Serenity
A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for reading :)
Chapter 2: My Roommate is an Asshole
Reni gasped as Mikey led her and Ciel into the auditorium. Words couldn't describe how majestic and ancient the building's architecture was. The ceiling had to be at least a hundred feet high! Decorated on it were figures of angels and demons clashing, and where their colors met, a diamond chandelier hung, illuminating the room.
What she wasn't surprised by, however, was the vast number of students and parents bustling through the aisles of seats, trying to find their spots. If she had to take a modest estimate, she'd have to say that at least ten thousand students and parents were in the room.
Ciel whistled.
"That's a lot of people," Reni remarked.
"And every one of them is a lot smarter than you," Ciel snickered.
Reni narrowed her eyes, but ignored the urge to reply to that comment.
"Well this is it. Welcome to Uriel Hall," Mikey exclaimed brightly. "I have to go now, but I'm sure you guys will be fine without me. Just find empty seats and make yourselves comfortable. The king will deliver his commencement speech any moment now."
"But Mikey!" Reni protested. "I still have questions to ask!"
Mikey turned his head and flashed her a grin. "Reni, I can't spoon feed you anymore. My job as a counselor was to deliver students to Uriel Hall. This is KH, you're on your own now. Don't worry, I know you can do it."
"B-But..."
Without a moment's hesitation, the dark skinned boy opened the auditorium doors and exited, leaving the two twins completely lost among the busy crowd.
Slightly annoyed at Mikey's successful attempt at abandoning ship, Reni crinkled her nose. She was in the process of looking for seats when Ciel nudged her.
"What?"
"We're the only humans in the auditorium," her brother pointed out. "I thought you said there were going to be other humans at this academy."
She hated to admit it, but her brother was right. A sliver of dread ran up her spine as her examination of the room validated Ciel's observation. So the question now was, where were the other humans?
The flock of angels and horde of demons were endless. That much was obvious from the aura of aristocracy that pervaded the air. Angels and demon were the highest on the social hierarchy, followed by half-breeds, then humans.
As much as the demon king tolerated humans, Reni knew that the majority of demons and angels still despised her kind, no matter what position she or any of her kind held. Soon, she found herself the subject and primary focus of many malevolent glares and snide remarks.
It seemed rude manners were prevalent even among the 'aristocracy'.
A dozen demon students openly sneered at her as she tried to look for seats. Although the angels were better at masking their emotions, Reni could feel the bitterness they harbored towards her.
Sheesh, she thought. What exactly had her race done to elicit such ill intent from both the angel and demon races?
Ignoring the gazes boring into her skull, Reni dragged Ciel towards three empty seats that only by Lady Luck's good graces did they manage to acquire.
"Shit you'd think we were a walking circus having everyone stare at us," Ciel murmured. "Are you really sure this is the school you want to go to?"
Reni was having second thoughts, but the only way she would ever find her father—if he was alive—was to become someone, and to become someone, she had to be a KH student.
"Yes."
"Well, have fun being the only human here." Ciel glanced over his shoulder, only to receive another hostile glare. "By the looks of it, it seems you'll be having lots of fun."
"I know."
"That was sarcasm by the way."
"I know!"
Reni sat on a cushioned chair and folded her arms angrily. Ciel's witty remarks had left her in a foul mood. And just where in the world was their mother?
Sighing, she wished that the ground would open up and swallow everyone in the room, including Ciel, that way she'd be left alone. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, then opened them. Looking to her right, she noticed Ciel was still alive, and so was everyone else in the room. Bleh, what a fail.
As she yawned, the majestic red stage curtains parted, silencing the audience. The auditorium dimmed as a tall, imposing figure made his way to center stage. Upon recognizing who the figure was, the audience cried out.
Reni swore she heard Ciel comment that people in the audience were having multiple orgasms, but she wasn't sure. The overwhelming amount of applause given by the audience made it impossible to discern anything.
