Warrior, I Am
Chapter 7: I Know You
Disclaimer: I own Jing and Ebon. Those two together are probably worth two cents.
A/N: I changed the page breaks because it's easier for me. Does that matter to anyone?
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Cloud heard her wading to shallower shore. He glanced back….
Just in time to see the beautiful curve of her back.
And a little more.
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"Yuffie, for heaven's sakes, stop fidgeting."
The young, thirteen-year-old brunette sighed dramatically. She had her fists pitted at her waist and wore an everlasting frown. Her foot tapped impatiently on the hard wooden floor of her home.
"I don't want to!" She said in an immature manner. "A dress? Bullshit! What's wrong with jeans and sneakers?"
She received a slap across the face for her insolence. "It's called fine dining for a reason, you imprudent wreck. Now hold still while I pin up your front."
"What's wrong with my front?" Her cheek was smarting painfully, but Yuffie had learned to never complain about it. She wasn't going to admit that either way.
Her mother was using bobby pins to bind the material together. "Yuffie, you have no chest. I need to put this all together so the material doesn't hang out like an upside-down umbrella."
"I do so have a breasts."
Her mother chuckled. "Oh, my dear, you can easily be mistaken for a man."
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"Stop staring!"
Whoops.
Hey, he wasn't staring.
Just looking.
And Yuffie had caught him.
"Oh god," Yuffie said to herself as she waded more into the water. That big, ogrish liar. She was never taking his word for anything ever again. I won't look. Whatever. That lie could burn down a building.
He'd seen it.
Really, it was her fault. She should've known better than to even take off her clothes in the first place. Even more logical, she could've prevented it all if she had just bathed days before.
But no, she sat it out just because rumors told her that Vincent hunted at night.
"I hate you Vincent," she said, because she'd already hurtled all possible curses on Cloud.
What was Cloud going to say? Oh, you have unnaturally large breasts? Holy snausages, you're a woman? Her breasts were small, but not that small. She was decent enough that it separated her from a man, at least.
She could blame it on a freak accident, maybe. Or a disease. Hey, my right boob is big and fluffy, but look, my left one is all swell. It's because of a terrible oil spill when I was a child….dog mauling…terrible breast cancer.
Sometimes Yuffie wished Sora were her partner. Surely he'd believe every one of those at the drop of a dime.
Yuffie placed her clothing on the edge of a small outcropping, about six feet from shore. Her feet barely touched the ground in that area, but it kept her far away from Cloud. It kept her right boob away from him too.
Her clothes were rolled up into a tight ball, with her bra and underwear at the center. Sora and Riku were out that night, so Yuffie just hoped that no one else was bored enough to come and steal her clothes.
She glanced back at Cloud. He had conveniently turned his back and immersed himself in picking at his nails. 'Just like the lying culprit he is,' Yuffie thought grumpily.
"I'm done," Yuffie hollered, wading back so that the water was up to her neck. "I so glad to see that you didn't look."
Cloud turned his head toward her with narrowed eyes. So the little brat was going to put him on the guilt trip, eh? Well, Cloud definitely wasn't going to let Yuffie one-up him. Besides, he had blackmail concerning an unnaturally large body part…
The blonde walked deeper into the water, the waves lulling gently against his chest. He was only a foot away from Yuffie, and to compensate for this sudden closeness, Yuffie edged back so that the water was up to her eyeballs. She glared back at him heatedly (partially because that was nearly the only asset she had sticking out of the water now).
Cloud stared at her for a moment before asking, in the most blunt manner she'd ever heard,
"What's wrong with your chest?"
Well. At least he didn't say boob.
Everywhere around the world, little five-year-old-boys were cheering him on for his brave question.
Yuffie wanted to start off with her dog-mauling story, but she couldn't tell it if her mouth was submerged in the water. Also, Yuffie knew that un-submerging her mouth would mean moving closer to Cloud.
Of course she wasn't ready to do that.
So instead Yuffie swam to the side, her eyes looking like two brown buoys on the surface of the water. She was now a safe distance away from Cloud, and her mouth was out of the water too!
Cloud watched her with a slanted look on his face. He wasn't sure what his partner had just done, but he probably wouldn't call it swimming. Maybe a cross between floundering and disco dancing, but not swimming.
"Hey Cloud?"
"What?"
"Why haven't you taken your clothes off?"
