Day 52: Sun Room

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

No better way to start the day than with a bucket full of sunshine, huh? Too bad that'd been the opposite.

In the end, Yuffie had been more than glad to escape. All the angst and sap and drama; it'd been too much, and way too personal. She'd done her best, for her friend's sake, but that Tomoe chick was gonna be hard work. Why couldn't Kenshin have asked for her help in something simple, like killing the big bad of the day?

… Oh, wait.

Groaning, the young ninja gave up on just walking through the sun room. What kind of a way to cheer herself up was that? No, she needed something interesting—she needed a distraction. Walking on her hands wasn't a whole lot better than walking on her feet, but it did get Plucky going.

"Hanna, stop that this instant! You'll break your neck."

"Oh, come on; only a moron'd kill themselves doin' a handstand. They're child's play!" Yuffie, after shifting her weight to her left hand, waggled a finger at her nurse. "It's a waste of my prodigious talent, actually. You really should be grateful." She hopped forward several more paces before dropping her hand back down.

"Be that as it may," Plucky replied, doubtfully. "I must insist."

"Insist away," said Yuffie, nonchalantly, pausing just long enough to let a cat stroll past her.

"You'll disturb the other patients!"

"Your face'll disturb the other patients." It was petty, and it was childish, but Yuffie didn't care; it was getting her what she wanted. And what she wanted was something to laugh at, something to poke at, something that, while it kept her wandering attention in the here and now, didn't really require her to think.

[For Kaito~]

Comments

[flashyaudacity]

"You could certainly try to, Ms. Thief... though I think you'll find I don't give up the spotlight easily..." Kaito retorted, laughing easily. "Let alone allow someone to steal it from me!"

He took a few steps around a short table to drop into a chair near Yuffie's. "Any show of mine is definitely worth seeing," he added, raising a hand. With a flourish, he produced one of the paper flowers he'd made yesterday in arts and crafts with Kay. "My performance for you and Yukari the other day? That was barely a 'warm-up'."

Lack of preparation put a bigger damper on things than he cared to admit—he was a magician, and he should be able to do magic anywhere, with anything! He just needed to start improvising more, to collect anything he could get his hands on and keep his pockets full so that he could pull out whatever he needed to make a trick really work at the drop of a hat. He just needed to think of the lack of material as a challenge instead of a setback.

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

There he went again, calling her a thief!

"Well, Mr. Pickpocket, the challenge is half the fun," Yuffie countered, still grinning. "If I thought you were gonna make it easy for me, I wouldn't bother in the first place." Unless it was a necessity. But, even then, she'd rather get stuck into something interesting—something with spice, something with bite.

She sprawled back in her chair, caught in an odd limbo between relaxed and restless, and watched Kaito 'magic' a paper flower into her his hand. He really wasn't half bad at sleights, Yuffie had to admit… He didn't hesitate, or fumble; it was like he'd practiced so much they'd become second nature. "Nice flower," Yuffie said, rolling her eyes.

(… Actually, it really was a nice flower. It just wasn't as good as one of hers.)

"That stuff, this stuff—child's play," she agreed. Her grin turned challenging. "I could do it in my sleep. And, for all I know, your other tricks are no different."

[flashyaudacity]

Another flourish, and the flower disappeared once more. "Thanks," Kaito said cheerily, despite the rolling of the eyes that had accompanied the compliment. He was going to choose how to take it, and he chose face value: a compliment was a compliment.

"You'll just have to see, won't you? A magician should never perform the same trick twice, and I'd rather save them for a larger audience... For the show. And hey, maybe we could just share it," he suggested.

He shrugged a moment later. "Wouldn't be as fun as competing over it, but it would be more enjoyable for the audience. You could do... whatever it is you do as my opening act."

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

"Or the competition could be part of the show." Yuffie didn't really know anything about these things; she worked alone (except for when she didn't), and while flaunting her abilities was totally cool… "I dunno," she admitted, brightly. "I'm a ninja, not a showman. Tricks, sleight, and kicking ass; that's my game."

Following somebody else's lead… Ah, could she really do it? Did she want to do it? He had said 'my' opening act.

Suddenly, she laughed. "Ah, y'know, I have a friend — he looks real good in a dress." If it'd give her the opportunity to publicly humiliate Cloud, she was all for it! The bruises on her cheek weren't so bad, as bruises went, but they stung—and so did her pride.