A New Life

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts although I wished to do so.

A/N: I have been busy lately so I didn't pay any attention to FFn or writing since Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Please forgive me and enjoy yourself with this chapter. I was planning to upload this on Valentine's Day but something came up so it had to be delayed until now. Happy Belated Valentine's Day!


She was the Mastermind of his life and he was just another one of her pawns to get what she wanted. He was being played right under his very nose but still, he couldn't free himself form the girl's evil wrath. She would skip around with glee at how her plan was working. And he would try hard not to dig a hole and buried his head in it.

But hell, this was very embarrassing.

It was just three minutes after he and Yuffie had entered the school. The raven-haired girl had managed to persuade his mother and even confessed everything. Even the matter on which Cloud was being bullied at school was not left out. But at least he didn't die by his mother's intensified glares and worried looks this morning.

The blonde had protested about starting his new look today. But the raven-haired girl arrived just in time to go off with Cloud to school. Sometimes, he really does hate that girl. She could see through everything.

And now, what?

Right, he was being stared at a lot by students whenever he passed by. It was humiliating. But Yuffie didn't seem to be disturbed by it. She just continued with her walk, humming gleefully at how her plan was working. Now, if only she could figure out how to make Cloud walked into the always-so-scheduled-tight Leon…

Cloud was trying madly not to let himself indulged in those faint whispers which he happened to overhear at that moment. The blush on his cheek deepened gravely as he heard what they called him.

"Who's that cute guy?"

"No idea. Never seen him around before."

"He does look a teensy bitsy familiar though."

"You must be imagining things. How come I don't know our school got a hottie like him?"

"Well, since you're a blockhead, you must have a hard time noticing your surrounding. I had to agree though, he IS hot and very cute."

"Face it, you like him."

"And you don't?"

"Shut up."

"What about the current hottest guy in school?"

"You mean Leon?"

"Who else?"

"If you considered comparing him and Leon, I did vote for Leon although I could go after that cutie anytime."

Giggles.

Leon. His head spinning from all the attention he was getting ever since he set foot into the school. Millions of girls giggled at the corner whenever Cloud accidentally looked at them. A couple of guys drooled and waved at him while some other more….was that a flirt?! Cloud's blush deepened further as he shook his head, trying to set his mind on his cousin who was struggling to keep the way clear for him.

Maybe now, Leon could notice him. But who was he kidding? Looks won't change anything. He was still the bookworm he was before and will always be that bookworm. Only his outer had changed so will it influenced people that much? His reputation won't change no matter how he looked. That was one thing which Cloud had gave in since he decided on this.

But Yuffie seemed reassured. The girl promptly turned around and gave her cousin a small wink, grinning madly like she was hiding something.

Cloud tried to suppress the urge to groan loudly. Oh great. This was going to be a very long day.


Leon was brooding. He was, as usual, seated well behind his desk, fending off his admirers, crushes and (he shuddered softly) fan girls. Leon wasn't too happy at the fact that this happened almost everyday of his life. He wasn't also pleased at being nicknamed the current popular of all populars. Who came up with that lame nickname anyway?

It was messing with his tight schedules and Leon never liked that. He was almost tempted to murder his friend, Riku, for calling him to ask about basketball in the middle of doing his homework. But now, the rapid chatting and questions was making his head ached. He had tried to fend them off by glaring at them.

Sadly, it didn't work.

There were times when he wanted to shout at the horde to leave him the hell alone but that would spoil his image. After all, he DID have his reputation to maintain. There was definitely no way he would be caught dead screaming at the top of his lungs for them to shut the hell up. No way. He was after all, the school's prince and idol, Leon, always so calm and collected. Definitely not one to loose his cool so easily.

The brunette narrowed his eyes repeatedly before glancing at his watch and looked around the room every now and then as if he was searching for something or someone. He grunted irritably as a girl blocked his view, turning back again to face the window.

"Leon." The voice was soft and smooth. "Have you seen Yuffie?"

Leon snorted. "I guess not," came the smooth voice again, only this time, it was more of a dull tone. "You don't suppose she ran off with Rinoa and Tifa, do you? Those two are a rather bad influence on her."

