Lucky Thirteen

'Web'

Leon's dream-world was quite unlike what you would imagine. Rather than mirroring the seemingly cold and harsh personality the man had, inside his mind and in his subconscious world, everything was soft and sweet as could be. Waterfalls, meadows, forests and lakes. Flowers, hills, and just one tiny little indication of human life. A circle, no wider that ten feet in diameter, of stones. And in the center of the circle...

"Morning, sleepyhead!"

Snap.

Down fell the flowers and the pretty waterfalls. Back to reality as the stormy gray eyes snapped open, falling on the communicator screen not five inches away from his face. "Rinoa!" Leon croaked through a sleep-clogged voice.

"Hmpf! Well nice to see you too, Squall!"

"...It's Leon," he corrected irritably, shifting his position to rest most of his weight on his elbows. Where was he...?

"Oh that's right! Sorry. Guess I kinda forgot."

Leon lay on the dew covered ground across from the caravan, just underneath the base of a large elm tree. He'd been on guard... right? Some guard. I can't even do that right anymore. If someone had tried something during the night... Shaking his head, Leon pulled himself back into the conversation at hand, picking up the communicator from the ground and wiping some of the dew from its screen with his sleeve to reveal the dark-haired girl beaming at him from wherever it was Rinoa was transmitting from.

"Yeah. Guess you kinda did," Leon drawled, having to fight the urge to roll his eyes. What could he say? Feeling like he'd failed at one simple little job really put him in a rotten mood.

But either Rinoa was blissfully unaware of Leon's mood, or she simply chose to blissfully ignore it. Much like she'd done during the few times the two of them had actually interacted in the past. Seeming to remember something out of the blue (though it was quite clearly the entire reason behind her waking Leon up...), she said, "Hey listen, is... ahem. Is you-know-who there?"

"..." Leon blinked.

"You know..."

"..." Leon raised an eyebrow.

"Cloud, you dork," Rinoa groaned, rolling her eyes and clapping one palm to her forehead in exasperation.

"Um... he's asleep."

"Well wake him up!"

"No. He should sleep."

At this, Rinoa's eyes narrowed into a firm glare as she muttered, "You're not his mother. Please, Squa- Leon. I need to talk to him!"

"Why?"

That one simple question threw Rinoa off onto a seemingly random and pointless tangent. All Leon could really pick up from her voice as it rattled through the communicator nonstop was something like... "...really unfair... does any work around here but me! And Aerith... totally on my back about everything... meeting in like, ten minutes! But before... practically demanded that I go down here and call you."

By that point Leon was pretty sure that Cloud was going to be woken up in a few moments anyway, what with the way Rinoa was getting so worked up and nearly shouting into the poor little communicator. Try as he might to cover up the little speaker portions of the gadget, all his attempts at blocking out the noise were absolutely futile. So the way Leon saw it...

"Cloud, wake up."

Jostled from his slumber by a rather abrupt poke at his calves, Cloud hauled himself upright, rubbing both blue eyes with his fists as he murmured, "Hah... uh... L-Leon... hey..."

"Good morning." A small smile graced Leon's mouth as he noted the sleep-mussed hair Cloud sported as well as the wide yawn as sleepy eyes. Adorable? Adorable, adorable. More words to an ever-expanding vocabulary. But snapping back into the issue at hand, Leon shook his head slightly, saying, "There's... someone who wants to speak with you."

Cloud blinked. He leaned to the side to peer around Leon. And all he got was a view of the empty clearing outside of the caravan, just beginning to light up with the first rays of the morning sun. Blinking again, he looked at Leon and plainly stated, "...I don't see anybody."

"Here." Leon handed him the communicator, to which Cloud only blinked and stared on in bafflement as Leon tried to explain. "This is-"

"Rinoa Heartilly! Pleased to meet you, Cloud Strife!" There, on the little four-by-four screen set into an intricate looking little gadget, was the face of a young woman, probably no older than twenty-one or twenty-two. Her eyes were cheerful and the corners of her mouth seemed to curl upward into a small smile by default, but it wasn't done so in any way that may be considered the least bit unpleasant. A cute girl, for sure, but that didn't exactly clear Cloud's mind full of confused questions.

"Huh? Hey, how do you know my..."

"Your name? Hehehe, I know way more about you than just your name, Cloud. Don't think for a minute that it's anything extraordinary!" Rinoa stuck her tongue out at this and giggled before snapping back into attention mode as her gaze seemed to switch from Cloud back over to Leon through the tiny handheld screen. Nodding once, she said, "Okay Leon, I'll take over from here. I need to speak with Cloud alone for a moment."

"...Fine."

"Whoa, wait a second, why does he have to leave?" Cloud glanced at Leon. Leon glanced at Cloud. Rinoa glanced back and forth between the two. After an awkward moment or two of this, Cloud hastily added on, "...Not that I care."

