DISCLAIMER: I'm too busy with school stuff to even worry about the fact that I don't own this.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the slight delay with this one folks, but the crunch time's rolled around for me over here. Our show opened last week, and we still have projects out the wazoo for my classes, which I'm going to go work on as soon as I finish these notes.
I actually don't really have much to say today, as I'm also dead tired. Just the usual review replies and fun facts are up in my LiveJournal, www . livejournal . com / users / tairako
(Soundtrack: "La Tortura," Reggaeton version, by Shakira.)
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Stretching in the library after Kairi had left one day, Sora groaned and flopped forward onto the table, sinking into his rather depressing thoughts.
Good: Kairi was going to the Competition.
Bad: She was going with Riku.
Good: Leon was actually a human being.
Bad: He'd been called away three days ago and hadn't said when he'd be back.
Good: He was getting better at fighting.
Bad: It still hurt a heck of a lot.
Good: Yuffie hadn't tried to kill him lately.
Bad: She was nowhere to be found, either.
It seemed like all his plans were crumbling around his head. Sure, this new life in Traverse was actually going pretty well, and he was active and making friends, which for the new kid was always really hard. But nothing was exactly right, and that just made him want to beat his head against the table. He even sort of did it, raising his forehead just a little off the wood and letting it fall down again with minor "thumps."
"Are you okay?"
Sora looked up with a little surprise at the light voice. "Namine?"
The blonde was standing there smiling, that slightly enigmatic yet friendly smile that he'd never seen anybody else make. "The one and only. Finished tutoring?"
"Yeah, not too long ago." Sora dropped his pen on the table and motioned to the chair that Kairi had recently vacated, and Namine sat gracefully. "What're you doing here?"
She giggled a little, making sure to keep it quiet. "I'm not illiterate, you know. I just wanted to borrow a book to read at night."
"Anything in particular?"
"Maybe one on magic. Supposedly I could learn it, at least some of it."
Sora whistled – lowly, as they were still in a library and didn't need to disturb anyone else that was there. "That would be cool… I'd know a mage."
She tilted her head, giving him a quizzical look. "There weren't any on the Destiny Isles?"
"Nah- Well, rumor was that there was one that lived in this tree house-type thing that was on one of the more secluded islands, but that was it. My mom said he was just some crazy old hermit anyway."
"Sounds threatening," Namine said with a smile.
Sora chuckled. "Yeah, we played over there all the time, and we were really loud, so I think he probably was just a crazy old hermit. Otherwise we probably would've been burned to ashes for some of the stunts we pulled."
"Do you regret moving here?" she asked, folding her hands on the table.
He paused, not saying anything for a long time, and not meeting her eyes, instead looking at the book in front of him and fiddling with something imaginary on the table. "I mean…" he said after awhile, not looking up. "I like it here. The people are nice, I'm making friends… It's a little small, but it's still nice. But I lived there for my whole life, so… I guess I still think of that as home."
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to make it painful for you."
"What? No, no, Namine, it's okay, it's okay, really," he hastened to assure her. "I mean, so hey, I'm a little homesick, that's only normal, right?" he asked with his usual smile that was more like a grin. "But I like it here, I really do. Don't worry."
She smiled a little at his hasty reassurances. "You really mean that?"
"Uh-huh!" he replied, nodding vigorously. "Everyone's been really cool so far."
"So…" she asked hesitantly, looking at him hopefully, "would you like to go around after the Competition with me?"
He froze. "What?"
"I know they've told you… After the Competition – which you are going to be in, aren't you? – there's a sort of festival, where everyone just walks around and has a good time, and people sell food and drinks and it's… just a lot of fun." And she smiled, still watching him with that hopeful look that only made him feel terrible, because she obviously liked him while he didn't like her like that. And he hated making people feel bad, even unintentionally.
"Well? Sora?"
"Namine…" he began slowly, trying to find the way to phrase this that would hurt her the least but still make her understand. "Do you… want this to be a date?"
She turned faintly red, but much to her credit she didn't look away. "Would that… bother you?"
