.

Chapter title coined by Sheriff Woody.

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-Chapter Thirteen-
Falling with Style
۵۵۵۵۵

After a fitful night of tossing from disturbing dreams and turning from even more-disturbing thoughts, Cloud finally gave up and crawled off the couch. By the time Leon got up, Cloud was already fully dressed, armor and all, and was anxiously pacing the living room floor. Having previously polished off his own cup of coffee, as well as Aerith's, he was currently working on Leon's.

"Did you even go to bed last night?" Leon grumbled, pausing on his way to the kitchen when he noticed the neatly folded blankets on the couch.

Cloud nodded distractedly, though he wasn't too distracted to notice how sexy the still-sleepy lion looked – thankfully, back to his usual, masculine self.

Forgetting that he was a couple of conscious hours ahead of the other man, Cloud followed him into the kitchen and proceeded to launch into a caffeine-induced, Sora-worthy ramble regarding Sephiroth and Hades and the whereabouts of Vincent, plotting every possible scenario and covering all the contingencies, including the odds and probabilities (which may or may not have been mathematically deduced), thereby purging his mind of its entire restless night's worth of pent-up hypotheses by foisting them on Leon. Somehow, amid the meandering monologue, he succeeded in conveying his intention to leave right away for the coliseum.

Leon blinked owlishly and slowly shook his head. "Not before my coffee," he managed to mumble.

Uncertain as to whether Leon meant that he couldn't leave until after he had had his morning coffee, or if he meant that he didn't even want to discuss it until then, Cloud slumped into one of the kitchen chairs and started drumming his fingers on the top of the table.

"Just how much coffee have you had?" Leon asked, eying the nearly empty pot on the counter. Cloud smiled sheepishly and volunteered to make another pot. Leon just shook his head and left the room.

Cloud successfully stifled the urge to follow him into the bathroom, and he even managed to muzzle his mouth when Leon reappeared a short while later, looking slightly more awake and considerably less disheveled. And though he did follow Leon out to the Third District steps, he was able to maintain his silence all the way through Leon's first cup of coffee, allowing the man a moment of peace to properly wake up. But when Leon made the mistake of making direct eye contact as he was sitting down with his second cup, Cloud could no longer contain himself.

"So I thought I'd borrow a ship from Cid and head on over."

Leon regarded him deeply for a moment and then looked away, continuing to sip his coffee in silence while Cloud waited impatiently for ... what? ... Approval? Permission? He was a big boy, he reminded himself; he could do whatever he pleased. Just because Leon had saved his life and given him a place to stay didn't mean he had to defer to the other man's wishes. Still, he continued to wait, watching the sexy brunet as he very ... slowly ... sipped ... his coffee.

Cloud began to suspect that he was doing on purpose – payback for giving him such a hard time last night while he was suffering from the anatomical indignity of Fairy Godmother's spell.

But eventually, after Leon had finally finished every single last little drop, he set down his cup and turned to Cloud. What he said, however – after all of that waiting – was not what Cloud had been waiting to hear. "Why don't you wait for the tournament?"

Great. More waiting. Just what Cloud wanted.

"Then we can all go together," Leon added. "It's only a few more days."

"Six days," Cloud corrected, and then mumbled under his breath, "Six days too many." Of course, he was probably already too late to save Vincent from whatever horrible fate Hades had planned.

"And too many days to leave Traverse Town undefended against the Heartless," Leon argued. "We can't all be gone for that long."

"No, I know," Cloud agreed. "That's why I thought I would go on ahead, and then you and Yuffie could follow in a few days. That way," he said, adding what he hoped would appeal to Leon's practical nature, "I can get everything all set up, and all you'll have to do is show up for the tournament. It would mean one less day that you'd have to be away."

The frown on Leon's face suggested that he was at least considering Cloud's proposal, but in the end, it didn't change his mind. "Even if Cid would let you take off by yourself in one of his gummis – and trust me, he won't, not without any trainingit isn't a good idea to travel alone; there are a lot of Heartless out there. And what if you do run into Sephiroth? Are you sure you're strong enough yet to face him on your own? And even if you are, why would you want to? Why don't we fight him together?"

