Hello everyone! This is titled 'Tasting The Darkness.' I was washing dishes one day. Well while doing this, at one point I reached into the sink where I grabbed something, something soft, and slick, squishy even. Like a piece of rubber maybe. Pulling my hand out of the water and opening my hand, I find myself holding a dead mouse. It freaked me out. I dunno why, but after that, this idea came to me. Strange?

Disclaimer- I don't own Kingdom Hearts

Tasting The Darkness

Prologue

The keyblade master had sealed the door to Kingdom Hearts, and Ansem was blown away with the power of light. Darkness was sealed it seemed, and all of the heartless were dwindling in numbers in every world. Worlds that had been destroyed have been brought back. Though the victims to the Heartless were not. Though the battle was done, the struggle was only beginning.

Traverse Town, which was once swarming with offworlders lost it's population as the worlds were brought back. Everyone had been eager to leave, to return from whence they came. Home. Traverse Town, bearing too many hard memories, forced Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith back home to Hollow Bastion. They hoped to pick the pieces back up.

Upon returning home they started with a 'family' meeting in the library to set out a plan of action. It's only the three of them, how will they be able to live in such a large castle? Is there something they could do? Some way they could bring people to Hollow Bastion? They needed some good news. Something to bring their broken spirits up.

The good news came in from of their oldest friend, Cid Highwind, the gummi ship tech extraordinaire. He had been the one to create the gummi ship that brought the group off of Hollow Bastion nine years ago, when the Heartless first invaded their world. "Guess who I found?" The gummi pilot announced.

Standing silently behind the older man, half hidden behind the doorframe stood someone they thought they'd never see again. Someone dear to them, a lost piece of their family. Cloud Strife, with his blonde spikes, piercing blue eyes, and buster sword, he's what they remember last time they saw him. They had run into him once at the Coliseum. But after losing to Sora, even paired up with Leon, Cloud had disappeared, continuing on his journey to find the light he had lost.

Cloud had always been a quiet man, and had this strange darkness about him. He had always thought that the only way to defeat darkness, was to use darkness itself. And so he had left the group in search of a means to use darkness against itself.

Aerith Gainsborough is the first to confront their long lost friend. The two, years before Cloud had abandoned them, had been teenage sweethearts. It's evident in the woman's eyes that the feelings are still there.

Leon in his own way, welcomes his friend back home with a short nod, while the youngest of the group, Yuffie, can hardly contain her excitement. She bounces on her feet, biting the inside of her mouth to keep her mouth flapping off at a hundred miles an hour. She can tell that the moment between Aerith and Cloud is to be something special, and she doesn't want to be blamed for ruining it.

So Yuffie remains quiet, and watches with observing eyes as the two come together in the center of the library. Aerith welcomes him like she welcomes anyone home, with the warmest of hugs, except this one is one that Yuffie would have to say, that Aerith doesn't want to let go.

The young ninja feels giddy as she watches the two, watches as Cloud's hands encircle around Aerith's small waist. It's all one big soap opera to the ninja as she watches Cloud lean forward, pressing his lips to Aerith's. Chewing on her bottom lip she stares as Aerith's eyes drift close, and turning her gaze towards Cloud's face, she expects to see the same of him. Except he stares right back at her, his eyes seeming to hold nothing as he stares at her.