The Heartless Prince

[Sora/Kairi, Roxas/Namine. Romance/Fantasy. Rated T]

"A tale of a Prince, who had fallen in love at a young age. He was soon to be announced as the new King of Kingdom Hearts. So one day, he decided to propose to his lover, of course, she happily accepted. This had confirmed his new Princess; and Kingdom Hearts future Queen.

A witch, who was obsessively planning to overtake the throne of Kingdom hearts, heard the news- Kingdom Hearts was soon to crown a new Queen. She had grown furious, and became filled with envy and rage. She attacked the Kingdom, and filled it with darkness. The prince fought the witch, and defended his Kingdom the best he could… but in dismay, he failed.

In the end… The prince had lost everything."

PRE-FACE

"Every loss leads to a bigger gain."

The ground crumbled beneath him as loud roaring was heard. His eyes immediately averted upwards, only to find himself right below his predator. It was the witch, Maleficent, who was taken in the form of a large, ebony dragon.

"I shall claim Kingdom Hearts!" The witch hissed, as her claws hovered down on him. Luckily, he jumped out of the way before her attack maimed into the ground.

The boy sprinted across the battlefield with his weapon before him. Reflect. His mind commanded. A glass shell formed around him as a protection; shielding off the green flames that were shot directly towards him. He cursed as his shield shattered from the pressure and heat. The destructive flames managed to pierce through with a strong force shoving him back. Her tail slid towards him, whipping across the battle field; The only possible way for survival- was to jump. Taking in a deep breath, he regained his posture and began to run again. On perfect timing, he pushed off his legs and dashed high up into the air, just barely touching the spikes of her tail.

He had landed, very roughly, feeling a cracking pain shoot through his entire leg. This caused him to stumble forward. He winced, and clutched onto his chest as he gasped out for air. He had used too much stamina.

"Oh, Prince Sora," Maleficent said, melodically, "I've got a little surprise for you."

Sora looked up to the dragon-formed Maleficent as she slowly raised her claw. He watched as she held her demonic hand out; summoning a circular light that began to form. When the light had formed completely, a girl suddenly appeared, who stumbled down onto Maleficents palm. Sora's eyes widened.

He inhaled, "Xion…"

The raven haired girl managed to balance herself as she stood up. A gasp escaped her lips as she nostalgically looked to her surroundings and saw where she was standing- High up in the air, on a dragons palm. Xion peered over the large claws, and saw him,

"Sora!" She cried out, terrified.

An evil, malicious laugh came from the dragon-witch. The witch wrapped her deadly claws around Xion's entire body. She struggled in between Maleficents large fingers, gasping for air as she was now suffocating.

"Let her go!" Sora demanded, ignoring the pain in his leg when he forcefully stood up.

"Is that all you're worried over? Your little princess?" the witch spat, "What about your Kingdom and your people?"

Realization befallen him. Sora quickly scanned around. The scenery was obscene. Everything was dark. Black-thorn vines wrapped around the entire Kingdom, as darkness began to consume the unconscious bodies of people; thepeople of his kingdom. Their hearts slowly fled into the starless sky. That wasn't the worse of what was happening…

It was overwhelming, because… hideously, one by one, they transformed into shadowed creatures- with frightening, yellow eyes that glowed with hatred.

He knew everything was falling apart… and it pained him to know that all of this was impossible to stop.

"What kind of a Prince are you? A weak, selfish one." Maleficent mocked, "You don't deserve to be Kingdom Hearts' future King."

Sora's fist tightened as he tried to contain the dark feelings that begun to burn inside him. His bangs shadowed his eyes, as tears suddenly began to flow down his cheeks. There was one last person left that he could possibly save…

Xion was suffering, and running out of breath… he had to do something quick. But what could he do?

"Please, just let her go…" Sora pleaded.

A smirk appeared on the dragons face, "Oh, why should I?"

"Just… take me instead, let her live!" Sora threw his key-blade to the side, allowing it to vanish into light. He got onto his knees, completely giving in, he lowered his head and shut his eyes tight.

Maleficents laughter was mixed with the sound of thunder, "Foolish."

The witch faintly loosened her grip on the struggling girl; barely allowing Xion to breathe again before slowly raising her claw up to the dark sky. Vine-shaped Darkness suddenly shot out from the ground, filtering around the prince. It slowly begun to vault him, rooting him down as it grabbed onto all his limbs.

"So be it." She spat, "Now, give me your heart!"

CHAPTER 1

A new fairy-tale begins.

"Kairi!"

Someone called from around the corner. In the large open halls of the castle, the auburn-haired girl, Kairi, ducked and hid behind one of the large pillars. She remained completely quiet, keeping herself unrevealed.

