Never End...

I OWN NADA! Except Heshen.

LAST TIME

'Where are your knights in shining armor now?' Heshen's voice echoed in their minds.

Kairi shook her head, not wanting to believe that Sora, after all he went through, would let her die because of this witch.

Yuffie felt the heat on her skin. 'Where's his shoulder that I can lean on?'

'Cloud?' Aerith wondered to herself.

"Gippal," Rikku merely called out weakly.

CHAPTER TEN

"It... Worked?" -Aerith Gainsborough

Yuffie's body felt as if it was on fire. Every nerve felt singed... Yet she seemed more depressed than hurting. Wasn't Leon supposed to be there no matter what? Maybe he was Rinoa's after all. 'No,' she told herself firmly. 'He's mine and he's coming for me...'

Her body shuddered and convulsed, but she'd risked too much to be with to let herself be taken over or killed. "Aerith!" she screamed as loud as she could, forcing her eyes to open.

Kairi stared out of the green flames that were engulfing her body. She thought of the corny jokes that Sora had told her on their way to Hallow Bastion and let a small chuckle escape her dry, cracked lips. At the instant that the chuckle tumbled into the fire, it seemed to calm down some. 'It's fed on... doubts! If you laugh, then... It leaves!' She laughed aloud, praying that she was right.

Aerith heard Kairi giggling dumbly and wondered how she could laugh at a time like this. "Kairi," she called out weakly, the heat starting to get to her. "You're losing it, dear!"

"Just laugh about ANYTHING!" the teen called back.

Unable to think of anything funny, Aerith let a small, humorless giggle tumble from her lips. As soon as it sounded weakly to her ears, the fire seemed to subside, if only momentarily. "It... Worked?"

Rikku had her eyes closed, trying to to think of the fire that licked at her exposed skin, that was scorching her blonde braids, that threatened to undo everything that she had worked so hard to do.

'Give up,' Heshen's manic voice whispered evilly into her ears from the flames.

"Never..." She heard the Princess and the Healer laughing, which struck her as humorous. She let her laughter tumble like waves into the fire, which eased considerably.

Yuffie fought back the tears that threatened to fall. The fire on each side of her lessened as her two friends laughed about something or another. Laughter? That's how they would defeat the flames? Talk about weird... But...

She flung open the door to the hotel and ran down the hall toward her room. When she got there, she burst through the door to see Cloud, two people she did not know, and her love. "Leon," she gasped, tackling him to the floor.

"Y-Yuff?"

She grinned down at him. "Miss me?"

He kissed her. "Did I ever!"

The laughter of that joyous moment bubbled in her throat and spilled out into the flames like ringing bells.

Leon watched in disbelief as the green flames around each of the girls slowly disappeared. His icy blue eyes were trained on one young lady who stumbled backwards, gasping for breath as she continued laughing. Heshen, who seemed bewildered, exploded, throwing the four young women to the four corners of the town square.

Yuffie felt the heat of the explosion and felt her back hit something solid, but couldn't remain focused enough to see anything and eventually blacked out.

Aerith turned to the others, her emerald eyes full of tears. "Still no change, guys." She looked back at the ninja girl, then collapsed against Cloud's chest and sobbed. "She's not getting better!"

"But she's not getting worse," Rikku pointed out, her arm bandaged from where she went crashing into the cafe.

Leon refused to look over at any of them, his hands holding Yuffie's left, icy blue eyes trained on her peaceful face. He hadn't spoken for the week since Heshen's defeat. Since Yuffie had slipped out of consciousness.

Deciding that they had better leave him alone, Riku ushered the three couples out. He chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw a solitary tear slip down Leon's cheek and land on Yuffie's, making it look as if she were the one crying. 'Please, Yuffie... Make it through. Even I can't bear seeing Leon like this.'

He shut the door behind him, leaving the two alone in the hotel room that they had shared for so long. "Yuffs," Leon murmured, burying his face in the blanket covering her midriff. His hands held onto her left hand as if his life depended on it.

A hand ran through his mohagony locks soothingly. His eyes looked up in surprise, locking with her grey-blue. "Heya," she said sleepily. "Didn't think I'd leave ya here all alone, didja?"

He hugged her tightly. "Jesus, never do that to me again, Yuffie," he breathed into her raven hair.

"I promise, Sq- Leon. Wanna know what brought me back?" He pulled away to look at her. "That simple fact that I'm your only hope to ever become human," she said with a wink.

He chuckled. "Of course, leave it to you to crack a joke when I'm nearly crying, right?"

