Radiant Creatures

A/N: Welcome! This is my first actual KH fic, though I've been toying with doing something KH related ever since I joined this site. It's an AU, with the KH cast transplanted to a small American suburb. Think of it as KH meets Twin Peaks meets The Young and the Restless.

Enjoy and love it, hate it, indifferent or confused, please review! I crave validation.

Chapter 1, Crossroads to Destiny

If you have ever before traveled in the salt flats of Colorado, you would know that there is a dry and dusty stretch of highway that crosses the desert, and goes into the Rockies. What you may not know, is that there is a lonely stretch of road off that highway, a road that twines northwest, up, down and into the mountains.

What you definitely do not know is that at the end of that road is a small mountain lake, watered by runoff from the higher peaks, but too inconsequential to ever be given a name.

Just north of that lake, in a small patch of arable land surrounded by mountains on one end and desert on the other, you would find Destiny. Or rather, Destiny Township, Radiant County, CO, neighbor of other such Townships as Twilight, Traverse and Departure.

As the name might suggest, Radiant County and its associated communities were built on idealism. I don't know when it was built, but it was sometime between the Day the Music Died and The Summer of Love.

But time doesn't mean very much to this story, and it doesn't mean very much to the residents of Radiant County. These people mind their own business, and don't think much of gossip, or of the wider world outside. Indeed, you might suggest (and I may agree with you) that Radiant was a world all its own.

I can't tell you what fantastic sights there were to see in Radiant, because there weren't many. For a spotting point in the Rockies, it certainly doesn't offer as much as Aspen, and thus tourists are diverted from it. The people don't mind, not at all. They like their privacy, and they like their way of life. So why change it?

Well, this is a story about how change came to Radiant, and how everybody's lives were most inconvenienced as a result. I don't know when it happened, but it's probably best to cast a ballpark of around 30 years on it. Like I said, time is funny over there.

Now, there just so happened to be a high school in Destiny. I promise, we won't be spending too much time there, but you'd be surprised how much of this story revolves around the antics of a few rowdy teenagers.

Or maybe you wouldn't be.

It was 23 degrees outside, and Sora was sweating to death. The world was small and intimate between the slits of his helmet, the cries of the crowd, of his teammates, of his opponents seeming both loud as a storm and distant as some avalanche miles away.

A distant thudding sound in his heart, in the ground under his feet, grew to consume everything else. There was nothing but that noise, the solid mass in his hands, feeling cold and warm at once, and the imminently approaching line on the horizon, the late afternoon sun streaming down on it like some heavensent beacon.

Sora sensed somebody on his flank, couldn't keep back a buoyant laugh as he felt them reach out for air, stumbling cursing.

He was the wind today, and nothing could slow him down.

Another presence behind him, gaining, a shadow on his right, barely any space on his left. Sora gritted his teeth, smiled without realizing he was smiling, and crossed (some would later say it looked more like skipping, but history was written by the victors) over the line, sinking onto his knees in the turf.

The world erupted, the ground shaking with applause and cheers. Sora realized he was laughing, jumping up and down, cradling the ball in his hands as though it were his only child.

"Somebody give this kid the Heisman; he's won Monday Night Practice."

There was an unpleasant feeling of suction as Sora's helmet was tugged off, his hair falling into his eyes, thick brown locks dripping with sweat. It took him a few moments to remember just where he was, and what was going on.

Tidus was smiling that cocksure grin of his, which meant he was both proud and pissed. Sora attributed the latter to the fact that he must have limped the rest of the way to the end zone from the 20-yard line.

"Oh…" Sora laughed sheepishly, running his fingers though his hair, "Um, sorry, Ti, I guess I got carried away."

Tidus rolled his eyes, but nodded toward their teammates coming along the field at their own pace, "No problem. Try that move out on Twilight's cornerback and we've got the game in the bag."

He rolled his shoulders, as if assessing just how severely Sora had crippled him. Apparently, and thankfully so, not that much.

By now the others were gathered around, looking from Sora to Tidus with mixed apprehension and incredulity. Tidus, however, waved his hand at them and they let out a collective sigh of relief, seeing that it was good.

