Parvenu, a kingdom hearts fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. X3

Warnings: AU – Alternate Universe. And it's LeonRiku, so it's yaoi.

Sequel to Moira. xD Decided that it's going to be an ongoing arc now fondly dubbed the Circumstance Series. x3 They'll be based on the important, or unimportant, holidays of the year.

Parvenuhas three different meanings. It can mean unimportant person, newly rich, or a braggart. I was going for newly rich. And yes, they seem to have bonded quite a bit between Christmas and New Years.

Anyway, yet another little one-shot. Enjoy.

Parvenu

A tale of moxie, rapport, and tickets to recognition.

Leon found a special connection with the teen.

But there were quirks he had that simply meshed with Leon's way of thinking.

Their 'Merry versus Happy' war had gone on for nearly ten minutes now.

"Merry's for Christmas, Riku." Leon said in a light voice. He pulled on his shoes, deft fingers swiftly tying the glittering white laces. Leon frowned at the traces of tinsel sitting on his shoe, and brushed it off.

Leon was bad at taking down decorations, he himself admitted. Ribbons of decorations still hung about his staircase, flaunting their beauty well after Christmas.

"I don't see why you can't use it for other holidays as well." Riku argued, so close to pouting.

Riku was cute that way, copying Leon in slipping his feet into new boots, nimbly fastening the cords. He frowned when it came to his coat, unable to reach around to his other side and grasp the evading, quivering sleeve.

Laughing quietly to himself, Leon smirked as Riku allowed him to help pull on the too-large coat. He secured the top fastening before getting his own coat, leaving Riku to do the rest up himself.

They didn't want a repeat of Christmas, after all. Riku had caught one of the worst colds Leon had ever seen the day after.

Riku's high-talk of immunities didn't faze him at all.

"We're going to be late meeting the rest of them." Leon said, mentioning what they had planned for the day. He pulled his keys out of his pocket, preparing to lock the door after they left.

Throwing his jacket over his arm, he steered Riku out the front door. He locked the door and hit the button that opened his car doors, trusting his companion to turn on the heat before he got into the car.

Leon noticed the coat Riku had chosen to wear.

And he grinned. His own interpretation of a smile.

Riku was wearing Leon's jacket. Leon had let him keep it, because Leon was a possessive person, and it showed that Riku was his.

Leon slammed the entrance behind him and walked to the car, eager to get out of the cold air.

They hugged those curves, if guys HAD curves, just right.

A faint, tinkling bell sounded after him, and a browning leaf drifted to the floor.

"That is so…fucking…cool." Riku deadpanned. His fingers twitched, desiring, needing to reach his hand out into the falling water. It was mocking him, he was sure of it.

Leon caved first. He thrust his hand into the awaiting waterfall with childlike exuberance, marveling at the feeling not three feet away from where they stood. The water drenched his touch, merciless.

"Not something you see everyday." He agreed.

They were referring to the borderline between the rain and dry ground. The line of drizzle was slowly retreating from them, becoming scarcer. It left scatterings of green shoots, newly awakened from winter slumber.

Leon and Riku were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, watching the line of water get farther and farther away. The street was drying quickly as they followed the thinning sprinkle to their destination.

They had parked the car sometime back, when they had been lucky enough to catch a place as someone else pulled out. It was a tight fit, and they almost hit the car in the rearview mirror, but Leon was an experienced driver, so there were no real problems.

The walked along. The sky was clearing, and they knew the way to the meeting place, so they wouldn't get lost.

The world was good and everything was going fine.

This time the meeting was all Sora's idea. He figured that since Christmas was such a family affair, New Years would be spent with his friends. Their parents, or lack of parents for some, all understood and cheerily supported the idea.

(After all, they had all booked themselves a nice long day in a relaxing spa and gym area. No children, or teenagers in their case, running around to disturb them!

…In any case, one could only go for so long without a weekend away.)

The rain was running absent. It was going to be a beautiful day - for everyone.

They were always those people striving for something real.

Sephiroph wasn't coming this time, Cloud explained when they met up. Sora and Kairi had yet to arrive.

"He made plans with some of his other friends, so he told me to tell everyone 'Happy New Years' and that he'd probably see us during the next get-together." Cloud said. He sounded like he had memorized the speech, which he probably had. Cloud had strange peculiarities like that.

Everyone had insecurities, after all.

"…He said 'Happy'. Not 'Merry'." Leon stated, giving Riku a meaningful look. The teen made a rude noise in his throat and glowered, turning away with a huff. Cloud gave them a strange look.

"…Anyway." Cloud coughed, continuing. "We're going to meet Kairi and Sora – Kairi's bringing the food along with her, so she said that they would just go straight there."

"Oh, okay." Riku replied, tucking a hand into his pocket.

They had planned a picnic. It was going to be outdoors, however, so it would be cold. And since it was Sora's turn to pick the location, Riku dearly hoped it wouldn't be somewhere too cold.

"Where would that be?" Leon asked, directing his question toward the blonde. They faced each other, and Riku tuned out the conversation. His mind wandered down the path of what they could do to keep warm, and he blushed.

Eyes turned toward him, and Cloud gave him an odd look.

Riku turned away, muttering obstinacies about the cold and weather and 'damned hormones.'

Why did he have to hang out with attractive people?

"Riku!" He heard a person call out. His mind immediately recognized the voice, and his head turned to focus on a brunette, dragging a redheaded girl carefully balancing a basket.

"Sora, Kairi." Riku acknowledged, taking the basket from Kairi. He glanced at Sora, wondering why he didn't take the package earlier. It wasn't like him to be so…ungentlemanly.

"Oh, Kairi said that I would spill everything." Sora said, answering Riku's unasked question.

He knew his best friend well enough, in any case.

