AN: This chapter has been edited for FFNet.
Edit 3/11/2015: It has been brought to my attention that the previously posted link to the fully smutted version of this chapter is no longer valid. The correct link can now be found on my profile page.
Edit 6/27/2015: Okay, so I guess FFNet is no longer allowing links on the profile page either.
The link is: thewarywarbler . livejournal . com
Edit 6/5/2021: You can now find the MA version of this chapter on Ao3 as well.
Curve Ball - Chapter Three
There was a lot to be said for oblivion.
At least that's what Leon would have told you, had you asked him at that particular moment in time.
Stepping out of the nightclub into the fresh night air was like being hit with a wave of esuna, and the confusion spell he had obviously been under swiftly washed away. The walk home cleared his mind even further, and by the time they reached Aerith's, he was approaching a state of complete lucidity. He just wasn't certain he wanted it.
Clearheadedness had the nasty tendency of making you remember all the things you did while drunk that you would much rather curl up in a tight little fetal ball and forget – things like grinding mindlessly on the dance floor with Cloud. Yes, the light of sobriety was a harsh and unforgiving mistress who magnified every single, embarrassing mistake and illuminated them in all their glaring, gory details.
The fact that he desperately needed to take a piss wasn't helping anything either, and it was at that point that Leon buried in his face in his hands and groaned.
Oh god, what had he done? Years of diligence and discipline down the drain.
Luckily, the others were too busy to notice their fearless leader's little anxiety attack. Aerith was fumbling around in her pockets, trying to find the key; Yuffie was clinging to Cloud's back, where she had been hanging for the last half of the way home; and Cloud was still trying, unsuccessfully, to remove her.
"Ah-ha!" Aerith cried, holding up the little gold key. She attempted to fit it into the lock, but failed.
"Gimme that," Yuffie giggled, finally unwrapping her arms from Cloud's neck and sliding down his back. She waggled a finger at the flower girl. "You're drrrrunk."
"Sor'you," Aerith giggled back, dropping the key, which hit the cement with a cheerful little clink. Both girls dove after it, but only succeeded in smacking their heads together. "Oww," they said in unison, rubbing their foreheads, but they were still giggling as if it was the funniest thing ever in the whole wide world.
"You're both drunk," Cloud admonished with a disapproving shake of his head, but it failed to disguise the affection in his softly glowing eyes. Deftly swooping up the key from the stoop, he opened the door for the two giggly-wiggly-wobbly women and then turned to Leon with a hopeful smile. "You comin' in?"
Well, was he?
Leon stood there silently with one of his infamous internal debates obviously raging in his head. Who knew what deep and complex thoughts went on in there?
Should he go inside to use their bathroom? Or just pee in the bushes on the way home?
Knowing his luck, he'd probably get caught, and what sort of example would that set for the young boys and girls who looked up to him? He could just see the headlines now:
Mayor Caught With Pants Down
Restoration leader Leonhart relieves himself on Radiant Garden's newly planted roses.
The hell with the young boys and girls, Leon shuddered; Aerith would kill him. And hadn't he just recently approved a requisition for some sharp new pruning shears for the Garden Committee?
"Yeah," he wisely decided, following the girls inside and making a beeline for the bathroom while Cloud locked up behind them.
"Oh goodness," Aerith sighed, wiping the tears from her watering eyes. "I think I hear beddy-bye calling."
"Oooooh, I thought that was Leee-ooon," Yuffie said as a satisfied 'Aaaah' drifted out from the bathroom. Then they both doubled over with laughter again, and Yuffie stumbled into Aerith, who then stumbled into Cloud, who was, thankfully, as steady as a rock, so they both decided to stay there. It was always good to have your very own rock to cling to when the world around you was spinning so.
Their rock, however, had other plans that didn't include the two girls and promptly threw them over his shoulders and hauled their giggling asses up the stairs, depositing them on said respective beddy-byes.
"Tell Leon we said nighty-night," Aerith cooed sweetly, but the affected innocence in her voice only underscored the naughty twinkle in her eyes. "And tell him we said to be good."
"Yeah. Very, very good," Yuffie added, and they both burst into another fit of giggles. Cloud shook his head and rolled his eyes, but Aerith caught the small upward twitch at one corner of his mouth and returned it with a great big adoring smile of her own. He gently closed the door behind him and went back downstairs.
Leon was still in the bathroom, contemplating the incredible capacity of the human bladder as he finished emptying the unpretentious little organ ... remarkable, really ... amazing even, and he was pretty sure he couldn't possible have drunk that much the entire night... But eventually the steady stream tapered off to a small trickle, followed by a few last squirts; then he gave it a good shake or two and tucked himself back in his britches.
Geez, he must have had urine backed up all the way to his brain, making it soggy and sluggish, because now that the pressure was off, he realized that it was two-thirty in the morning and highly unlikely that there were any reporters lying in wait in the roses to destroy his reputation, making the bushes a much safer bet than Aerith's bathroom because now he had to figure out a way to get out of that bathroom and then out of the house without running into Cloud.
