DISCLAIMER: Still waiting for my free Squall or Cid within ten days of calling... (and still not mine.)
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the delay, life's been... interesting lately. But here is chapter eight, a talk-heavy chapter to make up for my severe action obsession that came through last time, and nearly as long. And with plenty of Yuffie-cursing. I can't help but find it really amusing that she's got the worst mouth of the lot in this story.
And... after five years, I finally finished VIII (yes, I am that pathetic). There's a lot of reasons why I didn't before this - I had the PC version, for one thing, and my computer kept erasing my files. But even with that happening I'd always get to the Lunatic Pandora and fight Seifer the last time and then just... lose interest. Story was over, essentially, so I got bored. I tend to do that on a lot of games. But I've finished it at last, and I've definitely decided that I like KH-Squall better than VIII-Squall. He just works better in KH, I think; there's only so much "whatever" I can take from a main character, and his complete turnaround at the beginning of Disc 3 has bugged me since I first saw it. But that's why I write KH and not VIII. Plus his jacket in KH is so much cooler without the ruff, and he looks good with long hair :) Working on finishing VII now; I just have to go kick some Sephiroth butt after I manage to breed a gold chocobo and pick up the Knights of the Round materia. Then maybe onto Parasite Eve.
I've only had my console for a year, can you tell?
Tossed up a one-shot Squffie last week called "Gusts," in case anyone's interested. Very short; I wrote it in an hour. I might decide to go a little nuts and do a bunch of weather-related short stories like that, 'cause writing something short was actually pretty fun. Normally I'm a crazy person with length (as seen below), but trying to fit a whole story in just two or three pages wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But that story's not this story, and this story's the one you're reading, so here ya go, everyone. Usual entry up over at www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces), along with review replies. You guys rock, you know that?
(Soundtrack: "Passion," by Utada Hikaru, theme from KH2)
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Yuffie's mind swam hazily back to the surface of consciousness, her memory filled with only half-seen images of somewhere dark except for a small ball of light and a… presence, that was the only word she could come up with for it, that had brought her out of that dark. Altogether far too metaphorical for her when her mind snapped back into place at last and she at last remembered the fight between her and Leon, and exactly what had happened after it when she'd apparently been entirely out of her mind. She silently cursed herself for being so stupid – having Aerith as a friend tended to give her more knowledge of medical situations than she thought she'd have use for, and she knew running away with a concussion was idiotic – and winced in anticipated pain as she gingerly touched the place Leon had smashed with his… weapon, whatever it was. She was vastly surprised to find no blood, no bruise, not even any tenderness, and it was only then that she registered the softness she was lying on rather than hard stone, and she sat up with a groan, trying to figure out what was going on.
"There y'are." It was Cid's voice – well, that only made sense; he was her guardian, of course he'd be concerned when she got her skull cracked. He was seated rather negligently in a chair next to a circular table in the middle of the green-decorated room, boots propped on the tabletop and hands behind his head just like a man twenty years younger. "Aerith was right, as usual. Before you ask, yer in the Hotel, yer fight ended 'bout an hour an' a half ago, an' fer some reason you ran away and holed up in the waterway, where that Leon guy found you 'bout an hour ago."
The Hotel. Well, that explained the bed. And the horrible decorating job. Green was good, but this was way too much overkill. The ninja swung her feet off the bed and carefully stood up to make sure she wouldn't keel over, and cheerfully discovered that all negative effects of the fight were gone as she wasn't even tired. "So who won?"
"Leon. Managed to break Cloud's arm."
Yuffie whistled lowly; she knew that he meant the artificial one, and remembered very well how carefully Cid had built the limb, adjusting it over the years. She'd almost thought that nothing could break it.
"Damn straight. I didn't see it, seein' as I was lookin' fer you-" and he hit her with that hard-edged Cid look that promised she was in for it later. Seeing as this one was technically her fault and she'd been pretty stupid for running away with a concussion, she didn't try to kick him this time. "-but from what I've been hearin' it was pretty amazin'. Like somethin' back at the Academy or the like."
"Wish I could've seen it. DON'T say it," she warned, when he started opening his mouth to make the obvious comment.
"Don't fuckin' do it again, then, an' we won't keep raggin' you."
"Gee, how nice and understanding."
"You know I win at sarcasm."
Damn him. He did, but barely. Still, she dropped the verbal sparring match as she could feel the energy creeping back into her, starting to make her even more twitchy than normal; one of Aerith's healings, of which this was thankfully only the third she'd had, always made her fidget with something like nervous energy. "I've gotta get outta here; I'm going to the dojo."
"Not gonna join in th' festivities?" Cid asked, without any surprise.
"When do I ever?"
"Keep an eye out fer Kairi. I haven't seen her since I went off to look fer you," he said, dropping his boots from the table at last and standing.
"Check," Yuffie called back over her shoulder as she disappeared through the door to the balcony, intending to cut through the waterway to the Third District and enter the Second District from that direction, thereby avoiding most of the crowds. The alley was almost deserted as she leapt easily from the balcony, hearing the main door to the room close behind her guardian as he left. She had a significant advantage over her stepsister; with no one to tempt her, and no friends that he disapproved of, Cid pretty much left her to her own devices and trusted her (admittedly sometimes skewed) judgment. That request to keep an eye out for Kairi was more a command to see that she got back home without Riku than anything else. Maybe some people would think she had the raw end of the deal, but Yuffie was perfectly fine with it.
And in all honestly she did attend the Festival most years; she just didn't stay very long. It didn't take much time to find birthday presents for Kairi and Cid for the following year, and maybe something for herself if she had the money, and then she was out of there. She would be doing that later, but right now she needed to work out that energy, and the dojo was the best place to do it.
