The Movement of Unsubtle Desires
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Author: Kiba
Rating: PG-13 (for the moment)
Pairing: Leon/Cloud
Chapter: 3/?
Warnings: None really.
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 Three: Speak of the Devil

I don't have to tell you anything. Hades probably would have never kept up his half of the deal anyway." His voice was cracking and weak; choking on water does that to you.

"Who the fuck is Hades?" Leon raised a brow slightly, tilting his head down into the darkness, though he could hardly see Cloud's face. His boot shifted a bit over his head, and perhaps relented, if only slightly.

Cloud's brows furrowed with annoyance. The last thing he wanted to do now was play mind games. Clearing his throat, he sounded somewhat confused. "...Didn't he set up this trap to get me to come back to him...?"

Leon was silent for a few moments in contemplation. This wasn't making any sense at all. He decided, for once, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and lifted his boot from his head, settling it down on the ground. Before Cloud could do anything else, however, he pressed:

"Tell me how you know who Sora is."

Slowly, very slowly, Cloud shifted up and pulled the rest of him from the water, and moved into a sitting position. He glared up at Leon, whom had taken a few steps back and crossed his arms over his chest. With the movement, he saw the flash of blue and shuddered immediately, looking away, and then shut his own eyes.

"I competed against him in the Coliseum. Hades was paying me to win against him..." He neglected to inform him of the "and kill him" part. It wasn't necessary, as he didn't intend to anyway.

Leon raised a brow. "Coliseum?"

"Yeah, it's not far from Traverse. Warriors from all over go there to fight." Cloud's expression had softened. He found it ironic he was having casual conversation with the man who had just attempted to possibly kill him, and was partially humiliated that this strange man was probably not who he thought he was.

"...If you've never heard of that before, I guess it's safe to say you're not out to get me," he added quietly, almost sheepishly.

Leon paused again, and looked away from Cloud, as he thought a moment. He knew now he was probably wrong in his assumption that this stupid blond boy wanted to kill Sora, or cause any sort of harm to him whatsoever---and he could bet he wouldn't be able to anyway. After all, he was here. If he had beaten Sora, he probably would have continued to fight. But he was here, in Leon's makeshift "den", so to speak, sopping wet and sitting at his feet. This was not the ideal position for someone who was more powerful than Sora.

...But he was impressive.

"Leon."

The blond blinked, and tilted his head up. Leon? What? Oh, oh---his name. That must be his name. He was tempted to smile girlishly and tell him his own, but stopped that expression from appearing on his face immediately. What possessed him to do that, he couldn't fathom. Yuck.

"...I'm Cloud. Cloud Strife." And his face was forced blank.

Leon's eyes slightly widened at the name. He had never heard of someone being called that before, and simply because of the irony of it all, he was surprised. Squall. Cloud. Squall. Cloud...

Soon enough his expression remolded into its usual blank state, however, and he turned away from him, slinging his Gunblade over his shoulder.

"I like your style, Strife. But you need to work on watching where you're going..." He paused a moment for thought, then continued. "This is where I usually train. If you like, you can use it as well." As he spoke the sound of his boots clicking against the rocks was heard, and his voice became distant, echoing gently as it resounded against the high walls.

"...Thanks?" Cloud couldn't see where the other was going, and squinted into the darkness. He was gone.

God, were his eyes beautiful.

--

Settling back in to the house in the Third District was awkward for Leon, especially after the dramatic exit he had made earlier. Aerith smiled sadly but pleasantly to him when he came in; looking up from a book she had recovered from one of the old shelves they had found already in the house before taking it as their own. Yuffie refused to speak with him, which he was honestly thankful for.

Cloud found it just as hard entering the door of his hotel room. Obviously it hadn't been a far walk, and upon stepping out of the waterway, he had realized he was entirely soaked and thus needed more clothes. Tomorrow, he supposed.

Sighing dejectedly, he slipped in and stripped himself of the soaking garments, letting them hang on various places in the bathroom. He showered again, for the water in Leon's lair was probably not the cleanest thing in the world, and then settled down to retire to sleep, his muscles aching and still hot.

The night-night came, and the both of them found a hunger unsatisfied.

--

Not very long after Leon and Cloud had both left, within the recesses of lion's lair, the single candle still burned.

Its flame flickered unnaturally, against the winds rushing through the cave, and then began to steadily grow. Within seconds it was quite large, and seemed to formulate into some sort of little creature, and without warning, popped quite loudly.

"AHHHHHH!!!"

With the candle, the flame, still burning brightly...rolled down the pile of rocks it had been situated upon, and across the lesser pebbles, emitting a high pitched and terrified wail, and perhaps something along the lines of, "HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!!!" and promptly heaved itself forward into the water, with a loud sizzle. The stick of wax calmly stopped before reaching the water's edge.

Meanwhile, the particularly large (compared to all the others around it) rock it had been situated on began to awkwardly warp in and out of itself. Quickly, it uncurled and change its colouration, becoming a distinct shade of magenta. A spade tail flickered behind it suddenly, and it lifted its head to reveal the face of a particularly grotesque imp, complete with a yellow row of sharp teeth and two small horns atop its head.

