Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as is Beverly. This is the last chapter before the mid-story climax. I've built in a few chapters of this story that will act as finales to a season, basically allowing for the wrap up of some subplots and the introduction of new arcs. Chapter 15 is the first of these little breaks. There won't be a delay in posting or anything though; new chapters will still be posted every week. Enjoy!

..:-X-:..

040 – Manly Bonding

Cloud turned the print-out to the left, to the right, and then turned it an entire 180 degrees, so that he was pretty sure he was looking at it upside down. He could feel a pair of eyes boring into him, waiting for his reaction…but, frankly, there was nothing to react to. He was looking at nothing…Well, not 'nothing', but not anything that he could clearly see. He evenly raised his eyes from the sheet and, sure enough, found Leon staring hard at him.

"It's…" Cloud started, and it was almost pitiful how the other man seemed to hang by whatever he said next. "…I'm sorry, I don't see it."

Leon deflated and then huffed, pointing. "Then you're blind. Look, right there."

"I'm looking." Cloud assured, holding the page closer to his face and then farther, as though that would help. "I just don't see it. What am I supposed be seeing?"

"WHO." Leon corrected with a snap, snatching the page back. "Not 'it' or 'what', but who, jerk ass."

Cloud returned the ultrasound picture with a sigh, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "Okay, okay, but you don't know the gender yet. There's no gender neutral term! There's he, she, or it. Unless you want me to refer to your kid as a he-she?"

Leon grumbled at him, sitting back in his seat.

Cloud stifled a smirk, but he couldn't really make fun of the other man. And, seeing that Leon was genuinely miffed that Cloud didn't see…he or she, Cloud attempted to make amends.

"Have you guys talked about names?" He offered.

Leon looked at him evenly, as though trying to figure out if he was being mocked or not. Cloud remained where he was, trying not to appear TOO interested. Tifa had at one point been his nearest and dearest friend, after all. And as much as he and Leon rarely saw eye to eye, they were sort of friends, he supposed. So this kid was half of his oldest friend and half of his almost-friend. So…yeah, he was curious.

"No." Leon finally confessed. "We've tried to talk about it a handful of times but we get side tracked."

"With what?" Cloud quirked an eyebrow, "Alliance stuff? You guys are having a baby. Naming that kid is a little more important than patrol reports."

"Not…no, not that." Leon muttered. "It's just—"

Oh God. Leon is about to open up to me. What the Hell, what the Hell, what the Hell do I do? This is going to be awkward. I think I liked it better when he hated me. Dodging sucker punches is easier than emotions and feelings and…

"—nevermind."

Cloud almost collapsed with relief at that, but clearly the 'nevermind' was for Cloud's benefit, not Leon's, because whatever he'd stopped himself from saying, it was still stewing in his head. Cloud grimaced.

"No, it's just what?" He pressed.

Leon looked at him, looking just as uncomfortable as Cloud felt, and glanced at the ultrasound sheet again. "What if I suck as a father?"

Cloud snorted before he could stop himself. Leon looked affronted.

"No, no." Cloud waved a hand. "It's not—THAT's what you're worried about?" He said incredulously. "Five minutes ago you nearly bit my head off because I didn't see—"

"A foot, it's clearly a foot. The Hell is wrong with your eyes?!" Leon barked, gesturing to the black, grey, and white mess on the print-out.

Cloud pointed at him. "See? That, right there, is why you aren't going to suck as a dad." He folded his arms. "And I know about sucky dads. Mine was king of them."

Oh God. Did I just open up to Leon?...Shit.

Leon shifted. "Well, I bet he didn't intend to be that way."

Cloud bit back a snappy retort. The other man didn't know about the hot button that was pushed whenever his dad was brought up, so he tried to let it slide.

"I thought you were a douche-canoe for years." Leon shrugged, "I'm just now getting over that."

Cloud looked at him flatly, and Leon chuckled at his expression.

"Families." Leon muttered, shaking his head.

"Families." Cloud repeated pensively.

A quiet beat passed, and Cloud couldn't figure out if it was awkward or not.

Then, unsure what possessed him to, he took up the ultrasound picture again and tilted it sideways. "Okay…I…I guess it kinda looks like a foot." He pointed.

"That's the head." Leon corrected.

