Skywalkers

18: Sephiroth

Sephiroth charged.

As his blade met the long, thin one of his enemy, Leon felt the other man's power shuddering in his arms and pushing him back. His foot slipped a bit on the grass, and he slid a few inches before regaining his footing. Across that small space where metal scraped and groaned against metal, evil green eyes glinted at him in amusement. I'm going to take Cloud with me. Leon stared back at him with resolve. I'd like to see you try.

The split-second conversation ended as the object of their disagreement rushed Sephiroth. The tall man pulled away from Leon and dodged Cloud's attack, spinning gracefully into a clearer area. He paused a moment to smirk at them both, a picture of arrogance and indifference, and then Leon's entire world consisted of flashing blades.

Sephiroth was fast, as fast as Riku. But practicing against the young man had improved Leon's reflexes, and he managed to keep up without too much difficulty. Even so, he could do little more than defend, parrying blow after blow. After a frustrating few minutes where he must have attacked twice to Sephiroth's twenty, he noticed that Cloud was attacking far more often than Leon was, not surprising since the blond had far more experience. An idea hit Leon, and the next time Sephiroth swiped at Cloud, Leon jumped in and blocked it instead. Wide blue eyes stared at him for only a second before they reverted to their normal size, understanding shining in them. Cloud resumed his attacks, twice as many as before, and Leon went entirely on the defensive, shielding both of them by himself. It was a risky strategy as it left Cloud almost entirely open, depending on Leon to keep him safe, but it was different enough that it threw Sephiroth off-balance.

Leon loved the sight of confusion in those terrible green eyes.

They spun and twirled around the white-winged Skywalker, almost as a unit, Leon never straying too far from Cloud's side. Even though he kept his focus on Sephiroth, trying to gauge where that blade would strike next, he could still feel Cloud beside or behind him as they moved. He knew which direction to go so that they would not collide with each other and exactly when to step aside to allow First Tsurugi room to strike. More alive than they had ever been in his life, his senses took in and evaluated everything, even down to the small blue sparks that began to jump from their blades when they connected.

After what seemed like hours of fighting, Sephiroth struck, and a small cut opened on Leon's forearm. He shook it off and concentrated instead on the next attack which came seconds later. As their blades slid together, screeching, he caught a glimpse of the other's expression. Silver eyebrows had drawn together in concentration, but the distant look in those green eyes told Leon that he was not focused entirely on the men in front of him.

Sephiroth was thinking. Leon didn't like that at all.

The tall man pushed away from Leon, spun to avoid a thrust from Cloud, and flipped backwards to gain some distance. Once his feet delicately hit the ground, he lifted his sword and pointed at them, calling a momentary halt to the fight.

"I'm surprised," he stated evenly, his tone belying his words. "You deserve more attention than I had first thought." His eyes began to glow.

"Just great," Cloud muttered from Leon's left. He turned his head to look at the blond who was running a hand through his hair and pushing some of the sweat from his face.

"He's activating programs, isn't he?" Leon asked, knowing the answer already.

"Yeah."

"Any idea what they do?"

Cloud shook his head and regripped his sword. "All I know is that they're alchemy-based."

"Wonderful."

As they watched, Sephiroth lifted one hand and opened it to lay palm up. A moment later, a small blue ball of energy had appeared, hovering lightly above his skin.

"How is that even possible?" Leon cried.

"Well, it has to do with reforming the various gases that are present in the atmosphere …"

"That was rhetorical, Cloud!"

If Cloud had a response, Leon never heard it. The ball suddenly flew at them, and they jumped in opposite directions. Leon had no idea what gases were in that thing, but he knew he didn't want to find out what they would do to him if they hit him. A second ball quickly followed the first, then a third and a fourth, and soon the air was full of blue energy that Leon had to avoid by scampering and rolling. Once, a ball landed in the dirt directly by his head. He heard it sizzle.

"Squall!"

"Sora!" he cried at the sound of his brother's voice. "Stay back!" He twisted to avoid another flying orb, this one passing close enough that he felt its heat. Yes, he decided, he definitely didn't want one of these things hitting him.

"I know, but Squall… !" Sora insisted. "Batter up!"

"What? Sora, that is the craziest, most idiotic …"

…

… most amazing idea ever.

