Leon stared at Cloud curiously. "You... need to see Aerith... alone. You." Leon said
slowly, an amused smile on his face. Cloud sighed, glanced toward Yuffie's current
spot of hiding, behind a large rock.
"... Yes." Cloud burned. She owed him for this. Big time. "I just need to talk to her
for a bit."
Leon chuckled. "Well, I'm more intrigued as to why you're asking me. It's not like
you need my permission." he shrugged. Aerith stood humming, apparently unaware
that she was the topic of the discussion.
Cloud turned, if possible, even redder. "O-of course. Stupid me." He turned to
Aerith, who continued to hum, completely content.
"Hey... Aerith?" She stopped, tipped her head sideways, watching Cloud. "Yeees?"
"I'd like to go for a walk with you." She clapped her hands together. "Oh, alright.
That sounds nice, Cloud." Cloud wondered if she was smiling at the blush on his
face. "It was nice hanging out with you, big brother!" she said, waving back at Leon
as Cloud attempted to drag her away so that he could blushing so much. Damn that
little ninja! How did she always find ways to make him so- He stopped dead,
something clunking into place. "Wait." He spun around, flicked from Leon to Aerith,
then to Leon again. "You guys are... related?" Leon turned away suddenly, arms
crossed. "Oh," Aerith said, piping up suddenly. "I guess we never did tell anyone,
did we, Squall?" Leon stayed silent, staring intently at a distant boulder.
"You can come out now, Yuffie." There was an audible squeak from the rock.
The young ninja appeared in a puff of smoke, fuming, fists at her sides.
"How come you never told me Aerith was your little sister?" She questioned, voice
high. He didn't turn to her. "It never came up. I never... saw a need to mention it, I
guess."
She sniffed. "I... I thought for sure you two were... y'know,a couple."
He turned, one eyebrow raised. "Even if we were, why would you be interested?" He
said, not quite sure if this was going in the direction he thought it was.
"Because... because I..." she closed her eyes. Not going as planned! But she had no
choice now.
"Because I love you!" she shouted, face bright red, arms tensed.
"I love you! I really do!" She ran over and hugged him tightly, afraid to look at his
reaction. It wasn't how she had planned on telling him, but she had said it.
"Yuffie..." she buried her face in his shirt, already expecting someone to laugh.
Laugh at immature little Yuffie. But no one laughed. Leon simply said quietly,
"...I love you too, but try not to mess up my shirt, okay?" She choked, part
laughter, part tearful. It was such a typical resonse from Leon. He always had to
play it cool.
Then again, that was why she had fallen for him in the first place.
------------
As it turned out, Leon had heard about the rave, from Sephiroth of all people.
"'I'm not sure I'd go personally, too many people I'd be tempted to kill. And Cloud
would probably ruin all my fun anyways. But I'm interested in whether you even
dance at all, Leonhart.'" Leon recited his discussion to the others after the whole
drama was over. Yuffie frowned. "Why is Sephiroth such a big jerk?"
Leon leaned back against a wall, eyes closed.
"Ask Cloud. It's his darkness." Cloud frowned as well. "It's not like I feel up to
explaining it, either." Aerith smiled, said suddenly, "Cloud, would you like to come
with me to the dance?" He tripped and fell for no apparent reason. "W-what?"
"Oh, if you're busy, I understand." She put a hand to her cheek, eyes closed
disappointedly. "N-no, of course I'm not busy. I'll go with you, Aerith."
"I've never seen you dance, Cloud." Yuffie said, looking up at him. "That's because
I don't." Cloud said bluntly. He laughed amusedly. "But I've seen Leon bust some
moves. Course, he didn't know I was still there, because I was so quiet."
Leon stared at Cloud, his mouth half-open.
"You were... watching me when I was playing Yuffie's DDR?"
Yuffie jumped. "You were... playing on my DDR machine?"
Cloud jumped. "That was your DDR machine?"
Everyone stood there.
Aerith hopped and said "What's DDR?"