A/N: another one. something sweet to chew on before the violence resumes. Deling is a dark place.
It had been fairly easy to break away from the other immigrants once the pair had made it clear they would not be compelled to do more than they already had. The two SeeD had to walk away from people doing more work, smuggling turning into trafficking was not what they were here to fight, no matter how distasteful. The smuggler was a SeeD contact and they couldn't afford to antagonize him, according to Squall. Fujin had wanted to beat him as a lesson. Later, he said.
Walking the streets Squall fell back and followed Fujin, who had raised her head scarf again. The air was dirty and Squall quickly found his nose and throat tickling and scratching. He tried to be subtle about coughing until he saw others openly doing so and just let it go. It didn't help for more than a few moments. Squall had worried that openly carrying a weapon might attract the wrong kind of attention but as they walked he saw that though most of them were a lot smaller than theirs nearly everyone was openly armed. From knives on the thigh to a few better dressed people with fancifully decorated firearms in worked leather holsters. Some people were not obviously armed, many of them traveled in groups. Some of them were conspicuously unarmed because their bodyguards were not.
Fujin was laser guided though. She walked in from the outskirts and took precise turns. Squall followed without a word, he imagined that he would find out what needed to be known when it became important. They stopped in front of a fairly run down building, a group of people not dissimilarly dressed to Squall hovered around the door. As they approached hands subtly shifted toward belts and blades. Squall held down the instinct to do the same because Fujin didn't react. He stuck close to her as she walked past them into the building with barely a glance at the group. The inside of the building was in similar condition. The lights were almost all on, the rugs were dirty, the finish on the wooden floors was worn away in most places. She lead them up two floors past a great number of open doors, conversations in the hallways. Normal people like you'd find anywhere for the most part.
Almost nobody had weapons in here. Just the people that Fujin had modeled Squall's appearance after, Toughs. There was at least one of them lurking in each hallway, often sitting in a chair. Without fail every one of them gave Squall a challenging look, and without fail he icily ignored them. Fujin seemed to arrive where she was headed, stopping sharply. It was an unassuming door on the side of the building that faced an alley, she turned the handle without hesitation. It was locked, rather than bothering her she nodded sharply and kept climbing to the top floor. At the top the building was nicer, the floors less worn out, the lights didn't flicker. Though there was still a tough sitting in a chair in the hallway. Fujin walked up to a door and knocked firmly and loudly. Music inside stopped but nothing happened for a minute, Fujin knocked again, more forcefully. The tough at the end of the hallway looked like he was getting ready to stand up. Squall turned his head to consider the man who may well have been older than him. They stayed in a kind of stalemate while Fujin glared a hole in the door until it finally opened.
"What the~ oh. You again. Let me guess, you lost another key?" The man said he was middle aged, imposing once but now going to fat around the middle. His arms were still strong though and he wore a small well groomed mustache. As he turned around grumbling and closed the door it showed off a growing bald spot on the back of his head. This interaction seemed to be enough for the tough who settled back down in his chair. In a minute the man came back out with a small bowler hat on his head and a ring of keys in his hand. He brushed past Fujin without care, muttering to himself. Squall shook his head but followed without commentary. They'd managed to avoid saying one word so far, Fujin hadn't even nodded her head at his question, as though it were a given. Which apparently it was.
Following the man downstairs people got out of his way as they walked. Squall noted a lot of dark glares at the man when his back was turned.
"You would turn up at Six Fucking AM, Lee." The man said seemingly talking to Fujin who shrugged by way of answer. Squall filed the name away.
"And you're behind on rent again, the fuck have you been for the last month!? You owe, and I expect it by tomorrow." He said shoving the key in the door of the locked apartment and throwing the door open so it rebounded against the wall. Fujin stuck her hand in a pocket and pulled out a precisely folded stack of Gil. She thrust it out hitting him in the shoulder far more gently than it seemed she wanted to. He pulled back then snatched the bills and counted them on the spot. Muttering under his breath.
