.

۵۵۵۵۵
-
Chapter Twenty Four-
A New Home
۵۵۵۵۵

"So," Aerith said, now that everyone was gathered around the table. "Now that we've finished searching the library, isn't it time we started looking for a place to live?"

"We have a place to live," Merlin replied. He was perfectly happy with his living arrangements.

"I meant a real place," Aerith tried again. "As in a house? With a real kitchen? You know, that room with a refrigerator and a stove? And a kitchen sink?"

"There's a perfectly good sink in the bathroom," Merlin pointed out unhelpfully. "Two of them, as a matter fact."

"Then you can wash the dishes in the bathroom sink from now on!" Honestly, wizards just didn't understand the mundane details of everyday life for the common person. "And what about a shower?" she continued. "It would be nice not to have to go up two flights of stairs and down the hall just to take a shower. In groups of two or more for safety!" she added. Though there were fewer Heartless since Sora sealed the keyhole, the trek to the bathroom was still perilous. "Or should I just bathe in the bathroom sink as well?"

"A real kitchen would be nice," Leon agreed. "It would be good to have something to eat other than canned stew."

"What's wrong with canned stew?"

Leon bit his tongue and refrained from enumerating all the things that were wrong with canned stew; Merlin seemed to be in a particularly quarrelsome mood this morning, and there was no point in making it worse. "It's just that a little variety every now and then would be nice."

"And a goddamn bed," Cid threw in. "I'm too fucking old to sleep on the floor; my back can't take it!"

"Well, I don't understand what the problem is. It's quite comfortable here."

"For you, maybe." Yuffie snorted.

"I think Merlin got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Aerith said to Yuffie. "He's grouchy!"

"At least he's got a goddamn bed!" Cid griped.

"I am not grouchy. And stop talking about me in the third person; I'm right here. It's just that I think it would be more convenient to stay where we are. We may have finished searching the library, but we still to need look for Ansem's study. And there's probably a lab around here somewhere too."

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to defuse the escalating tension. Merlin was grouchy, Aerith was getting huffy, and Cid was... Cid. "What if we look for an area in the castle near the kitchen with several bedrooms and a bath," he suggested, offering what he hoped was a compromise acceptable to all parties, but Aerith shook her head.

"Frankly, Leon, this castle gives me the creeps, and it's not just the Heartless." An oppressive darkness hung over the entire castle, and Maleficent's stench still permeated the very walls.

"And the mess!" Yuffie added. "It'll take years to clean it all up!" Not that any of them were daunted by the prospect of hard work – it had been a fact of their lives for so long, they accepted it as a matter of course – but the sheer amount of debris in the castle was disheartening.

"All right." Leon looked from face to face around the table. "Aerith wants to leave and Merlin wants to stay. I don't have a strong preference one way or the other as long as we have access to a kitchen and a shower. Cid?"

"I don't give a shit either as long as I get a goddamn bed."

"Well, I agree with Aerith," Yuffie volunteered without waiting to be asked. "This place is creepy! I vote we leave."

"That makes two for leaving, one against, and two abstentions." Leon tallied up the votes, then turned to the only member of their group yet to voice an opinion. "Cloud?"

"I'm not sure I've been here long enough for my vote to count," he said quietly.

"Of course it counts. This affects you as much as everyone else."

"Then I suppose I'm okay either way too, but I agree with the girls about the castle. The darkness is heavy here."

"All right!" Yuffie pumped her fists. "The ayes have it!"

And that was how Cloud and Leon found themselves with a new project for the day.

۵۵۵۵۵

The two men returned later that afternoon with the news that they had found a relatively undamaged area in the burrough, with one house in particular in pretty good shape. It was small, with only one bedroom, but it had a kitchen and a bath, along with all of the requisite appliances and plumbing fixtures, as well as a small utility room with a washer and dryer. Though there was currently no electricity or water, Leon was confident they could have everything up and running with a few minor repairs.

"Where the hell are we all going to sleep with only one bedroom?" Cid wanted to know.

"I'm not thrilled with it either, but it won't be forever," Leon assured him. "There are a couple of other houses nearby we could start working on after we're done with this one."

"I'm sure we'll make do," Merlin said – thankfully, now in a better mood.

Aerith was so excited, she wanted to move right away.

