Author's Notes: Oh my God! It's a long chapter! What a miracle! And I only finished it at 2:30 in the morning! (happy sarcasm) I'm not hyped up on crack and candy, really! (twitch) (reaches for chocolate bar) ...All right, hyped up on candy, sans the crack part. (If I ever smoke pot, I'll hand a gun to somebody and say, "shoot me.")

Someone mentioned Leon's name in the previous chapter...I forget who it was...but yeah, his last name is supposed to be Leonhart. But...that's when he's known as Squall. See, Leon Leonhart doesn't ring all that well, so I took some artistic liberties and slapped a new last name on for him, too. Besides, Leon Striker sounds badass.

I'm glad people didn't hate the last chapter. Thanks for not totally trashing it or whatever. (Not that I expected that...I'm just kidding around!) And now that I've thoroughly frightened myself with scary movies, it's time to sleep with all the lights on and watch some Sensitive Pornograph! Mmm. Uncensored yaoi. Fun fun fun.

By the way, some quick shameless advertising - me and my friend, Lomesir, the one I took with me to Cancun, we're working on a joint fic with the account we share - "Kuja and Lomesir". It's called "Shangri-La" and it's a parody of all things Bish. If you're interested, go take a look. Her writing far exceeds mine in some areas. I'm a bit envious of her.

Chapter 42

"Drop the Bomb"

He'd expected there may be a few kids, but twenty? When they all came swarming in, Leon could hardly believe his eyes, and he turned to Cloud with slightly wide grey pupils, saying, "How do you live with them all?"

Cloud shook his head silently. His eyes were dull and his posture was a little slumped. It was clear that he was pretty rattled after the encounter between him, Leon, and his boyfriend. Sora and Riku watched from the couch as seventeen kids rushed in, plus Seifer, Fuujin, and Raijin, accounting for twenty. Cloud bit his lip as they started to hug him and he weakly hugged back.

"Okay, kids..." he whistled when speaking didn't work. He had to get Seifer's aid in order to quiet them all. "Come on, guys. I'm sorry to do this to you, but it would really help right now if all of you went downstairs. All right?"

"Awwwww!" whined the children. Cloud shook his head, his hands up in a truce-like fashion.

"As you can see, I have a guest over, and this is very important. It's about Riku and Sora."

Zidane frowned. "Are they leaving?"

Cloud sighed, shaking his head and gesturing the little group to the stairs. "Come on, to the basement, all of you. Homework Hour the minute you find a place to sit, understand?"

Several pouts and boos rose up from the children, but Seifer and Raijin silenced them all and ushered them down. Fuujin descended with them, after pausing to stare Leon in the face. Leon turned a bit cold under her leering gaze, and blinked.

"...Hm." She mumbled, vanishing down the steps.

When things were empty on that floor again, Cloud breathed deeply, then turned to Leon. "So," he said, his voice a bit flat, "Do you want something to drink?"

Leon shrugged. He wasn't thirsty, but he wanted to be polite. "Just water is fine."

Half an hour later, Riku and Sora were snuggled on one couch end while Leon sat on the other, and Cloud was in a lazy chair drinking hazelnut-flavored coffee. Leon hadn't touched the water.

"...And that's how things are right now where I am." Leon glanced at Riku. "His mother already filed the court case. All they need is for Riku to come back. She was hoping to find him without getting the police more involved, and I happened to talk to her shortly before you told me they were here. I thought I might save everyone the trouble and pick them up."

Riku was glaring unhappily at him. "You're taking me back," he hissed. Sora was hugging his arm.

"Riku," he said gently, "Come on...it's not like he'll take you back to Ansem..."

Riku slammed his glass of fruit punch down. "No. Just back within reach of him!"

Leon expected this would happen. Cloud didn't look very surprised, either.

"Tifa—your mother—is also going to file for a restraining order. She's demanding that Ansem stay away from you at a one-hundred foot radius all around."