Cloud.
A warm feeling flooded his body when he thought about the beautiful blond, and a certain somebody promptly stood up and took notice. That's right; now that it was no longer preoccupied with not wetting itself, Leon's dick decided to fill its silly little head with bigger and better ideas. Leon washed his hands and attempted to will his unwanted erection away.
It wasn't that he didn't want to see the blond – no, he obviously wanted to see him very much – he just thought it would be better to go home and sleep on it first so he could reexamine this frightening new thing in the clear light of morning before doing something rash. Taking a deep breath, Leon cautiously cracked open the bathroom door and peeked outside to see if the coast was clear. A light was on in the kitchen, but the living room was quiet and dark; all he had to do was tiptoe quietly to the front door and make his escape. Very carefully, he slipped out of the bathroom and marched straight to kitchen.
The only rational explanation was that there was some sort of powerful magnetic force in Aerith's kitchen that had sucked him in, and indeed there was, for there, leaning against the kitchen counter, eating vanilla ice cream straight from the carton, was Cloud, looking like a vanilla ice cream dream. Leon stared at the blond and swallowed a sob. He was doomed, and it was all his own doing.
He was an idiot. A nitwit. A moron.
Dumb as a dodo bird. Mad as a March hare. Crazy as a Laguna loon.
He was hard as a fucking rock.
"Girls go to bed?" he mumbled, avoiding Cloud's eyes lest he get further ensnared in their web of desire. He looked around the small kitchen instead.
Cloud hummed a rather ambiguous reply around the spoon in his mouth, watching with amusement as Leon's eyes fluttered around the room like a butterfly following pheromones – and lighting on everything but the source. Was he looking for the girls?
Perhaps he thought they were concealed somewhere in the kitchen? That Aerith was hiding behind the refrigerator? Yuffie stowed away in the stove? Or perhaps he had simply taken a sudden interest in kitchen appliances.
Cloud couldn't help the soft chuckle that slipped from his mouth. Was it wrong to be getting so much pleasure from another's obvious distress? Silly little swallowtail, refusing to even look at him as if that could save him from Cloud's net. Cloud held out a spoonful of ice cream and asked in his most innocent voice, "Want some?"
Against his will, Leon's eyes were immediately drawn to the blond. Oh god yes. Yes. He shook his head. "No thanks."
"Suit yourself." Cloud shrugged and stuck the spoon back in his mouth.
"So ... um ... I guess I, um ... I oughta get ... uh, going," Leon stuttered, eyes locked on the spoon as Cloud curled his tongue around it and licked it clean.
Dropping the spoon back in the carton and setting the carton down on the counter, Cloud cocked his head and took a small step forward. "Get a-going?"
"Home." Leon nodded. And added, "It's late."
"Mmm," Cloud hummed, and took another step forward. "Late."
"Right ... late. And ..." There was a milky-white drop of melted ice cream on Cloud's luscious lower lip. "And ..."
"And dark," Cloud suggested, taking another step forward.
Leon shook his head. "And ..."
"... the castle is so far away." And another.
Leon shook his head again, harder. "And tomorrow ..."
"... is Saturday." Cloud's talented, pink tongue darted out and licked away the wayward drop of cream. His sexy, sandaled foot took another step forward. Leon whimpered.
"And the guhh ..."
Closer.
"the guh ..."
Closer.
"the ..."
"... girls are upstairs asleep," Cloud whispered against the corner of Leon's mouth, his sweet vanilla ice cream breath washing over Leon's lips.
A low, agonized moan crawled up the back of Leon's throat and tore itself from his mouth as it closed over Cloud's. He tasted like vanilla too, and his mouth was ice cream cold, but it didn't stay that way for long as their kiss rapidly heated up, fingers clutching at chestnut satin and sliding through silky blond as they urgently sought to deepen it.
Desperate with the need to get closer, Leon wrapped an arm around Cloud's waist and pulled his supple body tightly to his own, bending the younger man backwards as he fisted the shorter hair at the nape of Cloud's neck and forced his head back, exposing the slender column of creamy skin to the hot caress of his mouth. With velvet tongue and torturous teeth, he worked his way down slowly over the soft, warm skin, marking him, claiming him, devouring him as Cloud clawed at his back, scrabbling for purchase in the sudden, unbridled storm that engulfed him.
Swept almost literally off his feet, Cloud struggled to regain the upper hand, but couldn't get a solid foothold with nothing to brace himself against for leverage. He tried pounding on Leon's chest and jerking him by his belts, even resorted to the demeaning tactic of pulling his hair, but it was all to no avail. So he grabbed the chain around Leon's neck and gave it a forceful yank, finally throwing the brunet off balance as well. Then he shoved him as hard as he could, sending him stumbling backwards into a small metal cart sitting next to the fridge.
