With a groan that could wake a hibernating bear, Cloud let his fist hammer down on the alarm clock that blasted in his ear
With a groan that could wake a hibernating bear, Cloud let his fist hammer down on the alarm clock that blasted in his ear. The sunlight that penetrated the blinds and seeped into his partly open eyelids nearly blinded him. What time was it? Taking a quick glance at the clock, he instantly realized that if he didn't get a move on, he was going to be late to class.
Not what he needed right now.
Launching himself off the bed, barely clearing the fallen sheets, he rummaged through a drawer for some clothes to put on. There was no time for a shower. Why of all days didn't Leon wake him up? He was probably in class right now, laughing at his empty chair.
Not surprising. He vaguely remembered Leon being angry with him the night before...typical.
Then it struck him. All those swift movements finally caught up. His head felt like it was splitting in two. It was pounding and he felt nauseated.
But there was no time to worry about it. He'd take an aspirin later on.
Successfully retrieving clothing that wasn't too wrinkled, he pulled them on. He stepped in front of the mirror and raked his hands through his hair. He wasn't able to come up with the most fashionable style, but it would have to do. Besides, it wasn't too different than his usual spikes anyway.
In the midst of Cloud's quick hair fashioning, he glanced over and noticed a leg sticking out from behind Leon's bed.
Curious. He'd assumed Leon had already left. His classes were early after all, and Mr. Perfect was hardly the type to sleep in. He walked over to the leg and placed his hands on his hips. Headache or no, he wasn't going to let this go unnoticed.
"Leon? What are you do–oh." It appeared that the leg didn't belong to Leon at all, but in fact Seifer.
Cloud scratched his head. What was he doing there?
Then in a wave of realization, it all came back... that party last night...they had a beer or two...more than two... No wonder he was feeling so awful that morning. It was all Seifer's fault—well, it was partly Seifer's fault, after all, he could have demonstrated a bit more self control—but still...
Walking over quite slowly, a frown plastered irremovably on his face, he brought his leg back and gave Seifer a swift kick in the side.
"Ah! What the heck did you do that for!" Seifer rolled up almost immediately, but he too reaped the benefits of inebriation when a surge of queasiness gripped his stomach.
"Hurry! We have school to get to, and if you plan on making it there sometime today, I suggest you get a move on."
"Oh! That's right!" he leapt up almost as quickly as Cloud did. He straightened his clothes out from the night before, deciding against wearing Cloud's old ones.
The two made it out the door, more or less in one piece, and hurried down the hallway; Seifer was still slipping on his shoes.
"Argh, I feel awful," he groaned.
"Yeah well… serves you right."
"Well if memory serves me correctly, I do believe you knocked back a few wet ones too; shouldn't you be a little more sympathetic?"
Cloud hurried down the stairs. "Yeah, well, it was only because you coaxed me."
"Humph, sad excuse for a weak willed mind."
"Shut up."
They managed to get to class just minutes before the clock struck the hour, and Cloud was finally able to let out a sigh of relief. He had made it in time—barely—and he wouldn't have to hear Leon recite the 'I-told-you-so' speech later. To emphasize his smug happiness, he turned toward Leon's chair to give him a victory smirk. However he ended up quite disappointed, as the seat at which he was smirking at was undeniably vacant. The unimaginable had happened.
Leon wasn't there.
Cloud looked out the window. No, the sky wasn't falling, and no, there were no winged pigs rising dramatically in a vanguard toward the school. This would be the first day ever recorded that Leon was absent. What a strange shift in reality.
Cloud tapped his chin thoughtfully as the professor began her lecture. Ironically, it wasn't Seifer or him that was absent. After all, he didn't have to suffer a elephantine headache and a restless stomach that threatened to empty itself all over him and the person sitting immediately in front of him. What possible reason could he have for not coming to school? It had to have been something huge.
He shrugged his shoulders though. Why should he care anyway? Leon had spent quite a bit of time advocating him on the importance of promptness, and now he would get his just deserts from Cloud, no matter what was keeping him late. On that thought, he quickly opened his notebook.
A few moments later, in the silence of thoughtful study, the large door eased open, and the particular individual that Cloud was thinking about passed through the small opening he had made for himself. His gaze was cast downward as he apprehensively clutched his books to his chest.
He looked up briefly to catch the instructor's disapproving stare and slowly made his way to his seat.
"You're late Leon," She said stiffly, pushing her strikingly flamboyant spectacles higher up on her nose.
"I know." Leon said quietly. "I'm sorry."
"I'm quite surprised Leon, this is out of character for you. See that it doesn't happen again."
Cloud noted that the whole wall of students—including Seifer—in their parallel arc of rows, started snickering immediately at this unbelievable event. He would have joined in, had it not been for the seedling of sympathy that had suddenly planted itself in his heart. He couldn't' bring himself to laugh, not even crack a smile. Something about this whole thing bothered him.
He stared at the visibly embarrassed Leon until Leon seemed to notice and caught his gaze. He wasn't not smiling, or frowning. Then he turned back around and opened his book as the professor continued the lesson.
XxX
Class was over, and the once silent wall of students pulsed with life and the mass swiftly exited the lecture hall. Cloud and Seifer were last out, of course.
"Phew!" Cloud sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I thought my head was gonna explode in there."
"Me too," Seifer agreed. "That is the last time I follow you to class after a keger."
"Hopefully you won't have to worry about it anymore." Cloud said shooting him a glare. "Maybe we've learned our lesson, hmm?
Seifer scratched his head. "You say something?"
Cloud sighed and turned the corner to exit the building. "...No."
"Good." He made a line towards the dining hall.
The cafeteria wasn't as full as it had usually been, but since the party the night before, there had been a surprising number of absences that day. The sparse population mocked him as he and Seifer sat down with their trays. Cloud you should have stayed home. He sighed as he prodded his food with a plastic fork. Seifer seemed to have no problem eating as he shoveled the contents of his plate into his ravenous maw, but Cloud couldn't bring himself to even take a bite.
Sighing in disgust, he dumped his food onto Seifer's tray and turned the other way. Just as the day before, Leon was sitting in the back of the cafeteria; foodless as well. His eyes were scanning absently across the pages of some novel. He half expected him to look up and scowl at him, but no such thing happened.
Cloud wrinkled his nose. He had spent way too much time today reflecting on Leon. It was hardly reasonable. However, as he sat there waiting for Seifer to finish his food, he continued to reflect.
All this reflecting had to be bad for something somewhere. His chin sank deeper into the heel of his hand; his eyes flitted across unimportant things, then through unexplainable ways, he always managed to land right back on their mark way in the back of the cafeteria. He released a sigh.
Having been staring at him for this long, Leon did happen to look up, giving Cloud a curious, yet not distempered look before closing his book and exiting. Cloud would have to explain himself for this one later no doubt, but he had an excuse. If he could easily just blame all his unexplainable reflections on his weariness from the night before, he would let the affects of alcohol linger a bit longer.