Authors Note: this is the fourth chapter, I like it better then the third one... I'd like to thank Kanilla-Master of Fluff, Lack Thereof, and Queen of the insects for their lovely reviews! thanks guys :) Oh my gosh, I uploaded this chapter to the wrong fic. Argh!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, but I own the story, so read and enjoy but please do not take.

Summary: One day a man in a wet shirt and leather pants shows up on Sora's doorstep. So, Sora gets a roommate, a young artist named Riku who turns out to be the most charming person person he has ever met. So charming, infact, that he proceeds to charm the clothes right off of all of Sora's friends. But that's okay, because Sora doesn't know. Yet.

Riku looked uncertainly at his watch. It was four p.m. and Sora's girlfriend was due to come over any minute now. Sora was acting extremely happy, gushing about how great Kairi was, and how pretty she was, and how much Riku would like her. And then the phone rang.

"I'll get it," said Sora.

"No, no, it's okay," Riku stopped him, "I'll do it," Riku rushed over to the phone.

"Hello sir," was what the woman on the other line said, "we are calling you to see if you would like to purchase car insurance from our firm-"

Riku didn't have a car. This was not what he told the nice telemarketer. "What's wrong?" he asked. "You sound upset-"

The telemarketer started blushing, a fact that Riku was not aware of. She began to fix her hair nervously. Another fact that Riku wasn't aware of. "-I assure you, I'm quite fine, good sir. Would you like to purchase-"

Riku's eyes widened in shock and horror. "Oh my god! I'll be right there, just whatever you do- don't move!"

"I-! Sir! I assure you, I'm quite fine! I- would you-" the lady had stopped smoothing down her hair and was beginning to sound distraught. "Car insurance!-" was the last thing that she managed to say before Riku slammed the phone receiver down.

"Sora, I have to go! My friend is in real trouble-"

Sora looked at Riku with blank eyes. "Eh?"

"I'm sorry, I'll just have to meet Kairi another time, I gotta go-" Riku grabbed his jacket and literally ran out of the apartment. Sora looked after him blankly.

"But Riku... Kairi's gonna be here soon..." he said. But Riku was already gone. "Kairi's gonna... she's gonna..."

Riku was striding purposefully through the street. He had no idea of where he was going, and this was the reason that the first turn that he made turned out to be a dark alley which turned out to be dead end. Or it could have been, but the man who had dived out of the shadows, shoved Riku against the wall and pressed a knife against Riku's neck stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened in recognition.

"Hey, Riku," he said as he released Riku.

Riku stepped away from the wall, rubbing his neck and looking up at the man with unease. But then the man took off his ski mask and winked.

Riku frowned in response. "What are you doing, Zell?" he asked.

The blond man shrugged. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently.

"I mean trying to mug people," said Riku, but paused, "I mean, trying to mug me of all people!"

Zell winked again. "Well, you see-" he started, but was interrupted.

"Over the years that we have been friends, I have learned that the words 'well, you see...' mean that I probably don't want to know."

Zell pouted. "Nuh-uh! Remember the time you caught me in that skirt, well, didn't you want to know then?"

"Not after I found out that you were performing at a drag club!"

"Well, I was standing in for a friend!" Zell defended himself.

"I friend that I had not wanted to meet, may I remind you!"

"Oh, come on," said Zell with an easy roll of his eyes. He began steering Riku further down the alley, depending on Riku's impending tirade to keep him from noticing what was happening. "He wasn't that bad."

"He liked to peel bananas with his toes! He licked the carpet, and then-"

And then Zell knocked on the brick wall at the back of the alley. The wall slid away, and Riku was pushed inside, his surprise effectively cutting off his speech. He tripped over a set of stairs, but caught himself just in time.

Once he was steady on his feet, he looked around. He was standing in a small dark pub filled with a number of rather shifty people.

"Well, isn't this nice and seedy?" he asked with contempt evident in his voice. He looked down at the floor and realized that if he had fallen on it, he would have never been able to feel clean again.

"I know!" said Zell enthusiastically. "Isn't it just great?" he asked, no trace of sarcasm in his voice.

"Hmmm..." Riku looked at the seat that Zell was leading him to. He did not want to sit in it. He ended up sitting in it anyway, because someone knocked in to him, not apologized, and ran from the bar in a hurry. If Riku had left the house with a wallet, he would have found that it was now mysteriously missing. Lucky for him, he didn't own a wallet, and just kept his money in his shoe.

Zell motioned to the man that stood behind the bar, and yelled 'two specials!' before turning back to Riku.

"So, what brings you to this neighborhood?"

"I live somewhere around here," said Riku as he glanced around uneasily. In fact, by now he had absolutely no idea where he was, so he really had no idea where he lived.

"Oh yeah? You moved again... or did you get kicked out?"

Riku snorted with laughter. "I got kicked out, of course! That's what they technically do, after I...you know." He trailed off as the bar tender brought them two glasses filled with shimmering green liquid, two glasses with ice water, slotted spoons and cubes of sugar. Riku's eyes widened. "Is that ABSINTHE?"

The bartender grunted and left.

Zell grinned. "Yeah! Why'd you think I dragged you in here?"

Riku eyed the liquid doubtfully. "You know, in the words of Oscar Wilde: 'After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.'"

Zell raised an eyebrow. "I can not believe that you memorized that!"

"Yeah, well," Riku trailed off. "Isn't absinthe illegal?"

"Yeah, well," repeated Zell before taking a sip. "So, what's your problem? Why were you running through the streets?"

"My new roommate's girlfriend was coming over."

"So? Isn't that a good chance to do what it is you do?"

"I don't know, Zell, I'm having doubts about this one."

"Doubts? The Great Riku having doubts?" asked Zell with laughter in his voice. And then they finished off their glasses.

Riku didn't come home that night. He was far too busy dancing drunkenly on the bar table.

Authors Note: Absinthe! The green fairy isn't greatly worse then anyother hard liqor. The way to drink it is you put the cube of sugar on the slotted spoon, then pour ice water over it, thus dissolving the sugar in the absinthe, and making it taste better. Absinthe is indeed illegal in the united states. Don't drink wormwood oil! It's poisonous!
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Next chapter: Riku is ambushed!