Author's Note: Okay. Here we go. I'm not sure if this is the last chapter yet or not. So, I guess we'll have to wait and see at the end of this chapter.

Note of Jupiter Green: I'm writing, I'm writing! You don't have to shoot me. I'm hoping it won't take me as long with this chapter as it did with the other.

On another note, I think I'm going to put off updating "Honor Amongst Thieves" until this story is complete, which won't be much longer.

[Disclaimer: Oh, how I wished I owned Squall. But, I don't. Square does, along with every other character in this story. Well, Disney might own a few. I don't really know nor do I care.]

Chapter Twenty-Two: Finding Your Light

Staring into Squall's stormy eyes, Yuffie felt her knees begin to weaken and she almost ran to him, wishing things had been the way they were before... before she had found that picture of him and Rinoa. But, she quickly squashed that thought, knowing that she couldn't go back. "What are you doing here?" she hissed when she finally found her voice, putting away the shuriken she had drawn and keeping her eyes trained anywhere but on him.

For fear of making her run, Squall refrained from approaching her and instead leaned against wall, keeping his eyes on her at all times. It had been so long since he had seen her, and, then, it had been before he realized that he loved her. He couldn't help but notice the way she avoided his gaze. "Looking for you," he answered quietly, pushing the hair that had fallen into his eyes out of the way.

"Please don't look at me like that, my heart can't take this," she muttered softly under her breath, turning her head away from him and beginning to leave the dining room. She had to get away before she broke down. And she refused to let him see that. His voice stopped her in her tracks even though she tried to continue on her way.

"Yuffie, please... don't go," the swordsman pleaded, taking a tentative step towards her and reaching out a hand. "At least talk to me first. There are some things that need to be cleared up." He watched her pause in the doorway and slowly turn back to face him, her indigo eyes full of pain and unshed tears.

Closing her eyes, the ninja took a deep breath, willed her tears back, and steadied her nerves, hating herself for being so weak. "Why should I?" she demanded, sounding more harsh than she had originally intended, but it was the only way to keep her tears from flooding out.

Squall involuntarily winced when he heard her tone and slowly walked over to the end of the table, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. "Just talk to me... please?" he begged, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice but found it impossible to do so. She gave him a skeptical look. "After we're finished talking, if you want... you can leave and I won't follow you this time." It killed him to say that, but he knew it was the only way to convince her to at least listen to him.

"You promise?" she asked, pinching the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb. At his nod, she slowly crossed the room and took a seat at the far end of the table, the farthest she could get away from him. She wearily propped her elbows up on the table and rested her head on her hands. "Okay, talk."

Squall buried his face in his hands, trying to think of where to even begin. Sorting through his thoughts, he finally decided that maybe starting on a more humorous note would help to light the somber mood. "I went to the Coliseum, looking for you, and I found Phil," he began, seeing the ninja's eyes widen slightly as she bit her lip. "You told him I had a goat fetish?!"

Sighing, Yuffie nervously ran a hand through her ebony hair and closed her eyes. "I knew you'd be mad," she whispered softly, letting out a short laugh before quickly cutting it off.

"No, I'm not mad that you told him that. If you hadn't, we would never have left the Coliseum. And then we wouldn't have gotten back to Traverse Town. And then we wouldn't have..." he trailed off, remembering all too well what had happened between them when they had finally gotten back to their room that night. His piercing blue gaze, full of unanswered questions, met hers. "What happened, Yuffie? We were so happy. Why did you leave?"

Yuffie bit back the sob that started to form in her throat at his words, harshly reminding herself that it was Rinoa's name he had said in his sleep. "I... I... told you the reason in the note I left," she stammered, her voice betraying the emotions within that she tried to keep hidden from him. "Didn't you read it?"

"Aerith read it to me," he answered calmly, remembering how the flower girl's voice had try to relay the news that Yuffie was gone in the kindest way possible. He was oblivious to the shocked and angered expression on the ninja's face at the moment.

"That note was meant for your eyes only, Squall!" she whispered-screamed at him, her eyes glaring at him as she thought of Aerith reading her heart's outpourings that she had left only for Squall. "If I had wanted her to read it, I would've left it in her room or put her name on the front!"

The swordsman tiredly rubbed his eyes, raising his eyebrows as he did so. "Yuffie, my eyes were blurry and I couldn't read anything. I could barely see to get around for three days. Why do you think it took me so long to find you?"

