A/N: Alrighty then. There may still come a time in the not-too distant future where I will post a chapter on the day the chapter occured in the story. Sadly enough, today in not that day. So if reading about Halloween about a week after the fact isn't something you enjoy doing... I'm sorry. It can't be helped this time around... Epic fail....
Oh, and all signs described in this chapter are accepted American Sign Language signs. I love signing. It makes saying the dirty things I'm thinking more socially acceptible, tee hee.
Chapter Three
Day Sixty-Three: Hey, If They're Dumb Enough to Still Give Me Candy, Then Who Am I to Tell Them No?
"They are coming to the party, right? They promised, didn't they?"
"Yes, Sora, they are coming. I talked to Leon yesterday and he confirmed it." Riku watched calmly as Sora attempted to hang pumpkin lights from the ceiling of the dorm common room. "Cloud also reminded me to tell you that they'll be at the orphanage by noon and they expect you to already be there."
Sora looked down at his friend with panic in his eyes. "But I still have to help decorate the quad and move the DJ equipment with Xigbar! There's no way I can get all that done and make it in time to set up the kids' Halloween party!"
"Your brother thought you might say that so he sent Sephiroth to the quad to take over for you." Riku shook his head. "I swear, one day I am going to get him to teach me how to successfully manipulate my brother even if it kills me."
Sora pouted but made his way carefully down the ladder anyway. "Just because I know how to hang a set of lights without making it look tacky, doesn't mean that Cloud has the right to push me around."
"You can't still be mad at him about the 'leaving you behind at Zack's wedding thing.' They told you a month in advance that they had other plans for the evening." Riku pointed out as he took a particularly heavy box from where it was threatening to crush his friend.
"Thank you." Sora rolled his shoulders and picked up a slightly lighter box. "And, no, I'm not still mad about that, though he could have been nicer about it. It's just this stupid party he always assumes I'll help him with. Yeah, it's for a good cause, and I love making those little kids happy, but I'm twenty years old and I have better things to do on Halloween than dress up like a clown and entertain children. It wouldn't kill him to take my feelings into account from time to time and maybe have the decency to ask me if I want to help him instead of assuming I'm going to be there."
"Sora, that is probably the most selfish thing I have ever heard you say, and I can't say that I approve of it." Riku said as he followed the small brunette down a hallway.
"Hey, I deserve a chance to be selfish every once in a while. I'm the head of every damn committee worth heading on this campus." Sora sighed as he placed his box down in a storage closet, standing back to allow Riku to do the same. "Forgive me if I think those orphans are going to have the perfect party with or without me."
"Against my better judgment, you are forgiven."
"You don't have to be an ass about it." Sora mocked his friend's condescending tone, but smiled none the less. "And I'm going to help, mainly because the orphanage means the world to Leon and Leon's the one that bothers to take the time to ask me what I do and don't want to do instead of assuming like Cloud does. That and I think Tidus and his girlfriend are supposed to be there and he has one of my sweaters he borrowed at our last family reunion. He promised to give it back to me."
"He still goes to those things? I thought he hated all of you."
"He does, but his dad allows our mom to twist his arm into forcing Tidus to attend reunions and Leon's orphanage deals." Sora shrugged. "We think she's in denial about how much we really don't get along."
"He seems like a nice enough guy. Why don't you like him?" Riku asked as he accepted the water bottle Sora was holding out to him.
"He is a nice guy, and he's not really all that bad to hang out with, but we've just never seen eye to eye about much of anything. He was about a year too young to keep up with Cloud, Leon, Zack and their friends, but he was about a year too old to want to hang out with me and Roxas at family gatherings, so he got the raw bit of the deal, and ended up following the adults around where his father enjoyed pointing out his many flaws for hours on end to anyone who would listen. Needless to say, we have been blamed and he likes us about as much as we like him."
"Sora, is there any way that your family is going to begin to make sense?" Riku ran a hand through the silvery strands of his hair. "You've got two cousins, a twin, a brother, an adopted brother, three gay uncles (one of whom has always been that way, one of whom is not your real uncle, and the other who became that way after his wife died), and a mother who wants nothing more than for you and said brothers to have little babies of your own running around."
"We'll start making sense about the same time that you and Sephiroth do. And at least we don't have like ten cousins like Reno and Axel." Sora sighed deeply and began digging through his pants pockets to find his car keys. "Well, I might as well go on ahead and get started on the orphanage. Maybe I'll have enough time to come back and finish up the dorm if I finish early."
"I'll go with you." Riku offered. "There's nothing better than helping innocent orphans for boosting your levels of good karma. Considering I'm planning on getting wasted later and doing some very non-innocent things, I'm going to need all the help I can get."
Sora rolled his eyes but motioned for his friend to follow him anyways. "Well, if that's not sound logic for helping people in need, then I don't know what is. What happened to people helping because they felt like it, not because they wanted something?"
"It disappeared around the same time you admitted to helping people because you're being forced to." Riku responded sarcastically. "And orphans at that… I'll bet some of them are even sick and in need of some cheering up. You are a cruel, cold monster."
"And you are an arrogant asshole." Sora's cheerful expression belied his harsher than usually words. It had taken him a long time to get over the shock of his friend's crush on him, well, more like that his friend's crush on him hadn't gone away like he'd been hoping, and now that they were back on speaking terms, he wasn't about to ruin it by insulting the other man for real. "Agree to disagree and let's get this nightmare over with?"
"Only if you say the magic words."
"Riku, I am not lowering myself down to your juvenile level."
"I guess someone doesn't really want my help in entertaining the kiddies, huh?"
"I would like you to know that I hate you very much right now and you can expect a locked door to greet your upon your arrival at our dorm tonight."
"I'm not giving in this time."
"Fine…"
"Say it…"
A very heavy, hate-laced sigh.
"… Deal or no deal?"
"Where's Leon?" Why both of his brothers asked him the same question up on arriving at the orphanage was a mystery to Cloud. Maybe it had something to do with their twin powers, powers he was almost completely certain they had though they refused to admit it, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the brunette was the only conspicuously missing person in the small living room that had been set aside for the abandoned children that lived in the Radiant Garden Orphanage For Underprivileged Children.
He was going to bet on the creepy twin connection because it made him feel better about his crazy theories.
