KH2 fic: Mark of Ownership
W00t, delay, but I actually have a good excuse - College Entrance Exams (FUVEST, for any other fellow brazillian who might understand) this weekend. And I ROCKED on it. 8DDDDDD There's still the second part of it in January, but hopefully I won't fail on the last stretch like I did the last time.
Anyway, onto fic. This one used to be buried in the vault back home, but it had only the first part and a crappy ending. It wasn't even slashy enough to be considered pairing fic. I don't know if the transition from part one to the others feels too strange - I've tried adapting the previosly written part to my present style, but I'm afraid the mood diferences are too great. You tell me, please.
Title: Mark of Ownership
Pairing/Characters: Cloud/Leon, Radiant Garden crew mentioned.
Warnings: Not beta'ed. I think that's the only warning-worthy aspect of it. If anyone spots something else, please tell me so.
Word Count: ~1180.
Rating: PG for boys kissing. Worksafe.
Summary: You can't ask back what's given out of free will.
A.N.: Written for the otp_100 challenge, under theme #69, Earring.
-------
Leon walks back to the starting point pressing the collar of his jacket to the side of his head. The white fur slowly turns red, while his scowl deepens with each step he takes. Cloud lifts an eyebrow at him, saving the last gulp of the potion bottle he holds to his lips. With a grunt the blond rises from the boneless heap where he's let himself drop to, once he's come back from his share of Heartless killing.
"Took you long enough," Cloud says quietly, trying his best not to breathe too hard or sway on his feet. He extends the potion to the gunblader, and if either of their hands is shaking as Leon grabs it, they keep if very much to themselves.
"Whatever," comes the grunted reply as Leon peels the bloody fur from brown hair. Cloud doesn't flinch, but his other eyebrow also climbs his forehead at the sight of Leon's ear torn by three gashes. Blood oozes from the top ones - from the ripped lobe where a simple silver hoop used to be worn, it pours.
"That's quite a close hit," Cloud comments, not even nearly scared at the stern glare he gets for it. It only becomes worse when he holds Leon's wrist as the other reaches to use the potion on his wound. "The claw caught on your earring, huh?"
"Little Shadow bastard took one lucky leap before it went," Leon offers his own brand of elaboration, but Cloud isn't one to complain. That's quite an accurate description, actually, for their standards. "Now if you would..."
Leon tries to tug his wrist free, but Cloud maintains his hold. He reaches for his own ear and one of his Fenrir replicas comes loose, resting in his palm for a second while he gives Leon a meaningful look. The brunet blinks twice before his frown deepens, but he shrugs in silent acquiescence.
The pin of the jewel is soaked in green fluid as Leon holds out the vial for Cloud, before it is taken to the hurt ear. If the gunblader lets the quietest of grunts escape as Cloud fits the earring to the right spot in the torn lobe, it's lost to the hiss of skin and scar tissue growing around silver with a touch of magic.
Cloud turns on his heels and begins walking away, while Leon applies the remaining potion on his other wounds. He has to discreetly use the buster sword as a walking cane to move - then again, Leon isn't doing much better without the stonewall.
He's too tired to think of why he's done that, let alone of why Leon accepted his unplanned helpfulness.
*
Fenrir means a lot to Cloud, as even the shallowest person can perceive by its recurrence as a theme in his closet. The emblem symbolizes his grief and the wounds never quite healed in his inner self - but it also reminds him of his strength, of his will, of never letting himself be chained and controlled by memory and guilt again. Fenrir tells him to be true.
Leon walks into the kitchen for breakfast, a well-known glint of silver by his left ear, and Cloud swallows his bite of toast as though it's become a ball of steel wool. It's unsettling, to say the least, to see his own mark sported by another - it feels as though somehow he's branded Leon, and the mere thought mangles his leftover conscience.
Ownership over a person - over that man in particular - doesn't interest Cloud at all.
The fact he knows he's being stupid unsurprisingly makes nothing better.
"G'morning," Leon grunts, sitting on the other side of the rather small kitchen. They're the only ones in it, Merlin and Aerith already up and about the house, the others yet to wake up. Yuffie will probably have to be physically removed from bed again. "Is there any coffee left?"
"Here," Cloud mumbles uninterestedly, reaching behind himself for the thermos and passing it forward. There isn't much coffee in it, if its loud sloshing says anything - Aerith's everlasting cheerfulness doesn't exist without appropriate fuel.
A nodded thanks, and they get back to paying attention to their respective meals. Silence punctuated by quiet slurping and munching reigns, and the feeling of being uncomfortable expands tenfold. Cloud's eyes dart over to the earring that Leon has been wearing for a week now, and at precisely that time the brunet searches his eyes.
