"Promising Entirely."

Disclaimer: I am protesting against Disclaimers. So I don't own Kingdom Hearts anyway. But I'm not going to tell you that because I'm protesting the whole idea.

A/n: Hah ha ha hah hah haha. (( CRAYOLA ))

Eh...ignore my weirdness.

Deplora: Aye. 'Tis a work in progress, don't you worry. You know what I was thinking? Leon is kind of like the Hulk in a way. Except, instead of having this great violent beast inside of him, Leon has this nice, compassionate Squall. So. We have no problems if Leon rips his shirt off when he turns into Squall, right?

Joy Blue: Ah. I've never seen Rurouni Kenshin. I'm kind of low on the anime thing. I've watched all the common ones you can see on Canadian television, that make them seem like they should be watched by five year olds. You know, the only cool ones I've seen are Escaflowne and Gundam Wing (YTV stopped showing those) and Inuyasha. But I've never managed to get a hold of the cool ones. Its sad. Actually, I'm not sure that book is actually existant. But I'll have to look! If not, we will right one. Our penname, of course, will be Squall Leonhart.

The Frogness: Ah. I am sorry about the shortness that are my chapters. Your review made me the happiest. hands you a Squall plushie

The Contessa: blinks That dance was truly spectacular. In fact, I used it in this chapter. Watch out for that. Actually, I DID notice the Dark eyes Darkening thing. But I thought no one would notice. I would give you a Squall plushie, but you already have one... oh well. hands you a Squall plushie You can start an army, like Deplora. I like the cheese best. Heh. SHNIBLIK?

Kimou: Merci Merci! Here is ze update! Hope it was quick enough, though I doubt it.

Yuffie Kisaragi2: Meggese very much excused! In fact, I think gravy-n-a-half will have to be the newest expression. Ah. Sorry for making you wait so long. You should try putting the flavor salt on the popcorn. Its good. Heh. But it was Thanksgiving for me this weekend, cuz I live in Canada, eh? Otherwise I would have updated sooner. Squee.

October Breeze: Quey! I'm not sure if I should be sorry I made you cry. Eye waterings are okay, but I didn't mean to make you dash off and sob. Now I feel quite bad. Er...I'll dedicate a fluffy chapter just for you since I made you cry earlier. I would give you tissues with Squall's face on it..but I'm not sure if he'd appreciate having his face blown into. Heh. Thank you so much for reviewing! P.S. Yes, I know about my Squaffie thing. I've tried to correct it, but its like my fingers are programmed to complete the word Squall before I add the ffie on. I think Im getting better though!

Taryn: You have me figured out. I can't end a story of this type without having a fluff fest, as I hate it when I read fics with a simple sad ending. It makes me feel so...lip quiver Unwhole! I want you to know that this review touched me greatly, and gets a special place in my hall of fame. (Er..I don't actually have one...but you get the idea) If I ever feel bad about my writing, this is the review I'll turn to. Squee is an amazing word, ain't it?

Sora no Hairo Yuk: Will do! If only for you guys. You all make me so happy. Thank you so much for clicking on the story title and reviewing. You rock.

P.S. I love you all.

Squall Leonhart was a mess. Not the kind that left his clothes lying around; he would die by his own blade before he let his precious leather touch the ground. Nor was he the kind to leave his things untidy, as Yuffie could feel the stiffness caused by the cleanliness of the room. But it was the tiniest things that she noticed; the way that the door creaked extra loud due to lack of oil, the way his door lock was so jammed even she had a hard time picking it. Squall was not only emotionless and cold, but it seemed he was also paranoid. She would have to put that on her things-to-do-to-turn-Leon-into-a-human list..

He seemed calm enough while he slept. He was the type of person who looked beautiful (more so than he did during the day, if it were possible) while sleeping. All relaxed lips and fanning eyelashes. She would have smiled if she didn't know that he had the Gunblade in arms reach, and she knew from experience that he woke every half hour to scan the room for danger. In fact, she had used the knowledge to plan her one-way trip into his bedroom.

