A/N: Well...I think we all needed a bit of a turn around in one couple's relationship. So... Here's our miracle move! (One might think that...)

bliss: Another good piece of feedback about the story behind Axel and Leon's scars. And blushing Roxas is love XD
Someone of no importance: I'm really glad that you liked the chapter, and the rest of the story. Hope you enjoy the rest!
Lokki Abumi: Tiramisu- a tasty cakey dessert that is usually coffee flavoured and tastes SUBLIME! lol But the cupcake pyramid is just as good! -devours the pyramid-
hollowFAERIE: Mmhm. Weird reasoning, but hey, better be proud of the marks rather than be reminded of what you had done in shame forever.

Please enjoy! Read and review! Reviews are my Lindtt Golden Easter Bunnies -finds Easter Bunny ears and bounces around in them-!

"Poison! There's a killer in the castle!"

The scream had made Leon look up from his work, at once fearing the worst had happened to his younger brother. As Sora was frail despite his energetic nature, the king had always worried for him the most. If Sora even grazed his knee the older Leonhart was sent into a panic. Faster than Zexion could even go and question what was going on, Leon went flying out the room, bumping into Tifa who was just about to enter the king's study herself.

"Your highness! There's been a poisoning!"

"Is Sora alright?!" Leon demanded, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking at her wildly in the eyes, signs of fear in those usually cold and emotionless stormy blue-grey eyes. "Is the prince fine?!"

"The prince is safe! It's Cloud! Cloud's poisoned!"

"What?!" Leon charged past her, heading straight for his bedchamber where he had last left the blond, heart pounding like it usually would in the battlefield, all thoughts flown to the wind in a panic-stricken manner. Servants and courtiers stepped quickly out of the way and he even went past Sora who had come to inspect what was going on, Riku not far behind him. He even went past Edea who had demanded to know what the ruckus was about.

He slammed the door open, seeing terrified servants trying to solve the problem. And in the middle of it all was Cloud, vomiting and retching, paler than usual and finding it difficult to breathe, lying face first on the bed, head leaning over the bedside. A goblet was lying on its side on the floor, its murderous contents spilt all across the rushes.

"What is going on?!" Leon bellowed, making the servants gasp and shriek in surprise, all of them stopping what they had been doing. Cloud continued what he was doing, not even noticing Leon being in the room.

"We don't know! He was fine just a few minutes ago and then he started gagging when he had a sip!"

"Does Vexen know of this?!"

"We have sent for him, your highness!"

"Then what are you standing around for?! Make sure he's comfortable!"

The servants went back to what they were doing, trying to calm the wretchedly ill concubine but to no avail. Leon eventually had enough of standing around himself and came over, holding the blond up so that he wouldn't fall. At that moment, Vexen and Zexion came in, the medic having antidotes at hand. Zexion picked up the goblet from the floor, moving calmly among the flurry of frantic hands trying to save the poor blond's life. He took a sniff…and recognised the pungent smell of wolfsbane and the sickly sweet aftertaste of foxglove.

"What is it Zexion?" Leon asked immediately. Zexion's sense of smell was incredible, even more so than Vexen's. It may have had something to do with Zexion having been trained in botany so that he could always double check his lord's meals for poison. Zexion turned and bowed to the king, but his expression was serious.

"It is a mixture of wolfsbane and foxglove. Both have lethal poisons."

"Is there an antidote?"

"Yes," Vexen confirmed, bringing out a flask with a colourless liquid contained within it. "Fortunately, the same antidote can neutralise the two poisons."

The medic came to the blond, pulling the stopper off and pressing it to his lips. "Please. Drink." The blond seemed unable to, only pulling his head away and vomiting again. Leon kept a tight hold on him, pulling him back.

"Give that to me," Leon snapped irritably, fired up by the fact someone had the gall to poison one of his possessions. He was going to have the scum hanged once he ratted him out! No, he was going to have the scum hanged till he was half dead, drawn from the summer home near Aurelias to the main castle at Borealis and then quartered in Borealis Town Market Square. After that, he was going to have the remains left in a bog so that the earth could swallow it down but never allow it to return to the Paradise. By Hyne, he swore this.

