Daddy Dearest Chapter One

Subject: Kingdom Hearts Series

Characters: Sora, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie

Inspiration: N/A

Originally Written: September 5th 2008 501PM to September 9th 2008 1130PM

Warning: Only thing you need to worry about here is mild language and violence.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy is Square Enix's idea last I checked. Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Disney. I've got no rights over those two game series, and I certainly don't own anything more than a copy of the games. No money made here. I'm just a fan writing fiction based on their ideas.

Riku sighed bored, his right hand up hanging his briefcase over his shoulder. He was early for school...again. Two hours early. Not that he wanted to be up for school that early every day. That's just how it was. Get up and out the house before his mother woke or he'd be in school nursing an imprint of his briefcase on his face all day. He was running a bit late today, but he had managed to get out the house before his half-sleep mother realized he was still there.

Unfortunately, she had noticed him leaving the house. Riku dodged and caught the water bottle thrown at his head, silently thanking the training fighting all those heartless and nobodies provided him with. "Sweet! It's cold too!" Riku smirked throwing the bottle up into the air and catching it. It was supposed to be unusually hot today, and he hadn't been able to weasel a bit of money out of his mom while she was in a good mood this week. "Thanks mom!" Riku called back.

"Get off my damn property boy!" The woman yelled louder than what was absolutely necessary for five-thirty in the morning. Riku shrugged and went along his way.

Two years since he contributed to the destruction of Destiny Islands, and the place was just about as boring as it was before it had been taken by the heartless. He silently wished something would pick up again. He had half a mind to start up something himself. Just...something to bring some action into the world. Day in and day out it was dodge his mother, go to school, hang out with Sora and the others, stop by the library to do his homework because Lord knows he was a dead man if he stepped inside his house while his mom was home, and then sneak into the house while his mother was sleeping so he could rest himself. It was quite boring really.

Riku didn't have much of an answer as to why his mother disliked him. She didn't hurt him physically, not anymore at least, she had stopped after he came back from missing for those years, but she made it crystal clear that she wasn't fond of the boy.

"Riku? Where'd you learn to glare like that?"

"It's natural talent." 'Pfft, natural talent my ass. My mom glares at me like that. Though, it could be natural talent then, I suppose.' He remembered answering Sora's question and mentally commenting on his own answer when he was younger. The second he turned eighteen, he swore he was moving out.

On the subject of family, Riku had no idea where or who his father was, and he was determined to keep that a secret for as long as he could milk the excuses. His long running current shtick was his father was a relatively strict writer who had separated from his mother and moved out before he was born. Thanks to his mother's strong no nonsense attitude, anyone who questioned the truth of Riku's situation was deterred from attempting to figure out it's validity pretty quickly. Sora had tried to one day. His mother got put in jail for a few months. Riku knew right away he wished that Riku had told him his mom legally owned a shotgun. It did earn Sora and Riku some publicity for a while, since it wasn't every day someone could claim they shared classes with a person who's friend's mother shot said person in the leg.

Riku frowned at the memory. For him, it brought people who were more concerned about the situation at his home than ever. Apparently it also stirred hushed secrets and rumors and stares as well. Riku didn't think himself to be a stupid or dependent person at all. There were many times he could tell his mother was ready to go on a rampage and that he should leave the house lest he wind up being the one shot in the leg.

Days like that had been occurring more frequently however. Riku personally made it his business to avoid his mother as much as he could. Despite being well trained, he certainly didn't think he could bring himself to bust out a Dark Firaga or Way to the Dawn and use it against his own mother. Quite frankly, he didn't want to. His reputation was bad ass enough; he wanted people to leave him to his thoughts, not run from him in fear of the unknown.

Riku took a detour to the currently quiet park next to the always quiet Library. The park and library had become his mental saviors over the years. Since the first time he had met Sora wailing because he had hurt himself while playing on one of the smaller swing sets, to the first time Sora told him about the secret hideout, to the first time he had come home in fourth grade and his mother had been home, all the way to the time Sora properly introduced him to Kairi. The times he had become official friends to Tidus, Wakka and Selphie; the many times he had helped the smaller generations with their own cuts and bruises in between his sitting on the library steps reading a book. All the way up to the first time he thought about there being other worlds and his wanting to leave the Islands to find them if they did exist, and the most recent event, the first time he found a bento box with his name on it, sitting on one of the park benches.

