Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or its characters.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews! They were all very interesting! But…not like Leon? That's what my younger sister said too… however, I will fight on!

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02. Bittersweet

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Leon awoke from his bed feeling an awful pain in his neck. Rubbing it with his hand, he stared out the window. Noticing that he was sitting up when he woke, he figured it must've been the reason his neck hurt so much. The other night after he walked Aerith home and they parted ways, he met Cloud. Cloud didn't say a thing, and just walked on by. However, he knew that Cloud wouldn't give up that easily without doing anything. Leon had a feeling that something was unsettling, but surely, stirring.

When he arrived at Merlin's house, which was usually where everyone else resided during the afternoon, Yuffie, and Tifa were the only ones present. Leon walked in, his neck still aching.

"Good morning, Leon." Greeted Tifa with a smile.

"G'mornin' Leon!" Yuffie cheered.

"Morning." Leon said, used to their usual morning greetings. He took a seat at the table.

"Leon, you should've came to the party yesterday!" Yuffie said, excitedly. "It was so much fun!"

"It was quite hectic." Tifa agreed. "But it was quite enjoyable."

"You were there?" Leon asked.

"Yes, I was the one who helped prepare the food." Replied Tifa.

"Oh, I see." Now Leon knew why Tifa wasn't around the other day. But because his mind had been distracted, he didn't have any time to wonder where she disappeared off to.

"Tifa's cooking is so great!" Yuffie continued. "The cake was so delicious, I ended up eating more than I could!"

Is that why Yuffie was acting a bit over excited today? Probably. As Yuffie spoke, Leon's mind wandered to Aerith, he wondered where she and Cloud were. After a bit of pondering, he interrupted Yuffie and asked, "Where is Aerith and Cloud?"

"Huh?" Yuffie slowly recovered from the shock of being interrupted. However, Tifa wasted no time and answered, "Aerith left some time ago. And where Cloud went, I wouldn't know." As Tifa spoke about Cloud, her face expressed deep sadness. Leon stayed quiet for a moment, staring at her melancholy face. He knew it more than anyone else, what that look of longing in Tifa's eyes meant. He asked no more.

"I'm gonna go walk around a bit." Leon said, standing up and heading towards the door. "I'll see you two later."

"See ya later!"

"Ok, we'll see you later."

Leon closed the door behind him and leaned on it. Now that he was outside, he didn't really know where to go at all. After a while, he decided to head towards the borough. It's not like he had any other place to go. When he arrived, the borough almost seemed to welcome him inside as he walked through the large gates. He sat down on the ledge of the large opening in the wall and set his gunblade leaning against the wall beside him. This was just one of the ways he enjoyed time alone. But whether he actually enjoyed it or not was what he didn't know.

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Leon heard someone walking in. By the sound of the footsteps, he could tell it was a female. He turned his head to see Tifa walking towards him. She was holding what looked like a plate with white frosted cake on it; a small fork was placed beside it along with a bright red strawberry, giving the plate some charm.

"Aerith thought you'd like to have one." Tifa held out the plate.

"She's very thoughtful." Leon commented, taking the plate.

"She is." Tifa leaned on the wall across from Leon, and stared outside. It was almost like she knew Leon wanted to know something. "If you're wondering where she is," Tifa said, before Leon even asked. "She came back to Merlin's house a while after you left."

Leon took a bite out of the cake. It tasted like strawberries. He set the fork back down on the plate and said, "Do you have something you want to say?" Tifa glanced at him, and nodded slightly.

"I was just curious about something, and I hope you don't mind me being direct." She directed her eyes onto Leon. "How long have you felt that way about her?"

Leon was a bit taken aback by how blunt Tifa was, but answered, "Long enough." Then he asked, "How long have you known about it?"

Tifa smiled and repeated, "Long enough."

"Is it obvious?"

"No. Well, if one doesn't pay attention, that is."

