Sora watched through the window as he drove along the street with his parents. His father was driving, and his mother was in the passenger seat, talking to no one in particular. Sora had tuned her out a few hours ago when they started their drive to Destiny Island, their new home.

Sora looked at his dad, noticing the way he griped the steering wheel tightly, and the way he never took his eyes off the road when answering his mother, and how his smile stayed in place the whole drive. His father had short brown hair, dark eyes, an average face, and normal smile. His father was, really, ordinary. In looks anyway. Anyone that looked at him, worked with him, or just watched him, would never be able to tell that at home, when his wife wasn't there, he beat and, occasionally, raped his son.

Sora switched his gaze over to his beautiful mother. She had long, black hair that was currently braided down her back and held with a small rubber band. Her eyes were blue, and when she smiled, the whole world seemed to smile with her. His mother could, and has, talked for hours on end without stopping, not really caring if someone was listening or not. People usually did, though. Her voice was soft, and just as beautiful as she was. Sora's mother was smart, too. She graduated high school with straight A's, and was top of all her classes in college. She loved to help people, and was almost always out on some charity event. She thought very highly of her husband and son, and had no idea of what a terrible man her husband really was.

Sora looked back out the window at the ocean, wondering what it would be like to live here. He sighed, and started listening to what his mother was saying when he heard his name.

"They have such a great high school here, Sora." Rose was saying. "I'm sure you'll make a lot of friends quickly. I've spoken with our neighbor, who has a daughter about you're age, you know, and she was telling me about how they have such a great school, and that the teenagers here were all growing up to be such great people. Ellyn said her daughter, Kairi, would be more than happy to show you around and help you make some friends..." Sora tuned her out again. He had already heard this. Sora just wanted to get there and unpack so he could have some time alone. He was about to ask when they'd be there, but he saw his father looking at him in the rear view mirror, and shivered, deciding it would be better not to ask.

After a couple more minutes, a left turn, and then a right turn, and they were there.

"Alright," his father, Simon, said. "This is it. It's great, isn't it?" His mother agreed with him, and Sora just got out of the car.

It is kind of nice, Sora thought. I hope Mom is right, maybe some friends could give me an excuse to be out of the house a lot. His father started grabbing boxes out of the car, and putting them on the ground. They didn't have much, they bought this house already furnished, and his parents decided to sell most of their things. All they really had were a bunch of clothes, some knick-knacks, some favorite books, sheets, and a few of Sora's favorite posters. Not much.

Sora grabbed two of the four boxes filled with his clothes, and started going in the house. His mother stopped him in the doorway, telling him to pick whichever room he wanted, except the one at the end of the hall. He walked upstairs, and into the first room on the floor. It was a small bedroom, with no windows. It was painted black, had no furniture, and reminded Sora of a box with a door. He walked onto the next room, and decided to take this one as soon as he saw it.

The room had, at first glance, a glass wall. Looking closer, Sora saw that it was just one big window. It started about two feet above the floor, and ended about the same distance from the ceiling. It didn't go all the way to either wall, making it look like a square of the wall cut out and replaced with glace. There was a padded bench going all the way along the window, creating a window seat there. It looked out over the side of their yard, and over to their neighbor's house.

The room itself was painted a light sky blue, and the ceiling was a few shades darker, with clouds painted on it. It had a full size bed, a desk with a chair, a nightstand, and a bookcase, and a dresser, with room left over. There were two doors on one side, and Sora opened the first. It was a walk-in closet, with an over head light, and it looked big enough to fit his entire family's wardrobe in, with room left. He walked over to the other door, and when he opened it, he found a personal full bathroom. Sora was amazed, and he walked out of the room just to make sure this wasn't the room his mother told him not to pick. It wasn't.

"I thought you'd pick that one, honey," Rose said from behind Sora, making him jump. Rose laughed. "I'm sorry Sora; I didn't mean to scare you. Do you like the room."?

"Haha, yeah Mom. I love it. It has its own bathroom and everything! Are you sure you and Dad don't want it?"

"Oh, no. We have that one over there," Rose pointed to the last door on the right side of the hallway, "and that one had a hot tub in the bathroom." Rose giggled. "You're father wanted that one, and so I thought you'd pick this one." She looked around, and then leaned in to whisper to Sora. "I even had someone stash you a mini fridge in your closet. It's already plugged in and filled. But don't let your father find out, you know he'd disapprove." Rose stood up straight again. "You'd better help him bring in the rest of the boxes. You can poke around in your room more later, after we get back from shopping."

"Shopping?" Sora asked, horrified. Shopping with his mother had always been a very...painful experience. His mother always made him try on a million different things that fit him to various degrees, all the while finding things for herself that Sora could never catch her trying on. She always squealed like a little girl when she saw Sora in some of the tighter outfits she picked out for him, and, somehow, made him get at least one of those.

-

The next day, Sora slept in until almost noon. He would have slept longer, had he not felt someone poking him. He was just going to hit said poking person and go back to sleep, and then he realized who it was poking him. A girl. With red-ish hair...He tried to remember who she was but couldn't figure it out.

"Hi." She said, smiling. Sora blinked. Then, suddenly, he screamed and jumped back, falling off the bed in the process.

A minute passed...

The top of Sora's head appeared above the bed, his eyes looking around. When he saw that the girl didn't seem to mean him any harm, he sat up, put his elbows on the bed, leaning on it, and yawned.

"Who are you?" he asked. "And what are you doing in my room? You're not going to kill me with a spoon are you? 'Cause, you know, I won't let you."

The girl blinked, taken aback at Sora's words. "Um...My name is Kairi. And I'm not going to kill you with a spoon...Not that that is even possible..."

