A/N: So let me give some words on this plot-child; this whole idea started when TheUltimateChefofDestruction and I got curious, since Cloud and My-Name-Is-Leon-NOT-Squall, are, technically speaking, atmospheric phenomenons. So, going to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, we looked up 'Cloud' and 'Squall' respectively and proceeded to laugh our arses off. Then an idea was born: using the definitions as prompts to write a Leon-Cloud centric fic; pairing platonic/yaoi not withstanding. That I haven't decided yet.

Enjoy~!

Main Entry: 1cloud

Pronunciation: \ˈklau̇d\

Function: noun

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Middle English, rock, cloud, from Old English clūd; perhaps akin to Greek gloutos buttock

Date: 14th century

1: a visible mass of particles of condensed vapor (as water or ice) suspended in the atmosphere of a planet (as the earth) or moon

The first time that Leon "Not Squall" Leonheart met one Cloud Strife was shortly after a young girl appeared in Hollow Bastion. She was a cute kid if a bit...odd. There was just things that she Knew, that one of her age just shouldn't. When Leon had found her out by the edge of the Bastion near the Crystal Fissure, she had been crying and folded up so small behind a rock next to a crystal Leon had had to poke her with his gunblade as he couldn't fit into her hiding spot.

To his disbelief, she had replied with a, "Not now, Squall."

Since no one knew What in the Darkness was listening, and the Sorceresses had an uncanny ability to cause his life trouble, his automatic knee-jerk response was, "My name is Leon," with a Scowl on his face. He didn't particularly care about being reminded of his past life no matter how much he loved the freedom of being a SEED.

To his surprise, the girl pulled her arms away from her face revealing the greenest eyes that Leon had ever seen. They were filled with sadness, confusion, and quite a bit of defiance.

"Leon? But your name is Squall," She replied.

"I introduced myself as Leon," Leon repeated, "because my name is Leon."

"Your soul says and sings of your name as Squall," the girl defiantly retorted. "Squall Leonheart."

Leon just stared at her. Hardly anyone knew his real name and he wanted to keep it that way. Merlin knew because he just knew things; and that had more to do with his affinity with magic than anything else. This girl must be a mage of some kind from wherever she came from.

"There are...things...that still sometimes look for me," Leon replied.

Sudden comprehension dawned in those green, green eyes. "Ah! So you hide your Soul name and have a taken name for misdirection! I know that!"

"What is your name, then?" Leon asked giving the girl a skeptical look, as if he didn't believe her stated comprehension of misdirection, as the girl wiggled out of her niche. She ended up climbing out and sitting above the rock. Now that the exSEED could see her properly, the girl looked about eight, maybe ten years old.

With an impish grin and a knowing that filled those green eyes making them much too old for her face, the girl replied with, "My name is...Aerith is close enough I suppose. Aerith Gainsborough." She paused, giving him a haunted look through her long lashes that, were she ten years older, might have been mistaken for coy. "Things are looking for me, too."

Leon, since she seemed to understand and Know things, figured he'd best be blunt with her. A lot of people that had been showing up recently were shocked at what they had been through and what the Darkness had done to their worlds. "Did you come here because of the Darkness?"

She gave him a confused look. "Darkness?"

Leon sighed. So she didn't get Darkness? He explained it as best as he could, and then sudden comprehension burned in those green eyes.

"Oh! No, my Planet wasn't swallowed by Darkness," she assured. Leon was about to ask her, why then, was she here before she took a breath and continued. "I died in the quest to prevent the Darkness from getting a solid foothold."

Leon just looked at her.

She looked around her. "Mama, not my Mother mind you, always told me about the Lifestream, but I don't think this is quite it, but I can still hear its singing."

Leon watched as a vacant expression crossed her face for a few moments. The green of her eyes brightened a bit and seemed to dim at the same time before a few hard blinks and Aerith focusing on the Here and Now.

"Nope, my Planet is still there; I'm still connected," she gave him a brilliant smile. "They prevented Meteor and defeated him!"

Leon just nodded. What did you say to something like that? "That's good."

She nodded.

They stared at each other for a few minutes. Aerith smiled as swung her feet about as if the fact they didn't reach the ground was novelty and something to be explored.

"Want some food?" Leon finally asked. He knew he had been starving when he had arrived here.

"Sure!"

And with that, Leon "Not Squall" Leonheart forgot about the rest of his patrol and took the kid to get some grub. Even with the potential of monsters, there were just some priorities that needed addressing first.

Aerith had been with them for a few years. Everyone in the vicinity gravitated to Merlin's house whenever Aerith baked, and she just seemed to know who would come by and what flavour pies to make. People from other worlds would commission her for baked goods, catering and the occassional wedding or birthday party. In that time, Leon watched as people that Aerith knew from her world popped up.

First was an uncouth, chain smoking, tea drinking disheveled...gentleman...that Aerith introduced as Cid Highwind. The man was good with anything with an engine and double so if the thing flew.