"Because it isn't your fight," Cloud practically growled. A spark of anger flashed in his eyes, briefly lighting them with an eerie green glow.

A sudden unease prickled the back of Leon's neck, but he passed it off as just another aftereffect of Fairy Godmother's magic. He had awoken this morning with a queasy stomach and a pounding head – the usual hallmarks of a terrible hangover – in spite of the fact that he hadn't touched a single drop of Merlin's disastrous wine.

At least his back was feeling better without all that extra weight on his chest.

"Of course it's my fight too," Leon answered. "Surely, you don't expect me to stand by while there's a madman on the loose, threatening the lives of my friends. And if Sephiroth is as evil as you say he is, then Sora is likely in danger as well. If Sephiroth kills the keyblade master, we're all screwed."

"I won't let him harm Sora," Cloud insisted, "or anyone else. This is my responsibility, Leon; I'm the only one strong enough to take him out."

"Maybe so. But that doesn't mean I can't have your back."

Cloud sighed in frustration. He didn't want to argue with Leon, but neither did he want to put the gunblader in Sephiroth's path. How could he make him understand that the best way he could help was by staying out of the way? That by watching Cloud's back, he would be painting a bull's-eye on his own? And if anything happened to Leon...

It wouldn't. He would just have to make sure that it didn't. This time, he wouldn't lose anyone.

"All right," he grudgingly agreed, "I'll wait." But he knew it was going to be a long six days.

۵۵۵۵۵

In order to allow for time to take care of the registration and complete the preliminary trials, Leon decided they should leave for the coliseum after making their morning rounds on the day before the tournament. Cloud counted off the days on impatient fingers as they slowly trickled by and tried to keep himself busy to make them go faster.

Most mornings, the three companions continued to hang out in Second District long after the last Heartless had fallen, practicing for the tournament by competing against each other. Sometimes all three of them competed against each other, every man for himself, or sometimes they traded off sides, two against one, and it quickly became apparent that the most evenly balanced team was Leon and Yuffie against Cloud; the blond was the only one who could hold his own against the other two. Leon sometimes came close, but Yuffie, as good a fighter as she was, was quickly overpowered by the two stronger men.

For the first few days, Sora had joined them, regaling them with tales of the tournaments and further whetting their appetite, and on those days, it hadn't made any difference how they divided the teams; whichever side Sora was on was the side that won. Bolstered by the power of the keyblade, he even gave them a serious run for their money, three against one.

Donald and Goofy, anxious to check on Queen Minnie and Daisy, as well as to see if there had been any word from the King, had borrowed a small gummi from Cid to make a quick trip to the castle while he installed a few upgrades on theirs. Sora had decided to remain behind, preferring to spend the free time with his Traverse Town friends. Since no one would allow him to help with any work while he was there, insisting that he just relax and enjoy his time off, he spent most of his afternoons hanging out in Hundred Acre Wood or playing with the puppies, but his mornings were reserved for training with his three favorite fighters. He spent most of that time teaching them exactly why it wasn't a good idea to mess with the keyblade master.

"You've really ... improved," Leon panted out with grudging respect after a particularly grueling match. Though he was still slightly bent out of shape that the keyblade had chosen a kid, he was glad to see that Sora had gotten so much better. Leon secretly worried about the boy, and it made him feel a little better to know that the innocent young lad who carried the weight of the worlds on his inexperienced shoulders could at least defend himself. Leon knew all too well what it was like to have such a grave responsibility thrown at you at such an early age, and Sora was even younger than he had been.

Plus, it wasn't just his own world that Sora had been charged with saving, but all of them, yet he carried that weight with such confidence, courage and irrepressible cheerfulness that Leon couldn't help but admire him. He had to admit – also secretly, of course – that perhaps the keyblade had chosen wisely after all.

He was just glad that Sora and his two companions weren't planning on participating in the upcoming tournament. There was no way that he and Cloud and Yuffie would stand a chance at that trophy if they had to compete against the three of them – not when Sora had just single-handedly handed them their collective butts.

