A/N: About nine pages of reading. Hope you enjoy.

Warning: So- you know the drill. This contains male on male pairings, child abuse, and really angst stuff. So if you're an angst fan keep reading. If you lean more toward humor, I've other stories in the works you might want to check out.

Disclaimer: Lawyers said 72 cents isn't enough to buy the Kingdom Hearts games, let alone get it from Disney. Damn you Walt…

Summary: This is the story of poor Cloud. He and his twin brothers live with their abusive father. After a while, his friend Leon becomes suspicious. What happens then?

Remember:

"Talking."

Thoughts.

Time Skip

Emphasis on words.

Self-explanatory.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Chapter Nine

There was a little red light that glowed from the eye of a teddy bear.

No one knew… because no one looked.

There was only one person who knew.

And he was not a happy man… He saw what that strange boy did… he saw…

It would be ironic… because in the fairytale, sleeping beauty awakes, and then she is rewarded.

However, his son was no sleeping fairytale character. By the light of the moon, there would be no happy ending.

Strife Household

"Are you feeling any better, Cloud?" Sora asked, tufts of chocolate colored hair peering up over the bed. Roxas was sitting on the end, chewing on his pencil while he tried to do his homework. Cloud was sitting in bed, feeling much more energized since Leon brought him home hours earlier.

"I'm much better thanks to you two," the blond said. Sora grinned toothily, but remained sitting on the floor. Cloud was trying to help Roxas with his school work when the sound of a car pulling into the driveway made his brows wrinkle.

Sounds like dad's car… Cloud shook his head and plucked Roxas' pencil up to show him a better way of multiplying his nines. No, I must be tired. He doesn't get home until nine…

The clock in the hall chimed six, and Sora rested on his elbows. Roxas was slowly memorizing his time tables. Cloud sat in bed, a rock weighing down his stomach as the tell-tale signs of trouble marched up the stairway…

There will be blood on the moon… signs of trouble not far ahead.

Leon's Bedroom

Leon was clicking away at his computer, taking down notes on the internet from his school's website. Most of the teachers posted the assignments they gave out each day. The brunette was a bit frustrated that his history teacher still had their homework assignment from three months ago still up.

He left an anonymous rude comment before signing off and shutting down the monitor. Then he walked over to his bed and lied down, sighing softly. It's good to have a big bed… Leon decided he wasn't going to get up for a damn thing.

BUZZZZZZ.

"Stupid broken doorbell…" Leon muttered. He didn't want to get it… but whoever was downstairs ringing the buzzer wasn't going to stop anytime soon. "Could be either Riku, or his pyro pal…"

BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

"GAWD!" Leon shoved off his bed, scowl plastered on his features. He was seriously going to teach those damn punks a lesson. There wasn't a minute in between mutters when the banging on the door started. Already quite put off, Leon raced down his hallway.

He skipped a few steps before plowing into his door, spying through the Judas Hole for a split second. He couldn't see anyone, so he assumed they were either height-challenged or children. Almost certain it was his cousin, sent by Satan to aggravate him further, Leon wretched open the door.

The brunette was taken aback when two twins rammed into his midsection, crying hysterically. Leon gasped as they gripped tightly around him, voices too high and watery to comprehend what they were saying. "Woah, okay! Guys, calm down!" Leon ordered, bringing them in a little while peeking out his door to see where they came from.

He broke them off his stomach, tearing them apart so he could see them better. In the dull, yellow lights of his house, Leon could see they were barefooted, dirty, crying, and covered in numerous amounts of cuts and scrapes. "Oh my god," he breathed.

He swung Sora up, who had a nasty gash running from his crown to the end of his earlobe. Then he cautiously grabbed Roxas' arm, the little boy sniffling as he did so, and hurried them into his kitchen. Leon set Sora on the table and Roxas climbed up a chair so he could latch on to his twin.

By the time Leon had returned, Sora and Roxas were swaying back and forth, still sobbing. The teen clunked a first aid kit on the table, roughly opening it and throwing down antibiotics and bandages. He was trying to be quick, but efficient.

"Jesus Christ," Leon mumbled tapping on another bandage to Sora's cheek. "What happened?" Leon held up an icepack to Roxas face. The boy cringed and squirmed against the cold.

"C-Cloud told us to r-run," Sora managed to stutter out. Leon's face swerved between the twins. Suddenly his lungs couldn't quite fill with air.

"Cloud…" Leon repeated dumbstruck. Roxas lip trembled, but he gripped on tightly to his pajama pants. "Sora, where is Cloud?" The smaller brunette glanced up with those huge watering cerulean eyes.