The next time a ninety-mile-an-hour zinger flew at him, he didn't jump away. Instead, he moved slightly to the side, lifted the Gunblade, and swung for the bleachers.

Sephiroth's face was priceless.

"Woo hoo!" Sora cried. "That's one for the earthlings! Go Squall! Knock 'em outta the park!"

Sephiroth seemed to take offense at Leon's response to his projectiles, for suddenly they were all flying in his direction. Leon calmly sent them back, and those he couldn't hit, he dodged. Cloud, unwilling to be left out, ran to his side and started hitting those back as well until Sephiroth was leaping and twisting himself, trying to avoid his own attacks as they were returned to him. He eventually took to the air, thinking that his grounded opponents would no longer be able to reach him, but Leon shifted his swing from baseball to golf.

"Fore!" he cried at one point, unable to stop the smirk from covering his face. The ball he had just sent back nearly took off one of Sephiroth's wings.

Snarling, Sephiroth dismissed all the balls at once and simply hovered there for several heartbeats, staring down at Leon and Cloud in barely-suppressed rage.

"What now?" Leon asked as they stood side by side, trying to catch their breath.

"Your guess is as good as mine," the blond answered.

"Way to be reassuring."

"Not a problem."

Sephiroth's eyes were glowing with the onset of a new program, and a faint red light began to pulse around him. As he watched, Leon realized the air was slowly but steadily becoming warmer.

"Fuck!" Cloud yelled suddenly. "Leon, run!"

"What?"

Cloud just grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the floating man, now covered in red. Leon opened his mouth to ask why the hell they were running when Sephiroth exploded. Or, to be more precise, the air around him exploded in a towering pillar of fire. The shockwave sent Leon tumbling to his knees, the Gunblade falling from his hands to land next to him.

"Everyone grab onto something!" Cloud yelled from a few feet away.

Leon stared at him, not understanding, but then he felt it: something pulling on his legs. He looked over his shoulder at the fiery pillar and saw that it was turning rapidly. Like a great wind tunnel running in reverse. Drawing him in.

His knees beginning to slide across the grass, Leon dug his fingers into the dirt, but the small handhold he acquired did little. Ahead of him, he watched as Zack drove his weapon into the ground as hard as possible and held on. Quickly, Leon snatched up the Gunblade and did the same. The inferno continued to pull on him, growing stronger by the second. He felt his feet begin to leave the ground and dug his toes in as deeply as he could.

"How do we stop this?" he shouted over in Cloud's direction, praying that the wind would not suck his voice away.

Cloud did not answer for several seconds, his brows drawn together in thought. Then, he reached up to his sword, stuck in the ground just like Leon's, and extracted one of the many extra blades it held. Slowly and carefully, he began to move across the open space to Leon, using the two blades as handholds almost as if he were rock-climbing horizontally. Leon watched in amazement.

By the time Cloud reached him, the rotating pillar behind them had grown so large and hot that Leon was having trouble breathing, and its force was so strong that his knuckles were white from holding him in place. Through the sweat running down his face and into his eyes, he looked over at Cloud who had settled directly next to him.

"I'm going to need you to use one hand to hold onto your blade and the other to hold onto me."

"What?" Leon demanded. "I can barely hold myself as it is!"

Cloud chewed his lip and gazed at the flames, the red light flickering over his face. "We'll have to time it, then," he said finally. He returned his eyes to Leon's and stated strongly, "Listen, when I say now, you grab me around the waist and make sure I don't get sucked too far. I'm going to power up my sword with energy and release it towards the center of that tornado thing. Hopefully, it'll hit close enough to Sephiroth to stop this."

Leon stood for a moment, gasping in the heat and wind, and considered the details of this plan. "Is this the only thing you can think of?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then, let's do it."

Cloud nodded, smiling, and carefully reattached the extra piece of his sword to the main body. Then, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Leon watched as first his hands and then his sword began to glow blue. When the metal was shining with an almost painful intensity, Cloud opened his eyes and shouted, "Now!"

As Leon let go of the Gunblade with one hand and reached out to snag Cloud, the blond yanked his sword entirely out of the ground, exposing himself fully to the force of the winds. The ferocity of their pull translated directly into a searing pain in Leon's wrist as his remaining hand gripped the hilt of his blade. He realized at once that he would only be able to hold them for a few seconds before he lost his grip on one or the other, and he sure as hell wasn't about to let go of Cloud.

