Kingdom Hearts and its characters belong solely to either Square Enix Co or Walt Disney pictures.

This is only my second Kingdom Hearts ficcy. Considering that my other fic(Burning down the school-shameless promotion) earns about ten reviews per chapter, I decided it wouldn't hurt to try again. This is a SHOUNEN AI fic, in other words, mild slash/boyxboy pairings. If that isn't your cup o tea, feel free to not read it, or read it anyway for the sake of open mindedness. Its not a lemon, nor even slightly citrus-like. So...

Without further ado I present:

Unspoken Reminiscence
Chapter 1
By: Smiley-chan

(recommended reading music: in this diary- the ataris)

The boy yipped slightly as his bare feet touched the surface of the water. In his opinion, it was like ice; to cold to touch, to cold to be near, and defiantly to cold to swim in. "C-cold," he murmured, withdrawing his assaulted toes back into safety. Behind him, his best friend in the world snickered slightly at his girlishness tugging off his T-shirt in preparation.

"Is it really that cold?" he asked, throwing his shirt to the side and grabbing a pointed stick that they had the audacity to call a harpoon. Crouching down, he ran his fingers through the water. "It is a little nippy," he admitted, a sly smile threatening to devour his face. "But I guess that means we'll just have to get used to it" With that, he launched his poor friend into the water, cannon-balling in after him.

The boy floated up to the surface sputtering, frustration painted clearly all over his face. "S-Sephiroth! You idiot!" he shrieked, brushing away a pile of limp blonde hair that no longer held its former spikiness. His best friend spat up a great deal of water in response. The look on his face screamed "Oh, shut up. You know I had to".

"Look, fish don't come out in the afternoon when the water is warm, only in the early morning and sometimes in the evening," Sephiroth explained to his younger friend. "You want fish, you get fish. Sacrifices must be made" He swam towards him, his past shoulder length silver hair floating out behind him. "Nothing worth having in life is easy, Cloud".

"Yeah, well," the blonde spat. "Don't go all psychologists on me, okay. I don't need that. Damn, I'm fourteen, tell me this when I'm thirty". Cloud breathed out, watching his breathe take a misty form outside of his blue-turning lips. "You said you would train me" he said, adding more force into those words than others.

Sephiroth's emerald eyes brightened in agreement. "And I will. There will be no finer soldiers in Hallow Bastion than you and I". And this was an unspoken agreement between the two. "But you'll never be as good as me, of course," he bantered, the ever-taunting smirk gracing his features.

"Yes, and that my friend is what I call, BULL," Cloud exclaimed, sending a wave of water splashing down on his silver-haired friend. Sephiroth stood there with a blank expression, lifting his hair away from his face.

"Was that a challenge, Strife?"

"In the eyes of the challenged, Seph, in the eyes of the challenged"

"Cloud...I feel challenged"

"That is your right, my friend"

The next hours, give or take, was given to the soul sanctity of two boys fighting like animals in the shallow waters of the creek, the thought of fish forgotten, until one gave in or the other option. At its end, both lying on their backs, too tired to move a muscle, only taking in the sweet air for their oxygen-deprived lungs. Cloud was the first to notice the water slowly turn cold again. Mustering up energy in his legs, he waded to the bank and flopped down on the soft grass, inhaling its fragrance. He was too tired to care about anything, all he wanted was to be out of the water and be out of it for the rest of his life. The sun felt nice, drying his wet cloths. He could have probably fallen asleep.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Sephiroth half-yelled from the creek, not bothering to lift his face from the water.

"Where it's dry," Cloud mumbled, rolling over, so that the sun would hit the other side.

Sephiroth raised his fist slightly. "Oh, no you don't...our fight's not over yet"

"Why then, Sephiroth, don't you come get me" Cloud asked, feeling like he was addressing a boy of six instead of a boy of sixteen.

"Why don't you come back here?"

"Because, I don't want to," Cloud retorted, leaving Sephiroth very cross.

Sephiroth got out of the water. "You fight like a woman anyway," he mumbled, sitting right next to the blonde.

