Alright! Chapter 6! I was gonna make this the last one, but, you all seem to like it so much. And, I discovered that this couldn't be the last chapter unless it was a lot longer than the nine pages it all ready is. Soooooooo, I will be writing more. Hopefully I can come up with more of a storyline. Now, go enjoy.

Waking up this time was about as unpleasant as the time I had woken up after me and Cloud had sparred. And thinking about him did not help my mood in the least. Sighing, I rubbed my hands over my face and silently urged myself to get out of bed and get food. Then I could disappear and avoid Cloud all day. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed after I sat up I looked at the neatened room. When I had woken up for what felt like the tenth time last night, I went and did something productive and straightened up my room. A sense of finality perhaps? But to what?

Quickly getting dressed, I leaned my forehead on the cool, rough wood of the door for really no reason. Except to think, I guess. Going down to breakfast would mean that I would have to talk to Cid, which would mean that he'd probably want to talk about last night. Which meant that I'd be at breakfast for a while, which might lead to me being there long enough for Cloud to come down and then…

Okay, I was skipping breakfast.

Now that that problem as solved, I had to decide on where I was going to go. Somewhere that Cloud couldn't find me. Where would be the last place that he'd look for me, if at all? He'd seen where I was hiding last time, I was pretty sure of it because I had seen him. With a sigh I decided and left.

POV

So, my secret was out. To Squall, at least. And after last night everyone probably suspected something. I mean, there were absolutely no other wolves around here and I had gone howling my head off last night. Though, I did have an excuse to be upset. Squall was being a bastard. I was still going to breakfast to face him, and perhaps corner him somewhere and talk to him. Besides, I hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday and I was starving.

Squall wasn't at breakfast and him not being there annoyed me. Was it cowardice? Was he afraid to see and confront me? Or was he just too angry? Part of me hoped he was just being a coward, but the logical side of me knew that Squall wasn't a coward. He was just very, very, very angry with me. I sat at the table with a thump and speared some food with my fork. At least, I think it was a fork; I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing. It was like one of those times when you see what you're doing, but you don't really see because you're thinking about something else too much.

"Cloud, you can't eat eggs by stabbing them with a spoon." Yep, Cid had affirmed that I did not have a fork, and I was not going to be able to eat until I got a fork or tried to eat something that was meant to be eaten with a spoon. "Maybe you should just stab Leon with a spoon. That might make you feel better."

I glared at the old man. "So, Squall came and told you what happened then?" He nodded and I sighed, stabbing my eggs with the spoon again. I wasn't hungry anymore anyway.

"Yeah, he was very angry with you." Cid paused, forking some of his eggs into his mouth and taking the spoon away from me. "Use your damn fork Cloud." So, I did. He'd taken my spoon away from and I wasn't about to leap over the table and bite him to get the spoon back. The eggs tasted kind of like bark and stuck in my throat. "Leon feels betrayed by you." Cid pushed me back into my seat by putting his hand to my forehead. "Don't get up in my face and yell at me and interrupt me. Shut yer mouth for now. But, he's also stubborn about the way he feels, and the way he does things." Well, I knew that already. "Leon feels betrayed, Cloud." I guess Cid wasn't sure if I had gotten it through my head the first time. I realized I was still chewing a mouthful of eggs that I hadn't known I'd even put into my mouth. Swallowing, I looked Cid in the eyes and the older man stared back.

"Well, are you gonna go talk to 'im or what?" Let's see, talk to Squall and face his wrath, or forget there had even been an us. Truth was I didn't want to be utterly rejected by him. Yes, I admit, I was afraid. But who isn't afraid sometimes? And besides, it's not like I'm admitting this out loud and anyone will ever know. And Squall might not reject me. Or so I hoped.

"I guess I don't have a choice."

Cid grinned at me, slammed his fist into the table, causing the plates and silverware to jump and clatter, and said, "Good. Now, go get 'im."