"Fine, whatever. On the fifth next month." The man said turning to stalk away, Fujin reached out and grabbed him as he tried to leave. Her grip made him wince. He paused, struggled with the key ring and pulled one of a small stack of keys off and thrust it over his shoulder at her. She took it almost daintily.
"THANKS." she said with a sharp tone. He grumbled, pulling his arm out of her grip and stomping away back toward the upstairs.
Stepping inside the apartment Squall followed her before dropping her bag in the middle of the floor, turning around to close and lock the door behind them before letting out a deep sigh. Squall looked around taking in the bare walls with a few errant stains that seemed old and had marred the drywalling. A desk stood against one wall,l with a phone on it connected to an answering machine advertising thirty seven messages. The rest of the space was nearly bare open floor, There were no pictures, no nick-nacks, just bare walls and floors. A cheap looking stamp metal table, a well-used ashtray rested on it, with a similarly styled chair stood neatly pushed in. The "kitchen", really just a small area of linoleum around an anorexic looking refrigerator and a four burner stove top beside a sink with about three square feet of countertop. The garbage can was empty of a bag and standing right next to the table. In the, well, what would be the living room there was nothing beside the desk, not even a chair. He could see two plain doors, one led into an obvious bathroom judging by the tile, the other he presumed was the bedroom. The air was dead and stale with the lingering smell of cigarette smoke clinging desperately to the dust.
"Home?" Squall asked skeptically, Fujin walked over to the table holding her elbow.
"ABSENT." she muttered. She punched the button on the answering machine with one finger perhaps too harshly. Squall awkwardly stood in the middle of the room as a voice started speaking, it was a man who identified himself as Jeb. He was trying to get in touch with "Lee" about some kind job at the coast. She was hitting delete even as he spoke, the answering machine obligingly removed it with a beep, cutting the man off. So it went as Squall walked around the ascetic apartment. He spun the ashtray slowly on the table, apparently it had originally belonged to a place named "Albert's". He didn't ask if she had purchased it. He walked to the refrigerator and opened it. The inside was completely barren aside from a bottle of dark mustard and a small container of vinegar.. Squall closed the refrigerator, his hand paused on the handle. He wasn't sure what he had expected. She said she wasn't really here. He opened up the cupboard under the sink, finding a jar of cleansing powder, one small pot, one small kettle, a metal glass, a very large mug, and a small bowl with one spoon, three forks, and one small paring knife resting in it. All of them had a fine layer of dust on them. He closed the cupboard and walked over to hover over her as she was deleting old messages one by one, usually as soon as she heard the name. As he stepped up to her she turned to face him tapping the machine to pause its playback. He looked at her, as she looked back and her eye slid back down to the answering machine. She shifted her weight conspicuously from one foot to the other and let go of her elbow to lean on the desk. She glanced back up at him, which drew his eyes back to hers. They both fell again. She sighed and huffed quietly and tapped a finger on the desk before speaking in a whisper.
"ALONE." her tone was guarded, and the red color slowly climbing up her neck and out from her cheeks told him clearly of her embarrassment. He waved a hand subtly, brushing away her comment. She hit the button on the answering machine a moment later to avoid having to say more. The messages resumed and she continued to delete them. There were a variety of voices. Men and women, younger and older. A few much more frequent than others. As time went on some of the voices got more angry but she continued deleting them until she got to the last week. Two days ago someone named Venta had left a polite message requesting a call back to schedule a meeting about a delivery of daffodils.. Fujin frowned fiercely.
"Geezard?" Squall's eyebrow rose up with the soft question. Fujin shook her head subtly.
"GANGER. LINK." She said leaving the answering machine paused and dialing the phone. Standing so close Squall could hear the ringing in the relative quiet of the apartment. It rang four times before someone picked up.
"Venta flowers, how may I help you?" The voice was a young woman, not the same who left the message, but the name was the same. Fujin's response was crisp and sure.
"DAFFODILS." she said and the woman on the other end started audibly bobbling the phone a moment.
