Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ The Mask ❯ Chapter 1

“Yuffie?” Aerith sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Is that you?” Inside the bathroom Yuffie bit her lip.

“Uh…yeah. Yup, it's me alright. Yuffie Kisaragi. In the bathroom.”

“Oh. Are you okay?” Aerith swung her legs down and padded across the hall from her room to the bathroom door. “I, uh, heard water running and I'd sure hate for you to be sick the night before all those folks from Hollow Bastion came for our reunion…are you sick, Yuffie?”

“No! I mean…er…uh…” Yuffie had never had a problem with Aerith before. A bit girly but then, Yuffie was a ninja so her standards would be a bit warped. Currently, however, said ninja was perched on the toilet reading ghost stories with her face covered in “Cleansing Mint Julep Flavored Clay Mask”.

Yes, we said mask. Not the plastic kind, either. The kind afore-mentioned girly-girl Aerith used when she wanted to look pretty. The kind that a seriously nervous kunoichi with way too much time on her hands and a case of nervous insomnia might just smear on her face at 2:00 a.m. in an attempt to occupy herself—and possibly get rid of the residual Heartless-slaying-induced grime that had seemed to be particularly hard to get off lately.

“Yuffie? Hey, why are you up, anyway? Are you sure you aren't sick?” Aerith leaned toward the locked door. “You were training all day—you should be asleep. Did you have a nightmare or something?”

Aerith normally wasn't such a gal-pal sort of person. Maybe it was the fact that she was almost as tired as Yuffie was—since Hollow Bastion had been rid of its darkness recently the people still there had decided to come for a reunion, and Aerith had been cleaning like a madwoman. She'd perfected her lemonade recipe, too.

“Oh yes!” Yuffie replied. “A…uh…a nightmare, a horrible nightmare. That's…yeah. Horrible.”

“You should tell me all about it, then.” Aerith was clearly not going away, and the mask was clearly not coming off until it was dry. Man, that stuff was like super-glue! Yuffie had the damp washcloth stuck to her chin as proof. That wasn't coming off either.

“Telling me about your dream will help you conquer it. So what was it about?”

In fact, that was the reason Aerith was awake. She'd had that awful dream where she was on a beautiful, exquisitely authentic 17th-century Spanish galleon, just like the ones in the books she'd been reading. Then a giant Kelpie* would come and wreck the whole ship. Aerith had woken up just as the deck had splintered beneath her feet to hear water running, which had been kind of terrible at first for obvious reasons.

Aerith sat down outside the door, content to listen to her friend talk. Leon and Cid were both gone in the ship, on their way back by ow with all their old friends who had wanted to see Traverse Town. She'd been working all day to get the shop and the quarters above it spotless, down to all the junk Leon threw under his bed.

To her horror there were actually a couple of poor, garbage-eating Shadows trapped down there, which had nearly given her a heart attack. There she was kneeling halfway under the bed, sifting through apple cores and dust-covered kunai and several unidentifiable things covered in pink mold—gross!—when she saw those distinctly glowing Shadow eyes peering at her. At least three pairs. Aerith had bumped her head and propelled herself out from under the bed just in time, for she'd barely had time to grab her broom before they darted out at her.

Yuffie, hearing the racket, had come up to check on Aerith only to find that she'd narrowed it down to one Shadow. This she was whacking frantically with her broom. The poor thing was so emaciated from being trapped down there with only Leon's leftovers to eat, she'd barely even had to aim. Yuffie could have sworn that the poor wretch had leaped eagerly at the flashing anken that she'd thrown. Aerith, meanwhile, had returned to cleaning petrified crud out from under the bed.

Yes, this had been a hectic day. Aerith had decided to take a long shower, the strongest strength potion she could lay her hands on, and go straight to bed after she finished cleaning. In fact both girls had turned in early. Maybe that, Aerith reflected, was why they were both awake now. She realized her companion had fallen silent, and this was beginning to creep her out. With a grimace, Aerith realized that she'd neglected Leon's closet. “What about your dream?” she prompted.

“My what? Oh, yeah. It was terrible. Really.” Behind the locked door, Yuffie was starting to get a mite more confidence as she concentrated on a good excuse for being up at this hour. “Cloud was in it, and Squall. And they were both being chased by…uh…” running out of ideas, Yuffie grabbed her book and flipped it open to a new story. “Zombies. Horrible gangly zombies, who all wanted their toes back.”

“Leon and Cloud had their toes? Yuck.”

“Yeah, I mean, weird, huh? But they were poor, so they were going to make them into stew.”

“Dead toe stew?!” Aerith giggled. “Yuffie, maybe you shouldn't train unsupervised. Sure you didn't hit your head?” She felt a lot better now. Dead toe stew! What a thought!

