Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Kingdom Hearts. Blah blah.

Um…this us gonna be one of them cloudXsora fics since there aren't many out there. And they look really cute together! Lol. Actually writing this fic is a huge risk for me since I have no clue as to how Cloud, Sora and the rest of the cast acts. I have played the Kingdom Hearts game but that doesn't exactly provide me with much information…heh heh. I haven't even finished it yet. (I haven't played FF7) So all I can depend on are the few fics I've read and roughly try to capture Clouds and Sora's personality. My most humble apologies if the characters go really OOC.

cloudXsora AU

Lose yourself

Chapter 1: Not all setbacks are bad

Sora groaned as he felt the first rays of sunlight sear through his eyelids. An annoyed look flitted across his face when the alarm clock started ringing. The shrill sound attacked his ears like a pack of rabid dogs and he struggled to hit snooze button. Thus the cycle began. Ring, hit snooze. Ring, hit snooze. Ring, hit snooze. Normally his mother would take the trouble to go upstairs and haul her lazy son's ass out of bed, but not this time. She decided it was high time that he learned to be independent for once.

In truth, Sora was already awake. He was just too lazy to get out of bed and do anything that requires moving. With that mindset, he permanently killed his alarm clock and went back to sleep. Oh what a blissful sleep he had, he dreamt about himself jumping around in a field covered with pink daisies and ponies prancing around without a care in the world. Sora doesn't care.

Sora lives for the present. He doesn't have any life goals because he doesn't need any. He just lives day to day spontaneously. If so happens that he breaks all his bones one day, he'll laugh it off. Some people may think of this as stupid, moronic or some call him really, REALLY laid back. Who knows really. Sora is Sora and he likes to take things bloody easy.

The sound of the grandfather clock downstairs slowly drifted to his ears. He cracked open one eye and peered up at the wall clock to check the time. It read: 9 43. When the digits finally sank into his half conscious brain, Sora inhaled sharply and practically leapt out of the bed and flew into the bathroom. Brushing his teeth and throwing on his school uniform at the same time, Sora was the ultimate multi-tasker. Well, only in times like these.

Once he was done upstairs, Sora raced down the stairs only to find his mother chuckling behind the counter in the kitchen.

"Did you have a good sleep pumpkin?" cooed his mother teasingly.

Sora didn't have time to entertain her so he shot her a why-didn't-you-wake-me-up look before speeding out the door like a bullet. While he was running down the sidewalk, he could hear his mother's full blown laughter coming from his house. Sora rolled his eyes and let a tiny smile grace his lips before concentrating on the ground in front of him. He would hate to trip and break a leg since it'll probably delay him further.

Sora hated being late as much as he hated being a goody goody. As much as he hated it, it was true. He was a decent student, one many teachers don't really pay attention to and he liked it that way. He was the average student, didn't make too much trouble yet doesn't get the highest grades. He's always in someone's shadow and he learnt to live with it, he learnt to like it. He remembered during his childhood, he was always getting shown up by Riku. Riku was much stronger and definitely much better looking than him.

Compared to Riku, Sora looked small. Maybe a little scrawny as well.

Riku always got the girls and he often treated Sora as a spare tyre or a lackey. It irked Sora tremendously but Sora wasn't the type to stand up for himself, he's the kind of person who learns to adapt to his surroundings instead of trying to change them. So Sora played along with Riku, never once showing a sour face. Then Kairi came. At first the three of them were best buds. They did everything together. From watching movies to sparring with wooden swords. They even made a pact that they would stay friends forever by vowing on a Paopu fruit. Even though Riku and Kairi often left him out, Sora didn't mind. He never once complained.

Until that incident.

Sora slowed his pace and stared blankly at the ground while trudging forwards. Every step felt like a ton of bricks cascading down onto his back. He didn't want to remember. Forgetting them was the best solution. Pretend they never existed, pretend they were never there. They weren't his friends from the start.

Sora scrunched up his face as he splashed into a lone puddle causing his bright yellow shoes to have blotches of mud on them. He continued walking and before he knew it, he was at the school's front gates. Sora gulped as he felt that the huge gates were looming over him and taunting him. He tightened his grip on the sling of his backpack and cautiously pushed open the gates as to not to alert anybody that might be patrolling the school grounds.

Once he was in the school's compound, Sora mad a mad dash for the school's front double doors and prayed that it wasn't already locked. His prayers were answered and he pushed open the doors and rushed to his locker. After the entering the code, Sora stuffed in the books he wasn't using and nearly ripped out his class schedule. His eyes hastily scanned the decaying piece of paper for his first class. Math. Sora inwardly blanched. Math was his worst subject, he just couldn't figure out all the god damn numbers!

Plus, the teacher really had it in for him.

