Haha, alrighty then! I'm starting to worry about next chapter which will be a big DUN DUN DUN moment. So yeah, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I thank my reviewers!
Cloud was extremely tempted to ask Roxas and Naminé if the picture looked anything like Sora. But any person would say that's a bad idea.
But the longer he stared at the picture, the more he thinks he's imagining things. The spikes were exactly the same; the eyes were the same, and that smile…okay scratch the smile, the young man was scowling in the picture which looked odd with Sora's face. Sora seems like such a cheery person. Kind of like when Leon spends time with the kids…oh wait…
Cloud closed the book again and went downstairs only to catch the doorbell so he went over to open only to be greeted by Sora.
"Um, hey Mr. Strife! Is um…Roxas or Naminé here?" Sora asked, lightly fidgeting. It's been a few of days since that day in court and this is the first day Sora visited since. This was a disappointment to Cloud because he spent those days agonizing on Sora's absence that he kept asking Roxas where Sora was. When Roxas called in worry, Sora replied he was 'sick' which Cloud somehow didn't fully believe.
"Er…yeah, Roxas is teaching Naminé how to Struggle. Since you know, you've been sick for a while and he had no one to practice with. They're in the yard," Cloud motioned, trying to sound as casual as possible. But seeing Sora again after a few days right after staring at a picture for a good 20 minutes was enough power to make Cloud faint if he didn't have enough self control.
It's official: This was beyond a mere coincidence.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Sora!" Roxas dropped everything and ran to Sora, nearly glomping him, "Are you alright? You're suspended still right? How did you fall sick? And why were you at court a few days ago?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine now! Yes, I'm still suspended. And uh…I just caught a cold. And…I was just delivering a letter to your dad from Leon!" Sora answered all his questions, and only lied about one so he felt proud! Well he couldn't tell his son that he was depressed so he went with sick…
"We missed you, I had no one to practice with so I teaching Naminé how to Struggle."
"Aw, that's nice! How's it going?" Sora asked as the two approached Naminé and he waved to her.
"Great! I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right though…" Naminé shrugged as she held the Struggles weapon.
"Well, do you grab orbs at least?"
"Yes! Quite often! Sometimes I think I hit Roxy too hard though. He got so dizzy one time when I hit him that-"
"I was totally pretending!" Roxas cut in.
"And he keeps saying that," Naminé giggled as she pointed at it, "Like he's embarrassed."
"Am not!"
"That's still cool that you're learning, Naminé. But guys, I want to ask something a bit off topic," Sora asked as casual as possible.
"Of course, what's up?" Roxas said with a nod from Naminé.
"Okay! Um…so you know in stories, whether shows or video games or books, there's a struggling main character and supposedly a magician did something to him? Well, what if the character was…let's say…changed back from an adult to a young teenager again. What would be the purpose of the magician doing that?" Damn, Sora could've sworn it sounded so much better when he rehearsed it beforehand.
"Uh…" Roxas and Naminé quickly exchanged glances, "That's hard to say if we don't know what the main character is like."
"Because if the main character is a good person, he was probably changed back to do something such as saving someone," Naminé pointed out.
"But if the main character is a bad person, it's probably punishment," Roxas added while Sora nodded in partial understanding.
"Then how does he change back?"
"Well…" Roxas crossed his arms and went into thought, "If it's a good character, he probably has to accomplish whatever he's supposed to do. If it's a bad character, then he probably has to learn his lesson."
"…Alright, that helps, thanks!" Not really…Sora thought he was between a good and bad character. So where does that lead him? Who else can he ask about how to change himself back in less than 30 days?
"Why do you ask?" Naminé asked out of curiosity.
"Oh! Uh…fan fiction…"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Cloud leaned against the doorway and smiled as he watched Sora talk with Roxas and Naminé. He never realized just how much that boy truly had an impact on this family. Everyone seems to have gotten closer and brightened up.
The man sighed, he couldn't take it anymore, he had to get to the bottom of this and thus the man reached for his phone.
"Hey Yuffie. I'll pay you 20 bucks to babysit Roxas, Naminé, and Sora until I get back…I don't know when I'll be back that's why I said 20!"
The raven-haired man opened the door only to find Cloud at his doorstep.
"…Did Sora die?"
"…No!" Cloud exclaimed, not believing Vincent just asked that.
"Then why are you here?"
"…Just let me in." Vincent stepped out of the way for Cloud before closing the door, "Vincent, tell me the truth, now: Where is Leon."
"…You think I know?"
"Yes! And where the hell did Sora come from? I'm pretty sure you had no nephews! Especially one that age!"
"What if he was my son?"
"Who would believe that?"
