Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts
Author's note: I usually don't update so quickly! Wow! So, here's the second installment- Enjoy!
And no, I don't think this will be the last chapter.... one more at the least
Critiques are encouraged!
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Leon woke with a start, the light from the outside streaming through the window and through his unopened eyelids.
He stretched slightly beneath the covers, yawning widely.
He felt great. Better than normal, actually. Though, it was not until he finally did open his eyes that he noticed that something was missing.
Cloud.
Leon sat up quickly, too quickly, and immediately felt lightheaded.
'Cloud!' he thought frantically, standing up as soon as he recovered from his brief dizzy-spell. After hastily pulling on a pair of his discarded pants, he quickly made his way out the bedroom door and down the stairs.
"Cloud!" he called out frantically.
There was a loud clatter from the kitchen following his sudden outburst. Leon quickly changed his destination.
"Cloud?" he cried again, bursting into the kitchen.
Aerith, who was picking up pieces of a dinner plate that she had dropped in surprize after Leon's first frantic shouts, dropped them again. "Leon!" she gasped.
Cloud knelt beside her and began to help.
Aerith quickly cleared the broken pieces of china from the floor with Cloud's help, scooping them up into a dishrag so that she could discard them.
"Sorry" Leon said somewhat sheepishly.
When the floor was clear of the hazardous shards, Cloud stood, meeting Leon's eyes.
"Yes?" he asked "You called?"
Aerith glanced between the two, clutching the dish towel tightly.
"Excuse me" she mumbled, leaving the kitchen.
She sensed an atmosphere between the two men that was too heavy for her to grasp.
Of course, as was characteristic of the two men, a long silence stretched for quite some time after Aerith had dismissed herself.
Neither of them wanted to be the first to break it.
Cloud retrieved a mug of coffee, one that he had been drinking out of before Leon shouted his name again and again, giving its contents a swirl.
"Why?" Leon asked softly.
Cloud narrowed his eyes at the other man in questioning "Pardon?"
Leon paused before repeating himself "Why were you waiting out there....out in the rain"
Cloud chuckled to himself humorlessly "You know" he said carefully, draining the last of his mug's contents "I was wondering the very same thing". His words were heavy, almost as if they were weighed down by their own hidden meaning.
After having said that, he placed his dirtied mug in the sink and exited the room, leaving Leon to mull over his thoughts in peace.
Another silence followed for a long time.
Leon, who usually welcomed the silence, felt that its weight was nearly suffocating. He felt frustrated with not only Cloud's vague answer, but at himself. He could not stand the fact that he could not figure out what it was that the blond meant.
"He was waiting for you"
Leon turned his head sharply at the source of the sudden intrusion, snapping out of his thoughts.
Tifa stood with her arms crossed over her chest, leaning against the door frame between the kitchen and living area.
Leon's eyebrows knitted together, his confusion apparent on his face.
Tifa sighed and uncrossed her arms "You really haven't noticed?"
Leon shook his head slowly "What are you talking about?" he demanded.
Tifa huffed "He was waiting for you" she stressed. "He was waiting in the rain for you"
Leon's eyes widened slightly. 'Could it really be true?' he thought skeptically. He simply could not believe that the other man would have put his own life endanger just to wait for him as Tifa was saying.
Tifa raised an eyebrow expectantly "Well?"
Leon glanced up at her "Well what?"
Tifa tried to find the right words to get her point across, but failed to find any suiting. She sighed "Look" she began "I've known Cloud for a long time" She made a motion with her hands-a mixture between a shrug and somewhat of a wave "and if there is one thing that I've learned, its that he has a hard time opening up to people"
'Tell me about it' Leon thought to himself, but thought it would be better not to voice his opinion. He had seen Tifa angered in the past and it was not something he was keen on being subjected to.
