I really have no idea where I'm going with this chapter but I have the Writing Itch and I really, really would like to get this story finished sometime soon. There's probably only two or three more chapters left for this puppy. I was planning on making it really long but I just haven't the oomph for that anymore.

Disclaimer: Don't make me hurt you…

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No. It couldn't be happening. No, no, no, this was so not right. No matter how hard she tried not to reciprocate Squall's feelings, the way he acted around her lately had made it difficult. The way he acted. The things he did. The way he looked at her. They all made her love him without trying. And she didn't understand anything that was happening.

Yuffie sighed a huge sigh and stared up into the sky. No other stars had gone out recently, sp she figured that Sora was doing a good job keeping the Heartless at bay. Unfortunately, the lack of activity in Traverse had also led to more free time—more time for her to think about Squall. He was still being a regular gentleman with her, despite the fire in his eyes when he looked at her. That look always made her catch her breath.

Silly… two weeks ago she'd've given anything to be in this position, with Squall eating out of the palm of her hand and doing things for her even though she wasn't asking or even implying that she wanted something. But things had worked out so wrong, and she didn't want to take it any further. Despite the things that attracted her to him, she was still frightened. She believed that he honestly would not hesitate to kill her. She shivered as she clung to the wooden railing over the café's upper balcony. This was getting so confusing.

At the same time, Squall was on the other end of town, thinking similar thoughts of Yuffie. He was in the Waterway, trying to skip stones across the water like she'd showed him how. He had wanted to do things right with her, but when she pushed all of his buttons at once, he became six kinds of passion looking for an exit. He'd turned into rage and fear and love and lust all at once with her, and he didn't blame her for being scared.

Seeing as she wasn't up for talking things out, he decided to do things a bit differently. His actions were working better than anything he could have said, because he could tell she was starting to drop her own barriers. She loved him; that much he knew. But his rage at her that night had made her so frightened of being hurt around him that she'd begun to put up solid walls around her own emotions.

Didn't she get it? He loved her. It was before he'd even taken her that he'd loved her. It was before then. It had been a long time ago, when he found that her silliness, her perkiness, and her general demeanor of sugary-sweet could bring him a little bit closer to happiness. Hadn't she figured out by now why he wanted the Keyblade so badly? She probably believed that he wanted to repent for his failure to defend the Bastion, and that was a part of the reason. He always wanted to be able to protect her. If anything had happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

Maybe someday she would forgive him for everything he'd done to her. But for now he would just have to try to win her heart gently. Patience would prove to, ultimately, be an asset in winning back his ninja. He smirked. He'd been thinking of her like that for quite some time. Only now it was true. She was his. Now and for always. Now if only he could find a way to make her want to stay with him.

Slowly, and without knowing it, they both began to wander back to their room, timed so that they would walk into the front and back doors at the same time. Squall had taken quite a while to get up on the roof and onto the balcony behind the hotel, and Yuffie had run all the way from the First District. When they opened the doors at the same time, they were both shocked to see the other there, too.

Yuffie yipped and put one hand over her heart when she saw the door open in the back. She took a deep breath and backed against the door to close it.

"You scared me," she said quietly. "Where did you come from?"

"The Waterway," he said, looking down at his wet-to-the-knees pants. He was glad he had opted out of the leather ones today. "Where were you?"

She was prepared to make a snap at him but decided against it. It was just an innocent question. "Just thinkin'," she said. She noticed that Squall was lighting kerosene lanterns in their room. Yuffie tilted her head slightly, confused. "What's with the lanterns?"

"Some Heartless put out the generator again," he said. "There's no heat or light or even hot water tonight. Looks like we'll be stuck in the cold until they can get it fixed."

"A Heartless?" She asked. The only kind of Heartless that was big enough to do that kind of damage to a generator was a Defender, and the thought of having one so close to the hotel at night made her shiver with suppressed fear.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Are you scared?"

"No," she fibbed. "Just cold. I swear I can see my own breath in here."

