Someday . x . , Out Of . x . The Blue

snow . x . fairy

Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fanfiction. The author does not own Super Smash Bros. It is owned by the one and only Nintendo.

. Chapter V .

- Euphoria -

. x . X . x .

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.

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Marth walked down the hallways of Smash Academy with an uncharacteristic frown plasted on his handsome face, heading towards the room where the kendo club was based. Classes had finished around ten minutes ago, and instead of meeting up with Ike, Lucina, Robin and Roy as usual, he instead immediately made his way to the kendo club room with the motive to confront the captain of said club, namely Cloud.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he fished it out to see a message from Robin.

Robin (1): We're gonna get bubble tea & might chill at Lucina's place after. Where are you?

He quickly tapped out a reply: I'm gonna talk to one of my teachers about something I didn't understand in class. Idk how long it'll take so I'll meet you guys there :)

As usual, Robin replied in record timing since he was always on his phone.

Robin (1): Okay, don't take too long though

Marth shoved his phone back into his pocket as he neared the kendo club room, the events that took place in P.E flooding his mind once again.

Shock and concern was etched across Marth's face - the fear that was encased in Ike's eyes had muted him briefly, but he proceeded to gently place a comforting hand on Ike's arm. "It's okay," he said soothingly, his cerulean orbs studying Ike's midnight blue ones. Marth watched as the fear dissipated, and Ike slowly sat up, wincing in pain as he did so.

"So what's going on here?" Ken grumbled as he approached where the boys were gathered around Ike on the field, who slowly sat up on the grass with his face scrunched up in pain. He yawned in a bored manner and crossed his arms afterwards. "Anyone wanna tell me why Aether is on the ground?"

"I saw him get knocked over by Cloud." Richter stated, crossing his arms over his broad and muscular chest, glancing at the aloof blonde and addressing him. "What was that about, man?"

"It seemed uncalled for to me." Isaac spoke up. "And quite harsh."

Cloud merely shrugged, "I was only trying to prevent him from getting the ball."

"By charging into him head on and knocking him over?" Robin snapped, earning a couple looks of mild surprise at his sudden shift from his usual calm demeanour. "It's a game of football, not some brawl."

"Relax, Robin," Shulk placed a hand on the silverette's shoulder in an effort to calm him down and chuckled to lighten the mood. "You're acting as if he almost killed him or something."

"For real," Mac pitched in. "I mean, these things happen in sport. I don'treally see what the big deal is."

"Little Mac here is right." Said Ken, ignoring Mac's look of irtitation at his reference to his short stature. "Just get Aether back on his feet so this shit game can be continued. Someone take him to Dr. Mario if he got injured or something.

"Are you okay, Ike?" Marth asked him. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine." Ike muttered, avoiding Marth's concerned gaze as he got himself back onto his feet. He ran a hand through his indigo spikes and tightened his signature headband before smiling down at Marth. "That was nothing, anyways."

Ike patted Marth's shoulder reassuringly - and said boy's eyes had widened when he saw part of a dark bruise on his wrist as the sleeve of his hoodie had draped down a bit.

"Wait, Ike, your wrist-"

But before he could point out the bruise, Ike had already made his way back onto the pitch, and Ken had bellowed, "Lowell! Get your ass over here so the game can continue!"

Marth now found himself standing at the enterance of the kendo club room, and he wasted no time in sliding open the door. The room was spacious and clean, with some spare practice swords lined up against the wall beside the enterance, and Marth spotted Cloud at the far left of the room conversing with a green-haired boy - presumerably a second year student.

"You mainly just have to perfect your form," Cloud was telling the boy. "And make sure not to get too excited, it's better to be calm so you can focus on you and your opponents attacks. But other than that you're doing great, Sothe."

"Thanks, Cloud." The greenette said as the older blonde ruffled his hair affectionately. "I'll definitely do more training over the weekend. See you next week."

"See ya."

Sothe made his way out, chancing a glance at Marth as he passed him through the door, and it was now just him and Cloud that occupied the room. The blonde teen raised a brow at Marth's presence, swinging his practice sword over his shoulder and began to approach him.

"So, what brings you here?" Cloud questioned, his twin sapphire orbs locked onto Marth's cerulean ones. "I'm guessing you're not here to join the club."

