Squall 'Leon' Leonhart entered the bisexual strip-club known as 'The Mask', giving the bouncer a quick look, before entering without the usual compulsory fifty-dollar tip and grope. Passing through the throng of semi-undressed teens, Leon placed himself near the back, eyes on the stage by the bar.
There was a loud and rowdy cheer when the lighting faded into blue, and Leon straitened, eying the curtain he knew the next performer would appear.
The curtain was slowly drawn back, and standing there wearing pure blue, was Aqua, the male stripper who was quite the popular young man in this club. He stood there, wearing baggy clothing, army-boots, and a spiked wig, all the same shade of blue. His tanned skin speckled with blue glitter across his high cheekbones and arms. And the top-half of his face, covered in a perfect, blue mask.
Not covered by the mask, Aqua's eyes an almost artificial blue. Many thought they were contacts, but Leon knew better.
Walking along the stage with a sultry step, Leon watched as the stripper let out a quiet sigh through glossed lips. Turning and pressing his back against the pole in the center of the stage, Aqua eyed the audience, sliding a slender hand up his side, fingers catching on the hem of his shirt and revealing a small sliver of warm stomach.
The moment Aqua's eyes met Leon's, the hand paused. No words were exchanged over the whistles and cat-calls, no emotion crossed either man's eyes. Aqua just lowered his hand a little and tapped his belt-buckle covertly. Leon nodded in understanding, the music starting to blare through the speakers, Aqua sliding a hand up his chest to the zipper of his shirt as the cat-calls and whistles morphed into yelling and shouting.
Leon watched Aqua strip. The young man did it in such a way that was hypnotizing, but, to someone that knew him, could tell that he wasn't enjoying it. His movements were fluid, purposeful, and never longer than they should be. Not once did Leon see Aqua's mouth move: it just stayed in that small pursed frown.
The music started to die down, and Aqua's dance was over. He stood there in tight blue shorts and his mask, hundred-dollar notes tucked into his pants. Turning away from the audience, who were demanding an encore, Aqua left through the curtained doorway he came from, without a glance back.
Leon took this as his cue, and walked to the front door, walking past the bouncer who gave him a quick nod. The brunette circled the block and slipped into the alleyway between the strip-club and the bar beside it. Leon quickly found the door to the club, opened it, and stepped in.
The hallway was small, with doors and other hallways connected to it from everywhere, discarded articles of glittery clothing all over the floors and a few tacked to the walls, quite a few small groups of strippers standing by the sides of the halls and corners, talking to each other with varying volume.
The brunette made his way through the hallways, ignoring the occasional whistle or slap on the ass he received. Finally, he came to a stop in front of a simple white door with a ripped piece of blue cloth tacked to the center. Knocking lightly on the door twice, Leon turned the nob and walked in.
The room was medium-sized, the walls covered in racks of clothing, but in an ordered and very controlled fashion. On the opposite wall to Leon, was another door, to a small white room, obviously the bathroom, and in the corner, sitting in front of a large dressing-table, the mirror surrounded with lights, was Aqua.
"Shall we get this over with?" Aqua stated sharply before Leon could even open his mouth, the brunette just pausing, before nodding and closing the door behind him.
Leon eyed Aqua, who was running a damp cloth over his arms and cheeks, washing off the glitter, his mask and blue spiky wig still in pace. All the other man wore was a pair of loose black board-shorts, and nothing else. Leon saw the long thin scar that was on, and nearly as long as, his forearm, which the stripper always hid with glitter and make-up.
"Cloud Strife," Leon sighed, ignoring at how the stripper stiffened at the sound of his real name. "Age: twenty four. Sex: male. Occupation: fag."
Aqua-- no, Cloud rose a hand and yanked off his mask and wig, throwing them to the table, shaking his head so his messy spikes of blonde hair whipped in all directions. "Shut up, Special-agent Pussy."
The brunette narrowed his eyes slightly at Cloud, but ignored the insult. "I need some information."
"You always do."
Cloud had so many underground connections, Leon had to buy a whole new filing cabinet to house the blonde's files.
