This is not so much a full-fledged Part than a little explanation chapter, setting up for the big mid-to-moderate lime in the next chapter :P

The Crazies and the Loonies and the... Other Crazies

Part XII - Shadows in the Night

The next morning, Riku was already awake, drinking coffee, when Leon and Cloud stumbled into the kitchen/dining room, both walking with a bit of difficulty.

"Nice night?" Riku muttered sarcastically.

"Hope we didn't keep you up," Cloud yawned.

"Don't worry," Riku replied. "I never get to sleep until 3 A.M."

"Sarcastic little angel this morning, aren't you?" Leon muttered.

"You brought it upon yourself," Riku replied, mock-cheerfully. "Ow!" he added, for Leon had just bonked him on the head with a frozen waffle.

That night, moaning and banging again rang through the house. While going back to his room from another late-night television marathon, Riku thought he saw another shadow. But he disregarded it again.

This pattern repeated for a few weeks until Riku was so sure that he was awake when he saw these shadows that he couldn't think it was a mere trick of the light. And after a while, he noticed that the shadows always appeared a few seconds after a long, lustful moan, the cause of which Riku certainly didn't want to think about.

"Say, have you noticed anything... weird happening lately?" Riku asked them one afternoon.

"Weird? Like what?" Cloud asked, curious.

Choosing his words carefully, Riku continued. "I've noticed some... strange things happening."

"Like what?" Cloud asked again.

"Every night, there's been a... shadow-like thing on the walls, moving around. But it's darker than all the other shadows. And as far as I've seen, it only happens when you two are... alone."

"..." Leon mumbled. "Whatever." He obviously thought Riku was joking.

"I'm serious, Leon," Riku said indignantly.

"Just your way of disapproving of us," Leon replied curtly.

"Leon," Cloud said, somehow sounding commanding and comforting at the same time, "you need to calm down."

"I suppose so," Leon replied. "Sorry, Riku." And he left the room, leaving Cloud and Riku alone.

"Are you serious?" Cloud asked.

"Of course! What, you think I'm just making this up!" Riku exclaimed.

"It's just... strange," Cloud replied coolly. "Difficult to believe."

"Hmmph," Riku said. "I'm telling the truth."

"I believe you," Cloud reassured him. "I'm just not sure Leon does." He turned toward the door and walked away, probably to comfort Leon again.

Yep, we finally have a plot! Yay, woo-hoo, hooray!

hurkydoesntknow: Corpse Bride is gonna be awesome. I think by then the fic will probably be finished, but I'm not sure :P

FullofYami: I lurv LeonxCloud too, yay!

I'm also trying to decide whether after this I want to work solely on my Tales of Symphonia story, Saif Al Jabbar, and my Harry Potter story, Another, or to write a LeonxCloud story, too. And yes, that means this fic is almost done! I believe we have... lemme think... er... three or four Parts left. The big mid-to-moderate lime, another setup chapter, an actiony-type chapter, and (possibly) an epilogue. But I may merge the setup chapter with the lime chapter, or with the actiony-type chapter. It all depends, heh heh.

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