It's been a month since Leon had intruded into Cloud's room to find the blonde having a nightmare. The blonde had come and gone from Hollow Bastion, but, only for a day or two, before coming back again. The brunette never said anything about the nightmare, acting like it never happened, and the blonde seemed to think it never happened either. He was probably asleep for the whole thing, Leon thought.
The Gunblade-weilder roamed the streets of Hollow Bastion, the sun glowing high overhead. Around noon, maybe. Slashing his blade through a heartless, rendering the little black creature headless for a second, before it disappeared in a puff of smoke, Leon slashed at another heartless without even looking at it. They were small-fry. Nothing to get excited about.
Continuing through the streets, Leon slashed at any available heartless, quickly defeating them before moving on. Sora passed him with a cheery wave, showing off his new Keyblade by smashing it into a floating heartless a few times, Donald and Goofy running after him.
Leon chuckled, the teen's blatant show of excitement at a new weapon amused him as he walked into the marketplace, stormy eyes roaming around the shops, before landing on a dark, brooding lump sitting by one of the fountains.
"Keep doing that, and it'll stick that way," Leon smirked as he came to stand near Cloud, who sat with his back against a wall beside one of the fountains, a sour look on his face, and, even if any person who stated it would die a long, bloody and painful death, Leon had to admit; he thought Cloud was pouting.
"Shut up, fuckwad," Cloud stated flatly, knees coming a little closer to his chest.
Yup. Pouting.
Only one way to stop Cloud pouting and moping around in his self-loathing; Raising his Gunblade, which was still held in his hand, Leon took half a step forward and grazed the tip of the blade against the blonde's neck. Leon felt it was his duty to stop the blonde wallowing in his own misery. He didn't know why, he just did.
Stormy eyes watched the thin red line the tip of the blade had caused in Cloud's tanned skin, tiny beads of blood weeping through the shallow cut, some clinging to the end of Leon's Gunblade, which hovered above the blonde's jugular.
Cloud did nothing. Though, he was no longer pouting. He just sat there for a long moment, face blank, eyes staring over his knees at nothing in particular. Finally, his eyes floated to the side, then upwards, meeting Leon's own grey-blue ones, a tiny smirk appearing Cloud's face.
"Shall we take this somewhere private?" he questioned lightly, white teeth glinting, more of a challenge than anything else. Leon nodded and Cloud rose to his feet, grasping his sword by his side, the brunette's blade still pointed at his throat.
Only way to get Cloud to stop moping: Fight him.
The Gunblade slowly moved down from Cloud's throat, grazing his collar, down his chest, before dropping to scrape the tip against the stone ground. Cloud turned away, smirk melting off, and walked out of the market-place, Leon following behind.
The two males made their way through Hollow Bastion in silence, Cloud leading, Leon following. They made their way through the Crystal Fissure and Leon vaguely thought that Cloud's eyes were the same kind of luminescent blue as the crystals. Finally entering The Great Maw, Leon only just threw his weight sideways to see a flash of steel slam into the ground he'd been standing on a millisecond before.
Flipping backwards and landing a few metres away, the brunette gave Cloud a reprimanding look. "No warning?" he questioned. Cloud usually waited to when he was ready to fight. The blonde must've been especially moody.
Cloud gave him the finger, and yanked his Buster sword from the ground where Leon had stood before; where it had caused a large crack in the purplish stoney ground. Leon sighed and tightened his grip on his Gunblade.
The fight was nearly dead-even, as it usually was. Cloud had brute strength and speed, while Leon had strategy and a nimble body. Sometimes, Cloud would be the stronger, and sometimes Leon would be. It just depended how they were feeling on the day, but, in the end, there wasn't much of a gap between them.
"What's the matter, Strife?" Leon called halfway through the fight, a bleeding cut across his cheek, a –thankfully– shallow cut down his spine, and numerous bruises. "You're slipping."
Indeed Cloud was. He seemed distracted. Leon had already cut across the blonde's shoulder, given him a shallow stab in the leg, and he had a few more bruises than he usually got.
"Thinking," Cloud grunted after lunging at Leon's face, the brunette only just yanking his head to the side, seeing the reflection of his bleeding cheek in the gleaming metal blade a few millimetres from his face, before he skidded to the side, feeling a tiny cut in his shoulder make it's presence known.
"About?" He prompted. Usually, when Cloud fought, it was like the blonde already knew what Leon was going to do, and acted accordingly. But, today, Cloud was fidgeting, looking away, and stumbling. Leon sliced sharply at Cloud's arm, the swing easily could've taken off the limb completely, but the blonde yanked it out of range just in time, the tip of the Gunblade only just cutting into his flesh.
A sharp jolt shot through Cloud's body, the blonde's head snapping away, his grip on his sword tightening then loosening in a split second, the tip of the massive blade hitting the ground.
Both men were silent, Cloud's head turned away from Leon and bowed, his golden fringe hiding his eyes from view, the tip of his sword against the ground, his grip on the hilt slack, the arm Leon had just cut into barely shaking, the only visible sign was the sleeve that covered it, which quivered slightly in the still air.
Leon watched Cloud silently, his Gunblade brushing the ground.
He said nothing.
Stormy eyes slowly lowering to his Gunblade, Leon saw, instead of the proper scarlet of blood clinging to his blade, a thin, inky black liquid he could not identify. Looking back at Cloud, Leon rose his sword and slapped the flat edge sharply against Cloud's slack hands, the hilt of the sword immediately falling from the blonde's fingers and hitting the ground with a loud and resounding CLANG.
The brunette twirled his Gunblade between his fingers, before plunging the tip of the blade into the stone ground beside him with a sigh, glancing at Cloud, who just stood there, his bare right arm slowly curling, his hand fisting the material of his left arm, just where Leon had cut him; that thin black liquid smearing on his glove.
Digging in his pockets for some Hi-Potions, Leon kept his eyes fixed on Cloud. The blonde hardly seemed to be in the right state of mind to fight, and Leon was hardly one to ask the other man to talk about his problems, so, Leon just decided healing him physically was all he could do.
Yanking out a handful of Hi-Potions which glowed in his hand, the brunette sighed and took a step toward the blonde.
((TBC. Most people who have seen Final Fantasy Advent Children will know what's going on with Cloud's arm, hopefully. Anyway, I've figured I'll post these chapters once every two days unless I'm feeling generous or something comes up. The next chapter is a continuation of this one, so, don't think I'm just stopping here and fast-fowarding a few days. As always, please, read and review. The gay will finally start to show in a few chapters time.))