It was high fives and affirmations the whole way back to the locker room. Sora blushed a little under all the praise, but he had long ago learned to like it. He was good at football, he was fast, he won games. He had a talent, and Sora had heard talents were things one should be proud of.

"Like the wind, man! I swear, I could barely see you the whole last play…"

"Yeah, 'cause you were lying in the mud the whole time."

Sora turned to his two good-naturedly bickering teammates, and smiled to say something, but all he could really muster was something like, "Thanks, you guys too."

He still wasn't sure what that meant, but it had become almost a default response to a compliment. It seemed undone not to compliment people who had complimented you first, but Sora had never quite gotten the hang of how it was done.

He caught his own reflection in the tiles of the shower, and grinned at it.

"Keep on running, kid," he whispered to it, putting on his huskiest Vince Lombardi accent, "you're goin' places!"

"Yeah, to the E.R. for an emergency ego-neutering," Tidus came up beside him, dirty blond hair tied into a knot, and a towel tastefully tied around his waist, "You'd better keep that in check, man. I'm supposed to be the cocky bastard."

"You are," replied Sora, "Aren't I allowed to be happy about my skills?"

"Few as they are."

Sora aimed a perhaps very sissy swish of his towel at him. Tidus mocked a girlish yelp and rolled his eyes.

Sora lowered his eyes, keeping back a laugh, "I'm not…I'm not really cocky, am I? Like…people don't think I'm some sorta arrogant…"

"Nah," said Tidus shaking his head, "Nobody thinks you're that, not as long as I'm here. Hell, man, if anything, people are jealous of you."

Sora raised his eyebrows, cocking his head at Tidus as if he'd just told a really stupid and really lame joke.

"…jealous? Since when were people jealous of me?"

Tidus rolled his eyes and scoffed in the world-weary manner of somebody who knows every last detail about how the world works and can't believe nobody else is up to speed yet.

"Here's a riddle for ya, Sora. What do you call somebody who's led the team to their first unbeaten season in years, who gets along with goddamn everybody, who's dating the hottest girl in school…"

"Hey!" cut in Sora, offended.

Tidus ignored him, "…and by some miracle has hair that keeps its shape in a football helmet?" He indicated his own tangled locks with derision, "Well?"

Sora sighed, feeling a reassuring warmth climb into his cheeks. Smiling perhaps rather dorkishly, he admitted, "Fine, I guess you're right. I'm lucky." feeling worried, he added, "You're not jealous, are you?"

Tidus rolled his eyes, shaking his head, "Me? Come on, man, I never said you were that great."

Sora slapped him with the towel again, a little less girlishly, though he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he was happier than he'd been in a really long time.

"He's staring at you, again."

"Maybe if you stopped staring at him, he'd stop staring at us."

Selphie tossed her hair imperiously, "He isn't staring at us, Kai, he's staring at you. Like, really obviously."

She took a generous bite of her apple, licking the juice off her lips, for once not seeming to care about smudging her hot pink glittery lip gloss.

"Believe me, if he was staring at me, I wouldn't pretend he wasn't."

Kairi gave her friend a look, reaching across the picnic table to pick up her Algebra notebook, which she opened with a purposeful effort to glance over her carefully copied formulas and equations to the solitary figure sitting at another table, halfway across the school lawn.

"Kismet." Whispered Selphie with a dramatic flourish.

Kairi wished she had the gumption to tell Selphie to put a sock in it, but Selphie could be so smug when she was right.

He wasn't even pretending not to stare, the way passerby might in the street. Rather, he had his head propped up on one arm, eyebrow cocked in drowsy curiosity. He had bright green eyes, almost like a cat's. Clever and cunning, and yet at the same time, bored.

He wore his hair long, in uneven waves. Silver at the roots, going down to a steely blue at the tips, which brushed just over the turned up collar of a faded military jacket.

Everything about his wardrobe seemed faded, in fact. The worn baggy jeans, more gray than blue, the scuffed combat boots, the gray tee-shirt that may once have been blue, green, or even black.

