Alright! Chapter 5 is up! Even though I got no reviews for the last one. lol. It doesn't matter. I write to write, not to get reviews. –shrug- I added a twist , so…I hope you guys like it.

When I woke up it was morning. Or, late morning I think. Hell, it could have been a year later and I wouldn't have cared. The only thing that mattered was Squall's muscled arm hugging me to his body and the way his forehead rested on top of my head. He was snoring lightly, but when I tried to pull away he tightened his arm around me. With a grunt I pulled myself out of his grasp. However I overestimated the force necessary to do so and the result was that I propelled myself off the bed and onto the floor with a thud. Oww. As I got up Squall grabbed my arm and pulled my back onto the bed before rolling on top of me. "So am I going to have to be doing the chasing now?" He kissed me lightly before tilting my head up with his nose, observing the small bruise right under my jawbone. Oh yes, last night had been very fun.

He pressed his hips into mine arousingly but I pushed him off after giving him a quick kiss in return. Able to get off the bed this time without incident, I grabbed my pants and boxers off the floor and pulled them. Squall watched me from the bed, his elbow bent and head resting on his hand. His smooth face was devoid of any kind of emotion, kind or caustic. But his eyes had a kind of softness about them that I hadn't seen before last night. Once I started to pull up my pants, Squall rolled out of bed and began to search for his own boxers and pants. "You still haven't answered my question, Cloud." He wasn't facing me but the way he said my name still made my spine tingle. It was dark and passionate and dangerous. Everything that he was.

"Are you going to have to do the chasing?" I laughed and stepped around the bed, looking for a shirt. I ducked down to look under the bed and said, "Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how I feel. Maybe I'll – Ahah!" I stood up triumphantly with the shirt I'd found under the bed and began to dust the clumps of dust off of it. "Maybe I'll feel like chasing one day, and the next I'll feel like being chased." I shrugged and my shoulder brushed his bare chest. I hadn't even realized he was behind me. One of his hands reached around my side and plucked the shirt from my hands before tossing it to the side.

Squall grabbed my hips in his hands and turned me around. "I kind of like chasing you." Then he put a clean shirt in my hands. "That one was dirty. This one is clean, wear this one." After all that, all he did was give me a clean shirt. A bit anti-climatic, Squall. Pulling my shirt over my head, I watched as his muscles contracted and expanded beneath his skin as he moved. I admit it; I was entranced by something as simple as movement from him. But it's not my fault; I loved him. "Come on, let's go get breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever the meal happens to be at whatever time of day it might be now." He seemed as interested in the time of day as I was. Which was zero.

As it turned out, it wasn't that far along in the day, only about ten in the morning. Granted, that was a lot later than I normally woke up but I did have a good excuse. In fact, Cid was still eating along with Yuffie, Riku, Sora, Tidus – who I had yet to actually meet – and to my great displeasure, Kairi. Squall said hello to everyone but her, and she didn't seem to notice him or me in turn. Following Squall's example with the greetings, I sat next to him and began to eat the food we had gotten before coming to the table. All during breakfast Squall and I took every opportunity to come into contact with one another. Whether we brushed our legs against each other or touched our fingers together when passing utensils or food. The soft look in his eyes had all but faded into the recesses of his dark eyes, but I wasn't complaining. Why did I want to share that side of Squall with anyone anyway? Yuffie was grinning like a crazy hyena the entire time, and I was glad to see that Sora and Riku were talking again. Once breakfast was finished, Yuffie said, "You guys want to come to the beach with the rest of us? Even Cid is coming." The older man grumbled and glared side long at Yuffie. I wondered what she had said to him to convince him to come with them, but then decided that I'd rather not know. Yuffie could get pretty scary sometimes.

"Sure, we'll go." Squall surprised me by answering; I hadn't thought of him as a beach person. Yuffie clapped and jumped out of her seat and away from the table.

"Okay, we'll see you at the beach in an hour. Come on you guys!" One by one she grabbed Sora, Riku, Tidus and Kairi and dragged them out of their seats. They then followed her in a disgruntled manner as she trotted away from the table.

"So Cid," Squall began. "How did she get you to go?"

POV

Cloud and I went back to our rooms after we'd found out how Yuffie had gotten Cid to come.

"She threatened that she would tell Kairi I was in love with her." Cid had grumbled at us. Cloud had laughed and said a younger girl might do him well at which point Cid called Cloud a, "Perverted bastard."

Cloud had gone back to his room to get changed before coming to my room. By that time, I too had changed. He didn't bother knocking on my door this time, so I had just gotten my swim trunks on when he pushed the door open. It was my turn to look for a shirt this time. I still hadn't cleaned up since I had trashed my room the last time and Cloud asked, "What happened in here?"

