Disclaimer: Still don't any of the Square Enix/Tetsuya or any or all possibly used or to possibly to be used Disney characters.
Warnings: Cloud does something bad in the shower, if you don't know what I mean, use your imagination, children.
AN: Originally "Bumps in the Night" and slowly but surely editing the original chapters that had been posted under the original title and slowly working up future chapters with a hopefully better idea of what I want to go for without this reading like some newbie wrote it.
Chapter 2
If there was one thing Cid did not tolerate, aside from his afternoon tea time being ruined was a smart mouth asshole talking smack or talking directly to his face about the man of his life. Cid took great pride when it came to the man in his life, Vincent Valentine. Speaking ill of Vincent Valentine, Ex-Turk and expert Gunmen was a dishonor worse then there being no tea left in Cid's tea kettle when he woke up in the morning. Vincent was the only other thing that made Cid's heart feel whole. The others had learned their place about mouthing off about Vincent, but it seemed, at the moment, Cloud had forgotten. He crossed that 'Life or Death' line by thinking that he could "help" the old Captain release some of the tension by at the same point, mouthing off about Vincent.
"Get up, Strife, get up and face me so I can punch your lights out proper you little shit!" Cid reared his fist back to punch the blonde's lights out, but Aerith's hands around it stopped him, "Aerith?"
Her face said it all; she was on the edge of throwing someone's hide down those stairs and reprimanding the other harshly, "Let it go. Just let it go."
"…Alright, but Strife," Cid glared at the chuckling darkly man as he let his hand slowly come to rest at his side, "We're going to finish this later…I'm only stopping on Aerith's behalf. I don't want to have the lady watch me knock that smirk off your prick like face."
"Just go, Cid…I'll deal with him…" she softly patted his shoulder as she watched him leave before she turned her calmed fury on Cloud, "What was that all about? Why were you egging him on like that? What have I told you about that mouth of yours?"
Cloud seemed to realign himself as he rolled his eyes, why, why, why, is that all you have to ask me over and over, Aerith, come on, stop with the preaching; "I'm sorry, Aerith…I'm just not myself today, when I'm not myself I guess I pop off at the mouth more then usual."
For a mere moment, Aerith was willing to believe the white lies she knew was coming out through the man's teeth, "You aren't cut up too badly, but…I still think you need to go take that shower, and most of all, leave Leon alone; if he's not awake from all this noise now, I'm sure he is now."
"…Leon…"the way it sounded coming off Cloud's lips sounded like a purring sound as she watched his fingers pet the door which disturbed her slightly, "Can I see him later?"
"I don't know, Cloud. After what you said to Cid and the fight…I'm going to have think about it, because I don't know if I can trust you alone with Leon while he's sick," she stared at him as she watched the man become crestfallen as his fingers curled into a fist as it fell to his side, "Cloud…Cloud…Cloud, answer me."
His eyes slowly turned towards her, "I want to talk to the real Cloud, Wolfgang. Let me speak to the real Cloud, no tricks."
"…Can I see him later if I promise to sit at his side with you nearby?" Cloud seemed to come forward as his eyes looked up at Aerith with sincerity, "Please?"
"…I'll think about it, but for now, I've got to get down to the Kitchen and help with Dinner and you need a shower," Aerith's face seemed to give him reluctant hope as she turned on her heels, but she stopped at the top stair before heading downstairs, "Remember what I said, Cloud, leave Leon's room alone and get a shower before you come down for dinner."
Cloud faintly nodded his head as his eyes took one last reluctant glance to Leon's bedroom door; on the other side was a man that had long ago stolen his heart. As well, put the dark side of him self, Wolfgang, as it had been so named, onto a leash and keep him at bay when he reared his ugly head. Wolfgang only seemed to come forth when the Darkness took to mating with the Mako in his blood and turning him into the bastard that was the side of Cloud no one saw or had ever seen.
"…Whatever has you laid up in there, Leon, you kick its ass…or I'm going to be kicking yours…"Cloud grumbled to himself as he wandered off to the bathroom to take his needed his shower, "Or else one particular is going to be looking at a good back swat."
Aerith's suspicions were slowly being answered as to why Leon had become ill, but, suspicions could be answered by facts, there was no evidence there that Cloud or the Darkness within Cloud was the cause. It didn't seem possible, but she knew that the Darkness side of Cloud had for some reason taken a deep interest in Leon lately. It had been muttering about Stupid Lion keeps running from him whenever he speaks to Leon. Stupid Lion telling Leon that Cloud was a bad man that shouldn't be trusted which to Cloud's Darkness like beast was an insult. Cloud could be as gentle as he wished when he wanted to be, but then there were times when Cloud would be out right rude and obnoxious. Aerith busied herself with making Dinner for her crazy, makeshift family to push aside the thoughts and suspicions she had about Cloud.
"…Dinner time everyone," Aerith softly called out as she carried the pot over to the table, "Come on, Cid, the Security System will still be running and keeping an eye things for now. You need to eat as well and I don't want you leaving dishes at the Computer…Tron does not want or need his hard drive fried if you spill anything on the keyboard."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, Aerith…"Cid pushed away from the Computer as he set the Security System to run while he wasn't monitoring, "Where's Spiky?"
Yuffie was half way through her bowl of stew meat while Tifa was just starting to take a bite of her dinner when their eyes locked onto Aerith with worry, "You don't think he would…" Yuffie mumbled through a mouth full of food as her eyes moved to the stairway.
Tifa was halfway out of her chair as she heard the sound of feet padding down the stairs; there was silence until the sound a hacking cough and moaning of a sick man coming down the stairs, "Was anyone going to tell me dinner was ready or was I going to be left to rot upstairs?" Leon seemed to grumble in his sick state as he leaned against the stairway wall, "Well?"
