After Leon put Sora back to bed he went back downstairs leaving Aerith with the little Neko to try and see if she could get him to talk a little.

"So Squall, what is it?" Yuffie asked now perched on the one of the arms of the sofa where Cloud and Cid sat.

"He's a Neko Yuffie."

"A...what?"

"A Neko." Replied Cloud

"What on earth's a Neko?"

"I thought it was pretty obvious what a Neko was, that Kid is a Neko."

"So where does he come from?"

Leon looked up from his crossed arms and stepped away from the wall he was leaning against.

"I don't know, I found him cowering in an alley in Twilight Town."

Cid looked over at his gun blade wielding friend and pulled the stand of hay from his mouth.

"Don't want to be one to put a spanner in the works mate, but what about that friend of yours eh..."

"What you mean Rinoa?"

"Yeah that's the one." Cid then replaces the strand of hay into his mouth

"What about her?"

Cloud also looked up at Leon, "What you mean you guys aren't?"

"No, where on earth did you hear that?"

"Well we didn't we just assumed..." Replied Yuffie

Leon sighed and leaned back against the wall, he thought about how easily it could be confused that he and Rinoa might be together. what his friends didn't know was that Rinoa was a bit of a control freak, she was nice enough most of the time but it was always a bad idea to make a move on Leon when she was around.

Back up in the bedroom Aerith had been making great progress with the little Neko, Sora now had his head in Aerith's lap as she gently petted his head and stroked his ears.

"So what happened to your parents?"

"I don't know." Sora shivered occasionally at the questions that Aerith asked and some he cowered and refused to answer so Aerith quickly changed her question to something that should be more pleasant.

After a while Sora had some questions oh his own. "Who was it who took me from the alley?"

"Oh that was my friend Leon, he's very nice, you saw him earlier in the room." Sora cringed slightly

"Oh, right."

"Look I'm sure you didn't offend him or anything he's just strange sometimes." The tip of Sora's tail tipped slowly from one side to the other as he listened to Aerith and asked his own questions

"Ok, so who was that crazy lady?"

Aerith giggled slightly remembering just what had happened only a short while ago. "Oh that's just Yuffie; she's another friend of mine, just fully of energy that's all. Say are you hungry?"

"A little." Sora turned his head to look up at the nice lady.

"I'll go and get you something to eat you just wait here ok."

"Ok"

Everyone looked up at the stairs as Aerith made her way down smiling and had a quick word with Leon before raiding his fridge.

"How is he?"
"Very shaky, a lot's happened to him it seems he's a bit hungry too you got anything to eat?" Leon nodded towards his fridge in the kitchen. Aerith opened it up and found a bottle of milk and some cold ham. "This should be ok."

Aerith then made her way back up stairs and Cloud decided to follow, "Mind if I tag along?"

"It's up to you Cloud." Cloud followed silently behind her and she stepped into the room first then followed by Cloud.

Sora looked up with fear in his young eyes but soon calmed down once Aerith soothed him. "It's ok Sora he's my friend too, his name is Cloud, there's no need to be afraid of him."

Aerith told Cloud to sit on the opposite side of Sora once she sat down close to the head of the bed sitting the bottle of milk down along with a small bowl and picked away at the cold ham into smaller bits. Cloud did as Aerith told him and sat next to Sora on his other side and sat still allowing Sora to paw and sniff him before settling down between the two adults and began licking the cold ham from Aerith's finger tips. She giggled slightly as his rough little tongue tickled her hand. Cloud looked over at her and smiled at her amusement.

Back downstairs Cid and Yuffie left to make some checks in the control room as they had been away for a good while. They said their goodbyes to Leon and took their leave as Leon settled himself down onto his couch.

Sora purred contently at the little feast of ham and milk he was fed. The ham from Aerith and once he trusted him the milk from Cloud. Cloud couldn't help but smile at the almost infantile attitude of the young Neko who lapped at the milk in the bowl purring loudly. All of Cloud's usual defences fell around his ears and he began lightly stroking Sora's back down to his tail and found it very soothing and peaceful. Sadly Aerith had to interrupt him. "It's getting late Cloud we'd better let Leon get Sora and Leon get some sleep and head home ourselves." Cloud looked down at the purring Sora and sighed softly "Guess you're right. Cloud lightly picked the Neko up and put him down on the bed before the two of them quietly left the room saying goodbye to Sora.

Leon watched his two friends wander down the stairs and stood up from the sofa. "How is he?"

"He's quite cute." answered Cloud which made both Aerith and Leon look at him strangely.

"He seems real tired Leon best he gets some sleep; we'll come back and see you two in the morning."

"Sure" Shrugged Leon as his friends made their way to the doorway.

Leon said goodbye to his remaining two friends and then made his way upstairs to where Sora was. He slowly opened the doorway slightly nervous that he might scare the little one. As his head crept round the door he saw Sora on top of the bed covers curled up in a ball fast asleep. Leon sighed in slight relief and made his way to his own room.

Leon sat down on his bed and slowly pulled off his boots and shrugged off his leather jacket and peeled his white top off his chest. He sat on his bed for quite a while thinking about Rinoa and Sora and how Sora made him feel.

At first he felt sorry for him that he'd been left in such shape. He still felt sorry for him, no family, no friends, no home. It reminded him of himself at one point and no one should end up like him.

He also thought about the crushing feeling his heart gave him when he looked at Sora the sensation that dragged him towards the young Neko the yearning to hold him tightly within his arms, to protect him and keep him safe from harm. It was during this time he was thinking that it occurred to him that he never had any of these feelings for Rinoa.