"Don't you think it would be better to wait until we've made the necessary repairs?" Leon suggested. "And it needs a good cleaning as well; I doubt you would want to sleep there in its current condition. At the very least we should wait until morning so we'll have a full day's light to work on the place." Aerith grudgingly admitted that made sense and agreed to wait until tomorrow.

Over an early dinner, they made a plan of action for the following day, and everyone was assigned a task. Cid was to check all the wiring in the house to make sure it was safe; Aerith and Yuffie agreed to do the cleaning, and Merlin would do his usual wizardly things to protect the house from Heartless. Cloud and Leon were unanimously volunteered to tackle the dirty job of crawling under the house to repair any busted pipes.

As the others were preparing for bed, Cloud pulled Leon aside. "I'm just gonna run check on something in the marketplace," he mumbled.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Leon asked. It was already dark outside, and though he knew Cloud could see much better in the dark than other people, not to mention was a hell of lot stronger, the thought of Cloud out there alone on this strange new world worried him.

"Well..." Cloud hesitated. "I'd rather go now."

"I'll go with you then."

Cloud looked away from Leon's eyes, afraid they would see right through him. "To tell you the truth, I just need a little time alone. I won't be long."

Leon didn't like it, and he wasn't buying Cloud's excuse – What was there to check on in the deserted marketplace? – but he couldn't very well stop him. And he certainly understood his need for some time away from the others, though it bothered him to know that included him. "Well, take this then," he said, digging in his pocket and handing Cloud his key to the library.

Once Cloud was free of the castle, he quickly made his way to the ravine and traveled its length like he had the night before, but there was still no sign of Sephiroth. Wondering if he had once again made the wrong decision by leaving the coliseum, he returned to the castle and let himself into the library. Everyone else had already gone to bed, eager to get an early start the next morning, but Leon was reading at the table upstairs. Cloud walked over and gave him his key. "You didn't need to wait up."

Leon closed his book and stood up. "I know. I wanted to read a while anyway. I got a blanket for you from Merlin," he added, pointing to the bed. "Since you seem to prefer sleeping on top of your sleeping bag."

Cloud rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, sleeping inside it makes me feel too confined."

Leon nodded in understanding; it was a feeling he knew all too well. For warriors like them, the need to be able to react quickly to danger, where even a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death, was so deeply ingrained it had become indistinguishable from instinct. "That's why I don't zip mine up."

"I tried that once, but my feet still got tangled up in the bottom... I don't like to take off my boots when I'm sleeping in an unfamiliar place," Cloud admitted.

Leon had no idea what to say to that. Knowing that Cloud had it even worse than him made his heart hurt, and not knowing how to fix it left him feeling hopelessly inadequate. When Leon's silence stretched out so long it started becoming awkward, Cloud filled it.

"Well, thanks for the blanket. And for your jacket last night," he said, the slightest hint of color on his cheeks. "I'm sorry I woke you up."

"Don't worry about it." Leon shrugged it off.

Another moment of awkward silence followed, with both men at a loss this time for further words. "Well, I should let you get some sleep," Leon finally said, turning to leave. "Good night."

"Night," Cloud replied, removing his armor and laying it on the table as he watched the other man walk away. Once he had disappeared down the stairs, Cloud laid his sword beside his bed and lay down on top of his sleeping bag, covering himself with the blanket that Leon had brought him. Warmed more by the small act of kindness than the blanket itself, Cloud closed his eyes.

Leon had just drifted off when he was abruptly awakened again. Odd that he could sleep right through Cid's snoring and Yuffie's tendency to shout out random words in her sleep, but was so keenly attuned to Cloud's slightest whimper...

He found Cloud in the same condition as the night before, still shivering despite the blanket covering his slender frame, and again placed his jacket over the other man even though he knew for certain now that it didn't have anything to do with the cold. Though he couldn't imagine why, it had worked last night, and sure enough, Cloud was soon sleeping soundly.

۵۵۵۵۵

When Leon got up the following morning, Aerith had already packed her bag and was gathering up all of the kitchen supplies they didn't need for that morning so Merlin could put them back in his bag. "Maybe we should leave our things here for now," he suggested. "In case we don't finish with the repairs? I'm sure we'll all want showers at the end of the day, and there might not be any water yet."

"Or power," Cid added.

"Other than one section in the kitchen, most of the wiring looks okay, so hopefully that won't be too big a problem," Leon told him.

