DISCLAIMER: .:drums fingers:. Still waiting... Still waiting... (still no own, damnit.)

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the delay, folks! Finals hit along with ice storms and roommate issues and moving and other things, so it's been a little longer than normal since an update, but I hope this chapter makes up for it. One of the problems was the chapter apparently didn't want to get written; I had things planned for it that just wouldn't come out. It was one of those situations where the story was smarter than the author, and eventually I gave up on trying to force it into shape and just let it flow. So basically this entire chapter is nowhere near what I pictured, but it's still very crucial as lots of pertinent things happen. I didn't expect them to happen so early, but it makes sense. Just read and you'll see :)

My chapters just keep getting more and more monstrous, don't they? I honestly don't think I'm gonna have any more "short" chapters on this story. They just don't want to happen! This one isn't quite as long as the last one, but it only falls short by a couple hundred words. And remember, Squall shall be refered to as "Squall" if it's from Yuffie's POV, but if it's anyone else it shall be "Leon." Just to clear up confusion.

As always, review replies and fun facts are up on my livejournal, www . livejournal . com / users / tairako (copy, paste, delete spaces). So long, see ya later!

(Soundtrack: "Vertigo" by U2/"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda my "Leon songs" for this story until the dragging out of the apartment, followed by "Stay With You" by Mai Hoshimura.)

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

In the days after the Competition and the Festival, things settled down into pretty much the same pattern they'd been in before – but with a few notable exceptions. Already acknowledged as one of the best around, the sword class now regarded Cloud with something almost like awe after his fight with Leon, even with the fact that he'd lost. Riku was more closed in than usual, but made no mention of his and Sora's fight that day. Sora and Kairi now spent most of the morning together after his private lesson with Cloud and the masters, and only half their time (or less) was spent in tutoring. Kairi herself spent less time with Riku and their group than she had before. Leon seemed to somehow relax a little, and began unbending enough to even smile once in awhile. Cloud left his apartment more and more often, and didn't hide out in the unpopulated areas of the town quite so much when he was out. Aerith began visiting the three young men on her breaks and getting to know all of them a little better. And even Yuffie seemed to calm down somewhat, or at least she wasn't yelling at absolutely everyone she saw now, though she didn't seem to be any more social than before.

All in all, they were all small changes, ones that mostly concerned only their group and went unnoticed by the populace at large. But the fact that they actually had a group now… Well, that wasn't really something they'd acknowledged before, but now it was starting to seem more natural. At the moment, the group was still only the three guys, but they could feel that Aerith was slowly coming to be part of it as well – as much as she could with the time she had to work, that is. And Sora was starting to wonder if maybe – just maybe – Kairi could be part as well; after telling Riku to leave her alone, she hadn't been spending as much time with Kyo, Yusaru, and the girls. She knew she couldn't avoid Riku forever, but his comments still hurt.

"Kairi, you've gotta talk to him and you know it," Namine said a few days later, as the two girls were relaxing in her room. Kairi had finally told her what had happened – with the exception of Sora liking her and getting together with him – and Namine had been just as stunned as she was to hear Riku's words. But she was better able to be the voice of reason, since she wasn't directly involved in this. "He's really sorry about saying those things; we can all tell. He just wants to talk to you."

"I know," she sighed, tossing aside the magazine she'd been leafing through. "And he's one of my best friends, but… It's all true, you know? In some way he thinks I owe him because he's been my friend. And what if I did get together with him, what then? What would I owe him then? What would he just try and take?" A small shiver ran up her spine at that idea, and she quickly squashed it from her head. No matter how crazy Riku got, he would never do that. "I just …I need a little more time."

Namine sighed. "You've got three days… I don't like my friends fighting," she responded quietly to Kairi's silent question. "Even if things can't get back to the way they were, I don't like seeing him always kicking himself and you agonizing about what to say to him. At least then it'll be done."

"Do we even want things to go back to the way they were?" Kairi asked quietly, rhetorically. Namine, not knowing what to say to that, simply picked up a magazine and began to flip through it again.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Dinner at the Highwind residence had been quieter since the Competition, and that fact wasn't lost on Cid. In the past, there had usually been at least one minor spat between Yuffie and Kairi with every meal; the girls just couldn't seem to leave each other alone. But in the few days since then, there'd been only one. In fact, they'd been tapering off since even before the Competition, and he hadn't had to actually yell in awhile. Growl, yes; yell, no. They weren't getting along much better, but they weren't at each others' throats all the time now.

Cid was a perceptive man, but he couldn't quite tell what these changes were about. It was almost as if they were unconsciously striving to be civilized towards each other, and it was working; they were polite, if a little stiff. Yuffie was even doing her chores with less complaining. He wasn't about to take it for granted, but when lots of little things added up into one big thing he couldn't see, there was something off.

Even when he'd yelled at Yuffie that night for running off with a concussion, she'd just stood there and taken it. Now he knew her habits better than anyone, knew that she knew what she'd done was dumb, but he'd expected some form of retaliation or rebuttal, and hadn't gotten any. That, more than anything really, was bugging him; it just wasn't like his foster daughter to not get someone back. Clearly something was happening – and he was going to find out what.

Since Kairi did the cooking, he and Yuffie washed the dishes, and he knew that would be his best opportunity. Once the ninja was buried in soapsuds up to her elbows, scrubbing a particularly stubborn pan and unable to get away, he simply plunged into it to take her off-guard. "So what th'hell is up with you?"

It worked; Yuffie clearly wasn't expecting to be grilled on anything, judging by the look she gave him: completely baffled. "What?"

"You've been damn close to obedient lately, an' that ain't the Yuffie I know by a long shot." Cid flicked the toothpick he always had on hand, still unable to kick the physical habits of a near lifetime of smoking despite not having cigarettes. "You wanna volunteer what's goin' on or do I have t'pry it outta you with a crowbar?"

Yuffie made a face at him but didn't say anything; neither did he. He was more patient than her when he was required to be, and he was willing to wait as long as it took for her to talk about this. It took surprisingly less time than he'd expected – but when Yuffie finally groaned in defeat and let the pan slip back in the water, he wasn't quite prepared for what came out.

"Look… You remember that fight we had? About me leaving?"

"Yeah…" he replied cautiously. This was new.

"What if I told you I know where I wanna go?"

Cid paused for a moment, considering; he still didn't want Yuffie to leave, but after her birthday he couldn't stop her – and he knew how miserable she was here. "I'd have t'say it'd depend on where that place was," he finally replied.

