Becoming Squall
KH/Final Fantasy are still not mine

Squall became Leon years ago.

His failure haunted him, drove him to working himself harder than any man should be able to work for extended times to rebuild Radiant Garden. He threw himself into the everyday tasks of building walls and fixing roofs. And though he worked and built and sweated, he was still unable to forgive himself for being unable to stand and fight to defend the people of the city.

Yuffie still called him Squall, but she also called him Leon. She used his old name to try to get a rise out of him, he guessed, to get him to show emotion as he once did before the world was swallowed in Darkness. During more serious times, however, she referred to him as Leon, and so he didn't much mind the teasing, though he wasn't fully capable of ignoring the sting he felt in his heart every time he was reminded of his past weakness.

To everyone else, he was just Leon. They understood and respected his choice in a name change, though at the beginning there was a bit of teasing.

"Leon Leonhart? What kind of name is that?"

Ultimately there was only one person who still called him Squall seriously, and that person pissed him off like no other.

Every time the blond spoke to him, he made sure to tack "Squall" somewhere in the sentence.

And every time he did, Leon ground his teeth and replied, "That's Leon."

Cloud always seemed to ignore the correction, but somehow managed an air of disapproval with his dismissal.

Every time they spoke it would continue. Cloud would say "Squall" and Leon would correct him and Cloud would ignore it.

Finally, though, the brunette had enough of the silent yet somehow judgemental dismissal. The pair were in Ansem's study, leafing through books and notes and deciding which Merlin may find useful (the wizard had requested it, and neither had bothered to ask why he'd want any of them) when "Squall" slipped past Cloud's lips and Leon stood angrily, hands flat on the table.

The blond looked up at him, clearly unimpressed.

"The name is Leon, all right? LEON." He growled, gripping the edge of the table to keep himself from punching Cloud in the face. He admitted that this seemed like an extreme reaction, but after months of it, he just wanted it to stop.

"Yeah? Why?" Cloud sat back in his chair, arms crossed, blue eyes locking onto Leon's grey ones as he waited for an answer.

"You know why."

The blond scoffed, "It's a stupid reason."

Leon threw himself into his chair, frowning, "People died because I couldn't save them. I wasn't strong enough."

"Yeah. Neither was I. Neither were Yuffie, Cid, or Aerith. Sora's friend Riku destroyed his own world and he didn't change his name."

"I-"

"You realise you're not that kid any more, right? You can't bring back the people who were lost, but it's not your fault they're gone in the first place. You've repayed a debt you never owed over and over again."

Leon crossed his arms, mimicking the blond's position. "And how would you know?"

Cloud shrugged, "I recently learned a little bit about forgiveness."

The brunette took a breath and let it out slowly, thinking. Cloud quietly went back to the books, having used up his word quota for the next week and his advice quota for probably the next five years.

Leon thought hard about the blond's words and realised that he was probably right. It would take a while to get used to and accept it, but maybe one day, Leon could become Squall again.

A/N: IDK?