Cloud sat up quickly in bed the sound of someone screaming bloody murder waking him from his slumber. Leon stirred as well and quickly the two adults practically jumped out of bed as they rushed as fast as they could towards the twin's room. Almost tripping over the rug in the living room as Cloud slammed the door open. The screaming was coming from inside the closet. Cloud opened the door to see Sora and Roxas. Roxas was holding onto a screaming Sora for dear life both of their eyes were red from crying and their faces blotchy.

Cloud went t touch Sora to try and maybe calm the boy down, but Roxas quickly pushed the man back. "Don't touch him! Not while he's like this!" Roxas screamed out as he tightened his grip on Sora before sniffling and rubbing his face against Sora's neck. Sora's screaming started to slowly stifle as he slowly reduced to just loud sobbing as he cried. Roxas didn't speak all he did was gently stroke Sora's hair and rock back and forth until finally Sora slowly settled down and just reduced his crying to whimpering. Roxas looked at Cloud and Leon at that and held on to Sora.

"... Sorry for yelling at you. Sora would have panicked if you touched him. Please don't punish me for yelling..." Roxas whimpered softly.

"No, no, it's fine. Did he have a nightmare?" Cloud asked softly, Roxas looked at the two adults with fear in his eyes as he gently licked his lips.

"... Yeah, I guess you could call it that... We really didn't mean to wake you. Please, I got from here... I know what to do." Roxas softly, and timidly, told them. Cloud looked over a Leon, the two of them clearly debating if they should leave them. Finally, Leon took the first step.

"Very well, Cloud ..." Leon pointed towards the door and Cloud got up slowly, looking over his shoulder at the twins several times as Leon and he walked out of the room. Once Leon shut the door, both of them sighed deeply.

"I hope you have several hundreds of rolls of duct tape because that's how much it's going to take to fix those two." Cloud breathed out heavily as he put his hand over his chest.

"We'll talk to them about it in the morning alright? Let's get back to bed," Leon softly lead Cloud away, back towards their bedroom.

"It is morning," Cloud couldn't help but laugh rather half-heartily.

"Smart-ass."

Roxas gently patted Sora's hair looking at his brother Roxas held onto Sora's hand weakly.

"They didn't separate us like our other foster parents did that's good. Right?" He asked his brother softly, but Sora had already fallen asleep right there on the floor. With his head resting on Roxas's shoulder snoozing away. "I love you, Sora. I promise nobody will hurt you like daddy did again... I just wish you'd talk to me." Roxas shuddered. He wanted his brother to speak to him again, just a simple word would make Roxas the happiest person in the world, but, his brother hasn't spoken, no, it's been so long sense Sora said anything that Roxas couldn't even remember the last thing his brother said.

Roxas picked up Donald and gently placed the stuffed toy in Sora's lap, picking up Goofy, Roxas placed the dog in his lap while he gently shut his eyes, he was tired and ready to get some shut-eye for the night.

Maybe, just maybe, Sora will finally talk to me tomorrow.

That's what Roxas thinks to himself every night, he has to hold on to that little dream of hearing his brother speak he just had too if not he'd become like...

Roxas let out a soft hum as his shoulder was gently shaking; jumping from where he sat at the uninvited touch. Roxas scrambled to get away from the hand, but he paused when he saw it was Leon. Leon was crouching on the floor he gently smiled at Roxas clearly trying to show the child he wasn't threatening him.

"You two slept on the floor?" Leon inquired. Roxas looked at Sora, his brother clutching onto Donald for dear life once more as he tried to not look Leon in the eye.

"... We... I couldn't..." Roxas tried to think of an excuse but just couldn't not with his mind still groggy from sleep.

"It's alright, you both had a rough night, how about some breakfast? Hm? How do you guys like French toast?" Leon asked them softly.

Roxas and Sora looked at one another and then back Leon.

"What's that?" Roxas had to asked and Leon chuckled,

"C'mon, you'll find out. It's really good." Leon told Roxas.