"...Well... Cloud, I just need to ask you some personal questions. That's all. If you don't mind sharing some of this personal, private, important information with Leon, who I'm reasonably certain has told you absolutely nothing since the two of you first met, then he can certainly stay!"

"..."

"..."

"Later, Leon."

"Hn. I figured as much." Leon rolled his eyes and slid out the entrance to the caravan, leaving Cloud alone with the communicator and the girl at the other end of it. Looks like things have started to take on a whole new level of weirdness...

The formalities over and done with and Leon out of the way, Rinoa jumped right to the chase, putting on a no-nonsense expression as she said, "Okay! So really, how much has Leon filled you in on?"

"...As you said, not much... Paopu juice being used as fuel... some crap about archaeology and astrology..."

"Oh you're one of those people. Great." The corners of her mouth twisting downward in a small frown, Rinoa glared and crossed her arms, the perfect picture of defiance. Cloud, however, was just a little bit... befuddled.

"...Um...?"

"I'm an astrologist, Cloud."

"...Oh."

"Mmhm. And if you think for one minute that the concept is full of shit, then just get out of my sight. Because if you can't at least have a little faith in the practice, there's no way you're going to believe a word I'm about to try and explain to you."

"Alright... I'll try then?"

"That's all I'm asking!" Bit by bit, Cloud began to think that Rinoa was definitely the victim of some sort of split personality disorder, especially as she jumped from her cold and serious tone to a quick and light-hearted voice. "Okay, point one. The Legend of the Paopu Fruit. Stars. All ties together, you know? Every two people share one, correct?"

"...Yeah, sure..."

"And when they meet it falls from the sky and takes on the shape of a fruit they can share. That fruit, the paopu, binds their destinies together forever. But what lots of people didn't know is that by using a special advanced classification of enzymes and electromagnetic energy, the juice is broken down into a simpler form. Basically, pulling apart the different elements and compounds that make up the fruit. This form of 'juice' can serve as fuel for tons of chemical reactions that are used to put out energy. Following?"

"Um... I think I'm following as best as I possibly can..."

"Good! Okay, so with this new little fuel invention, the queen has it made. Maleficent has pretty much found this little yellow-brick road-"

"What?"

"Okay, that was a bad analogy. Um... Archaeology! The dig site near Bastion, did Leon tell you about it?"

Cloud had to stop for a good long moment and think. With all the mumbo-jumbo that'd come out of everyone's mouth lately, it was a wonder he could really make sense of any of it at all. Finally, though, he did recall something to that extent. "He said that there was one..." Cloud muttered.

"Alright. Well, Maleficent's team there is digging way deeper than anyone's ever gone before! No one knows what they're looking for because it's top secret. But I've pulled a couple strings, done a little dancing..."

"You dance?" Cloud asked, eyebrows raised and invisible question marks circling round his head.

"No. I was speaking figuratively. Anyway. We've found out that she's trying to locate this..." Narrowing her eyes, Rinoa appeared to fall into a deep state of concentration... or at least, something like it. With one index finger tapping pointedly against her chin and the very tip of her pink tongue sticking out from the corner of her mouth, Rinoa tried to come up with a word or phrase that could describe... "It's weird..." ...That could describe... "It's like..." Rinoa gave up with a huff of a sigh and a frustrated cough. "We've got diagrams of it here at headquarters. See, we're not exactly sure of what it is. We've got some guesses, but they're all pretty much shots in the dark."

After waiting a moment to ensure that Rinoa was quite done with all this thinking nonsense, Cloud gave himself a moment to process the new little nugget of information. Finally, he nodded and spoke again. "Okay. Two questions. One... headquarters? Who exactly are you working for?"

"The Freedom Fighters! Working for a better tomorrow, equal rights for all, and freedom for serfs like you!" With a grin, Rinoa winked mischievously, clapping her hands together excitedly. It was then that Cloud absentmindedly noticed that her communicator must have sitting on some sort of table or other surface or something. Otherwise the little gadget probably would have crashed to the floor by that point and broken. ...Not a bad idea. Damn the surface. Whatever it was.

"...O-kaaay. Two... what does any of this have to do with me?"

"That, Strifey boy, is where the astrology comes in..."

"What?" As much as Cloud hated sounded like the idiot in the lot, there was nothing else he could say, really. He was tired, groggy, and confused. With all this, it just didn't seem like today was going to be his day at all...

"Well... Okay. I'll try and simplify it as much as possible just because I want you to have a basic understanding of what's going on before you get here, okay?"

"Wait, I'm coming there? Where's there?"

"Here!"

"But where's here!"

"Headquarters!"

"Where's that?"

"Con-fi-den-ti-al, my friend!" Rinoa chirped, giggling a little and smiling, smiling, smiling. Why so much smiling? "Now shhh and listen because I gotta split in a couple minutes or I'll be late for another briefing. And if that happens, Aerith'll really grill my ass. So listen up, okay?