The silver-haired teen snarled. "What difference does it make? He violates things all the time! Look at me! I'm proof of it!"

"He'll have someone of police authority monitoring him at all times. If he breaks the restraining order, he'll spend his time in a jail cell or something."

"So let him rot in jail! Let him get raped in the Shower Hour, see how he likes it when someone fucks him up his virgin ass."

"Riku, I have children downstairs," Cloud hissed in warning. "And not all of them are listening to their iPods." Meanwhile, Sora was blushing the nicest shade of red, and was still clinging to Riku, who snorted and leaned back in the couch where he sat.

"You can't make me go back there."

"Oh, yes I can," argued Leon. "I'm calling your mother and we're leaving as soon as possible. She'll give me the address to her own house, and that's where I'll be taking you."

"What about Sora?" Riku growled. "Is Sora coming with me?"

"Sora will go back to his own family."

Riku sat up sharply. "Are you serious? You do know Ansem tried to rape him, too, right? That's too dangerous! I won't let you do it!"

"I'm sure Sora's mother can file for a restraining order, also. Right now, Riku, you're going to have a lot more on your plate than just Sora. You should worry about yourself and about what's going to happen in the court room."

"Why, because Ansem's going to sue me? That's bullshit!"

"Riku!"

Riku flipped Cloud the middle finger and kept going. Leon rolled his eyes when he saw it. "He can't frickin' sue me. I'm seventeen! I've got one more year to tack off on my life before I'm considered an adult. So he can go screw himself!"

Cloud sighed, shuddering. He really wished Riku would take consideration for the children. Here he was trying to be the parent, and Riku was hardly listening to him. Just like all teenagers. Although, even Zidane wasn't this bad, and that kid was a budding little thief.

"You can't stay here, Riku." said Leon gently. "You're probably going to get a subpoena in the mail. You're going to have to go to court."

"I'm not leaving Sora vulnerable, and I'm not going back until I'm sure both of us are gonna be safe!" Riku glared at Leon sternly. "So unless you tell me that's going to happen, you're not getting anything out of me."

Here Sora piped up, "Er, I'm sure that I'll be fine."

"You're not fine until Ansem's dead or rotting," Riku growled, turning and giving Sora a sharp, reprimanding stare. "Believe me."

"I do believe you, Riku." Sora nodded his head. "And I know what I'm up against now, too. I'll be careful, really." He tried to cheer Riku up with his smile. "You should let Leon take you to your Mom's house. You'll be safe there."

Riku frowned, his expression turning from anger to concern. He shook his head. Sora hugged his arm, looking up at him, chin on his shoulder.

"Come on. Are you still that scared?"

"He's dangerous, Sora, even if he is under watch."

"You're still scared of him."

"Hell yes, I'm scared of him!" cried Riku, pushing Sora off of him. "Aren't you?"

Sora paused. "...Well...I probably am. But if I stay here, he'll know I'm scared. That'd just make him think he's still in power, right?"

Cloud and Leon glanced at each other and exchanged their stares. They seemed to wordlessly agree on the astonishing way this boy could nail things right on the head, and still act so clueless. They turned their attention to Riku. The teen was silent, gazing at Sora with the same sort of awe they'd just been feeling.

Riku frowned again, creasing his brow and chewing on his bottom lip. "Mmm..." he growled.

Leon sighed and drank from his glass of water for the first time since he'd gotten it.

"I'll tell you what," he said. "Since this is a friend's house I'm visiting, I won't be leaving until late this evening. You make up your mind then. And when I say that, I mean preparing yourself to leave."

Cloud sipped from his coffee, then blinked. "Actually, you could stay the night here—"

"You mean you can feed me?"

Cloud groaned. "I'm too tired to cook. I'm thinking we'll just get take-out."

Some children hissed, "Yessss!" downstairs.