The padlock that someone had put on the grate in the past year was child's play to her, and she had it open and was sliding the pick back in its hiding place within ten seconds. Locking it behind her, just to make sure that no one would see anything suspicious, she trotted down the saturated path without a care for the murky darkness and not placing one foot wrong.
But suddenly she was seeing another light ahead of her; faint, but there, and as she rounded the corner she was confronted by the one person she hadn't expected – Leon. He was sitting on the stairs that led up to the deserted house, facing in her direction, his sword-gun at his feet and a ball of fire hovering over his shoulder. And he was looking right at her; she hadn't exactly been quiet coming in, and the echoing quality of the cavern had made her splashes carry.
She felt strange with him watching her like he was: closely, almost as if she was a puzzle, but the only expression coming through in his eyes. And even more strange was that she wasn't getting angry, annoyed, or pissed off as he continued watching her, as she did with everyone, and she stopped in the water and watched him in return. The not-nervous energy wouldn't let her stay still though, and she began bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, making the water slosh around her ankles.
She definitely had the feeling they were both trying not to piss the other off.
Leon broke the silence first. "How do you feel?"
"Like I didn't have a concussion an hour and a half ago," she replied honestly, starting to move forward again. "Cid said you found me down here?"
He nodded as she stepped onto the dry rock and began shaking off her sneakers. "I was looking for him, and stumbled across you. I had to get you to Aerith."
The sudden – if very, very minor – note of apology in his voice made her frown. "What did you do to get me to Aerith?" She rather doubted she'd walked under her own power, but if he'd slung her over his shoulder like bag of rice, he was getting the knee, rescue or no rescue.
"Carried you," he said, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. And perhaps it was. "And I swear I didn't do anything improper, so you don't have to mutilate me."
She made a face. "Guess I have a reputation for that."
"Perhaps. I was warned to reassure you." He stood at last, picking up his weapon and slinging it over his shoulder, and the little ball of fire followed his movements, casting him in an odd, yet somehow suitable, low light. "Why aren't you up there with everyone else?"
"Too many people I don't like." She started bouncing slightly again, and to his credit he didn't ask her to stop. "Hey," she said with sudden inspiration, "wanna fight again, this time without the bone-breaking and everything?"
Leon raised his eyebrows a little; now she wanted to fight? "I've had enough for the day, thanks, but why are you so hyper?"
"I'm always like this after I'm healed, I don't know why." It was strange; here she was, wanting to jump in place, and she was managing to have a conversation. A fairly normal conversation at that, with no yelling or anything. With this guy, no less, who, she'd learned by simply keeping her ears open, had a reputation for being the biggest misanthrope the town had ever seen. Well. Reputations weren't everything. Restlessness getting the better of her, she moved up next to him and held a hand over the flame, and was only slightly startled to find it not at all warm. "What's with the fire?"
"Oh, just… something I know. Helps to see."
"Come on, there's gotta be more than that since it's not burning me." Now she was swiping her hand along the top as one would with a candle flame, and he finally indicated she should stop something by grabbing her wrist to still her arm. "Awww, you're no fun."
"It makes it really hard to concentrate when someone plays with it. Just please don't."
It was mostly the fact that he said "please" that made her give in; usually people just ordered or yelled. "All right, all right." He dropped her wrist as she pulled her hand back, and she barely managed not to shake her head at the strangeness of the situation; he'd restrained her and she hadn't hurt him. This was just getting weirder by the second. "All right," she said for the third time, though in a completely different tone, "we're getting out of here and finding some sun because you look like a ghost." Yuffie turned and began jogging, nearly bouncing, back towards the way to the alley, but stopped when she hit the water and didn't hear him behind her.
She looked back and he was still in the same place, the same stance even, watching her with an odd look. "We?"
She shrugged. "Why not? It's me or the big crowd up there, Leon," she added with her most gleefully sadistic grin, to which he only rolled his eyes – but, to her surprise, he began walking towards her. She quickly hid the expression before he saw it. "Come on, I know just the place."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Just the place" had turned out to be the terrace of the bell tower, now abandoned by the people such as Cid who'd used it to watch the fights for the chaos below. The plazas in the First and Second Districts were a mess of tables and makeshift tents propped on haphazard frames, and almost the entire populace of the town seemed to be milling through the cracks. One couldn't escape the noise even inside, which was why Leon had abandoned his apartment in the First District for the much cooler, quieter waterway.
Yuffie had led him over the dumpling seller and the hotel, then easily opened the lock to the Gizmo Shop for them to pass through. Through the door in the opposite side of the building was a very legitimate ladder that they had climbed, putting them several stories above everyone, high enough that even the ninja wouldn't jump it. Leon hadn't been up there yet, and he had to admit that the view was impressive – for Traverse, anyway. And they were far enough away from the crowd that the individual words died away into a constant buzz that was still relatively loud but not quite so jarring. If the crowd hadn't been down there, it would've been a very restful place indeed.
The ninja was now jumping in circles, working off the excess energy, while he was sprawled face-up on the cool stone of the floor, hands behind his head as a sort of pillow. He didn't often relax so much in front of people, but somehow it was different when it was her. She wasn't terrified of him, which probably helped.
After a few minutes, Yuffie had apparently let off enough of her energy to be able to at least sit down, and she dropped unceremoniously next to him and peered at him curiously. For some reason she didn't speak, though, and finally he turned his head to look at her when her eyes had been on him too long to ignore. "What?"
"Why in the hell does everyone here think you're an inhuman bastard?" she asked bluntly, but not insultingly. She really was wondering. "I mean, yeah, you don't talk as much as other people and you don't spend time with them, but that doesn't mean you're a horrible person."
"I don't know. I guess I don't help things, though," he replied as he sat up, bending his left leg and propping his elbow on the knee. "I don't like being here, and everyone here seems to expect you to just… fit in. Be happy to be here. Love it or at least like it. And it's not a bad place, but it's all the same, and that's tiring."