I stood up, scratching my chin and looking at the wreckage for a possible hiding place of a shirt. "Remember when we sparred?" Ah, a shirt under the chair.

"Oh, yeah." Cloud sounded amused and sheepish at the same time. "You were that worked up about what happened?" As if he needed to ask.

"Yes, in fact, I was. And I think you would be too if you were randomly attacked by some gay guy." I had realized my voice had a razor sharp edge to it, so I quickly softened it and added in some humor. Though the humor wasn't exactly transcribed into my voice, which never happened anyway. Cloud took it in stride though and laughed.

Before I could put on my shirt, Cloud poked me in the chest and said, "Someone's gonna see that." I looked down at his finger to see the bruise he had left. "And, someone's gonna see that, too." He pointed to another bruise on my hip right above the waistline of my trunks. I scowled at the bruises and then at him.

"I should get you back for that," and Cloud grinned.

"I think I'd enjoy that too much. You might want to try something else."

"Like ignoring you?" Cloud gave me a look of absolute mock horror before pulling my shirt over my head.

"As if you could resist yourself."

I struggled with my shirt for a moment before grabbing Cloud's arm and pulling him back to me. Wrapping my arms around his sides and pressing my lips firmly to his before whispering into them, "You're right, I can't." He in turn pressed his lips to mine before pulling away with a lopsided grin.

"That suits me just fine."

Once Cloud and I got to the beach, Yuffie ran up to us grinning. "You're late! Where've you been? Cid almost left because you guys weren't here." She pouted at us as if we had convinced the old man not to stay even though we weren't even at the beach. "Even threatening him with Kairi almost didn't work." Yuffie returned to grinning as she grabbed our hands and started to walk backwards, pulling us with her. "Come on! We're gonna go in the water now! It's so warm!" She had apparently forgotten about her question about where we had been.

Cid was standing in the sand, watching Sora, Tidus and Riku chasing each other through the water. Sora had a foam football cradled in his arms and it looked as though he would get to…wherever he was going. Until Riku appeared out of nowhere and tackled him into the water. The younger boy came up spitting salt water and threw the football at Riku. The silver haired boy easily caught it and laughed at Sora who pouted until Tidus pushed him under the water again.

"See! We're playing football in the water. It's fun, you'll like it." I glanced at Cloud who seemed eager to get into the water, considering he already had his shirt off and was looking at me with a childish grin on his face. Sighing, I looked back out to where the three younger boys were still fooling around. Yuffie put her hands on her knees and leaned forward with a silly grin. "C'mon Squall! You'll like it when you get out there!" She turned around, looking for Cid who was slinking off towards the boardwalk inch by inch. "Cid! Get back here!" Yuffie roared at him and Cid turned and ran, causing Yuffie to take off after him. As she ran off, Cloud grabbed the hem of my white t-shirt.

"Let's go Squall." He smirked at me as he pulled my shirt up and over my head with such ease, it was as if I was a ghost and he pulled the shirt through me. Cloud let my shirt fall to the ground before jogging down to the water after throwing a challenging look over his shoulder at me. Now, I couldn't let a challenge go unanswered so, what else was there to do but follow him?

Once I'd gotten to the water's edge, Tidus shouted, "Leon! You're with me and Sora. Cloud, Riku and Kairi are on the other team." I looked away from the gleeful Tidus to see Cloud and Riku standing at a distance from a remorseful Kairi. Wait, was that…pity that I felt welling up inside of me? Oh, no, it just got squashed. All well Kairi.

"Okay," Riku began. "All you have to do is get the ball either to that umbrella for my team," Cloud glared at Riku, "Or to that rock for Leon's team." Everyone situated themselves in random places in the water so I followed suit. I had never been a beach person; I usually just sat with Cid and watched the others play around. Damn you Cloud.

"Ready!" Riku had the foam football, and was bringing back his arm to throw. "Go!"

And then all chaos broke out. We ran all over the place in the water and more than once we ran into one another. Sometimes we fell into deeper water, or a wave knocked us down. Surprisingly enough though, it was…fun. More fun than sitting up on the beach and talking to Cid anyway. I wondered where he and Yuffie had run off to; not that I'm trying to insinuate that there's something between them. No, absolutely not. I was just worried that she may have killed him.