"Oh! A-alright, um, right. One moment please!" The woman said and the line was taken up by quiet piano music. About one minute later a man with a familiar voice picked up.
"Lee? I was beginning to think you'd finally gotten in over your head." He said with a friendly but cold tone, distant. Fujin rolled her eye at Squall.
"WORK." She answered and he sighed dramatically.
"Always business with you, alright, how soon can you get to the shop?" he asked, dropping the friendly tone entirely. Fujin immediately seemed more comfortable.
"FREE." she answers after a quick look in Squall's direction.
"Good, I'll be looking for you at around seventeen then." Before he could hang up, Fujin made a noise that gave him pause.
"ANOTHER, TOGETHER." she added. He was silent for a beat.
"You're bringing someone else? Do they have any experience gardening?" He asked with a careful tone.
"YES." It was Venta's turn to make an interested noise and then hang up. Fujin went to her bag, opened it and made a few choice selections, adjusting her tactical harness and rifling through her identification, she paused tapping a card and looked back at Squall.
"NAME?" she ventured, Squall, put on the spot, rapid fired through a number of names he'd heard in the past rejecting each of them in turn before blurting out the first one he felt comfortable with.
"Uh, Vincent." Fujin nodded sharply and hooked a thumb at herself with a questioning expression.
"Lee, if it's the same one you gave the guy I presume is the landlord?" She nodded.
"DELING." Squall nodded comprehendingly. The two of them left the apartment, locking it, bringing only what they needed with them.
By mutual agreement they stopped into a convenience store on the way across town, already pushing nine o'clock, hopping off a free public bus. They had been taking a circuitous route through the city. Fujin quietly pointing out landmarks and streets. They had picked up a town map from a shop when Squall had mentioned feeling hungry she had gotten a look and hopped off the bus. Fujin beelined through the shop to the refrigerated cases, opening it and pulling out a can then pointing toward the row. She'd indicated a row of what looked to be meal replacements in a can, some kind of vitamin drink. The one she selected looked to be some sort of berry flavor, after a brief examination and a tentative look at the selection chose something called Grandidi Dew, hopefully something named after a forest would be mild enough. Squall ended up paying for them, finding them humorously low priced. Fujin's was open before she left the store and had taken a long pull, as she watched him out of the corner of her eye.
Squall tentatively opened his and would describe the bouquet of the thing he held as radioactive. His first sip made him pull back with shock. The drink was thick like a slushie, the flavoring agents were artificial, entirely so. Some kind of near-citrus flavor combined with a cloying amount of sugar and judging by the buzzing on his tongue it was fairly acidic. The only real world analogue he could conceive of was that it tasted the way licking a battery felt.
"Eugh!? What!?" Squall grunted rubbing his tongue across the roof of his mouth
Committing to drinking the thing he spent money on he pulled back the can and looked at the nutrition information to try to convince himself it was a good idea. It was very nutritious. He'd seen meal replacement bars with less protein and carbohydrates. It had everything a worker would probably need for a moderate day of labor. The enormity of the resealable can suddenly made sense. Twenty ounces, he took a second sip. It was not as shocking now he knew what to expect. The drink rolled over his tongue, cloying and heavy. It was almost soothing going down his throat while cold. His stomach didn't quite know what to do with it. It settled better with the third sip.
"BETTER?" Fujin asked, sipping more at the drink. Watching him with undisguised interest.
"It's…. Not as horrible as the first time." he says mumbling into the can. He pulled the can back and looked at the ingredients. Hyne almighty, that's a lot of caffeine. Looking down the list, that was a tremendous amount of vitamin B as well. He took another sip.
"It's offensive." He mutters, but yet. He took another sip, despite himself. Somehow, the cloying sweetness, the sharp electric acidic flavor, the thickness. It… works.
He takes another sip, a frown on his face, and yet, he can't stop.
