Yanking out a handful of Hi-Potions which glowed in his hand, the brunette sighed and took a step toward the blonde.

Cloud shrank away from him, his hand tightening around the cut on his arm. He was frightened and in shock, and Leon didn't really know how to stop it. The blonde was clearly upset about something, and the brunette didn't really want to ask.

Flipping one of the Hi-Potions open, he held it in front of Cloud's mouth, making sure not to touch the blonde. It was an unspoken rule between the two men that touching was out of bounds. Cloud turned away minutely, his head still bowed and turned away from the brunette, the movement barely visible except for the glint of the sun on his hair changing.

The brunette could practically hear the apology that was coming off the silent blonde in waves. Cloud didn't like to stop a fight when there wasn't a clear winner, and there wasn't one this time, and he never liked to show his weakness. So, today was a double-whammy against the blonde. Leon sighed, the Hi-Potion still held in front of Cloud's mouth.

"It's not your fault," Leon sighed, rolling the other Hi-Potions in his other hand around each other thoughtlessly, the magical glass clinking together.

Cloud froze. That statement. That voice.

The blonde lifted his head ever so slightly and looked at Leon through his gold fringe. The brunette could've sworn that Cloud's usually blue eyes flickered into green cat-eyes, but it was gone before he could confirm it. "It was you..." the blonde whispered.

Leon frowned. "What was?" he questioned, lowering his Hi-Potion slightly, eying the blonde uncertainly.

"The voice," the blonde mumbled, blue eyes still fixed unwaveringly on Leon. "In my dream."

Alarms flew into action in Leon's mind and the brunette immediately pushed the Hi-Potion into Cloud's mouth, forcing the blonde's head back as well as he could without touching him. Cloud didn't do anything as the Hi-Potion's liquid trickled down his throat, as his cut on his shoulder, bruises, and stab-wound in his leg glowed and healed themselves, but never removed his eyes from Leon.

"You're imagining things," Leon stated flatly, removing the empty Hi-Potion vial from Cloud's unresisting mouth and dropping it on the ground, the magical glass shattering before disappearing from the purple stone ground. "I was a dream."

"You were in my room."

Leon froze.

Cloud never really cared why Leon had been in his room.

He only cared who's voice it was that made the darkness disappear ever since his dream. The questions had flooded his mind and eventually taken him over, leaving him in an autistic mess that just sat there and thought. Now that he'd figured out it was Leon's voice, it made the number of questions in his mind double, but quieten at the same time.

The brunette before him said nothing, avoiding his eyes completely, before yanking Cloud's hand away from his arm by the cuff of his glove and went to touch his sleeved arm.

Just before Leon's gloved fingers touched the inky-wet material clinging to Cloud's arm, his hand was slapped away so hard a jolt of pain shot up the brunette's arm. He looked at Cloud, who shook his head and grasped a hand around the wound again. It was almost as though the blonde had told him what was wrong with his arm telepathically.

Hi-Potions don't help. Elixers either. Don't touch it.

Leon looked away again, throwing back a Hi-Potion, before dropping the empty glass vial, the vial disappearing like the other one, his wounds glowing and healing. Placing the spare Potions back into his pockets, Leon turned away to grab his Gunblade.

"Why were you in my room?"

Bright blue eyes burnt into the back of Leon's neck like white-hot ashes as he stood there, hand hovering over the hilt of his Gunblade, back stiff. Leon stared at his Gunblade, barely seeing it. Why was he hiding the fact he had helped Cloud through a nightmare? Why was he shy? Why was he ashamed of it?

"You were having a bad dream, Strife." Why did that have to sound so corny? "I didn't want you to start screaming and wake everyone up, is all."

Leon heard the sound of quiet footsteps, and ignored it as Cloud appeared in his peripheral vision, circling him until he stood in front of him, the only thing between them: Leon's Gunblade. Stormy eyes glared a smouldering hole between his fingers and into the hilt of his sword, ignoring the blonde man's existence completely.

"Is that so?"

"Yes," Leon hissed through his teeth. Why was the blonde man so calm? Why was he so irritating? Why was he getting under Leon's skin?

Cloud stepped forward, slowly moving his arms so they hung by his sides, walking forward, eyes fixed purely on Leon's own, which refused to look at him. He finally came to stop beside Leon's Gunblade, so close to the other man, his breath floated across the brunette's cheek.

The inky-black 'blood' trickled down Cloud's wounded arm, gathering on the tips of his gloved fingers and dripping to the ground in tiny black, sickly dots. Leon focused his attention purely on the sound of those black drops hitting the ground.

He ignored Cloud. He ignored the musky, ever so slightly salty smell of the other man. The heat radiating off his body, that he could feel, even through his thick clothing. The sound of Cloud's breaths –one breath every nine seconds–, which floated across his cheek. Everything. He ignored it all.

At least, he tried to.

The blonde man smirked slightly, the obvious uneasiness of the brunette amusing him. Cloud decided to try his luck, wondering exactly where the brunette would draw the line.

Leaning closer, but never truly touching, Cloud exhaled a hot gust of breath over Leon's ear. Smirking at the lack of reaction, or, at least, lack of a punch in the face, Cloud breathed two simple words into Leon's ear.

"Whatever, Leonhart."

With that, Cloud grabbed his sword and disappeared into the Crystal Fissure. Sure, he was confused as to why it was Leon's voice that protected him from the darkness, and he had millions of questions that basically all said that same thing; 'why him?', but, he knew the answer to that.

So, Cloud just left to find the answers on his own, curling his fist around the weeping cut on his arm once again.

Back in the The Great Maw, Leon was just staring fixedly in front of him, hand still hovering over his Gunblade. His skin burnt where Cloud had breathed over his cheek and ear, his whole body ached with something he didn't understand, and his mind was just a jumble of foul words and emotions.

Suddenly yanking his Gunblade from the stone ground, Leon threw it with all his might at one of the high walls of rock, the blade slamming into it and causing a gaping, jagged crack all the way up the purple-blue rock.

Leon snarled and groaned, running a hand through his hair and yanking at it for good measure.

What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he acting this way?

((TBC. Oh, the horror. The gay is finally starting to melt through. Poor Leon. He's been infected with The Gay. He'll probably be lying in a gutter this time next month, naked, with six pints of VD in his system. Ooh, there was a song about that, wasn't there? Anyway, read and enjoy. Not my best chapter, I admit. If it's any conciliation, the next chapter is called 'Let Me Dream Of You' and I just might have to bump up the rating.))