Signed Sealed Delivered - Chapter 1
Main Pairing: Leon x Cloud
Warning: Male x Male Relationships, harsh language, AU, major OOC
A/N: I took the title from Stevie Wonder's song featuring Blue. I changed this chap a bit from the older version.
Don't flame me, please. It won't get me anywhere. Critiques and advices are much more appreciated.
Thank you for the kind reviews, constructive critiques and advices ^^ Special thanks: Jacksgirl217 I learned a lot! Thank you!
"Ew, that's gross!" Riku commented sharply when his co-worker, Axel explained his 'big idea' to give his new lover Roxas a present for his upcoming birthday. The red haired man stuck out his tongue and thrust both middle fingers up at Riku, turning to Cloud. "What do you think, Cloud?"
"What do you mean 'What do I think'?"
Axel frowned. Cloud was still busy counting out the packages he still had to deliver that day. "About the present I will give to Roxas. What do you think about that?"
"Oh, that!" Cloud's face changed, realization finally setting in. "You're going to get into a big box, tied round with a big red ribbon and then you're going to deliver it to Roxas. That kind of thing?"
Axel nodded several times.
Cloud lifted a few packages up and walking to the door, "As long as you don't pop out naked, Axel. I believe he will kill you on the spot if you do that." he ended with a short smirk and closed the door loudly; leaving the astonished Axel and Riku with his loud smug laughter.
The blond reached into his car, pulling out his schedule and observed his worksheet for the day. "Let's see . . . First package, Twilight Estate number 403, Squall . . . Leonhart?" He raised his eyebrows and chuckled. "Quite a weird name. Is he foreign?" Getting into the car and throwing the worksheet to the passenger's seat beside him, he turned on the gas and ran the car to the address he'd memorized.
After a while and a few blocks of Twilight Estate had gone by, Cloud finally arrived out front of the first house on his list. Not exactly a house, it was more like an old British castle that had been moved to this place - brick by brick, stone by stone. He turned off the car and fixed his blue hat before getting out, lifting one of the boxes and taking it with him. It was lucky the house's front gate was open, Cloud mused, because the box was heavy to lift with only one arm. Cloud walked through a very large front yard. He turned his head a little to the left and saw a big apple tree standing up steady with an old tire hanging from its branches by a single thick rope.
Cloud adjusted the box in his arms as he arrived at the big wooden front door. He pushed the bell and a couple of minutes later the door opened. A brown haired man in black clothing came out of the house.
"Sierra Delivery Service, Good morning, Sir! Is this Mr. Squall Leonhart's residence?"
"Yes, that's me." replied the brown haired man.
"Here's your package, Sir."
But the man just stared back in silence, he didn't say anything. Instead, his gaze just swept over the delivery man, biting his lower lip slightly and nodding several times like he understood something.
Cloud fidgeted uncomfortably. 'What's wrong with this guy?' he thought. He cocked his head a little. "Sir, Pardon, but is there something wrong?"
The brunet gasped slightly, interrupting his own thoughts. He shook his head. "No nothing. Just, put it here."
Cloud bent his body and put the box on the stone floor. Little did he know that the man before him was still following his every single move, a dirty look in his pair of stormy gray eyes.
His slim waist was going to feel great in his arms, the brunette thought. Also, he's the perfect height to kiss. He was almost lost thinking of dirty things while sniffing the blonde's hair that was mostly hidden behind a delivery company-printed blue baseball hat. He even had a pair of clear blue eyes, the brown haired man thought. And smooth cheeks and soft pink lips that looked like they were begging to be ravished. He twitched his lips a little. Really, this delivery guy was perfect. I wonder if he likes men?
"Please sign here, Sir." Cloud handed over a pile of receiving papers and a pen.
The brunet spun his forefinger, "Could you turn your back?" Cloud nodded.
"So Strife, what is the C for?"
"Huh?" Cloud looked down at his uniform, on the right side there was a nametag that read 'C. Strife'.
"What's the C for?"
'He's still asking questions? Just sign it, why don't you!' Cloud pressed his lips together firmly. The brunette man chuckled lightly, it made him want to tease the cute delivery man more. "Clark? Clive? Or Cameron?" He felt the other inhaled fast.
"Cloud."
"Huh?"
He pointed his forefinger into the air and made a cloud shape.
"Cloud."
The brunet nodded, understanding. "Oh, Cloud! It suits you. It feels nice on my tongue."
Cloud narrowed his eyes and withheld the urge to puke. 'Weird guy!'
"Call me Leon." The brown haired man said.
He felt a little pressure on his shoulders as the other signed the paper. "From your last name, Leonhart, right?"