"The usual payment." Leon stated, crossing his arms. Cloud looked at Leon through the mirror in front of him, a glint of challenge in his blue eyes. The blonde apparently was going to be difficult again. He'd been increasingly difficult to persuade to give away the information lately.
Cloud let out a sharp scoff, trailing a finger across the long knife on his table beside the glitter, make-up and wigs. "Just because I let people see my body as a living," he snarled through his teeth, looking at Leon through the mirror in front of him, "does not mean I'll let you see my mind so easily."
The brunette's hand automatically rose to the bridge of his nose, shielding his face to a certain degree. Across the bridge of his nose was the scar he received from Cloud on his first meeting with the blonde. He'd told him he knew about the murders Cloud had done, and that he should give him the information he wanted, otherwise he'd tell.
The blonde had just picked up the knife on his table and slashed at Leon's face without hesitation. Leon had gotten a scar, and Cloud had gotten blood all over his carpet and a gash across his arm which nearly rendered it useless.
After that, Leon dropped blackmailing Cloud. The blonde always kept that knife on his table, and refused to remove it. Eventually, they settled on twenty-thousand dollars. Each time.
"I just want information," Leon conceded, looking at Cloud through his fingers, not removing his hand from the bridge of his nose yet, the old scar numb and senseless. "Not your mind."
Letting out a quiet chuckle, Cloud rose to his feet and rounded his chair, picking up his casual clothing that was slung over the back of it. "Of course," Cloud sneered, giving Leon a sharp glare before walking into the bathroom and closing the door.
Leon never liked Cloud, and it seemed like the feeling was mutual. Walking over to the bathroom door, Leon leant against the wall beside it, and heard the sound of a shower starting up.
No words were spoken for a good long moment, the sound of a body slipping underneath the shower's spray meeting Leon's ears. Finally, Cloud spoke, his voice surprisingly clear through the door and over the sound of splashing water. "What do you want to know?"
Running a hand through his brown hair, Leon stared up at the ceiling, calculating his words carefully. "The Organisation," he replied. "Organisation XIII. Their base, members, everything you know."
There was silence from Cloud for such a long moment. Leon was going to ask if the blonde had heard him, but the moment he opened his mouth, the water of the shower was stopped, and just the sound of dripping remained.
"The Organisation?" queried Cloud from the bathroom, the sound of ruffling cloth meeting Leon's ears.
"Yes." Sugar-coating anything was out-of-bounds with Cloud. If he did, or even tried to sugar-coat something, the blonde would either make a move for his knife; a threat, or just glare at Leon until he spilled all the beans; a challenge.
The door opened, and Cloud came out, wearing a pair of baggy black cargo-pants and a zip-up sleeveless black shirt which hung open. The blonde rubbed a towel against his damp cheek, and looked at Leon with blank eyes. "Are you serious?"
The brunette just nodded. He was.
Cloud let out a quiet snort of amusement, chucking the towel back into the bathroom before glancing over his shoulder at his dressing-table, his knife gleaming innocently on it.
"Okay," Cloud replied, looking back at Leon, arms hanging by his sides, "but, our usual payment isn't enough."
Leon frowned. "How much do you want, then?" Cloud knew he had lots of money, but even he didn't have unlimited cash.
"It's not about how much."
The moment Cloud had said that, alarms flew into action in Leon's mind. He stared at the barely-younger man who had a small smirk on his face, his eyes gleaming with something Leon didn't want to identify.
"It's about 'what'," Cloud clarified, his smirk melting off, but the smugness was still there, regardless.
It clicked, and Leon let out a snarl and rose a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose; an irritated habit. Quickly, the hand dropped to his side, and he glared at the blonde."I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times!"
Cloud rose his eyebrows.
"Listen," Leon hissed through his teeth, glaring at the blonde. "Just because you're some cock-sucking fag doesn't mean I'm one!"
"Please," sneered Cloud, flipping Leon a quick Bird and baring his teeth slightly in warning, "just because I'm pretty doesn't mean I'm some slut who rents himself out for the house fee. I don't do that shit. I undress, but no one touches me. That's how it goes, you hypocrite."