Roxas and Sora both stood up and shyly followed Leon into the kitchen. Sora wrung poor Donald in his hands in fear. Roxas had left Goofy on the floor by accident, so he just settled on holding his brother hand. Getting to the table, the two of them sat next to each other and Roxas watched hungrily as Cloud put some 'French toast' in front of him and Sora, he then poured some brown stuff on top. Sora looked over at Roxas who in turn looked back at Sora both equally confused. Still neither of them reached for their forks, this caused Cloud and Leon to look at one another until finally Leon just nodded at Cloud. "Go on ahead and eat." Cloud told them both. Again, that's all they needed and in sync with one another they both picked up their forks and started to slowly chow down.

Cloud walked over to Leon as his husband was leaning against the counter top; watching the twins while he sipped his coffee. "I'm going to look some stuff up online for a little bid."

"Okay, I can watch them while you do that." With that Cloud walked away into his study. Leon watched the twins slowly eat their food. Both of them looking scared as their eyes were constantly shifting around trying to find any danger. Leon gave out a weak chuckle when the duo were clearly learning how sticky syrup can be. Leon ripped a paper towel off of the roll and ran it under the water getting it wet. He then squeezed the excess water out before cautiously walking over to Roxas first.

"Hey," He announced himself so not to startle the two of them. Roxas looked up a him while Sora put his fork down instantly. "Here, wipe the syrup off of your fingers." He told Roxas as gently as he could as he placed the wet paper towel in his hand. Roxas gingerly took it before he started to slowly wipe the syrup off. Once he was done he turned to Sora and started to help his brother out of the same sticky situation. He watched them for a for moments they cleaned themselves off. They both looked rather adorable as they did so they looked like actual children instead of scared and frightened by everything. Leon perked up when Cloud came back into the room.

"So, I was looking up a couple of things about abused kids, I was thinking maybe we should give Cid a call," Cloud whispered urgently as he pulled Leon away from the twins.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Well, how can we help these two when we know little to nothing on what they faced with that monster of a father?" Cloud brought up quickly to Leon as he looked over at the twins before backing to Leon. "I say we call up Cid and see if we can get him to come over and explain just what happened to those two." Leon looked over at the twins before nodding in agreement.

"I agree."

Cid chewed on the end of his unlit cigarette as him, Leon, and Cloud walked around the park together. Off in the distance, they could see Sora and Roxas both playing with Donald and Goofy away from the other kids.

"So, if we want to help these two we need to know just what they've been through, Cid. We can't skip around the abuse, there's no way." Leon explained to Cid. "Especially if we're going to enroll them into school."

Cid gave a bit of a vexed sigh in response before taking his cigarette out of his mouth to relight. "You only had the kids for a day and you already want their backstory that bad?"

"If we're to help them, yes," Cloud spoke up this time around as he took his eyes off of them for a moment to look at Cid. "I mean look at them, Cid. Sora doesn't talk and has horrible night terrors. Roxas is doing all he can but it's clear that he's been affected just as bad as Sora as well! They need help. They need help that we can't give them because we don't know exactly what it is they faced. You know Roxas told me that their other foster parents separated them when Sora would have night terrors and that would make things ten times worse for them. Cid... please..."

Cid sighed once again before huffing on his cigarette. A bellow of smoke left his nose and mouth as he did so. He kept the corner of his mouth as he started to talk. "Those kids... the abuse they faced went on for five years. Their father was drug addict from what I was told. He was on welfare, but he would sell it all for more drug money. Years and years it went on like that. Then one day the police were called because a teacher noticed that his kids haven't been in school for a good two weeks. The officer on duty said it was absolutely horrible-" Cid paused to take another drag of his cigarette.

"-He said there wasn't any furniture in the whole damn house. Needles everywhere on the floor, yet not a soul was in the house... then he got to the basement. The officer said he just a had a feeling in his gut, even though the door was locked, he said he had to get down there. It took him and three other officers to break the door down." Cid paused again this time to rub his forehead. "All he saw was red. Literally, the entire basement was soaked in blood. He found the twins on a pile of newspaper... he thought for sure they were dead, both of them holding on to each other for dear life, they were so skinny they were almost skin and bone. Roxas was the one to move first... after that... well..." Cid looked over to them. Sora was holding Donald close to his chest now while Roxas seemed to babbling on to Sora about something while pointing up at the sky.

