Chapter 5: What It Means In Japanese

OKay, here's Chapter 5 as promised! As I said, due to more traffic I may move to this AO3 if I ever get an invite to make a free account over there. For now, this story is here until further notice. As always, I do not own the rights or characters to Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.

"Dude, that's the fifth damn time you've checked your phone in the past ten minutes, you cheating on Roxas or something?" Vanitas asked, clearly annoyed at seeing the glare in the corner of his eyesight. They were in English class and instead of actually doing any work, the teacher had just put in a movie about a failed artist who found love and left the classroom, claiming to be go run some errands. While Vanitas wasn't exactly paying attention to the movie, he was trying to sleep and the bright glare from Axel's phone was driving him nuts.

"Fuck off, Vanitas" Axel said, "I'm waiting for Cloud to text me back."

"You do realize those two have a life, yes?" Ventus said from next to Vanitas. He too was also trying to sleep but Vanitas whining from Axel was keeping him awake.

"Yeah well unfortunately, their life was a little interrupted by a certain person, do I can bother them as much as I want," Axel laughed, still going through his phone. It had been two weeks since they had dropped off Nathan at Cloud and Leon's house, having rescued him from...whatever it is that they rescued him from. He and Roxas had been texting the married couple over the course of those two weeks, asking questions regaarding the boy. Cloud and Leon have been giving them strict instructions that they are not to come over until the give the okay, and honestly that didn't sit too well with Roxas so they've been texting them nonstop. Leon never responds and Cloud does nothing but give short messages.

He ate this morning.

Had three nightmares the other night.

He can walk.

He fell asleep on the couch.

These were not the updates Axel was exactly looking for, but Cloud had already informed him that he and Leon absolutely refused to ask Nathan about who he is or what kind of situation he was in when the boys found him. They deemed him too fragile to talk about it and decided to just make sure he's comfortable.

"You two do me a favor and go make out in the corner, will you? Leave me be," Axel snickered.

"As soon as Roxas gives you a blowjob in the car. Guess we'll be dead by then," Vanitas remarked. Axel slapped him on his arm, which Vanitas would've retaliated with a punch to the throat had Ventus not caught his arm mid-swing.

"Vanitas, you just got off suspension," Ventus said.

"Fair enough," Vanitas nodded, lowering his arm.

"Cloud, I don't care that he was watching TV this morning, you damn prick," Axel mumbled to himself, looking at the newest text from his phone.

"Who are you talking about?" Vanitas asked, giving up trying to go to sleep. Ventus was still attempting to, but with less effort as his head wasn't laying all the way on his shoulders.

"Nathan," Axel said, as if it was obvious.

"Oh, right. My supposed twin," Vanitas growled, looking back towards the movie. Ventus frowned at Vanitas's response. When the boys had gotten back to school that following Monday when the weekend ended, the boys had for some reason told the two what they had done. Ventus was very uneasy about the fact that they had kidnapped a kid, claiming that they "rescued" him if anything. They wouldn't exactly say what the boy looked like, but Axel, being the asshole that he is, decided the most appropriate way to describe Nathan was "He looks like Vanitas if Vanitas wasn't the spawn of Satan." Whether Axel was aware of Vanitas situation with look alikes or not, the comment didn't sit well with Vanitas and it was clearly still bothering him even after two weeks. Ventus had tried to get him to talk about it, but Vanitas shot him down like always.

The bell rang and Vanitas was the first one out the door, now in a sour mood thanks to Axel. When Ventus noticed that Vanitas walked right towards the stairwell instead of left towards the other hallway, Ventus sighed, trying to make the decision of whether he should skip class and go confront Vanitas or leave him to his feelings and go to class. He took on step towards the hallway, and then cursed as he went towards the stairwell. When he opened the door, he found Vanitas kicking the wall.

"You're going to break your foot," Ventus commented.

"Go to class, salt," Vanitas commented, not ceasing his violent affection to the wall. Ventus let the door close behind him.

"I know the answer to this already, but do you want to talk about it?" Ventus asked.

"There's nothing to talk about. Will you leave me alone so I can break my foot in peace?" Vanitas said, not even looking at him.

"Vanitas, Axel didn't mean-"

"I KNOW he didn't mean it, okay?!" Vanitas yelled at Ventus, making him jump, "I am very aware that that damn pyro didn't mean anything by his comment. Thank you for the morning report yet again!...," Vanitas said, breathing heavy from kicking the wall rather harshly during his outburst, "...That doesn't make it hurt any less."

"I'm sorry," Ventus said, scratching one of his wristbands. Vanitas getting like this always made him anxious.

"That's all you ever are, stop saying that," Vanitas said.

"Well what do you expect me to say? I'm not going to ridicule Axel to the ground so you can kick the wall some more until your foot starts bleeding," Ventus said.

"I expect you to leave me alone!" Vanitas said rather harshly, "You always do this! I leave the situation so I won't kill anybody and for some reason you see it as an idea to try and talk to me when I clearly don't want to talk."

"It's called being a friend?" Ventus said, offended.

"It's called leave me alone and get over your damn feelings for me!" Vanitas shouted, his roar echoing in the stairwell. Ventus stopped scratching his wristband in complete shock. Vanitas, realizing what he just said, suddenly clamped his mouth shut violently and turned away from him towards the window in the stairwell. Ventus gripped the wristband, not really knowing what to do.

