Dark Paradise

a/n- The title and chapter are both named after Lana Del Rey songs, obviously the songs belong to her. I do not own them, or Kingdom Hearts, as much as I may want to. I started writing this months and months ago and recently had an odd surge of inspiration. Honestly I can't really tell you what the stories going to be about, but I think this will be a dark angst/adventure/romance, Yaoi will be included, so don't read if you don't like? Reviews are much appreciated.

Lucky One's

Radiant Garden, a beautiful castle city floating in a sea of glassy still water, ruled over by the ornate castle Hollow Bastion, twirling spires and delicate towers watched their city from above. Radiant Garden was the kind of place you saw on postcards and wished you were at. The town itself was surrounded by a tall, round wall that ran a perfect circle around the castle town, winding streets and staircases lead you from the main streets in between the buildings to a small courtyards or parks. On the outsides of the wall, bridges lead to gardens with small pagoda's or summerhouses that sat free from the battlements at water level. The castle itself was not open to the public, large golden gates barred the way up a steep flight of stairs that lead to the summit of the hill, at the base of the castle. Although the castle was guarded and protected, it appeared to contain nothing, there was no apparent reigning monarchy, albeit somebody had to be running the show. Hollow Bastion- Empty Castle. One could only imagine what the inside was like if the exterior of it was anything to go by.

One of the most beautiful kingdoms in the world, with a very low crime rate, yet Riku often found himself lying awake at night with no damned good reason. He decided he would get up and dress himself by the time 5am rolled around. A black vest top clung to his lean yet muscular frame, showing a tiny bit of his midriff. Baggy jeans for comfort. It was always pleasantly warm in Radiant Garden, he would have no need for a jacket. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and finger-combed his hair, he really should cut it soon.

Through the main city gates out onto the open gardens, were usually too busy for Riku, but this morning they were eerily quite. If he continued to the right, over the bridges and through many of the other gardens, until he was at the north facing one, at the back of the city. He stood at the very edge of the garden, his back to the city. No walls blocked his way to the water, the ground simply sloped away. Coloured flowers danced in waves as the breeze passed them by. Long pale silver hair cascaded over his shoulders, gently billowing about his face. It wasn't that he didn't have friends, he did, and he loved them. But Riku also loved his own company, and enjoyed a balance of both. This was his favourite place to do so. Even with a breeze, the water remained still, like a mirror, reflecting all that was behind him. Radiant Garden was certainly an apt name.

Something about the stillness of the city set the silvery haired teen uneasy. The Gardens were no less beautiful than normal, the sky was its usual shade of blue tinted with lilac, everything was as it always had been. But, his usual haunting spot was not welcoming him as normal, as if unseen eyes were glaring at his intrusion.

School was a place Riku did not enjoy, it wasn't even that he couldn't do it, he just hated the majority of the teachers and lessons. If it weren't for the social side of school and Kairi's consistent early morning wakeup calls and bangs on his door, he probably wouldn't go. This morning was like every other, and at ten to eight Kairi was knocking his bedroom door.

"Get your lazy ass out of bed Riku!" However, Riku had been awake since four am and dressed since five-thirty, he'd not even got home until seven. He opened the door promptly, to her surprise. They continued their morning routine and made their way to Radiant Academy.

Science, with Professor Vexen. A man who constantly complained that he was better than some high school teacher. Piercing, and currently bulging with rage, emerald eyes stared down the class. He was angrily once again, explaining to the class that they should feel privileged to be taught by a man of his intellectual calibre. Ranting and raving about how he was more than just a professor, he was a doctor. A good half hour later, his hollowed cheeks seemed to pale from their angry shade of red as he apparently had it all out of his system. He sank into his desk seat, sweeping his long dirty blonde hair off his forehead, allowing the rest to frame the sides of his face. He began to teach the lesson (angrily) leaving the class to ponder more interesting matters. Riku always sat with Kairi, at the back left hand side of the class room, where Vexen was far less likely to notice them chat, or fall asleep. Riku was still tired from his early morning walk and wasn't in the mood for idle chit-chat, instead he watched the rest of the class generally not pay any attention to their professor, much to his amusement.

Riku and Kairi walked together for the next class. Kairi, if it weren't for this girl he probably wouldn't be the person he was today. Kairi and her grandmother had taken Riku in when he was young, Kairi was more than just an adoptive sister to him, she was his best friend, although he had two. After the sad passing of Kairi's grandmother a couple of years ago, the two had become dependant on each other and thus inseparable. As they walked she chatted animatedly about he disdain for Vexen. Riku smirked at her.

Kairi was about a head shorter than Riku, her deep mahogany red hair fell across her forehead and bounced in layers around her face, falling a three or four inches below her collar bones. Much too her annoyance, as it was 'Unfair how her hair had hardly grown' and Riku's was 'practically half way down his back'. It really was true, Riku hadn't cut his hair for years, pale silver cascaded down his back and framed his face, partially covering his eyes. Ocean blue eyes sparkled brightly against that deep red.

