Small Hands
RayZor

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Summary: Squall is coping with a death, but his daughter is the only one who can actually help him.

"Come on, Yuffie," he growled impatiently, glancing at the clock on the wall. Squall Leonhart had sworn to never wear a wrist watch because that would make him look like his fater... Leon was nothing like Laguna and would be more than happy to keep it that way. Well... He thought that he was nothing like the father who was too immature for his own good. Yuffie loved Laguna's constant smiles and could tell that Squall had once been that way too. He was just too bitter to show that side of himself anymore.

He leaned heavily on the table, worry etched in his handsome features. His younger girlfriend should have gotten home by now. It was nearly midnight and she had only gone over to Aerith's for a few minutes. He tried not to think of what could have happened in the time between Aerith's house and their own apartment. He refused to think of such things. She was a fairly decent driver and knew that if she wrecked his truck, they'd have a go-around. That thing was his baby!

"Dammit," he mumbled and picked up the phone, punching in Aerith's number quickly. She should be there, right? Cloud was overseas and Yuffie was going over there to take her some clothes for their next trip to Good Will. Yes, she had to be there. So why wasn't she picking up?

"Hey, you've called three times in the past ten minutes," a voice said with a giggle. Yuffie.

"Jesus, Yuffie," he breathed. "Where the hell have you been? And why hasn't anyone answered he phone?"

She laughed, lifting his spirits. "Remember that I said I was going to be a little while?" He hummed in remembrance, although he thought that she meant a few minutes, not five hours. "Well... Aerith and I went to my doctor's appointment and..." He could tell she was biting her lip in hesitation. It was a habit that she had always had. She would bite her lip, her eyes shifting to the floor, and her hands would clench unconciously.

"What's up, Yuffie?" he asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"We're going to have a baby!"

He went speechless. A baby? One of those things that newly weds want desperately and teenaged lovers fear? They wear diapers and spit up and cry and all kinds of nasty things! But... For some odd reason...

"Squall?"

... He was happy.

"A baby?" he asked, a smile on his face. Apparently Yuffie heard the excitement in his voice because she laughed joyously. "When?"

"I'm five weeks along," she replied. "So... Eight or so months!" Aerith said something in the background and Yuffie let out an aggrivated sigh. "Oh... She says that she's envious as hell. I've had to hear all about how she and Cloud are goin' to spoil our child. It's not going to be pretty, Squall."

He chuckled. "Okay. So are you coming home?"

"Be there in a jiffy!"

They exchanged "I love you"s and "be careful," "I will"s before hanging up and leaving the man in silence. A baby... Had someone randomly brought that up, he would have been scared shitless... But the way she sprung it on him once she'd found out for sure... It was exciting. Like a new adventure for the two of them to embark on. That brought up a new question, though. What kind of daddy would he be? He was unsure as to how to show emotion, seeing how he had purposely avoided that from age sixteen to age twenty-five, when a certain sixteen-year-old girl brought him out of his shell.

He must have been thinking over that for quite a while, because the next thing he knew, the rumble of his truck could be heard. His truck was his baby, as mentioned before. It was a mid-sized Dodge Dakota, painted a steel grey to match the storm clouds. He had gotten it when he was sixteen. Before... He sighed to himself. Before his girlfriend had run into a light pole and been rendered mentally handi-capped. He had gone to see her, but... She was no longer the Rinoa he once knew. She was like a constant five-year-old. Always with the questions, with the goofy smile, the temper tantrums.

"Hello, darlin'," Yuffie said with a grin, walking into their small kitchen. She was short with a petite waist and a nice figure. Chocolate tresses were kept in a short, choppy style that framed her elfen face and brought out her indigo eyes. She wore denim jeans and a baggy tee-shirt, not really being one to show off that nice figure to anyone other than her boyfriend.

He raised an eyebrow at her, blue eyes sparkling with amusement. "Darlin'?"

She shrugged. "I was listening to old country on the way over and that song came on." He looked at her cluelessly. "You know... Hello, darlin'. How are you? It's been a long tiiii-iiime."

He shook his head but pulled her into his arms. "You are crazy."

She was about to protest, but he kissed her first. When they pulled away, she mockingly glared at him. "That was cheating," she pouted.

He laughed and picked her up bridal style - more to make her laugh that beautiful laugh than anything else - then carried her to their room, which only had a full-sized bed. It was more than enough room for the two of them. She curled up next to him, fitting perfectly by his side. He wrapped his arm around her waist, resting his large hand over her stomach and his chin on her shoulder. "So... any name ideas?" he asked her, nuzzling her neck.

She giggled, like every time that he nuzzled her neck. "Hmm... A few..."

Squall awoke to his fiancee becoming violently ill in the bathroom adjacent to their room. He stumbled in sleepily to see her bent over the toilet gagging. Fighting down the queasiness that had appeared upon seeing her in such a state, he sat on the side of the tub, a cool cloth being held on the back of Yuffie's neck. When she was finished, she smiled half-heartedly at him. She really did not like this morning sickness thing.

He took her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. "It'll get better," he promised her.

Squall Leonhart smiled at the memories. That was nearly six years before. Their daughter, Tael Renee, was now five. She smiled up at her father, wondering why he had been crying, but not expressing her curiosity. He smiled down at her, taking in her appearance, Her hair was mid-back length and a red-tinted brown. Her eyes were the amethyst eyes that her mother once had. She had a gentle disposition, like her mother, until irritated. Although she was calmer than either of her parents, she had already gotten into an all-out fight with some seven-year-old boy from down the street.

