Hey Everyone, I have an important Authors note at the end, so if you would please take the time to read it, i would be very appreciative. Thank you

Disclaimer: I do not own any Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy characters in this story.

August 23, 2011

6:35 a.m.

"Now, there's no need to cry…"

He leaned in towards the sobbing young girl and stroked her face with his hand. His icy and rough fingers made the girl flinch, "Shh, don't be scared…" He slowly inched closer to her, breathing heavily against her cheek, whispering, "…no need to be scared…"

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz-

Silence filled the room once again as my hand laid on top of the alarm clock, subduing the noise.

"Bloody thing…" I mumble to myself, seeing as how there was no one else in the room.

After I was sure the device had seized its irritable ranting, I slowly lowered my fingers from their position, and peacefully returned to my long-awaited sleep.

"Namine, wake up!"

'God hates me.' I thought whiningly

I turn around very cautiously to see who interrupted me from my beautiful dream land. To no surprise, I see an older male with blonde hair, hovering over my bed. He had the most annoyed expression plastered onto his face, "Your alarm went off." He spoke.

"…" I said nothing.

"Well?"

"…"

"Aren't you gonna get up?" He said with impatience in his voice.

"…"

"Na-mi-ne!"

This was fun.

"Christ, what are you staring at!" He was fuming at this point.

"…something damn hellish from my sight." I said in a monotone voice.

Snap

'Holy shit! What was that?' I thought with fright.

I heard something crack. It sounded as though someone had split a wooden bat in half, and before I knew it, I was getting my ass handed to me by my brother.

"Ahh…ow…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…stop it!" I yelled in between hits, hoping he would stop to the sound of my half-hearted outcries.

"Cloud please!" With that, the hitting ceased.
'That was exhausting…'

After I eventually caught breathe; I carefully looked up from my arms, not lowering my guard, and eyed the deadly weapon in his right hand in which he used to attack me.

"Had enough?" He said without a hint of weariness in his voice.

"Really…a pillow?" I gave him an annoyed look.
He raised the object over his head, ready to strike again, "Okay okay I'll get up!" I said too fast for any human ear to hear.

He furrowed his eyebrows together to give me a look of disappointment and mumbled something I could barely make out, "…no fun…"
Without a second glance he chucked the pillow at my head and turned around, exiting the room.

'He actually enjoyed that!' I thought, pushing the pillow behind me.

I became scared with the words Cloud had spoken. Not waiting for him to return I quickly got out of bed, grabbing my things, and rushed into the bathroom.

I was out of the shower within 15 minutes, and continued with my process of getting ready. I didn't feel like doing anything special to my hair, so I just decided to blow dry it straight and comb a partial of it so that it hung over my right shoulder.

I put on a little bit of lip gloss and a small amount of blush, determining I looked good enough; I headed out through the bathroom door. I walked over to my bed and picked up my uniform. I put on my shirt, a white short-sleeve classic collar blouse, leaving the first 2 buttons open, a light blue plaid skirt, navy blue knee-high socks, some black shoes, and tied a solid blue tie which hung below the undone buttons.

After I was finished putting on my clothes, I reached for my school bag under my bed and smiled as I carefully placed a white sketchbook within the carrier.

I turned around to look at myself in the mirror to see if I need to fix anything. According to people I was, what was known as, a "natural beauty" with fair skin, golden blonde hair that reached just a little past my shoulders, and I also had that "killer body" that most models would die for.

"Hmph…" My eyebrows squinted together at my appearance. I was never one to dwell on such superficial things, so if I was complimented I would give a small 'thank you' and carry on with the rest of my day.

'I feel like I'm missing something...' I pondered a little, but soon cast aside that nonchalant feeling. Taking one last glance at myself, I decided I was satisfied with my appearance, and left out the bedroom door. With my bag in hand, I started dragging it down the long hallway.

When I reached the kitchen, I saw my older brother standing over the counter top, staring blankly at the metal object that sits on it. I leaned on the door frame that connected to the hallway,
"If you stare at the toaster long enough, people will think you have mental problems." I said to him hoping to get an answer. To my luck, no response.