"I know what you mean," she said as she pulled off her orange gloves, only now realizing they were slashed open and the metal plates inset in them were showing. Must be from when I blocked him… I know Sora didn't do that. "It's all small and boring and nothing ever changes – and when something big does happen, if it's bad, people pretend that person doesn't exist or it didn't ever happen, and that's just stupid."
"Speaking from experience?"
"Maybe." But she didn't offer any further explanation. "But why do you stay here, then? Why not go back to the Bastion?"
Leon hesitated, and she knew in that moment that he'd never told anyone why – not even Cloud or Sora. She was fully expecting him to say something along the lines of it not being her business, but to her total surprise something entirely different came out of his mouth. "The doctors said to."
"Doctors?" Blink. "You sick or something?"
"Not for me, for my grandfather." She kept watching him, and after a moment he continued. "He's sick, and has been for a long time. Too ill to come out in public, so most people here don't even know he exists. But he can't stand not doing anything, and the doctors knew if he stayed at the Bastion, he'd keep trying to get up and do his work. So they said to move him to somewhere where there wouldn't be any work for him, where he could rest, and this was the cheapest place. We don't have much money so I couldn't hire a caretaker, so I had to leave the Academy and come with him. We go back about once a month for a few days for the doctors to check on him." And to keep me from going insane here, he added in his own mind. It was the most he'd spoken at one time since he'd come to Traverse, and for some reason it didn't feel out of place to have said it. Maybe Sora was right, in a way; he really hadn't even been making an effort to live in this place because it didn't feel like home, which only made him fight the feeling, which made the feeling stronger, which made him fight more. It was a cycle, a bad cycle to be in, but one he didn't know how to break.
But Yuffie latched onto something else. "The Academy?" she asked with surprise, blinking. "You mean the military academy?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Cid went there," she explained, leaning her elbows on her knees and putting her head in her hands. "He said when I woke up that your fight with Cloud sounded like something from the Academy. Guess he was right, huh?"
Leon nodded. "He was. I was almost finished, but I couldn't leave my grandfather to fend for himself. When he's better, I'm going back."
Once again she blinked in surprise. "So you're not staying here?"
"Of course not."
That should have been an obvious fact, and she knew that. But somehow she'd gotten used to seeing him around the town, around the districts, and now he just sort of existed there with the rest of the people. But from what she could remember about Hollow Bastion (which was actually fairly little as she'd been eight when her parents died), he seemed like he would fit in much better there, in a bigger space with many different types of people. At the very least, if he was as antisocial as everyone made him out to be, it would be much easier to be ignored there. "What about your parents? Couldn't they help?"
"They're dead," he said calmly.
"Oh… Sorry."
"It was a long time ago." And that was a very obvious dismissal of that topic.
But now that she'd gotten him talking she was getting more and more curious, so she simply switched lines of questioning. "What's it like over there now?"
"At the Bastion?" She nodded, and he paused for a moment, trying to find a way to explain a place he knew as well as the back of his hand – too well to explain well. "It's very busy," he said at last, knowing that didn't say anything. "There's always things happening, and different things to see and do, even at night. …I'm not very good at explaining things like that."
Yuffie sighed, a sigh of defeat. "But it's not like here, that's the important thing." She flopped back, arms spread to either side, staring up at the sky. "I wanna get out of here. But I don't have any clue how I'm gonna do it."
"Why don't you just leave?"
"Can't. Not old enough, no money, and no transportation. Unless…" Suddenly her eyes sparked and she sat bolt upright again, staring at him with a look that suddenly made him very worried. "You wouldn't be willing to get me out of here, would you?"
"What?"
"Well you're from there, so you know the place, and you're- How old are you?"
"Almost twenty," he said with some reluctance, not having any idea where this was going. Now he definitely knew what Cloud meant when he said that Yuffie didn't waste any time.
She grinned triumphantly, exactly what he was afraid of. "Perfect! You're emancipated, you've gotta have some form of transportation, and you know the area. In December can I hitch a ride back to the Bastion?"
"What?" he asked again, blankly.
"I. Want. Out. Is it really that hard to understand?" She poked his ribs with one finger, almost making him jump; it had been a long time since he'd had much contact with anyone. "You say you hate it here and it's too small and everything and you know I agree with you, so why is it so hard to believe that I want to leave?"
He had no idea how to respond to that. Sure, he wouldn't mind getting to know her better, but this was completely out of the blue and until perhaps an hour ago he could've sworn she'd want to avoid him at all costs – and now she was essentially asking him to help rearrange her entire life? "… Why are you asking me?" he finally responded, baffled and not bothering to hide it. She was interesting, but she was confusing as well. "Why are you even talking to me now? You always ran before."
Yuffie could feel her face start to burn as he reminded her of exactly what she'd done when they'd met in the past, with her being stubborn beyond all reason. Admittedly, he hadn't been much better than her; it seemed that neither of them kept their social skills in great working order. And with most others, she wouldn't care – but he knew the feeling, that specific feeling of being crammed in a place that was too small and you couldn't escape. The only difference was she'd been here from the time when she was still little enough to make it work – it was the place itself, and certain events, that had changed her. He'd never fit in to begin with.
He reminded her of Cid, in a way. Cid was comfortable, and as familiar as the beat-up armchair he'd rescued from some junk heap and adopted as his own eight years before. Leon wasn't precisely comfortable, but she got the impression that he understood where she was coming from as no one but Cid and Aerith did, making him one more person she could potentially talk to when she didn't want to confide in her guardian or even her kindhearted best friend.
And of course she couldn't say any of this to him. Instead, she shrugged, forcing herself to remain just as casual as she'd been through the rest of their talk, and thankfully felt the flush receding from her skin. "You can leave," she said simply. "If you want, I'll help out with the trip and taking care of your grandfather and everything. If I'm conscious," she added wryly.
