Author's Notes: Alright, I've written 3 fanfics in my life, but this was the absolute first one I ever wrote, years ago. Even since completing my last one, I felt like going back on Dearly Beloved and changing a few parts that I felt were long, uselessly complex and, all in all, just not really good.

With the release of KH3, I finally found the inspiration for doing so, so here's finally the first chapter of Dearly Beloved. For those who read and (eventually) appreciated the first version, the core story is the same, I just felt the need to tell it in a different way.

As usual, I'd like to remember that I'm not a native english speaker, so it's possible that a few mistakes may have slipped in the text. Special thanks to Gracefuldahlia, the beta-reader of the first draft.

And before you ask, yes! Every and each title of this story is the name of a specific Keyblade ;).

Warnings: Boy/boy pairings, use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, regular updates (I know people are not used to this), a sometimes-excessive level of cuteness and a useless Warnings section at the beginning of each chapter.

Chapter Notes: Let who wants to be happy be, for there is no certainty in tomorrow.

DEARLY BELOVED

Chapter 1: Unbound

Saturday evening of a late summer day. A group of six young people were running across the great meadow of their high school campus.

"Hurry up, Sora, we're already late!" a short brunette shouted at one of their friends.

"Don't say it like it's my fault, Selphie! I'm not the one that had to spent two hours washing hair..."

A blond boy turned his head towards her, grinning. "Washing hair before going to a beach party? Always said that girls are strange creatures..."

The only other girl in the group coughed noisily. "You're one to talk, Roxas! How much time do you spend every morning to get your hair to look like that?"

"Hey, it's not the same!" the boy quickly retorted, instinctively adjusting his flamboyant hairstyle with his hand. "Not sure why precisely but... it's just not the same..."

The tall silver-haired boy that was leading the group chuckled, earning a glare from Roxas. He then turned his attention to the brunet at the end of the line. "You know, Sora, maybe next time we should leave them home and come on our own, at least we won't be late, don't you think?"

The scrawny boy next to him, who had said nothing until that moment, poked him. "Oh, don't worry about that, Riku. We'll give you and Sora some space, you lovebirds."

"Shut up, Tidus!" Sora shouted from the end of the line.

There was nothing official, but anybody in the campus knew that the first Saturday after the beginning of the school, every student would have reached the beach and joined in the 'Back To School Party', the biggest party of the year. Sora and his friends had waited for it the whole summer and considering that they were all becoming sophomores or -in the case of Riku- junior, the midnight-curfew for freshmen didn't affect them anymore.

When they finally reached the beach, Sora was feeling euphoric: Riku, Kairi, Tidus and Selphie, all of his best friends were there and ready to party. Granted, Kairi didn't drink, Riku didn't dance and Selphie and Tidus would have probably ended up spending most of the time making out, but still... they were all there together, and that was all that mattered.

His twin brother Roxas had come too; Sora couldn't help but notice that, as of lately, he was spending more and more time with them. He suspected that his friends had ditched him at the beginning of the summer, but Roxas had always refused to talk about it. That's why he wasn't surprised that, when he saw Hayner and Pence at the beach, Roxas simply turned his head to the other side, pretending not to have seen them.

The sunset was projecting a golden gleam on the water. The seniors had installed a stereo system on the sporadic palms of the beach and some 60s rock songs were diffusing amongst the crowd of adolescents. Most of the students were in the water, hot enough to swim even if the summer was pretty much over. On the main spot, two students were fumbling with a barbecue.

"It should be okay, now. I'll light the fire." a lanky redhead said, just before a girl took the lighter from his hands.

"Forget it, pyro! Do you remember what happened last time we let you touch the barbecue?"

It looked like the tall boy was on the verge of crying, like they had taken from him his favorite toy. "Come on, Larx! Yours eyebrows have nearly completely regrown since then."

"Take another step towards the lighter and I'll make you eat it!" she answered coldly.

A blue-haired boy, who was reading a book beside them, slowly raised his eyes. "Violence is rarely the answer, Larxene." he said with almost unnatural tranquility, before plunging back into his reading.

