Author's Note: Hehehe. I'm so loving this story right now. Anyways, here's the next chappie.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I never will own Kingdom Hearts. So, please don't sue me.
Chapter Four: Friday Night
"Kairi, why are you doing this to me?" Yuffie whined as her roommate pulled out yet another skirt and blouse from the closet.
The red-head sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "Because, it's Friday night. And you shouldn't be staying here, alone, on a Friday night."
Yuffie glared at her roommate, "You're not going out tonight."
"No, but I'm not going to be alone either. Sora's coming over with a couple of movies."
"But I don't even know the guy, Kairi," she protested, reluctantly picking through the clothes Kairi had laid out on the bed. She picked up a pink skirt, curling her lips in disgust. "I am so not wearing pink," she muttered.
Kairi snatched the skirt from Yuffie's hands, hanging it back up. "I've told you, he's a really nice guy. If I wasn't dating Sora, I might go out with him myself," she admitted. She held a royal blue blouse up to Yuffie. "Trust me, you'll like him." Gesturing to the blouse in her hand, she said, "Here, wear this."
"Fine, I'll go out with him." She grabbed the blouse and a black skirt as she went to the bathroom to change. Coming out a few moments later, she asked, "Okay, how do I look?"
"Perfect. Now, let's do something with your hair." Kairi was reaching for her roommate's cropped ebony hair when Yuffie stopped her.
"Uh-uh! You are not touching my hair!" She backed away from the red-head, bumping into the sink. "I can fix my own hair." With this, she picked up a silver headband and placed it on her head, carefully arranging her hair around it. "See, I can do it myself just fine."
Kairi reached into the closet, bringing out a pair of black sandals with two-inch heels and straps that fastened just above the ankle. "These will be perfect," she said as she handed them to Yuffie who promptly sat on the bed and began to put them on. "He'll be here any minute now."
As if on cue, there was a knocking at their door. Yuffie went and looked out the peep hole, turning back to Kairi and asking, "Does he have silver hair?"
"Yeah, that's Riku alright," she chuckled as she waited for Yuffie to open the door. "Well, come on. Are you going to let him in?"
Yuffie looked at her with pleading eyes. "Do I really have to go out with him? Can't I just stay here and we can pretend I went out?"
"For the last time, NO!" The red-head went to the door, opening it herself since her roommate apparently wasn't. "Riku!" she exclaimed. "Yuffie's just so excited about going out with you, that she's still getting ready. Could you give us a few minutes?" She shut the door back in his face before giving him a chance to answer. Looking at Yuffie, she glowered, "Now, you get your little butt out there and go enjoy yourself!"
Sighing, the black-haired girl opened the door and joined Riku in the hallway. I am so going to kill Kairi and Sora for this, she thought. "So, Riku, how are you?" she asked, trying to make small talk.
He looked at her confusedly, brushing his silver hair out of his face. "Fine, I guess." He looked like he felt the same way about this date as Yuffie did. "So, you ready to go?" he questioned.
Putting her famous facade on, Yuffie smiled brightly. "Of course, let's get this show on the road." Inside, she was screaming, NO! Not now, not ever!
After a silent car ride to the Italian restaurant, Riku and Yuffie sat at the table, neither saying anything. Unable to take the silence any longer, Yuffie spoke up. "So, Sora forced you on this date, too?"
Relief swept over Riku's face as he quietly chuckled. "Yeah. He said something along the lines of 'if you don't take her out, I'll kill you."
"So, now that we have that out of the way, we can enjoy the evening as friends, and then go back and kill our roommates, right?"
"Sounds like a plan." His aquamarine eyes looked past her for a moment, then came quickly back to her face. "Yeah, we'll kill 'em alright."
The waiter came, taking their orders, but the whole time Riku seemed distracted, sparing occasional glances at a table behind Yuffie. Once their salads had been brought, she realized that he was paying more attention to whatever was back there than he was to her. She stole a quick glance over her shoulder and saw a young woman around their age with long black hair in a single braid down her back sitting at a table by herself. Yuffie looked back at Riku. "You like her, don't you?"
His eyes widened in shock. "What are you talking about?"
"You've been staring at her since we got here," his date stated matter-of-factly.
"N-no I haven't," he stuttered, a slight blush spreading across his cheeks.
Yuffie smiled at him. "Then why did you just pour salad dressing in your tea?"
He glanced down at his glass. Sure enough, the Thousand Island dressing was slowly dispersing itself throughout the liquid. His blush deepened, "I can explain..."
Yuffie stood up, a grin on her face. "I'll be right back," she said as she started for the young woman's table.
Terror came into his aquamarine eyes, "Wait! What are you doing?!" he hissed.
"Don't worry." She walked over to the other table, saying, "Excuse me, do you mind if I sit down for a minute?"
The other woman looked at her warily, suspicion coming into her gray eyes. "Um, yeah, I suppose you could sit for a moment."
Yuffie sat down, holding out her hand. "I'm Yuffie. And you are...?"
"Zephyr." She shook Yuffie's hand, still a little confused.
"Are you here alone, Zephyr?" Yuffie looked at the table, there were only dishes for one, so she hoped she was right about this.
Zephyr slowly nodded her head, "Yeah, I'm alone. Care to rub it in?"
