"There's no such thing as Nobodies, Riku," Sora said with a little more defiance then was needed. The young boy stood with his arms crossed, glaring at his silver haired friend, trying to silence him with a mere glance. Most high schoolers would've out grown the old Nobody stories, no longer believing in non-beings when puberty hit. Sora hadn't though, and Riku loved to tease the boy about it. Riku liked watching Sora get flustered or embarrassed whenever he even suggested that the boy still believed.

"Oh yeah," Riku asked with a smirk, "Well, then who's the guy that you've been 'messing around' with and how come his school records aren't in the database?" Riku had gotten the office assistance job he had wanted and had abused his powers to do some snooping. He had planned to find out Sora's boyfriend's bad traits and reason for being transferred to their school, but instead found out that the red head wasn't even registered fully. All the database had was his name, age, and current living status. Instead of turning the boy in (come on Riku isn't that evil) he decided to use this information and Sora's childish beliefs to break-up Sora and Axel.

Sora's stare turned from silencing to awe in less than a second. "You don't really think Axel's a…" the boy asked with an excited smile spreading. Realizing his plan was back firing, Riku tried to take it back, "I was only kidding. Messing with you, ya know?" Sora was no longer listening and was, in fact, debating internally how best to ask Axel. "I'll talk to you later," Sora said and took off down the hall.

"Yeah, later," Riku mumbled, defeated in every way. The lonely junior trudged off to his class and mentally kicked himself for not signing up for French with Sora. Had he'd known that Axel would be joining them here at their high school, Riku would've taken freshman year all over again, to protect the young and slightly naïve Sora.

"What ever," Riku said to no one in particular, though several nearby students stopped to stare at him. He seemed not to notice and continued on into the art room. He chose to sit at the table by the windows, not noticing the name cards on the tables indicating assigned seats. Lucky for him, the card at his seat read 'Riku'.

He finally noticed the cards, having to look at the table and noting the white card. There was a seat for one other person and Riku decided to see if he knew who it was. Sitting down, he took a quick glance at the other card and found a name he didn't know, Kasi Sateru. Riku was actually pretty sure he'd heard that last name before, but attached to a cocky jock, no a girl. Just then a pale, delicate hand grabbed onto the back of the chair and pulled it out.

The body that accompanied the hand was much the same. Definitely not a jock, Riku thought, giving the girl a side-ways glance but soon found himself staring at her. Her face was mesmerizing, and he couldn't help but stare. It wasn't that she was exceptionally gorgeous; no, she was beautiful, but it was the sad look she wore that was compelling. It made you want to hold her and comfort her for eternity, caring less about yourself.

For a while all Riku could do was stare at her from the corner of his eye, wondering what had caused her such pain. When it finally hit him, he wondered if he had looked the same the first time he saw Sora and Axel hold hands at school; for it was the look of a lost love.

"Who was he?" Riku asked after the bell rang and the teacher started handing out sketch paper. The girl, Kasi, looked up from her paper and stared at him, shock replacing some of her sorrow. Then like a wave of despair, the shock was gone and the tear-threatened eyes returned and were cast back down to her paper. Riku was going to try again but decided against it, not wanting her to cry. "I understand," Riku mumbled. He turned to his pear and didn't see a tear hit Kasi's paper.


The class piled out quickly when the lunch bell rang and after getting his meal, Riku searched for Sora. He saw no sign of the freshman or Axel but he did find Kairi. So, instead of hanging with Sora, Riku ate his lunch with her and pretended to have a good time.

No one noticed the pale delicate light blonde girl up in the courtyard tree, crying into her arm.