Where the Heart is [Leon/Cloud, PG]
Title: Where the Heart is
Pairing: Leon/Cloud
Type: fluff and sweetness.
Rating: PG
Author's Note: Okay, this is entirely because I seriously love Laguna Loire. Sorry if you're an FFVIII nut like me and know this whole backstory, I hope it's charming and sweet anyway.
Dear Dad,
You've probably been waiting to hear this for a long time. I've been afraid for so long... and I've always thought I was afraid of you, but I know now that I was mostly afraid of myself.
You see, I left because I thought you'd be angry with me... and I don't know how you'll react anymore, since we haven't talked in years. But I think it's finally time you knew...
Dad, I'm gay. I like guys. I wasn't any more willing to accept it back then than you probably are now... but things change, and people change, and I think I've finally come to terms with myself.
I guess what I'm trying to say is... can I come home, to see you? And... if it's not too much trouble... I'd really like you to meet my boyfriend. He's the best person in the whole world and I know you'll love him, even if you can't acecpt us I want you to meet him.
Love,
Squall.
My dear son,
You always have a home with me. I'm not angry, I never would have been - but I think you know that now.
I knew you had to find yourself... but you're right. I've been waiting to hear from you, perhaps too eagerly. You know where the house is, and you're welcome at any time - and your boyfriend as well. Ellone will be so happy.
Much love,
Laguna.
Leon stopped at the door, his hand raised. It was nothing more than a walk across the city, but it had felt like an eternity.
Cloud stood a few paces behind him, silently supportive. Leon was grateful, for the thousandth time, that Cloud knew when to keep quiet. He treasured the silence.
Finally he knocked, shyly.
He heard a rather alarming crash from inside, then a peal of laughter that made his heart ache.
"I'll get it!" That voice was familiar as well - but subtly different. Older, he realized. "Hello-..." She trailed off, peering through the crack in the doorway.
Ellone had soft, quiet features and warm brown eyes... and she was a good several inches taller than Leon had last seen her. "...Squall?"
He nodded, unable to meet her eyes.
"Squall!" The door flung open, and she embraced him warmly. "I thought... well, I didn't really believe... it's just that..." Her distracted words were muffled by his shoulder.
He smiled a little, patted her back, trying to reassure her that it was okay. But then the other occupant of the house came into the room, and he felt time stop.
It was almost as if it had stopped, and he was sixteen and reckless and confused again, balking from imaginary disapproval in those eyes. His father barely looked any older - a few more gray hairs, a few more laugh lines - but the steady smile was still the same.
"Squall." It was greeting and a recognition in one.
Leon nodded. It was a name he'd thrown away with his past, all those eyars ago, and it would take getting used to. But he wasn't going to stop them calling him by the name he should be wearing proudly. "Dad..." He took a deep breath, then stepped aside. "I want you to meet Cloud."
"Cloud?" Laguna stepped forward and offered his hand to the reticent blond, who shook it firmly. "Thank you for coming here. You're always welcome, in the future."
"Thank you." Cloud's voice was even and precise, but his eyes darted around the room. So this was where Leon had grown up... this was who he'd left behind.
Laguna nodded, then drifted back into the kitchen, talking over his shoulder. "I'm making dinner if you're hungry... or thirsty... Oops!" Another crash came from the kitchen area. "Your room is still intact, I think. Probably kind of dusty, maybe I'll go clean it up while you eat..."
Leon followed him to the doorframe, then shook his head at the culinary mess. "Go check the room... I'll put together something edible."
Laguna pouted. "My cooking is perfectly edible!"
"Yes, but that's all it is!" Ellone peered around her brother and laughed. "Let Squall make dinner!"
"Fine, fine... I'm outnumbered." Again, he thought, but he didn't say it. "I'll go clean up your room."
Ellone found Cloud in the living room, staring intently at a picture in a frame on the mantle. "Youre very quiet," she observed.
Cloud didn't comment. He reached out a hand as if to brush the young man in the picture - then stopped, almost afraid.
"No, it's all right." Ellone took the picture off the mantle and studied it. "That's him, only a few months before he ran away." He wasn't much more than a kid, with shorter hair and a long, fur-collared jacket. "That's his girlfriend..." she trailed off. "Well, was. Her name was Rinoa."
"Hm." Cloud folded his arms and looked closer. They looked happy enough. "What happened?"
"He never told you?" Eloone looked up, surprised.
Cloud shook his head.
"Well... that's really his story to tell, not mine." She shrugged, then looked as Cloud's attention shifted to another picture.
"That's Mum and Dad, when they were engaged." The woman in the picture had long brown hair and a yellow headband. "She was a wonderful person, but she died giving birth to Squall, so he never knew her..."
The charming reverie was cut short by Laguna accidentally knocking over a side table as he came into the living room. "Ellone! I need help..."
She smiled. "Dust bunnies too much to handle?"
"That's an understatement!" Laughing, she joined her father in the task of cleaning out Squall's bedroom.
Which left Cloud to drift over into the kitchen, where Leon was working his culinary magic. He cast around for a good way to start the conversation.
"Just out with it." A quirky smile tugged at the corner of Leon's lips. "You were talking to Ellone, weren't you?"
Cloud nodded. "She said it was your story to tell... why you left." He looked up into Leon's eyes and bit his lip. "You've never told me..."
He nodded, slowly. "I guess... if anyone deserves to know it's you." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, it was really getting rather long. He should probably cut it soon. "Things have always been sort of rocky between Dad and I."
Cloud raised an eyebrow. It really didn't seem like that at all.
"See... he didn't know he had a son until I was twelve." Leon scowled. "I was raised in an orphanage, where I met Braig and Anya and all those wonderful people." He'd lost touch with most of the people he knew there. "But then he showed up again... said he'd been on a mission. Looking for Ellone." He jerked his head towards the other rooms. "I don't have any doubt that that's true, but..." he shrugged. "Our relationship didn't exactly start out on the best of grounds."
Cloud nodded. He was beginning to understand, little by little.
"And... well, I always thought that he was angry at me, which he wasn't, disapproved of everything I did, which he didn't, and..." Leon shrugged. "I thought that if he knew I was gay, he'd disown me. I used that excuse to myself for a long time... but," he grinned at Cloud, "quite clearly, I'm not straight. It's really that simple. I told Rinoa, and..." he rolled his eyes. "She was furious. I expected Laguna to be just as mad... and in my mind, it just got worse and worse, until..."
"You ran away." Cloud nodded, he knew most of the story from this point on.
"Pretty much, yeah." He laughed, thought it was a shaky kind of laugh. "I don't know why I was scared. I shouldn't've doubted him, ever. He's... a much better person than I am."
"Not true," Cloud muttered, looking down. With a furtive glance around to see that nobody was watching, he slipped an arm around Leon's waist and nuzzled his shoulder. "You're absolutely perfect."
"So says you," Leon murmured, smiling. "And, well..."
"You're home now?"
Cloud sprang away from Leon, looking rather guilty. Laguna chuckled.
"Don't mind me. No one's a stranger to affection here..." he grinned at Leon. "How's dinner coming along, son?"
"Working on it." Leon smiled in response. "I could use a little help."
"Really now?" Laguna chuckled gladly, and moved forward to hold a bowl. "You have no idea how happy I am to have you home."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "If it's anything close to how happy I am right now... then I think I might have some idea."