder to track every time.
"How did you open the door?" she continued, not breaking eye contact with the window.
"It was already open."
"Liar." Squall stared at her amusedly.
"I know. You're getting better at it."
"At what?" Yuffie asked monotonously.
"Me," Squall stated simply. A small smile graced her lips. Yes, in these past few days she had begun to understand him more. Whether it was just her keen insights or that he was just opening up, she did not know. And she did not wish to. Everything between them seemed perfect the way it was.
"So how have you been?" the brunette asked, already knowing the answer.
"Shitty," she answered, the same one she had been using ever since she got stuck in the small hospital bed.
"Figures as much," he muttered, staring at the needle that was slowly bringing blood out of her arm. It took practically half the staff the calm her down so they could take off her gloves. She had downright refused to wear the light blue hospitals dresses, saying they were downright "grossness." He could see the outline of her over-large shorts poking out from under the sheets. "Cid said we can leave once the storm clears up," he added, staring straight at her. She turned her head to stare back. 'Oh yeah…about that…'
"Yeah, and that'll only be a million years from now," she said seriously, even though her eyes were filled with mirth. "Just my luck that I'm the only one with a venereal case like this, huh?" Squall didn't answer, just turned his head away abruptly. His anger was rising once more.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"I HAVE WHAT!?"
"Yuffie..please…calm down…"
"NO! AERITH LET ME GO!"
The nurse and doctor moved back on instinct. Yuffie pointed her finger at the doctor, demanding to hear it again.
"W-well," the doctor said shakily, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "You have a venereal disease. It remains unidentified at the m-moment.." his voice tethered out at the end.
"UNIDENTIFIED!?!" Yuffie screamed from her standing point on the hospital bed. Aerith, Cloud, Sora, Squall and everyone else was standing around her, trying to coax her off. She didn't pay any attention to them though. She was too furious. "WHY CAN'T YOU IDENTIFY IT!? YOU'RE A FREAKING DOCTOR!!" She let out a plaintive wail as Cloud, Cid, and Squall forcefully pulled her down and kept her against the bed, Cid having the hardest part of holding her legs. Once it became obvious she couldn't move, she continued her rants, her voice climbing higher than Aerith's and Sora's, who were trying to calm her. "WHAT THE HELL IS A VENEREAL DISEASE!?"
The doctor moved closer, albeit slightly, seeing that she was literally tied down by three men. "Have you had intercourse lately?" he answered her question with another question. Yuffie wanted to burst. How dare he ask her a question like that, and not even answer her own! Well, might as well give him what he wants.
"YES I HAVE HAD INTERCOURSE LATELY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Half the people in the room blushed. The doctor would certainly be the blunt end of the other workers jokes once this was over. "I GOT RAPED DAMMIT! RAPPPEEEEEDDDD!!!"
"Yes…that would be the source then. Do you know if he…or she has been with any other partners?"
"LIKE I WOULD KNOW!!!"
"Mrs. Kisaragi…."
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!" Squall covered her gaping mouth to quiet her. She considered viciously biting it, if it weren't for the death glare he was giving her. The doctor, let out a sigh into the silent air, spoke up once more, determined to get his point across.
"A venereal disease is a disease transmitted by having sex. Apparently, we aren't even sure if what you have is a venereal disease.." Yuffie wished they'd stop saying that word. "There is an unknown substance in your blood stream, from what I am told, is extracted from the Heartless. Your friends told me that you were drugged, and I believe the drug was what put the Heartless…blood into you. Having intercourse accelerated the drug and caused it to back fire. Obviously the drug was made for only one body, so having another's cells inside of you caused it to go haywire."
'Cells?' Yuffie thought darkly. She knew what he was talking about. 'You mean sperms, you sorry excuse for a doctor.' She would've begun to scream again but didn't get the chance to as a syringe found it's way into her arm, drifting her into unconsciousness.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"So what planet is it?" Yuffie asked, fiddling with her hair. Squall watched her tepid movements with sharp eyes.
"They said we should visit the Deep Jungle, but I doubt that the answer is there…" he trailed off softly. She was still fiddling with her ebon locks. She would stroke her hand through them, then play with the tips. Over and over again. Before he knew what he was doing, Squall reached over and pulled her hand away from her hair, wrapping his own hand around hers. She gave him a startled look before turning away, in hopes of hiding her blush.