"Squall!" I turned my head sharply to see who had dare to call me by that name and saw Yuffie coming towards me from the shore. Cid was standing on the sand again. "Everyone! Let's go eat! Chasing Cid made me hungry." She laughed, and I suddenly realized how dark it had gotten. Most of the people had already left and a few stragglers were just cleaning up and leaving. Then the foam football hit me in the back of the head. Jerking around I saw Cloud pointing at Sora and everyone else pointing at Cloud.

"Yeah," I said, turning back to Yuffie. "After I deal with that jerk over there." I bent down to pick up the football and Yuffie winked at me.

"Whatever you say Squall." Yuffie turned and started to walk back towards shore with the others following her.

"And it's not Squall!" I shouted at her retreating back. "It's Leon!" Yuffie raised a hand in "acknowledgment" but kept walking. Fine, be that way Yuffie. I turned around to find Cloud but he wasn't there anymore. "Cloud, where'd you go? I gotta get you back." Tossing the foam football up, I caught it in my hands and repeated the motion with a repetitive, thik, thik, thik sound. The only other sound was the occasional wave break or gull cry. Where had he gone? Getting closer to shore, I turned around to face the ocean again. And then he pounced onto my back, forcing me to my knees in the water. I twisted around and grabbed his arm and shoulder before pulling him around my side and across my body to throw him into the sand at my side. He exhaled sharply as if the wind had gotten knocked out of him. "You all right?"

That was a mistake on my part, considering all my consideration got me was him jumping onto my chest and forcing me down into the sand. "Of course I am!" He sat on my chest as the waves crashed around us and ran up around my body. "Are you stuck Squall?" He laughed at me as I struggled to find some kind of purchase on the smushy sand to get the upper hand. In the end, I rolled over, causing him to loose balance and fall to the side. Seizing my chance, I pinned his arms to his sides and leaned over him, my wet hair falling to the sides of my face and dripping. "Oh," he said dazedly. "It appears that I'm stuck now." I leaned over him further and kissed him roughly. He opened his mouth eagerly and pulled his arms out from under my hands after I released the pressure on them. Tracing the muscles on my back, I shivered at his touch.

But as soon as we started he abruptly pulled away. "I have to go." He struggled for a moment before getting out from under me.

"Where are you going?" I stared at him, wondering if I had done something wrong. Standing, I grabbed his shoulder. "Cloud, talk to me. If it's something I did, or something I didn't do. Something you did…" I remembered back to when I had inquired Cid about Cloud. And how Cid had lied about there being more to Cloud. Did this have something to do with it?

Cloud turned around and shrugged my hand off of his shoulder. "There's nothing you can do. Go away." The words cut me as if he had taken a big knife and stabbed me. Go away. He turned to walk away again, but I grabbed him.

"What the hell is your problem, Cloud?" This time he actually pushed me away.

"I told you! Nothing!" We had managed to get up to the where we had left our shirts. I stopped short, glaring at his back as he snatched his shirt off the sand.

"Fine you stupid bastard. Screw you. Go run off to wherever you're going to go. Don't talk to me." He didn't answer me as he walked off into the night.

I should have just gone home after the incident on the beach but no. Instead I went to go and meet the others for food and wound up sulking at the table and picking at my food. Yuffie had repeatedly tried talking to me but all she got were grunts in return. Cid frequently glanced at me throughout the meal and the others sat as far away from me on the other end of the table as they could. Good, I didn't need them. All I wanted to know was why that stupid ass had run off like that. In a way, I regretted what I said. But still, he shouldn't have just gone and walked away like that.

Kairi left first without as much as a good bye in my direction which I didn't mind. Who needed the little brat anyway? Tidus left soon after that with a quick nod, and then Sora and Riku got up to leave. "Leon." It was Riku.

"What?" I said it in my most disgruntled manner, looking over at the silver haired boy and his brunette companion.

"Sora, I'll meet you by the doors. Okay?" The younger boy nodded and ran off leaving me and Riku alone. Cid and Yuffie had long since left me alone to brood. "Thanks, for what you did for me and Sora." I grunted in reply, stabbing my food with my knife. If that's all he wanted to say, he didn't need to. I wasn't looking for gratitude. I heard him sigh before he continued. "I know this is something about you and Cloud because he's not here with you. So, I'm just saying, you should go talk to him. Like you told Sora to talk to me. Sulking isn't going to help anything."

I turned around to tell Riku where he could put his advice but he was already out the door with Sora.

Damn kids.