"You guessed right. I want to talk to you."

"About?"

"About what happened in P.E." Marth said firmly, hardening his gaze. He picked up one of the spare practice swords to his left before taking a step closer towards the blonde. "What did you get out of attacking Ike?"

Cloud tilted his head to the side slightly and replied stoically, "Like I said before, it was to prevent him from getting the ball. It was just for the sake of the game. Did you just come here to make me repeat myself?"

"No," Marth tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword. "I came here for the truth."

Cloud looked blankly at him. "Huh? What do you me-"

The blonde was suddenly cut off by Marth dashing forward with incredible speed and clashing his sword with Cloud's, who managed to block the attack just in time. They seperated momentarily before Marth striked again, skillfully slashing the sword in record timing to the point Cloud found himself beginning to stumble backwards due to the overwhelming force and speed of his attacks.

"Well," Cloud started, slashing his sword to which Marth dodged effortlessly by spinning. "I never thought you would be one to be awfully skilled with a sword. You've clearly been trained in kendo."

"I've had personal training for it along with fencing. I was also part of the club up until the end of second year, along with my friends." Marth informed him while twisting the sword by the hilt of it skillfully between his fingers. "Are you gonna answer my question?"

Cloud softly sighed. "Like I said, it was for the sake of the game. Plus he continued playing anyway, he was fine."

"No, he wasn't fine!" Marth suddenly raised his voice, his cerulean eyes flashing with anger. "You don't just brutally barge into someone like that and expect them to be fine. I saw part of a bruise on his wrist!"

There was a brief silence, and Marth noticed Cloud's eyes widen momentarily before he drifted his gaze to the clean wooden floor, his expression pensive.

"He has another one . . . " Cloud muttered more to himself than to Marth.

The blue-haired teen blinked owlishly at him. "Another one? What do you mean?"

"Another bruise." Cloud clarrified, an image of the bruise on Ike's shoulder that he had saw a couple days ago drifting to the forefront of his mind. "He has the one on his shoulder too, it's real bad." He looked up to meet Marth's perplexed expression, noticing that the anger and frustration had dissipated. "Wait, haven't you seen it?"

"No . . . I haven't.'

"Well there's a chance that the one you saw on his wrist today has been there for a while, too."

Marth furrowed his brows, a mixture of confusion and concern on his handsome features. "But . . . why would-"

"Cloud, dude!"

The bluenette and blonde turned to look at the enterance to see a tall, well-built teen with spiky hair coloured onyx and startling azure eyes that were similar to Cloud's, but seemed to be more brighter due to his exuberant nature.

Cloud lifted his hand up for a wave, a small smile gracing his lips. "Yo, Zack."

"Oh, and Marth! What's good bro?" He greeted, grinning happily. Marth returned his greeting with a smile - he and Zack were in the same history class, and there were countless times where he asked Marth for help with the classwork. "Aerith said she wanted to go to that pizza place. You coming?"

"Yeah, I'm up for it."

"Sweet! Let's hurry then, you know how impatient she can be."

Cloud headed towards Zack, silently walking passed Marth who had glanced over hid shoulder at the blonde's retreating figure.

"See ya, Marth!" Zack waved as he slung an arm over Cloud's shoulder - the blonde briefly turned to lock eyes with Marth once more before disappearing down the hallway.

Shortly after, Marth made his way to meet up with the group, pushing the conversation he had with Cloud to the back of his mind along with the worry that accomponied it.

. x . X . x .

After they had bought their bubble tea, the five made their way to Lucina's house and up to her bedroom. Robin was seated on the chair at her desk, Marth was slouched on her lilac-coloured bean bag chair, Roy sat on the floor leant against the side of her bed, and Ike laid on her bed surrounded by her numerous plush dolls.

"Ew, I still seriously don't get how you can drink that." Roy eyed Robin in disgust as the platnium-haired boy sipped his taro flavoured bubble tea through the straw. "That's like, the worst flavour."

"Agreed," said Ike as he finished the rest of his jasmine milk flavoured tea. "It tastes like actual shit."

"And you would know how shit tastes like, how?" Robin questioned raising a brow at the indigo-haired teen.

Ike smirked, "don't worry how I know, bro."