'Stupid Squall' her mind whirled endlessly. 'I can't even control myself around him anymore.' Trying to push the thoughts of his warm hand over her own, she focused on his words. 'The Deep Jungle. What will we find there?'
"Squall?" she whispered quietly. Gods, she felt so foolish. Once she knew that she held his attention, she uttered something so quietly that wasn't sure if he heard it right.
"What?"
"I'm scared," she said louder, her hand trembling beneath his. She had just left herself wide open and vulnerable, and what Squall would say would decide whether she'd come out looking like an idiot, or just a scared teen. She didn't expect him to be the one to look like an idiot.
"So am I," he said softly, his other hand sweeping through his long hair. Yuffie resisted the urge to lean over and touch the billowing mane herself. She always had this foolish notion that the tips would be hard and painful to touch, since that's what they looked like. Of course she had abandoned that thought long ago, and now she just wondered how it felt. She longed to feel the texture slide between her fingers. But then that would never happen, right? Squall probably would think she had gone crazy if she ever touched him like that.
"The great Squall Leonhart, scared? Well, the world really is falling apart," Yuffie said with a wry grin. Squall just rolled his eyes, having long gotten used to her offending manner.
"I'm serious."
"I know you're serious. You're always serious," Yuffie pointed out. She still couldn't turn around to meet his gaze, and his hand was making her thoughts coagulate into a huge blob in her mind.
"Yuffie look at me," he commanded. He wanted to see her expression, to see what she was feeling. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it if she was as easy to read as a book.
"N-no…" she stuttered out clumsily. Whether it was her own inability to control her will or not, the next moment she had her head turned and was staring into his deep eyes. Within seconds she was faltering from under his penetrating gaze. How did he manage to get his eyes the way they were? They remained a solid brown, yet behind them seemed to lurk billowing flames of garnet, giving him somewhat of an ardent look. She suddenly found great interest in his shoulder, which she was now putting her whole being into concentrating on. Squall watched her under heavy lidded eyes.
"This is all Sephiroth's fault," Yuffie started. Her eyes were still fixated on his right shoulder. "If he hadn't given me the drug…and raped me." She slammed her small fist into the flimsy hospital pillow, her eyes diverting themselves to stare at her clenched palm. "I'm so naïve."
"…"
Yuffie let out a tedious sigh, and plopped back down onto the bed, defeated. Squall had removed his hand and was rubbing his temples violently, as if he was going to rip them off the next moment. Yuffie sank even deeper into the bed at the thought of him losing it again. His temper had changed from ebbing waves to a roaring tsunami in less than a few days. He seemed on the borderline of suicide, in the shinobi's opinion. She noticed his movements changed to massaging his forehead.
"Do you have a migraine again?" she inquired, gripping her hands together to stop them from twitching with anxiety. She wanted to leave this hospital bed now! For almost a week had she been toiling away in here, never allowed out. Of course she had attempted escape, and was rewarded with a group of angry staff, her friends, and her infernal doctor, whom she was convinced was a forty year old desperate virgin out to get her.
"It's just a minor headache."
"What's the difference?"
"Migraines are more painful."
"Whatever you say," she answered distractedly. She could hear footsteps coming towards them. Oh great, her doctor was back. She prayed that it was the woman instead of that annoying man. Seconds later the door squeaked open, just as she had predicted. Thankfully, and to Yuffie's joy, it was a woman, with long black hair tied into a painful looking bun at the back of her head. She wore thing glasses that were set on the bridge of her nose, and held a clipboard with Yuffie's files on it. But aside from that, the woman was beautiful. Yuffie quickly stole a look to Squall to see if he was looking at the doctor. She couldn't help it, but she had started to develop this sort of possessive nature over him, something that festered more and more everyday. But he wasn't looking at the doctor. Yuffie wanted to say something to him, like congratulations, but that would've sounded down right stupid.
"Sir I need to ask you to leave," the doctor clipped at him. Squall frowned slightly and stayed unmoving.