"He went to go pick up some doughnuts for the kids. They love his doughnuts." Cloud answered with a slight smile. As mad as he was at Leon at the moment, he couldn't help but be moved by how much the seemingly emotionless man loved the little kids living in the orphanage.
"You love his doughnuts." Sora cut in sarcastically as he passed by the doorway to the living room with Riku in tow. Damn, he'd been in a snit ever since he moved back into his dorm room. It was really beginning to grate on Cloud's nerves, though he had to admit that Sora had been less nosy when it came to his life with all the worries going on concerning Riku.
"No one asked you, Sora." Cloud shot back testily. He almost missed Sora's usual cheerfulness in the face of his new, sullen attitude. "Now, Roxas, you and Axel can start blowing up balloons or something, and make it quick. Matron said she'd be back with the kids sometime soon and Leon wanted at least the living room done by then."
"So tell him to hurry his ass up and help us." Roxas crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his brother. Sora may have forgiven Cloud for the wedding incident, but Roxas held grudges, and he held them for a long time.
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response." Cloud responded as he shoved a box full of bags upon bags of balloons a little harder than absolutely necessary into his brother's hands. "Now go get your boyfriend from out of the parking lot and remind him that when he gets lung cancer from smoking, I'm going to be laughing right along with Leon and he's just going to have to get over it."
Roxas sighed but complied, knowing that, if nothing else, Cloud was the only one aside from Sora that had accepted Axel without question. As much as he wanted to punish his brother for being a dick, he wasn't about to drag Axel into it. The poor red-head needed as many allies as he could get.
Cloud watched his younger brother go, ignoring a glare he was being given from Riku, who had followed Sora as the brunette had made his way back into the room. "You don't have to be an ass to everyone, you know. It's not going to kill you to be nice for a change."
"And it's not going to kill you to keep your damned nose in your own business where it belongs from time to time, is it?" Cloud asked venomously, wondering if spending so much time with Leon had finally begun to wear off on him. He normally wasn't so brutal (bitchy really), but he hadn't been in the best of moods lately. Maybe the stress was finally getting to him.
"Do you kiss your mum with that mouth?" Riku taunted.
"Do you both want to shut up and do something before Leon comes back and kicks both of your asses?" Sora looked up from where he had begun untangling strands of black and orange tinsel to glare at his brother and friend. "As entertaining as that would be for me, I don't want the poor children having nightmares. You know, the kids we're supposed to be making happy today? Yeah, those kids, so shut the hell up and get moving before you have to explain to them why they aren't going to be getting their party, mmkay?"
If Cloud hadn't been the slightest bit proud of his brother's new assertive attitude, he would have been severely pissed at the fact that the normally easy-going brunette was talking back to him and threatening him. As it was, he was proud (in his own fucked up way), so he let the insult slide, choosing instead to being meticulously spreading tablecloths featuring dancing witches, vampires, and werewolves over any surface that would not suffer dropped food and melted candy gladly.
And Riku, well, Riku just shut up quickly, not wanting to get on Sora's bad side within a week of getting off it. Sparing a slight glare in the direction of his crush's blonde brother he set about threading string through a collection of rubber bats Sora wanted to eventually hang in the entrance hall silently, internally planning to get back at Cloud and Leon for forcing Sora (and him by proxy) to set up the stupid party against his will. Never mind that no one was forcing him to be there.
"Roxas… That was my last one… You didn't have to steal it. I would have shared." Axel's loud whine echoed through the entrance hall and all in the living room looked up when the red-head and his boyfriend entered, Roxas looking smug and Axel two seconds away from breaking out a puppy dog pout. "And besides, you've never liked them before, why start now?"
"I just wanted to see what it is that has you so obsessed about them." Roxas responded with a shrug, ignoring the sudden predatory gleam in both of his brother's eyes. "Though it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"I swear to god… If you have somehow managed to give my brother your lung-blackening habit, I will eat your eyes myself, not to mention set Leon on your remains." Cloud's glare seemed to back up his statement, though the amount of fear Axel was showing was negligible, almost as though he wasn't afraid of Cloud… Well, that was going to have to be changed before the day was over.
"And then I will burn all remaining traces and give them to Mother to do with them as she will." Sora threatened, sending his twin a stern look that seemed out of place on his friendly face. "I am assuming copious amounts of holy water will be involved."
"Dude, Mom's an atheist, Sora." Roxas dropped the box that Cloud had given him with a loud thump on a side table and began sorting through its contents. "I don't think she'd appreciate coming in close contact with a holy object, and I stole his last cherry licorice. No need to break out the weaponry, children."
Cloud shrugged. "Whatever. I'm gonna go outside and set up the arch for the entry way."
The four younger men watched as the blonde grabbed an armload of tinsel and stalked out of the room, Sora and Roxas turning to exchange meaningful looks once their brother was out of sight.
"So they are mad at each other." And then, when Riku and Axel looked confused Sora went on. "They were signing at each other when I got here, Riku you were still parking the car. I don't know exactly what they were on about, but Leon looked pissed about something and there was a minute where I thought they were going to break out their fists and settle whatever was bothering them violently."
"They were signing? And now Cloud's acting like Leon?" Roxas shuddered when his twin nodded. "It must have been pretty bad. I haven't seen them sign in forever. Not since Mom cornered them about a five thousand dollar maintenance charge Cloud brought home for Fenrir. That one ended with Leon receiving a broken nose and Cloud becoming the proud new owner of five stitches in his upper arm."
"And I haven't seen them 'sign' ever." Axel scratched his head in confusion. "What the hell are you two going on about?"
"Sign language." Riku answered as he continued his task of stringing bats. "They learned it like eight years ago because Sora and Roxas were getting on their nerves with their secret twin language, and they wanted something they could do where no one would know what they were talking about, mainly for the times when they were fighting didn't want their mom worrying about them. It kind of evolved from there to the point where they spent two whole months without talking before their mom finally threatened never to take them out driving again when they were fifteen, at which point they stopped using it as much so as not to piss her off."
"Roxas and I tried to learn it once, but they changed it and like added their own signs or something because we were never able to figure it out all the way, though we do manage to get most of the bad words at times." Sora grinned. "They had very dirty mouths for fifteen year olds."