Much like his situation today, with only a few variations, he had gotten up later than usual and just barely made it out his house alive. He forgot his briefcase for school, the money he managed to get out his mom for the week for lunch, and even the small snack he had fixed himself for breakfast the night before in his mad dash to avoid the lamp and other items she was throwing at him. He was still a few hours early for school.

Considering he had nothing for the school day, he really had considered not going and to just take the hit to his rarely absent from school record. He had sat pondering the options while sitting on a park bench. When he decided that he wasn't going to waste his time sitting in school starving with none of the required material, he had noticed the small lunch sitting next to him. Underneath the lunch was his briefcase, along with a bit of munny.

He remembered looking around cautiously wondering who had brought his items to him. He carefully went through his items checking to see if anything was off. And that was when he heard the male's velvet chocolate voice, "I may be cruel, but I am not evil."

He looked around frantically, surprised that he didn't find anyone. "Maybe that was all just in my head." He remembered telling himself. So he picked up his stuff and walked slowly to school, having changed his mind. He found himself looking up at the sky as he walked, "Cloud's look beautiful today."

Riku smiled at the memory. That was the first time he heard the man. He was about nine at the time and had been used to the whole, avoid mom as much as he could, deal. The times he screwed up, he was there. If he had forgotten his munny or lunch or anything of the sort, he was there. He remembered the man talking him through the homework as he sat frustrated with it; one time when he had finished his History homework, he asked himself, "What does the past have to do with today?" The man replied with his deep sultry voice, "The events of the past influence those of today and the future. Without the past, there would be no present or future."

The man had made Riku begin to wonder about fate and his importance in the world and universe. It was that man, who made Riku wonder if there were other worlds out there, and it was the same man who influenced Riku's want to find these worlds, if they did exist.

He had forgotten about the man during his adventures in the darkness; the man had not forgotten him. The second Riku had screwed up on his resumed daily routine, the man was there. Sometimes, he even appeared when he was with Sora and Kairi, and not when he was alone like he usually did originally. And it seemed that man appeared once more, on this ridiculously warm day at six AM.

Riku looked over to the munny pouch sitting on the bench a bit away from him. Behind the bench stood a man with silver hair reaching his shoulders and teal green eyes with black catlike pupils. He was wearing the most complicated outfit of black leather Riku had ever seen. How he wasn't burning up wearing it was beyond him. "Niisan couldn't make it." The boy said with a smile. The boy had a hand resting on the bench.

"Who the hell-?"

"He says he'll be back tomorrow hopefully." The male turned around casually, "He wanted me to tell you-" the boy coughed, "-you really should stop forgetting your munny, unless you're planning on going on a diet of some kind and haven't told me yet." Riku stared at the boy wide-eyed. He had mimicked the man's voice perfectly. "See ya!" The boy grinned and disappeared in a burst of green energy.