On cue, unfocused blue eyes fluttered open and immediately landed on her small but amused-looking figure. It seemed that Leon had gone into fast-forward mode to Yuffie's untrained eyes, and the cool metal of the Gunblade was against her throat faster than she could squeak. Leon didn't relent even after his eyes had focused on her face, and Yuffie wondered if he actually planned to kill her.

"Hiya, Leon!" She rasped. "Eh..good morning!"

"Yuffie." He growled, taking the Gunblade away from her neck, and Yuffie sighed in relief, glaring at him as she rubbed her throat.

"Sorry if I startled you." She said unconvincingly.

But Leon was ignoring her. He set his weapon down beside his bed, shifting on top of his blanket and throwing his arm out as he turned his back to her. Yuffie stood in the middle of his freezing cold room for a long moment, staring at his toned back with shocked disbelief. Was he going back to sleep?

She shrugged helplessly. If he was going to make this difficult for her, she would make it difficult for him. After sharing a bed for years, she knew that particular way in which he needed to lie to be comfortable. Grinning cheerily, she flung herself on to the bed, her weight causing Leon to bounce slightly as his end of the mattress shifted. Leon attempted to shift his body back into 'his' position, and found that he couldn't with Yuffie lying on his arm.

"Get out." He growled, trying to move his arm from under her. "Now."

"The sun will be up in a half hour." She said to him. "I thought we'd get a head start."

"We?" He turned his head to look at her. "Personally, I don't think I've ever seen you up before sunrise. In fact, I don't think I've seen you up before sunset."

"It's a rare occasion." She agreed, much to his surprise. They hardly ever agreed, even about the stupid things like what color the sky was. "So get up."

"You're not coming with me." He said, sitting up. "I told you. Get out."

Confused as to how what had seemed to be the beginning of a conversation was turned into that, Yuffie stood off his bed and clasped her hands behind her back. If Leon attacked her to get her out, at least he'd be showing some form of emotion. Showing him how he felt. She'd had a curious desire to get inside his mind ever since she had first met him after their world had been destroyed, a thirst that had grown as she had come to know the new him. The old Squall had to have gone somewhere. She'd wanted to know where he had gone and why he had gone there.

"I'll be good, I promise!" She insisted. "I'm really rusty from not fighting so long. I just want to train. I won't even talk, I promise!"

He shook his head as he pulled a shirt over it. It was odd how comfortable they were around each other despite the fact that they didn't get along. She supposed it was because they had been roommates for so long. And even Squall, who was probably the most conservative person she'd ever met, had no problem when it came to modesty around her.

"I find that hard to believe." He drawled, as he finished with his belts. He bent past her grinning face to pick up the Gunblade and headed for the door. "But I can't stop you from following me, I suppose."

Happy and touched at the small but unusual allowance he was giving her, Yuffie did a small, imbecilic victory dance (A/N: All choreographic rights go to The Contessa!) before following him out and into the dark hallway. Squall gave her an odd look, partly to discouredge her from following him, and partly wondering why she would want to come with him in the first place.

The sun was just beginning to rise when they exited the castle, casting a fire-like glow over the frost that littered the ground. Leon stared straight into the sun as he walked, Yuffie trailing after him as he lead to where he disappeared to each and every day. He looked back over his shoulder and sighed, defeated at the sight of her trailing behind.

There was something about the way he looked this morning. Calm and allowing, when he was usually curt and brash. Perhaps he was ashamed of the unusual, even for him, anger he'd steamed to them the day before. In any case, there was something sad about the way his eyes looked, not hard and glaring like they usually were.

Maybe he'd had a real good dream.

Yuffie stopped in confusion when he stopped and pulled out his Gunblade. The area was nothing special, surrounded by open field. She wondered briefly why she had never seen him training here before. But she'd promised not to talk and so she couldn't question her thoughts. Instead, she raised her eyebrow in his general direction.