Without saying a word, Squall picked a blanket up off of his bed and offered it to her, knowing that she would be very cold during the night. This left him with only one blanket for the cold night, Yuffie realized when she went to reach for it, but stopped.

"No, Squall, you keep it. You'll die of pneumonia if you keep giving me your blankets on cold nights like this," she said. "I'll survive, don't worry."

"You're certain?"

"Yea, it's not like I'm deprived or anything." Her blanket stash had upped from three to four in the last week. "I'll find some other way to keep warm."

Comments about combined body heat lingered at the tip of Squall's tongue but he refused to speak them, for fear of her becoming angry again. Instead he just tossed the blanket back onto his bed and changed into sweats to sleep in. He'd abandoned his method of seducing her by wearing nothing but his shorts to sleep in when he discovered that he could easily freeze to death at night if he was dressed like that.

Yuffie took her own sleepwear into the bathroom and changed there, emerging two minutes later wearing her plaid flannel pants and a sweatshirt that she's swiped from Squall ages ago. She noticed him with his face against the window, looking out towards the alley behind the hotel.

"What are you looking at?" She asked.

"I thought I saw it down thataway," he said, pointing down the alley.

"Saw what?"

"The Defender."

Yuffie squealed and backed into the far corner of the room with her eyes wide with fear. "Is it gone?" She asked in a small voice.

"Calm down, Yuffie. As long as we're in here, nothing can happen," he assured her. "If you panic you'll just give yourself an ulcer."

Whimpering, she gathered one of the top blankets on her bed around herself and climbed onto the bed behind where Squall stood, still staring out the window. "The least you could do it close the curtains or something so it can't look in here with those horrible red eyes and scare me to death if I wake up and see it there…"

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he said. At first she thought that he was being silly but she heard nothing but sincerity in his voice.

Without another word, she climbed into bed, wrapped up in blankets. Even with all of them wrapped around her, she was still chilly. It tended to get colder at night, even though it was dark all the time, and she shivered from the cold. Every now and then, she would hear something rattle or clank outside, and she would sit upright with terror, thinking that there was a Defender on the loose. Mostly it was just a stray animal or a harmless Rhapsody flitting about. One time it was a flowerpot pushed off of a balcony. She was getting paranoid.

She didn't know how long she'd been awake for, but when she squinted for a look at the clock, she was shocked to see that it was well past two in the morning. She was cold and tired and scared. As of then, sharing a bed with Squall had a considerable appeal to it. Mustering her courage, she stood up, wrapped in a blanket, and tiptoed over to him.

"Squall?" She whispered, nudging his shoulder with her hand. He didn't move. "Squall…" she tried a little louder this time, accompanied by a bigger nudge. He snorted and flipped over, facing her but his eyes were still closed. "Squall, wake up!" She pushed him with both hands this time and his eyes snapped open. He frowned, looking around for the disturbance.

"Yuffie?" He asked softly. "What are you doing over here? What's wrong?" He tried not to get his hopes up.

"I'm cold and I'm scared," she admitted. "Can I… would you… I wanna… crawl in with you." She looked down at the floor. "D'you mind?"

He shook his head as a Halleluiah chorus played in his head. "No, of course not." He scooted over to make room for her and she tentatively climbed in next to him, still wrapped up in her blanket. The blanket would serve as a barrier between them but at least she was in the same bed as him. Once she was settled, he carefully put one arm around her waist.

Yuffie gasped slightly at the contact and lifted his hand from her waist. She could sense his disappointment but instead of making him move the hand completely, she just placed it on her hip instead.

"I couldn't've slept like that," she said. "I'm ticklish." She kept her hand on top of his on her hip, and she finally felt warm enough and safe enough to fall asleep. "Night, Squall."

Encouraged by this, he whispered against her ear, "Goodnight, Yuf."

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Over the last two weeks Yuffie had been slowly getting closer to Squall. Very slowly. She'd begun sharing a bed with him again when it was cold out, and she didn't shy away or try to slap him when he touched her, although she would not let him touch her in public. He would always stay just out of arms' reach so that he would not be tempted.