Yuffie shook her head vigorously, "No, but I have a question for you." Zephyr gave her the 'go ahead' look. "You see that man over there? The one with the silver hair?" She pointed at Riku, who had conveniently turned away from them.
"Yeah, what about him?"
Yuffie smiled. "Well, he likes you. He's been staring at you since we got here." Zephyr stared at her in disbelief. "So, my question is, would you like to join him for dinner?"
Zephyr furrowed her brows in confusion. "But, isn't he your date?"
Yuffie laughed. "Only because our roommates forced us to go out." She looked back the other woman. "So, what do you say?"
Zephyr looked at her like she was insane before finally answering. "Okay, I guess." With that, Yuffie signaled a waiter over and explained that Zephyr would be moving to the other table.
At the other table, Riku could hardly believe his eyes. Here came Yuffie with the young woman walking slowly behind her. Yuffie waited for Zephyr to sit down while she still stood. "Riku, this is Zephyr. Zephyr, Riku." They both said their various greetings. Yuffie smiled before saying, "Now, if you two will excuse me, I'll be leaving."
Riku looked up at her. "But, how will you get-"
Yuffie didn't let him finish. "Don't worry about me. I'll take a cab." With that, she walked out the door, leaving Zephyr and Riku to get to know one another.
Opening the door to her dorm room, Yuffie immediately saw Sora and Kairi cuddling on Kairi's bed as they watched a movie. Apparently, they didn't hear the door open, so Yuffie made sure to slam it, getting their attention.
Kairi looked at her confusedly and then looked at the clock, "Yuffie, your home early. Did something happen?"
She grinned, "Yeah, I left Riku with another girl we met."
Sora's eyes widened in anger. "He was picking up girls while he was out on a date with you?" he asked in disbelief. "When I get my hands on him, I'm gonna-"
"Now, Sora, calm down," Yuffie interrupted. "He was the perfect gentleman even though he didn't want to be there, but had to be since his roommate forced him to be." She stared pointedly at the brunette. "Besides, I set him up with her."
"But...but..." Kairi couldn't finish her sentence, she was too confused.
"That's right, Kairi. I played matchmaker for them." Yuffie glared at the two of them. "Now, maybe if you guys hadn't insisted that I go out with Riku tonight, this wouldn't have happened."
Sora opened his mouth to say something. "It was all Kairi's idea." He looked at her apologetically as she swung her arm around to hit him on the back of the head. "Ow!" he muttered as he rubbed where she had hit him.
Yuffie rolled her eyes at them. "It doesn't matter whose idea it was. The point is, you shouldn't be forcing people to go on dates." The both nodded in submission. "Okay, then. I'm going to change and go to the library so you two can have the room to yourselves." With that, she pulled a pair of jeans and t-shirt from her closet and headed for the bathroom.
Yuffie slowly walked down the aisles of books at the library, trying to find something to read while she was there. That was when she spotted him. He was sitting at one of the tables, bent over a textbook, making notes in the margin. She sauntered over to him, plopping in the chair across from him. He never looked up for his book. Annoyed, Yuffie whispered loudly, "Hi Squall!"
Raising his head to glare at her, he answered, "It's Leon!" Then he went back to his studying.
Undeterred, she asked, "What are you studying?"
"Biology." Leave it to Squall to give the shortest answers possible.
"Why?"
He gave her an icy blue scowl. "We do have an exam coming up next Friday, ya know."
"Yeah, but that's a week from now." Confusion etched her face. "Why don't you wait until the day before like everyone else?"
"Because, I would actually like to pass." He went back to studying.
Yuffie turned her attention to the room around them. The library was considerably empty, only a few students sitting at the table on the far side of the room. "But, Squall, it's Friday night?"
"Leon. And your point?"
She sighed in exasperation. "People are supposed to be out on dates on Friday night."
He looked at her pointedly. "You aren't."
"No, but I was. My roommate set me up."
He glared at her once more. "Why do you care if I spend my Friday nights studying or not?"
"I don't know. You just seem like you could use a little spice to your life," she finally admitted. He chose to ignore her, studying the book intently. Yuffie couldn't take the silence any longer. "So, why are you here?"
"Are you really that stupid or do you just act like it?" he said irritably. "I'm studying. I thought we went over that already."
"No, I mean, why are you in college? Why didn't you stay in the marines?" She knew that her curiosity was getting the best of her.
Squall's icy blue eyes narrowed at her, "You know, curiosity killed the cat."
"Yeah, but satisfaction brought it back," she quipped, smiling broadly. "So, come on, tell me," she persisted.
He slammed his book shut and got up to leave. "I don't want to talk about it."
Yuffie jumped up and followed him. "Where are you going?"
"Some place where I can study in peace," he seethed, turning to glare at her.
She ran up behind him, "Wait, Squall! I'll leave. You can go back and study," she whispered.
"It's Leon!" he muttered as he walked past her and back to the table, opening his book once again.
Yuffie gave him one last glance as she left the library and headed back for her dorm, hoping Sora and Kairi would forgive her for coming back so soon.
Author's Note: This chapter came out shorter than I hoped, but here it is. Oh, by the way, I don't own Zephyr. She is an original character created by Vulpes Lapis. If you want to read more about Riku and Zephyr (or Squffie, C/A, S/K) you should check out "Other Halves and Other Tales" and "Paint the Sky with Stars" by Vulpes Lapis. Anyways, Read and Review! I should have another chapter up by Thursday night.