Okay, so fine. I had taken stupid Riku's advice. Not because I thought it was what I should do, but because I had nothing else to go on. For a good ten minutes I just leaned on the wall next to the door of Cloud's room trying to figure out what I was going to say. Nothing was really coming to mind and I just decided that maybe it was better if I just saw him and made it up from there. Anything I came up probably wouldn't fit the given scenario anyway. Turning around, I knocked lightly on Cloud's door and listened for any kind of movement from inside. "Cloud? You home?" I heard something crash inside and I scowled at the door. What was going on? "Hey, Cloud, you alright in there?" When there was another crash and still no answer I grabbed the door knob and turned. It was unlocked so I pushed the door open.

"Cloud…" My words broke off as I saw not Cloud, but the phantasmal being that had been watching me that night. The silver wolf stood in the middle of the room next to a knocked over chair, its back hunched and its side quivering. "What the hell?" The wolf looked at me with a pained expression before whining piteously. And then the weirdest thing began to happen. It began to…change. There was no other way to explain the sudden convulsive explosion the wracked the wolf's body as its body parts changed shape and length and size. After only a minute or two, Cloud stood there, naked and hunched over, his breath coming in short gasps.

He looked over at me and said between gasps, "I…can…explain Squall…"

I was torn between running over and helping him and getting angry with him. "You could have explained this to me back on the beach, instead of running away."

"No," he shook his head and his body shuddered. "I couldn't…it wasn't…"

But I cut him off. "No, Cloud, you could have." Brusque and to the point, I didn't want to listen to his excuses. I felt…betrayed. Cid had lied to me; Cloud was keeping secrets from me. What else was there about him that I didn't know?

I walked briskly out of the room, fighting the urge to punch the wall. I needed to talk to Cid. Now.

He had left earlier than I had so he had to be in his room. When I reached his door, I stood there for a moment and composed myself. I rapped on his door as controlled as I could and I heard Cid grunt as something scrapped along the floor; I was guessing it was his chair. Slightly impatient I waited for him to open the door and once he did, I didn't wait for unnecessary introductions. "I want to talk to you about something."

Cid shrugged and stood aside to let me in. He closed the door as I took my seat, and then he sat opposite of me. "Did you find Cloud?"

"Oh yeah, I found Cloud. And I found out something about him. Which you lied to me about." Cid tucked his chin slightly into his chest, looking levelly at me as if trying to catch a bluff. But I wasn't bluffing. "Why didn't you tell me he was some kind of… wolf creature?"

The older man sighed and leaned back in his chair, seeming to age a couple of more years as he did so. "One. He is not a "wolf creature". Cloud is a werewolf. And two, because he asked me not to tell you." I glared at Cid, waiting for him to continue. "That's why he came here. Not because he ran into money problems or to catch up on old times with me and Yuffie. He was bitten and was having problems, uh, adjusting, to his new life style." Cid paused, staring me down.

Stubborn, I said, "Why didn't he tell me? Why did he put himself in a situation like at the beach? That was stupid."

Cid slammed his fist onto the table, startling me. "Damn it, because he's so damn proud! He can't stand the fact that he doesn't understand what's happening to him. He's angry that he doesn't know when he has to Change and how he can control it." Cid glared at me. "He didn't want you to think he was weak."

Weakness. I could understand that. I hid weaknesses from people all the time; of course that is, if I even had any weaknesses. Which I don't. And then it hit me. Cloud was doing the same thing then that I was doing now. Trying to hide a weakness because his pride wouldn't accept it. But still…he didn't need to hide it from me.

Cid must have seen the change in my face because he said softly, "Do you understand now?" I looked up from the table and met Cid's eyes.

"Yes, but it doesn't change what he did." Standing I walked towards the door and even though Cid didn't stop me, I paused and thought. But no matter what Cid told me, it still didn't change anything. Opening the door, I let it slowly click behind me and I went back to my room.

That night, I couldn't sleep at all. I tossed and turned in my own bed, tangling the sheets around me and yearning for…no one. That was a lie, obviously. But as foolish as my convictions might have been, I couldn't just let them go and go running back into his arms. With a growl I sat up in bed and stared out the window remembering the first time I had seen the ghostly wolf that was really…Cloud. What had he been doing that night, watching me? What had he been thinking? Sitting in bed, I wondered what time it was and looked out the window for any sign of sunlight. There was none; only the ghostly pallor of the moon that frosted everything. The moon. I wondered if that was what had been causing problems for Cloud or if it was really only a legend. But again, my mind circled back to the fact that he hadn't told me anything. I was getting no where with this. As I laid backwards in an attempt to go to sleep, a howl rose out of nowhere and seemed to echo everywhere.

He was mourning.

Did you guys like it? I hope so. Because, one, I broke the 4,000 word mark. I think I have 4,016 words. And two, because I have over 700 hits. –dances- Alright, I'm off to work on Chapter 6.