Cloud looked at it again, tilted it further, and sighed, "You're going to have one weird looking kid." He tossed the picture back.

Just then, the door opened and Cid walked in. The older man took one look at Cloud and Leon, being civil to each other, and the ultrasound picture between them, and shook his head.

"No." He snapped. "No. Go outside. Both of you. Before you start growing ovaries." He pointed harshly at the door.

..:-X-:..

041 – Wait for It

"Do it again." Rinoa sat on the steps in the Bailey, sipping at her soda.

The clouds overhead were thick and ominous, low hanging in the sky and casting a murky shadow over Radiant Garden's normally sunny midday. They weren't storm clouds, being too light for any decent amount of rain. But they looked like the perfect recipe for a fantastic lightning storm.

Beside her, Merlin chuckled and brandished his wand. "Thunder!"

The spell flashed up into a pocket of clouds like a match to a plume of gasoline. Lightning forked through the cloud in big, burgeoning tendrils, branching out like spindly fingers.

It was better than fireworks.

"Ooh." Rinoa snorted.

"It's really just an energy diffusion—" Merlin started.

Rinoa lifted a hand. "Wait for it…"

Then, as the lightning faded, the rolling thunder reached them. It exploded in a wave over them, making the concrete walls of the Bailey shudder around them. Rinoa felt the stairs under her quiver with the energy of it, and she lifted her arms.

"AWESOME!" She kicked up her feet, feeling energized.

Merlin looked amused at her antics. "I never took you for one to like thunder storms."

Rinoa glanced at him and lifted her shoulders. "I've made my peace with them. It's RAIN storms I'm not overly fond of…With the whole…yeah."

Because yeah, she was over Leon. It had hurt. Hell yeah it had hurt. And she wanted to hate Tifa, but the other woman hadn't done anything wrong. And dammit, they were a cute couple, and now having a baby…Which she was going to DEMAND babysitting rights to. But, rainstorms in general just sort of left a melancholy taste in her mouth. Thunder storms, on the other hand, were just raw power and explosions and…awesomeness.

"There you are." A third voice joined them.

Rinoa and Merlin turned to see Eddy heading their way. Oh, right. She winced. She was supposed to be at work.

"You're supposed to be at work." Eddy said, almost straight out of her thoughts.

"But…storm." Rinoa pointed toward the angry clouds.

"Yes, they're very nice." Eddy looked a cross between amused and exasperated. "But you can't ditch your shift for every storm that blows into town."

"Sorry." Rinoa smiled, not feeling sorry at all.

Sorry for blowing him off, yes, but sorry for watching the storm, no.

Eddy looked to Merlin. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Not at all, not at all." Merlin tutted. "I find it quite refreshing sometimes to take a step back and let the inner child play for a while."

"See?" Rinoa gestured. "My inner child needs to play."

"You have no inner child. You have an inner adult." Eddy lifted an eyebrow. "That's what I thought this whole 'join the Alliance' thing was for."

Rinoa and Merlin exchanged a look. Then Merlin flung another Thunder Spell up into another pocket of dark clouds, igniting the explosion of lightning that had been simmering up there, waiting to be awakened.

More lightning enveloped a section of the sky, illuminating the shadows in the corners of the Bailey. Rinoa heard a few 'ooh's from other civilians mingling around the Borough and the Restoration Site below, and she smiled, looking to Eddy as though to say 'see? You gotta admit that that's awesome.'

Eddy blinked as the lightning faded. "Fine, it's very pretty, but—"

"Wait for it!" Rinoa lifted her hand.

Another peal of thunder blasted across the air around them. Rinoa sprang to her feet and did an air kick. She punched the air with her hand that wasn't holding her soda.

"Geez, isn't that just the most amazing thing ever?!" She beamed.

"It is pretty great." Eddy confessed, "But all that electrical energy means that we need to be backing up the computer systems, particularly the perimeter security claymores."

Rinoa blinked. "Oh, right. I guess the Heartless like thunder storms too?"

"They like the breach in security that tends to crop up when lightning hits the power generators." Eddy canted his head.

Rinoa looked at Merlin again. "I guess we'll have to postpone our lightning battle until then, eh? Gotta go save the town." She chuckled.

Merlin waved them on. "Go on then. Defeat the Heartless with computers."

