Disclaimer: Unless in my dreams count, I don't own Kingdom Hearts and associated characters. Nor do I own the poems and what not used.
A/N: I was going through my scrapbooks from high school (God that makes me sound so old!) and found some rhymes and crap that amused my friend and I at the time, so I thought 'let's see how many I can shove into a fic'. Not sure what to think of that really. But my nostalgic mood wanted to see it done so here we are.
Memo
'A peach is a peach
A plum is a plum
A kiss isn't a kiss
Without any tongue.'
Squall Leonhart was not impressed. He was feeling many things but impressed wasn't one of them.
If it wasn't for the fact that Yuffie never performed anything less than publicly humiliating pranks, he'd swear this was "the great ninja" Yuffie's idea of a joke. Besides, after spending two years tutoring the girl in chemistry (Why she was even allowed in that class, he didn't want to know), he could easily recognise her handwriting; even when she tried to disguise it.
He felt like yelling. And had he been alone, he might have indulged in that. Fortunately for his vocal chords, the hallway in which his locker resided was teeming with teenagers.
That made eighteen of the blasted notes. One a day, every school day, always there at the end of the day except Fridays.
Why did he always garner the wrong sort of attention? At grammar and middle school, it had been the bullies, because he was a little…effeminate and now he had someone who was clearly harassing him…and no doubt, taking a stab at the fact that he was a bit of a loner with zero experience in dating. Not that he wanted to date or anything. Because he didn't.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he bit back an annoyed sigh as he tossed the note onto the upper shelf of his locker, banishing it from his sight, as he gathered the needed books and equipment for his homework. As he stalked off down the corridor, silently prayed that no more notes would appear in his locker. He really didn't need that sort of crap. Why people couldn't find another target to tease…well, at least they didn't try to steal his lunch money; though that had only stopped shortly after he entered high school.
'Out of a world of laughter
Suddenly I am sad. . .
Day and night it haunts me,
The kiss I never had.'Twitch.
Nineteen.
"Leon? Are you okay?"
Sighing he straightened up and closed his locker, offering a feeble smile to the concerned Aerith hovering at his side. The pretty brunette frowned at him as she reached up to feel his forehead, ignoring the exasperated look crossing his scarred face.
"You don't feel hot, have you been sleeping enough?"
"…'bout nine hours a night." He muttered after she gave him an expectant look.
She nodded approvingly and pulled back, smiling sweetly at him as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "That's good, you have a bad habit of not looking after yourself, Leon. I know for a fact you don't get enough exercise."
"…is that why you want me to join the kendo club?"
"Well, you are a natural with swords." She replied nonchalantly as they walked down the hall. "And with Cloud Strife as team captain, I know you'd flourish there. They meet every Friday and I know you have nothing to do that afternoon….promise to think about it?" She finished imploringly. "I really think it would be good for you."
He sighed again and pinched the bride of his nose. "I'll think about it. For now, I just want to survive tutoring Yuffie."
Aerith winced. "Good luck with that. I hear her class is working with…volatile chemicals."
"…fuck."
-- Twenty.
Stormy blue eyes narrowed. The paper crinkled softly in his hands as he scrunched it up and threw it to the back of his locker before slamming it shut.
This was really getting old.
Time to talk to Yuffie.
-
"So this is the latest one?" Yuffie peered over the crinkled paper with interest, ignoring the way Leon sat tensely across from her, answering as little as he could get away with. A moment later he nodded and she sighed dreamily. "I think I'm jealous. Someone clearly loves you."
"Not bloody likely!" He snapped, slapping a palm against the table.
"Why not?" She scoffed, treating him to an indulgent smile as she ticked off points on her fingers. "You, sweetie, are smexy. You're smart, and have the patience of a saint –proven by the fact that you have successfully tutored me for nearly three years and not been committed. Last time I checked your cooking was deee-lish and you're a sweetheart."
He rolled his eyes at her. "I should be committed, for listening to you." He muttered frigidly. "I'm the 'Ice Prince', remember? No one wants me Yuffie; stop letting yaoi run your mind."
Her eyes widened. Leon moaned softly as she began to almost literally glow. "It could be a guy? Yes! My little Leon, smexiest gay of all, shall soon provide me with the perfect doujinshi! I'll make millions. You'll be an overnight success!" She babbled excitedly. "C'mon, gimme some help here! Who do you think it is…oh! Better yet: who do you want it to be?"