"Now they only sign when they get mad enough that they don't trust their words not to get out of hand." Roxas finished up the explanation as he began sorting the limp balloons into piles by color. "Or when they, once again, don't want Mom to be worried about them."
"Sounds more complicated than it should be." Axel muttered as he helped himself to a pile of orange balloons, leaving Roxas the black ones. "But, then again, this is Cloud and Leon we are talking about. It's like a law in your family that if they begin to make the slightest amount of sense, then we've got problem and they have to go change everything up."
Sora and Roxas laughed. "That sounds about right."
"Hey!" Everyone looked up from what they were doing at Riku's yell, a black balloon shooting out across the room due to Roxas' startled yelp. "Leon went to get doughnuts!"
"Yes, Riku. That is what Cloud said. Nice to know that you do pay attention to him from time to time." Sora answered cautiously.
"Oh damn!" Now it was Axel's turn to be stared at like he was going insane. "I can't believe we missed our opportunity!"
"If you two are thinking of doing what I think you're think of doing… Then it's your funeral and I refuse to step in and save your lives." Roxas stated and went back to his balloon blowing.
"Riku… following Leon on any day is a bad idea. Hell, being around Leon on most days is a bad idea, but since we don't really have much of a choice, there's nothing I can do about it. Blatantly following him in an attempt to find out where he gets his doughnuts, that goes far beyond bad idea and is well over a mile into death wish territory." Sora sighed as his friend merely shrugged and continued on with his work. "You're going to die. My best friend is going to die, and he won't even acknowledge it. What am I going to do with you?"
"I'll tell you exactly what you're about to do: You're going to shut up and work before we end up having to worry about Leon's rage much sooner than usual because he got back before we had this living room set up." Roxas warned as he caught his breath. "Then I suggest you sit back and enjoy the show because Axel isn't going to give up, and thus Riku won't either because he listens to my idiot of a boyfriend more than is healthy for him."
"Aw… Roxas… There's no need to be a bully!" Axel chimed in from where he was slumped lazily on a couch half-assing blowing up balloons in an effort to impress Leon enough so that he wouldn't hurt him, while not actually working more than absolutely necessary.
"The day you stop being an idiot is the day I stop making fun of you." Roxas said and flicked his boyfriend on the back of his head. "And blow the damn things up right. I don't know much about normal orphans, but I don't think they appreciate droopy balloons. And the orphan I do know, while being so far from normal it scares people, still does not like them either and is probably just waiting for an excuse to expend excess anger on someone Mom won't notice going missing."
Axel, while having a variety of witty comebacks, wisely held his tongue for the first time in his life and began blowing up the balloons properly. As much as he secretly enjoyed getting on Leon's last nerve, if the man was already angry then it wouldn't be worth the hospital bill.
The four men worked in silence for a while before Riku finally broke the semi-comfortable moment.
"When is Leon coming back?"
A bell jingled happily as the door to the Estharian Delights Bakery and Sex Shop swung open in a gush of cooling fall air. Well, so the sex shop part wasn't really advertised for the world to see. That didn't mean it hadn't been pumping inappropriately shaped baked goods into the community for years.
"Leon! Long time no see!" The brunette cringed at the overly-enthusiastic greeting. He took a quick side step and watched in amusement as the flying blur that constituted the main owner of the shop came to an ungraceful stop on the floor behind him. He looked up at the stoic man standing over him and flipped his longer bang out of his eyes before sarcastically saying. "Nice to see you're as cheerful as ever."
"Nice to see you never fail to not learn from your mistakes as you insist on attempting to hug me whenever I walk through the door only the be met with the same result each and every time." The look on Leon's face showed his displeasure, but he offered up a hand to the almost girlish man in order to help him back to his feet.
"Laguna… What have I told you about jumping on the customers…? Oh, hello Leon, I thought you were someone else." Leon waved to the dark-skinned man who had appeared from the backroom at his friend's startled yelp. Enter the shop's second owner. "You here to make the doughnuts for the kids?
Leon nodded as he helped Laguna to his feet. "Yeah, and, if it's not a problem with you, I'd like to make an extra batch for Cloud, the raspberry filled ones, please."
"Something wrong with you two?" Laguna asked as he bounced happily back behind the counter with Leon following behind him. Working with the younger man for years had taught Laguna that he only requested doughnuts for Cloud when the blonde needed saving from something (normally an excursion or tutoring session with his brothers), on or as close to anniversaries as possible, and when the two were fighting. Since there was a very low possibility of Cloud needing saving considering his mother and brothers had stopped forcing him to do things after he hit the age of twenty, and their anniversary had been on the fifteenth, Laguna was willing to bet on the third option, as much as he hated to do so.
The brunette sighed and nodded. "As much as I hate to admit it, yeah. Mom's not doing too well again and Cloud's started paying her medication bills. When I told him that I would help, he refused. We fought, he left, and I said some things I probably shouldn't have as he went. Now I'm trying to at least get back on speaking terms with him. End of story."
"I highly doubt doughnuts are going to do the trick." Kiros said skeptically.
"And you have never met Cloud before." Leon pointed out. "Offering doughnuts is his international sign for peace and a truce. Now whether he'll still be talking to me after he's done eating is up in the air, but he'll at least say 'thank you' and stick around long enough to listen."
A loud crash heralded the arrival of the third owner of the bakery. Leon looked up from where he was rummaging around under the counter for a recipe he wanted to wave at the rather large man wearing a pink, frilly apron that had come bursting out of the swinging stainless steel doors that led to the food preparation area. "Hello, Ward."
The other man spared him the briefest of nods before turning and moving his hands so quickly they were almost a blur in the general direction of where Laguna and Kiros were busy pushing each other out of the way in order to scramble over the counter. When he noticed his friends weren't looking at him he sighed deeply and turned back to Leon.
'Why do I put up with them?' Ward asked with his hands.
Leon shrugged and lightly touched his right cheek before flicking his hand outward, effectively saying: 'I don't know'
Ward sighed again and pointed in the general direction of where his friends had managed to launch themselves over the counter and were now tangled in a writhing pile of limbs and curse words. He made a fist and punched his right index finger and then placed his flattened hand on the center of his chest and rubbed it in a circle. 'Hit them, please.'
