Noble Bonds

Summary: The storm that started it all.. Why was Riku really outside during one of the Destiny Island's worst thunder storms? What happened before then? This is look into Riku's personal life. This is a glimpse at his family. These are Noble bonds.

The warm, island wind, which was dry even on nights like this, whipped through shoulder-length strands of silver hair almost like it did only a week ago. Crickets chirped their midnight song as all the earth seemed to fall asleep. Seventeen year old Kadaj Noble heaved a sigh into the night air as he leaned on the white railing, deep in thought. He gazed up at the stars from the balcony of the bedroom he shared with his twenty-two year old brother, Loz Noble. Watching the shooting stars zoom by and simply admiring the other less mobile ones, which are beautiful nonetheless, would usually calm him, especially after a tropical storm blows the grey clouds and smoke away to reveal a deep blue tapestry lit only by a bright crescent moon and millions of tiny, flashing stars. Had last week been different, he would probably find himself at this moment doing exactly that, feeling calm and peaceful (which was always a rare occasion for this fiery, hotheaded Cetra boy). Had last week been different, things in this small but cozy island house would probably be the same as usual; routine but somehow never all that boring. If Kadaj had known then of what would happen the rest of that week, he wouldn't have said all the things he did. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so lonely and worried. Maybe then he wouldn't feel like he was at all to blame. Kadaj glanced at the digital clock on the night stand. "11:00 PM" flashed in bright red, square edged font. His twenty year old brother, Yazoo, was probably already fast asleep in the next room, even though Kadaj knew he had just gone to bed maybe five minutes ago (he was quite a deep sleeper). Loz would be home from his job at Tifa's 7th Heaven soon (he was a bartender). Kadaj knew he should be in bed; he had school in the morning, but he really wasn't sleepy at all.

'God, I shouldn't have said those things to him...' Kadaj thought to himself. He came away from the balcony, closing the door behind him as he re-entered his bedroom. Kadaj then made his way down the hall and to the second bedroom where he found the sleeping Yazoo in one bed on one side. The other bed on the other side was empty. Kadaj stared at it almost unable to take it. The bed was still quite a mess with grade nine high school textbooks still in a pile at the foot of it, papers with math equations scribbled onto them were scattered around, and a calculator on the top of the mess of papers. The top cover was mangled for the owner of the bed had a tendency to move around (and even talk on occasion) in his sleep. Kadaj finally felt he couldn't look at it anymore and glanced at his brother. He was surprised to find Yazoo's eyes red with what had previously been tears, but who could blame him after what happened? Who could blame him when he himself had to sleep beside a constant reminder of what had happened? The other bed and that entire side of the room was too much for Loz to even look at (he seemed to tear up every time he was even near the room) and Kadaj could only stand it for a few minutes. 'Yazoo...' the silver haired teen thought. It was then that he silently closed the door and returned to his own room where he flopped down onto the bed. Things just weren't the same. Kadaj missed how about now, he'd hear the fifteen year old Riku thump out of his bed as a result of his rather mild RBD (REM Behaviour Disorder, or simply acting out one's dreams for those who don't know). He missed the loud groan of unconscious pain he'd hear afterward that would wake him and Loz but do nothing whatsoever to Yazoo, who slept in the same room as the noisy teen and baby brother of their little family. These were the second youngest brother's thoughts as he drifted slowly to sleep.

Two weeks ago

T'was a bright, sunny day on the Island of Courage, one of the three Destiny Islands. It was one of those days most ideally spent frolicking on one of the many beaches or perhaps stuffing one's face with ice cream or something of the sort. Today, however, was also a Monday. Kadaj and Riku had to go to school (no matter how much they hated that fact). Yazoo and Loz had jobs they had to get to. No frolicking or brain freezes for the Nobles today. Kadaj awoke that morning to the sound of his digital alarm clock blasting the radio like it did every weekday morning.

"This is love (love, love), this is love, -1-" played the music from the clock.

Kadaj groaned as his fist collided with the offensive little bugger, shutting it off. He sluggishly lifted himself out of bed then looked over at Loz on the other side of the room. He stirred a little, but was still asleep. With a sigh, Kadaj began to make his way over to his brother when he caught a glimpse of himself in the full length mirror against the wall. His eyes were met by messy silver hair and two tired green orbs that stared back at him. After glancing back at Loz to see if he was looking (which he wasn't; his back was turned toward his brother), Kadaj brought his left arm up and began flexing his biceps for himself. He'd been working extra hard in PE this semester and he constantly monitored himself to check for results. He barely noticed Loz had turned toward him, his eyes fluttering open. When he became awake enough to realize what was going on, Loz propped himself up on one elbow and grinned a Cheshire cat grin when he saw the completely unaware Kadaj. The younger brother was just inspecting his newest and greatest accomplishment, his now visible six pack, when he heard a "Work it, baby!" from behind him. Loz laughed uncontrollably when Kadaj jumped with a swift turn. He then sat up in bed only to flop himself back down when he saw the look of embarrassment with a tinge of anger on the teen's face.