"Ah…well…"
She expected an answer from him eventually, but all she received was a drawn-out silence. Really, did he always have to be so mysterious all the time? She was sure by now that their relationship had progressed a little further than that.
Yuffie sighed from five feet away. "Isn't this what you call a stand-off?"
Cloud shrugged. "In all fairness, I asked first."
"In all fairness, I've already seen you half-naked."
True enough. Every morning Yuffie got to witness the spectacle that was Cloud's bare back. And Cloud's feet, if that counted for something extra. It just didn't make enough sense for Cloud to suddenly be Mr. Modesty. Being too ugly certainly didn't fit for someone like Cloud.
"I took a bath yesterday," Cloud answered, in true evade-the-situation fashion.
"You're still going to have to take your clothes off to dry them."
"I can do that later."
She growled in frustration. Could he be any more infuriating? Speaking with Strife was a lost cause, definitely. "Do you always speak with one sentence?" She demanded, quickly catching onto his aggravating trend.
"Hardly. I do it to rile you up." He glanced over to the shore. His bored eyes sparkled suddenly. Smiled wickedly. "The soap is over there."
"Huh?"
"The soap. You need it to wash, don't you?"
Yuffie's mouth could've hit lake bottom. Oh no, he didn't. How could he do something so cruel? Cloud! That boob-oogling male! That's exactly why he had opportunely left the soap to sit right at the water's edge.
It was situations like these that made Yuffie question how she had survived camp thus far.
"I don't need soap," Yuffie said easily. "The salt in the water breaks down…bacteria…"
"Sure it does."
Bless Cloud's soul to not mention the fact that they were in a fresh water lake. Or that yes, she very direly did need soap. Even in the water her armpits seemed determined to let off an uncanny smell.
"I'll get the soap if you take off your clothes," Yuffie bargained, waggling her eyebrows at him, as if that would sway him immensely. Hey, perhaps it would. She didn't know what would catch this man's fancy. To her, all cards were on the table when it came to Cloud.
"Fine. What's wrong with your chest?"
"Why do you keep going back to that?" Yuffie demanded, her whole body heating up. Somehow she knew what it felt like to be the pig hanging over the pit fire, doomed to simply sit there and roast. Was Cloud just doing this for his own enjoyment? Did Cloud enjoy making her squirm? Or was he really that clueless to think that she was still a male?
Yuffie, by now, felt like keeping up the act was becoming redundant with him, but she did it anyways.
"Are you…snipped?"
She turned her head so slowly that she could hear creaking. Her stare remained on him for a long while. "Excuse me?"
Cloud shifted uncomfortably in the water, still fully clothed (damn him). "Well you can't be…" He stared at her, waiting for her to pick up the pieces. She didn't. "You can't be male with breasts that big…"
"I am male."
Weak. Unconvincing.
She didn't know who was more uncomfortable-Cloud or her.
"Well…" Cloud was fumbling for words now. "Male…at one point…"
Oh.
Finally Yuffie found the bread at the end of the breadcrumb's trail. So that's what he thought? Is that what "snipped" meant?
"Oh gawd," Yuffie bawled out, covering her eyes. "You…"
Cloud looked alarmed now. He moved slightly closer to her, to which Yuffie hurriedly (and angrily) put up a hand to tell him to come no further. Her right hand blocked out her eyes, nose, and middle of her mouth. The hand that was held out to Cloud trembled with restrained resentfulness.
"Well," Cloud began, seeing that the Yuffie Barrier was high up and in effect. "It's not like-I mean-not that it bothers me or anything-"
"I DID NOT GET MY FLOPPY BITS TURNED INTO A VAGINA!"
Yuffie didn't know she could holler that loud, but apparently certain situations flew her to octaves higher.
Cloud looked more flabbergasted than before. His face contorted in desperation, his finger flying up to his grimly said lips- the universal sign for 'shut the hell up!'
"Don't say-that stuff-so loud…" he said, moving closer, but then remembering the very important Yuffie Barrier. He stepped back again to placate her.
"What stuff?" Yuffie said in a shrilly voice. "What did I say? Vagina? Does that bother you? VAGINA?"
Cloud glared at her. "Now you're just being childish-"
"VAGINA!"