"I just figured you would be glad to have me gone. I mean you couldn't see me for the past month so of course you wouldn't care who you were with." She paused, squeezing her eyes tightly shut to keep the tears in check. "It doesn't matter when you can't see. It doesn't matter that I'm not your beautiful Rinoa." She spit the name out as though it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Yuffie, you don't understand," Squall began, running his hands distractedly through his wild mane of hair. The distress in Yuffie's eyes was enough to tear him apart. "It's not because I couldn't see--" But he never got to finish his sentence as the ninja rose from her chair and glared at him angrily.

"You told her that you loved her but you never told me. Why is that, Squall?" she screamed, louder than she intended and her voice rising with each word. By now, tears were streaming freely down her face and she was hastily wiping them away, cursing herself at the same time for breaking down in front of him. "Why is that?" This time, her voice had taken on a raspy quality and could barely be heard. She turned to leave the room.

Seeing that she was about to escape, Squall lurched to his feet and quickly crossed the room, grabbing her by her shoulder and spinning her around to face him. And, Yuffie, just needing something to hold onto at that moment, latched onto his jacket and buried her face into his shirt, her tears quickly soaking through the white material and wetting his chest. The swordsman hesitantly brought his arms up around the sobbing ninja and held her, trying to comfort her the best he could with their current misunderstanding.

"Yuffie," he murmured, feeling her tense up beneath his hands as he spoke, "I never told you that I loved you because you never told me." She gripped his jacket even tighter, her small frame trembling even more than it previously was. "Do you?"

She immediately pulled out of his arms, backing up from him until she was up against the dining room table. "I... I... love?..." Her mind and heart were awash with confusion. Somewhere deep down she knew that she loved him and always would, but she didn't want to admit it. "No," she said firmly, adamantly shaking her head at the same time. "I can't love you!"

Squall reached into his back pocket and pulled out the note she had written him, folded into quarters. He slowly unfolded it and stared at a few lines. "Then why did you tell me that you did in this?" he asked quietly, handing the note to her.

"Because... because..." she struggled to come up with a lie, but discovered she was unable to while under his scrutinizing gaze and she soon found herself lowering her head and spilling out the truth. "Because I do love you as much as I try not to."

Her voice was so soft that he barely heard it escape her lips and float across the room to him. "Yuffie, would it help if I told you that I never told Rinoa that I loved her? That I didn't love her?" he whispered after clearing his throat to remove the lump that was beginning to form there.

Yuffie jerked her head up and stared at him with wide eyes glistening with tears. "What are you talking about? I read the back of the picture, Squall. It said, and I quote, 'With love always, Rinoa,'" the ninja replied confusedly, remembering very well almost every detail of the picture in question.

"Yes, Yuffie. it said 'With love always, Rinoa.' It didn't say 'With love always, Squall.' It said Rinoa," he explained slowly, trying to make her understand that he didn't love the woman from his past.

Blinking her eyes a few times and staring at him, the ninja tried to grasp the situation. "But... that look on your face..." she began, her brows furrowed in confusion as she thought back to the picture. "You looked so happy... so in love..."

Squall took a deep breath and let it out slowly, closing his eyes for a moment before training them back onto Yuffie. "Yuffie, that picture was from ten years ago. It was a different and a different place, before the Heartless attacked... before anything bad had really happened to any of us. I was in love then, but not with Rinoa. I was in love with life back then. I wasn't so cynical about everything ten years ago," he explained slowly, his stormy blue eyes intent on her face.

Yuffie wildly shook her head, trying to grasp onto what he was saying. "But... but... I've never seen that look on your face..." she trailed off and looked back up to him, her eyes pleading with him. "You were never that happy with me."

"Yuffie, did it ever occur to you that I was blind and had a blindfold over my eyes?" he asked quietly, beginning to slowly walk towards her, each step painfully small as he didn't want her to run away yet again. "That you couldn't see my eyes?" He was standing right in front of her by the time he said that, looking down at her.

With Squall standing so close to her and his slight warmth emanating from his body to her in the cold room, Yuffie found it hard to even breath. But she did hear his words and almost gave in to him before she remembered one other thing that pointed in the direction of him loving Rinoa. "Then tell me, Squall, if you didn't love Rinoa, then why did you say her name in your sleep after we slept together?" she demanded, jumping up on the table top behind her and scooting back a little, just to put some more room between the two of them.

Closing his eyes, Squall tiredly ran a hand down his face, leaving it over his mouth for a few moments before he answered her. "What exactly did I say, Yuf? Word for word, what did I say?"

"You said, 'Rinoa... I'm sorry,'" the ninja replied, adding a melodramatic flair that wasn't present when he had mumbled the words in his sleep.

"Yuffie..."