In addition to regaling them with stories about the coliseum and his travels to other worlds, Sora hounded Leon relentlessly about Geppetto, the old man they had met inside Monstro, and his wooden puppet, Pinnochio. Leon knew that locating them had about as much likelihood of success as finding a Cactuar thorn in a cosmic haystack, but Sora could be more resolute than Aerith, more indefatigable than Yuffie, and more persistent than Rinoa. And he was even harder to say no to than all three of them combined, because the keyblade was not the only thing that young Sora was the master of; he was also the absolute king of puppy-dog eyes.

So, in spite of his lack of faith in hopeless causes, Leon agreed to send out a ship to search the surrounding area where the giant whale had last been seen. Then Donald and Goofy returned from Disney Castle, so Sora bid his Traverse Town friends goodbye and good luck in the tournament and flew off with his two companions in search of other worlds unknown and, as of yet, unsealed.

As their own day of departure grew closer, Cloud grew more and more impatient, and even Leon was getting eager to be off. Yuffie was bouncing off every available wall. Putting all that energy to good use, they put the last few finishing touches on the little house in First District, but decided to wait until after their return to move the girls in, allowing the extra coat of varnish on the floor a few more days to dry.

After finishing the upgrades on Donald and Goofy's ship, they helped Cid install some of the new blocks he had just purchased from Sora on one his own ships, swapping out a few of the older blocks for stronger shields and more powerful lasers for their trip to the coliseum – not because he gave a shit about them, Cid grumbled, but because he didn't want to lose his ship.

Once the improvements to the ship had been completed, Cid gave Cloud a crash course in how to fly it, and Leon made sure it was well stocked with supplies, loading it with plenty of potions and ethers and other provisions, such as several cases of bottled water. In spite of Sora's assurance that the coliseum's water was fine, you never knew what you might find on other worlds. He did, however, heed the young keyblade master's advice when it came to accommodations.

Their choices, according to Sora, were a room in a ritzy resort in the clouds, usually reserved in advance by the more well-to-do spectators, or one of the not-so-ritzy rooms beneath the coliseum that housed the contestants. Both of these usually filled up quickly, leaving them with the third and only other option: camping in the courtyard. Since they would likely be one of the last groups to arrive, they borrowed a tent from Merlin, who rummaged it up from the deep, dark recesses of his bag along with an armful of other miscellaneous camping equipment that he thought they might find useful. Though the poor old tent looked almost as ancient as Merlin, at least it had the awesome ability of setting itself up.

The day before their departure, Aerith baked a double batch of cookies to send with them, one with chocolate chips for the boys and one without for Yuffie, and Cloud made sure there were plenty of M&Ms, which he stashed in various hiding places throughout the ship. Yuffie asked Aerith one last time if she was sure she didn't want to come with them, to which Aerith replied that she preferred to finish the curtains she was making for their new kitchen, and Leon asked her one last time if she was sure she wouldn't rather stay with Merlin or Cid while they were away, to which Aerith replied that she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

Still, just to be on the safe side, Leon asked Merlin to strengthen the wards on the house, and Cloud asked Cid to please check in from time to time. Then Cid asked the proprietor of the hotel to stop by when he had a chance, and Merlin asked Fairy Godmother to drop in for afternoon tea. He also asked Archimedes to set up roost for a couple of days on Leon's roof, and Merlin, himself, dropped by every morning, purportedly to check on his magical wards. Then the waitresses at the cafe caught wind of the fact that Aerith would be staying in the house alone, and soon thereafter, every resident of Traverse Town had thought of some excuse or another to visit their beloved flower girl.

Poor Aerith was never going to get those curtains done.

۵۵۵۵۵

It was early evening by the time the two weary men finally climbed the ladder to the roof of the Gizmo Shop, ready to relax after what had turned out to be a very long day of tying up last-minute loose ends around town. Cloud knew that the townspeople depended on Leon, but he had never realized just how much until the man made plans to leave for a couple of days. The way they all frantically sought his attention, you'd have thought he was abandoning them forever. Heaven forbid he should ever really leave Traverse Town for good; the place would surely fall apart without him.

