Yuffie sees the wings in the back of Leon's jacket, and she thinks he has a problem with letting go. She's drawn all of his stories out of him, mostly when he'd tipped the bottle back a little too far and wasn't quite drunk, but only wishing he was, and she's memorized them all like a favorite, tattered children's book. Leon's stories help her forget her own, and this is the way that she ignores the tattered maroon cloak wrapping Cloud in an aura that's too cool for him anyway. He has the same problem, she thinks, and if she didn't know better she'd say that he and Vinny must have been butt buddies.

She knows, vaguely, about Miss Rinoa Heartily and her smiley face feathers, her Angel Wings, and how she took Squall's smile to the grave. She knows that Leon has his SeeD ID number tattooed into his back and that he meticulously polishes his gunblade.

"Why don't you take off your jacket sometime?" she asks, pseudo-innocently, because she just spent an hour bawling in the Red Room closet (it's too red for her, but not bloody red, just Vinny red) and she needs a distraction.

Leon just gives her a long, hard look and asks Yuffie why she hasn't taken her materia out of her pocket.

"Touché," she replies, and mock-salutes him as she leans across the entrance of Cid's shop, not even thinking (this time) about how gay it is to go from rockets to bracelets.

She doesn't bring it up again.

0-FIN-0

Posted, like, a billion years ago on KH_Drabble, but I forgot all about it until today. Which is weird, because I love it.

Also, I have internet again! Expect lots more fic coming from me now, yesiree! March 9th will mark the beginning of the new, epic fic that I'm starting. Coming soon to a computer near you.