Author's Note: Okay, here's the next chapter. You know the drill. Read and Review. Once again, I would like to take this time to thank all the reviewers so far: VL, Snowri, Rainy Diamond, Annjirika, Yuffie-Penn, and Jakotsu-aniki.
Disclaimer: do I really need to say it again? Okay, you win. I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I had no part in the making of it. If I did, I would have kept Squall for my very own :) Square and Disney own Kingdom Hearts (lucky ducks)
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Chapter Seven: Mistakes
Leon awoke to find his young partner sitting at the small table, drinking a cup of coffee, a smile playing across her lips. He briefly wondered if her memory had returned, but decided she would have awakened him if it had. Good. I still have a chance to give a good impression. Sitting up, he stretched and yawned, "Good morning, Yuffie. Did you sleep well?"
Startled, Yuffie looked around guiltily. "I slept fine, Sq-, Leon." She prayed he didn't hear her near slipup. But apparently, he was still too sleepy to notice. Sighing with relief, she continued, "How about you?"
"Yeah, I slept straight through the night, which is odd. I normally wake up in the middle of the night," he said.
"Why? What wakes you up?" she asked, curiously.
"Sometimes you have nightmares and it wakes me up," he admitted.
Gulping, Yuffie looked at him with wide eyes. I wake him up when I have the nightmares? But he never complained. Not once. And he always complains about everything I do. Coming out of the trance she had fallen into, she apologized. "I'm sorry about that. I wish I could remember what they were about." Liar, she told herself, you remember very well what they were about.
"Don't worry about it, Yuffie. It doesn't bother me." He ran his hands through his shaggy brown hair, thinking, damn, she looks uptight today. "Yuffie, are you alright? You look kind of nervous."
Looking at her cup of coffee, and steeling her nerves, she replied "Who? Me? I'm not nervous. What makes you think I'm nervous?" Silently she sarcastically added, of course I'm nervous, you idiot. I'm pretending to have amnesia in order to win your love. What could possibly make me nervous?
"Okay, Yuffie. I believe you." Leon looked longingly at the coffee she was drinking, he asked, "Did you happen to bring me any coffee?"
"Of course, I did. You didn't think I would forget about you, now do you?" she said playfully, as she went to get his coffee that she had sat on the windowsill. As she handed it to him, her hand brushed against his. "Uh, here you go," she managed to stammer out. Yuffie, she chastised herself, you've touched him before and have never gotten so worked up about it. What's so different now?
"Thank you," he said softly, still standing in front of her. He stared down at her wide eyes, losing himself in their depths. Kiss her, damn it, he told himself. Just as he was about to follow his own orders, the door burst open, revealing a beaming Aerith.
"Good morning, guys! I hope you slept well," Aerith gushed, not noticing the look of annoyance spreading across Leon's face.
Yuffie silently cursed Aerith. He was about to kiss me! I could see it in his eyes. And you just had to come barging in here and interrupt us!? But one look at Aerith's radiant face, and Yuffie instantly forgave her. Composing herself, she smiled sweetly and said, "Good morning to you as well, Aerith. And, to answer your question, I slept perfectly fine."
"But how are you today? Any memories yet?" Aerith asked hopefully. "Anything at all? Even just the tiniest little memory?"
Laughing nervously, Yuffie managed to falter out, "No, nothing yet." I hate myself for doing this. It's one thing to mess with Squall's mind. But it's another thing entirely to lie to Aerith. If she finds out, she'll be terribly upset. "I'm sorry, Aerith. I'm trying," she lied.
"It's okay. I know you can't help it," the Flower Girl soothed, adding to Yuffie's self-loathe. "But, anyways, the reason I came in here was to find out if anyone wanted to join Cloud and I for breakfast."
Leon and Yuffie looked at each other, trying to decide what the other wanted. "We would love to go," Yuffie answered, trying to sound as excited about it as Aerith. She assumed that if Squall didn't want to go, he would have said something.
Clapping her hands together in excitement Aerith ran back to the Red Room, yelling, "Be ready in ten minutes."
"I whole-heartedly believe that the girl is crazy," Yuffie told Leon after Aerith had shut the door. "Look how happy she is just because we're going out to breakfast with them. You would think that we promised her world peace or something."
Leon silently laughed at Yuffie's assessment, shaking his head as he walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
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Back in the Red Room, Aerith could hardly hold in her excitement. She shut the door as soon as she walked in to keep Leon and Yuffie from hearing her. "Cloud, you should have see them. I think he was about to kiss her when I walked in. Isn't this great?" she said enthusiastically, jumping onto the bed where he still lay.
"Aerith, calm down. Take a deep breath," the blond told her jokingly, clutching her shoulders. He loved the way she became so excited about matters of the heart. But, then again, he loved everything about her. "That's right, just keep breathing. You know, you really to calm down. And, you also need to stop jumping to conclusions. Now, what makes you think that he was about to kiss her?"
"Because, he had that look in his eye," she said impatiently, acting like that was the stupidest question in the world.
"What look?" Cloud asked confusedly.
"You know, that look. It's the same look you get when you're about to kiss me."
"Oh, you mean this look," he said, leaning down towards her, with that look in his eye.
"Yeah. That's the one," she murmured, allowing him to kiss her.
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At the café, Yuffie slid to the inside of the booth, allowing room for Leon to sit beside her. He sat down and immediately began looking over the menu, waiting for Yuffie to ask him what she should order as she had done the night before. When she didn't, he looked at her and realized she wasn't even looking at her menu. "Um, Yuffie. You might need to look at the menu," he said.
Momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to have amnesia, Yuffie declared, "I don't need the menu. I'll just have my usual."
