A/N: I only own this story-idea. This one-shot takes place four years after the previous one. Yuffie is 13 years old and Leon 22. It's also three years before the events of KH1. Just in case you were wondering. ;) Enjoy! :)

Thanks: SecretAgent99, my beta reader! :)

~ Then they began to lick his face, something he regarded as rather unpleasant. ~

Yes, he had done it once again, without any problem from his side. How it had happened, he didn't exactly know. It just had happened. At the moment, he had had absolutely no regret. Yuffie would surely come back home, her eyes twinkling while grinning like an idiot as if nothing had happened at all, for she always did. Each time it was the same: Leon and Yuffie started quarreling, first innocently but it would change into fighting very quickly and then Yuffie would angrily run out of the house and come back after one hour...or two...sometimes three or four, but never this long.

He had to admit that the argument had been more violent this time, though. He also felt for a short moment, when she had looked very fierce, that she would definitely pierce his throat with her shuriken. She hadn't done that, though, much to Leon's surprise. All she had done was ball her fists with tears in her eyes, saying that she sometimes hated him so much that...

Leon sighed, frustrated. Aerith had looked at him several times now. She probably wanted him to go search for Yuffie. She wished! He really had enough of the ninja with her antics. Actually, the fight had begun slowly and very early in the morning. It had been a built-up fight. They both had just had a tough day and that fight had been the climax.

It had all started in the early morning, when she had awakened him, much to his dismay. He had been dead shocked when he had opened his eyes that morning. He had looked straight into two dark brown pools, which had stared sharply at him, without blinking and had been at less than two inches away from his stormy eyes! He had shot up faster than an arrow. Yuffie had drawn back even faster than him, startled by the sudden movement and blinking quickly twice.

"Yuffie!" he had brought out shocked.

"What?" she had asked surprised.

At first he wanted to ask what the hell she thought she was doing, but then he had changed his mind. He'd rather not know the answer, for he had a presumption.

"Don't do that!" he had stammered as a response, as soon as he had regained control over his own voice.

"Sorry. I was just-"

Leon had run his hand through his now messy hair, which had become quite a habit of him. He always did that when he didn't know what he had to do or say, or when he was confused. Yuffie hadn't finished her sentence. Maybe she had decided that it was better for both of them to keep it that way.

"It's...okay, I guess. Just...go tell Aerith I'll be down soon."

She had hopped off of his bed she had been sitting on.

"Okay."

At the door she had just stood still and Leon had looked up after a while when he hadn't heard any movement. Yuffie's eyes had been glued to his torso. She had remained standing there and made no intention to leave the room. Leon had raised an eyebrow at that, being quite annoyed. He was so not a morning person. Yuffie's antics did not change one thing about that.

But when Leon couldn't take it anymore (was she really enjoying what she was seeing?), he remarked sharply, "Yuffie, were you planning to leave this room today? 'Cause I still want to change clothes. Unlike you, I have more things to do today."

Yuffie had finally looked at him, starting to blush madly. "Oh! Sorry! I-I'm going now."

With that, she had left the room quickly. The ninja had become a total mystery for him. Some of her actions had become unpredictable.

But to add insult to injury, she had dropped hot coffee on his favorite white shirt, which, obviously, wasn't that white anymore after that. It hadn't only been a waste of his shirt, but she had also burnt him. That was another reason for him to become furious at her. She had just mumbled apologies, while he couldn't stop himself from shouting at her. The only reason he had stopped was because Aerith had looked at him sharply, indicating that it was enough.

Furthermore, the training hadn't been that great, either. Yuffie hadn't been herself lately and Leon had demanded to tell him what was wrong with her. She had once again turned red like a tomato and had the demand somehow circumvented, like only she could do. Leon had also not asked any further, dropping the subject. Maybe it was better not to know.

And then she had had the guts to call him, "Squall."

"For the last time, Yuffie, my name is Leon! How often do I have to tell you before it gets through your think skull? Seriously, how stupid can you be?"

Thus, the quarrel had begun. Yuffie had tried to make him feel guilty by saying that he hated her and always just picking on her. That he never said anything nice about her and that she got all the blame for everything. Even for things she had never done, and so on.

"Oh, are you playing the poor miserable girl on me again? Will you cry now? Don't think that that will help again, since Aerith's not around."

Then she said how much she hated him sometimes. Leon had to admit that it had hurt to hear that.

"Leon?"

Aerith's sweet and soft voice interrupted his reverie. He looked at her inquiringly and somewhat disturbed, with a look that clearly said, "What do you want from me now?"

