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Part Four



Yellow eyes shone in that too familiar face.


"Hello, Squall."


Leon was speechless. He felt unbearably light as if he wasn't standing on solid ground. He couldn't be seeing this, his eyes had to be wrong. Saw the gunblade, its blade so dark it was almost black, and couldn't move when it came near his throat.


A loud clash of steel and Cloud's broadsword met the gunblade before it reached Leon.


He stood there, watching Cloud exchange blows and parries with the man in black.


He has a name... The cold analytical part of Leon's mind prodded.


Cloud rolled to one side on the ground, evading a fire spell whose flames were black and melted the stone slabs that paved the street. The figure stood a distance away, disregarding Cloud as a threat and turned instead to Leon.


"So you've found another playmate, Squall? I'm hurt. I really am. I thought we meant more to each other than that."


The sheer frivolity of those words snapped Leon out of his reverie. He raised his eyes, stormy with cold anger, and stared at the man.


"You're not him. Whatever you are, you are NOT him." Betrayal, anger, and loathing dripped from Leon's statement.


One raised eyebrow. "So sure of that are you?"


"He's dead. I watched him die." Leon's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.


The sky started to rain. Cloud stood against a wall, a dark red shadow. He was aware this wasn't his fight, but he'd keep an eye on its proceedings.


"What if he found a way to make it out of his world? Like you did." The man's tone was gentle, inviting confidences.


Leon raised his gunblade and moved into a fighting stance. "I won't allow you to mock his memory."


The man sighed. "I forgot you've always had a problem with hope." A smirk, its familiarity turned Leon's stomach into knots. "But then we've always fucked better than we talked."


A blink of an eye and Leon barely had time to meet the sword thrust. They danced around each other, exchanging blows. Swords glinted, sparks shot when metal grinded against metal, and the dull ring of swords echoed around the walls of the surrounding buildings.


I'd forgotten... how good he is. Came the unwilling thought.


Thunder threatened to crack the sky into pieces.


Leon's foot slipped and he slid to the ground, the stone paving it made slick by rain. His arm shook with the sword that locked into his, Leon winced. He had never been able to handle a gunblade with one hand, unlike the other man, and now his right wrist throbbed in protest.


"Hmm... this is familiar isn't it?" Yellow eyes with darker irises stared at him. The swords intersected and locked the two men in a strange embrace.


Blue-grey eyes gazed at the scar which ran diagonally across the man's face, so like Leon's own. He swept one leg and it caught the man across his chest and Leon darted out of reach.


Black flames erupted around Leon. He crouched and slammed his hand into the ground, a wall of ice sprung up glittering in cold blue tones as the fire met its match and died out.


He stood and shifted his grip on his gunblade. The pain in his wrist warned him that he couldn't keep it up for long, not with the inhuman strength his opponent possessed. Leon had never been able to beat Cloud in a duel and while Cloud was some strange hybrid of human and Heartless, he also didn't have the added strength of a personal grudge.


"Yeah. You still cheat."


The rain had flattened the man's blond hair and it reminded Leon of another man. A man who looked soft and warm coming out of a shower with a towel ruffling his hair. Leon's gut turned into ice remembering it.


"So you admit it's me."


"I'm admitting nothing," Leon practically snarled. He didn't see Cloud's eyes widen from where he stood at this atypical display of emotion.


The man sighed. His wet black coat only made him look more like a shadowy Heartless. "I guess we'll just have to do it the hard way." With one step, the black gunblade was in Leon's face. Leon blocked it, but another sweep of the black sword and strands of his brown hair separated from his head.


"Your hair's longer. I like it." The offhand comment didn't stop the flurry of blows. Leon found himself on the defensive and being pushed back. He was going to meet a wall or the ground soon if he didn't counter.


A flash of lightning hit a nearby lamppost, the glass shattered into pieces. Its light blinded Leon and he felt a sharp pain along his left side. He looked down, a line of blood was blooming from his white shirt. His inattention made it easy for the other to grab his right wrist, Leon cried out, and another hand landed on his shoulder and used the weight of his own body to swing him into the ground.


Leon's head connected solidly with the stony ground. He lay dazed, blinking the whiteness out of his vision.


The man crouched over him. His arms and legs effectively pinning Leon in his place.


"Say my name, Squall."


Leon's eyes tried to focus, his mouth was fine though. "Go to hell."


A shrill, haunted laugh. "I did. And I came back."


Those yellow eyes loomed yet closer. "Say my name," he demanded.


Leon glared.


The yellow eyes narrowed. Leon's wrist was deftly broken.


Leon's body jerked, trapped and impotent.


"Say..My..Name."


"You're not /him/. You're just a Heartless wearing his face." The words squeezed past gritted teeth.


The rain kept falling. Leon tried to push away the memory of another rainy night from his mind, but he could no more do that than push the man off him.


"There is something I want to know." The expression on the man's face became solemn. "If I'm really a Heartless, where did my heart go?"


And he leaned down... and kissed Leon.


Leon felt his heart pound, his blood roar in his ears. He wasn't sure from pleasure or shock. The man's lips felt cold, but so good. Leon had missed this, the simple connection made by a kiss. No one had kissed him in years.


A black gloved hand rested right in the middle of Leon's chest, soft white light glowed underneath the spread fingers. The man's warm breath tickled Leon's ear as he whispered, "It's been here all along."


"Seifer?" Squall was horrified to hear his voice breaking under the stress of his emotions.


Seifer smiled. The rain plastered his blond hair and gave him a drowned puppy look. The innocence of the image was marred by his eyes, yellow with darker amber irises. Not their usual sea-green colour. Some things had changed.


"Yeah, Squall. It's me."


Cloud watched the man he'd known as 'Leon' hesitantly raise his arms and embrace the man now identified as Seifer. Leon held him tight and buried his face in Seifer's neck. Cloud saw Seifer murmur something in Leon's ear, should he call him Squall now he wondered?, and he too hugged Leon back.


He pushed himself from the wall and walked away. Before entering a side alley that would get him to his place, Cloud cast a last look at the two men. They were still sitting on the stone pavement wrapped around one another. A picture of reunited lovers. Cloud's face lit with a rare smile. Maybe sometimes.. just sometimes.. the princess got her shining white knight back. Not, of course, that he would ever be mentioning that in Leon's presence.


The rain seemed like it would continue till morning. He raised his face and it's heavy drops washed his face.


Cloud disappeared into the shadows, finding comfort in the knowledge that some stories have a happy ending.




~ End ~