Chapter Twenty-Three---Sunsets and Carcrashes

Won't you try to break me?
No,I feel that I do not have the strength
Tragedy's breaking me solemnly,
It's affecting my will...

As he turned to his side, he saw that the space next to him was cold and unoccupied. Something he hated waking up next too, almost as much as he hated waking up to Sora downstairs attempting to cook and screaming along to whatever song had woken him up.

Cloud had briefly contemplated the blessing that a Sora-less morning was, when he heard it. The most evil and sinister of all devil-bands on Cloud's list: Simple Plan. And worse yet, it was growing steadily louder as were Sora's added vocals. As he padded his way downt he stairs, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, cursing angrily, he heard another voice join Sora's, punctuating the song.

I'm a-DICK, ADDICK-TED to you
Do you think I deserve this?
I tried to make you happy
But you left anyway!!!!!

On the table sat a plate of peanut butter and chocolate chip pancakes as a sort of sacrafice to appease the blonde for so rudely awakening him from such a lovely morning. A cup of coffee was also placed on the table as slender arms slipped around him.

"Did you sleep alright?" Cloud grunted once more, took a sip of coffee before turning to face the man holding him.

"I slept fine. I woke up alone." Axel smiled sheepishly and kissed the tan cheek.

"I know, but I wanted to surprise you with breakfast. I made your favorite." Axel seemed so pleased with himself, Cloud couldn't help but smile as well, despite the fact he could have lived without breakfast if it meant waking up with Axel next to him.

They both knew that when Cloud woke up alone, it brought memories back to the surface and for a brief moment, Cloud would think that it had all been a dream;

He would think that Axel had died that day.

They'd found this out after a particularly disturbing nightmare that had visited Cloud one night, one in which Axel had indeed died, and Cloud woke up screaming and alone. The spot next to him was as cold as he felt and there was no Axel. Only empty memories that haunted him.

It was the first time Axel had ever seen the man cry so openly. When Axel placed a hand on the man's broad shoulder, Cloud looked as if he was seeing a ghost before he grabbed the boy and held him tightly, sobbing. Needless to say, Axel didn't let Cloud wake up alone.

"Hey! Earth to Cloudy-kins!" Cloud snapped out of his reverie and glared at the red-head whose only response was to kiss him and shove him into a chair.

"Eat before it gets all cold and I get all grumpy because I woke up early to make it. And make sure you shower, the party's at noon." Cloud watched the jade-eyed boy he loved so much saunter his way into the living to start a pillow fight with Sora.

Zexion had never wanted kids. Never understood why anyone else wanted them either. They cried and screamed and kicked and bit and kicked and got gum in your hair when you hadn't even given them gum in the first place.

So it was while remembering his long-standing dislike of children that Zexion wondered why exactly he had volunteered to help Sephiroth with the twin rats he called grandchildren. And it was also at this moment that Jade ran up to him and threw her little arms around his legs, squeezing tightly. Big turqouise eyes smiled up at him as she giggled and said, "I love you!" and ran after her brother.

A memory pulled at his heart but he refused to be sad. Today was not a day for sad things. It was a time to remember what Leon and Riku had wanted, waited for and celebrated---the twins 2 birthday.

Today was for Riku.

"Zexion, where is Kai?" Zexion bit back the reply, 'Hell if I know', knowing how very keenly the two children picked up on dirty words and the two delighted in shouting them at every public opportunity.

"Check the pantry."

"I did!"

"The laundry hamper?"

"Not there." Zexion sighed. He remembered why he hated kids.

"What about the drier?" A shriek of delight eminated from the laundry room as Kai's grandfather finally found him.

"Alright, we're ready let's go before I lose them again." Zexion raised a brow as he followed his father out the door.

"Again?"

Leon looked around his house, sighing heavily before closing the door behind him and entering his car. It had been two years since Trista and Tiffa had been convicted. Two years since Axel surprised everyone and made a perfect recovery. And it had been two years since he and Riku had decided to have kids.

He remembered talking it over with the silver-haired man he had married. The one whose eyes glowed in the moonlight and whose skin taunted him day and night. Riku wanted kids for some odd reason Leon couldn't figure out.

They had enough money to do it. They just need the perfect surrogate mother.Against Riku's excellent reasoning (an argument he'd no doubt spent months planning to win) and 6 months of looking, they'd finally found her. She had enough of Riku and Leon in her to be the perfect candidate.

And after weeks of waiting, they'd found out that the invirtofertilization had been a success. They'd also found out they were going to father twins. Leon had only seen Riku so happy once; the day they were married. And that glorious smile was payment enough for the crazyness that Leon had endured for two years.

Without Riku.

Because after nine months of waiting and praying, Riku and Leon finally held their children. Finally got to see just what they looked like and take them back to the home they'd been cleaning and painting and recleaning and repainting for months on end. To the home that Riku no longer shared with them.

Not even two weeks after bringing Kai and Jade home, Riku had been diagnosed with cancer. Terminal cancer at that.

Leon could remember all the praying he'd done while Riku underwent therapy. But it seemed no one had heard his prayers because exactly 6 months and three days ago, Riku died. Therapy had stopped working, his body had finally given up and stopped responding to treatments. It was all downhill after that. Riku's eyes got darker, his skin palerer and his frame weaker.

And it was all Leon could do not to lay down and die the day they buried him, standing there in the rain with the children they'd worked so hard for. The children Riku adored so. He remembered the rain falling on his face, mixing with his tears until he couldn't tell them apart as Kai and Jade kept asking, 'Where did Daddy go? Why is he going in the ground?'.

It was all he could do not to die that day.

But that night he'd watched the twins sleeping, a cold night without Riku fussing over them and singing them to sleep, and Jade woke up. She'd rubbed her eyes and looked up at Leon with Riku's jeweled orbs and reached for him. And as he rocked her back to sleep, he knew.

This was the moment Riku had been looking for.

A.n: I had to kill somebody. muwahaha!!! )

Review!!!!!!!!!!! Lyrics by Simple Plan and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. :)

Ulti!