Welcome back, folks. This one took a while, but more because I was in a particularly uncomfortable place (Chapter 4 was actually done before this one). At least from here on out, I'm back in my element. I hope you'll stay with me, despite the changes I've brought with this update.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback in the reviews and the votes in the poll! They were very helpful in my decisions for this story, and I will continue to rely on what you have to say for whatever comes next.

Disclaimer: there will be a certain phrase in this piece of which credit goes to Risachantag in deviantArt. Those who know her work, have fun finding it.

Upon her late arrival at the convention, my sister wanted to see everything: the other cosplayers, the merchandise, the game room – there was a game room? –, any panels she could possibly sneak in on… everything. Unluckily for her, I wasn't ready to get up again just yet. Luckily for her, "Roxas" was more than happy to oblige in my place. With both girls off and about, the remainder of our group split into two without as much as a shift in seating.

I wasn't surprised that "Leon" – as he or she remained even now – chose to sit with me and our mutual… ally, instead of with the other pair that was not as familiar. Though, perhaps that in itself wasn't the greatest of ideas. By now, there had been just about enough flashes of light from photographers sneaking candid snapshots of a possible "Cloud x Sephiroth x Leon" sighting that I had grown too tired to bother myself with it anymore.

Just across from us, "Axel" and a friend of his dressed as Cid Highwind were engaged in the weirdest of rants I had to have heard.

"… He's gotta be one lightweight if he can be lifted with a katana clean through his gut and not have it slice him in half. That thing can disintegrate rocks, but never him! He's that light…!"

I heard a frustrated sigh to my left. Right next to me, I enjoyed the uncharacteristic glimpse of Sephiroth, the mighty villain of near anything related to Final Fantasy VII, holding one of those new handheld game consoles in his hands as delicately as fine china and struggling almost pathetically with the controls. Sitting opposite us was Leon, watching with an equal measure of patience and amusement as the older man futilely attempted to survive the game he was playing.

"… I suck at this," "Sephiroth" declared upon his sixty-sixth defeat. The two of us burst out laughing, and his only retaliation was to wave a hand dismissively. "Hey, I already told you that time with Crisis Core – these new games hate me."

"You just don't play enough, old man," Leon retorted. "Have I mentioned how my neighbor's grandmother had no trouble?"

"Maybe dressing as a game villain is jinxing him," I suggested, earning a good-natured scoff in turn.

"Nah, if it did my PSP would have burst into flames."

"Okay, enough already," the butt of our jokes retaliated. "Look, I give up. Just take this thing off my hands."

Leon hummed in understanding and reached forward to accept the console offered back to them. With the game character of choice under more experienced thumbs, the "old man" as we dubbed him finally slouched back in his seat while muttering about a sore neck. No sooner had he raised his hand to rub at it when victory fanfare music suddenly played for the first time in the past half hour.

"Cecil lives once more," Leon declared smugly. "Sure you don't want to try again?"

"No, thank you," the old man grumbled back.

"Physics is like a magical unicorn idea to it or something."

"What in Hey-Susie does a magical unicorn have to do with any of this?"

"It's not important! I'm just saying, physics went down the flusher in every way with that one, never mind if it's 'Complete' now-"

Looking up over a cutscene, Leon tilted their head curiously at the ongoing debate we had been missing out on. "Exactly what are they talking about over there?"

I shrugged. "Heck if I know. So far, I think they're trying to prove that Advent Children isn't, well, real."

The brunet paused the game long enough to raise an eyebrow in my direction. "… and the tagged on 'Final Fantasy' in its title…?"

"Probably the first thing they brought up." If either man heard us, they didn't show it. They didn't even pause.

"And then they threw him through the air! All of them! You know that picture in that art site… 'Cloud' something whazzat…?"

"You mean 'Cloud-tossing'?" It was then and only then when "Axel" and "Cid" turned their heads to stare back at us, more specifically at the one who had spoken up so innocently. Solemnly, "Axel" nodded while tapping a finger on the point in "Sephiroth's" direction.

"Exactly; thank you."

Quite suddenly, we were interrupted by a steady ringing. A mumbled "excuse me" later "Sephiroth" was digging into his coat and pulling out his mobile phone. A flip, a "beep", and then he exchanged some quick words before looking back at me.

"It's Amber on the line," he explained. "Your sister spotted some interesting merchandise she thinks one of us will want, but for that she needs money."

"I'll go," Leon offered, already getting to their feet. "It's the Dealers' Room, right?"

"Here," – I reclaimed my wallet and produced some notes from its depths – "this should cover it."

"Alrighty," – the notes swapped hands. – "Be right back."

"Thanks, Leon."

