Disclaimer: not owned by me :D

Pairing: Leon x Cloud

To Capture a Cloud

By: yukuro

Apparently, they were no longer on speaking terms. Even Yuffie had noticed the awkward rift between them but found nothing to say. Cloud sat silently on the far side of the bench, chin resting on his knees and face up to his eyes hidden behind his red cloak. Leon sat on the other far side of the bench, facing the opposite direction as Yuffie awkwardly sat in the wide space between them.

When Cloud rose up suddenly to silently exit the room, Yuffie took the opportunity to let out a sigh. Turning to Leon's back, she commented with concern, "I don't know what happened while I was gone, but I can tell it was not very good. Aren't you worried about where Cloud's going?"

"Where he goes is no concern of mine," replied Leon icily without moving from the spot he sat with his arms crossed.

Yuffie let out another sigh. Standing up, she knocked Leon's head lightly before stating, "You know, you're really stubborn. While you say it's none of your concern now, you're actually still quite worried, aren't you? You're kind, Squall. You actually like Cloud a lot, so you're bothered by the fact that you've fought with him and yet refuse to let yourself be the first to give in. I'm sure Cloud is the same way. Men are so ridiculous sometimes."

Leon said nothing as Yuffie followed suit and exited the room, leaving Leon alone with other random competitors. Though he hated admitting it, it was somewhat true. Yes, he was incredibly annoyed with the fact that he and Cloud had argued about a manner he did not even understand. Yes, he refused to be the first to apologize. Yes, he did care somewhat about Cloud, but he reassured himself it was not as much as Yuffie had exaggerated.

Just as their seed number was called, Leon rose and cursed under his breath at the wall. It was terrible timing to be arguing with Cloud. At this rate, they were bound to lose. As he made his way towards the entrance, he closed his eyes. Losing to Sora would be all right. At the moment, as annoying as it was, he was more preoccupied with Cloud's suddenly aggressiveness.

As they stood at the door preparing to go in, Leon snuck a glance over at the blond. Cloud looked mostly like himself again but slightly distracted. He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment in something that resembled pain, but when he opened his eyes again, they were bright and determined. As he took a step into the stadium with his red cloak billowing out from behind him, he muttered very softly, "Sorry."

Leon almost did not hear it. It was so soft, he thought he was hearing things. Whatever it was, it was not important at the moment. At the moment, he was to concentrate fully on what lay ahead—a match with Sora.

The small teen was as cheerful as ever; eyes brightening and smiling excitedly when he saw the familiar faces of Leon and Cloud. Sora really did resemble a smaller, more cheerful Cloud, Leon could not help but notice. Something about the boy seemed so likeable, and Leon was guilty of being quite fond of the boy. Sora had grown on him, so he could not help but fight lightly against the younger boy. Either Cloud felt the same or he was severely distracted from the battle. Leon had a feeling it was a bit of both.

Sora had won, and both Leon and Cloud, despite how they had both lacked in seriousness when they fought, congratulated him. Sora had grown and gained quite a bit of experience. As he beamed up at them, Cloud and Leon could temporarily forget their other problems.

"Any luck finding your friends?" Leon asked as he bandaged his arm.

Sora bit his lip with furrowed brows for a moment before sighing, "Actually, I saw Riku a few times already, and Kairi well…"

"That's code for 'no progress,'" Donald informed irritably before he and Goofy left the room. "Don't stay too long, Sora. We've got another match soon."

Nodding at his two animal companions, Sora returned his attention back to Leon and Cloud. Noticing the bleeding mess on Cloud's left arm, he let out something that resembled a squeak. "I'm so sorry, Cloud."

"It's nothing," Cloud said carelessly, gingerly swabbing at the wound and ignoring the way Leon was pointedly staring at him. "You had better get ready for your next match."

"Oh, right," Sora sighed reluctantly, rising to his feet. He smiled at the two. "I'll try to stop by Traverse Town again soon to visit you. Say hi to Aerith and Cid for me, Leon. Oh, and Cloud…"

Cloud brought his glowing blue eyes to meet Sora's own sparkling blue eyes. When their gazes connected, Sora smiled.

"I hope you're making progress in finding what you're looking for."

Leon waited silently for Sora to wave cheerfully at them and dash out towards the stadium. Once he and Cloud were left in silence, they both began to move again. Cloud rolled his sleeve higher up and examined his wound before licking at the blood to clean it off.

"You'll get it infected like that," Leon commented dryly, pulling Cloud's arm towards him to get a better look. He made no comment when he felt the questioning blue gaze rest on the top of his head as applied medicine and bandages to the other man's wound. "Even if it was Sora, you were being overly careless."

"I didn't know something like that still mattered to you," Cloud replied equally as coolly. He closed his eyes as he felt Leon tying the last knot on the bandage. Quietly, he commented, "I appreciate your hospitality in letting me stay in your home, but don't pretend to know me. You'll only get hurt."

"I get a good deal of hurt from not knowing you as well," Leon muttered with a slight scowl as he scanned the rest of Cloud's arm and shoulder for other wounds he may have missed. "It's annoying and troublesome, but I can't leave you alone. So take better care of yourself, you careless idiot."