"Hypocrite?!" Leon roared, fists clenched, getting the urge to just grab the knife on Cloud's table and slit the bastard's throat open. The urges bubbling up to the surface and making their presence known.
Cloud's smug air was absolutely palpable.
"Yes. Hypocrite, Squall."
Leon grabbed the knife.
Cloud ducked just in time for the blade to clip millimeters off the ends of one of his spikes, Leon's swing a little too violent, the dagger imbedding itself in the wall. Regardless, the brunette's grip flew from the blade's handle, twisted round, grabbed Cloud by the front of the shirt, and slammed the blonde against the wall.
Letting out a quiet grunt at the force of being shoved against the wall, Cloud just glared at Leon, ignoring the dagger which glinted from beside his ear.
"Listen to me, you piece of shit," Leon snarled, his grip on the front of Cloud's shirt tightening, the teeth of the open zip biting into his hand and fingers, his knuckles pushing against the blonde's throat. "I'm no fucking fag."
The smirk he got in return was the most smug, daring, and downright infuriating glint of teeth he'd ever seen. "Sure you are," Cloud leered.
Leon went to swear at Cloud, but the blonde cut him off before he even began.
"Don't try to deny it, ass-hat." Cloud hissed, his mouth still pulled into that infuriating smirk. "I see people fawning over me every day. Hell, I see guys hard over me." He leant as far forward as he could, his nose brushing Leon's, his smirk widening.
"And you're one of them."
Rage exploded in Leon's body and he drew back and slammed his fist into Cloud's cheek without a single thought, the other man's head snapping sideways and hitting the wall behind it. Leon just glared at Cloud, letting his arm fall to his side, but still clenched into a fist, his other hand still gripping the blonde's shirt.
He heard Cloud let out a quiet sigh before the blonde faced him again, a redish bruise already starting to form on his cheek. Leon ignored how those piercing blue eyes looked at him, and how the blonde seemed to be somehow looking down upon him besides the fact that the two of them were the same height.
"If you're so convinced you're not a 'fag', as you put it," Cloud murmured, his voice flat and emotionless, no smirk in sight now. "Prove it."
Leon blinked. "What?" he asked, his rage still there, but not as heated as it was before. "How?"
The smirk was back. "Kiss me."
The rage immediately boiled back up to where it was when Leon punched Cloud, but, luckily for the blonde, the brunette somehow kept it in check. "The fuck did you just say?" Leon snarled.
Cloud's smirk widened. "Kiss me," he repeated. Leon immediately drew up his fist to punch the blonde again. He didn't care if Cloud had the information he wanted. The bastard had to be hurt. Repeatedly.
"You can tell a lot from a kiss," Cloud started, making Leon pause, his fist still raised. "Many things." Cloud continued, speaking as though one would abut the weather or tea. "Even things that the other person doesn't know."
Lowering his fist a fraction Leon glared at Cloud. "You're making this up, aren't you?"
"Actually, no," Cloud replied, smirking again, his teeth glinting. Leon would love to just cut that smirk off Cloud's face with a rusty blade. "I'm not."
"So, you want me to kiss you so you can prove I'm some fag, and even if I'm not, I just kissed a guy anyway?" Leon asked snippily, letting his fist fall to his side. The story was shit. He knew that.
"Correct." The blonde sighed.
Leon's eyes flickered down to Cloud's lips. He wasn't smirking anymore but-- Why the hell was Leon even considering this?! It was shit! Cloud was just manipulating him! Leon looked back up at Cloud's eyes, to find the blonde watching him with a mildly uninterested look.
Letting out another quiet sigh, Cloud let his eyes float away from Leon and over the other man's shoulder at nothing in particular. It was that moment, Leon decided what to do.
Ducking forward, Leon pressed his lips against Cloud's and immediately felt them burn. Cloud must've lied when he said he wasn't taking anything last time they met. That was the only explanation Leon could think of. Leon kept his tingling lips firmly closed, but the moment he felt Cloud nip at his lower lip, he yanked his head back as though the blonde had bitten him hard enough to draw blood.
Cloud's eyes fluttered open, and ignored the fact that Leon seemed mildly flustered and just huffed. "You've got to be kidding."
