Title: Gone to Heaven
Summary: A lot can happen in eleven minutes.
Warnings: boy/boy, trigger warning
Pairing: Cloud/Leon
Disclaimer: Wouldn't this have happened if I owned the franchise?

A lot can happen in eleven minutes. Cid can come up with an hour long rant in eleven minutes. I once lost a bet in ten. Hyne knows Seifer can talk a girl naked in half the time. But eleven minutes can be so much more significant at the bottom of a lake. Three minutes under: lost consciousness. Permanent brain damage begins at four and only continues. Ran out of oxygen? All out cardiac arrest. You could die in five. You're probably dead at seven. You are dead at ten.

I can't pull him out until eleven.

Too far gone to save. Lungs filled with enough water I could be pumping it out of Cloud all night. And, I do. All to no avail, he had died and nothing was going to change that. I hold him, with all my strength, willing him back to life. To give me that famous glare, to push me away, even. But Cloud remains motionless and silent as ever.

"Squall," an all-too familiar voice chimes.

"Leave here, now, Sephiroth."

"I just have some information I thought you might like to hear."

I pause, eyes closing. "What?" I answer softly.

"It would seem Cloud didn't return to the Planet, this time."

I pause, waiting for him to elaborate. When he doesn't: "So, where is he?" I encourage.

The fallen hero moves to the opposite side of Cloud, playing fondly with the tips of golden hair. "A place I can never go. He has wandered to the clouds, a place where only despair can await me."

"So in...?"

"Yes," he says, reading the unspoken question. He retrieves the massive sword, stabbing the ground harshly with it, marking the grave. "I'll take care of this. Cloud was...a formidable opponent."

"You loved him?" I question, unable to stop myself.

The dark seraph smiles. Not a smirk, but a smile, reminding me he was once human in nature. "I did. But you still do."

"Where is he?" Yuffie yelps upon sight.

"He's gone to Heaven...so, I have to be good, now..." I say, a sad smile softly showing on my face.

"You don't mean-?!"

"He's right," Aerith agrees. "I can't feel him in the Lifestream or sense him with Hades. He has to be there." I don't know how to feel about it all. But...if sins really can be forgiven, then I'll be with him again, someday. "Leon, where are you going?"

"To say hello."

To look upon the clouds and know that a specific Cloud is among them...there's some kind of morbid comfort in that. But where among the clouds does he reside? Where in the stars is my love?

"I didn't expect to find you here," the soft, deep voice of the one-winged angel says, siting beside me on the edge of the drop.

"The best view of the sky without machina or airships," I muse.

"True. Cloud fought me here, once before, you know."

"He told me."

"I figured as much."

"Where did you go, though? He never told me that."

"I delivered him to Hades, to make him remove the stigma. Fighting was the only way I could get him to follow me."

"Did Hades remove it?"

"Hades cannot change Gaia's work. Or Hyne's work. Or Zeus' work. He's a rather useless god, really. He just wanted me to bring him Cloud, but I'd gotten so wrapped up in finding a cure for him, I didn't think about why he would help me, didn't consider how much a trickster he was." There is silence for several minutes, there is no sound at all. Finally: "This is where I leave you, Squall. Take care of him, when you get there," the silveret requests, pushing off the side of the cliff and free falling into a glide. It never fails to make my heart leap into my throat when the winged do that.

I smile against the wind, the scent of Mako and cinnamon filling my lungs. I know that scent well...

I've got to be good, now...so I can see him again when I leave this world.

A/N: Well...this is what happens when you listen to 'Last Kiss' by Pearl Jam after not hearing it for so long. There may be an epilogue, but not for a while.

Hope you liked it!