Summary:

An outstretched hand befalls the young man as he takes his time to stare at it for a moment. The other does not retreat his offer, a silent gesture of kindness. He not needs to be thanked for his actions nor the need for approval , he is there when needed, a reliability in a dark. A possible pact of companionship being offered, he is the embodiment of a safe stronghold.

Squall decides he wants nothing to do with it.

The children of men

Prologue

"Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by."
― Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version

"This is bad.."

A young swordsman dodged his attacker's moves with an only half an inch before tumbling to the harsh cold ground.

"Scratch that, this is beyond bad"

Squall Leonheart had been fighting for what seemed like an eternity, fighting what looked like himself awfully much over and over.

The first copy had appeared while he was having one of his few but necessary breaks. It hadn't been much of a problem, since he had gone down quite easy. Though, unfortunately for him it didn't end with that simple victory, more and more of those creatures had been showing up. Each time he cut one down, another would appear in its place. After losing the count and taking some blows and hits then and there, the man was on the end of his rope as some would have called it..

"Ugh.." Squall groaned, he tried getting on his feet, his trusted gunblade used as support. He felt an incredibly sharp pain going through his right arm, a warm wetness dripping to the ground.

"Blood.."

He muttered to himself ,then decided that clutching the injured arm hasn't been one of his brightest ideas.

He had to focus, concentrate. Those creatures had started surrounding him, there were far too many for him to handle, him being wounded and because of that not being able to use his weapon properly. They were getting closer..they were coming at him from every direction possible. Like a storm of destruction they head for him. On his knees, the brunet looked up to the sky while his eyes grew with despair.

"End of the line it seems.."

A shadow

He was pretty sure that if he would have blinked, he would have missed the dark form dash from behind, only to jump over him and give his many opponents that threatened to attack him a heavy counter blow. The speed and strength were enviously breathtaking and apparently enough to stun the rest of the copies, the curious figure stood in front of him in a protective manner. Spiky blonde hair, his sword large and heavy but used easily as it was light as a feather. There was something about the way he stood there, his slim silhouette not getting in the way of the fact that no one was getting through this man.

A mercy?

The other warrior could only stare with somewhat conflicted eyes, unable to believe that someone came to his rescue…unable to believe that he needed a rescue. Especially since he was so keen on taking care of everything on his own, not that he was complaining..slightly.

The presence of the other man seemed to intimate the creatures as they all appeared to flee from the scene.

"Are you serious?" The injured man thought to himself as he was still clutching his bloody arm while he watched the odd copies get smaller and smaller. "Whatever" Squall thought with his pride slightly more wounded than his bleeding arm, then turned his attention back to the blonde swordsman with a frown on his face. He remembered him, the gifted fighter was like himself a warrior of Cosmos and fellow lone wolf. At that point, his so called "rescuer" had turned his head towards the other and gave him a light nod.

"Strife"

Haven't written in ages, so be gentle with me. I'm hoping to capture Squall's and Cloud's personalities, though of course with a little twist of my own. I want to let them warm up to each other first. They are both not the most social people in the world, let them be stoic dudes with later on a weak spot for each other. Sounds good? By the way English isn't my native language, though doing my best to give you an entertaining story.

Love,

Kim x