For the explanation on this thing... Read the A/N at the bottom. It's disclaimer time.

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own or have any right to the characters of Kingdom Hearts or the various Final Fantasies. They're not mine, you see. It's that simple. Me no own, you no sue.

...................................

Lucky Thirteen

'Disappearing Heroes'

"Hey, buddy, I'm checking out for the last time." Cloud leant against the counter in front of him, staring pointedly at the man behind it. ...The man who really didn't seem to notice his existence at that moment. Alrighty then. Cloud tried again.

"Mister, I wanna get out of here. Think we could hurry this up a little? You're wasting my time." Adjusting the spectacles perched on the tip of his large and rather bony nose, the elderly man finally peered over his newspaper at the blonde in front of him. Agitated blue eyes met his aging ones and once again a spidery hand crept up from the paper to push the small glasses up towards his eyes.

"Eh?" was all that came out of his mouth.

"My papers, buddy! I need 'em to get outta here!"

"Whatta makes you thinkee can do that?"

Slamming his hand on the counter, it was all Cloud could do to keep from snarling and ripping the old guy's throat out. What a big fat waste of his time this was! At this rate, he'd be caught before he'd even set foot out of the city. ...How embarrassing. So, trying to contain his anger and lower his voice, Cloud spat, "Listen. You know how it works. I got a year and a day to run away, or whatever crap it is. Just sign me out an' let 'em know, would ya?"

Eyes widening at Cloud's simple clarification, the aged man vanished for a moment behind a tower of papers. It was astonishing to Cloud how anyone could manage to spend their entire life in that horrid room doing that equally horrid job. Signing people out and in, watching people come and go, reviewing records, updating records, and always, always adding more.

Before he could continue his thoughts anymore, Cloud found himself once again within the presence of the small man who was yet again trying to get his glasses to sit properly on that nose of his. It'd probably been broken five times over by someone even more peeved than Cloud, so it was really a small wonder that anything could manage to sit on it.

"Hee-ya we are. Says... Ah, says: 'Cloud Stwife--'"

"Strife."

"'Cloud Stwife, age twenty, height a' five fewt six... Attempted escapeees... tweelve times?'" The man raised a skeptical eyebrow at Cloud, who simply glared icily in response. "Wahaha, well, thunteeth twy's deh charm, boy! Wahaha! A yeaw an' a day! Wahaha! Guh luck to ya, boy! Waha!" Dipping a long quill into a nearby inkwell, the man continued to howl with laughter as he added another mark to the tally Cloud currently had going beside his name before he tucked the bulging file in his hand away, pushing the battered spectacles up the bridge of his nose and turning back to the blonde.

"Wah-- Huh? Eh? 'Ellooo?" The room was already empty.

-------

Twelve times. Twelve times, Cloud had gotten the crazy idea in his head that he could escape. He was well aware of what everyone around him had been muttering about him. The crazy boy who couldn't even make it across the Omega River before he was caught and dragged back to work. Well damn. It wasn't like it was Cloud's goal in life, to escape and be caught time after time again. It was just stupid.

Now as he slipped through the streets of Destati, Cloud began wishing that it was his twelfth try. Or maybe the fourteenth. The thirteenth just oozed unluckiness and no doubt he'd be facing mass humiliation. Wonderful. Just wonderful. Like he honestly needed another failed attempt at freedom to add to his records. Most sane people gave the old escape routine one or two runs and then just flat out gave up, submitting themselves to a life of hard labor.

But not Cloud!

Destati was set up much like any other large hub in the center of the continent, quadrants divided by class and social stature. Hades was the man who practically ran the whole place, basically controlling an entire third of the population and driving them out into the orchards each morning to harvest, harvest, harvest. For the serfs there was no rest, but there was also no hardship. They never had to worry about taxes and they never had to worry about losing their job. They were cared for and watched after so long as they remained in Hades' service.

Well Cloud was just sick of harvesting some damn fruit for his entire life. Pulling the hood up on his cloak, he easily slipped into the shadows of back roads and narrow alleyways, making his way through the lower quadrants and slowly drawing ever closer to the city gates. Dusk was nearly upon Destati and Cloud was hoping that nightfall would bring a change in guard posts and enough cover to allow him to get over the wall with no problem.

