Death is such a sad thing. It hurts, it destroys, it ruins. It brings people to the brink and makes people realize that life is not infinite but can come to a very abrupt halt when people least expect it.

"He's staring at you again."

"No he's not."

"Dude he totally is!"

"No he's not."

"Dude just look at him!"

"Fine." Squall sighed and averted his gaze slightly to stare, or rather glare, at a blonde youth with hair that had seemed to defy gravity. The youth in turn quickly averted his gaze and Zidane giggled, kicking him playfully. Squall frowned and kicked him back, hard, and Zidane cringed.

"Play nice you two." Bartz said, smiling at the both of them. "And he was staring at you."

"So?" Squall asked.

"Dude ask him out!" Zidane exclaimed.

"No."

"Why not?" Bartz asked.

"I'm not gay." Squall said curtly. A small silence enveloped the three friends until both Zidane and Bartz burst out laughing, their faces red with humor. Squall frowned again. "What's so funny?"

"You dude, please we know all about you and Seifer." Zidane exclaimed. The both of them laughed even harder when Squall face first paled and then went scarlet red. "Just ask him out."

"No."

"Well at least say hi to him Squall." Bartz said quietly. Squall rolled his eyes.

"Why?" He asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I don't even know him."

"Oh we can fix him up!" Zidane turned in his seat and yelled: "TERRA!" Squall watched as a green haired girl looked up and smiled before running over.

"Hi guys." She said quietly. "What did you need?"

"We were wondering if you could tell us about Cloud, the guy over there." Bartz said pointing. Squall slapped his hand. "Ow!"

"Don't point idiot." Squall snapped. Terra smiled again nervously.

"Well his name is Cloud Strife, he lives with Tifa Lockhart and Aerith Gainsborough with Aerith's uncle Cid. Um..he's kinda quiet and keeps to himself."

"That's all?" Zidane asked.

"Yea…umm why?"

"He has the hots for Squall and we're trying to hock them up." Bartz said happily, smiling at Terra and locking hands with Zidane.

"Oh my god Squall that's so cute!" Terra exclaimed. Squall sighed and get up.

"I'm leaving."

All three of the others let out a long "Awwwwww" and he sighed, sitting back down. He glanced back at Cloud, eyes lowered so Cloud wouldn't notice he was staring at him. Cloud was in fact, staring at him, curiosity clear in his eyes. It wasn't that he wasn't interested, Cloud was anything but unattractive, but after Seifer and the whole ordeal with him and Rinoa, dating wasn't exactly his thing. Speaking of Seifer, Squall had to wonder how both Bartz and Zidane knew about that. They were both at summer camp when that happened and he hadn't bothered to tell anyone- "Oh my fucking god you guys read my journal!" Squall shouted, lunging for Zidane. The blonde youth hopped from his seat and laughed. "You little thief!"

"Wasn't my idea." Zidane laughed. Squall turned to glare at Bartz.

"Um…sorry?" Bartz squeaked out.

"You. Are. Both. Dead." Squall seethed, lunging for Bartz.

"RUN BARTZ! RUN!" Zidane shouted, grabbing Bartz and running out of the cafeteria, Squall close behind. Terra sighed and smiled thinking: "Those three could be brothers."

(Meanwhile)

Aerith was being especially clingy today, as she always was when he had "that" dream. Her hands constantly at his wrist, looking at him, smiling, saying encouraging things. The only thing good about the situation was that Tifa was home sick. He wasn't in the mood for Tifa being jealous and shit over Aerith just trying to be nice. "Cloud." He looked over to see her staring at him. "Can…I talk to you?"

"About?" Cloud asked. He turned away and watched as Squall, just saying thinking his name made his blush a tad, as he chased his friends out of the cafeteria, yelling something.

"About us." Aerith said. Cloud sighed and turned to face her again. "It's just…" She sighed. "Look I know that your gay." She blurted out. Cloud blinked. Oh shit. This was bad. She was going to get pissed. Leave him. Oh god he couldn't deal with. She was annoying as hell but she was still a friend. A friend he needed to keep him sane. "Shit Shit Shit!" He thought.

"Look, Aerith, god please don't freak out. I-I mean honestly-"

"It's fine."

"Huh?"

"I said it's fine Cloud." Aerith said. She smiled at him. "It's rather obvious."

"It…it is?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"Well lets see, you like rejected every single girl at this school, you have no posters of women in your room, you keep staring at tall dark and handsome that just ran out of the cafeteria and you like Jesse Mccartney." Aerith said. She held his hand and smiled at him.

"Okay…this…is a little to much." Cloud said. She frowned.

"I'm sorry…I just thought you should know that I..know."

"Does Tifa-"

"No, I didn't tell her." Aerith said. "Frankly I don't think she would-"

"Ahem." Both Cloud and Aerith looked up to see a man with long silver hair.

"What do you want Mr. Sephiroth?" Cloud asked, eyes narrowing. Aerith tightened her grip on his hand.

"I'm just here to tell you that you are in my English class again. A class you seemed to have failed last year." Sephiroth said slowly. Aerith nearly flinched when she felt Cloud's hand tighten around hers.

