Chapter 16 -- Things Get a Little Sticky
"Come in," Kylah called, distractedly when she heard a soft knock on her bedroom door. She was sprawled across her bed, reading an e-mail message from Cid.
Squall stepped into her room and immediately felt as if the wind had been knocked out of his lungs. Without trying, she looked absolutely beautiful. She had changed into a pair of pale blue shorties pajamas, and pulled her dark auburn hair up into a clip on the back of her head. She'd scrubbed the makeup from her face, and now wore a pair of wire framed reading glasses on her pert nose. She looked carefree, relaxed, and unbelievably sensual. He found it ironic that he found her more attractive now than he had when she was all dolled up for the presidential ball. "Hey," he finally managed to say.
"How's it going?" she asked, looking up from her laptop.
"Good," he replied, moving over to sit next to her on the bed. "I talked to Elle about what happened yesterday and last night." He paused. "And I talked to Laguna today, too."
She let out a long breath. "Oh?"
He stretched out, lying on his good side. "Yeah. We're talking now. Amicably."
She stretched out to face him. "That's good," she said, sliding one hand under her cheek.
"I think so," he agreed. "I wouldn't sign us up for any father-son camping trips or anything, but at least we're talking." He paused. "I wanted to thank you."
"For what?" she asked, looking puzzled.
"For being there last night. I needed someone, and you were there. No one has ever been there for me like that. Thank you."
"No one?" she asked in disbelief.
"No one," he replied, firmly. "I've never let anyone see that side of me."
"But your wife…"
He gently reached over and pressed a finger to her lips. "No one. Ever."
"Squall…"
"Let me finish," he interrupted. "You make me crazy, I hope you know. You yell at me one minute, and then switch to being so loving and tender the next. You push my buttons and infuriate me. Then you turn around and make me laugh. You're tough as nails, no-nonsense on the job, but sweet, tender, kind and funny away from it."
Kylah could only stare at him, amazed that these words were coming out of the mouth of Squall Leonhart.
"Kylah," he continued, hesitantly, "I don't know when. I'm not sure how, but somewhere in these past few weeks I've fallen for you."
Her breath caught in her throat. "I…."
Before she could continue, he leaned over and brought his lips to hers. Gently, tenderly, he kissed her. Kylah leaned into the kiss, allowing herself to pull closer to him. Warmth crept up through her body as he deepened the kiss.
Electricity shot through Squall's limbs. He savored the warm, sweet taste of her lips against his. She curled up against him even closer, sending even more jolts through him.
Finally, they pulled apart. "You-you're not going to run away again, are you?" Kylah asked, breathlessly.
Chuckling, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. "Nope."
"Good," she replied. "Because I've fallen for you too. And if you ran away again, I'd really be forced to hurt you. And you have an injury right now, so I might actually be able to kick your butt this time."
Chuckling, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere," he promised.
She looked up at him, thoughtfully. "So, now what?"
"You mean, now what with us?"
She nodded.
Good question, he thought. Now what? "Well…I guess we could try perusing a relationship. I mean, if that's what you want…"
"It is what I want," she replied. "However, I think we should wait to clue the rest of the gang in on this after this mission is over. I don't want them to get distracted by us."
"Good point," he agreed. He grinned at her. "But they're not here tonight."
"A very good point." Pressing herself to him, she leaned in for another kiss.
Squall relished the feel of her against him. Her lips, her hands as the moved up to rest on his chest. He wrapped his good arm around her and pulled her even closer, deepening the kiss more and more. She responded eagerly.
After several long moments, Squall had to pull away. "I think I'd better go to my own bed," he managed to whisper raggedly into her shoulder.
"No," she protested. "Don't go."
His head snapped up and he looked searchingly into her eyes. "Are you sure?"
She nodded, uncertainly. "I'm sure…But…"
"But?"
Tenderly, she kissed his forehead. "I don't want to hurt you," she whispered, gently resting a hand on his injured shoulder.