Leon landed rather inelegantly on his butt on the top of it, knocking over several of Aerith's large stainless steel pots, which then clattered to the floor with a terrible racket – one of the lids rolling clear across the kitchen before clanging into the side of the stove and then slowly wobbling to a stop as both men watched in horror-stricken silence.
"Oops," Cloud said softly.
––
Yuffie was having the most wonderful dream about shiny new throwing stars and fully mastered Knights of the Round Materia when a loud crash from downstairs woke her up. She abruptly sat up in the bed, eyes wide. "What was that?"
"Hmm ... it sounded like those big stock pots I keep on the cart beside the refrigerator," Aerith answered calmly.
"Maybe I should go check," Yuffie said, already climbing out of bed. "It might be a burglar."
Aerith leapt out of her own bed and onto Yuffie's, grabbing the younger girl by the arm with a speed and agility that surprised the ninja and, quite frankly, put her to shame. Who knew Aerith could move that fast?
"It's not a burglar," Aerith assured her. "The boys are downstairs."
"Oh," Yuffie said with a knowing nod.
––
"Good going, Strife."
Leon was the first to recover from shock, but before he could so much as move a muscle – other than those of his mouth – Cloud grabbed him by his jacket and jerked him up off the cart. He wrenched the jacket back over Leon's shoulders and twisted it tightly around his arms, effectively pinning them behind his back. Then he slammed him against the refrigerator and launched his own all-out assault on Leon's mouth.
Unfortunately, the force of the impact overturned a small earthenware vase on the top of the fridge, where it rolled around aimlessly for a few moments before making up its mind, then rolled right off the edge and crashed to the floor below.
––
"And that?" Yuffie asked, upright and wide-eyed once more.
"Was the vase on the top of the refrigerator," Aerith replied confidently. "You know – the one the Gullwings gave us for a housewarming gift?"
––
"Fuck that," Cloud snarled, none too pleased with having Leon's attention, as well as his lips, so abruptly ripped away from him by a few lousy pieces of broken pottery. He quickly recaptured them both by grabbing the brunet by his Griever again and jerking his head back up. Using the chain to anchor him to the fridge, Cloud resumed his attack on Leon's mouth while his other hand began to explore Leon's chest, finding the hard little nub of a nipple and teasing it with a touch much too light to satisfy anything other than Cloud's apparent penchant for torture.
In turn, Leon struggled not to give Cloud the satisfaction of a squirm or a moan, and though his breath was becoming heavy and ragged, he still somehow managed to snark past the metal links digging into his throat, "No thanks. I'd rather fuck you."
"In case you've haven't noticed, Leonhart," Cloud returned smugly, "I seem to be the one in charge here."
"In case you haven't noticed, Strife, you seem to be the one in a dress here." Leon's voice was low and raspy, but whether that was due to the chain coiled around his neck or the fire coiled in his belly wasn't for certain.
In response, Cloud pressed Leon's body even harder against the refrigerator and pulled his choke chain a little tighter, a little higher, forcing Leon to stand a little taller and lift his chin, baring his throat. His arms were still trapped between the refrigerator and his back, entangled in his jacket. Cloud leaned in closer and whispered, "You've been a very bad boy lately, Leon, and I don't think I can let that go unpunished." Leon tensed, waiting for the imminent onslaught, and he didn't have to wait long.
Working his way slowly from Leon's ear, Cloud traced the line of Leon's jaw with his teeth and trailed his open mouth over Leon's chin, leaving a warm, wet path down the ridge of his throat, over his Adam's apple and down to his collarbone, pausing at his pulse point to leave his own vivid mark on the lion. While his mouth was busy with Leon's neck, left hand still keeping him tethered to the fridge, Cloud slipped his other hand underneath Leon's t-shirt. Sliding over smooth skin and hard abdominals, over the ridges and valleys of his ribs, Cloud's fingers worked a slow, torturous path back to Leon's nipple, taking the shirt along with them.
With Cloud's hand warm and rough on his chest, and his mouth hot and wet on his throat, Leon felt his resistance beginning to crumble and redoubled his resolve, but when that warm, wet mouth latched on to his nipple, Cloud's tongue picking up where his fingers had left off, a deep groan slipped past his censure despite his best efforts to stop it.
Mission accomplished, Cloud smirked around the hard little peak in his mouth, then slowly pulled off and licked his way back to Leon's lips. "You know," he whispered in between kisses, "this thing ..." and he gave Leon's necklace another sharp, short tug, "comes in pretty handy. But these things," he growled as he dropped his hand to the buckle of Leon's belt, "really have to go."
Now, Cloud had spent more than enough time studying Leon's belts to know the secret to removing them quickly, and it was really quite simple; remove the one around his waist, and the rest would fall without so much as lifting a single finger – or unbuckling a single buckle. So with one swift jerk and a very self-satisfied smirk, Cloud pulled the main belt free and proved his point; the entire eye-catching, crisscrossed collection fell to the floor with a heavy clunk.
