Disclaimer: Despite everything we've done, Square Enix and Disney refuse to give us the ownership of the characters. We don't own it, neither do we own the lyrics of Breaking Benjamin's "Unknown Soldier".
Beta: Azrax (Thousand thank yous.)
A/N (Anae): Chapter three. Already. o_O Firstly, thank you for everyone who's read the previous chapter/chapters! And if you're reading this, be sure to drop a note to tell us how we're doing!
About the chapter itself... I feel sorry for Phil, that's all I have to say. ^^'
A/N (QttQ): Chapter three, oh dear! The credits for this little baby go completely to Anae - she did a great job with the boys, didn't she? c ;
Some more tension in this part. But well, well, maybe there's hope for Leon and Cloud, after all.
. . . Or maybe not.
Keep reading and you'll find out. :

Chapter III: Feeding the sickness

Count me in, violent
Let's begin, feeding the sickness

It took more than a few days for Phil to lose it. As a matter of fact, it took him two weeks. Two fucking weeks had he watched both Leonhart and Strife being on the edge, winning every single match of theirs, not to mention refusing to fight each other in the circle. Two weeks had he watched both men coming not only from matches but also from sparring sessions as frustrated as they had been, if not more so, when they started. And, on the top of that, every poor bastard who had fought them, no matter where, had come out too injured to enter the ring for at least six days.

And oh, if that didn't make miracles for the time schedule, which happened to be pretty tight. One participant down, rearranging matches for those still able to stand, every goddamn day… It had been getting on Phil's nerves but at first, he kept his mouth shut. Everyone had a bad day now and then, and at that time, you needed to get it out of your system or you'd drop dead yourself.

But bad days were not supposed to last over a week. So the goat mentioned about it, first to Leonhart, since he was the more talkative one of the two. That was mockery itself; anyone was more outgoing than the silent gunblader, it was easier to get response out of anyone but him. Except Strife. So Phil mentioned it, first kindly, then less kindly, then raising his voice and in the end, yelling his lungs out. First to gunblader, then to the other warrior.

But oh no, they were two stubborn, lone mules. They even dared to claim that everything was fine, that nothing was wrong. Phil did have his eyes still on, he was not blind and even he could count one plus one, thank you very much.

So, after two weeks, he had had enough of it all. So he used all of his wordplays and tricks to get Leon into one of the training rooms; big circle, one huge door on the west and one on the east side. It would be impossible to break the material they had been made of. Even for the best Colisseum fighters.

Once he had Leonhart where he wanted him, Phil used the same tricks on Cloud, still ending up practically dragging him along, and thus managing to force the two men into the same room.

As they noticed they had been fooled by the goat, both sent glares, threatening enough to make even Hades back off, but at this point, Phil didn't bother to care. Hell, those two could be the best fighters in and outside the circle and he might be just a small, little over-weighted goat, but when enough pissed, he could be as bitchy as he liked. Before either of the warriors opened their mouth, which would've been the first time aside schedules Phil speaking to them, the goat opened his own mouth.

"I've been watching you tearing every single participant and sparring partner apart for two fucking weeks! And when I ask you to get it over with, no, you won't. Now you stay here until you do! I don't care what you do. Talk, hit each other, spar, fuck, anything! Just get that out of your system on each other instead of innocent people!"

With that, Phil marched out, closing the huge door behind him. He would leave the two alone for a while, then come back and see if any progress has been made. If not, they'd spend long time there. Days, if it came to that. It didn't matter to Phil; he did have time.

After Phil had gone off, Leon sighed. Yes, he had been quite on the edge for last weeks, ever since he had had that… Thing with Cloud. Ever since he had fucked the blonde and refused to fight him in the circle. They hadn't talked since, barely even seen each other, and both of them had been taking their frustration out on innocent sparring partners. Both of them had tried to get it all out of their system by doing the only thing they knew; sparring, fighting for their lives. But it hadn't helped, just the opposite. It had brought them from frustration to a point of explosion.

The gunblader eyed the other, who was trying to open the door. But it was to no avail, the huge gate stayed closed, its dark shadow looming over them. "Looks like were stuck here", he heard Cloud mumble.

Leon pushed himself off the stone wall to his feet. The two warriors weren't that far apart, but there was enough distance to make them feel comfortable. Which, when it came to them, meant more than a few feet. "Then I suggest we talk", Leon said, eyes never leaving the blonde's figure. He felt strangely calm, even though he disliked the situation. He didn't really want to talk, he would've been satisfied just to walk away, but this, whatever it was, had to be dealt with. He was Leon now, he would look his responsibilities in the eye instead of running away like Squall would've done.

Cloud didn't turn to meet him; he didn't even move his gaze from the huge obstacle blocking the way out of the situation. "There is nothing to talk about."

"Really?"

"Really."

The gunblader had been a fighter all his life. Even if he was horrible at talking and reading people's words and faces, it wasn't hard for him to read their body language. Movements were his only way to get to people's minds, and luckily, Cloud's movements, as controlled as they were, were warrior's moves. Something that was like a second nature to Leon. "Funny, since that's not the way you act", he answered, voice dripping more irritation than he had intended.

Now those unnaturally blue eyes shot at him. He still didn't move, but his posture was rigid. Leon could see the frustration radiating off the warrior. "Leonhart, if you got something to say, spit it out." Before Leon could even think about answering, the younger added: "And don't you apologize."

