Disclaimer/A.N: I own nothing, besides a shiiiiny new ipod, a computer, and three pairs of arm warmers. I own nothing from Square, despite ferverent wishes that it was otherwise.

Now that summer's over I'm finally back in the writing mood. Look for more one shots and updates. Because I rawk like that.

"Cloud?"

He looks up from where he had been staring out at the rain. It hadn't stopped raining in Traverse Town for almost two weeks now, courtyards were flooded, and the entire town was gradually turning into a wanna-be Atlantis, bone chilling water ankle deep everywhere.

The rather sodden ninja grins at her dry friend. It was actually kind of creepy. Yuffie smiled all the time, of course, but this was different. Her expression was almost… forced, mouth contorting oddly. Wrathfully.

The blond man gives his life long friend a wary look. "I am."

One hundred and eleven pounds of cold wet teenager launches at his chest, a four eleven tsunami of rainwater and energy. The force knocks him flat on his back, momentarily disoriented. He would swear he hadn't been looking at the ceiling a minute ago.

Two small icy hands settle on his neck, thumbs resting gently on either side of his trachea, bitten nails scratching slightly.

Her violet eyes seem rather closer than they normally are. "You." She hisses, breathe unnaturally warm against his cheek. "Left me alone on patrol today. With Squall."

Cloud frowns at this. They had drawn straws this morning, out of a unanimous agreement that there was no point to all three of them being soggy every day. Someone should get a rest once in a while. The system almost always worked. Not always in his favor, either.

"You and Leonhart have patrolled together before." His attempt at logic. Accurate, but completely irrelevant to the aggrieved ninja.

"Don't change the subject." She glares at him, adjusting her position on his chest. "You left me alone. With him."

Her fingernails, short and ragged as they are, are pricking his throat. So he does the only logical thing he can think of. With frightening speed and accuracy, his hands rise from the dampening duvet, and begin tickling the teenager mercilessly.

For a moment the black haired girl doesn't react, but that passes almost immediately, and she collapses against him, shrieking helplessly. Damn him twice for knowing her weakness and again for having the guts to exploit it.

"S-s-s-s-st-STOP IT!"

He stops, looking down at the girl now sprawled across his lap, cheeks flushed from uncontrollable laughter, eyes sparkling. Something alien catches in his throat, and he suppresses it by rubbing his knuckles against her skull roughly.

"Heeeeeeey, you. Cut it out." She slaps ineffectively at his hands, rolling away from him. "That's not nice, you know. I come to you to talk and all you can do is abuse my poor battered body." She gestures lazily at a thin, nearly invisible laceration just above the hem of her shorts. "Stupid shrapnel."

That feeling again, the room's too small, and too warm. Cloud liked math, was quite good at it, and his mind babbles that it is physically impossible for the room to be more crowded with just him and Yuffie in it, compared to when it's Sora, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and himself.

"So what can I do for you?"

She gives him an impatient look. "I'm ge-etting to it. Hush." She gives him a rather cheesed look, making sure that he wasn't going to interrupt her immediately.

"Well, me and Squall were patrolling the sewers, you know, for heartless. And he just out of the blue wants to spar."

Cloud nods at the pause. He knew Leon better than almost anyone, and he still didn't understand what possessed the man to do the things he did.

"So we spar, blah de freaking blah. You know how he goes. Hack, transform. Hack some more." She shakes her head. "Stupid swords. Anyway. He just… looks at me, and tells me that if he wins, I have to go have dinner with him. In the middle of the match."

Well, there went that warm feeling in the room. Cloud nods, pushing a bit of butter colored hair out of his eyes.

"Now I'm thinking he's finally flipped. All those three thirty am practices, what have you. Driven him baloney. As it would anyone. So I agree. Stop looking at me like that!" She pouts, sticking her lower lip out in a fake pout. "I've whipped him before."

Ah. There went the temperature back up to unnaturally warm. Was the furnace on? Somehow he doubted it.

"Then he just… does this funny gesture thing with his sword. Kind of swishy. Something you'd expect Aerith to do with her staff. Only not quite as feminine. And I just can't move. Like…" She tugs her nose thoughtfully, trying to think of a good comparison. "Like when you leave your foot in a weird position, and then you can't feel or move it afterwards. Numb. And then he just sticks his over sized sword at my neck and tells me to meet him at the restaurant in second district. And… and… what the hell am I going to do?" She bursts out, giving his pillow a powerful thump.