"I…" Oh god, this was hard. "Namine, you're a good friend, and you're very nice, but… I'm sorry, but I don't like you like that," he finished, almost in a rush and not quite looking at her. He didn't want to see her hope withering.
"Oh," she said very quietly, and he still couldn't look her directly in the eye. "I'm… I'm sorry, then, Sora."
"Don't be… And you really are a good friend, I just… yeah," he finished lamely, having lost his words again at hurting someone he'd grown to respect. "If you want to go as friends… then definitely, of course I'll go with you. But not… a date."
She was silent at the end of his rather awkward rambling, and he cautiously glanced at her, only to find she was watching her hands, which seemed to be laced together in her lap. When she still didn't speak for several seconds, he nearly decided to kick his own ass for hurting her this much, even unintentionally. "Namine, I'm sorry."
"N-No," she finally said, standing slowly and still not quite looking at him. "It's… I can't ask you to feel something you don't. I… as friends, yes?" She started backing away, and then turned to go, stopping by the bookshelves that cut his and Kairi's study table off from view of the rest of the room. "Is… Is there someone else?"
"…Yeah," he replied quietly, unable to not give her some sort of explanation. She waited, back still to him, but he didn't provide any more details; knowing it was Kairi would only hurt her more. "I'm sorry."
"She's… she's lucky," she whispered, and then was gone from his sight. Sora groaned, feeling like the most horrible person in the world, and rested his head on the table again, cursing his stupidity.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Yuffie peered over the railing carefully, looking left, then right, and finally straight down. She was in luck; it was one of those rare times in Traverse when the First District was empty, at least as far as she could tell. They were few and far between, and if she didn't want anyone to see her she had to take this one. Without thinking any further, she grabbed the railing in front of her in both hands and kicked off the stone balcony, flipping easily over the balustrade and landing in a crouch on the cobblestones. The high jumping lessons had been tough, but they were so worth it.
"That looks challenging." The ninja spun at the voice only to find the guy in black who had been pestering her for a fight all those days ago was seated at one of the café tables – one of the ones she couldn't see from the balcony above the café itself. "But definitely useful. Where did you learn it?"
"Why the hell do you care?" she asked, rolling her eyes and pulling her rust orange gloves back up.
He only raised an eyebrow, ignoring the glass of water in front of him. "Maybe I'd like to learn." In its own way, the not-question was just as sarcastic as Yuffie's, and she gritted her teeth. This one could all too easily piss her off, apparently… But she knew how to solve that problem. Without answering, she simply turned and started walking away.
Footsteps behind her, however, immediately proved that this guy wasn't going to give up. "Why won't you answer my question?"
"Why do you have to ask me?" she shot back, finally turning back to face him. "Anyone in this town can tell you who taught me, so just leave me alone."
"Perhaps I could, if I felt like talking to any of them – or they felt like looking me in the eye."
"You're not that frightening."
"And you're not that crazy," he replied, in that same rather sardonic tone he'd used before.
Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest, glaring up at him – he was tall. And, she had to admit, not bad-looking at all. But even morons can look good. Look at Riku, after all. "How would you know that?" she countered, just as sardonically.
"Because the crazy ones won't look me in the eye."
Something – she couldn't tell exactly what – differed in his voice; she wasn't sure how, but she knew he was telling the truth then. Or his version of the truth, anyway. And she could see why most of the wimps in this town wouldn't be able to do it: this guy just exuded intimidation.
Of course, intimidation had only worked on Yuffie when she was little. "Well good for them, then. Goodbye." And once again she turned to leave – but before she could take one step, she spotted someone lurking in the shadows, leaning against the brown wall of a building with – she just knew it – a very, very large smirk on his face.
Ignoring the tall young man in black for the moment, the ninja stomped over to the other person hanging around the First District, not noticing that the other had followed her more slowly. "Why in the hell are you spying on me?"
"Spying on you?" Riku repeated as innocently as he could, though still smirking. "It's a crime to be in a public square, now?"
