All Through the Circling years (Final)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Merlin makes accommodations in his house- of course it’s still standing, he’s a wizard for crying out loud. A few spells and temporal shifts and there’s a door that leads to a set of rooms that doesn’t necessarily exist in this dimension. Yuffie takes the room that, by all accounts, should be at the front of the house overlooking the road.
What she gets instead is a spectacular view of a meadow and it looks like she’s on the bottom floor. It’s weird, and probably better not to question it, especially after Merlin admits, “It’s a spell I learned from my good friend, Master Howl.”
Yuffie had met him once, an oily individual that seems to excel at getting out of any kind of legit work and frankly Yuffie does not want to think that she’s residing in anything that has resulted from one of his spells.
It seems like everyone has something to do. Cid is constantly rigging things up and discussing a marriage between science and magic with Merlin. The resulting Claymore system is a wonder and makes Yuffie’s life that much easier, after it’s finished giving her a startle. Nobody told her they were test running it that day so when the little sphere popped out of nowhere she let out a most un-ninja like shriek and was left clutching her chest dramatically with nobody to see.
She went home that day, doing her best impression of Leon, “What gives, Pops? You guys trying to kill me? All I’m doing is minding my own business, trying to chop up a few heartless and keep your sorry ass safe and all of a sudden, BOOM this thing practically attacked me! And it stunk of your idea to high heaven!”
“Calm down, ya drama queen! It wouldn’t have attacked you, give me some credit, and we did tell ya. At breakfast. Ain’t our fault you were too busy shovin’ yer face to pay attention.”
Aerith is busy being nurturing and visiting the clinic and healing people until she almost collapses on her feet and someone has to drag her home- back to base really- and everyone fusses over her and chides her and tells her not to do that again, and she promises she’ll be better tomorrow and come tomorrow the whole cycle repeats itself.
Squall is busy bossing everyone around and hauling large pieces of rebar around and checking on everyone else and making sure nobody wants for anything. He’s still calling himself Leon, which sucks and Yuffie was really hoping this would be the turning point for him. It’s not, so she makes a point of calling him everything else she can think of from Nancy to Susan to Billy-Joe and at one point, even calls him Squeon. The lack of a reaction would be almost disappointing if it wasn’t Leon she was talking to.
Then there’s Yuffie. She spends a few days with each of them until she gets tired of the various ways of being told “you’re in the way.” And spends the rest of the time at the shelter. Most days she just plays with the kids and tells outlandish stories and makes them laugh and the parents smile because, hey their kids can still laugh, who wouldn’t be happy? And every now and then, when someone else pops into the world with that lost and bewildered look, Yuffie is there with a hand-crocheted blanket and a bowl of soup and a smile, “Welcome home!” because even if it’s a lie, it’s nice to be welcomed every now and then.
-
The Restoration Committee is her idea. It starts out innocuously enough. People want to help but can’t catch Squall’s attention long enough to get any official jobs and so they look elsewhere. Usually to Yuffie or Aerith. Aerith will tell them that it’s fine, that they have everything under control and everyone should just worry about settling in. but that’s not what the people want, that’s not what they need they need to feel useful and like they’re helping and not just mooching and so Yuffie starts making the membership cards and making little suggestions.
“We could use some patches on some blankets at the shelter. Or help in the kitchen. We could use some people to paint murals in the playroom, help cheer the kids up.” And originally the membership cards are a more authentic pass to get behind the scenes at the shelter and help out. Just flash it at the door and get nodded through instead of being stopped every ten steps and questioned.
Merlin thinks it’s brilliant and great and an awesome way to make everyone feel connected and Yuffie thinks he’s making a big deal out of nothing, but he mumbles a little ditty and poof, hundreds of identical cards are suddenly stacked on the table and thank the stars because now she can stop drawing that stupid picture over and over and over again and really, it was starting to look less like a castle and more like a deformed pig.
-
It’s kind of a relief to still have heartless around. She knows where she stands with them: on the good end of the kunai. And heartless don’t judge and ask if she isn’t too young to be doing what she’s doing and stare at her with pity and wonder and, sometimes, judgment. “Oh, it’s that girl. The one living with all those people.”