To him, math is a mind numbing waste of time. Just like school, the teachers feed your brain with space eating information that you don't need in the future. They want to destroy the students just because they fell for it when they were young and stupid. Crazy schizoids. Teachers are anti-social aliens from planet mars. Beware.

As if all the numbers didn't complicate him enough, they had to have a really thick textbook to annoy the students further. It could probably substitute as a dictionary. Sora grudgingly hauled the overweight textbook out of his locker and stuffed it in his bag which he slung over his shoulder.

With his footsteps echoing in the empty hallway, Sora briskly walked towards his class. Rushing to it yet dreading to attend it. What a strange boy. How contradictory he was.

Walking in the direction of the class, he passed by the detention room and realized that the door was ajar. Sora curiously peered inside; he hadn't been to detention before so he had no clue as to how it looked like in there. Most people told him it was pretty boring there and the only fun thing was to tackle noobs when they arrived.

Sora shuddered at the thought. Being tackled by crazy detention overdosed psychos didn't sound like his cup of tea. Kairi had gone a few times and she once told him that the only fun thing to do in there was stare and gawk at the detention teacher person.(whaddya call 'em? Just teacher?) Riku used to be a regular participant in the detention room but not anymore. Since he and Kairi became an item, she managed to persuade Riku to stop making so much trouble. All that was history, the days that they were still civil to each other and not ripping out each others guts were gone and lost with the sands of time. As sad as it may seem, maybe it was for the best.

Sora clutched the edge of the door to regain his composure. He was having one of those seizures again. Whenever he felt overworked or stressed, Sora's head would spin and flashes of light would just randomly appear in his line of vision. All because of that one stupid mistake.

Don't misunderstand though, Sora is anything but weak. With a strong formidable sense of justice and an unfaltering wall of courage, Sora is a force to be reckoned with. He faired pretty well with sports, he doesn't really put much effort into it as he was a very, very lazy person.

Just doing it for the sake of doing it.

Sora's left hand gripped the door and his other hand rested on his forehead trying to ease the pain even if it was only by a little. He closed his eyes but he still could see the splotches of light. It was making him giddy.

Sora could feel a gentle hand steadying him by supporting the small of his back. Sora didn't care who it was at this point so he just gave himself over. The stress and the emotions raging within him were too much to handle. He often had breakdowns like this since the accident but no one was ever there to help, he felt awkward yet happy that someone was finally there.

Maybe the person was just passing by and saw him hunched over like that so he came over to help out of pity. Sora really didn't care at that point of time. As long as there was somebody, he was tired of being alone. Sora leaned back into the touch and was caught by two arms and a warm chest supporting his body. He relished the feeling of warmth that he finally experienced for the first time. He wondered if this was how Kairi felt when she leans back onto Riku.

His textbook was long forgotten as it lay on the ground unmoving. (What else do you expect textbooks to do? Fly?) When Sora finally came to, he slowly lifted his heavy eyelids and tried to correct his blurred vision. He rubbed his eyes groggily and soon noticed the figure crouching in front of him.

Sora blinked. Once, twice.

He fully opened his navy blue orbs and peered up at the figure crouching in front of him. He was staring expectantly at Sora's face, as if waiting it to stand up and leave or something. When Sora was fully awake and alert, he got a good look at the man in front of him. His breath hitched in his throat when he laid his eyes on this moving, living, breathing work of art. The man that stood before him was gorgeous. He had piercing azure eyes that had a soft edge to it and spiky tresses much like Sora's own hair-do except Sora's shone a brilliant hazel while the other party's hair was a striking blonde.

"Hey kid, you alright?"

While Sora was busy gawking at the living, breathing work of art, he didn't notice the man speak until a few moments later. Realizing what he had been doing, Sora's cheeks turned a light pink as he tried to hide the slight blush from his new fascination. Sora wanted so badly to reply him but he knew he couldn't. The guy would probably brush it off as Sora being rude and eventually walk away. That was how it always was.

Sora, embarrassed that he couldn't reply attempted to retrieve his textbook that was rotting on the ground. But he instantly stopped when he heard his voice again.

"It's good that you're listening to your parents with all that 'don't talk to strangers' crap but you think you could make an exception for the stranger that saved you from getting a head concussion?" laughed the man jestingly.

Sora grabbed his book and managed a weak smile at the man's direction. It wasn't that he didn't want to, it's because he can't.

"Well I guess that smile is all I'm getting for now, but I'll take it. You really should smile more, you look cuter that way. Well see you around and take it easy, kid." With a parting wave, the man disappeared down the hallway towards the school's front double doors.

