Author's Note: Okay, I had to come back over to this fic and write something not so angsty to help cheer myself up. And I'm having trouble writing this chapter because my muse :::glare::: wants to start on something new... a sort-of songfic to "On the Way Down." And it's a sort-of songfic because though it's inspired by the song, I don't think I'll be able to fit the lyrics in until the VERY end and it'll be chaptered. BUT, I'm not posting anything on it until either HAT or "Lullaby" is finished... probably "Lullaby."
And, ARG!! I keep calling Leon Squall and Squall Leon and I'm not sure which one I'm supposed to be calling him anymore. But, I think I'm going to fix that in this chapter.
And this stupid site keeps doing away with all the symbols I use... first it was the astericks and the little wavy line thing... then it was my "equal sign, hyphen" pattern scene break. Then my paragraph indentations that I love. AND NOW they've done away with the brackets. What's next?? Question marks? Exclamation points?? Periods?? Capital letters??
Note to Aoi-butterfly: Nah, your last review didn't bother me. I understood your point perfectly.
--Disclaimer: I do not own them, Sam I Am, I do not own them, although I would LOVE to have Squallie chained up in my room... maybe handcuffed to the ceiling... uh... um... yeah.... I think I'm gonna shut up now...
Chapter Twelve: Sugar and Spice
"Is there anything else you'll need, ma'am?" the middle-aged proprietor of the small Italian grocery asked as he rang up the various items Yuffie had placed on the counter. Thick black eyebrows peeked out from beneath the red hat he wore as kind eyes looked down at the girl.
"Nope, that'll be all." Smiling, Yuffie shook her head and pulled the money Leon had given her for the groceries out of her pocket, carefully unfolding the bills as she did so. Aerith had tried to get her to carry a purse, but being a former pick pocket, she knew how easily those could be stolen and had politely refused the florist's advice.
The store owner began to carefully place her purchases into a brown paper bag while Yuffie counted out the correct change. Smiling gratefully, he took the money from her and pushed the bag, which sported the store's name, simply Gianni's, across the counter and into Yuffie's arms. "We thank you and come again," he called, waving as she walked out the door and into the cool, late October air. The sun setting in the distance cast a soft orange glow over everything around her, making it seem as though the streets were paved in gold.
As soon as she was outside, she reached into the bag and pulled out the small box of freshly made strawberry-filled cannolis and ripped it open single-handedly since the paper bag full of groceries was still in her other hand. Biting into the dessert, she sighed and tried not to make too many noises as she savored the taste. She was already gaining stares from the people she passed just for the way she had ripped into the package. She didn't need anymore.
Finishing the first cannoli, Yuffie decided she had better not eat the last one, but, rather, save it for Squall. Leon, she mentally corrected herself, knowing that if he were there, he would correct her instead. She really didn't know why she had such a hard time with his name. Leon was such a simple name and Squall was such a... well, such a strange name, to put it bluntly. Of course, therein may lie the problem. The name Leon made him seem average, nothing special. But Squall gave him a dangerous air, like the storms he was named after.
While she walked along, ruminating over both his names, the memory of the gentle kiss he had placed on her forehead a few days before came to mind. Yuffie sighed, trying to sort things out as she was still just as confused today as she was the moment he had kissed her. He had apparently thought her asleep at the time and had not brought it up, instead becoming more distant than he had been before, which, in turn, made the girl too afraid to bring it up herself.
Having been lost so deep in thoughts revolving around all things Squall, Yuffie didn't notice the telephone pole in front of her until she felt it connect soundly with her forehead. "Ow!" she cried, very nearly dropping the bag she was holding to rub her forehead, but remembering that it contained a few glass jars and they would surely smash on the concrete below. So, with her other hand, she gingerly touched the knot that was already forming on her brow and wondered how big of a mark the pole had left.
She glared angrily at the telephone pole, as though it were its fault she had smashed into it, and quickly crossed the sidewalk to look at her reflection in the nearest store window. A faint purple bruise was rapidly forming and she gently prodded it around the edges, wincing as she did so. "Perfect," she muttered, knowing that to avoid embarrassment, she would have to come up with a plausible lie for what happened. They would think she was insane if she told anyone that she was too absorbed in thoughts of her completely hot benefactor...