"Why?" he asked. He had always been allowed to stay before, what was different now? Maybe she had a thing against men being in the same room with women when it had to do with their bodies. 'But all she's going to do is perform a standard check up on her,' his mind thought confusedly. There was nothing personal about it; Yuffie didn't even remove any clothing.
"Because sir," the doctor's voice was strained and irritated, which matched exactly what Squall was looking like at the moment. "She needs a physical report, whereas she will have to take off all her clothes, and I do not appreciate a man being in the room. Most women do not feel comfortable with a man scrutinizing them while they are nude." Squall wanted to snap back that he would never scrutinize Yuffie, particularly when she was naked, but held his tongue. Slowly he got up, slamming the door behind him a little more violently than needed. Yuffie watched him go, wanting to burst into laughter. 'Pretty pissy about that doctor,' she thought amusedly. She definitely wouldn't have to worry about any romance blooming there.
Yuffie stared at the doctor in question, who looked just as huffy about Squall's leave as he was. Yuffie heard her mutter something along the lines of "cretin" before turning expectantly toward the ninja.
"Stand up please," the doctor asked, now taking on a monotone voice. Yuffie did so, almost falling over in the process. There was still a needle in her arm, something that bothered her greatly. What kind of hospital made their patients stand up and take off their clothes with a needle still in their arm? But she didn't have time to complain because, much to her horror, the doctor was taking off her clothes for her, her other glove and scarf laying forgotten on the floor. Once she reached Yuffie's tank top straps, the ninja finally freaked out, slapping away the doctor's hand.
"I can undress myself thank you very much," Yuffie snapped, her cheeks red. She never liked doctors. She had always believed that they were all pervs, asking everyone to take off their clothes and touching them in inappropriate places.
"Young lady, you would've never even thought about taking your clothes off if I hadn't done it for you," the doctor said back, ignoring the anger and sarcasm in the teenager's voice. Yuffie felt glared indignantly at the floor, too chicken to do it to the doctor's face. Slowly the flushed ninja grabbed the bottom of her tank top again, but stopped.
"Gawd, do I have to do this?" Yuffie whined, unable to keep the childishness out of her voice. The doctor shook her head.
"Ms. Kisaragi, if you had just put on the hospital dress like all the other patients in this building, then you wouldn't be doing this in the first place."
"Well can I have a damn dress then?" Yuffie demanded, not taking any chances. How did she know that this doctor was interested in women or not?
"As I recall, you said they were gross," the doctor clipped, just like she had with Squall. Yuffie scrunched up her nose. Maybe she would reconsider having a male doctor. This one was a pain in the arse!
"Grossness," Yuffie correctly glumly. As quick as possible she removed the clothing, when the woman had finally turned her back of course.
The doctor turned back around in time to see Yuffie wrapping the hospital blanket securely around her body. "Ms. Kisaragi, again, I cannot perform the checkup with that thing on you," she said, tapping her high-heeled shoes loudly against the spotless floor.
'Ugly, snide woman,' Yuffie grated in her mind. She considered screaming for Squall to come in, knowing that he was waiting right outside. Or at least attempt to just to see the look on the woman's face. But no, she withheld the urge. Besides, it would've caused her more embarrassment than anyone else.
With an angry glare, she let go of the blanket, watching miserably as it pooled around her feet. 'This is just my luck,' Yuffie thought grumpily, feeling as if she was the most antagonized person in the whole world. She was being checked and prodded by this direful woman, she had a venereal disease that had no known cure, and, yeah, she had a gigantic crush on Squall Leonhart, whom was going to be escorting her around half the galaxy looking for an antidote. With that said, Yuffie felt it was her right to have the title of The Most Antagonized Person In The World.
Aside from Yuffie's comments and useless whining, the check up went fairly smoothly. The ninja was finally lifted from her burden as she slipped back on her fingerless glove and climbed back into bed, fully dressed. The doctor left, with a somewhat annoyed look on her face, much to Yuffie's amusement. The doctor had barely had time to close the door, when Squall pushed past her. The woman left in a complete huff.
"Good going Squall," Yuffie praised him, more than happy to be rid of the woman. Squall just snorted, something very un-Squall-like of him. "So, back in here already? I knew that no one could resist my tempting beauty," Yuffie gloated. Squall resisted the urge to snort again. If he did, Yuffie would never stop pestering him about some lame joke she would make up, like how he was turning into a pig, or something to that effect.
