Disclaimer: No ownie. It sucks balls.

Notes: It's been a long time! Got back from University and decided I wanted to get back to writing in my free time. SO alas, I am continuing this. =) This is a fairly important chapter I had meant to do before I left for Uni, but drama got the better of me and it has been left until now. Oh my god the drama!

Again, thank you for your reviews/favs etc. They make me smile and laugh and motivate me to write more (which is mainly why 'Untitled' was written few weeks back.) So thank you =)

This chapter is Leon/Cloud orientated and sets the path for where I want things to go with them. Also, an explanation of Sora and Riku. Hope you like it :3

-Incipient-

-7: He wanted to play with fire -

Almost two months had passed since the other half of the Strife family had moved to the main-lands with it's suburban streets, crowded schools and somewhat quirky inhabitants. It was so much busier in comparison to Destiny island where they had come from. Nothing was in mass back there; you would be lucky to see more than a single soul on your way home from what they considered to be a town. It was strange really, the direct contrast made for such a different way of life as well as a far more sociable one. The weather was diverse too; unlike the island which was always sunshine and warm breeze, this place suffered most weather types within the space of a week! Yesterday had been cold and rain, the day before had been overcast but warm and today—well today was unbearably hot. What a perfect day to have to attend school.

Locks of blond, sweat dampened hair stuck to Cloud's face as he rested his forehead against the surface of his desk. He felt lethargic, completely drained after only half of the school day having passed by and he wasn't the only one; an entire class of students sat draped over their work spaces and books with a lack of enthusiasm caused by the early afternoon sun. Not even Rikku could find the energy to make a nuisance of herself and that was indeed unusual.

Cloud preferred staring down at his desk today because it was quite simply the safest and most logical of choices. After all, this was Leon Leonheart's English lesson and much like his students, he had opted to taking off his jacket and hanging it over the back of his chair. Cloud felt the heat rise to his cheeks just thinking about it; Leon had been left wearing a tight, short-sleeved white shirt which left very little to the imagination. The blond tried hard, so hard, not to notice the muscles and tendons of his teacher's arms and chest or even the way his jeans sat on his hips. He tried and he failed.

Leon had set tasks for the day's lesson before slumping into his chair and staring off out of the window while his students reluctantly started working. Cloud however, hadn't written so much as his name since he had sat down. His thoughts were too erratic and he was far too distracted by them to concentrate on anything else. Fortunately, Leon hadn't made eye contact or even passed a glace in the blond's direction since class begun and Cloud couldn't quite figure out if it disappointed him or if it was a blessing. Maybe the brunet was pointedly 'avoiding' him in the best way he could.

This was all getting way out of hand from Cloud's perspective, his thoughts were constantly being dragged back to Leon every time he would try to deviate away or think of something else. His dreams betrayed him too; innocent at first with nothing more than a minds depiction of the dark haired man but last night's dream—Leon's desk, Leon's skin, Leon's hands, lips and... that was another story altogether. It was wrong, so disturbing wrong and Cloud couldn't help but feel something was wrong with him and there was really no one he could talk to about it. Zack would probably have been the first to know if only there was anything normal about this crush.

A bead of sweat rolled down past Cloud's ear and he was suddenly aversely aware of a hand resting on the desk by his cheek. He cocked his head to one side to look up with a hazy blue eye to see none other than staring right back down at him. While lost in his forest of thought, the blond hadn't noticed his teacher get up to check on his student's work and now he was there...beside him...wearing that shirt. Cloud's cheeks scorched and he sat up making sure to keep his eyes on his book.

"Something wrong Strife? You haven't written a thing." Leon glanced between a head of light coloured spikes and a blank page of 'work'.

Cloud riffled through his head for some excuse, anything that sounded better than: "I was thinking about my dream; about us and your desk." Anything at all probably sounded better than that.

He sighed and propped his chin up with a hand while resigning to some truth.

"To be honest Sir, I have a lot on my mind. I can't concentrate." No elaboration needed.

Leon leant over the blond's shoulder and began flicking pages through the boy's text book. By this point, some members of the class's silent students had looked to the back of the classroom to witness the quiet exchange of words.

"I can see that Cloud, you're working from a maths textbook in an English lesson."

A few chuckles flittered through the room and Cloud was suddenly very aware of everyone around him and the situation at hand. With Leon behind him and leaning over in that way it was incredibly difficult not to think about his close proximity or notice the hand flicking through his book; the same hand which stared in his dreams the night before. However, in said dream—that hand was most definitely not on a textbook. Cloud thanked the gods that no one was looking his way when his face flushed a violent shade of red. How absolutely mortifying! This was ridiculous, he had to find some way to pull his mind out of the gutter and set it instead on people his own age—girls his own age.

