Author's Note: Okay, I forgot to disclaim the name of Squall's restaurant in the last chapter. I'm told that The Rustic Oven is an actual restaurant somewhere. I'm just borrowing the name. So, if you know that place, don't go in there expecting to find Squall. :) And for those of you who guessed Johnny Bravo as the cartoon Yuffie was watching, you were right. I LOVE that cartoon even though I don't watch it near enough.
Okay, I had to reload this chapter since my original scene breaks didn't work. :::growls at fanfiction:::
[Disclaimer: I find myself doing this every chapter of every story even though you guys probably already know that I don't own the characters. And you probably already know that I want to own Squall. So, there. That's my disclaimer this time. And, just in case, I don't own Wal-Mart either, since I do mention it in this chapter.]
Chapter Seven: Forming a Bond
On the couch in Leon's living room sat Yuffie, her arms crossed over her chest and her indigo eyes glaring angrily at the man's back as he walked out of the room. It had been nineteen hours and twenty-seven minutes since Leon had threatened her into staying and it had been nineteen hours and twenty-six minutes since she had last spoken to him. And she was meticulously keeping track of the time, wondering how long it would take before her silent treatment broke him and he allowed her to leave.
In her mind, it was one thing to invite her to stay with him, but threatening was quite another. If he had asked her to stay, instead of demanding it, she knew she would have given in simply because she enjoyed his company, no matter how cold he sometimes appeared. His coldness intrigued her in a way she couldn't understand. But, he hadn't asked her to stay and that thought didn't sit well with her. Even as a child, Yuffie had never liked being ordered around and, now, here she was, being commanded to do something by a man she hardly even knew.
A knock on the door caused her to turn her head and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Leon poking his head out of his bedroom door and glare at her. "Do you think you can get that?" he demanded, pointing at the front door as another knock sounded.
"What am I, his slave labor now?" Yuffie muttered darkly under her breath as she rose from the couch and slowly crossed the room to the door. She wrenched it open, a scowl on her face which immediately softened when she realized that it was Aerith at the door, and even if the woman was Leon's friend, she had still treated the teenager with nothing but kindness and sweetness. "Aerith," Yuffie sighed, stepping away from the door and letting the woman into the apartment.
Green eyes looked at Yuffie worriedly, her brows furrowed as she studied the girl and could obviously see the distress on her face. "Is something wrong, Yuffie?" Aerith asked quietly, reaching out and putting a hand on the teenager's shoulder. "You can talk to me about anything, you know. And I won't tell a soul about what goes on between us."
"I--" Yuffie opened her mouth to speak, but she saw Leon coming up the hall towards them and she shut her mouth with a snap. Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits as she glared over Aerith's shoulder at him before turning her gaze back to the florist. "Aerith, tell Leon that he's being a jerk, forcing me to stay here like some animal..."
Leon started to say something, but Aerith cut him off before he even had a chance to let the words out of his mouth. "Yuffie, why don't we go do something today? I mean, you've been cooped up in this apartment for almost a week now and some fresh air will do you good. Not to mention that you need to get out of this man-apartment," the florist rushed out, grabbing Yuffie's arm and ushering her to the door.
"Uh... Aerith, I don't have any shoes on," Yuffie said, stopping the woman before she pushed her completely out of the door. "I think I might need some shoes to go anywhere, don't you?"
Looking down at the teenager's bare feet, the florist laughed. "Yeah, that might be helpful. Okay, you go get your shoes on and I'll wait for you." She waited until Yuffie was out of the room and then rounded on Leon. "Okay, Leon. Why is she so upset?" she hissed angrily, her hands on her hips and eyes boring into his. "What exactly did you say to her last night?"
"I just told her that if she didn't stay here, I would turn her into the authorities," Leon explained nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as he did so.
"Leon, you weren't supposed to threaten her! Did you ever think that if maybe you just asked she might have stayed?" Aerith raised a hand to rub her eyes and then pinched the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb. "You know what? Don't answer that. Just give me some money."