Ha ha, easier said than done. Squall was, as usual, elusive. And now I wished that I had eaten more for breakfast because I was hungry and my stomach was starting to growl continuously at me. Stupid stomach. As much as I wanted to eat, I wanted to find Squall more. But if I fainted from hunger than that would delay my search even more because who knows how long it might take for someone to find me and bring me back to Cid and then for me to wake up and eat something and then Cid wouldn't let me leave and then… I was thinking too much about this. I needed to take my advice to Squall and just stop thinking. And go eat. Before I fainted from hunger and…

So, food wasn't that hard to find. Not that I was being picky because I walked into the first place that was even related to food. It was some kind of fast food place that served lots of chicken. There was even some kind of giant stuffed chicken thing running around. Which was really weird.

Once I'd ordered my food and sat down, I wasn't so hungry anymore. I didn't know why, but I shoved the food down my throat anyway. As I ate, I listened to the conversation of two boys talking animatedly at the table in front of mine.

"Did you hear that howl last night?" Damn, the people had noticed.

"Yeah! I asked my dad about it, but he said it was probably some older kids messing around." Alright, so, no one believed it was a wolf anyway.

"I know, my parents said the same thing. That there haven't been any wolves around here for a long time." The little boy sighed. "But it would have been cool to see one."

"I did see one!" The other one said. "He had big ears and was kind of silver looking, like a ghost." The boy put his hands up on his head, I guess to resemble ears. The other boy snickered at his companion.

"Probably because it was a ghost. And you're just crazy!"

"Am not!" And then they began to argue. It looked as if they were about to start a fistfight right then and there until a black haired woman came to stand in the door way and called to them. The two boys obediently stopped fighting and ran to her side before following the woman out of the fast food place. Just as I was about to turn back to my food, I saw a familiar brunette head moving through the crowds. My eyes snapped back to where I had seen him and sure enough, there he was wandering through the crowd. Well, wandering wasn't the right word. Squall never wandered; he always had a purpose wherever he went. So, he was walking through the crowds. Leaping up, I left my food half eaten on the table and bolted through the door.

It was amazing how the crowd seemed to part for Squall and then close in around him and not move for me. It was as if they didn't want me to get him. Or, it might just have been my imagination. I followed him for a good while through the streets, never seeming to get close enough to call out to him or make a grab for him. Sometimes it seemed as if I was close enough but then suddenly I found myself farther behind than I thought I was.

When the masses of people finally cleared away, I broke into a run to catch up to Squall. Damn it, at this point I could care less that he knew I was following him. I just wanted to catch up with him. Even though I was sure he could hear me, Squall didn't so much as glance over his shoulder or change his pace. He just turned into an alleyway, into which I also darted into.

I was instantly reminded of the first time I had been looking for him and he had gone into an alley. I was half hoping that this was like that time, but the more logical side of me – a very small side mind you – said that this wasn't going to turn out that way. I stood in the alley for a moment before slowly walking down, glancing up the walls every so often. But of course, he wasn't there. I had sort of known he wouldn't be there, but I had had hope, at least for a small time.

I spun and punched the wall. The bricks cracked and I felt the skin on my knuckles break and a faint pain crawled up through my knuckles into my arm. Anger, pure and boiling, coursed through me. Anger at myself, at Squall, at well, I guess everything come to think about it.

Turning I walked out of the alleyway but I wasn't about to feel defeated. I would keep chasing him even if it took me to the end of the world.

I was frustrated throughout most of my search for the rest of the day. Occasionally it would slip to the back of my mind, only to resurface with even more force than before. So, I figured what better way to work off my frustrations than to actually work? Wielding a humungous sword for a couple of hours had to wear me out enough to the point where the only thing I could think about was sleep. Or, at least that's what I was going for. As I already knew, things didn't always work out the way I wanted them to.

And from there, I headed to the sparring grounds. Yes, logical and obvious, but just making sure that my reader was still with me. It would terrible for me to wander off to the sparring grounds and my reader still wandering around in the streets saying, "Where the hell did that bastard go?"

