Dancer's Embrace

Chapter 1

The Encounter

Dessage. It was pretty much a desolate town during the day. Everyone was at work. Hardly anyone played. Children were even busy in school or doing chores before going outside. Even when the work was done the sun was already down, so there were no warm rays to soak up, no wonderful blue skies to enjoy. All there was, was the annoying chirping of the crickets and the occasional hooting of an owl. It was pretty dull, especially for a man named Leon, who worked at a local clothes store. Pretty much the only people that actually came in were those that were passing through. It was the same mundane thing day in and day out. It was the same old boring stuff, and no one really cared much for any of it, though they didn't know what to do to liven things up. In this town, the words 'fun and carefree' were not in the dictionary.

The brunette named Leon leaned against a finely polished counter, waiting by the register just in case someone showed up. Just in case they actually had customers. He worked in this small business with his 'friends', if you can call them that.

Sephiroth was a tall, handsome man, and the boss of the clothes store. His long silver hair flowed even as he walked, making him all the more beautiful in the eyes of the women, and even some of the men. Even his green eyes were beautiful. The color of emeralds is how the townspeople described it. And it wasn't that far from the truth, either. Everyone also loved his voice. It was so soothing, so seductive, and just as one can get lost in his eyes, people can get lost in his words. Just a simple 'Hello' is all it took to make the fangirls swoon and squeal with delight. Leon didn't care much, though. As long as it drew attention away from him, what the silver-haired man did didn't matter.

And then there's Axel. Yeah. Wonderful name to give to your child, eh ? That's exactly what the spiky red-head thinks. Either he's complaining about his name, or he's teasing his other co-worker, Roxas, who blushed furiously every time Axel's hand slid up his shirt or traveled down his leg. None of the others thought the blonde cared much. He seemed to enjoy it, nonetheless. Once again, the same routine. Day in, day out.

Another boy that worked with them was Hayner, though he worked more in the advertising instead of spending his time inside actually working and waiting with the others. His loud mouth along with his cunning flow of words kept what few customers they had coming back when they needed new attire. The boy would actually grab a loudspeaker and climb onto a pile of crates and make his announcements, making sure everyone within a two hundred foot radius, inside and outside, heard him. His speeches were the only things that seemed to gather any actual crowd to the streets. Every now and then a circus would come by, but only passing through, because nothing exciting ever happens in Dessage.

Finally there's Yuffie, a hyper-active young girl no older than seventeen. Though she always tried to liven things up in the town herself, no one really payed her any mind. Her favorite things to do were piss off Leon, watch action-packed ninja movies, and piss of Leon. And even watching action-packed movies seemed to irk the young sword master to no end, only because she would turn the volume way up. It wasn't enough to annoy the customers or the rest of her co-workers, but, sure enough, it was plenty to make Leon go insane.

Yeah. That's right. One big group of moronic, incompetent, stupid idiots. Just what Leon needs. That and some Tylenol.

"Yuffie. Turn that down, please." The sword master muttered, rubbing his temple, locks of his chocolate brown hair brushing against his fingers. "I have a headache, today."

"You ALWAYS have a headache, Leon ! Come on ! Live a little, will ya ?" The girl pouted, turning the volume down on her portable DVD player. It's not like he couldn't just buy a pair of earplugs or something, right ? Or he could just cover his ears ! That would work, wouldn't it ? She always turned the volume up during the kick-ass ninja vs. samurai scenes. It made her feel like she was actually there...in a sense. But that didn't matter to Leon. He just wanted to chuck it out the window, and hopefully hit a flirting Axel in the head with it.

Sephiroth stalked in the building, his 'girl of the day' latched onto his arm as he turned the 'Open' to 'Closed'. "Okay, men. Work is over for the day. You can go home, now."

"Work ? WORK ? You call this work ?" Yuffie huffed and stomped around with her hands thrashing wildly in the air. "We haven't had a single customer today, save for that old man that came in to buy something we don't even sell ! Shoes ! We don't have shoes ! This is a clothe's store. CLOTHES ! Not a shoe store !"

Leon rolled his eyes and grabbed his jacket off of the coat rack from behind the counter. He tugged it on, grey eyes glaring at the boisterous girl who was still going on about their job. "I'm going home. You guys can do whatever you want." He snorted and stormed out the door. He's just about had it with those characters in the shop. He felt it was about time he either quit, or moved out of the town altogether. But...where would he go? He didn't know any other towns around here. And he certainly wouldn't make do in a city. Too much noise. Too much commotion. Too many headaches.

