The Movement of Unsubtle Desires
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Author: Kiba
Rating: PG-13 (for the moment)
Pairing: Leon/Cloud
Chapter: 2/?
Warnings: Fighting. Lots of it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, any of the characters, anything Disney, or much else, except the crazy crap I make them do. :)

Chapter Two: Wrestling with Lions

The eyes really bugged him.

Why, he didn't know, but they did. They were blue, and intense. Grudgingly, he admitted they were beautiful, but also very frightening. They were the sort of bright like his---but a true blue, as opposed to his, which were closer to aquamarine.

He found that the look of those fierce blue eyes kept with him that whole night; and not only that, but also the sharp contours of the man's face, and the way the chocolate-brown hair hung down to his strong jaw-line, just so. And the scar. It ran across his face, starting below his left eye, and crawling up, ending above his right one. He looked at him for maybe ten seconds and then he was gone, but the image of his face seemed to be imprinted into his mind.

God, he hated him. Whoever he was---his name was something weird, and began or ended with an L, he couldn't remember---he hated him. He was rude, inconsiderate, and he bet that short girl with him was his girlfriend or something, and he probably beat the shit out of her when she got back to their place, for acting up like she did, even if he was really the stupid and rude one and ugh. Just ugh.

Cloud discovered his fingernails were now embedded with soap. The dull roar of the water hitting the shower floor was suddenly there also, and he sighed in half relief, half frustration, loosening his grip on the small white bar, letting the soap drop down to the floor, carelessly. He did his best to pick out the little white flakes, and thought to himself, Ah, at least they will be especially clean now, in a poor attempt at optimism.

Turning off the water, he stepped out of the shower, snatching a towel off one of the racks near by, and dried himself off in silence. His mind was quite the mess, though, busy half trying to wonder what it was about those eyes that seemed to irk him so much, half trying to get their image out of his head.

He remembered he had no clean clothes and sighed, reluctantly retiring to bed naked.

--

In the morning, Leon slammed his fist hard against the wall. It was a spot that was right next to the door, and he had done it after stepping inside. Maybe there was a dent. If there was, he either didn't notice or didn't care. And apparently, he had come in too quietly, and having Yuffie not acknowledge his presence was something that he just would not have.

She had come home soon after the little squabble. He spent the night aimlessly wandering, into the morning hours, and then until the street lights didn't seem so abysmal anymore. His mood had not changed. He didn't expect it to.

Aerith, the flower girl in the pink dress, was also there. All of them had ended up settling down in this little shack of a house in the Third District after having the encounter with the Keyblade boy. There wasn't much space; Leon slept on the floor and the two girls shared the single bed. It wasn't the best but it was cheap and livable.

At the sound of fist connecting to thin boarding, calmly she lifted her head from staring down at the plate of breakfast food in front of her, but blinked with pleasant ignorance. Yuffie, whom was eating with her at the small table in the corner, dropped her fork where it was with a loud clang and immediately narrowed her eyes, standing up from her chair as quickly as she had done last night. Her fists balled, and it was apparent she was ready to spit insults in the direction of the male.

"Where were you?!"

He let his fist slide from the spot on the wall, and dangle stupidly at his side, though it was still clenched into a fist. "Why does it matter." Leon had a very strange habit of stating questions as if they were answers, especially when he was in a bad mood. This seemed to be always. Yuffie's face contorted with annoyance, as she hated this quirk about him, and huffed in his direction.

Aerith blinked again, and then frowned, tilting her head with the utmost sincere concern. She chimed in quickly, "I was worried about you." A pause. "Yuffie told me you two got into a little bit of a fight and you stormed off, and she hadn't seen you since."

"We did not," Leon said, the intonation of his voice suddenly changing dramatically, as it was custom to never speak rudely to girls as proper and pure as Aerith, should they suffer the silent humiliation of being not-a-gentlemen that no one really even paid attention to these days. "We were at the cafe, and some stupid guy almost spilled her drink on me."

"And he apologized," Yuffie snarled. "Apologized! But you were still angry with him! He didn't mean to do that, and you know it!"

The lion man shut his eyes, obviously irritated, and sighed through his nostrils. "You know what, just forget it. Just forget it ever happened. This is even more stupid."