"You tell anyone and you're dead," Kadaj threatened his older brother. "I swear it!"

"Kaj, I'm like twice your size," Loz chuckled.

"Oh, just shut up, damn you!"

The teenager then stormed out of the bedroom leaving his older sibling still trying to breathe after laughing so hard. Still angry, he went to open the door of the next bedroom, when something stopped him. That "something" shouted "Ow!" when he hit it trying to get into the room.

"What the --" Kadaj peeked in and found Riku laying on the other side of the door, rubbing his back in pain. "The hell?! Riku, how the hell did you end up here?!"

"I dunno! I must've rolled out of bed again," he explained, picking himself up from the floor.

"All the way over here??" the older boy sighed. "Riku, we gotta get you checked for that or something..."

"You say it like it's a disease or something," Riku retorted.

"Well, maybe it is!" Kadaj said.

Riku grumbled something under his breathe as he slipped past his brother and headed for the washroom.

Kadaj then found Yazoo on the other side of the room, still fast asleep even with all this commotion. He approached his brother with a sigh.

"You're still asleep?! Get up, Yazoo! You'll be late for work!"

The silver haired young man's eyes opened slowly. He stretched his arms up above his head with a lazy yawn. "Morning already?"

"Yazoo!" Loz called from in the hallway. "C'mon, get up and make breakfast! I'm starving!"

"Alright, I'm up. I'm up..." Yazoo replied as he sat up in bed, brushing his long hair out of his face.

Kadaj followed Riku downstairs into the kitchen. He went immediately for the radio on the counter near the stove and turned it on.

"You're listening to 99.1 Big Blue. I'm Basch fon Rosenburg with Vossler York Azelas AKA The Voss, and the time is now 6:30 AM on this lovely Monday morning," Basch announced through the radio. "

Riku plopped himself into a chair at the table just as Yazoo entered the room.

"So what? Eggs for breakfast, guys?"

"Yeah, sure," Riku answered and sang along to the song on the radio. Kadaj merely nodded, sitting down in the chair opposite to Riku.

"I don't care about anything dou demo ii tte kao shinagara. Zutto, zutto inotteita.. -1-"

After breakfast, everyone but Loz was busy trying to get to where they needed to go on time (Loz worked the PM shift). He sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee, reading that morning's paper, and watching Yazoo run off to his car to get to his job at Heartilly Flower Shop (he usually worked at the counter, but sometimes watered their plants as well) shouting a "Bye, be back at 4:00!" as he went. Just then, Kadaj and Riku ran down the stairs from their rooms dressed in their regular school uniforms (which comprised of white dress shirts, light blue plaid ties and dress pants, darker blue blazers, and black shoes) and rushed over to the table where Loz was to pick up their lunch. They paused in confusion, looking at each paper bag.

"The one on the right's Kaj's and the other's yours, Riku," Loz instructed them.

"Thanks!" they each exclaimed, reaching for their bags then heading out the door. The time was then 7:40AM. School started at 8:00AM, and it was a 10 minute walk from there to the Noble household. Sure, the boys weren't late, but they had friends they had to meet in a few minutes and Ashe disliked when people were tardy. The two of them ran toward the usual meeting spot: the Bravehart residence (or more commonly known as Sora's house). Sure enough, their friends were all there: Sora Bravehart, Kairi Heartilly, Selphie Tilmitt, Ashe B'nargin Dalmasca, Tidus Jecht, Vaan Ratsbane -2- and Wakka d'Argon.

"Hey, guys," Riku called as he and his brother grew nearer to the group.

"Where's Penelo?" Kadaj asked.

"Aw, she caught a cold or something," Wakka explained. "Really messed her up too. She's got the red, puffy eyes and a runny nose... Such a pain, ya?"

"Yeah, that's too bad," said Riku.

"Well, let's be off then," Ashe reminded them. "Mr. Mustang will lecture me and Wakka good if we're late."

"He always does that anyway! He lectures us about anything he can think of, ya?"

"But that's because you never pay any attention when he's talking," she recalled.

