It was a sunny afternoon as a small, old-looking car parked into the driveway of a blue, two-story Victorian house with a "For Sale" sign with the label "Sold" slashed over it in the front yard. A middle aged happy couple popped out of the silver, broken-down car and began to pick up some boxes from the trunk as a small, pale teenager slipped out slowly from the back seat, taking in her surroundings. She found the sunny, happy atmosphere of Destiny Islands very intriguing and almost captivating as she tugged at the strap of her messenger bag that she always carried around with her. Even though it's only few treasures were her black Ipod, silver digital camera, and two composition notebooks; one for sketches and one for her writings. She watched her parents practically do a victory dance in the doorframe, and smiled as she began to help them carry boxes into their new house.

After an hour or so of moving boxes to and fro, they had all sat down on the front steps to admire their new lives out here. It had been two years since Heartless and Nobodies had destroyed world after world and most of the relatives in that family had succumbed to the darkness within them, or had died during relentless attacks. Of course the little pale girl found the fight between light and dark utterly ridiculous, since dark and light resided in everyone how could one completely destroy the other to even create a Heartless or a Nobody? Little did she know of the Key blade bearer and his journeys. She only knew of what she heard during the time her old home was destroyed.

"You want to go and check out the town, Grace?" the dark haired man asked his daughter as her eyes lit up. She began to rapidly nod her head as an answer since she never really did like to speak only because she felt that most of the time words were meaningless when around at times and that no one wanted to hear them. He chuckled and tossed her the spare house keys, which she stored in one of the many pockets of her black cargo pants. "Be back before nightfall!" and with that she marched onward now on a mission to explore the beauty of her new environment.

On her way around town, her mind wandered to her friends that she had left behind right before her senior year. Yes, she'd be eighteen in about a month and the thought of having "the best year of her life" spent in a new school when she already barely spoke as it is sounded like torture. A breeze blew through her long cinnamon colored hair as the sight of the Island's beach took her breath away. She tugged her black and white stripped arm warmers up a little so she could dig into her worn down messenger bag to find her camera.

Meanwhile in the distance a tall boy watched from behind one of the palm trees with a smile as little Grace plopped onto the sand in a childish manner lying flat on her stomach as she tried to get the perfect angle of the ocean's waves and palm trees waving with the wind. There was something about this girl that made him… want to glomp her like his fangirls wanted to do to him. She seemed… so kawaii. He shook his head as the thought crossed his mind. He was practically an adult man, now that he was 18, and his cocky manhood pride only let him think that girls and gay men used the word kawaii for descriptions.

While the boy was suffering inner turmoil about said girl, she had now popped up from her original standing position and closed her eyes while twirling around with her arms extended out as she took in all the sounds and smells around her. Sadly enough, she missed the sound of the silver haired chap trying to act casual as he walked over to her and smacked right into him, while still in mid twirl, causing her to land face-first into the sand. The boy frantically helped the petit girl up as she sweatdropped slightly in embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry about that," the boy said as Grace dusted the sand off of her white short-sleeved shirt that read: "Music keeps me sane so you better hope my Ipod doesn't die soon." She nodded her head, not making eye contact with the boy in fear he'll make fun of her like most people did. It took all the boy's strength not to squeal out girlishly at how adorable she was acting when she looked shy like that.

"M-my names," he coughed to cover up for his nervousness that was creeping into his voice, ruining his cocky, cool composure he normally maintained, "My name's Riku." All Grace did was nod once again, and point to the black dog collar she wore around the middle of her neck that bore three silver tags. Of course, she had no idea what the tags actually said since her friends had given her the collar and tags as a going-away gift, but she was so excited about this kind gesture that she strapped it on before even taking a look at it. Riku, now insanely curious about this quiet bundle of cuteness, immediately made up the distance between them then twirled the three tags between his fingers and read them quietly to himself.