"Sooo…." Yuffie drawled out. Squall watched her pensively, wondering what was going on in that demented brain of hers.
"So what?" Squall responded back, his face showing complete apathy.
"So…how was your day?" Squall stared blankly at her. Yuffie stared back, trying to widen her eyes as much as possible. She eventually gave up as her eyes began to sting, and she crumpled in a fit of giggles, resisting the urge to scream with laughter. Squall watched her wild actions, his mind not really registering what she was trying to do.
"You didn't answer my question yet, Squallie," Yuffie giggled. Squall's eyes narrowed considerably.
"Squall."
"Squallie."
"Squall."
"Leon."
"Fine. Squallie." Squall grimaced as the name graced his lips. God, what a horrid name! But it was better than Leon, in his opinion. Besides, 'Squallie' made her happy, so he let it be.
"Am I going to have to repeat that question dodo, or are you goin' to answer it?" Yuffie asked yet again. He made it a point to ignore her comment. He had no idea why she would want to know about how his day went. She had never cared about such worthless things.
"Fairly normal," he responded somewhat awkwardly. No one had ever asked him a question such as hers, and it gave him an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach to answer it. That and because of her persistent question, it made him realize how lame he made his days out to be. All he did these days were visit Yuffie, train, eat, sleep (barely, he was kept awake with nightmares of Yuffie dieing in that hospital, and him not discovering until it was too late), and mope around Traverse Town, looking like a total heartless jerk. He really was wasting his life away. It had been, quite literally, nine years since he even considered the word 'fun'.
"Ok," Yuffie shrugged off his answer. Her blackened eyes surveyed the room with detached interest; she had seen everything there was to see. "Squall?"
"Yes?"
"I'm hungry."
"You were fed two hours ago," Squall said evenly, willing her to look him in the eye. She had developed a nasty habit for staring at anything but his eyes. He had intended to find out, but, apparently, she wasn't willing to tell. She would change the subject in an instant, acting as if he hadn't asked it in the first place.
"Yeah well a person can get hungry in two hours." The brunette looked at her, pushing his irritating bangs out of his eyes simultaneously.
"What do you want me to do? The nurse won't come in with your food for awhile, and you're not allowed out of bed."
Yuffie looked at him with hopeful eyes. "Well…" she made her best puppy-dog face, pouting like a little child. 'Please work…I'm starving!' "Can you go down to the cafeteria and get me something?" For a few minutes he said nothing, and Yuffie feared that he would never say a word and just decide to get up and leave; that's what he always did when she asked for something he didn't want to give.
"….Fine." Yuffie almost jumped up and kissed him right then and there, but held back the temptation. A good and completely delectable temptation at that.
Twenty minutes after he had left, Squall came back in, carrying a large brown paper bag. Yuffie stared at it, resisting the urge to drool. 'Yeah that would make me look so graceful,' she thought with an unladylike snort. 'Squall looks at me and I'm all slobberin' all over myself.'
"Did you get the brownies?" Yuffie asked immediately as he set the bag down on the small desk next to her temporary bed. She had somewhat of an uncontrollable obsession with the little brown devils, and could never pass up a chance to eat them.
"No," Squall said coolly, keeping a straight face as Yuffie's contorted into, to Squall's amusement, one of horror.
"Why not!" She felt like she would die if she didn't eat any sweets soon. She lived on sweets, and without them she was deprived of her own gung-ho. Squall didn't respond, just busied himself with staring into the bag full of food. Finally he spoke, producing the object of her desire at the same time.
"I was kidding," he said gently, as Yuffie's eyes bulged out of her head.
"Did you just make a joke?" Yuffie asked dimly. 'Maybe I'm dreaming,' she thought. 'First he said he was scared and now he's cracking off jokes? He should be the one in the hospital bed, not me.'
"If you call that a joke…then yes."
'What are you doing?!' his mind demanded of him. He refused to answer. Having a little chat with his conscience wasn't something he was very fond of. That and, apparently, he had no idea what he was doing. True, he had become fond of the minute ninja, but that had never pushed him to do something so atypical of him. If he kept this up, she would start expecting certain things from him, something that he wasn't looking forward to. Was she that important to him that he would risk his reputation just to make her happy?