Tifa, she was a good and also a safe option. She liked him right? So perhaps talking to her after class some time and asking her out was a great idea. Tifa was Aerith's best friend, she was Zack's girlfriend. Not only did that option make perfect and logical sense, it was also legal.

Leon pushed away from his student's desk and headed towards a girl near the front who had asked for help. Cloud watched him walk away with a glazed expression, eyes shifting from his teacher, to Tifa and then back to the tall man. Tifa was pretty, most guys would do anything to date her so why did she hold no appeal to Cloud in that way at all? He watched as Leon crouched down beside the girl's desk and began answering a question she had asked. The blond took that moment to inadvertently analyze the older male because work really just wasn't going to happen that lesson.

It was impossible to look away after he started and he took in all he could about the brunet male, from the shape of his face to the contours of his body. It was similar to what he had pictured in his dream except here, in the real world, there were more clothes. What a pity.

Cloud watched the muscles in Leon's back flex and relax beneath his shirt every time he pointed at something in the girl's textbook. It was mesmerizing to watch and the blond didn't know if he should thank the hot weather or curse it for this outcome. Hormones were a bitch in Cloud's opinion and his own were playing the most malicious trick on him. Speaking of which; while lost within his own sea of perversion, the blond had failed to note the increasingly uncomfortable and embarrassing situation occurring beneath his desk but the situation became hard to ignore before too long.

If his face could flush any darker, Cloud was certain he would pass out from lack of blood circulation. If he was mortified before- he was praying for someone or something to kill him now. Embarrassing didn't even come close!

Cloud looked up at the clock; with less than five minutes until lunch time and he needed to either get rid of his problem or find some reason not to get up when the bell rung. When it did ring, he chose simply to not move. The class slowly emptied and only the blond was left at the back of the room facing his teacher who stood by his own desk. They exchanged glances and the fairer of the two prayed his nonchalance could last out until he was able to move.

"You haven't got detention today Strife, you're free to leave."

"I know, I just have a few questions about work." Cloud lied.

Leon strode over towards his student's desk and leant over behind the blond to view his work from the same angle. It appeared that the blond hadn't managed a single line of writing within the entire hour's lesson.

"What part in particular are you finding hard?" Leon asked with genuine concern. He pulled up a chair from a nearby desk and sat next to his student ready to help him with his problem.

It took a moment for Cloud to think about how to answer. He wasn't really having any academic troubles that he needed assistance with—however, he thought up another lie.

"Our book report for next month, I'm not really sure what to write about."

"Oh?" Leon looked completely at ease, less intrusive and less observational than he had been in the past two months of lessons. Something seemed different. Cloud couldn't quite decide what it was while the brunet began firing off names of books the blond could look into and what kind of topics he could choose to write about. The student took little notice; he was far too distracted by watching his teacher's lips as he spoke.

"Or perhaps you could choose ..." Cloud couldn't hear. "It's an interesting topic to..."

The blond couldn't recall a single thing the man said. Leon shifted on his seat to face the boy in an attempt to get his attention but the other's glazed expression showed no signs of wisdom.

"Cloud, are you listening?" He was closer.

He couldn't really say how it had all happened because it simply made no sense. He couldn't recollect when he had leant forward, when his eyes had closed or when he had turned his head to level his teacher with a kiss. But there he was, lips pressed against Leon's—it was irreversible now.

It took a moment to sink in; the true weight of the action and how the hell it had gone from book reports to what it became was unimaginable. Leon braced his student's shoulders and pushed him gently away with a look of utter confusion. He was at a loss for how to deal with the situation and didn't know the correct course of discipline for such a thing. Did it require discipline? It was wrong, sure, but did it warrant punishment? Leon wasn't sure if detention was right for that kind of thing.

Cloud on the other hand looked both horrified and shocked. Did he really just do that? What the hell! He locked his wide panicked eyes onto his teacher's face and searched for validation or an answer to his unspoken question. "Did I really just do that?"

Neither male was aware of the time that passed before Leon stood up and took charge of the situation. He was the adult and the teacher so he felt it was his duty to set things straight. Whatever that was.

"I have no idea what the hell just came over you Strife, but it can't happen again. You could cost me my job pulling tricks like that." He had wanted to say it sterner; to berate the boy and put him in his place but it came out so matter-of-fact that it lost any impact. "It's lunchtime, you should leave."

