A/N: I loved this story back when I first started writing it. I had these scenes mapped out, and everything was going to be perfect. But during a hardrive wipe, I completely lost all of my progress. It was horrible. A lot of stories had to go on hiatus, including my other Kingdom Hearts one.
I have a very unhealthy obsession with high school AU's. I'm not even in HS anymore. It probably didn't even make sense when I was in high school to be obsessed with it. Maybe it did? Idk, but they're like ALL that I write. It's both hilarious and embarrassing...
Anyway, yeah, chapter 1 and 2 are both rewritten to sound better and suit the new vision I have for the story!
Chapter 1: Chapter 1 - Packing
Silver Lights, Turquoise Nights
Chapter 1
Yet another move. New faces, new people, new places.
"This is the last time, honey," his mother said, her voice sincere. He wanted to believe her; in fact, he struggled against his inward retaliations, the want to speak out against his single mother. He knew she was only trying to take care of him; he should be grateful he had been allowed to stay with her for until now.
Still, it got tiring, trying to make new friends again and again. It had caused him to become quiet, withdrawn, moody, and, some even said, unfriendly.
Riku looked at his mother's face, really struggling for a second. He was relieved when his love for her won out over the exhaustion and bitterness.
"I understand," he said, letting out a gust of air that caused his long white hair to flutter, and his mother gave him a tight hug.
Riku Crescent was about 6'3" tall, with long silver hair that often fell over his eyes. His skin was a light, pale cream color, and his eyes shone a startlingly turquoise blue, with thin dark rims. Being sensitive to light, his pupils never really got very large. His mother had told him- in secret- that he was actually somewhat albino, from his father's genes. Riku had never met his father, though, so he had no mental image to compare to. As such, the similarity meant less to him than it could have.
Riku liked to wear light colors, as stark as it was to his personality. In truth, his surliness wasn't really who he was; having moved so often with his mother as a child, Riku had become a bit closed off to people; he'd never had the chance to let himself open up, and had therefore fallen even deeper within himself. He seemed standoffish, and he'd been told many times that he was a cold-hearted ass, but it was only because he knew he would never be able to truly get close with them. It would only be a matter of time until they were forced to move again- not that it was ever his mother's fault.
"I know you'll like it there," Lucrecia said as she pulled back from her son, wiping the silver hair aside in vain. Her own brown hair was pulled back in a long ponytail, and the tired lines under her eyes seemed to disappear with the sincere smile. Riku smiled back at her, and resigned himself to another move. At least the relocation team helped out; they were as good as family to him, and twice as entertaining- not that he'd ever admit as much to them.
"Will you be careful?!" Riku barked, almost dropping his own box of breakables. The redhead he was directing his complaints toward just laughed as he balanced a large vase on his head.
"How do you two even HAVE so much stuff?" A voice called from the kitchen. Riku turned to see a large, burly bald man walking out carrying at least 4 boxes of utensils, plates, and other cooking-ware.
"Be careful with that," Riku said, directing this command toward the burly man named Rude. "Seriously, some of those have been handed down in our fam-"
A loud crash to his right caused Riku to turn back to the redhead, seeing the broken pieces of the vase littered around him. The black-clothed man's sheepish expression did not diminish Riku's rising aggravation.
"Dammit Reno!" He snapped, putting his box down in defeat and grabbing a broom.
"I'm sorry!" Reno said, raising his hands apologetically. "I'm sorry! I can fix it!"
"Just like you said you could fix the angel?" Riku growled, pointing behind him toward a statue of what was once an angel. It was currently haphazardly glued together, very obviously and poorly done, and many of its pieces weren't anywhere near their original places. One of its wings was even glued over its crotch, and its cherubic head was where its bottom had once been.
"That is a masterpiece," Reno objected, looking dead serious. "I improved it. Even Lucrecia says so."
"That's because my mother is too easy on you clowns," Riku said exasperatedly. He quickly swept up the pieces of the once gorgeous (albeit cheap) vase, making a mental note to fix it himself. Something plonked down beside him, and he turned to see a bright-eyed and cheery, blonde-haired woman smiling at him, holding a vacuum.
"I got this," she said proudly.
"You can't vacuum up the pieces of a broken vase, Elena," Riku said tiredly. This must have been the eighth time she'd dyed her hair.
"Why not?" She demanded.
"Because it would break the vacuum," Rude called from the kitchen. He was shifting the weight of the precariously perched boxes in his arms, and Riku had to stop sweeping to quickly dart over and catch one of the smaller ones.
"I don't know why they always insist on sending you idiots to help us," Riku gasped; the box was incredibly heavy. "You break more things than you actually pack!"
"I got the vase pieces!" Elena called, with the ominous sound of a chord unraveling.
"NO VACUUM!" Riku shouted, but it was too late- the "vroom" started, followed almost immediately by an even more ominous THUNK sound.
A good five seconds of silence passed, the only sound in the room that of the vacuum trying in vain to suck up the large pieces of sharp debris, before it finally exploded, sending dangerous shrapnel in every direction.
Rude dropped every box in his hands, grabbed Riku, and dove behind a couch just to their left, managing to simultaneously drop the box in Riku's hands. Elena and Reno likewise dived for cover. First and foremost, they were bodyguards- trained to evade dangerous combat with lightning reflexes... But not in how to handle simplehouse-hold chores. No matter their battle training, they were always unprepared for Riku's wrath.
"OUT!" He shouted, pushing Rude off of him (which was a feat in itself). "GET OUT! OUT!"
"But-" Elena started to say, popping up from the other side of her furniture.
"OUT!" Riku shouted again, standing up and dusting himself off. "I will pack everything on my own!"
The three immediately scampered out the open front door.