Fujin guided them unerringly through the city, his brief foray into Deling previously had given him a false impression of the place. With grey clouds hanging close, and a light rain drizzling constantly down over them, it leant a sinister cast to the city even without the sorceress looming over it like a titan. There was a hostile quality to the streets themselves, empty of people even this early in the day around fourteen hundred, they had stopped at a small cafe and spent money on finger food for lunch. Something Squall appreciated, that strange thick drink had never quite settled right and left him feeling jittery and off kilter the whole morning . They moved quickly through the nicer neighborhood the destination was located in. They moved slower in this part of town. The one place he already knew was the space around the central park and the arc. She hadn't asked questions, just pointed and questioned what he knew. Important people lived in this part of town and it showed. The buildings had small yards and stone walls, the windows were thin and tall, every building a fortress of the elite. Walking the streets had its own kind of hazard around here, in the form of honest to god military presence. Keeping their eyes ahead past the soldiers in the street on patrol. They barely received a glance as they went for the first hour, but as time crept by they started to draw more and more eyes. Luckily time had not stopped and the time for their appointment had approached. Little by little Squall found himself mimicking the half hunched look of the people he was modeled after. Fujin's head wrap took on a new practical angle as they traveled and Squall wondered about investing in a hat.
Before too long they had slipped into an unassuming stand alone shop bearing a familiar name at around seventeen hundred the end of the business day and the dark grey sky slowly sinking toward black. Fujin forestalled the young woman at the counter with a glance and Squall rode her wake into the rear of the shop. Flowers in various arrangements and chilling rooms filled the space by and large. However a heavy wood door labeled unassuming 'Office' was Fujin's goal. She paused outside it so smoothly Squall nearly collided with her. She knocked firmly twice and then waited. Squall sunk back into a rest as he took in the back, a side door, the way back out, pruning implements and potted plants under growing lamps dominated much of the space. It was about a minute by Squall's reckoning when the door opened and a thin face with strong cheekbones and square glasses perched on an imperial looking nose opened the door.
"Ah, Lee, and associate." Venta said, sizing up both of them from behind the door which he pushed open.
"VINCENT." Fujin corrected, Venta nodded and pulled back. It was at least two inches thick and as they walked through and Squall pulled it closed it was quite heavy as well.
"Vincent then." he allowed as he walked to a fine wooden desk stacked with papers and sat down.
"I was hoping I would get your attention. I have a particularly stubborn bit of business, and was hoping to have it resolved quickly." Venta said picking through a number of folders on his desk. He slipped one out with delicate, fine boned fingers and opened it smoothly. Squall stood by watching the interplay, Fujin remained standing despite a wooden chair being available so he stood as well.
"Here… yes." Venta slid a photograph out of the folder and across the desk. Fujin stepped up and picked up the photo, Squall leaned over her shoulder to get a look at the person. It was taken from a distance with a telephoto lens, probably unaware. A young-ish woman with hair in braids of many sizes held back behind her head and a wild look in her eyes.
"BRAIDS." Fujin says simply, Squall glances at her as Venta nods.
"You've heard of her. Wild card that's finally found its suit." the hawkish man intones with venom.
"About twelve followers, word is they've acquired a benefactor somewhere in the city." Venta intoned venomously.
"And rumor has it Braids herself has been seen performing feats that are, in a word, unnatural." Venta's words made Squall bristle. There was possibility in those words, and he was fairly keen to find the bottom of them. Luckily it seemed like Fujin was already inclined toward this guy so he could stay silent. She spoke up then.
"FIFTY." Venta shocked back a bit.
"Thirty-five, not a coin more." He tapped loudly on the table. Fujin rubbed the picture with her thumb and looked at Squall for the first time since they'd walked in. He kept his face carefully neutral. She loudly snorted.
"RISK. FORTY-ONE." She declared, throwing the picture back down on the table. Venta leaned back in his chair and looked from Fujin to Squall. He met the man's gaze without issue.
"...Fine, but if any of them get away consider this the end of our relationship." Venta said slamming closed the file and sliding it across the table.
"I have business far beyond botanicals to run and I will not have some cheese-brained upstart roughing up my associates." Venta said, pulling up a piece of paper and scribbling chicken scratch shorthand all over it. Fujin tucked the folder under her arm and nodded to Venta who scowled.