"We don't know what they truly went through, you guys. From what we gathered they were beaten severely, they were denied food, and locked in a cold dark basement." Cid gave one final sigh as he looked up at the sky.

"You told us that their father used to separate them-" Cloud started but Cid quickly cut them off.

"Roxas told me that one. That's the most I managed to squeeze out of him..." Cid looked at the watch on his wrist before frowning. "Look, I got to go. I have another foster family to meet across town in an hour-"

"-Wait, their father. What happened to him?" Leon asked Cid before he could make his escape. Cid only shrugged in response.

"Dunno. They never found him."

Roxas told Sora that while they were in the hospital Donald helped heal Sora out of his coma and that Goofy protected Sora from their father. Roxas not only told Sora that but he also told that to himself. He wanted to believe that those two stuffed animals, that he stole from preschool, would alone protect him and his brother. Roxas looked over at Sora, his brother napping on the bed with Donald crushed against his chest. Roxas looked down at Goofy sadly before hugging the dog close to him. "You'll protect us right, Goofy?" Roxas has vague memories of watching the cartoons about Goofy, Donald, and Mickey with his twin. That was when their mother was still alive and when she took good care of them... He remembered her soft brown hair, but that was all he could remember about her.

Roxas perked his head up at Leon and Cloud's soft voices though the door; Roxas scooted over and pressed his ear to the door curiously.

"-Well, we have to do something, Leon. They can't just not go to school..." Cloud spoke first.

"I know, but I don't think enrolling them into a public school is a good idea, Cloud. I don't think they can handle that kind of pressure just yet."

"I agree, but we don't make enough money to send them to a charter school."

Roxas grew bored real quick as he backed away from the door. School, every foster family has sent him and Sora to school... Roxas hated school, the kids were mean and sometimes the teachers were as well. The teachers were really mean to Sora because Sora doesn't like to talk almost every day he was sent to time out in the corner because of it. They never got to make friends either, mainly because they were always jumping from school to school. Roxas silently got up from his seat on the floor and hopped up to the bed. Sora opened his eyes and looked sleepily at Roxas. "It's okay, I just want to lay next to you," Roxas whispered to Sora. Sora shut his eyes again and snuggled up closer to Roxas. Roxas let out a soft sigh as he rested his chin on top of Sora's hair. Roxas could actually see down the back of Sora's shirt he could see the long jagged scar that started from Sora's right shoulder blade down to the middle of his back.

"Get out of my face!"

Roxas was constantly banging and screaming on the basement door as he could hear Sora screaming in pain. Roxas's hands were red and sore from his constant pounding on the door; still, he didn't stop. He wasn't going to stop, not until he had Sora back with him in the basement. Sora's screaming was getting louder and more pain filled with each passing second.

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

The door suddenly flung open and with no warning, Sora was thrown in the basement. His small body crumpled on the hard basement floor. Sora wasn't wearing a shirt and Roxas could see a fresh new scar down his brother's back. The thing that scared Roxas the most was the fact that the knife was still plunged into Sora's back. Roxas didn't care that the door was slammed shut, he only cared about Sora at this moment. Roxas rushed over to his brother as fast as he could. Sora was letting out soft frantic whimpers of pain. Gently Roxas ran his fingers down to the knife, Sora cried out the moment Roxas's fingers so much as touched the blade. Blood was pouring out at a fast rate and Roxas knew he had to do something to help his brother. "Sora... I'm so sorry..." Roxas whimpered through the tears that started to stream down his own face. Roxas sucked in a big breath and grabbed the knife with trembling fingers. Sora let out another loud cry of pain and in one quick move, Roxas snatched the knife out of Sora's back-

Roxas sucked in a deep breath as he looked down at Sora, his brother still fast asleep. Roxas rubbed his tired eyes with his knuckle before curling around Sora again. He never wanted to think about that memory again, he never wanted to think of his father again, never ever again. Roxas held on to Goofy as tight as he could, after all, Goofy will protect him.