"Stop it," Cloud hissed. "You're going attract attention and-"
"VAGINA! PUSS-"
Cloud's hand flew over her mouth. Yuffie had been having so much fun screaming women's genitalia that she failed to realize how fast Cloud had moved in on her. Now he was behind her, one hand on her offensive mouth and the other wrapped securely around her naked waist. If she were asked to name a more harrowing and uncomfortable situation, she wouldn't have been able to.
Yuffie promised herself that if the arm around her waist moved at all, she would bolt. After all, it was situated between the two areas that completely gave away what she was.
Unless Cloud was still entertaining the "snipped" idea. Yes, it was a big blow to her pride, but it might prove to be her one sanctuary.
She just hoped it would come to such degrading levels.
"You need to wash your mouth with bleach." Cloud's breath fanned the top of her brown head. She grew as rigid as the stones beneath her toes. She feared at if she moved at all Cloud would know instantly what she really was.
"Den my tong wood turn white," Yuffie said behind his large hand, effectively slobbering all over it. Disgusting, yes, but it kept her mind off of things a little.
"Hm." Cloud's chest rumbled against her back-like a giant purring kitten. She had to keep herself in check every second so as not to just give into him and fall right back against him.
"Yes, you're tongue," he said. "And your yellow teeth too."
"I dun have yello teets!"
Cloud's laughter shook her body, and also in turn made his arm around her waist move a little too high for comfort. She knew that logically she should just brave it out and act like it didn't happen, but her mind panicked. Having a man that close to her breasts went way beyond her comfort zone and she acted instantly.
Digging her toes into the gravel of the lake as best she could, Yuffie scrambled away from Cloud in a way that would make a rat proud. The water pushed against her more than she would have liked, giving her a great feel of lethargy. Water managed to get into her mouth in her grand escape attempt, and up her nose too. For a few seconds Yuffie felt pathetically like a drowning animal.
Cloud, bless him, wasn't keen on letting her go though. He easily wrenched her from her drowning-puppy state and hauled her out-right back into his arms. The only thing that made it worse was that now she was facing him, and that somehow he had dragged them closer to shore so that the water lapped right at the tips of her breasts. If she decided to do a little hippity-hop, Cloud would get a wonderful view of her nubs.
"Yu, stop." Yuffie hadn't realized she was struggling against him. All she was registering was that she was hacking up nasty lake water and that she was right up against this handsome blonde.
"Yu, it's ok."
Hack. Hack.
"It's ok that…you're different."
The water was nearly gone from her nose, so Yuffie was at least able to form an intelligible response. "How is it ok?" Hack. Hack. "How is anything ok?"
Cloud wasn't diverting his eyes, which he had a tendency to do in embarrassing situations. He stared straight into her big brown eyes. In contrast, his eyes seemed to shine a bright green on that particular night.
"I know."
"Know what?"
All the water was gone and the world was looking sickeningly clear. She realized that she didn't want this reality. Not here with him, when he was so close to her and possibly was about to say the thing that would break her. She knew in that moment that all the "snipped" business was his way of teasing her. He knew. She suspected that he always knew.
So for how long had he been planning to string her along?
Cloud brushed some hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "I'm not going to play along with you any more, Yu."
"I don't get it." Of course. Play dumb and she wouldn't have to face the truth.
Cloud frowned, if not a bit fondly, at her. "I'm not that dense, Yu. It became more obvious every day."
So far Yuffie had decided that acting completely unaware was protecting her pretty well. Somehow she had developed the mentality that if she feinted stupidity it would rub off on everyone around her.
So I'll feint. Again. And again.
"What was obvious?"
As Yuffie said this, she didn't think about how well Cloud would take it. She figured he would just sigh and say, "forget it". That's what he usually did when things got too complicated for his liking. He'd just slither out of it with such grace that Yuffie never recognized it as "slithering". But she could see it know. "The rose-colored glasses have come off," as people would say.
She supposed she could say the same thing for him too.
"This."
And then…
Her world went quiet.
His hand was on her breast.
"S-stop-"
What was this? Was this supposed to be happening?
It was a tingly feeling, one that left her feeling like a great black hole and a swirling vortex all at once. The water was cold but his large, expert hand made everything feel warmer than it was supposed to be. He made it feel as if it was wrong and right at the same time.
She knew it was wrong but it felt right.
She couldn't afford to say things like that though.
"Why are you doing this?" Yuffie asked, lips quivering. Cloud was staring at them in a curious fashion, and Yuffie wasn't sure what she would do if he decided to kiss them.