"You and Vinny here better produce results." Venta spent more of his time eyeing Squall now.
"TIMEFRAME?" Fujin queried, Venta's eyes slid off Squall and he chewed on it a moment.
"A week, I have some important work that needs to be absolutely secure and those thugs absolutely can't threaten it." The man said putting his hands on the table setting the folder back down and spreading out the pictures and pages the briefing was fixing to last a bit longer than that. Squall took it upon himself to listen at least as closely as Fujin to learning about the person who they were supposed to murder.
As the door closed behind them Fujin huffed, and swatted Squall in the chest with the folder. Opening it he started pursuing the notes he had written, a few addresses, some names and a number of fairly blurry pictures depicting a group of individuals. A lot of the information was fairly useless. Not too unusual, not the mission he'd have picked given the option all told.
"Looks like trouble." He said simply enough. Fujin rolled her eye.
"KNOW." she said catching his eye.
"You know Braids?" he asked speculatively. Fujin nodded slightly, looking unimpressed.
"Well then let's go knock this out." he said closing the largely uninformative folder.
"COMPLEX." Fujin commented, sounding annoyed. Squall snorted derisively.
"Figures. Whatever, the day is falling off anyway." He says scratching the back of his neck. Fujin exaggerated a waver on her feet as well. Squall chuckled at her acting as they headed toward the street, Squall fell in behind her as they waited for the bus together.
One thing Deling had for it was top notch public transit at least. The bus arrived within 10 minutes despite the very late hour and they were on the way back to her apartment. The buses are largely empty but the two of them still sit beside each other, less than an inch apart. When the bus turns they brush against each other. Fujin holds herself unnaturally stiff, Squall leans his elbows down on his knees letting his head droop. He can read in her that she's just as tired as he is, though she carries it with a paranoid vigilance while his mind wanders some. Within him the voices of the guardians roil, wordless pressure reaching out to the environment.
"It's been a long day."Squall said softly, his voice rising and falling with his breathing as he talked straight down into the floor of the bus.
"SAT." Fujin added with a momentary sag.
"I wish I'd been able to sleep." Squall admitted.
"DID." Fujin said turning her head slightly to regard him and he lifted his head with a confused face.
"Huh." was all he managed, She got a small smirk and exhaled out her nose.
The spoken conversation died there. But small movements and the folder moving slightly back and forth from one of them to the other continued it. Admissions of exhaustion, a question about stopping for real food, then finally the last few blocks walk to the apartment complex where they entered past the empty stoop. The halls were much more quiet, the voices lower.
The presence of the whole building was quieter. As Fujin unlocked the door a glass shattered against the wall of the apartment next door and there was a small shriek that immediately went silent. After a shared glance they walked inside the apartment. Squall pulled off his jacket and sheath and immediately straightened just slightly as he set it down against the wall with his bag.
Fujin began peeling off her outer layers leaving her in a white undershirt as she paused in the doorway, going ramrod stiff. Squall walked up behind her, his footsteps unnaturally loud in the relative silence of night. He looked over her shoulder hesitantly.
"What?" He asked softly. She jumped a little bit and walked into the room, undoing her belt and tossing it along with her other clothes into a small pile near the wall. He realized he had not seen the bedroom, it was as spartan as the rest of the house. Inside was a double bed with a fitted sheet left on it, the comforter and top sheet left hanging from a long line strung across the room. She pulled them down and cast them casually over the bed. In the corner of the room under the window was a collection of various sized buckets of different diameter and depth as well as a collection of sticks poking out of them. A closet stood open with a collection of clothes in it, not terribly dissimilar to what she wore now in more colors. At the back corner he saw the sleeve of a familiar jacket.
Only one bed, and not a big one. He'd never shared a bed with anyone before, people had some pretty interesting ideas about what he and Rinoa's relationship had been like but she had insisted they were too young to be getting physically involved. He hadn't argued. That was how many things in that relationship had gone, Rinoa had made a declaration and he hadn't argued.