"All right, what if I said I wanted to go back home?"

He just stared. "To th'Bastion?"

"Yeah."

"That place has nothin' but bad memories-"

"Maybe for you, Cid, but not for me! I've got a lot more bad memories about this place than I ever did about there." She sighed, knowing she wasn't making much sense, but kept going, honestly trying to make him understand. "I barely remember it, Cid. I mean, yeah, it's where Dad and Takara and Shera and Charles died, but I was eight. It's been more than half my life since then. And if I stay here I'm gonna end up killing something," she said flatly, in a tone that brooked no arguments. "Or getting arrested. Or something."

Cid forced himself to remain silent for a few moments, gathering himself together so he wouldn't start yelling, and fortunately it worked. "What would y'do over there, though? How would you live?" He knew it as well as she did – she was lacking in generally all of the skills that would enable her to find a job, though maybe she would get lucky. Or maybe one of their old friends would recognize her and help her out. But it was nothing to be counted on.

Amazingly, she turned a little red at his question and lowered her eyes from his a little. "Well… you know how I'm only really good at fighting."

"Yeah…"

"See… I'm thinking about trying to get into the Academy."

That was something he had never, ever expected to hear. "What?" he asked blankly.

"I know it doesn't sound like something I'd like, with the rules and all," she hurriedly added, and a part of his mind had to admit that it was funny to see the normally unflappable Yuffie flustered. "And all the discipline and everything. But it's not like you don't get any freedom there, and I can get better training and be around people who think like me and not like these small-minded hicks we live with."

"They're not small-minded hicks."

She ignored that. "Plus if it doesn't work out and I have to leave, I'll still get more respect as someone who went there at all so I'll be more likely to get a job."

He had to sit down. Making his way over to the table, he pulled out one of the chairs and sank into it, trying to sort out the sudden barrage of new ideas that had been thrown at him. She was right; at first, the Academy didn't sound like something she'd like. They didn't tolerate slacking, nor much insubordination; he'd gotten in trouble enough times for it himself. But the more he thought about it, the more he had to admit that maybe – just maybe – it would work out better than he was thinking; certainly Yuffie had never shirked on her practicing, nor on her academic work. It was mostly only her social skills that were lacking, and social skills weren't really necessary for the Academy. And maybe even they would improve.

Still… "Where th'hell'd you learn all that?" He knew he'd never told her and Kairi much about the place where he'd met both his wife and, by extension, their parents, seeing as early on the thoughts were still too raw, and by the time they weren't neither of the girls seemed interested.

She shrugged, and he couldn't tell if it was his imagination that the shrug looked a little uncomfortable. "I've been talking to people."

"What people?"

"Does it matter?" she shot back, starting to scrape the soapsuds off her arms. "I've thought about this, and I know this is what I wanna do."

"You know it costs money, right?"

"We still have Dad's trust, that's gotta be more than enough to pay."

"…You're sure, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

She just nodded. "Yeah."

There was another pause, this one lasting longer than any of the others. Finally, Cid levered himself out of his chair, moving over to a cabinet above the stove and opening it. "I'll have t'think on it."

"Fine. And we threw your 'hidden' pack away, Cid."

He cursed under his breath as he pushed the cabinet door shut and walked out of the room, leaving Yuffie to tackle the rest of the dishes.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Leon flipped through the mail as he walked in the door of his apartment, shaking his head minutely at the multitude of bills. When he reached the official-looking envelope containing his grandfather's pension check, he pulled it out of the stack, tossing the rest of the envelopes on the table near the front door for him to take care of later and shutting the door behind him.

"That you, Squall?" his grandfather called from the room that had been set up with his bed and all the medical equipment he needed.

"Yeah, it's me," he called back, pulling off his jacket and hanging it in the small coat closet. "Do you need anything?"

"Get in here, will ya?"

He shook his head again and headed for the room, trying to comb out his hair a little with his fingers. It had gotten tangled and annoying from a bout against both Cloud and Sora, which he had lost. The two of them made a good team and were learning to work off each other's strengths and weaknesses, but that meant he was now getting hurt more than he had since moving to Traverse. Wondering for the billionth time just why he didn't cut his hair to get it out of his face, he yet again decided to set it aside for a later time as he entered his grandfather's room. "What is it?"

The room was blankly anonymous, as was much of the apartment. There were three photographs up on the walls, not doing much to break up that particularly bleak shade of white that uncomfortably reminded him of a hospital. A photo of his parents sat in its frame on the bedside table, next to the reading lamp, and Leon turned away from their smiling faces as he always did. An oxygen tank was set in the corner in case of emergencies, and two more machines that Leon knew how to operate in theory but had no clue what they really did were pushed to the side. An IV drip was set up next to the bed, its bag almost empty, and Beck Leonheart was sitting upright against at least two pillows and frowning out the window across the room.

Beck had much the same problem as his grandson: he didn't want to be there. The difference was, Leon could get out of the apartment. Of course, that meant he was in more contact with people, but Beck saw that as a benefit. The frown faded as he turned to face his grandson in the doorway. "You look terrible." He wasn't one to mince words.

"I know. What do you need?"

"When're you gonna get a haircut?"

Leon managed to stop himself from groaning aloud. "I don't know. Do you need more water?"

"Listen, I wanna know when we can get back home."

This time he couldn't stop himself, but he did manage to muffle it for the most part. Dragging a hand down his face at yet another repetition of this same conversation, Leon came fully in the room and sat in the chair next to his grandfather's bed. "When they say you can, Granddad," he repeated for what felt like – and probably was – the hundredth time. "We're going back for another checkup in a week."

"Damn the checkups, I mean for real and ya know it."

Their family genetics had a very high sense of irony. Leon's father, Laguna, had been the most cheerful and enthusiastic person imaginable, despite the fact he had a workaholic, pessimistic soldier for a father. Leon had inherited most of his grandfather's personality and almost none of his father's, though fortunately it was tempered somewhat by his mother's good common sense.

"When they say you can," he repeated, knowing Beck wouldn't be any happier with that than he had in the past. Unfortunately, it was the only answer he had to give.

His grandfather just gave him that sharp look that plainly meant I'm going to ignore that you just said that, and looked back to the window. He was in one of his moods today, then. Leon sighed and stood, picking up the glass by his grandfather's right hand. "I'll get you some more water."

