I survived my first NaNo! Eighty-eight thousand words, baby. XD Now I need to make amends for neglecting these boys for so long...

Journeys is a series of 100-word drabbles (or mini-moments, if you will), completely random and unrelated except for every tenth one (the last of each chapter). A couple of these contain mature themes, mentions of sex, violence, etc., but nothing explicit.

Part three.

Disclaimer: dood, fanfiction. Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and the characters and universes therein are the property of Disney and Square Enix. I receive no remuneration for this work; it is a parody and as such utilizes the Fair Use clause of the Copyright Act.

Part 3

Haunted

He sees her in his dreams. Her face haunts him, her uplifting voice haunts him, her playful touch haunts him, and it's only when dawn's about to break that his subconscious releases him and the pretty face and dark hair bleed into a vision of someone with blue eyes and blond spikes and calloused hands and all the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Every morning he wakes up to that arresting blue gaze, and every morning he breathes out to steady himself, but he's never quite able to confess the reason he can't tell Cloud he loves him.

Chance

Leon made his way through the halls towards Ansem's study at a slower pace than normal. It wasn't that he didn't have work to get done, but he had rather been hoping for another chance meeting with Strife. He knew the blond sometimes hid out nearby, so when he turned the last corner and found cold, deadly-sharp steel pressed against his throat, he wasn't entirely surprised.

"Leonhart," Cloud acknowledged, forcing Leon to lift his chin. "Surely you could have gone the other way and gotten there much faster..."

Leon smirked slowly, glancing over. "And if I meant to get lost?"

Discreet

Yuffie, sitting by the bookshelves and diligently polishing her shuriken, suddenly stopped what she was doing to raise both eyebrows at Aerith. The long-haired brunette stared back at her with wide green eyes, and as one they lifted their gazes to the ceiling in the direction the sound—low, wanton, definitely male—had come from. After a long moment of continued silence, Aerith offered Yuffie a rather oblique smile and a dainty shrug, and a slow Cheshire grin crept over the ninja's face. For once, she remained completely silent. The blackmail would come, oh, yes. And it would be sweet.

Invitation

Leon glanced over to the corner of the bar again, and found himself captivated by the other's intense gaze, again. He caught himself quickly this time and abruptly looked away. He had no right to stare; the attraction he felt for the blond probably wasn't even reciprocated.

A few moments later, he heard solid footsteps approaching and looked to the corner only to find it empty.

"Crystal Fissure...if you're interested," Cloud murmured in passing.

It took Leon a full ten minutes to convince himself he hadn't heard wrong, and only ten seconds to down his drink and go after him.

Mirror

There were times he didn't really recognize his own reflection. Blond hair in familiar spikes, bright blue eyes and pale skin... He'd filled out a little more since his teenage years, but still, he looked...too old, somehow, far more than the years could account for, and somehow even more jaded than before. He reached out with a leather-covered hand, unclenching jointed metal fingers and pressing his palm against the dusty, broken mirror. Someone else's clothing and armor on his body, someone else's dark whispers in his mind, someone else's proud legacy in his soul... Was it really any wonder?

Alone

Cloud was gone. He had left without any real warning. He'd just said "I'm going," and then...well, he was gone. Leon hadn't realized just how much a part of his life Cloud had become until he wasn't a part of it at all.

As the weeks dragged on, Leon began to immerse himself more and more in the restoration, subconsciously trying to fill the void and not noticing the toll it was taking. The others tried to reach out to him, each in their own way, but it's not easy to save someone who isn't aware that they're drowning.

Blind

Leon closes his eyes. Behind the blindfold they're useless anyway.

He takes a breath. Holds it. Lets it out slowly, calmly. Relaxes, centers himself, light and sure on his feet. Settles his arms into place before him, Revolver steady in his grip. Listens for the slightest weight change, heel to ball of foot, on hard-packed soil. For the smallest rustle of cloth to give away direction, the twist of a leather glove on the hilt of a sword, the faint pull of his opponent's breath. Cloud's not going to make this easy on him.

He listens. He waits.

He attacks.

Aftermath

It's quiet now. All he can hear is the barest whisper of Leon's hot breath at his ear and the shift of their boots as Leon draws him back against his chest, curling one arm around him and holding on as if he'd die if he ever let go. And Cloud lets him hold on even though it's hard to breathe, and even grips his wrist in one hand, because he'll never admit it, not even to himself—but deep in his soul he's afraid of that. Of being let go. It's not a freedom he wants to experience again.

Explore

"Where are we going?"

Squall wasn't one for voicing his complaints, but they'd been hiking for miles and it was getting close to sunset. They really weren't supposed to be this far from town after dark, especially without a guardian, and the only weapon they had was Squall's pocket knife. Cid was going to chew them a new one when they got home.

"You'll see," Cloud said with a secretive smile. The cavern wasn't far away now, and once Squall saw what he wanted him to, he figured he'd probably be forgiven for dragging him all the way out here.

Secret

It hurt, abandoning his best friend and everyone he cared about, but he had to do it anyway. He had to find himself, had to answer the call of the darkness simmering deep inside, even if it meant betraying the trust of those that meant the most to him.

Squall was the last to see him, the only one who realized that he was leaving, and the lack of understanding in his quiet eyes hurt more than anything. Cloud wanted to reassure him, tell him he'd be back...but Squall knew him too well to have fallen for it, anyway.