"Maleficent has been led to believe that this dig, this discovery, and this revolution -you could call in an industrial revolution, of sorts- is all part of her destiny. The overthrowing of the king, the establishment of the Militia... Someone predicted all of it for her using astrology. And it's been accurate, it's been true, it's been word-to-word as he predicted. But there's one little problem..."

"What's that?"

"See, with reading stars, you have to see their lifelines."

"Lifelines?" I'm beginning to think I lived as a parrot in a past life.

"Yes. Stars have life-spans, Cloud. It's like... you know how all stars eventually explode, right? Well, they 'explode' whenever two destined people meet here on earth. Their explosion destroys the star in the sky and recreates it as the fruit down here. It falls, it explodes, it doesn't matter. It disappears from the sky. Ideally, the lifelines of stars are sort of like... Sort of like a timer. When the timer goes off, the two people meet and the star 'dies.' In many cases, the lifeline is a tangible thing, acting as a sort of train-track to guide the star on its decent towards earth. The lifelines are stretched all across the sky and through advanced studies of astrology and lots of magical aid, some people can even see the lines.

"There's also cause to believe that the lifelines of stars are crossed by the lifelines of other stars, signifying the meetings between people who will somehow affect another person's destiny. So right now, are you believing a word I'm saying? Yes or no?"

His mind a riddle of lines and stars, all Cloud could manage to say was, "Alright... sure, fine, I'll buy it."

"Good. Well. Here's where Maleficent comes in. There's a star whose lifeline crosses Maleficent's own... and cuts it off."

"So? Everyone dies eventually, and if I'm getting what you're saying, then-"

"That star is yours."

"...E-excuse me?"

"...Okay. To make a long story short, Maleficent wants you gone and out of the picture. You are the person who's destined to meddle in her plans. You're the one who's destined to help us free everyone else, to help put the king back onto the throne that's rightfully his... Cloud, you're the one meant to do so many great things! Escaping from Destati was only the very beginning..." Rinoa's eyes shone hopefully, even through the rough pixel screen of the communicator. Something about the entire thing seemed completely unreal to Cloud, as though it weren't really happening to him at all, but to someone else. He was just a...

A spectator, right boy?

"..." The voice in my head, the weird dreams starting up all of a sudden... "I..." They only started once I left Destati. Once Leon started dragging me out on this whole insane adventure of his."...I... That... That can't be right." ...It is his, isn't it? Leon's adventure? Not mine, right? "I know you may think... Maybe I just don't believe it because of the astrology part. But it's not just that. Look at me... Heh. I'm... just nobody."

"No! No, Cloud, please. We need your help. We can't do it without you!" The image on the screen bucked and jolted suddenly as Rinoa apparently grabbed the communicator off the table it'd been sitting on and shook it violently. The whole thing probably would've made Cloud laugh out loud, had it not happened under such bizarre circumstances. Realizing what she was doing, Rinoa winced and brought the communicator back to a stilled position, though it still trembled slightly as it was clutched in her hands and held before her face.

"...Don't you want to help all your friends and family back home? Don't you want them to have a life outside of harvesting and picking and shipping off fruit? Don't you want them to amount to so much more?" Pausing a moment, both sat in silence, though both were miles upon miles away from the other. When Rinoa spoke again, she was unable to keep a disappointed edge from her voice, almost as though Cloud had let everyone down. The entire world, and himself. "...And what about you? Don't you want the same for yourself? ...You're meant to be great, Cloud."

"...I'm just a fucked up kid looking for a life of his own, Rinoa. I think you've nabbed the wrong guy."

"No I haven't. Leon knows it's you!"

"Where does he tie in with all this?"

"..." Again, Rinoa fell silent, but she quickly picked up with, "I... have to go to my briefing now."

"Hey, wait a minute, Rino-"

"Ask Leon to fill you in on the rest! It was nice speaking with you Cloud! I look forward to meeting you in person!" And the screen faded to black as the communicator on the other end of the connection was switched off.

x x x

Hard black shoes clacked noisily against the stone flooring of the palace hallway floor, the bulk they carried moving swiftly forward, garbed in the simple attire of an everyday servant. But she wasn't exactly an everyday servant. If one were to stand opposite of her and see her waddling along down the corridor, it was quite plain and simple to see that the portly young woman carried herself very highly and with a great deal of self-respect.

For indeed, as one of the head servants in all of Queen Maleficent's staff, who would not be proud and noble?

No one. That was who.

...Almost no one.

"At last may I upon this shore lighten my sorrow with soft tears. Alas, alas, I see no more my love, who yet my sadness cheers."