Riku slowly walked towards the bench and picked up the munny pouch. "Thanks." He sighed and decided he'd rather get to school way early instead of risking meeting up with more people who looked exactly like him.

~~~~~~~Scene Break~~~~~~

"Look, I'm telling you. Out there, there's a world, with a city on it."

"Tidus, wanna rethink that sentence?" Riku smirked taking a sip from his water. Lucky him got lunch today.

"Oh shut it, I'm just trying to figure out how to word what I dreamed." Tidus folded his arms, with a finger touched to his chin. Kairi and Selphie leaned in eagerly towards Tidus, hoping to hear more of his dream. Wakka was banging his head against the lunch table.

"How many more times am I gonna have to hear your variations of the same story?"

"I think it's awesome." Sora commented with a smile.

"It's only awesome to you 'cause you find this world boring." Wakka slammed his head against the table once more. "I heard this story four times already. The first one ended with some black haired guy being turned into a vampire and the fourth one ended with some chick wearing a pink dress getting stabbed by some silver haired green eyed guy, ya?"

Riku opened his eyes at the mention of a green eyed male, "Cat like pupils?"

"Yeah!" Tidus jumped up pointing to Riku, "Poor chick was stabbed in the back in some fucked up execution style makeover. Was praying too! See! You had the same dream too didn'tcha!?"

"You're causing a scene." Selphie pulled Tidus down. He had been standing on his chair. Students around the table snickered and commented jokingly. Tidus sat with a blush.

"Did you really have a dream too Riku?" Kairi questioned looking at him.

Riku shook his head, "Nothing besides the norm for me." Riku took a bite of his fish sandwich. He remembered how much he loved these things when he was younger. He didn't have them often these days though. Lady luck just happened to make it so it he never had any munny when the school served it. "Tell us about this city on this world." Riku egged Tidus on.

Tidus grinned, Kairi and Selphie leaned in once more, Sora smiled reminded of the various worlds he had gone to on his adventures and Wakka groaned. Wakka had all his classes with Tidus. From the looks of it, Riku guessed Tidus had been trying to get Wakka to listen to the whole story all day.

"So, here's how it goes. I'll give you the in tact town version."

"In tact town version?" Sora questioned

"He's got an assload of versions of what this place looks like in his head. The place really has had a lot of crap happen to it. Something about an upper level plate falling on a lower section of the place and then a meteor beating the crap out of it." Wakka mumbled.

"What he said." Tidus smiled sheepishly pointing a thumb towards his friend. "So, this place, it's got two levels, an upper level, built over the "ground level" if you could call it that. Separating the two levels are 8 plates...I think, connected to each other through a series of "railways" and "reactors". These sections on the lower level, surround some very tall building that's got at least 50 floors right in the center of the whole place."

"Sectors....?" Selphie commented, as though she wasn't sure of herself.

Riku looked around, shrugged his shoulders and decided to throw something out there, "Sector 7..." He wasn't sure exactly what "Sector 7" by itself referred to, but with Tidus' explanations of his dreams came flashes of images and these terms.

"Had a plate dropped on it-"

"It killed practically everyone in that slum hole-"

"Stupid Shin-Ra Corp." Wakka lifted his head from the table, Riku and Tidus looked at Selphie, Kairi and Sora who had replied to Riku's burst of random comments.

"Did we...all have the same dream?" Tidus questioned.

"I know exactly why I didn't need you trying to tell me the dang thing, ya." Wakka replied. "The second you finished telling me the first time I knew exactly what you were talking about, ya? Don't ask me how."

"I don't remember dreaming something like that." Selphie added her two cents.

"I'd remember if I had a dream that weird." Sora replied. "And I'm known for my weird dreams."

"Personally I'm too confused about what the hell I did dream." Riku commented, "You've been going on and on about these places and this world for weeks now."

"I didn't know what you were talking about until you started talking about it." Kairi replied. Always the observant one. "I was pretty confident that I didn't dream about a city as weird as that before you mentioned it. I've not dreamed for some time actually." Kairi sighed and tapped her head with a finger, "Now I'm not so sure. Did I dream that or was it just you?"

Riku finished up the last of his sandwich while the others debated on dreams. Occasionally Tidus would start talking more about how that town looked. Whenever he mentioned it, Riku could see flashes of images...'Or were they memories?'...in his head.

Luckily before the group got too confused, the bell for the next class rang.

~~~~~~Scene Break~~~~~~

"Friday afternoon, the start of the weekend. No homework whatsoever. Beautiful weather." Tidus looked around with a smile, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Um...mini beach party?" Selphie questioned. The group of six walked off the school campus. Riku once again had his briefcase slung over his shoulder, which was how he conventionally held it. He was falling a bit behind the group, a bit preoccupied with looking around for who knows what.

"Exactly!" Tidus and Wakka slung their arms around each other punching their fists into the air.