"Besides," the blond continued, "I figure you've been driving since early this morning, and if you leave Burmecia at night, the traffic's a nightmare. There's a lot of raging night life here. It gets tedious during the day, but evenings are unbearable. You'd be better off leaving early tomorrow."

Leon hadn't been counting on this. His brow quickly creased and his frown deepened. Cloud sat up. "It's up to you. If you want to drive during the worst of the traffic, I won't stop you."

Riku looked like he was hoping Leon would take the bait. Leon turned his eyes to him for a moment, then he shook his head and sighed.

"I suppose that works. I'm tired of driving, anyway."

Leon didn't miss the way Riku then grabbed Sora's arm and held it, and had a winning smirk on his face. Yeah, laugh it up, he grumbled mentally. But, in his mind, he was also smiling. Cheeky little bastard.

"So, you won't take me back today." Riku said haughtily. Leon stared at him full in the face.

"Don't get cocky. You're still coming with me tomorrow morning, both you and Sora. I'm going to let your mother know I found you." He paused, then pulled out his cell phone. "If you'd like, when I give her a call, you can talk to her."

Riku's eyes glazed for a minute. Then he nodded. "I wanna talk to her."

Cloud sipped from his coffee lazily as Sora held onto Riku the way the other held onto him, and Leon dialed Tifa's number. Then he handed the phone to Riku, and he took it like a gift from Heaven.

"Tell her you'll be home sometime tomorrow afternoon."

" 'Kay." Riku cradled the phone against his ear and stood up, walking around the room. Cloud and Leon started talking to each other, and Sora joined in, while Riku spoke: "Mom?...Yeah. It's me... ...Yes, I'm fine..."

He turned on the spray of the water and immediately thrust his head under the hot shower, wetting his blond hair and letting his skin get covered in little running droplets and rivers. Sighing, Cloud reached for the body wash and squeezed a generous amount into a washcloth, lathering it up and running it over his tired muscles. It was eleven forty-six, and he couldn't sleep. Showers wouldn't help it, but it still made him feel better.

Sephiroth probably fired me. He thought. The idea made Cloud shut his eyes and made his chest ache. The children...I'll have to give them back to all the places I got them from. Cloud felt a headache forming. He thought about selling his house, but even then, supporting twenty children would be difficult, and it was the least practical thing to do. He either sold everything he owned, or he got rid of the children...yet in all practical senses, he may end up doing both all the same. Cloud bit his lip, and leaned back against the wall of his shower.

I've let them down. He watched the water trickle down his body, fixated on the way it fell. Falling—he would be doing a lot of that soon. I'll be blacklisted. If I'm not good enough for the best, I'm not good enough for anyone. That's how this city works. I've seen it. Relena...

Briefly, Cloud remembered a woman with slicked blond hair that had two antenna-like protrusions. Her name was Relena Sykes, but her modeling alias had been "Larxene." Sephiroth had hired her at one point, during the time Cloud had been around. But she'd been tough to deal with, and while she was beautiful and sold for the women's line of clothes, she was just too pig-headed and had made a servant out of everyone. Sephiroth fired her six months after her employment. She'd been dropped so hard and so fast; Cloud never saw her working for anyone else after that. Sephiroth was currently one of the top dogs when it came to models and industry. If you didn't make a cut in his pie, you weren't fit for this world.
So, this was it, then. His life on a downhill plunge. He wondered how he was going to deal with it. Somehow, Cloud wasn't surprised. He'd been living life like a balance beam ever since he graduated high school. One risk after another—snatching chances, passing them by, giving them away—sometimes he fell, sometimes he climbed. This was just another descending from the skies. Eventually, he'd get back up on his feet...

But Cloud wasn't sure how fast he'd get back up this time.

