A/N: Yaaaay, first KH fic, yaaaay. All right, all right, so it's a typical school Sora/Riku AU fic, but I shall be throwing in things that don't (to my knowledge) happen in the other fics of the kind. But hey, we love these because they ARE cheesy soap operas, right? (Well, at least I do…)
By the way, Sora's last name, Maemi, means "honest child," or so the internet has told me. EGADS, but it was hard to name Sora and Riku! x.x
Disclaimer: Yes, yes, it is mine, all MINE, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! On a totally random side note, the KH manga is really adorable, and you should find it and read it if you haven't already.
Sora hummed in contentment and wiggled his toes, feeling the sand squish between the digits. Gulls cried out to one another as they rode the gentle breeze; the sun blanketed him in its warmth, partially blocked by the fronds of the overhead palm tree. Waves broke against the shore, mixing with the cries of the gulls to form a beautiful music unique to the islands. One of the island girls was lying there with him, someone he knew but somehow didn't. It didn't bother him though, she was pretty, and he was happy. A blissful sigh escaped his lips. This was perfection.
"Please…"
He sat up, grudgingly opening his eyes. Some part of him realized that the girl was gone, but he didn't really care. There was a woman in the water, standing there and staring at him, though he couldn't really see her face. She was very blurry, and Sora squinted his eyes to try to see better. She came into focus, a lovely, preened, blonde little thing that suddenly reminded him of a doll.
"Fasten your seatbelts and place your trays in the upright position," she snarled, and Sora jumped a foot off the ground in surprise as she suddenly appeared only a few feet away from him, a mean look on her face.
"Huh?" Sora gasped, confused.
Then she began to mutate.
Her eyes grew big and round, her hands changed to wickedly sharp claws. Fangs sprouted from her mouth, which was gaping open and dripping saliva, the picture capped by the random appearance of a big thunderstorm, the flashing lightning lighting the apparition in front of him in a frighteningly evil way.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sora yelled, scrambling in the sand as he tried to back away. "IT'S BARBIE FROM HELL!"
There were unintelligible murmurings al around him, and he felt things looking at him. But Sora ignored them, focusing only on the demented thing before him. Sora grabbed some oddly solid sand and hurled it at her, cheering as it smashed into her face, breaking apart to spray all over her. However, his elation faded as something else began yelling at him…
"HEY!"
"-ank you for flying Destiny Airlines."
Sora opened his eyes to find the man from the seat in front of him glaring at him and clutching a cup in is clenched hand. The teen raised his eyes to the man's angry- and dripping- face. Sora blinked. Dripping? Stomach sinking, he glanced down to find that his still-full cup of soda had mysteriously gone missing. No wonder that sand had been so solid…
A blush lit his face as Sora realized that he had thrown his drink at the Barbie (a.k.a. the man now looking about ready to see him drawn and quartered) in his sleep. He sheepishly offered up the tiny napkin that had come with his drink to the angry man, which only increased the glare that he was receiving tenfold. "Uh… sorry?"
"Excuse me, sir, is there a problem?" a flatly polite voice asked, and Sora turned to see a flight attendant staring at them, a large, fake smile plastered on her face.
"Yes, there is," the man hissed.
"Sir, I'm afraid that I must ask you to be seated," the woman interrupted.
"But this boy ruined my suit!" the man all but yelled.
"Sir!" the stewardess exclaimed, painted eyes widening in alarm. "Please calm yourself and take a seat."
"I'm really very sorry," Sora said, widening his already large, puppy-dog eyes in an attempt to win some pity. "You see, I was having a nightmare, and-"
"Do you know how expensive this suit was?" the man demanded of Sora, leaning over the seat towards the teen.
"Sir!" the flight attendant exclaimed, dropping all pretense of politeness. "Sit down! We will have this issue addressed when we are on the ground, now kindly sit!"
"What's going on?" somebody asked, and Sora found that people were unabashedly leaning around their seats and all but getting up to watch them; he could see people from the Economy Class seats straining to watch and listen, too.
"Is it a highjacking?" someone else wondered.
"It'd be up with the pilots if he was doing that," came another voice.
"Oh… you sure?"
"Is there a problem?" a steely voice demanded, so close that Sora jumped. Another flight attendant, this one male, had joined the fray.
"Ooooh, maybe someone'll get arrested!"
"Everyone, please fasten your seatbelts and remain calm," yet another airline worker implored, addressing the captivated audience and trying rather unsuccessfully to block their view.
"I want to know what you're going to do about this boy," the wet man said, pointing an accusing finger at Sora.
"I didn't mean t-" Sora began, but was cut off again, this time by the voice of the pilot.
"Flight attendants, please prepare for our descent into the Traverse area. Passengers, on your right will be the city, renowned for…"
"It was an accide-" Sora tried again.
"This boy is a menace! He must be punished!" the angry man yelled over the rising din.