"No!" Yuffie was quick to respond, and now her own fists were beginning to slowly ball up at her sides. "You can't run away every time you're wrong, stupid! You wanted to change yourself, remember? You wanted to be stronger! And now, you're being really stupid and weak! I mean, who walks out of a place just because some guy almost spilled a drink on them!"

"Yuffie, please..." Aerith winced at just about every word she said. She did this, because she knew how much it hurt to be told the truth so bluntly.

All Leon could do was stare blankly. Yuffie's words, after a moment of thought, were, in fact, undeniably... true?

He wanted to vomit, suddenly. A sickening feeling balled in his stomach and he winced inwardly. It was especially humiliating because the things he was supposed to know where being spouted from the mouth of some stupid, short, teenaged ninja girl who half the same, from what he observed, could not distinguish her backside from a hole in the ground. And it was all because of some stupid little blond guy and his stupid big cape thing. God, he hated him. Whoever he was, he hated him.

This was pathetic; he was pathetic. His brows furrowed considerably, and a gloved hand rose to place two of its fingers against the side of his forehead, rubbing at it idly. He was silent.

Yuffie, unfortunately, took this as a sign that he was ignoring her words, in order to anger her more than he had already done. Hmphing quite loudly, she promptly approached him, stomping her booted feet as children do, and lifted her hand to give him a swift slap across the face, beginning with the words, "You listen to me, SQUALL---"

He caught her wrist quickly, in an unexpected, swift movement. It never had the chance to contact with his face. His eyes, suddenly, were quite wide, in a strange and unsettling peer. The expression was enough to make the female ninja freeze in place and return the same look, albeit a bit more confused.

After a stare down for a few seconds, Aerith quietly hesitantly scolded the two, her sweet voice slicing through the awkward silence no smoother than a knife through butter. "Please, don't fight... it's not good, especially amongst people in the same house..."

Yuffie glared at the man spitefully, and attempted to tug her wrist from Leon's grasp after that. He loosened it immediately in response, and then turned, to face the door. The same hand lifted, and gently pressed against its wooden surface.

"My name...is Leon." It was a simple statement.

After that, he left quickly and silently, shoving his gloved hands in his pockets, and immediately turned on his heel to head into the Second District. His head tilted in an almost shameful manner down toward the cobblestone streets as he walked, eyes focused on his leather boots in particular.

Slowly, the ninja's expression softened out into bewilderment, and found she was too stunned at his actions to follow after him. She blinked, then looked back to Aerith. Neither of them knew what to make of the poor man.

--

Grudgingly Cloud put on the old clothes. He figured it wouldn't be so bad, as he was going to buy new ones immediately. The store he intended to pay a visit to was directly across from his hotel.

As he crossed the walkway toward the store, coming around the corner was none other than the blue-eyed man who had gotten angry at him in the cafe last night. Cloud, however, failed to notice him, and had slipped into the store seconds before Leon glanced up in his direction.

The store was pleasant to be in. The walls weren't bare, but neither too cluttered. Upon the racks throughout the store were mostly older fashions, but they were nice, and even a bit elaborate. The shopkeeper was a well-aged Asian looking woman, dressed in a manner to compliment her culture, with squinted eyes but a large nose. She was considerably short, and came up to Cloud's chest.

She was also considerably imposing. The moment he had set foot inside she squealed with delight, and began talking a mile a minute, and Cloud was too kind to do anything but smile and nod. He ended up walking out of the place well dressed, with his old clothes folded neatly by small hands and placed into a shopping bag; though his red scarf did not leave his shoulders. The elderly woman had protested it was unbecoming on him but he insisted.

His new clothes weren't dramatically different from what he used to wear but they were good enough. On his chest, a black and sleeveless zip up sweater, black jeans, boots, and gloves. There were also a few strategically placed buckles and belts, and he felt rather "stylin'" to be honest.

Now that he had gotten new clothing he wasn't sure what else to do. He had already visited the accessory shop the previous day, and was carrying all the potions and the like he could handle. He also felt quite healthy, and there was nothing in this town to fight. The thought of that made him somewhat twitchy all of the sudden, and he thought of the man he "met" yesterday, again.

Maybe he should just go back to the hotel. There was no way he was going to show his face at that cafe again---he would be quite possibly the laughing stock of the square now.

Yes. Yes, that sounded like the safest thing to do. He could avoid anymore uncomfortable encounters that way, too.

