For some reason, some strange reason, people seem to like this story.
So I've been motivated to update it.
After re-reading it and stuffles, to see if I remember the plot- I do.
My writing style will more likely then not be lacking, considering the long break from writing I have taken.
Btw, they don't have christmas off in this story. Kthzbye.
No spell check nor did I read over it much. Meh.
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YELLOW HAZE
C.H.A.P.T.E.R
XI
In the Lion's Den.
Merlin stood up, his cloak moving across his body like waves as he stared at Yuffie with those youthful eyes. "I am incredibly excited that you've agreed so easily." he spoke, a large smile on his features as he walked towards the door of his office.
Yuffie blinked as if dazed, tilting her head to one side much like a confused dog as a thought suddenly hit her. Had she actually ever said yes? Or had somewhere along the line, they had just introduced her into this in such a manner that she'd 'signed the dotted line' without even noticing?
Whatever, Yuffie wasn't one to care anyway.
"So within the week, I should have all preparations done for you. Until then, try and keep out of trouble." Merlin waved his hand, causing the door to open.
"Hey wait, Mer-man. If you can just wave your hand and open the door, then what's the point of standing up?" Yuffie asked with her hands on her hips, about to exit the room.
Merlin's eyes twinkled as he chuckled heartily. With a wave of his hand, he replied, his other hand resting on his hip. "Why child, what's the point of making your bed if you're just going to ruin it by sleeping in it again?" he paused, before he remembered. "If Cloud is your mentor, then he should probably be assisting you on your way home..."
Yuffie's face paled at the thought of the motorcycle. On one hand, it was friggen cool, but on the other hand, she didn't feel like puking again. "Please, God, no." she begged, hands clasping together as she shook them in front of Merlin's aged face.
"By foot- and get, get! Child, this conversation has gone on a little too long." he winked suddenly, before disappearing in a puff of smoke- giving her no way to reply.
Maneuvering her way through the house, she found herself to the front door and paused when she noted both Cloud and Squall staring at her, as if they'd just had a heavy and intense conversation.
"Woah," she spoke, winking at them. "I must have missed the make out." chuckling to herself, she awaited a response with both of her arms crossed in front of her chest.
And suddenly felt like she was staring into the faces of a pack of hungry wolves, or a pride of lions.
Feeling awkward for one of the first times in awhile, Yuffie started to back away slowly and rather carefully from the two silent teens.
Cloud moved off of the wall he had been leaning on, and for the first time, Yuffie admired the way he moved. It was swift, controlled, kind of like some sort of hunter. Most people walked rough and loud, but despite the combat boots Yuffie heard not one shuffle of his feet.
"Hey man, I can walk myself-" interrupted by Cloud opening the door and standing ominously behind her. "I guess not! In fact, I'm suddenly feeling heavily co-dependant. In fact, it's like by the seconds my independency is reducing by trilllllians!" she practically yelped as she jumped from the doorway to land onto the side walk, watching Cloud like one would watch a hungry wolf.
Cloud took each step with care and grace, as if he was walking in slow motion. There didn't seem to be any struggle in his step- it was so fluid that it stirred something in her.
She felt tense, like he was having some sort of effect on her. He seemed relaxed, but she could definitely tell that he and Squall had gotten into some sort of fight, some sort of disagreement that made him seem like he could snap at any moment.
It was like watching a living, breathing paradox.
Yuffie suddenly snapped out of her daze as she noticed Cloud was standing directly in front of her, staring at her quite openly. She made eye contact. For a moment, there was something there- the same thing that she'd seen when she had been in his bed, something raw and real. Then, his eyebrows narrowed and that part of him was closed off- causing Yuffie to snap her head back and turn swiftly.
She needed to get out of here.
Three days later, Yuffie had herself an almost completely finished project, only a few more days of being grounded, and a sinister suspicion that she was going to get jumped by heartless again.
It hadn't happened in a couple days, and hell, it made her life a little more exciting...
There was only one annoying thing in her life right now.
Yuffie sighed as she got of English class for lunch. Stretching out as the sea of students engulfed her. A swarm of moving bodies that paid her no mind, didn't care who she was.
Yawning loudly, her ear twitched as she over heard a conversation.
"Hey, it'll be a full moon is tomorrow. Do you wanna go looking for that Werechocobo that everyone's been talking about?"
"Like hell, everyone knows that's just a bunch of bs."
As the students passed, Yuffie suddenly brightened up. She'd completely forgotten about that chocobo in all this mess, and suddenly she wanted to get down to the bottom of this mystery.
The way that chocobo fought... It must have been trained... And if someone was training a chocobo to fight those heartless, then maybe someone should look into it.
