Hey guys, welcome to my first fan-fiction! (Well, okay, not my first but the first in about 2 years and first multi-chapter one)

So this story is based a bit off CSI, a bit off NCIS and a bit off having a dad whose a cop. There will be some arrests, some violence, some romance some plot twists so I hope you enjoy it! I'd love to get some reviews to help me become a better writer! C:

Pairings: RxS, AxR, ZxD, LxC, ect.
Although this first chapter is told from Roxas' perspective, later chapter will change narrators. RS is probably going to be the main pairing at first.

Summary: After taking the fall for a devastating case in Twilight Town, Detective Roxas Kibun reenters the world of law enforcement as part of the Hollow Bastion Criminal Investigation Unit. He begins to learn that life and crime in the big city are very different from his rural hometown; problems seem to be proportionate to the population. His best friend Sora, on the other hand, is living out his dream of being the Head of Forensics for the Hallow Bastion police force. But what does one strive for when after all your dreams have already come true? From coffee runs, search warrants, court dates and romantic dates, there is a good reason the police are a city's "finest".

Warnings: Language, Violence, Sexual Situations… yes, we're talking yaoi, if you didn't catch that from the pairings. If that's not your sort of thing, find another fanfiction, hmm?

Disclaimer: [sarcasm] I own Kingdom Hearts. Every little bit of the awesome game you play. Just wanted to let you guys know. [/sarcasm]
(Really, why does everyone put there there? Does anyone reading these actually think the authors are from Square Enix? Oh well.)


Chapter 1: Acronyms Don't Make Things Any Less Complicated

Standing outside the large grey building, Roxas felt his prior determination waver. It had only been a week since he had quit his job in Twilight Town and only a few hours since crossing the border into Hollow Bastion. During the drive, he had felt confident about taking the job Sora had pulled strings to get him. Make a new start, in a new town, with new friends and enemies. Hopefully more of the former than the latter.

Now, as the time to start his first day as a detective for the Hollow Bastion Criminal Investigative Unit arrived, he wasn't so sure. A few annoyances during the trip combined with first day jitters started the day off badly. He had burnt his breakfast in an attempt to get out of his old apartment on time and then ended up spilling coffee all over the blackened toast in the car. The drive over had been mostly uneventful until he had reached the city limits. Poor drivers on old country roads in Twilight Town couldn't compare to the homicidal rage of city drivers. Some silver-haired jerk had even cut him off in the headquarter parking lot, stealing the space he had been pulling into. One might expect better behavior outside the police headquarters but then again the city wasn't known for its warm and fuzzys population.

He wasn't sure how Sora put up with city life; his normally peppy, laidback friend would be so out of place in the informal rush of Hollow Bastion. Like any trained law enforcement agent, Roxas always looked for the logical answer. There was a reason the brunet had chosen a dismal city over the sunny beaches of Sora's hometown or the quiet intimacy of Twilight Town. And Roxas was determined to find out what that was.

But not so determined anymore. He would have liked to have said that it was Sora's enthusiasm for working together for the first time since high school that helped him gather the courage to walk into the building but really it was the reality that calling in sick on your first day of work probably wasn't a good way to start out.

True, being in law enforcement had been his childhood dream; he was one of the few people who could truly say that he had the job he had wanted when he was five. He had a knack for investigating, or so he was told, and he really couldn't imagine himself doing anything else with his life.

That assurance didn't stop the memories, or bad karma spirits as Sora would have labeled them, of Roxas' rather dishonorable discharge from his previous job. He wasn't fired, not officially, but he had been told in a discreet manner that it would be better for him and the department if he quit. And he did. The kind of management that would let one of their own detectives take the fall for a corporate mistake wasn't the kind he wanted to be associated with.

Really, it was probably for the best. The situation in Twilight Town had been getting out of hand, as Sora could probably attest to from their many, long phone conversations on the subject. It was time to stop mucking around in the past and get on with the present. He grabbed firmly onto this forward attitude before it slipped back into his usual pessimism and finally forced himself to walk through the large glass doors of the police headquarters.

