This Soap Opera We Call Our Lives -- Prologue: Aria of a Broken Heart

Set to Melodies of Life, from FFIX

by Raiknii

a.A. Year 2, Rain Day 65 (See A/N for explanation.)

Riku's POV

It's so black. Every way I look, everything is black. The light is gone… The light has vanished.

When light isn't here, black tortures. The black is swirling, twisting into horrible images. It just knows what will hurt you the most. And so it shows me him - Sora, the one I love. Sometimes – no, always, it's too much for me to bear, when this prison shows me Sora and Kairi, together, happy... without me. They're always so happy, not even seeming to know I'm gone. Sometimes they're with Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, and the rest, sometimes they're by themselves. Either way, they're happy, having the time of their lives. This hell shows me agonizing image after agonizing image, making me scream and scream and cry and shriek… But no one hears, do they?

This place is agony. All I want is to get out of Kingdom Hearts…

It's forever showing me images of them, being happy, together. Sometimes, I cling to those images, the last piece of Sora I have left… Other times, I hate them, for showing me how happy they are without me.

I think I'd go mad, if they really were together. Then again, I'll go mad in here anyway, so what's the big deal? I just wish… All I ever wanted was Sora to love me! Why did he have to forget all about me when Kairi came? When Kairi came, she pulled him away from me. It became Kairi this, and Kairi that. And then he started to spend all his time with Kairi, and none with me. It broke my heart, but do your think they noticed, or would've cared if they had? They were too damn busy "spending time" with each other! Too busy "bonding" to even notice his best friend!

You know, I wish I never knew Sora. Then, maybe, just maybe, my heart would've never been broken. Maybe I would've been abandoned. If our lives had never crossed, would I be happier?

If I had never played with Sora on the beaches of Destiny Island, what would my life be like right now? I wouldn't have had to say goodbye and let my love go…

But how can I live without Sora? All my memories, good and bad, important and trivial, are all filled with Sora. Somehow, my life's always rotated around him.

The highlight of my childhood was playing with Sora. Later, he was my sparring partner. And through Maleficent's manipulations, he was… my enemy.

When Maleficent told me he had abandoned me, I just snapped. I went with her. I was too weak to prevent her from using me like a puppet, whose strings can be pulled in any way, at any time. Just shows how pathetic I am. How could I ever hope for him to love a worthless creature of darkness like me?

But even then, as his enemy, my life rotated around him. Sometimes, I get mad, when I think about how he brushed my opposition aside like a fly, like I was someone not very important to him. All the time, it was Kairi, Kairi, Ansem, heartless, Kairi. Where was the Riku?

He was still the most important person to me, even though we were enemies. My good memories of him were still what I thought of in times of trouble, of woe.

But I'm not that important to him. It's always been just me, loving him, not the other way around. I've always been just a friend. Or was I even less? When Kairi came, Sora just... forgot about me. Am I really not even worth a mention in Sora's life? I don't know what to think. I want to believe Sora cared, but would I just be disillusioning myself?

Maybe Sora never cared. Maybe it was always just me, reaching for what I could never have. Sora's always been above my reach, in a place I can never hope to touch. He's so much better than I am… I could never hope to deserve him. Despite this, I still love him. It's almost funny.

This is the story of my life –loving Sora. It began when we were little kids, before we knew what love was, and it's still continuing. Or, rather, my love's still continuing. Sora's ended long ago, when Kairi came.

And my love will continue forever… as long as I live.

The torture's stopped. The black is shifting, and so cleaving the way for mind-splitting agony that comes at me next.

Make it go away! My eyes hurt! Make the light go away…!

I can hear a scream, and vaguely, I recognize it as mine, before water fills my mouth and my vision fades out. Everything's so dark…

Two people sit on an island. The boy winds his arm around the girl's waist. She turns her face up to kiss him.

They sit on a little island, by a tree that had been so frequently graced by a silver angel in past. Looking at the tree, they find a ripe star-shaped fruit on the tree, just ready to be picked. A gentle tug brings it down.

They sit, just watching the ocean. The ocean is worth watching – it is smooth and calm, just the right shade of blue. It crashes on the shore softly, the crest gleaming silver. Little fish, quick and slippery, dart around in the water. Yes, the ocean is perfect today.

The boy turns to the girl. Smiling at her lovingly, he breaks the fruit in half. She smiles back, taking her half of the fruit. At the same time, they eat their halves of the fruit. They kiss, and whisper pledges of love.

They promise to stay together, with their fates forever intertwined.

Somewhere, a heart is breaking; an unrequited love is seen as hopeless.

Tidus and Wakka walked along the beach, blitzballs and water bottles in hands tanned from the sun.

"Nice day for practicin' blitz, ya, Tidus?"

Tidus had to agree. After all, it was a fine day, with smooth crystal seas and a glowing sun. "Yeah, the sea's good for practicing blitz. Not too many waves."

They lapsed into a friendly silence. As they walked toward the sandy stretch of beach they normally practiced on, Tidus glanced at the calm sea. Today, the sea was a brilliant shade of blue-green today, a color like – like… Riku's eyes. It even shimmered and swirled the same way. In fact –

"Tidus, you all right, man?"

"Hm? I'm fine, Wakka."

"You're lying, ya? I know what you're doing. You're thinking about Riku, ya know? You've been moping since Sora and Kairi came back from their journey without him, ya?"

Wakka had hit the nail on its head. Tidus, however, was deep in denial. "Wakka, let's just go."

"Whatever you say, man." A suspicious glance was cast Tidus's way.

Tidus's thoughts had been turned toward Riku, beautiful, brilliant Riku. A year ago, everyone lost their hearts, sinking into nothingness. By the time they had been all restored by Sora, Riku had vanished. And nobody seemed to care. Sora had gotten together with Kairi, and life was normal again. Except, of course, the gaping hole in Tidus's heart where Riku used to be…

While Tidus was reminiscing, Wakka had gotten far ahead of him. When he was fairly close to the peaceful bit of beach they always practiced blitz on, he suddenly stopped.

"Tidus! Tidus! Look!"

A body, curled in a fetal position, was washed up on the beach. Tidus gasped – he had seen the silver hair.

Riku…

Disclaimer: Square-Enix owns KH. I worship them. If I stole KH, I would kill myself for defacing my gods.

A/N: Yes, Tidus is in love with Riku. And then, of course, Riku loves Sora, Sora loves Kairi, etc. I would tell who ends up with who, but that's spoiling the story, isn't it?

At the top, it says a.A. Year 2 Rain Day 65 . Well, since this story will span three, four, or maybe even five years (if my plan stays intact), I needed a dating system. If I use a real one, I'll feel weird. So it's after Ansem Year 2, Rain Day 65 . The day Ansem was defeated, it became a.A. Year 1. The "New Year" is Rain Day 65 . Rain is spring, Blossom is summer, Leaf is fall, and Icicle is winter. Each season has 91 days. (The calendar has an incorrect number of days! Yay!) This story starts exactly one year after Ansem.

Note: No one in the story actually uses the a.A. system. It's just for my reference. And so we all have a very clear idea how long it is after the game.

And btw, I am ignoring both KH: CoM and KH2.