Author's Note: I really have no idea when I'll finish writing this chapter. I have two exams this week and I still have yet to study. But, I have the writing bug and sometimes, it just can't be ignored. Much like the PS2 bug, which grabbed me yesterday...
I think this is going to be ANOTHER long chapter since I am DETERMINED to get this one particular scene into THIS chapter.
By the way, this is a REPOST of chapter 15, so if it seems familiar, that's why. But, Obsidian Ideals brought some things to my attention, as well as a few other reviewers who felt the end of this chapter was too rushed. I think I have fixed that. Or fixed it as much as I can, anyways, considering that I have certain things that have to happen at a certain time.
–Disclaimer: Let's see. This the fifteenth chapter. Maybe by some miracle, I've won the lottery and bought the rights to KH. Or, maybe I just bought the rights to Squall... Yeah, I just need the rights to him. They can keep the others.
Chapter Fifteen: Accidentally in Love
Yuffie didn't like the looks everyone was giving her that day at the restaurant. Well, not everyone; the customers weren't giving her that look. But, almost all of the employees would look at her and then smile strangely at her. Especially Kairi and Sora, who had somehow managed to be demoted yet again. Yuffie didn't even know there was something below dishwasher, but when Sora broke quite a few dishes as dishwasher, Squall simply handed him a broom, bucket, and mop, telling him to keep the floors and bathrooms clean. For a moment, she wondered why Squall simply didn't fire the teenager, but then realized that no matter how cold-hearted the man might seem, inside he was the complete opposite.
Shaking her head, Yuffie chased her thoughts away and concentrated on not tripping as she carried a tray full of drinks to her table. She really didn't want to repeat the fiasco that had occurred her first day working there and had yet to do so in the time since then. Riku walked past her, giving her his trademark smirk as he led another party to their table. Yuffie mentally added that smirk to the growing list of looks she was receiving.
After giving her table their drinks with a the big, bright smile she had learned to plaster on for the customers, Yuffie glanced suspiciously at Kairi and Riku, who were whispering to each other and shooting glances at her. Just as she was about to make her way over to them and demand to know what was going on, the women's restroom door flew open and hit her in the right arm. A spiky brown head peeked around the door to see who he bumped into. "Sora, I swear..." Yuffie threatened as she rubbed her upper arm and glared at the boy.
"The truth comes out..." Sora began, his blue eyes wide with what looked like shock and a little fear, "women are not any cleaner in the bathroom than men!" He suddenly noticed the look on Yuffie's face and backed up a little bit when he realized that he had hit her with the door. "Hey, Yuffie, I'm sorry. It was an accident, y'know?"
Narrowing her eyes, Yuffie began to contemplate ways to get back at Sora but stopped when she decided it might be in her best interest to strike a deal with him. "I'll tell you what, Sora. I won't hurt you if you tell me what's going on around here today. Deal?" Of course, she hadn't been planning on hurting him anyway, but fear seemed to help with this particular teenager.
"Oh, that! Well, you see, there's this big–." He was broken off by Kairi slamming her hand over his mouth and smiling sweetly at him, but her indigo eyes silently threatening him. Riku came up a few seconds later and slapped the back of Sora's head in a friendly reprimand.
"Sora?" Kairi said in a sugary-laced voice as she slowly took her hand off his mouth. "Can I see you in the kitchen?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed his arm and dragged him through the restaurant to the double kitchen doors.
Yuffie wryly raised an eyebrow at their retreating backs before turning to glare at the still smirking Riku. "I nearly got it out of him, you know," she muttered, shaking her head as she heard a muffled giggle coming from the kitchen. It sounded suspiciously like Sora, and when she looked at the kitchen doors again, she could vaguely make out Kairi tickling him through the window. "I swear, they act like they're dating sometimes."
"That's because they are dating, Yuffie," Riku replied, rolling his eyes and starting to walk back to the restaurant's entrance.
"That's allowed?" Yuffie asked confusedly, turning back to glance at Sora and Kairi through the window again. Looking back at Riku, she noticed that he had turned as well and simply had one eyebrow raised as though he were waiting for her to continue. "I mean, Squ- er, Mr. Leon doesn't mind if you date your coworkers?" Yuffie was having a hard time remembering to call Squall that in public, but after he had admonished her a few weeks ago for calling him Squall in front of his employees, she found it much easier to remember.