But now was not the time to have such murderous thoughts, Leon managed to rationalise. He took the flask and pressed it to Cloud's lips. Again, the blond's lips proved to be immobile…or the blond was refusing to be helped. "Drink it," Leon ordered, his voice sounding strained between anger at the crime and irritation at the concubine's attitude.

"Is this how you plan to kill me?" Cloud finally managed to croak quietly. His throat was numb, his body felt weak, his stomach felt like it had eaten itself and he felt so incredibly cold. So this was what it was like to die…

Leon's eyes, once cold squalls of blue-grey, now turned into infuriated orbs of the colour of hurricanes. "I am not going to let you die!" He swigged the flask, getting shocked gasps and cries of 'my liege!', forcing Cloud's mouth to open and then pressing his own mouth firmly over it, releasing the antidote inside into the stubborn blond's mouth, much like a mother bird would empty her beak of food for her shrilling hatchlings. The two tastes of poison and antidote mixed, leaving a bitter tang in both of their mouths. The room went oddly silent…and Cloud swore he felt something similar to a tongue had brushed against his own. He screwed his eyes shut, unable to fight back because the poison had drained so much of his strength away.

Leon pulled back once satisfied that Cloud had swallowed every last drop, watching the blond still a bit. He was unconscious, but breathing. For Leon, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief wash over him, but that was soon replaced by sheer anger. He was going to have this poisoner punished. Severely. "…I'm not letting you die…"

"My liege?" Zexion ventured tentatively.

"I want whoever is responsible for this dead," Leon growled, his voice sounding feral. "I'll seek him out myself if I have to."

Zexion was astounded by the sheer venom in the king's words. He was astounded that what caused such a reaction was this blond who was now lying limply, only a week or so ago an enemy of Radiant Garden. What's more, Leon was even willing to a kill someone just for this person.

Truly, what had happened to his king to cause such a dramatic change?

Cloud stirred, hearing the sound of liquid sloshing in a bowl and then feeling something cold and wet being pressed to his fevered face. His eyes struggled to open, seeing blurry shapes and shadows. He felt a cooling hand rest against his forehead, soothingly calm and light.

"Rest Cloud," a soft familiar voice whispered. "You've had a traumatic time."

"Riku?" he croaked.

"Yes," the boy replied.

"What about…Leon's brother?"

"The prince is in the middle of a lesson with one of the other castle advisors. The king and Lady Edea didn't want him to use the excuse of this morning's…event to not study for the day."

"And…Tifa?" For once, Cloud was actually hoping to hear the somewhat bossy head maid's voice. It would have reminded him that he was alive…and she was the first to react when she noticed something was very wrong with the blond.

"Went to the servant's quarters to recuperate. She…no, everyone, they were shocked. They didn't expect it." Riku went very quiet for a moment. "Sora…was deeply upset by it."

Cloud turned his head a bit. "They needn't be. It…was to be expected."

"You…expected something like this would happen?"

"I'm a former prince. An enemy. By right, I should be dead." He closed his sapphire eyes. How could he have been so stupid? Of course he should be dead. What made him think he could live forever? He wasn't a god. He wasn't even an angel that could live for eternity. He was mortal, a human who's life was determined by Fate, Chance and the will of Hyne. Maybe…this was is punishment for having hubris. To die because of his arrogance…that seemed fitting.

"The king refused it though."

"I know."

"He's searching for your poisoner now."

"He's being…what?" Cloud turned his head sharply to Riku. "What?"

"He's searching for the one who poisoned you. He's leaving no rock unturned and no bush undisturbed. He's not leaving one person unquestioned and is even going as far as rewarding anyone who can lead him to the man he wants."

"What…" Cloud spoke again, in disbelief. "He's doing this…for me?"

"Yes. Sor…the prince said that he had never seen the king so distressed or so determined to kill someone."

Cloud turned his head away. "With the exception to my father of course."

