"So," she said, once the two of them had passed out of the populated parts of the First District and were well on their way to the Second. "Lost love, unrequited, or none of my damn business?"
"It's-" Squall was clearly about to go into a state of denial, before he'd looked down at "her" and she'd given him her best who-do-you-think-you're-bullshitting look. "It's one of those."
"Fair enough," she said, as the two of them continued on their way to the Second District, there to meet with – in all likelihood – Aerith, Yuffie, Donald, and Goofy, and quite possibly all of them at once.
Still, something was starting to tweak her danger-sense, not surprising considering where they were and what they were dealing with, and so when a group of Shadows started emerging from the ground, Sarah was already mentally prepared to deal with them. Breathing deeply in and out – at least as best as she could manage during the developing battle – Sarah left her emotions behind at the starting point and flowed into battle. She kept some of her attention on Squall, mapping his movements so that she could not only stay out of the way of his strikes, but so that she could reinforce his defense; fully aware of the fact that she and Squall wouldn't be able to stand alone forever.
So, when the Shadow assault began to taper off, she and Squall working systematically to clean up the last of the stragglers, Sarah remained in combat-mode for a few more moments – seeking for any other Shadows that might have been trying to ambush the two of them when it looked like their guard would be down – and then breathed slowly and deeply as she re-centered her awareness in Sora's body. It was still a fuckall weird concept, that, but it was the situation she was in, and so Sarah was going to deal with it. The urgency in Squall's voice when he shouted her current alias caused Sarah to snap-turn "her" head in his direction, and so she was just in time to see a solitary Shadow hurl itself toward her and… cower behind "her" legs. The Shadow's bright yellow eyes were locked on Squall where he stood. And Squall, well Squall seemed to be as completely at a loss as she felt right at that moment.
"Okay," she said, still feeling a bit off from being so soon out of combat-mode and then being forced to deal with something so completely out of left-field. "So, satisfy my curiosity: is this normal?"
"No," Squall said firmly, looking for a moment like even he didn't know how to deal with something like this. Then the expression on his face became one of resolve. "Sora, hold still." Squall raised his Gunblade back up into a combat-ready position. "I'll deal with this."
Sarah tensed as both Squall and the Shadow began to dodge around "her" body; one in an effort to escape destruction, and the other in an effort to deal out the same to said escapee. Sure, Squall was a professional soldier – or at least a mercenary – but her dad's lessons on firearm-safety, repeated as they so often had been, weren't the kind of thing that could easily be ignored by someone without severe brain-damage.
"All right, that's enough!" she said, a bit more snappishly than she had first intended to; still, considering her present circumstances, Sarah could easily admit that she wasn't at her best.
"That Heartless is still there, Sora."
She knew he was trying to be reasonable, she really did, but under the circumstances- "Yes, I'm aware of that," she bit out. "I just have a tiny, little problem with you waving a loaded firearm in my face for god-knows how long." She tilted "her" head slightly, feeling the spiky tension of Sora's muscles radiating up and down his neck. "Call me unreasonable, but I don't particularly like the idea that I could live or die at the twitch of someone's finger."
Squall seemed to have to force himself to relax, but he managed to do it all the same. "Fair enough," he paused, looking back down at the Shadow crouching at "her" feet. "What are you planning to do about that Heartless, then?"
She looked back down at the Shadow, who by now had wrapped itself around the back of "her" legs, and at this point looked so much like her second-oldest brother's cat that Sarah almost had to smile. "Call me crazy, but at this point it seems pretty harmless."
"You can't be serious."
She did smile at that point, if only for the sheer absurdity of the situation. "I so very rarely am, but this might just be one of those times," she said. Then, turning a good amount of her attention to that Shadow – which was going to need a name, since it looked like the two of them were going to be seeing a fair bit more of each other in at least the near future – currently wrapping itself around the back of "her" legs. "All right, you; looks like we're going to be sticking together for a bit, so you'd better behave yourself."
When she turned her attention back to Squall, however, she found the business-end of his Gunblade pointed dead-center at "her" face.
"Oh, for fuck's sake." She'd officially had enough for one night. "I do not!" a powerful blow from the Keyblade slammed into the back of Squall's knees, knocking him off his feet. "Have time!" she slammed the Keyblade into the space between Squall's wrist and inner-elbow, forcing him to drop his weapon. "For bullshit!" Her last blow from the Keyblade cracked Squall across the back of his head, knocking him unconscious to the ground.
Even as she was breathing deeply, wanting to regain her composure again, she saw the Shadow whose continued existence she had just helped to ensure rushing at the unconscious man she'd just put down for the count.
Shit; helpless prey. "Kuromaru, sit!"