––
"And what was that?" Yuffie whispered.
"That," Aerith giggled, "was Leon's belts hitting the kitchen floor."
"Seriously?" Yuffie said. The flower girl's powers of aural deduction were truly amazing, and Yuffie was duly impressed – must have something to do with her extra-sensory-Cetran-perceptions or something, she figured – still ...
"Maybe I should just go check anyway – just to make certain."
"You'll do no such thing," Aerith scolded. "Now get back in that bed."
––
It happened so fast, Cloud wasn't entirely certain how it had happened. One minute he was staring down smugly at Leon's belts on the green and gold checkered linoleum with Leon pressed to the Frigidaire, and the next, he was staring sideways at green and gold speckled Formica with his cheek and chest pressed to the counter.
Somehow, while Cloud was busy gloating over his victory against Leon's damn chastity belts and preparing to reap his reward, Leon had managed to untangle his arms and shrug off his jacket, grab Cloud by the wrists and twist his arms behind his back while simultaneously spinning him around and pinning him face down on the counter. It should have been embarrassing, really, such a swift and thorough coup, but Cloud was finding it difficult to really care with the evidence of Leon's arousal pressing hard against his ass.
Still, Cloud wasn't one to just lie down and take it – at least not yet anyway; it was still far too early in the game to concede defeat – so he struggled a little and squirmed a bit, testing the severity of his situation, and came swiftly to the conclusion that Leon had him well and truly trapped. Like a predator pinning his prey (or a lion mounting his mate) Leon was hunched over his body, clamping the back of his neck with his teeth and growling, low and feral.
But as soon as Cloud ceased his pointless struggling, the lion relaxed his open-jawed grip and gave him a gentle, almost apologetic lick, practically purring as he buried his nose in Cloud's hair and nibbled his ear. "So you want to play rough, do you?" he drawled, deceptively docile and tame, sending a shiver so intense down Cloud's spine that it curled the manicured toes in his sexy little sandals. With one last swipe of his tongue to the outer shell of Cloud's ear, Leon pushed himself off of Cloud's body.
Adjusting his grip on Cloud's arms so he could hold them both with one hand, Leon quickly unbuckled one of his arm belts and fastened it snugly around Cloud's wrists, leaving both of his own hands now free. Then he leaned back over his captive's body and jerked a lacy sleeve down his arm, fully exposing the delicious, creamy shoulder that had been taunting him all night. "Well, that's just fine by me," he snarled, back to growling again. "I can do rough." And he drove his point home with a hard thrust of his hips as he closed his mouth over the ball of Cloud's shoulder, biting down sharply enough to leave a perfect indentation of his teeth – just like the one on the back of Cloud's neck.
Then – just like the one on the back of Cloud's neck – he licked it lovingly, though Cloud was beginning to suspect that it wasn't so much an apology as an affectionate approval of his mark of possession. Cloud sucked in a breath and bit back verbally, "I never pegged you for a biter, Leon. Isn't that a bit girly."
"So says the delicate damsel in the dress," Leon taunted, hands traveling down the sides of Cloud's firm, toned body to his firm, lean thighs.
"Oh fuck you," Cloud snapped.
"Now, now," Leon tutted. "I thought we already established the fact that you're the one wearing the dress." And to prove that fact, he grabbed the hem of Cloud's dress and hiked it up over his ass, precipitating the immediate collapse of his cool and collected facade. "Oh sweet god," he groaned. "And lacy panties."
Cloud looked over his delicious, creamy, teeth-marked shoulder and wiggled that sweet, lacy ass coquettishly, then narrowed his eyes and spit out a snippy reply. "And if you hope to have a chance in hell of ever getting into them, you're going to have to play by my rules."
"And I hardly think you're in any position to be issuing ultimatums, Blondie," Leon replied after a moment's pause to recover his composure, as well as just to admire the view. With one hand firmly holding Cloud's hip, he snaked his other hand around to tease Cloud through his panties, returning, with interest, the torture that Cloud had inflicted on his nipples. He teased the poor blond until he was squirming and panting and biting back moans, but still he refused to give up so much as a whimper.
And still Leon continued his torture, determined to make him.
He continued until Cloud looked liked he was about ready to burst from the effort of holding everything in, and then very slowly, waiting until he had Cloud's undivided attention, Leon brought his hand to his mouth and licked his fingers suggestively, finally wrenching a long, tortured groan from the stubborn blond as he banged his forehead against the counter.
"That," Leon stated, "was for the ice cream."
Then he wrapped his arms around the younger man's hips and hoisted him up, flipping him over onto his back on the top of the counter. A grimace passed over Cloud's face and a softly hissed "Shit" slipped past his tightly clenched teeth as his arms, still bound by Leon's belt, twisted at a painful angle beneath him, followed by a "Fuck!" which flew from his lips when his head hit the spice rack and knocked it over, sending all the neatly labeled little bottles rolling off the counter one by one.
