A/N: I'm back and I bring you a little something that came to me whilst browsing tumblr. I swear that sight is a gold mine for nerdy losers like me! Anyways, this is another AU and all will become clear with what I plan to do with it the more chapters I post, so I won't waste anyone's time explaining here. You'll just have to read to find out.

I wanted this to have a heavy American college theme running through it; however I'm more English than Hugh Grant and the Queen put together and have no knowledge of the American education system beyond what I've seen in movies and am therefore, next to useless. However, I shall strive to be as close to the truth as possible and if you read anything that you think is a bit off or you know something that might help me out here, then please give me a shout.

Part two will be up very, very soon. Enjoy. xxx

Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to Square Enix and/or Disney. No infringement intended, no profit made. All original lyrics belong to Chris Issak. Version used in this fic has lyrics changed and then performed by James Vincent McMorrow. A Dream Within A Dream written by Edgar Allan Poe. The Last Mohican written by Bernard Malamud.

'The world was on fire and no one could save me but you.

It's strange what desire will make foolish people do.

I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you.

And I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you.

#

And I wanna fall in love

And I wanna fall in love

With you'

Wicked Games

"Yet, if hope has flown away in a night or in a day, in a vision or in none, is it, therefore, the less gone? All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. I stand amid the roar of a surf-tormented shore, and I hold within my hand…"

Leon watched Cloud Strife's lips move; the lines of poetry falling from between the soft flesh of his mouth and the sound of his velvet voice pulled him sideways and off balance. He always felt off balance around this man. His fingers gripped the edge of his desk a little tighter, his arms locking and his muscles bunched to stop him from sliding from his perch and he waited for the torture to be over.

From five rows back, Cloud gripped the edge of his book and allowed the sharp pain along the inside of his palm to stop him from stumbling. He could feel the warm eyes of his professor on him and could feel his own skin heating. He concentrated on keeping his voice low and smooth and not the faltering tight hitch that wanted to creep out. Once the last line was done he risked a glance up and caught Leon's gaze, direct and intense and burning the way it always was. He felt his cock stir to life.

Leon stood from where he was casually resting against the edge of his desk and his eyes slid away, breaking from the blond's face to wash over the rest of his students that sat waiting for him to speak. The truth was he was having a hard time remembering what the exact point of the exercise had been. Cloud's voice… it had ruined his train of thought.

He was saved from his embarrassment by the clock tower, which peeled out its high and distinctive tone across the campus and made him jump slightly. Absently dismissing his class, a sea of students stirred to life and broke from their rows, a loud chatter rising up from the silence that had followed Cloud's recital.

Leon barely bothered to watch them leave, still too far removed from what he should have been thinking about by the memory of Cloud's lips, that voice, his achingly beautiful eyes that had flicked up only briefly to catch his.

Leon sighed heavily and ran a hand through his long auburn hair and felt the need to loosen the collar of his shirt and tie. It was suddenly far too hot. He busied himself shuffling papers and organising his already immaculate desk while the last of his students filtered out into the halls and he only looked up again once the lone figure, still sat in his seat, slowly rose to his feet.

Leon watched the young man carefully sling his messenger bag over his shoulder, the strap pulling slightly on the collar of his jumper and exposing a tantalising stretch of skin that Leon imagined would taste hot and sweet. He blinked rapidly and wiped at his top lip, discarding the stack of papers in his hand and turned to face Cloud.

The blond man came to a stop in front of his teacher and felt that searing, burning heat radiate from the man the way he always felt it when he got too near. It pulsed and rippled over him like the warmth from a coal fire and he lowered his head to deflect some of the intensity. He raised his hand to pass over the assignment he'd finished and cursed himself when he noticed his hand trembling.

"You finished it?" his professor asked him, surprise clear in his thick voice that was always low and careful and on the cusp of being monotone.

Cloud nodded, swallowing past the dry feeling in the back of his throat. "It was a good assignment." he replied his heart fluttering a fraction faster as Leon took the papers from him.

Was he imaging this between them? Was he the only one that felt this ridiculous gravity? The older man had always seemed so unaffected; Cloud couldn't tell if he actually felt anything at all. Most of the time he looked utterly bored. There was nothing the blond wanted more than to see some semblance of emotion on his handsome professors face, and if he could be the cause of that, then all the better. Cloud allowed himself a few seconds to ponder all the ways he might get the older man to react to him.

"You enjoyed it?"

Cloud had to kick start his brain and reel back, his mind momentarily lost in the gutter of his most explicit thoughts before he remembered his professor was talking about the assignment.

"Yeah, Malamud was cool. Uh, though I thought it was gonna be about actual Mohicans. You know, like the Daniel Day Lewis film. Turns out it's really, really not." Cloud replied, trying to be glib but inwardly cringing. His efforts to appear funny in front of his professor where wasted however, as Leon turned without a second glance and placed his work on his desk. Cloud could have disappeared into a hole in the ground right then and there and felt the familiar rising of a flush cascade over his face.

"I look forward to reading it." the older man said in an almost bored tone that made Cloud's stomach twist in mortification. He nodded his head and turned to leave, sure that he could feel the burning eyes of his teacher searing into his back.

Leon watched him go, his gaze sequestered and surreptitious behind his curtain of hair and he let his eyes drop to Cloud's ass. Feeling a flush rise up he busied himself with the papers on his desk, which still didn't need any more organising than they had done a few minutes ago. He sat himself heavily in his chair and breathed out a deep sigh.

He had known he was in trouble the moment he'd seen Cloud Strife enter his classroom the second day of term and his small infatuation hadn't gotten any easier as the days and weeks had passed. If anything it had only grown stronger. He was way past the point of small furtive glances and innocent musings about what he might smell like and was progressing towards a full blown obsession which included nightly imaginings of a most erotic kind and daily cold showers.

Leon grit his teeth and mentally slapped himself. This was pathetic he scolded. He was a twenty nine year old man and a college professor and he would not become the victim of some obscene school girl infatuation, especially not with one of his students. He was stronger than that! However, he feared it may have already been far too late for the pep talk when he caught himself gently rubbing his thumb up and down the edge of the paper the young blond man had just given him, almost caressing it.

"Holy Hyne." He groaned to himself, bunching his hands up in his hair.

This was going to be a long semester.