Disclaimer: Guess who finished a story? Go on, take a guess.
She had expected cheers and fireworks, loud parades or marching bands. Perhaps flags and streamers, or at least a few banners and signs. Maybe some balloons or confetti, like a giant party, and people with party- blowers making annoying noises like deflating bubble wrap lining the streets. At the very least, Yuffie told herself, she just expected a lot of noise. If nothing else, she wanted to hear something loud.
But it wasn't like that. She was completely stunned, walking behind him into the arena in the Third District only to see not a single person lining the huge wall surrounding the stadium. No women were throwing roses at his feet (not that they would have lasted long if they had), and no little kids were cheering that he was their hero. There was absolute silence, the most extravagant contrast to what she'd expected.
Running up in front of him and then walking backwards so that she could face him, Yuffie waved her arms in the air angrily. "You said that everybody was always really happy when you came out to fight!" she exclaimed.
A small smile was on his lips, and it didn't diminish. It wasn't a smirk or condescending, but something else, and Yuffie couldn't decide what to call it. Happiness? Satisfaction? "Yeah, and I didn't lie," he replied, shifting his gunblade on his shoulder.
Yuffie's eyes turned huge in exasperation. "Then where are the cheering crowds? The screaming masses? Why don't I see balloons or signs or at least one piece of confetti?" she asked, planting her hands on her hips and halting dead in the middle of the arena, preventing him from going any further unless he walked around her.
Leon rolled his eyes, but the smile didn't leave his face. "I wasn't that kind of hero," he tried to explain, covering his eyes with one hand [A/N: Classic Squall! XP] and shaking his head. Taking away the covering, he looked her right in the eyes. "I was more of a...down-low kind of guy. I took care of things, but I didn't brag about it. That's why everyone liked me so much. Nobody came out in the open about it, since there are plenty of other people like me who fight and brag – like you, only you don't brag – but if I ran out of rounds or something, I would find them right when I needed them."
Yuffie tapped her chin for a minute. "So...you lied to me when you said that people would get their hopes up if they saw you out here?" she started, and felt like she was wandering around in the dark on her hands and knees.
He shook his head, making his long hair sway. "No," he said, obviously fed up with the discussion. "I wasn't lying." When he didn't elaborate any further, Yuffie threw up her arms and scoffed, walking a few paces away from him and pulling a few shurikens out of the pouches on her belt.
"Let's get started then," she grumbled, trying to get her adrenaline going. Without severe excitement and anticipation, she couldn't feed her power into her shurikens, making them do more damage. "They don't come around until they see you're ready to start beating 'em up."
Leon took a huge breath and slowly lowered his weapon, cocking the pistol portion of it back and taking up an informal sword stance. After three months of nonstop training with Yuffie, his leg had gotten flexible almost to the point that he could use it seamlessly, not needing to take a break until hours after beginning, and in hard combat to boot. He didn't know how she did it – what had seemed simple calisthenics had turned out to practically save his life – and was convinced she had implemented some sort of foreign potion on him at sometime or another, but she had simply laughed and told him that it was just a matter of setting your mind to it, as corny as it sounded.
Setting his finger on the trigger, Leon narrowed his eyes and assumed the prowess of a lion, true to the design engraved on the sword of his gunblade.
"Coming at you!" Yuffie shouted, but she didn't have to do so. He'd already spun and taken down three Blue Rhapsodies with the single swing before charging towards a Dark Ball. A Defender was in the center of it all, throwing its huge shield around, and Leon had just dispatched his fifth Dark Ball when he realized that none of the other Heartless would give up unless he disabled the Defender.
"Keep them busy!" he yelled in Yuffie's general direction, jumping over the Defender's shield in the process and landing around back before hacking away at its armor. Yuffie jerked her head up from where she had been fumbling a Potion out of one of her pouches and nodded that she heard before hastily tipping the item down her throat and going out to do her lover's bidding.