"I could ask you the same question."
"In all fairness, I asked first."
"Hah," Cloud murmured, smiling a rare smile at her. "You're too amusing for your own good." He sobered up. "But really, Yu…I won't tell."
"Tell that I'm snipped?" Somehow Yuffie couldn't let go. She just kept falling back on stupidity, hoping stupidly that it would come and catch her and save her from the fall.
Cloud was tugging her away from all that though.
"Yu," he said in all seriousness, and Yuffie noticed distractedly that his hand was still resting on her boob. If her breast could talk she was pretty positive that it would be moaning. "Do I have to spell everything out for you?"
"Maybe."
He inhaled deeply, sucking in his bottom lip. His hand left her breast and Yuffie had to make her cheeks bleed to prevent herself from mewling in protest. 'Where in the world did that come from?' He suddenly wrapped his arms around her, and she found her nose buried in his soaking wet black t-shirt. She was virtually jumping in alarm and was nearly beside herself in fright. This action didn't bother Cloud though, who seemed to have given up on hiding what they were doing.
She felt his lips by her ear. She was trembling terribly. He legs were like rubber noodles. "I won't tell anyone that you're a woman."
"I'm not a woman."
She could feel Cloud sigh against her. "Yes you are, Yu."
What was she supposed to do? She didn't exactly expect her big "surprise" to turn out like this. What was she waiting for? A drum roll? Rockets exploding? Fireworks? She didn't just hide something for a big whopping week and then have it found out about so hastily. She was expecting to last a good month, at best. Maybe she was just a poor actor.
"I am not," she repeated, maybe because she was still holding out for the fireworks and maybe some death-bringers. How did it happen so quickly anyways? What happened to the conversation about salt water and bacteria? Somehow they had managed to go to innocent to indecently uncomfortable in a few minutes.
Cloud really was blunt.
"Yu," Cloud said, a little frustrated now. It was getting awkward arguing with him while being held by him at the same time. "I know you are. Don't you think I'd feel a bulge by now?"
"Hey, I have a low libido. It's a very common problem-"
"Kisaragi!" Cloud didn't even want to hold her now apparently, because he pulled away and held her at arms length. "Just let go, all right?" His eyes were almost pleading but the rest of his face remained stoic. Quickly seeing that Yuffie wasn't being swayed he added, "I'm not going to tell. Do I look like the talkative type?"
She didn't even have to answer that.
"Ok." She sighed too, just like he had done several times. "I am…not."
"Yu."
"Sorry. Knee-jerk reaction. But do I have to admit it?"
Cloud glanced around quickly (she didn't miss that). Then he swiftly pulled her closer and gave her a small, fatherly peck on the head.
"No. You don't."
Yuffie's cheeks tinted but it was too dark for him to see that. She simply smiled at him and waded over to where her clothes were, happy to be out of the situation. She also felt relieved somehow, even though she knew that she shouldn't be. It was late though and all she wanted to think about was being safely tucked away in her tent.
"Yu?"
She turned around, and it was like meeting him for the first time again-as Yuffie. "Yes?"
"You still need to bathe."
Glare.
"Jerk!"
"Ah. I know."
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A/N: Very short, but needed none-the-less. Mostly conversation, and that was nice because conversation is always easy to write.
WOW. That's what I said to myself. I actually wasn't planning on revealing her to Cloud so quickly. Their relationship felt like it was built on useless pretenses though, so I decided to shatter it. Besides, I recently thought of a devilish (I'm so proud of it I can cackle) plot twist that requires Cloud to know about Yuffie.
I know Yuffie's reaction was weak and unbelievable at the end. Like, "how could she act so calm about it?" (How could Cloud just come out and say that so brusquely too?) My reasoning though was that they've been sparring non-stop all day, so they were both considerably tired. I guess for this chapter you can say…being tired isn't the same as being drunk, but it's close enough. They did things maybe they wouldn't have done if they were all rested up and perky. They're definitely going to realize what they did the next morning though, and that's when the real reactions come.
I'm kinda just throwing this question out at large…do most of you hate Squall? That seems to be the vibe that I'm getting. I'm sorry if that's because I'm portraying him badly. He'll get more of a likeable personality soon though.
Next chapter: Yuffie and Cloud have some awkward moments and realize that today may be the last day they get to spend with one another…
Read and review pweeze!