She paused her thoughts right there, blinking a few times. "Completely hot?" she whispered softly, hoping no one could hear her. "Where did that come from?" Of course, after she thought about it for a minute, she had to admit that it was true. And when this Sunday had turned into a repeat of last Sunday, with Squall walking around for most of the day in only his boxers, she realized that it was her favorite day of the week.
Shaking her head to clear her mind, Yuffie stared into the glass store front once more, trying to discern if the bruise had actually grown over the past few minutes. But, instead of her reflection, her eyes instead fell upon the Halloween costumes displayed in the window. Mentally calculating how much money of her own she had left, glad that she was now getting a steady paycheck, she almost walked into the store to buy one until she realized that she really had no where to wear it. As Squall hadn't mentioned anything about a Halloween party, she assumed he wasn't having one, especially since it was only a few days away; and, she knew she was too old really to go trick-or-treating. So, sighing in disappointment, she dragged herself away from the store and headed back to Squall's apartment.
After trekking through two blocks of crowds, Yuffie finally reached the apartment door and had to shift the groceries over to her hip so she could unlock and open the door. Nearly dropping the bag once again, she hurried over to the counter and hefted it up onto the surface, right next to Squall, who was sitting on a barstool with his laptop computer open and in front of him, seemingly oblivious that Yuffie had returned. "Okay, where do you want this stuff?" the teenager finally asked, already pulling out a few items from the bag and setting them on the counter.
"Just leave everything out for now except for the cheese and put it on the top shelf of the refrigerator," Leon muttered distractedly as he stared intently at the computer screen in front of him, scrolling the page down a little further as he wrote some information down on a sheet of paper.
Curious, Yuffie leaned over his arm and looked at the screen herself, furrowing her brows and leaning closer to get a better look. On the screen, the image of a silver lion's head was set against a large sword, the hilt of the sword appearing below the mane of the lion. "What is that?" Yuffie whispered, her eyes still fixed upon it. "It's beautiful."
"It's my family's crest," he explained, scrolling up the page so she could get a better picture of it. "We used to have it on a chain, but my grandfather sold it when he needed some money. And it just seemed to have disappeared after that. I've spent the last four years trying to track it down and haven't been able to find it anywhere." Looking up from the computer, Leon noticed a small pink blob on the tip of Yuffie's nose and he resisted the urge to wipe it off for her, instead telling her, "You have something on your nose."
Frowning, Yuffie lifted her hand up and wiped the blob off with her fingers, looking at it and then laughing. "Yeah, it's from the cannolis I bought. I kinda got hungry on the way home and ate one," she told him sheepishly, remembering that it was his money she bought them with. "There's one left if you want it." She reached into the paper bag and held the cannoli box out to him.
Squall sighed and ran a hand slowly through his hair, shaking his head as he did so. "No, you can have it." He looked back up to see her already biting into it, managing to get the strawberry cream at the corners of her mouth, which she daintily wiped away. And as much as he hated to admit it, watching her eat the cannoli was starting to turn him on, so he quickly shifted his gaze from her mouth to her eyes. That was when he noticed the large purple bruise on her forehead. "What did you do to your forehead?"
"Promise you won't laugh?" she pleaded, a light blush starting to creep across her face.
"It depends on how you did that. I mean, if you walked into a telephone pole..." he trailed off when he saw her blush deepen and she refused to meet his eyes. "You walked into a telephone pole?" he asked incredulously, reaching out to lightly touch the knot on her head to see how serious it was and trying not to give into the urge to kiss it. But, at her wince, he withdrew his fingers and instead walked over to the refrigerator and pulled a couple of ice cubes out of the freezer, wrapping them in a dish towel and handing them to her. "Here, this should help with the swelling."
Yuffie gratefully took the ice pack away, still slightly confused from hearing the concern in his voice when he had asked her about it. After Squall being cold and distant to her for the last few days, it wasn't something she was expecting. "Thanks, Squall," she murmured as she placed the pack on her forehead, shivering as the ice quickly cooled her skin.
Rubbing his eyes with one hand before pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, Squall stared down at her, about to correct her once more. But, for some reason, he found himself unable to. He sighed, dropping his hand to his side. "Okay, since you can't seem to remember to call me Leon, you and only you may call me Squall," he finally conceded, shaking his head as he did so.
Blinking a few times and staring at him, Yuffie slowly brought the hand that held the ice pack to her forehead down to her side. "I... uh... really?" she finally stammered out, still shocked and confused.