Yuffie made quick work of the rest of the Heartless, all confused as to why their leader was being attacked first. Yuffie tossed a shuriken and caught it expertly, blowing the proverbial steam off the top of it before tucking it away. While Leon beat the Defender into oblivion, obviously enjoying his work (since he had a nasty smile on his face, which he only got when he beat her in duels or sparring sessions), making Yuffie loathe to interrupt him. Bored since no more Heartless would show up until the last one was finished, she let her eyes roam around the arena, the tops of the walls, the –
She stopped roving her eyes around and dropped her jaw, fighting hard not to cheer and start jumping up and down. A single little boy was sitting on the wall, watching the fight with excitement and a huge smile on his face. His hair was wet, like he'd jumped out of a bath, and his shirt was on backwards, but he was kicking his feet happily and enjoying the show.
"Leon!" Yuffie shouted, unable to believe what she saw. "Leon!"
With a final smash of his weapon, the Defender melted into shadows, and Leon looked up to see what his lover was so happy about. She pointed, and he looked up, blinking confusedly. The little boy applauded, the smack of his hands ringing in the almost-empty arena. Leon cocked his head and shouldered his gunblade, as unbelieving as Yuffie. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, though, a chorus of new Heartless appeared, demanding their attention.
This round too was dispatched quickly, mostly because Yuffie wanted to look up and see if more people had come. When she had finished off her last Red Nocturne and Leon was loading a few more rounds into the chamber of his weapon, Yuffie leaned on her knees and grinned. At least ten more people lined the walls, a few holding onto the thick posts that came at intervals as if weak in the knees, and more sitting on the wall like the little boy, not believing what they saw. Yuffie felt the same way.
She knew that her paycheck this month was going to far outlast the one she'd gotten last month, since they fought for four hours with no more stops than it took to down a Hi-Potion or Ether. Each time another round of Heartless disappeared into purple-and-black smog, more people appeared on the wall, and the more time that went by, the more crowded the wall became. By the time Leon was complaining of how he needed to cut out the knees of his pants, people were overlapping each other, with some perched on the tops of the posts and others lining the balconies that were built into the walls for such an occasion.
"We'd better get back," she said, going over to him and saying it in his ear. "I smell so bad that I want to barf from it, and you're no better." She grinned and kissed his earlobe in saying it, and he scowled and wiped off his small silver stud, which had been caught in the sudden attack on his ear.
"Yeah, whatever," he muttered, opening the chamber of the pistol portion and sending four rounds flying into the air. He grabbed and pocketed them before clicking it shut and then shouldered his weapon, surprisingly waiting for Yuffie to come with him instead of starting out alone.
The people in the crowd gaped and all stood on top of each other, trying to see him as he made his rather unglamorous exit. Somebody called something out to them, but neither of them heard it – not that Leon would have needed any encouragement anyway.
It had started to rain on the way back to the hotel, which only heightened the disgusting smell that Leon and Yuffie had assumed during their hours in combat. When they came into the Green Room (where Yuffie had started living, giving Aerith back her Red Room – only Aerith hadn't taken it back) it was a fight to get into the bathroom first, but eventually Leon won with brute force, shoving her back onto the table. With the wind knocked out of her, Yuffie laid there for a couple minutes without moving, and when she finally did get up, she opened the bathroom door because she couldn't hear the shower.
Leon was wrestling with the tangles in his long hair, fighting a losing battle with the comb. A fluffy white towel was wrapped around his waist, and another one was abandoned in a heap on the floor, probably having been for his hair. His clothes were in a pile on the floor, having missed the hamper for the maid by about two inches, and his assorted jewelry ("It's not jewelry!" he would insist) and gloves were on the counter. He didn't appear to notice that the door had opened a crack, and when Yuffie slipped in and wrapped her arms around his stomach, it was a surprise.
His muscles un-tensed under her touch when he realized who it was that had come into the bathroom, and Yuffie giggled, running her fingers over his smooth (and blessedly clean) skin. She made a circle around his navel with her finger, causing him to kick her from behind as he tore the comb through his hair.
"You should get a belly button ring," she said to him, drawing imaginary patterns on his bare chest. "That way you can show off your nice abs with reason." He rolled his azure eyes and finally threw down the comb, defeated.
