"Tch..."
A low hiss escaped reluctantly through tightly clenched teeth, barely detectable beneath the sharp proclamation, but it did little to deter Leon's progress as he ran hasty stitches through sundered skin, swift but meticulous in his work.
"Not looking good," he mentioned offhandedly, his concentration reserved almost entirely for his current task. "Should've cauterized it before."
Cloud rolled his neck with an idle groan of dissatisfaction at the needle pulling indecently through the deep gash in his shoulder blade, its erratic progress tempered by the firm pressure of Leon's gloved fingers against his back.
"No time," he summarized, his lip curling for just a moment as he felt the stitches tug at freshly-torn skin, body jostling slightly from the movement. "Nh...shit."
"Easy."
Resting the edge of his palm precariously against Cloud's back with the needle still balanced between his fingertips, Leon reached over to lift a potion-soaked rag from the small glass bowl sitting beside them, letting it seep into the wound for a few moments before threading the remaining stitches. Several more bloodstained cloths were already strewn about the bed they were sitting on, along with a half-raveled roll of bandages and a stack of gauze pads, the inevitable aftermath of a grueling evening that none of them had asked for.
Leon paused for a moment to admire his handiwork in the low light, a mild tenor of discontent in his throat.
"You're a damn mess."
It would have to do.
Cloud closed one eye for a moment as a gauze pad was taped over his back, his arms braced grimly against the edge of the mattress. His left bicep was already wrapped, a cut under his right eye held together with butterfly strips...there was another large, somewhat bloodied dressing taped across one side of his rib cage, and the deep gash across his stomach was tightly bound to keep him from twisting around too much, not that he had the energy to do anything besides sit there and listen to the disinclined leader of the Restoration Committee get on his case.
"Yeah, hundred to one. Nailed it," he uttered dully, though he sounded more tired than he did annoyed. "So what? You're one to...ngh...talk..."
Leon tossed him a dry, uncharacteristically patient grunt that may have been a chuckle, securing the gauze pad and wrapping Cloud's shoulder over with the remaining bandages for good measure. Sure enough, there was a line of butterfly stitches up his own forearm as well, along with a line of bruised and swollen knuckles, though the white vest that clung to his frame hid the evidence of tended claw marks across battered ribs.
"Sure," he acknowledged, his tone matter-of-fact. "But I don't have mako pumping through my system like fucking radioactive waste, either, so that's not really the issue here."
Though he was facing away from Leon, Cloud's expression contorted slightly, and powerful, wiry muscle drew tight across otherwise frail limbs at the sentiment, because it was harder to argue in the face of inconvenient truths.
"I'm fine," he muttered roughly, the irritation more prominent in his tone now, though it wasn't entirely with Leon.
"You're slipping."
Cloud didn't want to hear it. But that was the thing about Leon – he had a knack for knowing exactly what other people didn't want him to say, and he more often than not, he said it anyway. Usually with a poignant air of unpalatable delivery, for good measure. Cloud may have been more approving if, more often than not, he wasn't on the receiving end, and he rolled his neck again with another grunt of discontent. The rent flesh taxing his body from so many angles was enough of a reminder without Leon laying it on the way he was.
"Just an off night." Said under his breath, his demeanor growing surly. "Security system in the bailey went down...got breached. Took Cid a while to get things back online."
"Whatever."
Cloud glanced off to one side, toward the drawn curtains at the single window; in the dimly-lit room, the mako shone from his eyes with an eerie glow. Neither of them had left the military to go to war, but Radiant Garden had fallen once before, and as circumstance would have it, they were the last line of defense for a City of Light laid to waste by the forces of Darkness.
"The others still out there?" Cloud uttered finally.
"Everyone's back in one piece. Well...more or less." Leon moved a hand over his own ribs. "It's been four days, after all."
"That's it?"
"Hmph."
Cloud suppressed a wry smirk, then set his hands on his knees.
"Well, looks like things've calmed down for now, anyway. We better – ugh...shit..." He faltered as he got to his feet at an unexpected pain that ripped suddenly through his torso, tearing at his insides like a beast ravaging its prey. "Nrgh –!"
His bare back landed against something solid just as he began to fall, and he realized a moment later that it was Leon. Rough hands came up against his shoulders to steady him, and his lips thinned slightly.
"Thought I just told you to take it easy."
Cloud sighed sharply in annoyance as those same hands moved down from his shoulders over his injured back, sliding around his torso to rest carefully over his abdomen. The blade there had cut the deepest, more so than he had anticipated, and it was a moment or so before he could talk again.
"Damn..." He expelled another low breath, his body leaning up against gloved palms as his hips slumped forward, his back sinking more heavily into Leon's front. "It's fine."
"Hey, come on," came the lazy, still somewhat irritable growl from behind him. "Don't push it."
"Ngh." Cloud groaned a little in mingled exasperation and enjoyment as rough fingertips continued their exploration over contours of his stomach, in idle pretense of checking his wounds again. "Knock it off..."
"Shut up."
