Disclaimer: Wolf's Rain is a really good show. I thought it would be stupid, but after watching it on Saturday night, I realized that it's pretty good entertainment. Kiba's voice sounds like Vash's from Trigun, but the two voice actors are different. Now isn't that a little odd?
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"Blue Rhapsody, to your left. There's a Dark Ball behind you, too," Aerith added, noting the Heartless that was grinning maniacally behind Yuffie's right ear. The ninja swore something and somersaulted away from both before standing and launching a shuriken at the Dark Ball, which then imploded in a flare of darkness and vanished. With her yellow scarf secured tightly around her eyes like a blindfold, Yuffie really had no idea what she was doing; she was reacting on instinct and Aerith's advice with the added bonus of her own hearing to give her some reference. It had been her own idea to train without her eyesight, since the alleys of Traverse were dark and you couldn't always see your enemy, but now she was regretting that choice.
After releasing a shuriken that got rid of the Blue Rhapsody, Yuffie stowed the rest of her stars away in the pouches that hung from her belt and took the scarf away from her eyes. She blinked in the sudden brightness of neon signs and gleaming lights and took a reflexive step backwards before she saw Aerith coming down a cement stairway. The older woman walked into the belly of the Second District and motioned Yuffie over to a bench before handing her a red bowl piled high with rice and complete with a few small onigiri perched on top of the heap.
Licking her lips, Yuffie sat down cross-legged on the ground in front of the bench and took the chopsticks Aerith offered before diving hungrily into her food. The older woman gave her a look that the ninja couldn't recognize before starting on her own breakfast, although she seemed to be pushing aside more than what she was eating. After a few minutes of silence, Yuffie ventured around a mouthful of rice, "So, I gave that gun sword thing to the guy in the room next to mine last night, and he said that he owes you one. Who is he?"
Yuffie had already grilled Aerith on the rest of the world while she was training, along with Cloud, the new Hotel resident, and just about everything else that went at least partially through her mind last night. She hadn't thought to ask about Aerith's friend Leon, though, until now.
Aerith took a breath before answering, her emerald eyes staring into the window of a shop advertising slinky tops like the ones the older woman wore. Placing her chopsticks neatly across the rim of her bowl, she finally answered, "He was a fighter, once. He came to Traverse as a graduate from the Academy at Hollow Bastion two years ago, when the Heartless first came, and did a really good job of clearing them out. One day there was this huge attack of them when he was out really late at night, and they caught him off-guard, so he was a little messy in trying to clean them all up. I don't think I need to tell you that it didn't work out well," she said, looking at Yuffie.
A graduate from the AaHB? It looked like she had a kindred spirit in this town after all. The ninja shook her head, motioning for Aerith to continue. The brunette nodded, picking up her chopsticks and making swirly patterns in her rice with them as she spoke. "Well, one of those big armored ones – Defenders – slammed its shield into his leg and shattered his left kneecap. He got rid of all the Heartless, but by the time I found out that he'd hurt himself, it was too late to fix it with magic. He couldn't fight anymore, since that one leg wouldn't work properly – he'd try to jump or dodge, and it would give out under him, or would just crack at weird times. After a couple of days patching him up every few hours, Cloud and I convinced him that he couldn't fight anymore. Since then he just lays around in the hotel all day, taking care of his weapon and moping."
Yuffie made a face. She could easily see how such a hot-tempered guy would make a good fighter, but laying around and feeling sorry for yourself was really childish. Not that she expected anyone to tell him this; he had almost decapitated her for no reason last night, and she'd hate to see what he'd do to her if she gave him a reason.
"He sounds like a real baby," she said, swallowing the last of her rice. Aerith laughed, and Yuffie spun around, brandishing her chopsticks at the other woman. "Hey, don't laugh at me. Anyone who just lies around in a hotel for two years really has to be a baby." Aerith shook her head, her giggles ending.