They had a strange sort of familial bond. Beck hated being dependent on anyone, much as Leon knew he himself would be, even his last living relative. Some days were better than others, but no matter how strong his personality remained, he was still too weak to be out of bed for more than a few minutes, which was only doubling his frustration. Leon couldn't blame his grandfather, and certainly wasn't going to leave him on his own, but those moods weren't doing him any good either and just made him more eager to get home as well.

He left the refilled glass with his grandfather and gathered the bills he'd scattered over the small table, taking them and the pension check back to the room he slept in. He couldn't call it "his," but it was a place to pass out and work. That room had even less personality than his grandfather's and nothing on the walls save a few papers from the Academy he hung onto until he could get back there. The desk was bare but for some paper and a couple of pens, and as he sat he crumpled the top paper which was covered in numbers and sums, tossing it over his shoulder in the direction of the trash can. Time to pay the bills.

It was always a stretch trying to make one check large enough to pay for two people to live, though the fact that Traverse was a cheaper place than the Bastion helped. Leon had had way too much practice in creative accounting over the past year. He wasn't going to deny it, the money from Riku had helped, but he was not going to accept that anymore. He'd rather respect himself.

But as he was flipping through the bills once again, trying to figure out which was the most urgent, he suddenly stopped as he saw a handwritten address that he could have sworn wasn't there when he went through them the first time. He knew that writing well, too well: Riku. If this was what he thought it was…

Rather than rip the envelope open, he simply felt it. It was the money, all right – and more than the fifty he'd originally been getting, which only made him groan. Apparently Riku hadn't understood what he meant when he'd said the deal was off – either that or he was a complete moron. He'd already dropped the money he'd been shoved the day of the Competition in the mail back to him, but this was something new, and he was going to get rid of it. Finding a red pen in one of the drawers, Leon scrawled Return to sender over his own address, then set the envelope aside to take care of after the bills.

He'd gotten as far as the third set of figures before an unfamiliar noise startled him from his concentration. It stopped, and then started again, louder: the sound of somebody knocking on the door, a sound he hadn't heard in so long he could barely remember what it was.

"Squall! Get the damn door!" his grandfather yelled

"All right already!" he yelled back, standing and heading for the front door. They quite literally hadn't had a visitor in months, not since they'd moved in and an overly cheerful woman in her mid-fifties had tried to "welcome them to the town" and then scurried away as fast as she could after meeting Leon. Come to think of it, she was probably the source of all the rumors that scared people into leaving him alone. Maybe he should thank her some day. But who would be here now?

Leon wasn't at all prepared for the sight on the other side of the door: short black hair, large brown eyes, small body. Yuffie peered up at him, plainly waiting for him to make some form of movement or statement.

When he didn't, she crossed her arms and gave him a look that said, in her opinion, he was being an idiot. "You're not gonna invite me in?"

"Sorry," he said automatically, backing out of the doorway without really thinking about it. She came in, glancing around her curiously, and he shut the door behind her. "How did you know I lived here?"

She shrugged, spinning to face him on the ball of her foot and clasping her hands behind her back. "I saw you coming back here one day when I was checking on Master Carran's place. No big deal."

They remained where they were, watching each other, Yuffie waiting for him to say something and Leon still trying to comprehend the fact that she was standing in his apartment. Finally he managed to give himself a little mental shake to clear his head, remembering his (somewhat out of practice) manners. "Would you like something to drink, or…"

"Got any soda?"

"No, just-"

"Who is it!" Beck shouted from his room.

Squall groaned again, very lowly, and looked at Yuffie. "One moment." Turning, he called down the hall in a voice more exasperated – and more alive – than she'd ever heard him use. "It's not for you, Granddad!"

"I'm old and I'm bored! Who is it!"

Yuffie clapped a hand over her mouth, managing – barely – to muffle her laughter. This guy sounded like fun.

"It's a-" Squall caught himself, glancing back at her, then finally looking back towards the direction the voice was coming in. "Friend of mine," he finished, the word sounding slightly odd coming from him. "We're going to- Yuffie!" he practically hissed, grabbing for her wrist but missing.

The ninja had slipped by him easily and was trotting down the hall in the direction of the voice, intent on meeting this cranky old man, and Squall had no choice but to follow if he was going to try and stop her. By the time he'd caught up with her, though, she was turning in the door, so there was no way of getting her out of there before his grandfather got going.

Pessimist he may have been, but Beck was a talker when he wanted to be, unlike his grandson. And he hadn't had anyone to talk to in a long time, usually storing up his chatter for their visits back to the Bastion and annoying his doctors. But here was someone fresh and new, and she wasn't getting away – she was seeking him out. She wouldn't just roll her eyes and walk away, like his grandson; she actually wanted to talk.

And talk she would. "So who the hell are you?"

Leon groaned silently and stood in the door to the room, watching the floor and ready to get Yuffie out of there at a moment's notice. He could tell Yuffie was suppressing a grin as she answered, "Yuffie Kisaragi, sir," and he was very glad she'd remembered the "sir."

Beck's eyes lit. "Kisaragi? Not related to old Kado, are you?"

Yuffie blinked in surprise. "He was my grandfather."

The old soldier let out a barking laugh which quickly turned into a cough, and Leon grabbed Yuffie's wrist to prevent her from going to help him as the old man reached for his water glass and quickly downed some of it. The coughs subsided, and he continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Knew him in the platoon, him and all his fancy moves an' everything. Heard he shipped his kid off to some fancy school for ninja, what was his name, Goda, Yoda-"

"Godo," she supplied. "And yep, he was my father."

"Sooo, we got another Bastionite in this town." Beck's eyes were positively sparking with cynical mirth as he jerked a thumb at his grandson, who had one hand pressed over his face and was carefully not looking at his grandfather. "If what this one said was true, there wouldn't be any right-thinkin' people in this whole place."

"He's not that far off," and she couldn't resist adding with a wicked grin, "Sometimes he isn't too 'right-thinking' himself."

Leon groaned as Beck laughed again. "You've got spunk! You gonna kick him into shape for me until I can catch him?"

Yuffie bit her lip to suppress a laugh. "Don't worry, he can't get away from me."

"Not lettin' him out of your sight, are you?"

"More like not giving him a chance."

"So when're you and he gonna get down to givin' me great-grandchildren?"

