For Duckie! I owe you since eons ago. NOW YOU HAVE TO WRITE ME AKUROKU YEAH. I'm sorry for the lousiness ;O; And I haven't re-read it, so any mistakes, blame it on my sleepiness. And yeah, first Leon/Cloud story ever. And the title? Let's just say my brain lacks brain juice.
I've never seen Cloud or Leon interact. So it's definitely OOC. Set in highschool!AU setting.
--
"…Cloud."
Said blonde turned around and glanced at his boyfriend, who had paused mid-walk and was now a few feet behind him. "Yes, Leon?"
Leon felt his eyes twitch. "…Are you…taller than me?"
At this, Cloud looked up at Leon. Wait, scratch that, he looked up slightly. It was just a simple tilting of the head, really. After all, Cloud's head had reached past Leon's eyebrows. And that spiky hair of his will make Cloud look automatically taller than him. He wondered how he had missed this detail before. Then the blonde chuckled.
Leon couldn't see what was so funny. He found it extremely annoying, in fact. How could Cloud be taller than him? Him, the manliest guy on the planet! It was outrageous. Unacceptable.
"It can't be helped then. Guess you can't be the top now." With a grin, Cloud turned away and left Leon in the school corridor with his mouth agape.
…Definitely unacceptable.
--
Leon had decided that he was a complete, utter fool. He wondered what he had been thinking when he had consulted Cloud's two closest friends (besides him) for help. Maybe it was because of those sodas he drank the day before? Or maybe it was his drunken episode last month? Or maybe because his friends were a bunch of teasing, gossiping, snickering people? Either way, he had forgotten the Girls Are Annoying Factor, GAAF for short.
Yuffie was grinning widely, her smile threatening to split her face into two, while Aerith was trying to suppress her giggles with her hand in vain.
He contemplated between murder and suicide. Should he grab the coffee table and fling it towards them, or stick his face into the refrigerator for seventy hours straight?
"Aww, Leon," the former said, still flashing her obscenely shiny fangs, "I never thought you'd be such a worrywart."
"More like a girl," Aerith muttered audibly. Leon glared at her. And to think she acted like such an angel in school! He mentally stabbed himself for not noticing her evil streak when it was so damn obvious.
"Are you going to help me or not?" he growled, gripping his knees forcefully.
They glanced at each other.
"Of course!"
--
As soon as the school ended the nest day, Leon had grabbed Cloud's hand and dragged him to his car, and drove off immediately.
Cloud looked confusedly at him. "Leon, where are we going?"
Leon didn't answer him, and refused the strong urge to kiss his boyfriend and screw his plans when he noticed him pouting and sulking. When the car came to a stop, Leon got out of the car, while Cloud just cocked his head to the side and give him a bewildered stare.
"Leon?"
Grunt. "Isn't this…the salon?"
Another grunt. "And we're here because…?"
Dear God, did Cloud know that he looked absolutely adorable like that? "We're going to cut your hair."
Cloud blinked. Then he snorted and looked pointedly away from him, eyes scrunched up and his bottom lip jutted out. "No way."
"…What?"
"I said, no way." The blonde crossed his arms against his chest and glared. "If you cut my hair, I'll shave yours all off. And permanently put those facial tattoos Axel told you to get.
And I won't kiss you for a month." He added.
Leon's eyes grew as wide as his car's wheels and his jaw hit the ground with a loud 'thud'. Cloud, not kissing him for a month? He knew the blonde loved his extraordinary hairstyle, but to threaten to deprive him like that was just too ridiculous. He would have killed himself after just a day. So, still gawking noiselessly, he crossed off the first plan off his mental list.
--
Despite the fact that their plan had failed, Yuffie and Aerith were not upset.
They were, in fact, smirking and grinning rather evilly, occasionally mumbling to each other and smirking at him again. Was it just him, or was that a trace of blood on Aerith's cheek? And…oh God, were those claws on Yuffie's fingers?
He forgot how scary girls can be too.
"Time for Plan B!"
Leon groaned internally.
--
Cloud reached for his plate of chocolate cake. A hand shot out to pull it out of his reach and sight. His eyes traveled to the direction in which the cake had been snatched, and stared hard at the cake-robber.
"Leon."
"Yes, Cloud?" Leon was grinning uncharacteristically widely in an attempt to make himself look as innocent as possible, though he ended up looking like he had swallowed a large, fat carrot.
"Give me my cake."
"Why would I have your cake with me?"
The blond furrowed his eyebrows. "But…"
"You know how I always refuse those sweet stuff right, so it's impossible that I took your cake."
Cloud sighed. He got up and came back with another slice of chocolate cake, and as soon as he set it on the table, it was again seized away.
"…"
"I didn't take your cake! Honest! The birds did, didn't you see them swoop down and grab it? Look at their big claws! I really didn't steal your cake; you can ask anyone around here! I know it's a really good way to make you shorter than me but I would never deprive you of your—"
"Leon!"
"…Yes?"
A stern pout. "My cakes."
Shoulders slumped and feeling utterly defeated, Leon handed Cloud his two cakes.
--
"—and you know how much Cloud loves his cake, and that pout, it gets to me, you see—"
Yuffie raised her eyebrows and smiled amusedly at Leon's dejected face. Said brunette was now pacing in her house, hands flailing agitatedly as he described the failure of his latest attempt to try and make Cloud shorter than him.