"But to you..." Tifa paused, her hand unconsciously moving in a swirling motion as she wracked her mind for the right words "as soon as you came into the picture... he began to smile"
Leon thought over all the time he had spent with the other man since he came back to them when it was still being called Hollow Bastion and indeed remembered the many small smiles the blond had offered him. Leon never thought anything of it at the time, but now...
Tifa smiled warmly "Take it easy, Leonhart" she said as she patted his bare shoulder "and don't think too much about it" She exited the kitchen, having said all that she had wanted to say.
Leon grunted in response, so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even register her referring to his "old self".
His talk with Tifa left him feeling even more confused than after heis conversation- if you could call an exchange of barely twenty words that- with Cloud.
Leon crossed an arm across his chest, raising the other and pinching the bridge of his nose in thought.
The signs were all there, but he just couldn't bring himself to think that what the other man was feeling was akin to what Tifa was implying.
For the rest of the day, Leon went through his daily routine- leading the Restoration Committee in cleaning up after Yuffie's mishap the day prior- all while reviewing the past couple of days in his head over and over again.
By the time their lunch break arrived, Leon felt as if he were to go insane.
"I'm going to take a walk" he declared, brushing the dirt and grime from the hard work from his pants and jacket.
It was not nearly as cold as it had been the night before, but still quite chilly.
Leon pulled his jacket a bit closer as a particularly cold gust of wind blew, turning to go down the Ravine Trail.
He found a fissure in the crystal-like stone that was characteristic of Radiant Garden and ducked into its opening, surprised that it seemed to be illuminated so well even though it was so closed off.
Leon took a seat, leaning against one of the fissures less craggy walls and shutting his eyes.
He was well aware that the others had most likely gone back to work by now, but with his thoughts tormenting him as they were, Leon didn't think he would be of much help anyway.
After having spent so much time trying to figure out if Cloud regarded him simply as a friend (or if he thought of him as more, rather), Leon came to question his own feelings as well.
'Can it really be true?' he silently questioned.
After Riona, Leon did not think that he would ever have feelings for anyone ever again, let alone a man.
Yet, even after telling himself these things, he found that he found the idea of a relationship with Cloud.... endearing.
The thought didn't even surprise him anymore.
"Hey"
Leon's eyes snapped open, his head jerking in the direction of the intrusion.
Cloud lifted his hand in a half-hearted wave.
Leon stared for a moment before returning the greeting "Hey" he said before slowly making his way to his feet.
Neither man spoke for the time being, even though both men had something that they wanted to say.
"Look, I-"
"Listen, abou-"
Both men stopped mid sentence.
Leon's eyes flicked towards Cloud, their eyes locking- stormy gray meeting clear, stunning blue.
Leon felt himself overcome with emotions, each of them increasingly overwhelming.
He took a step closer to the blond, his body moving of its own accord.
"Cloud" he whispered, now standing less than a foot away.
Cloud gasped as Leon lifted his hand to cup the his face.
Leon's eyes shone with a sudden new found resolve.
"Cloud" he whispered again, more breathily than before.
His lips brushed so softly against Cloud's own that he found himself wondering if he had imagined it.
He pressed his lips against the other man's lips once more, putting more pressure behind it this time.
The sensation that followed was purely intoxicating.
Leon prodded at Cloud's lips with his tongue, sending a silent message to the other man.
Whatever that message was, Cloud seemed to have understood as he opened his mouth ever so slightly, wrapping his arms around Leon's neck.
Leon smirked into the kiss, before taking advantage of the situation and nipped at the blond's bottom lip.
The low, appreciative hum he managed to coax from the blond only encouraged him to go further.
Leon swirled his tongue against Cloud's, gaining the other man's participation in the process.
Many minutes passed, both men breathing in heavy, panting breaths, before they finally parted.
"What" Cloud panted "was that for?"
Leon chuckled slightly between breaths "You know" he began "I was wondering the very same thing"
Cloud's flickered with the remembrance of their encounter in the kitchen. He smiled.
Leon smiled as well.
The idea of a relationship was very endearing.