After dealing with the demanding residents all day, Leon was in dire need of some tension relief and had suggested that they stop by the waterway for a quick spar. And quick it was.

With no delay – no feints and no false starts – they rushed at one another, fast and furious, straight for the win, and even with Leon giving it everything he had, Cloud had beaten him soundly, knocking his gunblade from his hands to send it clattering across the stone floor. Still, it had been an honest victory; swift, solid and clean, and Leon smiled to himself with satisfaction at the change that had come over his friend in the short amount of time he had known him. There was no doubt in his mind that Cloud was ready for the coliseum, and as ready as he was ever likely to be to face Sephiroth, should they actually find him.

Once they were done at the waterway, they stopped by the Dalmatian's House for a short visit with the puppies. Having been busy with the house in First District and the preparations for their trip, they hadn't had much time for their furry friends the last few days, and Leon wanted to at least check in on them before they left. The puppies were delighted to see them and disappointed when the visit ended too soon, attempting to keep their two humans from leaving by latching on to the legs of their pants with their little puppy teeth, and only letting go after Leon promised them an entire afternoon as soon as they got back.

To tell the truth, Leon knew that after the flight to the coliseum and back, with Yuffie, battling Heartless all the way, and the tournament in between, he, himself, would be ready for some down time with the puppies. He wished he had more time to hang out with them today, but he wanted to stop by the Gizmo Shop for a while as well, and it was already getting late. They probably should have just gone home, but after preparing everyone else for his departure, he needed a moment of quiet reflection to prepare himself.

They had just stepped off the ladder and started clearing the roof of Heartless, when a Large Body rammed into Leon and sent him flying backwards, dangerously close to the edge. Before he could regain his balance, a trio of Shadows materialized beneath his feet and further tripped him up. He reached out for a nearby column, but it wasn't close enough, and the only thing he achieved by his effort to save himself was dropping his gunblade, again.

Never drop your weapon. Never, ever, no matter what. It was rule number one, and he had broken it twice in the past hour. Leon growled in irritation, but his irritation quickly turned to alarm as he toppled backwards over the edge.

Well, at least he didn't have a giant ice spear through his chest.

Without a moment's hesitation, Cloud dove after him. Barely managing to grab one of Leon's outstretched hands, he yanked him upwards into his arms and unfurled his wing, spreading it wide to slow their fall as they plummeted towards the ground. In a desperate attempt to stabilize their descent, Cloud hooked his legs around Leon's and pulled the brunet's body flush against his own, but they were still falling too fast and starting to spiral out of control. He was carrying too much weight.

"I'm too heavy; you have to let me go," Leon shouted into the rush of wind.

"Shut up and hold on," Cloud shouted back. Keeping his left arm wrapped securely around Leon's waist, he unhooked his heavy sword from his back and flung it away. Then he shifted Leon's weight slightly to the left, centering it more directly beneath his wing, and grabbed the edge of his cape and thrust it out to the right like a makeshift wing to counterbalance his real one.

"I'm just going to pull us both down," Leon growled. Still, he did as he was told and wrapped his arms around Cloud's neck.

"Then we go down together," Cloud growled right back, so close that Leon could feel the warmth of his breath, so tightly clasped against the other man's body that he could feel the strong, steady beat of Cloud's heart against his own more frantic staccato. He focused his gaze on Cloud's wing, billowing out behind him, dark and alluring.

Leon took a deep breath and forced himself to relax in Cloud's hold, to trust him, and as soon as he fixed his attention on the other man's unfaltering determination rather than on his own fear, he could sense that Cloud was gaining control. Soon they were gliding smoothly through the air, and by the time they reached the other end of Second District, Cloud was in full command. Rounding the fountain adroitly, he circled back towards the Gizmo, aiming for the spot where his sword had fallen.

