Leon hasn't thought about it in years—the mark. The name of his supposed soulmate hidden beneath the belt around his wrist. No one talks about them in Traverse Town when scars outnumber tattoos by the dozens. It's almost assumed that if you've ended up in Traverse Town, your soulmate hasn't.

He hasn't thought about his mark in years, until now. Until there's a boy with a key and bright blue eyes, who forces him to think about it with a blunt, "Did yours make it? When your world was destroyed." He's looking for comfort, for assurance in a dark time where everything's been taken from him.

Leon resist the knee-jerk reaction to look at his, to peel back the worn leather and check that's its still there. To read the name he's tried to forget. He just nods, and then at Sora's head tilt, elaborates, "I don't know where they are."

Sora blinks at him, eyes widening as his expression twists, abashed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—I didn't… Me either," he settles on, with a great sigh that's too heavy and deep for a boy so young. Leon remembers what that's like.

Sora lifts his arms to show his wrists. On one is a name so faint it's a miracle it has't scarred over; the other is too dark to be normal—the thick lines bleeding into the surrounding skin. Sora scratches at that one absently, the edges faintly red and raw as he picks at it.

Leon wants to smack his hand away, but clenches his fists at his sides instead. "They're still alive," he says. "That's something. They're out there waiting for you to rescue them."

Sora beams at him, looking like he wants to throw himself into a hug.

Even after Sora's gone, Leon's words ring hollow through the dark streets. They haunt him down into the underground waterway where he finally uncoils the belt and lightly touches the name there. It had faded once, just shy of a scar before returning days later. There have been times since then where it's stung as if fading again and again; always accompanied by nausea and headaches so severe he thinks he's dying right along with them.

His soulmate is out there somewhere, too, waiting for him to save them. But he's never known how.

"Why did you work for him?" Sora asks.

"I'm looking for someone," Cloud admits. Sora glances pointedly down at his hands, and Cloud nods.

"On my island," Sora says thoughtfully, "no on covered the names. Since I left, that's all I've seen."

Cloud gestures at Sora's gloves. "And now you do too."

"How could I get off this world?" Leon asks.

Cid gives him a sideways look and chews on his toothpick as he thinks. "You'd need a gummy, for starters."

"You build them. And Sora's brought back a lot of spare parts." Leon crosses his arms and leans against a stack of boxes labeled by the kind of gummi pieces they hold.

"It's dangerous traveling the dark corridors without a keyblade, Leon, you know that. I didn't drag your ungrateful asses out of Hollow Bastian only for you to go running back while it's unlocked."

"I'm not going back there."

"It don't matter. Unless it's an emergency I won't allow it." The quiet stretches between them like an expectant hum. Leon meets his narrowing gaze without flinching. "Is it an emergency?"

"Yes. Maybe. I don't know," Leon snaps. He sighs sharply through his noise and runs a hand through his hair. Instead of elaborating he takes off the belt and show Cid his wrist.

"You idiot!" Cid barks, and cuffs him upside the back of his head. "Why didn't y'tell us he was still alive? The way you hid it we all assumed it was a scar!"

"He?"

Cid rubs both hands over his face. "Yeah. He used to live on our world, too, but I didn't get to him in time before it fell. If I'd known he was yours, and that he was still alive…."

Yuffie's rapid footsteps slapping against the cobblestones precedes her. She sprints up the stairs and skids to an abrupt halt between them. "What's going on? I heard yelling."

Aerith follows slower, but notices Leon's barred wrist first. She drags her eyes away from it and up to his face, realization dawning visibly.

"It didn't matter," Leon says. He puts the belt back on, refusing to meet any of their eyes. "I couldn't do anything about it." And maybe it was because sometimes the guilt threatened to suffocate him. Cid and Aerith's names scarred as soon as the darkness spread; Cid's wife taken from him and Aerith's soulmate perishing before she even had the chance to find him. Yuffie had been born blank. And here he was, with a living soulmate he hadn't been able to save. Unable to protect his home. Unable to protect anyone. It didn't seem right.

"We'll go with you," Aerith says. Her eyes are glassy with the start of tears, but she's smiling. She looks more determined that he's seen her in a long time. "Do you have an idea where to start? Or shall we begin in one corner and work our way home?"

