Chapter 2-The Scent of Awakening, Wildhoney and Dew
The castle of Hollow Bastion, or Radiant Garden as he should call it now, was quiet. Leon could count on one hand the number of people who still came to the castle. It hadn't always been that way; once, the castle had been a hive of activity, not this silent, empty building, waiting to see its glory days again.
Leon could see the surrounding land for miles around from his vantage point on the wide balcony. Radiant Garden was being rebuilt, slowly but surely, and people were drifting back to their world, but it was still just a shadow of how it used to be.
There were footsteps behind him, coming closer, until the blond man came up beside him and leaned against the balcony, looking out. There was a moment of silence for a few minutes before the blond spoke.
"Brooding again?"
"No, reminiscing actually," Leon replied.
"Don't you normally reminisce with someone?"
"Volunteering?" There was a lighter tone in his voice.
"Would you tell me either way?" Cloud countered, knowing the answer already.
Leon smiled and turned, so he was leaning with his back to the landscape. "So why are you here?"
"Escaping. Aerith is learning to sew, I think she was one step away from making me wear one of her dresses, so I volunteered to come and find you."
Leon lips twitched up. "Pity, you'd look adorable in a purple number, especially with twin plaits."
His smile grew when the younger man glared at him, his look telling him quite clearly where he could stick that idea.
Leon turned his attention back to the room beyond the archway in front of him.
"That's the ballroom, isn't it?" Cloud asked.
"Yeah."
Cloud was silent for a moment, before, "I'd forgotten there was a ballroom."
Leon turned back to his companion, slightly surprised. Cloud didn't often engage people in conversation, especially not small talk, and most certainly not Leon, neither of them being the most talkative people in the world. Although, he was more surprised that Cloud had forgotten there had been a ballroom – what used to be the heart of celebrations in the city.
His surprise faded, once he thought about it; it made sense that Cloud would forget. He couldn't have been more than thirteen when everything starting kicking off. Too young to have come to any ball; but Leon had been to too many to forget about this place; too many attendances and too many memories.
Unsure how to answer Cloud's comment, he turned back to the hall. He froze. In the centre of the hall was a girl, staring up at the sky. A girl who was all too familiar and should most definitely not be there. Leon shook his head. It must just be his mind playing tricks on him, still lingering on the past. The girl turned and made her way to the exit.
"Looks like you're not the only one to come up here after all."
Leon looked at him. He wasn't seeing things, then. Cloud frowned slightly, still watching her, "She looks familiar…" Cloud trailed off and looked to Leon, seeing his own thoughts reflected in the other man's eyes. They turned back in time to see the girl step out of their line of sight. They stared stupidly for a moment, before they sprang forward.
Leon stopped only briefly in the centre of the room, but seeing no trace of his quarry he made his way to the exit. It couldn't be 'her' of course, not a chance. She couldn't have made her way out, escaped. She-
Leon's mental tirade came to a shuddering stop as he slammed into something, sending him crashing forward to the floor. Wincing slightly, he looked up at the ceiling in a vaguely bemused manner. He heard Cloud come to a halt, no doubt finding this all very funny.
"What do you think you're doing? Running around like the heartless are invading again!? The least you could do is look where you're going."
He looked to his side and saw Tifa sitting, rubbing her side, looking about as happy as a moogle who had had their pompom repeatedly yanked, except Tifa looked far more likely to rip his heart out… and distinctly less fluffy.
"And what are you doing all the way up here?" she continued, hand on hips. "Do you know how long it took me to find you?"
"She's gone," Cloud interrupted.
Leon jerked himself to his feet, remembering how he had come to be on his back in the first place. "What?"
"She's not here," Cloud repeated, and sure enough he was right.
Leon turned back to Tifa, now on her feet and looking more confused then annoyed. "Did you see anyone?" he asked.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes – what's going on?"
Leon ignored her, and looked round the reception hall. Though not as large as the ballroom, it was still large enough that Tifa would have seen anyone who had left the ballroom just ahead of them. Besides, there was the hallway beyond that, but then she wouldn't have had to leave on foot if it were 'her'.
"What's going on?" Tifa repeated her question.
"Nothing," Leon said, and the door to the hallway opened, letting Yuffie in. "Don't worry about it."
Yuffie dashed past them and skidded to a halt in the ballroom. "Woooooooooow. What is this place?"
"The ballroom," Leon answered, giving Tifa a final 'drop it' look.
"Awesome! I didn't know we had a ballroom."
Leon turned to the young girl. Of course, if Cloud had forgotten about this place, then Yuffie certainly would have been too young to have realised this place existed. The young ninja stopped spinning round to take a closer look, running around.
"Have any of you been to a ball?"
Tifa's eyes flicked to Leon before answering, "I was too young. Cloud missed his first one; they stopped holding them when things started to get bad. Aerith has been to a couple though."
Yuffie halted and turned to Leon. "What about you?"
"A few," he admitted.
"What were they like?"
"Ball-like." If Yuffie had caught him five minutes ago he would have been loquacious, but now he really wasn't in the mood to talk about it anymore.
Yuffie, however, was not to be put off. "Leon! That's a stupid answer!" she exclaimed, bouncing to emphasise her point.
"Why don't you ask Aerith," Tifa suggested, "I'm sure she'll explain a lot better. You know what Leon's like."
This seemed to satisfy as she turned her attention back to examining the hall. "We should have a ball," she announced.
"It's a little messy to hold a ball in," Leon pointed out.
"Not now, silly! Later; after we've finished reconstruction of the town and castle. We can have one as a celebration."
The room went silent. Reconstruction of the castle? Leon had never seriously thought about it before now.
"Yuffie," Tifa began, "I don't think we'll be reconstructing the castle."
"Why not? It'll be really useful and it's gotta be better than letting it fall to pieces. Right?"
"Yuffie's right," Leon said, causing Yuffie to beam happily and Cloud and Tifa to look at him curiously. He ignored their looks and continued, "If we're careful then we should be fine. It's probably safer all round if the castle is in working condition. But," he added, "The city comes first."
Yuffie nodded, then bounced up to Leon. Oh god, what was she getting at now. "Leoooooon," she sang, "I don't know how to dance."
Suppressing a groan he brought his hand to his forehead. "I'll find someone to teach you."
"Thank you Leon!" and she bounced out of the room.
Tifa was watching him closely.
"Drop it Tifa," Cloud said, speaking for the first time since Yuffie had entered, and Leon could not be more grateful for his timing or choice of words.
"You were looking for me?"
Tifa appeared to give up, for the moment anyway. "Nothing exciting, but I think Cid wants to see you – I think he wants to try and convince you to get rid of Merlin's magic things while he's not here to stop us, to make room to expand his computer. You'd think having Tron would be enough for him. Oh, and I think dinner will be cold now," she added leaving the once glorious ballroom behind.
End of Chapter 2
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