Leon never had any idea that Tifa knew. But now that he does, he wondered if anyone else knew about it. And if they did, he hoped they all weren't laughing at him behind his back. He wasn't good at this kind of stuff, and being laughed at doesn't help.

"…Does Aerith know?" Leon asked, not knowing if he wanted the question answered.

"I wouldn't know. If she does, she never shows it." Tifa looked at him with sad eyes. "Don't you want her to know?"

Now knowing how to answer, Leon took another bite out of the cake. Its sweetness was making his stomach churn, or was it the conversation that was making him feel nervous? He stopped eating the cake and bit a small piece of the strawberry. It was sweet and delicious. When he still hadn't answer Tifa, she sighed and put her hands to her hips and said almost as if lecturing, "You shouldn't take on these things alone. I think Aerith would like to know how you feel."

"What about Cloud?"

"I already lectured him enough." Tifa laughed. "I don't really understand you two, but… I know it must be hard." Her smile faded into a sad one, and the look of longing came back. Leon understood how she must feel since he sometimes had the same look in his eyes.

"Are you alright with it?"

"Alright about what?" She looked at him, curious.

"About… Cloud?" Leon asked carefully. He didn't want to probe into anything he shouldn't.

"…Yes, it's alright." She hid her pain with a smile. "Well, I'll be going now. I think you should too." And as if she really was feeling alright, she walked out with her head held high. Leon wondered if he could someday do the same thing. But for the moment, he leaned his head on the cold wall and closed his eyes. Faint voices could be heard from outside. It must've been Tifa talking to someone… who sounded a lot like Cloud. And it was. As Cloud entered through the gates, Leon casually said, "I'm getting quite a few guests today."

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." Cloud said, stopping in his tracks near the gate.

"Just trying to relax." Leon poked the cake. "And where have you been?"

"Nowhere important." Cloud's tone of voice hinted it was none of Leon's business, so Leon stuffed another piece of the cake in his mouth. Without waiting for Leon's response, Cloud turned to leave. But then stopped abruptly. He slightly turned his head towards Leon and said almost coldly, "I'll have you know that Aerith wanted to go looking for you again. You shouldn't make her worry so much. If you care enough about her, that is." And walked out the gates.

Leon still had the fork in his mouth as Cloud spoke, but pulled it out when he left. By what Cloud said, did he mean that he came in Aerith's stead? Probably. He found no other reason why Cloud wouldn't. Leon stared at the last piece of his cake and ate it. Instead of the usual sweet taste, it now tasted a bit too sweet and made Leon's stomach churn. It was making him feel a bit nauseas now too.

"…I feel sick." He muttered as he grabbed his gunblade lying on the wall next to him. Along the way to Merlin's house, he met Yuffie. The way she looked at him was surprise and a bit of confusion, when Leon asked her what she was doing, she ignored him and instead said, "You don't look too good..."

"Huh?" Leon said, lamely. Although he had just eaten cake, it seemed to have drained his energy rather than give any. He shook his head and asked again, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you." She finally answered. "Maybe that was a good thing too, cause you look like you're gonna collapse."

Leon rubbed his temple. He didn't feel physically tired, but mentally. What Cloud said before was getting to him, and it kept echoing in his head.

"…If you care enough about her, that is."

Was Cloud implying that Leon didn't care or consider much about Aerith's feelings? Whatever it was that he intended to say, it was making Leon feel like an idiot… and he didn't even know why himself.

"Um, Leon?" Yuffie said, waving her hands in front of his face. Leon blinked, snapping back to reality. He felt her grab the plate in his hands. She swiped a finger on the cream and put the finger in her mouth, and shuddered. "Geez, no wonder you're so out of it!" she said, loudly. But then her eyes appeared to shine and she exclaimed, "This must've been the cake that Aerith baked!"

"…What?" Leon felt his senses coming back… or not.

