Chapter 1:

Riku looked back at the house that he was sharing with Sora and Sora's mom. After he came back from castle oblivion, Riku had been a squatter in the abandoned house that his family had lived in before the Kingdom hearts incident. It was nearly close to falling apart, but it still had a roof and sheltered him from the cold.

After Sora found out, he begged his mom to let Riku live with them. "What are you doing?" Riku turned at the voice. Sora was standing in the doorway of his house looking at Riku slightly dazed and confused in nothing but his pajama bottoms. He hadn't expected Sora to wake up when he left. The smaller boy normally sleeps like a rock in a coma. Riku's voice box fell into his stomach. The concerned look on Sora's face just made Riku's heart melt. Sora eyed the duffel bag in Riku's hand.

"You were planning on leaving again weren't you?" Sora rightfully accused. Riku couldn't say anything. He just looked down and looked away. He couldn't face Sora. He knew that his resolve would be destroyed if he saw the hurt look on Sora's face…again.

"Riku, why are trying to run away again? I thought we were friends!" Riku couldn't help but smile sadly. Friends. That's right, only friends. Riku turned to Sora with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry Sora, but I can't stay here." Sora looked stunned.

"Why not? Did my mom say something to you? Was it something I did? Whatever it is I'm sorry! I'll make it right, but please! Just don't go! Please…" Sora looked just short of desperate. Riku dropped his bag on the floor and turned to face Sora.

"Do you really want to know why I can't stay here anymore?" Riku asked.

"Yes…" Sora answered him tiredly. Riku approached the younger boy. There was a five year difference between the two boys and you could definitely tell as Riku took Sora's face in his hands and kissed him gently. He stayed there for a moment and then pulled away. Sora was shocked and it was definitely visible in his eyes. He had been expecting a lot of things, but this was not one of them.

Still holding Sora's face Riku looked at him and said, "Because I don't deserve this." And with that he turned on his heels, retrieved his duffel bag from the floor and ran. He ran as far and as fast as his legs could carry him. Which happened to be to a pub called The Den of The Lion and The Wolf. It was owned and operated by Sora and Riku's friends from Traverse town, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid. He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The pub was practically deserted save for one brown haired girl in a pink dress standing behind the bar. The bell on the door rang as it closed and the girl looked up.

"Hey Aerith." He greeted her somewhat cheerfully. She looked up and smiled widely at him.

"Riku! It's so good to see you again!" She came around the side of the bar and gave him a big hug, and kissed his cheek.

Ever since all the world's had been put back into order Aerith had become the closest thing Riku had to a mom. When Destiny Island was restored all its inhabitants were returned. Except for Riku's parents. They seemed to have just vanished. Probably turned into heartless no doubt. Since then Sora's parent's had taken him in and taken care of him. Sora… At the thought of him, Riku's mask slipped and Aerith saw it.

"Why aren't you at home sleeping young man?" Riku looked down. Aerith sighed, put her hand on his shoulder and said "Come on." She led him to the back of the store and up a flight of stairs to the rooms. She opened the first door on the right and led him inside. Riku looked at her questioningly. She smiled and said, "I figured you'd end up here someday." He smiled at her.

"Thanks." She giggled.

"Oh don't mention it. Come downstairs once you get settled and I'll make you something to eat."

"Okay." He dropped his duffel bag on the bed and started unloading. After he put all of his clothes away, he unzipped the side pocket and pulled out two pictures in frames. The first one he set in the windowsill. It was the one of him and his parents at his fifth birthday. His mom had made a huge cake and his dad had made him a wooden sword that had his initials on one side of the hilt, and his parents on the other side.

The other one he put on the bedside table. It was one of the pictures of him, Sora, and Kairi. It was his favorite one. Him and Sora were sitting on a log with their arms around each other's shoulders. Kairi was standing behind them making bunny ears behind their heads. Sora made such a fuss about it when the timer ran out and he looked at the picture on the digital. He chased Kairi with the camera for a good half hour before she finally climbed up a tree she knew Sora couldn't.

Suddenly, Riku's vision went blurry as his eyes welled up with tears. He hastily wiped them away with the back of his hand. It was no use crying now. Sora had always loved Kairi. She was the only one for him. Throughout the entire Kingdom Hearts ordeal, the only reason Riku kept trying to get Kairi's heart back was because he wanted Sora to be happy. But where did that leave Riku? Sora still wouldn't be his. He thought that he could be happy as long as Sora was happy, you know that old saying, 'If you truly love someone, you'd rather them be happy with someone else than be miserable with you.' But it just made Riku miserable.

Now thoroughly frustrated with his emotions he threw his duffel into the closet and walked out of the room as he was closing the door he just narrowly dodged a psychotic flying ninja, literally.

"Hmph, so much for stealthy like a ninja." Riku smirked at the twig-like ninja girl laying face down on the floor spread eagle.