Leon glared. "What?" he snapped. He was going to wash his lips so vigorously the moment he got back to his apartment, he was sure they were going to bleed.
"That was, in no way a kiss," Cloud stated bluntly, ignoring the fist Leon had in his shirt, which was pressing just that little bit harder on his adams-apple.
"How so?" Leon snarled. He'd just kissed a guy. He needed some salty water and a metal toothbrush. "Our lips touched. It was a kiss."
"Bull." Wow, such eloquent words. Cloud sighed and gave Leon a reprimanding look. "Kisses are supposed to be pure feeling. No barriers. Nothing to hide. Just feeling."
Leon couldn't help but snort. "You learn this while you were dancing in those underage pubs with nothing on?"
Without a word, Cloud's eyes narrowed, and he rose a hand and cupped the back of Leon's neck. With that, he bunched his fingers in Leon's hair and yanked the other man forward and crushed their lips together.
Caught off-guard, Leon's eyes snapped closed and he yanked his hand out of Cloud's shirt as it dug into his own chest, just hooking it around Cloud's waist and bunching it in the material of the other's shirt against Cloud's spine as the blonde arched away from the wall and pressed against him.
The kiss was all lips and teeth and tongue. Leon felt Cloud bite at his lips and he responded just as passionately, sucking on the blonde's tongue and giving it a sharp nip. He didn't know why he was doing this. It was insane. He was just trying to prove Cloud wrong, right? Nothing else.
He felt Cloud pulling at his hair with the hand around his neck and he pulled his remaining hand up and gouged his fingernails into the blonde's own neck. He'd always been gentle with his female lovers. He was always scared about hurting them. He didn't particularly care about hurting Cloud. The bastard deserved it.
He heard a quiet keening sound from Cloud and he bit at the blonde's lips. He wanted to tear them off. Tear that smirk off his face. Make him choke on his own blood. He bit harder. Cloud didn't even flinch. He liked it. He felt the blonde's free hand sliding up his side, tracing his belt and his ribs, his nails occasionally digging into his side before soothing the scratched skin with warm touches and strokes.
Eventually, Leon pulled back and opened his eyes. Cloud's lips were swollen and red, a flush of pink across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, his hair slightly messy and the bruise across his cheek from where Leon had punched him, was turning a blotchy red-purple. Leon didn't know why, but he leant forward and pressed his lips against Cloud's again, this time, being slow and gentle, moulding the blonde's lips to his own, letting his eyes flutter closed again.
Cloud opened his eyes, letting Leon kiss him gently. He could see a deep flush of red over the brunette's cheeks, and he knew how Leon was feeling. Because he could feel it. Against his hip.
At the feeling of the smirk on the blonde's lips, Leon pulled back quickly, eyes wide, everything clicking into place. What Cloud had said. What he's done. What Leon had done.
Cloud's smirk widened, just looking at Leon as the brunette let his hands drop to his sides, Cloud letting his own do the same. The blonde turned away from the brunette, his smirk still there, and walked over to his table, getting out a piece of paper and a pen, writing down names and details on it, his back to Leon.
Leon made no move to leave. He couldn't believe it. I couldn't. Oh God, he was an idiot. Oh, shit! Oh, fuck! OH GOD!
Cloud appeared before him, handing him the paper he had been writing on. Leon stared down at it, and after a moment, noticed that it was details on Organization XIII. The members, their base, what they did. Everything. Looking back up at the blonde, Cloud smiled and grasped his elbow, leading Leon to the door.
After opening the door, Leon walked out and stared down at the paper in his hands. Feeling a tap on the shoulder, he turned around to find Cloud smirking at him again.
The blonde cupped the side of his face, and pressed a chaste kiss against his lips. Leon felt himself wanting it to last. Oh, God.
He went to press closer to Cloud, bit the blonde ducked back, placing a hand on his chest and stopping him. Leon stared at Cloud, and the blonde just gave him that infuriating smirk and a quick wink.
The hand on his chest disappeared, and the door closed in his face with a quiet click.