The Shadow dropped to all-fours, making it look even more like her second-oldest brother's cat than it already had, and turned to peer at "her" with those blank, yellow eyes of its. Sighing, Sarah made her way over, setting "her" left hand on the little Heartless' head, just between its twitching antennae, as she dismissed the Keyblade with "her" right. "You're going to cause me no end of trouble, aren'tcha little guy?"
The Shadow, naturally, had no answer. But someone else seemed rather amused by the proceedings, judging by the laughter she was now hearing.
"Wow; I've gotta say, that's the first time I've ever heard someone command a Heartless not to attack someone," Yuffie said, coming out from the shadow between two buildings. "I'll admit, I didn't know quite what to make of you at first, but you've got a good heart so you're all right in my book."
"Thanks," she said, turning to look at the other girl while still keeping a hand atop the Shadow's head. She was tempted to make a comment about Yuffie's outfit, which looked as patently ridiculous as it had on her video game counterpart, but that would have been rude; Sarah made it a point not to be rude to people who didn't deserve it. "You know this guy?"
Yuffie laughed. "Squall and me? We go way back," she reached down to muss up Sora's hair. "And don't worry; he's got a hard head," she winked, leaning over as if she was going to impart some great secret. "And there's not much in there you can damage, anyway."
If Yuffie was hoping to lighten the mood by saying that, it really only served to do the opposite. The fact that she'd slammed what pretty much amounted to a metal club into the back of a man's head – something that had a better than average chance of violently concussing him – fully registered to her then.
Still, Yuffie was obviously trying to keep both of their spirits up; at the very least, that deserved some form of acknowledgement. "Thanks." Then, with a more mischievous smile, she continued. "So, you know a place where we can stash this guy, or do we just steal his lunch money and leave him here?"
Yuffie laughed. "No, I know a good hotel around here." She went over to the unconscious form of Squall laid out on the ground. "You think you could get his feet for me?"
"I could," she said, making her way to the position opposite Yuffie so that she could suit actions to words.
"All right," Yuffie said brightly, shifting her gaze briefly to take in something lower and on Sarah's left; she herself looked down as the Shadow tugged at Sora's pants. "Let's head out, then."
"Sounds good to me," she said, falling into step with Yuffie as the two of them carried Squall's unconscious form out of the small square where they'd been standing, pushed through a pair of very familiar doors, made their way carefully along the raised causeway that bordered the large courtyard that the Second District seemed to have been built around, and through another pair of doors whose large windows had a soft, buttery light shining through them. The first thing that caught her gaze, when she had finally made it into the hotel, was the blue-painted door with a sea motif that was the first thing anyone saw when they came in this way.
"Is anyone staying in that blue room?" she asked.
Sure, it'd been just one more piece of pre-rendered background scenery in-game, but even then she'd wondered just what it would have looked like if it had actually been rendered as a room rather than just a differently colored part of the wall.
"Nope," Yuffie said cheerfully. "That room's pretty much open to anyone who wants to stay there." That smile of hers became rather more amused. "I can see why you'd ask, though. It really does go with your theme."
She grinned back. "Well, I do try to coordinate my room with my outfit-of-the-day."
The both of them had a pretty good laugh over that little statement, and Yuffie even offered to talk to the hotel's manager for her, as the ninja pushed open the door to the third room down from the door they'd come in through – marked with the number 2 – and they carried Squall's unconscious form over to the room's large bed. All of the things in this room seemed to have a greenish tint to them, except for the ones made of wood, but before she could become too absorbed in studying her current surroundings, Yuffie pulled a softly-glowing green bottle from the top drawer of the little nightstand by the bed, popped the top, and poured it over Squall's face.
The brunet woke quickly after that, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. Yuffie laughed in that way old friends did when one of them had something to teasingly hold over the other's head. "Looks like someone finally got the best of you, Squall."
"It's Leon," the man himself insisted off-handedly, most of his attention focused on her; or at least the boy he thought she was. "There aren't many people I know who can decisively end a fight in just three blows," Squall narrowed his eyes slightly as he continued to study "her" where she sat in one of the room's only two chairs. "You've had training."
"I have," she said, tilting "her" head slightly as she herself studied the two people in front of her; it was at least less strange, seeing them in the flesh than it had been to see Riku the same way, since at least these two had normal hair-colors. "So, either of you care to fill me in about just what the heck is gone on around here?" she asked, wondering what they'd say in return.
Squall narrowed his eyes still further, but his gaze had shifted downward, to take in the Shadow that she could still feel clinging to the right leg of Sora's pants. "To start with, that thing that seems to be so fond of you is called a Heartless. It's one of the weaker ones, but I still don't understand why it hasn't attacked you yet."
She smirked slightly. "Maybe it's friendly."
Squall's narrowed eyes shifted back up to "her" face. "Heartless aren't friendly. And this isn't a laughing matter, Sora," he said harshly. "If you spared this one, how can anyone be sure that you won't spare any of the others that come your way?"
