Second chapter! I'm on a roll! I was going to start writing in third person, since I wasn't too sure if I liked my first person, but people like it, so I'll leave it that way. My Dances with Kirby didn't work though…some of their hands didn't come out. POV changes a bit, divided bylines with POV above them. So no one gets confused. Ummm… not much else to say. So, I'll just let you all read. xD

So this is where Cid lived? As I entered the town I looked for one of the landmarks or street names that Cid had given to me for directions. But, Cid wasn't very good at directions as I had quickly found out. I scratched my chin with a black gloved hand when up ahead I saw a gathering of people. And then there was Cid in among the rest of them. Getting closer, I scanned over the whole group. Two teenage looking boys were standing on the edge of the group holding hands. Interesting. Yuffie was standing next to them, her over-sized Ninja star in her hand over her shoulder, a big grin plastered on her face. A childish blond boy stood next to Yuffie looking a bit bored, and next to him was Cid.

But the next man caught my eye, picky as I might be. Black leather pants an jacket, with a white t-shirt, belts and some kind of chain around his neck. I studied the scar on his face for a moment, before my eyes narrowed. Some skinny little red head had just jumped around his neck, chortling gleefully. Damn it.

At that moment Cid roared, "Cloud! Great to see you!" He pushed between the blond boy and the hottie with the red head hanging all over him to get to me. He grasped my forearm, and I his as he grinned at me with the straw between his teeth. I grinned back slightly at him. I had missed the old, crazy as he could be at times. "You look different," he said after a moment.

And at this I almost laughed, but didn't as we released our arms. "I've got a lot to tell." He nodded, and I continued. "But first, introduce me to everyone?"

Cid looked offended that I thought he could have possibly forgotten to introduce all the other people who were standing behind him not quite sure what they should be doing. Of course not, he would never. "Well now," Cid spun around his hands arrogantly placed on his hips, elbows bowed out and chest thrown forward as if he were inspecting a platoon of soldiers. "That there, is Riku and Sora. The runty one is Sora." At hearing their names that two boys dropped one another's hands. I smirked, thinking how pathetic it was that they couldn't even deal with their own sexuality.

"I am not a runt!" The one who was Sora exclaimed.

Cid grunted in reply, and I ignored him as well. He was a bit runty looking. "You know Yuffie already…" Yuffie ran up to me and hugged me tightly while I just stood there. I wasn't really into hugging girls.

"Cloud! It's good to see you! It's been ages. We must go shopping!" Shopping with Yuffie was always fun. I smiled a bit and nodded, glancing over at the leather clad man. He was holding the red head out at a distance and dropped her on the floor. She sat there pouting while he crossed his arms over his chest and ignored her. Perhaps there was some hope to be kindled with this one.

"That there is Tidus." At the sound of his name, the blond boy attempted to copy Cid's arrogant posture but didn't quite achieve the same air of arrogance that Cid had mastered so easily. I nodded at him and that seemed to deflate him even more. I looked at the dark haired man, the last to be introduced besides the skinny girl. He looked quite grim, his mouth set in a hard line, and his eyes even harder as he looked at me, as though trying to figure me out. This could be fun. "That is Sq-… Leon, and that is Kairi." I nodded at Leon, but also allowed him a small smile which caused him to narrow his eyes at me. The red head looked at me before squealing and running towards me. As she jumped to leap onto me my head went out and she smacked her large head into my hand and bounced off.

The other's burst into a kind of amused laughter except for Leon who looked from me to Kairi with a look of what seemed to be disbelief. "Well then," Cid said once everyone had quieted down. "Come with me Cloud and we'll get you settled in."

He began to walk off, Yuffie bouncing along at his heels. I followed, but only after giving Leon a long, hard long until he turned on his heel and stalked away, followed immediately by Kairi.

I always liked a good chase.

Cid sat me down in an okay kind of room. It was weird though that the living room was also the bedroom. Then again, that did make for easy transitions…

An opening in the wall was to the kitchen and another door was presumably to the bathroom. Not that I wouldn't mind communal showers…

"All right then Cloud," Cid said while sitting in one chair and propping his feet up on another. Yuffie had departed for her room once we'd gotten to mine, so it was just Cid and I. "Tell me everything that's happened."

