41.

Since Monday had been a day two, a day at school and not at the hotel for Sora, nearing 3:30 that afternoon, he, Roxas and Riku (coming over for a while) arrived home. As they walked into the living room, the twins found their parents sitting, almost like they were waiting for something. Assumingly, Leon had taken a day off work to spend time with Cloud who was on-call, should any rushed deliveries come in. Though what the teens weren't around to see was that Cloud had been keeping his distance all day. He would not make eye-contact with Leon, only staying with him in the same room for as few seconds as possible and mumbling responses he'd bother to utter at all.

But just looking at the way they were sitting , Cloud's blatant discomfort, Riku felt his stomach grow cold. Something told him he knew what was going to happen.

Cloud looked only slightly relieved when they appeared and stood up instantly to address them. "Boys, if you could sit down, I-," he cleared his throat. "I have something to say."

Riku eyed him warily and turned to whisper to Sora. "I'll see you later?"

"Riku, why don't you stay?" the man suggested. "I feel like you're a son to me too and," he paused, "this affects all of you." The silveret looked at him gravely, reluctantly standing by the wall beside Sora on the floor.

"Cloud? What's going on?" Leon asked from his seat on the couch.

"Leon, I haven't been honest with you. In fact, I haven't been honest with any of you." Cloud stood, not looking at anyone, and addressed the entire room instead. "Well," he paused nervously, "all I can do is come out with it, Leon," he finally looked at his husband, "And there's really no easy way to say this." He swallowed. It did nothing. "I want a divorce."

The twins looked at their dad with matching expressions of shock. Riku looked at the floor, feeling somewhat out of place as this was clearly a family matter. Leon regarded the blond calmly; that one, sudden sentence was just nonsense.

When no one spoke, the man continued. "These past few weeks have been hectic. Everyone knows this. Things have… changed. For these past few weeks," Oh God, this was it. "I've been seeing another man." Two identical sets of blue eyes widened, their mouths hanging agape while Riku continued to bow his head to look at the floor, feeling the overwhelming need to become one with the wall behind him.

Leon's steady voice broke the silence. "What do you mean 'seeing another man'?"

Cloud didn't hesitate. If he did, he would never get it out completely, and it was already sticking out there, the idea already hanging in the air. "I mean, every time I've made an excuse to leave this house after work, every time I've come home late, every time I haven't been with the family, I've… been having sex with another man."

Roxas felt as if he had just been blasted by the iciest mouthwash, and every nerve of his body upturned with sensitivity. So, this was what he'd been feeling that was off. This was what had been wrong. Aww, shit.

An unknown amount of time passed by, and its silence chilled Cloud to the fibres of his soul, until finally, Roxas found his voice. "What did you mean by this affecting all of us?" He had to ask. He turned to look up at the silveret next to his brother. "Riku?"

"It's my dad," he muttered and tentatively looked up at Leon.

"Wait, you knew about this?" Sora got to his feet to look Riku in the eye. All these things he had no idea about were jumping out at him out of nowhere. He was very frightened to hear the older boy speak. "For how long?"

The thoughts plaguing him for what felt like eternity were finally going to be put to light and it felt like rollerblading down a steep hill or that initial drop on a rollercoaster or that feeling of freefalling the first time you went zip lining. He could only hope that the brakes wouldn't fail, that the seat wouldn't disappear, or that the rope wouldn't snap, like a really bad dream and he would make it through this. "A-A few weeks."

"WHAT?" Sora's face changed instantly, breaking into so many different emotions at once… It broke Riku's heart to see.

"I wanted to-I really did- but I coul- I didn't kn-" Riku's throat tightened and his breath froze in his chest. Now was not the time to break down or cry about something he knew he couldn't have done anything differently about. But his eyes. Throughout the dense emotions Sora emitted, the one Riku could see completely clearly and that grew more and more heavy as he stood there was hurt. Reflecting that hurt, Sora's eyes bore into him ever more sharply, piercing through him like storm of blue ice. "I-"

Cloud must have seen that very effect for he tried to dispel it. "Sora, don't blame him. It wasn't his duty to say anything."

The very mention of the word 'duty' and Leon stood up.

"Does anyone want something to drink? How about a beer? Do you want a beer? Roxas? Sora?" No one said anything as he clapped Sora's shoulder. His tone was one that was completely serious, which unnerved everyone more than the fact that he was offering an alcoholic beverage to a bunch of teenagers. Leon's face softened towards Roxas. "You know, you're both so big now. If my grown-up sons want a beer, then they will get a beer." He momentarily ruffled the Roxas' hair before striding into the kitchen. Everyone watched him go, as calm as the dawn, but not long after, did they start to hear objects breaking. Mainly made of glass.

Cloud crossed the threshold of wood to tile in an attempt to calm him down, but at that instant, Leon whipped around to punch him in the cheek.

All the three boys were at their feet ready to act. "Dad! Stop!" Sora and Roxas held onto Leon's two arms, while Riku knelt beside Cloud. He'd ended up on the floor, the back of his hand covering his now flaring cheekbone.

"'Dad'?" he challenged. "Am I your dad? According to Cloud, I'm nobody to you two. Apparently sticking around this family that I thought I belonged to for fifteen fucking years, didn't account for anything. Isn't that right Cloud? Isn't it?" Miraculously, his voice was still mostly calm, just loud and very pointed towards the blond at his feet.

"Dad, please…" Roxas said in a pleading voice, but Leon just shook the two off his arms and raised his hands in a surrendering notion.

"I'm fine."

The only sound after Leon had left the house for a long time, were that of car tires screeching out of the driveway.


Angst.

YHS
xDelfin