"I'm not sure the king even reached your father," Riku voiced his opinion. "The prince also told me that the king was not in the best of spirits when he returned home."

"I was probably frustrating him."

Riku sighed in defeat. Cloud didn't look into it. He still firmly believed Leon had killed his father. Nothing would tell him otherwise.

In a sudden flash, Riku was practically pushed nearly onto Cloud, an audible 'oof!' escaping from his thin pale lips. "My prince?!"

"How's Cloud doing?" Sora asked, clearly worried, but seeing Cloud awake grinned widely. "Hullo Cloud! Are you OK? How did Vexen's medicine taste? Awful right? And I heard Leon gave you a mouth to mouth since you couldn't drink it! Ooooooo, how scandalous!"

Cloud barely followed the rapid speech, not sure what to think about this hyperactive brunet. This was the first time Cloud properly heard him speak but he certainly didn't seem to be as unwell as the rest of the castle servants claimed he was. He seemed lively, energetic, bouncy, for goodness sakes he all but squashed Riku as he jumped onto his back.

"Oh! Where's my manners? I never introduced myself! My name's Sora! I'm Leon's brother but I bet you already guessed that because of Mr. Grumpy here!"

"My prince, my name is Riku…"

"You're Mr. Grumpy because you barely smile! So there!" He stuck his tongue out childishly at Riku before turning back to Cloud with a smile that could out-dazzle the sun. "So what's your favourite thing in the whole world? What do you like most? What do you hate most? What do you-"

"Shouldn't you be hiding from whoever is tutoring you, my prince," Riku droned, knowing how much the brunet hated lessons. Sora's eyes widen.

"By Hyne, you're right! Sorry Cloud! We'll talk later! Don't tell them I'm here!" And with that, Sora flung himself into Leon's wardrobe, hiding among the tunics and robes. Cloud blinked several times.

"He's…not what I expected," Cloud murmured honestly.

"I thought so too," Riku chuckled, shaking his head. "He truly doesn't act like someone who has been ill more times than he can count."

"But…I'm an enemy…and I…I guess I am lower than him…why was he so…friendly to me?"

"Because that's who he is," Riku whispered. "He doesn't care. He just wants to make friends." He smiled a little. "He's like Roxas…he's been so lonely even though he has hoards of people surrounding him. He's only very close to his brother and the lady Kairi, much like your brother was only close to us."

Cloud was speechless. He honestly now could see a little of his own brother in Sora. Roxas was not energetic or sunny as the brunet was; he was more like the moon, silent and broody, always second best. But both were lonely children. Both only had two close friends, including their siblings. And both had been torn away from each other; Sora and Leon undoubtedly hardly saw each other because of Leon's priorities as a king had to always come first, no matter how painful it was, and Kairi had been taken back to her home, accompanying her own brother and his new prize, Roxas. Similarly, the younger blond brother was far apart from his elder and it was unlikely the two would see each other ever again if not at all and it was the same with Riku, only he was in Sora's care.

It was quite…odd how alike the two fifteen-year-olds' situations were. It was almost borderline frightening, or as if they were somehow connected but destined to never truly meet each other. It almost made him feel…guilty about doing anything that could cause harm to the young brunet.

Make no mistake, he still loathed Leon and wanted to murder him, just…less so. The blond soon realized his resolve was dissolving so struggled to regain it, but the thought of harming Sora, who looked so much like his brother is it were not for the hair, the different skin tone and different personalities, made it so much harder. Then there was also the fact that Leon had, surprisingly, saved his life and was on a rampage to find the would-be assassin.

It was truly becoming difficult to keep up with his plotting. Maybe he would…find some way to extract revenge without having these thoughts holding him back.

"Cloud…please don't do anything to harm Sora," Riku whispered, knowing that Cloud probably still held onto his intent to assassinate Leon tightly. "If he lost his brother…I'm not sure what he will do."

"But Riku…"

"Please…for me," Riku begged quietly so that Sora in the wardrobe couldn't hear. The truth was, Riku didn't think he could bear seeing Sora cry. He always just saw him as someone who could be happy and smiling. And if Riku ever saw Sora otherwise…he was sure he too would feel the pain Sora would be in.