"Hope you're not as rusty as you say you are." He mumbled. "And if you talk...."

He left the threat open, but Yuffie wasn't worried. She had no intention of talking.

But it was a hard promise to keep. She was a little rusty, but it was nothing in comparison to what she was in Squall. His speed wasn't the problem; speed had never been his forte when it came to sparring. But he was unusually unenergetic in his swipes, shoulders trembling with effort and small beads of sweat appearing in no time. In fact, it looked as if Squall Leonhart was just as out of shape as herself.

"What's with you today?" She burst after a few hours, when the cuts on his arm from her shurikens were beginning to make him look like a Zebra.

He ignored the fact she'd broken her vow of silence. Panting quietly as he set his weapon down, he shrugged his shoulders indifferently. As if his own skills weren't important to him in the slightest. And although he was a great warrior, mercilessly sexual and even a little smart, Squall Leonhart was not a very good actor. He was looking at his hands, as if he couldn't figure out why they weren't doing their job.

"Maybe you're sick." She said slowly, although she didn't really think that was the reason. "I mean... the air is kind of cold if you keep your window open at night."

"Keep your mouth shut." He growled. "I thought you didn't break promises."

She almost laughed out loud at how ironic his words were. Instead, she settled for a innocent tilt of her head, one of which made Squall roll his eyes. He whipped his forehead with a shrug, and Yuffie was reminded that he really wasn't invincible.

'What makes you think that?' She thought. 'You didn't think that in the Traverse days.'

But the fact that Squall had changed for the weirder still remained. She'd gotten a little bit older from her experiences, while Squall seemed to darken despite the celebration that Sora had created. They'd been close when they were young, partners in Traverse. But now that they had no purpose of being around each other, Yuffie was brought to the harsh truth that Squall had changed. She'd known Squall once. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know Leon. But she had a solution. She'd bring Squall back, even if that Squall no longer had any desire to marry young, naïve little Yuffie.

"Maybe its because we didn't eat." She said, once he stared at her while she spaced. "Aerith and Cloud should be up by now. We'll eat a good breakfast and then come back out."

He shrugged. "Whatever."

He turned towards the castle without even a glance. Why had he let her come in the first place? Of course she would notice....

Yuffie lowered her eyebrows and gave him the most confused look she could ever mold her face into. Maybe his actions were simply caused by the particular position of the sun at that point in time.

But his odd behavior continued even after they ate. Besides the fact that he'd agreed to return to the castle in the first place was enough to shock her, but not as much as when he gave Aerith a small smile when she served him a large plate of pancakes. Even Cloud had submerged from his habit of staring at Aerith enough to look disturbed. It wasn't that he was being nice or anything. He was simply being civil.

Which was a large step for cold, emotionless, paranoid Leon.

"I come bearing drugs."

Leon remained absolutely still, his body stretched out on his bed and his face burried in his arms. Yuffie grimaced slightly, setting the tray of medicine down on his bedside table. It would be too much for her equilibrium if Leon was asleep at this time a day. There was only so much overly odd behaviour she could stand.

"Squall?" She whispered. "Oops. Eh...Leon?"

He didn't move. Grimacing for her own sake, she reached out to him and gently poked his back. She heard him hiss into his arms and knew he was already awake. Slightly peeved at the fact that he hadn't answered her when she'd spoken, she took two large handfuls of his blanket and pulled it away from him. She gasped and he hissed at the same time. His back was covered in red, crescent shaped cuts.

Right. No wonder he'd made sounds of pain when she touched his back, let alone dragged material over it. He lifted his head enough to glare at her, and she sat down on the edge of his bed with another grimace. Leon was even more unenjoyable when he was in pain. She might have just reinstated the holocaust that was his attitude.

"Sorry!" She exclaimed guiltily. "Wow! I didn't think I'd chopped you up that much..."

He grunted at her and she grinned despite her guilt.

"Anyway," She reached over to the tray. "Aerith sent me with some medicine for your cuts."