"He didn't lie around in the hotel for two years," she corrected, taking Yuffie's empty bowl and stacking it under her own, which was still half full. The ninja grabbed one of Aerith's rice balls and ate it before the healer had a chance to comment. "He only broke his kneecap six months ago."
Yuffie wrinkled her nose in distaste. Why hadn't Aerith told her that in the first place? "Well, if he doesn't fight, then why were you bringing his weapon back to him?"
Aerith rolled her emerald green eyes. "That's just the point, Yuffie," she said, standing. The ninja followed at her side, slowly going back up the concrete stairs and heading back towards the doors that lead to the First District. A few teenagers sitting around a lamppost were playing poker and ignoring the boxes of cigarettes at their heels, while three women dressed in a similar fashion to Aerith were toying with a modest-looking man and making him blush red enough to be a rose. People were always hanging out in the streets in the Second District; unlike the other two, the Second never turned out its lights, which hadn't done anything to help Yuffie's sleep the night before. She had ended up tearing the draperies off of the bed in the Red Room and hanging them over the windows just to make it semi-dark. "He doesn't fight, so it gets rusty, and occasionally needs a remodel, or whatever you call it."
"Does he ever come outside?" Yuffie asked. She wasn't exceptionally interested in this guy, but it was better than walking in silence with a woman that she hardly knew.
"For breakfast," Aerith replied, pushing open the oaken doors that lead into the First District. Yuffie followed her through a set of smaller doors on the top floor of the Accessory Shop and was surprised to find a bunch of teddy bear-like creatures with wings and large noses roaming around a huge fireplace with lots of machinery on top of it. Aerith ignored them, so they weren't a threat, and dropped down a square hatch into what Yuffie assumed was the lower half of the shop. The ninja followed the older woman's example and leapt without fear, landing in a fairly sizable ground floor with a large fireplace and a few couches.
As Yuffie sat down on one of the black couches and propped her feet on the other, Aerith sauntered over to the counter and leaned on the yellow stone with her chin propped on her hands. A man came in from a back room with a cigarette in his mouth and a mop of yellow hair, complete with a sour expression and his hands placed strategically on his hips. "Yeah? What do ya wanna mooch offa me today, Aerith?"
Aerith truly was an expert at getting things from this guy, as it seemed. She slowly raised herself onto the surface, leaning back against a glass case with a crystal inside and stretching her legs across the counter without seeming to make any noise. The man's eyebrows climbed almost into his hair as he watched her.
"Cid, you know I never take anything from you that you don't want to give," Aerith said in a pouty voice, her lower lip popping out reflexively. Yuffie folded her eyes and grinned, watching the spectacle and trying not to laugh. "And I know you have more Ifrit's Powder than you know what to do with, so it wouldn't be a loss if you gave me a can."
Cid ran a hand through his hair, obviously finding it hard to resist The Lip. Aerith leaned forward on the counter, apparently thinking that her sultry voice wasn't going to win this battle. Batting her eyelashes so much that it made her seem almost spastic, she asked in a meek voice, "Please?" Cid covered his eyes and muttered something that sounded like a curse before he disappeared into the back room. Yuffie shot Aerith a concerned look, but the healer merely winked at her and waited patiently for the man to return. When he did, he was carrying a tall red can with a picture of fire embossed over it and the words Ifrit's Powder written across it. With a quick kiss on one of his ears, Aerith snatched up the can and hopped off of the counter, darting through the Accessory Shop doors.
"Yeah, yeah," Cid mumbled, turning bending to get something from under the counter. Shaking her head, Yuffie followed Aerith, who was waiting for her at the doors to the Second District. Pressing the can into her hand, Aerith jerked her thumb in the direction of the Third District doors and explained hastily, "I gotta go meet Cloud in the arena now. He's dueling a couple of guys he ripped off when he got drunk two days ago, and I know he's going to need my Cure spells. Could you give that to Leon? Thanks," she said without waiting for an answer before jogging away and adjusting her pink silk top so that it hung even lower on her arms.