The demon stood up right, and it was apparent regardless it was small of stature, it was definitely quite chunky. "Ohhh my GODS I thought that would never END!"

It shook its little round body and leapt from its perch and onto the ground, shuddering the feeling back into its limbs. Raising a brow at only being answered by its echo, the purple-pink demon scuttled to the water, picked up the candle, and hurled it into the rippling blackness. "PANIC!"

"GYAH!" screeched its (burnt) turquoise counterpart, resurfacing from the pool with a rather large bump on its pointed head. "W-w-what?! C-c-can't you see I was trying to c-c-c-cool off?! It's h-h-hard trying to be hot..."

This demon, named appropriately Panic, was considerably thinner than its magenta companion, whom was Pain. Atop his head were two large and pointed horns, and his hooked nose looked so similar to them it was hard not to consider it a third. As he slowly crawled from the water, it was apparent he also had a spade tail and the same cloved hooves as the other, albeit on skinnier legs.

Pain rolled his beady yellow eyes and then promptly took a hold of Panic's chest, tugging the greenish flesh and forcing him toward him. "Why didn't you DO something?! You were supposed to get that Porcupine-Head to come back to the Coliseum with us!"

He gave a frantic screech, large eyes wide, wriggling in the other's grasp. "W-w-what are you talking about ME? ME?! I can't handle this all b-b-by myself! He sent y-y-YOU to get him too!"

"Details, details!" Pain flung the other back carelessly, and then rubbed a clawed hand down his face as he groaned with annoyance, its fleshy contours stretching until it was looking as if he were melting. When he removed it, it bounced back into place. "You could have EASILY done something...like set his hair on fire, or his stupid scarf, or his butt, or SOMETHING! Anything!"

He shuddered, and stuttered, "W-w-well YOU could have hurled yourself at him and knocked him unconscious! Y-yeah!" He attempted to glare fiercely, though considering his appearance; it was not very fierce at all.

Pain immediately returned the look, stuck out his forked tongue, and stretched his face with his hands again. Biiiidah. To this, the turquoise demon screeched with fear, and hid his eyes with his hands. "D-d-d-don't DO that!"

Letting his hands fall away, but keeping his large eyes focused on the ground, he furrowed his brows a bit. "We have to s-stop messing around. W-w-we can't go back like this. If he finds out we didn't get Porcupine-Head, he'll KILL US for sure!"

Pain was silent for a few seconds...and then slowly, a toothy grin spread across his fat face. "You mean...IF he finds out," he slyly said, holding up a single clawed finger and pointing it in Panic's direction upon the stress of a particular word.

Pain looked up and to him, blinking. ...Soon enough, he returned the grin. "If? ...If is good..."

--

Kupo!

Kupo, kupo!

"Oh my GODS, I c-c-can't believe were d-doing this..." squeaked the skinnier of the two demons, as he dragged squirming burlap bag out from the back of the Accessory shop.

Pain, whom was holding the end and not actually doing much work, promptly retorted, "Stop whining! I don't know about you, but I'd rather NOT be the next Thanksgiving delicacy on the Food Channel!" As he said that, he caught Panic's tail beneath one of his hooves, and pressed down, hard.

"YeeeOW!" Panic screeched, desperately wriggling his tail out from under him. "O-o-okay, okay! Fine! We'll do this..."

"And be QUIET. We don't want to get caught. These stupid cream puff things make enough noise as it is!"

Kupo kupo kupo!

Panic shuddered as they began to head down the steps, squeezing the bag a bit tighter. "Yuck, I don't think I could stand to lay eyes on those things again...they're so cute and fluffy and squishy and soft... a-a-and i-i-it's like they're reject animal mascots from some cheesy animated movie!"

The two imps carried the bag with the moogle inside of it down the steps and into the square, and silently slipped through the gates, to head back to the Coliseum, via some random gummi ship they managed to sneak on with surprising ease.

Upon arriving at its gates, they hesitantly slipped through them and tip-toed across the sand, as if a magenta and turquoise demon wouldn't stand out against the light brown...in broad daylight...

Before they could reach the lobby, however, an ominous cloud of smoke formed in front of them, and then became what appeared to be a very tall form. Panic gasped, and stopped in place as he gawked up at it, while Pain failed to pay attention and ended up stepping on the moogle in the bag and running into Panic. With a loud KUPO! They topped over, face first in the sand. "Ugggh..."

"Wellwellwell...if it isn't two of my most treasured henchmen...Pain and...Panic..."

The moment they heard the distinctive tone similar to that of a used car salesman, they froze with their eyes wide, and then winced and shuddered, upon feeling two large, extremely cold hands grasping them by the spades of their tales, and lifting them slowly up off the ground. Tightly, each of them clasped their end of the burlap bag, and stared up at the ruler of the Underworld himself, Hades.

"H-hi boss!"

"Yeeeah...how...how ya doin'?!"