So Cloud returned to the hotel, quickly and silently. Upon entering, he stuffed his old clothes away in the bottom door beside the golden claw, and found himself not sure what to do now. He sighed softly, settling down onto the bed, and shut his eyes. He found he was not particularly tired, but---hey, maybe he should go investigate that mini-bar now...

As he began to shift off of the bed minutes after, he swore he heard the strangest sound coming from outside, in the alleyway. It sounded like, dare he say it, an angry lion. He froze in place, tilting his head to the air, and waited to hear it again.

There it was again.

As Cloud was a curious creature by nature, his first reaction was to go poke his head outside and see what was up. As he was moving to the door, however, he froze in place, shuddering at the sound of the "roar" as it sounded a third time. He opted to just peek outside the window of his door...

But there was nothing to be seen. So immediately, thoughtlessly (excuse him, for he was blond, after all), he slipped over to the wall where his Buster Sword was settled, and snatched it up with a disturbing ease, and then headed out. The roar sounded again and he found he was wincing at it. But where, exactly, was this unearthly noise coming from? The alleyway was somewhat closed off, and there was no way to go, really, save for into the big sewer thing there---that was it. The sewer.

The moment his feet hit the water he knew he was an idiot. And yet, he walked through it calmly, eyes fixated upon the dark and now that he thought about it, rather ominous blackness that was the entrance to what he assumed to be a really, really big sewer. Knowing his luck it would be some kind of trap Hades had set in order to get even with him for making off like he did...

The thought crossed his mind and he stopped directly in front of the "entrance," shivering. He was going to get himself killed one of these days, most definitely. And yet, wasn't that his birth right? He was, after all, a sad excuse for a hero. His blond brows furrowed over his bright cerulean eyes, and he breathed a huff of air, preparing himself. It certainly wasn't out of relief.

And then he slipped into the abyss, after listening to two or three more roars.

--

"ARGH." Woosh. "RrrrAGH." Woosh, woosh.

The pebbles beneath his boots rubbed quietly together, and the gentle ripples of the water lapped against the edges of the cave walls, serene and undisturbed by the one-sided violence occurring just feet away from it. The candles on the large rocks were slowly melting down, one by one, but he found he enjoyed training in the dark more than in any other way.

Woosh. "Rrrr..." Woosh, woosh.

His muscles were tense. This was the only way, he discovered, that he could loosen them. The swaying of his Gunblade, the quick curves and fast juts. In a way it was erotic; the thrusting and pulling and quick movements and hard breathing. It was the only means of outlet for his frustration, these days. It had been so very long since he had been able to fight something worthy of him---definitely not that Keyblade kid---and he was on edge and anxious.

"Rrra---"

"It's you!" He hadn't meant to say it so loud, or even at all, but it had slipped. The moment his voice hit the air his eyes were wide and he was ashamed and red, and quickly sunk back a bit, ducking his head as if that would shelter him from his, what he surely assumed to be, impending doom.

There was only one candle lit now.

Leon whipped around quickly, eyes wide and furious. The edge of his Gunblade settled to rest against the pebbles on the ground, his gloved hand tensing around its hilt. The voice, he didn't recognize, but he saw the outline of spiky hair silhouetting against the small amount of light from outside the entrance, and immediately assumed it to be a particularly irritating child he had met a few weeks ago...

"Sora, what are you doing here."

Before Cloud could even say anything else, his own eyes widened and he hastily scrambled to shore (he had still been standing in the almost-knee deep water), letting the Buster drag from the water with him, tugged by his hand, and when his boots contacted with the pebbles, his free fist balled and he glared. Leon's gaze flickering with reflection of the only candle burning in the watery cave was unnerving, but he pressed on.

His first assumption was: this man was definitely in league with Hades. How else would he know the name of the Keyblader? One could never be too cautious, in times like these.

"How do you know Sora?!" the blond yelled, and his boyish voice bounced off the walls like a persistent reminder---How do you know Sora, do you know Sora, you know Sora, know Sora, Sora...

An employee of Maleficent? Leon squinted at him. How else would he know the name of the Keyblader? Actually, there were probably hundreds of ways he could have discovered Sora's name, but since Leon was a suspicious creature by default it was what popped into his head first. And it would be the only reasoning he would listen to now, with his blood still pumping hard from training so feverishly, his face hot and red and slightly dripping with sweat and the humidity collected in the cave.