"I was going to bring you some dinner in a minute, Leon, I just had to feed the troops down here," Aerith let her soft smile caress her features as she went to grab Leon's bowl of food, "Come on you, back up stairs with you, I didn't say you could get out of bed just yet."
"Yeah, yeah…"Leon grumbled sickly as he started back up the stairs slowly as Aerith followed after him, "It's kind of hard to sleep when World War 3 is going on outside your bedroom door."
Cid slightly winced to himself as he felt Yuffie kick him under the table as he brandished a fork at her, "Do it again, brat, I dare you…"
Yuffie kicked him again, "You and your He-Man pride that got into that struggle with Cloud earlier is the reason why Leon is awake and not sleeping."
"Well excuse me if my pride for the love of my life was in jeopardy," Cid growled back at her as Tifa kicked him harder in the other thigh, "Ow! Damn it, Tifa! What the Hell?!"
Tifa's gaze directed back to Aerith who was still hanging around the bottom of the stairs, all the while, keeping a watchful gaze on Leon, "Just can it, will you? Both of you."
Leon stopped at the top as he leaned against the wall of the stairway, "Why does the floor feel like its moving, Aerith? Did you guys turn the house into a Fun House while I was asleep?"
"Come on, time to get you back in bed…"Aerith ushered him onwards to his room as she set the bowl of soup on the side table, proceeding then to take the man's temperature, "You're running a fever…this isn't good, but you need to at least try and eat something and get some fluids back into your system."
"Make it stop…"Leon grumbled as he attempted to pull the sheets over his head which Aerith pulled away from his face, "Make it all stop…Aerith…I can't be laid up in here…I'm the Head of the Restoration Committee…this is embarrassing."
Her head softly shook side to side, "You aren't a super human and even Heads of Committees get sick; I'll be back with a wet washcloth for your forehead and a glass of water…Just try and sleep."
Leon grumbled as his eyes softly closed as the sound of air passing through his clogged nostrils seemed to whistle in his sleep. Aerith's fingers brushed against his bangs, beads of sweat were beading on his forehead which was merely a side effect of the fever. It broke her heart that she couldn't do anything more then just nurse him to the best of her abilities. She quietly took her time leaving the bedroom as she headed downstairs where dinner had all but been eaten, save for some portions leftover for Aerith and Cloud, once he finally came down from his shower. The dishes had been placed into the sink, washed, dried, and put away for the night as well as the Kitchen had been cleaned up. The others may at times appear as if the idea of responsibilities wasn't for them and the only enjoyment was making everyone else's lives a living Hell, but, underneath all of that was caring friends.
"…Guys," Aerith chuckled to herself before sitting down to eat.
Cloud had taken his time to get into the shower; he was a creature of habit that took his own time to undress before stepping into the shower to wash off the days happenings. It had become a sense of habit as far back as his time in SOLDIER. As a SOLDIER Grunt he had been self conscious about his body, especially about what was down in his nether regions. He would wait then and during his time with AVALANCHE to take his shower. Unfortunate enough, it didn't help that back then a rumor had been started that supposedly; he was "lacking in size" compared to the others of his unit. When Training would be over for the day; he would wait till the others had left the Locker Room before he would shower for the day. The memories of those days made Cloud chuckle even now, even as he found himself looking down to find he was completely nude. Something else had also happened during that trip back down Memory Lane; his thoughts had left from those past memories to unconscious thoughts of Leon; he had grown in another sense.
"…You have bad timing you know that?" Cloud was speaking to no one in particular as he stared downwards at the "friend" he made the remark towards; he watched it seem to twitch slightly out of embarrassment, "…Well, you know the drill, but we've got to be quiet. The Lion is sleeping and it wouldn't be good to wake him up or else Aerith is going to come in here and beat us good."
Moments go, what had felt like warm water had turned cold as the man walked in under the stream. The shock of the frigid cold water sent a shiver down his body as well as the "friend" as Cloud became accustomed to the cold. There was no turning back now as his hand rigidly grasped the problem between thighs and gave it a test squeeze. The faint squeeze caused his breath to hitch in his throat until the grasped hand started to thrust up and down. Gasps hitched more and more in his throat as moans turned to purrs as his head lolled back as the cold water ran down his golden spikes and flattened them against his head. His forehead started to come forward as it rested against the tiled wall of the shower as the actions began to speed up and his hips started to buck unconsciously with the thrusts. Gaia he needed to be released, but he couldn't feel that tightening sensation in his lower part of his stomach knotting up, foretelling what he knew was suppose to becoming. Why wouldn't his body register he needed to explode? It wasn't that hard; just do it already, but even with the cold water rushing down on his body it wasn't enough to release him self.
"…You are one stubborn little bastard…aren't you?" he squeezed hard down on it as he heard his own moaning laughter of dark chuckles come from his worn out lips, "What do you want me to do? Tell me what you want…Oh…you want the pretty Lion don't you…"
A simple squeeze on and thrust started to make it answer for him, "Yeah…I know you want the pretty Lion…I want him too, but Aerith says to leave the pretty Lion alone…he's not feeling well right now and its not right to take advantage of the pretty Lion right now…" he continued at the actions as the speed increased and the knotting was beginning to form in his stomach, "Aaah…yeah…yeah…Come on…bring me on home…if you do that for me…we can go and check in on the pretty Lio---AAAH!"
It didn't take much more then the promise of getting to see the man laid up, ill in bed to cause the man to explode against the tiled wall, "…Yeah…yeah…that's what I needed…" Cloud slowly slid to the floor of the shower where he laid exhausted, momentarily, but once his body had regained its composure; he turned the water back to warm, "Heh…I better hurry up with this so I can get some of dinner before its all gone."