Why scale the wall? Seeing as Cloud had already tried escaping through the ancient subway tunnels of Destati and had only ended up nearly freezing to death because he got lost, it made sense to try an escape without going underground. Walking right through the main gate didn't work, he'd found out rather quickly. Nor did crafting a machine that would supposedly fly him straight over the wall. No, that stupid thing just crashed into the bell tower and left Cloud with a broken arm and a broken ego for quite some time.

But this. This would be his last look at Destati. As Cloud finally reached the end of a long narrow alleyway, coming face to face with the towering bricks of the city wall, it was all he could do to crouch down in the shadows and watch the sky, waiting for the last traces of daylight to dwindle away. As always, the possibility of never having to pick another paopu fruit again and being able to do whatever he felt like whenever he felt like it... well, the whole thing itself nearly had Cloud shaking with excitement.

So when night finally chose that moment to descend over the sprawling city of Destati, Cloud was more than ready. Or at least... he really hoped so. Creeping out from his darkened corner, the blonde rounded the bend and quickly surveyed the area. No one in sight yet, for none of the local bars and watering holes had really started to get lively. Cloud knew that within the hour, the middle-class throng of citizens would be out and about, shopping, swearing, and swaggering to the nearest open joint available. So that didn't really leave him with much time to learn how to scale a wall, now did it?

With a determined nod, Cloud hurriedly swung his pack off his shoulder, rummaging around for a moment before finally pulling a long rope tied to a grapple that hopefully looked a lot cheaper than it really was. The wall itself wasn't terribly high, but it was a well-built structure with almost no nooks and crevices that might possibly give Cloud any support during his climb. So basically, assuming everything went as planned, Cloud would be up the rope and over the wall before anyone could spot him.

Cloud tried to ignore the rather unnerving fact that the grapple didn't seem to weigh all that much in his hand as he lifted it from its narrow base, swinging it slowly around once before releasing it into the air, setting the twisted piece of metal soaring ten feet above the ground.

Too bad the wall was twenty feet above that ground.

Clanging noisily against the sandstone wall, the stupid piece of equipment suddenly lost all force within it and plummeted once again earthward, causing poor Cloud to muffle his own yelp and wince as it contacted sharply with the ground. After deciding that the whole little mishap was entirely the grapple's fault, Cloud warily looked around to see if anyone had come to investigate the noise. Of course not. This was Destati after all.

After two more failed attempts, Cloud finally managed to get the grapple hooked over the top of the wall. Tugging hesitantly on the dangling rope and quickly deeming the little contraption strong enough, Cloud hauled himself up onto the rope and began to climb.

Years of climbing trees had given Cloud's arms plenty of strength, but as expected, the smooth wall did quite a number on him. Biting his bottom lip as stone scraped against his elbows and knees, Cloud continued to clamber up the side of the wall, hoping and praying that some random good-for-nothing guard or citizen wouldn't stumble upon his little escapade while he was almost there.

So close, so close... Come on, just a little farther... Four feet to go. Arms aching and hands burning, Cloud continued to cheer himself on mentally. Almost there! Just a bit more... Two feet! Just two feet away from the top of the wall and then--

And then...

And then...

That crappy excuse for a grapple broke.

With a violent jolt of the rope and the ear-piercing screech of bending and then breaking metal, Cloud quickly found himself whimpering pitifully as he dangled twenty feet above the ground, clinging desperately to the ledge of the wall as the rope fell past him. Already, his thirteenth attempt at escape was starting to show just how unlucky it could be. At this rate, I'll be dead before I'm free.

Almost as though on cue, a pair of guards turned onto the road, probably discussing their wives' terrible cooking skills or their kids' terrible manners. Whatever it was they'd been so eagerly talking about between themselves, it didn't really matter. Both of them spotted Cloud almost instantly as he clawed frantically at the wall, trying to find anything that would just allow him to pull himself over the wall and onto the other side.

"Heeey! You there! Whaddya think you're--"

"Paopu harvester, Reno. You know how desperate those scum are when they get the chance to escape. Hahaha! The only reason they got that dumbass rule is to keep us in shape. Come on!"

There!! His foot finally found a slight jag in the surface of the wall and Cloud immediately placed all his weight onto the foot that balanced against it as he swung himself up and over the wall at last before his exhausted arms finally gave way and allowed poor Cloud to topple easily down towards the ground on the other side of the city.