"Of course! That's what I'm here for! To turn your icy heart into a normal human heart, to make fun of you, and to make everyone laugh!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. "Oh, yeah," she added thoguhtfully. "And to do this..." She brought her lips to his and kissed him passionately. "And this," she murmured, pinching his arm.

"Ow! What was that for!?"

Her eyes glimmered mischievously. "That's from Quistis. She said she owed you one."

He laughed out loud; a deep, booming laugh that made her heart leap. "Of course," he finally choked out. "She owed me one for the 'I told you so'."

Aerith sat in one of the chairs in the room that Leon and Yuffie shared, Cloud sitting between her feet. Rikku was leaning against Gippal's muscular chest. Riku sat in the other chair, his legs on either side of it and arms draped over the back. Sora and Kairi were leaning against the wall listening to the conversation, but not really part of it. Cid Highwind stood leaning against the door like Leon had done the first time that Sora met him. Yuffie was sitting on the bed, Leon's head in her lap as she ran her hand through his long-ish hair.

"So, Aero, what'd you think of to make you laugh?"

The pink-clad young woman shrugged. "You guys first."

"Okay," Yuffie replied. "I thought about the look on Cloud's face when he came in and found out that me and Leon were together."

"I thought about the corny jokes that Sora told me," Kairi chimed in, giggling again to herself.

"Corny!?" Sora fired off. "I didn't think they were that bad!"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Sora. You know they were at, like, a second grade level."

The bubbly blonde grinned over at them all. "I thought about what it would be like to go back to Spira!"

"Oh, yeah," Yuffie replied. "When are you guys leaving again?"

Gippal tossed her a charming smile. "Tonight after dinner. Right, Sora?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah.. Right!"

Everyone looked at Aerith, who turned a brilliant shade of red. "So...?"

She shrugged. "What?"

Yuffie sighed exasperatedly. "What did you think about to make you laugh?"

The flower girl bit her lip. "I thought about that dress you pointed out to me, Yuffie. The black leather one with the Gothic boots and stuff. Then, kinda thought about what it would be like if I wore that and what everyone would say. It was comic in the least."

Cloud looked up at her, raising a suggestive eyebrow. "Black leather, eh?"

"Whoah!" the ninja hollered. "If you're gonna think those thoughts, Cloudy-boy, you can go to your OWN room!"

Everyone laughed and Sora stood up slowly. "C'mon, Kairi. We'd better get our stuff packed."

"Same here," Gippal told his girl. "Or at least get some potions and such before we take off."

Aerith and Cloud exchanged looks before also getting up to leave. Cid, who was at the door, was gone before any of the rest could move. Riku followed last, glancing over his shoulder at the couple, then walking out slowly. 'Thank God she's okay...'

Yuffie raked her fingers through Leon's hair. "Sleepy?" she asked, looking down at his closed eyes.

"No, just relaxed." His eyes opened slowly and gazed into her stormy blue. "Are you sure you're okay?"

With a smile, she nodded. "Fine and dandy." Leon's stomach rumbled rather rudely and she giggled. "Guess we'd better get you something to eat, huh?"

"Yeah, probably so." He sat up with a groan and stretched lazily, turning back to look at Yuffie, who was clad in shorts and a grey tank top. "You going to change first?"

She looked down at herself. "Yeah, probably. Got something in mind for me to wear?" she asked, heading over to her dresser.

Leon walked over behind her, a goofy grin on his normally stoic face, and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing the sensitive place just under her ear. "How about..." He lowered his voice down to a whisper. "Nothing."

She wiggled in his grasp, finally leaning back into him. "Hm... Mr. Leonheart, are you suggesting something?"

His eyes flashed with a playfulness that she'd never seen before. "Of course."

YK2: Whew! Finally done!

Dracon: Sorry it took so long. --glares at Surka--

Surka: WHAT!?

Dracon: You were supposed to be feeding the computer gremlins that day!

YK2: My floppy disc got eaten by my computer! Really, it did! It suddenly decided that it needed formatted AGAIN, but wouldn't format, so it wouldn't work in any computer! So, all my stuff got erased! Anywho, I'm working on another story (Or twelve), but am re-posting "Est Sularas Oth Mithas" which is a FF7 fic about Yuffums becoming a Turk.

Dracon: Please, review. This was the last chapter.

Surka: Yuppers!

YK2: Till Next Time! AUDI!!!

-Yuffie Kisaragi2, Dracon Fira, & Surka Sokyu-