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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 14, 2010 22:41:32 GMT -5
"Mister Leonhaaart!"
The loud, unmistakable voice of one very not-hidden ninja made its way through several rooms of the castle knights' training center. Several men complained. A few even attempted to escort her out, which she found amusing and always defied by not letting them anywhere near her. Regardless, she continued to make her way through them one by one.
"Hey Squall! You in here?" Yuffie called out rudely as she stuck her head into another room, this one containing many men doing various weapon exercises. From her vantage point she couldn't see him, but her target was indeed present in an opposite corner of the room. One of the apprentice knight's superiors told him to "Get rid of her" with a clear tone of agitation. Really, that's what Yuffie had been counting on anyway.
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 14, 2010 23:26:55 GMT -5
Squall lowered his gunblade, which had a peculiar looking myriad of what seemed to be weights hanging from it, loudly to the ground with a very light grunt. He was sweaty and his face was flushed, thankfully masking any coloration from irritation he may have had. Turning, he ran his hand through his hair and made his way quietly through the crowd of training knights-to-be, his eyes locked on the familiar, yet annoying girl. How did she even get in here?
Coming up on her quickly, his arm lashed out fluidly and wrapped around her shoulders in an attempt to quickly turn her and walk her along with him swiftly out the door, per his superior's orders. And because he was focused on becoming strong enough for a wall NOT to fall on him and take him out in battle..and she was interrupting this. Sometimes Squall had a tendency to get tunnel vision. "Yuffie, you can't just barge in here. It's restricted," he scolded though tight lips, eyes holding even more determination than usual. "What do you want?"
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 14, 2010 23:32:41 GMT -5
She 'allowed' the older man to steer her outside of the training room. After all, who needed an audience? Well, she did mention to one of the knights to stop holding his sword "like a girl" as she was ushered away, putting her hands up in a demonstration of a proper grip for the poor schlub, though it wouldn't be in view for long.
"There's nothing in the world restricted to a ninja, Leonhart!" Yuffie said matter-of-factly with a lot of pride. Her response to the man's query was followed by her taking a step forward and spinning around so she could smile up at him in the hallway. "I want to talk."
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 14, 2010 23:47:20 GMT -5
Squall stared at her with unwavering determination/ irritation for a long, silent moment before he relaxed and leaned back slightly. He hadn't realized he'd been leaning slightly forward due to her stature. Crossing his arms, he briefly touched his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "Talk," the nearly knighted man repeated with an incredulous tone. Moments later he dropped his hand and returned his eyes to the ninja's face, a bit softer but still annoyed.
"And what do you want to talk about? Is it at least important?" he asked, though he was braced for the answer he expected. A big fat no. His thoughts shifted to her asking him if he liked cheesecake, followed by her tiny frame launching out of one of the huge, sturdy castle doors...
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 14, 2010 23:51:43 GMT -5
"Hmmm... is it important?" Yuffie parroted, feigning thought as she looked to the side and touched the side of her index finger to her chin. The girl was never one to turn down a chance to bug Squall, a sort of childish revenge for all the times that he had, for duty's sake to be fair, gotten between her and Kairi spending time together. "I guess that depends, Mr. Leonhart."
Yuffie finally answered him with words that weren't a repetition of his own, but they still failed to give much content. She looked back up at the blue-eyed brunet and smiled in a knowing manner. Apparently she felt quite safe from the imagined door scenario.
"How important to you is Kairi? I'd say she's pretty high up there for me, at least."
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 14, 2010 23:57:20 GMT -5
The question caught Squall off guard. His irritation, which had been growing moments before, suddenly disappeared as his brows moved upward ever so slightly, eyes showing surprise though the rest of his face was unchanged. Kairi? Of course she was important...what kind of question was that? She was his charge to protect, as well as his friend. Concern flooded in next as to why she'd ask him something like that unless something was wrong....and then he remembered who he was talking to. The surprise eased into suspicion.
"You know the answer to that. She's a top priority. Why?" he asked, the question coming out just as suspicious as his eyes gave away. His head even turned slightly to the left as if to emphasize that he wanted in on whatever scheme she may be planning. And obviously it included him....
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 15, 2010 0:03:15 GMT -5
"Haha," Yuffie laughed in response, hovering her hand over her mouth as she did so. Squall's response seemed to genuinely amuse her. "She's a 'top priority', huh? Man, if I didn't already know better that would sound super cold."
Yuffie recomposed herself after the little breach of self-control and coughed. The ninja, dressed in her usual gear for missions and adventures(ie. mischief) raised ehr right hand toward the swordsman in a diffusing gesture.
"Calm down. I haven't got any evil plans you need to thwart this time," she said calmly, not being even the least bit sarcastic when she used the words 'this time'. "But I do need to ask: Had any bad dreams lately? Like maybe... last night?"
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 15, 2010 0:28:18 GMT -5
Squall opened his mouth to grouch about how none of her questions were making any sense and that he really was gonna throw her out the door, but instead his jaw only moved enough to part his lips before his whole body paused. Images of a dream forgotten upon waking up flashed back into his mind. The light blue eyes he sported grew distant as he filed through them, then became confused and skeptical as he arrived back on earth. He'd had a nightmare that Kairi had been in trouble, but in the long run she ended up safe, possibly with Yuffie's help. He closed his mouth and stared at Yuffie a moment before shaking his head in disbelief with something of a smile on his lips.
