Battle high: not your average high school

After Battle twenty-six

Cloud and Sora's emotional moment

"I'm sure I can if it means to kick his ass in a public school just to embarrass him...or act like an older brother who babies him," laughed Artemis.

Sora slowly stopped crying and stared at the ground. Both her arms were now wrapped around her and she was still gently swinging herself on the swing with the tips of her feet. She was silent. She started to hear the sound of shuffling in the park, she was afraid to look up, but looked up to find Cloud.

She didn't have her voice back yet to even say a word to him, but she was able to mouth something more to herself then him,"..Its cold..," she mouthed.

Prism gasped with amusement. "Yes. You have to do that. Pleaaase do that," she said with a laugh. "He hates when I pull the big sister act on him, it'll be sooo much worse with you."

Cloud sighed and sat on the swing next to her carefully. "I don't have a jacket or you could have it..probably should've stolen Kirai's."

He looked out at the park and saw the bench that they used to sit on. It looked so foreign, and much more lonely than anything else in the vicinity, even if it didn't have any people other than Cloud and Sora.

"..Why are you crying?" he asked quietly, not wanting to look at her and her tears, knowing the answer to his question anyway.

"I will only do that if I have to," said Artemis with a smile, "But I can do that when I go and pick you both up from school."

Sora just shook her head at him about the cold. She had to wait for her voice to come back before she could even talk to him, but she felt some resentment boil up when he had asked her that. She would've lashed out at him but decided not to, it wasn't worth it now.

"..mom..dad...,"was all she had replied with, Sora tried to wipe her tears away but found it hard when they kept coming back again.

"Yaay!" Prism cheered. "Perfect retaliation. He's never actually been in school.. neither of us actually. We were homeschooled for a while but still.. we're gonna be pretty damn behind."

Cloud anticipated that response. He looked down at his feet and realized he'd never once sat on these swings when he'd came here as a kid. Then again, he never moved from that bench. What if Sora didn't find him because he wasn't at his normal spot?

He wanted to apologize again, but what was the point? She already knew, and wouldn't forgive him just because of how many times he said he was sorry.

..Fuck that. "..I'm sorry Sora."

"Well then...I'll just make you both study like hell," he said with a smile to Prism.

Sora started to swing a little more as she sat there with Cloud in silence practically since her voice would sound so much smaller at this point. But she looked at him with tear stained face and opened her mouth to talk again.

"I-I kn-know...I-I ju-just...I-I st-still wasn't ever going to be str-strong enough...,"Sora said to him through hiccups. She remembered the day clear again, but she had been blinded by her rage at someone attacking them she had not bothered to think of who the boy was at the time and only remembered him as her parent's killer.

"Nyaa.." Prism pouted over at him. "Whyyy? We don't need good grades! It's not like we'll be getting a job later on that will require them," she pointed out.

Cloud couldn't believe that she had just blamed herself for it. Again. How could she even think that in the first place? He was the one who went batshit crazy, not her.

"Don't even say that," he said, shaking his head. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. "It was my fault for doing it in the first place, you couldn't protect them because it was two against one."

"Yes I know..but I don't want phone calls saying my brother and sister are fucking idiots and have only F's," said Artemis.

Sora looked away again and glanced as the sky was starting to get dotted with stars.

"So?...I-it was still my pro-promise that I would protect them! No ma-matter what it's my fault!," Sora shouted slightly in hiccups. She shook her head at him still remembering slightly the days when she was still being trained early back at the government. "..My training...failed..,"Sora was crying again and was now no longer able to be understood in her tears.

"What if we maintain like, a D average?" Prism suggested.

"Are you serious? Your training failed? Do you even know how good you are at fighting?" Cloud asked, almost amused at how she perceived herself. It was very much the opposite of the truth.

"You hadn't gotten that much training at that point in life.. you'd gotten out of the government forgot about it, right? So you couldn't get better.. whereas I did nothing but kill people for a few years, and so did Prism. It was an unfair fight and we shouldn't have won."

"Alright..fine...but if you both get one F then I'm making you study like hell," Artemis told her.

"But still..it was my job..my promise to them...and I still broke it...they can't come back...,"Sora said to him. She had remembered running back to the house looking for her parents wishing that the injuries and blood and fight had only been a dream.

"I shouldn't...have tried to spto trang...it my falt...im nting,"Sora was now unable to speak. She was crying all over again and she was letting her voice go quiet again and she looked at him. She hated to admit it but she liked his company, she forgot she had done the something to him every damned day. She got off the swing and stood up only to walk back to Cloud and hug him for comfort instead.

"Ahh fine." That provision was fair enough. Prism had a feeling that she and Cloud would end up competing over grades anyway, so Artemis really didn't have to worry.

Cloud simply shook his head in disagreement. She was just wrong. Nothing more to that. Her statements were just plain incorrect.

He was slightly surprised at the hug but didn't question it. He was lucky enough to have her not throwing all kinds of weapons at him. Cloud didn't hesitate to hug her back, possibly a little too tight given the fact that she was crying but he didn't really take that into consideration.

