Author's Note: Thanks to the VL, I actually know what I'm going to do in this chapter BEFORE I write it.
Note to Ezri-Candy: You do realize, don't you, that with Squall over here, I'll be getting less writing done? I mean, I'll be busy with... other things... as long as he's here. ::wink, wink:: But, thank you VERY much for sending him over here. I'll just have to control myself and write this chapter before I pay him too much attention.
[Disclaimer: I do not own them. Although, I do wish that I could keep Squall for my very own. At least Ezri-Candy has told me that I can keep him until this story is finished. Therefore, this story may never be finished. That way, I can keep him forever and ever and ever ::cough, cough:: hehe... sorry about that. Oh, and I'm borrowing a quick little idea from the movie My Girl. If you've seen it, you'll recognize it. If you haven't seen it, don't worry about it.]
Chapter Nine: As A Woman...
Aerith continued to stand in the doorway, her mouth agape and her eyes wide as she stared at the scene in front of her, a scene she had not even dreamt was possible. Yuffie still sat on Leon's lap, albeit she wasn't lying against his chest anymore. No, she had jumped up from there when she had heard Aerith's shocked gasp. But, Leon's hands still rested on the small of the ninja's back. Actually, right below the small of her back, as if they were creeping slowly downwards, Aerith immediately noted, a scowl coming across her face.
"Aerith, what are you doing here?" Yuffie asked confusedly and guiltily as she scrambled off of the Gunblade wielder and jumped onto the floor, a crimson blush coming across her cheeks. The ninja bit her lip and tried to stare innocently into the flower girl's eyes, only to find herself unable to meet her gaze and turned her eyes instead to the carpeted floor.
"I could ask you the same thing, Yuffie Kisaragi," Aerith uttered in a low growl, scaring both Leon and Yuffie with her tone of voice. Over the years, they had discovered that it was only with great difficulty you could anger the gentle flower girl, but when you did, she was more dangerous than a pregnant Wyvern. "And, you, Squall Leonhart, what do you think you're doing? Hm?"
Yuffie's indigo eyes filled with indignation as she snapped them back up from the floor to meet her friend's brilliant green orbs which nearly glowed with barely suppressed anger. "Aerith, you have no right to come barging in here like that. Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"
"Yuffie does have a point, Aerith," Squall added as he sat up on the bed, swinging his legs over the edge and resting his hands on his knees. Even without his vision, he could tell that the normally compassionate Aerith had disappeared, only to leave a woman seething with waves of anger that he could almost physically feel in the air.
"I would have knocked, if the door had been shut!" Aerith's voice seemed to have reached an octave higher than ever before as the shrill scream pierced Yuffie's and Squall's ears. "But it's a good thing I didn't, because then who knows what would have been going on in here." She marched across the room to the table where she leaned against the oaken surface and glared at the two roommates.
Faltering under the green gaze, the ninja plopped onto the edge of the bed next to Squall with her head in her hands and her elbows resting on her knees. "Geez Aerith, you're acting like we've committed a crime or something," Yuffie muttered, raising her eyes to meet the slightly older woman's.
Deciding it might be best if he tried to remedy matters, Squall began to speak in low and, hopefully, soothing tones to the flower girl. "Aerith, you're obviously surprised. And I can understand that. But, the fact of the matter remains that there is a relationship between Yuffie and I now." As he was speaking, his right hand had made its way over to Yuffie's knee, which it gently squeezed before coming to rest atop it.
By now, Aerith was fairly vibrating with a suppressed rage she herself didn't even know she had. Deep down, she knew she should be happy that her friends had found someone to make them happy, even if it were each other. But, the more rational side of her deemed a relationship with a nine year age gap as too much, especially considering the fact that one of them was still considered a child. "Yuffie, go to my room," she commanded, pointing in the direction of the Red Room. "And stay in there until I have a chance to talk with you."
"What? Am I grounded now?" the teenager whined as she arose from her seat, leaning over to give Squall a kiss on the cheek before she left. A kiss which only caused the poor flower girl more grief as a fresh surge of emotions shot through her. Yuffie started for the doorway, hurrying when she saw Aerith's eyes narrow in anger.
Green eyes followed Yuffie out of the room before turning on the blinded man on the bed in a wrathful stare when the connecting door closed. "Squall Leonhart, you have some explaining to do," she seethed in a deadly hiss.
With a calloused hand, Squall pushed his hair back from his face as frown lines set themselves in his forehead. "About what, Aerith?" he finally asked. "About Yuffie and I?"
"Yes, about Yuffie and you. What in the blazing hell do you think you're doing?" she nearly screamed as she quickly approached him, stopping only inches from him. She lowered herself down to what would be his eye level if his eyes weren't covered by the white gauze. "Damn it, Leon! She's only sixteen years old!"
The curse word Aerith let slip from her tongue caused the Gunblade wielder to visibly flinch. When Aerith began cursing, the next thing you would expect to see would be demons on ice and pigs flying by your window. "You don't think I know that?!"
