Disclaimer: I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! And if I knew the rest, I would post it, but I've never seen Alice in Wonderland. The only reason I know that is because everyone knows that.

"Okay! I've got Return of the Mutants, Mummies Strike Back, Vampires at Large, and Casablanca. Which one will it be?" Yuffie presented the rented movies like a woman on a game show, standing them up in their respective cases on top of the round table in the middle of the Green Room. Leon, stretched out on the bed, looked uncomfortable, and not from his knee.

"Do we really have to do this?" he asked, looking up at her helplessly. Yuffie nodded impatiently.

"Yes! Its boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. This is what lovers do; they get together and watch old movies. It's practically set in stone," she said, gesturing wildly to make her point more clearly.

"But we're not lovers – we're not even boyfriend and girlfriend. We've been 'going out' for about seventy-six hours and you're already jumping into what we 'have to do'. Have you been planning this since the moment you met me?" he asked, trying to find a way out of this. He had no problem with Yuffie, with being with her – less than no problem – but in his one-track mind, he would rather be fighting than sitting around and letting his leg cramp up.

"Gee, thanks for timing us," Yuffie muttered, folding her arms. Then, louder, "Just pick already. After we watch one movie –" she drew it out long and crossed her eyes – "we can go out and fight, alright?" After several long minutes in which Yuffie tapped her foot impatiently and Leon counted something on his fingers, he sighed and nodded. She clapped her hands. "Great. Now pick one."

It wasn't a surprise what he picked. "Casablanca," he said, grinning. Maybe if he could get Yuffie to get really angry at his choice, have her yell at him to pick something else, and then refuse, they could skip the 'boyfriend- girlfriend' stuff and do something that he at least enjoyed.

Yuffie groaned loudly and made a huge deal over it. "But Leeee-on, its so booooring," she whined, stomping one foot. "Why are you such a boring adult? Twenty-five year olds are s'posed to be young and in their prime. Why are you like a stuffy forty-year old? C'mon, pick something else, pleeeeease?" She folded her hands and made her eyes huge, giving him the cutest expression she had.

He shook his head. Yes, he thought inwardly, my plan is working. He fought the urge not to give a wicked laugh at his upcoming triumph. "Nope, not a chance," he said obstinately, folding his arms and shaking his head, sending his brown hair flying.

Yuffie grumbled something inaudible and stomped over to the TV, slamming the cassette into the VCR. "Fine, have it you way, Lord-King-Duke-Leon," she mocked, grabbing the remote and pressing Play. Leon sat, astounded that his plan had backfired, but even more confused that she had actually given in. She never used to give in that easily to anything he suggested (like extra hours of training, or getting sparring mats so that he wouldn't have to bruise up his back). This was only more confirmation that she had meant what she said, which made him –

He was interrupted when a fist connected to his forehead. He blinked dazedly, looking up into Yuffie's navy blue eyes. She had her hands on her knees and was kneeling in front of him on the bed.

"Hellooo? Anyone home? The movie started fifteen minutes ago and you're sitting here with this expression like you just discovered The Café doesn't cook their eggs all the way through," she said, not looking generally concerned, but still unbelieving.

"They don't?" he asked stupidly, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing. Yuffie rolled her eyes and leaned back against his chest, crossing her arms and trying to pay attention to the movie, which, to her mind, was the worst torture device man had ever made for himself. Leon blushed incredibly, holding his arms up. "W-what're you doing?" he stuttered, trying to scoot away from the physical contact but only jamming himself further into the corner where the wall met the bed.

"Leaning on you," Yuffie said, smiling cruelly because he couldn't see her. She fake-yawned and stretched languidly, throwing her arms backwards around his neck in the process. Leon, horror stricken, tried to push her away, but she only curled up against him, closing her eyes and lowering her arms to take one of his hands. Turning it palm-up, she opened her eyes and giggled, tracing her fingers over the smooth leather of his gloves. "Why do you wear gloves?"

He sighed, knowing that she was far too into the whole scenario of them seeing each other to give up. He replied stiffly, "Military protocol. Leave no fingerprints, leave no evidence." Yuffie didn't truly understand what he said – the military wasn't exactly a spy agency – but she left it and instead peeled the glove off of his hand, to his dismay. "W-what're you doing?" he said for the second time.

