Empyrean Sphere

Chapter Three: Fun

Disclaimer: See chapter one or prologue.

Unknown POV

The morning sunlight peeked through the coppice of evergreens; failing to shine through the layer of fallen snow from the night before. A thousand diamonds reach for the obscured stars as the sun rises higher in the bright blue sky. The milky light seeped through the windows and crept along the musty floors; eradicating the darkness of the dying night.

The two cars perched in front of the manor are half buried in gleaming snow, the snow already melting, sliding slowly down the wet glass. No colors are present in the never ending sea of white, blinding against the once green landscape. What once stood out in the beautiful valley, all blends together. The rising sun does nothing to stop the nippy wind biting at the frost bitten windows, screaming for warmth.

The fire had long since gone out, casting the room into darkness. The sunlight makes a weak attempt to enter through the thick curtains. A lump on the couch nearest the fireplace shivers before rolling over; never acknowledging the struggling intruder. The other occupant of the room lay asleep as well, wrapped up in a thick cocoon on the floor near the couch. Both freezing, but still in a deep slumber. As the small lump on the couch moves again I decide that I've kept watch for long enough.

Yuffie POV

Hmmmm . . . Damn its friggin cold. This blanket is doing nothing. What happened to the fire? What time is it? I slowly open my eyes and blink a few times trying to wake myself up. I'm lying on my stomach with my arms hugging the pillow to the side of my face. I weakly push myself up, and roll over onto my butt, leaning against the back of the couch, all the while pulling my thin ass blanket around me tighter. My eyes meet with the fireless fireplace and I sigh deeply as I run my hand through the tangled mob of what some people call hair, what I call BLAH on top of my head. Ugh, I hope I brought my brush. Stupid hair, I hate my . . . what the hell was that? It sounded like a moan. I frantically look around, but I'm alone. Another moan/snore reaches my ears, and I'm now completely terrified, everyone else is supposed to be in their rooms since they didn't have gay ass WINDOWS OPEN LONG ENOUGH TO LET IN A FOOT OF FRIGGIN SNOW!

My breathing shortens and the only sound is the beating of my heart and my irregular breathing. I very slowly push my feet off the couch, and scoot forward till my bare feet hit the carpeted stone floor. Gulping, I, still holding onto my blanket for dear life, slowly stand up. Nothing presents itself from my new point of view, so I take a baby step forward, then another step. Until I step on something warm and fuzzy. But before I can look down, something jerks against my foot causing me to scream like a little girl.

Author walks out on screen, (just bare with me) if it helps you, think of the Twilight Zone when the guy walks out in the middle? O.o okay, I'll continue.

Hello, I'm sorry for interrupting, but I wanted to take you through, step by step, of what just happened. Okay, I hope you've all realized that Yuffie is tripping over our beloved Squall, who was stupid enough to sleep on the floor. Yup, she was too dim to look down so she ran into him. Okay, are you with me so far? Alright, so she stepped on the corner of the blanket being used by the stepee, so she's standing next to him, and his 'muscle spazzed' so he hits her foot with his hand. Which in turn, scares the shit out of Yuffie who falls forward onto him, and he, who had been completely covered in blankets, could not see what the hell was falling on him. Okay, is everybody on the same page? (No pun intended) Alright, go ahead. (By the by, the only reason I did that is because I would have screwed it up writing in regular format.)

Author walks out while waving

Third Person

Yuffie pushed up until she was staring down at . . . SQUALL!!!!!!

"Squall!" She practically screamed. He stuck an arm underneath him to prop himself up, and eyed her incredulously.

"It's Leon, and what the hell do you think your doing? Get off of me!" She tried to push her self up, but one hand missed his chest and she slipped down. She probably would have kissed him but he jerked to the right so she landed on the floor. Growling, she rolled off of him, ignoring his grunts of pain as she rolled across his chest and stomach area. Getting onto all fours, she shook her head gently before standing up. Squall, still steaming, just stared up at her, like it was her fault. She angrily stuck both hands on her hips.

"What the fuck Squall!" He just rolled his eyes.

"Leon and you're the one who tripped over me!" Her mouth dropped open.

"For one thing, I didn't realize sneaking into my temporary room in what I presume to be the middle of the fucking night, sleeping on the fucking floor, below my point of view might I add, and making noises and scaring the mother fucking shit out of me constituted as my fault!" Either he just woke up enough to understand, or what but he finally shoved the blankets off and stood rigidly in front of her, hands clenched in fists.