"He's just so up himself!" Her blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Why the hell is he a teacher if he's so much 'Better than this'?" She finger quotation the latter half of her sentence.

"I hate him too, ignore him Kai." Riku's ever consistent tone of nonchalance hung in his voice.

"And this lesson too! I hate Zexion." venom lingered in her voice as she spoke his name. In fairness to Kairi, the English Literature tutor Zexion was especially unpleasant to Kairi. Saving his most difficult to answer questions for her, he never acknowledged her unless he knew he could make a fool of her. "He doesn't even look old enough to teach! I swear he's no older than us!"

He just nodded in agreement, he was tired this morning, and as much as he loved her, Kairi's angry rants could last a whole day if they were fuelled by too much agreement.

Sora was waiting for them outside Zexions classroom, his spiky chocolate hair fell across his forehead, it wildly spiked out in random directions, only Kairi had the ability to coax it into anything conventional. Sora, Riku's other closest friend, lived on the other side of the school with his twin brother Roxas. Although Riku got on very well with Roxas, he classed Sora as a best friend, whilst Roxas was a very good one.

"Hey!" Kairi beamed at Sora, momentarily forgetting her disdain for their tutor.

"Hi guys..." Sora yawned through his word.

Riku just smiled, he found greetings awkward.

"Why, are you loitering out here? Get inside and stop holding up the lesson." A chillingly emotionless voice said quietly from the classroom doorway. Sora jumped and spun round, snapping out of his sleep state. Riku swore he could practically hear Kairi's jaw grinding.

They walked in and sad down next to Olette, another member of their friendship group, although she was closer to Roxas. She smiled brightly all the same at them. Olette was a pretty girl, with deep emerald eyes that challenged even Vexen's. Her hair was the same shade as Sora's, which she brought forwards into to large ringlets.

Zexion surveyed his class with casual dislike through his long steel blue bangs. He was a relatively short man, who looked no older than 18, his hair hung over half his face so that only one of his violet-blue eyes could be seen.

"Last week we looked at..."
And Riku switched off... Over time he had perfected hiding the fact nobody was home when the lights were on.

"A day like today calls for ice-cream!" Sora cheered as they walked out the school gates. admittedly, it had been a long day, and the weather was nice.

"I've never met anyone who thinks with their stomach as much as you." Kairi looked at him with mock disdain.

"Aw guys! Please come I promised I'd meet my brother and the others for ice cream!" Sora wailed.

"Ice cream would be pretty good, its crazy hot today." Riku was pulling his hair into a high ponytail to keep his neck from sweating.

They walked to the little town square and located the ice cream parlour. Roxas was already inside, he was almost a mirror image of Sora, brilliantly deep oceanic blue eyes, smiled up at them as they entered. Roxas was a little smaller than Sora, although slightly more muscular, his hair was a sandy shade of blonde and fell just before his ears and covered most of his forehead, it was carefully constructed into a spiky swirl at the front. He was sat with Ollette, the girl from their English Literature class. Hayner and Pence sat on the opposite side of the table, Hayner was a tall lean boy with dirty blonde hair and an unhealthy obsession for camouflage clothing. His best friend Pence contrasted sharply in appearance with a shorter stocky build and very dark brown hair.

"Hi guys!" Ollete beamed up at them. Riku had always liked the girl, more so than Roxas's other friends, Hayner was opinionated and brash, while pence was good natured but ultimately a bit of a pushover.

"Hi!" Sora and Kairi said in unison whilst Riku gave a tilt of the head as his greeting. The others were already eating ice cream so they placed their orders, Sora of course opted for chocolate and Kairi went for strawberry... Riku ordered plain vanilla.

"Oh my god Riku live a little!" Kairi teased at his bowl of ice-cream.

"Kai, you always order strawberry, let the boy eat his ice cream." Ollette laughed.

Kairi and Riku were walking home together, everyone had parted separate ways and headed for home after their ice cream. Yet again Riku found himself feeling on edge. Something just didn't feel right. The uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach tensed as he swore he saw a figure in an ally out the corner of his eye.

"Riku what;s wrong?" the redhead was looking at her friend with concern, Riku had been tense the whole way home and she'd just seen him flinch.

"Nothing Kai" Riku smiled at her, he was not going to worry her with his unusually nervous disposition. "I'm just really tired, lets just get home." Even in the likely event that his senses were just off today, he would feel much better when they were safe at home.

A/n- I know it seams a bit 'slice of life' at the moment but I've done this to show the contrast as the story progresses. Its actually taken quite a long time to put this together but I hope anyone that reads this enjoys it, and if you take the time to read the chapter, a review (good or bad) on your thoughts are greatly appreciated. I'm afraid I can't give you much of a time scale on when the next update will be because I'm non committal and moody, but reviews will spur me on to write more.