"At the birthday party," said Yuffie. "Aerith and Tifa baked separate cakes. There were a lot of people there, so of course just one cake wasn't enough. But who cares about that now? As I thought, Aerith's cooking is amazing! You must've been in some kind of trance or something to be so out of it."

"Um, I don't think so…" Leon said, but Yuffie didn't seem to hear.

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"You two sure took your time." Aerith said when Leon and Yuffie entered Merlin's house. Before Leon could say a word of thanks or greeting, Yuffie quickly ran to Aerith and said excitedly, "Aerith! Your baking is so good!"

Aerith looked confused, but said. "Thank you, Yuffie. But, um, why would you say that?"

"Oh, haha!" Yuffie laughed. "I just tasted some of the frosting from your cake, and I just couldn't help but think, 'Oh, this is so good!' "

"I thank you for saying that, but Tifa's much better at cooking than I am." Aerith said.

"Hehe, you don't have to be so modest." Yuffie joked.

"Oh, Leon, I'm so sorry." Aerith apologized, just realizing he was standing there. But Leon shrugged and said, "It doesn't matter. It wasn't your fault anyway."

"Hey, what's that mean?" Yuffie glared, but Aerith calmed her down. Once Yuffie ran off for her own business, Leon was left alone with Aerith… again. It seemed his lucky streak of being left alone with her was on a constant roll.

"Thank you for the cake today." Leon said, taking a seat at the table across from her.

"Oh, you're welcome." Her smile glowed. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, I was afraid that I had made it too sweet."

"Actually," Leon chuckled. "It did kind of make me feel dizzy after a while."

"Oh, no! It did? I'm so sorry!"

Leon only meant to tease her a little, but she was either taking it seriously- or had no clue about it because she looked like she was agonizing over it silently and seemed to have forgotten that Leon was there for a second.

"It's okay, Aerith. I'm just not used to eating sweet things." He wondered if he went too far. But she said, "No, I just never thought about how sweet it would be! Oh, no… I should've asked everyone how sweet they wanted it to be…"

"Ah, but, Yuffie liked it, right?" Leon pointed out. He didn't know what good that would do though.

"Yes, but… oh, I'm so sorry! I almost forgot! How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Leon smiled. The way Aerith worries about others was admirable, but sometimes he feared that she might do something reckless. She was the kind of person who'd throw herself into danger to protect innocent lives in exchange for her own, and that worried him. Then, he remembered what Cloud had said before, 'You shouldn't make her worry so much.' It was only then that Leon wondered whether Cloud felt the same when he saw Aerith worry over someone or something.

"…Aerith?" Leon said softly.

"Yes?" Aerith looked at him, her green eyes glowing.

"…You don't have to worry about me so much." He said, staring at his hands on the table. "If you do, then I'll be a burden to you. I don't want that."

Although he wasn't looking at her, he felt her smile. Then she unexpectedly put her fragile hand atop his, and he reflexively looked up.

"You will never be a burden to me," she said, her eyes emanating truth. "But if my worrying makes you worry, then I'll try not to be so bothersome. After all, I don't want any of my friends to think they're being a burden."

…Friends? Thought Leon. The word stabbed his heart painfully. But he only said, "You're not bothersome. It's just that I had been ignorant to your feelings… and I'm sorry."

Aerith blinked, confused. "Is there… something I missed?"

"It's just…" Leon couldn't just tell her about what Cloud said. It didn't feel right. "Never mind that, it's my problem."

"You can't talk to me about it?" Aerith asked. She looked a bit hurt, but Leon had to bear with it.

"No, I can't." He said. Before she looked any more in pain, he added, "But there's something I want to tell you one day…" Their eyes met. "And I'd like it if you'd listen to me then."

She smiled, still looking a bit hurt, but nodded and said, "Of course, I'd be glad to listen to what you have to tell me then."

A/N: I feel like… this chapter was a bit random. I'm so sorry! I just had a lot of ideas and events I wanted to write out!