"No one, damn it Yuffie! Just find out who's doing this and get them off my back!" he snarled as he stormed off.
Yuffie simply sat there grinning as she eyed his retreating form. She, the Great Ninja Yuffie, would find out who was sending Leon the notes and if possible: play matchmaker to the two of them.
'If kisses were the water I would give you the sea,
If hugs were the leaves I would give you a tree,
If love was time, I would give you eternity. '
Twenty-one.
Was it just him or were the last couple…stalker-ish? Leon sighed as he tossed the paper up onto the higher shelf, making a note that he'd have to soon clean it out. He frowned thoughtfully as he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the main doors, ignoring the jostling that came with the after-school rush. Now that he thought about it, though he'd abused each piece of paper, he'd actually kept all the notes; though why eluded him. He'd never been a romantic, he wasn't one to soften at a few sweet words; and he really didn't think this was the work of someone with a crush. As he'd told Yuffie he was the school's own Ice Prince, called such because he was pretty cold to others most of the time; so naturally no one wanted him, regardless of what Yuffie liked to think.
So what the bloody hell was going on?!
-----
Inwardly groaning Leon allowed Aerith and Yuffie to drag him over to where Cloud Strife sat patiently. It was history class and today they had group work; he hated group work. It never went well for him and always involved so much talking.
"Oh, stop with the look of utter doom Squally!" Yuffie chirped as she fumbled around in her bag for her textbook.
"That's Leon." He muttered, snatching the bag from her and almost immediately locating the required book. "And I don't have such a look on my face."
"Yes you do; and that's not the name your mother gave you."
Sensing the impending quarrel Aerith cleared her throat loudly and smiled at the pair. "Let's just get our work done, hm? We're allowed to leave as soon as we've finished –no, Yuffie, we're not going to rely on Leon for all the answers. It's group work."
The girl shrugged. "Bleh, group work, Leon work; same thing."
"No it's not." Aerith said firmly, picking up her textbook. "Which is why you and I will work on the first half and the boys will do the last half. Okay guys?" She smiled when two stoic nods replied. "Good, I'll take Yuffie to sit by the window so you can work in quiet."
"I'm not that loud." Yuffie protested as she let herself be dragged away. Leon stared after her incredulously, not quite sure if he'd heard right.
The rustling of paper as Cloud went through his notes pulled his attention back to their work quickly. He felt more than a little awkward, working with someone he'd shared a class with since middle school yet never spoken too. Still, it had to be better than Yuffie, that entailed doing all the work yourself since the hyper girl kept reading yaoi in every question…Leon had yet to figure that how she did that; she saw yaoi in a trigonometry question for goodness sake. They worked in silence for half of the lesson, the workload spread evenly between them; it wasn't until the girls had finished their share of the work that the silence was shattered by Yuffie's giggle as she jumped up onto the table with a grin.
Leon didn't bother to look up. "Off."
"Leon," Aerith's voice was beguiling; Leon sighed and looked at her, knowing she was about to ask something. "It's Friday, would you mind much if I had Cloud take you with him to Kendo? He has his car so he can drive you home afterwards. Is that alright, Cloud?"
Leon sighed at the blonde's nod. "Alright Aerith."
-
"You're not very subtle, you know."
"I don't need to be. Lee's pretty oblivious, ne?"
-
"I can lend you my equipment, if you want to try."
The quiet words spoken right next to his ear took Leon by surprise and he was only just able to stop himself from jumping. Cloud looked faintly amused as the brunet turned to face him, finally looking away from the practice matches for the first time in the hour he'd spent watching the kendo club.
"Could I?"
"Sure, I'll even teach you some katas."
Leon surprised himself by offering the blonde a small smile as he was handed the bamboo sword. "Thanks."
It was nice, kinda sweet if he thought about it but at nine p.m. Cid's tolerance was wearing perilously thin and even the sight of the great potential in Leon –who he prayed would be joining the club- wasn't enough to curb his rising impatience as he watched Cloud instruct the boy in kendo.
"Alright!" He finally barked at them, stamping out his cigarette. "Look you two, it's nine o-fucking-clock, don't you have homes; parents to get back to? Get your stuff and get the fuck out already!"
Cloud had the grace to look a little sheepish even as his voice took on a sardonic quality. "Sorry to deprive you of the vodka waiting for you at home, sensei. Give me a minute to change and I'll drive you home Leon."