"Then why are you doing this?! I thought you had more sense than this, Leon. But, apparently I was wrong." Aerith backed away from the man and began to pace the room, her long chestnut braid swishing angrily each time she spun on her heel to turn. The lingering silence from Leon caused her agitation with the situation to grow even larger, if that were possible. "Answer me!"
Leon released a prolonged sigh as he rubbed a hand down his face, trying to think of a way to make Aerith understand the situation. "I know that she's sixteen physically, Aerith. But, since I'm deprived of my vision, I can't see her. I have to rely on my other senses. And if you just listen to her, you can discover that mentally, she's closer to our age than to her real age. She just hides it behind her facade."
Aerith stopped her relentless pacing and gingerly massaged her aching temples, trying to stave off the migraine that threatened to overtake her. "This morning, in the waterway, what exactly were you two doing?" she questioned suddenly, remembering how she had found them both down there, the seemingly innocent expression Yuffie had thrown on... perhaps, too innocent.
"We told you. I wanted to fight so Yuffie was helping me." He tiredly threw himself back on the bed, letting his legs hang off the edge and rested his arm across his stomach. "Come on, Aerith. It could be worse, you know. It could be her and Sora," he tossed out, hoping his lighthearted statement would calm the pink obsessed girl.
"At least he's closer to her age," the woman snapped, her head quickly turning to glare at the man lying nonchalantly on the bed. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go have a talk with Yuffie." She hastily picked up her skirt and marched across the room to the connecting doorway, quickly stepping through and closing it with a crashing slam.
After the resounding echo of the slamming door receded, Squall got up off the bed and blindly walked towards the window, his foot softly kicking an obstacle he hadn't known was under the window. He bent down and ran his fingers along it, feeling the rusted wires of the bird cage Yuffie had brought in earlier. A soft pecking at his fingers and a gentle 'coo' let him know that Yoshi was, indeed, inside the cage.
"Well, Yoshi," Squall muttered as he placed his hands on the windowsill and leaned his head out the window, "that went better than expected. At least we're still in one piece." A few muffled cries and frustrated screams from the Red Room caused him to turn his head and attach an amendment to his statement. "For now, anyways."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In the Red Room, Aerith found Yuffie busily cleaning her shuriken with the hem of a pink shirt, a pink shirt Yuffie had pulled out of the flower girl's closet. The ninja looked up when she heard the door slam, a nervous laugh escaping her lips as she noticed Aerith staring at the shirt in her hands. Yuffie quickly hid it behind her back. "Aerith, I didn't think you'd be in here so soon," she mumbled guiltily.
Aerith rolled her eyes before tiredly rubbing them. "Yuffie, what are you doing?" she asked quietly as walked over to the teenager and wrenched the shirt from her hands, eyeing the black stains caused by the Heartless blood with disgust before throwing it into the hamper.
"Uh... polishing my stars?" Yuffie said confusedly, wondering if maybe Aerith was going blind or something if she couldn't tell by looking.
"I know that. I'm talking about what are you doing with Leon?" the flower girl repeated, making it more clear what it was she was asking this time. She crossed the room and sat on the edge of her bed, patting the mattress beside her.
Yuffie slowly and cautiously seated herself next to Aerith, afraid she might turn on her at any moment. "Oh... Squall and me... well, shouldn't it be obvious?" She watched as Aerith stood back up from her seat on the bed and began nervously pacing in front of her.
"You do realize that there is a nine year age gap, don't you?" her pink clad friend questioned suddenly, turning her head to look at the teenager with worried eyes.
"No, Aerith. The whole nine years difference just slipped my mind," Yuffie retorted sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she threw her head back in frustration. "Of course I know that. I'm not stupid. But, if I don't care and he doesn't care, why should you?"
"Because I'm worried about you, damn it!" Aerith snapped suddenly as she stopped her pacing and glared at the girl in front of her, the girl she had practically raised while she was still a child herself. "Yuffie, believe it or not, I want you both to be happy. I'm just... distressed about this whole thing because he's so much older."
Yuffie sighed loudly before grabbing a pillow from the bed and covering her mouth with it to muffle the high-pitched scream of frustration she let out. "Aerith, I'll be fine. He'll be fine. Just chill the maternal instincts, okay? Good grief! You'd think I was your child or something."
"Fine. Since I can't talk either of you out of it, you're going to have to sit through 'the talk.' I think it's about time you had it." As she said this, Aerith dragged the lone wooden chair in the over to the side of the bed, where she could sit directly in front of the protesting Yuffie.
Groaning, the ninja shook her head before falling backwards onto the mattress. "Aerith, I had this talk four years ago, remember?" she protested as she herself remembered the embarrassing circumstances of the talk.
Coming out of the small bathroom in the Red Room, a twelve year old Yuffie leaned against the wall as she slid down to the floor, wrapping her arms around her shaking knees. She lowered her head onto her knees and let the few tears in her eyes fall upon the constantly scabbed over skin. A knock on the door caused her to jolt before calling out weakly to the visitor. "Come in."