"Hey, idiots!" The two fighting men looked up to find Leon and Ward staring at them with bored looks on their faces.
'You're lucky. I wanted him to hit you.' And then Ward's hands were flying almost too fast for Leon to keep up with, which, considering that whether or not Laguna and Kiros had or hadn't stolen the last of the white icing for naughty purposes wasn't his business, didn't bother him all that much.
"Damn it, Laguna! He's mute not deaf!" Leon looked over from where he was scanning the recipe in front of him to make sure it was really what he wanted at Kiros' yell. Apparently Laguna had said something not very nice about his mute friend, once again forgetting that just because one couldn't speak; it didn't mean one couldn't hear.
Leon sighed as Laguna stammered out an apology. Had Laguna not made the same mistake before (many, many times before), he might have prompted himself to feel a bit sorry for his fellow brunette. But, considering it was Laguna, and the man didn't know meaning of 'shut your mouth, you dumb idiot', he felt no sympathy in the slightest and made his way through the steel double doors and into the industrial-sized kitchen.
He had already gathered together the ingredients necessary to make the children's doughnuts when the double doors swung open once more to admit the three previously arguing owners. They each had their own looks of concern on their faces, petty squabble tucked away for another time. Leon bit back another sigh. Damn his big mouth. Now he was going to get a lecture about love and never going to bed angry or some equally boring shit.
"Leon…" Laguna started and Leon quickly jumped in, hoping to nip the unwanted conversation in the bud.
"Look, I know I messed up. He knows I messed up. This isn't going to be something that will go away on its own like most of our fights. Even if it would, it will come up again. Mom's only going to get worse from here after all. This is something we are going to have to resolve by, god forbid, talking to each other."
"Which means I sure as hell don't want to talk about it with you three as well. So can we skip the disappointed lecture and one of you can help me make the damned doughnuts?" Leon looked at the trio of flabbergasted men standing before him expectantly, almost hopefully.
"Your mom's really doing all that bad, huh?" Laguna was predictably the first one to break the silence.
Leon nodded. "There's not really a 'perfectly healthy' stage to this disease. Apparently she caught some kind of lung infection last week which led to her doctors discovering her meds weren't working as well as they used to. They've got her on some new, much more expensive, cocktail in hopes that it will give her a bit more time as a semi-healthy, functioning individual, but it's not looking too good this time around."
And then, after a pause so pregnant it was practically in labor…
"…Cloud's blaming himself again."
The three men each reacted at the exact same time, numerous curses and dirty signs reverberating through the room. Leon cursed his traitorous mouth for the second time that day.
"But it never was his fault! It was nobody's fault!" Laguna shouted shrilly, his friends nodding in agreement in the background.
Leon began mixing ingredients in a large, metal bowl, biting back a sarcastic comment in favor of actually explaining everything. In for an inch, in for a mile. "Try telling him that. He's the guiltiest man on the whole damned planet. He thought it was his job to protect Mom after his dad left and he thinks that things would have gone differently had he been there to guard her." Leon sighed wearily and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose with one flour-covered hand. "What he thinks a seven year old boy could have done against a full grown man still remains a mystery to me, but he doesn't care. His mother's rape and subsequent deadly illness was his fault for not being there to save her and that's not something I've ever been able to change. Hell, if anything, it's my fault. If I hadn't insisted on going to the orphanage instead of spending the night at their house, she wouldn't have been out there walking in the dark in the first place."
"I swear to Shiva that if you start blaming yourself, too, I'm holding you down and allowing Laguna to hug you until you can't breathe anymore, boy." Kiros threatened and Ward cracked his knuckles in a show of support.
"No need, no need." Laguna interrupted, waving them off absentmindedly. Leon pounded a fist into his dough a little more forcefully than was warranted. "Leon doesn't really blame himself. He wouldn't be here if he did. He'd be chained to his mother in a blind and slightly humorous attempt to redeem himself by double protecting her now."
'Damn.' Leon thought. 'How the hell does he know me so damned well? Not even Cloud knows I used to feel guiltier than him.'
And as much as he outwardly claimed to hate the odd connection he and the very immature older man had, he secretly was so glad to have finally found someone that wasn't Cloud who understood him without him having to come out and explain everything he was thinking in intricate detail. It was something he had come to appreciate in the annoying man, something that made confiding in him seem like the most natural thing to do, even with Leon's general distrust of people trying to hold him back.
"Laguna…" Kiros sounded tired. "You know what? Whatever. Leon obviously doesn't want to talk about this anymore than he already has." At this Leon nodded in relief. He'd actually said more than he'd wanted to because he couldn't stand to keep his mouth shut when he knew the trio was worrying about him. It had been that way ever since he was a scared boy of fifteen who only knew that his mother was sick and they needed more munny to make her better.
Ward moved his fingers into the shape of a 'd', shrugging before he placed them into the 'o' he'd made with his other hand, twisting it around a few times. 'Doughnuts?'
The men quickly snapped to work as Leon sank back deeply into his own thoughts, not willing to admit that he felt better about talking about the things that had been bothering him.
He was so deep in through that he didn't notice the understanding look on Laguna's face as the older man watched him. Nor catching the flicker of guilt that flashed across his always expressive face a few seconds later before he turned away to return to looking after the front of the store when the bell jingled once more, signaling the arrival of a real customer.
"You brought me doughnuts?" Translation: Are you seriously apologizing or are you just trying to cover up your stupid mistakes in hopes that it might make me come home again?
Too bad the group of young men watching from behind a slightly cracked living room window didn't have a Leon/Cloud to regular human translator. All they could see was Cloud looking annoyed at the peace offering Leon had brought.
"Yes, I brought you doughnuts." Translation: Of course I'm trying to apologize, but if you're going to be an ass about it, I don't think I want to anymore.
And now Leon was looking pissed. The eavesdroppers were starting to wonder if someone wasn't going to have to go to the hospital after all.
"I didn't ask for you to bring me anything." Translation: I don't want for you to apologize if you don't mean it.
The eavesdroppers began making a plan of action were punches to be actually thrown, something that seemed to be only a matter of time now.
"You didn't have to ask. I wanted to do it." Translation: I'm not trying to mess with you here. I want to apologize and at least go back to being friends.