"While we're partying, I can tell you guys about that dream I had when I fell asleep during Science." Tidus grinned

"How you managed to fall asleep in that class is beyond me." Kairi commented.

Riku continued to fall further behind still looking up and around. 'Wakka...don't you dare-'

"We'll meet up at Riku's house in two hours ya? It'll give the slow dressing chicks some time to get ready."

'-say that.' Riku thought watching Kairi and Selphie whack Wakka with their book bags. 'He always says that.' Riku hung his head down and sighed. 'And mom's off from work today...'

"Slowpoke!" Sora called out tackling Riku with a smile. The two fell to the ground in a heap. The others were now too far away to notice. "You're looking around as if you were expecting an alien gummy ship to come beam you up or something."

Riku laughed, "Not exactly." Riku stood and looked around one more time. 'Nothing...' He thought, 'Not even his brother.' Riku's smile disappeared altogether and turned into somewhat of a frown. He took off in a brisk walk.

"Riku! Wait up!" Sora called after him.

"What are you doing home?" Riku died just a bit inside. His mother just happened to be standing next to the door. He really considered turning around and hanging out in his school uniform.

"I had no homework. I'll be gone before you realize I'm still here a half hour later!" Riku yelled running upstairs to his room. His mother glared up the stairs and called out after him.

"Stupid bastard son!"

Riku sighed pressing himself against the closed door. Every insult his mother threw at him contained the word bastard. "Thank Kingdom Hearts I don't live next to the others." Riku hurried to get changed. He never noticed the simple letter sitting on his desk.

"Why do you keep saying we're gonna meet up at Riku's house? Every time we go over there he's running out the door while his mom's throwing things at him." Kairi questioned.

"It's called manly caring." Tidus nodded with his arms folded. Sora busted out laughing. "See, if Riku happens to fuck up and get knocked out by whatever his mom's throwing at him, we'll be there to see it happen, ya?" Kairi and Selphie glared at the two boys. Selphie was cracking her knuckles. Annoyed Selphie was scary. "I wasn't done." Wakka put his hands up in defense. "If we're there to see it happen, we can help him after he gets knocked out, ya?"

"Not to mention it's always funny how he manages to catch whatever she throws and throw it back through the crack of the closing door." Tidus snickered.

"Riku!" Kairi called out. They were two houses down from Riku's place, but she could easily see Riku twist around, catch the butcher knife thrown at him mid twist, and throw it back so it easily passed through the space of the closing door right before it closed completely. Riku was now facing the front door.

"You like that knife! Quit throwing it at me!"

"The only thing I like about that knife is the speed it gets when throwing it at you! Bastard son!" He heard his mom yell through the door.

"At least I didn't get you! I could have if I wanted to!"

"You find that amusing, huh?" Selphie smacked the three boys upside the head. Sora and Tidus weren't laughing anymore. Wakka was looking starry-eyed at Riku.

"He's so playing blitzball with us when we're done developing it, ya?."

"WAKKA!" Selphie yelled kicking him in the shin. Kairi had run over to check on him. Sora followed shortly after.

"Look, he Sora, and Kairi went to different worlds for goodness sakes and came back alive. We've no need to worry about them, ya?" Wakka looked at Selphie while holding his shin.

"But still-!"

"Selphie, darling, look. We've been watching Riku do that catch and throw back deal for years now. In all those years, he's only been hit once and that was only 'cause he forgot Kairi instinctively yells at him to watch out and that distracted him. He's like a super human or something." Tidus placed a hand on Selphie's shoulder. "He'll be fine."

"Sorry you had to see that." Riku waved with the hand he had caught and thrown the knife with.

"AHHH!!!!!' The other's screamed.

"How the hell did we miss that!?" Sora yelled staring at the blood running down his hand.

Riku stared at his hand, "Well, shit....Maybe I shouldn't have caught the thing by the blade." Riku smiled sheepishly.

"You're just as bad as Sora!" Kairi yelled

Tidus nudged Wakka's side with his elbow, "Where the heck did that come from?" he whispered to him. The duo looked down at the clear container full of some kind of green liquid. Sitting underneath it was a letter, with Riku's name on it.

