Warnings: Little bit of language.
Pairing: Leon/Zexion
Sassy's Note: Haha, this one is not emo, though it gave me hell writing it.
Bed
Leon stomped downstairs from his bedroom, clearly livid, and demanded of the four people sitting at his table, "Why is there a Nobody in my bed?"
A pair of ocean eyes blinked at him in a puppy-like manner. "He's not a Nobody anymore," said Demyx. "Zexy got his heart back!"
"Zexy?" One of Leon's eyebrows rose.
"Zexion," said Riku, casually taking a sip from his mug. "One of Ansem's Apprentices. Or, his Other was." Cloud, beside him, nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, he's a Nobody. So why the hell is he in my bed?"
"He's sick," said Demyx, leaning forward imploringly. "Your bed was closest."
"Why not just stick him in your bed?"
"Because," Reno spoke up, exhaling cigarette smoke through his nose, "his bed is my bed, yo, and despite what all of you think of me, I don't like strangers in my head." Demyx giggled a little at that. Leon just rolled his eyes and swiped the cigarette from the redhead, despite the indignant yelp that followed. Leon took a pull on it, then snuffed it out in the ashtray.
"Whatever. Have him gone by the time I get back." He blew smoke out of the corner of his mouth and exited his home through the front door.
---
When Leon returned a few hours later, Riku and Cloud were gone, but there was someone new sitting beside Demyx. Leon didn't deny that Zexion did look rather ill. His skin was far too pale, and even from Leon's perspective he looked shaky.
Demyx sheepishly smiled at Leon. "He's out of your bed."
"I noticed."
Zexion inclined his head at the scarred brunet and mumbled some form of gratitude. Up close, he looked purely exhausted. Leon had to wonder how much the boy had been through after getting his heart back. He remembered when they had first found Demyx. The blond was tattered and dirty, so weak he could barely walk on his own, and it had taken him a good few weeks to recover completely.
"Where's he staying?" Leon asked with a resigned sigh.
"Uhm, with us," said Demyx. Reno scowled. "We'll camp in the living room. I just want Zexy to feel better."
"He can stay… with me," Leon said, trying to keep his voice neutral. "I've got more room."
Zexion stared at Leon, visibly surprised. So did Demyx. And so did Reno. What an un-Leon-ish thing to say…
"Well, this is a whole new side of Leonhart," said Reno. "But it's the side I like because now I can sleep in my own bed, which," he looked at his watch, "I should have been in thirty minutes ago. Come on, Dem."
"But… but Zexy…"
"I've got him," said Leon. "It's late. Take your Turk and go home."
"But…"
"Let me rephrase. Take that bastard and go because I can't stand having him in my house anymore today."
Reno just smirked. "If you insist, yo." The redhead tugged Demyx along. The blond resisted only a bit – he looked rather tired himself – and in the end, he just waved at Zexion, promised to be back first thing in the morning, and let Reno drag him out of the door.
"The redheaded fool is a strange person," said Zexion after a moment.
Leon snorted. "You don't know the half of it."
"It's also peculiar that he's sleeping with Demyx."
"I don't even try to understand that relationship."
"I don't imagine I will either."
The brunet smirked. "You and I will get along just fine then." There was a moment of uncertain silence, before Zexion spoke again.
"I… thank you. I know you will probably not be comfortable with a stranger in your house."
The other man shook his head. "It's no big deal. I don't mind having you here until we can find you a permanent residence. You do intend to stay in Radiant Garden, right?"
The slate-haired boy shrugged. "Possibly. I'm unsure of where I should go as of right now."
"Don't stress over it, then," said Leon.
Zexion stared at him with calculating eyes. "You're not at all what the others described you to be."
"Look, I'm not going to kick a guy who has nowhere to go out, and Reno is a bastard so I'm not condemning you to him either." Leon shook back his shaggy hair and mildly frowned at the former Nobody. "You can stay here until you get on your feet, but after that, you're gone."
Zexion smirked at this. "That's the person they described to me – ruthless leader of the pack."
"Damn straight."
---
Zexion awoke to the sun cheerily shining directly in his eyes. He irritably rolled away from it, sighing when his hair blocked it from his field of vision. He heard someone shuffling around nearby. Great, Leon was up. The man must wake up at the crack of dawn every day. Zexion hadn't been here but a few days, and while he usually was an early riser, his host always beat him up.
The slate-haired boy groaned and sat up slowly. He stretched for a moment, feeling all hints of drowsiness flee from him. The bed he was on was more comfortable than he had ever slept on. It was Leon's actually. He had no guest room, and while the bed was plenty big enough the two of them did not share it. With a stern glare that first night, Leon had sent the former Nobody off to his own bed while he took the couch for himself.
Zexion with his newly found heart felt a bit guilty about this, but he was getting stronger with each passing day. Last night he had been the one to make dinner and do the dishes. Soon he wouldn't burden his distantly kind host any longer.
"You're awake?" came Leon's voice from the direction of his closet.
"Yes." He kicked his feet over the side of the bed and got up to stretch.
"Hn. Strange to have an early riser around here," the brunet mused. He came out of the closet holding some clean clothes. "I'm going to grab a shower, then we'll eat breakfast."
Zexion shook his head. "I'll take care of breakfast; you take your time."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you."
The boy snorted. "I have to earn my stay somehow. Now off with you."
His host went without another word.
---
"Zexy!"
"Hello, Demyx." Zexion damn near smiled. It seems like he had become friends with the other former Nobody. Hearts were strange, strange things to possess.