"Seems kinda sus, if you ask me." Roy said, and Ike stretched his hand to ruffle his scarlet hair roughly, but in a playful way as they all chuckled. Marth sipped on his green tea flavoured bubble tea silently as he scrolled through his phone - he found himself tempted to send a message to Cloud to question him more about the bruises he saw on Ike. He could possibly know more about them, but at the same time his knowledge could be limited.

Marth darted his cerulean orbs to where Ike laid on Lucina's bed, with one leg propped up while squishing a Goku plush doll. It seemed as if he had forgotten about Cloud attacking him. An image of the fear in eyes when Marth went to check on him flashed through said boy's mind. For all the years he'd known Ike, he'd never seen him show fear at anything or anyone. From spiders to heights to bullies. Nothing. So why?

Marth's train of thoughts was stopped when Lucina had entered the room, holding multiple bags of snacks in her hands and shutting the door behind her with the heel of her foot. She had changed out of her uniform and into more comfortable clothing, which consisted of black short shorts, an oversized white hoodie and white thigh high socks.

"Sorry I took so long, I caught Inigo trying to eat the last of my fave snacks." She said, dumping the snacks onto a small round table near her bed. She then made her way to her bed where Ike had sat up to give her space, and after she got comfortable he laid his head on her lap as he usually did, and she ran her hands through his unkempt indigo spikes. "Anyways, anything interesting happen today with you guys?"

"Cloud knocked Ike over when we were playing football," said Robin. "Literally out of the blue, and he claimed it was just for the purpose of the game."

"Did he actually?" Lucina looked down at Ike. "Did you get hurt, Ike?"

Ike kept his head pillowed in her lap and mumbled, "Nah, it was nothing serious."

Lucina huffed irritably. "Who does he think he is?"

"Funny you're asking that," Marth chimed in. "Have you forgotten the crush you had on him when he first moved to our school in second year?"

"Don't bring that up!" Lucina whined, throwing one of her plush dolls at Marth as he, Ike, Roy and Robin burst into laughter. Embarassment tainted her cheeks red and she pouted. "It only lasted for what, three days? That doesn't even count as a crush."

"Following him around school and continuously stalking his social media for three days straight doesn't count as a crush? Whatever you say, Lu-Lu." Marth rolled his eyes, prompting Lucina to throw another one of her plushies at him. "And I don't know why you're laughing as if you didn't used to have a crush on Corrin, Roy."

Roy abruptly stopped his laughter as the others continued. "Hey, don't bring me into this! Lucina is the target here!"

"You guys just love bullying me."

"Huh? I'm the victim like ninety-percent of the time!"

"That is kinda true. But it's fun!"

"You guys just love to see me miserable!"

"That's not true~!"

Amidst the teasing, playful arguements and laughter from his friends, Ike felt his lips curve upwards into a smile; whenever he was with them was when he felt the peak of happiness, a feeling he would cherish and never trade for the world.

But Ike wasn't stupid, he knew how cruel this world was.

He knew happiness didn't last forever.

. x . X . x .

Someday, Out of the Blue

. Chapter V .

- Euphoria -

- Closed -

Author's Note: Yeah, so it turns out Cloud is gonna be somewhat of a main character in this fic. I didn't actually intend for this to happen, but I thought he should seeing as how he was the first one to see one of Ike's bruises and already suspects that something is going on (plus I love him and he deserves more spotlight in Smash Bros fics) so I guess you'll be seeing a lot of him throughout the fic lmao.

And as for the appearance of Zack and the mentioning of Aerith - I honestly couldn't see Cloud hanging out with most of the characters on the roster (I considered Joker though - who will be called Akira Kurusu in this fic btw - but decided against it). I was even considering adding Neku (from The World Ends With You - amazing game btw) but then I decided that adding another one or two Final Fantasy characters wouldn't hurt. I then thought about Noctis but I wanted it to be someone that completely contrasted Cloud's personality, so I went for Zack instead! And I was thinking about whether to add Aerith or Tifa & i ended up choosing Aerith :)

And for you who don't know who Sothe is, he's from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance & Radiant Dawn.

Well anyways, the story is gonna get darker from this point. I have a lot of ideas, which include certain sensitive topics, just to warn you. I hope you guys are ready! Also please review and tell me what you think :D

– snow . x . fairy