Reaching the end of the long hallway, the servant pulled out a long spindly gold key, inserting it carefully into the keyhole of the grand door covered with intricate etchings and polished to the highest gleam. She gave a satisfied smile as she felt the key click into place, the knob turn and open to her will, the door swinging forward and to the side just seven or eight inches. Enough for her to stick her rather doughy head into the room and peer around curiously, drinking in the sight with a greedy relish.

Gorgeous could not describe it. It could not even begin to describe it. Fabrics of the richest kind -velvets, silks, satins, all variety of colors and sheens- draped from the ceiling in an overlapping array, spiraling downward once their ends met with the walls. Tapestries clung to the few empty spaces on those very walls, expensive, intricate, and completely unrelated to one another. For all that tapestries were supposed to convey a story, the best that these tapestries could seems to pull off was to convey a pretty picture. Aside from the large bed and the large windows and the large size of the room, it was all incredibly dainty and almost ethereal.

Much, perhaps, like the room's only occupant.

"Excuse me? M'lady? Are you awake?" Stepping a few paces into the room, shutting and locking the door firmly behind her, the servant toddled over towards the large bed, just far enough to catch a glimpse of two slender legs sticking out over the edge of the bed, the small feet at their ends clad in soft white slippers, one foot swaying back and forth to a silent melody. Whatever melody it was clearly broken as the servant exclaimed, "There you are! Her Majesty requests your presence at dinner tonight, m'lady."

Other than the pause from the swaying of the foot, there was no response. Hesitantly, the servant spoke up again. "...Ehm... She grows concerned for you have not eaten in days, m'lady..."

"Please go away."

"But... Her Highness asked if you might-"

"And thou, oh raging, stormy sea, stirred by wild winds, from depth to height, thou holds my loved one far from me, and I am captive to thy might."

"I said go away!" Though the voice was not particularly harsh or biting, it was still somehow a voice that demanded to be obeyed. Quite understandable, regarding the circumstances, but still... That didn't keep the servant from trembling slightly as she tipped herself downward hurriedly into a brief curtsey.

"Yes m'lady! R-right away!" she babbled, right before frantically fleeing the room, all sense of pride and dignity gone in a flash.

The young woman seated on the bed closed her eyes and inhaled as much air as her lungs could bear to hold, filling them until they were fit to burst, and then exhaling slow and steady. For all that it was supposed to calm her down and relax her fraying nerves, it wasn't exactly living up to that potential in the slightest.

Then there came the approach of another, with the turn of the doorknob. No keys, of course. She doesn't need them, after all. The Queen saw everything that went on in the castle, knew everything that every happened within its walls during her reign. Not a day went by in which she did not strike down at least one assassination attempt, at least one plan for revolution and mutiny amongst the servants. Servants. What lowly creatures.

Stepping into the room, the Queen held the air of the dead with her, creating a truly rotten stink that no human nose could possibly hope to pick up. Rather, it was the mind to pick it up first, perhaps the heart, if you believe a muscle buried within the chest like that can control such things. And perhaps many people were oblivious to this stench, this filthy stagnating air around her. Perhaps that was indeed the case, for why else could so many stand to be in the same room as the woman when her body and her soul made their minds reel with disgust?

Well. For all that the rest of the world could very well have been oblivious to her reek, the young woman seated on the bed was certainly not. The Queen's entrance into her room made her cringe unconsciously, much like one would do if they were to step on a slug in bare feet.

The Queen spoke. "...Perhaps we have not reached the understanding I believed we had."

And as custom and deal required, the young woman responded. "There is no understanding between us."

"Watch your tongue, child. You will address me properly and you will treat me with the respect I deserve. That is part of our understanding. Are we clear on this?" Briskly striding across the room, the door banged shut behind the Queen, seemingly on its own, but doubtlessly compelled to by the own sheer will of Maleficent, sorceress, duchess, and then finally, queen.

As she reached the edge of the towering canopy bed, Maleficent stared down at the girl before her with disgust, one lip curling up at the very sight. Sniffing indignantly, the Queen regained her composure, speaking with a sharp and piercing tone as she said, "...Now then. There is a meeting taking place to plan the events of the Midsummer Festival. You will be giving your speech... One of encouragement and faith. That is another part of our understanding."

"..."

"Or shall I bring her into play in all this? Do you really want to see me do that?"

"...No," the young girl muttered, refusing to raise her eyes from their fixation on the bedspread beneath her.

"Hm? What was that?"

"I said no."

The Queen was silent a moment, the room filling with all the noise of emptiness. Finally, she simply clicked her tongue twice in reprimand and said, "A princess must speak strong and clear. Do not forget this when you address my people." Reaching a clawed finger out towards the young girl, Maleficent smiled sweetly, tracing it along the pale skin of cheek, jaw, and neck. Almost fondly. Almost. Before she finished her visit with, "But do not forget that I am not one of your loyal fans. I am the one who rules you. That is the final part of our understanding."