Through some foggy haze of pain and confusion, the realization that he'd made it over the wall hit Cloud abruptly and sent him staggering blindly to his feet. Those damn guards would be there any minute and Cloud knew for a fact that if they caught him, that was that. All he had going for him at that moment was the several minute head-start he had.

Without giving himself any more time to think it over, Cloud launched to his feet and set out. One of the slightly crazier parts of his brain must've figured that the more confusing of path he took, the less chance that any guard would be able to find him. So, stumbling through the underbrush of the forest and doing his best to ignore the fact that he was being about as quiet and inconspicuous as a stampeding herd of polka-dotted elephants, Cloud set off. The Omega River marked the end of Destati's boundaries, and if he could just manage to get across it...

If he could just do that, Cloud assured himself, he'd be set.

Blue eyes widened in panic as Cloud heard the crashing of others behind him, storming through the dense copse of trees in hot pursuit. Oh shit. Never before had Cloud been hit with such a sudden desire to just burst into tears and throw his metaphorical cards on the metaphorical table. Why couldn't he ever just experience at least a day of freedom? Why did he always have to--?

Cloud's mindless dash through the forest was instantly cut short as the forest floor simply vanished right out from underneath him. During the split second in which his body was pitched forward over thing air, Cloud was amused to find a flicker of laughter echoing in his mind. Really should watch that ground, Cloud. You don't watch it and it just runs away from you. Just. Like. That.

And just like that, Cloud's already worn and withered body hurtled headlong into the Omega River, icy cold water piercing him to the bone as his nose and ears were flooded in an onslaught of viscous water. Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen... The number giggled at him from the annoying spot right between his ears that Cloud just couldn't get at. Of all the stupid things... 'Just make it past the river. Then I'll be safe!' Past the river! Not into it!

Thankfully, the Omega River had never really lived up to its grand-sounding name and was really quite calm. Stretching far into the countryside, the river emptied... well... As Cloud bobbed in circles underwater, his lungs pathetically prodding his brain and politely requesting a bit of oxygen, he came to realize one little detail. In all his years serving under Hades, the only life he'd ever known... He'd never learned anything about geography. All he knew were names, up and down, and north, south, east, and west.

It took of all this a grand total of one minute to happen. During those sixty seconds, the two guards from earlier burst from the forest and skidded to a halt, looking around, absolutely baffled, for the spiky haired goon they'd chased down. Just where the hell had that kid run off to?!

"I swear I saw him take off this way! I swear it!"

"Yeah, yeah, you swear, you swear! Well I swear if we don't find his sorry ass, our sorry asses are gonna get kicked! Get a move on!"

Cloud resurfaced only a few moments later, quietly gulping in air greedily. The guards were leaving? Luck! That was absolute and sheer luck that they were simply too stupid to look in the river! ...Well, alright, maybe it was just luck that Cloud was stupid enough to fall in the river in the first place. But it didn't matter!

Unable to contain his joy, Cloud allowed a delighted grin to spread across his face, squeezing his eyes shut tight and thrusting a fist up into the air in victory. He'd done it! He'd actually done it! Now all he had to do was find somewhere to hide out for a year or so and he'd really be free. Free to do whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted to... Free to never have to look at another stupid star shaped fruit again. Just plain free. Cloud's favorite four letter word.

Raking a hand through dripping blond locks, Cloud glanced around in the darkness. Alrighty then. The hard part was practically over. Now that whole issue about geography popped up. Which way led to the ocean? Let's see... After thinking it over for a few moments, Cloud simply shrugged. Coast or inland... it didn't really make a difference. He was wanted now, a man on the run. It was a dog eat dog world. Live and let live, kill or be killed and all that crap. Cloud was on his own!

...However, the more he walked cautiously along the far bank of the river, the more Cloud began to question that. He had this unnerving feeling that he wasn't alone. Feather-light sparks of electricity shot up and down his arms and spine, his already frazzled nerves completely on edge, waiting for the slightest motion in the darkness, the slightest sound.

The countryside surrounding the somewhat isolated city of Destati was a tangled web of grassy fields, dense forests, and marshy lowlands, rivers and streams threading through the mass of it all. Even the most skilled journeymen would have absolute hell trying to make it through without getting turned in the wrong direction at least once due to a misleading patch of moss or a seemingly confused compass needle.