Wakka merely grumbled at this causing the others to chuckle. Finally, they began moving. The conversation for the next 8 minutes was pretty much normal for that group: Riku and Tidus tried to give Sora advice on how to "put the moves" on Kairi, a girl he's had a crush on since the 4th grade. Vaan wanted to offer his own advice, but Riku shot him down reminding him that he can't even keep his own love life under control, what with his huge crushes on both Penelo and Ashe (plus he admitted last week that he found Selphie rather cute), so he was in no position to advise anyone. Wakka listened to this and laughed to himself as Vaan sank into the shadows of his own grief. The girls talked about the graduation dance next Thursday (for the grade twelve students and anyone else who decided to come, mind you). Soon, they were standing at the silver gates of Destiny High School just as the bell began to ring. The brothers and their friends split off into smaller groups. As for the Nobles themselves, Riku ran off with Vaan to their physics class and Kadaj caught up with his friends, Velis and Baralai, for their Al Bhed language course.

After school, Kadaj and Riku returned to an empty home. Loz had already left for work and Yazoo was still at the flower shop. Riku changed out of his uniform and into his regular yellow shirt and blue pants.

"I'm going to the beach with Sora and Kairi, okay?" he informed his brother.

Kadaj sighed. "You're not gonna try to build that stupid raft again, are you?"

"It is not stupid!" Riku's eyes now flared with anger.

Ever since he met Kairi, Riku has always longed to explore the world beyond his island home. Loz and Yazoo had always allowed him to pursue this, assuming that he'd eventually loose interest, but he never did. Kadaj, however, thought the idea was ridiculous. If there were other worlds out there, he thought it was a stupid idea to think that all one would need was a raft to get there, but Riku was persistent as were Sora and Kairi. Both younger brothers would often get into arguments over their conflicting beliefs because Kadaj was more than open with his opinions (no matter how unwanted they may or may not have been) and Riku was never one to let someone push him around (though this may or may not have been Kadaj's intent). Whether they knew it or not, the two of them were very similar and this is why they were always fighting.

Needless to say, Riku stormed out of the house leaving his older brother just as angry. It was then that Yazoo returned home, a smile on his face.

"Riku! Kaj! I'm home," he announced.

"Hey," Riku muttered as he passed him, clearly still ticked off. He slammed the door behind him as he left.

Yazoo looked confused. ".. Did something happen?"

Kadaj plopped himself on the couch and flipped on the TV. "Nevermind. Just forget it."

-1- Props to anyone who knew those were "This is Love" and "Keep Tryin'" by Hikaru Utada. XD

-2- Ratsbane is Vaan's last name.. right? o.o

Author's Notes: Hey there, readers! D Just thought I'd fill you in on a couple of things before people start asking questions and such.. Not that questions are bad, just there are some things I wanna clarify. lol

Why are Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo so OOC in this story? I think the word OOC is sometimes used a little loosely, although it is understood I suppose. lol See, just like how people change depending on their environment, their beliefs, et cetera.. the brothers also changed. In Advent Children, the three of them were the way they were mostly because they were playing the role of the villain in that story. Why? Because they believed they were doing what was right. In this story, they abandoned their roles as villains. Now, they're Riku's only family and don't have the same beliefs as their AC selves. Although they are still the same people, their personalities have changed a bit because they're now put into a different atmosphere. I think that in this way, the characters are given more depth because instead of acting 2 dimensional and only having one personality, they now have sort of a variation of their personalities just like how I think most people do... So, in short, this makes people tend to look at them more as people than just as characters. lol

So, what are their new personalities? Well, Kadaj is fiery, independent, speaks his mind, and makes a great leader (as you would probably expect). He does have a big heart, but he's not all that comfortable showing it most of the time. Yazoo is still calm and passive, but this time in a less heartless way, so he doesn't mind the fact that he does most of the house work. As for Loz, he takes on the more stereotypically "manly" role in being the primary financial provider, but he is, of course, still quite sensitive.

Riku rolls in his sleep, Yazoo's a deep sleeper... lol! Haha, yeah. I wanted them to be more realistic so I gave them characteristics that I was sure Kingdom Hearts would never actually touch upon. lol

What happened to their parents? Their father (who they hardly knew, really) ran off when they were all young (Riku was 1, Kadaj was 3, Yazoo was 6, and Loz was 8) and their mother died when Loz was almost 21 (luckily, he was old enough to gain custody of his brothers). More on that in the next chapter, though. lol

Sora and Kairi (and some of thier friends) are 14 and should be in 8th grade... or 9th grade? They're in 8th grade. See, I could have made Sora, Kairi and Riku in 9th grade then just made it so that Riku was older than them but just by a couple of months, but somehow it didn't sit right... He just looks like he'd be atleast a year older than them, so we'll say Destiny High is just different than other high schools because they start at 8th grade instead of 9th. lol

Riku Noble? Sora Bravehart? Kairi HEARTILLY? I decided to make the last names based off of character traits that are seen as admirable. Riku's noble, Sora's brave, and Kairi's loving.. And possibly related to Rinoa. lol