"My heart is still more wild than thine, for fate is cruel unto me. Why must I thus in exile pine? Why was my princess snatched from me?"

x x x

Cloud appeared out on the roof of the caravan some time later, clambering up over the edge using the ladder there. Some might have considered it an idiotic idea, seeing as the caravan was moving briskly down the bumpy road. ...Lead by a lone loopy chocobo. ...Who was being ushered on by Tidus. ...Yes, that was the real problem.

"Leon, can I talk to you?" Cloud asked, reaching the roof of the caravan and easily clambering up on top. Perfect. It was just him and Leon. ...? ...And... Paine?

Glancing at the crimson-eyed girl perched on the edge of the caravan, Cloud hesitated only a moment before clumsily tacking on, "...Maybe alone?"

"I'm not moving."

"Paine..." Leon started.

"Idiot," she shot back.

Well that was easy. ...Sort of.

Watching as the girl moodily climbed back down the ladder, swinging into the caravan below, Cloud let out a deep sigh, raking his fingers through his hair. Hmm... this is the opportunity I wanted, right? "Well. She's just a bag of sunshine, isn't she?"

"She's still upset about Zidane. He's her responsibility, you know."

"...Hmpf. Doesn't give her the right to walk around with a ten foot pole up her ass."

Both sat in silence for a moment. ...Well, not really silence. There was the rattle of the caravan over the dirt and gravel road, there was the squawk of the chocobo as Tidus whistled an off-key tune and drove the caravan ever onwards. Forest noises, some river babbling nonstop nearby, talking over the din of rocks and driftwood. Oh yes. A very noisy environment indeed.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Leon asked out of the blue.

"Rinoa?" Cloud prompted, eagerly grabbing hold of the little nugget of conversation. "What's up with you guys? I mean, she explained some stuff to me, but there's still a whole lot of... big ugly blank spaces. They could really use some filling right about now."

"...Oh. Well, what'd she tell you?"

"Some crap story about how I'm supposed to kill the queen."

"Anything else?"

"Astrology, astronomy. Stars, fruit, and energy." Cloud shot a look of into the distance, a look that, at this moment in time, has no definition. It had no definition back then either. Perhaps in the future, words can capture that look. It was not one of remorse or mourn of any sort. But it was far from happy. "I'm not understanding this. Any of it."

"You don't have to."

"What, you expect me just to go along for the ride?"

Leon allowed a small smile to just barely flicker across his face, resting his elbows on his knees as he turned and said, "It's what you seem to be doing now. And it's going just fine, is it not?"

There were words for Cloud's look right then. Sulking. Pouting. And so on. Shooting Leon that dirty look, Cloud mimicked the position his friend had moved into, letting out a deep sigh in the process. "...Man, you are one weird cookie, you know that? If you were in my place, you'd go ballistic not knowing what was going on! I know you would!"

"Oh, you do now, do you?"

"Yeah. I know you, whether you'd like to think so or not. I've totally got you pegged."

This fact, along with several others, somehow made Leon oddly happy at that moment in time. The moment he spotted the feeling, he regarded it with a puzzled glance, tucking it neatly off to the side in his organized manner, determined to puzzle over it later.

But what were some of the other facts that made that moment happy? Probably the gentle breeze. Probably the way it ruffled Cloud's air and carried his heat towards Leon, teasing, tormenting, but nonetheless comforting. Just a breeze. But it meant so much, you see.

x x x

"Rinoa... Never tell someone they're meant to be great."

"Well why not! It's the truth, isn't it?"

"...You knew he would just deny it."

"No. I wouldn't put it past Squa- Leon to deny it. I was hoping this guy would be different!"

"They are different. ...Rinoa... Please, please, please don't forget that they're two very different people who still don't understand each other. Cloud doesn't even know how he got flung into all this mess and there's still so much he doesn't know. Please... Don't be angry with him. Don't put pressure on him. Not now. Not when we have to expect so much from him already."

"...Fine. I'll be in my room. Tell me when you pick anything up from her."

"...That was... Another thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"I'm listening."

"...Well... I think... we're going to need to ask Leon for a favor..."

x x x

"Up and do-o-wn this road I go!" Cloud grinned and hummed an upbeat little tune, pumping his fists into the air as the small little procession made their way through the city streets. Leon rolled his eyes skyward, wondering how the hell he ended up escorting Care Bear Cheer-A-Lot and her merry men.

Heh. That was pretty good. Cloud would like it.

"Up and do-o-wn this-!"

"Cloud, don't you know any other words to that song?" Selphie asked, making a face and clamping her hands tightly over her ears. The entire traveling crew was looped in a circle around Cloud, almost completely blocking him from the view of the city dwellers. Mostly, this was because no one in the little band really knew if the wanted signs for Cloud had made it this far into the kingdom yet. Besides, it was better to be safe than sorry.

...But for a wanted criminal, Cloud sure seemed pretty upbeat.