"Conscious?" he repeated, momentarily distracted from the main line of conversation.
"Motion sickness," she explained briefly. "On anything that moves. I usually take a sedative and conk out like a light."
"Oh."
Leon didn't seem to have anything else to add after that, so she pressed on. "So can I go with you?"
He debated some more with himself for a few moments – was it right for him to do something like that? – and then finally looked at her again. "Only if you have your guardian's full permission. I don't," he quickly added as she opened her mouth again, certain to protest that by that time she would be in charge of her own self, "want him chasing after me and trying to castrate me."
And she grinned widely. "Talking to Sora, eh? That one was actually pretty mild."
"All the more reason for me not to want him after me."
"Eh, he's harmless – mostly." She definitely enjoyed watching him squirm – not that Leon actually squirmed, that would just be too much, but he definitely shifted his weight and looked away. In anyone else it probably would have been a squirm. "He's great with a spear," she added helpfully, and saw the minute wince that he hadn't been able to hold back. "Very good at poking with it."
"Yuffie…"
"And precision cutting."
"Yuffie-"
"And getting in close from far away."
He groaned, letting his head fall forward onto his hand, digging gloved fingers into his hair. "I get the picture."
She smiled angelically at him, a look she knew he wouldn't believe but still felt good to use. "Just being informative," she added helpfully, and let the smile fade as he shook his head. "Hey, what's your last name? Everyone always calls you just 'Leon.'"
"Leonheart."
She snorted, loudly and derisively. "Leon Leonheart? No disrespect intended, but what the fuck were your parents thinking?"
He shook his head again, sitting up straight once more as he did so. "It's not Leon Leonheart. Leon's my nickname – it fits me better."
"I'll be the judge of that. What's your real name then?"
Rather than tell her off for thinking she could know him better than he knew himself, and thus better able to judge nicknames, he just told her. After all, his real name was known throughout the Academy; "Leon" was just what he went by. "Squall."
"Hmmm…" She settled back a little, eyes narrowed as if he were a puzzle she was finding extremely complicated. He didn't need to ask what she was thinking about; the "Squall or Leon" was clearly pinging around inside her head. And he knew which one she'd decide on.
"That's definitely it. Squall suits you more."
He'd been wrong. "What?" It was part of what earned him the nickname in the first place: almost always working alone, but fierce as the animal it referenced when someone in his "pride," the number of which had been precious few, was threatened. He knew he'd been subconsciously behaving as a threatening lion since arriving in the town, which meant that only Cloud and Sora – and now Yuffie and Aerith – had had the courage to face him. So what was she seeing that made him "Squall?"
"You're unpredictable," she answered easily. "You look and act all threatening and everything, but you're not that bad underneath – or you're not angry that long, I'm guessing. Come on, am I right or not?"
"I…" She was right. His temper was violent, but it tended to blow over quickly, just like the storms he'd been named for; one or two explosions and he was done. And squalls in the weather certainly looked horrible when they were building, as he knew he'd been since coming.
But still, he was who he was. "I'm Leon."
She just shook her head, starting to grin. "Nope, you'll always be Squall to me."
"…I'm not going to be able to change your mind, am I?"
And that grin just widened. "Not on your life."
They were a bit rocky, a bit unsteady – but they could both tell that their antagonistic days, at least towards each other, were over.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Sora and Kairi filed through the crowd in the First District, laughing easily and browsing the stalls without buying anything but some sort of sugary confection that looked like taffy but was a lot easier to chew, pointing things out to each other and exclaiming over unusual finds with all the enthusiasm of their sixteen years. No one looked askance at them; Sora had become well-liked around the town in the month and a half since his arrival, for his cheerful demeanor and his willingness to help people out, though people couldn't understand why he'd attached himself to Cloud Strife. Well, said most of the gossips, that poor boy could use a good friend, so leave it be since it seems to be going well. Might improve him some, too. But since it was Sora's first Festival after all, and Cloud was never the social type, seeing him around with Kairi was in no way a surprise. Cid couldn't even claim he'd been corrupting his "daughter" since they were quite literally surrounded by people in just as high a spirit as they.
Of course, Cid didn't know about the dojo, and there was no way Kairi was telling him about that.
Both of them were still flying high on some sort of almost intoxicating euphoria that gave them even more energy and made them laugh more frequently as well, though they'd always been a pair to laugh. Many of the other people smiled to see them, so genuinely happy, and had no clue as to why, attributing it to the normal exuberance that the Competition and Festival always inspired in their age group. But the real reason was, of course, their secret; Sora wasn't even sure when he'd tell Cloud and Leon, feeling like this was too good to be true.
They'd sworn to each other in the dojo that they'd do nothing to give it away and bring Cid's wrath down on them; that meant they couldn't even hold hands, as they'd seen other couples doing. Occasionally one of them would take the opportunity to grab the other's hand and drag them down the line of stalls to something else interesting they'd seen, but they always made themselves let go before anyone could get suspicious. But in reality, it wasn't that hard to keep apart; the Festival was giving them plenty to distract themselves with, and since it only happened once a year they were going to take advantage of it.
"Sora! Over here!" Kairi called, and Sora slipped through a small gaggle of older women who seemed to have already bought half the things being sold to join her. She was standing in front of a table with several cardboard boxes on it, looking absolutely delighted and with her hands in one of the boxes. As Sora pulled up next to her, he could see that each box contained one or two very small kittens, and a sign had been propped on the table reading "Free to good homes," while a man who appeared to be about fifty lounged behind it and watched them casually. Kairi was involved in petting a particularly demanding tabby that kept mewling at her and chasing her hand when she'd try to move it away. "Aren't they adorable?"