"I had a few problems last year-"

"That's not an excuse. Failing my class is not an option you can really afford. It's a requirement to graduate. It doesn't matter if you get sick, or break an arm, or if someone dies-" Cloud shoved him out of the way and ran out of the cafeteria, Aerith clearly seeing he was crying. She stood up slowly. The asshole just had to mention death and make Cloud's day even harder. She tried to steady her shaking hands and turned to glare at Mr. Sephiroth. She knew him well enough, she had taken his class with Cloud last year. The man was unforgiving and excepted no excuses. A teacher from hell. Not to mention he totally played favorite with certain students.

"You're an asshole." She snarled, shoving him out of the way, trying to be strong. She wasn't going to cry. She needed to be strong. Strong for Cloud. Lord knows she cried enough when-

"That's a detention Miss Gainsborough." Sephiroth said coolly. She turned on a heel and flipped him the bird. She could hardly believe she had done it but it had felt good.

"Take you detention and shove it!" She said. She turned away when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back over. She gave out a yelp as his grip tightened.

"Two detentions Miss Gainsborough." He seethed, glaring her. She yanked her arm away and hurried to find Cloud, trying not to cry because of how much her wrist hurt.

(Meanwhile)

"Fucking assholes." Squall muttered, pulling off his soaking wet jacket. The two idiots had ran into the pool room used for swimming class and had decided to push him into the pool when he came running after. Luckily he had fallen on the diving board and only the top half of his body went flying into the water, the other half flailing in the air. Zidane and Bartz had taken this as incentive to run and hide again. He headed towards the third floor bathroom, a bathroom seldom used, and pulled of his shirt as he turned down the empty hallways. Where did they get off violating his trust and reading his journal. It wouldn't be as annoying if they hadn't decided to read the passages about his ex-boyfriend Seifer.

Seifer. Oh god Seifer. They had started dating at the end of the school year around two years back, which was odd seeing as the two had absolutely hated each other. Opposites attracted, he had guessed. Still it was nice. Late nights up talking, kissing, just having fun. Then he had met Rinoa. Slender body, a beautiful flame, long raven hair. She was beautiful and he was attracted to her. Something Seifer didn't like. To put things bluntly he ended up with neither Seifer of Rinoa. Oh well, water under the bridge right. He was happily content to be single. Cloud seemed nice but he preferred to be single. That thought continued in head when he opened the bathroom door and saw the bright red against the shining white porcelain floor.

All his fault. Those were the words that shone in his mind as he dragged the thin razor across his wrist. It was all hid fault. Zack was dead and it was all his fault. He cringed a tad as he dug the razor a tad deeper in then he had meant to but continued to cut anyway. He deserved the pain. All he had done was caused it. Aerith had cried for months. Tifa had quit wrestling and nearly dropped out of school. Zack's parents had moved away. He deserved this. Aerith would kill him later on for doing this, telling him that it went in the face of all the counseling he had gone to for three years but he didn't care. He had hardly cared that the blood running down his wrist was staining the floor beneath and could hardly register when he was shoved against the wall and a breath. "The fuck are you doing!" His eyes slowly made their way to the other boys, bright green eyes clashing with stormy gray ones. His lion.

"I deserve this…" He said sadly, Squall frowning as he clenched Cloud's bloody wrist. The razor eventually fall from Cloud's hand and dinged against the floor. Then Squall had slapped him and dragged him over towards the sink, pulling the bloods wrist under and turning the water on.

"Start washing. Now." Squall ordered, face displaying no expression. When Squall didn't do anything her slammed his fist on the counter. Cloud flinched. "Hello! You there Cloud! Ugh fuck it." He walked over and grabbed a bunch of paper towels from the dispenser and started to wash the blood off, wiping away water and blood as he applied pressure. Cloud mumbled something and he looked up. "What?"

"Why…?"

"Why what?"

"Why…are you helping me?" Cloud asked. Squall sighed and continued to wash the blood away until the bleeding began to lessen.

"Keep your hand in the water. I mean it." Squall said as he went to grab his bag. Cloud attempted to run for the door when Squall pulled him back and pushed him against the wall.

"Let me go." Cloud croaked.

"No. Your hurt."

"Why do you even care?"

"Do I need a reason to help someone?" Squall asked as he pulled Cloud over to his back and pulled out a wad of bandages. Zidane and Bartz were always hurting themselves. "Arm." When Cloud didn't stick his arm out he grunted and yanked it, wrapping the bandage over the cuts tightly. "There." He pulled back and inspected his work. Nearly eleven years of knowing Zidane and Bartz had given him plenty time to perfect his first-aid skills. Then he had set his sights on cleaning off the blood on the floor. When he was done he had moved to leave when he noticed Cloud was just sitting there, staring at the bandage. He sighed. "You want to get something to eat?"

"What?" Cloud looked up.

"I'm hungry, you want something to eat. Come on." Squall said, walking out of the bathroom.

(Meanwhile)

She could easily see them hiding under the table, both Bartz and Zidane clinging to each other and laughing. She smiled and approached them. "Hello." She said quietly. Zidane gave her a sly smiled and jumped up wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Hey baby." He coed, Bartz frowning and punching him in the arm. "Ow!"

"Can we help you Miss…" Bartz started.

"It's Aerith and um, yes you can." She said, smiling at Bartz when he pulled Zidane away from her. "I think you guys might know my friend Cloud."

Still in death and it's after affects, flowers may start to bloom