Disclaimer: Don't own nothing but the plot.

Warning: Er, none really now that I think about it. Photojournal is going to be a collection of short Rambles (See author's note at the bottom) on how Leon and Cloud's relationship grew before the event's in Snapshots. It might not be in order, but when I finish the collection, I'll try to put them in order for you, okay?

Ramble #1

Characters: Cloud, Leon
Story world: Snapshots
Synopsis: Cloud dealing with his Insomnia

Click...

Click...

Ghostly light flickered weakly through the tiny, darkened living room from a dying ten year old television set with a fifteen inch screen. The image was dim and the sound faded in and out, but it was kept on mute most of the time nowadays.

Click...

The picture was blurred and would fizz out into snow for minutes at a time, but it served its purpose for the young blonde man sitting wrapped in a worn, old gray comforter before it. He wasn't really even watching it, and flicking through the channels just gave him something to do. Like many nights before this, the young man sat on his couch, curled up tightly, just watching the lights flicker.

Click...

Click...

Riiiiiiing

"Huh?"

Riiiiiiing

"Who could be calling me at this hour?"

Brows furrowed in confusion, the young man reached back behind him for his slim black cell phone, sliding it open before putting it to his ear without even bothering to check the id to see who it is. It didn't matter who it was. A call was a nice distraction from the monotonous clicking that had been his only entertainment for the past few nights.

"Hello?"

"…the hell? Why are you still up, Cloud?"

A soft exasperated sigh escaped Cloud at the question, but he couldn't be angry at the question or even how it was worded. He did want to be angry, but that was probably because he hadn't been able to get any sleep so he was frustrated and irritable and justifiably so. "Why are you calling me at four in the morning, Leon?"

It was silent on the other line for a moment or two and then, "My plane leaves in an hour. I wanted to leave you a message..." Leon's voice sounded a bit awkward, as if he hadn't a clue on what to say now, but Cloud didn't care. Despite how he felt, he was happy for the interruption. Leon wasn't one for talking, and he had known it two weeks ago when they had started dating, but he really didn't care about that right now. He wanted to keep hearing his voice. Nights were long when he couldn't sleep.

"Oh, for that photo shoot in Virginia? Good luck with that. Call me when you arrive, okay?"

Leon was silent again for a long moment, and Cloud could practically hear the gears turning in his boyfriend's head as he struggled to find something to say. Leon always did hate phones. He probably had been hoping for Cloud's voicemail so he could leave the quick message that he had already prepared in his head. Cloud picking up had to have thrown him off, and he hated being thrown off. But Cloud was quickly learning that just giving him the chance to think was enough for him to reach his comfort zones.

"You should take something. It isn't good for you to miss so much sleep."

Though Leon's voice sounded heavy with concern, Cloud felt that irritation from a minute ago worsen, and he squeezed the phone tighter, taking in a breath to attempt and calm down. Leon did not deserve an angry outburst, he was only being concerned. But Cloud couldn't help the angry helplessness he felt at the situation. He had taken something. He always takes something. Tea, warm milk, hot baths, pills, cough syrup, alcohol—anything virtually guaranteed to cause drowsiness.

"I did." Cloud's voice was tight, and it was just so hard to not snap at Leon who had done nothing wrong. But he was exhausted, and wired, muscles tensed and his mind working a million miles a second—on worries, fears, the thousands of concerns he had worked up through the years... They all would work on his body and mind, dragging him with them and keeping him just out of reach of Morpheus's embrace.

"..." Leon heard the frustration and anger in Cloud's voice, but had no idea what to do— what to say—make all of this better. He wanted to help Cloud, hated what his boyfriend was going through, but…he was tired to, and not used to dealing with people. "I'm sorry. ...My taxi's here. I'll call you later when I touch down."

"Okay." Cloud couldn't even trust his voice to say more than that.

"At least try to sleep, okay? Talk to you soon." There was a silent beep, and Cloud pressed 'end' on his phone and set it down next to him on the couch, staring down at it for a moment. 'Try to get some sleep'? The very suggestion just pissed Cloud off more. What had he been doing when he tried every 'cure' he could think of and was suggested to him if not trying to get some sleep? This wasn't something he could switch off, unfortunately. It wouldn't go away if he willed it to. There was no miracle cure. He couldn't just lay down and have sleep come to him. It just didn't work like that. So night after night, he would sit in front of his dying television and watch its light flicker through the room and try to make out the picture.

After a moment, Cloud turned his attention away from the phone lying next to him on his couch.

Click...

Click...

Author's nonsense:

Hello again, long time no see, huh? Yeah, it really has been a long time. I've been through some stuff, and while that's not much of an excuse because I'm not willing to go into all that here, that's all I have to offer.

But what I am trying to do is get back into writing, so I have taken to doing rambles to help me out. What is a ramble? Well it's shorter than a short story, longer than a drabble, and can have little in the way of plot. I have decided to do a bunch of them on Snapshot's Leon and Cloud since I really like them, and that's the first fic I felt I did really well on. The hope is that I get some of my confidence back so I can continue my other fics. Go ahead and review if you like, I'm not even sure I like this one, and I wrote it a while ago. Whelp, I'll see about writing the next one tomorrow. For anyone who wants to leave suggestions, go on ahead and leave them in a review or email. You can find my email in my profile. Ciao everyone.