Leon got up from his chair and paced back to his own the desk, all the while refusing to make eye contact with the bewildered student. He couldn't bare the strange new tension settling through the room and the sooner he was alone, the better. Cloud took his teacher's advice and left the classroom in record time.

0o0o0o0

"You're back late. Did you get held up?"

The feminine voice carried through the narrow hallway from the kitchen with the slightest hint of concern. She popped her dark-haired head around the corner with a welcoming smile and watched her boyfriend kick off his shoes by the door before shrugging off his jacket in one swift motion.

"I didn't know you'd be here Rinoa, I thought you had work." Leon said as he made his way into the kitchen. "I would have come back sooner if I had known."

The woman dubbed 'Rinoa' shuffled around the kitchen in an organised chaos while trying to make what looked like pasta; a simple task but she never had been the most amorous cook in the years Leon had known her. That was precisely the reason why he would usually be the one doing the cooking and he was pretty good at it too, if he did say so himself.

With the quite over cooked pasta served up, the brunette allowed himself to wind down from the stressful day while poking at his food with a fork. He had a lot on his mind lately- there was too much work to mark, he was into year two of his shaky relationship with Rinoa and then there was the little matter involving an awkward student.

"You look tired, you should sleep more." The concern was back in her delicate voice and Leon only nodded in reply. He didn't have much to say on the matter. In all honesty, he was looking forward to coming home to an empty apartment, taking a shower and going to bed, but Rinoa usually picked those times to come over. It was a mistake, Leon thought, giving the girl her own key. However, it was the lesser compromise over them moving in together...he liked living alone after all.

Rinoa gave a small sigh of her own and watched her apathetic boyfriend play with his food.

"You could at least tell me what's wrong. I can't help if I don't know."

Leon shrugged and the dark-haired female sighed again, this time in exasperation.

"Come on Leon, it's like talking to a brick wall!"

The brunet leant back in his chair and tilted his head to stare up at the plain ceiling in all it's dull magnificence. He contemplated a few things before deciding to placate his worried girlfriend with enough information to pacify her anxiety, but not enough to trouble her more than needed.

"I'm a bit behind with marking work and it's piling up so catch up is going to be tiring. Also having some trouble with a particular student but it's nothing I can't handle." That was surely both enough and not too much in his books.

Rinoa nodded her understanding but her curiosity was never easily halted. She knew Leon hated answering questions any more than he needed too; unfortunately for him, she liked asking them as much as he hated being asked. This precise fact is what made the girl question:

"A naughty student? Are they rowdy in class?"

A naughty student? It echoed in the man's mind for more than a moment. Did naughty describe it? His thoughts passed briefly over the events leading up to and including the kiss that never was and he decided that perhaps that was a good description of Cloud after all. In fact, he was entirely certain that the blond could be the very definition of naughty, if given the opportunity. And maybe that was a good place to stamp out that train of thought.

"You could say that." Was all Leon supplied on the matter. "Are you staying the night?" he asked without any glimpse of hope or encouragement. That lack of romance really got on Rinoa's nerves but she nodded in reply.

"If you don't mind." She said with a pleasant smile.

Leon gave a nod similar to her own and got up from the table.

"Okay. I'm going to bed, make yourself at home." He mumbled before disappearing into his room and leaving his miffed girlfriend alone in the kitchen. How did it get to this?

The brunet thought over the current state of his life when he was in bed. He could hear her in the other room, in the kitchen clearing away plates and cutlery. He could hear the quiet patter of her feet against the tiled floor, cupboards opening and closing, he could even hear her quiet sighs every now and then. Leon wanted to feel guilty for letting things get this...this monotonous, but he couldn't.

Rolling over onto his side, the brunet allowed his thoughts to wander. He recalled the time that Rinoa had proposed the idea of moving in together and the prospect of marriage; how disastrous that had been. The conversation had ended with Leon walking out and Rinoa in tears; said topic hadn't arisen again but from that point on their relationship had strained. Everything was so unexciting now without any form of passion or desire and it left Leon feeling bored. He wanted to play with fire.

His thoughts rolled on timelessly until that little something niggling—tapping at the edges of his mind threatened to tear him apart and he couldn't help but think about him. Cloud—in all his teenage arrogance, cocky smirks and challenging defiance. That kid was a handful alright.

Leon would have to have been a moron not to realize that the boy was infatuated with him. Most students don't kiss their teachers, or at least, that is what the brunet was led to believe. But with that little piece of information being fact, Leon had to decide on how to best deal with the fragile situation. He was a teacher, he was twenty four, Cloud was his student. .It.