Leon turned to stare at her. Even Cloud and Aerith forgot about each other for a moment to look at the ninja. "Yuffie," Aerith began, hesitatingly, "do you remember what your usual is?"
Shit, Yuffie thought, I'm supposed to have amnesia. "French toast, right?" she lied, knowing she never ate it.
Everyone's shoulders slumped, disappointed. "No, you don't like French toast. You usually get pancakes," Aerith explained.
"Silly me. I don't know why I thought I wanted French toast," she laughed, letting out a discreet sigh of relief after everyone returned to their menus. That was close, Yuffie. They nearly caught you. You had better be more careful.
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"And, Aerith, remember the time when Yuffie snuck up behind Cid when he was cleaning out the storage bin of his Gummi ship back at Hollow Bastion? He bumped his head when she tapped him on the shoulder. I'll never forget the look on her face when she heard his filthy mouth. Her eyes got all wide a-, and--" Cloud couldn't finish the story because he was laughing so hard. His blue eyes overflowed with tears that rolled down his face. Aerith smiled politely, not really enjoying the look of embarrassment present on Yuffie's face. Leon just kept his standard, unemotional expression.
Yuffie tried not to show that she remembered, but it was awfully hard. She couldn't prevent the blush that kept covering her cheeks. She knew that was the first time she had ever heard a dirty word. She was about six at the time. What really burned the memory into her mind was the fact that she had repeated what she had heard to her parents that night. They were not amused, to say the least. "Did I really do that?" she asked, trying to sound like she didn't already know.
"Yes. You were always sneaking up on people when you were little," Aerith explained. "I bet that's why you're such a good ninja now. You learned how to be silent when you needed to. It was good practice for you."
"Wow! I wish I could remember what it was like." Yuffie tried to sound interested, but she was tired of these recollections. It started about an hour ago when Cloud had decided that if they told stories about her, then she would begin to remember. So, still sitting at the booth in the café, Yuffie had to listen to all these embarrassing stories, which were all told by Cloud. Ugh, if they tell one more story, I'm going to pull the plug and tell them the truth. I'm sick of this. She felt like pulling her hair out. "Well, would ya look at the time! It's noon already! I guess we should be heading back to the hotel now, shouldn't we?" she said, looking pleadingly at Leon. Please, she silently begged, no more stories.
Leon looked at her, noticing her discomfort. "Yeah, I think we should go."
"No, wait, one more story. This is a good--" Cloud began, but was stopped by Aerith.
"You know, Cloud, I think that if Yuffie wants to go back, then we should let her go back," she said, trying to save Yuffie.
"Alright, if you insist," Cloud pouted. "But this one is really go--"
"Cloud!" Aerith said sternly.
Leon slid out of the booth, then reached down to help Yuffie out. "Are you guys coming?" he asked Aerith and Cloud.
"No, we're going to take a walk," she declared, ignoring Cloud's protesting look.
"Okay, well, we'll see you later then," Yuffie said as she waved goodbye.
As soon as Leon and Yuffie were out of sight, Aerith pushed Cloud out of the booth and began to yell, "Cloud Strife! I can't believe you did that to her!"
Confused, Cloud asked, "What?! What did I do?"
"You told all those stories. Didn't you see how embarrassed she was?"
"No..." he began.
"How could you miss it? Did you think her face was that red because she put a lot of rouge on her whole face?!" Aerith shouted.
"Um, Aerith, I have one question," he said tentatively.
"What?" the exasperated Flower Girl asked.
"Why would Yuffie be embarrassed if she had amnesia?" the blond questioned.
She thought about this for a minute. "Oh my gosh! You're absolutely right, Cloud! You're a genius! If she didn't remember, then she wouldn't become embarrassed. She remembers," Aerith said excitedly.
"But, Aerith, if she remembers, then why is she acting like she doesn't," Cloud pondered.
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Walking back to the hotel, Yuffie tried to hide the blush on her cheeks. She couldn't believe Cloud had told all those stories. "How could he?" she muttered, thinking Leon wouldn't hear her.
"He was just trying to help, Yuffie," Leon said gently, putting his arm around her shoulder as the walked.
"Help? How could that possibly help? All he did was embarrass me," she continued.
"They weren't that embarrassing. I thought they were kind of funny, really."
"You weren't there, Squall. I remember how embarrassing..." she trailed off, realizing her mistake.
Leon stopped walking, took his arm off her shoulder, and turned to look at her. "Wait a minute, did you just call me Squall? And did you just say that you remembered?" Leon asked questioningly. When she didn't answer and refused to look at him, he got all the answer he needed. "Yuffie, when did you get your memory back?"
Looking at the ground, she answered softly, "This morning, when I woke up."
"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you lie about it?" She refused to answer. "Damn it, Yuffie! Answer me!" he demanded angrily.
That was the last straw. She couldn't take it anymore, so she blew up at him. "Why?! Why?! How can you possibly ask that?! You must be stupider than I thought, Squall! Before I had amnesia, you hated me. Don't try to deny it! I know you did. But while you thought I that I had no memories, you were kinder to me than you have ever been before. Do you know what it feels like to know that the man you love hates you? Do you have any idea how much heartache you've caused me? You're," she said pointing emphatically at him, "the cause of all my pain!" As she said this, she ran away sobbing.
Leon could only stand there, hearing the last words she had said echo in his mind: You're the cause of all my pain! They were the same words she had said in his dream.
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Author's Note: Okay, here's the scoop. I'm thinking there's only going to be one more chapter. I don't think I can go much further with this. By the way, sorry if I made Cloud seem like a raving lunatic, but I couldn't help myself. :) The last chapter will probably be up by Sat. night.