He avoids Cloud's sight the following moment. "I'll give it back to you in a few days. The piercing hasn't healed yet, and it seems I've lost my other silver earrings," Leon says around his mug of coffee.
"It's alright," Cloud hates how choked that sounds, how immature and foolish it is to see himself projected in the jewelery. "I don't mind it."
He's also a liar, but that's not exactly news.
Leon nods again, and Cloud takes his leave still swallowing toast.
*
Thinking himself able to get used to seeing Fenrir resting on Leon's ear - a raging wolf hanging onto someone who should be made only of feline grace - is Cloud's biggest mistake. Time doesn't take away the awkwardness, and by the middle of the third week since he's given his mark away so thoughtlessly, he's constantly raked by a close relative of cabin fever. Not taking that burden away from Leon's form stirs a mute desperation, a sense of urgency that doesn't sit still, no matter how much rationale he uses to shut it up.
That earring looks too good on him for it to be right. That regret should be only Cloud's. That promised salvation, also.
Leon is coming down from the ceiling when Cloud finds him, probably fixing tiles dislodged by Merlin's experiments gone wrong. Radiant Garden's sun is merciless even as it dyes the sky in oranges and pinks with its descent - the gunblader has his hair bunched up to avoid sticking to his face, thanks to the sweat. Fenrir shines almost mockingly without the brunet frame.
"These are for you," Cloud offers simply, a pair of plain silver hoops in his outstretched hand.
Leon stops short, and it takes him awhile to form a slight suggestion of a smirk upon his face. Ever-so-slowly he removes Fenrir from his ear - then he takes a step forward, and two and three and he's in Cloud's personal space, holding the blond's earlobe carefully while he puts the earring back in its rightful place.
He steps back brushing a kiss to the corner of Cloud's lips, taking the offered earrings and walking off while the swordmaster stands shock-still. "I appreciate it. All of it."
Cloud grabs his wrist and pulls him back, slamming him to the external wall of headquarters. "If you think that's enough payment, you'd better think again," he purrs to Leon's ear - Leon's bare, burden-free, markless ear -, before he presses his whole body to the gunblader and kisses him properly.
Leon doesn't need his grief and shame and redemption. There's more of Cloud reserved to him.
-------
Thanks for reading! ^^~
X-Posted to otp_100 and leonxcloud.
Anyway, onto fic. This one used to be buried in the vault back home, but it had only the first part and a crappy ending. It wasn't even slashy enough to be considered pairing fic. I don't know if the transition from part one to the others feels too strange - I've tried adapting the previosly written part to my present style, but I'm afraid the mood diferences are too great. You tell me, please.
Title: Mark of Ownership
Pairing/Characters: Cloud/Leon, Radiant Garden crew mentioned.
Warnings: Not beta'ed. I think that's the only warning-worthy aspect of it. If anyone spots something else, please tell me so.
Word Count: ~1180.
Rating: PG for boys kissing. Worksafe.
Summary: You can't ask back what's given out of free will.
A.N.: Written for the otp_100 challenge, under theme #69, Earring.
-------
Leon walks back to the starting point pressing the collar of his jacket to the side of his head. The white fur slowly turns red, while his scowl deepens with each step he takes. Cloud lifts an eyebrow at him, saving the last gulp of the potion bottle he holds to his lips. With a grunt the blond rises from the boneless heap where he's let himself drop to, once he's come back from his share of Heartless killing.
"Took you long enough," Cloud says quietly, trying his best not to breathe too hard or sway on his feet. He extends the potion to the gunblader, and if either of their hands is shaking as Leon grabs it, they keep if very much to themselves.
"Whatever," comes the grunted reply as Leon peels the bloody fur from brown hair. Cloud doesn't flinch, but his other eyebrow also climbs his forehead at the sight of Leon's ear torn by three gashes. Blood oozes from the top ones - from the ripped lobe where a simple silver hoop used to be worn, it pours.
"That's quite a close hit," Cloud comments, not even nearly scared at the stern glare he gets for it. It only becomes worse when he holds Leon's wrist as the other reaches to use the potion on his wound. "The claw caught on your earring, huh?"
"Little Shadow bastard took one lucky leap before it went," Leon offers his own brand of elaboration, but Cloud isn't one to complain. That's quite an accurate description, actually, for their standards. "Now if you would..."