“Yeah, and, the zombies did all sorts of stuff to them. To make them give back the toes, I mean. Like, they hired Axel to cast a spell that turned their hair pink, and then when they drew their swords they turned pink too. It was so weird—”

“You got that right.”

“—Because the pink stuff was all sparkly and they kept saying, “This smells like broccoli soup. Why do we smell like broccoli soup?” Aerith started laughing.

“I swear, that is the weirdest dream I've ever heard of!”

“Yeah! Weird, huh?”

Suddenly the door rattled. Both girls heard a familiar voice say “See you guys tomorrow! The inn's that way. No, over there. That's it. Goodnight!”

Aerith raced for the stairs.

“Leon! Cid! You're home early!”

Just peachy.

 

 

“Oh, this is great. You're early!” Aerith chirped happily. “I'll make nachos, okay? You two must be hungry!” She busied herself setting up nachos a la Traverse Town: A huge platter of store-bought tortilla chips smothered in enough shredded cheddar cheese to give half the free-speaking world massive heart attacks. She laced it with three layers of taco seasoning and put the whole thing in the oven, chattering all the while to Leon and Cid.

“We didn't have any customers today. Don't worry Cid, I set out food for the stray cats—“

“Good. I thought you'd forget.”

“Nope!” And Leon…you should be proud of Yuffie. She was practicing the whole time I was cleaning out the house. Did you know you had Shadows living under your bed? They were trapped under there eating your old moldy leftovers. She helped me kill the last one, but I took care of the other two with my broom. By the way, I didn't check your closet, so be on your guard.”

“Shadows? Under my bed?” Squall raised his head from the cracked plastic counter. “Are you sure, Aerith?”

“Oh, yes. Nearly gave me a coronary. There I was under the bed, and I see these little glowing eyes. Just awful. It gave us both bad dreams. That's why I'm up. Yuffie was just telling me about hers—you were in it—and your hair was PINK! All because you were poor, so you took a bunch of dead people's—”

“You said Yuffie was awake?” Squall raised an eyebrow. He and Yuffie were really close; they'd practically considered each other siblings since coming to Traverse Town. Normally she would be down there, too, munching cold tortilla chips with taco seasoning and asking about their trip. “Where is she?”

“Oh, Yuffie? The poor dear. She was so scared, she'd been holed up in the bathroom over her dream. I really don't see why but I suppose it was scary to her because—Leon? Where are you going?”

“To check on Yuffie. She said my hair was what?!”

“Pink. And Cloud's, too. See you stole—” But he was gone.

“Go on,” queried Cid, attacking the nachos. “What did he steal?”

 

Back in the bathroom, Yuffie was starting to get scared. Not of the toe-avenging zombies, either. She knew that Leon would come barreling up the stairs any minute—possibly with a few of her cousins in tow—and demand that she come out and say hi. The fact that Aerith was seemingly chattering about their dreams didn't help at all. It probably wouldn't even buy much time. Yuffie gave the damp washcloth a hard yank. The only results were a few involuntary tears and a stream of Japanese cuss words. Cussing in another language wasn't really cussing, Yuffie had concluded years before as she memorized them from one of Cid's books. Let's hope not.

Meanwhile, that mask was S-T-U-C-K not coming off. She checked the package. The mask took half an hour to fully dry. Yuffie glanced at the clock. Way more than half an hour had passed. Then what was wrong with this stuff, anyway? She might have humbled herself and asked Aerith for help, but now that the guys were back that was out the window.

“Yuffie?”

Oh no…she recognized Leon's voice. “Uh, what?”

“Well…why don't you come out of that bathroom?” He paused, feeling for some reason as if he weren't wanted. “Aerith made nachos.”

“Well, that's great but, um…you see…”

“Look, I know you had a bad dream. But it's not like you're a girly-girl or anything, right? You can just forget it, come downstairs, and maybe we could go see your cousins. They're dying to meet you, Yuffie.”

And how ironic. Yuffie was just dying, period.

“Um, well Squall, uh, I hate to tell you this but I…I uh…” She fumbled. Her ghost story book couldn't help her now. “I was lying about the dream and what really happened was I, erm, breathed in some mold spores from your room.”

“Mold?”

“Oh, yes! Terrible…um…HP-dissolving mold! And it's contagious. So I think I'll just stay in here and maybe next week you can—” She could tell that Leon didn't believe her. And the mask was still stuck.

“Yuffie, open the door.” Leon was exasperated.

“Mold! Serious mold!”

“Yuffie. DOOR.”

“Leon. MOLD.”

“Door!”

“Mold!”

“Door!”

“Mold!”

“Kisaragi Yuffie! I command you, not only as your elder but as your sensei”—oh no—“to open up the darn door!!”

