The suit was uncomfortable, he itched all over, and 'ridiculous' didn't even begin to cover how stupid he felt, but Aerith had insisted. Cloud had decided it was smarter to appease the normally peaceful brunette woman than to refuse the outfit she'd spent hours making. He'd thought at the time that at least he wouldn't be alone in his suffering, but apparently he was wrong. Cid had outright refused, no matter what kind of pleading eyes the girls had thrown him, so he stood around the newly refurbished and now heavily decorated town hall in his regular, everyday clothing. Merlin got to wear "ceremonial robes," which basically looked like a cleaner version of his normal robes, because Merlin was a wizard, and apparently pants are against the basic wizarding code. Sora, who had arrived earlier that evening with Riku and Kairi in tow, had been ecstatic about the prospect of formal wear. Riku was aggravatingly comfortable with wearing anything, as long as Sora was happy. Cloud had questionable thoughts regarding the relationship between those two, not that he would say anything about it.

The most infuriating of all, though, was Squall Leonhart, currently leaning against the wall with a drink in his hand, looking as though this whole party thing wasn't even happening around him. Not only did Leon not look the least bit uncomfortable, he looked good. It had taken every ounce of self-restraint left in Cloud not to rush over and jump the man, partly because it was a very un-Cloud-like thing to do, and partly because he wasn't sure how the older man would react. Beating heartless to a pulp after the abruptly terminated dance lesson had allowed him time to think, and he had come to accept that he actually possessed feelings for Leon, however shocking that may have been to his system. This, by no means, meant that he was ready to do anything about it, though.

Squall was bored. Really bored. He was so bored, in fact, that he started to run a list in his head of the top 100 things he'd rather be doing. To emphasize how much he'd really rather not be here, many of the items in his list had the name 'Yuffie' attached to them in some way or another. Considering how easily the young ninja girl could annoy him, she was a good indicator for how much he didn't want to do something. The last item he'd come up with was that he would rather be learning how to make a daisy chain from Yuffie than be here at the party; this was number forty-two. However, as Leon moved closer to the top thing he'd rather be doing, he found that more and more the name 'Yuffie' was replaced by 'Cloud,' and the items listed gave him a sense of anticipation rather than dread.

Swearing softly to himself, Leon shook his head almost imperceptibly and took a swig of his drink. Aerith had insisted on pure fruit punch, since Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Yuffie were all minors, but Shiva, was Leon wishing there was something stronger in it. He needed to stop thinking of the blond man as anything more than a co-worker and battle companion, since obviously nothing would ever happen. To distract himself, he took to studying the other people in the room, noting the joy apparent on most of their faces.

Aerith looked positively ethereal as she fluttered back and forth between guests, decorations and food, trying to make sure everything for the celebration was absolutely perfect; it was a wonder that the floaty, gauzy layer of her pink dress never caught and tore on anything. Standing together slightly off to the side, Yuffie and Tifa could have been mistaken for sisters in similar black ensembles. Sora was dancing about wildly, dragging along an enthusiastic Kairi and a grudging, albeit slightly smirking, Riku. At one point, the gang of teens nearly took out Cid, who had to visibly restrain himself from swearing at them, since they had interrupted his deeply important debate with Merlin about the superiority of technology (particularly of the gummi variety) to magic. The king had found time in his schedule to attend the party, and was currently dancing with the ever-pleasant Queen Minnie. Nearby, Donald and Daisy were doing the same, as were Goofy and Clarabell. Wedge and Biggs, two of the town's shop owners, were semi-drunkenly relating to a small crowd of civilians a tale of the two of them piloting gummi ships in some big fight against a colossal spherical gummi ship that had obviously never happened; Leon wondered briefly if they would consider sharing the alcohol they had apparently smuggled in.

His attention was pulled back to the dance floor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who were providing the party with music, struck up a slower, familiar tune: a waltz. Leon watched as Aerith sought out Cloud and asked him to join her for a dance, to which the blond reluctantly agreed. He would carry it to his grave for the sake of his stoic reputation, but as he watch Cloud carefully place his hand on Aerith's waist, Leon suddenly found himself very, very jealous.

He kept stepping on her toes, and Cloud was sure at this point that Aerith would never believe that Leon had actually taught him to dance. He knew that she had mostly asked him to dance purely out of friendship, but the paranoid section of his brain said that she was testing him, making sure that he had in fact learned something vaguely resembling ballroom steps. The problem came when the part of him that was trying to avoid being skinned alive joined forces with the part of him that liked to stare at a certain brunet man's assets. He sighed, deep and heavy.

"Hang on, Aerith," he said, stopping their dance. "Let me prove I can dance without sending you to a healer." Cloud turned toward the brunet, who had yet to move from the wall, and extended his hand. "Leon, a little help here?"