––
"This is so exciting!" Yuffie whispered, making an exuberant Squee! face but, thankfully, keeping the accompanying verbal expression of her infinite glee well below her normal eardrum-damaging ninety decibels. "I wish we had something to snack on. Some popcorn or something. And a soda."
Both girls were now huddled on Yuffie's bed, Yuffie sitting cross-legged with her elbows propped on her knees, and Aerith propped on one arm with her legs folded neatly beneath her. Having crawled out of her own bed to crack the door a few inches so they could better hear what was going on downstairs, she had then crawled back onto Yuffie's, which was closer to the door.
"I told you this was going to more entertaining than your silly old soap, didn't I– Oops, there went the spice rack." Aerith laughed lightly. "And the parsley ... and the sage ... and the rosemary and thyme..."
"Ioops?" Yuffie giggled. "So that means, they're like ... on the kitchen counter?"
Another crash came from the kitchen ... and then another.
"Well, not anymore," Aerith stated. "I think that was one of the kitchen chairs ... and that was the little metal rack on the table that holds the salt and pepper shakers and the sugar."
––
"Sorry," Leon mumbled, an answering grimace flashing across his own face when he saw the one on Cloud's. He hadn't meant to actually hurt him.
He scooped Cloud up off the counter and tossed him over his shoulder, removing the belt around his wrists as he staggered towards the kitchen table. Kicking a chair out of the way – a little too hard and knocking it over – and sweeping the condiment tray to the side – a little too far and onto the floor – he deposited the unbound blond on the table with his legs hanging over the edge, causing his hips to arch upward in a most provocative manner. Licking his lips, Leon lifted his dress and sucked in his breath at the sight.
Cloud was so fucking gorgeous it hurt; from his shapely legs and slender hips to his tiny waist and his pretty, pretty face, he was absolutely perfect, every single, beautiful bit of him.
Leon was just standing there staring at Cloud's body when a soft snicker drew his gaze to Cloud's face; all soft golden hair and pouty pink lips and those blue, blue eyes that were just watching him quietly. Cloud seemed to sense what he was thinking and raised a slender, golden brow in challenge. Never one to run from a challenge, Leon pushed Cloud further onto the table and then climbed on after him. "Get up here," Cloud grumbled, grabbing two fistfuls of chestnut hair and hauling on it hard.
Leon crawled obligingly up Cloud's body to reattach himself to Cloud's mouth, both of them moaning as their groins made contact. Even with the layers of leather and lace still between them, it felt like heaven after the three thick belts that had separated their bodies all evening. Still it wasn't enough.
Wanting more of that wonderful feeling and needing more friction, Cloud wrapped his arms around Leon's neck and a silky leg around his waist, pulling him closer as Leon ran his hand down the back of Cloud's thigh and grabbed his ass, crushing their groins together. But still it wasn't enough, not even close.
Compelled by the very strong, very male urge to just pound Leon into oblivion, Cloud rolled them over and – just like the earthenware vase and the condiment rack and all the little bottles of spices – right off the edge of the table.
––
"I've a feeling they're not on the table anymore, Toto." It was stated with an air of utter seriousness, but Aerith's eyes were a riot of mischief and giggles.
"No duh, Dorothy." Even without the benefit of extra-Cetran-senses, Yuffie recognized the sound of a flesh body hitting a hard surface when she heard it.
––
Leon's back hit the floor with a heavy thud, knocking all the air from his lungs, and before he could even attempt to suck some back in, Cloud landed on top of him and squashed what little remained, leaving Leon gasping for breath and dazed. Though rolling them off the table had not been Cloud's intention, he wasted no time in taking full advantage of Leon's temporary incapacity.
Straddling the older man's hips, he quickly removed the larger of Leon's two remaining arm belts and strapped his wrists to a leg of the table, securing his arms over his head. Then he leaned down and licked the inside of Leon's slightly parted lips. "What you need," he whispered, "is a little mouth to mouth, and luckily for you, I just happen to have some experience with that procedure." Then he covered Leon's mouth with his own and proceeded to kiss him senseless, further depriving the poor brunet of breath.
He finally broke the kiss to push Leon's shirt up over his head and down his arms, leaving it tangled around his wrists, and then settled back on Leon's hips to admire the striking man stretched out so sensuously beneath him. Thinking that it really ought to be a sin for anyone to be that damn sexy, he reached out almost reverently to touch Leon's body.
A deep, husky voice interrupted his worship of Leon's abdominals, and he looked up to find a pair of half-lidded, smoky blue eyes fastened on his. "Enjoying the view, Soldier Boy?" A sexy brow quirked in amusement. "Or should I say Soldier Girl?"
Rising to his knees, Cloud lifted his dress and pulled down the front of his panties. "Do I look like a little girl to you?" he asked with a cocky, crooked smile.
