He tasted like chocolate.
The kiss was gentle, soothing, but hardly chaste. Cloud pressed close to Leon, their bodies fitting together perfectly, his fingers flexing in the brunette's silky hair, pulling him closer. Leon slipped his free hand under the blonde's robe, his fingers ghosting over the smooth muscles covering Cloud's ribs before stroking up and down his spine.
Cloud pulled back just enough for the two of them to take a breath, before Leon pushed forward and claimed the blonde's lips as his again, forcing Cloud's mouth open and stroking his tongue along the blonde's.
With a gentle trill and a shiver, Cloud rose his other hand to place it directly over the brunette's heart, feeling it beat strongly under his palm, the heat of Leon's flesh burning against his fingers.
Pulling back a little, Leon felt Cloud bite at his lips possessively, the blonde's nails digging into his chest before the hand became relaxed again. This was far better than anything he could've concocted in his half-assed fantasies. Coaxing Cloud's tongue into his mouth, Leon sucked on it, receiving a groan in reply, before giving the blonde's tongue a sharp bite; hard enough to hurt, and only just soft enough not to draw blood; but really close to it.
Cloud pressed closer at the pain, Leon feeling just how aroused the blonde was, and, no doubt, vice versa. The brunette deepened the kiss with a moan, Cloud allowing himself to submit for the moment before Leon slid his hand down Cloud's neck to place it across the man's clavicles, gently pushing him back.
They separated reluctantly, the blonde biting at the edge of his lip as he stared expectantly at Leon with lust-darkened eyes.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay?" panted Leon, his hand still placed at the blonde's clavicles, holding him back that little bit, the brunette licking his own swollen lips.
Leon's hand was easily swatted to the side and Cloud promptly stuck his tongue down the brunette's throat.
Clearly, that was a 'no'.
During a heated battle of teeth and tongues, a passing thought flitted through Leon's lust-clouded mind and mentioned the fact that it might be a bad idea to continue. Finally, he pulled back and latched onto Cloud's neck, just under his ear, the blonde letting out a heady pant and burying his nose in the brunette's shoulder as Leon's talented tongue reduced his fraying nerves to tingles.
"Does this mean," mumbled Leon into Cloud's soft flesh, raising his head a little to kiss and nip along the blonde's jaw, "that we're..."
He didn't really want to use the word. It just didn't sit well with him.
Cloud nodded in answering to the unfinished question, turning his head and pressing a kiss against Leon's lips, his fingers flexing in his silky brown hair again. "I just have one condition," he breathed against his lips.
The brunette blinked. "'Condition'?" he repeated, a mocking smile spreading over his face.
Giving him an ever so irritated glare, Cloud nipped lightly at Leon's lip before nodding. "Yes, just a simple one, though."
"I await my master's orders," Leon smirked, raising an eyebrow. Cloud gave him a light shove of exasperation that barely made him take a single step back, but Cloud quickly reconciled with a quick lick and kiss to the brunette's throat.
"I just..." Cloud let out a quiet sigh, looking away to stare into the flames of the oven beside them, which felt a lot cooler than the heat generated by the two of them. Finally, the blonde looked back at Leon, to find the brunette watching him uncertainly.
"Just don't tell anyone, okay?"
Leon blinked, and then it clicked in the back of his head. He rose is eyebrows.
"They don't know," he stated. "About your--"
"Sexuality?" Cloud cut in, sounding just that little bit defensive. "I don't see why they should. I'm not dating any of them."
Rolling his eyes, the brunette gave Cloud a reprimanding look. "Tifa thinks you're single."
"I was."
"And strait."
"Her mistake."
"God, you are an ass, Strife," Leon frowned. Tifa deserved to know. Hell, everyone did!
Cloud smirked back at Leon, giving him a flash of perfect white teeth; more a challenge than anything else. "And you're a dick. Look at that. We match." Without further ado, the blonde man shoved Leon against the wall and kissed him deeply, his fingers gouging into his shoulders, the brunette's fingers digging into Cloud's back under his robe.
After a moment, Cloud pulled back, ignoring the slight groan of loss from the other man, sweeping his tongue over the brunette's swollen lips. "Do you agree to my condition?" he breathed.
"Fine," Leon panted, nipping lightly at the tip of Cloud's tongue. "Only if you agree to mine."
Unearthly blue eyes flickered between Leon's half-lidded stormy grey-blue ones apprehensively before closing, Cloud pressing a soft kiss against the edge of the brunette's mouth: a silent question.
"We tell them eventually," Leon stated, dragging his fingers up and down the blonde's smooth spine soothingly, Cloud opening his eyes and staring into his own stormy ones silently. "If," Leon breathed, pressing a kiss against the blonde's cheek, "If, everything works out. Long-term."
Cloud's blue eyes flickered to the side, hesitant. He really saw no need to tell everyone about their relationship. It wasn't any of their business. Just his and Leon's. No one else's.
Finally, he looked back at the brunette; to stare into those stormy eyes... Oh, God, Leon was beautiful.
Moving forward without a thought, Cloud pressed his lips against Leon's, licking at the supple lines of flesh gently before nodding against him, agreeing.
"Fine," the blonde whispered.
Smiling, Leon pushed forward; claiming Cloud's lips with a deep kiss, pushing away from the wall, taking small steps, making the blonde walk backwards, mouth quite occupied.
The backs of Cloud's knees met with the arm of one of the couches and he pressed close to Leon, his nails scraping down, either side of the brunette's strong neck, leaving two sets of five parallel, raw-red lines.