Leon rolled one shoulder, and she knew that at the same time he was rolling his eyes. Aerith had been shocked at the sight of blood on his sleeve when he'd taken his jacked off at breakfast. Not only had this brought out her feared maternal instinct, but she'd also forbade him from leaving the castle before his wounds were healed.

"C'mon." Yuffie prodded, pouring some hand sanitiser into her hands. "At least she's helping you heal so you can get outside faster."

He placed his face back in the circle of his arms. "Whatever."

"Whatever, whatever." Yuffie teased, examining his cuts. "You really need to move on to a new catch phrase, Squall. Have you tried 'As if'?"

"Leon." He mumbled. "Get over it."

"There it is." She smiled, finally pouring the medicing in a bowl of warm water and dipping a cloth in it. "This might hurt a little."

He made a small sound of disbelief. Yuffie brought the cloth down on to the largest scrape, and Leon growled under clenched teeth as she began to scrub at the area. His back gave the slightest shifts of protest every so often, but other than that the Gunblade weilder made no complaint. He did groan fiercely into his arms when she poured Hydrogen Peroxide on his cuts, but other than that he remained completely silent until she began to bandage his back. His eyelashes fluttered closed, unbeknowest to her, and the warm and gentle touch of her hand. The moment was nice, silent and oddly symbolic.

Then she spoke.

"This kind of reminds me of when I was little." She said innocently, working on the cuts on his arms.

He looked at her. "Yuffie."

"No, wait." She smiled. "I remember you were helping my parents with some storage. I thought it would be fun to see how high I could climb on the boxes. But I fell off and hurt my ankle. My parents were angry that I'd climbed and they didn't think that anything was wrong with me. But you checked my ankle and wrapped it for me. Do you remember?"

He shifted his head back into his arms and was silent.

"But it hurt too much when you tried to wrap it, so I was crying and yelling and hitting you. You were so angry with me that you gave me a stern look and lectured me. I can remember being so upset that you were mad that I stopped crying and let you finishing wrapping my ankle."

She smiled, remembering the look in his eyes and how gentle his hands were. He'd always had the gift of non-magical healing. Leon shifted his head to the side a little, resting his chin on his arm and glancing up at her.

"I thought I told you I would burn your doll collection if you didn't stop crying." He said softly.

The words have her a sharp pang of shock. He remembered. He remembered the days before the darkness and before Rinoa's death. He remembered being happy.....

"That was...probably another time." She said haltingly, confused. Happy. Moved.

"I don't remember these things." He said dully "You have a really good memory, Yuffie."

"But why don't you remember?" She asked, a little more desperately than she felt.

"Its not really important to me anymore." He said frankly, turning on his side and away from her.

A slap in the face. Yuffie had endured such physical pain as one. But the low words that left her former comrade's mouth inflicted one of the most emotion pains Yuffie had ever experienced. The friendship they'd had, their happiness. Meant nothing. For all she'd endured to stay by his side, for all that she'd cared. And he didn't. He didn't care. No matter how much she tried to help him, no matter how much she tried to be his friend. He didn't and didn't want to learn.

Oh God. How long had it been since she'd cried?

"Maybe the reason I remember is that I'm not scared of facing my past." She spat harshly, so strongly that Leon turned to face her in slight surprise. "Maybe I'm not enough of a coward to run away. Maybe I'm strong enough to get over my loss instead of around and feeling sorry for myself!"

He should have been angry. He should have been furious. But Yuffie brought out that Squall in him that he was finding harder to subdue. The sight of her tears. The memory of slight sobs and tensor bandage. The want to make everything in the hardship that had been Yuffie's life go away. But he couldn't. Not anymore.

"Get out." He growled for the second time that day. "Now."

"I hate you!" She screamed, tears pouring down her face. "I've tried to love you like I did when I was little. I've tried to help. I've endured years of your abuse and I'm sick of it! You're selfish, you're emotionless and I hate you!"