Cid pulled out the diagram of the town's power grid he had found when searching the library and spread it on the table. "The power lines into the surrounding residential areas run from the castle," he said, pointing them out on the map. "and they're buried, so they oughta be okay, but the transformers are above ground. That's the only other thing we might have to worry about. Can you show me where our house is on here so I'll know where to find the transformer?"

Leon turned the schematic around so he wasn't looking at it upside down, and was orienting himself with the layout when Cloud came downstairs. Cloud hung Leon's jacket on the back of the chair he was sitting in and looked over Leon's shoulder as he located the marketplace and then traced a line to their house. "The house is here," he said to Cid, pointing to the spot on the map, then tapped one of the blue circles nearby. "So this should be our transformer."

"Ah, thanks, Leon."

Cloud was impressed, not only by Leon's ability to decipher the confusing collection of lines and abstract symbols on the map, but mostly that Cid had managed to string together several sentences without a single obscenity.

"Well, I don't care if there's no power or water," Aerith stated in no uncertain terms. "I'm not spending another night in this castle!"

"Then I guess we better get moving," Leon replied.

۵۵۵۵۵

They packed up the rest of their things and set out first thing after breakfast, following Leon to the side door they had found earlier, then through the bailey and down the stairs to the burrough, with Cloud bringing up the rear. Cloud had always allowed Leon the lead, and everyone assumed it was out of deference to the older man and undeclared leader, but the truth was that Cloud simply liked looking at Leon's ass.

Cloud's eyes weren't the only ones glued to Leon's backside as they made their way slowly through the rubble; the girls were also enjoying the view. Yuffie commented to Aerith that she wondered if Leon wore his belts to protect his chastity, but Aerith just laughed and said she thought it was more like 'X marks the spot'. Which was good, she added to herself, because Cloud needed all the help he could get finding his way. Of course, there was still no guarantee that he would get the message, even with a flashing neon arrow that said 'This way Cloud'.

When they reached the house, Cid made a quick inspection of the wiring while Aerith and Yuffie looked the place over, nodding in approval. Though it was small and dirty, as Leon had warned them, it was a vast improvement over the library. Aerith dusted off her hands and placed them on her hips. "Well! I'm gonna need some water!"

Leon looked at Merlin. "Got any buckets in your bag?"

Merlin shook his head.

Leon turned back to Aerith. "There's a shed in the back. I'll go see what I can find." He went through the kitchen door into the back yard and after a lot of banging and clanging, came back with four large buckets. "Fortunately, there's a whole stack of buckets in there. Unfortunately, they were all the way in back of the shed, which is filled with garden supplies."

"Really?" Aerith exclaimed. "Well, isn't that a good omen!"

"I guess?" Leon shrugged. He handed a couple of buckets to Cloud with a nod toward the door, and they walked over to the small fountains on a nearby wall. Luckily, they were still flowing, which was also a good omen, and the two men returned a few minutes later with four buckets of water.

Aerith looked around the room again and shook her head. "I don't think that's going to be enough..." So back to the shed they went and then back to fountains and lugged back another four buckets. "That ought to do it," she said, rolling up her sleeves – metaphorically speaking, that is, since the shirt she was wearing didn't have any. "At least for now." Hopefully, they would have the water back on before she needed more.

With Aerith's needs taken care of, they prepared to get started on their own appointed task. Leon went into the bedroom to change into the old pair of jeans and worn t-shirt he had brought for just such a purpose, and Cloud went into the bathroom to remove his pants and exchange his top for another old t-shirt he had borrowed from Leon to wear underneath the coveralls he had borrowed from Cid.

Cloud finished changing first, probably due to the fact that he had a lot fewer belts to remove, and was already back in the living room when Leon walked in. Cloud stopped himself just short of rubbing his eyes; he had never seen Leon in jeans before. They were well worn-in and fit him perfectly, conforming to his body in a way that even his snug leathers didn't, and without all his belts...

Cloud finally succeeded in tearing his eyes away from Leon's crotch, hoping like hell that the other man hadn't noticed. Thankfully, Leon was busy talking to Merlin, and by the time he walked over to Cloud with the basket of tools he had gathered, Cloud had his libido back under control. "Ready?" he asked.

Leon nodded, and they once again went out back to the small access door to the crawlspace. The shut-off valve for the water coming into the house was conveniently located just to one side. Leon handed the flashlight to Cloud, and they crawled under the house.

They found a number of pipes that were obviously busted and a few that were sagging, which they repaired as they went, replacing the broken ones and bracing the ones that were hanging down. Luckily, there were a dozen lengths of new pipe under the house, saving them the additional headache of having to steal some from one of the other abandoned houses nearby.