The lobby entrance was modern, with neutral colors and sharp geometric shapes worked into the architecture. Roxas was impressed; the impersonal command of Hollow Bastion was much more intimidating than the rustic and homey Twilight Town station. He had never quite understood why the TTPD had strived to make its headquarters feel inviting when the majority of people frequenting the building were either cops or criminal, neither of whom needed to be coddled by cozy scenery.

A look around the room, with its various doors and outgoing hallways, reminded Roxas that he had absolutely no idea where he was going. He could feel the print out of an e-mail Sora had sent him with directions crinkled in his pocket but it hadn't been much help thus far. Sora's direction giving ability was about as good as his driving, both having the prospect of causing bodily harm to those stupid enough to trust them.

He spotted a map conveniently placed to the side of the entrance. The sheer size of Hollow Bastion had not yet ceased to amaze him. Even the police headquarters was large enough to require its own directory. Roxas casually strolled over to it, trying his best to not look as lost as he was. To his dismay, the map was done completely in acronyms and Sora's short-handed e-mail listed only "Major Case" as the title of his new unit. Who knew so many units had the initials "MC" in them? Who knew there could be so many units in general? Twilight Town only had Homicide, White-collar and Civil divisions, named for the types of crimes they investigated. Hollow Bastion units didn't seem to be named for their assignments or for anything remotely related to their function. The alphabet soup of a map told him nothing except that the building was in the general shape of an upside down U and possessed way too many floors to be efficient.

Roxas headed towards the help desk in middle of the room. The blond behind the counter applying her make-up didn't look especially promising in the way of useful information but Roxas was ready to attempt anything in order to avoid calling Sora to admit he was lost.

He stood by the desk awkwardly, waiting for her to "feel" his presence, a common interrogation technique he hoped would set him apart from being another lost tourist. She looked up a second later, quickly putting the make-up brush down and flashing him a wide smile.

"Welcome to the Hollow Bastion Criminal Investigative Unit. Is there something I can help you with?"

The homicide department in Twilight Town had been TTHD, affectionately called "thud". Roxas had no idea what sort of acronym pronunciation the HBCIU used, if any. And he had no idea how the hell they had found anyone willing to say the entire title out to anyone who walked in. He let the pity show through with a friendly smile back at her.

"I'm actually looking for the Major Case wing, specifically the captain or whoever new detectives would report to. It's my first day, and…"

He didn't like how her face lit up with understanding and worse, excitement.

"Oh, my god, you're Roxas! Sora didn't tell me today was your first day!" The woman actually stood up and leaned over the desk, holding out a hand, which Roxas accepted uneasily.

"Um, yeah, this is my first day, but Sora's directions…"

She laughed all too knowingly, making him wonder what sort of catastrophe Sora's direction had already caused. "If that's all you had to go on, we're lucky you didn't end up in the Pride Lands! Here, let me jot you down something better…"

Roxas heard the click of a pen followed by a ferocious amount of scribbling and was presented with precise directions to the Major Case wing. There seemed to be an awful lot of writing to navigate through the building but the earlier map reminded him of just how big the place was.

Spotting another woman coming around behind the desk, he beat a hasty retreat with a quick thanks to the blond and continued onto the hallway leading out of the main room. He heard the tell-tale giggles of females with gossip coming from behind him and sighed in relief. He had barely made it out in time.

Carefully counting down the doorways, hallways and stairs, Roxas was only half-paying attention to the busy activity in every room he passed. Well dressed people rushed back and forth between their better dressed higher-ups and their fretful clients. Technicians in lab coats pushed their way through crowded areas, small glass vials held above their heads to prevent jostling.

He made a turn into a decent sized room, his final destination or so the instructions said. A glance around located the words "Major Case Division" plastered on one wall, although he could have sworn that the title had not been on the map. The Major Case offices were really more like cubicles set up in the center of the room with a dividers sectioning off partnered desks. These he regarded uneasily; he had really been hoping to work solo. He did not envision city cops being accepting of his small town methods.