She turned away before she saw the real shock on his face. The softening of his eyes. Yuffie charged out of his room in blindness, tearing down the hall with all the ninja speed she could muster. She reached her room in record time, throwing herself on her bed and sobbing into her pillow. The door opened a few minutes later, a weight settled on the edge of her bed and a gloved hand touched her hair. Yuffie raised red eyes to her best friend, shoulders shaking. Cloud pulled her into his arms, cradling her head to his shoulder and letting her pour her heart out.

"What happened?" A soft, quiet, gentle voice.

"We fought." She sobbed.

"I assumed that." He said, wiping her tears with his sleeve. "I mean what happened?"

"We were talking about the old days." She said, and Cloud gave her such a look of idiot expectancy that she laugh-sobbed. "I should have known he'd get upset. He always does. But he seemed so different today that I thought maybe...."

"I know its against the entirety of your being," Cloud said sternly. "But did it ever occur to you to just...leave Leon alone? He seems happy being hostile."

"But he's not happy." She hiccuped. "He's not. You never knew him before."

Cloud closed his eyes, gloved hands pushing her hair back from her wet face. "You'll get through to him, Yuf. It might mean the destruction of Aerith, I and the Castle. But you'll do it."

"Gee," She smiled wetly. "Thanks for having faith in me."

She hugged him tightly again and he smiled, resting his back against the head board. Aerith came in after awhile, mouth open to speak and closing immediately at the sight of them. Cloud smiled and waved her away. Aerith went with a small face of reluctance, plenty of stored up maternal instinct needing something to do. Eventually, Cloud pulled Yuffie back, raising an eyebrow at her red face. This quirked a smile, and Cloud was assured that he had just as much maternal instict as Aerith, if not more.

"So. How did the fight end?" He said humorously.

"I told him I hated him and stormed out." Yuffie sniffed.

"Excellent." He said seriously, standing up from the bed. "Just what he needs to hear."

Yuffie sighed sadly, eyes dry but face still laced with guilt. Cloud was aware how much Yuffie had grown. Since the day they'd met, when she'd tried to steal his wallet. From the day he'd come back. He smiled, taking her by the hand and pulling her up to a standing position.

"I was like Leon for awhile." He told her seriously. "When I found out Tifa was taken by the Heartless. Aerith helped me through that. If two people can make it through something like that, their bond is stronger in the end. Believe me."

She nodded. "I believe you."

Cloud's mouth twitched and Yuffie glared.

"You'd better not be insinuating that I have feelings for him!"

"Of course not." Cloud was serious again. Soft. Quiet. Gentle. He walked out the door without so much as a foostep sound. But Yuffie felt the signifigance of what this moment had meant. Cloud wasn't the warm, over-emotional type. But when he did sacrifice his image for her, she knew he meant it. Cloud was a good friend, a brother. Someone she would always look up to.

If two people can make it through something like that, their bond is stronger in the end. Believe me.

I hope you're right Cloud. I hope you're right.

And somewhere else, two halls and a flight of stairs to be exact, a person was struggling with himself. With his feelings. With his so called values. What he thought he'd had under control. Blistered hands clutched a peice of bandage, exterior cold and emotionless, mind and emotions in complete termoil.

You're selfish, you're emotionless and I hate you!

Hard eyes, refusing to show inner termoil, closed.

I'm sorry, Yuffie. I'm sorry.

GAH! Another sad chapter. Or atleast, I found it sad. And since my other chapter wasn't forcefully sad, but the majority of you found it to be, I assume you'll find this one to be sad too. But ya never know! In any case, I'm sorry I followed a sad chapter with another one. Therefor, I tried to throw in a little humor. Not sure if you caught it..but just know it was intended to be there.

I've always had a soft spot for Yuffie/Cloud friendships. I don't know why, I just find them to be cute. There isn't really that much evidence of their friendship in the game. But I still have a strange love of it. I don't know. You know how odd I am...

Heh. Please review!