Leon tried not to roll his eyes at the girl's comment, his eyes focused on a loose tree branch outside, watching it intently as if it was very interesting. As if Yuffie need someone to teach her everything she knows…

"You sure you haven't seen her? Where could she have gone to?"

Fidget. Fidget.

"Leon. Are you even listening to me? That girl will burn down the whole school if she feels like it!"

Twitch. Twitch.

'"Something bad must have happened. I can feel it… Leon! We got to go find her now!"

SLAM!

Everybody in the classroom stopped talking and adverted their view to one irritated Squall Leonheart. To say that he was not pleased at this was an understatement. The girl, surprised at the loud noise, jumped back a bit. "I'm going out for a walk." He stated firmly, glaring at the girls behind him. Dare they follow him again; there would be consequences before stalking out of the classroom coolly.

The girl blinked and sighed. "There goes my help."

"Aerith? What happened?"

The girl, Aerith blinked again, whirled on her heels to see Rinoa and Tifa who apparently just walked in. "We just saw sir icy walk out that door."

"Yeah." Rinoa said. "We even took the liberty of greeting the prince formally. He just walked past us as if we don't even exist."

Tifa nodded. "Another one of his Leon mood?" She laughed. "If he's going to keep that up, there's no way he's going to get himself a girlfriend..."

"…or a boyfriend for that matter." Rinoa finished firmly.

Aerith smiled weakly, gazing at Leon's direction and went back to look at her two friends who was now criticizing Leon and his little attitude problem. The flower girl sighed. The male brunette has been acting strange all morning. Something was definitely up. Setting the thoughts aside, Aerith looked up again. "By the way, have you girls seen Yuffie? She's never this late before." She asked with a worried tone in her voice.

Tifa and Rinoa exchanged confused looks and shrugged. "Nope. Sorry."

The brunette sighed again. Yuffie was never late for school and this worried the flower girl a lot. Maybe the raven-haired girl had done something wrong, TOTALLY wrong. And she would have to take reasonability for what had happened again. After all, she DID promised her mother she would take care of that "ninja". The girl was just never herself ever since that Zack's unfortunate death.

She knew it had a great impact on her and yet, she couldn't do anything about it. Yuffie was like a sister to her. If anything happened to her, Aerith swore she couldn't even live anymore.

"Are you sure you guys haven't seen her?" The brunette asked again.

Tifa furrowed her brows together and rubbed her chin, appeared to be in deep thought. "Well…now that you mentioned it. I DID see her just now at the entrance. She was with this really cute guy."

Aerith's jaw dropped. "W-what did you say?!"

"Yeah. She was with this cute guy. They were walking together. Then never saw her again," exclaimed Tifa. "Must be her boyfriend. I had to admit. Even I will fall for a cutie like him anytime."

Rinoa giggled. And Aerith fainted.


It was tiring really. Whoever knew that this can be such hard work? Parading through the halls was never Cloud's KIND of thing but his stupid but clever cousin enjoyed it. A lot. Seriously, girls these days. Nobody could understand them. He know he won't. It would be too troublesome. The blonde had been spending the past hour trying to hide himself behind Yuffie every time whenever people start staring or whispering.

Cloud wondered what's so interesting about this. They never seen a transformation before? Of course, he still doubt they knew it was him already. Although Yuffie told the blonde she can't wait to look at their faces when they knew it was the school's infamous book worm. Hah! Take that Seifer! Let's see what you're going to do with me now!

But still, it probably won't change anything. Cloud is still himself, despite what he looked like now. There was no way that people would start liking him just because he changed his look. Following Yuffie, the blonde walked past the others and headed towards the direction of his locker. And just as what he had predicted earlier, Seifer stood there waiting with the ever huge grin on his face. Probably having a mental meeting in his mind on how to screw him again.

"Hey there cutie. What brings you here to Radiant High?"

Cloud guessed not. Nobody and he meant nobody has ever called me that before. It sounded weird but nice. But seeing it coming out of Seifer's mouth, Cloud did have to say that it made me feel like puking. Big time.