Kairi...Sora knew that name, he knew that he knew it, but he couldn't remember where he knew it from. Kairi...Kairi...Oh yeah! She was that girl his mom told him about, the one that was going to show him around the island.

"Oh! Kairi! Hi. Sorry. You kinda woke me up..."

"I heard screaming," Rose said, appearing in the doorway. "You two alright?"

"Yeah Mom," Sora answered. "Kairi just scared me, thats all."

"Alright. Sora, you should get dressed. Kairi was going to show you around the island, and introduce you to some of her friends."

"Okay Mom. I'll be down in a minute."

Sora's mom nodded, and went back downstairs, Kairi close behind her. He sighed, and went over to his closet to pick out what to wear. He chose a pair of black shorts, and a light-weight blue long sleeve shirt. Not the best outfit for an island, but he needed the long sleeves to cover the scars on his wrist. He had cut himself repeatedly a year ago, but he after coming close to killing himself, he stopped. He still had the scars, but his parents didn't know, so he had to keep hiding them.

Sora ran a brush through his hair, trying to get his hair to obey gravity and stop sticking up in random spikes. The effect that he did get, though, was that he spent a few hours and at least one bottle of hair gel carefully arranging his hair this way. Or that a tornado went through his hair...

Sora went downstairs where his parents and Kairi waited.

-

Riku walked out of the house he shared with his mother, closing the door carefully so that he didn't make any noise, and locking it with his key. He grabbed his favorite notebook and pen, and started the short walk to the park. He was going to sit and watch the people, and maybe write a little.

He was walking past Kairi's house, thinking that he should invite her to go with him, when he saw her come out of the house next door, half dragging a kid along with her. Riku just stood there and watched as the poor boy got pulled along behind Kairi down to the sidewalk. Just as they were about to turn the other way, she spotted Riku. She waved and called him over.

"You look good today Riku." Kairi said, as Riku walked up to her and the boy. And, as always, he did. He was wearing regular shorts, and a tight green shirt that machted his deep, sea green eyes. His shoulder-length silver hair was pulled back into a low ponytail with a black band, that stood out against his light hair. "This," Kairi went on, "is Sora. Sora, this is Riku, one of my friends."

"Hi," Riku said, smiling. "It's nice to meet you. I was heading down to the park...Do you guys want to come?"

"Sure!" Kairi said. "Why not? The park is as good a place as any to start our tour, right Sora?"

"Um...Sure?"

"Right. Lets go!"

And so they went.

-

"Hey Riku," Kairi said, about five minutes after they all started towards the park.

"Yeah."

"Can I see what you wrote last night?"

"How did you know I--?"

"Because you hung up on me last night after saying you were writing." Kairi rolled her eyes. "Duh. So, can I see it?"

Riku sighed, handing over his notebook to Kairi.

"You write?" Sora asked.

"Yeah." Riku replied."I'm really not any good though..."

"Oh.."

"He's not serious, Sora." Kairi told him, having finished reading. "He's really good. Listen to this, it's his latest poem:

She protected him, for years,
Steering him from unnecessary pain,
Knowing all this secrets,
And falling in love.

He was the only one who knew
That she was an angel,
The only one who saw her snow white wings,
And the only one who knows what happened
Before she became an angel.

She knows him, better than anyone,
She was always there when he needed her,
She comforted him, held him while he cried,
She was always there to help him up,
Not once did she ever fail to be there when he called,
Not once did she ever betray him.

He trusted her with his everything,
He told her his secret, and of what happed those nights,
After 'he' left, she was always there for him,
But he always made her leave, while it happened,
He didn't want her to see him scared or weak like that,
But she was always there to comfort him, and to stop the bleeding.

She was hurt, when every night when 'he' came,
He silently begged her to go, when she couldn't help him,
She was always there after 'he' left, and held him tightly,
While he cried, and she cleaned his wounds,
And whispered softly in his ear that he would be alright.

She knew, that one night,
When 'he' came again, that this would be the last time
'He' hurt her love,
That this time, the beatings would be so much harder,
That the pain would be worse.
That this time, he would die.

An angel with snow white wings
Waited for an angel with midnight black wings.
She greeted this new angel,
Kissing him softly, she was there to comfort him.

His wounds were gone,
Not a mark on his perfect body, despite all the beatings not long ago,
He was away from 'him' and with the angel he loved so much,
He trusted her, and somehow knew that he would be alright.


That night, and angel with snow white wings, and midnight black hair,
Flew away with a new angel with midnight black wings, and snow white hair.

"...Wow," Sora said looking at Riku. "You wrote that?"

"Um...Yeah." Riku answered. "You like it?"

"Yeah! It's amazing!"

"Thanks." Riku looked at the ground, causing his hair to fall around his face, hiding his blush. He often got compliments on his writing from his teachers, and even more often from his friends, so he was used to them. But something about Sora liking his work made him proud of it, and made him happy that Kairi had read it aloud.

"Told you," Kairi said. "But did you listen? Nooooo, of course not..." Kairi kept talking, but Riku had already tuned her out, knowing that she could go on for half an hour. He looked up, and Sora was right in front of him, walking backwards. Riku looked right into Sora's eyes, and immedietly felt like he was drowning in his deep, sky-blue eyes. Sora stopped walking, and so did he. They just stood there, staring in each other eyes, like they were looking into the other's soul.

Riku saw the depression deep in Sora's eyes, and the anger. He could tell Sora was hurting, that there was something that he hid from everyone. He could tell Sora's secret was tearing him apart...

Sora saw the deep sadness in Riku's eyes. He could tell that Riku, too, was in a lot of pain, deep inside him. He could tell that Riku needed someone, just like he did. So he smiled, and held out his hand for Riku.

Maybe we can be friends, Sora thought. Maybe we can help each other. Maybe we could even save each other...