Traverse Town was the typical booming industrial town of that time, with houses building up two or three stories high, shouting villagers milling about the streets, and cart after cart of goods and merchandise clattering across the cobblestones. There a deeper sense of peace hovering in the air, whereas Olympus had been filled with the hostile clamor of a marketplace from dawn until dusk. All in all, it was a charming town, its prosperity not yet having turned it into an oversized breeding ground for crime and rubbish.

"Up and do-o-wn this road I go!"

"Cloud! Learn the lyrics or shut the hell up!"

"Leon likes my singing, don't you Leon?"

"Leon..." Pained warned, her voice taking on a razor sharp edge as her left eye twitched slightly. There were some people who were able to put up with even the most off-key of all singers. Paine... was not one of these people. Nonetheless, Leon remained silent.

"..."

"Idiot."

"I win." Cloud grinned, slinging one arm around Leon's shoulders despite the significant height difference between the two. He would've taken the opportunity to ruffle the brunette's hair as well, but he wasn't exactly sure if the seemingly stoic old bounty hunter would take to that. Instead, Cloud simply settled for saying, "Good call, Leon. I knew you had guts the moment I laid eyes on you."

"...Guts?" Leon questioned.

"Yeah! You know! Guts!"

"Guts."

"Guts. Courage. Moxy. Jazz, drive, and hard core power. You know. Guts!" Yeesh, you'd think this guy never knew what guts meant. Well, aside from the gobs of 'em we've all got sloshing around inside us...

"Guts..." Leon repeated softly once more, the small word rolling off his tongue. More vocab. Adorable. Guts. Adorable guts?

"Guts!" Rikku took the moment to chirp in as well, much to Paine's dismay. "Leon's gots guts!"

"Gots guts?" Selphie asked, blinking owlishly at Cloud.

"Uh, guys...?" Tidus started to say something, but what soon cut off by...

"Guys gots guts." Rikku.

"Guys gots goobles of garbled guts." And then Selphie.

"Gutsy guys get guarded gauntlets garbed grandly in great gobs of gook." Rikku, once more.

"Hell-ooo?" Tidus whined, trying to break the G-spell. G-spell? Like the g-sp-!

"Great ghastly gambling gutsy guards go gliding glibly, gaily, grossly, gaining grand gators gulping galloping guitars!" Everyone stared at Cloud in shock. Could simply grinned and gave a small mocking bow. "Thank you, thank you. Beat that."

"I can't."

"You're no fun."

"..." Leon... was very, very confused.

Thankfully, that was a perfectly acceptable time for confusion, for the traveling troupe had just reached the very building they'd set out for what seemed like years ago.

x x x

It was some time later that Cloud and Leon both found themselves sitting alone in one of the many stately guestrooms in the lower floor of the Headquarters Rinoa and Aerith had set up. Having arrived later in the evening, they'd been assured that everything would be explained in the morning. And with that, they'd been hurried off to their room by a slender little brown haired boy who looked suspiciously like Cloud.

Perhaps it was because he was slightly miffed about discovering his adorable twin. Perhaps it was simply the stress from being led on a wild goose chase while blindfolded, dizzy, and missing a left shoe. ...Perhaps it was just because the liquor cabinet was there, looking so sad, forlorn, and untouched.

Most likely, it was the last of the three that brought about Cloud's drunken stupor.

Draped over a crimson chaise lounge, Cloud cradled a deep glass of red wine in one hand, the other clinging to the furniture in a half-hearted attempt at keeping him somewhat upright in his tipsy state. Leon sat across the room, having just shut off his communicator after a quick chat with Rinoa, listening and watching it all take place with an expression that wavered somewhere between the lines of amusement and concern. The funny thing? Cloud was only on his second glass.

"The past? It doesn't matter. It's gone. Gone, gone, gone."

"You seem so sure about that. Get over things easily, I take it?"

"Rule with a big stick! Haha!"

Leon's eyes widened slightly, the poor bounty hunter thoroughly confused by that point. "...Cloud, that's not exactly-"

"Drive the chocobo fast, crash the carriage, and make merry love with the princess until the cows come home." Cloud was far too busy waving his arm about for emphasis (somehow managing not to slosh his precious drink of choice everywhere in the process...) to notice the small frown on Leon's face that replaced the mildly amused smirk he'd previously worn.

"...Do you ever really think about anything else?" Leon asked.

"Of course! I think about scads of things!" Cloud assured him, nodding his head firmly.

"...Scads?"

"Yes, boyo! Scads!"

"...You called me boyo." Leon blinked once more, drowning in some sort of emotion. He... couldn't really pin it. But it made chest hurt and it made him want to burst into laughter and rolls on the floor clutching his sides... yet the laughter, for some reason, wouldn't come. "...Why?"

"Ohhh, I don't know."

"Cloud... I think you may be drunk."