He loosened his belt and sat down next to his bag with his legs fully stretched out. His head made a thumping noise when it touched the wall. He'd let Fujin have the first shower and the bed, it was her apartment. He'd slept in worse positions. Fujin walked past him with a towel in her arms and threw it at him before taking the one under it into the shower with her. He snorted in amusement as he heard the water start through the thin walls. He closed his eyes and relaxed his body part by part. It was an old exercise. He'd mastered it many years ago and it helped him sleep. Apparently he'd slept on the transport from Timber. That had surprised him judging by how he felt at the end of it.
Fujin's shower lasted a while, he couldn't blame her, he felt pretty grimey himself, even though he didn't have clean clothes to change into. He'd have to wash some in the shower. He had a laundry bar tucked in the bottom of his bag for just such needs. When she came out wrapped up in her towel and only mostly damp instead of dripping he kept his head turned until she made it into her bedroom and walked into the bathroom with his shirts and one pair of pants. He took a long shower, not just for himself, he had a lot less hair now but he felt the need to get the spaces between his toes and scrub his legs.
He sang quietly to himself as the water fell, a habit from long before he was commander. It was soothing to him, he knew privately that he was at least somewhat good at it, Rinoa had told him as much. However he was still fairly shy about the talent. It was something he personally liked, not a talent to spread around. The air in the city left him feeling gritty and it was just unacceptable. Eventually though he had to get out of the warm water. He took the time to give his clothes a wash, hanging them up in the open tile of the bathroom wherever he could to dry after wringing them out as best he could.
He put on his other pair of jeans. Without his boots on he walked out into the chilly apartment and shivered lightly before adjusting his junction and banishing the chill. He looked over at the open bedroom door where Fujin walked about hurling her towel out of the bedroom to smack wetly in the middle of the floor. He let out a sharp huff of laughter at her cavalier treatment of the apartment. After a minute or so of walking around her bedroom Fujin's head poked out with just slightly damp hair.
"BED." she said one hand on the doorframe looking at him meaningfully.
"It's yours I'll be fine." he said resting shirtless against the wall, his legs at full extension. She looked over him a moment then walked out, she was wearing a very oversized t-shirt that may as well have been a dress on her. It had the logo for what Squall imagined was probably a band on it.
"Where did you get a shirt that big?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity. She grabbed it between her fingers, tugging it away from herself to look at it.
"CONCERT." she said casually letting it drop again, turning her face back to him to catch him looking at her legs. She wiggled her toes self-consciously.
"WHAT?" jolting Squall out of his reverie.
"Oh, you don't shave your legs." he said distantly. Fujin did not blush, she refused to. It was just a casual observation. And furthermore, why should she, she preferred pants anyway, as long as everything was neat, what was the issue. She noticed she was staring at her own legs and looked up to find Squall looking her in the eye.
"FLOOR?" she asked, rising back to her usual straight posture.
"I'll be fine, I've slept worse places than smooth wood." Fujin could concede that, they both had. She found her eyes wandering down to his bare chest and shoulders. He didn't even have gooseflesh, after a moment's consideration she realized that he probably had adjusted his junctions to resist the chill of the lacking insulation. She was also quietly impressed by his fighter's physique. He wasn't some toned out body builder but he was solidly built, a warrior, a light amount of fat softened his lines and gave him a solidity that others lacked. Catching herself admiring made her feel worse about taking the only bed, they'd both lived hard lives and deserved comfort where they could find it. If she'd have considered she might have a guest she'd have gotten a bedroll at a surplus shop. Making up her mind she walks over and grabs Squall by the shoulder; pulling him to his feet. He makes a squawk-like noise of protest as she starts hauling him toward the bed. After stumbling he followed sedately enough, a frown on his face but his mouth closed. Standing him in front of the bed she stepped back and with both hands shoved him onto the bed.