"I'm going alone."

"The hell you are," Cid says. "I have to stay for when Sora gets back, but the girls are going with you. Keep you from pulling any suicidal stunts."

Yuffie cheers and jumps around them with both fists in the air. "Road trip! We're gonna find Squall's soulmate!"

"Don't call me that," he says, turning on her sharply. "Especially not around… him."

Aerith looks at him suspiciously, but before she can say anything Yuffie beams and steps too close into his personal space. She asks, "Does that mean we can come?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Cid thumbs his nose and nods. "I'll get on your ship. Shouldn't take a coupl'a days."

"I heard you were looking for someone."

Cloud turns as Hercules approaches. "Sora," is all he says, and Hercules nods.

"But if you're searching, why are you still here?"

"I need to find my light first." He tightens his grip on his sword. "I don't want him to see me like this."

Yuffie hops through the gummi ship door and down into the sand. "This is a lot harder than I thought."

Aerith hides a smile behind a hand. "What did you expect?"

"I dunno," she says. She plants her hands on her hips and looks up at the coliseum gates—unimpressed. "Mostly Leon's heart guiding his way straight to his true love and then they collapse in a tearful embrace and we all go home in time for dinner?"

"Don't be stupid," Leon says. Yuffie sticks her tongue out at him; Leon glares right back.

"Would've been a lot easier. Do us all a favor and get in touch with your sappy side," Yuffie says. At Leon's expression she yelps and races off for the lobby.

"Don't stray too far!" Aerith calls after her. She looks to Leon, and when he doesn't move, walks her way around the perimeter, reading the bulletin boards. "There's a tournament going on."

"Don't get distracted," Leon says.

"Oh," Aerith breathes. "Oh, Leon. You might want to see this." She taps her finger against a name in a past tournament. "He was here."

"What?" He doesn't mean to shoulder past her so roughly but something squeezes at his lungs and he moves without thinking. It's surreal to see the name anywhere other than his own skin. Then he scoffs, finding Sora's name above it. "He was beat by a fourteen year old."

Aerith laughs beside him, trying to stifle her giggles, but only laughs louder when Leon turns his look of disdain to her. "So were you," she says.

Leon huffs and turns on his heel, striding towards the lobby.

Cloud looks at the ticket in his hand, and then at Phil. "What's this?"

"Congrats, Kid, you get to jump ahead to the Hercules Cup. All that Hades business, y'know. Here felt bad."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it. Come back later."

Phil sizes Leon up with a bland look. "Yeah, he's here. Off training somewhere else. What of it?"

"Can you tell me where he is?" Leon asks through gritted teeth.

"Since I've never seen you before, that's all I'll say. You wanna see him? Better enter the tournament and pray you survive long enough."

"Fine, whatever," Leon says. He moves for the arena, but Phil pushes him back just as quick.

"Cool your heels there, Achilles. Not how this works. You want to face him? Gotta earn it. Start at the bottom, just like everyone else."

Aerith puts a hand on Leon's arm when he bristles. "That's fine," she says. "Where do we begin?"

Phil smiles at her, smug, and looks imperiously at his clipboard. "Each of you have to survive my training courses, then we'll see where you place."

"This'll be fun!" Yuffie says.

Leon takes one step into the arena before whirling around on Phil. "Barrels and pots? We're not children!"

Phil waves two fingers in his face. "Either follow my rules, or get out."

Leon clenches his jaw as he holds Phil's gaze.

Cloud cuts through another heartless and surveys the empty room. It's only then that he notices Megara, perched on the stairs up out of the underworld. She claps when he turns to her fully.

"Don't you think you're overdoing it a little, Blondie? Not going to find any light down here."

He shrugs and looks away.

They enter the Phil Cup as a trio. Leon's insulted how easily they rise through the ranks; each seed hardly more of a challenge than the last.

Leon and Yuffie move onto the Pegasus Cup as a duo.

Aerith sits out with a breezy, "Oh, you don't need a healer for this."

The two of them fly through the tournament just as quickly, but the title match is merely more heartless and by the end Leon is sullen and frustrated.