Because, apparently, you cannot have a make-shift family unit around here, never mind the fact that nobody really has an actual family left to speak of, the denizens seem to take some kind of sick pleasure in gossiping about Yuffie and Aerith and Cid and Merlin and Squall. Obviously, they’re living together in sordid sexual acts. Obviously it’s a giant orgy every night. Obviously it has nothing to do with knowing the sound of someone else’s nightmare induced scream and knowing when to make tea or coffee or pancakes, depending, at three am and pretend like you just have insomnia, not that you were woken by someone else’s Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. And no, normally they don’t want to talk about it. Normally the question doesn’t’ even come up. Normally it’s enough just to have someone else in the kitchen, pretending to do something to keep themselves busy until they feel the need to sleep again. Normally it's enough just to know you’re not alone.
It’s not everyone, if it was Yuffie would probably have tossed in the towel and told them to fend for themselves ages ago. No, a good chunk of the populous couldn’t give a flying pig’s fart about what does or does not go on inside Merlin’s place. They’re the ones that Yuffie keeps fighting for. The ones that stop her in the streets for a tight embrace or enthusiastic hand-shake and say things like, “If there’s anything, anything we can do for you.” And it’s not just the gratitude, okay it might be a little about the gratitude, Yuffie won’t lie to herself that much but mainly it’s the people. The ones who are happy and are happy for others and just grateful to still be alive and kicking and always manage to say nice things to people.
-
One day Yuffie is walking along, monitoring things. Nothing major, just enjoying the sound of people’s laughter and the sound of living in general, one hand spinning a shuriken lazily around a finger and she’s not doing much of anything or thinking much of anything and all of a sudden BAM she remembers that she had forgotten. It’s a little like what happened before, when everything from that other life came flooding into her but this? This isn’t quite as dramatic and it’s just one person and how did she forget Sora?
It doesn’t surprise her at all when Sora literally pops up after that, it was par for the course really. Part of her is excited, she missed the kid, but part of her is wary. Where there’s Sora, there’s usually trouble.
She’s usually right on that last one.
-
She meets the man in the black coat.
Well one of them. This one, she wants to take something heavy or possibly just something wicked sharp and chunk it at his head. He laughs way too much and okay, yes he’s super annoying but she hasn’t really caught him doing anything bad and she runs into him A LOT.
One day he pulls his hood down and flashes white teeth at her. “Man, you never change, do you?” She eyes him suspiciously.
“Lea?”
It’s a quiet question, barely more than a breath really. And he laughs again. “Sorry kid, you got the wrong guy. Name’s Axel.” Taps at his forehead. “Keep it memorized.” And disappears again.
-
Tifa shows up one day, squints at the town and doesn’t even ask for directions, manages to head right over for them. Aerith drops a teacup and it shatters and she makes a breathless little noise and throws herself at Tifa. There is laughter and lots of hugging and petting and touching and it’s the reunion of best friends. Everyone is curious and eventually food is provided and Tifa is made to sit down and tell them what she’s been up to for the past hundred years. How did she get here? Where’s Cloud?
Aerith stays by her side throughout dinner; they’re practically linked at the hips throughout Tifa’s story, except for the occasion when Aerith skips to the kitchen to refill her friend’s plate. She comments on Tifa’s general weariness, goes to pour her a hot bath and both girls disappear in the bathroom for the rest of the evening.
Tifa leaves the following morning, her knap-sack replenished with supplies and hugs around for everyone. Even Squall, much to his chagrin. She gives a saucy little half wave, half salute and calls out, “Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon!” before disappearing in her extendedly borrowed gummi-ship. Leon, predictably, turns away as soon as the bay doors are closed, and Cid and Merlin toddle off shortly after she starts the engines up. But Yuffie and Aerith stick around, waving like crazy people and calling out affectionate things until after the ship has disappeared out of their atmosphere.
If Aerith is saddened by Tifa’s departure, she doesn’t show it. She turns to Yuffie with a smile and says, “Come on, you, we’ve avoided our chores long enough this morning.” She manages to hum a little ditty to herself as she heads back home.
Aerith makes lunch and asks Yuffie to help out, nothing extreme after the last time. Just stir this pot or pop this tray into the oven. Squall manages to come off patrol long enough to sit with them, and before the plates are even served Cid and Merlin manage to put in an appearance. They sit together at the table and there’s no grace, because they’re all too jaded for that, but there are plenty of smiles to go around, and even a few stories looking back fondly on their beginnings.
