Title: Charades

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts (post kingdom hearts 1)

Characters: Cloud and Leon, mentions of Aerith and Cid

Rating: G

Prompt given by dazedpuckbunny and thus, dedicated to her :D



Cloud had been actively exploring Hollow Bastion for roughly a week, taking full advantage of his recently recovered health. He had physically been in the “city” for longer than that, but he wasn’t conscious for it. The first face he had seen when he came to was Aerith’s smiling one, and he was briefly comforted by her sparkling green eyes and warm smile before it was utterly shattered by Cid’s ugly mug demanding how the hell he planned to cut anything with his sword wrapped in bandages.

He shuddered slightly at the memory; it was jarring to be comforted and scarred within seconds. Aerith quickly apologized, but Cloud could barely hear her over the sound of Leon’s laughter.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” she had asked.

Cloud closed his eyes briefly, his chapped lips curling into a frown. “Coliseum. I was called there by Him.”

“Him?”

Cloud shook his head. He didn’t want to tell them about Sephiroth. His body ached as he recalled brief glimpses of their fight.

Sephiroth was still too much for him.

He was too weak.

He’s always too weak.

Leon shared a look with Aerith, who nodded quietly. They didn’t want to tell Cloud that they had heard him mumbling Sephiroth’s name during fitful bouts of sleep.

Gripping the handle of his cleaned and upgraded Buster Sword, Cloud practically stalked past Hollow Bastion’s “city” limits, where the “Restoration Committee” worked to keep the Heartless at bay. Stopping abruptly, Cloud noticed immediately that there was a strange calm in the area.

“What the hell,” he muttered. He had come to this area specifically because it was so dense with Heartless. “What’s going on here…”

A slight tug to his pant leg provided the answer. A little white mushroom with a red cap and a heartless brand on its white sweater was standing beside him and once it had his attention, started to fan itself.

“…?” Cloud shook his head and turned to leave, but found his path blocked by two more of white mushrooms, but one was shivering and the other had a darkened ray of light above its head. “I’m out of here.”

Unfortunately for Cloud, his presence alerted the other mushrooms in the area and soon he was surrounded by an impressive number of white mushrooms that were either shivering, looking depressed, or fanning themselves. Cloud suddenly found himself wondering if the Heartless had cults.

“This is ridiculous,” Cloud muttered and readied his sword, easily calculating he could take out the lot of them with two swings at the most. Raising it up to about chest level, Cloud held it out as he eased into an offensive stance, ignoring the stiff pain in his body that was still slowly easing itself out. The wide, flat blade turned slightly with a slight turn of his wrist, the glint giving Cloud the go ahead --

“Cloud!”

Pausing in mid-slash, Cloud turned his head and saw Leon jogging up, hand held out. The older man’s eyes were wide with shock, but also relief that he had gotten there in time. “What?”

Leon slowed to a stop, and straightened up. “They’re not harmful.”

“They’re Heartless,” Cloud replied coolly, expecting that to be the end of it. “They’re surrounding me to attack.”

He was surprised to see Leon crack a smile. “No, they’re trying to get you to help.”

Cloud blinked slowly, and glanced at the bizarre circle of white mushrooms that were still miming shivers, sadness, and fever. “…are you serious?”

“As a heart attack,” Leon nodded. “Aerith and I discovered this when we first arrived after Sora defeated Maleficent. These White Mushrooms are afflicted with some kind of condition that mimics fever, sadness, and shivers.”

Cloud lowered his sword, but didn’t sheath it. “Right,” he said, not believing a word of it. “What did you do?”

“Here, I’ll show you.” Leon walked over to one of the mushrooms that was fanning itself and cast a small blizzard spell. As the spray of ice crystals left his fingers and fell onto the little mushroom, it suddenly brightened up and bounced, shaking Leon’s finger. It held up a little box that Leon graciously took before suddenly vanishing. “See?”

Cloud groaned softly as he rubbed his eyes. “The ones that shiver need fire, the ones that are hot need ice, that’s simple enough. What about the depressed ones?”

Leon smirked. “They need a jolt of thunder to get them out of their rut.” He demonstrated the tactic on one of the moping mushrooms, to a positive result. “I suggested we try this with you, but Aerith said it wasn’t a good idea to try and push the boundaries of how spiky your hair could get.”

“Much appreciated,” Cloud said flatly, sheathing his Buster Sword. After a long pause, he glanced away. “I’ll help you get rid of them, but then I’m going to train.”

A small smile came to Leon’s lips, seeing a lot of the man he used to be in Cloud. “Can’t ask for more than that. Thanks, Cloud.”

=END=