"Maybe not, but I used to never have to look at you, thank god, and lately I've been seeing you everywhere and it's getting on my last effing nerve."
The silver-haired boy shrugged. "Coincidences are funny like that."
"Does this have anything to do with Kairi?"
His eyes narrowed a little. "I don't think that's any of your business."
"You just stay away from her."
"Try and make me, you crazy bi-"
WHAM.
Unfortunately, Riku never got to finish what he was saying, as the ninja's knee was very quickly – and painfully – introduced to a rather sensitive part of his anatomy with a solid half-kick. Groaning and clutching himself, Riku toppled over onto the stones, curling into a ball, and Yuffie merely nodded once, then strode away in the direction of the Third District.
Leon had paused several feet away, though still close enough to hear what was going on, and winced in sympathy at Riku's sudden sprawl on the ground. But still… from what he'd heard about the boy, and seen for himself, he probably deserved it for something he'd done at one point or another. He glanced after Yuffie as she stormed through the doors to the Third District, somehow managing to slam them behind her even with their sheer size, and couldn't help but mentally congratulate her.
She might be crazy, she might be infuriating… But one thing she definitely isn't is boring.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Namine?" Kairi called as she entered her friend's house in the First District, one of the only actual houses in the entire town. "Namine, where are you?" Namine's parents, though understanding, were never home until late, so she had called Kairi. Her friend's tear-filled voice had prompted Kairi to beg Cid to let her go out, and it was probably that same voice, that Cid had heard as well when he answered the phone, that had made him agree to let her go. She didn't have much time before she was supposed to be back, but she would stay there as long as she could to help her friend.
"Back here," she finally heard, and Kairi quickly made her way to her friend's first floor bedroom. Expecting her, Namine had left the door open, and Kairi closed it after herself as she entered.
The blonde head could just barely be seen over a mound of blankets that she'd wrapped around herself despite the warm temperature, and her face disappeared behind her hair. She was holding one of her old stuffed animals in her lap, a panda as big as her torso that could serve as a comfortable pillow if she chose. All in all, the sight scared Kairi a little. Namine was always so put together, so in control, and here she was, reduced to a huddling mass because… because…
Well, she hadn't told her yet, but Kairi was going to find out.
"Hey," she almost whispered, approaching slowly and sliding onto the bed next to her friend, wrapping the blanket mound in a quiet hug. "What happened?"
A sniff came from somewhere behind the hair, and a slim hand reached up to wipe away something from her cheek. "I'm a complete fool."
"Shhhh, no you're not," Kairi said, trying to comfort her a little as Namine had done so many times with her. "You're a lot smarter than me, and you know it."
"But I made a fool of myself."
"I bet you didn't. What happened?"
A slight hiccup came as the breath caught in Namine's throat, and then she continued. "It was-" another hiccup "-just after you left the library. I found Sora in there, and he looked miserable, and I thought he was homesick because he moved from so far away and so we started talking about it, but he told me he liked it here and he liked all of us and so I asked him-" her breath hitched in her throat and she shuddered a little; Kairi rubbed her shoulder blade soothingly, encouraging her to go on. "I asked him if he wanted to take me to the festival after the Competition."
"…And?" Kairi urged a little after Namine seemed unlikely to go on, ignoring the little kick to her mind that came out of nowhere and she couldn't quite identify.
"…He likes someone else," Namine whispered. "Some lucky girl back on the Isles probably, but he didn't say her name, and he kept apologizing for not liking me, and he was so nice about it and it only made it worse." Again that hand came up, scrubbing harder at her eyes. "He even said he'd go with me as friends if I wanted to."
That little prod to her brain was still annoying Kairi, but she shoved it aside to concentrate on her friend, who needed her understanding right then. "You know he didn't mean to hurt you," she said comfortingly, still rubbing Namine's shoulder through the blanket.
"I know, that's what made it worse," she replied, voice cracking a little. "He's the nicest guy around and meant those apologies and that only made me like him more. But he doesn't like me and knowing that for sure just hurts and I made a fool of myself."
"You didn't, Nami, you didn't," Kairi said quietly. "I know he wouldn't think of you as a fool."