Nobody calls anyone else ugly names, Yuffie even manages to ask, “Pass the bread, please,” without sounding like it’s choking her and Squall makes a face that, if the others were pressed to describe it, might be somewhere in the realms of vaguely happy looking.
-
There are no more heartless and it’s safe, safe as it’s ever going to get. They start a recovery mission into Old Town, the place where things used to be and they salvage things that they can. It’s easier and so much safer than it would have been this time a year ago, when you couldn’t be sure of stepping anywhere without having a heartless pop up.
They’re expanding the city now, not just making shanties and lean to’s, people are building things and Yuffie is helping where she can and all of a sudden, her hair is too long and she has to keep the sides pulled back and the loose bits curl over the line of her neck and they tickle. Aerith helps her pin them back with bobby pins and she feels silly and a little girly on the day that Aerith slips a daisy clip into her hair and Leon is staring at her funny so she growls and snaps at him for the rest of the day because a daisy clip does not a lady make; she’s still Yuffie Kisaragi, ninja extraordinaire, and she can still kick his ass whether the day be good or bad.
-
One day Tifa kicks in the door. She’s dirty and smelly and some of her hair has been singed and she stinks like a fire but she’s smiling and she has Cloud loped over her shoulders, and he’s unconscious and she says, “We’re home!”
Just like that, two more people. Merlin makes adjustments to his house again, the rooms pop and for a while there is the smell of licorice. Everyone is given their own room, which is just weird and during the first night of lying there, listening to the sounds of nothing, Yuffie drags her mattress back into Aerith’s room.
Aerith is already asleep. Yuffie plops her mattress as quietly as she can on the floor, snuggles under her blanket and listens to the familiar inhale-exhale of her friend.
-
Someone needs to be in charge; it’s a no brainer. Leon declines the position without so much as blinking, and Cid outright laughs when he’s prompted. It’s Yuffie’s idea to come up with a group to run it. They find a single mother, a farmer, and a merchant and they are the top of the tier, but there are more like them that make up the council. Merlin becomes the advisor to them all and admits, somewhat ruefully, that he knows a thing or two about politics.
Yuffie thinks that’s all there is, but it’s not.
There’s a big stupid party and everyone wants to say thanks to Leon and Cid and Aerith and even Yuffie so they’re the guests of honor, which means she can’t wear her shorts and ratty top.
Aerith shoves her in a dress and okay, as far as dresses go it’s not that bad. Definitely covers more than her normal attire which feels weird. It’s a warm, buttery yellow which is a stupid color for a ninja but, according to Aerith, is a great color for a Yuffie. There are soft slippers that match to go with it. Aerith makes her wear her hair down, brushes it out and applies all sorts of Stuff to it so it lays straight and wow, Yuffie hadn’t realized how long it had gotten, it almost touches her shoulder and of course there has to be a hair clip, but at least it’s not a flower or a lady bug or anything stupid like that. It’s a simple triangle that slips into her hair, dusted in golden glitter.
“You’re like a little star,” says Aerith fondly.
“I think you just accused me of being gassy. And I gotta say, you aren’t too far off the mark there.”
They arrive and there are booths set up and some game stalls and there are lights strung across everything, small lights that make a soft glow and Yuffie is hit so hard with déjà vu that she stops for a moment, drinks in all the sights.
“I’m taller now.”
Leon is staring at her out the corner of his eye, wondering if he needs to escort her home because she looks like she’s about to faint or go crazy and stab someone, really it’s hard to tell with her sometimes, she knows this.
“And there’s no evil fairy hiding in the woods.” She swallows the lump in her throat. “And there’s no Lea or Isa or Kairi.” She thinks she might cry, which is just stupid and she’s blaming it on the dress, really. It’s such a stupid color for a ninja.
Then Squall is right there, at her side not making eye contact like he’s so good at and he says “After everything else, the sight of a few cheap game vendors is going to undo you.” He waits until she’s managed to compose herself enough that tears are no longer a threat and says, “Take you at a round of darts, the loser has to take a picture with the creepy clown.”
Yuffie has found enough strength to smile. “Leon plays carnival games?”
He’s walking in front of her, just a step or two, still close enough that she hears him chuckle. “No way. But Squall might.”