"I knew it…" Vincent murmured,
"What?"
"Nothing. Anything else you need to know?"
"Yeah…when I asked Yuffie where Leon went, she said he's on a business trip. But when I went down to the Radiant Garden committee to ask where Leon went, they told me he's using his vacation time and a little vampire is paying for the man to keep his job if he goes over..." Cloud crossed his arms and gave Vincent a stern look, as if scolding.
"…Everyone knows, except for Roxas, that I'm not a vampire," Vincent stated as if it's the obvious.
"You know what I-WHAT? You're the reason why Roxas has to sleep with a nightlight?" Cloud exclaimed in surprise and partial anger and pointed at the man before him.
"Hey, I got paid 100 bucks for doing it and it the best spontaneous thing I ever done."
"…You scarred him for life on Halloween!"
"And now the boy doesn't get cavities! You should be thanking me!"
"That's not the point…And you're rich, I don't get why you did it for a hundred. Who paid you?"
"They said I needed to 'have fun' so I agreed to try it," Vincent put his hands up to count with his fingers, "And I got 20 from each so it was: Reno, Cid, Yuffie, Zack, and Squall…"
"Squall? I'm giving him an earful as soon as I figure out where he is…oh! That's right! Tell me the truth, Vincent! Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"Vincent! You're the last person that ever saw him and now I know he's not on a some business trip! And not only that, I…Oh…" He snapped his fingers and ran past Vincent to head up the stairs. It took that long for Vincent realize he should probably stop Cloud and immediately followed.
"Cloud! No!"
"Ha! I knew you were hiding something!" Cloud exclaimed and opened one of the guest rooms and as luck would have it, he spotted Leon's favorite leather jacket hanging on the bedpost. Running to it and picking it up to make sure it was Leon's, Vincent caught up in the meantime.
"Cloud! Damn…uh…"
"This is Leon's…" Cloud looked around the room to see if he can find anything else that belonged to Leon.
"Cloud…wait," Vincent's mind was going blank, he couldn't think of anything good to convince Cloud to get out of the house!
Cloud spotted Leon's necklace, belts, and leather pants hanging off the chair. Wow, even as a guest he leaves clothes all over the place. Unless…he's a long-staying guest. Cloud's eyes slightly widened when he spotted pieces of paper on the desk.
"Crap…" Vincent ran in and forcefully pulled Cloud out of the room and closed the door when they were both out. The man then stood in front of the door with his arms crossed.
"Ow! Vincent! You didn't have to pull so hard! And let me back in! Now!"
"Can't…"
"Why?"
"It's his privacy."
"Since when did you care?"
"…I'm not admitting anything."
"Vincent…" Cloud nearly growled, "Let me in. Those letters on his desk. Those were mine that I wrote to him! Why are they here?"
"…" Vincent looked away but stayed in his spot.
"Vincent! You're my friend! Why aren't you telling me what's going on?"
"I can't, I promised him."
"Who? Leon?"
"I'm not saying anything…"
"Vincent! Ugh…" Cloud groaned in frustration, trying to think of a way to be let in, "Vincent…alright, if I'm honest with you. Will you be honest with me?"
"…How honest are we talking here?"
"Well…you decide. I'm here because I think…" Cloud took in a breath, not believing he's even about to admit what he thinks, "I think Sora is Leon."
"Oh good," Vincent let out a sigh of relief, "I thought you were gonna say that you think Leon is cheating on you with me or something."
"…"
"It's not true. Don't freak out."
"…Was my first guess true?"
"…"
"Well?"
"What was it again?"
"Vincent!" Cloud growled in impatience, "Is Sora actually Leon?"
"Please Cloud, you explain how it's possible for him to turn 15 again."
"You know his age!" Cloud pointed at Vincent, "You never care yet you know his age! And note that when I had Roxas and Naminé inside me, people wanted an explanation too!"
"Um…of course I knew his age. I sent him to school!" Vincent argued, trying to cover it up.
"Alright…we'll play this game…" Cloud stood where he was and started looking around the house.
"…What are you doing?"
"Vincent…care to explain where your giant chandelier went?" Cloud pointed at the ceiling.
"…That was totally Sora's fault."
"What did he do?" Cloud asked suspiciously.
"Something a stupid teenager would do."
"Alright then…" Cloud looked around some more, there had to be hints outside of the bedroom, "Where's Sora's room?"
"This is Sora's room," Vincent pointed behind him.
"…That's Leon's room!"
"He's on a business trip so Sora's in it!"
"That's total B.S. and you know it! Why would Sora leave Leon's clothes lying around…ah! There were smaller clothes in there! I'm positive! I saw!"