Stormy blues eyes widened in surprise and stared at the woman in front of him, trying to figure out why she wanted his money. But seeing that demanding look in her eyes and having prior experience with the florist when she had her mind set on something, he reluctantly pulled out his wallet and handed her some bills, not even bothering to count how much he gave her. "And why am I giving you money, Aerith?"
"Because Yuffie needs some clothes of her own. She can't just keep wearing my old stuff. I'll take her shopping today and I'll split the cost with you fifty-fifty, okay?" Aerith insisted, not even waiting for his answer before putting the money into her purse. "And I'll try to smooth things over between the two of you. You can't live together if you aren't even talking."
Yuffie walked back into the living room, wearing a pair of faded and torn orange sneakers along with the blue jeans and green blouse Aerith had loaned her. The clothes hung off her body as they were just a little too big for tiny frame. "Okay, Aerith. I'm ready and where are we going?" she asked as she walked to the door, the florist following right behind her.
"Shopping," Aerith sang happily, turning back to smile sweetly at Leon as they left. "And, Leon, don't expect us until we get back."
After weaving through the traffic and road construction that always seemed to be going on in this city, Aerith and Yuffie finally made it across town to the large mall located there. During the ride, the two of them made idle chit-chat about their music preferences as they channel-surfed on the radio. They both avoided the subject of Leon: Aerith because she knew there was tension between him and Yuffie; and Yuffie because she was still too angry with him and didn't want to make herself seem too ungrateful while with his friend.
"And I just love Amy Lee's voice," Yuffie said as she climbed out of the Aerith's SUV and stood next to it, waiting for the florist to join her before she began walking across the parking lot. "So, anyways, what kind of shopping are you doing?"
"We're getting you some clothes that will actually fit you better than that," the brunette explained, pointing to the seemingly baggy clothes Yuffie wore. "And we'll get your hair done and your ears pierced and you could use some new shoes..." She trailed off when she noticed that with each thing she proposed Yuffie's eyes grew wider and a look of fear came into them. "Hey, Yuffie, relax. I'm not going to bite."
"Then why are you doing all this for me?" the teenager asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing slightly as she watched Aerith's facial expression. She was still finding it hard to believe that after seventeen years of life, she had found some people who were willing to help her. And old suspicions die hard.
There was a long pause while Aerith tried to find the words she wanted to say and she gently grabbed Yuffie's arm to keep her from walking on. "I've always wanted a daughter," she began, sounding almost apologetic as she did so. "And you're the closest thing I've ever had to one."
Scrunching her eyebrows together, Yuffie looked down at the ground and studied the cracks in the pavement. She finally looked back up at Aerith and grinned. "Well, let's get this party started then. I've never really done a lot of shopping. Just a little bit with my foster families and before that, I just vaguely remember shopping with my mother but..." she trailed off, not wanting to think about her mother right now. She didn't need to or want to deal with the grief right now.
Aerith smiled brightly and nodded, already starting for the mall entrance again with Yuffie in tow. "Alright then. We'll start at the shoe store and get you something more comfortable to walk in since we're going to be here for awhile," she told her, already mapping out a route through the stores in the mall in her head. "And then we'll get your hair done."
"Uh... Aerith, how about we just take this one step at a time, okay?" the teenager pleaded, following the florist into the shoe store that was located near the entrance. She balked when she saw the prices on the shoes and started to back out of the store, but the woman stopped her.
"Yuffie, where are you going?" Aerith asked quietly, dragging the teenager back into the store and towards the back, where they kept the walking shoes. "You need a pair of sneakers since those look like they're about to fall apart."
Taking another look at the prices, Yuffie tried to escape again but to no avail. Aerith's grip on her arm was like steel. "Aerith, the prices on these shoes are outrageous. Shouldn't we try Payless or something?" she hissed as she saw the saleswoman coming towards them.