Leon didn't even stop to think – he simply grabbed Yuffie by the waist, that being the most accessible part of her at the moment, and hauled her out of the room as she clapped both hands tight over her mouth and nearly had convulsions trying to hold her laughter in. Somehow he managed to shove his grandfather's door shut and get the ninja down to his own room, where she promptly collapsed on his bed, laughing her head off as he closed his own door.

"Your… he…!" she finally managed to gasp out, one hand moving down to hold her side. And all it took was one look at him to set her off again. "Your… face!"

Leon knew exactly what she was talking about; he could, unfortunately, feel exactly what the effects of his grandfather's not at all tactful questioning had been, and he sank into the chair at his desk, putting his head in one hand and trying to force the red out of his face by sheer willpower. Fortunately, it took so long for Yuffie to calm down that he was mostly back to normal by the time she could sit up, and, except for one muffled snort, there was no more reaction to his looks.

"I'm sorry, but that…" And she giggled again, but managed to squash it quickly.

"He's… yeah," Leon followed up lamely, not having any idea how to explain Beck to an outsider. "Once he has an idea, he won't let it go."

A grin split Yuffie's face, though it had never really diminished in the first place. "So if I ever come back here he's liable to ask again?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

A small part – a very small part – of Yuffie's mind had to admit that the idea wasn't as repellent as it could have been. After all, she got along reasonably well – okay, pretty damn well – with Squall. And if she was ever asked, though only then, she wouldn't fail to admit that he definitely looked good, especially with that thin white t-shirt showing off his muscles and those black pants and those eyes and that hair and even the scar- Yeah, he looked good. She'd admitted it from early on, and she was frankly surprised that at least some of the young women in the town weren't throwing themselves at his feet, but he still had that intimidation thing down to an art so he was probably scaring them off as soon as they'd thought of the idea. But looks weren't important to her, and she didn't have one damn romantic bone in her entire body, so his grandfather's dreams of seeing little Squalls running around would have to be accomplished with someone else. She couldn't help one last snicker at the thought – and somehow completely missed the little voice in the back of her mind that quietly asked her if she didn't think, on some level, that it would be fun.

"So does he do that with every strange girl that knocks on your door?" she asked, still grinning.

"I wouldn't know," he replied truthfully. "You're the first to do that."

Oddly enough, she found that comforting. She smiled cheerfully at his still slightly red face. "Guess we'll have to drag Aerith here and see what happens."

"She'd probably laugh less than you," he commented, though it wasn't derogatory. He took a deep breath, pushing his hair out of his eyes, pretty much back to normal. "So why did you come over?"

Yuffie made one last solid effort to squash her laughter and succeeded at last, folding her legs into a tailor's seat and leaning her elbows on her knees. "You remember how I was asking all those questions about the Academy?"

"Yeah?"

"Last night I told Cid I wanted to go there." Squall just watched her with a slightly blank look, and she knew he was having the same reaction that Cid had initially, doubting whether it would be the right place for her. "You've seen me fight, I've got the discipline when I need to. And I may argue over orders, but only stupid ones, and from what you've said they don't give stupid orders there."

"Well, no…" he was forced to admit.

"So I want to at least try it." She shrugged, no trace of laughter now, just honesty. "If I don't make it all the way through, then I don't make it. But being a ninja's the only thing I'm good at, so I might as well go for it as much as I can."

"You've been planning this for awhile, haven't you?" he asked, turning the chair to face her at last – and only then remembering that Riku's envelope, with the money in it, was still sitting out on his desk. He was able to keep the very brief panic that rose in him from showing on the outside, and quickly reminded himself that there was absolutely nothing about that envelope to indicate that the contents were for that stupid deal and just what that deal was. Also, she'd have to get awfully close to realize who it was from, his own body was currently hiding it from view, and there were several other envelopes as well. Still, he didn't want her to see it at all if it could be helped.

Yuffie continued without noticing the sudden deviation of his train of thought. "A little, yeah. I haven't been happy here in a long time, and I always wanted to get out, but I didn't know how to do it until I talked to you. Thanks, by the way."

He waved off the thanks as unnecessary, but was still watching her closely with that extremely blue gaze that she was starting to find just a bit overwhelming. Cloud and Sora both had blue eyes as well, she knew, but Squall's were intense on a whole other level and he had that particular way of looking at you as if he was looking right through you, as if he could read all your secrets. It nearly made her shiver. "You've never talked about this with Aerith? Or even with Cid? Why me all of a sudden?"

She shrugged, managing not to squirm under that gaze. Why was he watching her that closely? "Aerith's my best friend, but she's not a fighter. And she's one of those people who can be happy wherever she goes, because she loves people and she loves helping people. Hell, if she wasn't like that we wouldn't be friends," Yuffie admitted, somewhat ironically. "I got injured in training one day and she took care of me, and after that she just kept pestering me, in the nicest way possible, until I broke down and talked to her. Typical Aerith." She had to smile at the memory – it had been mildly annoying at the time, but nowadays it always made her laugh. "And I don't see her much now because of her work and then her and Cloud – yeah, that's not a secret anymore," she said with a wide grin, correctly interpreting the look of surprise on Squall's face. "He bought her a necklace at the Festival and gave it to her in public, that kind of sealed it all. He's got good taste, I'll give him that, it is really pretty."

Yet another surprise. "You actually like jewelry?"

Another shrug from her. "Not on a regular basis, but for special things, why not?" He'd have to think about that; from what people had said, and what he'd seen for himself, he'd decided she'd sworn off all things "girly" until time ended. She stifled another laugh at the mild look of surprise on his face. "Don't get me wrong. I hate makeup and stuff, and most dressy clothes; they're really stupid and uncomfortable and make me feel like some doll or something. And most jewelry is really tacky, but not all of it is, and if it's supposed to mean something and it makes her happy to get it then who am I to say anything against it?"

"You have a point," Leon admitted, still trying to process the – rather unlikely – image of Yuffie "dressed up." It just didn't work; she was his little ninja, she had to be able to run and jump and turn flips, all of which would be severely hindered in a dress or skirt.

And then he caught himself. His little ninja? The hell?

Fortunately she couldn't read his mind, which was just really confused anyway. "Anyway, she likes him and apparently he likes her, and I haven't talked to him in years but he's not as bad as some. And he makes her happy. So that's them. And I know she's been talking to you, too; she says she's even seen you smile, hard as that is to believe."

He blinked. "I smile." It was way, way too easy for her to take him by surprise.

"I've never seen it," she retorted. "One day I may just… I don't know… tickle you ridiculously until you do."

He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "No, you won't."