"Yeah, they are," he said as she picked up the tabby and cradled it – Sora couldn't tell if it was a girl or boy – in her arms. Normally his sense of "masculine pride" wouldn't have let him label anything as "adorable," but when Kairi said it it was somehow all right.
And he could certainly admit they were "cute."
Kairi sighed and reluctantly placed the kitten back in the box. "Sorry, little guy."
"Why don't you keep him… her?" he asked. It was clear she liked that cat, and if the man wasn't charging anything…
"I'd need to ask Cid first, and he's never let us have pets."
Abruptly, Sora made one of the spontaneous decisions that Cloud and Leon had come to dread and admire in equal measure, and lifted the tabby out of the box once more himself, arbitrarily assigning it a gender. "I'll take him then."
"What?"
He grinned. "My parents won't mind, and that way you know where he is if you can convince Cid to let you take him." He shrugged once, grinning at the stunned look on her face. "And if you can't, then if you ever visit us you can still see him."
"Eeeeeee!" she practically squealed with joy, throwing herself at him in a hug and making him stumble back to keep his balance.
"Careful! The cat! And Cid." He added that last part in a very, very low voice, one only she was able to hear. The last thing he wanted was to get maimed for something he hadn't even really participated in.
Kairi backed up immediately, looking sheepish. "Sorry… Sorry, little guy," she said to the kitten, lifting it from Sora's arms. "Didn't mean to crush you." Her answer was another mewl as the kitten demanded ear scratches, right then, and she laughed as she complied, then turned to look at the man behind the table. "Is this one a girl or a boy?"
"Boy, Kairi. And the most energetic of the lot."
She grinned at Sora, teasingly. She honestly couldn't remember grinning so much before she met him, or as widely. "Perfect match for you, then."
"Awww, Kairi…" he pretended to whine, playing up his part in their little silliness. "You think a cat's the best I can do?"
"Yep!" she chirped with another grin, and turned and practically skipped off through the crowd.
"I'll show you!" he called after her, starting to follow her but letting her stay ahead by a little, grinning. He remembered to grab the kitten's box off the table before he left, though.
They were very lucky that their behavior wasn't all that different from before they'd "gotten together" – both of them were naturally friendly and energetic, and putting them together meant that one or both of them was almost always laughing or grinning. The townspeople had become accustomed to it, as some of their time together had been spent in public, mostly in going to or coming from tutoring, and so they didn't draw anyone's suspicions with the way they were now.
But Sora had forgotten something very important.
Kairi suddenly started jumping, waving the arm without the kitten to be seen through the crowd of taller people surrounding her, and calling something out that Sora lost in the general buzz of conversation. By the time he reached her, though, he could see just who she'd been waving to – and nearly ran away.
Namine looked fine; it had, after all, been nearly a month since that scene in the library, and nearly a month since he had seen her at all as she had been deliberately avoiding him. He hadn't been spending much time with the group from the alley since then, because of Leon, Cloud, training, and all the little chores that seemed to crop up, and in a way he was glad for that – it meant he hadn't cut off her life, because he knew, thanks to Kairi, that she'd found him with the group sometimes and had gone straight back home, and he didn't want to be the cause of that.
But she was out here, at the Festival, and he suddenly remembered that he had told her he'd go around with her – just as friends, but he'd said he'd do it and he tried to never back out of a promise. But now he was out here with Kairi, and he'd forgotten about that promise in the crazy giddiness that had swept over him since Kairi had grabbed his hand – and it was very clear that they were already "going around" together, depriving Namine of both him and her best friend in one stroke.
This was going to be complicated.
"Oh, thanks Sora!" Kairi said as he finally came up next to them, setting the kitten in the box and taking the box from him. "See Nami, isn't he adorable? And he loves to be petted, try it!"
Kairi, too, had obviously forgotten of the promise Sora had made to Namine, and of course she was happy to see her as Namine was one of her best friends. But Sora knew as he finally met her eyes that Namine hadn't forgotten, that she still cared about him like that – and she was trying to fight it down and not show it. She gave him a half-hearted smile that didn't reach her eyes and then looked at the kitten, relaxing a little more when she was talking just to Kairi. "He's great, Kairi," she said, reaching in to pet the cat's head herself. "So you're really going to try and convince Cid to let you keep him?"
Kairi shrugged, still watching the cat. "The worst he can say is no. And if he does, he'll still be with Sora."
And Sora knew that that had been the wrong thing to say; it made it sound like she was over at his apartment a lot – something that Namine knew Cid wouldn't approve of. He could see the thought clearly dawning in Namine's eyes, and he quickly decided to get himself out of there. Reaching for the kitten's box, he forced himself to act casual. "I'm gonna go put him in my apartment, all right?"
Kairi had realized about two seconds after she'd said it that her last statement, while true, was not the best thing to say to one of your best friends who had a crush on your boyfriend (Boyfriend! her mind shrieked in delight) and who had been turned down by him before he was your boyfriend because he, she realized, had a crush on you. Whoops. She and Namine definitely needed to talk. "You're right, he probably doesn't like having to stay in a box." Letting him take the box, Kairi forced herself to behave as if nothing at all had changed, instead of doing as she wanted to do and going with him.
Sora stayed just long enough to smile at both of them. "Wait for me here, okay? It should only take a few minutes." And Kairi saw Namine smile a little at that, though there was still a touch of sadness about the expression. Both girls nodded, and he took off, dodging easily through the crowds and vanishing quickly from their sight.
"…He's okay, right?" Namine asked quietly. "Yuffie hit him hard…"
"Aerith took care of him, he's okay." Kairi hesitated, suddenly feeling more than a little awkward, and finally just asked. "You haven't… seen Riku, have you?"
"No," the blonde replied, giving her a much more natural curious glance. Without Sora there she was pretty much her normal self. "Did something happen?"