Axel resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall from boredom while Roxas placed a warning hand on his arm in case he should think running out and interrupting the conversation from sheer boredom was a good idea. Riku and Sora yawned, recognizing the sudden absence of tension in the conversation outside.
"You shouldn't have wanted to." Translation: I guess part of it kind of was my fault. You didn't have to go through all this trouble for me.
Axel's eye began twitching. He'd never had the longest attention span to begin with and now that there was no promise of immediate bloodshed, he found he didn't care about the end of their stupid argument.
"Well, I did, so get over it." Translation: I shouldn't have called you a 'fat-assed tightwad with an inferiority complex.' Please don't make me sleep on the floor.
Even when they were agreeing, they were sarcastic and irritated, the eavesdroppers thought to themselves while Axel tried in vain to wiggle out of Roxas' surprisingly strong arms.
"I'm going to eat them." Translation: You are forgiven.
Riku gave up and went back to stringing crêpe paper along the windowsill. Sora gave up and helped him. Roxas kept his death grip on his boyfriend. Axel wished he hadn't picked a stronger-than-he-looked boyfriend.
"That is why I brought them. I didn't anticipate you would like to frame them or something equally idiotic and wasteful." Translation: You're an idiot and we're going to have a real conversation sometime soon and you're not going to be able to get out of it this time.
Cloud laughed and Leon joined in as they began splitting the raspberry filled doughnuts. Cloud's favorite.
And things were suddenly back to the way they had been before.
Axel sighed and turned away from the window. "Well, that was anticlimactic. The least they could have done was punch each other, maybe draw some blood, but no. They just had to yammer on about doughnuts and boringness. I quit this family."
"You can't quit. I'm not ready to let you go yet." Roxas rolled his shoulders and stretched as he went back to the tedious process of untangling a cord of jack 'o lantern lights. "You can only leave when I say so."
"Geeze, Roxas. You wanna brand him, too, so everyone will know he's your bitch?" Riku offered up sarcastically.
Roxas sneered. "If I thought he wouldn't cry like a little baby and go hide behind his mother, I would. Sadly enough, that's exactly what he'd do. It kind of ruins his whole tough guy attitude. As funny as it would undoubtedly be, I don't feel like being disillusioned as of yet. Give me a few more years to let him get boring first."
"Aw, Roxy! Don't be like that!" Axel pouted. "If you wanna brand me I'll take it like a man. Anything for you, baby."
"I'm going to pretend I never heard that and when I walk back in all four of you are going to be working and not saying inappropriate things where children play." Leon covered his eyes and took a step back, ignoring Cloud sniggering in the background, and opened his eyes as he walked back in to find his family and their tag-alongs running around trying to get the last of the spider webs and lights in place. "Good boys. Now the doughnuts are in the kitchen and the pizza should be here any minute. Matron called ten minutes ago to let me know that they were making an unplanned sno-cone stop, but that they should be here within the hour, so you can start taking turns changing into your costumes is you want."
"Where's Mom?" Sora asked from his position on the floor untangling cottony spider webs, just now beginning to notice the absence of his mother.
Cloud and Leon exchange an impassive glance that shouldn't have shown anything, but with Sora and Roxas knowing them as well as anyone could, their guilt showed through as clearly as if they had spoken aloud.
"No! She would have told us! Leon!"
"Damn it, Cloud! What's wrong?"
Both twins were distressed beyond measure if their simultaneous shouts were anything to go by. In fact, Sora looked close to tears while Roxas had a downright evil looking scowl on his face, his glittering blue eyes glowing in anger at the disease process that was keeping his normally cheerful mother down.
Cloud sighed and Leon shifted his weight from leg to leg uncomfortably, neither one wanting to say what was on their minds. Finally it was Cloud that took pity on his younger brothers' concern and broke the silence wearily.
"She was put on a new cocktail last week. Her old one… It wasn't working anymore." Now Sora did begin to cry and Cloud looked away, not wanting to see the pain on the youngest's face. Roxas' fists curled at his hips and he bit his lips harshly, mere millimeters away from drawing blood. "The doctors said she would be better by Thanksgiving, so… She didn't think it was worth worrying the two of you. She didn't want your grades to suffer because of her."
"How much do her new meds cost?" Roxas asked as he joined Riku to sling a comforting arm around his twin. Leave it to Roxas to get to the true heart of the matter now that he knew what had most likely been bothering Cloud and Leon earlier. While he didn't know the exact extent of his mother's munny woes, he did know that she wasn't making much munny and had two children she was supposedly supporting in college, though he had his own suspicions and theories about that. A new experimental cocktail sounded expensive to him.
Cloud shrugged, the picture of innocence for once. Never let it be said that he couldn't act if the occasion called for it. "I'm assuming the same as the old ones. She didn't mention any higher costs, if that's what you're asking."
The look in Roxas' eyes said he didn't fully believe his older brother but he didn't push the issue, instead choosing to put his full attention to calming his younger twin, Sora being on the verge of hyperventilation. Axel walked over to the small group, wrapping his own arms around his boyfriend, having accurately read the tension in Roxas' body to mean that he wanted to be comforted as well, even if he would have rather cut off his own arm than admit it.
Leon and Cloud hovered awkwardly in the doorway, caught between wanting to comfort their siblings and wanting to turn their backs to the embarrassing display of weakness in favor of calming their own frayed nerves. Neither emotion won out so they hovered in the doorway wishing for something to come along and distract them enough so they wouldn't feel guilty for leaving their family members alone in their despair. Riku and Axel seemed to have it all under control as it was. They had never really been all that into sharing feelings anyways.
The arrival of the pizza man turned out to be their salvation as Leon scampered off to deal with calculating and giving out the required munny, a mechanical task he did well and that did not require thinking on his part. He found mindless numbers to be highly calming in an emotionally stressed frame of mind. Cloud watched his friend go, turning to where Sora was drying his eyes on the back of his sleeve and motioning for his brothers and their friends to go get changed.
The four men complied, with the twins looking back at the last second to see Cloud bend down to pick up a fallen rubber bat from off the floor, an almost unreadable, but fairly distressed look in his usually vibrant blue eyes. They shot each other a look of mutual understanding. Leon had been clearly upset by the situation with their mother. And for Cloud to be showing any emotion meant that something was terribly wrong, and they were now resolved to get to the bottom of it.
