Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, if I did then life would be beautiful
Key:
- Dream State - , Flashback , ' thoughts ', " Dialogue "
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A change in writing style/time/place/whatever (will notate in () which one)
Summary: Ansem the wise is the king of Twilight town. His brother Xemnas is not only jealous but intends for his son Sephiroth to take the throne instead of Ansem's son Riku. Unfortunately he knows just which buttons to push and Riku will have to use everything he knows to earn his rightful place as king.
Rating: T – For language, might raise the rating depending.
Warning: Spoilers from KH2, not much of them though. Yaoi, Riku +Sora pairing.
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(Chapter 4: Bad planning)
And so the plan was put into effect, everything continued in life as relatively normal for the royals as possible with their upcoming birthdays.
"My eighteenth birthday…" Riku muttered under his breath in annoyance as he was dressed from head to toe in red silks by several of the maids. He couldn't have very well asked Sora to help him dress as he'd probably never get dressed with that adorable boy hanging around and sticking pins in him. The idea itself had brought a flush to Riku's pale cheeks so severe that his maids spent the morning gossiping that he'd gotten a bit tipsy to celebrate his coming of age.
"The day that stupid Sephiroth takes the stupid throne." Riku sighed. He had told Sora that nothing mattered to him as long as the younger teen was beside him always, but the truth was that he had been looking forward to becoming king since way before he'd even met Sora, and he was starting to feel just a tad depressed.
Suddenly there was screaming in the hallway, and at first Riku paid it no mind, figuring that it was probably some servant who thought she saw a ghost in the hall closet, but then the screams were echoed by several other voices followed by loud shouting. Riku frowned, something was wrong, quickly he tugged himself out of the insistent hands of his maids and rushed out into the hallway trailing yards of red fabric behind him as he went.
He raced down the hallway, going the opposite direction of some of the maids before one of them noticed him snatching a sword from a suit of armor in the hallway. "Your highness! Come quick! It's awful! An assassin attacked his majesty!" The maid squealed with fear shining in her eyes.
"Where? I'm on my way!" He said as she pointed behind her to the large dining room. His feet pounded against the marble floor and he cursed the fact that the hallways in the castle were so long.
He burst in through the double doors of the dining room just in time to see the swish of a black cloak exiting to the right hand door to the room. He eyed his father, bleeding to death on a chair before swiftly deciding that the maids would help him. Riku was needed where that assassin was headed.
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(The black castle)
Sephiroth heard a great moan in the room nearby and raised a white eyebrow. "Father?" He called curiously. He strode across the study and opened the door to the hallway to see his father double over and collapse on the ground, a man dressed shabbily in street clothes leering over him hungrily. "You! Commoner! What have you done!"
A glint of steel caught Sephiroth's eye followed by the sound of liquid hitting the black tile floor. "You… you demon! You shall die for your treachery!" He leapt forward and crushed the assassin beneath his weight. Drawing out a sword that he happened to have been carrying on his belt he quickly sliced off the man's head, not particularly worried about getting repercussions for killing the man without asking him any questions first. Damn it… he didn't deserve a jury, that was too kind.
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It was several hours later that the cousin's stood side by side by their parents graves. The criminals had been dealt with and all that was left was sorrow. Though never in agreement on anything in their lives, the two men had at last found common ground with one another at the murders of their fathers. As they began to leave the gravesite Sephiroth paused a moment, glancing back one last time to Xemnas' grave. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and turned around to glance into familiar aquamarine eyes.
"I can't believe they're gone." Riku muttered sadly, his eyes clouded with sadness. He didn't know if Sephiroth's relationship with his father was the same as his own, but regardless the man deserved to know that if nothing else he was not alone in grieving.
"What kind of person would kill both kings in one day… what have they to gain from it? Tomorrow is our birthdays anyways… the throne will automatically default to us. What was the point in it?" Sephiroth replied, his dark eyes narrowing as he realized that perhaps he shouldn't have killed that idiot earlier. Then at least they would have some of their questions answered.
"There were two of them… and both of them gone because we're too hot-headed to handle a thing like death." Riku replied, his eyes flashing with anger.
Sephiroth offered him a soft pat on the back. "Well… I suppose they would have died eventually anyways right? No one lives forever… perhaps destiny wanted it this way. Now we don't have any excuses to live our lives the way that we want to."
There was a distinct devilish gleam in Seph's eyes but Riku didn't notice it, too caught up in his own grief to realize that Sephiroth had just gotten over his.