The people working at the desks were definitely detectives and yet Roxas couldn't help but scan the group for Sora. In Twilight Town, lab techs and detectives didn't mix, ever, and since Sora was the head of the forensics department Roxas had doubted he would see the brunet out and about. But here he saw a blond female in a white coat leaning on the desk of a silver-haired detective. More evidence of how restricted Twilight Town was and much he had to get use to in the big city.

No, he hadn't been expecting to see Sora, which is why when he spotted the brunet running at him at mach speed he wasn't able to dodge the full-bodied glomp. And it was only after being knocked to the floor that he noticed the man who had been chasing Sora.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN SORA, GET BACK HERE OR I'LL COME RAPE YOU! DID YOU HEAR ME? RAPE!"

Roxas just stared blankly at the fired-up red-head. Years of being the quick wit fell away as he gazed at Sora's attacker. He probably would have been staring stupidly at the man's hair, pointy and red, even if he hadn't just threatened to sexually violate his best friend in the middle of a police headquarters.

The man snatched Sora off the floor and proceeded to shake him with vicious force.

"Goddamn it Sora that was my last twenty bucks! My LAST TWENTY! You couldn't have lied about the results? How will I eat? How will I pay for gas? How will I-"

"You're going to have a bigger problem than eating, Hanabi, if you don't put him down."

Roxas had been about to jump in tooth and nail in order to protect Sora from the man's onslaught but the voice stopped him. There was something about the tone that made Roxas think twice before acting. The red-head seemed to be having the same thought, because he immediately froze, allowing Sora to slip out of his grasp and dart between the cubicles.

"Leon!"

The approaching man was undoubtedly the owner of the voice. Cold grey eyes and chin-length brown hair paired with the black leather jacket and silver chain-link necklace, Roxas could easily imagine the grim-reaper's scythe in the his unforgiving hands.

Sora latched onto the man's arm, giving him his signature "kicked puppy" look in full-force. Roxas doubted such a man would be worried about kicked puppies, but the red-head obviously thought he was screwed. He held his hands up in the universal sign for "please, dear God, don't kill me" but Roxas didn't see the scary man stopping for that, either.

"C'mon Leon, I had money on the brother! He was a creep. He deserved to go to jail, not the old neighbor. Obviously, Sora made a mistake-"

"I don't make mistakes, Leon, you know that!"

"-and I was suggesting to him that we double check the results-"

"Which I already did!"

"-before sending an innocent man-"

"You only care about your stupid money!"

"-and my 20 bucks, down the drain."

Grim didn't look impressed with their quick fire argument. "Results should always be double checked. Sora triple checks them. A fact you can mention in your report, which will be on my desk by lunchtime."

"Which I will get right on as soon as I-"

"Now, Hanabi."

The red-head obviously had enough with tempting fate for the day, because he immediately backed down and mumbled some sort of affirmation. After one last glare from Grim and a triumphant look from Sora, he slunk off to an empty desk towards the right side of the room to the laughter of the others in the office. Sora stuck out his tongue as final measure of victory and then ran back over to Roxas, giving him a proper greeting and less violent hug.

"Roxas! Welcome back to Hollow Bastion, home of the Hollow Bastion Criminal Investigative Unit! And no, we don't have a cute acronym, so don't even try, which you probably already did but I don't recommend doing it again. Did you meet that lady at the front desk? I know you always complain about my directions, so I told her to watch out for you and she can say the name really fast. I tried to say it my first day and I almost missed all of the introductory information which wasn't good because you really have to know what everything is before you touch it especially with chemicals because the city pays for all sorts of expensive chemicals and-"

"Hi to you too Sora", he said throwing an arm affectionately around the brunet. Sora could be hard to deal with at times, but Roxas had missed him during their brief separation between high school and now. Phone conversations and e-mail were all well and good but nothing beat being face to face with the friend he considered his twin.