For their mother, they would do anything.
"And what the hell are you supposed to be?"
Cloud sighed internally as he felt the scrutinizing gaze of one of his friends slide over his choice of costume for what felt like the thousandth time that night. Flicking one of his spiked higher than usual bangs out of his face he sent the newest question asker a blank look of disdain for her question, with Tifa ignoring it in favor of sticking a finger through one of the holes in his crimson cape.
He hefted his bandaged-wrapped (for the safety of others) sword into a better position on his shoulder, knocking the fake tin armor there almost out of place and sent the distracted woman a glare Leon would have been proud of to get her to take a step out of his personal bubble. All it succeeded in doing was drawing attention to the one leathery batwing Leon had forced onto him earlier in the day. A batwing he had been trying without success to get off whenever Leon wasn't looking, only to have the brunette request Riku's help in pinning him down to have it replaced as soon as he noticed it missing. Clenching his bronze gauntleted fist in irritation at the busty girl's curiosity he resigned himself to answering her question, more to draw attention away from his attire than any desire for satiating said curiosity.
"I'm a lead videogame hero obviously. And you?"
Tifa stepped back and stuck her tongue out of the agitated man. She straightened the halo that was hanging precariously off one of her red devil horns on the top of her head and jutted one of her hips out to the side, her white leather skin-tight bodysuit creaking at the motion. "I'm obviously a corrupted angel."
Cloud sighed internally and thanked any deity bored enough to listen that she'd been busy earlier in the day and had declined his invitation to join them at the orphanage for the children's party, a party that had gone off without a hitch once Sora and Roxas had calmed down enough to properly enjoy themselves. The blonde didn't think the innocent children (or their strict Matron) would have been able to handle the sight of the immensely well-endowed woman running around in leather so tight it was practically a second skin.
"Or a slut." Leon entered the conversation, offering a plastic cup filled with punch to the now pouting blonde. Tifa stuck her tongue out at him, too, for good measure.
"Hey, it's Halloween. If I wanna dress like a slut, then that's my prerogative so neener." Cloud chuckled and had to give her that. With her boobs, it was hard to find anything that didn't make her look a tad on the cheap side, not that he would have been so brave as to say that to her face. She was a black belt. She punched hard. The brunette martial artist turned her inquisitive gaze on Leon now, all thoughts of Cloud's strange costume gone in favor of taking in the leathered up outfit Leon had chosen. "And you are…?"
"Damn sexy." Leon stated plainly and Cloud had to admit that he agreed. Maybe it was something about the way the black leather pants hugged the curves of his ass just right, with the four lightly looped belts drawing attention to it every time he moved, or the slightly too large paper thin white shirt that stood out underneath a black leather jacket with a soft fur collar, or his favorite silver lion's head pendant laying heavily against his toned chest. Whatever it was, Leon looked damned hot and Cloud was more than regretting his promise to keep his hands to himself for the sake of the bet.
As much as he wanted to agree and then proceed to throw Leon down and show his exactly how sexy he really was, he restrained himself, choosing instead to comment on the brunette's choice of weaponry accessory.
"Dumb gun thing, though."
"I think it is creative and deadly, thank you very much." Leon answered haughtily. Just because Cloud was still pouting about being forced into a wing he didn't want, didn't mean that he had to be jealous of Leon's gunblade creating skills. In fact, he was pretty sure that he wanted to create the weapon on a real scale it was just that good of an idea. Why hadn't anyone thought of it sooner?
"It wouldn't work in the real world. The blade would get in the way of the bullet, and you can't possibly have room for a decent powder chamber in there. Plus you aim like shit." So that's why no one had thought of it sooner. Cloud grinned at the weaker than usual glare he was receiving for his efforts at taunting. "Face it, Leon. That thing goes against the laws of physics and rationality."
While Leon would have loved to point out that Cloud's own sword would be far too heavy for practical use, he knew the Buster was real, and that Cloud was more than capable of using it skillfully, having been on the receiving end of the lighter than it looked weapon in many training bouts at the martial arts center downtown. Damn the blonde and his deceptively lean build.
Instead he offered up his own sarcastic comment. "At least I'm not wandering around with a poorly concealed batwing sticking out of my cape, now am I?"
The only thing that saved Leon from having a sudden re-acquaintance with the Buster sword was the sudden arrival of Riku and his older brother, said older brother looking more out of place than anyone else, what with his skin-tight leather pants, and coat, which had been left open about midway to reveal a very nicely muscled chest to the world. Sephiroth had apparently opted to go with the one-winged option as well for whatever reason, though he had decided on a feathery black angel's wing that was unfurled to the extent of its hidden wiring, leaving many people not staring in awe at the gorgeous man scrambling out of the way so as not to be knocked to the floor but the ungainly false appendage. Although Sephiroth seemed to give it a grace that was almost inhuman as he glided purposely through the crowded quad, completely ignoring his younger brother's complaints in favor of seeking out his favorite blonde. Leave it to Seph to have the ability to stand out at a crowded Halloween party where costumes were mandatory to get through the door.
"Hey, Seph." The silver-haired man turned at the sound of Cloud's familiar voice, what could only have been described as the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, a smile that immediately disappeared once Leon's presence registered in his mind. "What are you supposed to be?"
"A One-Winged Angel. All capital letters. I'm special" Sephiroth's grin returned, a little more on the gloating side than the happy one when he noticed Cloud's own wing. "And what do we have here? If you wanted to be my One-Winged Devil all you had to do was ask."
"What are you doing here, Sephiroth?" Leon spit out, now regretting his juvenile love of forcing Cloud into uncomfortable situations.
"Visiting my lovely brother on this All Hallows Eve Night." Riku sighed and rolled his eyes at that. Sephiroth hadn't come to see him, that much was certain given that the younger boy had only found his brother by mistake and had been ignored by said brother up until that very moment when suddenly his presence was wanted so he wouldn't look like a love-sick idiot. A desperate love-sick idiot in Riku's opinion. Honestly, it was obvious Cloud was meant for Leon. Why his idiot of an older brother couldn't figure that out never ceased to astound poor Riku to the point where he didn't bother wasting headache medication worrying about it any longer.
