A/n: I'm back. Again! I can't stop writing at the moment. I'm too in love with this story. I probably have better things to do with my time, like work, but this story really is taking up all of my time. Besides, if I have the ideas now, why wait? I don't want to lose them!

Disclaimer: As I have now said quite a few time, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I do in my dreams, but that's as far as it goes XD

Aerith sighed. Maybe she was wrong. It had been three weeks to the day since Leon had walked back through that front door, confusion on his face (well sort of). Since then, the he and Cloud hadn't spoken a word to each other. They hadn't even looked at each other. Actually, that was a lie, she thought. They had communicated once, and only briefly. That one came about due to Tifa, who inconsequentially, had forgiven Cloud, and apologised herself.

It had been about a week ago, and the group had come back for their evening meal, courtesy of Aerith (as usual). Cloud and Leon had sat as far away from each other as possible. Tifa had sat next to Cloud, and was trying to get him to talk. It wasn't going to well. Anyway, Cloud had the ketchup in front of him, and Leon, rather than ask Cloud himself, had asked Tifa to ask Cloud for it. At this, Tifa exploded.

"I'm not your messenger. Ask him yourself! This is pathetic! I don't care what's happened but you two can just stop acting like bloody children! I'm not doing anymore pointless things because the two of you are so bloody stubborn!"

At this, both men mumbled a quiet apology. Leon asked Cloud for the ketchup, without looking at him at all, a Cloud passed it wordlessly. And that was it. It was the last time that the two had spoken to each other.

They had even changed their routines to purposely avoid each other. Leon now woke up at some ungodly hour, making his breakfast, getting ready and leaving a note outlining what everybody needed to do before any of the others had even thought about clambering out of bed. He would separate Cloud off, so that he was working in a completely different area of the town. The only time they ever had to see each other was during the evening meal, and at one point, Leon had even tried avoiding that. Aerith had laid down the law, waving her spatula wildly at him as she told him that he had to eat with the rest of the group. He hadn't tried to skip out again.

Aerith was getting worried. If the two of them never spoke, how were they ever going to realise what they could have? Thinking hard, she finally came up with a master plan to get the two to acknowledge each other again. She would just have to make sure that the others knew what was going on.

It was time to invite the keyblade master and his friends back to Radiant Garden.

"Leon!" a loud voice called. "This place looks good!"

Leon turned to see Sora waving madly at him. How could he shout so loud? He was all the way across the huge courtyard! Well he wasn't anymore, he was running towards him, limbs flailing everywhere. He came to a halt just in front of him, smiling up at the older brunette broadly.

"Hey kid. I didn't know you were coming," he greeted.

"No. It was sort of a surprise. Me and Riku decided to come visit. Kairi was gonna come too but she didn't feel too well so we didn't want her getting worse."

"Oh. Riku's here too? Where is he then?" Leon asked. The two were usually inseparable.

"I came to find you. He…uh…was tired so went straight over to Merlin's." It wasn't a downright lie, Sora reasoned with himself. Riku had gone to Merlin's house, they both had, but they had left again straight away. "Anyway, come on, I told him I wouldn't be long, so he's probably getting worried. Come on! You can work later!" he pulled Leon along by the sleeve of his jacket, only just managing to get him to budge. Leon sighed and started walking back with him of his own accord. A small break couldn't hurt could it?

How wrong he was.

The door was slammed harshly in his face, and he heard the lock click. Bloody Sora. What the hell was he pulling.

"Open this door!" he banged loudly on it. All he heard from behind the door was a couple of giggles, and footsteps heading away from the door. Great. He banged on the door even louder. "Sora! Riku! Open this door now!"

"It's not gonna work you know," a soft voice startled him. He turned around and saw Cloud leaning against the wall next to the window. He nodded towards it. "I tried this earlier too, but they've locked that, and I really don't think Merlin would be very happy if we smashed his windows."

Cloud pulled himself away from the wall, and sat down on the bed. Leon noticed this, and subconsciously gulped. Cloud gave him a strange look, he had obviously noticed this. What with his mako enhanced senses, he noticed everything. When Leon looked back at Cloud, their eyes met, and the strange feeling from three weeks ago returned. Swallowing, as if he could push the feeling back down, he went to sit at the other end of the bed. He knew they wouldn't be released anytime soon, and he wasn't going to spend all his time on his feet.

The two men sat in an awkward silence for what seemed like an age, both at a loss for what to say. Cloud broke the silence again first.

"I think Aerith was the mastermind of all this. I heard her the other day talking on the phone to somebody, but she wouldn't tell me who. I'm guessing now though that it was those two." He shifted his body to look at Leon properly. Leon could feel his eyes on him, staring at his face. He wouldn't look. He couldn't. Whenever he looked, he had the urge to do more. To reach out and touch. And here, trapped together in this bedroom, sat just a foot away from each other, that urge was threatening to overcome him. He turned his body around, so that he couldn't see Cloud at all. He was too distracting, and he still hadn't figured things out.

"Squall?" the soft questioning voice made him forget what he had just planned. He had to turn around at it. And when he did, he found Cloud's face inches away from his own. He gulped again as he felt Cloud's breath wash over his face, filling his senses with the beautiful scent.

"W…What are you doing?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He didn't get the reply he wanted.

"I…I don't know…" came the reply, just as soft and quiet as his own question had been. He knew what was happening before it happened, and he though he had no idea why, he didn't fight it. As Cloud's lips pressed softly against his own, his heart swelled. The decision had been made for him. He truly had no choice in the matter. He could no longer ignore.

Neither of them could ignore it any longer.

A/n: There you go. The end of chapter 4. I had to bring Sora and Riku into this story somewhere, and what a better oppurtunity. They would suspect Yuffie of something like this, so those two were brilliant in helping me along. And helping Cloud and Leon along. And now comes the good stuff! Woo! R&R. I makes me happy knowing that all this writing is appreciated. Constructive criticism welcome, but please no flames.

x x x