Sure, the blond was attractive by anyone's standards, even Leon could admit that and the kid had attitude to boot. He didn't want to confess to it but he liked that about the boy; his confidence and insecurity walked hand in hand which was entirely refreshing. Cloud both set and met his challenge, that boy was volatile.

The bedroom door creaked open and closed quietly as Rinoa entered less than an hour later. Leon still faced the window on his side, back to his girlfriend and eyes closed while he feigned sleep. He wanted to play with fire but was afraid of who would get burnt.

0o0o0o0

Cloud didn't get much sleep last night, in fact, he didn't get any. So when Sora bounded into his room in the early hours of the morning, he was less than impressed. It was a Saturday morning—a day most normal teenagers would spend in bed and out for the count but no, not Sora. The lively brunet switched on his older brother's TV in the corner of the room and took up the space next to the tired and somewhat irate blond.

He flicked through channels for some time until he finally settled on some early weekend cartoons like he always did. Cloud was pretty used to this familiar routine by now but it never got any easier, he just wanted to sleep.

"Morning Cloud, mum's making pancakes." Sora said in his quietest morning voice for that sake of his brother. He pulled the blankets over his legs and sat up against the headrest to give the blond more space; said blond rolled over onto his side facing the smaller boy and peered up with one hazy eye.

"Pancakes? That sounds pretty good actually." Cloud yawned and sat up, mimicking his brother's position against the headrest. His thoughts were still on Leon, still on that mindless kiss and he still couldn't quite get his head around how it all had happened. How absolutely hopeless the situation was. Cloud glanced down at Sora with a rare affectionate smile (unseen by all) and wondered how the boy managed to be so...carefree. He wished he could do the same; but being carefree was somewhat of a troublesome task when the fates seemed to be playing with you. What luck that his teenage hormones would direct themselves at an older male, who just happened to be his teacher. Oh yes the fates were playing with him. They were quite thoroughly fucking him over!

"You awake?" came a quiet voice from behind the door as it edged open so slowly. Ashe appeared in it's wake with a tray of pancakes and two glasses of orange juice. She eyed both boys sat up side by side and smiled. "I see Sora beat me too it."

The brunet beamed at the sight of pancakes and even Cloud couldn't help but smile a bit despite his somewhat macabre thoughts. Sora just had that affect on people.

It wasn't until late afternoon that Sora bothered to get up. Cloud had eventually fallen back asleep from exhaustion and the brunet saw fit to leave him too it. After a shower and a phone call to Roxas, Sora was sat alone in his room with afternoon cartoons now being his only company. He had plans for later at least—his fair haired cousin had invited him over to watch movies with both him and Namine. But until then, he needed to kill some time.

The doorbell rung downstairs and Sora heard Ashe answer it. There was a pause, a moment of silence before he could hear his mother's high pitched excitement over whoever the visitor was. He couldn't make out any words, just blurred slurs and different tones but his curiosity wasn't peeked. Ashe would often be over enthusiastic about any visitor as her motherly host instincts kicked in. Things quietened down for around twenty minutes before Sora's attention was drawn to the gentle knock on his door. He sat up more on his bed and gave a simple "come in" as a response.

The door opened, Riku walked in and the door closed once more with a light click. There was silence which seemed to stretch on forever as the two boys stared each other down.

It was Sora who spoke first.

"Who said you could come into my room?" he demanded, shoulders tense while he sat up more defensively.

"Technically, you did." Riku supplied, all matter-of-fact.

There was more silence and this time the silveret was the first to break it.

He stood awkwardly, trying to find the right words to say what he really wanted to say. It had been gnawing at him for weeks, no, years, and he had to get it all out before it drove him mad with regret.

"Sora, listen—"

"No, I don't want to hear anything you have to say." He was nothing if not consistent.

Riku sighed and moved to sit on the end of the brunet's bed without invitation and definitely without consent. Sora glared at him all the while but said nothing.

"I don't care if you don't want to hear it, I'm going to say it anyw-" Riku started but was interrupted.

"Of course you are, because you are selfish Riku and you don't care what I want." He folded his arms over his chest and chose to ignore the obvious hurt in the older teens face. He deserved it anyway, after what he did.

Pushing aside the sting of the brunet's harsh words, Riku continued what he wanted to say.

"I know I hurt you; I let you down and I know that no matter how many times I try to apologize it will never take back what I did, or be enough. I just-"

"Riku! You didn't tell me that you had to move away, I just had to watch you leave that morning without so much as a goodbye? Friends don't keep that kind of information from each other, nor do they leave without saying anything. You didn't even call me in all those years!" He was upset, frustrated, infuriated...it was completely beyond his comprehension. In Sora's mind, that wasn't how best friends should act.