"W-w-we were just...we were just uh..."

"Returning with Spiky, I hopefully assume?" Hades raised a thin brow, tilting his head at the two, continuing to let them dangle in the air. "Because, I mean," he chuckled sarcastically as both his eyebrows arched, "You wouldn't be returning if you didn't have the little needle-noggin with you, now would you...?"

Pain and Panic stared blankly at him with wide eyes a moment, and then exchanged glances with each other, looking definitely frightened. However, a large sheepish grin spread across both their faces and slowly they looked back to Hades.

"No, no, never..." Pain began, "We...do indeed...have the needle noggin...with us!"

"A-a-a-and he's...he's right here, see...see?" Panic jarred the bag a bit. Kupo. ...Gulp.

Hades looked down at the burlap bag with a questioning expression, with a moment's pause. Without warning, he dropped the two demons and before they could let go of the desired item as well, he snatched it with a hand that instantaneously turned into a lengthy blue flame, and it curled about it, and slowly opened it.

A frighten moogle poked its head out and peered up at Hades with its squinty eyes, the red ball on its head bouncing slightly. "...Kupo!"

Pain and Panic began backing up, slowly, toward the world's exit.

Hades' eyes immediately narrowed. The flame returned to the shape of a hand, and promptly grasped the moogle by its head, plucking it from the bag, and dropping it to the ground, forgetting it entirely. The small white creature began to squirm and kupo, but was helpless in his grasp. His eyes were grave, and it looked as if he were about to explode.

"Does...this..." He flipped the moogle around, and about shoved it in the two imps' faces. "...look like...Cloud Strife...to YOU?"

Silence. ...Kupo, kupo. It wriggled its arms a bit.

The two froze where they were, and grinned pathetically. "W-w-well...it is...pretty soft...like a cloud!" Panic stammered. "A-and...well, considering the way you're holding it, it DOES seem to have a lot of strife," Pain added.

At the stupidity of these words, slowly, very slowly, the dead and bluish tone of Hades' skin began to warm, become red hot, beginning from the bottom of his robe, all the way up to the flame lit upon his head. His eyes bulged.

Pain and Panic, upon seeing this frightening display, screeched in unison, "OH MY GODS!" and immediately darted in the other direction; only to be grasped by their heads by the flames that were once Hades' hands. Roughly he tugged them back and squeezed their skulls tightly.

At this they immediately began to desperately cry out. "We're SORRY!" "O-o-oh, so, so SORRY!" "HAVE MERCY!" "M-M-MERCY, PLEASE!" Desperately they wriggled about in Hades' hand-flames, and the small moogle skittered elsewhere to safety, forgotten.

Grudgingly, Hades released them from his grasp and allowed them to fall roughly upon the ground, groaning with annoyance. "I suppose this means I can't let you to do ANYTHING on your own?"

"W-w-well, it was an honest mistake," Panic hesitantly said. "It was j-just like we said! That...white...floofy thingie was...very...cloudy..."

"And strifey," added, Pain nodded sagely.

Hades emitted an exasperated sigh and turned his back to them, rubbing his forehead with a clawed hand slowly. "Memo to me, memo to me...maim you both...after this is over..."

"...Ah, m-memo taken, your most lugubriousness!" the two imps said in time with one another, albeit a tad nervously.

There was a very long, awkward pause after that. The two imps stared blankly ahead at Hades' back for a while. Eventually, Pain folded his tiny arms behind his back and began to rock back and forth on his hooves with boredom, while Panic idly whistled, letting his eyes wander.

"Hey," Pain suddenly blurted. "Maybe, just maybe, we could get Cloud through that lion-y guy."

Panic raised a brow and looked over at him, rubbing his chin. "The lion-guy?"

"Duh, I mean, he was totally into him. Didn't you see the way he looked at his eyes? He was practically fangirling all over the place!" Pain rolled his eyes, as if this were blatant truth.

Panic immediately made a disgusted face, cringing at the very thought of...that, and coiled. "Eeeewww! That's GROSS! And besides, they were FIGHTING. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be particularly fond of some guy who beat the shi---"

Hades was slowly looking over his shoulder now, a brow raised, as if he were suddenly somewhat interested in what the imps had to say... The greenish imp saw this and gulped loudly, grinning widely as he met eyes with Hades. The god honestly hadn't been paying attention to the almost insult, but was more interested in discovering who exactly this "lion-guy" was, and how he could use him to get Cloud...

"I-I-I mean...I'd be TOTALLY in love with some guy who slaps me around like I'm his little---"

"TMI. T. M. I. YOU'RE the one being gross now!" Pain hissed.

"...Ahh," Hades said suddenly, whipping around to face them. They leapt back in surprise, but he had a fox-smile on his face, and his sinister eyes narrowed as he looked at them too adoringly to be true. "Even if you two are quite possibly more useless in a crisis than a flock of sheep, you will be very, very happy to know I still have an eensy, teensy bit of faith left for this..."

They looked up at him with wide eyes. "You do?"

TO BE CONTINUED