Cloud expelled a sharp breath, his eyes drifting shut for a moment despite himself, though he'd sooner have chalked it up to his lingering malaise than the alternative if not for Leon's arm sliding around his shoulders across his chest, or the sensation of gloved digits roaming his aching torso without apology.
"Shit..." A quiet noise of exasperation left him, eyes closed beneath furrowed brows. "That feels good..."
"Hm. No arguments there."
Cloud rolled his eyes slightly, lip tugging back just a little over clenched teeth in a snarl.
"Wasn't an invitation," he muttered roughly as he felt Leon's hand dive briefly below his belt line and then up between the bandages wrapped around his lithe torso to find the dip in his navel. "Nrgh..."
"You're handing out invitations now?" Leon retorted.
Cloud didn't humor him with an answer. Subtlety had never been Leon's strong suit, and calling him out on what Cloud considered to be some of his more annoying...past times...wouldn't do much to deter him anyway. Not that Cloud ever went out of his way to deter him regardless, and he reached back behind himself to roughly coil the front of the other's white vest around his fist, twisting his head so that they were face to face before leaning in...
A light knock on the door had a flicker of annoyance passing over Leon's visage, illuminated subtly by the glow in Cloud's eyes.
"Sit down."
With a careful push, he had Cloud sinking back down onto the edge of the mattress before crossing to the plain wooden door and tugging it open.
"What?"
"Oh, Leon." Tifa's long ponytail swayed behind her freely as she shifted her weight, hardly perturbed by his demeanor; she rarely was. "Heard you and Cloud were here in the infirmary – you okay?"
Cloud sighed, shrugging his shirt on over his shoulders. First Leon, now this.
"We're fine. What is it?" he asked.
Settling a bandaged hand onto her hip, Tifa rubbed her nose a little, her gaze flitting back up to Leon. Behind her, the hallway was lit in a dull, eerie glow that reflected off the intricate weave of aged wood and bronzed pipes.
"Update from Cid. He needs us in Ansem's study."
Leon folded his arms, the thought settling uneasily with him.
"...Fine."
Cloud got to his feet again, more slowly this time at the behest of the warning glare that Leon shot him from over one shoulder.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Couldn't say." Tifa held up her wrapped hand. "Hopefully good news, right?"
"Doubtful," was Leon's take on the matter.
His sentiment coaxed a knowing chuckle from Tifa, and she cast a brief salute at the two of them.
"Only one way to find out."
Cloud and Leon exchanged a glance, and Tifa turned on her heel.
"Message delivered," she concluded. "See you in a bit."
Leon frowned after her, lingering in the wake of an unspoken warning that the night was far from over. The siege of Radiant Garden was presently a twenty-four hour operation, reducing them to paired shifts across long hours just to hold the city line...a deadlocked stalemate he had no solution for, and one that served as a constant reminder that they were running out of time.
"Hey."
Scowling, Leon turned in time to find Cloud's arm settling pointedly on the wall above his head, leaning in to fix him with a pair of vibrant viridian eyes where he stood. His pale complexion was unapologetic, but although neither of them were well-versed in reading human emotion, there was a look of understanding somewhere behind the glow of mako that even Leon couldn't mistake...along with a few other things.
"What?" he retorted, remiss to find himself unexpectedly trapped between between Cloud and the wall.
The worn leather belts crossed around his waist clinked together as a bloodless hand came to rest over them, and Leon's eyes narrowed skeptically at the gesture, unflinching despite his sudden predicament.
"Snap out of it."
"Dunno what you're talking about." Leon rolled his neck. "It's none of your –,"
"–Business?" Cloud surmised. "You're no good to anyone just standing around worrying about it."
Leon sighed sharply – was he that easy to read, or was Cloud just that irritating when it came to filling in the gaps? The firm grip on the straps at his waist was steadying, but to Leon it may as well have been a mildly invigorating insult, because he didn't recall signing on to have Cloud know him as well as he seemed to think he did.
Even so, he didn't push away either, contenting himself with reaching up the wall behind himself to intertwine their fingers and curling Cloud's bandaged arm just so to beckon a twinge of discomfort across the paler man's face, an unspoken reminder that he was beat to shit a lot worse than Leon was and had no business being so cocky when he was currently in prime condition to have his ass kicked for it.
"That hurts."
"Hmph," Leon offered dismissively, leaning forward to close the gap between them again, his head tilting a little to one side as he did so. "You always say that..."
His eyes started to drift shut, an invisible force beckoning him further forwards, but it was only once he was mere centimeters away that Cloud promptly released him without warning, turning his head to one side and reaching to tug open the infirmary door beside the two of them...Leon's lip curled with unreleased tension, and he caught himself just before he fell into the space where Cloud had lingered just moments before.
"Better get going," Cloud surmised idly. "Gonna be late."
Payback for doing as he pleased before Tifa came by, no doubt...Leon scowled.
"Asshole."
"Hm." He could hear the mild smirk playing across the asshole's face even though he was turned away. "Can't leave Cid hanging at a time like this. Come on...Squall."
