The usual knock at her door came a full four hours early and a tad more frantic than she was used to; Aerith frowned and checked the clock above the stove again just in case she had misread it, but finding it accurate, she shrugged and answered the door anyway. There was only ever one person that knocked on her door on a Saturday.

"Leon!" Aerith gasped, hand stuck halfway to her mouth as she took the sight of him in. "What on earth happened?"

Leon stood awkwardly on the threshold, unsure if he was allowed in outside of his normal allotted time. His face was dark and bruised, the cut above his eyebrow making him scowl with pain.

"I got into a fight." He said simply, rubbing his palms against his thighs. "I'm sorry." He added.

"What? How... when?" Aerith asked, pulling him inside by the wrist and turned him in the better light of her apartment to see the damage.

"Don't get mad, but it's Cloud's fault." Leon said, squirming under Aerith's extra scrutiny.

"Cloud did this?"

"Yes. But not directly. He didn't hit me if that's what you mean?"

"Well what did he do?" Aerith was scowling.

"Are you mad? You seem like you're angry." Leon couldn't stop his left hand from tapping against his thigh. "You should shut the door." He added.

"I..." Aerith did a double take and closed her mouth, shutting the door as instructed before she turned back to Leon a little more composed.
"Alright, sit down and tell me what happened."

"You're mad, aren't you?"

"Yes, of course I am; you're hurt." Aerith tried not to raise her voice as she sat on the sofa facing Leon, who sat stiffly, his left hand still tapping his thigh in a steady rhythm. "What did he do?"

Quickly and proficiently, Leon recounted the story, Aerith's face growing darker the whole time.

"I told him!" She finally said. "I warned him not to break your routine. I thought he understood."

"He said he was sorry." Leon offered, wondering if the information would help.

"Sorry? I'll give him sorry." Aerith stood, fists balled in anger. "I'm gonna go down there and give him a piece of my mind, I can't belie-"

"No. Don't." Leon shook his head, a sort of panic on his face that Aerith often saw before a meltdown - something Leon hadn't had in a long time. "I don't want you to do that. Besides, you can't give someone a piece of your mind. You'd have to open up your skull and you'd die."

Aerith had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. "No I... I meant... it doesn't matter." She shook her head, smiling despite her anger. She sat down again, more curious now than anything. "Why don't you want me to talk to Cloud?"

Leon seemed to think hard about the question, his hand tapped furiously against his thigh and he worried his already bruised lip.

"I need your advice." He finally said.

"What about?"

"How... how do you know if you like a person?" Leon asked tentatively staring hard at the coffee table.

Aerith was silent for a short while, her mind doing flips as she tried to piece together where this was going.

"Does this have anything to do with Cloud?"

"Yes." Leon answered simply, and Aerith silently thanked his inability to lie. To others, Leon's unnerving straightforward nature and often times brutal honesty made him weird and uncomfortable to be around. But to Aerith, it had always been his best qualify. Having someone in your life who was incapable of ulterior motives was like drinking sweet lemonade after bitter coffee.

"Do you... think you might like him?" She asked, unsure how she felt about the idea.

"I don't know. I want to be angry at him but if I like him I don't want to scare him away. If I don't like him I don't mind him leaving."

Aerith felt her lips twitch into a small smile.

"Well, how does the thought of him leaving make you feel?"

"Bad. I think I'd miss him. Except I wouldn't miss him sleeping on the couch because he always sleeps in too late and I have to be quiet in the mornings before I go to work."

"Okay," Aerith hadn't forgotten about Cloud's fuck up, but she felt her anger waning now, a subtle excitement replacing it as she tried not to let herself get carried away. This was everything she'd been hoping for Leon; an actual relationship with the chance of companionship. The prospect of Leon living the rest of his life alone haunted Aerith's thought more often than she'd like to admit. She wasn't going to be around forever. "I think maybe you might have answered your own question there."

Leon frowned. "How?"

"Well, you said you'd feel bad if he left. You'd miss him. When we like someone we want to be around them all the time. They make us happy. Does Cloud make you happy?"

"Not all the time. Not last night. But most of the time, yes."