Nodding but feeling like she was forgetting some sort of detail, she turned only to find her face colliding with leather. She was suddenly hit with a scent she couldn't place. A fine spice. Nutmeg, maybe?
She was pushed back harshly, almost getting whiplash as she stared up to make eye contact with Cloud. He looked awkward, as if he didn't know what he was doing or how to react to him bumping into her.
Cloud had been the thing annoying her this week. He seemed to be everywhere- she felt his eyes on her before she saw him, usually. It was like he felt that something was going to snatch her away any second and it was his responsibility to make sure she didn't get snatched. That was the hopeful side of her, the realistic side of her believed he just wanted to make sure she wasn't telling anyone about heartless or anything to that effect.
The silence was stretching on far too long, thus Yuffie spoke up. "What the hell, Spikes? I didn't even know you existed until like a month ago, and now you appear around every friggen corner like a never-disappearing-hood ornament."
Cloud didn't make a facial expression, but he did move his chin down, hiding his lips behind his trench coat's collar. He tried to speak, but he suddenly seemed meeker then Yuffie had ever seen him. Further more, his eyes were open, and the young ninja could see so much emotion behind there that it startled her.
He brushed past her, shoving his shoulder into her petite form. Grumbling, Yuffie folded her arms over her chest. She then made her way to her locker with a chip on her shoulder.
-----
As night began to fall, Yuffie stuck her head out of her window, feeling the cold breeze ruffling her hair. The air was rather warm for early January and Yuffie closed her eyes as she relaxed visibly. Tonight was the night of the full moon- and she was planning on finding that werechocobo, wherever it was.
As she began climbing out of her window, knowing Cid was completely passed out, her mind began to wonder. She knew she shouldn't be showing concern, but Cloud... He'd been a complete and utter klutz today. Yuffie had seen him three times- once, he fell twice going up the stairs, in a row. The second time, she'd seen him go to open his locker and watched as a mountain of stuff piled out. As it crashed to the floor, his facial expression was blank as he stood motionless for several moments. Then, he'd past her in the hallway and his method of walking was nothing like it usual was. It seemed jerky and quick- usually he'd walk through the sea of students and they would part for him with the ease of a knife going through hot butter. But today, his movements had been all about moving around everyone, like a wary animal.
Whatever, Cloud was none of her concern anyway.
It wasn't like he cared about her or anything.
The streets were empty, Yuffie found that strange. It was also eerily dark, the moon hidden behind a sea of clouds. The lack of light was no concern for Yuffie, though in the back of her mind she knew that it made it easier for heartless to sneak up on her.
She traveled to the park, Ansem Park to be precise. She felt a kind of dread in this pack now- now that she knew who Ansem was, what he stood for. Shaking these feelings off, Yuffie jumped up into a tree, pulling herself up with the ease of an assassin.
Which she was.
She poked her head out from the tangled branches, watching over the horizon as she waited for the sighting of the Werechocobo.
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"Yuffie!"
The black haired ninja's eyes snapped open, a shiver overtaking her from sitting still for so long. How long was she out? With the sudden panic one is overwhelmed with when being awoken suddenly; she stared around like a frightened animal.
Her head moved down and her eyes caught sight of Cloud, which for some reason she'd wonder back on in the days to come, filled her with a complete sense of relief. He was staring up at her, his expression pained yet so opened that it caused her to do a double take.
"Cloud-" she was interrupted by a yawn, moving her stiff muscles with a wince. "What're you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question." his words were biting, but his eyes still held that emotion. Why wasn't he closing up? She felt like she was seeing something she shouldn't... She suddenly felt dirty. "I went to your house to pick you up-"
"-Cid is going to kill me-"
"-But no one responded, so I decided to do a patrol." he interrupted coolly, closing his eyes as if he suddenly realized how alive they were. "Merlin wants you to swing by tomorrow. It was going to be tonight, but it's eleven already."
Holy, Cloud was talking a lot.
Cloud turned to take a step, but suddenly tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his own face. Yuffie reacted without thinking, leaping down from the tree and walking towards him with a chuckle.
Part of her was concerned, but mocking him made her feel better. Made her feel like she was in the same class as him. "Are your shoes tied together, Spikes?" she leaned forward and sneered at him.
He got up, slowly, as if he was struggling to maintain himself. But as he soon as he got onto two feet, he staggered to the left like a drunk. Yuffie tilted her head to the side, as Cloud started to pant a bit.
"Hey, Spikes... Are you alright?"