A second later, another blue-haired boy (Sora started to wonder if blue was the new fashion) reached them. "Here's the meat for the barbecue. Why don't you give us a hand, instead of saying nonsense stuff, Zexion?"

Sora knew all of them. In fact, all of the school knew those four seniors: Axel, Larxene, Saïx and Zexion. Theirs were probably the most pronounced names in the whole campus. Only during the first school week, Axel had been called to meet principal Xemnas for arson and Larxene for violence on boys. Twice.

And those two weren't the worst: Saïx, if possible, was even more devious; last year he had flooded the cafeteria (unknown reasons and/or means). Zexion was probably the quietest of the four, or maybe just the slyest: it was quite rare to hear him called to the principal's office, but Riku had always sustained that this was only due to him being very able to put the blame on someone else, like that time that Tidus was found with a bag of fireworks on him just after the explosion of a barbecue.

"Hey-hey, welcome to the party kiddo!" Axel shouted waving a hand in Sora's direction. The boy didn't really remember when the redhead had started to be so friendly with him, but it was probably during that first week of school.

"Stop calling me 'kiddo'! I'm sixteen, and you're only a couple of years older than me!"

"As you wish, kiddo. Do you and your friends want to eat with us? From this place we will have a clear view of Demyx, his concert will start in a couple of minutes." Axel was talking to Sora, but his eyes were flashing amongst their group. He had the feeling that his look lingered a little longer on Roxas.

"Oh, don't count on it, my big brother is always late, it won't start before eight." Tidus replied causing all of the four seniors to turn on him.

"You really are Dem's bro?" Larxene asked curiously. "The one who screamed for two days when he found a spider in his room?" She sounded clearly amused by that statement.

"It's called arachnophobia! And he didn't scream for two days! Well, not all day!" Selphie answered irritated, trying to defend her embarrassed boyfriend. As an answer, the blond girl laughed.

But before Selphie could reply, Riku spoke, probably deciding it was best to intervene before things could escalate. "Thanks for the offer, Axel, but we'll just go drink something for now. See you later." And with that phrase, he decided that it was already time to part ways with the seniors. The six boys waved goodbye and started walking towards the beach bar.

"We could have spent at least some time with them..." Kairi mumbled when they were out of ear shot.

"That stupid brother of mine!" Tidus interrupted abruptly. "He always has to tell everyone embarrassing things about me!"

Ans after a moment, everyone burst into laughter: he was hilarious when he was angry, he just couldn't be taken seriously. Sora patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, you'll take your revenge one day, don't think too much about it, we're here to have fun, remember?"

Sora didn't know yet that his life would change dramatically, that evening.

A couple of hours later, the concert was in full swing. More people had come to the beach, who was so crowded that, near to the stage, it was difficult to even breath. Sitting on a wood chair at the bar, Sora was laughing like crazy with Riku, while holding a light blue cocktail in his right hand.

"Whew, I found you two, finally. I was looking everywhere!" The voice of Kairi announced her arrival, just slightly startling the brunet. Roxas reached them a few seconds later, tripping over his own feet.

"Kai!" Sora exclaimed while getting up, wobbling dangerously. "You disappeared, where were you?" His brother laughed noisily, like the boy had said something extremely funny.

From his chair, Riku smirked. "Look at those two: not even ten and they're already wasted."

At those words, the blond boy stopped laughing immediately. Riku and Roxas had never liked each other too much, not to say that they could barely tolerate each other's presence, and Sora knew that very well. "Where are Selphie and Tidus?" he asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Who knows? Roxas and I lost them half an hour ago. Knowing them, they're probably making out somewhere..."

Roxas didn't even let Kairi finish the sentence; he grabbed his brother by an arm and started dragging him towards the middle of the crowd. "Come on bro, let's go dance! We didn't come here to sit all of the evening!"