Once they were low enough to land, Cloud abruptly changed the angle of his wing, flapping it vigorously against the wind to slow them down, and pulled up sharply, but with Leon's extra weight in his arms, he was still traveling too fast and hit the ground running. Legs tangled up with Leon's, he stumbled forward, throwing one hand out in front of him while cradling the back of Leon's head with the other to cushion it from impact as they slammed into the wall. Shaky and dazed, they clung to one another for support. Leon's head was reeling, so he let it rest against Cloud's, forehead to forehead. "I think your landing could use a little work." He chuckled.

"And I think I just totally saved your ass," Cloud bantered back, his breathy laughter washing over Leon's mouth and rendering him incapable of a snarky rebuttal. It was true.

As the world gradually stopped spinning. Leon pulled back from the other man to put a little distance between them, though he didn't let go, uncertain that his legs would hold him up. His muscles were still twitching, and his entire body tingled, every single synapse simultaneously firing off their little electrical sparks. He looked into Cloud's eyes, and the world resumed its furious spinning.

There must have been warning signs – flashing neon lights or frantically waving red flags – but Leon failed to see them with his eyes held so thoroughly hostage by Cloud's. And there must have been alarms going off – sirens or something – but Leon couldn't hear them over the rushing of blood in his ears. Surely, his instincts must have been screaming at him to Run!, but his legs remained rooted to the ground as he continued to cling to the other man far too tightly. His whole world was still reeling and dizzy, and Cloud was sturdy and strong; an anchor in the approaching storm.

Or maybe he was the storm. A tempest that would forever change the landscape of Leon's life.

Too mesmerized to save himself from falling to his doom – death by drowning in pools of liquid blue – Leon slowly started to lean in. Then just like that, like Shiva had snapped her long, slender fingers, the spell shattered, and Leon jolted to his senses.

Thank Hyne for the Heartless. Never had he been so glad to see the sorry creatures.

He was glad, wasn't he? So why then, did his heart feel so heavy?

Fortunately, he didn't have time to properly ponder the deeper meaning of that question, even had he wanted to, because he suddenly remembered that he didn't have his gunblade. He groaned and smacked himself on the forehead. So much for being saved from making a total ass of himself; it didn't really matter if your ass was dead.

But Cloud had no intention of letting anything happen to Leon's lovely ass, and as soon as he heard the soft pop of an opening portal, followed by the low rumble of incoming Heartless, he spun around and snatched his sword from the ground, slicing into the first Blue Flame on his upward swing. He immediately brought his blade back down and neatly finished it off as three more spawned in to take its place. Leon threw his last potion at one of them, killing it instantly, and then all he could do was assume a defensive stance and raise his fists. Hopefully, he could still pull off a few of the more devastating moves that Zell had taught him so many years ago, though he was nowhere near as good at their execution.

Cloud never gave him the chance to find out. Raising his wing protectively, he pressed Leon back against the wall as he slammed the second Blue Flame with the flat of his blade, knocking it back several meters. Then he pivoted to the left and demolished the third one with a powerful slash, cleaving its body in two while Leon just stood there and gaped.

Nobody could take out a Blue Flame with one hit. Nobody.

The second one was back by then, attempting to assault Cloud's vulnerable right side, which was still open from his previous attack, but before it could land a blow, Cloud smashed it with a brutal backhand, and it disintegrated into a cloud of little black particles. Leon could literally feel the power surging through Cloud's body, hear the crackle of electricity and smell it in the air as threads of lightning sparked along the lines of Cloud's body and licked a path down his blade.

Though Leon had previously suspected that Cloud was holding back, he realized now, as the comprehension of Cloud's true strength began to fully sink in, that he'd had no idea how much he had been holding back. Cloud could have put out his lights as easily as squashing a level-one Bite Bug. Leon stared at the blond with a new level of awe and respect, a small amount of fear, and the first true inkling of just how strong Sephiroth must be. It sent a shiver down his spine.