As the lights returned, Reni sucked in a breath. The man was ungodly beautiful, and the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. Never in her life had Reni met anyone so perfect that she felt ashamed to be in their presence.
Until now.
Reni assumed this man could only be the demon king and founder of KH, Noctis Lucis Caelum. She had only caught glimpses of him whenever her mother watched television segments on him, but she had never really paid any attention then. If she had, she'd be a sucker for him like her mother was.
The demon king, who was supposedly older than mankind, looked like he was her age. There was a hard look in his eyes, however, that distinguished him from the young students. He was a natural ruler there was no doubt about it.
The dark haired king waited patiently for the torrent of cries to end. Only then did he address his audience.
Reni nearly melted when he spoke. He spoke in simple, yet eloquent sentences that his words themselves were art. He had a dangerous, seductive voice that could influence even the hearts of the most stubborn headed. At that moment, Reni wanted nothing more but to do anything that would gain his attention or do anything that would garner a compliment from him.
His presence was alluring, and Reni wasn't the only one affected. Everyone was.
"Good evening," The king spoke. "Thank you for the warm reception. Although I doubt praise is the last thing I'll be receiving after I deliver this long, boring speech, It's encouraging to know that some people do actually admire me."
Reni smiled. The more and more the king progressed through his speech, the more and more her admiration for him grew. The king was an absolute silver-tongued charmer, who had an astounding way with words.
"As you know, Kingdom Hearts Academy places enormous emphasis on self-development. At the academy, students will grow as independent scholars and soldiers," The king paused. "Learning combat skills far beyond modern technique, and placed under the care of our faculty, students can expect to receive the best education possible. After all, of the one million students that applied for this term, KH accepted only one percent."
At the realization of that statistic, the parents in the room spontaneously showered their children with love.
"All of you sitting here in this auditorium are official members of an elite institution," the king affirmed. "You are the future generation that will lead us in the war against the Horde. Although it pains me to say so, the Horde has become a problem too severe to ignore any longer."
"However, since I have to end this speech on a good note—after all it is an encouragement speech—I want to congratulate you all once again. Let's make this year, one that will last."
The king stepped away from the mic and brought his hands together in applause. The whole room followed suit, rose to their feet, and clapped.
"Where's mom?" Ciel asked, clapping along. "She couldn't have been using the bathroom for an hour."
"Maybe she couldn't find us," Reni replied, stretching out her arms. "We should look around a bit."
"Oh by the way, what'd you think?"
"Of what?" Reni asked.
Ciel rolled his eyes and motioned at the king with his head.
"He's extremely hot."
"I don't like him at all," Ciel frowned.
"I figured you wouldn't," Reni flicked her hair over her shoulders.
"Why's that?"
"Your vanity can't stand the fact that a man much more desirable than you exists," Reni smiled. "The truth is, King Noctis is more of man that you could ever wish to be."
"Meh," Ciel snorted. It was obvious his little sister was high. "I don't like him because he's dangerous. Didn't you notice the way the whole audience swooned when he spoke? Imagine how easy it is for him to manipulate people. He's not a person I'd take too lightly."
"Woah little brother, you've got it ass backwards," Reni replied. "Noctis Lucis Caelum is on our side. He's the king of our country. If you want to pity somebody, pity the Horde. Those creatures are absolute idiots for making an enemy out of him."
"Well if he's so bad ass like everyone makes him out to be, why doesn't he go out to the Wilderness himself and kill all those things?" Ciel retorted. He wasn't going to give way in this debate anytime soon.
"You really have to brush up on your history, Ciel. The reason the king can't do that is because he's cursed. When the Horde first arrived from the south, he was the one that decimated their race and thwarted their expansion."
"However," Reni continued. "Before the original Four Kings, the leaders of the Horde, were slaughtered, they managed to bind him with a spell. In order to ensure the continuation of their race, the Four Kings placed a curse on him that made it so that wherever the Horde settles, he's forbidden to enter."
"So he can defend our country, but he can't lead the offensive?" Ciel folded his arms. "How lame is that?"