She was also really careful about what she said around him. She didn't want to provoke his rage again, seeing as the last time she did that, they'd ended up in this current state of confusion. Over the last week, however, the confusion had cleared up somewhat. He loved her and she loved him, but while he was desperately trying to win her over, she was trying not to show it at all, or as little as possible.

Yuffie sat on the balcony, looking up at the stars again. She was relieved to note that they were all still there, and the no other worlds had collapsed. The icy cold weather had made the sky so clear that the moon and the stars cast an eerie blue light on everything. Behind the hotel there were no streetlamps, so she could look up and see everything perfectly.

Her breath formed clouds in the air in front of her, and every so often, a cold breeze would nip at her cheeks and nose. She breathed deep, taking in the smell of cold air and outside. Sometimes she came out to a balcony to stare up at the sky and think. Other times she stared into the sky just to wonder, and do anything but think.

"If you stay out here in the cold like this, you'll just get sick," someone said behind her. At first she thought it was Aerith, because of what was said. Then she turned around and saw Squall standing there, wrapped tightly in a heavy coat.

"So?" She didn't bother looking at him. She heard his footsteps and then felt warmth at her back and she knew that he was right there behind her. He put one hand on either side of her and leaned forward over her head.

"I don't want you getting sick," he told her. He leaned back briefly to open up his coat and slide his arms from the sleeves, draping the front of it around her so that it covered both of them.

For a while they both sat, staring at the stars and watching their cloudy breaths mingle in the air. After a time, she realized that he was not going to leave until she agreed to come inside. He wanted to make sure that she stayed warm.

She knew that he loved her, but she was still nervous. She still knew that there were things that she could do or say that would set him off into his monster rage and make him angry enough to kill her.

"Squall… when I made you so angry at me that night…" she paused and took a breath. "You… I thought you wanted to kill me. I thought I was going to die." There. She'd said it. Unexpectedly, she felt him slump over her shoulder, resting his head in between he shoulder and neck. His breath was warm on her skin.

"That's what you were afraid of, isn't it?" He asked. Things were coming to the light now, so to speak. "That's why you shy from me."

She merely nodded, looking down and leaning back at the same time to keep her balance on the balcony.

"I could never," he said. "I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to—which I never have." He used one arm to hold her close against him. He felt her tense but she forced herself to relax. "I love you, Yuffie. I know you hate to hear it but I love you."

Yuffie breathed shakily, feeling the last of her barriers crumble. "I know… and… I love you. I know it sounds silly because I'm always running away from you but I love you, too." She turned to face him and without warning she hugged him tightly around his chest. Gently, he hugged her back, lips against her raven-black hair.

"Come inside, Yuffie. Come to bed," he said softly.

Smiling slightly, she looked up into his eyes, putting on the sweetest face she could. "Carry me?"

He obliged, taking her still wrapped in his coat into their room and kicking the door closed behind him. He wanted to badly right now to kiss her. He was so tempted, moreso when he gently let her slide to the bed and she looked up at him with those eyes. Just as he was about to pull away from her, she gently bit his neck between her lips.

Without thinking, he whipped his head around and kissed her, all but sucking the tongue right out of her mouth. He shifted position from standing next to the bed to kneeling over her, his forearms resting on either side of her shoulders to support him. He could see both anticipation and a slight hint of fear in her eyes. He kissed her again, more gently. She purred into his mouth and buried her fingers in his hair.

"God, Squall… this is so wrong…" she groaned as his assault moved lower to her collarbone.

"I know it is," he said. "But it feels so right."

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Okay! There we have it, the next and long-awaited chapter. You can thank Deplora for not letting me leave the computer until I was finished. Yea, now the chapter goes from Terrified-Yuffie to Yuffie-In-Love. He's still gonna drive her crazy though, don't worry. I think I can squeeze two or three more chapters out of this sucker. I hope you enjoy—and please review!