"Don't worry about it, Yuff," Aerith whispered as she turned towards the saleswoman and smiled, already pointing to a sneaker on the display that she wanted Yuffie to try on. "What size shoe do you wear?"
Yuffie looked around helplessly, finding that between the florist and the saleswoman she was trapped. Sighing, she sat down in the chair provided. "Size six, I think. I'm not too sure since I've never really had to worry about it," she muttered as she watched the saleswoman bustle off to the back room. She turned back to Aerith. "Aerith, I don't see how you're gonna be able to afford to buy me these shoes and everything else you wanted to today."
Aerith took a seat next to Yuffie, pointing down at her shoes to signal her to take them off before she started talking. "Money is not a problem. Between me and Leon, it definitely won't be a problem. So quit worrying about it," she explained, running her fingers through the teenagers short ebony hair and grimacing when she saw all the split ends. "And we are going to get your hair done next. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."
The saleswoman soon came back, shoe box in her hands which she sat in the empty chair on the other side of Yuffie before handing the teenager the shoes to try on. Seeing that they fit her, Aerith told the saleswoman that Yuffie would be wearing them out of the store and asked if they could dispose of Yuffie's other shoes. Then, after paying for them, Aerith dragged Yuffie down to the first place she could to get her hair done.
While her hair was being washed and cut, Yuffie began to wonder what was going on between Aerith and Leon. After all, she knew that Aerith wasn't the woman in the pictures Leon carried around with him but she wasn't sure what exactly she was to the man. "So, uh... Aerith, what exactly's going on between you and Leon? Are you dating or what?" she finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
A loud snort caused her to jerk her head towards the florist and the hairdresser to reprimand her as she very nearly lost a large chunk of her hair when she did that. She turned her head back to the front and waited for Aerith to quit laughing and answer her.
"We're just friends, Yuffie," the brunette finally said when she managed to catch her breath. "And we've been friends for a very long time. About eight years, I think." She paused to think for a moment, trying to place the dates in her head. "Yeah, eight years because we were both freshmen at the university and that's when we met."
"Oh, friends, huh?" the teenager said, smirking at the florist. "I think I've heard that line from people before."
Aerith sighed loudly and rolled her eyes, giving the teenager a playfully exasperated stare. "Yes, just friends," she reiterated, digging into her purse at the same time and pulling out a few pictures. "Besides, I'm married." She handed the pictures to Yuffie. "That's Cloud, my husband. He's in the military and overseas right now. But he'll be back in November."
Yuffie stared at the picture, nodding approvingly when she saw the spikey-blonde haired man with stunningly blue eyes. "Hm... not bad, not bad at all," she muttered, turning to Aerith and grinning. "I'd say you did pretty good in the man department." She passed the pictures back to the older woman, trying to keep her head as still as possible while the hairdresser finished up.
Finally, Yuffie's chair was spun around so she could look in the mirror to see what had been done with her hair and she found herself pleasantly surprised. The ragged ends that she had done herself only a few weeks before were smoothed out and her ebony hair framed her face. And the shampoo and conditioner the stylist had used had helped with the split ends and added a sheen to it. "Wow..." she murmured, staring at her reflection.
"You like it then?" Aerith asked as she paid the hairdresser.
"Yeah. It looks so much better than I ever thought it could." She turned and eyed the various bottles of shampoos and conditioners sitting on the display shelves. "And those work a lot better than Leon's shampoo," she whispered, pointing to the bottles.
The florist turned to her. "You've been using Leon's shampoo?" she asked incredulously.
Confused, Yuffie nodded. "Um... yeah... why?"
Not giving her an answer, Aerith quickly had a bottle of shampoo and conditioner added to the bill and paid for them. "Yuffie," she finally said as they left the place, "Leon couldn't care less what he used on his hair. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you've been using dish soap on your hair if you've been using his."
They wandered through the mall, finally coming upon a clothing store that was a personal favorite of Aerith's and she insisted they stop in there to begin what she called 'real shopping.' "Yuffie, I just know that you'll love the stuff in here," she began as she darted into the store and immediately began pulling shirts from the racks for the teenager to try on.