Phil rolls his eyes. "What did you expect? Hades himself?"

"No," Leon snaps. At Yuffie's defeated look he deflates a little. "Someone else, I guess."

"What are you even gonna do when you meet him?" Yuffie asks. She doesn't say what Leon knows is on the tip of her tongue: I don't know how these meetings work. I've never seen one. I won't even have one.

It's all new to him too, though. He barely remembers a time before the darkness spread through the universe like a disease. They were too young. "I don't know."

Cloud's barely through the lobby doors before he stops dead. He tries to say something, but Aerith senses his presence and looks up at him before he can manage anything.

"Cloud!" She gets to her feet and smiles wide. For some reason his name seem to carry weight.

"What are you doing here?" it's the wrong thing to say. It's not even close to anything he was intending. But it's been so long, and he's never been good with people anyways.

"We're looking for—" but then stops. A small frown pulls at her mouth. It looks so out of place that he takes a step forward automatically. She inhales to speak, but then cuts herself off again and just stares at him for a long moment; her eyes searching his face, as if seeing him differently somehow. Finally, she sighs and offers a smaller smile, tight and tired, but still pleased. "Leon's soulmate."

It's been long enough since she started her sentence that it takes Cloud a moment to understand what she means. She must see his uncertainty because she repeats, "We're looking for Leon's soulmate."

Cloud doesn't recognize the name. Distantly in the recesses of his memory there's a vague sense of familiarity, like brushing up against a long lost dream. But he can't grasp it.

She's the one to cross the distance between them, and takes his hands. And then abandons pretenses and pulls him into a hug too tight and too desperate. "But that can wait. I'm so glad you're alive after all. All this time, I…"

"Why wouldn't I be?" He returns the hug because he's never been able to deny her anything. It's good, nice even, to relax for just a moment, to drop his defenses. It's been so long.

"We thought—" She stiffens. "Thing were chaotic, at the end. That's all. You know how I worry." When she pulls back there's a strange look in her eye, behind the watery smile. A sadness he can't place. "You should meet him."

"Who?"

"Leon."

Leon scowls at Phil, but makes sure his boots are tightened and secure anyways. "Why are we doing this? I thought you said if we won a tournament, we could move onto the next."

Phil raises an eyebrow and chews on something that doesn't look like food. "This is a coliseum, Achilles, and you're a champion now. You've responsibilities." He spits the word, stretches it out into too many syllables. Leon's expression darkens at the nickname, but keeps silent as Phil continues. "You're the champ, which means anyone else who makes it through the Cup, has to battle you for the title, capisce?"

"We get it, you old goat," Yuffie fires back. She rocks on her heels—impatient. She enjoys the endless rounds in the tournaments, but it's all starting to get to her too.

Phil sputters and chucks half a vase at her before chasing her as she cackles and dances always just out of reach. Another voice joins her laughter and Leon looks over at Sora, not really surprised to see him. The kid's getting good, from what he's heard.

"Leon!" Sora says, grin a mile wide. "I didn't know you'd be here." He looks around the otherwise empty arena. "Am I fighting you?"

"And Yuffie," Leon adds. He whistles a sharp note that carries, and across the arena Yuffie turns on a dime, at his side within moments. "Let's see if you've learned anything new." He treats Sora to a grim smile, and Sora meets it with a cocky one of his own.

Predictably, Sora leaps forward first, impetuous as ever.

The fight ends quicker than he would like, and too soon he's dropping into the sand beside a dazed Yuffie. The keyblade's suddenly at his throat and he jerks back, alarmed but also in awe of how powerful it's become. It sings in Sora's hand, a hum and vibration he can feel; Sora's grin somehow matches. He really is the chosen one after all.

"You've gotten better," he says.

Sora spirits the keyblade away and extends a hand to shake. Leon takes it as he stands, because there are times for pride—too many in his case—but this is not one of them.

He's dusted himself off when Sora asks, "What are you really doing here?" He links his fingers behind his head and peers at him. "You can't be here just for the tournament."

Leon shakes his head. "Decided to follow my own advice." Sora only looks more confused, but Leon doesn't explain. He ruffles Sora's unruly hair, and even though Sora squawks in protest and leans away, there's an eager hunger for affection that has Leon chuckling and doing it again. "Be safe. You've got people counting on you."