"Fujin, I'm not…" he started as she walked around the other side of the bed and pulled back the covers and climbed in without a word. He awkwardly shifted, laying on top of the comforter a moment before she started jerking it out from under him until he stood up and she folded back the sheets and comforter before pointing firmly at the bed. Squall, yet again, didn't argue. He pulled the covers over his jeans until it was up to his shoulders. And laid his hands out from his body, his legs just slightly apart. It was a little odd, probably, but he found it comfortable. Fujin, in a moment of scurrying movement turned off the lights of the apartment and then slid back into bed with a huff. Pulling the covers up to her shoulder she hunched onto her side and curled just a little. Her arms wrapped around the pillow.
Squall lay in the darkness, his eyes closed and considered the day and everything that had happened. He slipped in and out of consciousness. Every time there was some sound outside the window, the phantom feeling of touch against his hand, soft crying through the walls, boots on wood, a distant siren, he would rouse, half awake and drift for some amount of time. There was no clock, so he couldn't be sure how long. He found himself frequently looking over at Fujin, or rather, the top of her head, her face having slowly migrated under the covers. She moved a lot in her sleep he'd noticed on the carrier, and here. She was restless, seemingly all the time no matter how still she stayed still when she was awake.
He wondered if she was just used to it all. He considered her strength. All the hidden parts of her she'd been so careful to conceal behind a solid front. He'd come to see through much of it. She was much as expressive as others, but she showed it very differently. Or rather, she concealed everything but the darker emotions, pleasure, embarrassment, shyness. They all hid behind an outward show of anger and stoicism. He could understand that feeling, hell he could empathize. He'd only spent how long pretending to be as cold as the tiles he walked on day after day in Garden?
The longer he was around her though, the more he realized what a liar she was. And how interesting it made her. As he learned her tells, and how to read her very unique nonverbal language, he recognized something in it all. He wouldn't put a name to it, but his reclaimed memories had shown him where it came from for him. It had let him slip free of his isolation. He could thank Rinoa for that at least. Getting him to recognize his own trauma and how deeply, darkly lonely he had been; pretending he needed no one. He faded out of consciousness, falling into a fitful sleep, dreaming of faces fading away into dark.
Fujin would wake up whenever she felt Squall tense. It transferred through the bed to her. She hadn't shared a bed with anyone since... Since she couldn't remember, ever maybe. Her spine would tingle as she felt him turn his head. He took up a little more than half the bed. She was precisely aware of the position of him in the dark because when she shifted in her sleep and touched him she would start awake and pull away, waking him and she would just have to pretend to be asleep until his breathing evened back out and she could relax.
She didn't know why she kept slowly inching toward him, but it kept happening and it was extremely mortifying to keep waking him up when the hot ghost of his fingers brushed her. It wasn't always her fault but it gave her sleep addled mind time to consider. To think why she'd been so eager to do this. Was it a desire for some kind of reclamation? Just wanting to be doing something? Was it that she wanted someone to follow again? No. There was something else. She couldn't put her finger on it. She cared about it all. It wasn't just that it was what she had dedicated more than half her life to Garden. It was a deep thought. And an uncomfortable one. Deeply, somewhere inside her a voice whispered, you're tired of being a useless little girl.
Fujin squeezed her eye shut, the empty socket buried against the pillow burned like a brand and she finally gave up and focused inward, putting herself to sleep magically, just to stay asleep. To please stop thinking.
Sometime, when the window was still dark, Squall's eyes opened again. But he felt different. Warm, almost floating. He looked blurrily around the apartment seeing nothing amiss, but then felt something warm blow against his shoulder and looked down to see that Fujin had turned and was laying over his arm, her cheek resting on his chest. The shock of her hair obstructing his view of her entirely. He could feel that she had lain across his leg, still curled nearly in half, her face was blazing hot against his skin and her every breath sent a gentle tickle across his stomach. He paused, the ghost of a frown on his face, he lay his head back down and closed his eyes. He would decide how he felt about this in the morning.
A/N: this chapter was originally very different, but the end of it came from a realization that Fujin would never have had a reason to have more than one place to sleep. what was the need? Anyone who guesses the purpose of the buckets gets a shout out.