Cloud didn't understand how Riku could so quickly jump to defend his new master, when he too had been treated in a cruel way. Riku had been tortured while being questioned until he had to scream answers just to make it stop, he had been branded and yet he still found loyalty to his torturer's brother? What if…just what if Sora grew up and started to take example from his older brother? Would Riku still follow orders from him? Cloud honestly hoped that it wouldn't be so. He wasn't sure if he could do anything to harm the young prince but he didn't exactly trust him either.

"You were branded."

"Cloud?" Riku looked a bit confused.

"You're branded as their property. They've tortured you practically nearly to death. For goodness sakes Riku, you told me they used a Judas Chair on you! Don't you remember anything of that?!"

Riku audibly winced at being reminded of that, but he knew Sora was listening. "I do remember it," he whispered softly. "And…are you saying you think…Sora would hurt me too?"

Cloud finally registered at this point that Riku was using the prince's given name instead of his title. For a servant, it was just unheard of. The servants here were already shocked that Cloud just refused to acknowledge Leon as 'my liege', 'your highness', 'your majesty', 'my king' or any other title. And then there was the soft whisper, seemingly emotionless and yet…it sounded a little shocked, maybe a little pained, but definitely in disbelief.

The wardrobe doors flew open and a blur of brown hair clamped itself onto Riku, murmuring 'no no no no no' repeatedly. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. You never said. You-"

"I didn't want to affect your relationship with your brother."

"But that doesn't give him the right to do that! He didn't- He shouldn't-!" Tears were falling from Sora's cerulean eyes, sobbing at the thought that his own servant had been treated so cruelly.

"Sora…" Riku started, holding his hand tentatively. "I'm fine now. He can't touch me. He knows that he can't as long as I am your servant. Back then, I was a prisoner who possibly had useful information for him. It's changed now. You don't have to cry."

"He promised me that he didn't break you! He lied! He lied!"

"Sora. I still have a mind."

"He lied to me!" Sora whimpered shrilly. "He always, always lies to me! He promised me that he wouldn't keep going away for so long after Trabia and he did it anyway! He promised he would see me but he hardly ever does! He promised me that this whole fiasco with Hollow Bastion would end and it hasn't! He's still angry! He keeps lying to me! He-!"

"Sora!" Riku interrupted sharply, but immediately regretted it when he saw the hurt and frightened look on Sora's face. Cloud himself was surprised. Riku hardly ever raised his voice in front of his superiors, much less at them. "Sora…" he whispered calmly again. "You're brother isn't lying to you. He sometimes just doesn't predict things all that well. Sometimes he'll underestimate an enemy so what should take a month may take longer than he thought. Sometimes he'll think he'll have the time to see you, but then something of great importance comes up and he has to deal with it quickly. Sometimes things don't work out the way he wanted them to and so he gets frustrated because of it. And Sora…I'm not broken if I've yelled at you when it's not my place to. Your brother hasn't lied. He just miscalculated a few things and sometimes held back some of the truth to protect you."

Sora sniffled, wiping tears away with the back of his hand. "I'm sorry. It's just…I get so frustrated with Leon that I don't know what to do anymore."

"Leave the worrying to me," Riku smiled gently, maybe the first in a very long while Cloud had thought. "It is my duty to worry." Very gently, and maybe with a hint of friendly tenderness, Riku drew an arm around the distressed boy, soothing his new master. Cloud honestly had never seen Riku like this before. Riku had been commended back at Hollow Bastion for being wise beyond his own years but this…Riku seemed even more mature and wise than ever before, as if actually being captured and given the task of caring for a person, of staying with them to tend to their every need, had benefited him. And seeing that, Cloud was beginning to have doubts.

Sweet Hyne, did poisoning really make a person reflect on his thoughts, plans and actions this much?

