Chapter 12

Cloud

He knew he was dreaming, the way you sometimes just have that knowledge during your slumber. The dream wasn't anything particularly fascinating, just an old memory from the days they were wandering around in a group hunting down some bad guys and doing some stuff that could be understood as good deeds.

Green fields. Those never ending green fields that kept going as far as the eye could see. The grass waving slowly in the wind that blew past. The horizon so bright and blue. And so green and gentle the eyes that watched over his eager steps as he ran forward, never really reaching whatever he was trying to reach. One of those dreams where you can fly but you know you can't in real life, but you still do so.

Something disturbed his senses and he became more aware of his surroundings in waking world than the dream one. Cloud was pretty sure he wasn't alone anymore. There was someone or something staring at him in close range. The dream faded slowly, left the man feeling a little confused about his whereabouts and where the devil was his Buster.

He opened his eyes and faced the gray silence of the familiar living room of the Leonhart residence. Correction; Leonhart and Strife residence now. He also recognized the familiar and highly annoying ogling next his resting form.

"Goddamn it Squall.. How many times do I have to tell to not to do that.." He groaned and saw a flash of teeth as the form of his best friend stooping next to his sleeping place grinned a self satisfied smile. Agh.. Cloud just wanted to drift back to sleep and have an actual day off from any duties. "Go annoy someone else. You've been hanging around Sora too much.."

"Oh, stop being a whiny bitch Cloud and get that bony ass of yours up. We've gotta get out!"

"..." He really didn't want to register those words Squall had just nearly squealed out of his mouth. "W-what?"

"C'mon! You didn't think I wouldn't want to get out to test that new baby you got me yesterday, did you now? Your own fault for giving me that. Now suffer the consequences!" Squall yanked the blanket off the Cloud's body, causing him to make an angry protest at it and pulling the cover back up, holding it tight against his chin, like his life was depending on it. He also tried very hard to stare Squall to death. No results. Damn. Maybe he could suffocate Squall?

"You're insane. It's cold and freezing out there. Like hell I'm gonna get up just to get my ass frozen for your entertainment!" Though he couldn't dismiss the thought of a test fight for the new gunblade was in fact definitely in order, not to mention what a splendid opportunity it would be for him to make Squall suffer for waking him up. It was the cold that kept him nailed to the couch. But, he wasn't good at denying anything from Squall when he was giddily looking at him, his blue eyes bright and full of excitement. Cloud sighed, mentally slapping himself for being an easy prey. "Fine.. You win. But it's your turn to make coffee this morning!" Squall merely grinned and fled the room before Cloud could throw his pillow at him.

An hour later they were standing in the cold morning breeze on the field they usually were sparring. Cloud shivered at the cold and gripped the handle of Buster, as if the leather under his gloved hand would get him warmer that way. To get really warm, there was only one way and he was anxious to get moving. It wasn't like they really needed any warming up since this kind of sport came automatically to them as they set themselves to better positions for the battle to begin.

Squall always chose to stand like that, like nothing was bothering him and he looked so damn bored it made Cloud want to slap that ignorance out of the others system. Cloud's fingers were now almost itching. He paced slowly in the heavy snow, staring at Squall, trying to set his mood more into the tone of sword fighting. It had been a while since they had been able to make it out to clash the swords together, mostly because it had been insanely busy before the holidays.

There was only a slight change in Squall's impression before the man lounged forward. Cloud made a defensive move, Buster met the gunblade with clear clanging sound and the two men jumped backwards from each before attacking both again. They weren't yet completely dwelling in the blissful feeling of battle heat, for now just settled for testing the opponent, but slowly going towards that road.

Cloud danced backwards as the gunblade was again swung to his direction, nearly reaching his cheek. Hastily he had managed to dodge and rolled in the snow, cursing himself for not noticing the forceful blow to take place. Squall was definitely enjoying this and was making it hard for Cloud to have any time to recover or cut any slack just because they were friends. Which, he didn't mind because it would've been plain cheating.

Cloud dived forward as the silvery swing came again towards his way and rolled to Squall's left side, got up quickly and landed a strong slap to Squalls back with the flat of his sword. Squall fell on his knees and let out a strangled huff of air as the hit had most likely emptied his lungs. Cloud hoped he hadn't landed that blow too heavily. Sometimes he didn't just quite grasp the sheer weight of his sword and how it could break bones when smacked against someone. For his delight, Squall was one of those people who didn't go and break even when playing roughly with him.

"That's for trying to ruin my good looks." Cloud snarled as Squall was getting up. He was then surprised by Squall attacking him with such force he was forced to retreat several meters with his companion landing more hits with his sword. Blocking them all, Cloud grit his teeth and stopped almost in the middle, taking a step to his side and at the same time kicking Squall to his right side with his boot and swinging Buster to finish the surprise and sent Squall again flying into the snow.