The blond had lifted his shining sword entirely over his head. With a grunt of effort, he swung it back down, and the light that had been trapped in the metal sprang away in a solid bolt that shot directly into the heart of the flaming pillar. Instantly, it burst, the light flooding out in concentric waves, although thankfully without the fire and its accompanying heat. The sudden lack of pressure caused both men to stagger for their balance.

And in that instant where he and Cloud were trying to regain their equilibrium, Leon saw that Sephiroth had been ready for them. Even as the last of the flaming tendrils expanded and pushed aside, he was coming. Diving for them. Sword extended and ready to kill. Leon didn't have time to move, speak, or even think. He only had time to do what his heart told him to do.

He pushed Cloud aside.

"No!"

A sharp, jarring pinch in the stomach and a flash of red before his eyes. That was all it was.

"Squall!"

Someone - Kairi maybe - screamed.

He didn't fall. The sword was holding him in place.

"Oh my god!"

"No! Leon!"

Thin, cruel lips smiled at him, a gesture that did not reach those green eyes so very close to his own. Slowly, Leon reached up and ran a finger along the flat of that long, beautiful blade. The blade that had entered his abdomen and that he was sure had come out the other side. There was pain, of course there was pain, but he was in too much shock at the moment to really acknowledge it. And there was blood, lots of it, running hot along his skin and making his shirt stick to him, both front and back.

"Fool," Sephiroth whispered to him. "Cloud is mine."

Leon tightened the grip on the Gunblade which he still held in one hand. It was getting hard to breathe. I suppose that's because I'm dying.

"No," he informed Sephiroth calmly. "Cloud belongs to no one but himself."

With the last bit of strength he had, he lifted the Gunblade above his head, the other hand coming up to grasp the hilt as well, and slammed it downwards. Sephiroth, with his weapon embedded in Leon's body and no time to move out of the way, could only watch it come down and slice more than halfway through his left wing.

Blood erupted from the wound and splashed against Leon's face. He didn't care. He had hurt Sephiroth. Sephiroth who had made Cloud a Skywalker against his will. Sephiroth who had beaten Cloud down and trampled on him until he had no belief in himself or in life at all. Sephiroth who could not let Cloud go, could not let him be happy, who had chased him, hunted him, and who had made it so that he would never live except in fear.

Sephiroth, who had just pulled back, yelling in pain, taking his sword with him.

Leon's strength was gone. His vision was blurring. He was breathing, but the air he brought into his lungs stung like a cold fire. He could feel his blood pouring out, faster now that the sword had gone through the opposite way. His knees buckled. He fell.

Someone caught him.

"Hold on, Leon! We've got you. Just hold on, okay?"

Riku. And that black blob must have been Zack. They talked rapidly to each other, dividing up the tasks needed to heal him. Leon blinked up at a PHS being held above him. Surely they couldn't just inject him with things and save him. He had been run through.

And where was Cloud?

His answer came in the form of a loud, long scream. It started low, almost quiet, but it quickly rose in pitch, volume, and intensity. A wild cry from the depths of Cloud's heart, from his very soul.

"Cloud!" Riku shouted. "No, don't!"

"What's he doing?" Zack asked.

"He's activating his unknown program. We don't even know what it does!"

"Cloud …" Leon whispered. His voice jolted Riku's and Zack's attentions back to him, and soon a needle pierced his skin just above his wound. The pain began to fade immediately, and the tickle of flowing blood stopped as well. A moment later, his vision cleared, and he blinked up at the two Skywalkers who were frantically trying to save him. Riku appeared to be scanning him, and Zack was cutting open his shirt to get better access to the wound. But that didn't matter to him right now.

"Whoa! Stop!" Riku cried as Leon tried to hoist himself onto his elbows. "We dulled the pain, but you're critical, Leon! You can't move!"

Breath rasping through gritted teeth, Leon forced out, "Want … to see … Cloud …"

"But you can't!"

"I've got you, Squall."

Sora's voice. Directly behind his head. Soft hands took him by the shoulders and guided him into a lap. Once he had settled down, fingers began to comb gently through his blood- and sweat-soaked hair.

"I'll hold him up," Sora said to Riku and Zack. "You guys just save him, okay?"