Aerith couldn't help the broad smile now, before she reminded herself of what Cloud had done and she straightened her features.

"You know, you can still like someone and be mad at them at the same time."

"How?" Leon's brows grew even more indented as he looked at Aerith for a fraction of a second.

"Well, you're doing it right now actually. You like Cloud, right? But you're also upset with him because he did a stupid, selfish thing and it's okay to tell him that because it got you hurt. If he likes you too, he'll understand and be sorry."

"He won't go away?" The uncertainty in Leon's voice almost broke Aerith's heart. There was no denying it: Leon really liked Cloud and if he left, it would crush him.

"Look Leon," Aerith began softly, "no one can make another person stay if they don't want to, but if Cloud really likes you the way you like him, then he'll want to stick around. He'll also want to make up for what he's done. But, can I also make one suggestion?"

Leon thought through Aerith's words for a moment before he nodded his head. "Okay."

"If you really like Cloud, and you want him to understand why you are the way you are, and you don't want a repeat of what happened yesterday, then maybe you should consider telling him what happened to you as a child."

The panicked look that came across Leon's face was expected, but what was not was the reasoned and measured response that he gave.

"What if I don't want to do that?"

"Then that's okay too. You don't have to if it hurts too much. But I think Cloud really likes you, and he's the first person you've met that you've liked having around. I think it would be okay to share this with him. I think he might even have some things to share with you too."

Leon looked at Aerith with unbridled confusion, almost an accusatory glare, and held it for as long as he could before he looked back at the coffee table.

"How'd you know?"

Aerith shrugged. "Just a guess. But people don't end up on the streets because they want to. He's had a tough life. He might want to tell you a bit about it if you're willing to share with him."

"Why do I need to know what happened to him?" The idea of sharing life experience was as foreign to Leon as pretty much everything else.

"Because it might help you understand him better."

"Like the Observer Effect?" Leon asked with a raised brow, the hint of understanding starting to colour his words.

"The what?"

"Measurements of certain systems cannot be made without affecting the systems, that is, without changing something in a system." Leon explained simply, compounding the confused look on Aerith's face. "You want me to talk to Cloud and affect the system so that I can measure it and know if Cloud likes me."

"Um, yeah. Something like that." Aerith said, not entirely understanding if that was what she'd meant or not. Regardless, Leon seemed more sure of himself now. His hand had stopped tapping his leg and he had stopped chewing his lip.

"Okay. I can do that."

Aerith smiled warmly and breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Now do you want to start baking?"

Leon looked at his watch. "No. It's not time yet."

Cloud's gut had been churning all day. Half of him wanted to go upstairs to Aerith's apartment where he knew Leon would be and the other half advised severe caution in facing Leon's oldest and only friend. But he couldn't ignore the part of him that really wanted to see Leon and explain. To apologise. Again and again if necessary. Until Leon understood and believed him. There was also another part of him that wanted to forget it all and disappear. Maybe go back to that bar and drown all his sorrows and Cloud hated that that part of himself was even still talking after what had happened.

Cloud paced in front of the bay window, occasionally stopping to stare out onto the still snow blown streets, his gaze not really seeing much as his mind turned over and over.

The sound of the door opening made him jump, and he turned quickly, waiting nervously for Leon to appear.

He came through a few seconds later and Cloud's heart twisted a little more painfully to see the injuries on his face.

"We need to talk." He said before Cloud could get a word out.

"O...okay," Cloud hesitated, unable to read the fairly blank expression on Leon's face, but more than certain the feeling of foreboding in his stomach was widening for a reason. "I just... before you say anything I just want you to know how sorry I am about last night. I should have listened to you. I didn't mean for any of that to happen."

"I know." Leon replied, matter of factly. "You didn't make those men punch me, but you should have listened to me. I told you five times." Leon agreed, sitting in his usual chair. "You should sit down." He added.

"Right." Cloud nodded, sitting opposite him with a wary eye fixed on Leon as he waited for him to talk.

"Aerith said I should talk to you." Leon began, his fingers starting to tap against his leg again.

"You told Aerith about what happened?"

"Yes."

"Was she mad?"

"Yes."