"Why do I get stuck with all of his chores? I don't even know him!" Yuffie shouted at Aerith's retreating back, but the healer didn't answer her. Growling in frustration, Yuffie stalked back into the Second District, ignoring a few leering men and the teenagers from before that offered to deal her into their game and making her way to the hotel. Kicking open the door to the Green Room from the hallway, Yuffie was just about to hurl the can into the room – when she saw a bare-chested, slightly shocked and thoroughly enraged Leon standing next to the bed.
Her eyes went reflexively from the perfect form of his chest – the sight of which she savored – to his left leg, which was bent slightly. She assumed that all of his weight was put on his right leg, or else he wouldn't have been able to stand without looking lopsided, but she didn't have time to contemplate the matter. He threw down the white T-shirt he'd been about to put on and stalked over to her (surprisingly well for someone with a shattered kneecap), one gloved finger in her face before she had even said a word.
"What are you doing here? Did you ever learn to knock?" His voice was low and lethal, as if he was getting ready to kill her and was gloating like all of the stupid villains did. [A/N: If you've seen Van Helsing, you'll know what I'm talking about.] His eyes saw the can clutched in her fingers, and the hand that wasn't in her face snatched it away from her. "Why didn't Aerith bring this? Answer me!"
Yuffie fought down an instinctive whimper and craned her neck slightly to look up at him. Planting her hands on her hips, she replied, "Giving that to you, yes, and she had to take care of Cloud. Happy?"
"No," he spat, taking his finger out of her face and walking back across the room. She detected the slightest of gimps from the left leg, but that seemed good compared to the damage Aerith had described. "Why should I be happy about a little girl breaking into my room and seeing me half naked?"
Yuffie threw up her arms in exasperation. "You're not half naked! So you've got your shirt off – big deal! Haven't you ever had a woman besides your mom look at you not fully-clothed?" She knew as soon as the words were out of her mouth that she was going to regret it. She swallowed hard as he spun around, his eyes gleaming like blue ice.
"Get out of my room." She didn't move; she was rooted to the spot with fear. "I said leave!" Yuffie had the strange sensation that last night's confrontation with him was being replayed, only in the daytime hours. There was no sun in this world; the sky was always covered with stars.
"You don't even know who I am!" she burst out, her hands balling into fists at her sides.
"Good!" he shouted, throwing the can of Ifrit's Powder onto the bed behind him. "And I never want to! Now get – out – of – my – room." Yuffie opened her mouth to contradict him again, but when he roared, "Now!" she gave a frightened squeak and turned tail out of the door. She ran to where the door to the Red Room was and managed to open the door without shaking too hard before she bolted it shut and slammed a tall stool from the bathroom against the handle of the connecting door the Green Room and locking that one just as tightly. She then moved into the center of the room and stood with two of her largest shurikens brandished before her, fully prepared to defend herself – before she remembered that he couldn't fight. Yuffie felt herself go cold for a minute before she dropped her weapons and realized her shoulders were shaking with laughter. She found it funny, really – she was afraid of a stunned bear! Dropping onto the floor, she put her hands to the small of her back to ease the pressure there from how hard she was laughing, but soon curled in on herself, quivering with mirth.
A sudden knock on her door brought her still giggling to her feet, despite the fact that she grabbed a shuriken as she rose. "W-who is it?" she asked around her laughter.
It wasn't who she had expected. "It's Sora, from down the hall in the Yellow Room. Are you okay? I heard yelling and stuff, so I thought Leon might have done something to you, or...something," the boy finished lamely, and Yuffie could almost see him hanging his head in defeat.
"No, I'm fine," she said after managing to contain her amusement. "Thanks anyway, though." Sora yelled "Okay!" through the door before jogging away, and Yuffie shook her head, still enthralled by the fact that she was afraid of a guy who had never taken his shirt off in front of a girl before.