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "You're so impersonal with those gloves on. I betcha your hands are really smooth, 'cause you never take them off," she said slyly, looking down at his upturned palm. Her eyes widened, however, when she saw that, in actuality, his hand was covered with scars and calluses, and even four pairs of stitches. He tensed slightly as she ran one finger over a set of stitches, and then looked up at him questioningly.

"You think knives can't go through leather?" he laughed, cracking a smile for the first time that night. "It helps, but it's not light I'm wearing metal or anything." Yuffie managed to giggle along, although she was still fascinated by the pure amount of combat that apparently gloved hands had seen.

"I think you wear them to cover up the scars," she said softly, looking up at him. He met her eyes, his own being totally unreadable, and she continued. "Why don't you show them off? You have so many of them, it just proves that you're as great a fighter as your reputation says."

He shifted uneasily, but didn't say anything, like she was hoping. She sighed, bringing his bare palm up to her lips and kissing it, right over all of the stitches, cuts, and calluses. To her ultimate surprise, he smiled slightly, and used the hand she was holding to sift through her hair briefly, which caused her to launch herself at his stomach and wrap her arms around his back. His eyes widened at the unexpected attack on his abdomen, but he eventually relaxed, paying more attention to the teenager wrapped around him than to the movie, which was still playing, oblivious to the fact that the people who had actually rented it weren't watching in the slightest.

"Hey," Leon said an hour later, rousing Yuffie out of the nap she was taking on his stomach. She yawned for real and blinked.

"Hmm?" she asked, still half-asleep. She disentangled herself from him and rubbed her eyes – and was completely caught off-guard when he grabbed one of her hands and pulled off the glove covering it.

"Gotcha," he said, a proud smirk on his face. Yuffie grinned, accepting the glove he held out with her un-captured hand. "Okay, let's see what the ninja has under her gloves." He turned her palm up and was prepared to mock all of her scars and blisters as well, but what he saw surprised him completely. They were completely clean, totally unharmed, and as smooth as the day she was born.

Yuffie snatched her hand back, embarrassed, a pink tinge in her cheeks. "Yeah, well, at the Academy you really don't train with your weapons 'cause some of the kids...they get really competitive, see, and they start doing things to permanently disable an opponent, so they give us wooden designs of your weapon-of-choice, and you train with them, and...and when I'm fighting here, I'm too busy using my hands for my shurikens to really leave them open, so I...I..." She rubbed the bare hand self-consciously.

Without any trace of amusement on his face, Leon slowly took her hand away and kissed it in the same fashion that she had done for him an hour or so ago. "It doesn't bother me," he said softly, lacing his fingers with hers.

"That's good," she began closing her eyes and tucking her head under his chin. "Because I wasn't about to change it for you."

"Sora! Guess what?"

Kairi burst into the Yellow Room, her arms flung wide open and her eyes shining with excitement. Sora, asleep on the bed, sat up groggily and mumbled something unintelligible. Kairi ran over to him, jumping on the bed and kissing him full on the lips. His eyes widened when she released him, and he looked at her strangely, all traces of sleep gone from him.

"I knew that would wake you up," she said secretively, fiddling with a piece of yellow paper that she had pulled out from the waistband of her short black apron. She shoved it under his nose, saying, "Read it! Go on!"

Sora obeyed, unfolding the paper and squinting at it. It read, in no unclear terms, that the manager of the casino was so thrilled by Kairi's work that he was giving her a management jobs at a restaurant of his in Atlantica. "'The Catering Crustacean'?" Sora asked dubiously, scratching his head, utterly confused. Kairi nodded and gave a small yip, making her briefly resemble a small dog.

"Yep! Isn't it awesome? That job pays like fifty million times more than what I'm getting now, both jobs together! Plus I'll get to wear the cutest little outfit, with lots of shells an –"

Sora cut her off by grabbing her shoulders, a knot of fear in his stomach. "You're leaving," he stated. It wasn't a question. Kairi nodded. "When?"