Yuffie paled when she noticed that nearly all the blouses Aerith had in her hands were in different shades of pink. "Um... Aerith, I don't me to sound rude... but... uh... pink is not my color," she stammered, her eyes growing as the pile of pink clothing in the woman's arms increased.
"Are you sure you don't want to wear pink?" Aerith asked, her eyes pleading with the teenager. "Can't you at least try it on?"
Biting her lip, Yuffie eyed the pink clothes and tried not to grimace. She had always hated pink, even as a young girl. And she remembered a few of her foster mothers trying to force the color on her. "If I wear purple and red, will you lay off the pink?"
Sighing, Aerith nodded as she began hanging the pink clothing back on the racks. "Okay, you win," she muttered, already looking around the store and eyeing the other clothes. A rack of blue jeans caught her eye and she dragged Yuffie over to them. "We can start with the blue jeans and work our way up."
Aerith began pulling various sizes of blue jeans down and handed them to Yuffie, trying to judge what size the girl would wear. After about the fifth pair in her arms, Yuffie stopped the woman from handing her anymore. "Aerith, the dressing rooms say no more than five items," she pointed out as she walked over to them.
"Okay, okay. Go try those on and see which size you wear and then we'll get you some more."
After trying on all five pairs and finding that all of them were still too big on her, Yuffie opened the dressing room door and stared at Aerith. "They were all too big," she muttered, handing the stack to Aerith.
Looking at the tags, Aerith sighed and found a smaller pair. "Here, try these on," she said, handing the blue jeans to the teenager.
A few minutes later, Yuffie stepped out of the dressing room wearing the blue jeans. "Yeah, these fit. What size are they, anyways?"
"Zero," Aerith muttered disgustedly, going to find more clothes for the girl to try on.
"Size zero? Does that mean I don't exist?" Yuffie asked incredulously as she looked down at the blue jeans.
A few feet away from her, Aerith pushed through the racks of clothes and grabbed some more blue jeans. "Oh how I hate you..." she muttered in mock anger as she handed some more clothes to the girl, this time a sleek black dress as well.
Yuffie looked at the dress in distress, slowly taking it from the woman's arms. "Why do I need a dress? I'm not going to a party, am I?"
"You never know when you'll need to look nice," Aerith explained, pointing towards the dressing room. "Now go try it on." She noted happily that the teenager had conceded to her demands and entered the room, only to emerge a few minutes later wearing the dress.
"Well?" Yuffie prodded sheepishly, noticing that the florist was staring at her legs.
Aerith blinked a few times before looking back up at Yuffie. "Yuffie, don't you shave your legs?" she hissed quietly, not wanting to draw attention to them.
"Uh... no. Why would I?" the teenager asked pointedly, trying to make Aerith realize that a person doesn't worry about stuff like that when they live on the streets.
Shaking her head, Aerith closed her eyes and massaged her temples. "Okay, okay. We'll go by Wal-Mart or something and get you a razor and stuff," she decided, ushering Yuffie back into the dressing room to try on the other clothes she had found for her.
After spending another hour trying on and buying clothes in that particular store, Aerith looked at her watch and realized how late it was and that they hadn't had dinner yet. She voiced these thoughts to Yuffie as she led her out to her SUV so they could relieve themselves of the many bags before going to the small Mexican restaurant located inside the mall. As soon as they were seated and had placed their orders, Aerith decided it was time to broach the subject of Leon and try to help the teenager understand him.
"Yuffie, I think it's time I told you a little bit about Leon. To help you understand why he is the way he is," she began, nervously tugging on her braid and taking a sip of her tea while she struggled to find a way to explain him without going into the things she knew he would not want revealed.
"Oh, you mean why he's an asshole?" Yuffie asked sarcastically, becoming angry with him once more when she thought back to the way he had demanded she stay there and then threatened her.
