Hallo everybody, Lightheart77 here. now as you may have seen this is a story that I'm doing with one of my good friends oflightdark. he is a great friend and editor. and so we are working together to create an after story for Kingdom Hearts. hope you like, so leave a review, kay?

It was late-afternoon; right before twilight as the sun was lowering its self down, waiting for the moon to come after it. The clouds were spread across the sky, in soft, kind patterns making the sky seem like a sanctuary. Unfortunately, in the world below, things were not as sympathetic.

A young girl was running down the street, panting heavily; she had been running for a while now. She knew she was getting lost in the alleyways as she tried to lose her pursuers. Sweat dripped down from her forehead to her cheeks, while her ponytail was already drenched in the salty substance. The bag by her side went up and down with each turn taken in the maze of alleyways as she swerving to avoid other people and obstacles. Her legs burned with every step, her lungs and heart ached from working over time, she knew she could not run much longer. Even though she was a skilled fighter, she was not built for a retreat to last this long.

The girl skidded down another alleyway, but soon found herself at a dead end.

"Shit," she muttered underneath her breath. She turned around, but it was too late. Her pursuers had caught up with her.

There were three of them, all them towered over her. She began to panic. There was nowhere to go and she had to weapon to defend herself.

"Listen, guys," she began, hopefully she could talk her way out of this situation, "I've done nothing to you… what I did was to defend my friend."

"Please," the guy in the center, apparently the leader, scoffed, "You punched out three of my men to defend a flea-bitten mutt!"

"You had to right to hurt Lucky! That dog had done nothing to you!" she called.

"Ha, that's a laugh," the lackey on his right chuckled, "We own this side of town; we can do whatever we want. The only reason you come here is to see that stupid friend of yours."

"Leave Yuki out of this!" she yelled. She always hated when people discussed her friend in bad terms.

"Come on, boss," the guy to left pleaded, "Let's just teach her a lesson and head back. It's getting close to sundown."

"Your right," he responded, punching his right fist into his left hand. "You're going to pay for what you've done." He smiled as they began to close in on her, "Let's have some fun boys."

The girl began to back up as they came closer, putting her arms up ready to defend herself. But then, something strange happened. Suddenly the guy to the left fell to the ground, if there was a cause behind it, the girl had no idea as to what it was. A blank look crept onto her face and the guy to the right looked over in shock, "What the hel-" a dull thud sounded behind him and he crumpled and keeled over just as the other had.

Their leader turned around to see a silver haired teen as tall as him holding a bamboo kendo sword in the ready position. "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is of no concern to you," said the silver haired boy with a shocking blue stare. "If you leave now with your men, I'll spare you a defeat, Akira."

"How do you know my name?" Akira demanded.

"You're well known as one of those who disturbs the peace in this neighborhood," he explained.

The girl seized this opportunity to make a run for the exit of the alley. She stepped lively over one of the men who had fallen and had nearly made it; but the man known as Akira grabbed her by her ponytail only just before she could make it.

"Where do you think you're going?"

She let out an "Ah!" and went to her knees. She could feel the hair ripping out of her head as Akira entwined the brown fibers into his fist.

"Let her go," the silver haired boy snarled, a sudden change coming over him and his expression.

But as his expression changed, so did the color of his eyes. They turned from a soft blue to the harsh metallic color of steel.

The girl's eyes went wide from the sight. This isn't good, she thought, this can't be good at all. "Please, let go of me," she pleaded. "I don't want anyone to get hurt anymore."

Akira laughed manically, "That may just happen, with you being the last." With that he pulled out a pocket knife.

The girl gasped and tried to get away again, but when she struggled, Akira nicked her arm making a gash. The next odd thing that happened was a sudden crystal-like shield came between the next stabs of his knife. "What the hell is this!?" Then something came in-between his hand and the captive girl's hair. She dropped to the ground, and the silver-haired teen took it to his advantage. He knocked the knife out of Akira's hand, hit a major pressure point on his torso, sending him flying; he was knocked out before he hit the ground. The girl's savior stuck his sword into his sash and turned to face her.

Her brown hair fell out of her hair tie, and pain was poured into her now that her adrenaline was draining. Her legs felt numb and she felt sweat stinging her wound as the crimson liquid dripped down her arm. Even breathing seemed to hurt. With each inhale and exhale another shot of pain seared through her chest. She tried to get up, quickly dropped back down. Closing her eyes she tried to ignore the pain; it didn't work well.

"Just relax," a voice said next to her. She looked up and saw the silver haired boy kneeling beside her, "You're hurt pretty badly. Try not to move, okay?"

"Al-alright," she replied, with a weary sounding voice. "M-my bag had bandages in it. Could you-"

"No problem," he told her, slipping her bag off her shoulder, trying to make sure he didn't put her in any more pain than she already was. He took out the roll of bandages and began wrapping up her shoulder, "What's your name?"

She gave a small smile and said, "My name is Destinée, but my friends call me Des. What's yours?"

"Riku," he replied kindly and calmly. "Are you feeling any better, Des?"

"I think I'm actually getting feeling back in my legs. I think I'll be able to walk…" she mumbled weakly.

"It would be better if I carried you to the hospital; it's not that far from here. And you can get your wound checked by a doctor there," he explained finishing up the bandaging.

"No," she said trying once more to get up. "You already did too much for me." She was able to get to her feet, but swayed. Riku quickly held her up before she fell back to her knees.

"There's no way you're going anywhere fast, you'll probably collapse before you make it home. I'm taking you to the hospital," he lifted her into his arms, taking her off her feet.

"I-I…" she stuttered blushing, looking up into his kind blue eyes. But she averted his gaze and began looking down at her legs knowing that it would be hard for her to walk home alone. "I-if you're going to take me somewhere… can it not be to the hospital? I'm a-afraid of the hospital."

Riku nodded with a smile, and began walking, "That's fine. I have to go back to the dojo anyway. I need to return this sword., and one of the masters is a medic."

"So, you are a fighter as well," she said with a smile of her own.

"Yes. I've seen you fight. You were pretty good and held your ground, until they outnumbered you."

"You saw that?" she asked.

Riku nodded, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you earlier. I was watching from the balcony of our dojo. I came as fast as I could to help."

Des held her hand up to his mouth and replied, "Please… it was my battle to fight." Her arm fell back down to her chest. "I thank you for what you've done. And I feel awful for being such a burden."

"If I thought it was a burden, I wouldn't have bothered, now would I?" he countered, picking up his pace just a bit.

"I suppose so…" her eyes turned down to at her hands; she continued with weakly saying, "I like your eyes better this way…"

"Huh?"

"Your eyes… when you where fighting earlier, they... changed. They turned to a hard metallic color. It was... scary even… but then when you knelt down beside me, to see if I was okay, your eyes," she looked up to him, "your eyes were as they are now…" her eyes began to drift close and her breath began to relax, as her head leaned on his chest. "They're kind and soft…" her voice went soft and her eyes shut all the way, allowing herself to drift off into slumber.

Riku was shocked by her explanation. In all his time having returned to the island, not many had truly noticed how he changed. They only had a feeling deep in their minds, to stay away from him without realizing it. She was the first person to notice his magic, to truly notice it, besides his best friends, Sora and Kairi. He kept moving through the alleyways, with these thoughts coming into mind. "Hm," he thought aloud, "amazing what you can learn in one day…"

So good people, whatcha think. please leave a review. my friend and i would love to hear your opinion. so till the next chapter, later.