"NO! I don't want to hear anymore lies! Do you know how much it hurts when I think about it?! Do you know how much it hurts when I realize that you were just lying to me when you told me that I was beautiful?!" Her eyes were aflame with barely suppressed anger as she glared at the man before her. "Do you have any idea how much it hurts knowing that I still love you even though you're obviously still in love with Rinoa?!"

Before she could say anymore, Squall cut her off with a kiss, reaching his arms around her and pulling her to him. At first, she tensed up and struggled to pull away from him, but as he deepened the kiss, she slowly began to melt into his embrace, helpless to the emotions cresting within her. He finally released her and rested his forehead against hers, his stormy blue gaze staring deep into her own indigo one.

Once she caught her breath, Yuffie's eyes widened, then narrowed in rage as she pulled out of his grasp. And before he could stop her, she had reared back and slapped him as hard as she was able, leaving a bright red hand print across his left cheek. "How dare you?!" she seethed in a deadly hiss, trying to scoot across the table and escape from him, but she quickly discovered that he had somehow grabbed her by the elbows and wasn't going to let her go.

With his hands busy holding onto the ninja in front of him, Squall was unable to rub his stinging cheek and instead twisted his head and rubbed it with his shoulder. "Yuffie, you don't understand about Rinoa," he insisted, finding it hard to keep a grip on her while she twisted around as she tried to escape.

"LET. ME. GO," Yuffie snarled, sounding almost like a wild animal caught in a trap, desperate to free itself. She fought like one, too, as she tried to rake her nails across the arms that held her tight and bring her legs around to kick him. Squall simply held onto her even more tightly and drew her closer to him, despite her protests and attacks.

"Yuffie! Just calm down and listen to me," he commanded, wincing as her nails bit into the flesh of his right arm and left four red streaks in their wake. Not knowing what else to do, he twisted her around and quickly brought his arms around her waist, keeping her arms pinned to her sides and her back against his chest.

Finding herself effectively trapped once more, Yuffie began sobbing, tears running down her cheeks unheeded since her hands were trapped to her sides. "Please, just let me go," she rasped softly, lowering her head in defeat. "Please..."

Taking a deep breath, Squall looked down at his right forearm where she had scratched it just moments before. The blood from the wound was slowly running down his arm and falling onto the white sweatshirt she wore, giving it a bright red stain. He painfully closed his eyes, hoping she would believe him this time as he lowered his head to her shoulder, ignoring the glare she gave him out of the corner of her eye. "Yuffie, I never did love Rinoa. I already told you that. But that didn't mean she wasn't still my friend after we broke up. Yuffie... when the Bastion fell, I had to watch so many people die because I was too weak to save them. Rinoa was among them," he whispered softly into her ear, the images of the past jumping into his mind.

Noticing that she had calmed slightly, he continued with his story, loosening his grip ever so slightly to make sure he wasn't hurting her. He told her about how he and Cloud had run through the castle halls, trying to help fight back the Heartless and only have the palace guards shove them off towards the Gummi ships, telling them that women and children should leave. "I was sixteen years old, Yuffie, and I could fight, or so I believed, and they still wouldn't let either Cloud or me fight. So, we went behind their backs and into the halls they had forgotten. And that's when it happened." He involuntarily shuddered as the memory came back full force, each gory detail remembered in perfect detail.

Curious and much calmer than she had been, now that she was able to focus on his story rather than her own pain, Yuffie turned her head slightly to get a better look at him. She couldn't miss the pain written across his features or the slight tremble in his body. "When what happened?"

"Rinoa... she was backed against a wall, surrounded by the Heartless, yet she was still fighting, tossing out different spells like crazy. And it was working, too. After a few rounds of Thundaga, most of the shadows were gone. And the few that were left soon met their end with the blade of mine and Cloud's swords. But, that was before we realized how the shadows could move... before we knew that they could melt into the walls and floors and come up behind you," Squall stopped his story, reliving that moment from the past once more as he tried to continue with his story. "Just when we thought we had won, just when I saw what I thought was the last shadow die, one slid across the wall and appeared behind Rinoa. And I just stood there in dumbfounded horror as it viciously reached inside her chest and pulled her heart out."

His grip on Yuffie having loosened considerably while he was talking, the ninja found that she could twist around and her arms were now free, which she threw around him. One hand soothingly rubbed his back and the other stroked the nape of his neck while he buried his face into her shoulder. "Shh... it wasn't your fault, Squall..." she murmured soothingly, feeling the shuddery breaths he took as he held back his tears.

Arms tightening around the ninja's back, Squall slowly raised his head from her shoulder and looked down at her. "I still have nightmares about what happened that day, Yuf. I see her die again most nights and I'm still unable to save her," he whispered softly, looking into her eyes to see if he could find acceptance in their depths. "Now do you believe me, Yuf? Now will you believe me when I say that I love you?"