"You too," Sora shoots back.

For the first time the thought doesn't make him feel like he's being crushed.

There have a been a few times where the name on Cloud's wrist has caused his distress, but now it tingles constantly. It's distracting. Makes him nervous and antsy. The ink seems to tug at him; to sit heavy on his skin and drag him down, drag his focus elsewhere. He's not sure where, though, and pushes through the distraction.

He only makes it halfway through the tournament before he's knocked out—flinching when the mark flares in pain and leaving himself open to attack. When he wakes its with a bitten off curse and a half-hearted punch to the column he's propped up against.

He gets up, and starts again.

The mark buzzes against his skin like bees.

Leon's drinking a potion between seeds when Yuffie jumps to her feet and shouts, "Cloud!"

He chokes.

The man—Cloud—steps up opposite them, but doesn't seem surprised to see her. His expression goes soft and as close to a smile without his lips actually moving; nodding at her in acknowledgement.

Yuffie looks between the two of them quickly, excitement crumpling into doubt. "Leon, look, it's…" but doesn't finish because its unnecessary.

Cloud looks at him then, head tilting slightly as he repeated the name wordlessly—like it should mean something, but doesn't. His eyes are such a bright blue that Leon can imagine how piercing they could be, but instead they're distant and a little empty. Lost.

He should've come looking for Cloud years ago. Before… whatever happened, did. He can't do this. Not now. Not like this. The guilt he's pushed down over the years returns in full force. Cloud's almost died multiple times and each time he thought he was going to die with him. It hurt enough while they were apart. He can't imagine how badly it hurt for Cloud. He can't imagine how bad it'll feel without the distance of strangers.

"I withdraw from the tournament," he says, and turns to leave.

"Leon, wait!" Yuffie calls.

He doesn't know why he stops, but he does. It's not what he was expecting. Cloud's not what he was expecting. He wasn't sure what would happen; fireworks or something world shattering. Anything other than this quiet encounter with a silent man who watches him, only as interested as a stranger can be in a mutual acquaintance.

Leon's been waiting his whole life for this moment—has lived for so long thinking he'd never get it—but now that it's here he has no idea what to do with it.

"Did you fight them?"

Cloud half turns and there's Aerith. It takes a moment to understand who she's talking about. "No," he says, looking down at the nick he's trying to sharpen out of his blade. "He withdrew."

"Good," she says. Something in her voice makes him think the response isn't for him.

Yuffie drops down onto the stair beside Leon, leaning back on her hands as she scans the clear blue sky. "So what's next? You gonna tell him?"

Leon shakes his head, frowning. "What would I even say? I couldn't save you, or our home—"

"So in my guilt I pretended you didn't exist, whoops, my bad," Yuffie finishes. At Leon's silence she looks over and flinches away. "Sorry, sorry!" After a beat, adds, "It's true, though. You did."

"I know." He sighs. "I can't leave now, can I?"

"Nope." She pats his shoulder and grins. "But you already knew that. Gotta stay and make sure he doesn't get hurt again, right? You're good at that."

"It's all I can do."

"You could just tell him."

"I can't. Not yet. Not after…" he trails off, and then more firmly, "Not yet. And you won't either."

She raises her hands in a harmless gesture. "You got it."

Cloud blinks at Leon for a moment before carefully asks, "You… want to team up?"

"For the next tournament. It's supposed to be a bigger deal. Fifty seeds. Thought we'd have a better chance." It sound feeble and uncertain, somehow uncharacteristic even though Cloud shouldn't know that. Leon seems to catch himself and squares his shoulders.

Cloud wants to ask why, but what comes out instead is, "Okay."

Something in him quiets at Leon's palpable relief.

It's not perfect. Leon tries his best to focus on the fights, but he can't help but be hyper aware of Cloud beside him, he's used to taking point in these types of battles, but Cloud's offensive attack pattern is aggressively overcompensating. It speaks to how long he's been fighting alone.