"Of course, naturally that means the new Four Kings have the advantage over us," Reni explained. "Our leader is restrained to boundaries, whereas theirs aren't. Either way, curse or no curse, I'd rather have King Noctis on our side than their kings."
"Good point," Ciel agreed. Examining the demon king once more, he rubbed his chin. There was something about the way the king presented himself that bothered him. Although on the outside, the king was poised and professional, it seemed like he was harboring something terrible deep within him.
Ciel shivered.
Normally, he didn't judge, but he didn't like Noctis Lucis Caelum.
The man was too powerful.
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"MOM!" Reni shouted as she spotted her mother sitting on the hood of Uncle Hope's car. Running towards her mother, Reni noticed that she looked depressed, defeated even, almost as if the world had come crashing down around her.
It was unusual to see her mother like this.
"M-mom, what's wrong?" She asked. Her worries grew when she found out her mother was crying! What kind of catastrophic event had occurred that managed to evoke tears from her strong-willed mother? That a terrible question because nothing could make her mother cry!
Nothing!
Clarissa pulled her daughter into her arms, not caring about the mess her tears were making. Good grief, she was pathetic. What kind of mother cried in front of her daughter?
"It's nothing," she replied, wiping her tears.
"But!"
"I'm fine sweetheart," she lied.
Reni sighed and let her arguments die. It would only be detrimental to her mother's health if she persisted with her questions. After all, everyone had secrets, and not everyone wanted to share them.
Clarissa held her daughter tightly. Reni's embrace was her only means of escaping the strange visions and haunting scenes in head, visions of two baby twins crying, and scenes of an unfamiliar woman dying at the hands of Death.
The visions had taken her by surprise, crippling her mentally, and leaving her speechless.
For images in her head, they seemed too real.
And for some reason, her mind couldn't process what it was seeing, but her body could, and it reacted each scene, almost as if it was a separate entity. Although she didn't know who the two twins in her visions were, tears streaked down her cheeks in anguish nonetheless.
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"Well this is it," Ciel smiled. "You finally get to live on your own. No more loving brother to guide your every step."
"And what a relief that is," Reni stuck her tongue out as she pulled her luggage out of the trunk. Everything from bed sheets, comforters to clothes had been stuffed into two over sized bags.
Ciel walked over to her and held out his hands, "Here let me take those for you."
"Sure," Reni replied, happy to relieve herself of the weights.
"Sike!" Ciel laughed and hopped into the passengers seat. "See you in a year baby sister."
"Oh my God! MOM! Why did you have to create that THING?" Reni screamed, pulling at her mother's dress in order to make her see the error of her ways. "He's absolutely of no benefit to the world or anyone on it whatsoever!"
Clarissa smiled, absolutely smitten by the sight of her adorable daughter's frustration, and the way she twirled her fingers through her raven colored locks when she was angry.
"I love you too."
"That's not fair," Reni frowned. "You can't make me not be angry at you."
Clarissa pinched her daughter's cheeks, "I wasn't aware I could do that."
"Well you can," Reni murmured before hugging her mother around the waist. "Mom, I promise I'll find dad. And when I do, I'm going to make him sorry he ever left you. Of course, in time we'll forgive him, well... Only after he takes us all out to dinner at a luxurious restaurant."
"I can't wait."
"I'm going to miss you mommy," Reni shouldered her bags.
Eyes full of mirth, Clarissa brushed her daughter's hair aside and kissed her on the cheek.
"Go get 'em sweetheart."
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A gentle wind swept through Reni's hair as she made her way to the courtyard, where all the new students were gathering. By this time, the sun had already set, but the academy remained brightly lit by what appeared to be floating lanterns.
Of course this mattered little to her. What did matter was how friggin' awesome the architecture of the student dormitories were.
There were four different types of buildings, each belonging to a different class. This, she figured, was apparent by the grey, blue, black, and red colored banners hanging on buildings.