"Yes...And how in the world did you know that?" Squall asked, completely puzzled but a bit amused. The ninja had successfully derailed his tunnel vision, thrown his determination offline and now he wasn't thinking about training or his failure for the first time in days. Who knew if that was good or bad, but surely Squall's mind welcomed the break in one way or another.
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 15, 2010 0:33:42 GMT -5
Yuffie let out a "Hmph" and placed her hand son her hips at Squall's answer. The ninja's mouth slanted in scrutiny as she looked the taller man up and down. She was glad to hear him confirm the suspicions, of course, but the situation did hold a certain weight to it that she wasn't all happy for just yet.
"Well, you should probably ask Kairi about that yourself," Yuffie said, showing a rare sense of respect for personal space and privacy. "But if you felt it too then I guess I wasn't wrong. That kid really is fond of you, isn't she?"
Yuffie sighed and shrugged her shoulders. The girl's expression and body language was returning to her usual playful self again.
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 15, 2010 1:01:09 GMT -5
Her sudden seriousness again threw the man off. She was getting too good at this. Or maybe he was out of Yuffie-socializing practice since he'd locked himself in the castle training rooms. Whatever the case, he adapted and regained his calm, unshaken expression. His lips did twitch up into a small smile. It made him happy to hear that she was fond of him. It didn't make sense that a nightmare he'd had would be linked to her being fond of him, but a lot of things lately didn't make sense.
"I'll ask her about it then. But...can't you tell me anything about this? Did you feel it, too? What's going on?" Squall didn't know where Kairi was at the moment, but he put it on the top of the list of things he had to do today. He could take a small break from training. The muscles in his body ached, not from getting sore, but really from exhaustion. Relaxing and resting was not his strong suit. Once he was focused, that was it.
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 15, 2010 1:06:01 GMT -5
"Trust me, I wish I had an explanation for why," Yuffie said, waving her hand dismissively like it didn't matter all that much. "But what cha gonna do?"
The ninja looked over Squall again, her expression turning into some slight amusement now. The gears in her head were obviously turning, which was seldom a fully good thing for others.
"Well let's get right to it, Mr. Leonhart. You don't like me and I don't like you," she said bluntly, eyeballing the man to gauge his reaction to the statement.
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 15, 2010 1:24:28 GMT -5
Oddly enough, his eyes narrowed in agitation, but he couldn't say she was wrong. She drove him absolutely crazy, and in a highly rare moment, it was amusing to him. His eyes flashed and his mouth twitched. "Well said," he measured his words slowly, giving a quick bob of his head. His arms fell out of the tightly crossed position across his chest to his sides. They looked stronger than before. All of him did.
What was he gonna do? Find Kairi. "I don't know what you're getting 'right to', but I'm going to go find the princess." With that, he lifted the bottom of his plain white shirt to wipe any remaining sweat from his face, then started down the long hallway on the trail to Kairi's room. He listened to see if annoying footsteps would follow him, though the ninja was admittedly hard to track by ear. He liked to think he was skilled enough to catch any noise, though.
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 15, 2010 1:35:59 GMT -5
"Woah! Hey!" Yuffie said, flustered out of her usual act of playfulness by Squall's quick acceptance of her baiting statement. She probably should have thought that one through. most people would have wanted to see where she was going with it. Squall would accept it until further notice. The sound of footsteps would of course fill the brunet's ears she she made no attempt to hide the fact that she was rushing past him and turning to stand in his way. She even went so far as to outstretch both arms and plant her hands firmly on his chest to hold him back.
"OK, I was sort of trying to get to the idea that maybe you and I could, sort of, try to not not like each other," she forced out. It clearly wasn't her idea of a good time, and she looked up at Squall with an almost sheepish smile. A very rare sight to see for her.
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Post by The Bilby Girl on May 18, 2010 20:46:16 GMT -5
Squall, now halted by two small ninja hands, furrowed his brows in a way that one was slightly more raised than the other in confusion. First he had to sort out the ridiculous statement that had just run through his ears. Then, he had to figure out why she would say such a thing. Was it not accepted that they would likely never get along? Some people just rubbed each other the wrong way. Yuffie was always causing much more work than necessary to keep and make sure Kairi was safe...besides, she was just annoyingly hyper all the time and constantly snatching things that didn't belong to her. Yes, he knew he wasn't perfect and had his own flaws, but some people just aren't meant to mesh...unless there really was a concrete reason why they must. And usually that meant changing something about yourself. ...Great.
At least she looked just as reluctant about it as he felt.
"Then why didn't you just say that?" Squall asked in a mildly annoyed tone, leaning away from her outstretched hands. His eyes never left her face. "Now, why should we be trying to not not--" he trailed off, about to repeat the confusing collection of words before he corrected himself, "...er, to get along?"
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Post by The Bilby Guy on May 20, 2010 21:07:15 GMT -5
'Because a normal person would wait for the follow-up,' Yuffie thought, answering Squall's first question. She tied up the word sin the back of her head though, preventing them form being muttered under her breath at the bothersome brunet. She was on a "good-will" mission, after all. She wasn't going to act differently, but she could at least not go out of her way to be antagonizing.
To Squalls second question Yuffie crossed her arms, no longer needing them to stall the apprentice knight's exit. Her eyes and head turned to the left, gazing halfheartedly at the hallway wall. She scrunched her mouth in a mix between smile and frown before finally answering.
"Because I think it bothers her, OK?" she said with mild annoyance. No need to point out who "she" was.
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