"ENOUGH!" the male flight attendant hollered, both at those participating in and at those watching the spectacle. "Sir, take your seat now. It is a federal offense to disobey an airline official, and if you do not comply instantly, the police will be meeting you once we land!"
The man finally shut his mouth and sat down, and Sora obediently fastened his seatbelt. Once they were sure that all was in order, the flight attendants finally left, and the other passengers quieted a bit. Sora sank down in his chair, staring gloomily out of his window. The man's anger was all but palpable, and even the large, first-class seat didn't provide much of a barrier.
The plane couldn't land soon enough.
Sora groaned and crawled into the limo, flashing a tired smile at the driver as the man shut the door after him. A few moments later the car rumbled to life and pulled away from the curbside pick-up, and Sora sank back into the leather, running an arm across his eyes as he yawned. He was currently running… he checked his watch. Over four hours late now. Once the plane had landed, everyone onboard had been forced to remain where they were while, much to his great embarrassment, the police boarded and walked him and the man off of the plane. The next stop had been a small room in a hallway somewhere, and the security officials had (excruciatingly slowly) begun to get down to what had happened. Then there were delays as more airport people were summoned, then the two offenders were questioned separately, then together, then more delays, and then a discussion if charges were going to be pressed (and all the while the man had only been growing more and more irate), and then Sora was finally allowed to go after it had been determined that it had truly been an accident. Of course by that time, Sora's stomach had been grumbling insistently for quite a while, and that mandated a stop in the packed food court. And so, by the time he got outside, his ride had been long gone, and he had been forced to call the company and ask for another car to come back for him, which required a good half-hour's wait on top of everything else, completely blowing his schedule out the window.
He flicked the window switch and the tinted glass obediently lowered, letting in not the nice fresh air that Sora had expected but a mouthful of dirty, exhaust-filled… well, something that didn't have any right to call itself air, and he promptly rolled the window right back up, choking. Oh, what he would give to be back on the beach right now…
"Okay," the brunet muttered to himself, "this is getting pathetic. You've been gone, what, a few hours, and already you're homesick? Get it together."
Talking to yourself is the first sign on insanity, you know… a voice in his head reprimanded.
"Shut up!"
Sora stared drearily around at the city as the car slowly made its way through the jam-packed streets. More people than Sora had ever seen in his life thronged the sidewalks and shops that they passed, and the teen briefly wondered where there was room to put them all. But apparently there was room enough, for the city went on and on and on. Momentarily forgetting about his jetlag, Sora stared out the window at everyone in amazement, taking it all in. Maybe this wouldn't be quite so bad. Maybe.
It took a good hour and a half to finally reach Traverse Private Academy, and by the time the car pulled up to the entrance, Sora was all but asleep in his seat, though it was only early evening and the sun had just barely set. He only perked up a little bit when the door next to him opened, and he stumbled out, staring around at the fancy school. One of the dorm buildings (his, he hoped) loomed over him, and there were a bunch of other buildings scattered all over the place. He thanked the driver, had the expense charged to his card, and wearily dragged his suitcases into the building without bothering to look around much.
Sora paused at the front desk, calling out when he didn't see anyone there. "Uh, hello? Anyone here?"
"Hiiiiiiiiiiiii!" a girl squealed, bouncing out of a back room and dashing over to the desk, scaring the wits out of the tired Sora. "My name is Selphie, pleased to meet you! Are you new here?"
Despite his exhaustion, Sora found that the girl's enthusiasm was catching. He grinned back at her, dropping his bags. "Yup. Name's Sora, Sora Maemi. D'you work here?" he asked curiously, wondering at the fact that she was his age and not some scary old woman with overly thick glasses and scary teeth like he had expected.
She giggled at him, tilting her head. "No, silly, I'm only helping right now with the new people. You're really late, by the way," she added.
Sora laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, yeah, there were some problems with the plane," he mumbled.
"Oooh, lucky!" she suddenly exclaimed, and Sora jumped a bit.
"W-what?" Since when were plane delays good?
"Looks like you get a room to yourself for now! Unless anyone else transfers in, you'll be by yourself."
"Oh…" Sora said, slowly letting her words sink in. "Cool." As she did whatever it was she was doing, Sora glanced up and down the hallway. There were a few people wandering around, but not too many, and they really didn't catch his interest.
When he looked at her again, Selphie was flipping through a drawer. She extracted a set of keys on a ring and set them on the desk before producing a stack of papers, which she also pushed towards him. "Okay, so there're your keys, you're in room 704. That's in the East Hall, mind, which you're currently in. Just sign this paper-" she set one in front of him with a pen- "to get your keys and you can take the rest to your room and read it. Just bring it back tomorrow or something. Hey, do you have your ID card?"
