A/N:

Disclaimer – All Kingdom Hearts and/or Final Fantasy characters, places, and/or events belong to their proper copyright holders. I am not one of them.

WishingDreamer5's challenge has been brought to you by Melodious-Nocturne3. All drabbles take place in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden.

[ update 01/13/15 - heck, I'm so bad at writing in a timely manner... main point being, a lot of these are old (over a year in some cases) and therefore lower quality than what I'd like, ahahah. ;u; So just as a warning: a lot of these you're about to read (the earlier, the more applicable) are, uh, not so hot. Blame it on the huge time gap between now and when I started. The latest ones are currently my best, probably. ]

His beloved home, now covered in ink-black blobs that consumed everything and everyone in its path.

Or at least, that's what he imagined was happening. The young teen could see the waves of destruction in his mind's eye, crashing like a tsunami against the shores of his world.

His world.

The sixteen-year-old was born here, raised from childhood here… Found his first love here.

He was not going to let go of this place.

Even as he tore his father's old Gunblade from its mantle, he decided he was not going to go down easy. Oh, he knew he was probably going to die. But he swore to himself he would die while bringing even more down with him. That he would destroy hundreds before he finally took that last breath, despite that sheer numbers would continually replace one with two.

Unfortunately, what he told himself now wasn't much more than a fantasy.

He had little experience in using a sword. The teen had started taking lessons from a man in town, but only recently; it took muscles to wield a sword fit for fighting, after all, and he had regrettably grown into them just a year ago. Even worse was that his teacher hadn't started with actual technique until he could hold a sword horizontally for thirty minutes without trembling. It took him over a month to manage that feat.

Fighting would've been suicide.

Luckily, he was in the right place at the right time and an old pilot who had a special ship and a foul mouth saved his life.

He, a little girl who was only a child, and another girl about his age he recognized as a helper from the local flower shop managed to escape to another world with the old pilot as his home collapsed behind them.

. . .

Leon tugged on the end of his jacket uncomfortably at the direction his thoughts had taken him. They weren't enjoyable, even though he had returned home. Some wounds still left scars.

He looked down at Aerith, who was patting down dark earth around a bunch of flowers she had just planted at her knees. She didn't seem to mind that both her hands and her dress were getting dirty.

Seeming to sense that he was watching her, she turned to look at him. As always, Leon was struck by how her green eyes seemed to have that knowing glint in them - as if Aerith could see everything.

There was a smile. "Even for you, this is quiet. Thinking about something?"

Leon grunted noncommittally before shifting to a slightly different topic. "The changes we've made… Sometimes it feels like we'll never restore this world to its former glory." He gestured at the area around them.

They were on the top of one of the old watchtowers, where much of both the town and the surrounding wastelands were visible. Several recently created flowerbeds remained empty close by; Aerith had just started her planting here.

The young woman continued to smile, as if she knew what Leon had done, and returned to her work. "It doesn't need to be just like before. Hopefully, the restoration will only make it better."

The corners of Leon's mouth upturned a little at these words as he watched Aerith start on another pot of flowers.

Total word content (of drabble itself): 597

Almost over the limit. *whistles in relief*