Cloud chuckled slightly. "Yeah, well, if Tifa Lockheart heard you say that she'd kick your ass"

"If I heard him say what?"

Sephiroth physically jumped. He cocked his head back only to see the face of Tifa Lockheart. She was a gorgeous girl, but she had a mean left hook. "Nothing," Sephiroth lied. She worked in the Hallow Bastion Library, and did occasional odd jobs around the castle part of the world. That included being Ansem's messenger. Often, she was interrupted in the middle of her work to retrieve Sephiroth for god knows what. And of course this got on her nerves, thinking that she was responsible for a guy two years older than her. "What do you want?" Sephiroth snapped, not caring if he sounded rude or not.

"Ansem wants you, and don't even give me that attitude," she said, standing with her hands on her hips. "Its after hours and I'm doing him a favor. You aint the boss of me yet, so shove off" She spun on her heel, obviously in a bad mood, and made way for her house in the village.

"So shove off," Sephiroth mocked in a squeaky voice once she was out of sight. "Yes, I'll 'shove off'. As in, shove you off a cliff!" He kicked the dirt, pulling his boots onto his feet. "Hell, I hate her"

"You hate women in general, don't you?" Cloud asked laughing slightly.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Not all of them, just the ones I know. For example, I can describe Aerith Gainsborough with one word". He shivered. "Pink"

"Pink," Cloud chuckled slightly. "Nice".

Sephiroth shrugged. "All in a days work". The rest of the time was spent walking home in silence. Both of them lived in the castle. Sadly, Cloud Strife was an orphan, but he found work around the castle, mostly in his 'Daddy's garage. By daddy, he was talking about his thirty-two year old second cousin, Cid Highwind, who kind of took the kid under his wing. One thing was for sure, he knew a whole hell of a lot more about gummi ships than most fourteen year olds. Sephiroth was a bit more...high class. It was in his blood. Ansem, the leader of the people of Hallow Bastion, was Sephiroth's great uncle. Many people wondered exactly how this was possible, seeing as Ansem looked like he was only in his late twenties, early thirties. More religious people believed that Ansem had been blessed with immortality by the gods, but the people who knew him well enough to know what he did in his spare time, had a different idea. They knew that he was experimenting with beings called "heartless", finding out what they were. Even Sephiroth suspected that the darkness he was constantly exposed to prolonged his life, but that was speculation also. Anyone had yet to see the reports Ansem had written. Lately the man had taken an interest in Sephiroth, calling him in at all times of the day.

After a long awkward silence Cloud spoke. "Hey Sephiroth," he said, curiosity threatening to kill him.

"Hmm?" his friend mumbled, his arms swinging loosely at his sides.

"Well," Cloud continued. "What did she mean? She said that you weren't the boss of her yet. What was that about?"

Sephiroth chewed his lip; a habit that only people who had known him for a long time was a sign of nervousness. No one ever told him that he did that of course, because he would have killed himself for it, knowing that people could read him. With a huff, he crossed his arms over his chest. This was obviously a touchy subject. "I was going to tell you sooner, but...I wasn't quite sure how I was going to bring this up," he said a tinge of guilt in his voice. "I mean, you know that Ansem has been calling me in all the time right?"

"Yeah," Cloud said, not getting a connection at all.

"Well, giving me lessons of a sort. For some reason, he seems to think that he's not going to be around for much longer...I think, since I'm his only living relative..."

Cloud's mouth was hanging open. "Are you saying...that Ansem wants you to be his successor! And you didn't tell me!"

Sephiroth turned his head away, feeling his face begin to color. "Heh, I guess. Its kind of ridiculous isn't it?"

"No way! That's awesome, you'd never have to take crap from anyone!" Cloud said, almost happy about it.

"Hmm," Sephiroth sighed, rubbing the cloth on his shirt.

"What is it?" Cloud asked, tilting his head to the side, trying to get a glimpse of Sephiroth's hidden expression.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Nothing really," he murmured. "I just didn't quite expect you to take this so well".

Cloud blinked, frowning slightly. 'Was I supposed to take it a different way?' he thought. "What do you mean," he asked.