"But he doesn't think of me like that either, and that's what hurts."
Kairi honestly had no idea of what to say to something that was, almost cruelly, entirely too true. So she simply stayed with her friend for as long as she could, offering comfort and a shoulder to weep on.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"YUFFIE!" Cid's enraged voice rang down the hall later that night. After he'd slammed the phone down into the cradle. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU KICK HIM IN THE BALLS FOR!"
In her room, Yuffie groaned. The little tattletale. Well, to be fair, he probably hadn't run straight home to his daddy; the bastard had a little more honor than that (and being brought that low by the "crazy ninja" was certain to hurt his precious self-image). More likely than not he'd persuaded his cousin to "fix him" after he'd managed to get home, and his father had just found out about it somehow. Ansem, giving credit where credit was due, was entirely too observant.
"YUFFIE!" Cid was right outside her door now, and obviously not planning to go away.
"I had the right! He called me a bitch!"
"THE FUCK?"
"Just get in here, Cid!" Kairi was going to be home any moment as it was nearly their curfew, having sprinted out earlier when Namine had called but swearing to be back before dinner. The last thing Yuffie wanted at the moment was Kairi hearing all the yelling; she didn't need her trying to defend the little dirt bag. Yuffie honestly had to wonder how long it would be before Kairi realized just what kind of person Riku was – or if she ever would.
The door opened and Cid came in quickly, pulling over the same chair he'd sat in while trying to get her to talk more than a week ago, only this time he was a lot more pissed off. "You got thirty seconds. Explain."
Yuffie shrugged negligently, not caring. "He tried to call me a bitch. I stopped him from finishing. The end. What does it matter, Aerith just fixed him up anyway."
"Well she wanted t'beg you not t'do it again in case his father found out."
"Wait, that wasn't Ansem?" Yuffie asked, finally sitting up.
"No, that was her." Cid plainly wasn't any more pleased to hear the information of Yuffie's latest "escapade" from the girl in pink than the silver-haired man. "An' yeah, she wanted t'talk t'you."
"Then why didn't you call me to the damn phone!" Yuffie exploded.
Their tempers were an even match, and Cid exploded right back. "Because I can tell from her voice now just when she's gonna say somethin' like that! Damnit Yuffie, you can' do things like that!"
"You don't like him anymore'n I do," she said sullenly, folding her arms over her chest.
Cid rolled his eyes. "That don' matter." But he was wearing down. He obviously didn't like the idea of a boy he didn't particularly like insulting one of his charges; Yuffie knew for a fact that, overprotective or not, Cid didn't approve of Kairi's friendship with Riku much more than she did – something about the young man just rubbed him the wrong way. And, for all that Yuffie liked to startle people and "keep them on their toes," he knew that only real provocation would make her actually hurt someone on purpose. And her guardian he might be, but Yuffie had always proven to be just as stubborn and independent as… well, him. There was no way he could ground her and have it actually stick, as she'd simply refuse to acknowledge his punishments and go on her merry way. So when all of that was totaled up… "Look, jus' don' do it anymore, all right?"
"I hold no responsibility for my actions if he insults me."
He groaned. "Yuffie…"
"All right, all right," she finally gave in, huffing a little and pulling up her pillows to lean against them. "I won't knee him in the balls anymore. But he's a fighter, he should know how to defend himself by now."
"Yeah, well remember he never got into th'punchin' an' kickin' side of things. An' I'll take even bets that he didn' think you'd do that." Their yelling matches came and went in blurs, as fast as the wind. They started with no warning and ended just as quickly, usually within five minutes – or less – of beginning. It was just how they were, an infinitely strange relationship between caretaker and charge, but it worked for them, in ways that made Yuffie actually respect him as she probably wouldn't anyone else. Even with the yelling they'd done just moments before, now Cid was lazing in the chair exactly as if it was his own favorite broken-down recliner, an air of ease and sharing a private joke surrounding them both.