Cloud winced, knowing it was coming but he still felt the sting of Aerith's anger and disappointment. "What did she say?"

"She wanted to give you a piece of her mind." Leon relayed her words faithfully. "But I don't understand how that would help. What would you do with a bit of her brain?" There was no irony or hint of amusement in his voice, and Cloud had to take a second to let the question sink in, before he could make sense of it. He tried not to smile.

"Um, I don't think she was being literal there buddy. She... she meant that she was going to come down here and shout at me. To tell me exactly what she thought of me."

"Oh." Leon was still frowning as he processed the explanation. "But how would that help either?"

Cloud had to concede, Leon had a good point there, too.

"Well, it might have made her feel better."

"Does shouting make you feel better?" The question took Cloud by surprise.

"I... I guess. Sometimes. When I'm hurt."

Leon thought about that statement for a while, the words going round in his mind behind the quiet mask of his face when unexpectedly he spoke again.

"People think I don't know when I'm being made fun of. But I do. I might not know why, but I know it. Those men last night, they were making fun of me."

Cloud's throat caught up tight and he had to swallow hard to clear it.

"Yeah, they were." He agreed softly.

"Was that why you started the fight?"

Cloud nodded slowly, unable to take his eyes off Leon, though he refused to return his stare.

"You shouldn't have." Leon said simply, no hint of anger or reprisal in his tone. "A lot of people are mean to me, you can't fight them all. I don't want you to fight them all."

"But... doesn't it make you mad, when people treat you that way? Doesn't it make you want to stop it?"

Leon nodded, his fingers beginning to drum faster and harder against his leg. "One time I tried." He said, his eyes taking on a far away, misted look as his thoughts turned inward.

"When?"

"When I was seventeen." Leon's breathing was a little laboured, and Cloud was well aware of the signs of distress radiating from his stiff posture. Whatever he was remembering, it was clearly painful.

"You know, you don't have to tell me this if you don't want to?" He offered gently.

"Aerith said I should."

"Why?" Cloud asked, wondering why Aerith would insist on Leon deliberately putting himself in an uncomfortable situation just for him?

"Because I like you. And I want you to like me too. Aerith said if I told you what happened to me that maybe you would tell me what happened to you. And then I'd be able to know if you liked me or not." Even as he said it, he didn't seem sure and it was obvious Leon was operating on blind faith that Aerith held some deeper wisdom than Leon could currently understand. As if by following her words to the letter he would somehow reveal secrets of the world that had previously been unknown to him. "Like the Observer Effect, except we're people not atoms, and this probably isn't a very scientifically sound test environment. Too many variables." And Cloud didn't have the first clue what that was about.

"Y-you don't have to do this to know if I like you or not." Cloud told him slowly, standing and moving himself to sit on the coffee table. It was more directly in front of Leon, but it meant he could reach over and place a firm hand against his bouncing knee, making sure the contact was purposeful. "Just ask me."

Leon's leg stilled and he locked his gaze on the hand, staring at it for long moments before he swallowed visibly and opened his mouth."Do you?" His eyes flicked up to Cloud's briefly. "Like me?"

Cloud let go of Leon's knee and slowly reached up towards his face, taking it between his hands extremely deliberately, watching for any sign of alarm in Leon's expression as he pressed his lips against his. It was short and tender, with only the barest minimum of response from Leon, but when Cloud pulled away he was pleased to see no revulsion or horror in his eyes.

"Was that a yes?" Leon asked.

Cloud couldn't help it, he laughed softly, letting go of Leon's face and sat back.

"Yeah," he replied, "that's a yes."

Leon seemed pleased finally, breathing out slowly as he sat back and relaxed a little, a small smile turning his features bright for a moment. It was only a small thing - the tiniest of smiles - but the way it changed Leon's whole countenance was earth shattering. Cloud decided he'd never seen anything more beautiful in his entire life.

"You never have to tell me anything you don't want to, okay?" He said, watching Leon's face so closely now, he could see the flecks of blue in the steely grey of his eyes.

"Okay," Leon nodded.

"And you have every right to still be mad with me."

Leon shook his head. "I don't think I am now."

"Cool. Well, maybe I should go and see Aerith. Just to say sorry to her too."