"—and how was I to shrink him when he was all hungry and cute and adorable and lovable and his cheeks were puffed out—"
Aerith glanced to her right, caught her friend's gaze, and they giggled.
"—and he's giving me the cold shoulder now and he refuses to sit with me during lunch now and—"
"Leon," Aerith finally spoke up, not able to keep silent any longer, "Relax. It's only the second try, we've still got other methods to try out, remember?"
Leon stopped his rambling and nodded, a crestfallen expression in his face.
--
Leon was skipping.
Yes. Skipping. With a pink rope, in the park.
It wasn't his fault he had no skipping rope and had to borrow it from Yuffie's little pink-lover younger sister, Kairi. Skipping was a childish and girly game anyway. And it really didn't help that he lived in a small apartment with no place to skip and he couldn't possibly go to his friends' house because they're all irritating and a bunch of blackmailers and damn it, Axel still owed him five dollars!
He scowled, jumping on his toes pathetically. Sure, he had no problems skipping, due to his sports skills and trained, developed muscles, but no doubt there had to be something wrong with the sight of a macho man like him skipping gaily in the public park? Oh God, the humiliation.
And then that little girl approached him. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was wearing white dress. She couldn't be more than 6. "Excuse me," she said rather timidly with that annoying, squeaky voice of hers," can I borrow your skipping rope, please?"
"No," he snapped. He wanted to grow taller, damn it, not to be bothered by little girls and stay shorter than Cloud forever.
The girl sniffled, and then promptly burst into tears. He glowered at her, but she clearly was not planning on stopping anytime soon. Maybe he could tie her up and kick her and push her down the slide beside those swings to his left so she could roll down and stop trying to halt his growing process.
"Naminé!"
And then he'd hear Cloud's voice, like now, telling him how manly he was and…
…wait.
"Cloud?"
Cloud ignored him and ran towards the girl, gathering her in his arms and patting the back of her head gently while she whined. Leon's glare intensified tenfold. Who was she to just grab Cloud and try to seduce him? He scoffed. Kids these days. Didn't the whole town know they were a couple?
"Leon," Cloud turned his attention to the older man, who had now abandoned his skipping and was now trying to burn multiple holes into Naminé's head with his eyes. "Did you make my cousin cry?"
Uh-oh, that tone…
He gulped.
--
Yuffie shook her head sympathetically. There was a slightly red handprint displayed on Leon's right cheek. He could still feel the sting of the slap Cloud had delivered to his face, and winced.
"There, there," Aerith patted his arm consolingly. "At least you got taller right?"
The measuring tape showed that he didn't, in fact, gain a single millimeter. Leon thought he was going to explode from frustration soon.
"Oh well," Aerith shrugged as she stood up off the couch and walked towards the kitchen, "We still have a few more plans don't we?"
"Yeah!" Yuffie beamed excitedly, slinging an arm around the brunette, to which he scowled and got a cheeky tongue stuck out to him in return. "Don't be too upset, Squally!" She patted his head and laughed when he grumbled.
Aerith got out of the kitchen holding a gallon of milk. "This time, you'll drink milk! It's great for your bones."
Leon glared at her. "I'm lactose intolerant."
Yuffie's face fell. Aerith sighed dejectedly, "There goes Plan D…"
--
It was a sunny day, with perfect clouds hung high in the sky, and birds flying and chirping melodiously. Crows of students filled the school corridors and made them noisy as always.
And in came Squall Leonhart.
He was wearing what could possibly his biggest scowl. He glared at anyone who dared to make eye contact with him and sent him or her scampering off to the opposite direction, looking pissed as hell. He gripped the wall and staggered along the corridor slowly, his eyes on his unsteady feet. He resembled a drunkard, really.
Suddenly, someone called out to him.
"Leon?"
Leon looked up and visibly relaxed. He took a step forward.
"Cloud! I—"
And then fell flat on his face.
Cloud gave a startled gasp and immediately moved to kneel beside him, but paused mid-step.
"Leon, are those heels you're wearing?"
--
"I still can't believe you wore heels," Cloud chuckled, wiping away his tears of mirth as he pushed Leon's wheelchair.
The brunette wanted to combust from embarrassment. He could imagine his severely abused dignity plunge several more kilometers down, hit the centre of the earth and down to the pits of fiery hell. Curse those cunning, scheming women by the names of Yuffie and Aerith. And curse the stupid, shiny, slippery floor and the janitor who made them that way. Curse the stop of his growth spurt and the lack of crutches instead of wheelchairs in school!
He scowled. "If you weren't so tall, this wouldn't have happened." Cloud laughed again. Leon made a mental note to bring his penknife in his pocket in case Yuffie or Aerith (those traitors!) passed by. Scratch that, a chopper would be much better.
"It's really because of my shoes," the blonde admitted. "I had to wear these because my usual ones were torn. I'm picking them tomorrow though," he added, "so don't you worry." Then he flicked Leon's forehead affectionately and leaned down to give him a kiss. No, two. Three. And four.
Leon thought he was in heaven.
Well, at least he'll get much more attention from Cloud now. But that doesn't mean Yuffie and Aerith are going to escape bloody murder.
"Of course, until your ankle is healed, you'll still be way shorter than me."
Damn.
--
Words: 1987.
;O; I KNOW IT SUCKS.