"Nnnnewp. Wrong again!" Cloud exclaimed, hauling his slushy body upwards into a standing position, apparently not noticing as he staggered several steps and ended up splayed across on of the two twin-sized beds in the guestroom. Point of interest: Cloud had never happened to land upon any mattress so soft as that one. So. Soft.

"Hey, I'm still sober enough to hear you out, Leon. And I'll tell you what..." Somehow, Cloud maneuvered his body over towards the other bed beside it where Leon was seated. Plopping down on the bed right beside the brunette, Cloud slung one arm around Leon's shoulders, his free hand extended with the win glass, the ruby red liquid catching the light in such a pleasing way, really...

"You and me, buddy. We'll sorta go soul-searching, m'kay? Sure, I'll go along with whatever this Rinoa chick has planned. But in the meantime, we're gonna straighten out our seriously fucked-over lives. I'll help you fix yours, you'll help me fix mine. Sound good?" Cloud asked, smiling warmly. Whether the warmth was from the alcohol or from his words and pure, innocent intent... Well, Leon really didn't have a clue. Perhaps it was a little of both.

Did it even really matter?

"...Yeah." Leon returned the warm smile as best he could, though it still felt cold on his lips. Why? "...It sounds really good."

"Haha! Maaan, sticking it through with me 'til the end? You got guts."

"Don't start with that again."

"Hey you guys!" Just then, the door to the guest room flew open, none other than Selphie bouncing through the doorway, spinning around in a quick circle, and striking a brief pose. Were Cloud entirely sober, that would've been the moment where he exchanged a look of bafflement with Leon. Instead, Leon gave the look of bafflement all on his lonesome while the drunken Cloud slumped against his side and giggled.

"Get to bed, sheesh! Aren't you tired at all from today? And Leon, you're supposed to be up bright and early tomorrow. I don't think Rinoa would like you falling asleep on the job."

"...I don't fall asleep on the job."

"...Yeah, I know. I just felt like nagging you." Selphie giggled and stuck her tongue out, spinning around once more, humming a few abstract notes of some abstract song before blowing out the candle lit on the desk beside the door. "Bed! Now! Lights out!" Granted... there were still two other little candles in the room, one beside either bed. But it was the symbolism of the act, not the affectivity of it. Of course.

As an afterthought as she turned out the doorway, Selphie chirped a concluding, "...And if I hear any naughty noises, I'm spanking the both of you. ...And you won't like it!" Slam. The door was shut. Selphie was gone. And it was almost a miracle just how fact Cloud sobered up.

"...Um... Leon?"

"...Please don't ask."

"Okay. I won't ask that. But... what thing are you supposed to get up for 'bright and early' tomorrow?"

Sliding off Leon's bed, Cloud wandered the several feet across to his own, kicking off his boots, setting his beloved wine glass on the bedside table, and flopping right back on down to a cushy mattress. Man, are these things nothing but feathers?

"...Well..."

"Are you going somewhere?" Cloud pressed, sitting up once more to slip out of his vest, followed by undoing the top few buttons of his shirt. Cloud got this far before being disturbed by the silence and glancing up.

Leon had gotten so far with watching Cloud before sensing the change and looking away.

Wonderful the way that worked.

"Cloud..." Leon started, his voice slightly warning, clear that Cloud had hit the target right in the dead center. So Leon was going somewhere in the morning. Perhaps all the conveniently placed wine was simply a way to make Cloud bedridden for the next day so Leon could get whatever business he needed to get done finished with. Well. Cloud certainly had other plans in mind.

"Alright then! It's settled! Bright and early tomorrow morning. I'll pack a picnic and we can take it with us!"

"...Cloud."

"Yes?"

"It's not a pleasure trip. It's a mission. It's dangerous." Leon tried to emphasis the whole point by looking back at Cloud and striking him with a serious glare. But alas, the blonde wasn't paying attention. No attention at all, as a matter of fact. He was busying himself with unbuttoning the rest of the buttons on his shirt, fumbling around while he did so and cursing buttons and their Button-Creator. Meanwhile, the whole situation didn't do Leon's glare a whole lot of good. It died right on his face and dribbled away into nothing but a look of extreme interest.

...Which he quickly suppressed by rolling onto his back and forcing himself to make eye contact with the ceiling. ...Eye contact with the ceiling?

"...Oohhh. A mis-si-on." Cloud jibed, his voice mocking and eyes rolling sarcastically. Leon didn't see it. Nope, he was still looking at his ceiling buddy up there. Cloud didn't notice, thankfully. He simply prattled on as he finished undressing and slid under the covered, saying in a more serious tone, "Hey. Ego check, Manly McMan. About two minutes ago, remember? Soul. Searching. You and me. As in we work together. None of this macho protection crap going on, got it?"

Wherever Leon's mind was at that moment, it wasn't far enough away to miss hearing that. And he simply smiled softly and replied, "...Got it."

