Rain, Rain
Note: Due to the overwhelming (I think all but one review) amount of requests for a LeonXCloud story, and since I was early enough on in this story to change it over from another RikuXSora story into the requested pair, I did. Since I was still early on in the plot, I didn't have to completely rewrite the story to change the character (originally, it was Riku wandering in the desert). I found that this plot works a great deal better for Cloud, since he's more likely to… well, just read and see. The song that Cloud hears in this story is an actual song by Lhasa, titled 'For The End Of The World Or The New Year,' so I'm not claiming rights to it. Thanks.
Story Two: One-Hundred Years
"Cloud!" The voice was oddly familiar; oddly close; oddly…
A mirage, again, Azure eyes swept the area blearily, a thin layer of sweat clinging to his body. I'm destroying myself with these visions, and then there's just… He tapped his canteen with a finger, sighing like the winds of the eternally empty desert. It was true; there was no more water.
"You oughtn't have come! I told you that your body would be lost in the sands of the deserts, but you wouldn't listen to me! You wouldn't stay with me!"
The voice of the girl who had given him the directions to the desert echoed through his head with all the reality of all the mirages that had plagued Cloud since he'd realized—simultaneously—the extent of the sun's rays and that he was low on water.
Very low.
He slowly let himself down onto his knees, the winds picking up slightly and wrapping him in a blanket of sand, clogging all of his weakened senses. He found that he didn't mind, as the howling wind and stifling sand closed him out from the rest of the world. The same wind tore at the red bolt of cloth that hung from his shoulder. A calloused hand reached down into the sand, burying itself in the painfully hot grains.
Don't chocobos bury their heads underground when they don't want to face the world? He mused through the haze in his mind. Or were those moogles?
It was utter nonsense, and he knew it deep in the back of his mind, but found the logical side to his brain to be remote and inaccessible.
"Cloud!"
He turned back up to stare into the distance, the distorted, black shape calling toward him over and over.
"I… don't… know you," He stuttered, bitterly aware of the memories that were dancing just out of his reach. "Who… are you?" He pulled himself to his feet and stumbled toward the shadow again.
"You son-of-a-"
"Cloud… Hey, calm down. Cloud! This isn't funny!"
The infuriated blond yanked his huge sword from the ground, where he'd missed when he brought it down toward that annoying kid. "Actually, I find this hilarious."
Zell leaped back, holding out his hands as a pathetic barrier. "So, why don't you laugh?"
Cloud shrugged once, raising the sword again.
"Enough."
The blond lowered his arms slowly, turning his head to stare at the dark brunet, who glowered at him, hand set—almost casually—on the hilt of his own blade.
Cloud met his glare with one of his own, sharpened with annoyance. "He deserves it this time, Squall."
Squall crossed his arms over his chest—defying any sort of defense Cloud could put up—and said nothing.
Cloud hissed in indignation at being wordlessly subdued by the SeeD and stalked out of the room, sword carelessly over his shoulder and shooting contemptuous stares over to the other knight.
Squall's eyes did not leave him while he left, and Cloud felt uncomfortably conscious about the intense stare. He felt very much like turning his blade on the man, but something suppressed the desire he would have normally given in to.
Given in for anyone but him, He thought furiously.
"I don't know… who you are," He mumbled again, a hand clutching his head, which was covered in blond, limp locks. He pushed his hair back and stared intensely at the shadow, attempting to determine it to be mirage or reality. Something nagged him, telling him that this shadow was essential to finding those memories that he'd lost.
"What's taking you so long?"
"I… can't… help it," He panted, brushing the sweat from his eyes. The fever that possessed him had spread to show in his eyes.
"Move, you fool!" The surly brunet shoved Cloud out of the path of the shadow sword. Cloud tumbled over the side of the ledge. He threw out an arm and caught himself, hanging on with ever sliding hands.
"Squall!" He yelled, staring up at his sword, which was dangerously close to following its wielder over the edge. A shadow swiped at his hand and he bit back a sharp cry. "Squall, help me!"
But Cloud knew that the other knight was in no situation to offer any aide. He too was backed against the ledge by the swarms of Heartless, dangerously close to falling beside his companion.
"What are you doing?" He hissed, sparing a quick glance. "You need to get out of here! Jump, get back up here… just do something!"
Cloud fumbled for his sword, and found that he was useless. "Dammit!" He muttered angrily, watching Squall as several pebbles fell past Cloud's face. "Squall, watch yourself!" He called up as his fingers briefly touched the hilt of his sword, which teetered slightly.