Cloud whipped his head and looked at Yuffie with so much intensity that it almost knocked her off of her feet. So many emotions swirled in those eyes, before they slowly dimmed. Although there was hardly the same amount of emotion in them then before, it was still more then Yuffie was used to. A silence stretched, one that Yuffie broke by both speaking and moving her gaze away from his.
"I'll take that as a no." Yuffie looked up, noticing that the clouds were thinning. The moon was still covered, but it was no where near as cloudy. "Com'on, Chocobo head. Let's get going."
Cloud made a sound Yuffie couldn't quite label, before falling after her with his jerky movements. "Don't ever call me that again." he spoke in his monotone, following on her heels practically.
Suddenly the air got heavy again, and both warriors froze. They knew the signs of what this meant- and they watched as the shadows rippled. Yuffie looked over her shoulder to Cloud, who she noticed for the first time was weaponless.
Did he actually come out expecting not to be attacked?
He grabbed her arm suddenly, causing Yuffie to squawk. "We have to go." his mouth and Yuffie knew this was completely unintentional, was right by her ear, causing her to pull her head away.
"Pfft, just because you're weaponless doesn't make you useless." Yuffie pulled her arm away, although nervous she wasn't about to back away from a fight, especially since her mysterious Werechocobo hadn't shown up. "Although you're moving like your drunk, too. But hell, you'll make a wonderful distraction!"
Cloud sent her a look of malice as twelve creatures of darkness ripped themselves into their world. It was twelve of those original heartless that Yuffie had first seen. "Eh, Spikes. What are these things, anyway?"
Cloud moved closer to her, making her feel small in his wake although he wasn't as impressive as usual. "Heartless." he spoke in complete and utter deadpan.
Wondering briefly if Cloud was trying to joke with her or not, she pulled out four shuriken from her sleeve. "I mean, did you name these heartless? Since there seems to be-" Yuffie moved to the side as one of the chubby heartless attacked, throwing three shuriken at it and watching it explode into a wisp of darkness.
"Shadows." Cloud backed away, his back against the tree as he watched four of the eleven shadows left approach him. His yellow eyebrows narrowed, as sweat dripped down from his brow... He was so weak, so tired...
"What the crap is wrong with you, Spikes?" Yuffie yelled over her shoulder as another 'Shadow' came at her. She dodged, delivering a downward kick that smashed it into the ground. She then stomped it with her heel, satisfied with it's demise. "Where is your game face? Your acting like a little girl that needs saving!" Yuffie pulled out eight shurikens from her shirt, throwing them at the shadows that were about to maul Cloud's face off.
Three out of the four exploded, leaving six left. Cloud moved forward as the remaining shadow out of the four that had cornered him charged, causing him to side step clumsily and elbow it across the back of it's skull. With a pant, the shadow exploded as he leaned his weight against the tree.
Yuffie pulled out two kunai as the final five surrounded her. A smirk came to her features as her grey eyes were hidden by her bangs. As they all leapt towards her, she spun away to the left, slicing through two of the remaining shadows.
Her heart was beating heavily in her chest; her breathing labored as she turned again and threw the kunai that she had been using as a blade. It stabbed into another one of the shadows, causing it to look at her. With a smirk of a well trained warrior she ran forward and kicked her foot in, driving the kunai deeper into the shadow's skull and causing it to explode.
"Aw, you play way too nice." Yuffie whined, tilting her head to the side. "I didn't even need any help to finish you." with that said, she dived forward and at the last moment flicked her rest, a kunai in each hand as she tore through them.
Standing up and turning around, she looked at Cloud hoping to gloat. Instead, his head was turned the other way. His eyes were half lidded, yet they seemed to look intensely behind the horizon. Sighing and pushing off of the tree, he looked to Yuffie as he began walking like a drunk out of the park.
Yuffie shrugged it off, walking behind the weakened warrior. "So, what do you think?" Yuffie asked, feeling smug. When she got no reply from the silent warrior, she took a couple quick steps forward until she was walking next to him. "I mean, you couldn't even do that in the state you're in."
They were walking past buildings now, out of the pack and guided by the false sense of safely that the street lights offered. Despite this, Cloud still left her without a reply- all she heard were his haggard breaths. "Are you sick?" she questioned, stepping in front of him and forcing him to stop. However, he kept his gaze to the ground as if referring to look at her.
Leaning forward, she reached out and placed her hand on his forehead. For a moment she felt the red hot flesh before in a movement that was quicker then her eye could see, Cloud reached around and grabbed her arm before his body slammed up against hers and pinned her to the nearby brick wall of a building. He leaned his head against the cool brick, his face by hers. His left hand pinned both of her arms above her head as he used his right arm to stabilize himself.
Suddenly she felt hot.