Riku paused, and looked down at the basket he had taken from the redheaded girl. …He hoped that he hadn't spilled anything as well…

Well…nothing was soaking into the red-and-white checkered cloth draped over it, so he could assume nothing was wrong.

…Never assume. Didn't people always use to tell him that?

Ha…red-and-white checkered. So fairytale-like.

"So where are we going for this?" Riku heard Cloud's voice ask. He started, hiding the fact by busying himself with tucking the cloth more firmly.

Sora grinned. "I thought we'd have it at the park. You know, outside. On one of the building's rooftops."

Kairi nodded, adding. "The one near the lake. Lampyrid Park. They light the area when it gets dark – there's a switch you can hit to light the area you're on. It should be fun, right?"

"On one of the slanted rooftops?" Leon thought out loud. "We won't…slide off, will we?" His mind drew him a mental picture: a chain of people hanging onto each other, trying not to slide off a slippery rafter.

It was a rather silly image, and it made him doubtful.

"Nah, we've done it millions of times." Sora exclaimed easily. He nodded his chin toward his best friend. "Right, Riku?"

At his name, the teen looked up and nodded. "Yeah." He said, covering the fact that he wasn't paying attention. Riku wondered what he had just agreed to.

…But just smiling and nodding. You could get through life that way, really.

They were just settling down when a familiar shout hit their ears.

Leon blinked and peered over the edge of the building.

"Seph? The hell are you doing here?" Cloud shouted back, grinning.

"With some of the guys." Sephiroph replied. He was smiling strangely, whether it was the New Year's cheer that affected so many, or whether it was Seph himself. In an odd mood that told of satisfaction.

"Yo, Riku! You up there?" Leon watched a redhead shout up at them. The person's green eyes reflected the light, bouncing back up towards them. His hair was styled in the same category as Cloud and Sora's, utterly defying and untamable.

Riku inched his head past the verge, his shoulder bumping into Leon's. "Axel." He paused, leaning more surely against the slim fence binding the roof. "You guys celebrating here, too?"

Sora didn't like the offhanded way his friend spoke to them.

Because Sora lived in the present, and disregarded the past.

"Nah, we're just passing through." The redhead, whom Leon added was named Axel, said. His voice had an underline of charm woven through it, and it made him not exactly nervous, but something close.

It wasn't the right setting. It was out of place.

Kairi finished setting up the food, and waved them over. Her eyes glowed almost violet in the dimming light.

Riku and Leon turned, ready to join them, when it happened.

Cloud jumped, feet almost giving way as a sound not unlike a gunshot, that ruptured the silence.

A trigger sounded hollowly through the branches around them. And Leon's legs threatened to lower into a crouch.

Because he had been used to things like that, before.

"Don't worry about it." Sephiroph's voice, impossibly loud in the silence that had scared the surrounding tourists away, reverberated up to them. "I'll take care of it."

And he and the group walked past the building, heading for some squares not too far away.

Riku hesitantly returned Axel's backhanded wave. Not that he could see it, anyway.

But it made him feel better.

They tried not to think about it, because they trusted, and Riku didn't want to break the silence.

But as the hour passed, they soon truly forgot about it and the dreamlike state of the passing year settled on them.

They would let it sit till another day.

The group ate and laughed, and Cloud hit the switch to turn off the lights around them. Leon made sure to put away the food before any of them sat down. Insurances were everything, after all.

And as they counted stars, Kairi closed her eyes to make a wish as one shot by.

The world awoke before Leon's eyes.

Sparkles flew as the park it was so fondly named threw out its namesake. Fireflies and various things they couldn't say no to winged archways around them.

Their sheer insignificance to the navy swell.

The moonlight caved over them, and the sky was, to them, everything.

…They'd practically been bathing in the stuff.

If sitting in the sun made you tanner, did sitting in the moon cause your skin to turn pale?

Leon breathed.

The moon was grinning down at them, as the sun liked to do so often.

"Half a minute left!" Sora yelled.

Resolutions passed through all their minds, and even those weren't exactly with them at the moment – they knew were thinking the same thing.

Sitting under the same sky.

Leon slipped a hand into his.

And Riku grinned. A firefly buzzed around Leon's face, briefly brushing the brunette's bangs.

Highlighting features just entirely.

"Five! Four!" Sora shouted, up in front with Kairi. They were holding hands – and Riku knew it wouldn't be too long.

Leon's mouth quirked and remained there – and it was what Riku defined as a smile. It was beautiful, and it made Riku's heart pause.

Leon smiled, and to Riku, the world was perfect.

And as shouts of "Happy New Year!" echoed through across the lake and above the trees, Leon leaned close and whispered something only they could hear.

"Merry New Year."

Leon was bad at taking down decorations, he admitted to himself.

So when he went home that night, all softly hidden smiles and gentle tapping fingers, he paused and let his eyes follow the leaf's previous trail upwards, so many hours ago.

And he smiled, and walked through his doorway.

He made sure to step over the crumpling, amber leaf.

Leon didn't pull off the drying mistletoe still hanging innocently above his doorway, of which he and Riku had walked through hours before.

He half nodded to it, and shut the door.

A shriveled, cerise berry indicated that it wasn't plastic.

"Who was the first person you kissed this year?"

-End-

…Was the ending cheesy enough?

I have a feeling that this one went a little too quickly. Did it? More like I tried to jam in a bunch of things at once. xD And, well, the bottom half of it confused me as well. …Best of luck trying to interpret that.

Sorry for the shortness of it, too. xD It's barely half as long as Moira, but it did get some little details in that I wanted. But it's not at all what I imagined it to be. / Ah well.

And this is just the second part. Next up's Valentine's Day. Or, it most likely will be – unless I find some other holiday between New Years and then.

Read and review, as always. :3