Sora paused a moment before digging through his pockets. Selphie giggled as he extracted all manner of things including crumpled papers, his plane ticket stubs, an empty chip bag that Sora had eaten in the airport, batteries (what were they doing in there?), a random pen, some money, his credit card, and quite a bit of lint. Finally he found it and held it up with an, "A-ha!"
Selphie snatched it from his hand, inspecting it. "Ooh, cute picture!" Sora blushed lightly as he grabbed it back, earning another laugh. "Well, you'll need it for a lot of stuff including getting food on campus, so keep it with you, kay?"
Sora nodded and grasped the keys and papers before bending down to try and grab his bags. In the end, the keyring ended up hanging out of his mouth and the papers were crumpled and held with only two fingers while the others wrapped around the suitcase handles. He set off awkwardly towards the elevator, very glad that he didn't have to lug his stuff all the way up the stairs.
"I'm on the seventh floor too, come and see me later!" Selphie called at his retreating back.
"Mmph," Sora agreed, dropping one of his suitcases and kicking it into the elevator so that he could wave at her. Then he clambered in, nearly tripping over said kicked suitcase, and took it up to the designated floor. He managed to get out of the elevator without killing himself and even found the door to his hallway, but was quite confused when the door wouldn't open. He abandoned his stuff and tugged on the door again, to no avail. He jiggled the handle and pulled and pulled, but the door didn't open.
Until it did, nearly smacking into Sora's head in the process. As it was, Sora stumbled backwards to avoid it, stumbled on his suitcases, and fell backwards onto the floor, landing painfully on his butt.
"Hey, what's all the noise out here?" a heavily accented voice asked, and Sora looked up to see a teen with flaming red hair peering down at him curiously. "Hey, you all right there, man?"
Sora picked himself up, blushing as he stumbled again. "Uh, yeah, I'm good."
"You tryin' to break down the door or something?" the other demanded, an eyebrow raised.
"I couldn't get in," Sora mumbled, staring down at his feet.
"You try the scanner thing?"
Sora wrinkled his nose in confusion and looked back at the teen, who promptly began laughing. "Scanner thing?"
The boy bent down and grabbed Sora's keys off the floor, holding up a little plastic thing on the ring and pointing to a matching box by the door handle. "Ya, you scan this and the door opens. Only works for this building, though." He demonstrated.
"Oh…" Sora said, feeling incredibly stupid. How many times in one day could he make a fool of himself, and in a brand new place to boot?
"S'alright, man. Name's Wakka, floor manager. You one of the newbies?" Wakka asked.
"Yeah, my name's Sora. I think my room is here?"
Wakka's face brightened. "Yup, yer sharin' a bathroom wit' me, ya? Come on, let's get you inside. You're really late, you know."
"I know, I know," Sora groaned, grabbing what he could of his things and stealing back his keys from his new floor manager. Wakka grabbed one bag and they stumbled down the hallway. They didn't have far to go though, for Wakka's door was the first on the right and Sora's was right next door. Sora dropped his bags in front of his door and inspected it, then stared at his keys.
Wakka blinked at him. "You all right, man?"
"This door doesn't have one of the… thingies on it, does it?" Sora asked uncertainly. He didn't think so, it looked just like a regular door, but he wasn't sure.
In reply, Wakka started laughing hysterically, slapping Sora on the back and nearly sending him crashing into the door. "Naw, man, that one's regular."
Sora nodded and stuck the key in the door but paused as another boy, this one blonde, stuck his head out of a door on the other side of the hall. "What's all the fuss?"
" 'Sup, man?" Wakka asked, and Sora abandoned his keys to face the new boy, eeping a bit when Wakka's arm snaked over his shoulders and he was shaken a bit. "This is Sora, he's new here. That there's Tidus."
"Hey," Tidus said in greeting, walking over and high-fiving Wakka. "Fresh blood!" the muscular blonde exclaimed, grinning at Sora evilly, and Sora laughed nervously. Tidus apparently saw the look on Sora's face, for he burst out laughing and clapped Sora on the shoulder. "Just joking, relax. Don't worry, you'll fit right in." Tidus grinned, and Sora smiled back.
Sora swatted Wakka's arm away, though he was grinning. The two seemed like pretty good guys, and fun to hang out with, at the very least. "Aren't there many new kids?" he asked.
"Nope, not really," Tidus answered.
"It's a new school year, but most of us have been here all along, or at least for a couple of years, ya? You're one of the only new kida in our year, man," Wakka added, blinking as Sora yawned hugely. "Anyway, you look dead on your feet, you ought to go sleep, man. I'll be around tonight and tomorrow. Just knock on the bathroom door if you need me, ya?"
Sora nodded gratefully and threw his stuff into his dark room. Without turning on a light or looking around, barely bothering to remove his shoes and shut the door, Sora gratefully collapsed onto the first thing that resembled a bed and shut his eyes.
With visions of flight attendants and scary dripping men dancing around on the ocean in pink tutus running through his mind, Sora slept.