"His name's Riku," said Selphie, as if from miles away.

"I know what his name is."

"Ooh!"

"He's been in our class since middle school, it doesn't take a private eye to remember..."

Bur Selphie was distracted again, her head tilted in a far more feminine approximation of Riku's, "He's supposed to be really, super, hardcore." She nodded as if to solidify the point, "He has a motorcycle."

"He does not," said Kairi, putting down her notebook at once, "he walks to school every day."

"Aha! Caught ya." Selphie clapped her hands delightedly, "How would you know that, if you weren't watching him too!"

Kairi considered repeating the point about them all going to school together since the awkward mess of prepubescence, but Selphie was already rattling off.

"And he does have a motorcycle, anyway. He rides with one of those leather jacket gangs. Wakka told me."

"Well, he can stop staring whenever he likes," Kairi conceded, returning her attention to her Algebra homework, "What was that formula for Distribution again?"

"A bunch of letters and squiggly things," Selphie replied automatically, not deterred, "And he's not gonna stop looking at you unless you do something about it."

"And what am I supposed to do?" asked Kairi with a touch of humor, "Sic my boyfriend on him?"

"Whoa, whoa, who do I have to sic?" came a familiar, refreshingly bouncy voice. Kairi felt his hand on her shoulder before she turned around to see him.

Sora, smelling as fresh as the school showers would allow, wearing the baggy shorts and hoodie that he seemed to think worked in all weathers. He had that tired, flushed look about him that Kairi had come to associate with a grueling-but-rewarding game.

"Nobody," replied Kairi, patting a spot next to her on the bench, "Pop a squat, you can help me with Algebra."

Sora gave her one of those looks, his eyes going all droopy and hangdog. Kairi sighed, "Fine, we'll distribute terms together."

"Kinky," and Tidus appeared at the table, sports bag over his shoulder, looking disheveled enough to pass for not having cleaned at all. He sat next to Selphie; Kairi smiled knowingly as her friend practically had a seizure on the spot, her freckles almost vanishing under the flush of her cheeks.

"Well, girls, what's the dirt?" asked Tidus, putting on an air of extremely manufactured interest, but Selphie didn't seem to mind.

"Well, our Kairi is too noble and virginal to say anything…"

"Virginal, is she?" asked Tidus, looking at Sora accusingly.

Kairi and Sora both made similar motions under the table, but Kairi was never quite sure which if their kicks had hit Tidus first.

"Ow! Sorry, sorry…" he grumbled, adjusting himself, "Between the two of you I won't be able to play till college, if I'm lucky. Forget the unbeaten season."

"If you get to college," said Kairi, in the same breath as Sora said, "Unbeaten season's in the bag, anyway."

He turned to her with a grin, and Kairi allowed herself to be fawned over. Times like this, to her, were precious and meant to be remembered. To think, a year ago she never would have believed any of this could have happened to her.

And here Sora was, all smiles and those big blue eyes, and that crazy hair of his. Perfect, in his eternal earnestness, his sincerity, his jokes.

"As I was saying," said Selphie, like a grand dame trying to restore the spotlight to herself, "Kairi's secret admirer has entered Day Six of telling subtlety to jump off a bridge."

If Kairi had been what her Gran called 'a street woman', she would have lunged across the table at once and shoved Selphie's apple down her smiling gob. She never understood why Selphie thought it was fun to stir up gossip and scandals and all that other pointless hemming and hawing. Why make trouble where none existed? Who wanted trouble? It must have been some part of teenage girldom she'd missed out on.

"Secret admirer?" Sora's grin melted off his face in that slow, tragic way of ice cream on a sidewalk. It dawned on Kairi that, of course, he'd never noticed. Guys weren't supposed to, and if Selphie had just kept her damn counsel, it would have stayed that way…

He turned over his shoulder in the direction Selphie was pointing, seeing Riku at his table. It seemed to Kairi that there was no way Riku couldn't tell they were all staring back at him now, but he showed little sign of noticing.

His gaze did falter, briefly, flicking down to the ground before returning to them.