So naturally, Cloud was absolutely lost. And he hadn't even gone more than fifteen miles from the city itself.

Once again, that annoying feeling of despair began to creep up on Cloud as he warily continued to plod along the riverbank. That feeling mixed with the creepy notion that he was being watched or followed... Had Cloud not been so set on freedom, he probably would've turned back and tried to make his way to Destati once again. At least living as a serf he was safe. He wasn't happy, but he was safe.

Suddenly his senses were lit on fire, his brain going haywire and setting off warning signals, flares, smoke alarms, anything that would get Cloud's attention. Hands trembling violently, Cloud fumbled around from something he could use as a weapon. Something he could defend himself with, something he could strike out with... There was someone there...

No sooner had the hand descended on his shoulder did Cloud let out a surprised yelp, closing his hand around the nearest thing he could find that could fulfill the purpose Cloud needed it for. With one fluent and swift motion, Cloud wildly swung the hunk of driftwood around him, turning his body away from his attacker in the process and wincing as the wood met said attacker with a dull whack! There was a muffled groan and another thud as a body fell against the ground before Cloud found himself gawking at the heap at his feet.

"Oh... my... God... I killed him!" Eyes widening to roughly the size of large tea saucers, Cloud's gaze flickered back and forth between the body on the ground and the driftwood in his hand. It was the wood's fault! It made me do it! It was one thing to be running away as a serf, attempting to become a free man, but it was another thing all entirely to be running away as a murderer, responsible for the death of a total stranger.

Thanks to an overactive imagination, Cloud was now pleasantly haunted by images of himself years down the road, cleaving daggers through his victims' bodies, all just for a stale piece of bread or a gold coin or two. He'd be wanted across the entire continent and he'd no doubt have to flee the entire fucking kingdom. Cloud would probably end up killing the border guards too, for they'd recognize him right away and would try their best to uphold the law and keep Cloud The Menace from passing. Those poor guards... Their wives would be sitting at home, the night of their husbands' murders, rocking the baby in the cradle and wondering, "What could've happened to--"

And thankfully, Cloud's rampant mind was instantly cut off from its crazed wanderings by a stirring at the ground. No way! Running away, committing murder, and then raising the dead. What the hell sort of night was this turning out to be??

Before he could allow himself a second thought, Cloud blindly bent over, grabbing the poor man by the ankles and pulling with all his might, hauling the body further down the bank and into the icy water of the river. Panting heavily, Cloud gasped out, "I'm... sorry! Fuckfuckfuckfuck, I'm... so... fucking... sorry! Poor... bastard... Rest in peace! I never meant you ill will or anything, buddy!"

Another groan from below him and Cloud howled, leaping backwards away from the zombie-person and tumbling into the river, mouth gaping open as the scene unwound before him.

"You didn't mean me 'ill will?' The fuck are you talking about? You clobbered me with a damn branch." The figure sluggishly pulled itself into a sitting position, one hand reached upwards and rubbing tenderly at the shadowed face, drawing a hiss from the man. "You're lucky my nose isn't broken."

"Who the hell are you?!" Cloud intelligently blurted out.

"I could ask much the same of you." The man leaned forward from the darkness and a patch of moonlight gave Cloud his first decent glimpse of the man he'd thought he'd killed (and then, of course, promptly reincarnated or something). Steely blue eyes regarded him with an icy gaze, chunks of deep brown hair falling over the man's face haphazardly. Before Cloud was given much of a chance to both drink in the man's appearance and form a retort to his statement, the man decided to speak again, his words coming out slowly, but in a chopped manner, almost as though the man found the very idea of putting a sentence together awkward.

"Your eyes... You must be one of the paopu harvester's, I take it? The mako shows." Narrowing those cold eyes slightly, he continued unabashedly, the hacked flow of words now smoothing out into a threatening deep tone. "You must be very lucky to have made it this far, for you're certainly not any good. I could hear you coming from miles away."

Unable to keep himself from huffing slightly at the insulting statement, Cloud glowered at the man in front of him, folding his arms over his chest defiantly. Granted, one can only look so defiant when sprawled up to their waist in water, but Cloud was doing his best. "Listen pal, I never asked for your damn opinion or anything. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm the one who beamed you in the nose with a stick."

"I'm a bounty hunter, I'll have you know. I could easily march you right back to those fields before you even knew what hit you."