"We'll do what we can, kid," Zack replied solemnly.

Leon didn't hear their comments. He had eyes only for Cloud. His lover was glowing gold. A bright, beautiful gold that glinted off of his sword and seemed to pulse, much as Sephiroth's alchemy spells had done. Sephiroth himself was standing a few paces away from Cloud, his sword held loosely in his hand. He was trying to regain his aura of power and superiority even while his left wing hung limply at his side, dripping dark blood onto the fire-scorched ground. But even if he had been as proud and strong as he had been when he first stepped foot on Leon's lawn, Cloud still would have outshone him. Standing there in his coat of gold, Cloud looked inhuman, untouchable, and simply dazzling.

As Leon watched, Cloud raised First Tsurugi to point at Sephiroth.

The weapon broke apart.

In a powerful, silent moment that Leon knew he would never forget, Cloud attacked. The different pieces of First Tsurugi had shot forward to surround Sephiroth in a glowing, gold ring, and as Cloud leapt forward, impossibly fast, he snatched them each up in turn and slammed them into Sephiroth's body. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. And on six, all the blades ripped from their flesh sheaths and flew away to land in a neat little circle, into the middle of which Cloud touched down gently. The gold faded away.

Sephiroth staggered. His sword fell from his slackened grip. Dazed, he looked up at Cloud through rivers of blood running down his face. And then he fell and lay still, a crumpled heap upon the ground.

Cloud turned quickly on his heel. "Leon," he breathed.

Relief flooded over Leon as his lover approached, nearly causing him to slip into unconsciousness. But Cloud's hands on his face brought him back.

"How is he?"

"We're at about fifty-fifty," Zack informed him, Riku nodding. "But that's better than the almost zero percent chance he had at the start."

Leon blinked at this information. A sword had gone completely through him, and he still had a fifty percent chance of surviving? Hope surged through him, and he looked up into Cloud's worried eyes.

"Don't leave me," the blond pleaded. "Okay, Leon?"

He wet his lips, trying to get enough moisture on them to speak. "I'll try," he finally croaked. Cloud's face lowered, and Leon let his eyes slip closed as he was kissed softly.

"You know," Riku commented when Cloud pulled away, "I should probably clock you a good one for activating that thing. There was no guarantee it would be useful or that you'd even be compatible with it."

"It worked though," Cloud replied quietly.

"Sure it did, but that doesn't make it any less stupid." He shrugged and injected whatever he had been working on into Leon. "Kind of appropriate, I guess," he said half to himself. "Killed by his own illegal invention."

Cloud bit his lip, and his eyes wandered over to the motionless form on the ground. "He's not dead yet," the blond murmured. After a long moment where his lip suffered some intense abuse, he rose and dug out his PHS. "I'm going to save him."

"What? Are you nuts?"

Leon winced at the loud voice. Reno had woken up.

The red-head strode up to Cloud and stared him down with fierce eyes. "That fucker tried to kill everyone here," he protested. "He stood by and just let all of his so-called 'brothers' fall for his sake. And you know what he would have done to you if he had succeeded in offing the rest of us."

"I know," Cloud whispered. "I'm still going to save him."

"Cloud," Zack cut in, lifting his eyes to his friend. "Just let him die. If you save him, he'll be back. Do you really want to go through this again? Someone might end up pierced through the heart next time." His eyes flickered to Leon. In a softer, meaningful voice, he added, "Do you really want to take that chance?"

Cloud hesitated. He looked down at Leon, eyes silently asking for permission. Leon let his gaze travel over Cloud's dirt- and sweat-stained face. In Leon's opinion, he was still beautiful.

"I'll fight for you as many times as I have to," he told the anxious blond. "Do what you think is right."

Cloud nodded, smiling, and turned away.

"Godsdammit!" Reno swore. "If I could use my arm, I'd cut the bastard's head off myself!"

"Let him go, Reno," Zack replied, returning his attention to Leon's wounds. "Cloud has to sort this out for himself."

With his head still in Sora's lap, Leon watched his lover cross to Sephiroth's still form and begin to scan him to assess his wounds. The expression on Cloud's face told him how bad the situation looked. Leon wasn't surprised; that attack had been devastating. He didn't think the others had to worry. If Cloud managed to save the other man without any help, it would be a miracle.