Yuffie knew that, deep down, he would've loved to see her do it, knew that he thought Riku needed a take-down as much as she did. But he had to keep up some semblance of disapproval for the world at large, so he raged for a moment, and she knew he needed to and raged back a little, and then it was over.
Yep, somehow it worked for them, though no one could say how.
"Don't tell Kairi, all right?" Yuffie asked.
"Wasn't plannin' on it, but why not?" the pilot asked, leaning back in the chair a little and tilting its front two legs off the ground.
Yuffie shrugged a little, the motion slightly awkward with her prone position on the bed. "She still worships the ground he walks on. He's gonna tell her, yeah, but it'll be tomorrow and we can fight about it then." She paused. "Yeah, tomorrow is good."
"All right, whatever you say," he replied, a little skeptical, but willing to let her do this her way.
Yeah, he would've loved seeing it in person, all right. Maybe if she was paired against him in the Competition, she'd do it again just so Cid could see the look on his face.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Kairi!"
The voice from the shadows and the sudden hand on her arm made her shriek and whirl to kick the unknown "attacker," but when her thoughts caught up to her and she recognized who it was she pulled aside just in time. "Riku! Don't startle me like that!" he was a little too good at just appearing out of nowhere, and she began to calm her breathing as he released her arm.
She couldn't help thinking, though, that Sora wouldn't have scared her like that to get her attention.
"Kairi, do you know what that-"
"Riku, I need to tell you something really quickly," she interrupted him, looking quickly at her watch to make sure she had even a little time to talk. She flipped out the time-setting dial and twirled it ten minutes behind what it had read; she could always show Cid that for proof that she had thought she was on time.
"About what?" Riku asked, the tone in her voice stopping him from launching into his tirade against her stepsister.
"Namine." She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the alley where he had, though she didn't know it, made his deal with Leon, the one place in the First District that was mostly guaranteed to be unoccupied at this time of day, as people went home for dinner. Riku followed her there, waiting for her to explain. "She asked Sora to go to the festival after the Competition with her and he told her that he didn't like her that way."
"And?"
"And what?" she repeated, a tad annoyed that even after years of friendship with the girls that he wouldn't realize just what that would mean. "Riku, she's in tears. If Cid didn't insist on me being back, I'd still be back there right now. You spend more time with him than the rest of us with your lessons and everything – could you just talk to him? She said that he said there was someone else, but he didn't say who, so maybe there's not really someone – could you just sort of… nudge him a little? He told her that she's a good friend, but they could be so perfect for each other." That little kicking was back, but once again she shoved it away, determined to help her friend. She was planning on grilling Sora herself the first chance she got, as well, but having more than one person couldn't hurt.
Riku, though, didn't seem to agree. "Well, if he doesn't like her…"
"Riku!"
"Okay, I'll talk to him. No guarantees, though." After all, Sora had, even if it was unintentionally, put one of his friends in tears. The least he could do for her was try to find out why, even if there was no way that anything could actually happen between them.
And it was all worth it when Kairi beamed at him. "Thank you," she said, hugging him and then – to his vast surprise – kissing him on the cheek. "I have to go now," she insisted, pulling back from him and taking off at a dead sprint for the Third District, hoping to avoid her guardian's wrath.
He dismissed it as unimportant for the moment that he hadn't had the opportunity to tell her about Yuffie.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The next day, Sora was seated at the table he and Kairi always shared at the library, both wanting her there right then and dreading when she walked in. He knew there was no way she didn't know what had happened the day before with Namine and him, but he didn't know how she'd react. And the fact that she was five minutes late, when she'd never even been close to late before this, was definitely not helping his mental state one bit.
At last he heard the door open, but the almost haphazard placement of the shelves prevented him from seeing who entered. And when he finally did catch a glimpse of the person maneuvering around the bookcases, he was severely tempted to just hide under the table and pray she left.
"There you are," Yuffie said boredly as she saw him before he could put his brilliant plan into action. "I got sent to tell you she ain't coming today."
Since Yuffie wasn't gutting him with her shuriken, he figured it was safe to ask a few questions, though he stayed poised to spring away at the first sign of preparation for attack. "Why not?"