Opening his eyes again (he never remembered closing them), Cloud exhaled and turned off the water, tossing his still-soapy rag to the side and toweling off. He then pulled on a bathrobe, and wandered downstairs into the kitchen. Leon was asleep on the couch with blankets piled over him, his head resting on a throw pillow. Cloud frowned. He'd offered him the bed, but Leon had refused. He'd left Leon to claim the couch, but he still thought he should have taken the bed. Now Cloud felt sorry that there were no other guest rooms left. Ah, well—can't be helped.

He didn't turn the light on in the kitchen, mostly because he didn't want to wake Leon, but went to quick work by the moonlight outside fixing a hot cup of tea. He did it the quick way, not using the microwave: just turning the tap water to hot and filling his mug, then dropping an herbal tea bag into it. He let it soak for several minutes, looking out the window as the scent of honey and chamomile started to waft up to his nose.

Several moments of silence overtook him, and Cloud's brow creased in worry as he gazed up at the crescent moon. He gripped the sink's edge just a little bit tighter, breathing the chamomile scent deeply and sensing the honeyed undertaste.

Then he heard a cupboard open and shut, and he gasped, whirling around. Leon stared at him with calm grey eyes, holding up a glass.

"Thirsty," he said.

Cloud's eyes rolled up a little as he closed them and sighed, his shoulders dropping with the motion. He opened them again and glared at Leon. "Don't scare me like that."

"Can't sleep?"

He sighed again. "No." Cloud reached for his tea, squeezing out the last remnants of the tea bag itself before tossing it and then swirling the liquid itself around in his mug. "I can't stop thinking."

"Sure you can," replied Leon, filling his glass halfway with cold water. Cloud grumbled.

"Clearly, you've never had a job that weighs on your love life."

"Clearly, he was the wrong boss to sleep with," said the other calmly. Cloud made an indescribable face, but it was probably frustration as he sipped his tea. He hated to say it, but Leon was right.

"Any boss is the wrong boss to sleep with," sighed Cloud. "Sephiroth's just worse than most, I guess."

Leon swallowed a big gulp of water and glanced at the blond sideways. "You mean because he snoops around and says things that rub you the wrong way?"

Cloud snorted, looking at him. "You're even more cynical in real life than you are online. I never thought that possible."

"Well, you've never met me in person before." Leon drank more water.

Growing distanced, Cloud gazed down at the liquid in his mug. He could see his reflection in it. He stared intently at it, and then he let out another heavy breath, swirling the tea in his cup.

"I'll probably have to sell the house," he murmured quietly. "The kids will have to go back to the orphanages and agencies they came from. Then I'll spend the next several years of my life sponging off some poor sap while my bank money runs low." He dropped his eyes. "It'll be a while before I get up on my feet again."

"Why do you keep so many of those brats?" Leon asked. "I mean, I don't mind kids, but a zoo of them in my house would drive me insane."

Cloud drank more of his tea. "...I guess..." he paused, looking up at the ceiling. "...I guess I felt like...I don't know. That I had to."

Leon blinked. "You...had to?"

The blond shrugged. "I don't know how to describe it. I just felt like I had something to give back to these kids. Seifer was my first; I found him wandering around in a nearby neighborhood, and about a week later, there he was on my doorstep. That was right around the time my career was just kicking off. The Christmas season about four years ago." Cloud sipped his drink. "Most of the children who live here are like that. Orphans from orphanages, fosters from various companies, and some are runaways—Zidane fled an abusive home, and his brother Kuja still works in the red light district—poor guy. I'm a little sad he never got a hold of Kuja again."

"So, in other words, you're just weird."

Cloud paused, then cracked into a smile and chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose."

Leon finished off his water, and quietness stilled the air again. He watched Cloud for a while, and the blond only idly sipped his drink.

"You have a lot of sympathy for them, don't you?"

More silence. Leon didn't mind it, and neither did Cloud, and yet it still felt awkward.

"...When I was little...my parents..." the blond sighed. "My father did some things that were pretty underhanded, and this guy he crossed got pretty angry. One night, my Mom grabs me and shoves me in the closet when she's putting me to bed, and I hear gunshots..."