Aerith, as nice as she was, just ignored that look and told her what was wrong in her eyes. "She's still not back yet and it's almost twelve o'clock at night. She hasn't eaten anything. It's nothing for her to stay away until late, without having eaten."

The concern was practically dripping from her voice. It was unfair that he was the only one who had to do this much for the people in the house, just to keep them a bit happy, he thought bitterly. She was right, however. Yuffie and not eating were an impossible combination.

"I'm going already," he grumbled.

He did it mainly because he had finally chance to escape from her gaze. Okay, maybe he did it also a little bit, because he really was worried about Yuffie. That was something she would never find out, though.

He got up reluctantly, took his Gunblade with him and walked straight out of the house, changing the warm safety into the chilly wind outside. This would certainly be a long night...or rather day, because it was already after midnight...whatever. It was a good thing that the streets were all deserted, for he was definitely not in a mood to talk to anyone.

"I'm so jealous of you two. You are so lucky! You both love each other and have clearly already found your great love of life." Yuffie scratched Pongo absent-mindedly behind his ear. "I mean, what's his friggin' problem anyway? Why does he always have to be so harsh and mean? Why can't he say something sweet about me, for a change? How hard is that? I really don't get him, you know that?"

Pongo barked loudly.

Yuffie sighed. "Man, I really wish you could talk. Then at least I had someone to talk to. Cid only scolds me, Aerith belittles me all the time, because she's such a know-it-all. And Squall...well, he's just so...so...ugh! I'm not even allowed to call him by his real name! Doesn't that say enough already? And then he's got the guts to call me abnormal and childish? Can you believe it? Ugh, sometimes I really can't stand him!"

Perdita looked at her with an angled head.

"Oh, never mind already. I'm probably just boring you with my story."

Pongo licked her cheek twice. It tickled slightly.

Yuffie smiled briefly. "Aww, I think you're very sweet too. Hmm, I wonder if he will find me here. I think he's never been here before."

"Yuffie, where are you?" he muttered, getting pretty worried by now.

He had searched the whole town three times, without any positive result. Where could she be? Had she already gone back home? No, Aerith would have called him then, right? Unless she had forgotten it. No, that was impossible. Aerith never forgot anything. It would have been more possible that Yuffie had turned into a cat or something, than that Aerith had forgotten something.

Another thought that occurred to him, almost made his heart stop. What if a Heartless had killed her? She was only thirteen years and not really experienced in fighting. If there had been many then she probably would have had no chance against them. Deep in his heart he hoped that that hadn't happened. It just couldn't be true.

He came to the conclusion that there was only one thing that he could do now: he would have to knock on everyone's door and if that failed, call the Resistance to help him with the search. He decided to start with that big door in the Second District. Through the frosted glass in the door, he saw that the lights were still on, so the owners of the house were still awake.

He wondered who would live there. He had never seen the residents, he was sure of that. He wanted to knock on the door, but as soon as he touched the door it opened, for it had been ajar. Reluctantly he opened the door a little wider, until he could look inside of the house. The house seemed to be empty, though.

"Hello?" he cried loudly.

No answer. Surprised, he got into the room and shut the door behind him. He head that suddenly two dogs began barking loudly, followed by a voice which cried and the pattering of feet. A door was flung open and two large Dalmatian ran right toward Leon, their big pink tongues hanging from their mouth. One had a red collar and the other one a blue one.

"Uh-oh."

He reacted a little bit too late, probably because of the lack of sleep. Both dogs jumped on him at once, so he toppled over and fell on his back. Then they began to lick his face, something he regarded as rather unpleasant.

That was when he remembered again that the residents of Traverse Town often mentioned the Dalmatians, because the two dogs were the newest residents of this town. He pushed the dogs away from him with some difficulty and quickly scrambled to his feet, while looking around. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw who was also there.

"Haha, I think they like you," Yuffie noted, laughing merrily.

"Yuffie!" he cried out surprised, even though nobody could notice that from of his almost monotone voice. He sounded more like he was getting mad, again. "How long have you been here?"

"Ever since I left the house. What are you doing here?" Yuffie asked quite coolly, crossing her arms over her chest. Apparently, she hadn't forgotten her arguing with him so far.

"Everyone has been looking for you for quite a long time, but I can see that you don't care at all."

He actually only meant himself when he said "everyone." He simply couldn't believe that he had done all that searching for nothing.

Yuffie narrowed her eyes a little bit. "If you've come to quarrel again, then I want you to leave immediately, Squall."

"That's Leon," he said automatically, and then he quickly added, "And no, I'm not here to argue with you."