And just like that, whatever arrogant pride and dignity Cloud had been building for himself against this stranger was shattered like cheap glass. A... bounty hunter? Malificent's finest henchmen, really. If what Cloud was told was true, the few bounty hunters that still roamed the kingdom whored their elite skills off as mercenaries or for tracking down runaway serfs that nobles wanted to keep a tight leash on. And here Cloud was, mocking one of those skilled swordsmen about hitting him with a damn twig. Could he be any less classy if he possibly tried?

"Hey... I didn't mean it about the whole... wood thing. I was just surprised and--" Cloud was floundering and he knew it. He'd gotten so far... All just to run into a good for nothing bounty hunter, of all things. Why?

However, the man simply snorted and held up a hand, silencing Cloud without even having to speak a word in command. Well. Nothing like flaunting your power or anything. Studying Cloud calmly, the man shook his head slowly. "I'm not going to turn you in. Just shut up about it. I'm over with that business anyway."

Cloud couldn't decide whether he wanted to leap for joy or shout with happiness. He figured that the stoic man in front of him would probably object to both, and the last thing Cloud wanted to do at that moment was get on this guys' bad side. So, nodding his head slightly, Cloud simply let the silence hang there between the two for a minute or so. It was when Leon began to stand up that Cloud finally began clicking pieces together in his mind.

"Can I ask who you are?" Seeing that this question only prompted a skeptical look from the man now standing over him, Cloud hurried to elaborate. "I mean, your name. I know you're a bounty hunter and you know I'm a runaway serf. My name is Cloud, though..." There was hesitancy in the other man's response and Cloud picked up on it, instantly wondering if he'd really gone and said the wrong thing already, sealing his fate once again to be dragged back off to the paopu fields.

But after a moment or so, the man shrugged nonchalantly, hands coming to rest on his narrow hips as he allowed his cold gaze to drive into Cloud once more. "It's Leon." Short, quick, and to the point. Well alrighty then.

There was more silence, only broken by the din of crickets chirping in the night and the occasional burble that rose up from somewhere downriver as water pooled over rocks and tumbled down its way towards the ocean. It quickly became apparent to Cloud that Leon wasn't much for fueling conversation unless he was brutally bludgeoned into it with a random piece of driftwood. And almost as soon as this fact dawned on Cloud, another one tagged along in its footsteps, assuredly either a very good idea or a very foolish one.

"If you're not a bounty hunter anymore, what are you doing?"

"..." Again with that shrug.

So Cloud tried again, pushing the issue. "I mean, you're an ex-hunter, I'm an ex-harvester. We could... I dunno! It beats being alone, doesn't it?"

The gaze that fell upon Cloud then was even colder and harsher than before, Leon's voice laced with a harsh mocking bite. "No, not really. I enjoy being alone. You just don't want to get caught, that's all."

Water seeping in through his clothing and chilling Cloud to the bone was only worsening his mood. He didn't feel like sitting in some crummy river all night long and certainly didn't feel like wasting his time arguing with one of Queen Malificent's bitchy old puppets. But at the same time, Cloud just couldn't shake the feeling that if he let Leon walk away, something would just go terribly wrong.

Besides, traveling with a washed up bounty hunter would surely pay off. Leon knew how to fight and he'd definitely know how to keep Cloud away from the authorities that might chase after him should Hades decide that he was worth the trouble. And seeing as Hades seemed to enjoy making serfs' lives a living hell, he would not doubt ensure that Cloud was worth the trouble and was tracked down accordingly. In short, Leon's accompaniment would mean Cloud's easy ticket to freedom, no doubt about it.

"Yeah, you know, you're right. I don't want to get caught." Rather than wavering under Leon's ever intense stare, Cloud straightened his back and met the older man's eyes with his own, refusing to back down and let the whole thing drop. Whether or not there were unspoken words exchanged between the two, neither of them really knew. But somehow there was some arrangement that was agreed upon from that short staring contest and Leon stiffly turned around, waving his hand and gesturing for Cloud to follow.

"Alright then. You're doomed without me anyway."

"Gee, your confidence is just overwhelming."

Hauling himself up from the river, Cloud momentarily bent over to try and brush most of the water away from his clothes, failing miserably. He jogged to catch up with Leon, walking beside the taller man even though it seemed to annoy him somewhat. Yeah, well, who really cared.