"I don't know. I'm just afraid that," he paused, his eyes traveling the ground as they walked, still concealing any type of emotion he was showing. "That...with this kind of thing going on, I won't have time to spend with my friends..."

Looking kind of struck, Cloud could only choke up an "oh". Cloud wasn't the kind to hold onto sadness forever, but it stung a bit. Sephiroth was his best friend, one he never thought he might lose. Tifa, Aerith, Squall, and the others were good friends, but Seph was his best friend. He refused to let go of the boy he considered an honor to have close. Cloud smiled a bit, reaching over and tugging on a particularly long strand of silver hair. "Hey, but that's okay," Cloud said, washing away some of the past uncertainties. "Friends forever, right?"

Sephiroth brushed away Cloud's fingers, keeping his eyes trained to the floor. He stopped walking. Cloud waited patiently for an answer. Of course he recognized what Sephiroth was doing. He was practicing what Cloud had dubbed 'iceberg training', keeping a strait face, deprived of any emotion. Somehow Sephiroth had begun to get this crazy idea in his head that if you kept your feelings in check, if no one knew what you were feeling, than no one could hurt you. He had begun to do that the very same year he had met Cloud. Sephiroth closed his eyes, "of course".

Sephiroth started to dig in his pockets for something. Seeming to have found what he was looking for, he held it out to Cloud. "You dropped it," Sephiroth laughed. "I'd hate to see Cid's face if you returned home without your light". He dropped the item into Cloud's palm. It was a small glass ball about the size of a marble, white in color that seemed to pulse a pure clear light. It was attached to a long silver chain for wearing around the neck. "It'd be a shame if you never got to give it to that Tifa girl..."

Cloud looked up at Sephiroth, a look of puzzlement written in his eyes. "What?"

"You know," Sephiroth replied smirking. "In times of trouble, if you love someone, you give it to them to keep until the next time you meet. The degree of how bright it glows shows the strengths of that particular person's heart at any given time. It basically a way to keep people together".

"Oh, that. I remember". Cloud grinned sheepishly. "But why did you say Tifa?"

Sephiroth didn't answer, only lifted his head at the doors of the castle which they had reached. It seemed his attitude had changed completely as he shoved the heavy doors open and walked inside.

"Seeya later, kay?" Cloud said brightly.

Sephiroth nodded. "Alright". Cloud turned around, heading down the opposite corridor, towards the rooms he shared with Cid. Somewhat sluggishly, Sephiroth brought himself to the escalation system, taking it upwards until he reached the fifth floor. He pulled an intricately forged key out of his pocket, unlocking his bedroom door. Today was way too exhausting . Sighing heavily, he let himself fall onto his bed, ignoring the fact that Ansem was still waiting for him.

'How am I going to deal with all this?' he thought, closing his eyes. He rolled over to stare at the ceiling. It was something he hadn't done since he was Cloud's age. He couldn't tell Ansem how crappy he felt, he would blame it all on teenage hormones. If that was the case, than Sephiroth hated being sixteen years old.

Unconsciously, he reached inside his shirt collar pulling something out of it, lifting it above his face and letting it dangle. It was his light, almost identical to Cloud's. The white pearl-like orb, imbedded in silver that twisted around it like a serpentine dragons. As it spun around on its chain, light spilled out of his window, catching the crystal and sending colors dancing about the room. But this unknowingly caused him more pain .

'But why did you say Tifa?'

Sephiroth closed his eyes, clenching his teeth. No matter what he did the pain never went away, especially when he said things like that.

'But why did you say Tifa?' the horrible question echoed in his mind again, leaving him gasping for breathe while his heart pinched in his chest.

"I...said it...o-only, because it's that obvious!" he screamed, pain no attention to the crystalline tears that had finally escaped, falling ungracefully from his face.

TBC

Blah, well there, it got out.

I'm concerned that I made Seph too wimpy, but this was before he turned psyco-burn-down-the-world like. It was before Cloud became his enemy. Seph turned out to have this Riku-type personality, and obviously something had to have happen to seriosly alter Seph's personalitly as well as Cloud's. The question is, what happened...? Stay tuned! - Smiley-chan (aka shadow-piper) XD