...It's you. He definitely recognized this guy from before now that he came closer, spoke more---how could he forget the unsettling sound of that boyish voice?---and suddenly he remembered the anguish his stupid little stunt had brought him. The unsettled rage behind his blue eyes flared up and without warning he lashed out at him with a fury only lions possess, darting with his Gunblade, in Cloud's direction.

The sound of the sudden movement was all Cloud had to go on. It was considerably hard to see---but thankfully he put two and two together quickly enough to figure out the sudden rush of wind was not natural. His eyes were still wide, and somehow, became almost saucer-like now, as he leapt out of the way just in time, though suffered a slight knick to his bare shoulder. "Argh!" he hissed, and immediately whipped his Buster Sword up and slung it over his shoulder.

Definitely sent by Hades.

Definitely sent by Maleficent.

Leon charged again, blindly. Cloud, this time, stood ready for it. When he lunged, he moved to the side, and delivered a quick swipe in the opposite direction, in attempt to get a good hit to the lion's rib cage. It was hard to see what was going on, but thankfully he felt impact.

It contacted, but Leon moved upon the instant he felt it begin to touch him, and suffered only having the wind temporarily knocked out of him. As he moved so swiftly, the Griever about his neck flung on its chain, circling around his neck once, but landing back and settling in place on his chest, as if it were meant to be there.

Breathing hard in time with one another, their gazes locked in the darkness. Leon's were considerably narrower, more ferocious, ignited with the single candle flame which burned strongly as their freshly birthed rivalry---the eyes of one of Hades' minions, Cloud immediately identified---that must have been the reason why they haunted him so. He mustn't look at them.

Suddenly they both moved forward, and the sound of the wind was all either had to go on. The Buster Sword and Gunblade contacted, and Leon was impressed but not surprised how heavy it felt against his own weapon. Still, his eyes aflame with a thirst needing to be quenched, he abruptly delivered a quick thrust forward and Cloud moved back.

Cloud would not give up. He bolted toward him this time, and Leon received the blow quite hard. His boots slid across the slippery pebbles, but before they touched any part of the pool lapping behind them, he regained composure and moved out of the way.

The short blonde spun quickly on his heels to face and keep his eye on Leon, but made sure not to look into his burning eyes. Rather, he stared at the lion chain about his neck, as that glinted as well but not as frighteningly, and was surprised how accurate his associations with this man were.

There was, however, no time to sit and ponder useless imagery. Leon was walking to the side, and all Cloud could do was walk with him, to keep his back faced away from him, and instead of they circling together, he felt more as if Leon was the one circling him---like a hungry lion would his prey. It made him ungodly nervous, but this continued until they made several rounds.

They blindly charged again; brutal, unrelenting battle ensued. Both of their eyes were wide with the adrenaline rushing in their veins, and Cloud was beginning to break a sweat. And it truly felt like sex---raw and hard emotion flung against the walls freely, in their yells and their boots on the moist pebbles, as well as the noise of the winds rushing through the cave, accented by the swift movements of their own weapon.

Leon's desperate and uneasy thirst was quenched---or became direr, he could not tell. But somewhere along the line Cloud's back faced the water and with a swift and miscalculated thrust, the smaller of the two felt his chest hit hard by the broad side of Leon's Gunblade, and he was sent sprawling backward into the water, quite ungracefully.

The Buster Sword slipped from his grasp before he contacted with the water and was too heavy to be knocked back like that---but Cloud's body was indeed light enough for it to occur, and he hadn't time to level his weight with his sword's as he usually did, and thus the fault. He splashed hard down into the water, finding this part of it much, much deeper than he had expected.

Panic raced through his mind and he involuntarily gave a frightened yell, his arms flailing wildly. Leon's eyes narrowed but his expression was blank as he watched this occur, and wondered why Maleficent would send someone so stupid and clumsy to go after the Keyblade. He had to admit---he felt as if this blond fool had the upper hand for quite some time, but one slip up and he was done.

Cloud came scrambling back to shore, his hands clawing desperately at the somewhat solid ground, his hair no longer spiked by a heap of misshapen flaxen, hanging in his eyes and down his neck. He panted hard, and coughed up a bit of water, pressing his cheek to the ground a moment, his eyes wide.

Until he felt the hard, sculpted rubber of a boot lowering down onto his head. He choked on air at that, but froze immediately after.

"What...do you want with Sora."

TO BE CONTINUED