Next had been a hyperactive child that had introduced herself as Yuffie Kisaragi, before pulling the biggest shuriken Leon had ever seen off her back and chucking it at pigeon that looked suspiciously like it was going to bomb them.

The last had been a beautiful woman that had reminded him of Ri-someone from his own planet.

With extensively larger assets.

The fact that the young woman, after she had introduced herself as Tifa Lockheart, was wearing a leather frock over short, stretchy shorts, probably didn't help.

One day, when all of them were at dinner, Aerith had paused in the middle of conversation, eyes unfocusing. When she came back to herself, she just breathed, "he's here."

The others seemed to make their own conclusion but when she continued where she left off, the others continuing with her. To Leon, they seemed as if they were waiting for a particular person.

The person they were waiting for had the decency to show up as a storm was just breaking over the Crystal Fissure. Aerith had whooped that "he's here!" before running out the door into a very charged atmosphere with angry clouds on the horizon. The people that were in the house at the time, Tifa and Leon himself, had run after her. A few days ago she had been quite sick and being out in this storm couldn't be good for her health.

Near to where Leon had found Aerith, a flickering shadow was becoming more and more solid with every bolt of Lightning and crash of Thunder. The blond figure had the good grace to gasp and sit up, hand going to his chest. He winced, but it seemed a phantom pain as the man's hand came away perfectly clean.

"Cloud!" Aerith howled in delight as she flung herself at the man.

Startled, brilliant blue eyes looked up and reflexes just as fast as the lightning from the storm caught the happily laughing girl as she launched herself at him.

"Aeris?" Cloud asked in disbelief. She nodded.

"Zack?" Cloud asked again. Aerith just shrugged but she whispered something in the encroaching darkness that made a ghost of a smile flit across the man's face.

"Cloud?" Leon queried.

Blue eyes snapped to him, and Leon got the distinct impression of what a gazelle felt like being studied by a cheetah. There was something slightly feral to those eyes that Leon realized now were casting a faint blue hue around the area.

They glowed. The man had glowing eyes.

Upon standing, he wasn't that much taller than Leon was himself. The man's impressive blond hair, very much resembling a chocobo's crest, was, in valiant spikes and cowlicks about his head, what made him seem so tall.

The sword was impressive though.

He seemed to fade into the darkness around them, and that's when Leon felt the intelligence, the focus, that denoted Darkeness, or something of it, lurking in the storm.

Cloud scowled before pushing Aerith at Tifa, leaping up, and slashing his sword about in an impressive display of skill. The dead pieces of monsters landed about the party with dull thunks. Cloud gracefully landed, sword out. The lighting illuminated a shining gauntlet on one arm, a shadowy shape off his shoulder, and made his cloak the colour of old blood.

"We should go inside," Cloud said as his glowing eyes, all the more eerie with how the lightning washed everything else out. "Squall, take point; I'll take rear."

"My name is Leon," the exSEED growled as he took point. A familiar confused look crossed the man's face, and he looked, of all people, at Aerith. She just shrugged and tilted her head. Cloud just shrugged back and nodded.

"Okay then, Leon; let's mosey."

For materializing out of a storm, the man sure wasn't impressive.

It was when they finally made it to Merlin's house, and Leon got a good look at the man-about five foot seven inches without the hair-that the cloak was more a red shroud wrapped around the man's neck and wing-wing-was actually being partially hidden behind it. All the buckles, leather trappings and bandages seemed to be holding the man together. Now that there was proper light, Cloud looked exhausted.

"Need a bed?" Leon asked. He found it ironic that, coming from an orphanage, he seemed to be picking up strays.

"Please," Cloud replied. He hefted his sword and followed Leon down the hallway and to a room that had materialized as they were out. One good aspect of a magical house.

"This is your room," Leon said as he opened it. Cloud paused upon entering it. The rooms always seemed to hold a bit of memory from their home Planets. How it did that, Leon didn't have the slightest clue.

"So," Cloud said as he placed his sword in a corner near the bed, "if your name isn't Squall, what do you call yourself?"

"You people and your Soul name shit," Leon griped as he leaned against the door jamb. "I'm known about here as Leon; Leon Leonheart if you want."

Cloud tried to hide his smirk in his cowl he had yet to remove. Leon caught it, though, and, with a Scowl of his own, asked Cloud, "What's your name?"

Cloud gave him a lopsided grin, eyes glowing brighter if at all possible. "Cloud; Cloud Strife."

They just kind of looked at each other, something niggling in the backs of their minds; that feeling you get when someone asks you for a word after giving you the description-and you know you know the word they need. It's on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't recall it; that's the feeling both exSEED and exSOLDIER had.

"Goodnight," Cloud finally said.

Leon nodded and excused himself shutting the door quietly behind him.

Cloud Strife, huh?

Something was going to happen.

The question now, was, whether that something was good or bad; for them all or just one of them.

posted 13February2013