"…did ya burn it?" I said with a hint of amusement in my voice.

He stiffened at my comment and hung his head down from the embarrassment. I could only smile at his child-like actions; it was so out of character for him. Usually he's calm and it seems like he always has everything together. He wears this hard expression on his face, hardly ever showing his emotions, and never really let's you know what he's thinking. The aura around him is the type for guys to be envious of, and the girls to go crazy for.

'He's changing little by little.'

I forgot to mention this earlier, but it's only just me and my brother. An incident happened a couple years back, and he's taken care of me since.

I was so lost in my train of thought that I never realized we were already in the car, and on the way to my school. That is, until Cloud spoke and interrupted my thinking, "Are you nervous?" He sounded like he collected his composure before we left the house.

"Why would I be?" I replied without any trace of nervousness in my voice. I looked at him, but his gaze was fixated on the road.

"It's just a simple question that only requires a simple answer." He said in a deep, monotone voice.

I gave him a small smile that said 'I'm fine', but I knew he didn't believe me. He just looked at me from the corner of his eye and said nothing. That was something I liked about Cloud, he was never one to pry.

"Here…" Cloud grunted as he reached one hand behind his seat pulling out some blue fabric and handing it to me.

I grabbed it from his hand and unraveled the piece of cloth. It was a small navy blue cardigan with pockets on each side. I stared at it blankly and slowly pulled it up to my nose, "It smells like you."

"It's been in my car for a week or so." Cloud said putting both hands on the wheel, making a left turn onto a street.

"So that's where I left it…" I said finally realizing why I felt something missing this morning. "You never bothered to give it to me until now?" I said lifting my head to look at him. I honestly didn't care what the answer would be.

"It was something irrelevant to me till now."

I understood what he meant. I placed the sweater in my lap and looked out the window as we rolled up to the black gates, which surrounded the school like a prison.

"It's going to be empty without you there…" I said in a soft voice never taking my gaze from the big building. My brother had graduated from the school last year and was now attending a university not too far from here.

He pulled into the parking lot and switched the car gear to park.

"…are you sure you're going to be okay?" He asked once again. He didn't want to show it, but you could tell he was worried.

I finally turned my head towards him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before speaking, "I can handle this, I'm a big girl now." I gave him a smile of reassurance.

He looked at me then gave me a small smile in return before shooing me out of the car. I walked up to the curb and waited there until I saw my brother drive away in his Mercedes Benz. Once he was out of sight, I put on my cardigan, not bothering to button it, and slung my backpack over one shoulder. I looked up towards the old Italianate style school building, and read the sign that was engraved in front, Twilight High.

'This is it. For the next 3 years, this is my life.' I let out a sigh.

With that embedded into my mind, I started my painfully slow walk towards the entrance.

My name is Namine Strife, 15 years old. I am a sophomore attending Twilight High. I thought it was going to be another doleful year, but I didn't know that each step I took towards that building was another step towards a different future.

Author's note:

Hey everyone, long time since you've heard from me. :)
Some of you may have read my story, "Shelter From the Rain", well after asking for peoples opinion, I saw that I had more criticism than positive feedback. Don't get me wrong, I am really appreciative of it and that's why I decided to rewrite my story. This time around, I came to develop a...more complex plot than what I had originally started with :3
It's been a long time since I've written anything, so I'm not sure if my writing style is suitable (or elegantly worded out -.-) but I thought I should give it another shot :)

I really hope to improve my writing, grammar, etc. so please bear with my ill-educated English and my childish imagination :D I have been thinking about the rating for this. I will keep it at T for awhile, but if you feel that the chapters are becoming more coarse and violent, please let me know and I will change the rating to M.

I really appreciated all those positive and negative reviews I got from my previous work, and I hope those reading will continue to watch and read my story :)
Please don't be afraid to review, I would love to improve my story. This time around, I'm going full force brah ;)
wish me luck guys :)