For two full minutes, neither one of them said anything.

"Ventus, I'm sorry, I didn't-" Vanitas stopped, hearing the door to the stairway open and then shut. Vanitas flared his nostrils and kicked at the wall with renewed rage.

At Cloud and Leon's House:

Cloud was highly debating whether to block Roxas and Axel or just turn his phone off and pray Leon didn't need him for anything. The two had been texting him non-stop about Nathan and while Cloud was happy that they were concerned, Cloud wished that they wouldn't keep texting him asking about him. Cloud's short responses were in retaliation to their texts. It was more a joke to him for his own amusement. But he wasn't lying in those messages. Those things he sent to them were actually improvements. For the two weeks that Nathan had been with them, he was slowly improving health wise, which was the important part to Leon. His skin was becoming less pale, and he could faintly see a glow of sun-kissed skin trying to break through the dry and sickly skin. His hair was becoming fuller, and Cloud was reminded of his own hair as to how spiky the boys was turning out to truly be. He was able to get down the stairs by himself, albeit rather slowly but it was better than Leon and Cloud having to help him every time.

Nathan was also getting a little bit used to Cloud and Leon, which made Cloud happy. Leon was in and out the house working, and eventually Nathan got used to the front door opening without thinking it was the man who he was living with before. He was also better with Cloud and Leon touching him to examine him, although they still had to fight him when it came taking off his shirt to treat his wounds on his stomach.

Nathan still had his setbacks. The nightmares were still happening, including the after hypnosis control when Nathan woke up. Cloud and Leon had decided to take turns comforting him whenever it happened, which was practically every night. There were also some things that occurred that Cloud and Leon had to change because of Nathan's reaction to them. If anyone shouted, Nathan would jump severely and cower into whatever blanket he was under. Cloud and Leon couldn't grab him too quickly or Nathan wouldn't let them touch him at all, in pure fright. And clearly asking Nathan about his past turned out to be a huge no no, so they just gave up after the first try.

Cloud was interrupted by his thoughts when Nathan joined in at the dinner table, finally getting down the stairs.

"How you feeling?" Cloud asked. Leon was currently in the other room on his laptop, video chatting with a colleague over in Europe about a new development.

"A little nauseous, but I'm okay" Nathan said, "Sorry about last night."

Cloud shook his hand, indicating everything was okay. Last night was a rather bad nightmare last night, and when Cloud shook him to wake him up, Nathan had jumped and accidentally slapped him, thinking he was the in his nightmare.

"Don't worry about it, it was bound to happen sooner or later," Cloud laughed, trying to make light of the situation.

"Where's Leon?" Nathan asked, noticing that Cloud was the one cooking and Leon was MIA.

"In the living room working. He'll join us in a minute," Cloud said, stirring the mac and cheese pot.

"What does he do?" Nathan asked.

"Computers. He deals with the new projects and developments of the latest PCs," Cloud explained.

"Do you have a job?" Nathan asked.

"I'm an online teacher," Cloud answered.

"I've never seen you teach," Nathan said, then immediately apologized.

"Don't worry about it. I do it in the morning, and you're normally asleep so you don't ever see me in action" Cloud said, "I'm about to call to him, hold on. Leon! Come on, dinner's ready!" Cloud figured if he warned him then Nathan wouldn't jump. He smiled when he didn't. He reminded himself to add that to the list of things he could adjust.

"One moment!" Leon called back, "Hey Cloud, what's sky in Japanese?"

"Why are you asking me? You have a damn laptop in front of you," Cloud rolled his eyes.

"Because being married to someone who supposedly studied japanese for three years should practice their craft before they forget everything," Leon said.

"Who cares what it is? Why are you even asking me that?" Cloud asked, rather amused.

"It's Sora," Nathan whispered. Cloud looked from the pot over to Nathan and noticed that Nathan's face had a look of pain on his face.

"Nathan, what's wrong?" Cloud asked.

"I'll call you later," Leon said to his colleague immediately upon hearing Cloud say that. He closed his laptop and walked into the kitchen, where Cloud was across the table from Nathan, who was staring at the table as if seeing it for the first time.

"What's wrong?" Cloud asked.

"It's Sora," Nathan said.

"What?" Leon asked.

"Sky. Sky in Japanese...it's Sora," Nathan said, and Cloud noticed his voice go up a pitch. He was getting upset.

"Why are you upset?" Cloud asked, clearly confused as well as Leon. Nathan sucked in a breath, and his bottom lip trembled.

"Sora...th-that's my name..." he said, "My name is Sora." Cloud and Leon looked at each other in complete disbelief. They turned back to Nathan-Sora, who had began to cry silently.

"My name is Sora...I forgot my own name...I forgot my name," Sora said before dropping his head on the table, crying miserably. Cloud felt his throat tighten. This boy had suffered so much to the point where he didn't even know his own identity. While for once Cloud stood there not knowing what to do, he watched as Leon walked around to where Sora sat, and put a hand on his shoulder. Sora tensed and looked up, confused, his eyes blurry. Leon smiled at him.

"Hello Sora, I'm Leon, and it's nice to meet you," Leon said calmly. It took Sora a second to realize what he had said.

And then Sora got up and hugged him.

You guys have no idea how good it feels to write Sora instead of Nathan, lol. That's it for this chapter, how was Sora's realization? And what's up with Vanitas and Ventus? Stay tuned for the next chapter. Poof!