Side by side on their backs, Cloud held the flashlight with one hand and supported the pipe with his other while Leon cut out the busted part and put in a new piece, but his eyes kept drifting to the muscles in Leon's arms as he worked. Then Leon would give him a long-suffering look and patiently move Cloud's hand to redirect the flashlight's beam back to the correct spot.

Once they were done, Leon dug in the basket of tools for the small electronic timer and set it for fifteen minutes. While they were waiting for the solvent cement to set, the two men lay back to rest their arms. "How do you know about plumbing?" Cloud asked.

"There weren't any plumbers in Traverse Town," Leon replied.

"So, as usual, you got stuck with the job."

"I didn't really mind," Leon said. "We needed all the available housing, and keeping up with repairs gave me something to do."

Cloud scoffed. "Like you didn't already have enough to do taking care of everything else."

"Actually, I kind of enjoyed it," Leon admitted, sitting up to massage his upper arms. "Doing something with my hands other than killing things was nice for a change."

"I wouldn't know anything about that... " Cloud mumbled, though he did have a few ideas about other things Leon could do with his hands that didn't involve killing things... "How's your shoulder by the way?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Not bad. I've been doing those exercises you showed me religiously."

"Glad to hear it. Still, you're overdue for a good massage. I could work on it tonight."

"Maybe, if there's time" Leon agreed as the timer went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and turned it off. "Well, let's give it a try."

Cloud handed the flashlight to Leon and crawled back through the access door to turn on the water while Leon remained under the house to see if there were any more leaks. There were.

Several additional cracks were revealed by the water now spraying out, and one whole section under the kitchen collapsed entirely under the weight of the water rushing through the pipes. Leon made a quick mental note of the locations of the cracks and then called to Cloud, "Okay, shut it off!" Cloud immediately did so, but a great deal of water had already spilled into the crawlspace, creating a very muddy mess under the house.

They tackled the smaller cracks first, repeating their earlier process, and then headed for the section that had collapsed, which was going to be a larger undertaking. It was located all the way in the back corner where the ground sloped upward, making the already cramped crawl space extremely tight. "I hope you're not claustrophobic," Leon mumbled. They had to shimmy on their bellies, and by the time they reached their target, both men were thoroughly soaked and covered with mud. They rolled over onto their backs, and began rebuilding the section piece by piece. Once they were finally done, Leon set the timer again

Cloud reached over to remove a small blob of mud from Leon's cheek, but only succeeded in smearing it further. Deciding it looked like a whisker, he dipped his finger in the mud and added two more, rolling onto his side to draw three matching marks on the Leon's other cheek. Then he leaned over the other man to consider his handiwork. "Hmm... just needs a little–

As Cloud's finger descended toward his nose, Leon's left hand shot up and grabbed Cloud's wrist. "What the hell are you doing?" He chuckled.

"Hold still!" Cloud hissed, trying to pull his arm from Leon's grasp, but failing. "You'll mess up my masterpiece."

Still holding on to Cloud's wrist, Leon pushed him over onto his back and pinned him down, retaliating by drawing a long line from Cloud's forehead, down his nose and over his mouth to the point of his chin. His eyes lingered a moment too long on Cloud's mouth, and he only snapped out of his trance when the corners of those captivating lips curled up in a sexy smirk. He quickly refocused his attention and drew two squiggly designs on each of Cloud's cheeks and a star around each eye. "Now that's a masterpiece," he said.

"Not fair!" Cloud cried. "You didn't let me finish!"

"All right. Do your best," Leon said, releasing his grip and rolling onto his back.

Cloud colored in the bottom part of Leon's nose and drew a line from his nose to the bow of his mouth, with several small dots on each side of it, then added several smaller whiskers above his eyes. Satisfied with the results, Cloud let out a low, sexy "Mrow."

"Mrow?"

"Well, you did say you were a lion..."

Leon cocked a whiskered brow at the other man. "I don't think lions say mrow." And then he started to laugh, and Cloud started laughing too, and for one moment, lying in the mud underneath an unfamiliar house on an unfamiliar world, nothing else mattered – not the heartaches or the Heartless or the heavy responsibilities that weighed on them both. It was just the two of them with no one to witness them acting like idiots, and for that one moment, all was right with the world.