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"Its okay, Cloud; I know you're tired, but you've gotta make it to the Blue Room. It's just three more doors down – that's it, one foot in front of the other..." Yuffie shook her head as she closed the door to the Red Room over Aerith's fading voice and started toward the fourth door in the room – the one that led onto the balcony overlooking a small drainage canal that lead into a sewer behind some bars. It wasn't exactly a scenic view, but it was better than being cooped up inside. Cloud had won the fight, but had gotten pretty banged up in the process, and the healer had morphed from Sultry!Aerith into Sweet!Aerith in record time. Closing the embossed door behind her, Yuffie leaned her elbows on the cement railing and let the cool breeze whip her chin-length raven hair around her face.
A door closed somewhere to her left, and Yuffie instinctively looked in that direction. Leon had emerged from the Green Room to stand on his own balcony, shirt firmly on and overlapped by a short leather coat. His shoulder-length, spiky brown hair rustled slightly in the wind, and Yuffie couldn't help it – she sighed dreamily, staring at his perfect, lion- resembling figure in the glow of the stars and moon. He turned his head slightly (Must have super-sonic hearing, too, Yuffie thought with an inward groan) and saw her, immediately hardening his eyes and going back inside. Yuffie shook her head slightly.
There was simply no getting through to some people.
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This is gonna be longer than my usual stories, but will have a lot of fluff. I foresee the fluff coming in sometime around chapter five or six, but only in small doses at first. Anybody order Fluff-To-Go? –dons McDonald's uniform and holds out a take-home bag— See you next chapter, then!
Oh, and Yuffie calls Squall a lame tiger in the first chapter. Typo on my part – that phrase wasn't supposed to come in until this chapter. And an onigiri is a Japanese rise ball with a meat-paste inside. (I hope I got that definition correct.)
Elly is happy! She has eight reviews for her first chapter! Shout-outs go to: Doomboy2000, Deplora (who I worship – she reviews all of my stories! –bows- and I love her Blind Instinct), pingpong867 (who is also a really cool person and awesome author), Annjirika, Kawaii Wrestler, Emrelle Elendal, SummonerMomo, and BroncosCheer-literofpepsi for all being just plain awesome and reviewing me! –passes out Squall plushies—
Do you want a Squall Plushie? Simply click that little blue button down there, and this fabulous Squall Leonhart Plush Toy could be yours free!
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"Blue Rhapsody, to your left. There's a Dark Ball behind you, too," Aerith added, noting the Heartless that was grinning maniacally behind Yuffie's right ear. The ninja swore something and somersaulted away from both before standing and launching a shuriken at the Dark Ball, which then imploded in a flare of darkness and vanished. With her yellow scarf secured tightly around her eyes like a blindfold, Yuffie really had no idea what she was doing; she was reacting on instinct and Aerith's advice with the added bonus of her own hearing to give her some reference. It had been her own idea to train without her eyesight, since the alleys of Traverse were dark and you couldn't always see your enemy, but now she was regretting that choice.
After releasing a shuriken that got rid of the Blue Rhapsody, Yuffie stowed the rest of her stars away in the pouches that hung from her belt and took the scarf away from her eyes. She blinked in the sudden brightness of neon signs and gleaming lights and took a reflexive step backwards before she saw Aerith coming down a cement stairway. The older woman walked into the belly of the Second District and motioned Yuffie over to a bench before handing her a red bowl piled high with rice and complete with a few small onigiri perched on top of the heap.
Licking her lips, Yuffie sat down cross-legged on the ground in front of the bench and took the chopsticks Aerith offered before diving hungrily into her food. The older woman gave her a look that the ninja couldn't recognize before starting on her own breakfast, although she seemed to be pushing aside more than what she was eating. After a few minutes of silence, Yuffie ventured around a mouthful of rice, "So, I gave that gun sword thing to the guy in the room next to mine last night, and he said that he owes you one. Who is he?"
Yuffie had already grilled Aerith on the rest of the world while she was training, along with Cloud, the new Hotel resident, and just about everything else that went at least partially through her mind last night. She hadn't thought to ask about Aerith's friend Leon, though, until now.