Leon swallowed hard and shook his head, unable to take his eyes off the rather impressive sight before him. Cloud leaned down and gave him another searing kiss, then trailed his mouth down Leon's neck, across his chest to to his stomach, and when he reached Leon's navel, he stopped and looked up at him slyly, the devilish smirk which slowly spread across his pretty face promising very good things to come. Or very, very bad.
"You know," he said, giving Leon's bellybutton one last fond-farewell lick, his evil smirk intensifying to a truly terrifying level, "I remember hearing when I was younger that the best way to break an animal of biting is by biting it back." And he proceeded to test that theory by nudging and nibbling and nipping as Leon bucked and moaned and cursed and groaned until he was little more than a writhing, incoherent mess on the floor.
Still not fully satisfied that Leon had sufficiently learned his lesson, Cloud reached for the fly of Leon's pants, but no sooner had he popped open the top two buttons than he found himself flat on his back, staring up into the face of an angry lion.
––
"What the ...?" Yuffie looked at Aerith for an explanation, but, for once, Aerith looked just as perplexed.
"Well ... I think they turned over the table..."
––
"Who the hell are you?" Cloud choked out. "Houdini?"
That was twice now that Leon had escaped his bonds, and Cloud had no idea how. He only knew that he was now the one on his back, and the table was now on its side. Leon's shirt was still tangled around Leon's belt, which was still wrapped around the leg of the table, only without Leon's hands still in it – because Leon's hands were now wrapped around Cloud's neck. "Play nice now," he spluttered, though he didn't actually expect it to do any good.
"You're telling me to play nice? Oh that's rich," Leon laughed, a deep, throaty sound that quickly turned to a growl, sending another wave of desire through Cloud's body. Still grasping Cloud's throat with one hand and pinning Cloud's arms with his legs, Leon reached up with his other hand and yanked his necklace over his head, removing Cloud's unfair advantage. "Well, little girls shouldn't play with fire," he snarled, dangling the lion-head pendant in Cloud's face before tossing it to the side, "unless they like getting burned."
Well, Cloud was certainly no little girl, but he did like playing with his hot, fiery lion. Gods, he was gorgeous, sitting there on top of him with his pants half undone, a lean, muscled thigh on either side of Cloud's body. He was naked from the waist up, with only the smallest of his arm belts still fastened around his wrist, and he was absolutely perfect – perfect and sexy and gorgeous; from his strong, sexy arms and chiseled chest to his fierce, flashing eyes and angry scowl; from his coffee-colored nipples to his silky, chestnut mane and his mouth, oh god, his mouth. Cloud wanted to kiss that mouth so bad, he almost threw in the towel.
Or the t-shirt.
Cloud opened his mouth to tell Leon to just go ahead and take him, do anything he wanted with him, when Leon's t-shirt, still hanging from the table like an abandoned white flag – a mocking reminder of Leon's refusal to submit – caught the corner of his eye, and what came out of his mouth instead was a snarky rebuttal. "I'm not afraid of little fire, but all I see here is a lot of smoke."
"Then you better take a closer look," Leon replied, brushing a thumb across Cloud's cheek. "Just don't come crying to me when you singe your lovely lashes."
"We'll just have to see which one of us comes crying, won't we – Squall."
"Oh, you are on," Leon snorted. "Prepare to lose your sweet little ass." He ghosted his fingers across Cloud's collarbone and over the creamy-white swell of his pectorals.
"I hate to douse your delusions, dear, but you obviously missed the memo: The woman always wins."
"Very true," Leon agreed, hooking his fingers under the neckline of Cloud's dress. "Only you're no woman." And he jerked the bodice down, exposing the hard, pebbled peaks of Cloud's dusky-rose nipples, the same erotic color as his flushed and swollen lips.
"No, but I am the one wearing the panties."
"Not for long," Leon promised with a predatory smile.
Moving his hands to Cloud's arms and rising slightly on his haunches, Leon crouched on all fours over the captive man beneath him and then rolled his hips, sending spikes of pleasure shooting through his loins and up his spine. Cloud threw back his head and groaned, arching his back so beautifully that it dragged a similar sound from Leon as he leaned down to capture Cloud's mouth in a hard, greedy kiss, brutal and demanding.
Shifting his weight to one knee, Leon slid the other one between Cloud's thighs and shoved them apart, then repeated the process on the other side so he was kneeling between Cloud's legs. "As a matter of fact," he growled, "I say enough with the foreplay and on to the fucking." Then he gripped Cloud's legs by the back of his knees and folded them to his chest, rolling Cloud's body to one side as he reached for the back of his panties.
Cloud twisted his body and shoved with both feet, knocking Leon flat on his ass, then flipped over onto his hands and knees and tried to scurry away, but a strong hand snatched hold of his ankle. He thrashed and kicked as hard as he could, but dislodging a gunblader's grip was no easy feat, and the only thing Cloud succeeded in kicking off was his sandal.
