"Hey! Watch where you're going, kid!"

Riku instinctively flinched at the voice, even if it was coming from too far away to be directed at him. He still knew its owner—Aeleus, captain of the city watch in charge of the Earth District. Too often, that warning had been addressed to Riku—and quickly followed by a beating.

Just a few seconds later, a tiny figure all in brown dashed down the street towards Riku, the guard on his tail. Groaning, Riku stepped away from the nearest merchant stall—he'd been so close!—and tried to blend in with the crowd.

That was without counting on the guard's actual target, who barreled into Riku head first, sending them both crashing to the packed earth below.

"You! I should've known you were involved in this!"

"Fuck's sake," Riku swore. Aeleus had recognized him. And, well, he had just been about to steal something, but he had nothing to do with that other kid.

"I'm so sorry!" The kid said as he tried—in vain—to scramble to his feet. The brown cloak he wore, which hid most of his face, also seemed to make it hard for him to move. And the less he could move, the less Riku, pinned under him, could either.

"Get off," Riku said. He reached under the cloak, and pushed the kid off of him. Aeleus had just about broken through the crowd, and all of Riku's instincts told him to high-tail it out of here before the batons came out—if not something worse.

But after Riku had taken a few steps between passersby, he couldn't help but turn back. Aeleus wasn't even looking at him, his fist closed on the other boy's forearm and pulling him up to his feet. Judging by the boy's yelps, Aeleus was being as gentle as he always was. And there was the fact that the captain had gone after him instead of Riku. Whatever the boy had done, it must have been bad to distract him from his favorite target.

Riku had been in the boy's place enough not to wish this fate on anyone, and he couldn't help himself: he went back. "Hey, Captain! Why don't you let him go?"

Aeleus finally considered him again. "Shut up, you punk! I'll get to you in a moment."

"In a moment? Are you sure this doesn't take priority?" Riku held out the trinket he'd pilfered from under the boy's cloak. Some kind of jewelry, he'd recognized by touch, even though he hadn't had the time to look at it in detail. He'd taken it more or less as a reflex.

"Wha—hey, how did you—?" The boy sounded indignant. "This is mine!"

"You shut up too, thief," Aeleus spat. Then, to Riku, "Give it back, punk. This ain't your usual apple. I won't just give you a beating if I have to catch you with this. This is bad enough to get the entire watch on your ass."

His words gave Riku pause, and he briefly considered the item he'd just stolen. It looked like a pendant of some kind, with a symbol of a crown hanging from it. It didn't seem that precious, and yet, if it was that valuable— "It's worth enough to get out of this shithole," he said, half realizing it for himself.

"You'll get shanked first, boy." He seemed a little scared himself, his hand clasped around the boy's arm so hard his joints were white, and he looked reluctant to try and get the jewel back from Riku by force. "Just give it back, and I'll let this one slide."

Riku scoffed. "Yeah, I've heard that one before." Aeleus had never once kept his word on this. "Tell you what: you let my friend go, and then I'll give you the bauble back and we all go our separate ways."

He was stalling, yet to his surprise, Aeleus nodded. "Okay. I'm gonna let the little thief go. But don't even think about running." He closed his free hand around the handle of his weapon—not his baton, but his deadly axe-sword. Riku couldn't help but gulp nervously at the sight of the weapon's massive blade hanging at the guard's hip.

Aeleus released his grip on the boy, and for a moment, nobody moved; the boy just rubbed his arm. Desperately, Riku nodded at him a couple times, then when it didn't seem to get the message across, couldn't help but hiss, "Get outta here, you moron!"

Startled, the boy hesitated for another moment, then scuttled—straight towards Riku, to hide behind him. Riku sighed, but that was really all he could ask for.

He stepped forward, slowly, hoping to give Aeleus no reason to take his weapon out until he was out of reach. When he was just a step away from Aeleus, close enough to smell his pungent scent, the captain held out an expectant hand.

"Catch," Riku said, and he tossed the pendant in the air as hard as he could.

They must have played this game dozens of times by now, and it worked every time without fail. Aeleus yelped in shock and scrambled to catch the jewel, which would give Riku time to run. This time, though, he didn't intend to run empty-handed. He closed the space between them, reached for Aeleus's baton on his unguarded side, grabbed it, and jammed it into the captain's flank. He didn't have a lot of strength, but the surprise and his own momentum were enough to send Aeleus barreling back into the crowd, frozen in awe at their struggle.

Riku didn't wait to see what they'd do: he dropped the baton, caught the pendant before it hit the ground, and ran the other way. Noticing the boy hadn't moved either, he grabbed his arm with his free hand, dragging him through the crowd behind him.

"Hey!" the boy protested, but Riku ignored him. At least the boy could keep up, it seemed.