Riku had known for over a month about his parent's divorce, about moving to Midgar with his mother and her boyfriend...but he hadn't said a word to his best friend. He just left that morning while Sora watched him in utter confusion and bewilderment. No phone call—nothing.

The silveret looked away from the floor and met Sora's glare with eyes full of the regret he had harboured for over four years.

"I tried to tell you I was leaving, but you would always interrupt with some cheery smile. I couldn't do it Sora, I couldn't be the one to make you frown." He laughed morbidly to himself, "pretty ironic I guess...here we are now."

"...you didn't call." The anger had ebbed away, but the upset remained in the brunet's strained voice. It made Riku want to reach out, to embrace him and tell him he was sorry a thousand times and more. He wanted to tell Sora how he had thought of him every damn day since.

"I picked up the phone several times. I even called, but when I heard your voice...I couldn't find anything to say. I hung up." His eyes closed as he fought back waves of emotion most would think him incapable of having. "I've regretted it every day."

"Riku, you weren't there for me when I needed you most. When dad died I needed y-"

"Noa died?" Aquamarine eyes shot open and fixated on the small boy with shock. This was the first he had heard of it, Riku had assumed he was at work. Tears began to form and fall silently as the news sunk in; it was surreal, so raw and painful as Noa had been more of a father to the silveret than his own dad. "I...what happened?" Riku wiped away his tears with the back of his hand but more replaced them. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea."

Moisture began to form in Sora's own blue eyes.

"You didn't know?" he asked quietly, "He was in an accident on his way home from work." he wiped at his own tears pointlessly. "It happened a week after you left." The last part sounded bitter even on Sora's lips.

"I had no idea. I-"

"You're always so wrapped up in yourself, of course you didn't know. I could have told you if you had phoned." The tears continued to run down his cheeks but his voice didn't wave one bit. Riku needed to know after all, he needed to know how self centred he was, how selfish he was, how he was the one who brought his best friend crashing down and then left him to burn.

Riku couldn't say anything even if he wanted to. The silent tears ravage his body as he took in all this new information and realized that, without much reflection, it was quite true. He was disgusted with himself; no wonder Sora wanted nothing to do with him, in fact, he was surprised anyone would.

"Do you know how hard it was to deal with all that without you? Without a best friend?" his small frame shook; he hid his face with his hands as quiet sobs riddled his body and before he knew it, Riku was next to him, embracing him like he should have four years ago with all the regret, resentment and grief he felt. Sora didn't push nor move away, instead, he cried and gripped at Riku's sleeve for longer than either boy cared to acknowledge. Then he cried some more while the silent tears continued to stream down the older teen's face. When both bodies eventually grew motionless and neither could find it in them to cry anymore, Sora pulled gently away and sat up. His eyes were puffy and red, his throat was sore and his body ached but he felt like a great weight had been lifted off of his chest.

Riku rubbed the palms of his hands over his face in a final act to clear the moisture then turned to the small brunet, and with a hoarse, quiet voice, he broke the silence.

"Listen...Sora." He started, and for once, he wasn't interrupted. "I know I've screw up more than once, and I know I wasn't there for you." He still wasn't interrupted and he was a little shocked. "I can't say sorry enough to make up for it, nor will I try but..." he paused and picked what he had wanted to say from the start. "Can we start over? Not asking to be your best friend, I don't deserve it. But can we start over...as Riku and Sora then go from there." The hope in his eyes was as intense as their surreal colour and Sora felt compelled by both his hope, and his suggestion.

"I can't forgive you for what you did." The hope began to drain away. "But, I can start over as Riku and Sora." He gave the older boy his first genuine smile in over four years and Riku immediately felt an immense pressure and uncomfortable tension leave his body. He was elated.

"SORA, IS RIKU STAYING FOR DINNER?" Ashe called up the stairs.

Blue eyes met aquamarine and without a second thought, as if by reflex of old habit, Sora called out in reply—

"OF COURSE HE IS."

Riku couldn't help but laugh. Only Sora could fall so easily back into step after a four year rift and make it feel as though nothing had ever happened.

"Hey Riku, want to watch movies later?"

He couldn't say no, not to Sora. He would have to phone Kairi and say "Sorry, something came up."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

=D Things are finally on track for their intended direction! Took long enough, I am sorry v.v. But I was determined to get back to this after Uni and am glad I did, because I enjoy writing it. :3
I know it has been too long 'cry' but do I get...cookies anymore? Or reviews. Or Cookies. Or both. Cake is nice too. See you all soon! =D