A.N. WOOT Chapter two!! I'm LOVING the way i have this planned buahahahaa!!! -evil face- SOOOO Anyway....here's chap 2....i'm excited, cuz i have the next chapter written already, and some of the 4th one, and plans on the 5th, so it'll all be here soon!! The Christmas chapter is going to rock, the New Year's chapter is....well...you'll see :(

SO wthout further ado, chapter two of The Silver Lining!!! (you may not get the title now, but you'll understand it later, i promise!!)

Disclaimer: NO i don't fucking own Kingdom hearts, unfortuneately, because if i did...oh fans of yaoi, if i did, our dreams would come true! AKUROKU, ZEMYX, XEMSAI, RIKUSOR, AND ALL THE OTHER HOT PAIRINGS IN A LARGE, 400 HOUR PLAY HENTAI GAME!!! WOOOOOT!!! -koff- Ahem. sorry bout that. :D


ILY, But I Can't Let You Know

Cloud POV

I read for hours, the words of the Grimm's carrying me away, to places of magic and castles, of prince charmings, witches and broomsticks, and wishes coming true. It was beautiful, and sometimes brutal. It was like our world, only better. Less cold and hate filled, when something bad happened, there was a legitimate reason, when someone hurt you, it wasn't because you were a different colour, gender, orientation. It was lovely.

I drank the last of my tea, and finished my cookie slowly…I didn't want to leave this place, Moon in a Cup. It was peaceful, and peace was something you didn't get a lot when you lived with my brother…if it wasn't his noise, it was his friend's, or a video game, or a movie…this tiny little coffee shop was amazing.

Maybe that's why whatshisname comes here? I thought to myself, brushing some of my blonde hair out of my eyes. Cuz it's quiet, and It's not like some bully is going to mess with him here…hell a bully wouldn't come within twenty feet of those bookshelves. food for thought, that boy was.

I pondered him all the way back to Sora's house. Maybe I should stop just standing there, and watching him get teased and beat up? It's not like anyone would mess with me, if I stood up for him, I was in really good shape, and they all knew I fenced obsessively. Only way they could get the jump in me was if they ganged up…in about a twenty to one scenario, and one little geek with bad clothes, that wasn't that big of a deal.

Yes, Cloud the Stoic, was now to be, Cloud the Saint, protector of the badly dressed and geeky. I liked my new role in life. Driving as slowly as was legally possible, I headed on a melancholy way to pick up Roxas, putting my stoic mask back on. Goddess, I did not want to pick him up…can't I just leave him there? Please? Pretty Please?

No?

Well fine then. I'll just pout on the inside.

I was actually starting to enjoy my long drive when I noticed the ragged boy walking the same direction. Damn, he was fast, if he had walked all this way! Decision time…start my new crusade today, to help the poor kid, or wait until tomorrow? I could always wait until tomorrow, it would save me gas after all. But, my new spirit of charity was trying its damnedest to make my stoic heart of stone break melt, and I couldn't seem to refuse. And the added benefit of driving him wherever he needed to go would make my trip to Roxas longer…that thought won me over completely. Today would be the day that I would start the "Better the Life of a Lesser" crusade.

I pulled over behind him onto the shoulder of the highway slowly, and honked. I tried hard not to laugh on the outside as he jumped about three feet into the air. I hadn't meant to startle him that much, but gosh, it was funny. A small smile twitched onto my face, and I chuckled quietly.

"Hey, do you need a ride?" I called out, as I rolled down my window. A look of unease and distrust slid over his face, and I was glad that I had never picked on him before, because I knew if I had, my Crusade would be over before it began. I knew I was recognisable from school, I mean come one, I was one sexy sum'bitch, and no one besides Roxas and my dad had my hair, the blonde spikes seemed to be a sole trait to the male members of my family.

"Why are you offering me a ride, Cloud Strife?" his voice was soft, and I had to strain to hear it over the traffic, and the sound of my car engine. "Why should someone as popular as you, offer Me, a ride?" distrust, and unhappiness.