So, as I approached the sparring grounds I heard the soft footsteps of someone doing forms in the dirt. By the quickness of the steps, it sounded like a rather complicated form. But the steps also sounded very familiar, so I hurried to the outer lying edges of the sparring grounds and saw, yeah, you guessed it, Squall.

He had taken off his leather jacket and I could see corded muscles in his arms working with the sword, and the same back muscles I had observed only last night knotting beneath his sweat soaked t-shirt. The maneuvers were quick and powerful, the wind whistling around the sword. It seemed as if, if I looked hard enough I could see splits in the air where the sword had cut it.

Squall was oblivious to the one man audience he had, he was so intense on the movements and the perfection of them. What was the harm in watching him for a while? My eyes scoured his body, absorbing every little detail over again. Yes, I'd done this before and when he had had far less clothing on, but this was a different Squall. One who was working hard and clothed. Heh. His brown hair was plastered to the sides of his face and some of it was in his eyes but he didn't bother to push it away.

Once I had drunk in all the details I possibly could of the glorious Squall, I watched his form. The timing, the movements, everything until I knew it just as well as he was practicing. Moving quietly, even though he probably wouldn't have noticed a herd of elephants run by, I went and retrieved my sword from the rack and edged as close to him as I dared, still observing his movements.

I had to time this just right, otherwise I might lose a limb and that would be just awful. After getting into the feel of the movements and the timing, I waited for his spinning backslash. Where he brought the sword from his right shoulder, down across his body and around from the left. I assumed it was something where he would cut an opponent's leg off who was behind him. So, I was going to be that opponent.

I waited a few more seconds, and then recognized the tightening of his muscles, the way his head tilted slightly to the left. Now was my chance. I jumped forward, sword angled down to either stop or deflect the blow.

Squall's sword hit mine so hard that both our swords reverberated and the vibrations reached painfully into my arm and shoulder. I didn't dare wince, and Squall's face remained impassive though I saw his eyes darken. And I guarantee you, it most definitely wasn't with lust or passion.

We stood there for a moment, staring into each other's eyes and I realized just how hard he was breathing, how much he was sweating. How long had he been out here? He was going to work himself to death.

And then he pulled his sword away from mine abruptly and said curtly, "Cloud." I pulled my own sword back as he continued. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was wandering around and got bored and decided to come and work on my moves for a little while." I performed a little flourish with my sword. "I wasn't expecting to find you here though."

Squall rolled his eyes and scowled at me. "A likely story, I'm sure. Why are you really here?"

"No, really, I wasn't expecting to find you here. I was looking for you, but I had just come here-"

"Did Yuffie tell you where I was?" I shook my head and stepped towards him. Squall took a step back, still scowling at me. Frustrated, I flicked my sword up, wanting to catch him off guard but still expecting him to block. I did catch him off guard but, uh, he didn't block. Oops. A line of blood about three inches long welled up along the bicep of his right arm. Shocked, Squall looked at it as a drop began to slide down his arm. While he was observing that, I was looking at my sword to see if I really had hit him. Sure enough, a thin line of blood covered the leading edge of my sword.

I was so busy trying to figure how I had possibly gotten him like that, that it was too late for me to notice and duck away from the flat edge of his sword coming at my head. I wasn't sure what exactly happened as his sword hit my head, but I found myself on the ground, spitting blood from my bitten tongue. Like hell I'd let him get away with that.

I jumped up, trying to keep the world from spinning around me as I lunged towards him. Squall sidestepped and swung his sword at my side. I pivoted my sword, blocked and twisted, driving his sword into the ground. With my boot, I held the sword there and found myself nose to nose with Squall. "Listen to me, Squall-"

"Don't call me that," he snarled at me, working to pull his sword out of the ground. "You lied to me, Cloud."

I felt as if he'd broadsided me in the head with his sword again but I held his sword still and snarled back, "I didn't lie to you, I just never told you. And you're not giving me the opportunity to tell you anything." Squall twisted his sword and pushed the edge into my leg. I yelped and jumped back, flipping my own sword up out of the ground in an attempt to hit his leg. But he jumped back.