"How can you love me, Squall? How can you love me after having someone as perfect and mature as Rinoa?" Yuffie wondered aloud, still halfway disbelieving his words and lowering her eyes from his. She instead chose to stare at the wall across the room, where a lone painting of a field of lilies hung on the wall.

"Because Rinoa was too perfect. It was almost like she wasn't real sometimes. She was too perfect to last, Yuf," he murmured, removing one hand from her back to cup her chin and force her to look at him. "But you are real, Yuffie, because you aren't perfect. And I love that about you."

At his words, Yuffie looked up into his eyes and gasped softly when she saw that look she had seen in his eyes in the photograph, only this time it was better because he was looking at her, and only her, like that. "You really do mean that, don't you, Squall?" she questioned quietly, a soft smile coming across her face at his nod. She wrapped her arm more tightly around his neck and pulled herself up slightly, meeting his lips with her own in a chaste, innocent kiss. But it wasn't enough.

No sooner had her lips left his, then Squall brought his lips crashing back down on hers, arms pulling her tightly to him as the kiss deepened. Now that she had accepted the fact that he did, indeed, love her, he wasn't about to let her go. His hands roamed her back, sliding to the hem of her sweatshirt and then underneath it, only to discover that instead of flesh, it had been another layer of clothing he had found. He groaned softly and broke the kiss to bring the sweatshirt up over her head, tossing it across the room. She had another sweatshirt on beneath it. "What are you wearing?" he muttered against her skin as he kissed the corner of her mouth and worked his way down her neck.

"Clothes," she whispered, leaning her head to the side to give him better access to the tender flesh of her throat. He raised his head and gave her a quizzical look, his eyes going back and forth between her clothes and her face. "I was cold!"

"You won't be cold now," he murmured as he lowered his mouth back to her neck and shoulder, pulling the collar of her sweatshirt to the side to gain better access to her skin. He stopped briefly and looked around the room, shaking his head as he did so. "Not here." He picked her up off the table, his hands beneath her upper thighs and carried her out of the room.

When he had picked her up, Yuffie had instinctually wrapped her legs around his waist and snaked her arms around his neck. "Where are we going?" she asked, planting feather-light kisses along his jaw line and the side of his neck. She giggled a little when the memory of him carrying her through Traverse Town the night they had returned from the Coliseum popped into her mind. Although, then, she had been on his back, not clinging to the front of him.

"The library," he grunted, remembering the couch and blanket present there as he stopped to push her up against the wall and briefly ravage her neck and throat. But the collar of her sweatshirt kept getting in his way, so he leaned back slightly and pulled that one over her head as well, dropping it unheeded to the floor. The presence of a long-sleeved shirt beneath that sweatshirt caused his eyes to widen. "Yuffie, is there any skin beneath all this?" he asked in exasperation.

"Keep looking, it's there somewhere," she whispered in his ear as he tugged the tucked-in shirt out of the top of her pants. She laughed softly when she noticed that he wasn't wasting any time in getting that shirt off as it was quickly thrown across the hallway, nearly landing on one of the still lit candles. Just as she was about to reprimand him about being more careful, she felt his hands sneak under her fourth and last layer of clothing and run across her flesh, eliciting a shrill squeal from her.

"Eureka!" Squall playfully exclaimed, laughing at the noises she was making as his hands slithered up her t-shirt and pulled it over her head, allowing it to join the others.

"You struck gold?" Yuffie inquired with raised eyebrows, shivering slightly as the cold air in the room touched her now bare flesh.

Seeing the goose bumps appearing on her skin, Squall pulled away from the wall and started on his trek for the library once more. "Better... naked ninja," he murmured into her ear, kissing the sensitive flesh right below it.

After a few more stops along the way, Yuffie and Squall finally reached the library and pushed through the doors, glad that the ninja had left a few candles burning in there to provide light so they wouldn't trip and fall. And as Squall slowly lowered her to the couch in the upper portions, he once again whispered 'I love you' in her ear before lowering himself to join her on the sofa.

Author's Note: Okay, one more chapter to go. I promise. Don't know when I'll get it out though, considering the site is going to be in 'read only' mode on the 17th and 18th. So, if it's not out by Monday night, you'll have to wait until Thursday for it.

Anyways, I like, for the most part, how this chapter came out. And I owe a MAJOR thank you to VL for helping me with the confrontation part of this chapter. She did a lot of the dialogue for that part. So, everybody go thank her, too. So, now that you've read the chapter, why don't you leave a review?