"Yes, really," Squall answered, going to answer the door as someone had begun tapping impatiently at it. He pulled it open to find Aerith immediately pushing past him and stepping into the apartment, ignoring him and turning to Yuffie. "Why, of course you can come in, Aerith. Just make yourself at home," he muttered sarcastically under his breath as he shut the door.
"Yuffie, we got to go get you a Hallo–," the florist began, stopping when she saw the bruise on the girl's forehead. "What on earth did you do to your head?"
Rolling her eyes, Yuffie put the ice pack back on the knot, wincing at the cold. "I hit it on a telephone pole," she muttered quietly, halfway hoping Aerith wouldn't hear her. But she did.
"Here, let me see it," the florist commanded, pulling the ice pack away from it and prodding the edges of the bruise. "It's not too bad and a little makeup will cover it right up."
"I'm not wearing makeup," the teenager insisted, hating the way the stuff made her face feel like it was suffocating. "And what were you saying a moment ago?" Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Squall folded up his laptop and left the room, leaving the two women alone.
Stopping to think for a moment, Aerith furrowed her brows and tried to remember. "Oh yeah. We've got to get you a Halloween costume. There's the cutest costume over in this shop–"
Yuffie put her ice pack down on the counter and placed her hands firmly on the older woman's shoulders. "Aerith, calm down. I don't have any place to wear a costume, so I really don't think I need to get one."
"But that's the thing, Yuf. I pulled some strings at the high school I volunteer at and got you entered in the costume contest," the florist told her excitedly, her brilliant green eyes shining with delight. She grab Yuffie's arm and started tugging her towards the door. "So, come on before that shop sells the costume I want you to see."
"Well, okay... but let me go grab my wallet. I mean, I don't want you paying for the costume," Yuffie insisted, pulling away from Aerith and going down the hall to her room. She passed Squall on the way as he was going back into the living room.
"She's seventeen, not seven, Aerith," Squall told her, shaking his head and giving the woman a half-hearted glare. "What if she doesn't want to dress up for Halloween?"
Simply rolling her eyes, the florist tiredly brought her hands up to massage her temples. "Leon, I drove past her as she was walking back a little while ago. And she was staring into a costume store. Think about it. From what little she's told us about her past, I gather she didn't have much of a childhood," Aerith hissed, not wanting her voice to carry down the hall to Yuffie's ears.
Yuffie came back into the living room, completely oblivious to the short conversation that was centered around her. "I'm ready when you are, Aerith," she sang happily, already walking towards the apartment door, her hand on the knob. She stopped and turned back to Squall, who had just turned the TV on and was flipping through the channels. "Bye, Squall," she called, waving as she walked out the door.
The florist, who had been heading towards the door, stopped mid-step and turned to the man, surprise clearly written across her features. "Squall?" she mouthed, blinking a few times. It had been years since he had let anyone call him that.
"Don't ask," he muttered, shaking his head.
A few days later, on Halloween to be precise, Squall found himself leaning against the gymnasium wall of the local high school next to Aerith. His arms were crossed over his chest and his head was lowered slightly, causing his mahogany bangs to veil his stormy blue eyes. And he seemed to be getting quite a few open-mouthed stares from love-struck teenagers. He had never liked this much attention and he still didn't. "Aerith," he growled, keeping his voice low so as not to draw any more attention to himself, "tell me again why I'm here?"
Brushing her chestnut bangs out of her face, she turned to give him an exasperated stare. "To support Yuffie," the florist sighed, having already told him that at least five times in the last hour.
Before he could come back with a crisp retort, Yuffie stepped out of the dressing room, clad in her Halloween costume. She had refused to show him what it was she had bought, claiming it was going to be a surprise as she stashed the bag away in the back of her closet. And she didn't want to put it on until after they had arrived at the high school. So, it came to him as a complete shock to see her in the costume.
She wore a pleated brown suede skirt that came just to her knees and a matching short suede vest with fringe over a red shirt. Around her neck, a red bandana was tied and a white cowboy hat sat atop her head, her short ebony hair peeking out under the edges. She also wore white cowboy boots with knee-high white socks and had a small rope coiled at her waist. Really, Squall didn't know why he felt so drawn to her right then as the costume really wasn't what one could consider sexy. But, he finally surmised that it was just the right mix of both cute and sexy that tugged at him.
