I am terribly sorry for the last update I made. I wrote that chapter in a selfish streak of depression. I am terribly sorry to have published that and ended an otherwise acceptable story in the most rude manner. I ask for forgiveness from its readers. And hope that this version is better. The story won't end in just five chapters. Once more, I am terribly sorry. :(

"Cloud! What took you so long? The food will...AAAAAHH!" My mother let go a piercing scream upon seeing the figure I had upon my back. The plate she had been drying fell with a loud crash; the poor ceramic object broke into tiny pieces that flew around the whole house. And it wasn't something to be amazed about. Such a reaction was to be expected from her. The poor man that was currently bleeding unstoppably on my back looked like a bag of potatoes...an old and torn bag of potatoes. The brown eyes of my mother resembled to big bronze platters. With a trembling hand she pointed at Truant. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE POOR MAN?" She questioned with a high pitched voice. My eyes turned to her incredulously.

"It wasn't I mother!" I replied a bit angered and disbelieving. My own mother thinking that I was some sort of bully wasn't a nice thought for my poor heart. "The school rascals decided to practice a bit of boxing with him." I crossed the threshold, my mother staring amazed at the young man I held. "I don't know were he lives." I began in order to avoid a round of questions and suppositions. "And I left my wallet at my room so taking him to a hospital was way out of my league." I placed Truant...well...more like let him fall upon our couch at our living room." His body collapsed with a single thud on our poor old couch, tainting the fabric with his red blood. My mother slowly and fearfully got closer and her brown eyes turned from Truant to me. Her worry seeping off them like rivers. It had been a long time since she had tried to enroll me in another school; a safer kind of school. And I had seriously thought about it. I imagined myself studying and learning in big classrooms, walking in magnificent hallways and reading a book below a tree in a marvelous garden. I really wished that could have been. I really would have said yes since she first offered it to me when Zack came, three years ago, and his blabbering mouth had let slip the news of the school bullies. It would have been nice. But, hand in hand came security and money. Therefore, I denied my mother's offer every time she offered it. Again and again she did. Again and again I said no. I couldn't. I just couldn't. Kill her with more jobs to pay for a better school. Make her suffer and fall more than what she had already did. I couldn't. I simply couldn't. Even for the brighter future, for the many doors a prestigious school could ever open...I couldn't. I wouldn't ever allow it for me. I loved my mother much more than any future I could possibly have. "Mother..."

"Cloud..." She said in a soft whisper. "You know very well, this isn't getting any better."

"I already told you I'll be fine." I insisted, my eyes as serious as ever.

"Until when Cloud?" She asked, racking a hand in her hair. "Until when?"

"Until I'm out of there!" I answered back, walking towards the guest's bathroom were we kept our medical aid kit. "Besides, nothing has happened to me." I opened the cabinet that held the tiny white box.

"NOT YET!" She yelled behind me. "Cloud! Not yet! But it will!" I closed with a loud bang the small door as soon as I held the box in my hands. Truant needed attention. And even though I despised him with every fiber of my being, I wasn't the kind of cruel man that turns a blind eye to someone in need.

"It won't happen because I won't allow it." I exited the bathroom without sparing a glance at her. "If one of those buffoons wants a fight, he'll find it. I won't fall without giving a single punch." I placed the white box upon the small table before the couch.

"Cloud!"

"No mother!" I said facing her. "No! I won't change schools! You won't force me! You won't! Look at you mother!" I took her hands. "Look at yourself..." I sighed tiredly. "You can't anymore. You can't take anymore." Her brown eyes watered and a silent sob left her trembling lips. "Mother..." Tears began to fall. Defeated tears than ran down her face.

"Cloud...Oh Cloud..." She slowly fell to her knees, my hands never leaving hers. The pressure was finally too much and she let go. Loud sobs and cries resonated in our living room. "Forgive me Cloud. Forgive me." She trembled and shivered with emotion. The years had finally caught up to her. The negative emotions since my father's departure had finally weakened and crashed her. She was bound to break. And I would always be there to glue the pieces at the best of my ability. I would always be there for her.

"Breathe mother. Breathe." She suddenly pulled her hands away from mine and hugged me strongly. It shocked me for a moment but I returned the embrace rubbed her back in a soothing manner.

"Cloud...Cloud..." She cried and cried. "Forgive me Cloud...Forgive me..." The sobs almost made her mute to my ears.

"There is nothing to forgive mother." I said and cooed her.

"Forgive me please! I promised. I promised that nothing will ever be scarce in this home."

"And nothing is. We want nothing more mother..." I consoled her and combed her shiny locks of hair." I felt a prickle in my eyes, but dismissed it as some stray hair of hers that was poking me.

"I promised...promised that no ill will befall upon you...nothing will ever happen to you..." She sobbed and sobbed.