Riku looked around the emaciated front room. Shards of glass had become impaled in the wooden walls in every direction, and there was a large black, sooty stain on the carpet where the vacuum had sat moments before.
Lucrecia Crescent walked in through the front door at just that moment, holding large brown grocery bags against her neat lab coat.
"Oh my," she said, not sounding all that bothered in the least. She didn't even sound surprised; just amused. "So that's why they're all sitting out there looking like cowed little children."
"They are definitely not allowed back in," Riku immediately said, grabbing the broom with a little more force than was necessary. The very top of it had been sheared off by a flying piece of pottery.
"And I had actually liked that pot," Lucrecia said with a chuckle, carefully crossing the room. She wore white pants and a blue top beneath her coat, brighter colors than Riku was used to seeing on her. Riku's own clothes were covered in dust and debris.
"They're like clowns," Riku said, sounding angrier than he actually was. "They're the greatest protection SHINRA can afford, but they can't handle simple tasks to save their lives!"
"I had hoped nothing would blow up this time around!"
"Have you seen the weapons they carry? Everything they touch blows up."
"They are trained in weapons and explosives."
"It was a vacuum, not napalm!"
They stared at each other, both of them trying to keep a straight face, before they both started chuckling. It built up into a laugh, and suddenly Riku was leaning against the broom, fighting to stay upright, tears of mirth falling down his cheeks.
"Do you know," his mother said, in-between bouts of laughter, "that I actually look forward to moving days for this reason?"
"It certainly is a change of pace," Riku said, still chuckling. Lucrecia set the large brown bags down on the kitchen counter, set in the middle of the kitchen, which was an alcove off to the side of the room.
"They do manage to make you smile," she said, looking over at her son fondly. Riku smirked, but didn't say anything; it always made him uncomfortable that his mother noticed his withdrawn personality. He looked up in time to see a blonde head looking in through the doorway, a pout spread across her pretty features.
"We really are sorry," Elena said, sounding miserable.
"He knows you are," Lucrecia called from the kitchen, pulling out the condiments for a banquet-sized sandwich. "He's just pretending to be angry."
"So you say!" Riku snorted, but his features had entirely softened. Both Reno's and Rude's heads poked through the door as well.
"Are we allowed to come back in?" Reno whined.
"Only if you PROMISE to work slowly!" Riku admonished, continuing sweeping. "Not like we have a choice, now that the vacuum is destroyed."
"I have another one in my car!" Elena said brightly as the three bodyguards stepped through the front door.
"You have vacuums in your car?" Riku said, stopping momentarily to look at her in confusion.
"Three of them," she said proudly. "Just in case."
"You guys don't clean much, do you?" Riku said, sighing heavily. The three of them just shrugged in response, before quickly jumping back into the fray, albeit a little more slowly, Riku noted. At least they were listening, he thought with an inward sigh.
Today couldn't end fast enough.
Riku and Lucrecia sat in front of the fireplace in their now empty living room. There wasn't a thing in sight, and you couldn't even tell that, just 6 hours prior, it had been known as the Battle of the Broken Vase Showdown.
"Today was eventful," Lucrecia commented, leaning back, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders.
"Understatement," Riku immediately said. He had a few books sitting next to him; there'd be nothing else to do until they arrived at their new house, 60 miles away in an island community known as the Destiny Islands, sometime late tomorrow.
"You know they mean well," Lucrecia chuckled.
"I'm absolutely terrified of what we're coming home to tomorrow," Riku moaned, letting his head roll back. "Remember last time?"
"Oh yes," Lucrecia laughed. "TV floating in the pool, flowers planted in the fireplace, and every single painting upside down."
"I don't even know how that TV ended up in the pool," Riku grumbled. "They still haven't told me."
"We'll get through it," his mother said softly. "Especially since this is the last time." Riku glanced at her; she seemed so adamant.
"How can you be so sure?" He said quietly.
"Because they've got him," Lucrecia said, and there was so much hope in her voice. "We have to be safe."
"So why are we moving again?" Riku asked. She hesitated.
"A precaution," she finally said. "Just in case."
"Even they don't believe he's caught for good," Riku said, looking into the fire. It crackled, as if in agreement.
"Well, someone has to have hope," Lucrecia said firmly. "And if SHINRA isn't going to do it, then we are."
Riku looked at his mother for a moment, watching her stare adamantly into the fire, before finally nodding. He wasn't sure that he could agree with her on this, but she didn't have to know that. As long as she was happy; she'd had so very little cause to be happy these past few years.
He stood and said good night to his mother, carrying his books with him as he climbed the stairs to the second floor hall where his room was located. He walked in, staring at the emptiness, remembering.
Even before the move, there wasn't much in here. Riku had refused to get anything that might cause sentimentality or even any kind of connection to any of the places that he'd lived in. As a product, all he really had were the books he so loved. They were the only things he would buy from any of the places he'd lived in, because they were never actually about those places. In his books, they were always about some other fantastical world, some other people, doing fantastic things, unlike him. Science fiction allowed him a moment to escape the constant change in his life.
Riku was tired of running. He was tired of always moving, always being the "new kid", never fitting in because he was always dressed differently. He'd long given up on trying to look "fashionable"; he'd even worn blue and yellow as a little boy, to try and make a "statement" that he didn't care how he looked. That hadn't lasted very long; he'd stood out a little too much, even for how he usually looked.
Still, he supposed it would be nice to finally be able to really call a place home, to really make friends, a place where the other kids weren't gossiping about who he was and why he was always moving. It wasn't difficult to figure out why, when you were constantly shadowed by body guards.
He settled into bed, pulling his shirt off and leaving his pants on, sans his belt. Looking up at the ceiling, he said a silent prayer to whatever gods were listening before finally falling asleep.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad this time.