"You could have told me, Cloud. I would have listened." He circled around me and I pivoted around as well, staying in one spot. I could feel the warm blood trickling down my leg, but I wasn't about to stop now. It was only a scratch, really.

He feinted left, and then came right. I dodged the feint and the actual attack and caught his left quadriceps on my sword. I heard the leather of his pants tear but didn't bother to look; he had already turned and was coming at me again. "I couldn't have told you, not yet," I said jumping away from him. "You wouldn't have understood."

Squall paused for a moment, breathing hard. I realized that my own breathing was starting to quicken and I felt the beads of sweat sliding down my face. I spit blood again as Squall said, "No, it's not that I wouldn't have understood. You were just too prideful to admit to anyone, to me, that you couldn't control what you were. But we all have problems, Cloud." He pulled his sword up to his shoulder as though he were done, but then ripped it down across his chest. I jumped back, but not fast enough. His sword caught my shirt, and I felt the bite of it on my chest. Not deep, but damn that was a bit scary.

The fact that Squall knew about everything didn't surprise me. I knew that he had gone to Cid to find out what was up with me when I had talked to Cid this morning. And after everything that had happened, I hadn't really expected Cid not to tell him. No, what really stunned me was that Squall understood.

"And your problem does not give you any excuse to hide behind Cid and not tell anyone." Okay, he was right, but that was below the belt. I took a step forward and went for an overhand swing. Squall blocked it easily, but that's not what I had been going for. Once I had his attention on my sword, I dropped to the ground and knocked his legs out from under him. He went down with a whump and I heard his breath get knocked out of him. But that was fine; he wasn't unconscious or dead.

Regaining my feet, I stepped towards him and placed my sword on his neck. No, I was not all dramatic and I did not say "Dead," as he had to me the last time we had sparred. I just simply spoke my mind. "I didn't want to tell you, because I wasn't ready to yet. It's true that I can't control when I Change and shit like that." Something flashed in Squall's eyes that looked like, approval? "But I didn't want you to try and help me because sometimes…I forget who I am, when I'm a wolf."

There, I said it. I admitted that I couldn't control myself and that I couldn't even keep myself me when I was a wolf. "And, it would be dangerous for you."

I released my hold on his neck with my sword. What else was there to do? I had told him everything, and I couldn't hold him there forever if he decided he still didn't want anything to do with me. Squall stood up, grabbing his sword as he did so, and regarded me with emotionless eyes. "Care to go again?"

What…what the hell? I spill my freaking guts and all he has to say is, "Care to go again?" I mimicked him in my head, adding a pompous, know-it-all voice and I glared at him. Until I saw a hint of a smirk grace his gorgeous lips. I…guess he'd forgiven me in some odd, perverse way. Not exactly saying, "Okay, all is forgiven, I love you again," and being all mushy and stuff. He'd never said, "I love you," to me before anyway. But then again, I guess if he had gotten all mushy and weird I would have yelled, "Where is Squall and what have you done with him you imposter?"

So, I said, "Sure, why not."

"Good. First one to the ground loses?" I grinned and nodded.

"Aye."

Before the words were even out of my mouth, Squall was swinging his sword at me again. I brought mine up to meet his and the meeting of steel on steel caused a screech worse than nails on the blackboard. But I didn't care. All that mattered was that Squall had forgiven me – at least I'm pretty sure he did – and he hadn't walked away from me. We sparred for a long time, neither conceding though my entire being burned with the need to rest, my clothing was soaked through with sweat, and I was bleeding from numerous cuts and such. Squall was about in the same shape I was, but like me, he'd never admit it.

Note to self: Never wear black on a hot day again.