Apologising had been on the top of gunblader's to-do-list, ever since he had seen Cloud on the next morning. Had he regretted? Sure. But going back in time, Leon wasn't sure if he'd be able to act any differently. And if something, that frustrated him, to a deal he didn't want to think. Slowly closing their distance, he tried to get a grip of Cloud's thoughts. "You were in pain, for fuck's sake. And I…"

"So what?"

Leon stared at the eyes that deflected clear, stormy night sky more than those pained sky blue eyes he had seen two weeks back. Cloud's inability, no, unwillingness, to see his point, was driving him nuts. The gunblader had always avoided interacting with people, he preferred loneliness and silence, but even worse he was at saying sorry. That one word was so goddamn hard to say, and now it meant nothing? "What do you mean so what?" Leon had taken enough steps; he was quite close to the younger warrior right, now more irritated and frustrated than he could recall being in a long, long time. "You were practically high and…"

"So what?" Cloud interrupted again. The blonde hadn't moved an inch before, but now he was slowly but surely closing the distance between them. Closing his eyes for a moment, that dark leather wing shot out of his left shoulder blade, making the other step back by instinct. The way Cloud moved, the look in his eyes… It was nothing like that broken being Leon had held. It wasn't until now that the brunette really realized that this man really was dangerous. "What makes you think I didn't want it?"

Leon refused to back down more, they were close enough to a wall already. The gunblader was ashamed enough to be intimidated by that wing, which was nothing more than an unwanted appendix. So he held his ground, met those eyes and kept his mouth shut. When the brunette was face to face witha youngster some years his junior, Cloud continued. "What makes you think that the likes of you could do something to me I didn't want to?"

Without a warning, Leon found himself turned around and shoved roughly to the wall, eyes facing the tiles. The gunblader tried to turn around, to ask what in Hyne's name Cloud thought was doing, but the blonde was too strong. Leon swore inside of his head. If there'd been any kind of warning, if he had just expected something like that, he wouldn't have ended up like this. But he hadn't. He hadn't dropped his guard down, not totally, he never did, but that little had been enough, it seemed. And the blonde had been so fast. How could a human be that fast?

Cloud's voice brought Leon back to his crappy situation. "We both wanted it and you know it", he spat, voice giving away more emotions that it was used to. Momentarily, Leon felt that same ache he had felt for this man before. But that didn't last long; his attention rapidly passed to a hand moving from his backside to his front side, slipping under the white shirt.

Just the touch threw Leon's body on the fire it remembered, and he bit his lip. No way he was letting Cloud know how easily the blond could affect him. "We both enjoyed ourselves, didn't we?" he heard the warrior saying, but his attention was elsewhere. As Cloud spoke, his hand played on the buckle belt. The gesture gave quite much away, and the gunblader wasn't sure if he should've been scared of thrilled.

"Wait-" he managed before the hand had opened the belt and slipped under the leather trousers. When it ghosted over the sensitive flesh, Leon gasped and bit his lip. When he had ended up in this world, this was something he never would've expected. To be molested in a Colisseum training room by another man. It probably would've been humiliating if it'd been someone else than Cloud. But since it was Cloud, stroking and circling him, knowing exactly which buttons to push, leaving the other man panting, gasping for air, it didn't matter.

If that wasn't enough, Cloud leaned closer, licking and biting his earlobe, whispering huskily: "You know, I might even let you fuck me again."

Leon moaned quietly in return, his body shaking.

But Cloud had his way. Without giving the other man release, he let him go and pulled backwards. This left Leon's already foggy mind in even more confusion. But despite the state his body was, he managed to turn around, leaning his back to wall for support. And waited for an explanation as he scowled the other's back, cheeks a little flushed, slightly panting. Normally Leon would've demanded an answer but this time… he didn't trust his voice quite enough. So his reaction was a scowl and grunt.

The warrior didn't turn, just gazed the other over his shoulder. "If you want there to be other time, don't you dare pity me."

It didn't take long for Leon to recall what the other was referring to. The morning after their coupling, Cloud had mentioned something like that on the circle. For some reason he thought that Leon had slept with him just because of pity. "I didn't pity you", he answered, sounding as convincing as he possible could in his current state, mind whirling and body screaming for release.

The younger of the two snorted, eyeing his elder. "Then what was it?"

Once again, Leon found no words. He didn't know why he had slept with Cloud. Before this, he hadn't even thought about it. He had felt for the poor youngster who thought himself as something less than human. His heart had ached. But still, that was no excuse to fuck someone you wanted to patch up. It hadn't been pity. It couldn't have been. But still, he had no answer at all.

"Thought so", was the only answer given to him. Leon looked at the figure. He was facing Cloud's back. The warrior hadn't even looked at him when he had spoken, he hadn't been able to see the depths of those blue oceans. Yet, he could read to man, to some degree. Cloud posture was rigid and so controlled, that Leon nearly could see the wall youngster had build up in order to shut the world out. Or to shut himself from the world.

When Phil came, he let both men out. The goat was ridiculously happy about their 'truce' as he himself put it. What had happened made Leon wonder, and not just one thing. Cloud's raw power and speed, they seemed to be something out of the ordinary. The man who possessed such attributes, why would he let himself be taken by someone? Leon sighed. There was other question besides those. Did Cloud want there to be another time, like he had implied? More than that… did Leon himself want to hold that slender body again, to kiss the blond breathless, touch him again and more?

Leon knew the answer already, but his mind still wanted time to process it.