Wow, I keep getting reviews about Vincent! I did not expect him to be the star here lol!
haha-Trust me, I'm definitely not 30 years older than you b/c I'm not even close to being 30. And your last comment made me giggle…and you'll see why by the end of the chapter!
I think people are going to kill me by the end of the chapter lol.
Kiss Cloud…easier said than done.
Every time Sora is over at his home, he ends up stuttering and fidgeting more if Cloud's in the same room as him. Now Sora wants to just come out and tell Cloud the truth…of course that can have 4 possible outcomes: 1. Cloud thinks he's insane. 2. Cloud already knows and everything's okay. 3. Cloud faints. Or 4. Cloud will hate him even more...
Sora just didn't want to risk it.
On Cloud's end, he was more than 90 percent sure that the boy spending all his time at his house like he's living here is Leon. Yet he couldn't exactly bring it up to the boy. Especially if said-boy always finds an excuse to run away from him that he started clinging himself to Roxas much like Roxas did with Sora before…
Vincent also wasn't talking at all. He wouldn't even let Cloud in the house anymore. There had to be a way to be 100 percent sure besides asking him out front.
Not only that…what if he actually IS Leon? How is that possible? Can he handle the truth? And if it is true, Cloud made sure he's going to give him a good shouting about lying to him...after he makes sure he doesn't freak out and pass out.
"Oh! Sora! Want to sleep over?"
"Huh?" Sora's mind only went blank while Cloud lifted his head from his dinner,
"What?"
"Can he? He practically lives here anyway! And he can borrow my clothes in the morning!" Roxas reminded since the boy was eating dinner with the family again.
"Ooh! Can he, Dad? I want to borrow Sora for-"
"No! I asked, so Sora's going to spend time with me!" Roxas cut in on Naminé.
"I'll say yes if you two share him," Cloud answered.
"What am I? A toy?" Sora thought while Roxas and Naminé agreed. Sora called Vincent for permission to sleep over but both already knew the answer before the question was even asked. Not only that, Sora was beyond nervous. He's spending the night in his own home…finally.
While Sora was now closer to Cloud, it doesn't make his mission any easier. Sure, ever since Vincent suggested the possibility that he can't change back because of clothes, the two went shopping again so he had baggier clothes but that still doesn't make it any easier for a 15-year old kid to attempt to kiss an adult. The worst case scenario is probably getting caught, assume the worst, and Cloud goes to jail.
So Sora ended up avoiding the man by spending his time with Roxas and Naminé until it was bed time. Sora got a sleeping bag and slept on the floor in Roxas's room. He spent a good ten minutes convincing Roxas to go to sleep and not stay up. After he was sure Roxas was asleep, Sora snuck out of the room and went downstairs to the kitchen. Grabbing his mug, he helped himself to some milk.
It was a relaxing feeling using your own mug and going back to some old routines. After finishing the milk, he washed it and grabbed paper towels to dry it to put it back before he's caught with the mug.
As his bad luck would go though, his phone started ringing. Sora was so glad his baggy pants had pockets and he kept it with him.
"Vincent! It's midnight! What do you want?!" he hissed in whisper.
"I just thought if Cloud's asleep…you can kiss him without anyone knowing."
"…You called just to tell me that?"
"Well I can't text it, it's too long."
"…Right, well, thanks for the advice I guess?"
"Will you do it?"
"Hell no! It invades his privacy!"
"So?"
"You have no morality at all…"
"Is that a good way to speak to your uncle?" Sora let out a near-girlish scream and almost dropped his phone when he heard Cloud's voice as well as see him come into view in a white shirt and black baggy pants when he entered the kitchen.
"I assume that's Cloud, so you're on your own," was Vincent's lost words before hanging up.
"Uh…I'm grumpy at night," Sora half-lied before tucking the phone back into his pocket, "And he doesn't mind!"
"Right…what are you doing up?" Cloud asked, crossing his arms.
"Um…getting…uh…water."
"Oh, did you get it?"
"Y-Yeah! I'm going to bed…now…" Sora hated that he needed to pass Cloud to reach the stairs.
"…Sora can I ask you something?" Cloud asked when Sora reached the foot of the stairs.
"Y-Yeah! Go ahead…"
Cloud turned his body and walked up to him, giving Sora a long stare.
"Eh…never mind. Go to sleep."
"R-Right! On it!" When Cloud heard Sora close Roxas's door, Cloud sighed and leaned against the wall in frustration. He's either going crazy or…no he's definitely going crazy.
"Did you kiss him?" Vincent asked the day after when Sora came home.