"And I am alright mother. You've done an excellent job at it." I slowly and lovingly took her by the arms, raising her as her chest heaved with emotion. Her sobs were loud and painful. Mother...Life hasn't treated you kindly, has it? And I...I am just another burden in your otherwise hard and terrible life. If only I...If only I could...Tears, unknowingly at first, fell from my eyes. Heavy and burdensome tears that hit the floor in loud splashed and bangs. I once more embraced my mother and she returned my hug with passion and strength, strength that we both lacked. Why? Why didn't life ever showed us her wonderful smile? Why? Why must our days always be lived with pain and misery? Especially my mother's. Hasn't she suffered enough already? Hasn't she?

"Strife..." A scratchy voice called me. "Strife..."

"T-T-Truant?" I responded, letting go of my mother and turning to look at the injured man on my couch. My hand wiping away the tears.

"Strife..." He called once more, his strength coming back slowly. "Strife get close..." I carefully made my way to his side. Something...something bothered me about this. A shadow was covering him. A darkness that shouldn't be there. An ill omen. "Strife..." His trembling and bloody hand searched mine. His cold blue eyes...those blue irises looked at me with something akin to adoration. Even with the tragic look of the scene, his eyes shone with such a pure warmth that they made me shiver slightly. I never noticed the strange fact that he was talking to me. That Truant, ever so quiet Truant, was actually using his voice. A voice that no one had ever heard. A pure and caring voice. "Strife..." He called once more, his hand still searching mine and his voice a chant of glory to something alien to me. But, that in a way was connected to me. His hand all of a sudden lost his power and fell beat on the couch. Yet, his eyes kept having that same force that penetrated me with its intensity, making me weep like my mother had a few moments ago. "Strife..." He smiled and somehow his hand recovered, catching a tear of mine that fell. "Strife..." My name he called and with the remaining willpower he had he difficultly dragged himself towards me. His blood flowing from the fragile body of his. Yet, he kept moving, slowly moving towards me. His ice cold blue yes never losing me, his lips the eternal smile. My mother and I were prettified on spot due to his feat. How could he still move? How could he still smile with all the damage he had? How could he still look at me with in such idolatry? What was happening? The hand that once captured my tears now caressed my cheek with tenderness. I was frozen before him. "Strife..." He called once more, his breath warm on my face.

"T-Truant?" My tears kept cascading. They just wouldn't stop. And the tenderness of his being just gave them away.

"Strife..." He sighed, his blue cold eyes gazed at mine with fervent emotion. And due to my thunderstruck state, I didn't notice the closeness of his face. The feelings that shone on those eyes held me hypnotized. His blood stained lips posed on mine and for a moment my world crumbled down.

He caught me in his blazing feeling, drowning me with his warmth. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to be drift apart by the tide of his being. I tasted his insatiable lips, tasted his addictive meat, tasted his sweet saliva, his delicious breath and his flaming blood. He burned me with his feel and at closing my eyes I just saw the blinding blue light of his blue irises. It blinded my mind...but I hardly cared. His passion filled me, his adoration left my light-headed. His whole persona overwhelmed me. I didn't know when I stopped hating him so. I never even understood fully why I loathed him. But at that moment, all that mattered was him. All my world was reduced to those lips moving over mine and those blue, ice cold blue, irises that stared at me as if I were his very god.

We separated. I stared at him, his reddened lips kept smiling and his eye showed the everlasting peace and joy that had turned me to stone the very moment they gazed my way. "Strife..." He sighed satisfied and returned to his laying position, his gaze never faltered in adoring my being and leaving me speechless. "Strife..." He said once more and his hand caressed my cheek once more, the warmth seeping into my skin and making me lean upon such wonderful touch. "Strife..." His hand left my face and rested upon his stomach. "Cloud..." He smiled ever more joyful and his ice cold eyes closed in a pleasant dream. I stared at his angelic figure for a few seconds until, as a hit of the wind, the true weight of the situation settled in. Horrified, I crawled back, my left hand over my mouth. My mother's gaze pierced me from behind as my heart beat at an unknown speed. I could picture her perfectly in mi mind. Her face ashen and with the telltale tears, her eyes wide open in utter astonishment, her golden mane framing her face and the air about her one of curious resignation. Her state was completely the opposite of mine. I was bristled from head to toe, mi muscles tense and ready to sprint away, eyes that scrubbed Truant's frame with utter fear and shame. I felt like a mouse before a cat, a kind and affable cat...yet a cat, my worst and most lethal enemy. I was terrified. The alarm at which my body and mind had been subdued was too much, and the aberration towards myself even greater. How did it come to this? What the hell was I thinking? Allowing Truant to kiss me? The person whose mere presence sickened me to press his lips to mine? Even worst…How did I allow him to kiss me and find it pleasing? What was wrong with me? What was wrong with me?!

I was in such a state of shock that I didn't notice that the black shadow that once covered Truant had dissipated into nothingness.