Leon squeezed his eyes closed and chanted every vulgar word he'd ever known in his head in a mantra. Cloud smirked and sat himself back into his chair in front of his dressing-table, running his tongue over his swollen lips and running his fingers over the red, half-moon shapes from Leon's nails in his neck, the bruise on his cheek turning steadily darker.
Scuffing his way through the hallways, Leon finally made it outside, the cold air biting at his burning lips and flushed skin.
Cloud tricked him. He manipulated him. Changed him without he, himself, noticing until it was too late.
Leon placed a hand on the side of the alleyway, and slumped against it.
Cloud knew how to push his buttons.
Cloud had him.
Wound around his little finger.
Mind, body, and soul.
With a shaky sigh, Leon stared down at the paper in his hand, before stumbling to his car. He passed a short-haired girl and a red-headed guy who were standing by the strip-club entrance on his way there, but he didn't care.
"You wasted it!" cried the girl, clutching her hair, staring at the red-head as though he'd done something insane. "You wasted all my hard-earned money, Reno!"
The red-head, Reno, just shrugged. A lazy, crooked grin on his face. "No biggie, Yuffie."
"YES, BIGGIE!" Yuffie shrieked, jumping up and down with rage. "YOU WASTED IT JUST TO GET SOME SKIN! I STOLE THAT MONEY FAIR AND SQUARE!"
Leon slammed his car door and drowned the rest of the argument out with a roar from his engine.
Back inside the strip-club, Cloud exited his changing-room and was immediately met with a magnificent pair of breasts and the body they were attached to. "Hello Tifa," Cloud smiled.
Tifa eyed him, her lips pursed. He was in a good mood. That was a bad sign. It was always a bad sign. Tifa proceeded to flick her long hair behind her shoulder, her ivory mask hanging around her neck, before she looked at the door behind Cloud, then at him again.
"I don't even need to ask what the hell you were doing in there, do I?" Tifa huffed, eyeing the nail-marks in Cloud's neck, purple cheek and his bruised lips. She placed her hands on her hips. She wore nothing but a beaded bra and a pair of matching panties, but, she looked authoritative none the less.
Cloud glanced away, a smug smirk playing at his lips regardless.
"You're fucking insatiable!" she cried, throwing her hands in the air. She would've slapped him, but she was pretty sure he would've liked it.
Cloud's smirk just widened.
"It was fun, though," he snickered, looking back at her with a smug gleam in his eye.
Tifa paused, before a delighted grin spread across her face. "Do tell!"
Cloud snorted, before turning and walking down the hall to the exit. "I don't kiss and tell!" He called back at her.
"You do, too!" Tifa yelled. "All the time!"
The blonde ignored her, just raising a hand in a wave goodbye and disappearing around the corner.
Tifa huffed. She's beat it out of him later. Turning away, Tifa caught a short-haired brunette hiding in one of the doorways. "Yuna, darling! Let's see!" Tifa chimed, making the short-haired girl, Yuna, jump in surprise.
Instantaneously after meeting Tifa's gaze, Yuna turned bright pink before she quickly shuffled so she wasn't hiding behind the doorway, and Tifa cooed in happiness.
"You look marvelous!" she gasped, eying Yuna's purple jeweled skirt and bra. Yuna promptly turned red, kneading her fingers into her crystalline indigo mask.
"Did you know, I heard Tidus is in the audience tonight," the magnificently-stacked woman murmured, curling an arm around Yuna's waist.
The younger brunette let out a loud gasp, dropped her mask and clapped her hands over her mouth. "NO!" he squeaked.
Tifa nodded. "You'll knock him dead!" she chirped.
Yuna looked horror-stricken. "That's what I'm afraid of!"
((END. Any inconsistencies in this can be blamed on the state I was in when I thought this up. I was half-asleep. It was supposed to be shorter, but, it isn't. I thought it'd be good to actually write one of my LeonCloud fics down, instead of letting it rot in my brain, like my eight other ones. Dedicated to: two people. Yoko-chan, 'cause she's awesome and she got me to add Reno, Tifa and Yuffie into the mix, and Knit.pump, because she's just made of pure awesome, even though I only just met her. Love you, girls!))