"Good. Night then." Cloud leaned over and blew out both candles, submerging the entire room into complete darkness. Blinking in that very darkness, Cloud shuddered, though he wasn't quite sure why. Shaking his head, he pulled the covers up to his chin, looking at the ceiling. The room was full of ceiling-watchers that evening, it seemed.

"...Hey wait a sec, where exactly is it we're going tomorrow?" Cloud suddenly asked, sitting upright in bed and glancing over at Leon. Leon... whose eyes had just closed, tired from all the ceiling-watching and all.

"Cloud..."

"Hey! I'm serious! What are we doing!"

"Let's just say we're playing the knights in shining armor, okay?"

"...You know, that doesn't exactly tell me anything."

"No. But I'm tired. Now go to sleep."

"A straightforward answer. Plain and simple. That's aaaall I ask for! But do I get it? Noo-ooo."

"CLOUD."

"Sleeping." And then there was silence. No rattle of carts, no babble of brooks, rivers, or streams. Silence, darkness, and supposedly, sleep. ...But it wouldn't come.

"...Leon?"

"...What."

"...I meant it, though. When I said I do think about other things."

Nearly giving up on getting any rest whatsoever, Leon simply rolled over in bed to face the dark blotch across from his bed which he assumed was Cloud's bed, Cloud tucked up within it. Sighing, Leon asked, "What... are... some of the things you think about?"

"...I don't know." Cloud knew that was a silly response, and his mouth puckered into a soft frown as a result, his brows furrowed in concentration as he struggled to formulate the proper sentences to carry it all across. "When I was a kid, I found this dog. A stray. Puppy, I think, but not really. He was a couple years old. I snuck him into the house without telling my parents because Hades didn't allow any of the serfs to keep animals as pets.

"One of the first things he did was hop up onto my bed and pick up my stuffed dog in his mouth. I remember... I started yelling at him because I was worried he was going to tear it up. But he just lied down on the bed and started licking it. And then he... He grabbed it with his teeth, you know. Not real hard or anything. He'd pull on it a little, real gentle and everything and he'd push against it with his paw like this." Cloud rolled over to face Leon's neighboring bed, his hand pushing forward slightly into the air before withdrawing a little and repeating the motion several times more.

"He'd do that over and over again... I didn't really understand it at the time, but my mom later told me that he was trying to nurse. Like puppies do with their mothers. 'Isn't he too old for that?' I asked her. She said he was... but he probably hadn't had the chance for much of it as a puppy. That... maybe he was trying to make up for lost time and trying to fill in the little gaps that instincts and traditions left in his life."

Both Leon and Cloud stayed there in the dark silence for several moments, each staring up at the ceiling and each thinking of things that, while seemingly completely unrelated, were nonetheless very closely intertwined. You see, Cloud had never really found a stray dog. It had been another dream, another less frightening, more meaningful dream. One to cherish and believe, for without dreams, what is there left for us to believe in? What was there left for Cloud to believe in?

But there it was, plain as day. Leon could take it or leave it, but at that particular point Cloud didn't much care one way or the other. Frankly, he wasn't entirely sure as to why he cared at all in the first place. Finally though, Leon did speak.

"So do you think humans do the same?"

"...Whaddya mean?"

"Do you think we're all trying to make up for lost time like that? Trying... to regain things we might have missed out on, or trying to get a feel for the love we might not all have had when we needed it most?"

A rustle of bed-sheets and quilts and Cloud was once again rolled onto his side, looking over at Leon in the darkness. Still, Leon stayed focused on the ceiling above him, though both he and Cloud were well aware of the one true and solid fact that remained: That ceiling held no answers.

Instead, Cloud answered for him.

"...Yeah. I do think so. In a way, I think there's something in everyone that is never really right, you know? Like a puzzle that's always missing one piece. Maybe lots of people go their whole lives without finding it, but somewhere along the way I think we all try and make replacements..." After trailing off for a moment and stifling along, he added, "That's why we gotta go soul-searching. You and me... If there's one thing we have in common, just one, it's all these missing pieces. We have lots missing. We gotta go find the pieces ourselves, 'cause no one else is gonna do it for us."

From two yards away, Leon's gaze wavered, for just a moment, from the unrelenting and uninteresting ceiling. "...You think so...?" he asked quietly, fingers twining silently around and around the cotton sheets, the warm quilt, the cool pillowcase.

"Yeah," Cloud answered firmly. It was the last clear response he could utter before his mind began to succumb to sleep. "Or at least, that's what I think..."

(x) (x) (x)

...XO This thing was huge. Sorry for the delay, but hopefully you can see why. If not, check the livejournal.

Oh, but for those of you My Oh My readers, you can expect that update within a few days. I don't know what it is about Lucky Thirteen, but it's becoming very difficult to write. Hmmm. Oh well. Thanks for reading, as always. XD And also as always, reviews are greatly appreciated.