The brunet beamed at him, then turned to Grim who was still lurking with his scythe behind his back. "Leon! This is Roxas, the one I was telling you about. Roxas meet Leon, Director of Hollow Bastion's super duper crime fighting force!"

Roxas might have scolded Sora for using "super duper" in public after turning 24 if Grim, err, Leon, hadn't thrust a hand awkwardly out towards him first. He took it, giving the man a firm hand shake that would make every good job interview help book proud.

Leon gave him a less stoic nod of approval and released his hand. "Welcome to Major Case, Kibun." Roxas was a bit relieved to find that not everyone was so informal as to use first names. From Sora it was endearing, from others it was bordering disrespectful.

"And that creeper of a detective you met earlier was Axel." Sora said, rolling his eyes before turning to Leon. "Alright, introductions all done. Can I have him now, Leon?"

To Roxas' surprise, the captain actually smiled at Sora. "He's all yours." He turned to Roxas. "Sora will be giving you a quick tour of the wing and then you'll come back here for assignment. Understood?" Roxas could only nod in response.

Sora grabbed Roxas' hand impatiently, dragging him around the desks and towards an elevator on the opposite side of the room from the entry doors. Axel seemed to have either gotten over his annoyance with Sora or allowed his curiosity with Roxas to take over, as Roxas caught him staring at them before the elevator doors closed.

Taking his mind off of Axel, Roxas finally was able to ask the question he'd wanted to ask since talking to Sora about his job problems three weeks ago. "How the hell did you manage to get me a midlevel detective job without an interview or anything?"

Sora put on his signature goofy smile, blushing with pride. "Well, I showed Leon your résumé and I've told him all about you and your work… anyway, Leon use to be a detective until a month ago when he was promoted to Head of the Department. Our old captain got caught up in a scandal and took two detectives down with him so they've been looking for replacements for awhile now and I figured I'd mention you. Besides, it worked out in the end, right?"

Roxas smiled back. "Sure. I mean, thanks Sora."

Unaccustomed to getting praise from his usually sarcastic friend, Sora turned back towards the elevator doors to hide his blush.

As the elevator continued downward, Roxas remembered that he had never asked where they were headed.

"Only the bestest place in the facility!" Sora turned towards Roxas, who only stared in response. "You know…"

Roxas obviously didn't.

Sora put hands on his hips and glared at Roxas. All blue eyes and brown hair, he had never been very intimidating before but after watching Leon in action the effect was even less frightening. "My lab, of course!"

Roxas made "ah" noise of agreement to please him as the doors of the elevator slid open, revealing a large room full of various machines.

The quiet hum of the technology was almost alien, with multi-colored lights blinking randomly throughout the room and the occasional apparatus reconfiguring itself helping to solidify the feeling. Childhood memories of robot take-over movies flowed into Roxas' brain. If technology ever decided it was better than humanity, this lab would be the first to rise up.

Taking a closer look at the buzzing grey boxes, Roxas noticed the small googly eyes attached to every machine in the room. He couldn't help but smile; Sora left his impression on everything. He was in the middle of contemplating whether the eyes made the machines more or less terrifying when Sora grabbed his arm and resumed dragging him through their tour.

Reaching the center, Sora released his hand and flung his arms up in the air. "Voila! My kingdom!"

The buzz of the machines was the only response.

Sora frowned lightly at Roxas' lack of excitement, but the other boy was still attempting to take in the machines, the hum, the eyes.

Grabbing a crate from behind the door, Sora moved it to the center of the room and stepped up on it, the ring leader over looking his circus. He flung his voice across the room, above the gentle humming.