"Isn't he one of those weird biker dudes?" asked Tidus.

"Told you." Said Selphie, looking imperiously at Kairi, who was anyway more focused on Sora. His face contorted into that grimace he only put on when he was trying to be serious, though really it just made him look very pouty. Kairi, however, had never had the heart to tell him that.

"Has he been bothering you, Kai?" he asked softly.

"No, he hasn't," Kairi reassured him, looking pointedly back at Selphie, "It really isn't an issue. No point making a big to-do about it."

"I don't know," said Tidus, "usually if a guy stares at a girl like that…"

"Because you're the best judge of a girl's feelings at this table?" said Kairi. Selphie, who seemed to have no side but that of Chaos, giggled and snapped her fingers for Kairi's benefit.

Sora laughed unsurely, patting Kairi gently on the arm, "Well…if you're sure it's nothing, its nothing. But…um…if this guy…"

"His name's Riku." Added Selphie.

Sora looked at her, and nodded as if he got the message, "If he does anything. You know you can…you can just tell me, and I'll take care of him."

"I haven't a doubt you would," said Kairi, ruffling her fingers through his hair, which smelled vaguely of soap, "But you won't have to."

Sora nodded again and, as if on second thought, gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Get a room." Came Tidus's voice from somewhere in the periphery, "Aw son of a…"

Which meant Selphie had probably shut him up. Good; she needed the extra friend points in Kairi's book.

She opened her eyes midway as the kiss drew to a close, just in time to see Sora's face, up-close and personal, a way she never thought she'd be able to see it. Bronze skin and dark hair, outlined against the clean brightness of the autumn afternoon sun. The way he seemed to drown in that comfy red hoodie of his, cozy as a baby in the crib.

She could have admired him forever, but that would be weird, and she didn't want to come off as some kind of creeper…

The thought brought her attention to the spot, just out of the corner of her eye, where that other table was at the end of the lawn.

Riku had gone. Kairi didn't know why, but she breathed a warm sigh of relief.

"What is it?" asked Sora.

"Nothing, she replied, "everything's perfect."

There was a little thrift shop on the corner of Clark and Kimbell. The cozy Green Acres kind of place with big bay windows and a colorful awning hanging over the sidewalk. There was a charming lamppost on the pavement outside, with a hanging pot of violently colored primroses dangling in the breeze, the faint creaking noise usually the only sound on a quiet November evening.

It was just around the back of this thrift shop that Riku's baby was being held hostage.

Hands in his pockets, Riku took a deep breath for fortitude, and stepped into the narrow alley. It was all he could do not to charge at the silent shape of his bike right away, kick the gear off the front tire, and peel off down the road. But one had to be weary of traps, especially in these sorts of situations.

The way his bike was just standing here, completely unguarded, in the open… Riku wasn't that stupid. He expected people to know that.

His right hand, still in his pocket, coiled around the worn, reassuring leather grip, nestled safely between his billfold and his lighter. Just in case.

On closer examination, the bike wasn't damaged at all. A bit dusty, the carburetor could probably due with a good clean, but what else was new? There was a little piece of paper affixed to the handlebars, tied with what seemed to be Tiger Twine. Classy.

Biting back an acerbic curse, Riku held the card up to the dying light and read the message, scrawled in what must be purposefully hideous block print.

'JUDGEMENT COMES FROM ABOVE.'

Before he could fully process just what the hell that meant, a shadow descended over him from the fire escape landing, a lithe, lean figure thudding gracefully onto its feet right behind him.

"Shit!" he swore, almost tripping right over his bike, were it not for the figure stretching out one of its impossibly angular arms to steady him.

"Whoa, take it easy, Sergeant," Axel drawled, sleepily as if he'd just been woken from a midday nap, "I come in peace."

Riku shook his head, pushing Axel's arms off him as he tried to catch his breath, "Really not in the mood for the theatrics today, Ax."

The smile didn't leave Axel's face, but he leaned back as if to show that he was willing to act some modicum of solemn for Riku's sake.

"What, rough day? Look, I know I promised Betty back to you last week…"

"Betty?"