"Well, if they're as honestly peaceful as this little guy, then I just might take that under consideration," she said, patting the head of said little guy as it hopped into "her" lap and made itself comfortable. "But, if you're actually trying to argue that one-small-step, slippery slope bullshit with me, then I will take off both my shoes and throw them at your big, empty head."
That last, ending was delivered in a pleasant tone, with a wide, cheerful smile that had never failed to unnerve whoever she used them on. To be fair, however, her threats were usually a great deal more visceral than simply beaning someone with a pair of shoes. Still, a person only got one first impression; there was no need to make a bad one.
Yuffie laughed. "Well, that's the first time anyone's threatened Squall here with shoes, of all things," she paused for a moment, grinning widely. "Still, if you're going to be traveling around with that little Heartless, you're going to need some way to tell it apart from all of the other Heartless who are going to be attacking you." She paused again, looking more contemplative this time. "What was that name you called it, when you ordered it not to attack Squall?"
"Kuromaru," she said, the curiosity about just what Yuffie intended to do about that particular issue making her answer sound more like a question.
"That's the one," Yuffie said enthusiastically, hopping up from the bed where she and Squall had been sitting down. "I'll be right back. You two play nice while I'm gone, okay?" She left before either of them could say a word in response.
Sarah did raise an eyebrow, but before she could actually say anything, she began feeling an uncomfortably familiar sensation in the lower half of "her" body. Seriously, now of all times? She growled mentally.
"Look, Sora, we might have gotten off on the wrong foot," Squall said, leaning forward slightly as he seemed to study "her" more deeply. "But, if it's really making you that uncomfortable-"
"No, it's nothing like that," she said; she was tempted to laugh, though whether at the sheer awkwardness of the situation or amusement at Squall's misjudgment of the same, even she couldn't quite say. "It's just," she shifted slightly in her seat, tempted to bring up one of "her" calves to press against the afflicted area, but not knowing just the kind of effect it have had with regards to Sora's different anatomy. "Do you know where the bathroom is? I think dinner's catching up with me."
For a moment, as Squall blinked – his face as blank as she had ever seen Sora's in-game – Sarah was sorely tempted to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of his stunned-bunny look. Then the moment passed, and Squall got up off the bed, gently gripping "her" left shoulder in passing with a muttered "Come on."
She thanked him, as the two of them made their way of the second room, past the red, patterned door that would have lead into the first, and down the hall to the plain brown door next to the check-in desk. She noticed that the sign that read "staff only" was missing from its place on the wall next to the door, though she didn't have the time to check if it had been removed or if it simply hadn't been there in the first place, before Squall pushed open the door and lead them into the small corridor behind it. Sarah breathed more easily once she saw the signs denoting the bathrooms, but as she made her way toward them, "her" hand up on the door to push it open, she noticed someone else's hand on the handle, ready to hold it closed.
"Do you mind?" she asked, raising both of "her" eyebrows at Squall where he stood, next to the door she had been preparing to open.
"No." There was a sort of amused cast to his face when he said that, though he didn't smile; Sarah wondered for a moment if he ever did. "I just think you'd be a bit more comfortable going in that door."
Looking up at the sign above the door she'd been about to reflexively push open, Sarah was very tempted to laugh; really, under any other circumstances, her heading into the women's bathroom wouldn't be something that people felt the need to comment on. Not unless she was wearing certain types of costumes at a con, at least.
"Thanks." Was all she said in the end.
"The bathrooms on your world must be set up differently," Squall said, his tone suggesting that he wasn't really expecting an answer.
She laughed softly, making her way over to the men's room door. "Something like that."
It was a nice enough bathroom, as far as bathrooms went; nicely painted in warm, neutral tones, and lit with a soft, buttery light that was nonetheless bright enough that one didn't have to strain their eyes when they were under it. It also didn't have that cloying, sick-sweet stick-in-your-nose smell that was a staple of a fair amount of the public bathrooms that she'd been in her time. So that was a nice bonus. She wasn't particularly inclined to pause and try to suss out just what this place really did smell like, since she had a lot more pressing matters to attend to, but it was nice to have found another bathroom that didn't stink of overused air-fresheners.
Hurrying over to one of the stalls on the left-hand side of the room she now stood in, Sarah sat down on the toilet and the quickly arranged "herself" so that she wouldn't end up getting anything on the floor. After all, she didn't know how the muscle-contractions in that particular area of Sora's body would affect things.
Once she was finished with that particular business, Sarah wiped off – briefly wondering how Sora was handling things, or if he even could handle things – and made her way over to the sink after a quick pause to flush the toilet. Vigorously washing "her" hands – perhaps a bit more so than was strictly necessary – after filling "her" palm with the liquid soap that all public bathrooms seemed to have, Sarah dried them thoroughly and then turned to leave. That was when she found that the little Shadow that had thrown itself at her for mercy and protection had followed her even in here.