"Because it's windy, and it looks like it's going to rain-" which it sure as hell looked like it would, those nasty clouds were just aching to pour, I was sure of it "-and you're walking, and you've been walking all the way from town. So, of course, as a nice guy, I would offer you a ride." Ha. Beat that simple logic.

"If you were a nice guy, wouldn't you have been nicer to me before now?" Oh. Touché. He shifted nervously as the wind suddenly picked up. "And besides, its not like its cold or anything." Ha, Liar. You're shivering. Thunder boomed in the distance and I could see, he was getting even more nervous, hell who wouldn't?

"Look, just get in the car? The wind is picking up, it's getting cold, it's thundering, and it's about to start pouring." I reached over like those really cool guys in the movies do, and opened the passenger side door. "I don't know your name, but if I did, I'd use it along with this: get the hell in the car, so you don't get soaked."

One more large crack of thunder, and the start of one of the most epic storms of the year changed his mind for him, I think he would have sill fought with me on the subject if fat little raindrops hadn't started to fall from their gray homes in the sky. Running the short distance to the passenger side door, he was just about to sit down when a huge ass gust of wind blew up and drenched him completely.

"So, which way am I taking you?" I looked over at him, and he shivered again, holding himself tight. I reached down and turned up the heater full blast. "Better?"

"Yes, thanks. Just keep going down the highway, you can drop me off at my turn off." holding shaking hands to the heater, he shivered again. "You can't miss it. Well, you might in this weather…"

"Haha, yeah. Good thing you took me up on my offer, yes?" I was about to start the car when his whole body shook. I grabbed his hands, and started to rub them rapidly in my own larger ones. He was pretty small for a guy our age, I wonder, maybe he wasn't in my grade after all? If so, those bastards…you don't beat up a kid younger than you…there had to be a code somewhere against it. "Here, let me help. We might as well wait it out a bit here, that okay? And take that jacket off, its soaked all the way through."

"N-no it's fine." he looked down and started to blush. I chose to ignore it, and continued to rub his ice cold hands, all from that one gust of wind? I mean, I know it wasn't exactly summer outside, but still it wasn't that cold, was it? Of course I was wearing a fleece zip off hoodie, and he was wearing a patched up holey, thin little thing.

"Okay. But you'd get warmer faster." his hands had finally reached a semblance of warmth, and the rain which up until a few seconds ago was pouring with the fury that is our local weather let up and I could finally see the road again. "Okay, keep an eye out for your turn off, I have to make sure some asshole doesn't kill us."

Good thing about all this? Ha, I wasted a good 15 minutes. Also, since the weather was so horrid, I got to drive really slow, for a reason other than postponing the arrival of my clone. And his bitch fits from the seventh inner circle of hell.

"So…what's your name? I mean, you know mine, but I don't know yours." I asked, my eyes on the road and the rampaging idiots around me. I mean, come on guys, its raining, the roads are semi flooded, and you're doing 70 miles per hour? What the fuck?

"Asshole! He just cut me off! Ooh, if I had a gun I would-" I growled, flipping off the asshole that had just swerved in front of me.

"M'names Leon." Oh, I had company, I forgot. Shit! Stoic, stoic, stoic. "And I don't think I've ever seen you with anything besides that stupid stony expression on your face." he started to laugh, and I had an urge to kill him. He had seen me without my stoicness!

"Don't tell anyone that I'm actually capable of feeling, it would give me a bad rep." I laughed. I don't know why I did, really I don't. I just couldn't help it. And it's not like it mattered anyway, since he had already seen me pissed and yelling at someone.

"Like I would actually tell anyone? I'd just get beat up for lying." Leon looked down at his hands, as if they were the most interesting things in the world. His long brown hair cascaded down around his face in wet stringlets, and I had an insane urge to push them back. Why would he hide his face behind his hair like that?

"But it wouldn't be a lie, would it? I mean, I am driving you wherever your headed, and I did just cuss some guy out in front of you and threatened him bodily harm." I was confused.

