Chapter 2
Cloud watched the other man stalk off with no little amount of astonishment and ire. He was simply going to leave his sister in the hands of strangers? A sigh recalled his attention, "I hate it when he does that." Dixcyn stared after the figure for several moments before sighing again, "He doesn't really want to be here, so I suppose I can't blame him."
Cloud didn't care if the man wanted to be here or not. It wasn't right to walk off and leave his sister with them, even if they posed no threat.
"Hey, guys! Who was that? He was smokin'!" Sora bounced over with a loud comment. Cloud smiled indulgently at him. Sora was bi and if the world couldn't accept that, well Sora didn't care.
"Leon. He's my brother. Maybe not the best in the world, but I wouldn't trade him for anything."
Sora grinned and Cloud knew what was coming. Sora never missed a chance to tell the world how great his brothers were.
"Of course he can't be the best brother in the world! I have the best brother in the world and his name's Cloud. Roxas can be a pest sometimes, but we love him anyway."
Roxas growled at his twin, but other than that said nothing.
Cloud couldn't restrain the question any longer, "Why would he just leave you like that? He doesn't even know us?"
"Leon watched the tournament, chances are he made a lot of his judgments off the way Roxas and Sora acted. That and Axel doesn't like Seifer, so that pretty much made him Leon's instant friend, even if he didn't say a word. Plus, Leon knows I can take care of myself if it came to that. He doesn't coddle me."
Cloud could tell from her tone though, that Leon often left too much space between them. Immediately he felt like he needed to shelter the blue haired girl, at least for as long as she was there.
"Dixcyn, there's a really nice restaurant just a couple blocks from here. We can eat there and if your brother doesn't come back I can take you home."
She smiled, "He'll come back."
Cloud frowned at her faith, then asked suddenly, "Where's Riku?"
Sora shrugged, "Said he had to take care of something."
With another frown, Cloud thought that boy and his 'something's' were going to get him killed someday. With easy strength, Cloud lifted Roxas. There was no way he was walking on that twisted ankle, no matter how much he protested. At the restaurant he asked Yuffie for some ice and she bounced back out moments later with a large bag of ice and a towel.
"Thank you, Yuffie."
"Yep, so you want the usual, Cloudster or something different for once?" The energetic girl cheekily demanded.
"The usual is fine, Yuffie." Cloud almost immediately regretted those words.
"Ooh, wait 'til I tell, Aer! She'll be wounded that she's not special, Cloudy-kins." Yuffie smiled triumphantly.
"Yuffie!" But the girl had already taken their orders and darted back to the kitchen.
Roxas and Sora laughed at their brothers' plight. Axel had the consideration to hide his smirk. Or maybe he simply didn't want Cloud to geld him. Dixcyn was actually staring after Yuffie wide eyed, like she'd seen a ghost.
"Dixcyn, is everything okay?" He asked.
Wide eyes turned his way as she slowly nodded, "It's just that, back home, Leon is friends with this girl named Selphie, who's almost exactly like that. Only worse."
Axel then laughed, "Yuffie's working, she had to put a lid on some of her energy or Rufus would have her grilled."
Roxas spoke up, "I'm sorry, but I can't see your brother being friends with someone like that."
"I know, but he is. Although, one time they were at the train station to meet another friend, the train was late and Selphie was standing at the edge of the tracks, going 'trains trains trains' and she just kept saying it. Leon looked like he wanted to throw himself under the next one that came through."
That was how the evening went, stories were traded, comments made, mostly by Roxas and Sora. One of them made Cloud choke on his water. Sora was good at catching people off balance.
"HEY! Wouldn't Leon and Cloud look great together! Brunette and blond. And Leon's all growly all the time, but oozes confidence. He's like Cloud's opposite!"
Roxas and Axel applauded the bright eyed brunette and Dixcyn contained her laughter for about three seconds before she couldn't help herself anymore, all the while Cloud was trying to remember how to breathe.
"Sora," The stunned, or rather pole axed blond sputtered, "He's a guy. I'm straight."
Sora and Roxas looked at each other and shook their heads. Roxas turned to Cloud with a look of angelic innocence. Then no, Cloud thought, the angels had nothing on his little brother.
"So, Cloud, if you're straight, who's Zack?"
Cloud was certain he turned seven different shades of red before he hid his face with crossed arms against the table. He heard Roxas and Sora congratulating each other. If only they knew how much he was going to kill them when they got home! How the hell had they learned about Zack?
"That's awful guys!" Dixcyn chuckled, "Especially with that face, Roxas." The blue haired girl seemed to have most of her laughter under control, "Oh, wow. I'm surprised Leon hasn't called yet. It's after seven." Through his embarrassment Cloud heard cell buttons being pushed and a click at it was flipped shut.
It wasn't until almost ten minutes later that he had the courage to face his brothers again, "How do you two know about Zack?"
Sora grinned, "He stopped by the house the other day."
Roxas smirked, "While you were out with Aerith."
Cloud groaned and let his head thump back to the table, "What did he want?"
"To talk."
"At least that's what he told us."
Cloud wondered some days why his parents had decided that he need a little brother. They'd ended up cursing him with two of them.
"What's up, Dix?" Axel's worried tone cut through the fog of Cloud's embarrassment. He looked up to find the girl staring at her phone, as though willing it to do something. It was then that Cloud realized it hadn't rung.
"He's not answering. He always answers." She looked scared.
"Maybe his battery died."
Dixcyn shook her head, "He carries an extra one. Makes me do the same thing. He always answers, especially when I call. Something's wrong."
Cloud frowned. Dixcyn sounded certain that Leon would never ignore her, but from what Cloud had seen of the man, he wouldn't put it past him to leave her behind without a word.
They waited there for another hour, but Leon never returned his sisters calls or her increasingly frantic messages. Cloud asked her, "Did he drive to the Struggle match?"
"Yes."
"Axel, stay here with these two. I'll call Cid and ask him to give them a ride home and you if you need one. I'll go with Dixcyn and help her look."
Leon's car was still in the lot for the stadium. It hadn't been touched.
"If he walked, he couldn't have been going far." Cloud surmised, "Let's look around, see if maybe he's in one of the clubs."
Dixcyn only nodded mutely. Cloud saw that she was going downhill fast. Silently, he cursed her brother for leaving her like this and not answering.