Squall slashed at my side and from the position I was in I was forced to block awkwardly, losing a lot of my balance. He then pushed on my chest – which stung from his earlier slash there – and kicked one of my legs out. This worsened my already poor balance and I fell backwards. Squall kicked my sword away before dropping to one knee and holding the edge of his sword to my throat. He brushed a few sweaty strands of blond hair away from my face before brushing his own sweaty hair out of his eyes. I observed the scar between them before focusing on his deep brown eyes.

"I win," he said with a cocky smirk.

"Only 'cause I let you," I replied, wiggling a little to see if there was a way out of my predicament.

"Nope, sorry Cloud. I win, and now you have to do something for me." I groaned, hating the satisfied and arrogant tone of his voice. I had an idea of what he was going to ask me and I dreaded it.

"That wasn't part of our deal." Yes, I did sound a bit like a whiny five year old, but I couldn't help it. It hadn't been part of our rules, so I technically didn't have to do anything he asked me to. But then I'd be a real bastard, now wouldn't I? In a way, I guess I owed it to him, but it still didn't make it any better or easier for me.

"So says you." Squall sat next to me, his legs bent and knees bowed out, but he still kept pressure on the sword. Damn it, I wasn't going to be going anywhere, and the sword was starting to make my neck itch. "The next time you Change, I want to be there. I have to be there. No matter what. I don't care about the danger Cloud." Squall paused and looked up at the sky. The pressure of the sword eased off my neck. I wasn't sure if he did it purposely or not, I was just glad it was gone. I quickly started to furiously scratch my neck. Just in case he decided to change his mind and pin me back to the ground again. "I…" He started but then trailed off, still looking up at the sky. I wondered if I was missing something, like a meteor coming to crash down on the earth or a swarm of man eating birds or something equally crazy. But I was too afraid to look away from him, as if he might disappear. Yes, irrational, but I'm sure you've all felt the same way about someone at times.

Squall sighed and his eyes returned to mine. "Cloud, I…I love you."

Now, I really did look behind me to see if a meteor was falling. Squall had never, ever said that to me. I'd said it to him, and we'd gone all the way with one another. But, he'd never actually said those three little words. I love you. Or, you could say four. Cloud, I love you. Hell, what difference did it make? The same result happened whether he said it in three words or four words. But, I was still too stunned at his admission. He leaned over his sword and kissed me lightly, as lightly as if a feather had brushed against my lips. "That is why I don't care about the danger Cloud. That is why you not trusting me hurt me like that." He paused, looking at me.

I noticed a trickle of blood on his neck from where I'd caught him under the jaw. No, you idiot! Don't look at the blood! Look at him! What were you doing!

"Squall," inside I winced, but he didn't say anything about my using his name, his real name. "I promise, I'll show you." Not exactly an apology, but it was as close as I'd ever get to one. He didn't forgive me in words, and I didn't apologize in words. Squall's dark eyes lit up and he…smiled. He had smiled before at me, but that had been a small one, and it was such a rare occurrence that it still made me feel as though I were on top of the world. I smiled back, even though his smile had already faded. "I love you too, Squall."

He stood up, and stretched, as I stood up and stretched as well. "I think we better get cleaned up," he said, touching the tear in my shirt. "You don't look too great."

I made a face at him and replied, "Well you don't look to great either." Squall shrugged.

"I still won." My mouth dropped as he sauntered away, put his sword back in the weapons rack and turned around. "Come on Cloud. Just because you lost doesn't mean you have to stay there."

He was taunting me! Sure, it was all in good fun, but I wasn't going to let him get away with it. I broke into a run, and Squall turned and ran. Passing the weapons rack, I dropped my sword into it, and then I really started to run.

The chase had begun again.

You like? I hope so. Maybe I'll have Squall get kidnapped by Kairi…that could turn out interesting. –shrug- Or I'll bring Sephiroth back to life. BECAUSE HE'S DEAD. CLOUD KILLED HIM. Yes, I can't get over the fact that he, along with Aeris not Aerith were brought back to life. Made me want to kill people. Meh. Okay, enough of my ranting. Off to write Chapter 7.