Riku sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand before running it through his the silver hair that still caused Yuffie to wonder where he got it from. "As long as there's no public display of affection, Mr. Leon doesn't care what we do." Without another word, Riku turned on his heel and hurried back to the entrance where a party of four was patiently waiting to be seated.
It was a few hours later when Kairi came trotting up to Yuffie, who was quietly taking her much needed break at an empty table with her head resting on her folded arms. The lunch hour business had slacked off and there was a good two hours before the dinner business would arrive.
Oblivious to the red-head walking up behind her, Yuffie tiredly stared at the half-empty glass of tea sitting on the table in front of her. A hand falling on her shoulder caused her to jump, knocking over the glass in the process and spilling half-melted cubes of ice and tea across the table. "Kairi," Yuffie moaned after seeing who it was as she started to wipe up the mess. "Don't sneak up on me like that." The irony that she did the same thing with Squall never even came to her mind.
"Sorry, Yuffie. But Mr. Leon told me to find you," Kairi explained quickly as she pulled a rag from her apron pocket and began helping Yuffie wipe the table clean. "He told me to tell you that he wants to see you in the kitchen." She paused for a moment, then tapped her lips with one finger before continuing. "He seemed kinda upset about something."
Running a hand through her raven hair and trying to think of what Squall could possibly be angry with her for, Yuffie hurried off to the kitchen, Kairi following close behind her. She pushed through the double doors to find the room beyond completely dark, the blinds on the windows even shut to block out the little bit of sunshine that could be found on cloudy November days. "Uh... Hello?" she called out tentatively as she took a step into the room and reached out, placing a hand on the counter top she knew was there to help orient herself.
As soon as Kairi entered the kitchen and the door swung closed, bright lights filled the room and several of the staff popped out from behind the cabinets and counters. "SURPRISE!" they yelled loudly while Sora pushed a cart carrying a large birthday cake on it across the room. Eighteen green candles stood against the white frosting of the cake, already lit and beginning to drip wax onto the cake below.
In shock, Yuffie covered her mouth with one hand, her indigo eyes lighting up in the smile that was hidden by her hand. "How did you...?" she started to ask, but looking around the room, her eyes landed on Squall, leaning nonchalantly against the back wall and smirking.
"Your birthday was on your job application," Squall stated matter-of-factly as he pushed himself away from the wall to join everyone else surrounding the cake. "Were you really not going to tell anyone that today was your birthday?" His question was asked quietly when he had finally reached the group and whispered so that only she could hear it.
"Yuffie, blow out your candles before they melt all the way down!" Sora interrupted excitedly as he stared helplessly at the candles as they slowly dwindled away. He appeared almost panicked at the thought of the candles melting down into the cake until Kairi placed her hand on his forearm and leaned over to whisper something in his ear; he calmed down considerably after that.
Taking a deep breath, Yuffie blew all the candles out in one breath and started giggling as she saw Sora nearly attack the cake with fork and knife. "Calm down, Sora," she laughed while shaking her head and picking up a knife to cut her own piece of cake. "It's not like it's going to run away or anything."
Everyone managed to get a piece of cake and stood around eating it while chatting with the others. No one except Yuffie noticed that Squall had left the kitchen to handle things out front since most of the staff were busy with the cake. But, after about half an hour, he had come back into the room and broke the party up, sending the waiters back into the front and putting the chefs back to work.
Yuffie was just about to leave the kitchen when a hand on her shoulder pulled her back in, making her stumble backwards in the process. But, before she could hit the ground, her back landed against something that felt like a warm, solid wall. It turned out to be Squall's chest. "Are you okay?" he asked as he lightly gripped her upper arms to hold her steady until she found her footing once more.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered as she took a step away from him and turned to face him, confusion etched on her face. "Uh... what did you want, anyways?"
Squall ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his neck, sighing lightly as he did so. "It's your birthday. Did you really think I'd let you go back out there and work on your birthday?" he finally asked as he removed the hand from his neck and used it to prop himself against the door frame.
"Squall, it's just my birthday," Yuffie replied, rolling her eyes and about to head back out the kitchen door, but stopped to say one more thing. "It's not a national holiday. My birthday comes and goes every year and it just means that I'm one year older. It's not a big deal."