"No!"
"Coward."
"It's not my fault!"
"Right…"
"I'm too short anyway!"
"So?"
"I just can't! And I refuse to kiss him in his SLEEP!"
The rest of the day followed an argument like that. Sora was about to have a nervous breakdown if he has to spend another day at his own home so he found arguing with Vincent quite relaxing.
But he still needed to give that kiss idea a try. He had nothing to go on, no plan whatsoever. It may be his last and only chance.
So before he spends more than 8 hours with Vincent, Sora took off to see his family again. Like Roxas said, he practically lived there at this point.
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Sora was relieved when Roxas was the one that got the door instead of Cloud. He was informed that Naminé was out with Kairi, saying something about finding Naminé a new boy or something like that. If Sora wasn't focusing on trying to turn back into an adult, he would be out tracking down Kairi and Naminé at that moment.
Roxas next informed Sora that Cloud locked himself in his room for unknown reasons. This sparked concern for Sora but couldn't exactly leave Roxas to go 'comfort' the boy's father. So instead they went to play video games. He hoped that the plots would give him some magical answer on how to change back. So far, none of the games helped…and Sora found out he sucked at a lot of them.
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It was past dinner time and Sora was still hanging around the house so it when the clock struck nine, it told him he had to go. Another day without success.
"I'll help myself out, bye Roxas."
"Later!"
Leaving the living room, Sora headed for the front door but stopped. He turned around and walked in the opposite direction until he opened the backyard's door and stepped out. Now guilt overflowed him. He couldn't even fix a stupid yard for Cloud. Cloud never asked for much and he couldn't give him anything he wanted.
Sora closed the door behind him and picked up the watering can, filled it with water, and started walking around the garden to water the flowers.
About halfway through the garden, Sora heard the door.
"Sora? You're still here?" Cloud questioned, stepping out.
"S-Sorry!" Sora apologized after turning around to face him.
"It's alright," Cloud shrugged, "But you know it's going to rain soon. No need to water," Cloud pointed at the dark sky.
"Oh…heh, I didn't watch the news…"
"And it's getting late…come on, I'll take you home," Cloud motioned.
"N-No! It's okay! I can go myself!"
"Sora, if you're out by yourself at a time like this, what's stopping someone from kidnapping you?"
"But…but…" Sora's mind went blank and this situation wasn't getting any better.
"And it's nice out, it won't rain if I take you there and come straight back, I'll walk you. Let's go."
"Okay…"
Putting the can down, he followed Cloud after the blonde yelled into the house for Roxas and now-returned Naminé to stay put.
The walk back was silent for the first few moments which made Sora beg to be shot and killed before he loses his sanity.
"So what's it like living with someone like Vincent?" Cloud asked, though he honestly was very curious.
"Oh um…it's actually a lot like living by yourself if you don't talk to him. Well kind of. I go to school, come back, he ignores me unless I got beat up that day and he had to come get me. He doesn't do anything with me so I just head over to your place with Roxas! Haha…"
"Should've expected that. He doesn't mistreat you right?"
"What? No! No! He honestly does take care of me when I need him," He does owe Vincent everything the man has done for him since this all happened.
"That's good to hear," Cloud stated, playing with Sora's hair for a few seconds. The two continued to have some casual talk until they arrived at Vincent's door.
"I gotta thank you then, Sora. It's nice to see Roxas more outgoing now," said Cloud, after Sora went through most of the story.
"It was nothing," he replied with a smile as he opened the door only to see Vincent leave the kitchen and walk towards the door with a book.
"Squall! What took you so long?! I may have found-oh hi Cloud…" without a word, Vincent spun around to walk away while Sora tried to shut the door in Cloud's face but the man was already ahead of them by grabbing Sora and Vincent before either could run away or do what they planned to do.
"…Did you just call him 'Squall' or am I hearing things now?" Cloud questioned in a serious tone.
"You're hearing things," they both replied in unison.
"Ow…" Sora groaned in pain when Cloud squeezed the boy's arm even harder.
"You did lie to me!" Cloud exclaimed at Vincent.
"Not as bad as the man-now-a-child!" Vincent pointed at Sora.
"So it's true?!"
"……Yeah," Vincent nodded only to get a glare from Sora, "Look Squall, I'm not going to hide it after I spent about 2 hours trying to cover it up the first time. I'm not going through it again now that it's even harder to cover it up."
Sora only gave Vincent a pleading look while Cloud was giving Vincent a look of hurt and betrayal.