She grinned, that grin with a hint of mischief. "Big bad Lion afraid of the little ninja?"

"No, you're just not gonna do that."

"We'll see."

"No, we won't." And because he knew that she would keep thinking about it (and thus plotting) if he left it alone, Leon tried to steer the conversation back on its original track. "So what about Cid? From what I've heard, you two get along."

She took the bait, though he couldn't tell if she was just letting him off the hook for now or honestly sidetracked. "Cid's great, but he's… Well, you should know, you don't tell your grandfather everything." Leon nodded, not wanting to interrupt. "Cid's a lot of fun and really smart, but he's my guardian, y'know? My father in a lot of ways, and you know people our age don't tell the people in charge of them much. Hell, he probably knows more about me than most of the other parents do their kids, and I don't know if that's because he's not my real father or if it's because he's Cid or what. But he still freaks out about some things."

"Like you wanting to go to the Academy?" he guessed. She hadn't, after all, yet said what Cid's reaction to that had been – and from a man so protective he wouldn't let his charges date (well, wouldn't let one of them date and counted on the antisocial tendencies of the other to keep her safe), it was a pretty secure bet that he wouldn't be too thrilled about losing one of them.

"Bingo," she said, a little dryly, and made a face as she settled her head in her hands with her elbows still on her knees in what seemed to be a posture she liked. "I didn't bring up the topic of me leaving in such a great way the first time, and I guess he just honestly didn't realize that I'd want to. And when I said I wanted to go back to the Bastion…" Yuffie trailed off, shaking her head and rolling her eyes, and managed to catch sight of one of the papers tacked up on his wall. She uncurled from her position and crawled over the bed to scan it, and the others like it, while she continued talking. "It wasn't even the Academy, it was the Bastion. He's got a lot of bad memories there and he doesn't ever seem to want to face them, so that's why we haven't been back in so long. I mean, he lost his wife and his kid and their best friends all in one night, it's not like he just lost a weapon or something, but it's been nine fucking years, you know? I think Dad'd kick his ass for him if he could." She blinked, finally turning away from the papers to look back at him, a vaguely sheepish expression on her face. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"I don't mind," he said truthfully, surprising her.

"Why not?"

Quite frankly, the fact that he was willing to sit there and listen to someone go on at length about several topics at once would amaze him – if this was anyone but Yuffie. Or possibly Cloud or Sora, or even Aerith, though he could in no way imagine her needing him to just sit there and listen unless the other three all randomly disappeared somehow. She was just as deeply frustrated as him, about many of the same things. Perhaps at the Academy he wouldn't have given himself a chance to get to know her, but they weren't there now. And a lot of what she was saying weirdly paralleled his own experiences. "You sound like you need to get it off your chest."

There was definitely some doubt in her look though, and she kept watching him. "Soooo… you don't mind that I invaded your home, got your grandfather worked up, and then ran on for ten solid minutes about stuff that's not at all important to you."

"Yuffie." He sighed, raking a hand through his hair again to get it out of his eyes. "I don't say people are friends for no reason. I meant it."

"But we've only had one real conversation."

"That lasted for quite a long time."

"Yeah, but…" She sighed herself, with a bit of frustration, and shook her head. "You just don't seem like you do the 'friend' thing well."

Leon had to laugh at the irony of that situation, a laugh that came out sounding sort of strangled and low, but was clearly a laugh of some sort, and was rewarded by Yuffie's look of complete shock at the fact that he could laugh. "Yuffie, of the two of us, I've lived in this town a shorter amount of time and I still call more people 'friends' than you."

"I…" She trailed off, and Leon had a peculiar amount of self-satisfaction that he actually could drive the words from her mouth. "Damnit."

And suddenly Leon had a spark of an idea – a very, very bizarre spark, one that could backfire and eat him alive if it so chose, but just might be worth the risk. He abruptly stood, causing the ninja to scramble to her feet while giving him an inquisitive expression – and he began pushing her towards the door, making her squawk. "Squall! What the hell are you doing!"

"You're giving me three minutes to take care of things here," he said, remembering the way he still had to look as he hadn't cleaned up when he first walked inside. "And then you're coming with me whether you want to or not." He quickly opened the door and pushed her through.

Yuffie stuck her foot in the doorway before he could close it again. "I'm coming with you where?"

"You're forcing me to socialize in my house. I'm forcing you to socialize in the world." And leaving her with that oblique promise (or threat), he finally got the door shut.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Squall, come on, what are you doing?" The ninja had to trot to keep up with his much longer strides, but she was still sticking with him. He'd half expected her to run off when they exited his building.

It had actually taken about five minutes for Leon to fix himself up a little and throw some leftover lasagna in the oven to warm, yelling back to Beck about the dinner and receiving a similar yell in reply. Yuffie had watched their exchange with confusion, then followed him out of the apartment and started asking questions. And she hadn't stopped as they crossed the First District, though Leon wasn't answering.

Feeling frustrated by his unresponsiveness, Yuffie changed tactics. "Shouldn't you be staying with your grandfather? I mean he could probably use help."

"If we're around each other too much, we'll kill each other," he finally answered. "He wants to be independent, and that means me not being there to help him. He can reach me if he needs to."

"How?"

"I have a phone," he said, pulling the small contraption from his jacket pocket for a moment. Yuffie was temporarily distracted and impressed; portable phones still hadn't really become a Traverse "normality."

But the distraction only lasted for a moment. "Won't you even tell me where you're going?"

Squall finally stopped at the doors to the Third District, looking back at her. "Sora invited Cloud – and me – to his place tonight, but I turned it down. That's where we're going."

"What!" she practically screeched, voice sounding shrill even to her. "What are you thinking!"

"Revenge," he answered, and she could swear she heard a faintly triumphant note in his voice. "I told you, if you're going to make me socialize in my own space and get my grandfather excited, then I'm honor-bound to return the favor."

"But... But-"

"Yuffie, I'm not really going to make you go," he said with exasperation as he finally halted in the middle of the Third District square and turned to face her. "I'm not going to drag you kicking and screaming. That won't help anyone, least of all you or I. And if you ran off I couldn't catch you and we both know that. But do you remember what I said to you a few days before the Competition?"

You're not supposed to be this angry. You know it and I know it. His voice was all too clear in her mind. And it had been followed with, Maybe you should ask yourself what you're really angry about. She'd refused to do that kind of inner soul-searching since then, but it had led to her asking Kairi that question… and to a strange sort of temporary truce with her stepsister that neither was quite sure what to make of. "Yeah?" she responded, folding her arms and trying not to give anything away.