His hand grabbed her upper arm once more and gently pulled her back into the kitchen, and out of the way of the waiters coming in to give the chefs their customer's orders. "That's why we're going out to dinner tonight, Yuffie. Because it is your birthday and it does only come once a year," Squall insisted, his hand still on her arm and his thumb gently massaging the flesh. That is, it was until he realized what he was doing and dropped his hand to the counter behind him.
Yuffie shivered slightly when the warmth of his hand left her arm and the cooler air of the restaurant hit it. It was comforting the way his thumb was rubbing against her skin, and she didn't even realize until then that she needed or wanted comforting. But, she supposed, it could have to do with having the impromptu birthday party sprung upon her. The last one she could remember that she had actually enjoyed was the day she turned four years old, just a distant memory in a past from long ago.
Taking a deep breath, she let out a drawn out sigh to clear her head of those memories. She really didn't need to be thinking of them right now. "Okay, Squall. You win," she finally consented, nodding her head and reaching around to untie her apron. "Where are we going, anyways?"
"It's a surprise," he whispered, already walking over to where Julian stood, overlooking the chefs' work. From Yuffie's line of vision, the assistant manager didn't seem too pleased with the idea of Squall taking off work again. Ever since she had moved in with him, he hadn't been working from before opening to after closing six days a week like he had before, taking off by four or five most evening. And, Julian, it seemed, had been taking up a lot more work than he was previously used to.
It was only for a few minutes that Squall spoke with his assistant manager, giving him directions for what to do the rest of the night before he came back to Yuffie and led her out the back door and to his car.
Stepping into the shower in his bathroom, Squall began to wonder why exactly he had felt inclined to take Yuffie out for dinner tonight. The thought had never even entered his head until about five minutes before he told her. Sure, it was her birthday, but he was never one to place much stock on celebrating birthdays. The only celebration his own birthday had been receiving for the past five years had been the cake Aerith would buy from the local bakery and force on him along with a card from both her and Cloud.
Perhaps it was because Yuffie was still young and had already been through such hardship in her life that made Squall want her to celebrate her birthday. Maybe this was his means of making up for the horrible life she had had even though none of that had anything to do with him whatsoever.
Shaking his head, Squall braced his arms against the shower wall and let the hot, needle-point spray run through his hair and down his back. Since her birthday dinner was a last minute thing, they really needed to get to the small Greek restaurant he was planning on her taking before it got to late for them to get a table. At least it was Monday night and the place shouldn't be too crowded. He knew from experience with his own restaurant that Friday nights and the weekends were the busiest times of the week.
As he lathered the shampoo into his hair, a loud meow came from outside the shower stall and Squall peeked out the frosted glass door to see Sydney sitting on his haunches and glaring at his master. "Sorry, Sydney. You're going to have to wait until I'm finished," he muttered as he pulled his head back into the shower and continued to wash his hair.
Squall hadn't even realized the cat had come into the bathroom with him until just now; usually that particular cat avoided this room at all costs as he had become accidentally locked in there once when he was a young kitten. While rinsing the shampoo out of his hair, Sydney began crying again, this time his cries louder and more desperate sounding and accompanied by the cat throwing his side against the door.
"Sydney! Enough!" Squall yelled through the shower door, unwilling to get out and drip water all over the floor to simply let the cat out of the bathroom. If the cat had been stupid enough to hide in here, he could be patient enough to wait for his master to finish showering. Or, at least those were Squall's thoughts at the moment. That is, until Sydney had had enough and stood on hind legs, pressing his weight down upon the commode handle and successfully flushing the toilet.
The roaring yell Squall released as the water became scalding hot was enough to travel through the apartment to Yuffie's room, where she stood in front of her mirror and held up for inspection the dress Aerith had insisted on buying her on their initial shopping trip. She had to admit that the dress would look considerably better on her now than it had at the store, probably because she had filled out more in certain areas now that she actually had enough food to eat on a daily basis and wasn't near the starvation point any longer.
But, at the sound of Squall's yell, Yuffie forgot about her reflection, dropped the dress she was holding to the floor, and dashed out of the room, down the hall, and, without thinking, into his bathroom to see if he was okay. Apparently he was, as he was standing next to the shower stall with a squalling cat in his hands. But, with his hands already occupied, he had nothing to hold a towel up with, which he hadn't even thought of since he never dreamed Yuffie would come barging into his bathroom, and he was standing there completely nude.