The first tag read the name "Grace" on one side while the back had the following speech:

"If found, please make jokes about how insanely pale and cheap she is and tell her that I love her and miss her so she doesn't think I'm being an ass to her like always. Love Will… Oh, and don't forget that S.E.X. is always the answer! ;D"

After a suffering a quick brain malfunction at the fact Will had written how he loved the girl that he, himself couldn't stop eyeing, he went on to the second tag that had the name "Agent 69" engraved on the front and another little speech on the back that said:

"If found, please return to her sister from another mister (yeah, I'm cool), since I miss her and we still have many secret missions to complete before the evil Doctor Banana tries to take over the world. If you don't… I WILL find you. MWHAHAHA! Love Agent 89."

The third tag read the name "Cinnamon Bun" on the front and yet another little speech on the back that read:

"If found, please remind her to keep in touch with me! Tell Cinny I miss her otherwise my evil minions from under my bed will find you. Love Lu Lu Laura."

"So do I call you Cinnamon Bun, Grace, or Agent 69?" Riku asked with a cocky smirk as he saw the girl's pale cheeks take on a bright shade of red as she took a step away from the boy and began to fiddle with the tags around her neck still not being able to see them for herself.

"Grace," she mumbled weakly as she looked at the now setting sun. She fought the urge to take a picture of the sight that she would most likely sketch later so she could face the fact that she had to get home… "But where is home, again?" she thought lamely to herself. Then she turned to finally look the boy in his aquamarine eyes, which oddly enough made the both of them suffer the same after-effect of breathlessness. "Bye," she stated simply as she proceeded to take on the direction that she at least thought was home so she could ponder on why she was that badly effected by just one look in his eyes.

"I bet you're new here, since normally I know all the girls here… most of them are my fangirls," he stated cockily as he ran up to her only to stand in her way while she raised in eyebrow at him, "I bet you need help getting home." The girl only shrugged since she no longer felt the need to speak and was completely unaware that that was the one thing the boy wanted—to hear her voice again. She dug into her messenger bag looking for the slip of paper that her father had written the address on so she could tell her three best friends where to visit. Riku cocked his head to the side as a small pale hand rammed a sheet of paper into his large tan hands. He opened the paper only to find she where lived which caused him to smirk greatly. "Oh, cool. You only live a block away from me," he stated happily as he lead the girl down the street opposite of where she actually thought her home was.

The walk was mostly in silence since Grace was deep in thought about this boy walking beside her and was beginning to miss the people she had trusted the most as she fiddle with the tags on her collar, while Riku was thinking about ways to get the girl talking again… anything to get out of this eerie silence since he was use to Sora's loud, bouncy personality.

"So your friends gave you a dog collar?" Riku asked in attempts of making conversation. Grace sighed as she realized how deeply she missed all of them.

"Yeah, to represent that I'll always belong to them. Of course it's also Will's way of calling me his bitch," she stated as she reminisced about the time Will had to ward off some creepy guy by proclaiming that his 'hoe' was worth way too much.

"Will? So is he like you're boyfriend?" he asked hoping not to sound desperate. He was still in shock that the small girl had uttered more then one sentence, so in shock that he didn't realize that they were already at her house.

"He's more of a… well, girlfriend," she said quietly with a slight chuckle, leaving Riku confused as she waved goodbye and walked up to her house. The boy stood there for a few seconds wondering what this feeling he had in his stomach he had gotten the minute she smiled at him, but decided to let it slide as he walked down the street and went to his house while deep in thought.

Meanwhile, Grace had hopped up the stairs to her room after mumbling a "goodnight" to her parents and decided to finally read the dog tags on her collar. Once she finished reading all of the silver tags, she was sprawled on the ground laughing at how silly they all were and decided to ring them up. Luckily, they were all hanging out at Will's house for the night.

"ZOMG! Grace! What's cracking?" shouted Sue (A.K.A. Agent 84) as she ran from the other two that were fighting over their turn with the phone.

"Hi, I just wanted to see how you guys were… I miss you all," Little Gracey stated quietly. Normally her friends brought out the talkative, silly side in her, but she was too sad to be loud.

"AHA! I WIN BI-ACTH!" shouted Lu Lu Laura in the background as she finally tackled Sue to the ground and had the phone now in her possession, "Cinny! I sense you've met someone today! Remember we all agreed that we'd have to approve of any men we have relationships with!" Yes, Lu Lu was a bit of a psychic and could always sense people, feelings, and sometimes even peoples' pasts… weird, but affective. Grace blushed a little.