"Tomorrow morning. The gummi's coming in at eight, so I gotta be up and at 'em really early," she chirped, and Sora thought that if he wasn't holding her down, she would have been bouncing off the ceiling.

No, no, no, this wasn't happening. She wasn't leaving. She wasn't going to leave him here alone with the adults – she wasn't going to leave him here...alone...

Sora shook his head emphatically. "Okay. I need to go." He scrambled off of the bed and was out the door and down the hall by the time Kairi had thought enough to go after him.

"Where are you going? Your job starts in an hour!" she bellowed after him, trotting to try and catch him up.

"Gummi International," he said in a level tone of voice. He was out of the hotel doors and striding purposefully down the street, because GI was in the Second District.

"Why?" she hollered from the doorway, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"Because I'm going with you!" he shouted back.

A knock on the Green Room door woke both Leon and Yuffie, who had fallen asleep on the bed to Casablanca, who was rolling its credits now. Yuffie was curled against Leon's stomach, and he had an arm wrapped around her protectively; both were out like a light until a harder knock than the first managed to get them both up. Yuffie sat up first, blinking sleepily, and punched Leon in the stomach to get him up. He grunted slightly – he impact of her fist against his muscles wasn't great – but got up anyway, rubbing an arm across his eyes.

"Whats it?" he slurred, looking around as if he'd never seen his own room before. A third knock came, loud enough to knock down the doorpost, and Yuffie finally had an idea to let whoever was knocking in. "Yeah, it's open," she called after clearing her throat.

The embossed green door opened and Aerith entered. It was quite comical watching her, actually, because her face, a worried mask as she stepped through the doorway, had morphed into a shocked expression so quickly that Yuffie slammed her hands over her mouth to stifle a fit of giggles.

"What's going on?" Aerith breathed after a few long minutes of silence, her eyes as wide as saucers. She had somehow acquired a pink silk kerchief, which she'd knotted into a round cap and stuck on overtop of her chestnut hair, matching perfectly with her top.

"Sleep," Leon answered honestly, collapsing against the headboard and massaging his eyes with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand.

"What did you want?" Yuffie covered impatiently, wanting to get back to her quality time with Leon. She snuck a peek at him and grinned.

Aerith recovered from her momentary shock and crossed her arms angrily. "You, Yuffie," she snarled. "I was looking for you all day! I looked in the Waterway, in the Red, Blue, and Yellow rooms, as well as everywhere else in this world! The last place I expected to find you was here; I finally got the nerve to ask Leon where you were and I walk in to find – !" The Flower Girl stopped, her mouth working, as if she expected more words to come out (which they didn't, Yuffie noted mentally).

"– Two people sleeping. What's so astonishing about it, Aerith?" Leon asked exasperatedly, finally looking at her square in the face.

"I...I..." The healer was speechless, unable to conjure up any sultriness or concernedness that could have saved her right then. Yuffie leapt in to fill the gap, taking the initiative from Leon.

"...Was about to leave and let Yuffie and Leon sleep? How nice of you!" Leaping up from the bed, Yuffie grabbed her friend's elbow and dragged her out into the hall, giving her a pat on the shoulder and a smile before bounding back into the Green Room and slamming the door shut. Leon tossed her a key from the windowsill and she caught it, jamming it into the lock and turning it. "No more interruptions now," she said slyly, going back to the bed and crawling up next to him.

"That's right," he agreed, and promptly turned over, his back to her, and resumed his nap. Yuffie rolled her eyes and folded her arms, leaning up against the headboard.

"That's not what I meant," she grumbled.

This chapter was just for my enjoyment. It was just a lot of fun to write and to finally show Aerith up. I even got some Sokairi in there! Anyway, there was a typo in the last chapter – the bookmark was supposed to say Vincent Valentine hearts You!, but when I tried to make the heart, stupid Quickedit made it a bunch of symbols. I just thought I'd treat the Vinny fans out there (-coughcough-Deplora-coughcough-) but it backfired. –sheepish grin— Can't win 'em all.

Next chapter's the last. I didn't think it would end so soon, but whatever, in the terms of Squall. I never used us real name in this story – I'm saving it for the final chapter, which'll be here on Friday. Thanks to everyone whose read and reviewed so far; you've made it worth it.