Rolling onto his own hands and knees, Leon captured Cloud's other ankle and pulled his legs out from under him, sitting quickly on Cloud's calves to keep him from crawling away. Reaching behind him, he slipped off Cloud's other sandal and threw it across the room, then leaned forward and seized Cloud's hips, hoisting them into the air. Twitching with anticipation, he grabbed the back of Cloud's panties and yanked them down over the perfect curve of his sweetly displayed ass.
With hungry eyes and calloused hands, he devoured the sweet perfection, but it only further whetted his appetite, so he bent down and wrapped his mouth around one perfect, porcelain globe, sucking in as much of the tender flesh as he could manage before biting down sharply, seemingly determined to leave no part of Cloud's body unmarked as his. Cloud reached to touch himself, but Leon knocked his hand away, replacing it with his own as he growled his disapproval against Cloud's ass. Rising to his knees, he continued to stroke the other man as he fumbled to free his own erection, tugging impatiently at the last two buttons of his fly.
"Oh god," Cloud moaned, pushing forward into Leon's hand and then back against his groin as he tried to force Leon into a faster, firmer rhythm, but Leon refused to give him what he needed.
"Cloud, wait," he panted, "... not without–"
"Oh god, Leon, please," Cloud pleaded. "Just do it."
But Leon knew firsthand what it was like to get taken without lubrication, and there was no way in hell he was going to do that to Cloud. He moved his hands back to Cloud's hips in an effort to halt their insistent grinding before he lost control completely, and once again commanded, "Cloud, wait ... we need ..." Looking frantically around the small kitchen, he spotted the "... oil. Olive–"
"–oil," Cloud gasped and started crawling towards the counter with his panties halfway down his thighs and Leon on his heels, nipping at his buttocks.
Hooking his fingers over the waistband of Cloud's panties, Leon tugged them the rest of the way down to his knees, and then all the way off as the blond crawled out of them, tossing them to the floor as Cloud pulled himself up on the counter. And just as Cloud was reaching for the bottle of oil, Leon gave him another solid bite on the butt, causing him to lurch forward and catch the lip on the crock of cooking utensils instead.
––
It had been quiet downstairs for quite some time, and the girls were beginning to suspect that the boys had simply passed out on the kitchen floor. They were starting to get a little drowsy themselves when another loud crash instantly brought them back to full alert. Yuffie looked at Aerith and raised a brow.
"The jar of utensils sitting next to the stove," Aerith stated with renewed confidence.
"The one beside the bottle of oil?"
"That would be the one."
The answering smirk on Yuffie's face was almost as wide as the one on Aerith's.
––
"Here." Cloud thrust the bottle of olive oil over his shoulder. Having completed a full crash, slam, rumble and roll around the small room, he was once again bent over the kitchen counter. "And hurry the fuck up."
"My, my," Leon tutted. "Such language." He grabbed the bottle and drizzled some of the oil in his hand, wondering as he prepared the normally soft-spoken blond if he always became such a potty mouth when sexually aroused. "Does your mother know the naughty things that come out of that pretty little mouth?" he asked out loud. Cloud glared at him over his shoulder, but the embarrassed blush on his cheeks undermined its intended effect.
After slicking himself with the slippery liquid, Leon set the bottle back on the the counter and grabbed Cloud by the hips. Very slowly, giving Cloud time to adjust, he pushed inside.
Too slowly, evidently, for the impatient blond. "Oh god," he keened, pushing back hard. "I thought I told you to hurry up."
"Patience is a virtue, dear," Leon stated, but his actions didn't match his mouth as his thrusts began to pick up speed; slow, measured strokes becoming faster and more frantic as he drove into the gripping heat. And then there was only the sound of flesh against flesh and ragged breath, broken by only an occasional grunt or a breathy groan, their snarky comments buried beneath the weight of building pleasure.
Then Leon slightly changed his angle of penetration and Cloud made the sweetest, most erotic sound that Leon had ever heard. It was only a small thing, soft and half swallowed, but it went straight to Leon's groin and spiked his own pleasure so sharply that he began to feel the point of no return approaching. Wanting to make it last as long as he could, he forced himself to slow down.
He wasn't nearly as sexually inexperienced as people seemed to think he was, having been with both women and men before, but nothing had ever compared to this ... this incredible feeling he got as he joined with the man that he lo...
The thought came straight out of left field, striking him hard in the gut and stopping him dead in his tracks just as he was about to slide home.
He loved him.
Cloud.
Leon loved him.
"Leon?" It was spoken so softly, uncertainly, Cloud looking anxiously over his shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Leon answered. "Nothing's wrong." It took every ounce of his remaining self-control, but he forced himself to stay his movements, and as his heart began to slow its frantic beating, he eased himself from Cloud's body. A soft cry of disappointment slipped from Cloud's lips as Leon slipped from his body, confusion and sadness filling his eyes at the emptiness left behind.