Leon nearly choked on his punch, and Cloud felt a tiny bit of guilt for putting the man on the spot like that, but it needed to be done to save both their hides. "You want me to dance with you? Here?" the older man asked, a dark eyebrow raised in slight disbelief.

Cloud blinked twice rapidly, his eyes shifting to the side briefly before returning to their focus on the other man. "Yes. Yes, I do."

Before he knew what was happening, Leon heard himself responding with a half-hearted, "whatever," felt himself shrug, push away from the wall and set his mostly-empty cup down on the nearest flat surface. He stalked forward, not touching or even looking at Cloud until they were in the midst of the other dancers. "You're the girl, though," he stated, reaching confidently for Cloud's waist despite the turmoil his long-unused emotions were currently experiencing.

"I think that may be my problem," the blond grumbled, stumbling slightly as Leon began to step without warning. "You taught me to dance like a girl, and now I can't lead to save my life."

Leon could only grunt in response to Cloud's comment as he began to get lost in the dance. He wasn't thinking about the steps he took, nor the way his grip unconsciously tightened on his younger partner's hand, nor the way the other guests in the room slowed to watch them as their dance became more fluid, more natural. Leon's thoughts were on one thing and one thing alone as he looked at his dance partner: he was a lost cause, absolutely, hopelessly infatuated with Cloud Strife.

Cloud tried not to stare, he really did, but with the object of his affections at such close proximity, it was hard not to gaze into the commonly expressionless face. Though the stormy grey eyes had settled on him, Cloud could tell that Leon's thoughts were elsewhere. He was so busy trying to guess what the older man was thinking that he wasn't prepared for what happened next. There was a distinct feeling of déjà vu as Leon tried to lead Cloud through a turn and he stumbled, careening towards the floor of the room. Again he found himself saved from a face-plant by the brunet, but when the man didn't jump away immediately like last time, Cloud looked up from his view of Leon's chest. Clear, focused eyes searched the blond's face, but for what Cloud had no idea. The brunet seemed to find something, however, because before he knew it there were lips moving softly against his own.

As Leon pulled away from Cloud slowly, a soft smile on his face, he was struck with a very important thought: Oh Shiva, I'm going to die.

Watching the brunet man turn and walk away, Cloud stood motionless for a moment before throwing back his shoulders and following him, oblivious to the whispers that filled in the gap he left behind.

"Leon," called a determined tenor voice toward the tall shadow silhouetted in the opening of the Bailey. Cloud moved to the brunet's side, the two men not looking at one another, but instead taking in the clear night sky over the Radiant Garden skyline. "Care to explain?"

"Not really."

"Are you sure? Because I'd really like one."

"Whatever."

Cloud was angry now. "No, not 'whatever.' You don't kiss people and then just brush it off. I want to know what the hell happened back there, and why you're mad at me for it."

Leon sighed. They really needed to stop coming here; the place seemed to add fuel to their already short tempers, causing them to fight. "I'm not mad at you, I'm just taking it out on you. I'm mad at myself. That shouldn't have happened, and … I'm sorry…" He hated apologizing, it put a huge dent in his pride, but it needed to be done.

"But why did it happen?" Cloud glanced over at his older companion, his attention caught by the fingers tapping incessantly against the man's leg.

"I… I don't know." The fingers that had been tapping moved up to massage between his eyes, distorting the scar. "I could probably count the times I've let my emotions take over like that on one hand. I just… I really don't know."

The blond's head shot up. "Emotion?"

"You probably didn't know I possessed those, right?"

"No, it's not… I mean, I…" He sighed. "I didn't follow you out here because I hated it."

Slowly, Cloud reached for Leon's hand, both of them startled at the feel of contact uninhibited by leather gloves. Neither of them had come out and actually admitted specific feelings for the other, but they seemed to understand what they couldn't bring themselves to say. To anyone else, it may have seemed a strange way to begin a relationship, but it suited Cloud and Leon just fine.

In the town hall, Yuffie's hand was extended to the other female Radiant Garden residents. "Pay up, ladies. I so called that one!"

While Aerith smiled and handed over the bit of munny she'd bet, Tifa wasn't quite as forthcoming. "Not yet, hun. If they come out of the same door in the morning, my munny stays with me."

End Notes: I finished it! …Shush, all of you. It was going to happen eventually; you can all get off the floor from shock now. Thanks to all the people who reviewed the first part, especially dareetel, who pointed out that I had the ages of our two favorite men reversed. And

And that's the end of it, folks. I've got a companion Sora/Riku story to this that I'll probably start work on soon, but this story itself is done like dinner. Yesterday's dinner. Yesterday's dinner that's been left out to get really dry, and then the cat got up onto the counter and started eating it…. You get the point.

I totally give credit for the Top 100 list to my friends, who had us all making them back in high school when we were really bored in class. I still have mine somewhere.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Much love!

Aindel