But responsibilities can only be ignored for so long, which the time promptly reminded them, so Cloud crawled out to turn on the water again. There was only one more small leak closer to the door that Leon had missed, and they had it had fixed in short order. Then they both came out from under the house to stretch their limbs while waiting for the fifteen minutes to pass.

"Well, third time's the charm," Leon said, crouching at the access door and shining the flashlight under the house while Cloud turned on the water for the third time. "Looks good," he said when no further leaks appeared, closing the door and shutting off the water to let the pipes fully cure for another hour or two. Though it was probably to safe to leave the water on, he didn't want to take any chances. Tired and very dirty, they returned to the house.

Aerith saw them coming from the window she was currently cleaning and met them at the back door, busting out laughing when she got a good look at the two men. They were covered with mud from head to toe, and Cloud's hair was the same color as Leon's. Even his resilient spikes had surrendered under the weight of the mud and hung down limply around his face, save for the largest spike on the very top of his head, which was still blond and defiantly sticking up. "Oh, no you don't," she cried, wagging her finger at them. "We've spent the last five hours cleaning this place; there's no way you're coming in."

"We're going to the castle to shower," Cloud said.

Yuffie and Merlin and Cid all came over to see what Aerith was laughing about and also burst out laughing when they saw what it was. "What the fuck are you supposed to be? Cid asked. "Two little Indians?"

"No, I know!" Yuffie cried. "You're a couple of rock stars! Like that band on the poster in the video store back in Traverse Town."

Aerith wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and went to get their things.

"I see you got the power on," Leon said to Cid while they were waiting.

"Yep. Had to replace a few outlets and fuses, and that section of wiring in the kitchen that was torn out, but everything is good to go. Luckily, the transformer is fine. Appliances all work too, except for the water heater; I don't know about that. I didn't want to turn it on til you got the water running."

"We probably should flush it out first too since it's been sitting for a while." Leon suggested. "I saw a garden hose in the shed."

"I'll go get it," Cloud volunteered.

"It's hanging on the wall near the front, right side."

Aerith returned with three bags, one containing towels and soap and shampoo and the other two containing their clothes, and handed them to Leon. "The repairs are done, but the pipes need to cure for another hour or so," he informed her. "Once it's back on, open all the cold water faucets and let them run for a few minutes to flush out any debris. Are you still okay on water until then?"

Aerith nodded. "I still have a couple of buckets left." Cloud came back with the hose and handed it to Cid, and the two men left for the castle.

Once they were safely in the bathroom, which was still protected by Merlin's ward, Leon put the soap and shampoo in the shower and hung the towels on the hook beside it. "You can go first," he said to Cloud.

"You sure? I don't think I'm quite as dirty as you."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just don't stay in there all day."

Cloud turned on the shower and stepped in fully clothed to rinse off as much of the mud as possible before removing them, layer by layer, and dropping them on the floor of the tub. Once he was finished washing his body and his hair, he grabbed one of the towels and wrapped it around his waist, then stepped out of the shower, and Leon stepped in. He repeated the same process as Cloud, dropping his clothes on top of the pile, and by the time he was done, Cloud was dressed.

Cloud busied himself wringing out the wet clothing and putting it in the bags, keeping his back turned to give Leon some privacy while he dressed, but it wasn't easy to do, knowing that the man was naked a mere few feet away. When he was finished with the clothes, he put his towel in the remaining bag, hoping that Leon was almost done because he was almost done with things to do. Thankfully, just as Cloud was adding the soap and shampoo to the bag, Leon handed him the other towel as well.

The sun was on its way down as they made their way back through the castle to the side door, and when they reached the bailey, Cloud stopped to look out one of the openings in the outer wall at the ravine below. Leon walked over to join him, and the two men shared a few moments of silence as they watched the sun dip behind the blue cliffs beyond, painting them and the sky with hues of pink and purple.

"I suppose we should head back before it gets dark," Leon said.

"I'll meet you back at the house in a bit," Cloud said, turning away.

Leon reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "Are you going to tell me what this is about?" Cloud dropped his eyes and didn't answer. "So, it's about Sephiroth, then." Leon said. "He's the reason you left the coliseum in such a hurry you resorted to using the corridors. You think he's here. Tell me I'm wrong."

"You're not wrong," Cloud said quietly.

Leon rubbed at his scar. "Cloud, you can't spend the rest of your life chasing Sephiroth."