"I-I can't say!" his tiny voice was frightened. Leon raked a hand through his hair, panic scrubbing at his heart with needles.

"Sora, this is really important!" Leon said urgently. He clamped his large hands down on the boy's shoulders. "You need to tell me where your brother is!"

Sora just shook his head, tears flying off his bruised cheeks. Leon let go of the child, willing the horrible feeling in his gut to disappear. Roxas was shaking, teething chattering. With a gulp he slammed his hands down on the table. Both brunettes jumped, spinning to see his mouth opening and closing.

"… D-Da-Daddy!" he shouted, eyes screwed up in concentration. "Cloud is with d-daddy…" Roxas slowly let his eyes open. They shifted around on the table's surface without actually seeing anything. "In… In the p-punishment room…"

Leon made a slight noise. He gulped it back down as Sora scooted over to his blond twin. "You talked Roxas… You talked." Sora let out a small whine as he threw his arms around the shaking boy.

"The… punishment room?" the words left a horrid taste in Leon's mouth. Both boys were too busy quaking to take much notice. Leon looked up, eyes pinned to the clock. 6:33… 6:34.

"Shit…" Leon growled under his breath. He launched across the kitchen, tackling his cell phone plugged into its charger. He dialed the first number he could think of. "9… 1… 1… Come on, come on, and pick up!" The teen paced in his kitchen for a moment.

"Oh, yes! Listen, I need police and maybe an ambulance at—No, please, just send someone to the Strife house! My friend is in trouble!" Leon grew impatient and eventually hung up after repeating the address. His head swiveled back to the twins on his kitchen table.

"Stay here!" he commanded. Both boys nodded wearily, not even paying attention. Leon took it though, and dashed toward his front door, already pressing the numbers to his auntie's house. He barely had time to throw on a jacket as he flung out his door and jumped into his car.

Yanking the keys from his pocket, he revved the engine and roared away down the street. The phone's ring was deafening in his ear. Leon didn't brake and rolled through a stop sign, nearly swiping a black ford escort that came barreling from the opposite direction.

"Brri—Hullo…?" asked a tired voice. Leon frowned.

"Riku?" he questioned. A yawn could be heard on the other end.

"What do ya want, cuz? I was sleeping…" Leon might have made a sarcastic comment about Riku loving sleep more than he loved him self, but his current situation didn't have the time.

"Listen, get your mom to go to my house," he demanded.

"She's not here, I'd have to call her on her cell," Riku let out a noise close to a groan. Leon smacked his steering wheel as Cloud's house came into view.

"Dammit!" he yelled. The brunette pulled carelessly into the driveway, crunching over something soft. The sixteen year old stuck out his head to see size 8 shoes squashed beneath his Goodyear tires.

"Yikes! You don't got to yell…" Riku grumbled, probably twisting his pinky into his ear. "What's your problem anyways?" Leon took a deep breath, trying to settle his racing mind and heart.

"Riku, this serious," he said, tone dead and meaningful. The other end of the line was silent. "I need to go to my house as quickly as you can. Sora and Roxas are hurt and I need you to go there and calm them down."

"Hurt?!" the silver pre-teen repeated. "How bad? What happened? Why aren't you—"

"Riku!" Leon barked out. The boy automatically shut up. "I don't have time to explain! Go there now!" Leon threw his phone into his seat without hanging up. He swore he could have heard his younger cousin screaming out his name…

Riku's House

The ten year old was gathering up blankets and shoving them in his back pack. He slipped on some house shoes by the door and threw on his coat. Never in his entire life had Leon sounded so… so afraid and desperate.

Whatever happened, it wouldn't be too good. Riku was unlucky, or perhaps lucky, enough to live just down the street from his older cousin. The slippers made a sceech-sceech sound as pebbles in the asphalt were kicked around.

The aqua-eyed lad was surprised to find the door to the house hanging wide open and skid marks littering the drive way. The cold wind slapped him hard in the face, blowing his hair in tangles as he sprinted in through the door way.

"Sora! Roxas!" he shouted just as his feet reached inside the door jam. He had the sense of hearing whimpers from the kitchen area. Instantly, he snapped to, the house shoes soaring off his feet, thudding quietly into the beige carpet.

Riku gasped as his eyes fell upon the twins, huddle together on the table. They looked exhausted, little injuries decorating them all over. The pre-teen made a beeline for them, feet harshly slapping against the sudden tiling.

"Riku!" Sora cried as his head turned to the sudden sounds. The nine-year old scrambled off the table, literally pushing off the edge to land into Riku's open arms. He caught the chocolate haired boy and held onto him tightly as he cried his blue eyes out.