The End
psst, art here
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Merlin makes accommodations in his house- of course it’s still standing, he’s a wizard for crying out loud. A few spells and temporal shifts and there’s a door that leads to a set of rooms that doesn’t necessarily exist in this dimension. Yuffie takes the room that, by all accounts, should be at the front of the house overlooking the road.
What she gets instead is a spectacular view of a meadow and it looks like she’s on the bottom floor. It’s weird, and probably better not to question it, especially after Merlin admits, “It’s a spell I learned from my good friend, Master Howl.”
Yuffie had met him once, an oily individual that seems to excel at getting out of any kind of legit work and frankly Yuffie does not want to think that she’s residing in anything that has resulted from one of his spells.
It seems like everyone has something to do. Cid is constantly rigging things up and discussing a marriage between science and magic with Merlin. The resulting Claymore system is a wonder and makes Yuffie’s life that much easier, after it’s finished giving her a startle. Nobody told her they were test running it that day so when the little sphere popped out of nowhere she let out a most un-ninja like shriek and was left clutching her chest dramatically with nobody to see.
She went home that day, doing her best impression of Leon, “What gives, Pops? You guys trying to kill me? All I’m doing is minding my own business, trying to chop up a few heartless and keep your sorry ass safe and all of a sudden, BOOM this thing practically attacked me! And it stunk of your idea to high heaven!”
“Calm down, ya drama queen! It wouldn’t have attacked you, give me some credit, and we did tell ya. At breakfast. Ain’t our fault you were too busy shovin’ yer face to pay attention.”
Aerith is busy being nurturing and visiting the clinic and healing people until she almost collapses on her feet and someone has to drag her home- back to base really- and everyone fusses over her and chides her and tells her not to do that again, and she promises she’ll be better tomorrow and come tomorrow the whole cycle repeats itself.
Squall is busy bossing everyone around and hauling large pieces of rebar around and checking on everyone else and making sure nobody wants for anything. He’s still calling himself Leon, which sucks and Yuffie was really hoping this would be the turning point for him. It’s not, so she makes a point of calling him everything else she can think of from Nancy to Susan to Billy-Joe and at one point, even calls him Squeon. The lack of a reaction would be almost disappointing if it wasn’t Leon she was talking to.
Then there’s Yuffie. She spends a few days with each of them until she gets tired of the various ways of being told “you’re in the way.” And spends the rest of the time at the shelter. Most days she just plays with the kids and tells outlandish stories and makes them laugh and the parents smile because, hey their kids can still laugh, who wouldn’t be happy? And every now and then, when someone else pops into the world with that lost and bewildered look, Yuffie is there with a hand-crocheted blanket and a bowl of soup and a smile, “Welcome home!” because even if it’s a lie, it’s nice to be welcomed every now and then.
-
The Restoration Committee is her idea. It starts out innocuously enough. People want to help but can’t catch Squall’s attention long enough to get any official jobs and so they look elsewhere. Usually to Yuffie or Aerith. Aerith will tell them that it’s fine, that they have everything under control and everyone should just worry about settling in. but that’s not what the people want, that’s not what they need they need to feel useful and like they’re helping and not just mooching and so Yuffie starts making the membership cards and making little suggestions.
“We could use some patches on some blankets at the shelter. Or help in the kitchen. We could use some people to paint murals in the playroom, help cheer the kids up.” And originally the membership cards are a more authentic pass to get behind the scenes at the shelter and help out. Just flash it at the door and get nodded through instead of being stopped every ten steps and questioned.
Merlin thinks it’s brilliant and great and an awesome way to make everyone feel connected and Yuffie thinks he’s making a big deal out of nothing, but he mumbles a little ditty and poof, hundreds of identical cards are suddenly stacked on the table and thank the stars because now she can stop drawing that stupid picture over and over and over again and really, it was starting to look less like a castle and more like a deformed pig.
-
It’s kind of a relief to still have heartless around. She knows where she stands with them: on the good end of the kunai. And heartless don’t judge and ask if she isn’t too young to be doing what she’s doing and stare at her with pity and wonder and, sometimes, judgment. “Oh, it’s that girl. The one living with all those people.”