Squall watched as Yuffie inadvertently slammed the dressing room door into the nose of some guy about her age. And she quickly ran over to owner of said nose, with a hand covering her mouth as she appeared to be gushing out an apology. But, the guy simply waved a hand at her and smiled, and Yuffie walked away. It was then that Squall noticed the guy checking her out, causing his blood to begin to boil which only served to confuse him. It wasn't as if he had staked a claim on Yuffie or anything. But, then again, his mind reminded him of the way he had kissed her forehead nearly a week ago and how he seemed to be inexplicably drawn to her.
As Yuffie started to walk across the stage to where the other contestants were waiting, Squall noticed that it wasn't only that one guy who was staring at her, but quite a few of the other guys as well. With a shock, he realized he was starting to become jealous and strangely protective of Yuffie... as though she belonged to him. And when he noticed some guys standing beneath the stage, staring up so they could look beneath the girls' skirts, he suddenly had a strong urge to go beat them down.
Coming to the realization that if he stayed here much longer, he would end up hurting someone, Squall stepped away from the wall and turned to his companion. "Aerith, I've got to go. All this noise is driving me insane," he expertly lied, trying not to look over his shoulder at Yuffie as seeing all the guys staring at her would only serve to increase his jealousy.
"But, Leon," Aerith protested, grabbing his arm and holding him back. "You didn't bring your car. We came in mine, remember?"
"I'll catch a cab," he replied nonchalantly, shrugging her off his arm so he could exit the building.
Unbeknownst to Squall, Yuffie had watched him leave the building, frowning as she did so and becoming so distracted by it, that the student she had been talking to had to repeat his question. "Mm hmm," Yuffie mumbled, still not really hearing the question and leaping off the stage, hollering "I'll be back in a minute" over her shoulder to both her new acquaintance and Aerith.
Bursting through the double doors, Yuffie found Squall starting to walk towards the road, his hands in his pockets and his head bent against the chill wind. "Hey!" she called out loudly, sprinting towards him. She noted happily that he had stopped walking and turned to her.
Squall simply raised her eyebrows, urging her to continue without saying a word. He tried to hide his emotions, but, in doing so, it gave him a sullen look on his face.
Yuffie bit her lip, wondering if maybe it would just be better to let the man leave since he apparently didn't want to be here. But, leaving things alone had never been her strong point. "So... um, why'd you leave? I kinda wanted you to see," she said softly, trying to keep her voice steady.
Knowing that he couldn't tell her he had to leave before he did something completely irrational, Squall only shrugged his shoulders and muttered a short and curt 'whatever.'
"Was it just a bunch of stupid teenagers having fun that annoyed you so much?" Yuffie prodded angrily, a few tears springing unbidden into the back of her eyes. She had thought that this cold Squall had disappeared a few days ago, but, apparently, she was wrong, for here he was standing in front of her.
Seeing the tears in her eyes slowly begin to slide down her cheeks, he sighed and put his arms around her slim shoulders, drawing her to him in a gentle hug. As he couldn't think of anything to say to fix what had just happened, he simply stood there with her in his arms.
Yuffie drew back from him, her brows drawn into an angry scowl as she glared at him past her tears. "And you can't say that you don't care! You kissed me!" she insisted, pointing an accusatory finger in his face. She really hadn't meant to bring up the kiss on her forehead, but the words just came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them.
Squall's eyes grew large as he suddenly realized that when he had kissed her forehead, thinking she was asleep, she had actually been awake. He slowly dropped his arms from where they still rested on her shoulders and allowed them to hang at his sides. "Yes, I did," he whispered, hanging his head slightly and not meeting her eyes.
Just as she was about to ask him why he had kissed her, since it was all out in the open now, Aerith peeked her head out through the door and called to her, saying that the competition was about to actually start and she needed to get back in there. Sighing, Yuffie shut her eyes for a moment and then readjusted her hat. "I... I... uh... better get back in there," she stuttered, wanting to stay outside and find out why he had kissed her, but scared at the same time.
Nodding, Squall stayed to watch her back into the gymnasium before continuing on his trek to the road, still planning on hailing a taxi to take him home. But, he decided, he had a stop to make before he actually went back to the apartment.
After the judging was over and the prize was awarded to someone who had dressed as an exam by the most feared teacher on campus, Yuffie and Aerith finally made it back to the apartment, the teenager still dressed in her costume. In the hallway, they found a dozen or so trick-or-treaters meandering around and knocking on doors and one rather large trick-or-treater sitting on the floor in front of Aerith's door.