The brunet cosplayer disappeared back into the crowd that had yet to disperse, and "Axel" and "Cid" went back to ignoring us in favor of their debate. Handing back the wallet to the older man's safekeeping, I noticed the look on his face under the thin silver curtain of hair from the once impressive but now messy wig. I didn't have to question him about it; he was already speaking his mind.

"You're still going by your character names?"

"Well," I replied, "Leon still won't tell me his or her gender, and I'm not going to pry."

"And why not?" the older man probed.

"If Leon doesn't want to talk about it, I'm going to respect that by not poking at it."

"But you are going to mull over it," he argued at once. "Admit it – you're the one who doesn't want to know. It makes you more comfortable to stay in the dark."

"You don't know that," I protested. He scoffed.

"Kid, I'm a writer by career. That makes me part shrink by nature, and so if I think I know, I know."

"And I think you're assuming too much," I fired back. I could hear my own tone getting defensive, though. "Besides, why do you care?"

"Let's see…" he dramatically paused for a moment before he continued his answer: "I'm not just your colleague, am I? I know you, and I know 'Leon'. That makes me your mutual company and also your middleman in times of trouble. That means if you two get into something awkward, I'm suddenly your new messenger just because you can't talk to each other. I'm antsy now because I don't want to have to find new eating places just to avoid the both of you until you work it out."

"Muffins mean more to you than our friendship?"

"Those are excellent muffins, but don't change the subject." And "Sephiroth" finally gave up and pushed the faux hairs out of his eyes. "Your sister's fun to be around, sure, but I think your opinion matters more here. Taking from what I know, 'Leon' wants you as a friend as well, but doesn't know if you want to be friends with a girl or a guy."

I blinked, my curiosity getting the better of my defensive irritation. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if 'Leon'," – he was still making quotation marks with his fingers – "turns out to be a girl, it's suddenly too awkward for you to be buddies and go around treating 'her' like 'one of the guys', as you have been doing for the past hours. On the other hand, if 'Leon' is a guy, you're worried that any attraction – no matter which kind – you might be having toward 'him' means you're gay, and that scares you even more. Either way, things have to change."

Perhaps I should have argued the point then, but I didn't. Maybe it was because I didn't know what exactly I'd say to that point. Maybe it was because he was, to some degree, right. So I kept quiet, trying to think hard, to focus… what did I want?

As easily as I could picture Leon as a guy, I could do the same as a girl. That bothered me, not being able to fix one gender role and stick to it. Leon was just… well… Leon. Fit neither here nor there.

"There's always the third path," "Sephiroth" suddenly brought up too casually. "You just don't bother."

It was my turn to scoff. "You mean we just go back to being strangers once we step out of here, huh?"

"Sure – we do that at business lunches all the time anyway. What's so different with this?"

"The boss hasn't asked me to make out or otherwise pose scandalously with my clients in front of rabid screaming people with cameras yet," I suggested bluntly, to which he chuckled.

"You've got a point there, kid."

"Hey look, they're back."

That was when I remembered that we weren't alone. "Axel" and "Cid" had by now finished their long talk, and the taller one in his black coat pointed out Leon flanking my sister and "Roxas" as they squeezed through the crowd and back to where we were. And my dearest baby sister was grinning madly and showing off something very large and very yellow in her hands.

"… Is that… a giant Pikachu?" I identified slowly. Confusion was an understatement at this point. "Billie, what the heck…?"

"But it's so cute!" the little ninja declared proudly, as though that alone justified everything.

"… I have nothing to say," I finally confessed, staring at the odd thing like it would explode. "Except that I don't want it, and it's not coming home with us under any circumstance."

"I'll take it," "Axel" offered almost gleefully. "Our head honcho will love this thing, and then I can pay you back in the office."

"Matt, the boss will kill you."

"That's only if she has clients in there with her. She'll love it, so gimme."

The giant stuffed animal went around, and that was when Leon suddenly seemed to remember something and looked "Sephiroth's" way. "Mr. Hunter, what time is it?"

"Sephiroth" fumbled for the watch he had pocketed and at last brought it out. "… I'm probably five minutes fast, but it's almost six-thirty."

"Thanks," then, just as quickly, to the rest of us, "Sorry guys, I gotta run."

"Already?" my sister whined, her hand still buried in the yellow fuzzy head of the toy she wasn't quite ready to part with.

"I've got an appointment to keep, and I can't afford to show up dressed like this."

"Need a lift?"

"Nah, I'm good," Leon replied. Already, they were busy grabbing a backpack and slipping it onto their shoulders. "This was really fun. Maybe we can do it again sometime."

A hand was stuck in my direction, waiting. I took it and shook firmly, and I had a smile to return the one sent my way.

"See you, Cloud."

"You too, Leon."

Then, with a final wave, the brunet left the group once and for all, disappearing amongst the people in the direction of the glass doors. Then, only then, did I realize my choice had been made for me.

Time picked for me: the third path.

… Dang.