Leon tries to tug his wrist free, but Cloud maintains his hold. He reaches for his own ear and one of his Fenrir replicas comes loose, resting in his palm for a second while he gives Leon a meaningful look. The brunet blinks twice before his frown deepens, but he shrugs in silent acquiescence.
The pin of the jewel is soaked in green fluid as Leon holds out the vial for Cloud, before it is taken to the hurt ear. If the gunblader lets the quietest of grunts escape as Cloud fits the earring to the right spot in the torn lobe, it's lost to the hiss of skin and scar tissue growing around silver with a touch of magic.
Cloud turns on his heels and begins walking away, while Leon applies the remaining potion on his other wounds. He has to discreetly use the buster sword as a walking cane to move - then again, Leon isn't doing much better without the stonewall.
He's too tired to think of why he's done that, let alone of why Leon accepted his unplanned helpfulness.
*
Fenrir means a lot to Cloud, as even the shallowest person can perceive by its recurrence as a theme in his closet. The emblem symbolizes his grief and the wounds never quite healed in his inner self - but it also reminds him of his strength, of his will, of never letting himself be chained and controlled by memory and guilt again. Fenrir tells him to be true.
Leon walks into the kitchen for breakfast, a well-known glint of silver by his left ear, and Cloud swallows his bite of toast as though it's become a ball of steel wool. It's unsettling, to say the least, to see his own mark sported by another - it feels as though somehow he's branded Leon, and the mere thought mangles his leftover conscience.
Ownership over a person - over that man in particular - doesn't interest Cloud at all.
The fact he knows he's being stupid unsurprisingly makes nothing better.
"G'morning," Leon grunts, sitting on the other side of the rather small kitchen. They're the only ones in it, Merlin and Aerith already up and about the house, the others yet to wake up. Yuffie will probably have to be physically removed from bed again. "Is there any coffee left?"
"Here," Cloud mumbles uninterestedly, reaching behind himself for the thermos and passing it forward. There isn't much coffee in it, if its loud sloshing says anything - Aerith's everlasting cheerfulness doesn't exist without appropriate fuel.
A nodded thanks, and they get back to paying attention to their respective meals. Silence punctuated by quiet slurping and munching reigns, and the feeling of being uncomfortable expands tenfold. Cloud's eyes dart over to the earring that Leon has been wearing for a week now, and at precisely that time the brunet searches his eyes.
He avoids Cloud's sight the following moment. "I'll give it back to you in a few days. The piercing hasn't healed yet, and it seems I've lost my other silver earrings," Leon says around his mug of coffee.
"It's alright," Cloud hates how choked that sounds, how immature and foolish it is to see himself projected in the jewelery. "I don't mind it."
He's also a liar, but that's not exactly news.
Leon nods again, and Cloud takes his leave still swallowing toast.
*
Thinking himself able to get used to seeing Fenrir resting on Leon's ear - a raging wolf hanging onto someone who should be made only of feline grace - is Cloud's biggest mistake. Time doesn't take away the awkwardness, and by the middle of the third week since he's given his mark away so thoughtlessly, he's constantly raked by a close relative of cabin fever. Not taking that burden away from Leon's form stirs a mute desperation, a sense of urgency that doesn't sit still, no matter how much rationale he uses to shut it up.
That earring looks too good on him for it to be right. That regret should be only Cloud's. That promised salvation, also.
Leon is coming down from the ceiling when Cloud finds him, probably fixing tiles dislodged by Merlin's experiments gone wrong. Radiant Garden's sun is merciless even as it dyes the sky in oranges and pinks with its descent - the gunblader has his hair bunched up to avoid sticking to his face, thanks to the sweat. Fenrir shines almost mockingly without the brunet frame.
"These are for you," Cloud offers simply, a pair of plain silver hoops in his outstretched hand.
Leon stops short, and it takes him awhile to form a slight suggestion of a smirk upon his face. Ever-so-slowly he removes Fenrir from his ear - then he takes a step forward, and two and three and he's in Cloud's personal space, holding the blond's earlobe carefully while he puts the earring back in its rightful place.
He steps back brushing a kiss to the corner of Cloud's lips, taking the offered earrings and walking off while the swordmaster stands shock-still. "I appreciate it. All of it."
Cloud grabs his wrist and pulls him back, slamming him to the external wall of headquarters. "If you think that's enough payment, you'd better think again," he purrs to Leon's ear - Leon's bare, burden-free, markless ear -, before he presses his whole body to the gunblader and kisses him properly.
Leon doesn't need his grief and shame and redemption. There's more of Cloud reserved to him.
-------
Thanks for reading! ^^~
X-Posted to otp_100 and leonxcloud.