Sora could see Riku frowning: he knew very well that he didn't like to dance. And he was sure that Roxas knew it too. Nevertheless, he grabbed him with his free arm and started pulling him with them.

"Let me go, Sora. I prefer to stay here." the upperclassman said calmly. "I'm not in the mood of dancing, tonight."

"You're never in that mood!" Kairi retorted, grabbing Riku from the other arm and effectively forcing him to stand up. "Come on, Riku, just tonight!"

Left without much of a choice, the silver-haired boy sighed and followed the rest of the group on the dancing floor.

Sora, Kairi and Roxas immediately started dancing at the rhythm of a crazy-paced song. Riku quickly took a few steps back and looked at them, quietly, without showing the slightest intention to move. A few seconds later, a tall girl, probably a senior, started talking to him.

When Sora realized that his friend was standing there quietly, he stopped moving and jumped towards him. "Come on, Riku! When I said I wanted you here I meant 'with us', not all by... oh, hi!" he exclaimed when he realized that he wasn't alone.

"Hi." the girl answered coldly, clearly not happy to have been interrupted while talking.

"Alright Sora, you're right." Riku said calmly, walking towards the rest of their friends. "It's been a pleasure, see you around Yuna." he added without even turning towards the disappointed girl.

"It's Yuffie, actually..."

"Uh, bye." Sora quickly spat slightly embarrassed. When he reached back his friends, Roxas, who was sporting a big grin on his face was confabulating with a recently reappeared Tidus.

"Nicely done, Sora!" His brother was whispering far too loudly for not wanting to be heard by Riku. "Really classy way to interrupt 'Mr.-I've-slept-with-more-girls-than-you-can-imagine'."

Riku just snorted. "Jealous? How many girls did you date, Roxas?"

Roxas blushed slightly. Sora thought that that was a low blow from Riku, but at the same time his brother had asked for it.

"Come on, Roxas!" Tidus poked him. "We both know why your brother interrupted Riku, right?"

"Oh, please, don't even start with your bullshit." Sora retorted, more annoyed than really irritated. He was used to their friends joking about him and Riku being a couple, despite knowing very well that they were best friends. Best friends! Nothing more, just best friends!

Selphie looked at him maliciously. "Oh, Sora, were you maybe a little... what's the word, Kairi?"

"Jealous?" the redhead added amused. "Come on, when can we expect the two of you to make it official?" she then turned her attention to Roxas. "Hey, Riku would become your brother-in-law, have you thought about it?"

Roxas snorted. "Over my dead body!"

Everybody laughed, except for Sora who was crossing his arms waiting for that ridiculous show to end. He turned his head to Riku, who wasn't laughing either, his cold aquamarine eyes fixed on him.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" the group of boys started chanting, much to Sora's horror.

"Guys! Don't make me hit you, I really don't want to do it!" Sora said, forcing himself to keep his cool. "Come on, Riku, tell them too to just shut..."

But he couldn't end his sentence, because, in a moment, the silver-haired boy grabbed him and pressed his lips to his own. Sora froze in place: he needed a few seconds to realize what was going on.

Riku was kissing him!

That idiot was kissing him in the middle of a crowd!

A few more interminable seconds later, Riku let the other boy go.

Shocked, Sora instinctively took a few steps back, involuntarily hitting someone behind him, who simply reacted by pushing him, making him bump against someone else.

And that was all it was needed so that the attention of the people around them was focused on him. On them, in fact, the kiss between boys having being noticed by a few people who were quickly spreading the news.

None of his friends was still laughing. Even the people around them had stopped dancing and were looking at the scene, whispering between them.

Sora tried to say something, to explain that no, they weren't a couple. He had to. But for all his efforts, no sound was coming out of his mouth.

And after a whole minute of silence, Sora ran away.

End Notes: And here's my first revamped chapter. As you can see, quite a lot has changed; in fact, it nearly had to be rewritten from zero, and the same can be said for the first few chapters, which were, in my opinion, the weakest part of the story. Let me know what you think of it, especially if you had read the first draft.

Next chapter: Chaos Ripper