Because, apparently, you cannot have a make-shift family unit around here, never mind the fact that nobody really has an actual family left to speak of, the denizens seem to take some kind of sick pleasure in gossiping about Yuffie and Aerith and Cid and Merlin and Squall. Obviously, they’re living together in sordid sexual acts. Obviously it’s a giant orgy every night. Obviously it has nothing to do with knowing the sound of someone else’s nightmare induced scream and knowing when to make tea or coffee or pancakes, depending, at three am and pretend like you just have insomnia, not that you were woken by someone else’s Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. And no, normally they don’t want to talk about it. Normally the question doesn’t’ even come up. Normally it’s enough just to have someone else in the kitchen, pretending to do something to keep themselves busy until they feel the need to sleep again. Normally it's enough just to know you’re not alone.
It’s not everyone, if it was Yuffie would probably have tossed in the towel and told them to fend for themselves ages ago. No, a good chunk of the populous couldn’t give a flying pig’s fart about what does or does not go on inside Merlin’s place. They’re the ones that Yuffie keeps fighting for. The ones that stop her in the streets for a tight embrace or enthusiastic hand-shake and say things like, “If there’s anything, anything we can do for you.” And it’s not just the gratitude, okay it might be a little about the gratitude, Yuffie won’t lie to herself that much but mainly it’s the people. The ones who are happy and are happy for others and just grateful to still be alive and kicking and always manage to say nice things to people.
-
One day Yuffie is walking along, monitoring things. Nothing major, just enjoying the sound of people’s laughter and the sound of living in general, one hand spinning a shuriken lazily around a finger and she’s not doing much of anything or thinking much of anything and all of a sudden BAM she remembers that she had forgotten. It’s a little like what happened before, when everything from that other life came flooding into her but this? This isn’t quite as dramatic and it’s just one person and how did she forget Sora?
It doesn’t surprise her at all when Sora literally pops up after that, it was par for the course really. Part of her is excited, she missed the kid, but part of her is wary. Where there’s Sora, there’s usually trouble.
She’s usually right on that last one.
-
She meets the man in the black coat.
Well one of them. This one, she wants to take something heavy or possibly just something wicked sharp and chunk it at his head. He laughs way too much and okay, yes he’s super annoying but she hasn’t really caught him doing anything bad and she runs into him A LOT.
One day he pulls his hood down and flashes white teeth at her. “Man, you never change, do you?” She eyes him suspiciously.
“Lea?”
It’s a quiet question, barely more than a breath really. And he laughs again. “Sorry kid, you got the wrong guy. Name’s Axel.” Taps at his forehead. “Keep it memorized.” And disappears again.
-
Tifa shows up one day, squints at the town and doesn’t even ask for directions, manages to head right over for them. Aerith drops a teacup and it shatters and she makes a breathless little noise and throws herself at Tifa. There is laughter and lots of hugging and petting and touching and it’s the reunion of best friends. Everyone is curious and eventually food is provided and Tifa is made to sit down and tell them what she’s been up to for the past hundred years. How did she get here? Where’s Cloud?
Aerith stays by her side throughout dinner; they’re practically linked at the hips throughout Tifa’s story, except for the occasion when Aerith skips to the kitchen to refill her friend’s plate. She comments on Tifa’s general weariness, goes to pour her a hot bath and both girls disappear in the bathroom for the rest of the evening.
Tifa leaves the following morning, her knap-sack replenished with supplies and hugs around for everyone. Even Squall, much to his chagrin. She gives a saucy little half wave, half salute and calls out, “Don’t worry, we’ll be home soon!” before disappearing in her extendedly borrowed gummi-ship. Leon, predictably, turns away as soon as the bay doors are closed, and Cid and Merlin toddle off shortly after she starts the engines up. But Yuffie and Aerith stick around, waving like crazy people and calling out affectionate things until after the ship has disappeared out of their atmosphere.
If Aerith is saddened by Tifa’s departure, she doesn’t show it. She turns to Yuffie with a smile and says, “Come on, you, we’ve avoided our chores long enough this morning.” She manages to hum a little ditty to herself as she heads back home.
Aerith makes lunch and asks Yuffie to help out, nothing extreme after the last time. Just stir this pot or pop this tray into the oven. Squall manages to come off patrol long enough to sit with them, and before the plates are even served Cid and Merlin manage to put in an appearance. They sit together at the table and there’s no grace, because they’re all too jaded for that, but there are plenty of smiles to go around, and even a few stories looking back fondly on their beginnings.
