Tapping the tip of his pencil irritatingly on the dull desk before him, Cloud exhales deeply, his eyelids drooping as his ears pick up the only sound in the large detention room – that purposefully slow clock. His cheek resting on his palm, with elbow propped up on the table before him, his grip slides slightly as his focus decreases even more. Those hours of staying awake on the phone to Zack the night before begin to catch up with him. A sharp skid of the elbow, a slip of the wrist and his face smacks hard on the wooden table top before him, the thud proving there is life in this room after all.

"FUCK!" Yells the blonde, his forehead dented into the wood, shooting pains rush through up to his head and seem to dismiss that boredom for a few seconds before he sighs, and continues to leave his head lifelessly on what he thinks may as well be his death bed.

Hearing the door hinges creak in their own pain, the Year 12 peels his face from the table to see another student moodily swing his bag under a desk and park seat behind it. His shoulder length brown locks, narrowed but deeply brown eyes and questionable scar running from forehead to cheek confirms Cloud's puzzlement. It was Squall, or 'Leon' as his friends knew him. One happening to be the Year 10 boy, Sora, and being younger brother to Cloud explains how he realises the stranger, only to him he's known as 'that moody shit,' and to just about everyone else too. Not only this, but Cloud had spent around 10 other detentions with the troublesome teenager in the past couple of months – and they are both oddly proud of it.

Sighing with boredom once more, he begins to tap his pencil on the desk and slowly begins to regret stealing Professor Sephiroth's metallic ruler. Not only did he receive an hour's detention that following afternoon, but also a purpled bruise on his shoulder as revenge from the ruler itself, as Zack put it – ever so cheerfully.

"How long they got you for this time?" Comes the dark, broody voice of the brunette a few desks in front of Cloud.

"A bloody hour…and you?" He raises an eyebrow slightly the Year 11 swivels round in his seat to lean against the desk behind, his eyes rolling as he shares the same fate.

"Same."

"Ah…" As the blonde receives a nod in return, he leans back in his seat and watches as the younger teen begins to search around the room. "…What'd they get you for anyway?"

"Fighting."

"…Fair enough," Shrugs Cloud, swinging his legs up onto the desk and continues to view the brunette searching through cuboards and draws just for any escape from that looming boredom. Not so surprised at his answer though, seeing as Leon's rival – Seifer – is always aimlessly flirting with the brunette's popular girlfriend Rinoa.

"How about you?"

"Stealing a ruler," The blonde blinks, realising how pathetic that sounded.

"…?"

"Professor Sephiroth…" Continues Cloud, as Leon nods in understanding and shrugging before both their ears detect the sound of footsteps approaching from the corridor adjacent to the door. Skidding back down onto his seat in perfect timing, the Headmaster of Hollow Bastion High, Ansem 'The Wise,' steps inside, surveying both of the school boys before sighing and tutting. Both the blonde and brunette roll their eyes, but those sinister dark hazelnut eyes of Leon's seem to relatively pull off an evil glare at the teacher at the same time, compared to that pathetic excuse for a glare from the blonde's blue eyes, which frankly – would send Professor Sephiroth into tears of laughter.

"Boys, what is this…the 9th, 10th time -?"

"11th." They both correct the old man at the same time, and a smirk mirrors in their lips.

"Yes anyway, why can you not get along with your fellow students Squall?"

"Leon." Glares the brunette, his arms folding as his leather, fur collared jacket tightens over his slightly obvious muscles.

"Oh alright, Leon then, and Cloud – if you really want a ruler, you can buy one from the school for only 3 Munny." The Year 12 just blinks at the Headmaster, as the old man seriously believes he's here for theft because he really wants a ruler. Leon laughs under his breath, knowing the exact thoughts scanning through Cloud's brain like scrolling text on a monitor.

"Both of you will write out lines for the next hour then, hopefully it will teach you some discipline." Standing back up and exiting the room to retrieve the needed equipment, the Year 11 turns back around to face his older friend as the expected has once again happened.

"Where shall we hide this time?" Standing up, Leon glances around as Cloud scans the room and nods at the janitor Barret's closet at the back of the room.

"There?"

The brunette walks up to the closet and opens it to find a small dark room, that's more like a hut, "It's big enough…" Adds the blonde.

"Alright, it's better than that teacher's coat cuboard like last time." Leon states, recalling that three hour-long wait in the foul coat closet while two mysterious teachers seemed to be 'going at it' in the room it was situated in.

Hearing those footsteps once again approach the detention room, Cloud pushes Leon headfirst into the gloomy closet, diving inside himself and letting the latch slip shut as they hear the Headmaster enter the now empty room.

"Oh Heaven's above – gone again?!" Slamming the papers down onto the desk he storms out, his yells still audible from inside the pitch black closet as the two teens begin sniggering to themselves as their plan proves foolproof once more.

After a wait of around fifteen minutes as usual, Cloud pulls himself up on something he doesn't really want to know too much about and reaches for the door handle, sensing his friend picking himself up from whatever he was sitting on too. Clutching his palm around it, he goes to twist it open when he finds it jammed, blinking and shuffling the doorknob as hard as he can.

"Let me." Pushing the blonde aside into the small space behind him, the brunette snatches up the handle in his leather gloved hand and attempts to turn it, finding it locked shut too.

"Um…" Begins Cloud.

"Shit." Finishes Leon. Even in the dark, they could tell that worried expression was placed upon both their faces, and only increased when they heard those distant clangs of the hallway lights being shut off one by one, plunging the entire High School into darkness one light at a time. Being in that school for just over 4 years, or 5 years in Cloud's case – they both knew that those lights were turned off by the last person in the building, or the last known person in the building as it now stands.

"…We're locked in, and everyone's gone home…aren't we?" Sighs Cloud as his eyes adjust a fraction to the dim light, able to see the dark figure of his friend nod and slump besides the blonde on the wall.

"No one comes back until morning." Adds Leon, Cloud glancing at him and sarcastically thanking him for lightening the mood. "There has to be another way out of here."

"There isn't, there's a sky light but it's too high up," offers the blonde, as they both tilt up their chins to see the far too small to fit through window in the low roof of the dimly lit closet.

"Fan. Fucking. Tastic."