Cloud felt his chest tighten at those words and closed his eyes in attempt to suppress the feeling. Even though he scowled and acted angry all the time, Leon really was being very kind and gentle to him all the time. What was annoying and troublesome, Cloud thought bitterly to himself as Leon gently cleaned his wounds, was that he was unable to reject Leon's soft touches despite how he truly did not deserve them.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Cloud took a breath before rising to his feet and pulling out of Leon's gentle grasp. "Sorry for bothering you."

"Platinum Match?" Leon asked stonily without expression as he watched Cloud stride towards the door. "I don't know what your relationship with this Sephiroth person is, but you had better not come back all carelessly injured again, Strife."

Pausing in his steps, Cloud glanced over his shoulder at Leon's serious expression. After a moment, he turned back towards the door and closed his eyes. Quietly, too quietly for Leon to hear, he muttered, "If I come back at all."

xxx xxx

It had been hours since Cloud left and yet he still did not return. Leon sat rigidly in the waiting room despite how everyone else had left. Even Yuffie had grown tired and checked into a room to get some sleep for the night. Cloud was obviously going to be coming back very late. That is, if he planned on coming back at all.

Patience wearing thin, Leon rose from his spot in the waiting room and headed out the door. He paused to poke his head in the stadium to see if anyone was still left inside. Unsurprisingly, it was completely dark. Leon was completely alone in the Coliseum stadium.

"If you're looking for that blond pretty-boy you were with earlier," Phil began grimly as he hung the "closed" sign on the entryway, "he left here awhile ago and went to the hotel. That guy was looking pretty smug back then."

Leon felt his lips press into a thin straight line. Before he could think, he asked, "Who, Cloud?"

Phil raised an eyebrow and made a clucking sound with his tongue. "Che. It would've been all right if it was him, but I was talking about the guy he was with. That blond kid is suicidal going with that nutcase. No sense in worrying your pretty little head about it, though. Your friend's probably already a goner by now."

Before Phil had finished even half of what he was saying previously, Leon had already strode out of the stadium. He knew he probably should have felt angry or annoyed that Cloud had left without a word to him or Yuffie, but a nagging sense of concern was tugging at his conscience. He kept getting the grim feeling that whatever Cloud's situation was at the moment, it was not a very good one.

The man at the hotel registration desk was very amused when Leon asked for Cloud's whereabouts. Of course, he informed Leon politely, but could not help but make a side remark, "Two guys go up together to one room and now a third joins in? Must be some party."

If Leon had actually been paying attention to the man, as annoying as he was, he might have learned a bit of crucial information. Two people. Two people meant that Cloud was not alone. Leon hardly gave this information a thought as he headed up the stairs towards Cloud's room. He had no business intruding, Leon knew, but he still could not help but feel annoyed at the way Cloud left without saying anything.

When Leon reached the room, there was no light streaking in from the bottom of the door. Brows furrowed, Leon reached over to knock but found that the door was already open. He knew that he probably still should have knocked to let Cloud know he was there, but he ended up pushing the door open to walk in silently without warning.

The rooms were completely dark. Leon squinted to see everything after he walked into a chair. Annoyance growing faintly, he called out softly, "Cloud?"

Instead of a reply, a thump was heard from another room with the faintest bit of light streaming out from the cracks of the barely open door. Leon paused for a moment. Something did not feel right. An irritable, nagging feeling was telling him not to go near that place, but his stubbornness made him step closer.

"I hate you," Cloud's voice came out in an angry gasp. His bare back, glistening with sweat, was to Leon when he gazed in from the crack. Sephiroth was there, and he was smirking as he had his way with Cloud's body. Gasping again in pain, Cloud leaned his angrily shaking body over before gritting his teeth to mutter, "I…really hate you."

"Are you mad because it hurts?" Sephiroth asked in a tone that made Leon feel as if there was suddenly ice in his veins. The silver haired main pulled Cloud closer, his eyes fixed directly over the blonde's shoulder at Leon. Smirking again as Cloud shuddered at his touch, Sephiroth tightened his hold on the blond just to see Leon angry.

"You don't really hate me," the silver haired man whispered into Cloud's ear, thrusting himself closer. Sephiroth turned, almost as if making sure that from their position on the ground, Cloud would not be able to see Leon. He reached his hand to a place Leon could not see, but a place that made Cloud let out a gasp of guilty pleasure. "Your body tells me differently, see?"

Leon's eyes narrowed as Sephiroth lifted Cloud's chin to kiss his exhausted lips. Amused eyes gleamed back at him when Leon took a step back. He was angry, so much that he wanted to charge in and neatly slice the annoyingly amused smile off Sephiroth's face. Cursing under his breath, Leon squeezed his eyes shut and turned away. As he made his way out, he faintly heard a whisper, "You only belong to me. Isn't that right, Cloud?"