"It… might have." Much as Kairi wasn't going to tell Namine about Sora and her yet – that would just be cruel – Namine was friends with all three of them and was guaranteed to notice something was up when Kairi stopped… well, constantly being with Riku. She wasn't sure yet just what she was going to do about him; he'd been her friend for so long, but he'd been so stupidly possessive… And learning that on some level he thought she owed him something for being her friend had hurt, and she couldn't deny it. Why he thought that, she didn't know, but it was there and he couldn't take it back.
"What was it?"
"I… don't really know, but… Nami, he's a good person, right?"
She blinked with a little confusion. "Who, Riku?"
"Yeah."
"Well… He can be a little arrogant, but I think so."
Kairi shook her head. "It's like they say… Even good people can do bad things."
"…Kairi, what did he do?"
She just shook her head again. "It's really confusing… I promise I'll tell you when I figure it out, though."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Cloud and Aerith had jumped out of the way of the two running teenagers, though neither of them had realized just who they'd nearly trampled. Cloud had to chuckle at the sight, and Aerith was smiling as well, watching after them fondly.
"Even if she doesn't like him, they have a good friendship," she commented. He had, of course, told her about Sora's crush on Kairi – she didn't know about the deal Riku had made with Leon, though – and she was of the opinion that it was one of the most adorable things she could imagine, even though Sora's rival was her cousin. She and Riku got along perfectly well, of course, but they hadn't known each other well growing up, and by the time she'd moved in with him and her uncle he had a well-established social group and she was very busy, meaning they didn't have much time to spend together. Add in the fact that she was now with Cloud – if still unofficially – and that made their relationship just a tad awkward at times, though they cared about each other.
"From what he says, it sounds like they do." Kairi had never been one of the ones to treat him badly, but she'd been part of "that group," and Cloud was starting to wonder lately if he hadn't been unjustly lumping her in with the rest. What was it that Sora had said? Something about he didn't think Kairi would be horrible? Maybe the younger boy had been right, after all. "Come on, let's keep going."
The two of them were slowly meandering their way around the stalls, not really shopping or socializing, simply using the time to be together. Many of the people they saw smiled at Aerith, who was just as loved in Traverse as she'd been at home, but turned rather curious expressions at her companion once they figured out who it was. But the expressions were just a little different now than they had been, and he couldn't figure out why. They weren't doing anything "couple-y," not even holding hands, but seeing him in public seemed to be something that not many people were prepared for.
Aerith paused to examine a necklace that one of the vendors had on display, a simple silver chain with a pink stone set in a pendant. "Have you thought about it any more?"
"Thought about what?"
"What you're going to do when you finish your training," she clarified as she undid the clasp on the necklace, pulling it under her hair to fasten around her neck. It looked good on her, he decided. Pink was definitely her color. "You want to get away, but do you know where, yet?"
He shook his head. "Not yet… I've never been out of Traverse, I don't have any idea what other places are like."
"You know who you should talk to? Leon."
"Why not you? Or Sora?"
She smiled. "You already know where we've been. He's probably been other places than we have. Or even Cid, he's guaranteed to know more than us." The healer girl sighed and undid the catch once again, letting the necklace slide off and setting it carefully back on the table before starting to move away.
"Why don't you get it?" Cloud asked with some confusion.
"I can't afford it; I have other things to get today."
Cloud had to wonder just how much of Sora was rubbing off on him, because suddenly he found himself making one of those impetuous decisions that his friend was famous for and scooping up the necklace, other hand digging in his pocket for his money. He knew this would start the rumor mill going – in high gear, since it was him and Aerith, after all – but at the moment he didn't care. Dropping the money in the vendor's hand, he held the necklace out to Aerith, who was staring at him in confusion.
"Cloud, what…?"
"Take it, it's yours."
"But why?"
He shrugged. "You put up with me. Isn't that enough?" She began to smile again as she took the necklace and once more opened the clasp and put it on, not saying anything.
But then again, she didn't have to.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Here," the ninja said, pushing something in his direction.
Somehow, neither of them could entirely say how, hours had passed since Leon and Yuffie had climbed the ladder to the bell tower terrace. It was dusk now, and the chaos below them was just beginning to die down, as people settled down on whatever could be used as a seat (or in some cases, stood) to eat food purchased from the vendors. Traverse, with the exception of some of the younger generation, had the tendency to turn in early and shut down after dinner, another thing Leon had trouble with and the reason why not many people thought Cid was going overboard with his curfew for Yuffie and Kairi. The Festival was an exception, of course, but even that would end earlier than Leon was accustomed to, and some people were already starting to drift back inside.
Thanks to Aerith, though, neither of them was feeling tired. Without realizing that time was passing, they had talked for a long time – well, the ninja had grilled him on several topics, more precisely, and he answered or not as he chose. His weapon, the Academy, Hollow Bastion once again, she wanted to know it all, and gradually he could tell that she was just as frustrated with this town as he was and wanted out just as badly. He'd had his doubts, knowing of her penchant for making spur-of-the-moment decisions, but this was clearly something she'd been thinking about for a long time, and now she had an information source right at her fingertips. She certainly wasn't going to waste the opportunity. But she'd figured out she was hungry rather abruptly as her stomach growled at her, loudly, and she'd volunteered to slip down and grab them something to eat. He had no idea how she'd managed to climb the ladder with the two paper plates she carried, but he had to admit the sandwiches looked good.
"When were you last there?" he finally got a chance to ask as she dove into her food, eating quickly but neatly and not choking.
She took a moment to swallow before replying. "When I was nine. Cid took us back to visit their graves, and…" she shrugged. "We haven't been back since." It hadn't surprised her that Leon knew her general history already; absolutely everyone else did, after all, and she'd found out he'd been spending time with Cloud.
"That would be, what, eight years?"