"But they wouldn't believe me, and it's not like you would actually back up the story, would you?" he was still looking at his hands in his lap. What was so interesting about them, I mean seriously? "'Course, it's not like I'd talk to anyone anyway. I tend to try to not be noticed."

"Sure I would. I don't lie, and what would be the point in not backing you up?" I paused. "And I don't see why you hide yourself so much, it's not like it helps you anyway. They still beat you up, don't they?"

"I hide because I don't have nice clothes. I mean, the only thing I have is this jacket and a few shirts, and this pair of pants. And also, I hide because I'm not like you alpha males, that's mostly why I get beat up." he sighed.

"What do you mean, by that?"

"I mean, I don't have the big muscles, I don't go around fucking girls, I don't drink, I can't do regular guy stuff. I find it all boring."

"So? There's a lot of quiet guys at school, and it's not like you're a nerd. I think you classify as the 'poet or artist' type."

"I can't draw worth a shit, and no one would read my poetry, I'm sure."

"Why not? Has anyone ever read it before? Have you given it a shot?" New mission in the Crusade: Get him to let me read his poetry. And see if I had any old clothes to give to him.

"There's my turn off, you can drop me off here though. I have to do something." he pointed to the accursed yellow sign and paopu tree. The damn things seemed to be haunting me today.

"Wow, your going the same way I was. Are you sure you want to get out here though? It's still pouring." I turned, splashing in a large mud puddle that had gathered in a pot hole.

"Yeah, it's fine. Thanks for the ride Cloud." he opened the door before I came to a full stop. Cold frigid air invaded the cab of my car, and icy rain drops blew in and hit my bare hands. He wanted to walk somewhere in this?

"I'll see you at school tomorrow! I'll be bringing you something too, okay?" he paused half in and half out of the door for just a moment, then shrugged.

"Sure I guess. If you want to be seen at school with some loser like me." and slamming the door, he walked off quickly, jumping the fence and making his lone, cold and wet way through a corn field. I waited for a bit, unsure of what to do. I really wish I could be sure he was all right…I mean, it wouldn't be good for my new friend to get pneumonia and die in a corn field, would it?

I shook my head. I had talked to him for only what, fifteen minutes? And I was already excited about seeing him tomorrow. I usually didn't make friends that fast, or care so much about seeing them so much. It had taken me months to open up around Tifa and Aerith, my two best friends, and with this kid, I had let the mask fall completely in very little time.

My phone rang at me, an annoying voice breaking my concentration. One of Roxas' favourite and annoying songs thrashed it's way from my pocket/ I sighed. I'd have to think more about this at home, Roxas was calling, and I had to answer. Gah, he ruined everything sometimes.

"Hey, yeah, I'm almost there. Okay, okay! Gee Rox, it's not like they've never seen me before."

"Yeh yeh, shut up and get here idiot. I want to get on for WoW so I can level up before the Christmas special. Hurry up!"

I flipped my phone closed, and continued to drive down the road. Sure he'd yell and bitch about me hanging up on him but at the moment I couldn't give a shit. I was too busy planning my Crusade.

Leon POV

I walked quickly through the field, the wet and rain making me shiver uncontrollably as I made my way to my shack, my home away from home. The last fifteen minutes replayed themselves in my head, over and over like some sick rollercoaster.

He was nice to me, Cloud Eliziar Strife. He had offered me a ride, had talked to me like I was a person, and he even said he would bring me something tomorrow at school. He was going to talk to me at school! The Cloud Strife, resident hot stuff at Radiant Garden High. Had talked to me, little old nothing, loser Leon.

Tell you the truth, if I wasn't so damned cold and wet, I would be dancing. I had liked Cloud ever since I had first seen him, four years ago in grade school. I was always the kid that everyone else picked on, because I never had nice things, or nice clothes, and he had stood up for me one day when a bully named Sephiroth (his parents had some strange religious fanaticism, their first four sons were freaks, Riku, their youngest, was okay though.) was holding me face first into a toilet.

"Hey, jerk! Leave him alone!" he had cried, his blonde hair sticking out all over like a halo, his face as beautiful as an avenging angel's. I had almost expected to see a flaming sword, and white wings.