"Let's get this straight," he whispered huskily. Yuffie could feel his grip becoming loose and in this state she could definitely push past him- but why didn't she? "You don't touch me. Your skin does not make contact with mine. Do. You. Under. Stand?" his lips were right by her ear- for someone that didn't want her to be touching him, he was currently invading her personal space without regret.
Despite how weird of a thing that was to say, Yuffie nodded her head slowly. Cloud dropped his arms slowly, yet he made no movement to step away from her. His breath tickled her neck, yet she was too overwhelmed to move.
It felt like eons before she said anything.
"Uh, C-C-Cloud?" she questioned meekly, moving to pull away as she felt his dead weight against her. Looking up, she scowled as she pushed him off of her.
The little prick had passed out.
-----
It was memory that guided Yuffie to Cloud's house that night; it was her ninja skills that allowed her to pick the lock before dropping him on his front carpet before leaving.
It was luck that Yuffie got home before her Godfather woke up; it was her ninja skills that allowed her to sneak in undetected.
It was annoying that she had to wake up the next morning; it was excellent that it was a Saturday.
It was her ability at lying through her teeth that allowed her to get out of the house to go to Merlin's. It, however, was extremely awkward to have the door opened in front of her and the first thing to fall upon her line of vision to be a certain spiky haired warrior.
"Er, hey..." Yuffie trailed off and squeezed past Cloud, before turning to him and rubbing the back of her head. "How'd you sleep?"
Cloud sent her a look that instantly shut her up, walking past her as elegantly as ever- no sign of his sickness from yesterday. Stepping into the living room, she saw Squall reading the newspaper with his usual serious expression.
"Heya, Squalll!" Yuffie yelped quite cheerfully, pulling down the newspaper as she leaned forward.
Squall gave her a look of utter distain. "Le-"
"Yeah, whatever." she leaned back up, ignoring Cloud lurking in the shadows as she spoke. "Where's the Mer-man?"
"Right here!" Yuffie yelped and jumped backwards as Merlin appeared right next to her, her small little heart beating a marathon in her chest. Merlin took a sniff, before frowning visibly. "You smell like you've encountered Heartless lately." he studied her carefully, moving his glasses to get a better look at her. "But you look like you came out extraordinarily well." Merlin clapped his hands together, heading towards the far wall. "This excites me. Greatly. Now, Com'on you three."
Cloud stepped out of his place of lurking while Squall raised an thin, brown eyebrow. "You didn't hear me wrong, boy," Merlin continued, tapping the wall with his knuckles as a door appeared. "You'll be coming along for the ride, too."
Squall then too stood up, looking sour as the four of them traveling through the door- finding themselves in a training gym area, with a large sparring area in the center. Merlin clapped his hands together. "Excellent, now Yuffie, some more extensive training will begin." Merlin cast a glance, to a still scowling Squall.
"Well, Leon. If you don't want to be here so much, we'd best put you to use. You'll be training Yuffie." he pointed to Squall, whose eyebrows narrowed deeply before he walked past them all and into the center of the sparing area.
"I didn't think I'd be doing any work today, Merlin. Thus I do not have my-" he was interrupted by a poof of smoke, and when that smoke cleared in his hands he held his gun blade. Seeing this, Yuffie skipped forward into the sparing area and held her hands out expectantly.
"Begin." Merlin watched as both warriors hesitated, before Yuffie yelled out. "Hey! Why don't you do the poof-y-poof thing for me, too?"
"That is not the point of this exercise! Now, Leon, train against her like you would fight any heartless." Merlin's eyes lacked their usual mirth. For once, he seemed to be completely and utterly serious.
Cloud sent Merlin a side glance as he folded his arms over his chest before diverting his cool gaze to the sparing area as Squall ran foreword. Why was Merlin doing this? Squall was too good to go against weaponless, even more so when Squall himself had a weapon...
Yuffie jumped rolled to the side as Squall's gunblade missed her by an inch. As soon as she was on her feet, she was dodging a fury of slices that she knew could hit her easily if Squall wasn't holding back. She'd made a mistake- she had come here assuming that Merlin would have given her a weapon before anything like this- but, as she almost got cut by the razor sharp edge of Squall's gunblade, she was beginning to realize how much of a stupid mistake that had been.
But she still had some tricks up her sleeves.
Twitching her wrist, a ball object came into her hand and as Squall was about to slash at her again she threw it against the ground, causing smoke to well up around them.
Cloud covered his face with the inside of his arm and turned away as Merlin stood unmoving. Two grunts were heard and as the smoke cleared, Yuffie had used the two to clear a distance between her and Squall.