"You should have been watching where you were walking!" Her dark indigo eyes narrowed and she stared defiantly up at him.

"It's not my fault you snore like a dying pig!"

"I do not snore!"

"Do to."

"Do not."

"Do to."

"Do not."

"Do not."

"Do t-ah dammit!" Growling, slapped his forehead. She grinned in triumph.

"See, you just admitted it. HA!" He took a step closer to her, eyes dancing in fury. She mimicked his actions, pushing her sleeves up. The air is so thick with anger it is almost tangible.

"Hey what's going on?" Yuffie's eyes moved over to Kari, who has Zenny behind her with his arms around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder.

"Oh nothing." Yuffie smiles brightly up at Squall. She takes two steps and leans forward, and whispers in his ear.

"This isn't over." Then she skipped off toward Zen and Kari. Squall turned around to watch Yuffie talking to them. She confused him once again, first there is fire dancing in those dark orbs the next second she has a bright smile on her face and she's yelling "Good Morning Chums!" in a thick, fake British accent across the room at Kari and her Siamese twin Zen. Squall means to find some answers and soon.

-

(Two hours earlier)

Kari mumbled something as she rolled over. But she had been on the edge of the bed to start with so she ended up on the floor. She landed with a loud thump and a grunt. She blinked her eyes open and groaned when she realized where she was. With an exasperated sigh, she pulled her now throbbing arm out from under her. After slowly pushing herself up off the floor, she plopped back down on the king size bed; where Zenny is still sleeping soundly on the other side. She tiredly flips him off before drifting back to sleep; only to be awoken a few minutes later by very loud thunder. Moaning she grabs another pillow and pushed it over her head, the thunder rumbled louder and she almost screamed out as she got into a sitting position and stared out the window at the blizzard.

Her tired eyes fell on Zenny and she silently cursed him for being able to sleep through anything. One time, there had been a rockslide right outside his dorm, and he just kept snoring.

(One hour and a half later)

Zenny rolled over, stretching as his mind fought to wake up all the way. His arm flopped down to find air next to him. He pushed himself up to look around and noticed Kari asleep on the window sill, wrapped up in a quilt with her head resting against the glass. She has her knees hugged to her chest in an act for warmth. Chuckling, he eased himself up and padded over to her while stretching. Her lips are slightly parted, causing her breath to fog up the frozen window. 'She's so adorable.' He thought to himself as he gently brushed some hair off her forehead.

Carefully as to not wake her, he slid his arms under her back and what he thinks are her knees, and picks her up slowly. Her eyes flutter open and she languidly wraps her arms around his neck, taking the blanket with them. She sighs softly as she buries her face in his neck.

Still holding her small frame against him, he carefully eases himself back down onto the bed. He looks down as she pulls away to stare at him with half lidded eyes.

"Why the hell did you wake me up?"

(One hour later, so 30 minutes after the 'couch' ordeal.)

Squalls POV

"Boy, it really is snowing out there." Kari said to the three of us, trying to make conversation. Since Aerith and Cloud are still sleeping, we have no one to start small talk, and Yuffie and I are not on speaking terms. Yet, we're sitting next to each to other. I spare glances at her, a couple times catching her doing the same thing. After Kari's poor attempt to talk, I grunted in response, only loud enough for Yuffie to her.

"Took her long enough to notice." She had been in mid swallow and started choking/laughing, but smoothly turned it into a hacking cough that only I recognized. There were looking at her in concern, but she held her thumb up in a signal that it would pass. After drinking a whole glass of water, she had calmed down enough to take deep breaths.

"Damn, are you okay?" Zenny looked concerned, I had to fake a cough in an excuse to cover my mouth to conceal my smile. She took another deep breath and sighed. And with a bright smile on her face she replied.

"I swallowed wrong. Man look at that snow go!"

-

"You're not serious are you?" She didn't get a reply.

"Aerith?" She got an evil smirk. Aerith had planned out the whole day for them. With consisted mostly of . . .

"SLEDDING!!" Zenny yelled excitedly, bordering on psychotic. Kari rolled her eyes as she pulled on her thick water proof boots.

Squall zipped up his coat unenthusiastically as Yuffie bounded out into the snow.

"This is going to be a long day." He muttered sadly.

(A/N: I know that sucked, I promise, once I finish up my research paper, I'll have a nice chapter for you. R&R!)