"Cid wanted her help with something this morning." The obvious question – why aren't you helping, too? – sprang to his mind, but he immediately squashed it as something that she would gut him for. "So she says she'll be back tomorrow."
"What's he need help with?"
"I don't know, something or other with the shop." The ninja's eyes, which he could now see were a rich brown, suddenly focused on him with laser-like intensity, studying him as if he were a bug pinned to a card, which was exactly what he felt like. He had to concentrate very hard in order to not wriggle. "So what's the deal with you?"
"…Huh?"
"I mean, you come here, and you're nothing special, and she's been talking about you more than that moron lately." Somehow he just knew that the "moron" Yuffie was referring to was Riku, and he couldn't help an internal celebration that Kairi was actually talking about him. "There's no reason for her to be driving me crazy and yet she is. So what's the deal?"
She folded her arms, shifting her weight to her right foot and tilting her head at him in a way that showed that she wasn't going anywhere until she got an answer. So he dug for one to give her, because he honestly didn't know himself. "Well, I'm… I'm new, so I guess there's still some sort of novelty or whatever. Give it a month or so and she'll be back to talking about him more again." He'd had a large struggle to keep the bitterness at what he assumed would be his fate – with almost every indicator Kairi was giving pointing to Riku, his optimism was fading – out of his voice.
"So you guys aren't insanely in love or something?"
Sora felt his entire face burst into red as he somehow managed to squawk "Yuffie!" She smirked a little, which did not make him feel better. "No!" Not because he didn't want that – but because it was true. "She doesn't like me like that."
"But you like her." The ninja was entirely too observant, and she was starting to grin with this discovery of another torture victim. "Don't try to argue, you're red as paint! You do like her."
Sora groaned, letting his head fall forward into his hands and digging his fingers into his hair. "Yuffie, just go away."
"Oh, no, it's just getting interesting." To his horror, she pulled out a chair and swung it around, sitting on it backwards and resting her head on her arms after she folded them across the back. "You realize you've got no chance, right?"
He decided the best thing to do would be to just not respond.
"I mean," Yuffie continued anyway, "not only is there Cid's rule, but there's Riku – or should that be the other way around? Anyway, I'm not about to date any time soon, so you couldn't date her even if she wanted to. And even then that prick is still there and everyone knows he's after her, too."
"Just leave. Please."
"Okay." Apparently Yuffie had completed her torture regimen for the day, as she easily stood up and slid the chair back under the table. But before she left, she shrugged. "Look, I'm not trying to be a bitch, I'm just telling you the facts. You know the truth hurts sometimes."
He just shook his head. "Don't… Don't tell Kairi, all right?" he asked, knowing it was useless to deny it further.
That brought her up short. "Why not?"
"It's her choice." He wasn't about to pressure her into choosing him, exactly as he'd told Cloud. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did that.
When he looked up a moment later, Yuffie's look had lightened a little, and she was watching him a little closer – and a little less threateningly. "You really mean that, don't you?"
"Yeah."
"All right then, I won't."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Leon had taken to hanging around the vast cave with Cloud and Sora, though sometimes they moved down into "his" area, the waterway, for a change of scenery. If anyone had told Sora a month before that his two closest friends in this town, of the guys at least, would be the social recluse and the perpetually frightening, he would've laughed himself silly while rolling on the ground. On the Isles, he'd had lots of friends, being the sort that just made them easily, but his best friends had been Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie – all of them easily a match for his energy and enthusiasm for mischief and just as loud, or louder, than him.
But this town was weird. It seemed to be turning him into an entirely different person, except he wasn't any different. He still felt and acted exactly the same; it was the circumstances and situations that had changed, and now he was an Outsider, in the company of other Outsiders, but he was finding he preferred their company a lot better to the ones in the Group.