"I only met this odd boy. Nothing special, relax."

"Well, odd is always—"

"Let me speak to my albino!" shouted Will in the background as he kneed Lu Lu in the butt and stole the phone while Lu Lu was on the ground mumbling a line of profanities to cover up the pain now in her rump, "We're visiting you soon! Be prepared for rape hugs!"

"Oh god…"

"Tee-hee!"

"Well, don't kill anyone on your way up," she said as she chuckled at the inside joke and ended the conversation since they had to go.

Grace tugged out her messenger bag and pulled out her Ipod and sketchbook. She also grabbed some pastels and pencils out of one of the few boxes in her room, that she was too lazy to unpack, and laid her tools out neatly around her. Her type of drawing was done by the subconscious, just like her writing. Instead of planning what she was going to draw, she'd not think, listen to her music, and let her pencil do the talking for her. While her Ipod blasted out the lyrics and music to "The Words 'Best Friend' Become Redefined" by the Chiodos, she stopped suddenly when she saw that she had drawn a pair of very detailed aqua eyes with silver eyebrows. After clearing her head slightly, she continued the drawing only for it to take on a different form. By the time she was down she had drawn the beach on a starry night with the aqua eyes, which slightly blending into the midnight sky, starring down at the beautiful ocean beneath. Finally she got changed and gave her best attempt to fall asleep.

With the bright sunshine cascading from the sky to her bedroom, Grace stretched and fell out of bed. After some groaning and mumbling of profanities, she got up, got changed, ate some breakfast, and went out the door to get some new shoots of the town. Of course, it was noon by the time she actually got up so when she came into the town's center, it was about 2:00 p.m. She pulled out her camera and snapped shots of the children running around the large fountain in the center of the town. While scanning the area and snapping random shots as to get a feel of the townspeople in their natural habitat, she saw Riku walk up to her as she accidentally took his picture.

"Hi there," he stated happily still trying to act himself and not squeal girlishly at her presence, "What ya doing?" The teen simply pointed to her camera, switched the camera's setting to flash, and took his picture, which slightly blinded him for a few seconds. He knew he heard Grace giggle at his attempt to see again by blinking rapidly. "So that's funny to you?" he asked, now with the power of sight on his side again, watched her nod her head vigorously causing him to smirk at the thought of what he was going to do next. "Well, how 'bout this!" he exclaimed as he simply splashed the water from the fountain on to the small girl.

Of course, she didn't react at first, only blinking once or twice. This caused Riku to worry that he crossed the line as he watched her walk away slowly, go to a nearby dollar store, and come back out with a bottle of water.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked in concern since he saw the dead look in her eyes. Little did he know, that she had a plan of her own and with that thought, she opened the bottle, got on her tip-toes to pour the water on top of his head, and then ran away before he could react. "Oh no she didn't…" with that he chased after her all the way to the beach where her bag fell off her shoulder when she tripped in the sand, he caught up with her to easily. While plucking her out devastated form from the sand, he carried her bridal towards the ocean.

"Oh no…" she mumbled weakly as he walked out till he was knee deep in ocean.

"Oh yes!" he exclaimed as he dropped her into the salty sea. Once the shock wore off, she got up and tried to push him down only to find he didn't move an inch causing him to chuckle and her to glare at his chest since she was too short to glare at his face without having to look too far upward.

"You suck," she grumbled, as she was about to walk away only to have an arm wrapped around her waist and pull her back causing her to blush.

"Truce?" he asked as he unwillingly let her go so he could offer a handshake.

"Fine," she stated as she shook his hand; both feeling the sparks from each other's touch.

The next morning came quickly and Riku had become very bored. In fact, he found that after his encounters with the heartless and nobodies were finally done with, that he had nothing to do. To put it simply, island life was boring since nothing ever changed… but this new girl had provoked his curiosity and his boring routine. Actually he was on his way to her house now to get to learn more about her and the feelings she gave him.