Both men were silent as Leon led them away from the Omega River, Cloud not once turning to look back towards the opposite shore where Destati lay. That was behind him now and more than anything he was eager to just have that year trickle by to he wouldn't have to run and hide, so he wouldn't have to obey anyone else. ...Not to mention the fact that Cloud just didn't want to turn around and find a troop of guards following behind them. He really wouldn't have been totally surprised, he realized.

The sounds of the night drifted lazily through the forest, clinging to Leon and Cloud as they themselves moves silently onward, neither of them speaking for the longest time. Inwardly, Cloud found himself teeming with questions and words, all of which he wanted to spill the moment he got the chance. It always seemed that the people who never talked were the people with the best stories to tell, and Cloud oddly found himself wanting to hear Leon's tale.

Tucking his arms lazily behind his head as he continued to walk alongside the brunette, Cloud turned a quizzical look towards his guide, daring to break the silence. "So. When do we get to sleep?"

If Leon was annoyed, his voice didn't betray the emotion. "You're already tired?"

Reflexively, Cloud frowned, his voice becoming defensive. "Hey, you're not the one who was sneaking around the city, scaling walls, and running from guards all night. I think I have a right to be at least a little tired, ya know. Besides, don't you think it'd be safer anyway to walk around and be fully alert than to stumble around half aslee--?"

"I never said we couldn't rest. I asked if you were tired." Casting a sidelong glance towards his shorter blond companion, Leon smirked slightly, though the action went unnoticed in the dim light of the nighttime. "Obviously, you are."

Rather than dive head first into an argument with Leon, Cloud simply rolled his eyes and plodded along beside Leon for several more yards before Leon finally gave a small nod. Their short journey had brought them to a small clearing, a fallen tree laid out across the open patch of ground, roots jutting up into the air like scattered needles on a pincushion.

"Here is fine. We'll sleep for a few hours, but then we should keep moving. If there's more guards sent after you, it won't take them too long to scour this area." With no more said on the subject, Leon brushed past Cloud into the clearing, taking the liberty in making himself comfortable on the ground, leaning his back against the dead tree. After a moment or two, Cloud followed suit, plopping down beside Leon.

Too many questions. Can't sleep unless I get some of 'em off my chest.

"Hey, Leon?"

"Hn?"

"Why are you helping me?"

Leon made no move to respond other than to lift one shoulder in a half shrug, his eyes drawn closed to the world and Leon himself apparently not caring enough to open them once more.

Allowing his mind to chew it over a moment, Cloud once again continued his idle and practically-one-sided conversation.

"Do I remind you of some shady figure from your past?"

"No."

"Oh. Did you do something terribly wrong to a serf once and feel you gotta make it up to them one way or another?"

"No."

"Hm. Do--"

"Cloud." The piercing and no-nonsense tone Leon quickly picked up easily caused the younger man to shut up and give Leon his attention. It still slightly bothered Cloud how Leon seemed to have that weird... authority hanging about him. "I'm just doing it because I'm doing it. Leave it alone."

Bowing his head slightly, Cloud felt the sudden need to study the ground rather intensely. Naturally, he wanted to pry deeper into Leon's mind and wanted to hurl all these questions towards the other man, but it was obvious that Leon wasn't much of a talker. Particularly at this moment in time when he seemed to be trying to sleep. Or rest. Or whatever. Frankly, Cloud couldn't see anyone getting much shut-eye while propped up against the dead trunk of a tree. But then again, Cloud also hadn't the foggiest idea as to why the hell Leon was there with him in the first place.

Eh. Who really cares?

"Hey, can I ask you one more question?" Cloud inquired, turning his head slightly to get a better look a Leon. The clearing they sat in allowed more moonlight to filter through into the forest and Cloud noticed a thin scar tracing it way from Leon's brow to the side of his face, an angry red line standing out against his pale complexion. Though the glimpse had only caused more questions to surface, Cloud put a lid on them firmly. It was a nasty scar and had probably hurt like a bitch with Leon got it. No sense in reopening old wounds, so to speak.

"What," Leon mumbled in a flat voice. He really didn't care for the whole idle chat thing. Come to think of it, he really didn't care for talking all that much in the first place. Leon could really seem to understand how on earth the blond could miss that fact, but he obviously had. Oh well.