"I know from Sora that you don't hate him. At the worst, you're ambivalent about Cloud. And obviously you don't hate me. If you're going to start coming out of whatever shell you've made for yourself, aren't we the best choices?"

She hated to admit how much sense he was making. But she wasn't meant to be social, she was meant to be- It's like you're bound and determined to make everyone hate you, Kairi's voice whispered from her overactive memory. You're going to turn into this bitter old hag if you don't stop pissing everyone off on purpose and try and communicate!

Maybe being a bitter old hag wouldn't be so bad…

Who was she kidding, it would suck.

Leon continued, apparently sensing her wavering thoughts. "Think about it this way. When you go to the Academy, you'll have to talk with people. You'll have classes and roommates and instructors. Think of it as a dry run."

"What, you talk to people at the Academy?"

"When I choose to," he replied calmly, ignoring the barb. "If it gets too uncomfortable, you can leave."

It was inevitable, and she knew it. Yuffie groaned, rubbing her face with her hands and shaking her head. After the brief spastic attack, she looked up into Squall's eyes with a look just as intense as his. "You promise that I can leave if I want?"

"Yes. But I don't think it'll be as bad as you think." A muffled grumble was all she gave as she turned and continued the trek to Sora's place, having learned where he lived long ago from Kairi's chatter at dinner, and Squall followed behind her. "After all, we're all outsiders in this place."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Nothing, absolutely nothing could have prepared Sora for the time when he would open his door to find Leon and Yuffie standing outside as if it was the most natural thing in the world for them to be there. He was fairly sure he looked like an idiot; he knew his jaw dropped open, and his mind temporarily stopped working as he tried to process this incredibly strange sight.

"The invitation still open?" Leon asked in his usual stoic way, waiting for Sora to move, or speak, or… well, anything, really, which was exactly what Sora was not doing.

"Uhhh… yeah, sure, come on in." The younger boy finally found his voice and stepped back, watching as the two of them walked into the apartment. Now that he could actually think again, he noticed Yuffie looked distinctly nervous – well, as distinctly nervous as he thought she would allow herself to look. She didn't meet his eyes, instead glancing around her as if for some sort of escape, and Sora had to wonder exactly what she was doing here. "Dinner's …soon, come on."

Cloud was currently sprawled negligently over Sora's bed, video game controller in hand – they'd ended up at each other's places so often in the past month that it was no longer a surprise to any of their family members to find one camped at the other's apartment overnight, and the three adults in question had just sort of accepted it in gratitude that their sons were making friends. Thanks to this, Cloud had discovered a previously latent love of video games, especially the ones that let you beat things into the ground, and had taken to "stealing" Sora's system from him some nights since he didn't have one of his own. He'd taken advantage of Sora's pausing their fighting game to answer the door to give himself a bit of an unfair advantage (Sora was always beating him at these, and for once he wanted to win) – but when he saw who walked in behind his best friend he was shocked into dropping the controller into the pile of dirty laundry at the foot of Sora's bed.

"Umm… Guess who showed up," Sora said completely unnecessarily, seeing as Leon towered over the smaller boy much as Cloud himself did. But Leon wasn't the surprise – the small body, smaller than Sora, behind Leon was.

"What're you playing?" Leon asked, nodding at the TV screen.

"Cry of Blood 3," Sora replied, noting how Cloud was staring at Yuffie as if she'd sprouted rabbit ears, and Yuffie was pointedly looking anywhere but at the blond. We were friends, once, he remembered Cloud saying during one of their marathon video game sessions. Best friends, I guess you'd say – me and her and Riku. But things change. Sora himself, the eternal optimist, had pretty much given up on Riku after their fight about Kairi – if Riku already didn't like him, as now seemed to be definite, even with the overtures of friendship that Sora had made, then Cloud certainly wasn't going to get suddenly reinstated as a "friend." Yuffie herself wasn't really nicer to Sora than she had been at first, but she was less hostile, but Cloud's own feelings on the ninja were anything but positive except when it came to her fighting techniques.

If Sora was reading the facts right, neither one of them had actually even tried to talk to the other after Cloud's accident, or at any time since then. Cloud blamed Yuffie's retreat, but the island boy was fairly certain Cloud had made a retreat of his own; certainly the isolation he'd been in until Sora showed up was mostly self-induced, as the others in the sword class at least respected him. Yuffie's attitude certainly hadn't done wonders for the relationship, but neither had Cloud's. Both of them had allowed their friendship to break, and now it was up to both of them – and only them – to try and put it back together again.

And he was pretty sure the gunblade wielder didn't know any of this. "Come with me, Leon, my mom wants to meet you."

"All right." Sora pretended to not see the brief look of unguarded panic the ninja sent his friend, nor the quick silent response that he couldn't read, and started out the door. Leon followed behind him, closing the door, and Sora immediately turned into the small bathroom next to his room, yanking Leon in behind him.

"Sora, what-"

"Shhhhh," he insisted quietly. "Rather'd not have so far to run if they decide to kill each other. That's my room they're in, after all."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Yuffie briefly considered several plans to murder both Squall and Sora for leaving her alone with Cloud, discarding them all as unfeasible. Neither she nor Cloud said anything after the other two left, and neither of them moved; she could still feel him looking at her as she continued to watch the TV and the game now paused on the screen.

"…Yuffie," he said eventually.

"Cloud," she replied relatively neutrally.

It wasn't like they hadn't talked at all since the accident, but the talk they had had was either in a situation having to do with combat, either the Competition or a bout their masters had set up for them, or one of the times she'd done something like jumping off a building. They hadn't had a real talk in over four years, and they were both entirely different people now.

She'd completely forgotten about Squall's promise that she could leave if she wanted, though she was certainly wishing she could. She was beginning to recognize the feel of "inevitability" hanging around the two of them; it had started to stick with her a lot lately, in her dealings with Cid and her talks with Squall, though not as heavy as it was this time, nor as ominous. She had no idea what to do.

Apparently he wasn't much better either. "Look, Yuffie…" Cloud trailed off, shaking his head a little. "Why are you here?"

"Sq- Leon dragged me." She remembered at the last moment to use "Leon." For some reason, "Squall" was her thing – well, hers and his grandfather's – and she wanted it to stay that way. "Said I needed to talk to someone besides him."

"…You've been talking… to Leon?"

