Chapter One: The Way It Began

The pain's almost too unbearable. The humility, the pain that I'm so used to... makes my mind go numb. The transition was so sudden... It all began on that one warm day of the summer of eighth grade.

Cloud's cell phone rang, noisily beeping on his night stand. He grabbed the loud phone, jamming some buttons and going back to sleep. Though, did not sleep long after a loud obnoxious voice screamed through the phone to make sure he was awake.

"Alright...alright...I'm up. Whaddya want, Zack?"

"You have to come check this out. It's a giant cliff and everyon'e going cliff-jumping. You should come along!"

Cloud yawned, focusing his eyes on the phone to clear his vision.

"But it's," he checked the time," only 11:16,"

"ONLY!? What do you mean only? You should be going to bed late and waking early so that you can make the best out of your day!"

"Not everyone can stay up 24/7 like you, Zack."

"Hn. Whatever, just hurry up before we go without you."

"Be there in a few minutes.

Cloud hung up the phone, flipping it closed and stepped out of his bed. He lazily made the bed and picked out some clothes to wear after he had showered. The towel was slung on his back and he turned on the water, yawning tirely as it heated up and then cooled down again.

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"Haha! That was amazing!"

"Yeah! Look how far he jumped too!"
"So cool!"

"Hey, Zack. You wanna go next?"

"I....um... I'm still waiting for Cloud."

"Alrighty then! My turn! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

Zack sat on a rock, waiting boredly for Cloud to show up as the kids jumped off the cliff and swam around in the clear water of the bay. Zack stared at his digital watch, remembering to take it off before he jumped.

"Already 12:15... what is he doing?"

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Cloud hopped on one foot as he put on his socks, biting onto the hanging toast that protruded from his mouth and he ran out the door, his parents waving bye to him as they drove off to the city to shop for groceries and hopefully get Cloud that iphone that was everyone's new obsession lately. Cloud slipped into his shoes and ran off, finishing the toast with one more bite and dusting off his hands. When he got there, he found a slightly depressed Zack.

"Zack?"

The moping figure looked up, expression immediately turning into a friendly annoyed one.

"Took you long enough."

Cloud smiled, rubbing the back of his head," Heh, sorry."

"Too late to apologize, let's go!"

They took off their shirts, the two boys racing to the edge, both jumping simlataneously. Cloud couldn't remember ever feeling so free....free-falling. The water soon hit him, and he plunged right in, hitting the soft sand and then rising to the top, shaking his wet hair to search for his friend. He did find him, but his head wasn't above the water.

"Zack?"

Cloud swam over, grabbing the body and inspecting his head. He noticed that the skull had been cracked and blood was pouring out of it in streams. He let out a terrified scream alerting the other children. The next thing that happened was that the ambulance came, taking Zack's seemingly lifeless body away into the truck and driving off to the hospital. Cloud uncomfortably sat on the leather seat, the silence and the current condition of his friend turning the mood very awkward. He'd never actually experienced death before, so this was a bit traumatizing. What he feared the most, was losing his only friend.

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"I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait outside."

"But-"

"Sorry," the nurse shut the door, locking it. Cloud sat on the chair holding his head in his hands as he tried to calm himself down. It seemed like an eternity until the nurse walked out.

"W-uh. Excuse me."

"Yes?"

"So, how is he?"
"He's... not recovering as we hoped, the crack seems a bit fatal. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do but wait and hope since the skull is permanently cracked."

Cloud took in this information carefully, and each time he did it all came out to : "He's dead.."

He went into despair, kicking the wall and banging his fist, the nurse immediately rushing to him to stop him. She succeeded, and he calmed down, tears still fresh on his cheeks.

"I know, we're sorry. There's nothing we could do. Just as the nurse had finished comforting Cloud and keeping him under control, the doors burst open and a group of people hauled two adults into a room. Cloud glanced at them, realizing that those adults seemed to familiar. Like, his mother and father. Curious, he went to the window and watched as they fully uncovered the patients. They too were bleeding, the woman with a metallic pipe sticking through her abdomen and the male with a large cut going from his shoulder to his waist. His fears rose as he continued watching the patients, those features seemed so real. Then, as to confirm his fears, a nurse came rushing towards him, to let him know that his parents had gotten into an accident.

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It was too much for him to handle. He spent his days in a coma like state, but still did what he was supposed to do. he never spoke, he didn't eat and he always remained by himself. One day, social security workers came to him, telling him that he would be moving to a place called Radiant Garden where he would live with his uncle and his two children. Cloud was a bit confused: He had a uncle?

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Cloud carried his suit case in with him, waiting at the front door for the man to answer. A few moments later, a young silver-haired youth answered the door asking what he wanted.

"I'm here to speak with Uncle Sephiroth."

"Sephiroth...no one ever calls him that. We call him dad, but Sephiroth's just a little awkward. Well, come in."

Cloud stepped in placing his bags in the corner.

The short silver-haired youth jumped onto the couch, resuming his game- one which had a storyline about some boy going into the military, only to realize that the general had gone evil by some evil force and now threatens the world and it's up to the boy to stop it-

The long silver haired man walked in, carrying a mug of copy and some papers. He looked at Cloud awkwardly.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Cloud, your nephew."

"Ah, that's right. They said you'd be coming in sometime this week. Well, make yourself at home. The room upstairs to the far right is yours."

Cloud grabbed his things and rushed up to the room, excusing himself politely. As soon as he got in, he shut the door and covered his face with the pillow, his mind still suffering from the loss. Cloud silently wept on the pillow, but was interrupted as someone knocked on the door. Cloud sat up, wiping his tears and manning up so that he would not look so weak in front of a visitor.

"It's open."

The door creaked open, a curiously blond head poking in.

"Who're you?"

"I'm Cloud."

"Oh, right. The cousin who's going to be living with us now."

Cloud sat in silence, waiting patiently for the boy to do something.

"Well, my name's Roxas, and my dumbhead brother is Riku. Nice to meet you Cloud."

"Yeah."

"So, what grade are you in?"
"Eighth, going on ninth."

"Cool! I'm still in sixth grade, but some day I'll catch up!"

"My brother's in eighth grade, but he's so stupid. He'll probably fail until I pass him."

Cloud's spirit had lightened just a little, somehow, this boy's company seemed to be much needed. He didn't pry for information, he didn't persist him with questions, and he seemed like he was the nosy type.

"Well, I gotta go finish my homework. Nice to meet you Cloud." Roxas shut the door, walking back to his room.

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Maybe life wouldn't be so bad after all.

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*Next chapter begins after summer vacation ends and school starts !~I'm probably gonna do a freshman year and a senior year so that I don't make this fanfic too long X3 ~Lindsey