He looked around. He had ended up in a large room. Everything was still in good condition. It was so light and cozy here. There were a blue and a pink carpet, two lamps, a TV, a low table, a comfortable-looking sofa and many paintings hanging on the walls of the room.

He looked back toward Yuffie, who was sitting on her knees on the ground. She gave all her attention to the two dogs. Her eyes twinkled again, just like before. She looked so cute with that smile on her face. Sometimes she seemed like a little child, much younger than she actually was. Her large dark eyes and short cut hair seemed to strengthen that effect. Wait, why did he think that all of a sudden? It made no sense at all.

"Aaw! Look how cute they are! Leon, can we keep them?"

She startled Leon, who looked at her. Oh no, she used those pleading puppy eyes and her "cuteness-factor," as she called it herself, on him, again. She was not the only one. The two Dalmatians were doing the very same. Great. Like it hadn't been hard enough to bear with her eyes alone.

He had also noticed that she had called him by his preferred name this time. That could only mean one thing: she really wanted to keep the two dogs.

"No," came the simple reply.

"Please?"

He closed his eyes for a moment and let out a long-suffering sigh, wondering why he had to be the only one who always had to handle these kind of situations. "No."

"Why not? They're very useful for...research and stuff. I'm pretty sure that even someone like you can get attached to them."

"No. I don't think that's a good - wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

Yuffie ignored his question. "But they can't live in such a big house, all on their own! They just lost their 99 kids, who are probably all scattered in different worlds!"

"N-what?"

His gaze slid to the dogs, who suddenly looked very miserable, as if they knew exactly what Yuffie was talking about. Their head hung downwards and they both continued to look at their paws. Leon went with his hand through his long dark locks once again. He didn't want to upset the young girl. Yuffie could conclude with this that she had almost convinced him.

"Yuffie, look... I don't think Aerith is going to like that, to be honest. She has enough things to do for the three of us. And you know Cid, don't you? I think they are the safest here."

"Oh... okay...if you say so."

Yuffie looked truly broken now. Leon tried to think of a way to cheer her up again. In one way or another he always got a sick feeling when he saw Yuffie so sad.

"But...you can always come and visit them here. They just sleep somewhere else as you."

Yuffie's mood lightened up again. "Yeah, you're right! Thanks, Leon."

She jumped at him and instinctively gave him a hug. Once she noticed what she was doing, she let go of him quickly, as if she had received an electric shock. Leon wasn't unaware of the fact that she had called him by his new name for the first time, without having a special meaning with it.

"So...it's okay again between us?" she asked earnestly.

She didn't look at him when she asked it. It seemed that suddenly her shoes had become a lot more interesting.

"It was never different between us," he said.

This ensured that her heart nearly flew out of her chest with joy, and she grinned her Yuffie-like grin again. "Okay! Goodnight Pongo. Goodnight Perdita. I love you two!"

Once she had finished hugging the dogs, she got up and walked out the door. Leon followed her quietly. The two Dalmatian barked their guests goodbye with wagging tails.

Yuffie at once had her old energy back. "Say Squall?"

"Leon."

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that."

"It's...fine."

"So, how did you know where I was?" she asked curiously.

"I didn't. It was coincidence."

"Oh... I thought you didn't believe in coincidence?"

Leon looked up at her, trying not to show his surprise. How did she know that? He hadn't told her that.

"No, I don't," he admitted.

"Do you think Aerith is mad at me for showing up this late?"

No, she probably only was sick of worries, but he just couldn't let this moment pass by.

"Yes, she's furious. You will be grounded for two weeks."

"What?"

"At the least..."

"I'm off!"

Yuffie tried to run away, but Leon's reflexes were much faster. He grabbed her upper arm, so she couldn't skip away like that again. One drama a day was enough.

"No, you're not. You're going with me, whether you want it or not."

"Hah! Make me! I'm not going anywhere!"

"That's what you think."

With that, he lifted her with both hands and put her over his right shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down! Squall!"

"No. And call me Leon."

"Will you put me down again if I do that?" she asked hopefully.

"No."

"SQUALL!"

She struggled in an attempt to free herself from his grip, but without any success. It was a good thing that she was so light.

With Yuffie on his shoulder, he continued his way back home, fully ignoring Yuffie's shrieks, "let go of me, you big mean meanie!"

Leon rolled his eyes at that.

"Yuffie?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Yuffie eventually decided to give up. He was so strong headed, he wouldn't listen anyway.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

This is probably the last pre-KH1 one-shot for this series...for now. I think I'll start writing another series of one-shots about the Restauration Committee, though, which will be set during KH2 and later. I'm not really sure about that yet.

Oh and eh...reviews, please? I miss them! :)