"Hey, Riku?" Riku looked over to the two, "You've got mail?" Wakka and Tidus pointed to the bottle.

"A potion?" Sora and Kairi looked at the items confused.

Riku smiled, picked up the potion and poured a bit on his wound before downing the rest. A few seconds later he was reading the letter, the wound on his hand gone. The others leaned over his shoulder reading the letter along with him. It was short, semi-sweet and to the point.

"Who are you trying to be? Cloud? Showoff. You've a long way to go."

Riku laughed at the letter. Everyone else was confused.

Selphie squealed, "You've a secret admirer you're not telling us about don't you!?"

Riku took a step back and stared at her as though she were insane, "More like a guardian of sorts." Riku smiled and walked off, stuffing the letter in his pants pocket. "Now, who wants me to kick their butts in a sparring match?"

"You mean, who wants me to kick their butt!" Sora yelled chasing after him.

"Hey! Don't forget about my dream!"

"I'd love nothing more than to do that, ya!"

"He's good at changing the subject."

"And Sora's good for falling for it every time." Selphie and Kairi sighed hanging their heads. When they looked up there was a male with long silver hair and teal eyes with catlike pupils standing as though he was bored in front of them. The two girls took a step back.

"Who are you?" Kairi called out her Keyblade. 'I'm getting better at this.' She thought. Sora had given the blade back to her when they got back home. Selphie was mentally trying to figure out how to use her jump rope as a weapon.

The male scratched his head with his head tilted to the side, "I don't feel like fighting right now. You can put that thing away." Kairi relaxed from her badly performed battle stance. She still gripped her blade tightly. "Do us a favor won't you?" The boy glanced back at Riku.

Selphie focused on the features of the man; this definitely wasn't the one who struck down the woman in Tidus' dream. He did look like him though. "What do you want us to do?"

"It's in your best interest to make sure he doesn't die."

"Wha-?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" Selphie and Kairi yelled.

"Nii-san's not been as direct," The boy drawled on, aware of Riku and his friends running back towards him and the girls, "and now we're losing the chance." The male looked down at the two with sad eyes. "Mother's being such an asshole..." The male disappeared in a burst of green just as the others got back to them.

"You guys alright?" Sora ran up to Kairi.

"We're...fine." Kairi and Selphie looked at Riku. He was partially blocked by Tidus and Wakka.

"That guy looked just like you Riku." Selphie commented.

"What did he want?" Riku stepped closer to the two girls. The serious and concerned look on his face was slightly disturbing to Kairi. 'That wasn't him...He's too short...' Riku thought.

Kairi looked around and shook her head, "Not here." Riku couldn't help but think there was something adventurous about to occur and this time, he was more in the middle of it than Sora.

Notes:
Not bad for four pages of type in my opinion. The Second chapter will be up next weekend or earlier, depending on how fast I am with writing up more chapters.

If you didn't notice, here's a Hint: "Cloud's look beautiful today." - that's a grammatical error on purpose.
I also make another major, but not so obvious hint in the last bit of the chapter. It appears more than once though.

Riku's mom is an asshole. Hands down. She's like that for a reason though. She's particularly odd as you'll see in later chapters.

If you don't know the game FINAL FANTASY: Mystic Quest, you should head on over to the final fantasy wikia. Just google it. I'm feeling lazy today. Characters from there will be appearing. It's the black sheep of the Final Fantasy series and many wouldn't even consider it part of the whole series, but I like Mystic Quest more than most Final Fantasy games. Some characters, like people in real life, just don't get the respect they deserve.

Edit: If you wanna see FFVI let me know. I've never heard of FFVI until KHII. O.o I'm gonna need some background information and if you want any GOOD white or silvered haired folk to appear. No characters that were killed/defeated during the plot of the original game please.

The story's is not too bad right now, but it does get worse...very quickly. The Mature rating is there for a reason. Don't take it too lightly. I thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed the chapter. ^-^