Aerith took a breath before answering, her emerald eyes staring into the window of a shop advertising slinky tops like the ones the older woman wore. Placing her chopsticks neatly across the rim of her bowl, she finally answered, "He was a fighter, once. He came to Traverse as a graduate from the Academy at Hollow Bastion two years ago, when the Heartless first came, and did a really good job of clearing them out. One day there was this huge attack of them when he was out really late at night, and they caught him off-guard, so he was a little messy in trying to clean them all up. I don't think I need to tell you that it didn't work out well," she said, looking at Yuffie.
A graduate from the AaHB? It looked like she had a kindred spirit in this town after all. The ninja shook her head, motioning for Aerith to continue. The brunette nodded, picking up her chopsticks and making swirly patterns in her rice with them as she spoke. "Well, one of those big armored ones – Defenders – slammed its shield into his leg and shattered his left kneecap. He got rid of all the Heartless, but by the time I found out that he'd hurt himself, it was too late to fix it with magic. He couldn't fight anymore, since that one leg wouldn't work properly – he'd try to jump or dodge, and it would give out under him, or would just crack at weird times. After a couple of days patching him up every few hours, Cloud and I convinced him that he couldn't fight anymore. Since then he just lays around in the hotel all day, taking care of his weapon and moping."
Yuffie made a face. She could easily see how such a hot-tempered guy would make a good fighter, but laying around and feeling sorry for yourself was really childish. Not that she expected anyone to tell him this; he had almost decapitated her for no reason last night, and she'd hate to see what he'd do to her if she gave him a reason.
"He sounds like a real baby," she said, swallowing the last of her rice. Aerith laughed, and Yuffie spun around, brandishing her chopsticks at the other woman. "Hey, don't laugh at me. Anyone who just lies around in a hotel for two years really has to be a baby." Aerith shook her head, her giggles ending.
"He didn't lie around in the hotel for two years," she corrected, taking Yuffie's empty bowl and stacking it under her own, which was still half full. The ninja grabbed one of Aerith's rice balls and ate it before the healer had a chance to comment. "He only broke his kneecap six months ago."
Yuffie wrinkled her nose in distaste. Why hadn't Aerith told her that in the first place? "Well, if he doesn't fight, then why were you bringing his weapon back to him?"
Aerith rolled her emerald green eyes. "That's just the point, Yuffie," she said, standing. The ninja followed at her side, slowly going back up the concrete stairs and heading back towards the doors that lead to the First District. A few teenagers sitting around a lamppost were playing poker and ignoring the boxes of cigarettes at their heels, while three women dressed in a similar fashion to Aerith were toying with a modest-looking man and making him blush red enough to be a rose. People were always hanging out in the streets in the Second District; unlike the other two, the Second never turned out its lights, which hadn't done anything to help Yuffie's sleep the night before. She had ended up tearing the draperies off of the bed in the Red Room and hanging them over the windows just to make it semi-dark. "He doesn't fight, so it gets rusty, and occasionally needs a remodel, or whatever you call it."
"Does he ever come outside?" Yuffie asked. She wasn't exceptionally interested in this guy, but it was better than walking in silence with a woman that she hardly knew.
"For breakfast," Aerith replied, pushing open the oaken doors that lead into the First District. Yuffie followed her through a set of smaller doors on the top floor of the Accessory Shop and was surprised to find a bunch of teddy bear-like creatures with wings and large noses roaming around a huge fireplace with lots of machinery on top of it. Aerith ignored them, so they weren't a threat, and dropped down a square hatch into what Yuffie assumed was the lower half of the shop. The ninja followed the older woman's example and leapt without fear, landing in a fairly sizable ground floor with a large fireplace and a few couches.
As Yuffie sat down on one of the black couches and propped her feet on the other, Aerith sauntered over to the counter and leaned on the yellow stone with her chin propped on her hands. A man came in from a back room with a cigarette in his mouth and a mop of yellow hair, complete with a sour expression and his hands placed strategically on his hips. "Yeah? What do ya wanna mooch offa me today, Aerith?"