"You were... Ya know. If you were a bounty hunter and all, you were sort of in the inner circle with the queen and all, right?" Cloud plucked a cool blade of grass from the ground, weaving it in and around between his fingertips as his mind worked to piece together his thoughts. "She was the one who issued the whole order for the paopu fruit harvesting and everything. But it's not like anyone eats the fruit. Where do they all go?"

"Where does what all go?"

Cloud heaved a small sigh impatiently, the thing blade of grass straining under the pressure he put it under, threading and rethreading it in between his slender fingers. "The fruits. Where do they all go? What, does she have a personal collection of 'em or something?" The idea in itself caused Cloud to snicker lightly and release the grass, allowing its bent and withered form to float back down to the earth.

"It's nothing you have to concern yourself with," Leon stated simply. His eyes were open then, though Cloud had just noticed. Stormy gray eyes now focused on the vast expanse of sky above them both, though only a small patch of it was really visible due to the thick forest surrounding the little clearing. Back in Destati, Cloud noticed, the lights would've blotted out many of the stars. Out there though... Sheesh, I never realized there were so many of them.

"And what about you?" Leon asked. Cloud was mildly surprised that the other man had actually picked up a thread from the fallen conversation, though he did his best not to show it. "Picking paopu fruit just getting old or what is it? Why are you going to all this trouble? Just so you can walk around and say that no one is your master or something? Seems like a waste."

"Are you crazy?! You don't know what it's like! Day in and day out, it's the same thing all the time. And you never get a chance to just hang around or go somewhere. You have to have a purpose and you have to have permission..." Cloud trailed off, knowing he was sounding lame. It was just difficult to really convey the whole thing to someone else. Guess I never really tried to do it before.

"I mean... You're under protection and everything. And you can have a family. But they're bound to the stupid serf bloodline then and you have to live knowing your little kid's gonna end up wasting his life away harvesting some stupid fruit that no one even eats." Cloud's previous cheerful mood had faded away, leaving a rather bitter attitude that he didn't even bother trying to cover up. "You've got artists and writers, brilliant singers, dancers, thinkers, and they're all wasted because they're supposed to pick paopu fruits for the rest of their lives."

The little clearing fell silent then, Cloud finding himself unwilling to want to say much more. He couldn't tell what Leon thought on the whole matter for the brunette's gaze was still focused on the sky above. Had Cloud not expected that Leon was the type of person who picked up every little detail of everything around him, he would've guessed that Leon hadn't even been listening to him at all.

But finally, after the minutes of silence that seemed to drag on like hours for Cloud, Leon's voice drifted over towards his ears, sounding oddly far away even though Cloud only sat two or three feet away from the other man.

"So you're running away for a year and a day, playing right into this whole little game they've got set up, hm?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Cloud instantly regretted his slight outburst no sooner had the words flew out of his mouth, but it was too late to take them back then. Once again, a thin veil of quiet settled over the clearing, though this one was different for the last. Cloud was waiting, patiently as possible, for his new companion to say something. It looked, however, like Leon was more focused on the stars.

"I don't remember the legend behind that fruit."

Cloud scoffed and draped his arms over the top of the tree trunk, allowing his own gaze to drifty lazily skyward, traveling from star to start as he skimmed briefly over the corny story he'd been hearing since childhood. It was one of those ridiculous little things that Cloud figured was invented to make the serf kids feel like they were doing an important job or something. It only took a few years for the magic of the story to wear off, but even Cloud wouldn't deny that he'd once believed in the little tale just like everyone else.

"Each star in the sky represents a sort of... 'ideal' pair of people. When those two meet here on earth, their star falls from the sky and comes down to the ground in the shape of the paopu. Once two people realize how deep their feelings run for each other or something, then they go share the fruit. Sharing it with someone makes your destinies merge. Some crazy thing like that." Cloud glanced over at Leon to see if the older man was laughing yet. Nope. Still intently star-gazing. "They stay a part of each other's lives forever after that."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Do you believe it?"

"The legend? Hah! No way. It's just a stupid story made up to pacify a bunch of kids." Cloud frowned slightly at the sky, staring at the stars in an almost patronizing way. "Besides. There's no one sharing the paopu fruits or anything. All the fruit is harvested and taken somewhere," Cloud said, obviously hinting at the fact that he still wanted to know what was going on with the fruit. Either Leon was very oblivious and didn't pick up the hint or he simply chose not to care. Cloud had the sneaking suspicion it was the latter of the two.