"Shh. Nothing's wrong," Leon repeated. "I just ... this isn't ..." He took a deep breath and searched for the right words, shaking his head in frustration when he failed, once again, to find them. Abandoning his awkward attempt at expressing his feelings verbally, he took Cloud in his arms instead, turning the younger man around to face him, and suddenly the words were easy.
"I want to see your face," he said. "I want to kiss you." So he did. Soft and sweet and tender, he placed on Cloud's lips all of the things he couldn't put into words, and when it broke, he pulled back and looked in Cloud's eyes. "I want to make love to you," he whispered.
And then he winced in embarrassment. It hadn't sounded nearly that corny in his head.
Leon planted his face in his palm and braced himself for the sarcastic comment or mocking laughter that was sure to follow, but it didn't come, so he braved a peek through his fingers and was greeted by a heartbreaking smile and breathtaking eyes filled with reciprocated affections. Strong, slender fingers curled around his hand and gently pulled it away from his face, and soft, warm lips met his own in a sweet, chaste kiss. "Then maybe we should take this upstairs to the bedroom," Cloud whispered back.
"Yeah. I'd like that," Leon agreed with a timid smile of his own. He reached for the bottle of olive oil, but was halted by a firm hand on his arm.
"We don't need that," Cloud chuckled. "I did have enough foresight to buy a new tube of lube; I just didn't think to stash it in the kitchen."
And that was when Leon realized that he had been royally had. Professionally played by Team Aerith, the entire evening had been a set-up from the start; the dinner and the dancing and the dress, all part of a plan to strike-out his defenses.
And damn if Cloud hadn't pitched a perfect game.
Right up until his slip-of-the-tongue wild pitch, that is, and the hand-over-the-mouth look on Cloud's face said that he knew it too. Foresight, huh?
Well, the game wasn't over yet; Leon grinned evilly; it was just going into extra innings. "You never know," he said, picking up the bottle of oil and tucking it under his arm. "We just might need it before the night is over. Better safe than out."
Cloud's eyes flared with interest. "Is that a challenge?"
"SeeD against SOLDIER," Leon declared.
"Oh, you are on," Cloud echoed the older man's earlier words. "But are you sure you can handle a doubleheader, Old-timer?"
"Doubleheader?" Leon scoffed. "More like World Series. Try to keep up, Rookie."
"Oh, I can keep it up all night. The question is; can you handle it?"
"I can handle anything you can throw out."
Well well, then, Cloud snickered to himself. Looks like I'm back on the pitcher's mound. He grabbed Leon's hand and pulled him towards the door. "Well, in that case – let's Play Ball!"
Leon stumbled after him, eyeing the disaster around the room. "Um ... but shouldn't we, uh ..."
"Fuck it," Cloud answered and dragged him out of the kitchen, leaving the forgotten carton of ice cream melting on the counter.
-xXx-
It was almost noon by the time the two tousled men finally stumbled down the stairs.
Yuffie was sprawled across the living room couch, her skinny little butt buried deep in the squooshy, marshmallow cushions and her nose buried deep in the manga that the mailman had just delivered that morning. She peered over the top and then promptly tossed it aside, her drool-worthy, Souji and Yosuke doujinshi reduced to mere coffee-table clutter with the casual flick of a wrist.
Who needed black and white porn on a page when they had their very own three-dimensional, hot and half-naked, flesh and blood bishies in full living color? Damn.
Leon took one look at her shit-eating grin and pivoted on his heel to make a mad dash back up the stairs to the safety of Cloud's bedroom, but a strong grip on the back of his leathers pulled him up short. Cloud's other hand was busy giving his balls a nice, long, leisurely scratch through his blue and gold chocobo boxers, which he then finished off with a great big, leisurely yawn, because – really – nothing went better with a good, lazy scratch on a beautiful morning than a great big, leisurely yawn. "Mornin' Yufs," he mumbled and then staggered towards the kitchen, dragging his boyfriend behind him.
Aerith was at the stove, humming cheerfully and flipping grilled cheese sandwiches, and the kitchen was immaculate – sparkling clean with everything returned to its rightful place, not a single sign of the previous evening's activities other than the pile of shoes and belts and neatly folded clothing on the table. From his honored position at the top of the heap, Griever winked at them wickedly, perfectly mirroring the mischievous gleam in Aerith's eyes.
"Morning, Boys." She smiled sweetly, waving with the spatula. "You wouldn't happen to know where the olive oil is, would you?"
Final Game Stats:
Innings pitched: Cloud 5/Leon 3
At bats: Cloud 9/Leon 15
Hits: Cloud 4/Leon 7
Strikeouts: Cloud 3/Leon 1
Base on Balls: Cloud 2/Leon 3
Wild pitches: Cloud 3/Leon 0
Stolen bases: Cloud 3/Leon 5
Putouts: Cloud 4/Leon 0
Runs scored: Cloud 4/Leon 3
Batting Average: Cloud .444/Leon .467/Aerith 1000
Winner: Aerith