Cid rolled his eyes as the blonde sauntered out of the gym and turned his attention to the apologetic looking brunet, now standing uncertainly by the door and clutching his schoolbag. "I'll be honest kid, when Aerith started nagging me to fucking recruit you, I wasn't very hopeful. But you've got potential and if you're not joining the club, there better one hell of decent excuse for it or I'll hang you by your thumbs."
"Excuse me?" Leon gaped, eyes widening at the language the man used, the message lost under the shock that a teacher could speak so crudely to a student.
"Argh," Cid waved him off. "Just join the fucking kendo club alright? A bit practice and maybe Cloud will finally have a training partner who can keep up."
"Huh?"
"Cloud's finished changing." Cid said abruptly, head turning to the side as the locker room door creaked open. "Get the fuck out of my gym; I'll see you both in P.E. on Monday."
Cloud chuckled softly and waved him off as he pulled Leon out of the gym. "Do you need to go to your locker?"
"No. Um," Leon looked over his shoulder uncertainly. "Is Mr. Highwind always so…erm…"
"Crude?" The corners of Cloud's mouth twitched upwards as they strode into the student parking lot. "Yea, more or less. You'll get used to it."
Leon frowned. "I will?"
Cloud shrugged as he unlocked his car. "Cid wants you on the team. If you join, it's frequent exposure."
Leon snorted softly as he slid into the car and buckled his seatbelt. "Right."
-----
'I wish dreams were like wishes, and wishes came true,
because in my dreams, I'm always with you'
Thirty-Two.
Leon almost moaned in frustration as he tossed the note up with the others on his locker's top shelf, making his daily mental note to clean it out soon.
"Leon?"
"Cloud?"
"We don't have kendo tomorrow, Highwind's decided he wants a long weekend."
Leon frowned. "…can he do that?"
"Beats me." Cloud shrugged indifferently before reaching into his backpack and pulling out a notebook. "Here, you said you needed the physics notes from yesterday?"
Leon gave a shy, grateful smile and slipped the thin book into his own bag. "Yea. Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."
He was joined by Yuffie as he dashed for the bus, the girl babbling a mile a minute about how nice it was that he'd made a friend. He rolled his eyes in response, shoving the girl on her bus before hurrying towards his own; though he couldn't deny the girl was right, he had accepted Cloud rather quickly, especially in contrast with the few friendship attempts he'd made back in freshman year. Leon winced in memory as he pulled out Cloud's notebook, deciding to read the notes on the bus before making his own copy at home. Opening the notebook, Leon paused to watch as one of the sophomores nearly tripped over a bag before looking down at the open pages and freezing. For the twenty minute ride to his stop he simply sat there staring at the notes incredulously. He was finally jolted into action by the bus driver yelling at him to get off and hurried off the bus and down the block to his house, his thoughts horribly tangled and confused.
On Fridays Leon had study first period so he allowed himself to arrive a few minutes late in order to avoid his small group of friends who would've been waiting for him at his locker. As soon as he'd unlocked it, he pulled out every single note, smoothing out the balled up ones and arranging them into a neat pile before placing them in his bag before successfully sneaking into the study hall and sitting at a desk in the back. Frowning in thought, he pulled out Cloud's notebook and lay it open, before placing one of the notes beside it and comparing the handwriting.
Identical.
Even though he'd been expecting it since recognising Cloud's handwriting on the bust yesterday, he was still stunned; could do nothing more than stare at the pile of notes, heart hammering loudly against his ribcage; notes that suddenly seemed less annoying and more precious.
Cloud had sent the notes.
Cloud…liked him? As in like-liked him?
Leon moved quickly to hide the notes as he spotted Aerith making her way towards him, slipping them into Cloud's book and stowing them away in his bag. Expression pensive, Leon was only half-listening to Aerith as she tried to discuss their history class with him while he tried to figure out a way to confront Cloud. He nodded absently in agreement to something Aerith said as he recalled Cloud's timetable, remembering the way Yuffie had made them all memorise each others timetables. If he remembered correctly Cloud had study last period. Understanding rippled through him as he realised just why the notes always appeared at the end of the school day. Though he still didn't understand why Cloud would send them…and if the notes were serious (And given Cloud's serious disposition, it was unlikely to be a joke), why would he like him? He was Leon; he wasn't very likeable…at least not in that way. And that was Cloud; while not Mr. Popular, the blonde probably could have his pick of anyone in school; have his pick of people far beautiful, inside and out, than he could ever be. He sighed as the bell rang, coming to a hesitant decision.