She glared a little, feeling some of her usual temper flare up again at the disbelieving tone in his voice. "Is it really so hard to believe I'd talk to people?"

"…It's him."

"Yeah, true." She had to admit that Squall didn't exactly inspire friendly chats. Still not looking at him, she moved a little closer to the small TV set on Sora's dresser. "But he's not as bad as people say he is."

"I know, I see him nearly every day." Some noises came from behind her, and she knew Cloud had sat up from his prone position. "Look, Yuffie, I-"

"So are you finally gonna tell me?" she interrupted, the bitterness starting to come clear in her voice, keeping her back to him. "You finally gonna tell me why you just walked out on me then?"

Cloud sighed silently, seeing her hands curl into fists at her sides. Explanations… He hated explanations. He hated looking at the past, hated even more regretting what had happened in the past. It was in the past, behind you, over, done, so what good could it do? But now that the subject had been broached, he knew Yuffie wasn't going to walk out without an explanation of some sort. It was her way and always had been. "I… I thought no one wanted me around anymore."

"What!" He'd known she wouldn't like that, and he'd been right. "You… you asshole!" Very right. "You didn't even bother trying! You just left the infirmary and walked out of all our lives and didn't return my phone calls or anything, you bastard!"

"I was fourteen and can you blame me, Yuffie, come on," he groaned, bending over to rest his forehead in his hand. "I walk out of the infirmary with this great clanking thing on my arm and the first person I see is Riku and he completely boots me out of his life and so does the rest of his little crowd – which had been our crowd too, remember? I thought those phone calls were the two of you trying to torment me."

"Well you were wrong," she said flatly, yelling spree temporarily over. The small ninja turned to face him at last, glaring fit to break a window, one fist planted on her hip and the other hand pointing straight at him. "I'd ditched Riku and his cronies before you even woke up, moron. Who in the hell do you think found you, huh?"

"Yuffie, are you saying-"

"Yes! I heard your little 'bet' with Riku and I followed because I wanted some time alone with you but when I get there you've fallen through a skylight and gotten a mangled arm and are passed out in a pool of your own blood on the floor!"

"That was an accident-"

"Accident or not, you still would've died if I hadn't gotten Cid!"

Cloud shook his head. "The shop guys-"

"You had severed arteries, imbecile! Opening was eight hours away!"

And it certainly took much less time than eight hours for someone to bleed to death.

Yuffie continued once more, slightly calmer now that Cloud had stopped fighting the truth. "What in the hell do you expect, Cloud?" she asked, and he had to wonder if there was a faint note of fatigue in her voice. "You guys made that bet and after you get hurt they're all talking about how no one can know about it, and not one of them says anything about being concerned for your health or wondering how you're doing. You thought I was gonna stick around with them after that?"

"I don't know," he replied quietly.

She was silent for another moment, and he could feel a slight – a very slight, but it was there – draining of the tension between them, though there was still plenty around. "You knew me better than that, Cloud. Remember?"

"Yeah… I remember." It was something he hadn't thought about in years, and made very little difference to the person he was now. But it had still happened. "…It never could've lasted, not between us."

"Maybe it would've, if we were still those people. But we're not and it definitely wouldn't with us now."

"And I've got Aerith."

"And I swear to god if you treat her bad I am going to take your fuckin' balls off."

He just shook his head a little. "Still protective, huh?"

"I don't have much to be protective of, now."

"That just means you're even fiercer with what you do have."

"Maybe."

"Definitely."

They sank into silence again, but somehow… somehow Cloud felt slightly better. It was hard to pinpoint, even harder to really call it "better," but it definitely felt like something broken had been fixed. It was funny, really; since meeting Sora, his life had changed in many, many ways, but he still hadn't really faced his decisions from the past. There was no way he was going to be friends with Riku and that group again – the irony was that many of those original members had moved away since then – but this was the first real conversation he'd had with anyone about that night in many years, and it felt like it could be a step in the right direction.

Maybe he was more screwed up than he'd thought. But if he was, this was probably the way to fix himself – tracking down the knots that his accident had left in his personality, and pounding them out one by one, no matter how much it hurt to do it. It would be a long process, one that might not ever be finished, but he had the feeling it would be worth it. And the next step…

"Yuffie…" he began slowly, and she looked at him without that minor glare she'd been wearing before. "I… Thanks, all right?"

"For what?" she asked, a little warily.

"For saving my life… For smacking me over the head with that, 'cause I needed it." Cloud discounted the ninja's growing amazement as he continued. "And I'm sorry… I lumped you in with the rest, and even when I figured that you were as done with them as I was I didn't talk to you. You didn't deserve that, no matter what I'd been going through." A glance up at her showed her staring at him in shock. "I guess what I'm trying to say… Do you think we could call a truce?"

It took her a moment to find her voice again. "A truce?"

"Yeah… No more name-calling, no more ignoring or anger. 'Friends' is probably too much to ask right now, and I don't know how well we'd do at it anyway, 'cause it's us, after all, but at least we can stop making things worse for each other."

She was eyeing him like he'd suddenly turned green, and he couldn't blame her, but he thought he could see a hint of the old Yuffie humor from more than four years ago back in her eyes. Maybe. It was possible. "…I guess we could do that."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It had been impossible for the other four in the apartment to not hear at least snatches of Yuffie and Cloud's long-delayed "talk," but tactfully none of them mentioned it. Yuffie sat down to her first dinner with people besides Cid and Kairi in years with the rest of them, and if she didn't talk much she wasn't projecting waves of hostility, either. Sora's mother was a bit surprised to be feeding six when she'd planned for four, but she wasn't dumb and a quick explanation from her son had straightened everything out. After eating, Cloud stayed behind to continue his "deathmatch tournament" with Sora, but Leon and Yuffie said goodbye.

"Was it as bad as you thought it would be?" Leon asked in the hall outside Sora's apartment.

"Yes," the ninja replied – but then, completely unexpectedly, she smiled, the first real smile he'd ever seen from her, and Leon was temporarily floored with just how right that expression looked on her face, like the sun breaking through the clouds. "But it got better."

He quickly shook his head to rid it of the odd thoughts. "Good. For a moment there it sounded like you two were going to rip the apartment in half."