"Get outta here for a minute, Yuf. I want to change," he said, motioning to another heap on the floor, which probably had clothes in it somewhere. Yuffie pouted, uncoiling her arms.
"But I'm your girlfriend," she whined, starting extra-slow towards the door. "Can't I stay?"
With a firm "No," he shoved her out the door and locked it behind her, which only made her cross her arms angrily. After a minute or so he came out again with his hair in a ponytail (to try and hide the tangles, Yuffie guessed) and in a pair of long flannel pants. He motioned for Yuffie to go in, and she giggled.
"What is it?" he asked, half curious and half irritated, as he walked over to the bed and picked the remote up off the window sill.
"You didn't put a shirt on," she observed, holding her pajamas as a bundle under one arm.
He smirked, turning on the TV and putting his hands behind his head. "You liked it better off," he replied, and Yuffie nodded approvingly.
"Touché, senor," she said before ducking into the bathroom and locking it behind her. It took her far longer to shower and change than it did him, and when she finally did come back out, he was asleep in the same position that she'd left him in, albeit with his head drooping a little. In one of his white T-shirts and a pair of plaid pajama pants, Yuffie hit the light switch next to the door with a discarded shoe (it was hers) before creeping across the room and crawling up next to him on the bed. She managed to wriggle the blanket out from under his dead weight and snuggle up in both that and his side, smiling as she did so.
"Yuffie," he murmured, and she looked up at him, reflexively blowing a strand of loose hair out of her eyes. He was silent for a while, and Yuffie took the initiative to turn off the TV and chuck the remote at the table. She waited, trying to imagine what kind of loving thing he was going to say. The minutes grew longer, stretching until she was sure at least half an hour had passed. Angrily, she pushed herself up with the heels of her hands to look at him – and found that he had fallen asleep.
Rolling her eyes, she settled back down against him and muttered, "Yeah, you're quite the romancer, Leon." Closing her eyes and trying to go to sleep, she heard what he said in response as if from a few rooms away, if he'd been shouting.
"You bet I am."
Corny ending much. People seemed to not like it as it went along, but I hope that's not the case and everyone's just on vacation. Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone whose read and reviewed (or even just read) for keeping me inspired and into this story – making it my best yet, I think.
And here's the obligatory credits list that every good author needs to close a story with:
Squaresoft and Disney are credited first to avoid any troubles with the disclaimers. I haven't done a single disclaimer this whole story, and I don't intend to now, but I am putting their names here so that people don't think I actually own the lovely characters (but you can keep assuming that if you want to; I don't mind.)
Next goes to Deplora, who reviewed every single chapter and kept encouraging me through the awesome Squffielove community pingpong867 started on Livejournal. You're a great writer and an even better friend, and thanks so much!
Then to all of the reviewers who took their time out to leave an encouraging comment or two:
Snowri (who rules!), Anime-Master7, Natsumi Akimoto (sorry I couldn't put this up sooner; I was busy all yesterday!), Sqully, DemonSurfer, SummonerMomo, Doomboy2000, Fantacdreamer, Aoi-butterfly, Emrelle Elendal, SetsuntaMew, My Best Friend and Queen of Carbuncle Land (for real!), Marilda24, Skeledude 12, Z.A.G., BlueEyedDemon1, kelsey feret (another of my best friends), Taryn , Viktor Mayrin, Natsu-Aoki (another cool Squffielove person), Wingaurd, himaco (yet another cool Squffielove person), Dark Witch the Demented Angel, Beckette, Lerielle, Annjirika, pingpong867 (founder of Squffielove and very cool person), Cmdr. Defiance Nighthawk, bituin, and Vixen2004.
Finally, to whoever is reading this now, be you a previous reviewer or a newbie, because you took the time to check out my work.
Just an overall Thank You to everyone again, if you read just for the plushies, the Guess the Blonde Contest, or the Squiffie, you made it worth it. Hope to see everyone again when I venture out once more into the realm of Squiffiedom!
--Ellyrianna