Leon thought about this for a moment, before he agreed. "She did say she was pretty mad."

Cloud's smile faltered a little. "Right." He said flatly. Steeling himself, he breathed deeply and made his way upstairs.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do." Aerith glared at Cloud across the threshold, arms folded, and made no move to invite him inside.

"I know, I'm sorry. C-can I come in?" Cloud asked, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as he squirmed under Aerith's scrutiny. Eventually she relented.

"Fine, but you better have a damned good reason for doing what you did."

Cloud's heart was pounding. "Um, actually, no. Not really." The confession didn't do anything to lift Aerith's demeanour.

"That's it? That all you're gonna say?" Aerith made room for him to slip by and slammed the door, crossing her arms again.

"N-no, I... I just wanted to explain."

"Leon explained it all. Unless you have anything else to add then we're done here." She made to open the door again before Cloud reached out and stopped her, holding his palm flat against the door.

"No wait, I... I really am sorry Aer. I didn't mean for all that to happen, and it was only one drink-"

"If you think that's a good enough excuse for what happened then you need to leave. And I don't just mean my apartment. You need to leave Leon's life. Now." She pierced him with a deadly glare and a clenched jaw and dared him to contradict her.

"I can't do that," Cloud wasn't so sure he was feeling as brave as he sounded. "I like him, Aerith. More than just friends. And I know he likes me too. I'm not just gonna up and disappear because I fucked up once. Is that what you want? For me to leave him without explaining why?"

The fire in Aerith's eyes died slightly and her jaw relaxed, her defences weakening the longer he stared at her.

"No." She eventually conceded, taking her hand off the door handle. "If you left now it would crush him. He really likes you." She admitted, albeit reluctantly.

"I know. And I really like him. I just... I screwed up. I get it. It won't happen again."

"You don't get it!" The words were spoken softly but they still stung. Aerith shook her head and made her way to the kitchen and picked up a hand towel, obviously halfway through washing the dishes when Cloud had stopped by. Cloud followed her in. "Screwing up with Leon is not like messing up in any other relationship. Leon takes things so literally. He doesn't understand ulterior motives or hidden agendas. He doesn't get other people's nuanced emotions. What you see is what you get with him, and if you fuck up he needs a physical, tangible reason. He has to be able to rationalise it his way. Because that's what being in a relationship with him means. It means doing things his way. Living in his world." Aerith sighed and put the glass she had been drying aside. "If you want to be with him you've gotta let go of whatever it was in your past that brought you here. You can't have those kind of demons and expect Leon to shoulder them. It's not fair."

Cloud swallowed uncomfortably. He'd been ready for a lot of verbal from Aerith but this was honestly taking a much different turn than he'd expected.

"I don't... it's not like that Aerith. I don't wanna put anything on him. I mean, it's not his place. He probably wouldn't get it anyway-"

"You see, this is the problem!" Aerith slammed the hand towel down, interrupting him again. "People think that because you have autism you can't empathise, like you're not all there or something. But I promise you, if you tell him what you're feeling, he'll get it. He's been through so much shit in his life he probably feels too much. Whatever has happened to you, Leon will understand, but don't expect him to fix it for you. Don't assume things about him and what he's capable of just because he's got this label. Because it doesn't mean shit." Aerith's cheeks were a little red, and her eyes blazed intensely as she stared at Cloud. She saw the way her words were overwhelming him and she bit the inside of her cheek, her temper cooling a little as she felt her gut rolling in her stomach. This wasn't fair. This tearing of emotions. Wanting Leon to be happy but afraid to hand over the reins.

"If you're gonna stick around then you need to stick around," she said gently but firmly, finally able to meet his eye again. "Because the moment he starts to rely on you and you take that away from him, his whole world implodes. You need to be sure this is what you want."

It was a big ask of anyone, and if Aerith was honest, she wasn't sure Cloud was up to the task. Hell, who would be?

Cloud's jaw worked silently for a moment, his eyes large and lost as he stared hard at the floor in front of Aerith's feet.

"I-I don't wanna hurt him." He admitted softly. Aerith breathed in slowly and steadily to calm her pounding heart.

"Then don't."