She winced a little. "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah. But don't worry about it." They'd finally come to the street before Leon asked the question that had been on his mind since the yelling began. "What happened with you two to make it so bad for both of you?" He definitely remembered hearing Cloud refer to Yuffie as a "bitch" at least twice, and the best Yuffie could say about him was that he wasn't as bad as some others, which probably meant Riku. He'd heard Cloud's side of it – but he had the feeling that he hadn't heard all of it. He couldn't blame Cloud, though; he knew all about not wanting to confess life stories.

Yuffie didn't respond right away, her mind caught between wanting to keep her old secrets and this new feeling of wanting to tell someone her problems. Squall had been right; she didn't like personal questions, but he deserved an answer to them if anyone did, what with bringing her to Aerith, letting her pester him, and helping her with the Academy stuff… And, she realized, talking with Cloud at last had removed a weight of some sort from her shoulders. Who knew what telling Squall would do?

"He's told you about his accident, I take it," she said, making up her mind, and continuing when he nodded. "We were all part of a 'group' back then – me and him and Riku and we did almost everything together. And then somehow me and Cloud ended up dating. Not serious dating," she added at the look of complete shock on his face (which was actually highly amusing). "I was thirteen and he was fourteen, it was more like we did what we always did and once in awhile we'd kiss and that was it. Probably would've gone right back to being best friends in a year or so of growing up, but one day I come up and hear Riku and his supporters daring Cloud to sneak into the Gizmo Shop and do something, I was never sure what. I didn't tell him I'd heard, but it sounded like fun and we'd get to be together some more, so when I saw him leave I followed him, but he got there before me and ended up falling through a skylight directly onto a machine. By the time I got there he was unconscious and bleeding everywhere, and I raced back and got Cid, and Cid got him to the infirmary."

"And after he got out you all… went your separate ways?"

Yuffie gave an unladylike snort. "More like 'I nearly beat Riku to a pulp.' The infirmary staff wouldn't let me in to see Cloud, but I went to the group the day after, and the only thing any of them were saying was how no one could know it was them that had dared Cloud to go in there. I was so pissed off I tackled him and gave him a black eye. It was before any of us started training, though Cloud and I began not long after, so Riku couldn't fight me off." Leon could well believe that; Yuffie was small enough to fight like a little wildcat when she was enraged. "So that was the end of that. Cloud didn't get out for several weeks, but when he did, with the arm Cid had built for him, I tried to get in touch with him and he never called back. He said tonight that he'd thought the calls were something Riku and I cooked up together to hound him, but they weren't, they were just me, and when he disappeared from my life without reason I just got mad and gave up on everyone." She drew a deep breath and sighed, shaking her head. "That's it. Sounds like a really stupid reason to hate people, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that," he answered, making Yuffie look up at him in surprise. "You had a trauma and several major disappointments in a row, and lost your best friends in the process. I know the feeling myself."

"You had something…?"

"Something similar. Not that extreme, but something similar. Differences of opinion, but the effects were the same."

"We're just one messed-up lot, aren't we?"

"Yeah. But who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to look at all this and laugh."

Yuffie snorted again, this time suppressing a grin. "You, laugh. Now that I'd like to see."

"I laugh."

"Not much." The grin grew, and she raised one hand to poke him in the ribs, making him jump a little. "Be careful, I may end up tickling you after all."

Squall rubbed a hand over the place she'd poked. "Is that a promise or a threat?"

"Both."

He just shook his head. "Why do I get the feeling that you're going to be the death of me?"

"You're getting to know me, that's why." Yuffie was trying to ignore the little voice inside her head. Go on, do it! it whispered It can't hurt anything, now can it? Who cares if you've never done it before, come on!

Yuffie didn't fight; it was easier to just go along with it. Leaning forward, she put both arms around Squall's torso and hugged him tightly, her head resting on his chest. "Thanks for making me go, Squall. I needed that."

Leon was, needless to say, entirely shocked by the ninja's actions. He froze in place, not at all sure what to do, and then gradually brought up his own arms to let one settle across her shoulders and the other pat her back awkwardly. "It's all right, Yuffie. You would've done it yourself eventually."

"No, I wouldn't have." She had friends again – and she had to admit that it was a nice feeling. Standing there with Squall, she could almost feel the beginnings of a support structure she'd been missing for years pull themselves back into place, but with different people this time – Aerith and Squall and Cid and yes, even possibly Kairi and Sora and Cloud. After four years of near-isolation, it was a startling, but welcome, feeling. "I would've just left Traverse and we'd've never talked again. He wouldn't have started anything, either. It would all just be left trailing in the wind."

"Well, it's not now." Yuffie was making no move to pull away, and Leon was gradually settling down from his initial surprise as well. Once the initial awkwardness had passed, which had been due mostly to unfamiliarity, it wasn't as uncomfortable as he'd thought it would be. It was actually kind of… nice was the only word for it, kind of nice to be depended on and trusted enough to allow this level of contact. It was something he hadn't had in awhile.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"That just doesn't fit…" Cloud said, peering through Sora's window at the two below. "That just… makes my brain hurt."

"What's so bad about it?" Sora countered, right next to him. They had long ago paused their game to spy on the two leaving the apartment. "Kairi and I hug. You and Aerith hug."

"But… that's… Leon and Yuffie. They don't do the physical contact thing, especially not with each other."

Sora started to grin at Cloud's obvious brain-breakage, still watching the two below as they finally pulled apart and went their separate ways, Yuffie to her nearby apartment and Leon back to the First District. "Looks like you're wrong about that, Fluffy." He dodged a smack upside the head from his best friend and crashed back on his bed, grinning widely now. Things were going better than he'd ever dared to hope – he wasn't sure how, but they were. Maybe those two were exactly what they each needed to get good swift kicks out of their shells, and maybe not. But something was going on – now he just had to figure out what that something was.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

AUTHOR'S NOTES II: Oh yeah, quite a lot of information out with this one, quite a lot of tangles exposed. Cid's history (why in the hell do I have this problem with killing Shera! First Last Resort, now here!), most of Yuffie's, the pieces of Cloud's accident he didn't know, the Clouffie-when-they-were-younger... Well, quite a bunch there. I had no intention of putting any of that in the chapter other than the Cid stuff, but the chapter had other ideas, and after trying to make it work the way I wanted I figured it was just easier to let it do what it wanted.

Mini-contest! The first person to guess what the name "Charles" is in reference to gets a bishie plushie of their choice and a cookie.

Next time, we get some more Riku and some more SoKai and Clorith, because you know Riku's not gonna go away. Stay tuned!

Remember, review replies are up in my livejournal! Let me know what you think!