Putting aside the PHS, Cloud crouched down and began inspecting Sephiroth's injuries with his own hands. He pushed aside that long hair, matted now with blood, to find the cuts on his forehead, and then he began to pick at the other man's clothes, trying to see how deeply the gashes ran. When he reached the half-severed wing, however, Cloud stopped. Frowning deeply, he dipped a finger into the dark blood still oozing from the wound. When he pulled his finger back, it was covered in black, not red, and a faint vapor rose from the point of contact. Quickly, Cloud snatched his PHS back up and began scanning once more.

"Reno," he called after a minute.

"What?" the other man snapped. "If you want my help, forget it."

"I want you to come sit on Seph for me."

Reno blinked at this, and Riku and Zack both looked up in surprise.

"Sit on him?"

"Yes," Cloud replied calmly, "since you don't have both arms to hold him down." He flipped open the top of his machine and injected something into Sephiroth's arm.

Intrigued, Reno did as he was told. He crossed the distance to the fallen man and, without any ceremony, sat on his lower back directly behind the wings.

"Good," Cloud said, rising to his feet. He bent down, took hold of Sephiroth's injured wing at the base … and promptly pulled it out.

"What the fuck!" Reno cried as the wing flew free, splashing a bit of blood onto the red-head's clothes.

"Stay there," Cloud ordered. "I still have five more to do."

Zack had forgotten Leon for the moment and risen to his knees. "Cloud, what are you doing?" he demanded. The tone of his voice suggested that he thought his friend might have gone mad.

In answer, Cloud lifted the detached wing and showed them all the base. Several black tendrils curled around the skin at the bottom, snaking gently as if alive. From the way the other men shrank back in disgust, Leon assumed this was not normal.

"Jenova," the blond offered as way of an explanation. "She died for unknown reasons on our world. It must have been some sort of parasitic disease. And Seph, who was injected with her cells as a baby, caught that disease." He threw the wing on the ground violently and reached down for the next wing.

"Shit," Reno breathed in comment as the second wing came tearing out.

Cloud said nothing, only moved systematically around Sephiroth's body, ripping out all six of his deceptively beautiful white wings. The wing that he had first torn out had slowly changed color in front of their eyes to a charred black, and as they watched, it began to crumble and break apart.

"Why did no one notice?" Cloud demanded of no one in particular. His task finished, he dropped down, retrieved his PHS, and began the process of saving the tall man's life.

"Maybe they did," Riku answered quietly. "But you know Xemnas. He wouldn't particularly care what it was as long as it produced strong warriors."

Cloud snorted in reply. "Get off him now, Reno," he ordered. "And if you want to make yourself useful, I won't say no."

Humbled, Reno slipped off of Sephiroth's back and produced his own battered PHS from his pocket. He began attempting to use it with only five fingers.

Leon sighed and closed his eyes. It seemed that things had calmed down for the moment. The sudden lack of conversation, however, had allowed another sound to finally be heard. A soft, sobbing noise from behind him.

He looked up at Sora's upside-down face. "Who's crying?"

"Loz," his brother answered. "He woke up a while ago and has been bawling ever since. Kairi's trying her best to comfort him." He twisted his head to look back at his girlfriend, then looked back and shrugged.

Another sound, this one a rustling, reached their ears. Leon turned his head a little to see Yazoo rising to his feet. The young man took a shaky exploratory step and then another.

"You shouldn't walk," Zack called to him, having noticed as well. "Sit down and rest for a while."

Yazoo just sent him a look of pure hatred and kept on going. After several minutes of slow progress, Yazoo got close enough to his goal for Leon to discern what it was: Kadaj. The other young man was also awake and repeatedly pounding his fists into the dirt like a small child. When Yazoo dropped down beside him and placed a pale hand on his shaking shoulders, Kadaj finally lifted his head, revealing a pained face streaked with tears.

"Cloud," he cried, anguished, "what have you done to us?"

"The hell?" Sora asked, surprised. "Why are you so upset? He freed you from those controlling programs."

"We didn't want to be freed," Kadaj replied in a mild wail. "He won't accept us like this now. He won't!"

Sora's brows crashed down in frustration. "What is wrong with you?" he snapped. "You don't have to grovel at his feet anymore. You're free! You can do what you want!"

"And where should we go?" Yazoo asked calmly. His soft green eyes gazed at Sora with as much weight as if he were glaring at him.