"You're smart." Leon patted Cloud shoulders lightly.
Cloud rolled his eyes before he turned and took the papers. "Have a nice day, Sir." he said as he adjusted his baseball hat then walked back to his car. Without a second glance he sped off to the second address on his worksheet.
Leon followed the blonde's departure with his eyes until he disappeared around the corner, "I didn't know there was a gorgeous delivery man around here." He muttered.
Then he looked down at the box and sighed. "Work."
A week later, there was nothing special happening at Sierra Delivery Service. Just receiving and delivering packages, eating lunch and then back to delivering again until the work shift ended at 4 PM. But that morning, as everyone was busy preparing the packages they had to deliver that day, "WHAT! THAT JERK AGAIN?" Cloud cried hysterically when he found the unexpected first receiver's name on his worksheet.
Riku approached him and read it aloud. "Twilight Estate 403, Squall Leonhart. What, you have a problem with this guy?"
Cloud exhaled, throwing his worksheet on to the packages. "Last week, he flirted with me."
"So? It's not like you've never been seduced by a customer before, right?"
Cloud adjusted several packages in his arms, still grumbling. "Shut up, Riku!" his upper lip twitching in irritation, "What the hell do you mean by 'seduced?'"
"Oh, remember the last case? That ummm, what was his name? ...Almasy guy." Axel interrupted. He tucked his pen behind the back of his ear and bundled his work packages onto a trolley.
Cloud gasped, "Axel, please! Don't remind me about that again. I've had enough trouble with that, and I'd really appreciate it if you didn't recall it."
"Oh yeah. The one who tried to grope Cloud's butt but ended up with a lifetime injury because Cloud kicked him right in his . . ."
"Riku!" Cloud gritted his teeth, warning the silver haired one to at least shut up.
"Motherfucking dick." Cloud muttered. He glared coldly at Axel as the red head suddenly added "Yeah, it caused such a ruckus. He complained to Cid to try and fire you. But you know how Cid is. He wouldn't bother giving himself such a headache over someone like that. Besides, he knew who threw the shit here. I bet he's an impotent jerk right now."
Cloud sighed, rolling his eyes exhaustedly. Riku patted his shoulders, "Bear with it, Cloud. Just look at it as a hazard of the job."
Cloud sighed again "Do I look like easy prey? So many guys I meet flirt with me!"
"Well, you're not easy prey, but you are tease-able." said the silverette with a playful smirk.
Right, tease-able for a guy? That's not even funny to joke about, the blond thought. Cloud sighed deeply. Even if he said anything to them, it wasn't like they would understand his feelings anyway. He always felt awkward around other guys. He had always just assumed that he was not into that kind of thing. He had had a crush on his childhood friend, Tifa in elementary school. But that was it. The black haired girl only saw him as a good friend and nothing more. And Zack… he… Cloud shook his head to sober himself.
He glanced over at his two co-workers. Yeah, they were different.
Axel had a boyfriend named Roxas, whom he was immensely proud of. He would brag about him every chance he got and try and talk about him in any conversations he had. He once said that Roxas looked a lot like Cloud in physical appearance. Spiky blond hair and blue eyes, but younger. It wasn't that Axel had a thing for the older blond. It was something else. Axel seduced Roxas when he delivered a package for him. And their first encounter was a murder attempt case, on Roxas' side. But, who knows what he did next to finally convince Roxas to accept him as his boyfriend.
Was he a masochist or something?
Riku, he had a boyfriend too - a cheerful brunette named Sora. There was nothing much to explain there. They had been neighbors, and one day they had realized that they had feelings for each other. And so they became just a normal happy couple with the same kind of sappy romantic spices. He still freshly remembered how Sora had burst into the office looking for Riku just because the silver haired man hadn't called him all day.
And now he was being flirted with by a guy he had just met. And what was even worse was he had to deliver another package to him now. He hit his car steering wheel anxiously. It had been a quarter of an hour since he had arrived at Leonhart's house. But he still couldn't budge from his seat. But then, there were still piles of packages he had to deliver that day.
Enough of this thing! He bumped his blond head onto the steering wheel in frustration. If he didn't move, nothing would happen. Besides, he was probably not even in the house right now. Cloud hoped that someone else would open the door, his family, or his butler maybe? With that huge house, it would be kind of weird if he didn't have any maids.
He thanked god that he was right as a black haired girl opened the door. He secretly huffed.
"Sierra Delivery Service, good morning Miss! Here's your package."
But again, he felt something was wrong as the girl just stood there and swept her eyes over him. Then she suddenly squealed triumphantly, clapping her hands in front of her chest. "You're Cloud, right?"