He'd just have to ask Cloud about it.
'Love is blind in many ways
I should know I'm in a daze
You drove me to this present state
You use your looks and charm as bait
I don't know why I love you so
When you're not around, I feel so low
I can't help but think of you
We were meant as one instead of two.'
"Is that another note for me?"
Though it was quietly spoken, it still took the blonde by surprise. Cloud could swear that he nearly hit his head on the ceiling, he jumped so high. As he spun around, he could feel his face paling as Leon held up the notebook he'd leant one, a few notes taped to the top of the open page, showing off the identical writing. The blonde swallowed thickly, eyeing the brunet with suspicion. "Shouldn't you be in math class?"
"Shouldn't you be in the study hall?"
"Study hall's optional." Cloud retorted dryly. "Hardly anyone goes last period."
"Hn." Leon frowned for a moment, silently looking at the paper still loosely gripped in Cloud's hand. The blonde reflexively tightened his hold on the paper though he loosened it almost immediately when Leon leant forward and gently tugged at it, pulling it out of his grip and reading it, giving the note far more attention than he'd given previous ones. Cloud shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, idly wondering why he didn't just laugh it off as he waited for a response.
"Cloud…"
Swallow. "Yea?"
Incredulous grey-blue eyes finally lifted to meet his. "…did you get these from Selphie?"
"…Aerith." Cloud muttered sullenly, giving in with a heavy sigh. "It was her idea."
Leon looked baffled. "Her idea to what?"
Cloud blinked slowly at him, a small, very faint dusting of pink settling on his cheeks. He ran a hand through his hair and quietly led the brunet out of the school building and over to tree overlooking the parking lot. "I…I've sorta…Aerith thought it would be a good way to tell you." His lips twitched upwards into a fleeting smile. "Sweet, I think she called it."
"Tell me?" The brunet whispered, trying to quell the small hope starting to unfurl within him. "Cloud, do you…like me?"
Cloud snorted softly. "I know you didn't know me very well a few weeks ago Leon, but I thought everyone knew that I didn't coach anyone in kendo. And I've never lent out my notes."
"Oh." Leon squeaked, suddenly feeling an amazingly large amount of embarrassment. "So that's a yes?"
"That's a yes." Cloud sighed again, feeling his nerves taking control of his mouth as he started to speak in what was an almost babbling fashion for him. "Look, if you're straight or just not interested, I'm sorry. I'll drop it and we can pretend it never happened okay?"
Leon shook his head gently. "No, I don't think we can pretend anything, Cloud." He missed the crestfallen look on Cloud's face as he looked down at the grass between their feet thinking quietly for a long moment before finally looking up, expression firm but anxious as he searched Cloud's bright blue eyes. "Can we try?" he asked quietly. "Us?"
Cloud's expression cleared instantly, a small but warm smile lit up his face as he pulled the other teen into a hug, nuzzling his nose into the brown hair and inhaling deeply. "I'd like that."
---
The notes stopped after that. Cloud only had to endure a little teasing from Leon over the sappy notes. Though he took a quiet pride in knowing that each note had been carefully stuck in a small scrapbook and hidden away in a box in Leon's wardrobe after the brunet had made he painstakingly sign each one –so he had proof they were all from him, he claimed; Cloud thought differently but didn't say anything, whenever the brunet made that insistence, he simply nodded his head and kissed his temple before asking if he wanted to go somewhere to eat.
It was two months later, when their relationship was slowly starting to get a little more affectionate and intimate, that Leon found another note taped to his locker after school. He let a small smile grace his features as he carefully pulled off the door, wondering what Cloud had had to write him about when the blonde was giving him a ride home that afternoon. It was a short note and Leon felt his mouth fall open as he read it, recognising the handwriting –which wasn't Cloud's- and feeling stunned by the writer's daring:
'Pleasure is sex
Sex is sin
Sin is forgotten
So get stuck in!' (And get it on tape for me!)
Leon crumpled the paper violently, his left eye twitching as a blush heated his face.
Now Yuffie was to blame.
End
And now that the nostalgia bug has finally left me alone, I'm going to Starbucks for my coffee fix, please R&R.