Aerith truly was an expert at getting things from this guy, as it seemed. She slowly raised herself onto the surface, leaning back against a glass case with a crystal inside and stretching her legs across the counter without seeming to make any noise. The man's eyebrows climbed almost into his hair as he watched her.
"Cid, you know I never take anything from you that you don't want to give," Aerith said in a pouty voice, her lower lip popping out reflexively. Yuffie folded her eyes and grinned, watching the spectacle and trying not to laugh. "And I know you have more Ifrit's Powder than you know what to do with, so it wouldn't be a loss if you gave me a can."
Cid ran a hand through his hair, obviously finding it hard to resist The Lip. Aerith leaned forward on the counter, apparently thinking that her sultry voice wasn't going to win this battle. Batting her eyelashes so much that it made her seem almost spastic, she asked in a meek voice, "Please?" Cid covered his eyes and muttered something that sounded like a curse before he disappeared into the back room. Yuffie shot Aerith a concerned look, but the healer merely winked at her and waited patiently for the man to return. When he did, he was carrying a tall red can with a picture of fire embossed over it and the words Ifrit's Powder written across it. With a quick kiss on one of his ears, Aerith snatched up the can and hopped off of the counter, darting through the Accessory Shop doors.
"Yeah, yeah," Cid mumbled, turning bending to get something from under the counter. Shaking her head, Yuffie followed Aerith, who was waiting for her at the doors to the Second District. Pressing the can into her hand, Aerith jerked her thumb in the direction of the Third District doors and explained hastily, "I gotta go meet Cloud in the arena now. He's dueling a couple of guys he ripped off when he got drunk two days ago, and I know he's going to need my Cure spells. Could you give that to Leon? Thanks," she said without waiting for an answer before jogging away and adjusting her pink silk top so that it hung even lower on her arms.
"Why do I get stuck with all of his chores? I don't even know him!" Yuffie shouted at Aerith's retreating back, but the healer didn't answer her. Growling in frustration, Yuffie stalked back into the Second District, ignoring a few leering men and the teenagers from before that offered to deal her into their game and making her way to the hotel. Kicking open the door to the Green Room from the hallway, Yuffie was just about to hurl the can into the room – when she saw a bare-chested, slightly shocked and thoroughly enraged Leon standing next to the bed.
Her eyes went reflexively from the perfect form of his chest – the sight of which she savored – to his left leg, which was bent slightly. She assumed that all of his weight was put on his right leg, or else he wouldn't have been able to stand without looking lopsided, but she didn't have time to contemplate the matter. He threw down the white T-shirt he'd been about to put on and stalked over to her (surprisingly well for someone with a shattered kneecap), one gloved finger in her face before she had even said a word.
"What are you doing here? Did you ever learn to knock?" His voice was low and lethal, as if he was getting ready to kill her and was gloating like all of the stupid villains did. [A/N: If you've seen Van Helsing, you'll know what I'm talking about.] His eyes saw the can clutched in her fingers, and the hand that wasn't in her face snatched it away from her. "Why didn't Aerith bring this? Answer me!"
Yuffie fought down an instinctive whimper and craned her neck slightly to look up at him. Planting her hands on her hips, she replied, "Giving that to you, yes, and she had to take care of Cloud. Happy?"
"No," he spat, taking his finger out of her face and walking back across the room. She detected the slightest of gimps from the left leg, but that seemed good compared to the damage Aerith had described. "Why should I be happy about a little girl breaking into my room and seeing me half naked?"
Yuffie threw up her arms in exasperation. "You're not half naked! So you've got your shirt off – big deal! Haven't you ever had a woman besides your mom look at you not fully-clothed?" She knew as soon as the words were out of her mouth that she was going to regret it. She swallowed hard as he spun around, his eyes gleaming like blue ice.
"Get out of my room." She didn't move; she was rooted to the spot with fear. "I said leave!" Yuffie had the strange sensation that last night's confrontation with him was being replayed, only in the daytime hours. There was no sun in this world; the sky was always covered with stars.