"Over there is the DNA Analyzer with interchangeable block thermal cycler multiplex capabilities." He mimicked an announcer with his wild hand gestures as he pointed out each object. "Next to it are the Bioanalyzer and spectrophotometer. The ballistics systems and projection microscopes are located here, in the center of the room. To your left by the window is AFIS, or our automatic fingerprint identification system, and scanner to nab those criminal stupid enough to leave prints. On the right we have the electron microscope for picking up gunshot residue. And over there…"

He trailed off, finally noticing that his fancy announcing had not attracted Roxas' focus. The blond was still staring quizzically at the nearest pair of eyes. Noticing a slight movement in the doorway, Sora grinned with a plot to command Roxas' attention.

"Oh, my god, Roxas, A VAMPIRE!"

Responding more to the sudden "oh my god" than the "vampire", as any person who worked the streets and had been under fire would, Roxas flung himself around to face his enemy… and came face to face with a vampire. Standing in the doorway of Sora's lab.

Crimson eyes were the dead give away, but the red trench coat and long, black hair didn't help conceal his identity. For brief second, a very brief second, Roxas actually regretted not having been issued a gun yet. He shook the ridiculous thought out of his head as soon as it appeared. Vampires didn't exist. That didn't make the man in the doorway any less frightening.

They all stood there awkwardly quiet for a moment.

Finally, the vampire/man sighed. "Sora, I'm not a… vampire. Please stop telling people that." His deep, alluring voice didn't help to destroy the magical image stuck in Roxas' mind.

Giggling from behind the doorway snapped Roxas out of his mesmerized state. Two very amused women, one dressed in gothic black dress and the other in mini-skirt and sleeve-less top stood behind the vampire. Their ease helped him to focus once again on the poor man who was obviously the victim of Sora's overactive imagination.

The vamp-man sighed again and Roxas couldn't help but take a step back, much to Sora's and the women's delight. Sora finally straightened up and went to stand between his friend and his stooge.

"Roxas, this is Vincent, one of the techies here in the lab." A rambunctious smile flashed across his face. He held a hand up to his mouth and conspiratorially whispered to Roxas, "He's in denial about becoming a vampire." He beamed at Vincent.

Roxas felt himself turn red. Obviously these people knew and had dealt with Sora's quirks but he had been hoping to project a better image of himself then he had for going along with it. "Oh, er, nice to meet you", sticking his hand out in an attempt to redeem himself with the other man.

Vincent accepted the handshake and they both shared a long-suffering, understanding look as Sora cackled in the background.

"It's good to meet you as well, Roxas." Vincent released his hand. "Sora has told us a great deal about you. You will be an excellent addition to the squad."

Roxas couldn't respond, his blush increasing at the man's praise. Just how much had Sora told them about him? He vented some anger by glaring at Sora and then the females as they joined in.

"Oh, give the boy a break. It's not the newbie's fault that we've got some weird people working here." One of the women had moved in to throw an arm affectionately around Vincent.

"Tifa Lockhart," she said, pointing to her own chest, "and that bundle of joy and optimism over there is Lulu", she said, waving her arm in the other woman's general direction. "We're Sora's underlings. You'll have to meet the rest of tech gang, Cid, Yuffie and Naminé, later because they're off in court at the moment."

The idea of Sora, his spontaneous, goofy best friend Sora, having underlings was a little unnerving but they seemed to respect him and even his supervisors in Twilight Town had admitted that Hollow Bastion had an outstanding forensics lab. Roxas couldn't help but be proud of his friend who had managed to become Hollow Bastion's youngest Head of Forensics.

"Bah, I would be ashamed to call such slackers underlings. We have killers to catch! What are you doing standing around here laughing at poor Vincent?" Sora scolded them jokingly, aware that he was needed to sign off on all results and he had yet to start on the day's paperwork. "Seriously though, I'm just going to finish up with Roxas and then I'll be back to go over the evidence from the Dragons case." Tifa gave him a mock salute. Lulu rolled her eyes and allowed herself and Vincent to be dragged off by Tifa after a final nod to Roxas.

Sora motioned Roxas to follow him, moving through the doors the others had just left from. "Dragons case?" Roxas asked after a minute of taking in the new hallway. It was lined with glass windows looking into various rooms that appeared to be for research. There was also a comfortable looking lounge complete with refrigerator, microwave and flat-screened TV. Roxas thought he might have noticed a Wii hooked up to the TV but Sora was moving too quickly to be sure.