Squall gave a sharp cry, one hand clenched to his gunblade, while the other held tight to his face, where blood seeped through his fingers. "Cloud!" He cried, trying to resume a defensive posture. The sword tumbled over the edge, narrowly missing Cloud as it fell to the ground. The sway Cloud made to avoid it was enough to make his grip loosen.
"SQUALL!" He screamed as he tumbled down toward the stone below. As he fell, he saw the world ending all around him with Heartless killing his friends, family…
His whole bloody life was falling down with him. Down, toward the cracked Buster sword and cold stones. Down, where cold death stood, ready to catch him from this awful fall that wouldn't seem to end. The echoes of his screams bounced back to him, as if they had been unheard, rejected, and returned.
It was all Cloud heard before the sickening crack of his bones on the stone and the black that consumed him and his memory.
Cloud stared forward at the mirage, wondering how long it had been since this land had last seen the cool, loving touch of rain.
"Been at least a 'undred years since these parts've seen rain." The man looked up to the empty sky. "An' it'll be a 'undred more 'fore we get it again."
Cloud shook his head, stumbling into the eternally empty horizon, over burning sand. "Squall," The word came back to him with a tasting of memories. As if—were he to reach the enigmatic shadow—he would find himself back with his memories.
There was a faint hum of music in the back of his mind, which spread forward in his senses until his body was infused with the music that thrummed around him. Tomorrow I kill you. Tomorrow I free you.
"Stop…" He mumbled, staring around the desolate desert.
And then seven years of exile for having lied to you so much.
"No… No, no…" The song echoed around him with the memories that stumbled back into his head. He stared forward at the shadow, which offered him only a short smile.
He raised himself up to follow the shadow in the distance. How long had he wandered, searching for those lost memories? Following a Keyblade Master who had forced his way into history. He had only come two years after Cloud's memories began again, so…
Cloud closed his eyes. It's been years. Three more? Four? Five?
And then seven years of exile for having lied to you so much.
"An' it'll be a 'undred more 'fore we get it again."
Cloud fumbled forward, half terrified of what he would find when he finally caught up to the shadow.
"Squall, it's not like I chose this."
The brunet said nothing, staring at him coolly.
"Squall, can't you at least hear me out? I told you what I've got in my head, and I want you to understand that I did not choose this."
Squall swung his gunblade over his shoulder and started toward a door, still silent.
"Squall!"
Nothing.
"Goddammit, Squall!"
The memory struck him with all the blunt force of Squall's gunblade. "Dammit…" He mumbled, wiping a stream of sweat from rolling into his eyes. What happened after that? He thought through his delirium.
The Heartless came… and then…And then…
And then seven years of exile for having lied to you so much.
"Get out of my head!" He screamed into the empty desert, only to find that it echoed back to him, warped slightly.
"An' it'll be a 'undred more 'fore we get it again."
He found his situation increasingly hilarious, as he threw back his head and laughed manically. He was terrified of the mania that had overtaken him with a violent fervor.
Cloud knew he would die in the desert.
Only a hundred years since the rain came here… Only a hundred more… I'll never find my memories this way, A rational part of his brain told him soothingly. Just keep going, Cloud. We can make it.
He started after the shadow with a renewed determination, barely holding onto himself. A hundred years… I'll wait that long, if it means finding those memories again…If it means finding you again.
The sand fell over his boots as he trudged through the terrain, a pair of dazed and maddened sapphires staring forward with each forced step. A hundred years… A hundred years.
He finally stopped at the top of a dune, staring forward at the shadow vision, which was no longer fleeing from him, but standing patiently before him.
"Cloud."
The blond pushed his hair back, staggering forward and reaching for the shadow, as if trying to confirm its existence…
And fell—face first—into a small pool of water.
"Cloud, you idiot."
The blond clenched his fists furiously. "I'm an idiot? At least I can face my emotions!"
The brunet turned a scathing look on him momentarily before seizing his shoulders. "You are a complete fool," He growled, shoving him backwards into the pool at the bottom of the Hall's fountain.
Cloud came up like a shot, sputtering water and indignant curses.
The brunet only smirked and pressed a tiny kiss to the center of the soaked warrior's forehead, where limp blond hair fell in his eyes. "Just think about that for a little while."
Cloud's eyes sprung open in the water as he took in a long drink of the water. An oasis? He thought, finding that his thoughts were slowly returning. He crawled out of the water and stared up to the sky, which had quickly darkened with dangerous clouds. There was a silent moment, where a terrifying fork of lightning streaked across the black sky, then the skies opened up over Cloud, who only stared up in the rain.
A small smile spread over his face, and he raised his hands to the rain, which coated him with warmth and cool relaxation.
My hundred years… have passed… Will you come back now?
End
