Title: Vanilla Soufflé 6

Author: Sorceress Fantasia

Pairings: L/C

Word count: 1168

Rating: PG

Warnings: AU, romance, angst, death

Disclaimer: As much as I would love to lay claim to Cloud, I'm kinda scared of Leon's gunblade. So well, I don't own Kingdom Hearts and its character, and neither do I own the various Final Fantasies and their characters.

Note: This is a series of spin-off drabbles and ficlets meant to explain some events in my other fic Vanilla. Also talks about the minor characters in Vanilla.

Summary: Leon had never imagined that the spunky girl would die so young. Nor did he ever imagine how helpless he would feel when he saw Cloud at her wake.


If there was one thing that tied all teenagers together, one thing that remained constant amongst youths across the world, across all races, across all faith and religion… if there was one such thing, then it was surely this.

Their blind faith in the fallacy of a mortality that would not come so soon. That death was not for the young.

But Leon knew that wasn't true. He knew it wasn't true every time he saw and heard about the impoverished villages in the third-world countries. He knew it couldn't be true every time he read in the local papers of another teenager dead in an accident.

He knew it wasn't true the day he had arrived early in school for a meeting with his fellow kendo club members, only to have a weary coach Auron inform them quietly about Yuffie's death.

It had been a driver arguing heatedly on his cell phone, too enraged to pay attention to the road and see the red light, he said simply.

Cloud never came to school that day.

Or the day after that. And the day after. And the days after.

Even then, Leon had wondered if it was just a sick joke, put together painstakingly by the mischievous girl, and she had managed to get everyone to play along with her. Yuffie had always been a charming girl; surely she could accomplish such an easy thing?

He was still uncertain when a strangely subdued Riku asked him if he wanted to go to the wake together.

When Leon's eyes fell upon the white, elegant coffin, he paused, drawing in a sharp breath. In his mind's eye, Yuffie had suddenly sprung up, laughing that irritating and obnoxious laughter she was so well-known for, and yell in that haughty little voice of hers, "What? Did you really think I was dead? No way, man! You gotta do better than that to get rid of me!"

Her voice faded away, and Leon wished he could hear that unbearable laughter again. He would even give in to her, if the girl tried to blackmail him about Cloud again.

Maybe it would be fun.

Maybe Leon would get more photos of Cloud.

Maybe he would get another slice of the butter cake Cloud baked.

And maybe… surely, Yuffie would have the time of her life, teasing him and goading him to "just confess already!"

But when Leon opened his eyes –when had he closed them, anyway?- Yuffie's punch-line had all but disappeared into the waves upon waves of fresh tears and old heartaches.

She remained peacefully asleep, and nothing could ever disturb her again.

Not even the sobbing and choking of everyone around her could rouse her.

Leon could recognize a few of them. Schoolmates, classmates, the kendo team… Yuffie had always had a lot of friends and people who cared for her. They were crying in quietly huddled groups, seeking strength from one another, providing strength for one another. Even Yuffie's parents, whom Leon had met once during a kendo tournament and they had come down to cheer for their only daughter, were standing together, weeping together. Their wiry frames shuddered as a fresh bout of sobs wrecked their bodies when another relative tried to console them with words everyone knew was just a sympathetic gesture. A patronizing one, in fact.

But it remained that one did not deal with death alone.

However, there was one lone individual sitting all by himself in a dark corner of the dimly lit room, slumped on the ground and hugging his knees close. His face was half-hidden in the shadows cast upon him, his eyes swollen, empty and dry. The blues of his eyes, the one that Leon had always only associated with him, were gone now, covered by an angry crisscross of startling scarlet. He was staring straight ahead, blank and unseeing. Perhaps he was, in his mind's eye, remembering all the good memories he had shared with the girl now lying peacefully in her eternal sleep. The heart-wrenching sobs and shuddering cries of those around did not seem to reach him. He remained in his little corner, quietly, silently, motionlessly.

Leon thought a fragment of Cloud's heart had died along with Yuffie.

Unconsciously, he ambled over to Cloud's corner, and when he towered right before him, Cloud did not raise his head despite being completely in the darkness now. Did he even realize there was someone in front of him, blocking all his light?

Kneeling on one knee now, he tried to meet Cloud's gaze. But he couldn't, not when Cloud was staring at nothing.

Seeing Cloud like this broke his heart.

Hesitantly, he reached out with a shaky hand, hoping to take Cloud into his arms and offer him comfort. But his hand stilled when he was just merely inches away from the silent blond. Suddenly, in that short moment, Leon felt afraid to touch Cloud. It was as though the blond was a porcelain doll: too easily shattered and once broken, irreparable.

Cloud was still staring into nothingness, his eyes unfocused and dull.

Leon retracted his hand, but he wanted to try again, to comfort Cloud. He opened his mouth, but when he realized that he knew nothing but patronizing condolences, he swallowed. Words -words that should be coming from the bottom of his heart- would not come.

He wanted to tell Cloud that things would be fine, that everything would turn out fine. But he couldn't, knowing it wasn't the truth. Yuffie's death was too fresh, her absence too glaringly obvious and cuttingly felt.

He wanted to tell Cloud that he knew what he was going through. But he didn't, because he had never experienced the loss of his best and only friend. Yuffie had been a friend, a good friend, but she had not been his best friend.

He wanted to tell Cloud that he would be there for him, that he would help Cloud pull through his loss. But he stopped himself, fully aware that he couldn't. Nobody could ever replace Yuffie's memory, and Leon refused to demean her like that.

Even if she was dead.

Even if she had died.

How could she have died so young, so suddenly!?

Leon was never one for crying. Crying, he had always believed, did nothing to help matters. If anything, crying usually made things even worse than they already were.

But that night, as he sat down on the floor beside Cloud, he thought he couldn't cry enough.

The tears wouldn't stop now. They cascaded down his cheeks quietly, the twin tracks of pain obvious and plain for all to see.

If Cloud wouldn't cry/couldn't/ cry anymore, Leon would do it for him.

Silently, he let his arm wrap around Cloud's shoulders, carefully pulling him close, offering him human contact and warmth as much as he could. And when Cloud's head fell onto his shoulder like a limb doll, Leon did not protest. He held him tighter.

They would get through this together.

-tbc-

Teaser for next chapter: Leon wasn't the type to daydream. Or at least he didn't seem so. But when it comes to a certain blond, it seems that daydreams are the closest he'd ever get to him. So what's up with Cloud's sudden confession in class? That didn't happen… did it?

A/N: Believe it or not, this chapter was actually completed over a year ago, but it has since undergone several rewrites and edits. I really don't like writing angst. It's so hard to write a convincing piece when it comes to angst, and I really admire those who do it well.

Anyway, please don't forget to comment and review! Thanx!