He shoved his hands in the oversized pockets of his jacket as he walked down the street. He stared up at the already dark sky, watching as a bird, he couldn't tell what it was, fly overhead. He glanced at the moon. Everyone always said Leon's eyes were the same color as the moon. Leon didn't think so. His eyes were darker, and had more of a dangerous look to them. But...then again...the moon has it's own dark side, doesn't it ? The cycle the moon goes through, from new to full. It was truly a natural wonder to behold. It was always worthwhile to wait for the full moon to appear, just to see the wonderful brilliance of the grey moon shining down on the earth at night, lighting up everything in sight. It was truly breathtaking. But, aside from that and the beautiful view of the stars, there wasn't much else beautiful to gaze upon.

He shrugged the thought off and made his way to his house, turning a corner and fishing for his keys in his pants pocket, knowing it wouldn't be too much longer until he got to his place. It wasn't a large town. Only a small one. Leon wasn't sure if it was even on a map, it was so small. Everybody knew everybody and everybody liked everybody...just about. There were very few women in this town. There was Tifa, Aeris, Selphie, Yuffie, Rikku, Yuna, and Paine. Or... at least... that's all the women he could name off the top of his head. But there wasn't anywhere near as many women as there were men. This much he knew for sure. Perhaps that's why the homosexuality rate in this town is up. Not enough chicks to bang, he figured. Not like he cared. He wasn't interested in a relationship, and he could care less if he ever got involved with a girl...or a guy for that matter. He likes his solitude. Everyone pretty much knows that Leon likes to be left alone, and so he's left alone. Unless... Yuffie gets on a sugar high. Then she feels it necessary to annoy as many people as possible in the town, and the brunette sword master is always on the top of her list.

Leon finally made his way to his 'pad' as Yuffie calls it, still without having found the keys. He strips off his jacket and searches the many pockets on it, finally finding them tucked inside one of the inner pockets. He cursed himself and made a mental note to pay more attention to where he put his things. He fumbled with the key, trying to stick it into the knob. It was dark, yes, but not dark enough to where he couldn't see. Usually he had a lamppost right outside his door, so he could come home late and not have to get into a battle with the front door. But recently it had just blow out, and the power company hasn't come to fix it. He had called them several times, but they never really seemed to interested in helping him. But it didn't matter anyway. It would just blow out again, eventually.

He continued to fumble with the lock, finally able to get the key in and turn the knob, stepping in and closing the door behind him. He tossed his keys onto the computer desk and threw his jacket on the couch. Oddly enough, he always seemed to be able to find everything he needed in the morning, no matter where it was thrown or tossed. The only things he seemed to be constantly losing were his keys. The damned keys. They always managed to get up from where he thought he laid them down and creep off somewhere else. He actually found the keys in the freezer once. He had NO idea how they got in there, though. They must have legs or something. Yeah. That's it. Legs.

"Who am I kidding ? Keys are inanimate objects..." He sighed, flopping down on the couch. Now he was accusing keys of having legs, and getting up and moving on their own. Man he REALLY needed to get out more. Thing was, he didn't have anything to do. So when he wasn't working, he just stayed home, watching TV and going to bed at the usual eleven o'clock.

He sighed, rolling over. He was too tired to get up, too tired to drag himself to his bed. He was just going to lay here, and go to sleep. Drift off into a world of surrealism and fantasy. At least in his dreams he could leave this idle life and go somewhere exciting, somewhere wonderful.

His eyes opened a few minutes later and he stretched. Was he asleep ? Had he been to sleep? He glanced around to get a feeling of his surroundings. It was his living room. This was always how his dreams started out. He'd walk out his door and wander down the street, until somewhere along the way, something weird or wacky happened. And so he went along with his normal dreams and stood up, walking outside. He glanced around and shivered. It was cold. The night air was still. Even the crickets that usually chirped in and out of unison with each other were silent. It was quiet. Until...