Dressed as a vampire, the trick-or-treater had painted his face a pasty white with dark shadows around his brilliant blue eyes and had even gone so far as to dye his rather spiky hair black. Yuffie knew it was dyed as a few blonde roots showed through. He stood up as he saw them approaching, holding out an empty bag as he did so. "Trick or treat," he lisped, his tongue tripping over the fake fangs in his mouth.
No sooner had he stood up and uttered that phrase, than Aerith squealed loudly and launched herself at the man, lips locking onto his. Yuffie watched in shock as the florist fumbled in her purse for her key without ever once taking her lips off of his. Finally, they broke apart for air and she took advantage of that time to quickly open the door, pulling him in behind her. "I think I swallowed a fang," Yuffie heard the masquerading vampire mutter as the door shut behind them.
"Yeah, don't worry about me, Aerith. I'll be perfectly fine," the teenager called, glad that she had remembered to take her key to the apartment with her. Especially since Squall didn't appear to be home yet. And, seeing the florist attack that trick-or-treater like that, Yuffie would have been loathe to call on her for help.
She opened the door, on which Squall had taped a 'no candy' sign earlier in the day to prevent trick-or-treaters from knocking, and stepped into the dark apartment, immediately flipping on the nearest light as she closed and locked the door behind her. She was right in assuming that Squall was still out since his keys were not hanging on the hook where he always left them.
Looking at the clock, she sighed. It was just seven o'clock and she had nothing else planned to occupy her time for the rest of the evening. It was far too soon to go to bed, Squall was gone and who knew when he would get back, and Aerith... well, she didn't want to even think about what Aerith was doing right now. She could only hope that man was her husband. She struggled to remember the photo of Cloud Strife the florist had shown her and could very vaguely recall blonde spiky hair and blue eyes, but that was all.
Her stomach rumbled loudly, reminding her that she had yet to eat dinner, so she made her way through the kitchen, grabbing a cup of yogurt and a spoon before going down the hall to her bedroom. Since she had nothing else to do, she decided she would be much more comfortable in her pajamas... or, really, they were Squall's old flannel shirts. She found them more comfortable than the silk pajamas Aerith had forced on her. And they also smelled nice... like Squall, she admitted to herself, smiling and shaking her head as she did so.
After buttoning up the flannel shirt, maroon this time, she pulled on a pair of her grey sweat socks and picked up the cup of yogurt she had set on the dresser, heading back into the living room, intent on watching some TV until she fell asleep. But, as soon as she sat down on the couch and pulled the fuzzy blanket that was sitting there around her, she heard keys in the doorknob and turned around to watch as Squall came into the apartment, a pizza box in one hand and a clear plastic bag with a few movies from the local rental store in the other.
"You got pizza?" Yuffie asked excitedly, jumping up off the couch and already forgetting the yogurt she had just started to eat. "What kind?"
Squall set the pizza box down on the counter, placing the movies beside it and opened the box. "Just pepperoni... I couldn't remember what you liked on it," he admitted, already going to the pantry to pull out two paper plates. When he turned back, Yuffie already had a piece of the pizza in one hand, a bite or two gone, and the movies in the other, reading the titles off while she ate.
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, Pet Cemetery, and Carrie?" she asked, looking back and forth between the movies titles and Squall for a moment. "Those all sound like scary movies." She looked at him suspiciously, taking another bite of the pizza and fishing around in the refrigerator for a soda to drink with it.
"They are," Squall smirked, handing her a plate even though it seemed to be useless to do so since she was just about finished with her first piece of pizza and using her hands apparently didn't bother her. "You're supposed to watch scary movies on Halloween." He didn't tell her that he had purposely rented scary movies just for the fact that he knew she would get scared and hide her face. And he hoped it would be a repeat of what had happened at the movie theater. He couldn't help it; he liked to have her pressed up against him and hiding her face in his shirt.
Carrying the pizza box into the living room, he sat it on the coffee table and placed the first DVD, Pet Cemetery, into the player before sitting down on the end of the couch. Yuffie sat down on the opposite end, already working on her second piece of pizza. As the movie progressed and became scarier, he noticed that she kept edging towards him until she was finally up against his side and hiding her face in his shirt. He had been right in guessing that would happen.