"So what about you, Leon?" Cloud removed his arms from the tree trunk, resting his elbows on his thighs as he leaned forward, trying to get a good look at Leon's face in the dim light. "What's your story? How come you gave up the whole bounty hunter thing?"

Well that certainly did it. Leon tore his gaze swiftly away from the sky, fixing Cloud with another stony look which clearly stated, "None of your damn business." Cloud simply blinked calmly back at Leon, but didn't press the topic any further than that. He simply didn't want to cower under some stupid look Leon through at him, even though it was enough to stop the heart mid-beat. Bounty hunter or not, it didn't matter now. The way Cloud saw it, they were working together. ...Of course, Cloud really didn't quite understand how he was doing much to help the situation or anything, but still. Leon and Cloud were (for the moment, at any rate) a team.

Leon must have understood Cloud's thinking, though whether he agreed with it or not... who knew. He simply turned away from Cloud, once again closing his eyes to the rest of the world and leaning up against the old tree. A tiny whisper of a sigh brushed past his lips before he muttered, "Go to sleep. We're heading to Djose in a few hours."

Cloud obeyed and was asleep several minutes later. What could he say? He was still used to following orders.

-------

Miles and miles away, Rinoa Heartily grinned merrily, adjusting the focus on her telescope while still managing to juggle the thick sheaf of papers balanced in her lap. Just as she'd expected, the night was absolutely perfect for stargazing. She'd just managed to make it back home a few hours ago thanks to a hypello and his spare shoopuf. And sure enough, it looked like more things were about to pan out just as she'd expected too.

Leafing through the papers quickly, Rinoa flipped past star chart after star chart, her eyes scanning intently over the mapped constellations and reading through the tiny labels in the corner of each page. Normally, she never had patience for this sort of thing. As it was, she was already tapping her foot incessantly against the stone floor of the small balcony, trying to ignore the nagging feeling she got whenever she had to sit still for prolonged period of time.

But she figured it was the least she could do, after all. Besides, Rinoa had simply taken a little... special interest in this one particular project Aerith had drawn up.

Scanning the page in front of her quickly, Rinoa switched her focus back up towards the sky, trying desperately to pin the stars drawn on the page to the stars hanging in the sky. Really, the two looked nothing alike to her, but obviously all this junk must've made sense to Aerith.

So, choosing the star from the map that she hoped was the right was, Rinoa brought the telescope lens in to focus on the one star, zooming in closer, closer, and closer until the brilliant little light almost took up half of the lens on the powerful instrument. Peering intently through the scope, Rinoa couldn't help but pout slightly. How was she supposed to know if this was the right one? What if she spent all this time and she was really just watching the wrong one?

And suddenly the star seemed to swell to twice its size before simply vanishing from the view in the telescope, causing poor Rinoa to let out an exasperated sigh and whack her forehead with her palm dejectedly, feeling rather stupid for even having tried the whole thing in the first place.

Hey, wait a second...

Sure enough, a streak of silver light was just finishing it path across the sky before disappearing from Rinoa's sight once again, this time for good. But instead of sulking and pouting and whining like she normally would have, Rinoa found herself smiling even more brilliantly than she had when she'd first hauled the telescope out onto the balcony in the first place, towing Aerith's mountains of notes along with her.

"Who did you meet tonight, Squall?" Rinoa asked the air, absentmindedly wondering if her question could carry back across the miles to the one it was really directed towards. No, of course not. That was silly. It sounded like some sort of stupid childish hope, didn't it?

.....................................................

Read it? Like it? Hate it? Whatever. Review, please. I'd love to get feedback from you, as always. XD

And before you panic or think I'm a horrible person who is deserting her other fics... uh... well... don't. I have a schedule (more or less) posted in my livejournal. If you'd like to know what fics I'm wrapping up when, well, that's the place to go. You'll also get a bit more of an explanation on the Lucky Thirteen situation. But if you don't want to go to the livejournal or anything, I can sum it up for you right here.

Other fics: finished very soon.

This fic: the recycled and seriously revamped plot of an old fic, bigger and better and hopefully... Well, I don't know. You tell me.

--Ori