Jolting, Cloud was near to having a mental breakdown when Yuffie chose to open her mouth and chirped, "Hi Seifer!"

Seifer barely even grunted. "So where's your puny cousin. He's late and I did like to show him a thing or two for making Master Seifer when he comes later."

Yuffie bit the bottom of her lip and stated, "That won't be necessary since C-"

Before Yuffie could finish the sentence, Cloud sprung into action. The blonde immediately clasped her mouth shut, smiled weakly at Seifer who blinked in confusion before dragging her off towards the other end of the corridor. He looked frantically around the area to make sure no one was there except for Mr. Highwind who was currently in his office, marking some exam papers, cursing every now and then about how stupid the fucking brats are since none of them got the answers right.

The raven-haired girl spun free from his grip and almost shouted out. "Cloud! I was going to-"

"Whatever you're thinking. NO!"

"But-"

"No buts this time. If Seifer knew that it was me. I would have been more than dead. I can just picture his face now, mocking me, laughing at me at how stupid I was to think that it would even work in the first place or…"

"Fall head over heels for you too."

"YUFFIE!"

The raven-haired girl giggled exasperatedly, clasping her hands together as she did so. "Have you notice the way Seifer looked at you just now? He was practically drooling!" she squealed like she was some kind of a mad fan girl. Her voice then dropped into a low whisper. "Or probably mentally screwing you in his mind."

Okay…He really doesn't feel so good right now. Cloud felt like he was son the verge of loosing his insanity already. "Probably the end of the world…if he knew it was me." Cloud lowered his head and said grimly. He knew he was exaggerating but what if it really happen? The blonde agreed readily to this transformation to get a new reputation here not to get the same old life he had before.

Noticing the worried look on her cousin's face, Yuffie smiled and reassured him one more time, patting his shoulders. "We're not over with this yet so stop being such a paranoid. If you want to win here, you got to be confident."

The blonde nodded, straightening his clothes so that it looked nice, not ruffled like just now when a thousand of people swarmed in on him.

"Now…" The raven-haired girl began in a thoughtful manner. "Since no one is bugging you right now. How about we take some pictures?"

"Why? I thought you have my pictures already." The blonde asked, quirking his eyebrow in confusion.

"Well...about that. That's the old one. I did like some new faces of my very favorite cousin too." She winked.

A blush crept its way to Cloud's pale cheek as he laughed nervously. "Sure. I guess."

Yuffie cheered and took out her portable digital camera, took a few snapshots of Cloud before exclaiming lout loud happily. "Yay!"

"Huh?"

"These pictures will get me a fortune!" she exclaimed cheerfully, skipping around the corridor in an enthusiastic manner. Confused at first, then everything was starting to fall into place. Feeling his anger reaching its peak, he deadpanned. "Yuffie. Was that why you asked me to follow you through the halls?"

"Well, yeah. Since now, everyone knew you so I don't have to advertise again. Now I can get that camcorder I always wanted!" She laughed, scratching the back of her head nervously.

"Yuffie…" Cloud deadpanned once more. "You used me!"

"Well, you earned your place here and I got my camcorder. We got a two in one win here, Cloudster. Not even you can complain about that."

Cloud glowered angrily at her before walking away furiously, ignoring his cousin's shouts. Yuffie's right about the two in one win thing so why he was this getting so worked up for? In his determination to get away from everyone, the blonde ran and bumped into someone with a loud yelp. Falling bottom first onto the floor, Cloud looked up and angrily cursed, "Are you blind or what? Can't you see where…"

His voice trailed off as surprised blue orbs locked into annoyed gray orbs which belonged to the one and only, Squall Leonheart.


I just feel like ending it there so don't kill me on the cliffhanger thing. :D

Answering Reviews:

Xephlyn: Thanks for poitning out my mistakes. I owe you one!

Crazylucy88: I know. I was having a hard time to describe Cloud as a nerd. -shudders-

NatsuTsuki: Thank you for volunteering to be my beta! XD But I feel like I want to try this out on my own so when the grammar is really getting bad...maybe I can go to you then?

Review please?