Tifa looked over at where Riku was pouting at the ground, his fake blood-smeared light blue scrubs standing out in the bright spotlight that was currently shining down onto the dance floor as every college student within a twenty mile radius danced like there was no tomorrow. He dejectedly pushed the gauze bandage covering his left eye up so he could see better, hoping that if Leon chose to punch Sephiroth (which it looked like was only going to be a matter of time if Sephiroth continued to act like a possessive jerk about someone that wasn't even his to be possessive about) the added range of vision would give him enough leverage to get out of the resulting brawl in one piece for once.
"Zombie?" She grinned when he nodded. "Oh, and a crazed escaped doctor type, too. That's sexy. You got your eye on someone in the crowd tonight?"
Riku sighed and shook his head. He did, in fact, have his eye on someone. He'd had his eye on Sora ever since the day they'd met, but had chosen to keep his crush close to his chest in an attempt to not to run away the only friend he'd found that didn't run screaming when Sephiroth showed up on the scene, an occurrence that had sent many prospective friends from his younger days running in fright never to be seen again. The appearance of Axel and his success with Roxas (who had been twice as anti-love as he was now that Axel had finally worn him down) had prompted him to reveal his hidden feelings, only to be rebuffed again and again by the strangely mature younger boy.
"Don't be sad, Riku, man, he'll give in when it comes down to the end." Riku and Tifa looked up to find Yuffie bouncing off to their left, having arrived unannounced into the conversation with much more stealth than she usually possessed. She was dressed as traditional ninja (no surprise there) complete with a black ninja mask to cover the lower half of her face, an accessory she had pushed down to be better capable of pushing herself into conversations that weren't hers to be sticking her nose into. She winked at the downtrodden young man. "Don't worry about it. With your level of sex appeal, it's a wonder he's held out this long. Keep your chin up!"
Riku looked out over the heads of the writhing crowd to find where Sora was talking to Roxas and Axel, both twins done up as traditional horror movie monsters with Sora going as an immensely adorable vampire and Roxas going as a cuter than average mummy. Both brothers had their startling blue eyes (a trait all the Strife's seemed to have inherited, with the exception of Leon, who wasn't really a Strife anyways) lined in heavy black eyeliner and Roxas had dusted some pale powder on the parts of his face that were showing through the dollar store gauze bandages he'd wrapped around his body. Axel had chosen to go as a biker, which basically meant he dressed up in his most ratted jeans and threw a chain onto his belt loop. Axel was nothing if not lazy.
"Don't be all depressed!" Riku's attention was quickly drawn back to the bouncing ninja beside him to find her looking at him with concern.
Riku shook his head to clear his thoughts. "I'm not depressed, and I'm not giving up either."
"That's the spirit!" Yuffie clapped her hands together in excitement before throwing her arms around her friend. "You show him who's boss."
Tifa chuckled at the enthusiasm. "Now if only we can inspire some other stubborn fools around here to suck it up and grab some courage to do what needs to be done."
"I don't think courage is going to be an issue tonight." Riku stated sarcastically as the group turned to watch the impromptu glaring contest that had sprung up between Leon and Sephiroth, with Cloud in the middle looking like he was about to knock both of his friends into the next century. "I think the real problem is going to be a pair of violent idiots who don't know when to back to down before the cops show up."
"Oh, hell no I'm not going to deal with this infantile pissing contest tonight. I'm out." Riku and Tifa laughed as Yuffie waved and bounced off, most likely to find Selphie since the other girl was the only one hyper enough to handle keeping Yuffie entertained for more than a few minutes.
"Something tells me this happens often." Tifa said conversationally as the tension between Sephiroth and Leon rose to near physical levels in front of them.
"More like every time they meet in a vaguely social situation." Riku answered bitterly. Would it really kill his brother to be civil to someone he disliked from time to time? Especially when the person he wasn't being civil to just so happened to be the adopted brother of the boy Riku wanted to date. "To be perfectly honest, I don't know why their confrontations have become so extreme. They used to tolerate each other, but when Seph went away to college something changed between the three of them. Now Leon would rather break his shins than look at him and Sephiroth shares the sentiment exactly, and poor Cloud always ends up caught in the middle."
"I know what it is!" Tifa chirped happily. "Sephiroth likes Cloud, which makes Leon jealous, since he obviously hasn't come to terms with the fact that he's secretly in love with his best friend. And Cloud's just wanting to preserve both his friendships because he's actually a kind guy underneath the cool front he projects."
Riku looked at the long-haired brunette with an expression of almost reverence on his face. "Wow… Now that I think about it like that… It all kind of makes sense. Ha, Sora's going to owe me big time. Fuck yes!"
"Sora doesn't think Leon and Cloud secretly have a thing for each other?" Tifa asked, knowing exactly what Riku was insinuating without having to ask.
"Neither does Roxas." Riku supplied cheerfully, happier now that he was able to put his finger on exactly what was going on between his brother and Leon. "But hey, it doesn't matter what they think if Leon is feeling threatened by Sephiroth. Leon never protects Cloud; the mere fact that he is doing so now would suggest there is something a bit more than brotherly love and respect floating around. Suck it, Roxas!"
"Leon generally respects Cloud's ability to handle his own love life…" Tifa mumbled, more to herself than Riku. "But he doesn't trust Cloud where Sephiroth is concerned... I'm worried…"
"Don't be." Riku cut in quickly to relieve his friend's anxiety. "Maybe he's more worried about Sephiroth not keeping his distance than Cloud giving into my brother's advances. That's how it is with Axel in a way. Leon doesn't trust that Axel's not going to do something stupid and end up dragging down Roxas by association."
"Perhaps…" Tifa answered, smiling slightly to hide the concern that was nagging at the back of her head. "In any case, I think we should be working together here. Sephiroth's your brother, you can get close to him and hold him back long enough for the rest of us to get either Leon or Cloud to admit to having feelings for the other."
Riku looked confused. "Who's 'us'?"
"Oh, I forgot you didn't know yet." Tifa giggled and colored a little bit. "I've kind of gotten a group together in an attempt to make sure Leon and Cloud end up together before the end of the year no matter what… Right now we're kind of small. It's just Rikku, Yuna, Kairi, Naminé, and me, but we're hoping to track down some others who want to help."