Nobody calls anyone else ugly names, Yuffie even manages to ask, “Pass the bread, please,” without sounding like it’s choking her and Squall makes a face that, if the others were pressed to describe it, might be somewhere in the realms of vaguely happy looking.
-
There are no more heartless and it’s safe, safe as it’s ever going to get. They start a recovery mission into Old Town, the place where things used to be and they salvage things that they can. It’s easier and so much safer than it would have been this time a year ago, when you couldn’t be sure of stepping anywhere without having a heartless pop up.
They’re expanding the city now, not just making shanties and lean to’s, people are building things and Yuffie is helping where she can and all of a sudden, her hair is too long and she has to keep the sides pulled back and the loose bits curl over the line of her neck and they tickle. Aerith helps her pin them back with bobby pins and she feels silly and a little girly on the day that Aerith slips a daisy clip into her hair and Leon is staring at her funny so she growls and snaps at him for the rest of the day because a daisy clip does not a lady make; she’s still Yuffie Kisaragi, ninja extraordinaire, and she can still kick his ass whether the day be good or bad.
-
One day Tifa kicks in the door. She’s dirty and smelly and some of her hair has been singed and she stinks like a fire but she’s smiling and she has Cloud loped over her shoulders, and he’s unconscious and she says, “We’re home!”
Just like that, two more people. Merlin makes adjustments to his house again, the rooms pop and for a while there is the smell of licorice. Everyone is given their own room, which is just weird and during the first night of lying there, listening to the sounds of nothing, Yuffie drags her mattress back into Aerith’s room.
Aerith is already asleep. Yuffie plops her mattress as quietly as she can on the floor, snuggles under her blanket and listens to the familiar inhale-exhale of her friend.
-
Someone needs to be in charge; it’s a no brainer. Leon declines the position without so much as blinking, and Cid outright laughs when he’s prompted. It’s Yuffie’s idea to come up with a group to run it. They find a single mother, a farmer, and a merchant and they are the top of the tier, but there are more like them that make up the council. Merlin becomes the advisor to them all and admits, somewhat ruefully, that he knows a thing or two about politics.
Yuffie thinks that’s all there is, but it’s not.
There’s a big stupid party and everyone wants to say thanks to Leon and Cid and Aerith and even Yuffie so they’re the guests of honor, which means she can’t wear her shorts and ratty top.
Aerith shoves her in a dress and okay, as far as dresses go it’s not that bad. Definitely covers more than her normal attire which feels weird. It’s a warm, buttery yellow which is a stupid color for a ninja but, according to Aerith, is a great color for a Yuffie. There are soft slippers that match to go with it. Aerith makes her wear her hair down, brushes it out and applies all sorts of Stuff to it so it lays straight and wow, Yuffie hadn’t realized how long it had gotten, it almost touches her shoulder and of course there has to be a hair clip, but at least it’s not a flower or a lady bug or anything stupid like that. It’s a simple triangle that slips into her hair, dusted in golden glitter.
“You’re like a little star,” says Aerith fondly.
“I think you just accused me of being gassy. And I gotta say, you aren’t too far off the mark there.”
They arrive and there are booths set up and some game stalls and there are lights strung across everything, small lights that make a soft glow and Yuffie is hit so hard with déjà vu that she stops for a moment, drinks in all the sights.
“I’m taller now.”
Leon is staring at her out the corner of his eye, wondering if he needs to escort her home because she looks like she’s about to faint or go crazy and stab someone, really it’s hard to tell with her sometimes, she knows this.
“And there’s no evil fairy hiding in the woods.” She swallows the lump in her throat. “And there’s no Lea or Isa or Kairi.” She thinks she might cry, which is just stupid and she’s blaming it on the dress, really. It’s such a stupid color for a ninja.
Then Squall is right there, at her side not making eye contact like he’s so good at and he says “After everything else, the sight of a few cheap game vendors is going to undo you.” He waits until she’s managed to compose herself enough that tears are no longer a threat and says, “Take you at a round of darts, the loser has to take a picture with the creepy clown.”
Yuffie has found enough strength to smile. “Leon plays carnival games?”
He’s walking in front of her, just a step or two, still close enough that she hears him chuckle. “No way. But Squall might.”
The End
psst, art here