"Yeah, I called her Betty. She makes this sweet little noise when you take her down to 40 on the open road."

"And that noise sounds like 'Betty'?"

Axel smirked, "No, it sounds like this girl Betty from back in junior year, way before your time, but you shoulda seen…"

"Yeah, that's great, forgive me if I haven't been moved to tears, it's been a shitty day."

"Dammit, Riku, every day is shitty for you," Axel went digging around in the pockets of his impossibly tight jeans (Riku wasn't sure how he could keep anything in those pockets without being overcome by imbalance) and dug out Betty's keys. Well, not Betty. Riku didn't think he could come to terms with riding around on one of Axel's many teenaged conquests.

"I keep tellin' ya to add some fiber to that diet, man, it'll help."

"Did not need to hear that," said Riku flatly, taking the keys from Axel's outstretched hand and starting the task of kicking down the shift to get on the move. Axel, however, had crossed his arms and was now standing in the middle of the alley, as if to prevent any escape before it could happen.

"Look, what if you go out with us tonight? Me and the guys are going up the lakeside: Overlook. We'll have the works: music, fireworks, refreshments…" he gave Riku a playful shake by the shoulder, "C'mon, I've even talked Seifer into bringing his new roadster. We could have a go on it, see if it was worth his money."

Though Riku was tempted to know just how Axel had threatened their erstwhile friend (well, not quite 'friend'; the social hierarchy operated a bit differently among suburban biker gangs) he still was determined to come out of this mess with some of his dignity intact.

"I don't think I'll be much fun tonight, believe me."

"Fine, be that weird guy in the corner. Just show up, it'll do you some good, and the guys will all get a laugh out of it."

Axel laughed, not necessarily a cruel one, but the boisterous, eager one he only used when he really wanted something.

"Come on, man… If you won't do it for the guys, or for yourself, or for Seifer's thousand-dollar alleged speed machine, do it for me." He pouted, the red teardrop tattoos under his eyes crinkling into compact trapezoids, "I need a straight man to balance me out, or else they're all gonna get sick of how wicked badass and funny I am."

Riku sighed, lightly brushing Axel's hand off his shoulder (how he hated having to look up at him all the time), and he smiled despite himself, "Fine, I'll go. On one condition."

"Oh?" Axel brightened at once, "Do tell."

"Never say 'wicked' again. Please."

There was a short pause before Axel threw back his head, his mane of scarlet hair catching the sunset as he did so, laughing like a hyena even though Riku wasn't sure he'd even been that funny. He meant it. Nobody said 'wicked'; it was the definition of trying too hard.

But, maybe that whole 'trying too hard' aesthetic was just what drew him to Axel in the first place.

"Deal," said Axel, between short bursts of laughter, "I'll go round by the shop, pick up my ol' piece of junk, you can take Betty."

"Permission to use my property," said Riku drily, "I'm honored."

"Damn straight," Axel paused, as if debating whether or not to say what he was about to say.

"Do I get to know just why you've been sulking like a girl for the last week, or…"

Riku gave him a thud on the back of the head, and Axel desisted, chuckling, "Fine, fine, I won't push my luck. See you tonight, my brother. Be there or be square."

He pointed his fingers at Riku, in the shadow-puppet shape of a pistol, blowing off a round right between the eyes, "You'll catch it if you're not."

"Don't worry about that. I know better than to catch things from you."

"Good man." And Axel headed out of the alley and around the corner, laughing at some joke only he could understand.

Riku hefted himself up onto his bike, pushing his hair out of his eyes so he could look directly out the mouth of the alley, into the setting sun.

Letting out another deep sigh, he revved Betty up and set off down Kimbell Street feeling, if not better, than at least not entirely shitty. If he had to put up with Axel's 'wickedness' tonight, then so be it.

Maybe it would do him some good.

A/N: So, again, I hope you liked it! I certainly had a fun time writing it.

Updates for this story will ostensibly be on a weekly basis that I will try my damnedest to keep track of. So, by that rule, look out for Chapter 2 on this coming Monday August 1st! If it doesn't show up, you have full permission to call me out.