"Come on Riku… let's go back to the castle and celebrate our birthdays."
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In actuality their birthdays were about a week apart, with Sephiroth being the elder of the two cousins. But ever since they had been small they had always celebrated the day in the middle of the week together because it was always easier to throw one big party than two. Riku spent the rest of the evening in his room, memories from that morning replaying in his mind.
"How could I have been so selfish… worrying only about myself and becoming king… when I should've been thinking about what would happen to my father once Sephiroth took the throne." Riku whispered to himself.
"You shouldn't blame yourself; no one could've known that this would happen today." replied a gentle voice.
Riku glanced up to see Sora smiling at him comfortingly with his big blue eyes. The younger man sat next to him and put an arm around his waist. "It will be o.k. Riku. I just know it will." Sora said, drawing the older man to him.
"Sora…" Riku responded, burying his face in the other's shoulders. "I hope you're right… I really hope you are." He whispered in response.
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"I hereby decree as your new king, that the rule that states that one must marry one of the opposite sex in order for it to count as marriage, has been lifted. Marry whom you desire my people! For love see's not gender, nor race, nor wealth! Love sees only love, even if it see's it many times in many different people! Thusly you may also marry more than one person." Sephiroth bellowed over the balcony and the people below cheered.
It seemed like a rather silly new rule to the people, but they knew that if they didn't cheer then it would probably be off with their heads.
Sephiroth grinned darkly to himself as he walked back into the throne room. His dreams of that chocolate haired servant that Riku had been coddling as of late had brought him to this magnificent conclusion. He could now marry who he pleased and he planned to start with that little virgin boy. True that the servant was only a year younger than himself… visibly. But though no one knew it Sephiroth was actually far older than his age, being in his early thirties. His father had never told him of the spell of youth that had been placed on the boy when he was just a baby. Xemnas' plan for world domination had been in it's infant stages then… literally. All that Xemnas knew was that he had to stall the boy's growth and hide his presence from the world until Ansem also bore an heir. It had been foretold that this would come to pass and Xemnas figured it would be in his best interest for Sephiroth to be the same physical age as Riku.
Unfortunately, the side effect of this was that once Sephiroth was 'born' he was remarkably bright for an infant. People had insisted on him being enrolled in special schools. Xemnas had to beat the brilliance out of his child time and again, insisting that he needed to be just like a normal child for the good of his own future. Sephiroth had never lost this keenness, having several extra years to learn of his world than most infants ever did.
All of Sephiroth's hard work had paid off; he would be the celebrated king of the prophecy. He had to be, after all Riku could not possibly be as bright or as strong as Sephiroth was. Never in a million years…
"Roxas!" Sephiroth bellowed and the young teenage boy appeared in almost an instant. His electric blue's reminding Sephiroth of that servant he was about to order for himself. "Bring me… Sora. That boy that's been hanging out with Riku. I want him alive and preferably unharmed… though that's not a must." Sephiroth grinned darkly, imagining the boy in ways that significantly aroused him.
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"Sora? Sora!" Riku raced through the castle. He searched the towers and lost himself in the hallways. He dived into the gardens and strained the pools. He inquired every maid… no sign of him. Riku collapsed in a hallway on one of the top floors, exhausted. He had disappeared! The love of his life had simply vanished off the face of the planet, much like the way that he'd come into Riku's life in the first place. A warm summer breeze in an otherwise cold and wintry life.
"Oh Sora… where have you gone? Why did you leave?" Riku begged quietly, tears falling from his aquamarine eyes as he sobbed in the hallway, curling up in a ball and just sitting there for a few hours.
"Oh get up you sniveling fool…" reprimanded a rough but familiar voice.
Riku glanced up slowly to observe his trainer in all of his massive height. The man had grown taller as Riku had grown older, he still towered over Riku who had finally stopped growing at almost 6' in height.
Riku scowled at the brunette, turning his face back into his slacks to let some more tears fall. "What do you want Axel?" He asked angrily. "I'm not exactly in the mood to talk to you right now."
"You're looking for Sora… right?"
Riku's body reacted instantaneously, a force of ill-contained rage, as he leapt off from the floor and grabbed the spiky brunette by the front of his dark robe and drew his face down to his own level so that he could look him in those dark eyes. "You know where he is! Axel… if you've harmed one hair on his head…" Riku snarled into the man's face.
"Riku, Riku… you jump to conclusions far too quickly." