Disclaimer- Was there any rabid hot gay sex in Kingdom Hearts I, II or FFVII? Then I still don't own any of it.
Longerish Summary-Just because times are modern doesn't mean tradition has to die. Arranged marriages between all genders are still common in Midgar, at least among those of the old blood. 15 year old Riku Tsurigi never put much thought into the old practice, accepting it with the same indifference that he accepts his place in his brothers' shadows and his own lack of a Talent. But when he moves to Destiny Islands and befriends Sora Leonhart, he finds himself questioning the carefully constructed world he's been living in. As the world around them grows more ominous, and they themselves grow up, Riku has to find out just how much of himself he's locked inside, and what he's willing to sacrifice for happiness. What's more important-- love or blood?
Inspired by a rather wonderfully unhealthy amount of time listening to Emilie Autumn, mostlyRose Red, Marry Me, Save You, Opheliac and 306.
Main Pairings: Soriku, Zaphiroth and Zadaj. Many minor ones.
Prologue: The Sand Castle
The sound of cheering was nearly deafening. Waves of uncoordinated voices rose from the streets and towards the heavens, as if to make up for their lack of numbers in volume, chanting, crying, whooping, trying their best to let the procession know their gratitude and admiration. First came the soldiers; ranks of purple-clad second-classes flanked by the first-class fighters in black, a mix of waving, grinning, or impassive men marching in time and leading the way for the mercenaries who had come through at the very end-- men and women in pristine black tuxedos, most with weapons slung over their shoulders and smirking confidently.
"Aerith, what's going on?" A soft tug on her pink dress brought one woman's attention away from the procession and towards the small brunette boy staring up at her with curious blue eyes. Both he and the blonde behind him were clad only in matching red shorts and sandals, their bodies still moist from the ocean they had been playing in until the cheers had led their attention back to town.
"The heroes are marching through, look!" She pointed towards the marching lines, winding up and down the streets of Zanarkand, forgetting in the excitement that to two seven year old boys the only thing in that direction was a forest of legs. Sora and Tidus turned their heads anyways, hoping to perhaps catch a glimpse of all the excitement.
"Come on." Tidus grabbed Sora's wrist and began to pull him away from the crowd, "let's go to the roof!"
Waving quickly to Aerith, who had already turned her eyes back to the march, the boys scampered through the rest of the crowd, making their way to the house-like contraptions that made up most of Zanarkand to scramble up the back fire escape, climbing the metal rungs deftly as monkeys. The war had been won almost two weeks ago, though the only real difference that Sora, Tidus, and the other three children left in the charge of Aerith and her cousin Tifa had noticed was a lack of ships and helicopters in the air and adults had stopped drunkenly declaring their vows to fight of the Wutai with their bare hands as soon as they had finished the bottle. Still, heroes meant battles, and battles meant excitement, and probably some really cool weapons. They wanted to at least see a few of the heroes before the parade was over.
Stepping onto the bird-shit covered roof, Sora led the way around the various debris that had found its way up here over the past fifty years; everything from old, molding couches to broken cabinets and trashy romance novels had somehow come to make permanent residence here, making it a hide and seek goldmine for a while until Yuna Aoki had fallen over the edge in the midst of one particularly intense game and would most likely have died if Sora's older brother, Leon, hadn't happened to see her dive and catch her before she hit the pavement a few months ago. Since the incident, none of the children had been up here, but some events were more important than fear.
"See anything interesting, Sora?" Catching up to his friend, Tidus sat down on the couch facing out into the street, straining to see if any of the toy-sized people in the parade looked particularly heroic instead of just puny.
"I dunno." Sora frowned, his azure eyes scanning the procession seriously. "Hey, look at that! Why do you think they're all marching one by one at the end?"
Tidus's eyes followed to where the tan hand was pointing, catching sight of the six figures at the very end walking at a slower pace, though no less professional. "I dunno, maybe they're government officials or something? But people are cheering…" Seven years of experience had left the two boys not completely sure what government officials were, except that they were really important and no one liked them very much.
"Those are the heroes." Both boys jumped at the sound of another voice and turned around. There; standing in the shade of one of the cabinets, was a figure neither of them had noticed until now. Judging by height and the sound of his voice, the stranger was around their age, dressed in long black pants and a bright blue t-shirt that complimented the silver hair he had pulled back into a ponytail. Stepping into the sunshine, he smiled at the other two, walking closer and explaining, "The first one down there is Xigbar, he's the double agent that told us the Wutai plans and weaknesses. The guy behind him is Xemnas, he's the one who can control Heartless. After that is Saix…" He paused, sure that they had at the very least heard of Saix. The only reason the blue-haired man had been forgiven for the slaughter of his entire unit was because he had managed to destroy nearly half of a Wutai command at the same time. "After them, are the real heroes, the generals. Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth. They commanded the final battle, and it was Sephiroth who chopped off Godo Kisaragi's head."
"Really!" The boys on the couch had turned away from the parade completely now, more interested in the tales the stranger seemed to know.
"That's so cool!"
"Were there guts everywhere?"
"Did Godo say anything after his head got chopped off?"
"Did Sephiroth drink any of the blood?"
"Is it on a spike somewhere for all the Wutai to see?"
The boy laughed at their questions, "Iunno, I wasn't actually there, I only know the stories!"
"How do you know they're true, then?" Tidus demanded.
"Tch, you wanna ask Sephiroth?" The stranger crossed his arms, smirking, "I mean, it might bring back some of the battle frenzy left over from the fight…they say soldiers aren't always stable so soon after a war ends…but if you really want to see if it's true, I bet I can find a way to get to him."
"Um…well…" Tidus grinned, "I guess we can take your word on it then."
"Hey, who are you, anyways?" Sora asked, cocking his head to the side. The island wasn't so small that he knew everyone on it by name, but it wasn't big enough that he didn't recognize a face.
"My name's Riku." He paused. "I'm not from around here. Who're you?"
"I'm Sora, and this is Tidus." Smiling brightly, the shorter boy hopped over the back of the couch to grab Riku's hand and pump it a few times. "What're you doing here, then? Vacation?" In the warmer seasons, many Wutai would infest Destiny Islands, holing up in Twilight Town-- the impossibly nice other side of the island where most of the population made its living off of hotel and resort fees, along with "native" crafts.
"Family thing." Riku waved his hand dismissively. "It's really boring though, I was trying to find somewhere to play…but you guys are the only kids I've run into since I got here."
Sora seemed to consider this for a moment, "Then…wanna come to the beach with us? We were gonna head back when the parade ended anyways."
"We were?" Tidus asked, mildly surprised until Sora turned around and stuck his tongue out at him, "Oh, okay, yeah! We need to finish our sand castle before the tide comes in!"
"Sand castle?" The silver-haired one looked genuinely confused, picturing gigantic palaces made of sandstone where the other two boys were waited on by giant crabs and squid.
"Yeah! Come on, you can help us finish the moat and turrets!" Grabbing Riku's hand, Sora led the way once more through the debris, Tidus nimbly picking his way behind them.
"Awww…the water destroyed it!" With a mournful gaze Riku, shirt and shoes abandoned up farther on dry land, watched the tiny walls and spiraling turrets erode back into the ground. "We should have built it higher on up."
"Then the sand would have dried and we couldn't have built it." Tidus paused long enough from splashing Sora with the receding water to point that out, only to be tackled into the shallow wave by the other.
"Then there wasn't a point to building it?" Pouting, he continued to stare at the decaying walls until a splash of water hit him, "hey!"
"You had fun, didn't you?" Grinning impishly, Sora shuffled his feet in the water as a new wave overtook the last.
"Well, yeah…but…" Riku struggled to find the right words to explain how futile their efforts were.
"Then it had a point." Another splash of water before Tidus grabbed Sora in a headlock, "Ah! Help me Riku! He's trying to kill me! Get him off!"
Riku grinned, laughing when a second later both Tidus and Sora had fallen backwards into the shore-break, sitting up and sputtering out water. "You guys are silly."
"Riiiiiiiikuuuu…" Whining, Sora held out his hand, "Play with us!"
With an exaggerated sigh, the boy jumped off the ground, walking towards the other two and taking Sora's hand. Yanking the brunette up, he poked the tan stomach and lept back as water was splashed towards him in retaliation.
"Attaaaaack!" Before he could turn around, he stumbled forward as Tidus jumped onto his back, clinging like a monkey and using one hand to ruffle Riku's hair.
"No! Not the hair!" Falling forward into the water, Riku spit out the salty liquid and rolled around until Tidus let go. "I'm gonna get you now!" Leaping to his feet, the eight year old was about to exact his just revenge when suddenly a hand fell onto his shoulder.
"Riku! Where the hell have you been!" Turning around, the little boy looked up into the angry face of his 11 year old brother, Kadaj. "Mother's upset. We're going now."
"Upset?" The word seemed somehow more horrible when Riku said it then it should have. All laughter suddenly gone, he turned towards the island boys, "I gotta go guys…" He and Kadaj began the trek up the shore.
"We'll see you tomorrow, right?" Sora asked uncertainly, ignoring the water lapping around his ankles.
"Yeah." Picking up his shirt and shoes, Riku glanced back and smiled at the brunette, "Definitely."
"All right." Sora smiled again, "Don't forget!"
Before Riku could reply, Kadaj was all but dragging his brother towards the city and out of sight.
Will Sora and Tidus actually see Riku the next day?
I'll give you a hint.
No! =D
*coughs* aaanyways, thus ends the prologue! I apologize for their slight OOCness, and present in my defense that they're little kids here, and will be more IC in the next chapters, when they're a lot closer to their ages in the game/movie ^^.
Please review!! Reviews feed my muses and keep them from eating my soul!