The buildings were relatively close to each other, so it wasn't surprising that class conflict was common. What was surprising though was that even the Grey Class dormitory looked like it had been designed by Michelangelo AND Giorgio Vasari.
What she also noticed was that the design of the dormitories drastically improved based on class ranking. Whereas the Grey Class's dorms were collections of mansions—not that she was complaining—the other classes had buildings that were literally fancy skyscrapers.
Arriving at the courtyard, she was relieved that she wasn't the only student stupefied by their future homes. Despite being angel and demon royalty, the other new students were in awe of the dormitories.
There was a long line of casually dressed students waiting for something, so she acted on her natural impulse and joined in.
"Excuse me," she asked a female student. "What is this line for?"
"This is the line to get your uniform," the student replied curtly.
"Oh," that made sense. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
The line went by quickly, and soon, Reni found herself at the front of the line, where rows of desks, piled with grey uniforms, were set next to each other. The middle aged lady at the desk politely asked for her name.
"Serenity Angel," she answered.
"Small?"
She nodded and received her uniform. "Um excuse me, where do I go after this?"
"Hmm let me see," the lady checked her watch. "You still have an hour before the mandatory class gatherings start, so I would recommend that you check into your room and have all of your belongings unloaded."
"That sounds like a very good idea," Reni stated. "Thank yo–Oh wait! How do I know what room I'll be in?"
The lady looked up at her and smiled, "You'll find out."
Taken aback by the lady's blunt answer, Reni left the line puzzled. Looking at the mansions decorated with grey colored banners, she was mildly relieved that she at least knew where to start searching.
She didn't have to put too much effort into searching. On a stone tablet at the center of the Grey Class mansions were the names of the students in the Grey Class and their room numbers.
Reni memorized her room number and walked to the corresponding building.
Stopping at the door of an ancient mansion, she was prompted for verification via hand scanning. The scan lasted for a second, but it was the coolest thing ever, although the maximum security protocol involved with each dormitory was something she could have lived without.
The interior decoration of the dormitory was—how to describe?—simply astonishing.
As soon as she stepped into the building and the glass doors closed behind her, she immediately knew that she was immersed in a different world. The elaborate decorations and unique structure of the interior was something only the Gods could produce.
All of her life, she had been constrained to pitiful restraints of her uncle's apartment. She had only dreamed of living in a palace such as this. Out there, she was an outcast, a lowly human, but in here, she was a princess.
And she wanted more.
This small taste of royalty and wealth paved way to an insatiable desire for riches. To put it simply, she wanted to be filthy rich. So rich that neither she nor her family would ever be treated like trash.
The sound of the running water drew her out of her thoughts. Reni continued her self-tour of her new abode, and found, to her ever growing amazement, that there was a freakin' enormous fountain of water in the middle of what she believed to be was the common room.
What's more, the other Grey Class students were gathered around the fountain, making acquaintances with one another.
For students of the default class, her peers certainly didn't seem weak or frail. They were all formidable students that radiated unique auras of intellect and athleticism.
As she passed them on her way to the escalators—yes escalators—many of the students exchanged introductions and pleasantries with her.
Taking three escalators to the fourth floor and lugging her heavy bags across the hallway, she stopped at the room labeled (423) and slid her card key into the slot. The door slid open, revealing the room that she would be living in.
It was beyond her expectations in terms of design and space, all of that was lovely, but she had never factored that she'd be sharing the room with another student, a male no less.
And from an initial inspection of her roommate, she already knew that trouble was looming around the corner.
The brown-haired boy didn't even bother to acknowledge her as she made her way further into their room. He kept his gaze fixated on his laptop, looking at God knows what.
Setting her things down, on a vacant bed, she walked over to her roommate in order to introduce herself.
"Hi I'm Reni," she greeted.
Her roommate made no indication that he heard her and kept typing away.
Ooookaaay... Let's try this again... Sucking in a breath, she repeated, this time raising her voice slightly, "Hi my na—"
"You don't have to shout," her roommate replied in harsh monotone, never taking his eyes off of his laptop. "I'm right in front of you."