"It's alright… it's okay… I gotcha…" he soothed, rocking faintly. Sora felt his breathing even for some strange reason… Eventually his crying was gone completely and all that was left was the shaking. However, his tongue felt too thick to move.

"I-I-Is A-Axel h-h-h-here?" Roxas could speak fine on the other hand, but the stuttering wouldn't cease. Riku glanced up, noticing the blond holding the frame of the tabletop with white knuckles. The silver head shook negatively.

"Leon called my house, but my mom was out," he explained, rubbing circles in Sora's back softly. "When I heard you guys were hurt, I came here by myself." Roxas nodded while his orbs immediately went downcast.

"O-Okay…" the blond gulped, breathing going slightly ragged.

"Are you okay, Roxas?" the older boy asked. Roxas nodded, not looking up. Riku sighed, letting his head rest on top of the brown mop of hair on his chest. "Alright then, let's get you out of the kitchen. We'll go to the living room."

Sora shakily pried himself from his friend as they both coaxed Roxas down. The blond made it to the couch before curling up in a ball. Riku handed him a green blanket, which the boy wrapped himself up in with no protest. The aqua-eyed youth closed and locked the front door, kicking his shoes toward the wall.

Then he picked up the first aid kit, grabbed a bunch of junk food from Leon's cabinets, and plopped down beside Sora and the covered Roxas on the sofa. Riku willingly grabbed the pink blanket he packed and gave Sora the blue one. He was opening up some ding-dongs when the phone rang.

It made Sora jump, but Roxas was drifting in his own little world where only a few quivers rippled over his small body. Riku calmed Sora by petting his hair before climbing off the couch and picking up the telephone.

"Leon, please tell me it's you," Riku muttered once the receiver came up to his mouth.

"Riku, are the twins okay?" the gruff voice of his cousin broke over the static of the cellular call.

"What the hell happened?" the ten year old required an explanation. And it had better be a pretty damn good one. The sound of screeching tires could be heard from his cousin's side of the call.

"Some bad stuff…"

"Well I can see that!" Riku stage whispered. The boy knocked his hand against the wall, making sure neither of the twins could hear him from the kitchen. His digits twitched, but the boy didn't worry one bit. "By God, we must be fucking blind…"

Leon ignored the foul langue from the younger one, agreeing with the statement fully.

"I called your mom," he said tiredly. "We're going to the emergency room. I'm following an ambulance, Cloud's inside it… He's not doing too good…"

"What…?" Riku covered his mouth, swallowing down all the questions he had in his mind. Then he nodded, despite no one could witness him. "You guys coming home tonight?"

"I don't really know, cuz… I don't really know," that was when Leon hung up. Riku banged his head against the wall. He took in large mouthfuls of air, the dial tone loud enough to echo. He clicked the off button on the phone and walked back into living room.

Sora didn't look up, he sat with his arms hugging his legs, chin on his knees. Roxas lay on his side in the fetal position. Meanwhile Riku slumped onto the couch, his head gazing up at the stucco ceiling.

"Cloud's going to the hospital… Leon is going to be there too," Riku confessed. Sora peered under his bangs at Riku's lump-like figure. Riku's orbs were starting to mist over and darken. "Someone hurts you guys… don't they?"

"Yes…" the brunette admitted. Riku sat back up, letting his head fall into his hands. "Are you mad?" Sora asked, tightening his hands over his shins.

"I'm not mad at you…" Riku sucked in a breath, hands falling away and hitting his knees. "I'm mad at myself…"

"Why?" Sora inquired, the grip slacking so he could turn to his companion. Riku looked up, face grief stricken.

"Because I should have known…" a pale hand came up and prodded against a purple colored band-aid with yellow moogles. Sora flinched at the shot of pain ran up his cheek. Riku's finger curled back. "I could have done something…"

Axel's House

Axel looked at the clock; it showed the time was 6:47, which meant it was a little after seven because his clock was exactly fifteen minutes slow. With a grin he plunked down to watch his favorite cartoon. It was about a yellow-haired hero, who Axel totally believed should hook up with the villain because the villain kept ogling him like a piece of meat.

The redhead kicked up his feet on the three legged coffee table and started to watch his stolen-cable cartoon. His uncle wouldn't get home until later tonight, so that left the pyro home alone with his happiness… Though he should probably be doing his homework… or cooking dinner.