Sora blushed a deep shade of red at the man's comment. No one had ever said that to him, well his mother had once but that was different! He barely knew the guy for crying out loud! So why did he feel this way? Sora shook his head trying to rid the images of the man's retreating back or the soft smile on his rosy luscious lips, lips that he would love to feel for himself…

Sora mentally slapped himself for that thought. The man was a man for god's sake! He couldn't be attracted to him like that! Sora was instantly annoyed that he couldn't even control his own thoughts so he just ignored them and picked up his textbook and glanced at the clock that hung above the door to a random classroom. 10 21.

Sora's face turned ashen. He was in deep shit now. Trying not to waste anymore time, he bounded to the class and when he finally reached the door, he stopped and took a deep breath. This was it. Maybe if he snuck in unnoticed, then the teacher won't even realize that he was late! He just had to keep a straight face and deny anything about not being there for half of the lesson.

Sounds like a plan.

Sora gathered up the courage he had and tip toed to the back door. He could hear Mister Hammington literally bore the class to death and the screech of the chalk on the board. Sora winced as he heard a loud screech from chalk. Picking this time to set his plan into motion, Sora with painfully slow motion twisted the knob and cautiously pushed open the door.

Most of the students that sat behind were all the dreamers that treated school as time to catch up on their sleep and couldn't give half a rat's ass about some late kid who decided to sneak in from the back. Unlike all the pricks sitting in front who would rat you out once they spot you.

Riku and Kairi went over to their side. All the successful people go there, people who aren't afraid to step on other people and use them as play things. The people who make it to the top on the social ladder. Who could blame them? They just want to make something out of their life.

Sora's seat was at the back row and right now he actually appreciated the droning voice of the teacher that covered the shuffling of his feet. Sora was crawling to his seat and everything seemed fine and dandy before the obvious noise of Mister Hammington clearing his throat sounded throughout the room and it was pointed in Sora's general direction.

Before Sora could give a really lame explanation, Mister Hammington cut him off.

"I'll be expecting you in detention later. So after the class make sure to come by and fill in the form. Maybe if you had came in straight and gave me a reason for your tardiness I might have excused you, but instead you decided to crawl in like a worm. How very honest of you, young man," chastised the teacher sarcastically.

A wave of quiet laughter swept over the class as Sora plopped down in his seat. His face was a bright red and he tried to ignore the laughing eyes that were all staring at him. It was embarrassing. He could still here the boys snickering and most of the girls were giggling like there was no tomorrow.

Sora sighed deeply and rested his head on the palm of his hand with his elbow propped up by the desk. Class only had a few minutes left and he couldn't be bothered to flip open his textbook. Sora gazed out the window dreamily, his thoughts once again drifted back to the blonde haired wonder.

Sora let another sigh escape his lips. He had already begun to question his sexuality, does he like boys? Or maybe he's simple infatuated by how flawless the blonde was. A passing obsession, everybody gets it. It's just a phase in life. Happy with his conclusion, Sora settled down into his seat and stared out the window once again.

Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to do so, dark blue clashed with light blue as they met each others gaze. Sora was startled to say the least. He didn't expect to see him again that soon! The blonde was standing in one of the school's front lawn apparently kicking an unmoving body on the ground. The man seemed unfazed as he kicked the body yet again.

Sora started panicking at first but soon relaxed when the body started twitching spasmodically. At least it's not dead or anything. The man looked up at Sora and waved at him with a smile filled with mirth on his sun kissed face.

Sora felt the heat creep up onto his cheeks again as he hesitantly waved back while letting a grin form on his lips.

"I wonder what's so interesting outside the window that mister Sora has absolutely no time to pay and ounce of attention to this very important lesson I am teaching. Would you care to enlighten us mister Sora?" said Mister Hammington in a painfully monotonous voice.

The class yet gain erupted in a fit of laughter. Sora tore his gaze away from the man and faced the teacher. They were mocking him. Yet, there was nothing he could do. In silence, Sora shook his head and kept quiet. Just like what he would be doing all his life.

"I didn't think so. So if you would be so kind as to do the class and yourself a favour by actually paying attention," drawled Mr Hammington.

If he could, Sora would tell this teacher off till he flies to next Tuesday without even knowing what hit him. Even if he really, really wanted to, he can't.

Sora glanced out the window again. The blonde was nowhere to be seen.

It was the third time 'mister' Sora sighed in that single day.

Hmm, well this was long enough. Sorry if the first chapter was a bit confusing and sorry again if they were too OOC. Oh yeah, if you're wondering why Sora isn't all happy and child like I'll tell you. Maybe it's cause I don't really think of him that way. I think he is more of an in depth character with a terrorizing past and what not. Well I'm portraying him that way. Ah well, what's done is done. Besides, you'll find out why he's so gloomy later on. Actually Kairi and Riku ditching him is one of the reasons. Heh heh, I think 'mister Sora' sounds a tad weird. Don't you? Urgh. I don't know if he has a surname or not. So don't kill me for it. Reviews would be nice. I can hear the bed calling my name…