"You don't even know who I am!" she burst out, her hands balling into fists at her sides.
"Good!" he shouted, throwing the can of Ifrit's Powder onto the bed behind him. "And I never want to! Now get – out – of – my – room." Yuffie opened her mouth to contradict him again, but when he roared, "Now!" she gave a frightened squeak and turned tail out of the door. She ran to where the door to the Red Room was and managed to open the door without shaking too hard before she bolted it shut and slammed a tall stool from the bathroom against the handle of the connecting door the Green Room and locking that one just as tightly. She then moved into the center of the room and stood with two of her largest shurikens brandished before her, fully prepared to defend herself – before she remembered that he couldn't fight. Yuffie felt herself go cold for a minute before she dropped her weapons and realized her shoulders were shaking with laughter. She found it funny, really – she was afraid of a stunned bear! Dropping onto the floor, she put her hands to the small of her back to ease the pressure there from how hard she was laughing, but soon curled in on herself, quivering with mirth.
A sudden knock on her door brought her still giggling to her feet, despite the fact that she grabbed a shuriken as she rose. "W-who is it?" she asked around her laughter.
It wasn't who she had expected. "It's Sora, from down the hall in the Yellow Room. Are you okay? I heard yelling and stuff, so I thought Leon might have done something to you, or...something," the boy finished lamely, and Yuffie could almost see him hanging his head in defeat.
"No, I'm fine," she said after managing to contain her amusement. "Thanks anyway, though." Sora yelled "Okay!" through the door before jogging away, and Yuffie shook her head, still enthralled by the fact that she was afraid of a guy who had never taken his shirt off in front of a girl before.
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"Its okay, Cloud; I know you're tired, but you've gotta make it to the Blue Room. It's just three more doors down – that's it, one foot in front of the other..." Yuffie shook her head as she closed the door to the Red Room over Aerith's fading voice and started toward the fourth door in the room – the one that led onto the balcony overlooking a small drainage canal that lead into a sewer behind some bars. It wasn't exactly a scenic view, but it was better than being cooped up inside. Cloud had won the fight, but had gotten pretty banged up in the process, and the healer had morphed from Sultry!Aerith into Sweet!Aerith in record time. Closing the embossed door behind her, Yuffie leaned her elbows on the cement railing and let the cool breeze whip her chin-length raven hair around her face.
A door closed somewhere to her left, and Yuffie instinctively looked in that direction. Leon had emerged from the Green Room to stand on his own balcony, shirt firmly on and overlapped by a short leather coat. His shoulder-length, spiky brown hair rustled slightly in the wind, and Yuffie couldn't help it – she sighed dreamily, staring at his perfect, lion- resembling figure in the glow of the stars and moon. He turned his head slightly (Must have super-sonic hearing, too, Yuffie thought with an inward groan) and saw her, immediately hardening his eyes and going back inside. Yuffie shook her head slightly.
There was simply no getting through to some people.
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This is gonna be longer than my usual stories, but will have a lot of fluff. I foresee the fluff coming in sometime around chapter five or six, but only in small doses at first. Anybody order Fluff-To-Go? –dons McDonald's uniform and holds out a take-home bag— See you next chapter, then!
Oh, and Yuffie calls Squall a lame tiger in the first chapter. Typo on my part – that phrase wasn't supposed to come in until this chapter. And an onigiri is a Japanese rise ball with a meat-paste inside. (I hope I got that definition correct.)
Elly is happy! She has eight reviews for her first chapter! Shout-outs go to: Doomboy2000, Deplora (who I worship – she reviews all of my stories! –bows- and I love her Blind Instinct), pingpong867 (who is also a really cool person and awesome author), Annjirika, Kawaii Wrestler, Emrelle Elendal, SummonerMomo, and BroncosCheer-literofpepsi for all being just plain awesome and reviewing me! –passes out Squall plushies—
Do you want a Squall Plushie? Simply click that little blue button down there, and this fabulous Squall Leonhart Plush Toy could be yours free!