Not that he minded at all. Kyo and Yusaru and the girls treated him well and were friendly; he did consider them friends, and they considered themselves his friends. But he just wasn't as close to them as he was to Cloud, which was incredibly odd to explain. A place in that Group should have been his, but for some reason it really wasn't. Whether that was due to Riku, as Sora knew Cloud would insist, or just to the fact that he did prefer the company of the older young men, was a question he couldn't answer and, he was finding, he increasingly didn't want to answer.
Leon wasn't close to them, yet, but there was a camaraderie building between him and the other two. He still hadn't told them anything about his past, why he was in the town at all, his family, whatever, but he was speaking to them, speaking as a human rather than the walking glacier that Sora had originally had him pegged as. He definitely got the impression that no matter the amount of pestering, Leon would never share anything until he was good and ready, and so Sora let him be as Cloud did, waiting to find out more about this strange person.
But Leon certainly didn't mind telling them about Riku's "mishap" with Yuffie. The retelling had made both Cloud and Sora wince in sympathetic pain, and then Cloud began laughing his head off; apparently the years of mutual ignoring and detesting overrode any expected "poor guy" feelings. Even Leon started to chuckle, agreeing with Cloud that he'd probably had it coming for something or other. Sora, however, couldn't bring himself to join in.
His conversation with Yuffie earlier meant that he finally had some other facet of her personality to work with other than the crazy antagonist, and even if she thought him an idiot he knew she wouldn't just up and kill him. Or up and kill anyone, really. So why would she do that to Riku? He'd continued being distant, if polite, to Sora, but he'd never been bad. Sora'd had hope that one day they could overcome whatever had put Riku off; if Riku gave it a chance, he was pretty sure they could be good friends. What had he done to get the ninja that pissed off at him?
"Sora?"
He shook himself out of his contemplative state and looked over to Cloud, who was sitting propped up against one of the rock walls today. "What?"
"So you are awake. Help me convince this guy it's a good idea to enter."
"Enter what?" Leon asked from his customary position leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
They still hadn't had the opportunity to talk to Leon about participating in the Competition, since the day that Sora had heard about it was the day Leon had disappeared, apparently away from the town completely, for the past few days. He hadn't told them where he was going or why; he just showed up again when he came back. Sora had the feeling that he did that a lot.
"You tell, you know more than me."
Cloud shrugged and launched into the canned explanation, almost exactly the same as the one he'd given Sora in the dojo, with the difference being that Leon didn't interrupt Cloud as he spoke. The brief history of the tradition, the festival afterwards, and exactly what it entailed to enter – the only real prize was the knowledge of your win and the admiration of the townsfolk. And who would be entering, that they knew of; everyone in their classes except for Kyo had decided to go ahead and do it, Kyo saying he would wait until the next year.
Leon listened silently, taking it all in before making a decision, and when Cloud was done, simply asked, "Who in the hell came up with that name?"
Cloud chuckled. "This town isn't long on imagination, you know. Take a look at some of the shops again."
"Even so, that's… very close to the limit." Leon shook his head. "I'll have to think about it."
"What's there to think about?" Cloud asked, lounging a little more against the wall. "You fight, you do well, and people leave you alone 'cause they're afraid of you."
"They already are afraid of me."
"Well at least they'd have a reason to be, then."
Sora shrugged, scooping up a round, flattish stone and skipping it across the lake. The stones on the beach were rapidly disappearing with that habit of his. "If he doesn't want to then he doesn't want to. But don't you think it'd be good to fight someone besides Fluffy, Leon?"
Leon made a noncommittal noise of agreement in his throat, and both Sora and Cloud knew that he would at least think about it before rejecting it out of hand. But Sora knew that waiting for him to decide right then was futile; quite likely they wouldn't know if he would do it until the actual day arrived and he showed up or not.
Time for a change of topic. "So guess who came to the library today."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Will you just go away?" the ninja groaned as she entered the Third District later that day, only to see the young man in black moving across the open space as if he owned the place. He stopped and looked at her, face neutral, but she could tell somehow that he was sardonically amused.
"I was planning on doing just that, actually," he said, nodding to the doors to the First District that she had just walked through.
"Well I'm not stopping you," she muttered.
"You are; you're in the doors."