"..how much do you hate me?" he asked in a barely audible whisper. He'd been wanting to ask for a while.

"Good, now let's go show the girls the rooms so they can go pick...just stay out of the door on the far left thats Sora's room for now she won't be happy if you open the door yet," warned Artemis.

Sora only wanted him for comfort; he was like this weird giant teddy bear that she had to hug whenever Kirai wasn't around. He was her backup bear in case she didn't have Kirai with her. She was crying on Cloud and buried her face in his shirt to try and wipe her tears on his shirt.

She heard his question and tried to speak the best she could,"..noff beffry muff,"she said through his shirt and tears.

"Why?" Primrose asked cluelessly.

Cloud smiled a little at her garbled words. It took him a second to decipher it and he was then slightly surprised at what her answer had been. "Why?"

With all he'd done to her? She had the right to hate him to hell and back.

"Because she told me to tell you that," said Artemis.

Sora kept her face buried in his shirt as she tried to answer him again.

"youf the fone whof fold fe fo fet it gof rememfer?..and i fant hate you...fince i faved yourf vive afot,"Sora tried to tell him clearly the best she could.

She knew she could hate him forever. But she had already done that, and he had saved her life plenty of times and she had done the same for him too many times now.

Primrose blinked. That did not answer her question at all. She looked at Prism, like she would have the answer. The older girl just shrugged.

"I guess.. but I didn't think you actually would," Cloud said, getting quieter as he neared the end of his sentence. When he'd said that it was actually just a last resort. In no way did he think she would actually take his advice.

Alex looked between the girls and was also curious now but didn't want to ask.

Sora didn't say anything else since now she couldn't form words now at this point. She knew if she tried to talk she would end up making worse garble then before and just had to stay quiet again and yawned a bit.

Cloud released his hold on her a little and wiped away a stray tear that didn't seem to want to go away, not caring if another one was just going to appear in its place in a few seconds. "Come on.. Let's go back and get Kirai and then you can go to sleep okay?"

Kirai shuffled around in a circular pattern, disobeying Cloud's rule about staying where he was. "I aaammm boooreedd," he said to himself.

"Sooo fucking borinnngg.. Cloud's probably on an adventure and I'm just sitting here all like, Derp, I never do anything!" he said to a nearby streetlamp. He vaguely wondered if anyone in these houses could hear him.

Sora looked at him and rubbed her eye with one of her hands; she gave him a nod and waited for him to stand up. When Cloud started to walk she grabbed a hold of his hand and held his hand as they walked away.

Sora took another glance back at the park before facing forward again and giving a long yawn and slowly started to realize she was dragging her feet. Cloud realized this as well, and just stopped walking altogether. He could see Kirai at the end of the street anyway. Close enough.

"Kiraaaaaaaaaai," he called lazily.

Said teenager looked up in surprise. Cloud and Sora holding hands. That's better than killing each other, he supposed. Kirai quickly walked over to them.

He looked at the two of them, slightly concerned. "What happened?"

Sora looked up at Cloud then back to Kirai with sleepy eyes and yawned again.

She pulled on Cloud's sleeve, "Why fe stop?," she asked in a sleepy voice the best she could and had to rub her eyes again.

She was getting to sleepy to stand anymore and out of nowhere just sat down on the ground and waited for what would happen next. "Emotional moment. Talk about it and I'll kill you," he answered Kirai. Cloud looked down at Sora and both he and Kirai started laughing at her random action.

"B-because," he said through laughs, "Kirai can just carry y-you."

Kirai tried to stop laughing and ended up with just a smile. He held a hand out for Sora to stand so that he could lift her up easier. "Come on kid."

Sora looked at them both confused.

Sora looked at Kirai's hand for a moment before she reached up to take his hand, she only found herself starting to complain about being tired and pouted about it now once she was on her feet. "I'm noooooot a kiiiiiiiiiiid,"she complained to him.

"You are to me," Kirai pointed out. He picked Sora up carefully and started to follow Cloud, who had impatiently started walking again. "I'm a whole year older than you, remember?" he reminded her.

"I don't care...I'm more mature then you," she told him as she stuck her tongue out at him and pouted. She was not enjoying being called a little kid and was tempted to start poking the hell out of Kirai.

"Oh, deeeefinitely," Kirai said sarcastically. "Most mature people do indeed stick their tongue out." He would've poked her himself if he wasn't carrying her. Sora laid her head on him as he carried her. "Yes they do," she said to him with a yawn and started to close her eyes. "Don't...get lost..," she said before falling asleep.

"We're not gonna get lost. We got here didn't we?" Kirai told her, even though she'd passed out.

"Psh. Yes," Cloud began, "After about 40 minutes of aimless wandering, we reached this place. Be glad I lived close to here or you would get lost."

Artemis was already dragging the others around in a store to get some food to make for their dinner since they needed to go shopping.

"Hey stop running!"

"Artemis she's poking me again!"

"Knock it off you two!"

"Artemis can we get this?"

"No I said food!"