"Ruining my hair, aren't you. Asking for more trouble!" Squall grinned as he got up again and spat snow out of his mouth and with one hand he drew the tip of the sword over the snow, ran towards Cloud and flung the blade into air, knowing probably quite well the weapons would only meet in the air. As they did, sparks flew around, clear and visible in the vast morning light.

"How intriguing, Squall, you actually are superficial after all." Cloud managed a dark smile in between of the swinging swords.

"Shut up, Mr. fancy-pants." Squall grimaced in return.

"You're welcome to try."

Squall growled and all Cloud next could figure was Squall having tripped him into the snow with one sneakily landed kick to his groin and suddenly he was the one eating snow and cursing. Cloud reached out with his left hand that was free and took a hold of Squall's ankle and yanked hard. Squall lay in the snow soon enough, again.

"You're two behind, sucker." Cloud grinned, pushing himself up and sweeping the snow off his clothes. Before Squall was able to land another surprise attack on him, he took the chance and prepared this time better. The bastard had made him wet his clothes! That mistake would NOT happen again.

Indeed, Squall lounged once again towards him, with an extremely cool face, like he was entirely focused on the mission of making Cloud surrender. The gunblade came this time from below, making Cloud to force his enormous sword to twist downwards to block the attack. Buster was big, yes, but he was used to handling its weight and controlling its course when he swung it in any direction. Buster was the extension of his right arm. The second blow came from the left side and Cloud blocked that one too swiftly. The third one came again from below and almost landed on his stomach. He fell to the ground, on his back and quickly rolled to his right to escape Squall's crushing knee that tried to make his family jewels turn into scrambled eggs.

"One more.." Squall was making a rather frightening face at the moment and had it been someone else in Cloud's position, that person would have most likely shitted their pants and ran away as fast as they could. Cloud just dug the tip of Buster to the frozen ground and heaved himself up. The handle was getting slippery from the snow that had melted there. Cloud placed his both hands on it and lifted the terrifying blade before him.

"Come on pretty boy, show me what you got." He grinned and Squall needed no other reason to prolong his next move and sprang ahead, the tip of his sword moving up from the snow again with frightening speed. Metallic ring in the air as the blades met again, the sparks visible and their grins so wide someone might have thought them to be pretty much insane.

The snow under them started to turn into melting mess, making their feet slip now and then, neither of them really paying any attention to this fact. The sun was starting to rise slowly from the horizon, its beams finding their way to the surface of the swords. Gunblade was bright and clean, shimmered and glistened under the dancing rays and in the hand of its wielder it seemed to form the most elegant courses as it was being flung around. Cloud swung the his huge blade, noting the same time the beauty of Squall's weapon and its master, appreciating the view the way only someone like him could. Beauty divine, that it was to him.

Squall was just about to surge ahead when his feet found the right spot of melting snow and an area of ice forming under it. He slipped and fell on his bottom, looking baffled the moment his ass hit the ground with an audible thud. Cloud stared down at Squall, unable to determine should he thrust his sword down and announce his obvious victory or should he help his friend. He decided to fall for the third option. He started to laugh.

"Nice fall." Cloud mocked, his cheerfulness rising as Squalls face turned more offended than anything.

"Oh shut up and help me up." Squall raised his hand for Cloud to help him, but when Cloud took the hand, there was in no time two men lying in the snow. "There, that should make us even." Squall grinned deviously, satisfied he had managed to get Cloud down one more time and wet his clothes more.

"If I get sick because of this, I'm going to ram that sword up your rear." Cloud said but couldn't help to smile too.

"Then I'll just have to nurse you back to being healthy again." Squall stated calmly, running his fingers thru his partially wet hair dark locks glued to his sweaty face.

"As if that would ever happen. I'm not suicidal, you know. Even though did I let myself get dragged out in the middle of the night just for sword fighting. And with you, of all the nutty people around me.." They scrambled back up to their feet, cleaning their clothes off of the snow. Squall gestured at Cloud with his hand something inappropriate as an answer and went on then to check his sword.

"You know.." Squall was holding the gunblade high, before his face and looked at the smooth surface one eye closed. "There seem to be scratches over on my precious blade." His voice got a little lower and little more menacing. "You DO know what the punishment is for whacking that big butchering knife of yours so hard it damages the perfect surface of MY sword!" When he finally looked at Cloud he found the space being empty and the blond hair only visible in the far distance. Squall grinned, placed his sword to its scabbard and pondered for a moment should he try shooting Cloud instead of running after him. Nah, would be too cruel, he would let Cloud get away with it. This time.