Pulling away from the kiss, Leon ignored the small, impatient glare he got from Cloud, but just gave the blonde a cheeky smirk before shoving him backwards.
His back meeting the couch with a dull thump, Cloud let out a grunt, his robe falling open once again, revealing his taught stomach and toned chest, his knees hooked over the arm of the couch he had just been pushed over; Leon standing there with his warm hands on the blondes knees, keeping them there.
Leaning between Cloud's knees and over the arm of the couch, Leon breathed over the blonde's stomach, making the submitting swordsman bite at the edge of his lip in a refraining manner, his arms flicked above his head. Pressing a wet kiss against the flesh just above Cloud's navel, the brunette felt the blonde's speeding pulse.
Placing a knee on the arm of the couch, in between Cloud's legs, Leon kissed up the blonde's body, his kisses open-mouthed and wet. Cloud, underneath him, arching up to the brunette, panting, his head flicked to the side.
Placing his other knee beside the blonde's hip on the couch's cushions, Leon slid a hand languidly up Cloud's leg, his fingers dancing over flexing muscles, the blonde shifting and squirming urgently under him.
Licking at the flesh directly over Cloud's heart, Leon glanced up at Cloud just as the blonde arched off the couch, his head thrown back, his throat exposed. Moving up, the brunette dipped his tongue in the hollow between the blonde's clavicles before nipping up a taught tendon that lead to Cloud's jaw, the submitting male panting headily into his ear.
"What were you waiting for?" Leon breathed into Cloud's ear, his lust-clouded mind somehow still mildly coherent. He placed his free arm on one side of Cloud's head, licking at his jaw lightly.
The blonde didn't even open his eyes. "Pardon?" he panted. Oh, he's polite when he's horny. Okay.
Leon cupped Cloud through his boxers, the blonde immediately gritting his teeth and throwing his head back, trying to bite back a groan that easily flew from his vocal chords anyway. The brunette covered Cloud's throat with his mouth, sucking on the swordsman's adams-apple as he palmed the blonde's erection, quiet, breathy keening sounds floating from Cloud's throat. Those sounds just made Leon move just a little bit faster, trying to ignore his own throbbing erection that was trapped in his baggy black jeans.
Pulling back from the blonde's throat and sweeping his tongue over the moist flesh, Leon swallowed thickly. "When you said 'not yet'," he murmured against the soft skin, sliding his hand that was cupping the blonde's erection down Cloud's leg; away from the hard, heated flesh that needed attention. "What were you waiting for?"
"If I tell you, will you promise to shut up and get on with it?" Cloud replied throatily after a few deep breaths, as though he had been starved of oxygen for years on end. Leon nodded, shifting so he was hanging over the blonde, his brown hair hanging around his face, the ends of the silky locks only barely brushing the blonde's cheeks, blue-grey eyes fixed on Cloud's own closed ones.
His unearthly blue eyes fluttering open, Cloud stared up at Leon for a second before answering. "Sephiroth," he said, his voice blank of emotion.
Leon frowned down at the blonde, a little confused. "What has he got to do with it?" he asked, stormy eyes roaming Cloud's face.
"You would've been hurt if we got together when he was still around," the blonde murmured, shrugging simply, eyes never leaving the male above him. "I tried to defeat him after we kissed, but, the fight was longer than I expected and he nearly killed me." Cloud shrugged again, as though it happened often. "I decided it better to keep training, and then try again."
The information making sense after a moment of thought, Leon nodded. "So, you made me wait because you were afraid of me getting hurt because of Sephiroth?" he asked.
The blonde nodded in reply, shifting slightly under him.
The brunette scoffed quietly. "You hurt me anyway by making me wait, Strife. You--" he was silenced by a sharp tug of a lock of his hair. He winced and blinked down at Cloud, who was looking at him with a clearly unimpressed expression.
"I explained it to you," the blonde stated, giving the lock of hair caught around his fingers another sharp tug. "You're still talking. Shut the fuck up." With that, Cloud grabbed a fist full of Leon's silky brown hair and yanked the brunette downwards, crushing their lips together with enough force to bruise.
It was three days before the rain stopped for good.
The girls came back the following evening, to find the living room and kitchen had been rearranged a little, slightly cleaner than when they had left; found Cloud eating a tuna sandwich in the kitchen, and Leon came out from his room wearing his usual attire at the sound of them coming back.
"So, how was the Queen?" Leon asked, leaning against the doorway that connected the kitchen and the hall. He pulled his fur collar a little closer to his neck before slipping is hands into his pockets. Tifa supposed it was because of the cold.
"She's well, I sent her your love," Aerith explained warmly, taking in the slightly stiff nod from the other brunette, and eyed the two men thoughtfully as Cloud ripped the crust off the edges of his sandwich.
"Anything interesting happen while we were away?" the pretty flower-girl asked, Yuffie jumping up and down on one of the couches, happy to be home, Tifa standing at Aerith's side, her bright brown eyes wide with curiosity.
Neither swordsman looked at each other. Cloud took another bite out of his sandwich, shrugging in a way that clearly meant nothing earth-shatteringly significant had happened, and Leon just grunted.
"Nothing happened," Leon said.
None of the girls noticed the brush of Cloud's fingers that danced teasingly over Leon's hip, and the quick, restrained glare he received from one very controlled Squall Leonhart.
((TBC. I was almost not going to post this until two days from now, because of home and internet problems and my current writing-slump, but, I thought I'd get off my ass and post it. The rating is going up when I post the next chapter, but, there might be more than one delay posting chapters from now. Writing slump plus limited time on the computer equals a few hours of obscene swearing a day. Read and enjoy.))