"How ya like living with Leon?" the taller blond asked, grinning brightly at seeing his old companion up and about and actually outside for a short walk.
"He is… an interesting person once you have him figured out."
"Glad to see you two are getting along." Demyx threaded his fingers behind his head. "Sorry I haven't been seeing you too much. Reno's… going through a bit of a tough time right now."
"I image Turks sometimes do."
"Oh, Leon's told you about him?"
"Yes. I was curious, and he was more than willing to give out the information, despite some of it being slightly biased."
Demyx laughed nervously. "Uh, yeah, Leon doesn't like Reno all that much."
"Well, you're the one living with this Reno," said Zexion. "Why don't you tell me about him? I'd also like to hear more about this ShinRa Company."
The Nocturne, with a grin, obliged his friend.
---
Zexion had been in Leon's house for three full weeks now. He was now in permanently in charge of cooking. Leon had said – in a not-so-direct way – that he preferred the former Nobody's cooking to his own. Zexion couldn't really say he blamed him. Most of Leon's meals were rather bland.
They were comfortable companions now, but Zexion could see the toll he was taking on Leon. The scarred man looked tired much too often – Zexion was still in his bed, no matter how many times Zexion offered to switch places with his host. Leon would never hear of it.
So, it was on the evening marking the third full week Zexion had been with Leon that the Schemer decided Leon would no longer be condemned to the couch.
"No," he said rather adamantly when Leon tried to lay down on his couch.
The brunet, dressed only in a pair of loose pajama pants, raised an eyebrow at Zexion.
"You're not sleeping on the couch anymore," said the former Nobody. "You're sleeping in your own bed tonight."
"Look," said Leon, annoyed, "I'm not letting you sleep on the couch. You're still recovering."
"I am fine." Zexion crossed his arms and glared. "At least, I'm looking better than you. You need a good night's rest. You will not find it on that sofa."
"You need more rest than I do!"
"I have healed!"
"You're still delicate!"
Zexion's eyes narrowed. "I," he seethed, "am not delicate."
Leon took a cautionary step backwards when the books on his shelf began to rattle ominously. He knew better than to mess with a Nobody, and he knew he had made a mistake. He was silent a moment. There was only one way to solve this dispute.
---
"Are you comfortable?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"And you?"
"I'm perfectly fine."
"Good."
"You are the one who suggested this arrangement, you know."
"I know."
"Just so you keep that in mind."
"You don't have a problem?"
"Why would I have a problem?"
Leon sighed and pulled the blanket higher up on his shoulder. "Well, we are sharing a bed."
"It's more than big enough," Zexion said with a suppressed yawn.
"Yeah…"
"What? You're not a sleep cuddler, are you?"
"It's been awhile since anyone's been in my bed to tell me."
Zexion smirked, but Leon couldn't see it in the dark.
"We'll see."
---
"Demyx?"
"Huh?"
"May I… talk to you about something?"
"Sure, Zexy!"
---
The sleeping arrangement lasted three months before things finally escalated.
Leon had to keep wondering to himself why he was still allowing the slate-haired Nobody to live in his house. Sure, the food he cooked was great; he kept his house sparkling clean; he was a great help with the more complicated layouts of the restoration…
But living with Zexion meant Demyx was over a lot, and more often than not Reno accompanied him. Leon had never been so sick of seeing the color red in his life.
He was relieved to find that Zexion was content in Radiant Garden. The quiet boy was a welcome newcomer in this world of odds and ends.
So welcome, in fact, that Leon found – to his horror – that he was a sleep cuddler. Zexion, though, never seemed to mind too much or get bent out of shape on the mornings he awoke tucked into the brunet's warm embrace.
In fact, now that he was thinking about it, Leon had few other habits and quirks he had never noticed about himself until the former Nobody was unceremoniously dumped into his life. He always ate the middle of his toast out first; he never locked the door when he bathed or showered; he never turned his shirts or socks the right way after taking them off; he always let the phone ring two full times before answering. Zexion made sure to point out each and every one of these strange traits to the scarred brunet, much to the man's dismay.
It was these strange quirks and Zexion's constant need to point them out that Leon still swore to this day were the cause of what happened that one night.
Getting into bed had been usual. Zexion rolled over to his side, and Leon curled up on his.
"Goodnight, then," Zexion yawned.
"Goodnight."
"See you in the morning."
"Yeah…"
"And if you feel the need to hug me, just be sure not to squish my nose like you did last time."
Leon's eyes snapped open from their almost-closed position. He couldn't faintly hear Zexion snickering, and that only made his face flush in a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. He didn't mean to be a sleep cuddler! He never knew he was a sleep cuddler!
"I don't-" he started with absolutely no clue on where he was going with that sentence.
"I didn't say you couldn't hug me, or that I didn't want you to," Zexion chastised, amusement in his voice. "I just said don't squish my nose. It's rather sensitive in more ways than one."
"You… what?"
Zexion laughed, and then Leon felt the former Nobody roll over and gently touch his shoulder.
"We're sharing a bed. What do you expect? Now… are you going to hug me or not?"
---
It took Leon a while to decide whether or not he was happy when Zexion ended up in Radiant Garden, specifically in his bed.
Months later, though, when the boy had taken permanent residence in his home and bed, he decided that he didn't really mind that a Nobody had been in his bed.
-end-
Sassy: Thank god. I'm so glad to have this one done, I may cry in relief. Anyway… dunno what's next. Depends on how fast I can churn out chapters of TWH.
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