Ch 3: Retaliation

Disclaimer: -sigh- I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

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Damn punk. Squall would love to just get up and punch the living guts out of the man who was currently sitting across from him. That was what Yuffie would have done with someone who was annoying her (Leon could attest to that fact), but he had more self control than that.

…He'd like to think so, anyway.

The problem was that it was becoming a little more difficult to, well, not be unnerved by the newcomer Vincent Valentine's suspicious glare. What was his problem? Leon hadn't done anything. In fact, it was Leon's personal opinion that he had more right to be suspicious than Vincent had.

After all, Vincent was the one charging after the heartless, suddenly 'appearing' after all this time. Leon had cornered Cloud when Vincent was out…with…Yuffie…but Cloud had sworn that Vincent could be trusted, and Aerith had also added that he was quite kind, despite his vampire appearance.

Well, Leon couldn't argue with that, especially after Cid had smiled knowingly at him. Damn old airship pilot.

Argh. Stop swearing, he told himself. You'll end up like Cid.

"Pass the salt, Squall!"

"It's Leon," he replied automatically. He had to wonder why he ever told Yuffie his first name.

"Whatever, Squall. Just pass the stupid salt!"

"Fine, fine." He handed the salt to Yuffie, who promptly dumped it over her food.

Amusing. He smiled-um, smirked at her antics.

Suddenly, Leon got a feeling similar to when a cold gust of wind blows against you. He looked up to see that Vincent's glare had intensified. This time, Leon's lips widened into what was undoubtedly a smirk.

Haha, take that, gunslinger vamp. Yuffie's completely ignoring you. Point for Leon.

…But of course he definitely couldn't care less whether or not he had Yuffie's attention. Psh. Don't be ridiculous. For all Leon cared, Yuffie could marry Vincent, and he would be perfectly all right.

Leon was simply concerned that Yuffie would be making the biggest mistake of her life if she had intimate relations with said vampire. Leon was just feeling natural concern, and only in a big brotherly way, mind.

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A couple of hours later, and the Hollow Bastion committee was getting ready for bed. Just as Squall was getting out of the bathroom, Yuffie came running down the hallway, pulling Vincent along with her. Both faces instantly scowled.

"Hey, erm, Squall, which room exactly is Vinnie gonna stay in?"

Leon's first thought was preferably the basement. Failing that, outside in a ditch was a nice place too. Fortunately, Leon thought before he spoke, and merely replied with a stoic "Anywhere. Pick a room."

"Okay. Here, Vincent, stay here, while I go see which rooms are livable." Yuffie flashed him a quick smile, and sprinted down the hallway, leaving the gun users behind in a tensioned silence.

Leon watched her leave. Once she was out of sight, he simply stood there, feeling like an idiot. Grunting, he turned his back to Vincent and was about to re-enter the room, when a cold, threatening voice stopped him.

"Stay away from her."

Leon quickly turned around, his eyes flashing at the nonchalant cloaked (Squall was starting to think that Cloud's past world had an unhealthy attachment to cloaks) figure of Vincent Valentine.

He would have said something not so polite right back at him, but Yuffie chose that moment to bounce back down the hallway, yelling "Vincent, com'ere, I found a room for ya!"

Vincent gracefully walked to where Yuffie was standing, and followed her as she zoomed away.

Squall grimaced grotesquely, and punched the wall. He then stalked to his room, undressed, and lay down on his bed, pulling the covers over him.

He was just drifting off to the peaceful realm of dreams, when he was awoken by approaching footsteps. Trained for quick reflexes, he immediately sat up as Yuffie pranced inside and hopped down to her bed. She giggled. "Geez Squall, no need to be so alert, it's only me."

Leon just lay back down, simply replying "It's Leon."

"Whatever." Yuffie snuggled into her bed. "Well, good night, Squall!" He inwardly sighed, but he decided that it wasn't worth the effort to correct her again.

He was falling into dreamland again, but Yuffie's voice woke him up.

"Hey, Squall…Do you think he'll leave again?"

Leon groggily opened his eyes. "Who do you mean?"

"Vincent. He was gone a lot back in my old world."