A few minutes and several turns through narrow alleys later, Riku dashed under a fence into the inner courtyard of an abandoned patrician's house—one of his many hideouts in the district. There, he allowed himself to stop running; Aeleus didn't know of this hiding place yet, he was pretty sure. He placed a wooden plank in front of the opening, then turned to look at the boy he'd rescued against his better sense.

The cloak he was wearing hid his entire body, but now that he wasn't focused on Aeleus, Riku noted that beneath its ugly brown color, it was made of cloth far too nice for the Earth district—thick and velvety, Riku remembered from his brief contact with it. Before he could wonder about it, the boy pulled his hood back a little, and Riku got his first good look at his face. The boy had striking blue eyes, and short brown hair—messy, but too evenly to be anything but intentional. His features held a soft roundness that, combined with his short stature, made Riku certain he couldn't be any older than Riku himself was at thirteen years old—in fact, he was probably younger still.

"You need to be more careful," he said. "You won't survive long in the streets if you can't avoid getting caught by the city watch."

"I've survived this long," the boy retorted.

Riku merely scoffed. "And how long is 'this long', exactly? A month? A week? Less?"

The boy pouted. "That obvious, huh?"

"We've all started somewhere," Riku said, shrugging. "What happened?"

The boy averted his gaze, but he looked tearful anyway. "I'm just…new." It wasn't an answer, but Riku knew better than to press him. Few children who ended up on the streets had a good reason, and fewer still liked to share theirs. Riku certainly wouldn't have answered the question if he'd been asked.

"If you want to last long enough until you're not new, try to be more careful in the future," Riku offered. "And aim lower for what you're going to steal. The cloak is a bit much already, but this pendant?" Riku took it out of his pocket, examining it more closely in the sunlight. "Come on, I wouldn't even go for something like this. Bet I can't even find anyone who'll buy it from me for full price in the Earth district."

"I didn't steal these," the boy said.

"Of course you didn't. Nobody wants to be a thief at first. You just took what you needed, right?"

"No, I mean they're mine. I'd like this back, by the way."

Riku chuckled. "I'm sure you would," he teased, without even bothering to look up from his examination. There was a carving behind the crown, he noticed—a marking that looked familiar, even if he couldn't place it. He also spotted a mechanism; when he tugged at it, the crown folded in two along its middle, and a tiny key appeared from within the pendant. "This is some nice shit. No wonder the cap looked so desperate to get it back."

"I—seriously, give it back. Look, my name's Sora, and I'm—"

"Is that your trick?" Riku kept examining the pendant, but he found nothing more of interest on it. "You tell people your name so they feel attached to you and they let you steal their shit? Ain't gonna work on me." He pocketed the pendant, and walked towards the house across the courtyard. He'd set up a few things there for him to sleep when he could. Of course, he'd planned to eat there too, but that wasn't happening today, thanks to the kid—to Sora. "Wait here for at least another hour, then leave the way we came. You have until morning to be gone. You should be grateful I even let you come here to escape the cap. No one should know about this place."

"Wait!" Riku had no intention to do so, but the noise he heard next forced him to look back at the boy. He was kneeling on the ground, crying openly. "I—you can't take the pendant!"

"Playing the emotional value card, huh?"

"No, I—you don't understand! I can't lose this pendant! Please!"

Riku blinked, and shifted uneasily. For a kid who was obviously new, he was good at this. Unless he wasn't that new to the streets at all. "Sorry, Sora. Really. But I can't give it back to you either. You cost me my dinner already, you know, and I saved your life, so it's a fair bargain."

"I'll—I'll do anything—"

Riku couldn't bear to look at Sora's crying face for another moment—he didn't trust himself not to give in if he did. "If we ever meet again, don't run into me," he said, and went inside the abandoned house, making sure to lock the door behind him.

All night, he heard Sora crying through the door and broken windows, but Sora made no further attempt to plea with him. And in the morning, Sora was gone, as per Riku's instructions. Yet Riku still remembered the way he'd been crying, and he couldn't help but feel bothered about keeping the pendant. His instincts, sharpened from years on the streets, told him it was all an act. But it had been a damn convincing one.

His sense of guilt still kept him from looking for a buyer immediately. He tried to rationalize it, like he was just making sure he found someone who could buy the pendant at full price, but he didn't even look at all that day.

And then, in the evening, just one street away from the patrician's abandoned house, clamors caught his attention again. Three thugs he knew all too well, surrounding a tiny figure crumpled up on the ground. Fuu kicked the boy even though he was already down, and the other two snickered.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Riku called out. "This is my turf. We settled this."