Grace stretched in her bed and let out a small yawn as she heard a knock at the door. Yes, it was noon and the little girl had just woken up. Still in a sleepy state, she fumbled out of bed, trudged down the stairs, and after accidentally walking into the door, opened it only to find that odd silver-haired boy on her porch steps silently rubbing the back of his neck. Riku took note of her brown, oversized Alexisonfire band shirt, her reindeer boxer shorts, and the black knit cap with black cat ears on the top of her head as she yawned and attempted to rub the sleep out of her large ice blue eyes.

"Did you just wake up?" he asked with a cocky smirk as the girl in a zombie-like state just turned on her heel and fumbled back up the stairs to her room with the door still wide open. Riku took this as an invitation and waltzed into the living room where he sat and waited for her.

Meanwhile, Grace donned on a white, buttoned up shirt with a black tie, a black plaid skirt, her black and white stripped arm warmers, her dog collar now tightened around her wrist as a bracelet, her black, worn messenger bag slung over her shoulder, and a pair of long, black oversized boots with buckles running down the sides and lazily put on some eyeliner and a light shade of eye shadow. She also kept her knit cap on since she was too lazy to take it off.

She didn't worry that her parents would discover a boy in the house since they were off starting their first day with their mom-and-pop restaurant/deli. It was their life long dream and Grace was going to work there no matter how or if she protested. Of course, she didn't officially start work till tomorrow. In all honesty, she didn't mind but she just didn't like to work with food. She was into creating things with a pencil and camera, not with a spatula. Anyway, she finally began to trudge back down the stairs only to find Riku now at the bottom of the steps looking up curiously at her.

"Would you like a tour of the island?" he asked trying to act casual as she nodded sluggishly. "Not a morning person?" he chuckled at how adorable she was and watched her as she almost walked into the doorframe when she tried to exit the house.

The two walked around town while Riku described the little of the town history he knew, which Grace found slightly boring but then again, she was paying more attention to his features then to his lectures on the island. Of course, Riku didn't notice because he was to busy sneaking glances also. Oh how painfully oblivious they were. Anyway, I digress. He tried to find out more things about this girl, but she somehow shimmied away from the topic and got him to talk about his past… and he almost revealed his past about his adventures in the darkness, which surprised him by all means that this little pintsized girl could make him want to confess most of his past. By the end of the tour, the boy with the silver dome wanted to show the girl the play island that all his friends grown to know and love, but knew he promised to meet his bone-head friend, Sora, at his house in the next couple minutes.

"Well, I'm sorry but I got to go. Maybe will finish this another time?" Riku stated politely in attempts to be a gentleman. The girl smiled sweetly making his heart soar and his mind become puzzled as she gave him a large bear hug as a 'thank you'. They both felt a tingly sensation as Riku hugged back once the shock passed. A minute or two passed as Grace tried to pull away only to find Riku's grip to be very strong. Reality soon hit him and he let her go causing them both to blush madly.

"W-well, yeah sooo… I-I'll be going. B-bye," Grace stammered weakly as she sped walked away tripping once or twice, now completely confused. Riku watched the girl's retreating figure and then finally turned to find his friend once she was out of sight. To him, these emotions didn't make sense and wondered if he should stop seeing the girl to see what would happen with that feeling in his chest. I mean, come on, how can one person create such inner turmoil for another? Or at least that's what his notion on the topic was.

"Riku? You okay?" Sora asked after waving his hand in front of his face. Riku snapped out of his train of thought to face the shorter teen.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know. You seem like you're suffering… Y-you're not leaving are you?" Riku raised an eyebrow at the spiky haired boy since he found it utterly ridiculous that he'd come to that conclusion.

"Wow, and to think I thought you'd have gotten smarter after all these years," he teased Sora with his cocky smirk and watched the boy fume at this comment.

"Well then what is it that's got you thinking then?" he asked after his little temper tantrum. Riku debated weather to tell his best friend of the new girl in town since Sora could blackmail him easily, but he did anyway. Sora listened patiently which was usually odd for the hyped up key blade bearer.

"…And I just don't get why she's giving me these feelings…" he finished his speech as he waited for Sora's response but was only meant by his foolish grin.