"Squall, you are holding back. That is exactly the opposite of what I requested!" Merlin shook his head, a frown on his features as Cloud sent him a side glance once again.
Squall sent Merlin a glance as he gripped his gun blade tighter. What could Merlin be getting at? He disliked Yuffie, but he had no inten- his eyes widened with realization as he made eye contact with Merlin.
At that moment, he knew the reason behind this.
Squall charged foreword as Yuffie flicked her wrist, causing two kunai to fall out of her sleeve. She threw one to her left and then threw one where he was going to be- her prediction was right; as he moved to the far left to dodge he was stabbed in the upper arm with her kunai.
He slowed to a skid then pulled the kunai out with a grunt, blood rushing to the surface that he ignored. He charged forward again, causing Yuffie to dodge to the left.
"Fire!" The shout caught Yuffie off guard as she ran directly into a ball of fire that smashed into her upper shoulder. She managed to get away before her caught any of her hair, but the side of her arm was burnt bad and made her grit her teeth.
Cloud's eyes widened as he moved forward a bit, only to hear Merlin's voice. "Do not interrupt this, Cloud." as Yuffie barely ducked a slice towards her throat, she found herself very unlucky to get the blunt end of Squall's gunblade against her jaw.
Cloud's hands clenched into fists as Merlin began talking. "If you cannot watch this, Cloud, then everything you worked for will end."
Yuffie spat out blood as Squall charged forward. The ninja pulled out another kunai and attempted to stab him, only for him to raise his arm against her forearm and block it.
"If she is to join this organization, she will be taken beyond pain that Squall could ever put her through."
Yuffie let out a cry as she kicked her foot into his knee, giving her arm time as a surprised Squall looked up. Eight shurikens and a kunai came flying towards him. Like lightening he moved, throwing up a guard by blocking the onslaught of metal with his gunblade. The sound of metal hitting metal rung out, as two of the shurikens nuzzled themselves into his shoulder.
"And if you risk your life trying to save her..."
Yuffie landed with her back turned to foe, feeling the pressure as she turned quickly to find a charging Squall behind her. She threw three more kunai that Squall blocked with his Gunblade, reflecting them to the sides as he swung across. Yuffie dodged barely, and was sliced across the arm as she wasn't so lucky. Kicking Squall's knee, she managed to cause him to stagger back as she reached into her sleeve.
"You will lose not only your life, but hers as well."
She was all out of metal to throw.
Throwing a punch that was blocked by Squall, she received one across the jaw that sent her flying back. She skidded across the ground, her sneakers digging in to the hard wood floor as she panted heavily, collapsing onto one knee.
"Enough! Good show, good show!" Merlin clapped his hands together; speaking under his breath so only Cloud could hear. "I will let you decide what you will make of this lesson, but you inability to act will only make you both suffer more."
Merlin stepped forward as Squall wiped his brow, "So, Yuffie, do you understand what you maybe up against? Just because it's been all Shadows and Knights until now, doesn't mean there aren't more powerful heartless out there."
Yuffie spat out blood again, her eyes for once intense with the after-battle rage. "Next time, give me a weapon and maybe I'll show you something you haven't seen before."
Merlin chuckled heartily, the mirth returning to his eyes. "And that next time will be in about five minutes. Cure!" a warm light swallowed Yuffie, as if all the weight on her shoulders was gone.
Standing up, Yuffie felt completely fine. That's when it hit her. "Oy, Squally, how were you able to throw that fireball? I've never seen anything like it, except from, well, Merlin..."
Merlin chuckled once more. "They'll explain it to you as your training continues. Cloud, Squall, I'll leave her training to the two of you. Tootles!" in a puff of smoke, the wizard disappeared- in his wake, an incredibly awkward silence.
Yuffie looked from Squall to Cloud and once again felt small and puny. Cloud looked completely dead, but she felt like there was so much going on under the surface. Squall, on the other hand, who was currently leaning on his gunblade, seemed smug about something. Squall and Cloud then shared a look, before looking away to stare at Yuffie.
Yuffie suddenly felt like a sheep in the lion's den.
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More then likely to have mistakes. Didn't spell check. Don't have use for a beta. Well, that's a lie. Don't deserve a beta with my lack of updates. Will probably come back and fix this.
If anyone made a request that you don't think I replied to because of my not being here- re make it and I'll more then likely not do it, but my heart will be there and if I am really back, I will.
Previews of next chapter;
"I wonder what it's like to die like that…"
"You're just a child. Don't even try to correct me."
"You'll have to make a decision. This world or the other one. But I warn you, you cannot leave this world intact, and if you do you will be leaving something behind you may never get back."