Leon jumped as he heard footsteps running towards him, along with heavy breathing and panting. He turned, only to be knocked down to the pavement with a loud thud, feeling a new weight atop of him. He felt something warm splash onto his face. Rain ? No. There were no clouds, thus, no rain. His grey eyes fluttered open despite the pain, only to stare back into a pair of eerie , yet beautiful blue eyes, strands of platinum blonde hair falling in front of them. It was... a man. But...never had he seen a man like this before. He was...beautiful. He looked so feminine, and yet he didn't. He still had enough masculinity to make it easy to tell that he was a guy, though he had such delicate skin, such feminine curves on his face. This had to be a dream. It had to.

But before he could admire the scene before him any longer, the blonde pushed himself off of the sword master and was about to run away, but he tripped and fell. Leon reacted quickly and rolled to the side to catch the new face in his arms. If this was a dream...it was one hell of a dream. He could fell the man's hot breath against his cheek as he panted. He soon learned that the moisture he had felt before was sweat. He had been running. But from who? And why ?

The blonde glared at Leon and pushed away again. "Let me go." His voice was that of a man. Definitely a man. But...he was so...wonderfully beautiful. Was it possible to have a beauty that surpassed that of even Sephiroth's ? ...obviously so, if this guy possessed it. Leon decided to inquire the boy on what was going on. He sat up and took the boy's hand in his, only to have it ripped out of his grip. "Don't touch me."

"Who's chasing you?" He asked, trying to sound as gentle as possible, though, for Leon, that was a hard job.

"That's none of your business." He snapped, looking away. Leon finally got a good look at what he was wearing...and WHY exactly was he wearing it ? His outfit consisted of a black leather sleeveless belly shirt, black flare jeans and street shoes. Along with that he had a golden bracelet on each wrist. Attached to them was a long, flowing silken piece of white fabric. Amazingly, it looked good with his outfit, but... why did he have that? It was a bit much, no matter how good it looked.

"You aren't going to tell me?"

"I don't have time."

"Why not ?"

"That's none of your business either." The blonde was awfully cold, though Leon was just trying to be nice. But...then again, Leon was the same way when others tried to be nice to him, so he just had to try and find out what was wrong. He released a sigh and stood up, offering to help the blonde to his feet. If this was a dream, he had to enjoy it while he could. But, the boy got up on his own. "I don't need your help."

"If you're being chased, then yes you do." He snapped at the man himself. What was so hard about accepting kindness from someone if you were in trouble ? That much he understood. One time Yuffie had loaned him money when he was running low so he could buy some groceries for the next week, because he didn't have anything to eat. But, again, Leon payed her back and neither of them spoke of that incident since then, unless Yuffie wanted something, that is.

"...how could you possibly help me?" He inquired, raising a brow and shrinking back a bit. He wasn't sure if he could trust those grey eyes or not. They weren't exactly a normal eye color. Then again, blue eyes like his weren't exactly slapped onto the face of every boy in the world either.

"I can offer you a place to hide..."

"..." The blonde blinked, and then sighed, nodding. "I'll let you help me, for now. But don't expect anything in return."

Leon rolled his eyes. Well wasn't he the sweetest guy on earth. Heheh. Yeah. Bullshit. The brunette forced a smile as he nodded towards his house. "Come on, hurry." He took the blonde by the hand and ran to the building, closing the door and locking it. He turned to the blonde who was already laying on the couch, trying to catch his breath. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me."

"But you're soaked..."

"It was raining earlier."

"And your shivering."

"Rain is wet. Wet means cold."

"So you need a blanket?"

"..." The blonde turned on his side and grumbled. "Whatever." Leon took that as a very obscure 'yes' and went into the hallway closet to fetch an extra blanket that he always kept for whenever Yuffie came over just to chat. She'd usually fall asleep after talking over five hours straight at an estimated speed of fifty three MPH. So he always kept a clean blanket, just in case. He unfolded it and walked over to the boy and covered him in the blanket. "...thanks..." Came the quiet reply as he tugged the blanket over his shoulders.

"So, do you mind telling me your name at least?" He sat down on a chair and stared at the guy on the couch, hoping upon hope that he could at least have that luxury, if nothing else.

"..." The boy remained silent, and just as Leon was heading upstairs to go to bed, he heard a soft "Cloud...my name is Cloud..." coming from the couch. So...Cloud was his name, huh? Interesting enough. Now. He learned his name. Time to go back to sleep and wake up to another average day.