Simultaneously, Yuffie squeaked, covered her eyes, and blushed while Squall dropped the cat and grabbed the blue towel off the rack, immediately wrapping it around his waist. "Uh... Yuffie?" he prodded, slightly nervous, as she continued to stand there with her hands over her eyes.
Yuffie slowly brought her hands down from her face after peeking through the fingers to see that he was more or less decent. Or, at least, more decent than he had been a moment before. "I- I... I heard you yell and I thought I might better come check on you and make sure you weren't hurt," she explained, stuttering as she did so and trying to keep her eyes off of the damp chest in front of her by focusing on his eyes instead. But that only made her blush deepen, so she decided the floor had a very interesting pattern and stared at it. "And... And... I'm sorry."
"I'm fine. Sydney just decided to flush the toilet while I was taking a shower," he explained, glaring at the cat who was still sitting at his feet and seemed to be almost grinning at his master. A few minutes of awkward silence passed and Yuffie was still standing there in front of him. "Yuffie? I do need to finish my shower."
"Oh!" Her blush deepened as she realized she was just spacing out in his bathroom while he stood in front of her with nothing but a towel on. She slowly backed out of the room and shut the door behind her, leaning against it when she heard it click. "I wonder if I should get a second look, just in case I missed something," she whispered to herself as she started to slide down the door to the floor.
But the door suddenly began to open and she found herself falling backwards, catching herself on the doorframe while a black and white cat came flying out of bathroom. The door closed once more and, this time, she heard the click of the lock as it was turned. Shaking her head, Yuffie tried to chase away the image of what she had just seen, but it stubbornly remained.
What she had just seen only reinforced what she had thought when she first saw him shirtless, of his body being closer to a marble statue of a Grecian god than human. Water had run in small rivulets down his chest, leading her eyes lower to where the towel just covered his skin, gripped tightly at the side in one hand, covering what she had seen only moments before. It was her first time to see a man completely nude, and, well, she had no complaints about his physique. Yuffie felt her face heat up at that thought as another blush covered it and she was glad this time Squall couldn't see her crimson face.
Following Sydney out of the room, Yuffie rubbed her forehead and tried to forget what she had just seen as she walked back into her own room to finishing dressing for dinner.
When both Squall and Yuffie finally emerged from their respective bedrooms, they met each other in the hallway, both staring at the other, Yuffie flushing slightly and lowering her head as the image of him nude returned from the recesses of her mind where she had pushed it. She quickly fought the blush down though when she realized that he was acting like it never happened.
Peeking from downcast eyes, she instead concentrated on what he was wearing, a little shocked a what she saw. Squall had forgone his usual blue jeans and white t-shirt for a pair of black men's dress pants and a light blue button down shirt tucked into his pants. But what Yuffie wore nearly took Squall's breath away. It was rare for him to see her in anything other than blue jeans and baggy shirts, or the flannel shirts she continued to steal from him and use for night shirts.
However, tonight she was dressed in a knee-length, black dress that clung provocatively in all the right places. The narrow black straps of the dress met behind her neck, both contrasting and showing off the pale creamy flesh of her shoulders. As Yuffie started walking down the hall, Squall noticed that the back of the dress dipped low, but was criss-crossed with narrow bands of fabric. And the high heeled shoes she wore, which strapped around her ankles, added a few inches to her height.
Squall didn't realize he was still standing in the doorway to his bedroom until Yuffie turned to him, quirking an eyebrow as she looked at him. Rubbing his eyes and then pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb, Squall brought himself back to reality and strode down the hall to the living room where she waited.
"So," Yuffie began, placing her hands behind her back and trying to rock on the balls of her feet, but found that to be difficult in high heeled shoes. "Where are we going?"
"To this little restaurant I know," he said cryptically, walking past her and to the coat closet but stopping with his hand on the doorknob. "I just hope you like Greek" He opened the closet door and reached inside, but instead of pulling out her jacket like Yuffie expected him to do, he instead pushed past them and pulled out a box wrapped in green wrapping paper. "Happy Birthday, Yuf."