"Oh, hey, it's the tiny terror of the Earth district!" Seifer teased. "Yeah, we settled this, but I decided I'm not okay with it. So we're here to…re-negotiate." He nodded at the boy on the ground, who Riku realized was Sora, though the brown cloak was nowhere to be seen, and the clothes he were looked more like fancy pajamas than street clothes. "New kid said he knew where we could find you, but then he wouldn't take us to you. Friend of yours?"

"I don't make friends," Riku said, though he heard his own voice break under the tension. Seifer and his two companions were older, stronger, and Riku had the pendant hidden under his shirt. If he lost it to those guys, it'd be even worse than if he'd given it back to Sora. He couldn't beat them in a fight—never had—but he couldn't give up on his turf, either. Or let them beat someone up on his turf. "Why don't you leave? Don't want a repeat of last time."

"I'm not worried we'll do a repeat," Seifer said, already taking a step towards him.

Riku groaned, but his plan was already in motion. He ran towards Seifer, who had obviously been expecting him to run away. Taken by surprise, Seifer couldn't catch him when he ducked, nor could Rai when he slid on the ground, right next to his feet. He paused next to Sora, wrapped an arm under the boy's arms, and dragged him off the ground. Sora barely responded at first, but after a few steps, he seemed to regain some vitality.

"Stick to the left wall," Riku whispered in his ear. He wasn't sure Sora registered, but the boy actually took off on his own and ran ahead, just in time for Fuu to aim a punch at Riku from behind.

Riku rolled on the ground to dodge, grabbed a handful of the fresh dirt beneath him and threw it straight to her eyes, before dashing off, sticking to the right wall. He thought he heard three sets of footsteps behind him, but it was hard to tell and he didn't want to look back to check. He couldn't miss his own tells—

There. Shortly before the corner, as he passed a damaged plank in the fence, he ducked, passing under a thin wire he'd placed there in the morning. Fuu and Rai both got caught in it, tripping and landing on the ground, and blocking the alley. Seifer managed to jump over them, though, so as he turned the corning, Riku tapped another board in the fence. It broke another wire above them, dropping a large stone on top of Seifer. But if the sounds were any indication, it had missed its mark, only making Seifer slow down a little.

That was all Riku really needed, even if he'd preferred to hit Seifer with his trap. He knelt right behind the corner, curling into a ball. Seifer barreled into him, unable to stop, and tripped over Riku's body, triggering a third trap as he did. This one dragged a scaffolding across the alleyway, sending it crashing down on top of Seifer and pinning him down.

"Shit!" Seifer yelled. "Bitch stabbed me!"

Riku got back to his feet, and noticed that a sharper part of the scaffolding had indeed made its way through Seifer's arm. "You'll get over it," Riku teased. "Just stay the fuck away—let's not do this a third time, okay?"

There wasn't much time for gloating; already he could hear Fuu and Rai coming to their senses. Before they could catch him, he dashed under a pile of crates, hiding him but giving him a full view of the alley. Across from him was his hideout's entrance, and he could see Sora peering out from under it. Riku prayed he wouldn't attract attention, but when Fuu and Rai showed up, they focused on helping Seifer free from the scaffolding, and bandaged his wound. Seifer swore profusely, but when they didn't see either Riku or Sora in the alley, Seifer gave up with loud declarations of revenge.

Once they were gone for good, Riku dashed into his hideout, closing the fence behind him, then turning to Sora. The boy was crumpled on the ground, leaning against the fence as if he'd collapsed on the spot from exhaustion. His face sported several bruises—from Seifer's gang, and maybe others before that, if his absent cloak was any indication. Those would heal, though. Blood trickled from his earlobe, though, and Riku was sure that would leave a scar.

"You—you saved me," Sora said, sounding surprised—and infinitely more exhausted than the previous day.

"Wasn't going to let Seifer challenge me," Riku said, feigning nonchalance, but unable to keep it up. "And—yeah, I saved you. That's twice now, against my better judgment."

Sora managed a sardonic smile. "Are you saying you like me?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "I know what it's like to get beaten up by Aeleus or Seifer's gang. Wasn't about to let someone else go through that."

"Really? So you help everyone else, too?"

Riku glared at him. "And here I was, about to offer to share some of the dinner I actually managed to steal today, since you weren't there to disturb me." He really had been about to offer, though he still had no clue as to why. "Guess it'll be all for me, if you're going to keep being a nuisance." He walked away at an overly slow and dramatic pace, as if to demonstrate.

"Dinner—? Hey, no, wait, I'm sorry!"

Smirking, Riku turned around. Sora was holding his own stomach dramatically, as if to emphasize his own hunger. "You'll never survive he streets," Riku said, just as he was realizing it himself. It would probably be more merciful to just let him out on his own. "But—I guess since I saved you twice, if I let you die now, it'll mean I did it in vain."