Squall's heart melted. He smiled, then pressed a gentle kiss on her lips. "You won't hurt me," he assured her, softly.
Smiling, she nodded. Gently, she pushed Squall back against the pillows. She brought her lips tenderly to his, and allowed herself to be swept away.
Kylah lay quietly snuggled up against Squall's side. His arm was wrapped around her slender body, holding her close. Fighting pain, and a soft groan, he eased his left arm up to hold her hand, which was resting on his chest.
Conflicting emotions surged though him. On one hand, he felt wonderful. He held the most wonderful, tender, passionate woman in his arms. And she loved him. Completely.
On the other hand, he felt guilty.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he whispered, nuzzling her temple.
"Tell you what?" she asked, sleepily.
Gently, he cupped her chin and pulled her face up toward his. "Tell me that you'd never been with anyone else."
She flushed, embarrassed. "You could tell?"
He nodded, slowly. "Kylah, if I'd known…"
Quickly, she covered his mouth with hers. After a few seconds, she pulled away and looked deeply into his eyes. "You didn't force me to do anything that I didn't want to do," she said, firmly. "I wanted to be with you tonight, Squall. I love you."
He smiled. "I love you, too," he whispered huskily. Their lips met in another sweet kiss. Once they broke apart, Kylah rested her chin on his chest.
"Where did you get that?" she asked, reaching up to trace the tip of her finger along the scar that ran across his forehead and the bridge of his nose.
A frown crossed his face at the memory. "Training exercise, when I was still a student. I was sparring with one of my classmates the day I took the SeeD field exam. He fought dirty, and got a little carried away."
"Ouch," she commented.
"It's okay," he said. "I gave him one to match."
A small chuckle escaped her lips. "Men!" she scoffed. She snuggled cozily up against him again, resting her head on his shoulder. "We should probably get some sleep."
He sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. "We probably should."
She was quiet for a few minutes. Finally she looked coyly up at him from out of the corners of her eyes. "In a little while," she said, reaching for him once again.
"This is nuts!" Selphie exclaimed as she and Irvine trudged back to the inn. "No one wants to tell us anything! Everyone knows who we are, so they aren't willing to spill any beans. I even had one old guy ask me for my autograph and my phone number!"
Irvine chuckled. "Did you give it to him?"
She wrinkled her nose up at him. "The autograph, yes. The phone number, not a chance!"
"You have a point, though," he replied. "Since we defeated Ultimecia, everyone knows who we are. I guess we're not cut out for a career in intelligence."
"Well, we did get that brilliant description of two possible members of Punishment Syndicate," Selphie reminded him, rolling her eyes.
"Oh yeah. 'Really big dude and scary looking woman.' That's real descriptive. We'll just start interrogating any overly large men and frightening women."
Selphie laughed and started to reply, but stopped when she heard someone call her name.
"Selphie! Hey, Selph! Irvine! Dude!"
They both turned and found Zell jogging toward them, Quistis in tow.
"What's up?" Zell greeted, once he caught up with them.
"Unfortunately, not a lot," Selphie replied. "All we've managed to come up with is a very vague description of two possible members of Punishment Syndicate. So if you see any really big dudes or scary looking women, be sure to question them."
"We don't have much more to add," Quistis said, looking frustrated. "Zone and Watts were able to find out that Syndicate members take a vow of silence regarding other members, especially their leader. And that the consequence for breaking this vow is death."
"Friendly bunch, aren't they?" Selphie observed, dryly.
"Obviously, we're not going to be of much more help to the investigation on this end," Quistis concluded. "Cid has deployed some undercover intelligence, so let's let them do their jobs."
"Kylah has ordered our butts back to Esthar, pronto," Irvine added.
Selphie grinned up at him. "You just want to get back to Esthar so you can interrogate Kylah."
"Why are we interrogating Kylah?" Zell asked, looking confused.