A twenty-one year old Leon entered the room, his brows furrowed as he looked around the room and was unable to see anyone. Finally looking over at the corner, he noticed the young ninja on the ground, her eyes red rimmed as she glanced up at him. "Yuffie," he said gently, "what's wrong? Where's Aerith?"
Yuffie chewed on her lower lip, looking down at the ground and avoiding his eyes. "I don't know where Aerith is," she finally admitted, not noticing that he was standing right above her. As she lifted her eyes, a deluge of tears spilled their dams and she broke down into a heaving mass of sobs.
Confused by her tears, as the child normally never shed tears in front of others, the Gunblade wielder kneeled in front of her and pulled her into a gentle hug. "Hey, what's wrong, Yuf? Come on, you can tell me," he coaxed in his most gentle voice.
"I'm dying," she wailed, wrapping her arms around his neck in a vise-like grip. "And Aerith isn't here to heal me." More sobs wracked her tiny frame as Leon soothingly rubbed her back in an attempt to calm her down.
"Why do you think you're dying?" he asked softly, trying to make sense of the situation and find a way to calm the girl's fears.
Yuffie sniffled loudly as she pulled away from him and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I think I'm bleeding internally or have cancer or something."
"Why do you think that Yuffie?"
"Because there was blood in the toilet."
A bright red blush came across Leon's face and he tried to stifle the deep laughter that threatened to rumble up from his chest. "Yuffie, you aren't dying," he finally told her after he managed to control his laughter. "Um... you just wait here and I'll go find Aerith for you. I think there are some things she needs to talk to you about."
As he stood up to leave, Yuffie grabbed his hand before he could go anywhere. "Are you sure I'm not dying?" she asked apprehensively, her eyes wide with both hope and fear.
"I'm positive," he reaffirmed, playfully ruffling her mop of short, unruly black hair. "Just wait here until I find Aerith for you."
"Okay, Squall."
"It's Leon."
The sound of Aerith's voice broke through Yuffie's embarrassing recollection of her sudden introduction to womanhood. "Yuffie, I know you had that talk four years ago. But, I just glossed over some things."
Pushing the heel of her hands against her eyes, the ninja groaned loudly before jumping up from the bed and stomping over to the window. "Aerith, I do not need this talk," she yelled before jumping out the window and into the alley below.
"Well, that went well," Aerith muttered as she arose from her chair and looked out the window to see the retreating figure of Yuffie running towards the Dalmatian's house.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In the pale light of the full moon, Yuffie soundlessly jumped onto the Green Room balcony and climbed through the open window. Her sneaking into the hotel room was going well until she belatedly remembered that she had placed Yoshi's cage beneath the windowsill. As she tried to avoid the cage in her entrance, her leg crashed into it and caused both her and the bird to cry out in pain and fear. "Damn it!" she hissed under her breath as she climbed to her feet.
"Yuffie?" Squall called from the bed, his silhouette in the moonlight showing him to be in a sitting position on the bed. "Yuffie, are you okay?" He struggled to untangle himself from the sheets that entangled his legs as he climbed out of the bed.
"I'm fine, Squall. I just tripped on my way in." She watched as he sat back down onto the edge of the bed and ran a hand through his hair. Smiling, she quickly walked over and sat next to him, taking his arm and running her hand along the hard muscles. "You weren't worried about me, now were you?" she chided.
Reaching over with his free arm, he grabbed her hand, stopping it in mid-stroke. "Yes, I was worried. Where were you?" he asked, his voice coming out more gruffly than he had planned.
"I had to get out, okay? Aerith was driving me insane. She tried to give me 'the talk' again." Biting her lip, Yuffie looked up at the small clock above the door, her eyes widening when she saw it was near three in the morning. "Geez, I didn't know it was so late," she muttered as she yawned loudly and leaned her head momentarily against Squall's shoulder before getting up to get changed.
"Where are you going?" he questioned suddenly as he felt the warmth of her body leave him. The sound of the dresser drawer rasping open and the rustling of clothes gave him his answer before Yuffie did, as her yawns became more frequent and prevented her from making a coherent answer.
By the time Yuffie had come out of the bathroom, Squall was once again lying on his side beneath the covers on the bed. Walking to the end of the bed, she crawled up to the head, careful not to disrupt her roommate's sleep as she did so. As she climbed under the blankets, a soft sigh and yet another yawn escaped her lips. She lay her head on the pillow, eyes already closed in anticipation of the much needed sleep when she felt a heavy arm drape across her waist and pull her over to the owner of said arm.
"Don't go off like that anymore, okay?" Squall whispered as she relaxed against his chest, quickly and easily slipping into slumber before she even had a chance to answer him. Noticing that she was already asleep, he kissed her cheek before allowing himself to fall asleep as well.
Author's Note: Okay, okay... I know. Aerith might seem out of character. But, y'know, she has to get angry sometime. And I think if she was angry, it would have to be because something happened to her friends. So, why not because of a relationship between Squall and Yuffie when Yuffie's still 16. Okay, I ramble. And, if you didn't know, the flashback scene with 12 year old Yuffie is the quick little idea I stole from My Girl. I loved that scene in the movie. Anyways, review for me. Please?