He really had no idea what to say to the teenager. Don't go of you don't want to? She was smart enough to figure that one out on her own. Besides, she had a ninja's pride, oxymoronic as that sounded, and wouldn't ever back out of a bet just because she lost.

He watches her face carefully, before throwing in the towel. In for a penny and all that bull. "Anything else I can do for you, Yuff?"

She suddenly seems smaller, sitting back on her heels, water soaking from her clothes onto his covers, spreading out in a dark circle on the cotton. "I… I don't know." She flops across his knees again, giving him an imploring look. "I've just never been on a date before, you know? What do I do?"

Stay here with me. Stupid brain. Wrong answer. "Those are questions for Aerith." He points out dryly. He was no good with anything that hinted of femininity or romance. Maybe that was why he was so fond of the girl currently draped over his thighs. She was the antithesis of a lady, all odd angles, curves few and far between. Not someone who would ever want to be worshipped on a pedestal or treated like a rose.

She gives him a slightly affronted look. "I know. But Aerith is… Aerith." Brilliant Yuffie. Bonus points for stating the blatantly obvious. "I mean… she'd want to know why I wanted to dress up, or who I was meeting. You know." She makes a somewhat vague gesture. "Information of a sensitive nature."

Cloud nods, not at all feeling enlightened. "And…?"

"And what do I do if he kisses me!" The greatest ninja ever throws her arms out in a helpless gesture. "I never even kissed my Dad, for Shiva's sake."

He could feel to where this was leading, and there's a brief surge of elation, before logic and cynicism squashes him down. She wanted to date Leonhart, Bastion's hero. Didn't want to look bad in front of the man who had kept her and Aerith in one piece while he himself was playing lackey to one of the nastier deities in the universe. "And…?" Fucking brilliant Strife. Why would anyone talk to you? All they'd need was a recording.

"Oh. My. Gawd!" She sits bolt upright and gives him a rather exasperated look. "I might not be able to look pretty, or dress nicely," she makes the slightest gesture towards her chest, though Cloud can't for the life of him what those have to do with anything at hand. "But I don't want to come across as a total kid." She gives him an expectant look, puppy like. "Can you teach me? To kiss?"

No. Absolutely not. Keep your lips to yourself, and I'll make sure that Leonhart and I do the same. But her eyes are shimmering, and she's making that face, the one that's held sway over him since she passed the three foot mark on the measuring tape.

He was only human.

He shifts her off his lap, clamping down on his logic and most of his hormones. His hand rests against her jaw, and he presses his mouth against her's.

He swore that was all he'd do. A quick, cut and dry lips pressed together. Until she let out a soft squeak, pixie fingers digging into his scalp and shoulder, returning the pressure curiously. Of its own volition, his other hand moves to the center of her back, right above the line of her shorts, and he slowly changes the feel of his mouth against hers.

There's a hint of camphor from her chapstick, almost intoxicating, but she doesn't let him savor her for too long. She was bolder, and curiouser, and not the one making out with the possible girlfriend of her best friend. Her tongue, usually stuck out at him immaturely, was now sliding along his own roughed lips, and heat starts pooling in places that it hadn't visited for a long while.

This had to stop. He was the responsible one, and she had a date. Now there was a thought to kill the mood. He pulls away gently, watching the stars sparkle in blue violet eyes. "Ah…. And that's how it's done."

Yuffie doesn't move from Cloud's lap. That was not where she had been originally, but hell. He couldn't keep track of everything. That was someone else's job. She mouths the word 'wow' quickly, before hopping up, and spinning around the room giddily.

She jogs back over to the bed, ruffling his hair. "You're a good man, Cloud Strife. See ya." With no farther ado, she skips out of the room, for her date.

Funny. The rain hadn't sounded so lonely before she had come in. He and the rain; they could be lonely together.

Ending Notes: Depending on the reading I get from the reviews, there may be a second chapter, one shot or not. Some pointes of clarification: I realize that Cloud's feelings seem kind of… sudden, but in my mind he's been feeling something for Yuffie beyond the older brother affection type stuff that is blatantly obvious. Also, ages have been tweaked to make everything fit a little better: Yuffie is seventeen, Cloud is nineteen, and Squ… Leon is twenty one.