A tentative smile—genuine, this time—formed on Sora's lips. "Thanks?"

Riku went to the stash he'd filled earlier in the day, picked up a burnt loaf of bread and two bruised apples, and came to sit by Sora, offering an apple and half of the loaf. "It's not much, but it's more than I usually manage to steal, so don't expect it to get better," he warned.

"Then—shouldn't we save some of it?"

"Save it?" Riku let out a wry chuckle. "Tomorrow we might not even be able to come back here. City watch might remember this place exists, and raid it. Or someone else might find it for themselves, and steal what I stole. Or there'll be a fire in the neighborhood. Or—who knows what else. You don't live on the streets and save. That's for people who have a certain future." He paused, and examined Sora's face again. "You really are new, huh?"

Sora nodded. "My mom died yesterday."

He didn't offer more, and Riku still didn't want to ask. The more Sora told him, the more they might feel like friends, and that wasn't about to happen. He looked for words of comfort, but those felt foreign to him, and nothing came to mind. Still, when Sora pressed closer to him, he wrapped an arm around his shoulders, hoping that was enough.

"Seriously," Sora said. "Thanks for saving me."

"I still don't know why I did it," Riku said.

"I don't know why I came back here, either. But I'm glad I did."

And then he leaned in and up, pressing his lips against Riku's. Stunned, Riku didn't react at first, then, even more confusingly, he found himself returning the kiss, bending his head and pulling Sora closer against him to make it easier on him.

It was his first kiss—and Sora's too, he guessed—and it wasn't much, but Riku still felt out of breath when hey broke away. Before he could say anything, Sora grinned. "Even if you didn't give me my pendant back," he said, accusingly.

In a brief flash of panic, Riku checked that the pendant still hung around his neck—and found that it did. Still, he refused to be taken aback by something as stupid as a kiss. "Still insisting that it's yours, huh?" Riku teased back. "I remember the engraving, you know. It's a nobility seal."

"Yep."

Forced into silence again, Riku stared at Sora, wheels turning in his mind. Before, he could ask, a voice came from over the fence.

"This is the place. Tear it up, boys!"

Aeleus. "Shit," Riku let out in a whisper. Seifer must have told him about their scuffle in he alley, as revenge for Riku slipping away. He should have known better than to stay here.

"What can we do?"

"That's the only exit," Riku said. "The house is condemned on the street side—"

He tried to think of something, but before he could, something crashed through the fence, making Riku jump to his feet, and Sora with him. It took a moment to recognize Aeleus's axe-sword; obviously, the captain had decided to take a shortcut in his search.

Another crash, and the weapon tore a man-sized hole into the fence. Guards poured into he courtyard, surrounding Sora and Riku, and Aeleus came in after them. "Finally," he spat, his eyes locked on Riku. He slung his axe-sword over his shoulder, ready to strike. "I'm not letting you get away this—"

"Stop!" Sora yelled, stepping between the two of them, his right arm spread out to the side.

"That voice—you're that kid!" Aeleus said. But then, his gaze drifted to Sora's arm, uncovered without his brown cloak, and his eyes opened wide. "Wait—"

"My name is Sora," he said, and though he sounded just as frail and unsure as a few moments ago. "Stand down."

Aeleus glanced back at some of other guards, exchanging a confused glance. "I—but you can't be—"

"Captain Aeleus, I'm sure there's an order to bring my back home safely. Do it, and let this boy go, and I won't report who gave me the bruises on my arms."

The captain's eyes went wide, and even Riku, who had no idea what was going on, understood that whoever Sora was able to report to, they could get Aeleus in major trouble. "B-but he's a thief—"

"Don't question me," Sora insisted, and though he still didn't sound very confident, the captain gave in.

"Yes, of-of course. Guards, prepare an escort to the royal palace!"

The guards gathered around Sora, though their menacing attitude was gone. "I'll just need a minute alone," Sora said, but Aeleus shook his head.

"With all due respect, I couldn't forgive myself if left you out of my sight until you're home safe." Sora opened his mouth—to protest, no doubt—but Aeleus insisted. "Your grandfather wouldn't forgive me, either."

"My—" Sora cut himself off, sighing. "You're right." He turned to Riku, an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry about all this. Maybe we can meet again?"

Riku blinked at him, dazed and still trying to puzzle out what was happening. "Sure," he said, but when glanced at Aeleus, he knew this truce between them was only temporary. The moment Sora was gone, Riku would have to give up on this place, like all the others before it. Still, he smiled to Sora. "Who knows?"

Sora smiled back, then walked out, surrounded by the guards.

That was the last time Riku saw Sora for the next thirteen years.