Her eyes widening in surprise at more at the shortened version of her name than at the present, Yuffie hesitantly took the box out of his hands. "What did you just call me?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow at him as she carefully unwrapped the gift.
"I don't know... What did I just call you?" he asked, perplexed and struggling to remember the name he had just used. He thought he had called her Yuffie, but apparently he hadn't or she wouldn't be asking him.
"You called me 'Yuf,'" Yuffie said simply, shrugging her shoulders and placing the wrapping paper on the counter. "It's okay, though. I just never had a nickname before and it sur–." She broke off when she opened the box to find a smaller version of his leather jacket, the jacket she had been secretly pining for. Speechless, she just held it out in front of her and stared at it.
For a moment, worry set into Squall's mind that she didn't like it as she still hadn't said anything and was just staring at it. He had been certain that she had wanted one. After all, he had seen the way she would stare longingly at his own jacket and had even worn it around the apartment on occasion, when she claimed he kept the thermostat set too low. "If you don't like it–."
He didn't get to finish his sentence as she launched herself against him and hugged him tightly around the waist. "I love it, Squall," she murmured against his chest, tightening her grip for a moment before releasing him. And, as soon as she did that, she slipped her arms into the jacket and pulled it around her shoulders, snuggling her face down into the collar. The only thing missing from this jacket was Squall's scent, which she had grown to love. Not that she would ever tell him that, but she did love his distinctive scent.
"You ready to go?" Squall asked softly, pulling on his own jacket and trying not to laugh as Yuffie snuggled into her jacket with her eyes closed. At her nod, he opened the apartment door and, without realizing it, offered her his arm as they walked down the hall to the parking garage.
After a short drive to this little Greek restaurant Squall had been talking about, during which they spoke few words and instead listened to the radio, Squall parked his Jaguar in the parking lot behind the restaurant and walked Yuffie to the door, once more offering her his arm. Yuffie shivered slightly in the cool November air as they made their way to the entrance, huddling closer to Squall to keep the wind from nipping at her so much.
Once inside, luck was with them and they were seated almost immediately, their hostess placing the menus on the table and leaving them to themselves. "So," Yuffie began as her eyes began to skim the menu, trying to decide what she should order. "Any suggestions?"
"The lamb is good," Squall told her as his own eyes scanned the menu, not aware of the look he was receiving from the teenager across from him. After a moment, he felt her staring at him and he lifted his eyes to find hers wide and a hurt look on her face. "What?"
"How can you eat lamb?" she asked incredulously, picturing the little white animals innocently scampering through the field while someone with a butcher knife chased after them. "They're just babies! You can't eat them!"
Throwing his head back and letting out an aggravated sigh, Squall closed his eyes and massaged his temples. "I happen to like lamb," he muttered, bringing his head back up to look at her. "You probably would, too, if you tried it." The look on her face told him that she would not be eating the lamb that night, not even wanting him to eat the lamb that night. "You are not going to guilt me out of eating the lamb, Yuffie."
"No, I can't stop you from eating it if that's what you really want to eat, even though it is just a helpless baby animal," she muttered as she sighed and continued to look over the menu, finally deciding on trying the Chicken Athena.
The waiter came a few minutes later to take their drink orders, leaving to fill them, and returning quickly with those and to take their order for the meal. Squall started off by ordering them both a wilted green salad with feta cheese, then ordered Yuffie's Chiken Athena for her, and started to order the braised lamb for himself, but at the look on her face as soon as he said 'lamb,' he quickly changed his order to the Swordfish Souvlaki. But the smile Yuffie gave him made it all worth it. And that was when it hit him.
He was in love with her.
As soon as that thought came to mind, Squall began to choke on his drink, coughing and sputtering. How could he love this little waif of a girl, someone he had only known for little more than a month? But, the facts were there. It was solely for Yuffie that Squall changed his order from lamb to swordfish, something he would never have done for anyone else. Even when Aerith had sent him pamphlets that went into great detail over how they make veal, he still refused to give it up. Yuffie, however, was able to make him give up lamb with just a simple look.
He knew he had been growing closer to her as the days passed, but he never dreamed he was in love her. It was just a friendship he had been telling himself. Even when his thoughts of her turned to not so pure thoughts, he simply blamed them on animal instinct. But, now, he couldn't deny the fact that he was in love with her.