"And why do we need a group of people to ensure Leon and Cloud's realization of their undying love before the end of the school year? The way things are looking, they're going to end up together by Christmas on their own if the way they acted at Zack's wedding is any indication." Riku pointed out. "I've never seen Cloud hanging onto one particular person when he was drunk the way he hung onto Leon that night in all the years I've known him, and I've known him for like forever. And Leon hates people touching him, even Cloud. Him tolerating such behavior is another clue."
"That's all well and good, but if I remember correctly, there are quite a few people who have a decent amount of munny riding on them ending the year as nothing more than friends." Tifa sighed and leant back against a nearby wall. "Rinoa's already got herself a group of about ten students, Reno and Seifer included, who are cooking up plots to make sure that something even as innocent as an accidental sexual innuendo doesn't pass between the two of them for the rest of the year."
"So what?" Riku shrugged, clearly unconcerned. "Leon and Cloud have been lying to each other about their feelings for years. I'm telling you, it's going to happen, and it's going to happen soon and there's nothing Rinoa can do about it."
"Maybe you didn't hear me correctly the first time. Reno is included, and Seifer." Tifa responded, watching as Riku's eyes suddenly went wide as she put emphasis on the names of the two well-known troublemakers. "You know… Reno's the red-headed idiot that's been friends with Sephiroth since forever and who has more loyalty to your brother than anyone other than Rude? The same red-head idiot that kept Axel, hard-headed and proud to a fault Axel, away from Roxas for a year before finally letting him go because holding him back got boring? I know you can't still be thinking that there's nothing to worry about anymore. As for Seifer, if it means Leon isn't going to get something he really wants, he'll go to any lengths to make sure any plan Reno can cook up will come to pass."
"Speaking of Axel… You want his help, too?" Riku quickly jumped to offer his friend's services, knowing that if Axel were to find out that his cousin was unintentionally plotting against him, he would want to know about it.
"You think he'd want to?" Tifa asked hopefully. Having Axel on their side would be extremely helpful if it came down to a bloody battle.
"Oh, I know he'd want to." Riku answered smugly. "He's gotta do Roxas' notes next year on top of giving up 200 munny if we lose. He'd be an idiot more than deserving of his fate if he refuses."
Tifa nodded in agreement as both adults turned to look back at the tense stare down taking place between Leon and Sephiroth. "Something tells me this is going to be harder than it really should be."
And, try as hard as he could to think differently, Riku found that all he could do was agree.
And, standing completely unnoticed by the fairly intoxicated crowd, Luxord was watching his bet's progress from the safety of the shadows. Cloud and Leon were close, yes, closer than they ever had been and that was becoming a bit of a problem in the gambler's mind. What had started out as an impossible impracticality was fast becoming a reality, something that was not to be allowed to come to pass.
He had meant for this to be a fun bet, with very embarrassing ramifications for all involved, not a matchmaking game. At the rate Cloud and Leon were going, they wouldn't last until Christmas before falling into bed with each other, an occurrence that would spell doom for his aspirations of attaining the glory of creating a school year long bet. He could not allow his success to be taken from him this time.
And so he had bribed Zexion to implant that idea of forming a group set on getting Cloud's interest away from Leon, and the schemer and had done very well, proving that taking a two year absence from his mind games hadn't dulled the sharp wit of the younger man. It felt good to finally have his right hand man back in action.
And dragging Reno and Seifer into the equation was something he most definitely approved of. Zexion was to be more than applauded in bringing about that team-up.
Tifa was to be commended as well. He hadn't planned for there to be a counter group to his anti-hook up team, but now that there was, he couldn't believe he hadn't been the one to think of it, which in a way he had been, however inadvertently. How was he supposed to know Demxy would turn out to have half a brain and a vengeance streak a mile long, or that in bringing Zexion firmly back into the game, he'd also bring out these hidden qualities in the usually carefree musician? To be perfectly honest, he hadn't known Demxy cared enough to become involved to the point where he was prodding Tifa in the direction of forming a pro-get together group.
Oh yes, things were slowly beginning to turn in his direction. Luxord grinned evilly, wishing he had thought to pull something of this magnitude long ago. Maybe when Sephiroth had still been around to be a key player instead of a side piece that walked in only long enough to cause trouble before disappearing back into the real world.
No use crying over spilt milk, he thought to himself as he watched the students interacting with each other, unable to hide an amused smirk when he caught sight of Reno, his lower half wrapped in a towel as he ran through the gathering with two cops on his tail. Apparently going to a college sponsored party dressed (or not quite so dressed as the case seemed to be) as a streaker was something that could get you sent to jail, or at least land you with a heavy fine after spending a night in holding.
He turned his gaze to find where Rinoa and Seifer were dancing in the center of the dance floor, neither one suspecting that they weren't really in control, though why the usually peaceful brunette suddenly didn't like the thought of Leon having a significant other escaped him. Perhaps it was beneficial him to get to the bottom of that as well. Zexion would have a field day with such juicy information. It was be like an early Christmas present to him.
Deciding to add discovering Rinoa's sudden fervent rejection of Leon belonging to anyone but her to his list of things to accomplish before Thanksgiving, Luxord pulled his dark cloak tighter around him and slunk away from the strobe lights and jubilant student body.
Second semester was going to be so much fun that Luxord didn't think he had it in him to wait…
A/N: And this had now apparently turned into 'How many Final Fantasy characters not in Kingdom Hearts can Scout crush into this story'. Honestly, first Reno (which had been planned because no story of causing trouble can be complete without him, though his role has expanded exponentially since this whole fiasco began much to my delight) and Vincent (who is so cool it's a crime that he's not already in KH), and then suddenly there's Zack, Irvine, Genesis, and Angeal (who are coming back sooner or later because I love them all to itty, bitty pieces). And now we've got Kiros, Laguna (who was planned from the begining... I know gasp, there is a plan!) and Ward. Oh, and Jecht's coming around sooner or later considering I don't think it's very fair to leave poor Tidus without a dad. And that's not even counting those waiting in the wings that just haven't wormed their way in yet...
Damn me and my love of obscure side characters...
Anyways, any and all reviews are appreciated and longed for... Lemons in the next chappie for reals this time, yo!