Axel ended up shrugging, deciding instead to just unwind. The pyro frowned when he realized Air (the chick the hero was supposed to protect) had been called in a few minutes into the show and she completely ruined his Hero-Villain-Forbidden-Romance-Moment. Evil Air…

The eleven year old threw a pillow at the TV, which turned the channel by accident. Of course it ended up on the news. With a sigh, the kid switched off his stupid screen and brought out his backpack, mentally kicking his teachers' butts for all the idiotic homework he had been assigned.

Fortunately for him, the telephone let out a shrill beep, and Axel literally leapt at the chance for a distraction. "Hola! Como estas usted? Yo? Oh, muy bueno!"

"Axel," a stern, but young voice interrupted.

"Oh, hey Ri!" Axel dropped his Spanish accent and flipped back on to the bumpy sofa. "What can I do you for?"

There was a sigh on the other end of the line. Axel could practically see Riku mussing up his hair. But the guy only did that when he was upset with himself. Axel sat up a bit straighter, a fuzzy sensation growing in the pit of his belly.

"Riku, is something wrong?" Axel probed. There was a slight noise of air blowing past the handset. Then with a grated cough, Riku began speaking back into the phone.

"I'm, uh, I'm spending the night at Leon's. Sora and Roxas are here…"

"What's wrong with my Roxy?" Axel stood up, ready to heave on his sweater and run all the way to Leon's house if need be.

"Don't freak, man," Riku tried to compose Axel's swiftly rattling nerves. "Listen, Cloud just got sent to the hospital. Something bad happened. Roxas is having some trouble speaking…"

There was a murmur in the background.

"Right… Sora says that whenever Roxas is afraid or hurt, he shuts down. So speaking has taken a lot of him…" Riku almost whispered it into the phone, but Axel all but halted his breath, waiting for more. "When I first got here, he asked for you…"

"Put him on," Axel ordered, slowly seating himself. There was the shuffle of racket in the earpiece. A little bit of burble from Riku and Sora as the got Roxas to pick up the phone. Then the quiet sound of breathing came on and Axel relaxed a little bit.

"H-Hi…"

"Hey Roxy…" the redhead answered.

"D-Don't call m-me, R-R-Roxy," came the stuttered reply. It was suppose to be angry, but came out more like a plea.

"Awe, but why not?" Axel teased. "It fits you so well."

"S-Shut up…" the blond mumbled. There was the rustle of fabric on the other end. "Y-You're s-s-so a-an-annoying."

"That's mean, you're gonna make me cry," Axel mock-sniffled. Roxas made no sound on the other side. The green eyed boy switched the phone to his other ear, deciding that was enough of the small talk. "Are you okay with just Riku there?"

"Y-Yeah…" the nine year old said. Then he inhaled choppily. "I d-don't k-k-know."

"If you want," Axel suggested while checking his clock. "I could get there in less than an hour."

"Um… I-I…" Roxas curled up tightly to the phone. Then he shook his head. "I-I'm scared… I-I-I d-don't want t-to be left a-a-alone." The tone was muffled and close to panicking.

"Riku and Sora are right there, just sit tight—"

"P-Please!" the blond begged, cutting off Axel. The older one stilled. "D-Don't leave m-m-m-me…" The redhead sighed, pulling the receiver away from ear so he could grit his teeth in aggravation. Letting go of his powerless feeling, he turned back to the telephone.

"Okay… I'll stay right here…" he surrendered. He curled his feet under him closing his eyes lightly. "I'll do all the talking…"

"A-Alright," Roxas approved.

"I know this story that helps me go to sleep; in fact it's about a princess who sleeps for one hundred years…"

TBC

A/N: And so concludes this chapter. I wanted to do more, but couldn't find it in me. And yes, I wasn't graphic and couldn't go into details about what Leon found… I might later. I chickened out. I couldn't hurt them anymore.

The Sleeping Beauty Analogy scared the hell out of me when I realized it flowed through the beginning and end. I swear complete and total accident that just made sense.

Poor Roxas… I actually gave him one of my flaws. I couldn't help it. When my parents would fight, like all parents do and seem to forget to keep it away from the eyes of children, I wouldn't cry, I would just emotionally shut down. I couldn't open my mouth or speak. When I did, I would stutter or take too long trying to get the words out.

Leon's parents are mysteriously absent a lot… That's because they both work over seas. I don't know if I addressed that in any previous chapters, but, yeah, that's why he lives across the street from his aunt.

I know it seems weird that this is a Leon/Cloud fic when all I seem to do is address the children, but, point and fact is, the children are just too cute… I'm kidding. The actual reason is that's it about all these boys and how this tragedy brings them all together. Children are more inclined to love and be loved when they don't understand the social boundaries yet, whereas teenage boys do and are taught to follow it like a moral code.