Yuffie grimaced. “Okay. Fine.” Slowly an idea dawned. “But don't say I didn't warn you, Sensei. The mold has taken over my face, and I have this strange growth on my chin…”

“Yeah, right.” said Squall.

Yuffie unlocked the door and slowly, carefully pulled it open. “I warned you.”

At the sight of her green face and—oh good gracious, what was that thing on her chin?—Leon staggered backward.

“I've got the mold, you see.” Yuffie fixed her eyes on him and stepped forward.

“Yeah. I see. I see.” Leon, as she stepped forward, took two steps back. He stumbled over something on the floor and fell flat on his back. “I see. You can, uh, go back now I guess. Um…”

“No, Leon.” As he scrambled into a sitting position Yuffie sat down beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder. “You're like my brother…my closest friend…and this mold is killing me. I'm dying, Sensei. I think I'd like to die on your shoulder. Goodbye, Leon. Tell my cousin Murray that I always loved him—” Her eyes closed with a dramatic sigh. Leon's eyes closed, too—he fell back onto the floor, totally KO'd.

Yuffie got up and pulled the door closed. “He's gonna kill me.” she muttered. “Good thing I still have that embarrassing photo of him from the Christmas party…”

 

“Aerith?” Yuffie's voice floated from the hall “Could you come over here for a second?”

“Sure.” When she saw the other girl's face, Aerith had to bite her lip so hard it left a mark. She finally found a pillow to smother the sound with and laughed until she couldn't breathe. “You used my mask? You really—oh, man, Yuffie. That's hilarious. What did Leon say?”

“If I tell you,” She replied, “You'll have an even worse fit. So get this off first.”

“Okay.” Aerith grabbed some stuff from her counter and locked them into the guys' bathroom. You do what you have to. “Now, first we need copious amounts of hot water.” She half-filled the tub. “How long can you hold your breath?'

“Are you nuts?” Aerith raised an eyebrow.

“I should be asking you that, shouldn't I?”

“Yeah, but I have a reason to be nuts.”

“Being?”

“I train with Squall. A lot.”

Aerith laughed. “Okay, point.” she paused. “…That uniform is waterproof, right?”

(Sigh) “Yeah. It is.”

“Why did you go to sleep in your kunoichi gear, anyhow?”

“I didn't go to sleep.”

Twenty minutes later both girls emerged, clean and soaking wet. Owing to the fact that a certain guy was still passed out in the hall in front of her room, Yuffie borrowed some of Aerith's pajamas—they were too long, of course—and, leaving the girl to her second laughing fit, started to go put her own stuff in the laundry when, crossing the kitchen, she was accosted by Cid.

“Miss Kisaragi? I need to ask you a question about Squall. It seems that he's holed up in yours and Aerith's bathroom, convinced that you are dead and that he—” the tongue in cheek act was getting hard to uphold—“Has contracted a dangerous strain of mold. Would you please go talk to him?”

“Uh, sure.” Yuffie dumped her wet clothes into the nearest hamper and started back up the stairs to find the bathroom door ajar. “Leon? There wasn't any mold. It's really a funny story, see—”

BONK!!!!

Squall grabbed the back of the pajamas Yuffie had borrowed and lifted her into the air so that she was level with his eyes.

“Next time you wanna go all girly on us,” he smirked, “Have a care not to be so obvious, hmm?” Leon held up the tube of mask with his free hand. “Now then, shall we go pay a visit to your cousin Murray? I'm sure he'd love to hear what you said.”

“I don't have a cousin Murray.”

“Oh well. There's got to be a Murray in this town somewhere.”

“Squall! PUT ME DOWN!”

 

 

 

END

 

 

 

 

 

 

*For the uninitiated a Kelpie is a water/land spirit. On land they can appear as horses or, in the case of Irish Kelpies, men with red eyes, long claws, and copious brown hair all over them that eat cows and dislike boiling pots of porridge. In the water these Kelpies' heads bob up and down like grotesque seals. Other Kelpies appear only as horses, usually drowning, then turn into huge horses, bigger than Clydesdales, with webbed hooves and fish bodies below the withers. Most Kelpies will just give the rider a good ducking; however do not seek to encounter a Kelpie. They can, at times, be fatal.

 

Please R&R, and call me on stuff I miss. (For example, is it Leon? Or Squall? I used both this time.) I don't have a game system, so I ask my friends or check the new manga when I can't figure something out. So I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or other help!

 

For those who enjoyed this, I recommend:

 

 

Flu Season by MAIDEN OF TIME AND SPACE

Taming the Difficult Child by Dark Punyan

Axel's Plight by Dark Punyan

What Ansem Does in his Spare Time by Dark Punyan

Bishounen from the Sky by Fuuzaki

 

Enjoy!

-Kagome