Falling prey to a strange and foreign feeling (definitely not jealousy, because Leon would never ever be jealous over an eighteen year old), he was greatly tempted to sharply retort that he couldn't care less if Vincent left. He didn't voice his inner turmoil of emotions, though, and said "I doubt he would leave you." His statement was full of sarcasm, but Yuffie didn't notice.

Leon applauded himself for his amazing self control. However, he couldn't restrain himself from asking a question that his inner insecurity (the same insecurity he felt over not being able to protect his loved ones from the heartless) had to know. "Do…Do you like him?"

Yuffie turned on her side, facing Squall, and stifled a yawn. "Hmm? Yeah, I do like him. Oh, you mean in that way. Nope." She smiled sleepily. "I used to have this stupid crush, but since he didn't feel the same way, I got over it."

A warm feeling spread in Leon's chest as her words sunk in.

A warm feeling that had absolutely nothing to do with love.

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Yuffie woke up bright and early the next day. Odd, because she was normally a late sleeper and had to be dragged out of bed.

She looked over to Squall's side of the room and saw that it was empty. Insert sigh. It seemed like she was never able to wake up earlier than him.

After quickly changing and brushing her teeth, she walked out of her room, pondering what to do. She debated over going to wake up Vincent, but then decided that he probably wouldn't want to be woken up at this hour. As far as she could tell, nobody else had.

Yuffie made up her mind to go see Squall. She had missed training yesterday, which was really not a good thing, considering the upcoming tournament. Squall probably wasn't too happy about that. Yuffie went back to her room, grabbed her shruiken, and sprinted to the training area.

As she suspected, Leon was there, practicing with his gunblade.

"Hey, whassup, Squall!"

He turned, murmured a greeting, and went back to training.

Hmph. Ignoring her, huh? Meanie!

Just for kicks, Yuffie threw her shruiken at him, but he deftly raised his gunblade to block the throw.

"You missed training yesterday."

Oops. She was hoping that he wouldn't remember. "Er, right. Sorry about that. See, you know I was happy that Vinnie came back, so I wanted-"

"Whatever. Just put in more effort today."

Wow, he was seriously going to let her off? And-and he didn't raise his voice and was actually looking happy? Great! Yuffie resolved to get up earlier; she liked this new Squall, and he probably only appeared in the early morning.

"We better beat that kid."

Haha! The way he said it made her laugh. Squall had never quite accepted being beaten in the championships by an ignorant little boy. Yuffie didn't mind so much, because hey, if Sora was the one who was supposed to save the world, then yeah, she wanted him to be strong!

So she didn't mind losing, but that didn't mean that they weren't going to totally kick Sora's butt in the tournament this time.

"Of course we are, Squall!"

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Vincent entered the kitchen. He had just woken up, and it was nearly midday. He approached Aerith, who was cooking on the stove, and asked where Yuffie was.

"Oh, I think she's still out training with Leon. Wait, there they are!" She tilted her head to the window where, indeed, they were walking down the path, apparently arguing.

The dagger located in Vincent's gut twisted as he saw them come barging in, yelling at each other, but standing close together, too close.

Vincent expected Aerith to break up the argument, but all she did was smile. "How was your training?"

"Awful! This stupid person just won't admit that I won!"

"No, she just won't accept the fact that I beat her in sparring."

"You did not! I was faking; faking, got it?"

"No, you weren't."

"Oh yes I was! You just don't appreciate the finer nuances of true battle!"

They continued to bicker, but Aerith's smile just got wider, and she looked at them fondly.

And she therefore completely missed Vincent's scowl.

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…Eep, Leon is rather deeply in denial…

And yes, yes, I know. That long an update for this short a chapter…Sorry for all the grammar/spelling mistakes I know are in here, I wrote this quickly...Ehehehe…

Whee, the flamer has gone away, to flame my other stories! Yippee. xDD Makes me wonder about how boring his life must be.

Big thank you to all my reviewers! –sniff– You guys are the epitome of awesomeness!

I shall try to update soon(er)…Review?

PS. It's been two months and my story is still on the front page for Yuffie/Leon fics? Write more Squffie, people! ;)