"Almost nine, now. I turn eighteen in November." She cracked her knuckles as she set her plate down, and blinked as Leon – No, Squall – dropped some money in her hand. "What's this for?"
"The food."
"Oh." She briefly wondered what in the hell was wrong with her as she'd started to consider refusing to take his money, but quickly dismissed the idea and pocketed it instead. "Thanks."
He simply nodded, working on his own sandwich, and there was another silence between them. They'd had several of them that afternoon, when she'd stopped pestering him and expected him to start asking her things instead, but he'd almost never taken the opportunity. He'd asked a few questions, nothing very serious, but he could have demanded a lot more than he was with all the grilling she was doing. Was he trying to respect her privacy, or did he just not care about knowing? And why in the hell did that second option make her unhappy?
Squall set his own plate down, brushing a few crumbs off his jacket, and finally she just had to know. "Why aren't you asking me anything? I'm being a complete pest and you're just letting me and you should be asking things too so I'm less of a pest."
He turned to look at her, and she noticed that his eyes were a clear blue, almost piercing, something that would certainly make people who didn't have the guts to talk to him shiver when he looked at them. And that scar certainly wouldn't help, directly between his eyes – though, for some reason, she liked it. It suited him, as did those eyes. And he wasn't watching her with a glare, as she knew he would most of the people in the world, but the look in his eyes was still perceptive – almost uncanny.
"I thought you wouldn't like being asked personal questions," he said at last.
She nearly squirmed at that – after all, she'd been doing that to him all afternoon, someone who certainly couldn't like intrusive questions – but managed to just shrug. "I don't have to answer them if I don't want to. You haven't been answering all of mine." It was true; their silences had mostly sprung up when she'd asked a question and he simply hadn't responded, and she'd known she'd overstepped some line of his and had given him a chance to get her back. "And hell, after this, you've earned it."
"After smashing you in the head."
"Oh, get over that," she said with a groan. "It was a fight. You didn't kill me. I'm fine. Aerith wouldn't have left if I wasn't and you know it."
"But-"
"No buts," she demanded, pushing him in the shoulder, and amazingly he stopped arguing. "Why in the hell are you so hung up about that, anyway? I did the same thing to Sora, and I would've done the same thing to you if I'd had the chance."
For a moment she was worried that she'd overstepped that invisible line of his once more, as he didn't respond, but then she felt indignation boiling up inside of her. Seriously, it was no big deal. She was fine now, it was a fight, he should just drop it. He'd already apologized for it twice that afternoon, and this was just stupid overkill. And she wasn't some weakling, if he was thinking that; she'd been giving him a good run for his money before that happened.
"Squall, just get the fuck over it."
"It's Leon."
She ignored that. "Look, unless you want me to kick your ass off this tower, which I will do, you'll drop it. I forgive you, okay? Stop basking in self-inflicted misery."
"I'm not-"
"Yes you are," she interrupted, fed up. "It's nice and gallant and stupid. And if you even dare think of me as weak I'm going to break your fingers."
He snorted just a bit at that. "You, Yuffie, are not weak."
"Then why in the hell are you so hung up on this!"
He couldn't very well say because it was her – that made entirely no sense, even to him. Finally, he just shrugged. "I don't like hurting people who don't deserve it."
She just stared at him. "You're going into the military and you don't like hurting people? You're gonna be in a lotta trouble, then. Or die really quick. Or both."
"Not like that." He shook his head. "The military – at least at Hollow Bastion – protects people. Sometimes you have to fight, to save something or someone. But this was just an exercise where what I did wasn't necessary."
Yuffie had no idea what to say to that. After all, the entire point of the Competition was to test the skills the young fighters had at their disposal, in dangerous situations – which was why they always used live weapons. Having a practice weapon meant it wasn't real, that it was safe. The Competition was as much about teaching you to watch your back as it was a social gathering. "Squall."
"Leon."
"Squall," she insisted, slowly and firmly, "you ended the fight. You beat me. Yeah, I didn't like it, and yeah, it hurt. But if I ever get in a situation like that, whoever I'm fighting won't go easy on me, so why should you have done that today? It's why Aerith was there, because people do get hurt every year. Hell, Cloud broke my leg last year, and I haven't killed him for it."
"But he didn't give you-"
"SQUALL!" she shouted, unaware that the sound carried down to the ground and made a few people look around, unable to tell where it had come from. She wouldn't have cared even if she did know; she merely grabbed the collar of his jacket in both hands and yanked him to face her, much to his clear shock. "What in the fuck do I have to do to get you to stop apologizing?"
And with him looking at her like that, expression unguarded for the first time she could ever remember, she felt… Well, she didn't know what she felt. It was a feeling of surging in her stomach, of anticipation almost, and shock, and she felt her eyes widen slightly as it registered in her head, but she didn't move and neither did he. Both of them sat there for a long few moments while thoughts she couldn't even begin to understand raced through her mind.
And finally she let go, pushing him back a little at the same time, shaking her head to clear it. "You're impossible," she stated to cover up the confusion she was feeling. "You didn't mean to, you apologized, I said it was all right. End of story." She stood, dusting off her knees and picking up her plate, which she crumpled into a little ball. "There's more important things than dwelling on something stupid like that."
Before he could make any reply to that, Yuffie was over the side of the terrace and down the ladder, getting away quickly thanks to her training, and kicking herself for running away – which was exactly what she was doing, and she knew it.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Leon had no idea what had passed between them – something definitely had, but he could no more have explained it than he could have turned the sky purple. It was confusing, it was strange, it was nothing that had ever happened to him before, and he didn't know if it was dangerous or not. He rather thought not, but it was still unknown, and he'd been trained to at least always keep an eye on the unknown. Always being on guard had kept him from being hurt before this, both in fighting and in regular life, but this didn't feel like something he'd necessarily need to guard against – but he had no clue what it was. And he didn't like not knowing something important.