"Daddy?" the five-year-old asked softly.

"Yeah, Tael?"

She smiled cutely at him. "What was Mama like?"

He swallowed hard. He had been dreading that question all of her life. "She was..."

"She was short, but thin. Her features resembled that of a ninja-woman, and she often proclaimed that she was a ninja when she was younger." Squall rolled his eyes at his friend's description of a girl he had yet to meet.

"Lemme guess... and she has the nicest disposition in the world."

Cloud laughed heartily. "Quite the opposite. She's hot-headed and quick to piss off. Not to mention that she chatters non-stop!"

The fifteen-year-old boy sighed. "And I'm in charge of her?" Both Aerith and Cloud nodded. "Fine... If I must..."

"Your mother was beautiful..." He smiled down at his daughter before picking her up and setting her in his lap. "Her eyes were the same color as yours and her hair was so dark it was nearly black. She always kept it short, but it never had gel or anything in it. She used to call herself the Great Ninja Yuffie or the Greatest Female Ninja In The World."

Tael giggled. "Was Mama a ninja, Dad?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah... And she was the best ninja in the world..." She was my ninja, he added to himself.

Tael grinned at her dad. "Can I go outside?"

He nodded and she ran off, leaving the memories to possess and haunt her father once again. Memories that he did not really want to have haunting him, like fights that she and he had thrown themselves into over little things. Memories that he never wanted to forget, like their first true kiss and the first night they spent together. Memories that held so much meaning now that he looked back, but held no meaning then, like the day she had randomly started crying over the burnt dinner or the night she had gotten angry because he had made fun of her habit of biting her bottom lip. Little things meant so much more... And the big things were utterly irreplacable.

Squall felt a tear trail down his cheek and wiped it away before leaning over the kitchen table. He and Tael had moved three times since she had been born... Since Yuffie had died. Every day, the ache throbbed on, but that girl helped immensely.

"Hey, Daddy?"

He looked up, realizing that tears had forced their way from his eyes and left trails down his cheeks. His daughter smiled somewhat, more of a sad smirk than a real smile. She wiped away his tears with her small hands. "It's okay to cry, Daddy," she told him. "I'm sure that I'd miss Mom too."

He hugged his daughter tightly, holding onto her like a child clinging to their teddy bear, like a broken man clinging to a booze bottle, like a husband clinging to a memory. He knew that those small hands that were wiping away his tears now would get bigger and she would leave. He knew that he would miss her terribly, but could not do anything to stop that. For now, he would hold onto his baby girl and to the memories that she brought him unknowingly. She was her mother without knowing it. He only hoped that she would find a man that was better than him. Yuffie had deserved so much better...

"Don't say that!"

The sixteen-year-old boy look at his younger friend in confusion. "What?"

"Don't ever say that you just want to die!" The girl had tears falling down her cheeks in rivulets but she could not seem to stop crying as she glared daggers at him. "You d-don't... You don't know what it's like for your f-family! Y-You don't kn-know!"

She turned and fled the park, leaving the depressed young man to ponder her words. How would she know what it was like to lose someone so close? His girlfriend had died, dammit! He had every right to want to die along with her!

"She's right, you know," a male voice told him. He looked up to see his best friend, Cloud Strife.

"Whatever..."

Cloud shook his head fiercely. "She understands more than you realize. Her older brother was my best friend two years ago. We were both fifteen when he died. Derek and Yuffie... They were liked the sun and sky. One went where the other went. No matter what we tried to say, Derek would bring Yuffie. That's why she was mad at you. She doesn't want to lose someone else that she loves."

"Loves?" Leon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She loves you like a friend, Leon. She loves you and me... She loves Riku and Sora, those punks from down the road... She doesn't know how to hate anyone. She only knows how to love."

"That's stupid. She can't love everyone."

Cloud chuckled. "So little you know," he replied. "Yuffie's special. She can find good in everyone. People that even Aerith doesn't like, Yuffie finds something that they have in common. So... Don't just blow her off like she's some little brat. That girl has been hurt in her lifetime. Her father ran out, her brother died of cancer, and her mother is a bar wench at the local tavern. She's stronger than you know... And she's more protective over all of us than any of us knows."

Tael grinned at her father. "Better?"

"Better?" the eighteen-year-old asked witha cheery smile.

He nodded, looking up at her. He had cried for the first time in years on her shoulder. The two had gotten into a fight that resulted in her leaving for two months. He broke down when she came back.

She gave him a dazzling smile before starting to stand up, but his arms were still locked around her. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Squall?"

"Thanks, Tael," he told his daughter. "Go play. I think Aerith and Cloud are going to be over with Locke and Shelby after bit."

She grinned and ran outside. Aerith and Cloud adopted when they found out that Aerith would never be able to have children. Locke was eight and Shelby was six. Less than a year later, Aerith became pregnant. Joshua was four.

Squall opened a notebook and wrote:

Yuffie, you would be so proud of Tael. She is exactly like you. Her hand movements, her happy personality... Thank Deity that she's not like me. I don't think that girl will ever get depressed... And so help the person that makes her depressed. I'll find a way, eventually, to tell you all about her... Love you always.

Smiling to himself, he stashed the notebook in a locked drawer and walked outside to join his daughter and await his friends' arrival. A small sigh echoed throughout the room. But you have, Squallie... She's gorgeous, just like you.

.fin.