Leon was snarling at the very man who dared try to poison Cloud. He was snarling even more as he heard this man confess that he was intending on assassinating the king himself for the glory of Trabia. It was a miracle that they even found this man skulking around the bailey. It was an even further miracle that one of the hounds used for sniffing out criminals had caught whiff of the poisons on the would-be poisoner's person and tackled him to the ground. This was enough to convict him but Leon wanted to know who he was and if there was a group. After all, dead men gave no information that he wanted. All they did give was the rotting odorous smell of Death.

Usually, whenever Leon had captured a would-be assassin, he had taken great enjoyment in seeing the criminal being brought to justice, tortured for answers, and then either hanged as a default choice or, if Leon was feeling particularly cruel to the criminal, have him killed by the method they would use. For this one, Leon found no enjoyment in seeing the man stretched on the rack until his joints wore torn, no revelry in hearing the man's screams for mercy or his forced out answers as he was stretched further and further. He just wanted -needed- to know…

"Why did you poison my concubine?" he demanded, his arms folded against his chest, eyes blazing with a burning passionate anger that no one had ever seen before. It was even scaring his hardened torturers who were used to seeing cruel acts upon human bodies, who were used to seeing unspeakable horrors that they no longer had nightmares of the screams and mangled bodies that came as a consequence of their duties.

"He was an easy test subject to use!" the man screeched as he was pulled further apart. "To see how quickly and how painfully you would die! He means nothing so why are you making such a- ahhh!"

Leon had kicked the wheel that stretched the body so that it would stretch the wretched captive even further, surprising the torturer that had been manning it.

"Your highness, I-"

"So you think he means nothing to me?!" Leon bellowed at the captive, watching the man quiver and groan in fright and pain. "You think I just keep him here and do nothing about him?!" His blazing angry eyes were like twin hurricanes of fire, sucking anything that got in their way and killing life instantly. He wanted to see this man dead. He wanted to kill this man himself. And he would enjoy it.

"Your highness, if you keep stretching him like that his arms and legs will be torn off!" one of the torturers cried to him. The king, however, was beyond caring.

"I want him to feel every little ounce of pain Cloud felt when he was poisoned," he ordered in a very cold voice. "I want him to feel that and beyond. I want him to regret ever being born for this task. I want him to welcome death." Leon's eyes were anything but cold. They were still white hot with rage. "He does not deserve the courtesy of quick and painless death."

The torturers, also executioners, knew that it meant that public hanging was out of the question. It also meant that they could get a bit creative in disposing this now hated enemy. They went about discussing it over the would-be assassin as the king left, the man's screams echoing in the room and throughout the basement chambers of the castle.

Leon would've stayed to come up with suggestions or even kill the man himself had he not become so anxious to hear about Cloud's condition. He travelled up the spiralling staircases of his home, going to his bedchamber where the still bedridden blond lay.

As he stepped in, he noticed that Sora's personal servant and the head maid were cleaning him from the sweat and grime from this morning, Sora sitting in a chair watching them in fascination. Leon narrowed his eyes.

"Sora?"

The young prince jumped, smiling brightly at his elder brother. "Hullo Leon! I was worried about Cloud so I came up here and-"

"Don't you have lessons to attend to?"

The prince's face fell at that, pouting. "But Leon…!"

"No buts. And please refrain from shouting. Cloud is probably trying to rest."

Sora left sulkily, obviously displeased at having been sent away. Tifa and Riku bowed to Leon once they were done, taking their leave as they were dismissed. Cloud's eyes were closed, his skin still a bit flushed from the fever he had received from the poisoning. Leon sat on the edge of the bed, looking down on him.

He almost, almost, lost Cloud today. And the thought scared him for some reason. The feeling of his own heart racing abnormally was something he had never felt for any one person with the exception to his brother and maybe Edea since she was the closest thing to a mother Leon had for years. But for Cloud?! An enemy?! Someone he should hate?! This was…absurd! Completely absurd!

And yet…he felt it. What did this mean? How could something other than hate form between a member of the proud Leonhart family and a member of the supercilious Strife family?

Leon couldn't help but ask those questions repeatedly as he brushed away a few stray hairs of platinum blond. Just what was going to happen now?