"I dunno. Home?"

A strangled sob left Kadaj's throat. "I don't have a home!" he informed them all. "I was starving in the streets when Brother found me. If he hadn't taken me in, I would have died!"

"And my home world is ravaged by endless war," Yazoo said. "It was common for attacks to occur at all hours of the day and night. The first night after Brother took me was the first time I was able to go to sleep without wondering if I would ever wake up again." His eyes shifted to the young man on the front step, still curled up in Kairi's arms. "Loz's father beat him, sometimes so much that he couldn't walk the next day. Are you suggesting he go back to that?"

Sora's eyes were wide. He swallowed and looked away, unable to reply. Leon was stunned. For these three, Sephiroth was their savior. No wonder they looked to him with such loving reverence. They had probably willingly given up their free will to be taken away from the nightmares they experienced daily. They didn't see themselves as victims, at least not of Sephiroth.

"So go back and get the program again," Riku suggested impatiently. "Stop acting like it's the end of the world."

Kadaj went back to pounding in the dirt at these words. For a moment, Yazoo attempted to get him to stop, but he eventually gave up and replied, "We can't. The programs are lost."

That shocked Riku. He turned and looked at them for the first time. "What?" he asked. "How did that happen?"

Yazoo's lip curled in anger and disdain. "Number Nine had an 'accident' with one of his experiments in Vexen's lab. All of the data on the computer was lost, and when they checked the back-ups, the disk containing the brother programs was found to be corrupted."

Riku laughed in spite of himself. "Demyx did that?"

"It's not funny, Riku," Zack warned as Yazoo's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You're right. Sorry."

Cloud had said nothing during this exchange, but now he rose to his feet and walked over to stand before the two ex-brothers. They both glared up at him with obvious hatred.

"I didn't know about the program being destroyed," he told them truthfully, "but even if I had, I still would have done what I did."

"You knew," Kadaj accused him. "You knew where we had come from and that Brother was the only thing we had."

"I did," Cloud agreed. "And as long as he doesn't die, you'll still have him. Plus, you'll now have the ability to follow him of your own choice."

"He won't accept us," Yazoo argued dully. "You know he won't."

Cloud shook his head. "No I don't, and neither do you. In fact, considering all that's happened, he may be the one to need your acceptance." The two silver-haired men lowered their gazes at this. After a moment of watching them, Cloud's expression softened and he held out his hand. "Come on. I could really use the help if we're going to save his life."

They hesitated, but only for a moment. Grimacing at his body which was obviously still in pain, Kadaj pushed himself to his knees and reached up to clasp Cloud's hand. Yazoo quickly stood and, guiding Kadaj's arm around his neck, helped his younger brother to his feet as well.

"Oi, Loz!" Kadaj yelled across the lawn to the man clinging to Kairi. "Stop crying and get over here to help Brother!"

The big man lifted his head, scrubbed at his eyes a bit, and then stood, sniffling. He crossed the lawn to the other three and, taking in the situation with his still-watery eyes, lifted Kadaj bodily and carried him over to Sephiroth. Kadaj yelled his protests, but Loz ignored him as did Yazoo who followed after, steadier on his feet than before. Reno wisely relocated before they arrived.

"Leon."

He looked over to Riku who smiled at him gently.

"You're out of critical now, but we still don't want to move you yet, okay?" When Leon nodded, he suggested, "Maybe you should try to sleep."

Before he could answer, Sora had twisted and was shouting towards the house, "Kairi! Go get a blanket or two from inside."

Leon frowned. He didn't want to sleep. He wanted to keep watch on Cloud. Maybe if the blond were holding his head instead of his brother, he would try to relax. But as long as Cloud was too far away to touch, he wanted to stay awake. He didn't give a damn how childish and stubborn a feeling it was.

"Leon."

Naminé?

"Sleep, Leon. Everything will be all right now."

You're not near the windows, are you?

"Sleep, Leon."

She began to stroke his mind softly. Sora's fingers were doing the same to his hair. Kairi appeared with a blanket and threw it over him, tucking the edges under his sides with maternal care. It was all so … soothing.

Naminé?

"Yes?"

Keep an eye on Cloud for me?

She chuckled gently. "Of course."

With a tired sigh, Leon closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.