"And I suppose you need to use the bathroom too, eh little guy?" she deadpanned, amused at the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Reaching down to pat the little Shadow between its twitching antennae, Sarah snapped "her" fingers and gave a quick "C'mon, boy!" as she made her way out of the bathroom to meet up with Squall again.
The brunet's eyes flickered between the two of them for a long moment, jaw working like he wanted to say something, but then he clearly reconsidered.
"Let's get going," was all he said in the end, though Sarah could still tell that he honestly disapproved of the whole situation with her and the Shadow. And yeah, she knew that – from any other perspective – what she was doing now would probably seem completely insane, and furthermore she knew that the only other person could truly see things from her perspective was her. Still, she'd never felt right about killing something helpless if it wasn't also suffering, and so far as she'd seen the little Shadow who insisted on tagging along with her was rather placid, if not a bit clingy.
When the three of them had made it back to whoever's room this was – she hadn't given much thought to things like that when all of this was just one more game out of the many that she'd owned, but now she was starting to wonder – they found Yuffie sitting on the bed, casual as you please, tossing a box from one hand to the other.
"So, bathroom break, huh?" she asked cheerfully, continuing before either of them could say a word. "Well, sit down and make yourselves comfortable. We've still got some stuff to cover," she paused for a moment, and then Sarah was forced to catch the box between both of "her" hands as Yuffie lobbed it gently at "her" head. "By the way, Sora, that's for you," the other girl said, with a rather amused smile.
Tilting "her" head slightly, remembering to thank Yuffie for the gift – unexpected as it was – Sarah opened the box. Inside was a red collar with a golden pendant about the size of a quarter dangling from the center. Looking back up at Yuffie with a raised eyebrow, inviting the other girl to explain all of this, she smirked slightly as the self-proclaimed ninja laughed.
"Well, we're all going to need some way to tell your Heartless apart from all of the other Heartless around here," Yuffie explained, still looking rather amused for some reason or other. "And, since you gave yours a name, I thought that would be the best way," she paused for a moment, her smile becoming softer and rather more thoughtful. "Besides, the man who does engravings hasn't been getting much business lately, so he was happy to take the job."
"The two of you are taking this too far," Squall said flatly, as Sarah herself brought the collar's pendant in closer to "her" face so that she could examine it in more detail.
"So, Kuromaru, huh?" she echoed, turning her gaze to regard the Shadow that was currently leaning most of its almost-negligible weight against "her" right leg. "What do you think? You like that name?" The Shadow – or Kuromaru, if they were really going to do this thing – climbed enthusiastically into "her" lap, stretching up to nuzzle its head against the center of "her" chest. She chuckled softly, reaching up to pat the toddler-sized Heartless between its merrily-twitching antennae. "All right, Kuromaru it is, then."
She looked back up to see Squall palming his face, while Yuffie laughed amusedly at his antics.
"You know, I think Ansem would be really interested in what you've managed to do here," the other girl said, after she'd gotten over her spate of facepalm-induced laughter, courtesy of Squall.
"Ansem?" she echoed, despite knowing full well just who that was; at least one of them, since she'd only read Wiki articles about the other.
"Yep," Yuffie nodded. "He and his apprentices were studying the Heartless; I'm sure he'd love to find out how you managed to tame one enough to give it a name," she was smiling in a rather interested fashion, herself; then her smile became wider and all the more amused as Squall sighed deeply while pinching the bridge of his nose. "Anyway, he compiled all of his current findings about the Heartless into a report," Yuffie's expression became rather more thoughtful, almost reflective. "But the pages were scattered in all this chaos. If you can find them, I'm sure they could provide you with some new insights about Kuromaru, there."
"Yeah, and maybe they could help you understand how what you're doing isn't normal," Squall said, the expression on his face clearly stating that he found their whole situation fairly insane.
She lowered "her" eyelids to half-mast, smirking at him all the while. "Normality is highly overrated." Looking back down at Kuromaru, she found that the Shadow had uncurled itself slightly, and was swiping at the space between her and Squall. "No, Kuromaru," she deadpanned, patting the Shadow between its antennae. "You can not claw his face off; that would be very rude." Kuromaru turned its wide, lidless yellow eyes fully onto her, seeming rather imploring. "No," she reiterated, more than a little amused by the proceedings. "Not even if you ask nicely." She nudged the Shadow back into "her" lap with a hand between its antennae. "Behave yourself."
She looked back up, just as Yuffie fell back onto it laughing, while Squall palmed his face and sighed deeply.
"You know, I knew that anyone who came here would have some problems, if only because no one comes here without having their world at least threatened by the Heartless, but I never once suspected that the chosen one would be completely insane."
Sarah smirked all the wider. "Sanity is for the weak."