"Cloud…" Vincent started, "I understand if you're mad at me…but if we told you when this first happened, you probably wouldn't even have believed it…and Squall was the one that didn't even want to tell you so-"
"Stop making me sound worse!" Sora shouted.
"……I'm sorry, Cloud," Vincent sincerely apologized and Cloud slowly released his friend who took his leave.
"…C-Cloud…erm, surprise?"
Cloud silently closed the door and released Sora before slapping him as hard as he could across the face the second he did,
"That would've been a punch if you were bigger!"
"Ah…okay I deserved that…Cloud, I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to lie about my own identity! Although Vincent was the one that named me…"
Sora was only met with another slap on the opposite cheek,
"…I don't even know what to say to you!" Cloud was completely overwhelmed. Everything he said to Sora, everything he's done with him…it all changes knowing he was speaking to Leon the whole time. Everything changes knowing Sora wasn't some nice, mature, teenager that befriended his kids. What can he say in a situation like this? He thought he was ready for the truth…but apparently not.
"Ow…I deserved that too…but Cloud, everything that has happened and everything I said doesn't change. I meant everything I said!"
"…Squall..." Cloud only shook his head and resisted hitting Sora again.
"Okay I guess it changes on your part but…I'm still the same person…"
"…I don't even know what to believe anymore. I'm sorry, but talk to me tomorrow something……" Cloud said barely above a whisper as he reached for the doorknob and started to leave.
"Cloud! No wait!"
"Goodbye, Squall."
"Eh…" Sora's mouth went dry when the door shut in his face, "It's Leon…" The boy stared at the door in front of him, where Cloud just stood a few moments earlier. The next thing he knew he felt something on his head, and the door opened.
"Go after him you idiot!" with that, Vincent shoved Sora out and locked the door behind him. Sora took the fabric off his head, which was a black hoody. He knew why too as it started drizzling outside. Quickly slipping the warm clothing on, he ran after Cloud.
It was dark enough already but everything's even more dark and depressing thanks to the dark clouds in the sky dropping rain on people.
Cloud silently walked down the street as rain pattered on him; but he didn't care. All he could think about were the times when Sora was with him. Everything they said to each other…Cloud replayed those moments in his head and replacing, what he believed was Sora, with Leon. It was an unusual feeling. He's not sure if he's embarrassed or just feeling awkward about the whole thing.
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Running through the rain there was only one thing he could do when he saw the set of spiky blonde hair in front of him.
"Cloud!" taking in another breath, he kept calling his name, "Cloud!"
Pausing, Cloud slowly turned around to see Sora running down the street. Yet no matter how much he wanted to run from him, he stood where he was until the brunette had his arms around him in a tight hug.
It felt odd, since the man was used to strong arms wrapped around his whole body and not scrawny arms around just his waist. Yet…it was still Leon.
"I'm sorry…I love you, Cloud."
Cloud wasn't sure what to say…he's not sure if it's the awkwardness of even considering to say those 3 words to someone half their height that's stopping him but…a part of him wanted to say it anyway.
Without a word, Sora took Cloud's hand and started leading him to the closest alleyway. Letting go of Cloud's hand for a moment, Sora climbed onto a dumpster and sat before him.
"I'm sorry…that this isn't the most romantic place, time, or way to ask for forgiveness…" Sora whispered, "…or for a kiss?"
Cloud looked up and down on the boy, noticing his clothes already clinging to his body.
"No…no it's not," Cloud replied, taking steps closer to close the distance between them. Thanks to extra height boost, it didn't feel as odd for Cloud and it made it easier to look at him in the eyes for the first time in a very long time. How did he not realize it was Leon before?
Without any signs or warning, both slowly leaned into each other and kissed in the rain, hidden from anyone that dared to look at this memorable moment of their lives.
Lightly playing with the fingers intertwined with his own, Cloud watched the boy in front of him, trying to sleep. Sora lied on top of the bed covers in dried clothing and for once, wore something that belong to him. Cloud was underneath the warmth of the bed covers and kept staring, in hopes that he can watch Leon return to him.
"You don't have to watch me…" Sora murmured without opening his eyes.
"Sorry…"
"Mmm…"
"You know, what will the kids think if they walked in and saw you in my bed?"
"That's why I'm on the bed…" Sora replied and Cloud found himself smiling.
"That's such as a Leon-answer…"
The boy only nodded once before remaining silent for the rest of the night. Cloud followed soon after, not able to stay awake to see if he'll have Leon back by morning…
Don't kill me! But also don't assume it's gonna end next chapter…because it's NOT! Well it's gonna end soon…but not next chapter!
Please read and review!