Yuffie shivered slightly, both from the scary scenes in the movie and from the relatively cold air in the apartment, making her pull the blanket she had discarded earlier up around her and curl tighter into Squall's side. She really wasn't sure how he felt about her being so close to him as he was such a confusing person, but it didn't matter. The movie scared her, yet he made her feel safe when his arm came around her back, and she cherished that feeling. It made her feel like she belonged somewhere for once in her life, a feeling she hadn't had since before her mother died.
In the middle of the third movie, Carrie, Squall noticed that Yuffie's head kept drooping slightly as she would drift off to sleep, only to jerk it back up when she woke up each time. Finally, her head fell and she didn't lift it up, telling him that she had fallen asleep for good this time. He toyed with the idea of staying on the couch all night and letting her sleep there with him, but ultimately decided she would be better off in her own bed and he would be better in his.
So, carefully picking her up, he carried her bridal style to her room, trying not to peek down her shirt when it dipped low in the front. It was really starting to drive him mad the way she would run around all evening and all morning on Sundays in just his flannel shirts. And he would find himself trying to take a peek and then immediately hate himself afterwards each time she did.
Yuffie incoherently mumbled something and twitched in her sleep as Squall pulled the sheets of her bed down before placing her in it. And like he had done before when she had fallen asleep at Aerith's, he pulled the blankets up to her chin, effectively tucking her in before he left the room, remembering to leave her door partially open. Then, returning to the living room, he turned off the still playing movie and retired to bed himself.
It was only a few hours into her sleep when Yuffie awoke suddenly from a nightmare, shivering slightly as the sweat on her body cooled. This time, however, her nightmare wasn't of her mother's death, but having to do with the movies she and Squall had watched. Eyes darting around the room, it appeared like everything was alive and trying to reach out to her.
She jumped out of the bed and darted down the hall to Squall's room, tiptoeing inside and stopping at his bedside. And just as she was about to awaken him to ask if she could stay in his room that night, just on the floor so she wouldn't be alone, something creaked behind her and she dived into his bed before she could stop herself. She curled into a tight ball, pulling the blankets around her and clenched her eyes shut, hating herself for being such a wimp.
The bouncing of the mattress as she jumped onto to it awakened Squall, who groggily rolled over and stared at her, trying to get his eyes to focus. "Yuffie?" he mumbled sleepily, running a hand tiredly down his face. Her face peeked out from beneath the blankets and wide, scared indigo eyes seemed to bore holes into his face.
"I... I kept having dreams that I'm going to be murdered by a homicidal devil-witch," she admitted sheepishly, beginning to crawl out from under the covers and off the bed. "And I didn't want to be alone, so I came in here to ask if I could sleep on the floor. And then there was this noise behind me and it scared me so I kinda jumped into bed with you," she finished lamely, now standing up beside his bed and looking down at the floor.
Suddenly feeling very guilty for renting scary movies when he knew they terrified her, Squall nodded, lifting the edge of the blanket so she could crawl back under them. She simply stared at him. "You don't have to sleep on the floor, Yuffie," he mumbled, scooting over so there was more room for her on that side of the bed. "The bed is plenty big enough."
"Are you sure?" Yuffie asked timidly.
"Yes."
"Positive?"
"Yes! Now get in the bed!" Squall finally commanded in exasperation, relieved to see that she was actually climbing into the bed. He had thought for a moment that he would have to physically lift her up and put her in the bed before she would do it herself. But, there she was, less than a foot away from him with her back turned towards him and curled into a ball.
Feeling much safer now that she wasn't alone, Yuffie sighed in contentment and breathed in deeply Squall's scent from the pillow and sheets. She couldn't describe the scent, not in words anyways, but it was something that seemed to be distinctly him and she was beginning to crave that smell. "Thank you, Squall," she murmured, closing her eyes and feeling safe and secure with him just on the other side of the bed.
Instead of answering her with a verbal reply, Squall reached out a hand and began to gently stroke her hair, wondering at its silky softness. And since Yuffie didn't seem to protest, he continued to do so until slumber reclaimed him and his hand, though now stilled, rested in her hair.
Author's Note: FINALLY finished this chapter at precisely midnight on Saturday night. And I am now going to bed. By the by, my chapters seem to be getting longer and longer each time I write one for this story. The last one was just over 5000 words, this one is about 5500 words. :::sigh::: Anyways, a review would make me VERY happy.