And so I did. It was really quite boring, my recounting of events. A few odd jobs here and there, a lot of wandering around. "but then, something really weird happened. And I swear, you won't believe me Cid.." I paused, looking intently into his blue eyes, trying to gauge how he'd react to my news.

No, I wasn't going to tell him I was gay. He already knew that. As did Yuffie. No, this was something that changed the very fabric of my being.

"So, what is it Cloud?" Cid looked at me seriously, and for once he had stopped chewing the straw in his mouth and had unconsciously leaned forward.

"Well, see… I've changed like you said. But the thing is, the changes… I'm not quite…"

POV

Reclined on my bed, I went over and over the events in my head from the meeting with this "Cloud Strife". At first, he had seemed like a nice enough guy. Not quite as seasoned looking as I might have expected from someone who hangs around with Cid. But then the look he gave me. And how he narrowed his eyes when Kairi was all over me –ugh – and how happy he seemed to be when I dumped her on the ground. Well, okay, he didn't look that happy but… It was just weird the looks he was giving me.

With a sigh I swung my legs over my bed, preparing to go to sleep when someone started banging on my door. "I'm asleep," I shouted. And then I heard Cid's voice on the other side of the door and with a sigh went and opened it. The old bear could really be aggravating sometimes. I opened the door and stood aside to let him in, but he stood in the doorway chewing.

"Well, Cloud's all settled in. And I told him you'd give him a tour of the area and maybe you two could spar and blah blah blah. You know the deal." No, I really didn't, and I wasn't all that sure I wanted to hang out with this Cloud character anymore. But Cid didn't leave any room for my answers. Just nodded and said, "Alrighty then! All settled." And with that he walked away, humming some weird tune to himself. Well yes, that was all quite settled. I grumbled to myself as I kicked my boots off and shut off the lights before settling into bed.

I woke with a start, not quite sure why. My hand unconsciously went to my scar and traced its length across my face. As my hand dropped I grimaced, realizing it must be the middle of the night. Aw hell, what had woken me up. I swung my legs over the side of the bed, my arms dangling between my legs as I stared at the floor.

Rubbing my eyes I looked up, and out my window and saw… A dog? No, too big to be a dog. A wolf? A rubbed the sleep from my eyes and shook my head, but whatever it was had disappeared. Damn, what the hell was that?

Breakfast the next morning was…slow. That's really the only way I could describe it. Me, Cid and Cloud sat at the table eating an assortment of bacon, eggs, toast and pancakes between us. There was no conversation, and there usually wasn't, but I felt the need to at least tell Cid that there might be some kind of rabid animal wandering around. When I told him what happened, Cid merely said, "Maybe you were still dreamin'. Not uncanny to see ghost creatures when you first wake up." He shrugged.

"Maybe it ran off because you sleep in the nude and you scared it." I glared at Cloud as he said it, though he wasn't looking at me. Just smirking at his plate. That bastard. I could feel his eyes on me the whole time and yet he couldn't stand to look me in the face and say something.

"I do not sleep in the nude." Asshole.

Cid laughed. "Awww come on, it's all in good fun Leon." Cid's attempts to diffuse the situation failed miserably, though he didn't seem to notice.

Cloud stood with his empty plate and circled the table to walk behind me. "It's a pity you don't." His whisper was so fast that by the time I turned around to confront him he was already too far away. Cid didn't seem to notice this either, as he was too enamored with eating his eggs and ham. I glared at him, my stomach flipping as I lost my appetite.

Angrily I stood up to go get rid of my plate. The thing that angered me most wasn't the fact that he'd said the stupid comment, but the way it made me feel. The last thing I wanted to do was meet up with him and wander through town with him…alone. But I was sadly obligated to and as I dumped my plate in the sink, I sought out the spiky headed bastard. He was leaning nonchalantly on the wall, apparently waiting for me. The look in his eyes was strange but I ignored it.

"Come on," I said gruffly leading the way out of the door.

"Whatever you say, Captain. Lead the way."

I heard him run a bit to catch up to me. I wanted to smirk at him, but he was at my side already so I swallowed it. "So where are we going first?" Why? Why did he want to talk? Couldn't he just shut up and leave me alone while I gave him this unnecessary tour?