Two Large Bodies and a Wyvern spawned in, and Cloud stepped forward to meet them. He cleanly sliced through both Large Bodies with one powerful swing – no stun and run around to the back tactics for Cloud, just head-to-head annihilation. Then he leapt into the air to meet the Wyvern head-on, which he promptly severed from its thick, red neck. When no more Heartless appeared, he handed his sword to Leon and sprang back into the air, bounding off the buildings for momentum as he worked his way to the top of the Gizmo and disappeared over the edge.

Just as Leon stepped away from the wall to watch, a fresh wave of Wyverns spawned in and surrounded him, circling just out of reach. Taking a deep breath, he placed his right foot forward and centered his weight, bending slightly at the knees, then hefted the heavy sword out in front of him and braced it with both hands, just like he had seen Cloud do. The Wyverns continued to circle, keeping a wary distance from the metal's painful bite as they waited for an opening.

A platoon of Soldiers spawned in next and, lacking the Wyvern's level of cunning, rushed right for him. Leon swung at the first one, but with the weight of the sword carrying its own momentum, he spun around in a full circle, knocking out everything within a six foot radius, including one of the Wyverns, which had seized the opportune moment to attack. Standing in the center of his swath of destruction, Leon snickered with delight. He remembered joking that Cloud couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with his monstrous slab of metal, but there was no way you could miss – as long as you could actually lift the thing, that is. The damn thing was the broad side of a barn!

Leon's amusement quickly died on his lips as the Wyvern recovered from its daze and resumed circling with its brethren, for Leon had only knocked it out. Had he been able to put enough power behind his swing, it probably would have killed it outright, but his arms were already starting to ache from the unaccustomed weight. Still, he steadied his grip on the heavy sword, and as he once more readied his stance, another motion caught the corner of his eye. Cloud was gliding back down with his gunblade. He landed directly in front of him, and exchanged their weapons.

With the buster sword back in hands more capable of wielding its cumbersome weight, and the more manageable weight of his gunblade back in his own, they finished off the rest of the Heartless and made their way back to the top of the Gizmo. This time, they were greeted by only a couple of shadows and a nocturne or two, and were soon sitting comfortably in their usual spot. Neither one of them felt like talking after the tiring day, so they settled back and watched the stars in silence. With no conversation to occupy Leon's thoughts, they soon wandered back to what had happened earlier. He had almost k–, almost–

Shit, he couldn't even say the word in his own head, as if even just thinking it to himself might make it true. And it wasn't, it couldn't be true, he couldn't have – Oh god, surely he hadn't...

Had he?

He replayed the scene in his head, focusing on the incriminating part where he had started to lean in. How obvious had it been? Had he actually leaned in?

No, of course not. He wasn't – He didn't – He had just been confused. Dazed and confused. He replayed it again to be certain. No, it was fine. He hadn't done anything inappropriate. He breathed a sigh of relief.

But what if Cloud thought he had–

At the mere thought of that possibility, humiliation swallowed Leon whole, flooding him with fear from head to toe, and he replayed the scene again. But it had already been distorted by too much thinking about it, and now he couldn't be sure exactly what had happened.

He cautiously glanced at the man beside him, but Cloud was just lying there with a peaceful, unperturbed look on his face, quietly watching the stars. There was obviously nothing bothering him, nothing that had ruffled his self-possession. Or if it had, he had obviously already gotten over it. Or forgotten about it. Leon scowled. Why did that piss him off?

This was stupid; he was being ridiculous. The reason Cloud was sitting there oblivious and anguish-free was because nothing had happened. Everything was perfectly fine, perfectly normal. By the time they were ready to leave, Leon had successfully convinced himself that he had just imagined the whole stupid incident, though why he might have imagined such an incident was conveniently not considered.

He grabbed his gunblade from the ledge and got up. "I suppose we should head home." Cloud nodded and picked up his own blade. Leon almost blurted out something else, but luckily, caught himself in time.

Or maybe not. "What?" Cloud asked.

"Nothing," Leon answered, shaking his head. He couldn't believe the crazy impulse had even crossed his mind. He really was confused.

But Cloud wasn't buying it. "Nothing?"

"Right. Nothing. Let's go." Leon turned to leave.

