It was two weeks since Leon had 'The Dream';
The dream that haunted him, made him think things he never truly wanted, and made him second-guess everything he did before now.
He'd been passing through world after world; killing Heartless and Nobodies alike, trying to keep his body occupied so that his mind was, also. Finally, he found himself sitting on one of the ports at Port Royal in the dead of night, his legs dangling over the edge, his boots brushing the inky water beneath him as he just slouched there, staring across the horizon.
"Oi!" came a bark behind Leon, snapping the brunette out of his mental flurry of emotions, words and cusses. "What you don', eh?!"
Leon looked over his shoulder blankly, and Jack sparrow stopped dead, before a crooked grin appeared on his dirty face. "You still 'ere?"
"Obviously," the brunette stated flatly, looking back at the horizon. He'd met the pirate numerous times since he landed in Port Royal a few days ago. He hated the pirate, and wondered vaguely if personal hygiene had ever been introduced to the other man.
Jack swaggered over, golden teeth glinting, before he sat –no, fell– into the space beside Leon, on the port. "Ye never told me what you've been mopin' about," Jack told him, waving a grubby finger and swaying, leaning on the Gunblade wielder and seemingly oblivious to the look of pure loathing he received.
"Why do you think I'm moping?" Leon growled. He could practically see the dirt and grime hopping off Jack's hand and onto his nice, clean shoulder.
Two dirty bottles of amber liquid appeared before Leon's nose. "Ye face just screams 'I need rum'."
Reluctantly, Leon took one of the bottles, and Jack nodded authoritatively, somehow staggering to his feet without falling off the port, or even onto Leon. Though, it was a damn close call. "Now, I can't interest you in any salty wenches, can I?" the pirate grinned.
It was tempting to cut the pirate off at the knee, but Leon just shook his head, rubbing his fingers over the dirty bottle of rum in his lap. Jack shrugged haughtily. "Suit yerself!" he stated, flicking his nose into the air and swaggering back down the port like he had a dislocated hip, humming something that sounded a lot like 'pirate's life for me!'.
Leon just sat there for a few more hours, the rum-bottle sitting by his side, unopened and full. Stormy eyes just stared across the horizon while Leon just thought about a certain blonde man.
The brunette had been in love before. He knew what it was like. This wasn't love.
Ever since his dream of the blonde man, he'd been thinking about him. Not just thinking, but wanting, needing. The moment he'd woken up, Leon had just wanted to walk strait into the blonde man's room and ravish him.
It was lust. Not love.
He wasn't even gay. Leon was strait. He'd never thought of another man other than a sack of meat with vocal chords that might be good at fighting. He'd always been interested in women. Only women.
But, Leon wanted to touch the blonde man. Feel him. Taste him. And, Leon had no say in the matter.
That fact scared him.
Leon was always in control. Always cool, calm, and knowing of what could happen, and being ready for it. Now, whenever he thought about Cloud, he was overwhelmed with urges to do things to the blonde that were not recommended in private, let alone public, and he didn't know if he could keep the urges at bay.
Running a hand through his hair and sighing gently, the brunette just stared at his knees. He didn't want to go back to Hollow Bastion until he knew he could keep the urges under control and act normal. He just wanted to be normal.
"So, here you are."
It was like someone had slammed Leon in the chest with a giant cement hammer. His eyes widened, all air fled from his lungs, and he suddenly felt very nauseous. He squeezed his eyes closed and hunched his back, fisting both hands in his hair.
Go away, Strife.
The blonde man stood at the other end of the port, hands in his pockets, eyes on the hunched figure sitting on the other end. Cloud was more than a little curious as to why Leon had left, but, being the stoic man he was, he wasn't just going to come out and say it. It'd taken him a whole week to find Leon. The brunette was amazing at covering his tracks.