Aerith winced at the girl's bitter tone, but realized that she did have a reason for being so mad at the man. "I suppose you could look at it that way," she conceded slowly, pausing to let it sink in before she continued, "but he's letting you stay with him. He took you off the streets and fed you and made sure you got back on your feet. Now he wants to make sure you can stand on them well."
Sighing, Yuffie looked down at her napkin sheepishly as she tore the paper into small pieces. "I know... and I am grateful for it. But he's just been so cold and the way he threatened me... well, it just made me mad. I mean, I'm used to living by myself and by my own rules and then he comes along and expects differently..."
"Leon acts so cold to help him live with his past... so prevent himself from getting close to anyone else," Aerith said quietly, furrowing her brows as she thought back to the events that had happened years ago. "Like I told you earlier, we met our freshman year at the university and it wasn't long after classes started that Leon's parents died in a car crash."
Yuffie looked up at her, shock on her face. "Leon didn't tell me any of this... not even when he asked about my parents..." she trailed off, remembering that she had told him they had been murdered, which she had yet to reveal to Aerith. "Do you know how it happened?"
Aerith smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, Yuf, but I can't give you any details. Leon would kill me as it is for telling you the little bit that I am, but you need to know so you can understand him." She stopped for a minute, taking another drink of her tea before she told her the rest. "About three years after his parents died, Leon was engaged to a woman he loved deeply. He would've done anything for her. But, only a month before their wedding, she, too, was killed in a car crash."
"Oh wow..." Yuffie muttered, her eyes wide with shock at the things the woman was telling her.
"That was when he became Leon. Before then, he was still Squall. But after Rinoa died, he just felt like he had lost everything and wanted to start over. He hurried with his studies at school and then moved across town, as far away from Rinoa's memory as he could get. And he changed. He became cold and he refused to let anyone close to him. In fact," she paused and took a deep breath, remembering all the pain her friend had gone through. "The only reason he lets me get close to him is because I make him. I don't give him a choice."
At around eleven o'clock that night, Yuffie finally stumbled through Leon's apartment door, her arms loaded down with bags upon bags of clothing, shoes, and other necessities Aerith had insisted that she needed. She noticed that Leon simply turned to glace at her from his seat on the couch before going back to watching the action movie playing on the TV. Sighing, Yuffie simply carried her bags to her room and threw them on the bed, returning to the living room and sitting on the smaller sofa opposite Leon.
She watched the movie for a few minutes, finding herself to be completely unable to follow the plot since she had missed the first half of the movie. So, deciding that trying to watch it was a complete waste of her time, she instead decided to watch her host for a few minutes. He really wasn't paying much attention to anything but the movie, and she found herself able to stare at him without him glaring back at her.
Finally, she yawned, the day's activities catching up to her and she found herself to be completely exhausted. About to go to bed, she realized there was one other thing she needed to do before she did settle in for the night. So, rising from her seat, she stepped across to Leon and stood in front of him, waiting for his attention to turn to her.
When it did, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Um... Squa-, Leon?" she began, avoiding eye contact with him. "Thank you for letting me stay here. And... I'm sorry." The last part came out so quietly and he wasn't saying anything, that she initially believed he hadn't heard her and she prepared herself to say it once more.
But, Leon gave her a small smile and nodded. "Don't worry about it. I guess I was a little out of line yesterday," he admitted softly, watching the girl fidget nervously in front of him.
Yuffie gave him her own smile, stifling the urge to yawn again. "That's okay. I shouldn't have been so defensive about it." She turned and started walking towards the hallway, pausing at the entrance. "Goodnight Leon," she called over her shoulder.
"Goodnight Yuffie."
Author's Note: That's the longest chapter yet. And it was mainly all shopping! Anyways, I needed to get a lot of things done in this chapter and I did it. Of course, I had made a pact with myself to not stop writing until I did all that I intended to with this chapter. Okay, I'll shut up. Go review for me please.