"Come on, Kairi." The boy whined and ruffled his fingers through his blond hair from his frustration. He lost her again, and that practically made him want to whack his own head with the key-blade he had in hand. He always had his key-blade with him. Without it, he'd probably die. Literally.

"One day, you're going to get me in big trouble, you know that?"

A giggle escaped from the said-girls lips, causing the boy's attention to jerked to his side. He rose a brow, and quietly approached the direction of where he had heard the sound.

"Kairi," he smirked to himself. He knew that he was getting closer to finding her, "I don't know if you've noticed, but… we're now near the age of becoming adults, don't you think playing hide-and-seek is a bit too childish?"

"No!" Kairi chimed an echo through the wide empty halls. A child-like smile appeared on her face, as she hugged her knees to her chest with her back and head was against the large pillar.

Turning her face to the side, she spoke after a pause of silence, "Roxas, we've been playing this since the diaper age, we could never grow out of a childhood game. You silly-"

"Is that so?"

Roxas startled Kairi, as he was already sitting beside her, leaning against the same position as she, somewhat mocking her. She turned her face to him, and flushed, completely embarrassed. He had found her again. Not only did he easily find her, but there he was, his face inches away from her own… with that cheeky, conceited grin that he would always have when he 'wins'.

"Alright, alright… fine!" Kairi rolled her eyes. "You win again, happy? You're just that good." She said with sarcasm.

"Hey!" Roxas' pouted. The two laughed.

"Geez, Kairi. You still manage to make me play games with you till this very day." He shook his head.

"So! We've always been the best of friends, despite our duties, this is what we do. Now quit complaining!" She nudged him, and with a devious smirk, she called him by his forbidden nickname, "…Roxy-poo."

Roxas scowled, "Oh hell, you didn't…"

"Yup, I did."

"You just…"

"Mhmm, I just called you Roxy-poo."

Kairi teased by sticking her tongue out at the spiky blond, who remained shocked and speechless. She finally felt victorious, that is, until he opened his mouth to speak,

"You're going to get it. I always win, remember that." He said with complete confidence.

Kairi blinked, confused. She tilted her head slightly as she looked at him curiously.

"Nothing. It's nothing." Roxas waved away with gesture. Not long after, Kairi caught the hint.

"…you wouldn't."

Roxas just smiled, "I would."

"You swore with a pinky promise that you wouldn't call me by that label!"

"Well, that's too bad." Roxas laughed as he stood up, holding out a hand for her, "You called me… ugh," he coughed out his horrid nickname, "Roxy-poo'. Which is not fair at all. At least yours is a real label." Kairi took his kind gesture. When she pulled herself up, she dusted off the dirt caught on her pink sundress.

"Roxy-poo is a cute nickname given to you by your best friend, A.K.A, me! And I don't like being treated like a… you know."

"Princess…" Kairi highly disliked being called a princess. She loved being considered normal. But normal never existed in this place.

Roxas' wasn't normal either. Sure, he was her best friend, but his main reason for always being near her, was because… of his training. He came from a family of protectors. All his life, his parents (who're the Queen and Kings closest friends) forced him to train to be their Princess' body guard.

A knight. Every princess has one. His duty was to protect the princess at all times. And he always did his job. Roxas' swore he would give up his life just to protect Kairi.

"Okay, fine." Roxas surrendered, "Call me Roxy-poo all you want," he shook his head and sighed dejectedly.

"On a random note, now I remember why you ran off and why I had to chase after you..." Roxas continued to speak, "Kairi, we have to get you ready for tonight. I know you don't want to do this, and honestly, neither do I want you to. But we have no choice… It's what your parents arranged for you."

To the blonds dismay, he felt regret when he saw the expression of the redhead turn from happy to sad. His expression saddened as well, feeling that he was about to lose her because of this arrangement… but, he knew this day would eventually come. It was just so hard, they were best friends since they were kids. They grew up together; always there with and for each other.

Because of this arrangement, he felt a slight sting of jealousy… He shoved those feelings aside, and just tried his best to comfort her, "Kairi," he put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. He forced a smile for her,

"Your parents know what's best for you…"

To Roxas' surprise, Kairi had pushed away from him. He looked at her, completely shocked by her response.

"You always listen to our parents…" Kairi muttered, unable to look him in the eyes, "Even if they're right… maybe, even wrong… our parents can't always be right about what we want in our lives. For once, Roxas, I wish you'd make your own decisions, instead of following everything they say, as if you're a puppet."

With that, Kairi ran off to the direction of the Castle's Garden, leaving behind a bewildered Roxas'.

X3

"I can't believe him… still the same Roxas, always following orders."