"So now you know they share the same room! He's a teenage boy, he doesn't care about the mess," Vincent pointed out. Damn he was good at this. Cloud sighed and scanned the house from where he stood again. Vincent's eyes suddenly widened when, through the large window, he spotted the spiky brunette in the distance heading back. Vincent pulled out his phone and texted as fast as he could to Sora…which wasn't really that fast.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
When Sora almost got to the door, he took out his phone when he felt a single ring, indicating a text message.
Clouds here
"What?" Sora asked out loud. Why would Vincent text nonsense in the wrong grammar format too…ooh! THAT Cloud! And you can't text the apostrophe! Sora immediately closed his phone and started running back to Yuffie, which was his reason for leaving in the first place.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
When Vincent closed his phone and tucked it away, Cloud spun around, hearing the sound.
"…What did you just do?"
"Nothing."
"Vincent…" Cloud glared and placed his hands on his hips.
"I did nothing."
"You had your phone out! I heard you close it!"
"What? I can't check my phone?"
"…" Cloud was tempted to just fight Vincent to get to the door.
"Sora! You're back!" Yuffie exclaimed with glee and Sora rolled his eyes, already regretting coming back here.
"Well we're playing video games right now! Join us!"
"Sure…"
"Oh Sora!" Roxas called from the living room, banging on the buttons, "Can you do me a favor and go to my room to get Super Smash Brothers?"
"Um, sure!" anything to get away from Yuffie so he quickly treaded up the stairs. But when he got to the top of the stairs, his direction turned from Roxas's room and to his and Cloud's bedroom instead…
It took less than a second for him to decide and Sora opened the door to the master bedroom. Memories and thoughts went through his head like a movie. All the good and bad times that were spent in here. Things he missed a lot…like waking up in the morning with Cloud beside him. It was so warm and now wished he treasured those moments more.
Sora approach the bed and felt the blanket, missing the comfort and familiarity of his own bed now. He traveled around the bed until he saw the yearbook lying on it. His eyes widened in panic and rushed over to open it, noticing that Cloud marked the page with his picture.
"...Crap!" he wasn't sure if he should find out how to hide it or just come out and tell Cloud the truth. But it was easy to decide: Continue to fool Cloud or tell the man he's been lying to him. The first option was the obvious answer. He place the book back and quickly left the room to find the game Roxas asked for.
That night:
"How did you eventually get Cloud to leave?" Sora asked during dinner and the two exchanged stories.
"Cloud just got tired," Vincent replied, "So did you find a way to turn back yet?"
"…No…but I think Cloud's onto us."
"No shit."
"Maybe we should just come out clean…"
"Why? I held a secret for this long, I'm not letting to go to waste!"
"…You have unusual logic," Sora stated, shaking his head.
"In all honesty Squall: If the man doesn't believe the facts at his own pace, he's not going to be able take it," Vincent pointed out, "He's going to faint for the first time in his life. But if you're lucky, you'll be outside and it's raining so he when he falls unconscious, you have to undress him."
"Good point but-whoa! That's the most perverted thing I ever heard you say!"
"Not really…I was just thinking of that one time Zack had to change Cloud's clothes when Cloud was unconscious-"
"WHAT?"
"They didn't do anything…I think."
"Of that's just great to know!"
"Go talk to Zack then…"
"Oh I will! As soon as I get my body back! So back on topic: Vincent, I still don't know how to turn back. Can you give me any ideas? I even talked to Yuffie to see if any of her own logic can give me any ideas! Nothing!"
"Well…what if it's something like that fairytale? What was it? Well I don't remember but I think the prince kiss the princess to break a spell. Or was it the other way? Whatever, so maybe you need to kiss Cloud."
"Right…Like that's even possible in my current state!"
"It's an idea right?"
"…Any other ideas?"
"Oh! You said you fell off the bridge right? So maybe you need to be wet."
"…Vincent you know I shower right?" Sora reminded.
"Maybe you need to be wet and with Cloud?"
"Next idea please!
"…Oh! Well your real body is about twice the size of your current body. So…what if you CAN'T turn back because your clothes are too small? You can kill yourself if you change back right now!"
"…That scares me more than it comforts me," Sora confessed, "Yet that's a good point! But Vincent, again: I've been in a shower! When there are no clothes!"
"…Maybe you need to be with Cloud-"
"Okay I get it! Everything revolves around Cloud! I rather try the kiss idea than be wet or…yeah…around him."
"There you go, there's your next goal."
"Yeah…and I'm gonna hate it if you're actually right!"
In all honesty, some of the thing Vincent suggested were some ideas I was brainstorming on how to turn Sora back lol!
Please read and review!