7. Leon tried to find a hobby.
Once he had grown out of his teenage years, simply running around killing things wasn't as fulfilling as it had been. He wanted to find something else to devote his lengthening stretches of free time to. After all, once you reached a certain age your knees began to creak and sleeping on the hard ground just wasn't fun anymore... but neither was lurking around the house bored out of your mind.
After dabbling (privately, out of sight and earshot of anyone else) in numerous avocations, Leon had come to the grim conclusion that he had no talents other than swinging oversized swords and using simple magics. His attempts at coaxing something pleasant-sounding from an instrument failed. When he sat down at the kitchen table, pencil in hand, and stared at the blank pages of a journal, his mind went blank. Watercolor paints had just pooled into a brown puddle in the middle of the canvas. Trying to knit had resulted in a clump of snagged and knotted yarn. The lemon meringue pie was a monstrosity of black crust and yellow goo covered by a dense layer of eggy cement. The pine bonsai had survived only four days; the herb garden six. The home karaoke machine had been shoved in a closet, the yoga mat kicked into a corner, and the DIY marquetry kit had been thrown in the fireplace, doused with gin, and lit in a fit of pique.
Leon was running out of ideas.
One Tuesday he was venturing out to the market. Sora had tagged along and was walking alongside, humming absentmindedly.
"Do you have any hobbies?" Leon inquired.
Sora was surprised at the question. Leon rarely asked questions and never, ever initiated conversations. After a couple minutes, after he had recovered from the shock, Sora had to struggle to remember what the question was. "I like playing video games," he replied after a moment of thought.
Leon grunted. There was silence, broken only by their footfalls. Then he spoke again. "Do you make anything?"
Sora felt his eyebrows lift. They rose on their own accord, because Sora's mind hadn't even processed the fact that Leon was voluntarily breaking silence for the second time. "Make stuff? Like what?"
Leon's shoulder jerked, and the big vein in his neck twitched. He kept his gaze resolutely forward on the street. "Paintings. Or food. Scarves. Wooden boxes."
"I made myself nachos yesterday..." Sora ventured. He was actually feeling shy! It was such a novel event, Leon wanting to know something about Sora, that he didn't want to say the wrong thing.
Apparently, despite his caution, Sora had given a wrong answer. Leon scowled, still glaring ahead, and his strides lengthened. The teenager cringed back, not realizing that Leon's apparent anger was actually embarrassment that he was making such a mess out of asking questions and making conversation.
"Oh!" Sora exclaimed, a moment later, in revelation. "You mean make stuff! Like, arts and crafts! I draw, sometimes, and I've tried writing poetry-" he blushed, "but it's really bad. I've used clay a couple times, and Kairi made me string beads for necklaces and stuff."
"...Clay," Leon murmured, like the word or concept was inscrutable. "Beads."
"I doodle a lot," Sora continued, relieved that he seemed to be on the right track. "And I keep a diary. Oh! And I've tried origami!"
"Origami?" This time, Leon's voice was closer to its normal volume and expressed something that was vaguely related to excitement. Mild interest, perhaps.
Sora picked up on it. "Yeah! You know, folding paper! Into shapes, like animals and things!" He skipped ahead of Leon and turned around to watch him. "Riku taught me how to make a crane, once. He said his mom had shown him. All you need is a piece of paper, but it has to be square! It can't have wobbly edges or rounded corners, 'cause..."
Leon pushed Sora's babble into the background. Origami. Yes, he could try that next.
Two days later Leon was alone at his home. He had found some instructions for basic folds and shapes. He had bought a ream of square paper in various colors and sizes. He had been folding for three hours straight, and paper cranes, boxes, flowers, frogs, and pinwheels covered the table and were scattered on the floor.
He liked this. Take a piece of paper. Fold. Sharpen the crease with his knife. Unfold. Turn the paper. Repeat.
It made sense. It was mathematical- all proportions and angles. The lines the creases made were straight and clean. Paper folding didn't require expensive materials or create a mess. Paper flowers didn't die. If he wanted to, he could just stand up and walk away, leaving everything alone where it was.
A couple days after that first frenzy of paper folding, Leon knocked on Sora's front door. He had only been there once; Sora was the one who came 'round lonely and uninvited.
Sora opened the door. He grinned and his eyes sparkled. "Leon! Wow! You're here!" The brunet literally bounced with pleasure. "You wanna come in?"
Leon shook his head. His unsmiling mouth looked as grim as ever, but his eyes were lighter and almost... warm. "Here." He thrust something at Sora.
Sora took it. Leon had given him a small folded paper replica of his Keyblade! Except for the color, the likeness was meticulously replicated. Sora's jaw dropped. "Oh!" He breathed in wonder. When he looked back up at Leon his eyes were even shinier than usual. "Leon! How did you make this? It's perfect!"
Leon shrugged modestly and ducked his head to try to hide a small, un-repressable smile of pride. "It took me a few days. I had to learn how to do easier stuff, first. Then it took me a long time to figure out the design. The first attempts weren't any good."
Sora's teary eyes bugged out. "You... 'Learn'? I mean, how long have you been doing origami?!"
"Since you mentioned it the other day."
The teenager's mouth opened and closed several times. He was at a loss for words. Eventually, he swallowed and said softly, "Leon. Thank you so much."
"Welcome." Leon turned and began walking down the street.
"Wait!" The man paused and felt someone collide with him. He looked down and saw Sora's arms and sleeves wrapped around him. Once it registered that he was being hugged and not assaulted, Leon went from tense and defensive to merely tense and uncomfortable.
Sora released him and stepped back, looking bashful and keeping his eyes directed at the toes of his shoes. "You're really amazing, Leon. And really nice. I... I just wanted to say thanks again and... I really like it. And I really like you, too." He whirled and ran back home.
Leon turned in time to see the door slam shut.
"I like you, too, kid." He said quietly to himself.
Notes:
I deviated from the format- there is no revision of the opening sentence at the end. Meh, it just didn't feel right. And, really, the fact that Leon's admitting aloud that he likes someone is progress for him, as I am characterizing him here. And that "like" is intentionally left undefined; in keeping with the low rating (!) it can simply be understood as friendship or my fellow yaoi fangirls and -boys can interpret is as "like-like."
Has anyone ever told you, straight out, "I like you"? It gives me warm fuzzies. I highly recommend you say it to your friends and acquaintances. Everyone questions their like-ability, and it's a simple affirmation.
And I suppose I should probably mention that this collection is probably AU, since I haven't played KH2 (yet) or CoM. I'm just going on the assumption that Leon and Sora live alone in houses/apartments relatively close to each other.
Sorry it's taken me so long to update. These "drabbles" seem to be getting longer and longer. Plus I had the distraction of Christmas for several days. I hope everyone had good holidays, and thanks for reading!