Yuffie groaned again and marched forward and a little to the side, then spun and held out a hand. "There, one no-ninja set of doors just for you, Blackie."
"It's Leon."
She snorted, noting the lion's head on the sleeve of his jacket and the silver pendent that dangled over his white shirt. "Appropriate."
"I think so."
"Goodbye." And she turned and began heading off again.
Leon, however, didn't move. "You do realize you don't scare me, right?"
"Oh, gee, thanks for telling me," she replied sarcastically as she maneuvered around him; he was standing in the direct path to the steps and her home. "I'll be sure to remember to send you a card at the holidays."
"Is it really so hard to tell me who trained you?"
Why wouldn't he just let her leave? She stopped and turned to face him once more, tired of this and wanting something to eat. "Master Carran. There, happy?"
"Very."
"Why do you want to know, anyway?"
He shifted his weight, crossing his arms in what she could tell was a habitual gesture, still watching her as closely as she was watching him. That scar between his eyes was really very startling… "Is it really so hard to believe that I might want to learn to jump like that?"
"Well, yeah," she replied frankly. "You look too big for it."
And he shrugged, just as negligently as she could. "If he says I am, then I am. There's no harm in asking, is there?"
A slow grin spread over her face. "If you can find him." And with that she tore off in the direction of her apartment, making it across the square and through her door in five seconds flat and leaving a fairly startled Leon in her wake. She was right. He had absolutely no clue where to find the man.
Except for one: the dojo.
Apparently it was time to pay a visit to Cloud and Sora's other haunt.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Master Bersi had roped Cloud into fighting two-on-one in the alley outside as the room wasn't big enough for a good battle like that indoors, pairing him off against the twins and letting all three go nuts. The rest of the class was inside, Uo and Kyo paired off to work on Kyo's defense (which was pretty pathetic), while Sora had been assigned to practice his basic stances and attacks again, as they'd been starting to slip just a little as he worked on the fancier techniques. He was concentrating fiercely, watching his reflection in the mirror for every error he could see, when all of a sudden a silver head appeared in the reflection next to him and he jumped in surprise. Riku gave a sort of ironic smile, giving Sora a chance to calm down before starting the conversation.
"What'd you do to Namine?"
Of all people to ask him that, Riku was the last he expected – though probably that wasn't very smart of him, since Namine was also a good friend of Riku as well as Kairi. "What happened to her?"
"Kairi caught me yesterday and told me that you made her cry. So, again, what did you do to her?"
Sora groaned, rubbing his forehead with one hand, feeling a headache beginning to come on. He was already feeling like enough of a jackass about this… "I didn't mean to make her cry, I swear."
"But you still did."
"Look, I'd make it up to her if I could; she's my friend, too. But I can't."
Riku watched him closely. "So there is someone else, then?"
He had no idea how Riku had found out about that – probably from Namine – but he wasn't going to tell him any more than he had told Namine herself. "Yeah."
"You're not gonna tell me her name?"
Sora shook his head, still watching the floor. And something in Riku's head clicked – he wasn't sure what, but something was telling him to press this farther. Perhaps it was the way he wouldn't meet his eyes… "Why not?"
"It's none of your business, is it?" Sora shot back, still not looking at him.
"It became my business when you made my friend cry." It was a low blow, and Riku knew it, but Sora's wince right then was just a fraction of the hurt that Namine herself was carrying now. "You can't force someone to feel something they don't, but can't you just do something with Namine and see if it'll work?"
"Riku, she's my friend, I won't delude her into thinking something's possible when it's not."
And so Riku played his trump card. "Kairi would really like it if you tried."
This time, it wasn't Sora's wince that made a suspicion – that had a lot of evidence – click together in his mind. It was the color that Sora turned. Faintly, so faintly one would be hard-pressed to see it from much father away than he was, Sora turned a dim red, almost as if he were embarrassed by the suggestion.
Or the suggestion made him nervous.
Sora liked Kairi.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Tolja I couldn't keep myself from making this plot even more complicated than it was to begin with .:snerks:. Ahhhh, I have fun...
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