Kairi sadly spoke to herself. She gracefully walked passed the large trees in the garden. The redhead was too preoccupied in her thoughts, that she hadn't noticed right away that it was almost getting dark out. It was night soon.

"Oh boy, he's probably really worried about me right now…" but he should know that she should be safe in the gardens. If he didn't, he would have stopped her from going there, right? Or maybe it was because of what she said, it left him too in shock to go after her. But besides that, the castle grounds were always known to be safe. At least, that's how it should be.

Kairi looked around the soundless garden. This castle is known for it's beautiful Radiant Garden. It was stunningly large. Large enough to get lost in, if you didn't know your way around. It was extremely quiet. The silence somewhat frightened her, but she tried her best to ignore it and began to hum to herself.

She was now skipping over the random flowers that sparkled from the blue rays of moonlight dancing upon them. The stars almost lit the sky as they were almost completely revealed.

Kairi stopped dead in her tracks. She had heard something rustling. Looking around cautiously, she didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

"I'm just hearing things." She comforted herself, and took in a deep breath.

Suddenly, she heard the ruffling noise again. Kairi twirled to face the direction of the noise, and that's when she saw something.

Yellow, beady eyes hidden in a dark part of the garden, as if they were watching her.

"I'm also… seeing things!" Kairi shrieked, and without hesitation, she ran as fast as she could.

Filled with paranoia, she could've sword that whatever it was… it was following her.

Fear took over her, that she didn't care that her auburn strands were whipping over her face and every direction of the wind that brushed against her. Without concentration of where she was running, or noticing anything around, she had caught her foot on a large root, which caused her to trip. Kairi gasped and yelled out as she tumbled forward onto the floor.

She coughed, and reached for her sore ankle. "Ah…" Kairi hissed from the stinging pain. But a noise nearby distracted her. It was a noise she had never heard before. A mixture of a growl and purr?

Kairi turned and looked over her shoulder, seeing those yellow beady eyes looking at her from a few feet away. It was close by, but at the same time, it kept it's distance. She bit her lower lip when she realized what it was, now that it was revealed itself under the twilight.

Not once had she seen a real one up this close.

A Heartless?

Not a large, threatening creature… but it was a tiny one with stubby, tiny arms and large feet, yellow eyes that glow bright in the night, along with those zig-zag antenna's that twitched on it's round, bubbly head…

How did a heartless pass into the Castle grounds?

"…Shoo! Get away!" Kairi shut her eyes tight and squealed, threatening the heartless by flailing around. She failed at trying to shoo it away, because it only had flinched, and refused to distance itself from her.

When she slowly began to open her eyes, she noticed that it was now right beside her. Just sitting there, doing nothing. Kairi looked at it with widened eyes, very much confused…

Then it did something; something rather… cute.

It tilted it's head to the side, with it's antenna's dangling.

In reflex, Kairi found herself slowly reaching a pointer finger out to it. Then she did something she never imagined doing to a heartless…

She poked it.

And when she did… it purred. Kairi couldn't contain herself from giggling.

"Aren't you adorable," Kairi found herself smiling as she reached her hand over and patted it's round head. It's so soft… "Are you lost, little guy?" The auburn girl looked to her surroundings curiously, before looking back to the innocent looking creature. Yet it only continued to look up at her innocently, as she twiddled it's antenna with her fingers.

Without thought, Kairi cradled the heartless in her arms, before she struggled to get up. She winced, looking down at her pained ankle. Ack… she slightly teared, ignoring the pain as best as she could as she limped and ventured closer to the castle.

"It's probably a bad idea to take you home with me," Kairi couldn't help but smile at the heartless in her arms, "If Roxas finds out I have a heartless with me, he'll be outraged. He is trained to keep things like you away from me. I really don't see how you're so dangerous."

She pressed her cheek against it's bubbly head, "But… I can't help it, you're so cute."

The little heartless remained silent, and just twitched it's antenna as she continued on into the palace.

Author's Note: Kairi is taking home the heartless, wouldn't you? Roxas will be very upset indeed! Haha. Oh and btw, there is no Sora x Xion. That's just wrong to me too. It's just for the beginning of the story. ;)

I've always wanted to try an action/fantasy type of romance. I'm also trying to interact and give the characters more relation towards each other. It's basically an AU fic. But don't worry, there will be Kairi and Sora/Roxas and Namine scenes, in the further chapters if you guys would like me to continue this. I just want to know what people think ^_^ and if they think it deserves more chapters.

Please review! Thank you for reading. Hope you liked it so far. I have many idea's for this fic, so I'm hoping it has enough readers to push this story forward!

The next chapter should be full of surprises :o