"Dude, way to disappoint me. I thought it was going to be this huge thing and it turns out you're just in love. Try to be more entertaining, Riku!" he exclaimed to the taller lad and playfully punched him in the arm. Love? THE Riku was in love? Psh, he's too cool for love… Okay, maayybbee not, but the statements from Sora did leave him in shock.

Ten days flew by and Riku never went to see Grace. He wanted to, truly he did, but he wasn't sure what to do with these feelings of love. He didn't want to keep hanging out with her and have to fight the sadness of not being able to hold her close without seeming like a rapist.

"Soooo Sora told me that you got bit by the love bug! Who is it?" Kairi stated happily, as they entered her house. Yes, Riku decided to hide his pain by hanging out Kairi… that wasn't working out so well at the moment.

"The new girl…" He mumbled wishing he'd hung out with Sora instead.

"Really? That's cuuttee! So how you gonna tell her?" she nosily asked while she plopped on the couch in her living room.

"I'm not."

"Why not!?" she exclaimed as she practically fell off the couch in shock that the Riku, that was utterly gorgeous and knew it hence the I'm-above-you attitude, was too shy to ask a girl out. What happened to him!?

"I doubt she'll like me like that."

"Come on! Any girl would be happy to have you!"

"You think?"

"Duh!"

"Thanks," he stated fumbling with his thumbs as a sense of nervousness sloshed in the bottom of his stomach.

"So how you gonna tell her? It better be romantic!"

"You're starting to sound like Sophie…"

"Well! How are you?" It was at that moment he came up with a great idea and sprinted out the house before he'd completely forget the brilliance of his plan and left Kairi, still on the couch, utterly confused.

Meanwhile, Grace was sitting on the dock with her notebook on her lap writing a very odd poem. She realized a long time ago that when she used her subconscious to write she'd get very violent and dark poems and stories and in an odd way, she liked them. It was her way of reminding herself of the darkness within her. She had been writing more often as to get her mind off of a certain silver-haired, aqua eyed, cutie, but it never worked out well. She even tried consuming herself in her work at her parents' restaurant, but nothing worked. In fact, she was very aware that he was avoiding her, and thought that it was her fault. This caused her to hate herself a bit, which was why she needed to write— to get rid of the hatred. While closing her notebook and looking at the setting sun, she let out a long sigh. This was the only day off she had so far, and it was already time to go. Once she got up from her spot, dusted off her grey skinny jeans and black Paramore shirt, and turned around, she saw Riku standing there in a nervous fashion while hiding something behind his back. The sight of him left her breathless, although she still had no idea why.

"H-hey," Riku stammered as he tried to think of how to make the following sound right, "I-I know we've only known each other for a little while, but being with you, feels like… like… like something that's familiar and right. Anyway, I just wanted to give you this." And with that he shoved a brown, mashed up paper bag into her small hands. After looking at him with a very puzzled expression, she did her best attempt to open the bag only to end up ripping it to shreds and have something fall to the ground. She picked it up to discover it was a gold dog tag. The front read, "Grace" while the back had the following passage:

"In such a short time, I've grown attached to a certain girl. If you're reading this, then you've found her. I only hope that'll she'll be mine. Love, Riku"

When she read this, she went into complete shock. She never expected anyone to say those things. In fact, she'd never been in a relationship before. Her first instinct was to reject him since it'd be like going out with a stranger, but a voice in the back of her mind kept yelling at her to go for it.

"I-I'm not sure what to say…" she started weakly as her phone vibrating loudly interrupted her, "Hold on, sorry." She read the text message numbly as she realized what it meant. "Oh no…"

"Oh, I-I'm sorry. I knew I was too forward and—" he stammered weakly, thinking she had rejected him. While he was having a mini panic attack, Grace soon remembered the pact she made with her friends about having to approve of any guy you were thinking of dating.

"No, not you. I'd say 'yes', but… they're coming…" her voice quivered slightly as fear sliced its way into her veins.

"Who?" he asked now as confused as ever.

"My friends… The people who have to approve of this," she stated numbly. Riku cocked his head to the side. He didn't see a downside to this. I mean, come on, how bad could that be? Of course… he was dead wrong.