"The girls are worried about you," Cloud stated to Leon's back, eyeing him as the brunette stiffened. The blonde man tapped the sole of his boot against the old wood of the port a few times, the soft 'clunk's emphasising his stubborn nature. He wasn't leaving any time soon, and Leon knew that.
Oh, how Leon knew that.
Squeezing his eyes a little tighter before opening then again, the brunette stared hopelessly at his knees. Don't talk. Leon thought desperately to Cloud. Please don't talk. Leon hated Cloud's voice. He hated, hated, hated it. It was so soft, so low, almost breathless and--
Leon squeezed his eyes closed again and gripped his hair so tightly it was painful. Make it stop.
Cloud watched the brunette silently, head tilted slightly to the side, a small frown on his face. The brunette was unnaturally quiet, and he seemed to be in some sort of mental distress –Cloud was quite the expert on mental distress–. Taking a step forward, the blonde opened his mouth to ask him if he was okay.
Leon was suddenly on his feet, the rum bottle falling off the side of the port and into the sea with a quiet splash. Cloud barely even blinked, and the brunette had already shoved past him and was hurrying down one of the streets, one hand still fisted in his hair.
Eyes narrowing slowly at the brunette's retreating back, Cloud felt anger bubble up inside of him, his hands curling into fists in his pockets. He went to all those worlds, looking for Leon, purely out of what was left of the goodness of his heart, and because Aerith and the others had begged him to, but, when he finally did find the stuck-up little shit of a Gunblade-weilder, he just ran off!
Gritting his teeth, Cloud ran after Leon.
The blonde man caught up with the Gunblade wielder just before he was about to step into his gummi-ship, Cloud grabbing a fistful of Leon's sleeve and yanking him backwards with all his might. Leon's body was wrenched around, and he stumbled a little before regaining his feet, his back to the gummi-ship. In front of him; the last and only person he wanted to be around.
"What," snarled Cloud, not out of breath while Leon was, his eyes flashing in barely-controlled anger, "the hell is wrong with you?"
A mocking, crooked smirk appeared on Leon's face before he could stop it. "I'd like to know that too." he stated flatly.
A confused frown melted onto Cloud's face and Leon bit his tongue to stop himself moving to touch the blonde. Touch him. Taste him. Feel him. He felt his hand start to rise and he immediately turned to get back into the gummi-ship.
The moment Leon turned away from Cloud, the blonde shot out a hand and grabbed the brunette's arm. No touching be damned. Before he could even open his mouth, his head snapped away and he stumbled back half a step, his hand falling from Leon's arm.
Cloud's pupils contracted into pinpricks, his face directed away from Leon, before he slowly rose a hand and touched his cheek with the backs of his fingers, his eyes slowly floating back to the brunette, who's fist was still raised.
The Gunblade wielder felt his heart hammering in his chest like it had been when he'd woken up from the dream. He let his hand drop, but his eyes never moved from Cloud's.
He had just punched Cloud.
The blonde man's face was blank. No emotion, no feeling, no nothing.
Leon felt his body rock minutely forward. Toward Cloud. His hand began to raise again and he shattered the eye-contact he had with the blonde, wrenching himself around and hurrying into the gummi-ship, slamming the door behind him before letting the ship fly up into the sky and away from there.
On the ground, blue eyes just watched fixedly until the gummi-ship was nothing more than a dot in the dark sky. Cloud pressed the backs of his fingers a little harder against his throbbing cheek and a frown melted onto his face again.
Leon's fingers curled around the burning skin of his arm, where Cloud had touched him. Pressing his forehead angrily against the back of one of the chairs, Leon swore throatily into the confines of the ship.
He couldn't control it.
((TBC. It made me giggle with delight when I wrote Cloud's reaction to being punched. Anyway, yes. Leon is strait. Cloud is just... well, too sexy for his own good. I added Jack in there because I like him. I'm working on chapter fourteen right now, so, every new chapter will be posted once every two days. That's not too long to wait, is it? As always, read, enjoy, and please review!))