It wasn't the sun shining through the window that woke Leon up. Nor was Rinoa rolling over next to him and snuggling against his side. He slept through all of that. All it really took was the door opening for him to sit bolt upright in bed as his father strode into his bedroom without so much as a knock.

"Dad what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Morning to you too." Laguna remarked with a warm smile. "Going to put pants on tiger?"

Leon's face lit up as he stood up and walked over to his dresser to retrieve a pair of boxers. Rinoa sat up in bed sleepily, using the bedsheet to cover herself.

"Good morning mister Loire." she said with a cheerful smile.

Laguna snorted and looked over at Leon. "Explain to me why your girlfriend refuses to call me Laguna."

"Because she has better manners than you." snapped Leon irritiably.

Laguna glanced at Leon with a smirk before turning to Rinoa, pointing over his shoulder. "The kids are already downstairs and I'm making breakfast, should I save some of it from the hoard?"

Rinoa smiled radiantly and nodded. "Breakfast would be great."

"Right then, I'm off to defend the kitchen from the ravages of Sora and Xion."

"Dad! Sora's stealing the bacon!" Xion shouted from downstairs.

Laguna gave a dramatic sigh and left the room, pausing as he reached the door.

"By the way Rinoa, if you ever need a real man just let me know."

"Out!" Leon shouted, kicking the door shut.

After the door had slammed he took a deep steadying breath. "Sorry about him."

Rinoa giggled. "You're too uptight about him. He's great."

He scowled. "Just because he dated your mom doesn't mean he's all that great. He didn't marry her after all."

Rinoa smiled at him as she stood up from the bed, letting the sheet fall back on the bed as she walked over to him and leaned her head against his chest.

"I guess falling for Loires runs in the family then. As for mom, that was his mistake, but I'm glad he didn't. I wouldn't want to be sleeping with my brother."

Leon's mood subsided as he placed his arms around her waist and pulled her close. "That is a relief. I don't think I could keep my hands off you."

"You can't." she said with a coy smile, placing her finger on his chest, pushing off of him and turning away. "Get dressed, I'll be down in a minute."

Leon nodded and donned his pants and shirt, opening the door and trotting down the stairs to the large kitchen his father kept. Sora and Xion were sitting sullenly at the island at the center of the kitchen as Laguna worked on the burner, whipping up what looked like batter for gypsy toast, besides him was a large platter of scrambled eggs and bacon.

"What happened to you two?" Leon asked as he took a seat on the stool.

"Sora stole the bacon." Xion grumbled.

Leon blinked and looked over at Sora who nodded sheepishly.

"No one else was having any."

"I told you to wait." Xion muttered. "Now we're in trouble."

Laguna chuckled from his post by the burner. "Never doubt your dad's power with a wooden spoon."

Leon looked at Sora's hands which were on the table. There was a red mark that was vaguely shaped like the spoon that their father was using to whip his batter with.

"He hit you with the spoon?"

"It hurt!" Sora said indignantly.

Leon chuckled, reaching over and ruffling his little brother's hair. "So why are you two sitting here like this?"

"I told them that if they couldn't wait for all of us to be ready for breakfast they could both sit there until it was ready."

Leon looked between the two of them for a moment before shaking his head. Xion he had no doubt could sit still for however long their father dictated, for Sora though, this would be torture. He could hardly sit still of his own accord, let alone someone else's. Laguna dunked several slices of bread in the batter and threw the moistened bread on the burner, adding a dash of cinnamon to each as he kept a watchful eye on their coats. There was a quiet step on the stairs and Leon turned to see Rinoa coming down the stairs in the dress she'd worn at the bar the night before sans shoes. He got up and went to her, pulling her close and kissing her tenderly.

"You look beautiful." he whispered.

She smiled up at him suspiciously. "You say that all the time."

"It's always true." he replied innocently.

"For once he's actually sensible enough to realize it." Laguna remarked idly from his post.

Leon glared at him. "What was that?"

"Oh nothing, I certainly don't mean anything about another nice girl you met and completely failed with."

Leon twitched. "Yuna was not my fault."

Laguna flipped the toast onto the platter with the eggs and bacon, picking up the entire batch and putting it into the center of the island.