He stayed atop the bell tower until most of the crowd had disappeared, which was no less than half an hour after the ninja left. He'd been right; even for something like this, Traverse turned in early. In the Bastion, this would've been going on until three in the morning, or later.
The Bastion… that was where he belonged. That was where Yuffie belonged, he could see now, or at least a place she could belong. She hadn't been meant to be raised outside it, she needed a place with more life in it, more variety, just… more of everything. Hell, get her over there and she might possibly be friendly, which was a baffling thought. But somehow he could just picture her in the craziness that was the Bastion, finally finding outlets for all that energy, not having the feeling of being tied to this town with chains… Yeah, somewhere where she could live as she wanted, where she couldn't feel the wholehearted disapproval of the people around her everywhere she went, and he could easily see her smiling and laughing. Hanging out.
Maybe even dating, much as she swore against it.
In the end, Leon gave up trying to figure it out for the time being – somehow he could tell it was only going to let itself be figured out with both of them. Putting all thought of it from his mind, he picked up the gunblade and climbed down the ladder himself, then jumped off the small terrace next to the Gizmo Shop that the ladder led to, only a single story high, landing a bit awkwardly but without twisting anything.
It was only when he was straightening up that he realized he wasn't alone.
Riku was there, and clearly had been for awhile; he was just as startled to find Leon jumping off the buildings as Leon was to see him, though Leon didn't let it show. There was so much contradictory information about this boy that he'd been finding it impossible to tell what was true and what was not; sometimes it seemed like it was everything or nothing. Leon belatedly remembered that he'd just jumped into the side street that led to Riku's front door, one of the only streets in the district that hadn't been taken over by the tents, as he realized that Riku had cleaned himself up and changed since the fights. He looked… "down" wasn't the best way to describe it, it was more like despair was trying to eat him away from the inside.
And Leon had absolutely no clue what to do about that.
Since agreeing with Riku's little scheme, he had barely seen the boy; the money he'd agreed to pay Leon had come in the mail every week, and Leon had been using it to supplement his grandfather's pension to pay for their rent, bills, and food. Now he was starting to regret ever agreeing to do this, for money at least; they could've gotten by fine without it, and had been getting along before that deal, but it had been nice not to be living on meals-from-a-box since then.
Well, screw cooking, he wasn't that good at it anyway. A quick glance around to make sure that no one was there to overhear them, and he straightened up to face Riku directly. "Deal's off."
"…What?" It was a mark of just how unlike himself Riku was that he didn't yell that – or demand to know why.
"The deal. Is off," he repeated, slowly, trying to hammer the point home. "I don't want your money anymore, and I'm not going to help you rope some girl into going out with you by chasing another one who doesn't want to go out at all."
"But… you can't do that!" Riku was finally coming back to life, even if that life was starting to panic. "She told me to leave her alone because I said something incredibly stupid and I have to get her to forgive me!"
Leon just shook his head, starting to turn away. "That's your problem, not mine." And it left things open for Sora, the one he'd support if this farce was made public.
"Leon!"
It's Squall, his mind said, completely irrationally, as he turned to look at the silver-haired boy again. "What?"
"You've gotta help me out here, I'm desperate-"
As if that wasn't obvious, he thought.
"-I'll pay you double if you get Yuffie to convince Kairi to give me another chance."
His eyes narrowed instantaneously, straight to the danger point, in the expression that he knew had made people shake in their shoes in the past. "No."
"Triple, then."
"No." Riku was apparently as dense as he was desperate, and Leon turned away once again. "I don't want to play this game of yours anymore. Leave me alone, or I swear I'm going to break both your legs."
He could do it, and Riku knew that, but the logic centers of his brain were temporarily on the blink. In one semi-suicidal last-ditch effort, the seventeen-year-old had lunged forward and shoved a significant amount of money, probably what he'd been planning on spending at the Festival, into Leon's gloved hand, and then took off around the corner at a run that Leon was certain would send him flying into someone in short order.
The gunblade wielder looked down at the money in his hand – about ninety or so, not quite double their original fifty, and certainly not the triple Riku had offered, but still more than he'd been getting out of this before. But whereas before he was indifferent to the money, considering it a business venture of sorts, now even the sight of it made him feel a little sick.
What Riku wanted him to do – what Riku had been paying him to do so far – was nothing short of manipulation, and he'd gone along with it because he thought he couldn't afford not to. In a way it had been good that he hadn't had prolonged contact with the ninja before this, since that made it so no one got hurt. But now that they actually might be on the way to being friends, he knew very well that if she ever found out about the money, she would be hurt beyond anything he could imagine and she'd want nothing to do with him – or even want to kill him. And he didn't want to hurt her; after all, he'd said "I don't like hurting people who don't deserve it."
And she didn't deserve it. Not like this.
Having no other idea of what to do with the money, Leon stuffed it in a pocket and started to walk back to his apartment. He wasn't going to spend it – he had to find some way to return it to Riku, to get it through the boy's head that the deal was done. Finished. Broken beyond all repair.
Riku was used to getting his way. Leon was too stubborn not to.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
AUTHOR'S NOTES II: And here's the answer to the question "Just what is Riku going to do?" He's going to try to get her back, of course. Though I honestly have no idea what he'll do; he hasn't told me yet. All I know is Namine's gonna figure out about Kairi and Sora pretty soon, and with his help. Also Leon's story is finally made public, which I hope gives some better explanation for some stuff that's been mentioned in other chapters (like his habit of disappearing for days at a time). It's really kind of boring if you think about it; something that could happen to anyone. Doesn't mean he has to like it, though.
And we have some Squffieness, at last! Mild, to be sure, but it has started, at long last. And now it's spawning a contest of wills between Riku and Squall... That could be disasterous... Stay tuned to see!