Extending her arm, she tried a different approach, "Well, my name is Reni. It's nice to meet you."
Her roommate continued to ignore her.
"You know, you could at least pretend you heard me. You don't have to be so rude," she finally stated. "I mean, I'm just trying to be friendly."
That must have hit a spot because the tone of her roommate's voice grew harsh.
"Look Rita, or whatever your name is, I didn't ask for your kindness. As a matter of fact, let's lay down some ground rules. I don't speak nor associate myself with filthy humans, okay?"
Reni gasped, offended by the brown haired boy's remark.
"I don't know you. I don't even wan't to get to know you, but more importantly, I don't want you to know about me, okay? You stay the hell out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."
The boy ended his sentence with a crude scoff.
Pride smarting from her roommate's insulting words, Reni drew her hand back and slapped the boy.
Well, she tried to.
Inches before making contact with boy's face, her hand was caught at the wrist.
Reni froze. My God he's fast. How in the hell he had stopped her while keeping his eyes glued to the computer screen was a mystery that not even Sherlock Holmes could solve. There was only one reasonable explanation for this... He must know kung-fu.
The boy stood, towering at least five inches above her. The anger in his cold, brown eyes was evident, but restrained at the same time. His gaze, however, was so scalding that she had to diverther eyes to the floor.
Oh God, she was positive that he was going to hit her.
But he didn't.
"Don't piss me off," he stated.
After minutes locked in a deathly staring contest, the boy finally released her wrist and turned back to the computer.
Reni walked back to her bed with her head hanging in defeat. Perhaps she had been expecting too much. She was human, so it was only natural that people would abhor her.
Noticing a piece of paper hanging above the bed frame, she pried it off of the wall and examined it.
Serenity Angel
Age 16
Grey Class
Human
Class Schedule
Class 96A — Music Composition/Intro. to Music
Instructor: Hikari
MWF
Seraphim Museum 1100
Class 1C — Combat Training/Martial Arts
Instructor: Lockhart
T
Ammon Field
Class 1 — Angel and Demon Society
Instructor: Glass
TR
Sariel Hall 300
Class 200E — Royal Etiquette
Instructor: Glass
W
Palace of Glass, Main Room
Military Training 1 — Weapons
Instructor: Leonhart
MTWTRF
Saints Battlefield
Military Training 2 — Platoons/Class Tactics
Instructor: Caelum
SSu
Saints Battlefield
From her simple perusal of her schedule, Reni knew she was in for a tough year, but the fact that she was actually here, at KH, holding a class schedule in her hands was encouraging. She could do this!
Her goal was set. She was going to find her father, and nothing was going to stop her.
Not even her roommate.
That asshole.
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A/N: Okay, so that concludes chapter two. I finally finished my fall quarter, which kicked my ass. Sorry for the super duper late update, but I waaarned you :O
Anyways, I really don't know how to say this, but I don't know what I'm going to do with this story, Serenity. Honestly, I have the whole plot thought out. All I have to do is transfer my thoughts to the screen, but it isn't that simple. I just don't know what to do. I feel like I'm burdening you guys with all these OC's, and that Noctis and Lightning are losing their limelight.
The way I thought of Serenity, I was going for gradual Lightis, but I don't think myself or you guys can wait that long.
I feel like Serenity would be a kickass story if I could actually complete it. I have so many awesome things in store, but I'm not patient. I don't even know what to do. A reader also suggested that I hand this fic off to another writer, and that's what I'm considering.
I want to write Lightis, I need Lightis, but the way Serenity is going, Lightis will happen in later chapters.
I hope you guys understand what I'm going through. If worse case scenario does happen and I discontinue this fic, I'll go back to writing actual Lightis fics, so that's reassuring. I have a couple of other Lightis fics in mind, but I wanted to at least finish Serenity or find a solution for my dilemma.
Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant :P
You guys are just awesome.