The delivery man could just nod weakly. Hey, it couldn't be that she was flirting with him? Well, he had nothing to complain about if the one who was flirting with him was a girl, besides this girl was pretty cute too.
"You're just as he said! You're totally checked! I'm Yuffie, Leon's cute little cousin!" She said; offering her hand for a handshake, "Ah, I forgot!" she retracted her hand when she saw Cloud's hands were full.
Cloud could do nothing. 'Great.' he thought to himself.
"Wait, I'll call for Leon to come here."
Cloud panicked when that name was mentioned, and then quickly put on an act. He put the package down on the stone floor and offered a pile of receiving papers and a pen. "Err, Miss. You just need to sign here."
The girl grinned widely, "That package must be for Leon, right? So, I'll go get him to sign it."
Cloud froze. The girl turned again and said, "You're perfect, Cloud. I wish the best for both of you." She ended by thrusting both thumbs up and winking one of her eyes at him.
'What the hell is going on here?' He exclaimed desperately to himself.
Someone please pinch his cheek, hard, so he can wake up from this nightmare!
Cloud gulped lightly as the flirtatious man from last week stood right in front of him with a vivid expression on his face. He gave up when the brunette took the papers and pen from his hands and spun his finger again for Cloud to turn his back.
"It's been a week right, Cloud?"
"Yes." Cloud answered shortly.
He patted lightly on Cloud's shoulder. Cloud turned around fast and took back the papers,
"Have a nice day, Sir." He said stoically tugging at his blue hat.
"I have." Leon answered.
But just as Cloud was about to step off the porch, Leon quickly grabbed his hand. Cloud gulped uncomfortably.
"Cloud, can I have your cell number?"
The blond screaming loudly in his head 'Wha-? Aaaaakkkhhh!' He pulled his hand from the others and tried to look as calm as he could. "Uhm, if you need to deliver something, just call the office. Our number is on the receiver sheet."
Leon shook his head, "No, your number, Cloud."
Cloud felt ready to kill himself. "Hm . . . I, it's . . . my-my number?"
The brunette nodded, "You know, maybe we can go out somewhere this weekend."
Cloud fidgeted, "Maybe no, Sir."
"Why?"
"It's just . . . Sorry, Sir." Then suddenly he ran hastily outside the gate; too late for Leon to catch him, already gone with the delivery car.
Leon sighed deeply. His young cousin who had been peeking out of the window came out with a wide grin on her face. "So Leon, looks like he's playing hard to get. You failed this time."
Leon frowned at her. He knew damned well she was right.
"Maybe he already has a lover?" Yuffie suggested.
"If he has a lover, why didn't he just say so?" Leon snapped irritably.
"Maybe he doesn't like guys."
Leon rolled his eyes, "So? Why didn't he just say it?"
"Maybe he just doesn't like you." She teased with a loud laugh.
"Oh."
Yuffie firmed her lips in amusement when she saw a broken hearted expression on her cousin's face, "Don't worry, you still have a chance, Leon."
"I don't know."
She grinned again. "I'll help you."
He tried not to look too enthusiastic at her words, smoothing his twitching lips, he turned to the girl. "How? You saw yourself; I couldn't even get his number."
"You were just too eager, Leon. He seems to be a delicate person, so you must approach him in a delicate way too."
"Just help me, Yuffie. At least get his phone number or address."
She swayed her hand, "Calm down, Leon. Do you have patience? Just listen, this cute little cousin is gonna be your cupid. But remember, this doesn't come cheap."
He raised his eyebrows incredulously, "What? You're charging?"
"Come on, Leon! I guarantee it. It's cheaper than your new PC."
"That's different. That's for my work."
"It's the saaame!" She growled it. "Don't be a cheapskate, Leon. Or you will never ever get him."
"Are you threatening me?"
"Yes!" She said in a high chirpy tone.
He had lost. She was right, again. He sighed deeply, "How much?"
She looked like she was thinking for a while, "Hm, how about five times my current pocket money?"
"Hah! How about two times?"
She frowned, "Four times!"
He glared at her and Yuffie puffed her cheeks. "Last deal, three times or nothing" She said.
"Okay, deal."
The girl stretching her body upright, "Well then, it's nice doing business with you, brother. You will get his cell number and exact address tomorrow."
"Just make sure he doesn't know anything about this." Leon stepped back into his house with a frown.
She chuckled, "Oh, are you afraid? Don't worry, Leon. I'll make sure that he doesn't have any idea of this. I'm a professional, you know."
"Whatever. . ."