"No where in particular," I said as simply as I could. Which he surprisingly took. I had expected to attempt to drag answers out of me but he didn't. As we walked, I pointed out different buildings and places to eat and hang out at. We didn't go to the industrial district as, he shouldn't be there anyway, but I pointed it out in any case. All the while I could tell he wasn't paying attention to the surroundings at all. The only thing, or person, he concentrated on was me. All the time I could feel his eyes traveling the length of my body and I wanted to turn around and choke him. Instead, once the "tour" was over I said, "Let's go spar," as unenthusiastically as possible. Yet, I was jumping on the inside to teach this punk a lesson.

"Aright," he said. "Let's go." I could hear a mocking undertone in his voice and I quietly seethed at him the whole way to the sparring grounds as he stayed silent and I stayed silent. But while I kept my eyes straight ahead, I could feel him watching my every movement.

"You have your own weapon?" I asked as we arrived at the sparring grounds. No one else was there at the time; they were all probably at work.

He grinned, "Never leave home without it." At which point he pulled a monstrous sword off of his back which I had somehow failed to notice before. Shit, that was a big sword.

Taking out my Gunblade, I stood opposite him and said, "Ready when you are."

"Ready," he said, while leaping forward, sword flashing. I blocked, but the blow jarred my arm slightly. Okay, so I was a bit rusty. But it didn't mean that I couldn't beat the crap out of him.

I started my own round of attacks with him which he seemed to have no difficulty with at all. It was only because he was young and had a nice body… No, must concentrate on the battle. Cloud locked my sword and drew me in towards him. "How are you feeling?" He panted, a glint in his eyes that was unnerving. Of course, not that it unnerved me. It would have unnerved someone else though. "Unnerved? Different? Gay?"

He pushed away, back into a ready stance. Astonished, it took me a moment to recover. What the hell? I didn't have to ponder his odd question, but as what he said sunk in, I attacked with renewed vigor, angry. I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay…

He laughed as he danced away from sword. As my sword connected with his, I leaned into it, attempting to force him into submission. But when his body gave, I wasn't expecting the amount at which he gave. H fell down into the dirt and I fell…on top oh him. For a brief moment as we lay there sweating, a thought flashed threw my mind. Here I was with this hot guy, straddling his midsection as he smirked triumphantly up at me… Holy shit what was I thinking!

Not gay, not gay, not gay… I should be thinking about how much I wanted to beat the shit out of him, not how much I wanted to f-

I didn't have to finish the thought because as I had been thinking I had inadvertently relaxed my body which he took full advantage of and flipped me over. Now he straddled my mid section, knees pining my arms to ground as he leaned forward and placed the edge of his sword to my neck. The hairs on my neck stood on end as the cold steel pressed into my neck or… was it because of something else? Cloud leaned his face down to my ear and whispered, "Come on, give in. You know want to." His hot breath slid across my cheek as I tried to think of a way out of this. "Relax Leon, or is it Squall?" The use of my old name pushed me over the edge. But instead of fighting back, I relaxed with a resigned sigh. "There, now that wasn't so bad was it?" His voice had turned deeper, husky with…something.

But as he relaxed and released pressure on my neck and arms, I threw my arms up flipping him backwards onto his back. Grabbing my sword I leaped up and held the point to his throat.

I pushed harder with the point until it broke the skin, a pinpoint of blood welling up under the point. "Dead," I said, anger tingeing my voice. I removed me sword and twisted my wrist to lean the sword against my shoulder. "Sparring is over, as is today. I'm going home." And then I turned my back on him. So many things ran through my head. Anger, confusion…lust. The constant train of thought was, I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay. But I also couldn't get those sensations out of my head, out of my skin. As I walked away I could feel his eyes boring into my back, smirking.

I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm, not gay…

I wasn't gay…

End 2

Very long…wasn't expecting that. But, very happy with it. Asked for an "uke" Cloud… Didn't know what that was, but now I do. Hum… Well, I hope you guys liked it. I'll be working on the third part this week and hopefully I'll have enough time to finish… Evil school.