"No. He made fun of Mother." Sephiroth's long silver hair whipped around him like Medusa's tentacles, his sick looking aqua eyes flashing in lusty rage. I hadn't even been the one to say anything about "Yo mama so fat, she went to the super bowl with a spoon." I was just standing there, taking a pee, minding my own damn business. I was the scape goat though, since I was the one no one liked.

"I don't give a shit!" he had grabbed the older and larger boy by the hair and flipped him on his back, foot pressing on his chest. "He's drowning! Get the hell out of here, Sephiroth, before I kick your ass."

"Okay Cloud…but next time, next time you won't be there to save the little punk. I'll make sure of it." nose in the air, he had stalked out of the room, high and mighty. His parents had raised him like a god, really.

And he had yet to fulfil the threat, but Sephiroth never forgets his promises. He still reminded me of it to this day, from prison. I loved getting his letters, so full of trash as they were. He had finally been put away, for rape and attempted murder against his adoring younger brother, Kadaj. If Yazoo and Loz hadn't of been there, the triplets would have become twins. At least they weren't so horrible to anyone anymore, Yazoo's cross-dressing tendencies, Loz's football/lacrosse/hockey most-valued-player status, and Kadaj's kendo club kept them busy enough, they hadn't time to bother anyone.

From that day on, I kind of stalked my blonde angel, not in a creepy way mind you. Just in "I have a total and complete crush on him" and "I wish I wasn't such a loser so he would notice me" ways, nothing too creepy. It's not like I took pictures of him or some creepy stuff like that.

I was in love with him, I had prayed silently for years that he would notice me, that something would happen and he would finally see me. And I guess it had happened. But it hurt still, as much as him not seeing me. No, I think it hurt more, because he had finally noticed, but wasn't into boys. He was dating Aerith. Or Tifa, or both for all I knew. He was as straight as a ruler, but still, he had been nice to me, and I found that that's really all I needed to feel better. A confession of undying love would have been nice, but I'll take what I could get.

I finally reached the shack that I stayed in, when my parent's arguing became too much, and I couldn't take it anymore, which was awesome. The tiny little tool shed wasn't all that much, but it was mine, and through the past year I had beefed it up. Insulation in the form of hay that I had stolen from the fields was tacked against the walls with old rags and sheets, a couple of blankets and blessedly a spare pair of clothes. I rummaged around in the straw that made up a bed, and found the small metal box I kept spare food in, and nibbled on a package of Saltines I found.

It wasn't much, but how could I expect more, when I gave all I had to someone that needed it more than me? And I gave it all gladly, because Sora deserved the best, he was too young and innocent to deal with our parent's shit. I just hoped that mom didn't come home today before Sora's friends left, and that she didn't start yelling till he was safely away in his room, asleep.

I stripped off my wet jacket, and shivered slightly. I think my next little theft will be one of the kerosene lanterns from the barn, for some heat. The straw and hay insulation wasn't going to cut it for winter. My breath came out raggedly in puffs of fog, and I knew I'd be sick tomorrow…how could I not be after all that? Snuggling down into my blankets on my make shift bed, I rested for I don't know how long, trying to get myself warm again. The only things that weren't cold were my hands, the ghosts of Cloud's rubbing against the, the memory of that act of kindness warmed them, as though just the thought of his strong, large hands ministrations was enough to keep the cold at bay.

I loved him. I didn't even know much about him, but I loved him, Cloud Eliziar Strife. My own avenging angel, who, if he kept to his word, was going to bring me something tomorrow, at school. Maybe he was going to be my friend from now on, and I could look at him more openly? Look to him, watch him laugh, talk to him, because if he was my friend then I had a reason, I had permission to do so.

With warm thoughts, and warm hands (though the rest of me was freezing) I fell asleep, dreams of the Brother's Grimm and their stories filling my head.

AN : YAY!!! We see the beginning of the plot...just wait, folks! it gets better/worse! Hit or Miss, let me know review lovies!! :D Until next time, adieu!! -bows-