With a flash of insight, Cloud knew exactly what was on Leon's mind and jumped up to stop him. "You want to fly down again."

"Of course not," Leon stammered, turning back to the unsettling sight of the blond smirking. How in the hell had Cloud known that? Did Mako also give people the power to read minds, or was Leon just that obvious?

"Yes, you do," Cloud insisted, smirk intensifying to a terrifying grin.

"No. No, really," Leon mumbled. "Besides, it's too big a strain on your wing."

"You're hardly heavier than my sword, Leonhart," Cloud said smugly. "It's only the balance that's tricky." And before Leon could say another word, Cloud grabbed Leon's gunblade from his hands and jumped off the roof. Leon watched over the edge as he circled down and deposited their weapons on the ground.

Well, fuck. That made three times now that he had lost his weapon today! Leon buried his face in his hand.

But less than twenty seconds later, Cloud was back by his side, still grinning roguishly. "All right," he said. "Let's do it, but this time, we're going to do it a little differently."

Stepping around behind Leon's back, Cloud took hold of Leon's arms and lifted them out to his sides. "Hold your arms out like this," he instructed, "and keep your body rigid." Then he took a step forward, right up against Leon's back, and wrapped his left arm around Leon's waist, pulling their bodies snug. Placing his chin over Leon's right shoulder, he slid his right arm alongside Leon's and laced their fingers together. "Ready?" he whispered.

No. And why had he thought that this might be a good idea? Leon nodded.

He tried to keep his mind focused in front of him rather than on the hard body pressed to his back or the warm breath on his cheek, but he couldn't stop the shiver that rippled through his body. Cloud's lips were so close that if Leon were to turn his head just a little, he could easily brush them with his own.

The shiver traveled like electricity from Leon's body into Cloud's, which automatically answered with one of its own. The heat of the gunblader's skin, mingled with the masculine scent of musk and warm leather, caused heat to start pooling in Cloud's belly, distracting him from the reason for their proximity. Before his body could respond in an even more inappropriate manner, he spread his wing wide and pushed them over the edge.

The instinctive fear of falling immediately flooded Leon with panic, but Cloud found his balance quickly this time, and when he once again intertwined their legs and adjusted Leon's position, fitting their bodies together as one, Leon experienced an unexpected feeling of security, and his fear quickly turned to exhilaration as they sailed effortlessly through the air. This was nothing like the first time – falling helplessly on his back. This time he could see the world below him and feel the wind on his face.

Cloud pressed on Leon's outstretched arm as he tilted their bodies into a gentle turn, and then lightly squeezed Leon's fingers as he leveled it out again, wordlessly conveying encouragement for Leon to take control. Slightly raising one arm while lowering the other, Leon cautiously banked their bodies into the wind. Delighted with the immediate response, he tried it again in the other direction, and once again successfully turned them. With growing confidence and an intoxicating feeling of freedom, he steered them around Second District, and for one brief, thrilling moment, he actually felt as if Cloud's wing were his own.

But the exciting ride was over far too quickly, and soon the ground was rising up to meet them. Once again, Cloud slowed them down and pulled up short, letting go of Leon's legs as he landed lightly on the ground. He continued to hold on to Leon for what was probably a moment longer than necessary – just to make sure that the other man was steady on his feet, of course. Then he reluctantly let his arms fall from Leon's body and took a step back.

"So, did I pass audition this time?" he asked.

"With flying colors," Leon answered, a genuine smile on his face as he turned around to face his friend. "Thanks for the lift."

"Anytime," Cloud replied.

Leon nodded in return, then turned his face towards home and his thoughts to the evening ahead. Aerith had promised to have a light dinner waiting for them whenever they got home, and for that, he was grateful. He still needed to take a quick shower and throw a few things in an overnight bag, maybe read for a bit and then, finally, call it a day. He wanted to get an early start in the morning.

A short dash down the alleyway brought them uneventfully to the door to Third District, and from there to little house that Cloud had already started to think of as home. Little did he know as he walked in the door that it would be for the last time in a long time to come.

come.