"Not that I know anything about women but they tend to get upset when you don't support them."

"Drop it dad." growled Leon, turning from Rinoa. "I messed up, I know, she's better off now and I have Rinoa so leave it alone."

Laguna shrugged, putting a hand each on Xion's and Sora's heads. "Alright you two, you may move again."

Sora's response was instant, he lunged at the platter and began to grab bacon, eggs, and toast left and right. Xion glared at him and tried to find off his maddened assault on the breakfast platter.

"Leave some for everyone else Sora!"

"There's plenty for everyone." he protested.

Laguna put a cautionary hand on their shoulders and they both froze. "Are we going to have a problem?"

"No dad." they chorused, glaring at each other for a moment.

"Jinx." Laguna said with a smirk. "You each owe me a soda."

"Hey!" Sora protested. "You didn't say anything!"

Laguna knuckled Sora's head. "I'm your father. I get to do whatever I want."

The rest of breakfast proceeded civilly enough, no one would ever contest that Laguna could cook. After it was all said and done, Laguna drafted a groaning Sora and a resigned Xion into cleaning up, releasing Leon to take Rinoa home.

"If you see your cousin over there, remind him that I have his letter of recommendation still."

"Why would he be at Rinoa's place?" Sora asked.

Laguna smirked. "Because I hear Tifa finally got a kiss out of the stubborn fool."

Leon snorted. "I think 'took a kiss' from him is more accurate." he squeezed Rinoa's hand. "We were all a bit stunned by the show."

Laguna smiled at Rinoa secretly. "Barrett says you have Julia's voice."

Rinoa blushed. "I'm not that good."

"From what I heard." Laguna said with a smile at Leon. "You might as well be. Barrett says you three took the place by storm."

Rinoa said nothing, hiding behind Leon who put an arm around her protectively. Sometimes his dad got too friendly with everyone...then again that was why he was so insufferably charming. If Leon was to believe half the stories his dad's old war buddies told, his father was a bit of a womanizing fiend until he met first Rinoa and Tifa's mother Julia, and then later Leon's own mother Raine. He couldn't imagine how bad his father must have been if he was considered tame now.

"Your dad's being too nice." Rinoa said fretfully.

Leon looked down at her as they walked down the street.

"He's right you know. You guys knocked everyone in the room flat."

She smiled. "Except for Auron."

"No." Leon said thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure he was flat last night."

Rinoa giggled. "Rikku tackling him doesn't count."

Leon smiled. "For him it does."

Rinoa shook her head and then sighed slightly. "Leon, you know that Rikku is Yuna's cousin right?"

He said nothing for a moment as he absorbed that little tidbit. "You're kidding right?"

"Nope. I don't know if she's told Yuna about you and me...but...well yeah."

Leon nodded, feeling his stomach knot up. "It's alright. That's all over."

Rinoa squeezed his hand. "I still don't know the story you know."

"Ask dad." Leon said with a shrug. "He'll be more than happy to tell you."

She frowned, and he knew why, he sounded bitter. His father always was talking too much, she had to know that.

"I did ask him." she said quietly. "He told me it was your story to tell."

Leon stopped and looked at her in surprise. "He said that?"

She nodded. "He said it was no one's business but yours and Yuna's."

Leon shook his head, imagine that, his dad was respecting his privacy...but then again considering his dad's own history and how complicated that was...well it made sense he supposed.

"Leon, are you really going to go with Cloud?"

He nodded, squeezing her hand tightly. "I have to...and I want to. He waited three years for me to catch up before submitting his package. With dad's recommendation there's no way he'll be rejected from the academy."

She leaned against him as they walked. "I'm going to miss you."

"I know. I'll miss you too, but it'll work out, you'll see."

She stopped and pulled him to a halt. "I know." she put her hands around his neck and pulled him down into a kiss. "I love you."

He wrapped her in his arms, saying nothing in response as he returned her kiss. He loved her too, he just wasn't ready to admit it yet.

AN: you know I have no clue where this is going. I'm just having fun with whatever it is I've done here...first time writing Xion and Ventus though, I wonder how it's going really.