"Hey! What are you talking about? I'm the Great ninja Yuffie!" She quickly stood up and dusted herself off all 'I-meant-to-do-that'.

"Yeah, you're great something. Greatly clumsy." He loved to pick on her.

"I'm not clumsy! I told you all already, that staircase came out of nowhere! Someone put it there while I wasn't looking!" She started to get flustered.

"Sure and I suppose someone tripped you just now?"

"Well if you hadn't moved I wouldn't have done that! I was only trying to hug you! I haven't seen you in a month!" Riku opened his mouth to say something else when they both heard a loud crash come from downstairs followed by a loud yell and an even louder scream.

"LEON YOU IDIOT!! CAN'T YOU READ!? THE FREAKIN FLOOR SAYS 'NO ONE BEHIND BAR! FLOOR WET!!' WE DON'T GET ANOTHER LIQUOR SHIPMENT UNTIL FRIDAY!! DAMMIT!!"

Riku and Yuffie ran down the stairs to see what had happened. Yuffie hit the ground floor and barely caught herself before she landed flat on her back. Her feet slipped out from under her and she did a back handspring over Riku back onto the staircase. Riku however was not so lucky. His footing slipped and he tried to catch himself but only succeeded in landing on his side. Yuffie smiled down at him.

Riku took a good whiff of the air and noted that he was laying in an unpleasant mixture of a number of alcohols.

"Who's the clumsy one now?" Riku looked from side to side, then looked up at Yuffie and said "You." Her cheeks pinked, but she just smirked. Riku knew this wasn't going to end well. He felt Yuffie's shoe on his shoulder just before she gave him a harsh shove with her foot. He went gliding across the liquor soaked floor.

He raised his hand up holding his index finger up and shouted, "You're still the clumsy one!" She yelled in frustration.

After a couple of tries Riku finally managed to stably stand on two feet. He carefully walked over to see what had happened. There were slide marks approximately the size of Leon's shoe and Leon was sitting on the floor with a dust pan and a hand broom sweeping up the glass with Aerith standing over him looking rather pissed off.

"What happened here?" Yuffie jumped up onto the bar and sat cross-legged. Aerith continued to glare at the brown haired man.

"Captain Duffus here, who apparently can't read, tried to get behind the bar despite the sign that I laid on the floor AND hung on the bar 'NO ONE BEHIND BAR! FLOOR WET!'

"I said I was sorry! Gees!" He hunched over and mumbled to himself.

"Devil woman, I didn't do nothing wrong." Aerith tensed and grabbed a fistful of his hair.

"What was that!? Do you mind repeating that Squall?" Riku and Yuffie blanched. It couldn't have been scarier had she been yelling it. Leon actually whimpered at that.

"No ma'am."

"Good. Now once your done sweeping this up, you get to mop, and then hang the 'CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE' sign up on the front door." She hissed through grit teeth.

"Yes, ma'am." She turned, and faster than you could say bipolar, demon woman from the abyss was replaced by the picture perfect mother. It made Yuffie and Riku both flinch. They looked at each other and they both had the same look on their face saying that they'd hate to be on the receiving end of that temper.

"Who's hungry?" she smiled at the two younger ones. Suddenly, as if on cue Riku's stomach gave a loud growl. This made Aerith giggle.

"I'll get dinner ready then." She walked into the kitchen and Riku carefully inched into the back room to get a mop and bucket and helped Leon clean up. Yuffie hung the 'CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE' sign in the front window. They had just finished putting things up when Aerith came walking back into the room with a steaming pot. She placed it down on one of the tables and looked at Riku.

"Riku, could you come into the kitchen with me for a minute?"

"Uh, sure." He stood up and followed her into the kitchen. She pulled out a loaf of bread from the breadbox and handed it to him along with a bread knife. Riku may not have been the brightest crayon in his momma's box, but he could put two and two together. While he cut the bread Aerith gathered bowls, napkins, and spoons.

"So what happened?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" He replied.

"No answering questions with questions. What caused you to leave Sora's?" Riku stopped for a second.

"Nothing."

"That's the problem." Riku and Aerith whipped around at the voice. Cloud stood in the doorway.

"Hi Cloud! You made it just in time for dinner." Clouds arms were crossed over his chest. He looked at Riku with a cold gaze.

"Seems like we have a full house tonight then." Cloud said a little too vaguely.

"What do you mean?" Aerith questioned Cloud while Riku became a little more nervous.

"Cid's here. He's out there talking to Yuffie. And Tifa too. And we have one more guest." Riku's blood ran cold.

"Who, Cloud?" Aerith asked, but Riku knew what was coming next. Cloud stepped to the side and there in the doorway was the last person Riku wanted to see right now.

Riku was able to gasp out something that only he heard.

"Sora…no…"