"I can and I will, as long as he's a threat to the people I care about." Cloud sighed deeply. He didn't want to have this argument with Leon again. "You should go back to the house. I'll be there soon."

"Unless you find Sephiroth." Leon scoffed. "What then?"

"Just go back to the house, Leon. Please."

"Fine," Leon said, turning his back and stalking away. He didn't want to have this argument again either.

۵۵۵۵۵

The first words out of Aerith's mouth when Leon walked in the door were, "Where's Cloud?"

"He'll be here soon," he answered dismissively, glancing around the room. "Looks good. Are you done with the cleaning?"

"Everything except the bedroom, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. We've had enough for one day."

"And the water?"

"Cid's turning it on right now," she replied just as Cid and Yuffie walked in the back door.

"Well, you look a helluva lot better!" Cid said.

"I feel a lot better too." The two men went to the utility room, where the water heater was also located, and Yuffie and Aerith followed them to watch. Leon deposited the bags of wet clothing on top of the washer and then grabbed one end of the hose from the floor, coming face to face with the two girls when he turned around to take it outside. "You know, this room is barely big enough for the appliances, much less four people."

"Sorry," they said, stepping aside to let him pass.

"One of you go turn on the hot water faucet, would ya?" Cid asked, hooking the other end of the hose to the water heater.

"I'll get it," Yuffie said.

"Just the hot!" Cid yelled as she bounced into the kitchen.

Once Leon was back, Cid opened the valve to drain any water still in the tank, then opened the intake valve and let the water run through the tank for several minutes to thoroughly flush it out. "Well, that oughta do her," he said, shutting off the drain outlet and removing the hose while Leon went to the kitchen to turn off the faucet. Once the tank had filled, Cid set the thermostat and flipped on the breaker in the fuse box on the wall behind him.

"Is that … good?" Yuffie asked when the heater began to hum.

"Of course it's good, you goddamn bonehead," Cid said, but his gruff tone was softened by the smile on his face.

Both girls cheered, eager for hot showers. "How long will it take for the water to get hot?" Aerith asked.

"An hour?" Cid guessed. "Maybe half," he amended when both girls groaned; they were ready for hot showers now.

Leon opened the cold water faucets, which still hadn't been done, and let them run while he took the hose back to the shed. When he returned, Cloud was talking to Aerith, and Merlin was furnishing the living room with his things. Leon shut off the faucets and then joined the others. "Sure would be nice to have some normal furniture," Yuffie was saying. "Like a sofa or at least a couple of comfortable chairs?" The only place to sit was at Merlin's table in the middle of the room.

"Maybe Cloud and I could see what we can find in the other houses or the castle," Leon offered, "though I'm not sure where we would put it." Merlin had pretty much taken over all of the available space.

"And where the fuck are the rest of us supposed to sleep?" Cid complained, glaring at Merlin. "You ain't the only one living here, you goddamn asshat!"

Merlin zapped Cid's feet with a small thunderbolt, leaving Cid hopping from one foot to the other and small scorch marks on the floor.

"Merlin!" Aerith cried. "I just cleaned that floor!"

"Oh, fine!" Merlin relented, putting several things back in his bag.

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and went into the kitchen to check on the hot water. Living in the small house with five other people was not going to be fun, especially when three of those people were Yuffie, Merlin and Cid. He returned to the living room to inform the others that the water was hot, then went back to the kitchen to heat up another can of stew while Cid and the girls took their showers. Now that they had a refrigerator, perhaps a trip back to Traverse Town was in order.

۵۵۵۵۵

After dinner everyone claimed a corner, Aerith and Yuffie in one and Cid in the other on the far side of the house, and Leon rolled his sleeping bag out in the corner across from the one by door. Cloud grabbed his own sleeping bag and looked around the close quarters. When Leon noticed him glance at the door, he came over and pulled the sleeping bag from under his arm. "You can share my corner. Unless you'd rather share with Cid?"

Cloud shook his head in alarm at the thought. "Cid smells like cigarettes. And he snores. But maybe I should just go back to the library... I don't want to disturb the others."

"All the more reason to stay close to me," Leon insisted. "If you have a nightmare, I can stop it before it wakes anyone." And before Cloud could say no, he rolled out the other man's sleeping bag next to his own.

Cloud hesitated for only a moment before giving in. He was tired, and the thought of sleeping with Leon was a lot more appealing than walking back to the castle, so he lay down beside the other man and quickly drifted into a deep, peaceful sleep.