"Yeah, the Huns are the local gang that has been particularly active recently. We think they're targeting members of an old gang that use to run the Hun's territory before being driven out but we can't figure out why. There's a ton of forensics from the killings but so far we haven't got anything to match it to. Leon will probably fill you in with more details after you get settled in."

They wandered around the floor for awhile before once again taking the elevator down. "The basement is where evidence lock-up is. You're the newest agent, so it'll probably be your job to take down or bring up evidence for the case."

The man behind the desk of the evidence room, whom Sora introduced as "Brother", was a lanky man with blond Mohawk-type hairstyle (Roxas was starting to believe outlandish hair was a requirement to work here, and he wondered if his employment had anything to do with the amount of hair spray he used). Roxas shot a questioning look at Sora, feeling a little uncomfortable calling a stranger "brother" but Sora just shrugged and murmured that he didn't speak much English and that's all Rikku ever called him so the name stuck. His response didn't comfort Roxas, leaving him with even more questions about the foreign green-eyed man.

After an awkward good bye to Brother, the two headed towards their final destination on the tour, the detectives' offices. The cubicles in the main room had started filling up since they'd left and Roxas noticed that the red-head from before now had a blond mullet (a mullet, really?) sitting at the desk across from him. Both were deeply involved in game of paper football which promptly disappeared when Leon walked into the room.

Two female partners stood together by one of their desks, apparently going over a report of some sort. They were complete opposites physically; one in a red and black gothic ensemble that could have been the love child of Vincent and Lulu while the other sported a more childish look complete with tank-top and pony-tail. It was hard to imagine two such different people working well together but in law-enforcement, the saying "opposite attract" held special meaning. A good partnership was one where you could count on the other to bring in knowledge and experience of things you'd never dealt with before.

The blond lab technician from before was walking away from the detective desks, leaving her silver haired companion to work on what also seemed to be some sort of paperwork. Reports were undoubtedly the bane of any detective's life.

Sora crossed his arms and watched Roxas survey the room. "So, uh, yeah. This is probably where you'll be spending most of your time. Here in Major Case we work the high-profile cases, big time murders, serial killers, kidnappings etc. Desks are grouped by specialties and then partners. You'll somewhere over there", he pointed in the general direction of Axel and his partner, "with the others on homicide. The other side is swat, which I would avoid if I were you, they tend to be the most high strung of the detectives, and the desks in the middle are for our undercover officers", this time motioning to the two women, "although they're not around enough to really use them."

Leon, who had stopped briefly to talk with the blond lab assistant, now made his way over to Sora and Roxas. "Feel like you've got a grip on the surroundings?"

Roxas didn't but nodded anyway, knowing he'd learn better by jumping into the work. Leon turned and made a hand gesture to another detective who had joined Axel and his partner at their desks. Roxas recognized the man immediately; it wasn't that he was prone to road-rage or anything, but it was hard to forget being cut off by a silver-haired man in the parking lot of a government agency. He also knew what was coming. Just when the day was starting to look up, fate had a way of tearing it all down.

As the man walked over to their group, smiling in response to Sora's enthusiastic wave, Leon turned to Roxas and said the words he didn't want to hear.

"Roxas, meet your new partner, Riku Jenova."


Bah, hopefully the whole thing with Riku wasn't too obvious. I just like the tension between Roxas and Riku. And hopefully the other characters aren't too OCC... I've only played FFX and KH and I needed more characters than I could pull from those two games.

Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed the first chapter and will stick with me for more. I promise it will get more exciting as the plot starts to develop. I apologize for any errors, I don't have a beta so its very possible I may have missed something. English is my second language and even though I've been speaking it fluently for years I still get mixed up with verb tenses. D:

Please review, if only to say you enjoyed it or didn't. Constructive criticism would be extremely helpful to me as well.