A snap of lightning flickered through the clouds over the castle ruins.

Rinoa frowned, "It doesn't sound as awesome if you say it like—"

"Wait for it!" Eddy interrupted as the thunder pealed over the town.

..:-X-:..

042 – Things Get Complicated

The Traverse Town Tavern was almost empty. A few stragglers had holed up in the corner booths, and there were a few drunkards still passed out at a table or two. It was too early in the day for most people to be out drinking. Not that Cid was necessarily drinking. As much as he wanted to, he needed a clear head for this.

"Well, I've made my decision." Beverly said, standing on the other side of the bar counter and wiping down a mug.

Cid took a long drag from his cigarette, holding it for a moment before exhaling. "Cashews or pecans?" He glanced at the peanut bowls on some of the tables.

Beverly snorted. "No, smart ass."

"Then I give up." He said, looking measuredly at the burning end of the cigarette in his fingers.

She looked at him, set the mug down, and picked up another one to clean. A quiet beat passed, and after a moment, Cid tapped the ashes off of his cigarette into the ash tray.

"So the epic saga of Aerith and Cloud continues." He grunted sarcastically. "For once Aerith is the one dabbling in the dangerous crap and Cloud's the one flippin' shit about it."

Beverly didn't respond immediately, setting the cleaned cup down and fiddling with more glassware under the counter.

"I don't pretend to have an opinion," He snorted. "But that gal has had Cloud by the balls for years. I think it's about time she give him a dose of his own medicine, after all the times he's run off with no warnin'."

Beverly slapped her dish rag onto the counter, put one hand on her hip, and looked at him severely. Cid paused, cigarette in mid-drag, and looked back at her. Bitch Mode had just been activated, and he had no escape routes. He had clearly missed something.

"No, please go on." She said tersely. "Because you clearly have no opinion on the matter."

Cid narrowed one eye in confusion. "Huh?"

"I swear," Beverly cursed, "You rant and rave about how you don't care and you don't give a damn about their 'stupid, dramatic shit', and yet that's all you ever talk about. Them. Their lives and their problems."

"You got a thing against gossip?" He snorted, but quickly stopped, seeing the austere look on her face.

"I have a 'thing' against trying to have a conversation with you about us—"

"Don't use that word." Cid exhaled smoke.

"—and you do that!" Beverly pointed at him. "You just blow it off and ignore it."

"This—" Cid gestured between them. "Is not an 'us'. That was the agreement, remember?"

"Well, maybe we need to modify that contract. I didn't realize it was set in stone." Beverly snapped.

"What has you all pissed off all of a sudden?" Cid said, getting irritated now.

He had no qualms if other people were pissed at him; he practically made a habit out of it. But he hated not knowing why someone was being pissy. That was just annoying.

"I was trying to tell you that I made my decision about relocating." She huffed.

Cid looked at her. "And?"

"And—" She lifted her shoulders, "I decided to move my business to Radiant Garden."

He put out his cigarette. "Why?"

She threw up her arms. "I thought you'd be happy!"

"Why would this affect me?" He shot back.

"Oh, I don't know, because we talk on the phone every day and pretty much spend entire weekends having sex?" She barked.

A few of the stragglers glanced their way at her outburst.

"What?" She yelled at them.

They returned to their own conversations.

Cid stood from his stool. "What is your issue, here? I thought we agreed that—"

"Maybe…Maybe I'm not satisfied with the way things are. Would change be so bad?" She inhaled as soon as she said it, looking suddenly vulnerable. "I like you, Cid." Blood was quickly filling her face. "And I'm okay with liking you even more. But…SHIT…why do you have to make it so damn difficult?"

Cid stepped away from the bar. "I'm sorry, but I can't—"

"Cid." Beverly put her hands on the counter. "Look, okay, can we just talk about it at least? You owe me that much."

"I can't." He backed up farther. "This isn't—I'll call you later."

Then he turned and made a hasty exit. She didn't call after him. He got as far as the alley behind the tavern and threw his cigarette on the ground, stomping it out with his boot. He snarled and put his hands on the brick wall, persuading himself not to headbutt it.

"Shit."

..:-X-:..

Preview for next week: "You got into my brain. You broke in and made yourself at home in a part of my mind where you were NOT welcome."