Gripping the handle of the door until his nails drew blood on his palm, Leon gritted his teeth before stepping out. Just before he roughly closed the door, an answer sounded, "…ah, somehow it always turns out that way…"

Anger, confusion, pain; why is it always easier to recognize these feelings rather than gentler feelings? Anger takes a deep stab in hearts, almost to the point of shattering the soul. Yet it is far easier for people to resort to anger rather than forgiving. Is it because people fear pain to themselves and choose the stronger emotion to protect them? Or is it actually a flaw all people have, a weakness within another weakness?

Leon could feel nothing. When he returned to the hotel room Yuffie had left for them, he could do nothing but sink into a chair and glare blankly at the wall. His body was tired and his mind had already far since slipped into unconsciousness, but still he could not feel anything. Somehow, it lasted like that for a very long time. Hours slipped away as Leon simply sat, staring hard at the wall with nothing to say or feel. He had barely noticed when the door opened and closed briefly in the dead of the night. Cloud had come back.

"Oh, you're still awake," Cloud muttered, running a hand through his hair somewhat embarrassedly. He actually had not planned on returning to see Leon at all. Gaze resting on the back of Leon's head, Cloud stood in silence with a serious expression on his face. Somehow, he felt that the atmosphere was far too tense. Somewhat reluctantly, Cloud broke the silence, "Phil…told me you came to this hotel to catch up with Yuffie. Sorry for making you wait. …Leon?"

Slowly, Cloud made his way towards Leon, around the room so that he would be able to see the other man's face. Once he stood clearly in front of the other man, blocking his gaze that was locked on the wall, Cloud said quietly, "I have to leave again."

For the first time in many hours, Leon moved. His eyes narrowed and he slowly rose to his feet. Eyes cold, he glared harshly at the blond. "What your business is has nothing to do with me."

Silence passed between them for a moment before Cloud slowly closed his eyes. "That's right," he muttered. "My business has nothing at all to do with you. Even so…" his eyes opened again, his shining blue gaze connecting firmly with Leon's cold glare. "Even so, I felt like I had to come back to see you."

Their gazes never faltered. Leon's gaze was still icy and emotionless while Cloud's was determined with a bit of fatigue hiding behind them.

"That match," Leon began slowly, eyes staring icily back at Cloud's, "did you lose?"

After another short pause, Cloud replied simply, "For now, yes. That's why I'm leaving. I need to become stronger. Until I can defeat him, I don't care what needs to be done."

"You don't really hate him," Leon accused with little emotion in his voice. In his mind, he did not care anymore. It was everything else in his body that was cursing himself for being this way. "If you did, you wouldn't have given up everything for him."

"You don't have to put it that way," Cloud scowled, eyes narrowing similarly. "Furthermore, you're completely wrong. This is obsession. The very thought of him makes my blood boil. No matter where I am or what I am doing, it is impossible to forget that person. He haunts my mind. I feel as if my soul is being torn from my body by him. No feelings have to be involved with obsession. It's simply masochist torture of the soul."

"You never should have came to Traverse Town," Leon said darkly, suddenly despising the look of indifference on Cloud's face. "If you never came, I never would have had to deal with such infuriating emotions. No matter where you try to stay, you always end up drifting away."

"We knew that from the beginning," Cloud replied, his blue eyes glowing brighter in the darkness. He wondered why he had not noticed, but the space between himself and Leon was gradually growing smaller with every word spoken. "It's impossible to capture a cloud. Clouds are always in some high, unreachable place. Even when you think you're close enough to reach, clouds will simply slip and drift away. Clouds never stay in one spot. Doing so would only imply dangerous storms to come."

"An ironically fitting name, isn't it?" Leon muttered dryly with still blank eyes as he unconsciously reached out to finger a strand of Cloud's light hair. He watched in passive silence as the light from Cloud's shining blue eyes slowly disappeared behind his fluttering eyelids. "It looks like there's a storm tonight."

"The clouds will probably clear by morning," Cloud muttered in response with a soft, somewhat restricted sigh. "Dark and dirtied clouds always tend to run away."

"But they always return white and pure again, don't they?" Leon whispered softly before their lips crashed together. His anger and jealousy flared and faded faster than a crash of lightning.

"No," Cloud sighed softly as hands gingerly came in contact with the skin of his chest and slowly pulled him closer. Blue eyes faded in the dark as he pulled himself closer to Leon and the warm body that felt far more comfortable than Sephiroth's had been. "They only pretend to be that way."

The sun was streaking in the room from the window when Leon awoke again. The spot beside him was cold and the sheets were still crinkled from the events of the night. He sat up slowly in the empty bed, sheets sliding from his bare chest as he did so. Pulling the curtains aside, Leon gazed up into the sky. Sure enough and as predicted, there was not a cloud in the sky.

It was impossible, after all, to capture a cloud.

Owari.

A/N: Finally finished! Argh, Cloud and Leon are such a stubborn pair. x.x; It pains me somewhat with such a terrible ending. Although I usually rather enjoy happy endings, I still have to torture myself with uber angsty endings all the time. Damn, it's like the never-ending cliffhanger! T-T; Agh. Well, I feel like I haven't been able to put my heart into my writing, so I'm quite upset with myself. x.x; Hope this was acceptable.

Thanks for reading!