Now he just had to figure out what to do about it.
A few days later, the night before Thanksgiving, Yuffie found herself at the end of the sofa with her legs curled up beneath her and her GED study guide resting on her thighs. Her brows were furrowed in concentration as she stared at the graph on the open page, lifting one hand to rub her forehead as she tried to figure out the math problem accompanying the graph. Normally, she had no problems with math, but this one she just couldn't solve.
"Squall?" she called over her shoulder, knowing he was sitting at the kitchen counter with his laptop, as usual. "Can you help me with this? Please?" She smiled as she watched him rise from the stool he was sitting on and walk into the living room, taking a seat beside her and leaning over so he could look at the problem. She was half afraid he would tell her to do it on her own as he had been what she had begun to label 'Cold Squall' ever since her birthday.
"Okay, what's the problem?" he asked quietly, trying to concentrate on the book in front of them and not on Yuffie. It had been hard on him the past few days, ever since he discovered that he loved her. And he tried not to show it, even pushing her away and giving her short, curt answers when she asked him anything, anything to keep his emotions in check.
After pointing out the problem to him and having him explain it, Yuffie started to try to solve it, but found she was missing her pen. "Uh... Squall, have you seen my pen?" she questioned as she looked around herself on the couch and in between the cushions.
Squall did see it. Apparently, she had placed it in her cleavage without thinking about what she was doing and had forgotten where it was. He started to tell her where it was, but wondered exactly how you tell someone their pen is in their cleavage. So, instead, he simply reached over and pulled it out.
The look on her face was priceless, a mixture of shock and embarrassment at having him pull it out for her. "Um... thanks, Squall," she stuttered, lowering her eyes back to the book in front of her, expecting him to return to his computer now that she no longer needed his help. But he didn't; he continued to sit beside her, seemingly in thought about something. Not wanting to disturb him, she just went back to quietly studying.
Beside her, Squall was lost in his thoughts, wondering if he was insane for thinking himself in love with someone eight years his junior. But, then again, people always said that love knows no boundaries, so wouldn't that make it feasible for him to be in love with someone that much younger than him? It had been awhile since he had felt like this, but it was there, waiting to erupt no matter how much he pushed it away.
Turning his eyes to Yuffie, he stared at her profile, drinking in all her features from her indigo eyes to the way she was biting her lip and furrowing her brows in concentration as she tried to solve another problem. Her voice interrupted his thoughts, causing him to lift his eyes to meet hers.
"What are you staring at?" Yuffie asked bluntly, raising a hand to her face and wondering if perhaps some of the powdered sugar from the donut she had eaten earlier was on her face.
"You," Squall said simply, gently pulling the study guide away from her and placing it on the coffee table. Throwing caution to the wind, he decided to take a chance, unable to stop himself. Those eyes were driving him to the brink of insanity as they gazed innocently at him, begging him to kiss her. Squall slowly leaned forward, placing a hand on either side of her, one on the back of the couch and the other on the arm of the couch, effectively trapping her between his arms.
"Uh... Squall?" Yuffie stammered nervously, her eyes darting between the arms on either side of her and stormy blue eyes of the man before her. She had a feeling of what was about to happen, but she wasn't sure if she could trust her intuition. After all, he had been acting cold to her for the past few days; surely he wasn't about to do what she thought he was about to do.
She was wrong. He was going to do what she thought he was. And when his lips met hers, she was more than surprised.
Author's Note: Okay, I hope the repost is better than what I had before.
Thank you to Obsidian Ideals for pointing some things out to me. And, yes, the vagueness of Yuffie's reaction is part of the cliffhanger. And I do hope I made Yuffie's reaction of seeing Squall in the shower more plausible and realistic given her age. ::::crosses fingers:::: And I tried to un-rush the ending of the chapter, at least, as much as I could.
And I don't expect reviews for this repost because most of you reviewed before and would be unable to re-review this chapter.
And, yes, I am justified to say that Squall is only eight years older than Yuffie. Because, you see, Squall's birthday is in August and Yuffie's is in November. So, in Kingdom Hearts, Squall could have turned twenty-five in August while Yuffie was still sixteen, and then the events of KH could take place between August and November when Yuffie would turn seventeen. See? So, only EIGHT years apart by my count. :::grins:::