An ardent feeling searing across his forehead snapped him out of his thoughts. Yuffie was leaning over, holding her lithe hand against his forehead, a skeptical look on her face. On instinct, his body went completely rigid from the contact. Not many people dared touch him, which was somewhat of a downside. His lack of exposure to such closeness caused him to clam up whenever he was approached with the situation. And unfortunately, it was usually Yuffie who presented it. He waited patiently until she was satisfied with her examination of his temperature, and slid back under her covers, staring at his chest, as always.
"Ok, what did you do with him." Yuffie stated. She was hiding her mouth under the covers for some unknown reason. Squall's face was one of bewilderment.
"Who?" he asked, obviously confused. Yuffie shuffled around in her bed, burrowing deeply into the sheets.
"Squall…what did you do with him?"
"…"
"Where is he?"
"…"
"Did you steal him?"
"I'm right here Yuffie."
Yuffie shook her head violently, making Squall wonder if her neck was going to snap any moment. "You're lying."
"Are you feeling ok?" he asked, now feeling genuinely concerned. If she really didn't believe that he was Squall, than they had a serious problem. He figured that maybe it was a side effect of her sickness. "Do you want me to get the doctor?"
"No…I want you to give me Squall back!" Her eyes were glowing now, either from unshed tears or maniacal anger.
"Yuffie…."
"ALIEN!!" At this point, Yuffie's abysmal memory was beginning to bother him. But before he could do any actions, she guffawed loudly, making no attempt to cover up the obvious racket she was making.
"I had you fooled, didn't I?" Squall's peremptory gaze told her enough. The young ninja let out another peal of laughter, her laughter seemingly idyllic and very out of place. He had expected her jokes to become mundane after awhile, but for some reason they never failed to amuse him.
"Sorry…the look on yer face was priceless!" Squall made a staid face. He was very high maintenance when it came to grammar, for some reason unknown to even him. It was difficult to talk to Yuffie at times because she said things so quickly and grammatically wrong that he could never understand what she really said. She could've been telling him about how Cid wore yellow teddy bear undies for all he knew.
"You shouldn't be playing such tricks in a hospital," he reprimanded her calmly. He caught a hint of a pout from her before continuing. "People might mistake your jokes as something serious."
"You're such a stiff," she practically interrupted him, looking pensively at the wall. 'He's so asinine!'
Yuffie suddenly grabbed a remote control on her bedside, clicking on the TV in front of her. Squall let out a sigh, turning his face away from the vapid piece of technology. He didn't understand what was so interesting about television sets; all the shows were useless and brain warping. He looked up in time to see Yuffie flip to a talk show, with two women arguing furiously on it, one man sitting in the middle. A feeling of distaste filled him. Yuffie noticed his sour look and looked back and forth from him and the depraved show.
"You're not into stuff like this?"
"You know the answer to that already," he said tepidly, fighting off the impetuous urge to unplug the set.
"Well you should at least try to like something on TV. There are other things I'm sure you'll be interested in."
"That's doubtful."
"Whatever you say Squallie."
A painfully poignant light shone into his eyes. Glancing at the window, he saw that the cloud's had parted, leaving the beaming sun to show up once again.
"The storm is over," he informed her, knowing she was too into the show to notice such a detail about her surroundings. She didn't answer for well over five minutes.
"Will you stop becoming one with the television! The storm is over. Besides, I do not find it appropriate for you to be watching a bunch of shit."
"Shit? Is that your new word? Cause I've heard you say worse before…but I won't say it of course 'cause then you'd get all angry…but you said some really bad ones when Cloud beat you that one time…and when you saw Sephiroth…" She continued to talk in that same speedy fashion, Squall not even trying to understand her.
Their so-called "quest" for a cure was about to begin.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: GOMEN!!! I am so sorry this chapter took so damn long. I have been really distracted. Yes, and I'm also sorry this chapter is so short. I wanted to put them leaving in the next chapter.
Also, please ignore the chapter problem. If you haven't noticed, it says I have one chapter more than I really do. I have tried to fix this, but obviously it didn't work.