Leon's expression changed only slightly. His eyes seemed to soften and his frown deepened, and his brow creased in hopes of giving his own sympathy.

"...The next time that door opened, I saw their bodies, and a family friend took me into her orphanage." Cloud paused. As if it were an afterthought, he said as he sipped his tea, "Since then, I've hated closed spaces."

The brunet wasn't quite sure what to say at that point. "I'm sorry" was too tacky; it didn't quite seem to cut it. But he didn't exactly want to pour his heart out.

When Cloud heard no response, he smiled sadly and put his mug down. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shared that with you, you must feel pretty awkward."

Leon turned his eyes away then, realizing he'd been staring at the other for longer than even he felt comfortable with, and sighed. "If you like kids so much, why don't you find a job as a foster agent? That's what I do."

Cloud smirked. "It's a good idea, but it's not the best one."

"And why's that?"

"Because I wouldn't be the one taking care of them," said Cloud. He drank the last of his honey-chamomile tea, and set the mug down in the sink. "If I'm not the one adopting them, then I don't want to work there."

"Then you can come stay at my place," said Leon. He blinked, then frowned. Where did that come from? He wondered. He added quickly, so he didn't sound too eager, "Since, you know, you tell me you don't have many friends."

Cloud chuckled, looking at Leon with warm greenish eyes. "Thank you for the offer, but I wouldn't want to crowd you. I only just met you."

But you didn't just meet me, thought the brunet, You met me three years ago. Just not in person...

"Besides," Cloud insisted, "I have a couple of friends in town who wouldn't mind sharing the house with me for a little while while I'm an unemployed bum. One of them's an accountant, and the other's just good at lazing around. But he works at a shooting gallery."

"Who are your friends?" asked Leon. To which Cloud replied:

"Reno and Rufus."

Leon fell silent. He turned then, and pushed himself away from the counter. "It sounds like you have everything planned."

Cloud frowned. "...You know, I really wish you'd take the bed."

"It's not my bed to take," said Leon. "Goodnight, Riddlez."

The blond's frown deepened. "...And you can call me Cloud."

Leon smirked. "I'll call you Cloud when you stop calling me Grievers."

The blond blinked his eyes, and then it dawned on him that he hadn't called Leon by his real name once all day. His cheeks turned red, and he groaned, chewing on his bottom lip. Now he felt embarrassed. It would have helped if he'd pointed it out to me, he thought. Then again, I guess I'm a moron for not realizing it myself.

Sora nestled back against Riku's body as the other held him in his arms, the both of them under the covers.

"You're sure you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine, Riku. I promise." Sora turned around so he could face him, and smiled. "Trust me, I can take care of myself. Besides, everyone's worried about me. They need to know I'm okay."

Riku frowned. "Sora, I'm scared to let you out of my sight right now. If he gets near you..." Sora glared at him. For once, Riku feared that glare. "...Er...you just...give me a call, and I'll come running, okay?"

That answer pleased Sora more than the one Riku had planned. The brunet smiled at him and sighed, nuzzling his neck. "Good," he purred.

The silver-haired teen sighed and ruffled Sora's hair slightly, kissing his forehead. "Sora..."

"Yeah?"

Riku fell quiet. It was now or never. But he wasn't sure if it was the right time...

"...I love you."

He didn't hear a response. In fact, he didn't hear one for a while. Riku blinked.

"Sora?"

More quiet.

"...S...Sora?"

...Light snoring.

Riku blinked again several times, and then he rolled his eyes upward, groaning. Great. I pick the time to tell him, and the little bastard falls asleep on me. He sighed. Oh, well...I'll try again later.

He kissed Sora's lips gently, and stroked the brunet's cheek. "Goodnight, Sora. Sleep well." Riku wrapped his arms protectively around Sora and fell asleep soon after, his head pillowed just above Sora's as they shared similar dreams.