"Irvine's convinced something juicy is up in Esthar," Selphie answered, looking smug. "Kylah said she was tired, but wouldn't say why. Irvine's suspicious. Personally, I think she's sleeping with Sir Laguna."
Now it was Quistis' turn to roll her eyes. "Please. Kylah wouldn't do that!"
"Why?" Selphie shot back.
"Number one," Quistis replied, calmly, "he's our client. She wouldn't fraternize with a client. Number two, he's old enough to be her father. Number three, we're on a mission, and she wouldn't risk getting distracted during a mission."
"C'mon!" Zell interjected, "I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe she had insomnia. Maybe the neighbors were playing really loud music! Maybe Kiros and Ward kept her in a meeting until really late going over security procedures…."
"Maybe," Quistis added, playing along, "she's actually working as a double agent. Maybe she's actually under the employ of the Galbadian government, working to sabotage the Estharian government…."
"Maybe," Selphie said, an impish grin on her face, "she's just gettin' lucky!"
Irvine pulled her into a headlock and playfully ruffled her hair. "Just because someone doesn't sleep much doesn't mean that it's because they're getting lucky." He released her and glanced at his watch. "Well, shoot. We missed the last train to Esthar for the day. Next one leaves at 06:45 tomorrow."
"We have a room at the inn," Selphie reminded him. "Might as well make use of it."
Together, the foursome headed toward the inn, arguing the entire way over what was really going on in Esthar.
Irvine said nothing. He had suspicions as to what was really going on, but didn't want to say anything until he knew for sure. Kylah, I hope you know what you're doing, he said silently.
Just as the group started enter the inn, shots rang out from a nearby alley. Quistis was passing underneath the doorway when it happened, and wood splintered in the inn's sign above her head.
All four of them looked at one another, startled. Irvine reached for Exeter, nodded to Zell, and took off into the alley. Selphie and Quistis wasted no time in following them.
They immediately spotted a dark figure looming just inside the alley. The gunman jumped, obviously startled. He took several more shots at the group before he took off down the alley. Irvine quickly raised his gun up to his shoulder, aimed carefully, and fired at the perpetrator.
He fell, obviously wounded by Irvine's shot. He started to get back up, but was stopped when Zell caught up with him and grabbed hold of him.
"Who are you?" he asked, shaking the wounded man. "What do you want?"
By now the rest of the group had caught up with Zell. All of them crowded around, wanting to know what was going on. Quistis gasped when she caught sight of the Punishment Syndicate emblem on his jacket.
By now blood loss had caught up with the gunman. He opened his eyes, and looked around. He struggled to focus his gaze on Quistis, who was kneeling beside him. "Quistis Trepe….? Why did…. I have to pull…. YOUR name off of…. the list?" he asked, just before he slipped into unconsciousness.
"The list?" Selphie asked, looking a bit fearful.
All four of them looked at each other. Fear and confusion registered on each one of their faces. What on earth was going on?
Kylah opened her eyes sleepily and glanced over at the clock on the bedside table next to her bed. Noting the time, she stretched lazily and rolled over to face Squall. He slept peacefully beside her, his hair tousled around his face. She smiled, pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, then turned to slip out of bed.
His hand caught her wrist just before she made it out of the bed. "Where do you think you're going?" he murmured drowsily.
She smiled down at him. "While some of us can lie around in bed all day, the rest of us have some actual work to do today. I never did go over the new security protocols for FH with Laguna, so I should probably go do that. He'll be in his office in about half an hour. I needed to get a shower before meeting with him."
He sat up and leaned over to kiss her. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in company for that shower?" he asked, hopefully.
"I might be talked into that," she replied, coyly.
"What are we waiting for?" Squall said jumping up out of bed. Laughing, Kylah followed him into the bathroom.
Author's Note: A slightly short chapter, at least for me. Okay, now, I've given away several subtle hints about the main enemy behind all of this. If you can guess, e-mail me and let me know!