In one seed Leon trips over Cloud, and the next Cloud nearly runs into him and knocks them both over. Too many times in subsequent battles Leon turns, only to find Cloud a lot closer than expected. He spends more time over-correcting his movements to avoid a collision or fatal misstep. Or just avoiding Cloud's heavy sword in general. It's reach is far longer than his own and he often doesn't give it enough space.

He's clumsy in a way he hasn't been since he was eleven playing with wooden swords. If Cloud's bothered by Leon's presence, he doesn't show it. He blazes on ahead, following his own well-practiced routine.

They do get better. Slowly. A dozen seeds in Leon starts to get a feel for how Cloud fights and where his openings are; learns how to cover them and keep the heartless at bay simultaneously. They begin to move complimentary to each other, quick and easy. There's an ebb and flow, a give and take, in their movements that starts to feel like a conversation without words.

Halfway through the tournament Leon forgets what it felt like to be strangers.

They're nearly through the tournament when the call comes. Only twenty more rounds and they could take on Hades himself. Cloud thinks they could do it. He really does.

But then Leon gets a call that has him glancing at Cloud out of the corner of his eye with an expression like steels that feels tenuous.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Leon says, but it sounds like the opposite. "Sora's on his way to Hollow Bastion. He thinks he can purge the darkness there," he says. And then, in wonderment, "We could go home."

"You should go."

Leon hesitates, watching him oddly, before nodding. "I should head back to Traverse Town. Help him where I can. What will you do?"

"I… don't know." He was supposed to be looking for his light all this time, but he hasn't thought about it in a while. He doesn't know how he could forget something so important. Then again, the way Aerith told it, Leon was supposed to be looking for someone too. "There's someone I need to find, when this is all over."

"Yeah?" Leon says, his tone curious as if wondering who. Except it almost sounds like he already knows.

Hollow Bastion isn't entirely how Leon remembers it. It's darker, broken and feels heavy and cold. Barren. It's to be expected, but it still makes his chest tight. He'd hoped… well, he'd hoped a lot of things that hadn't come to pass.

He doesn't remember this castle, back when he'd lived here, but that doesn't mean much. It's more intact than the rest of the world. They start with the library while Sora's still clearing out the rest. There's a lot of work to be done and Leon doesn't really know where else to begin.

"I was too young to remember this place," Yuffie tells Sora when he stops in for another break. "But I'm glad to be back! I want to relearn it all over again."

The next time Sora comes through, Leon answers a question with, "I won't use my real name until this place is restored."

Sora's face pinches in confusion. Aerith holds his gaze, mouth pressed tight and unhappy.

"Your real name?" Sora asks. "But if you don't use it, your soulmate won't—oh! Did you find them?"

"Yeah."

Sora links his hands behind his head and smiles. "That's great!" He's visibly holding himself back from asking something else—where they are, probably—and Leon reciprocates the favor by not asking in turn; Sora's gloves are still pulled high.

After Sora leaves, a book flies at Leon the right and he notices too late to duck. It hits him in the jaw hard enough he bites his tongue. He's too stunned to do more than gape at Aerith.

"You can't keep doing this," she says. "This isn't just about you and your… your undue shame! It's about him too and he deserves to know." She takes a breath as if to shout something else, another book tight in her raised fist, but stops. Her hand drops as she watches him. Finally she shelves the book and says, "He deserves better than this."

"I know, but—"

"No," she cuts him off. There's fury in her eyes. "Obviously you don't."

When it's all over—when Sora beats the darkness back in a way none of them could—Cid shows up at the Coliseum.

"Get'cher ass in the ship," he orders, gruffness betrayed by a wide grin. "We're going home."

The word rings oddly in the air, and a small part of Cloud never thought he'd hear it again. It almost doesn't sound real. He repeats it in his head over and over as he climbs into the Highwind after Cid, sitting where he's told.

His heart thuds against his ribs the whole way, but he's not sure why.

Cid leads him to the castle library where Leon and the girls already are, bickering in good nature as they put it back together. Aerith sees them first and hurries to meet him, ducking to catch his gaze and smiling cheerfully.

He glances past her, his eyes landing on Leon and darting away just as quickly. His heart skips too many beats. He hadn't realized he'd missed Leon's presence at the coliseum until just now.

He doesn't know what it means.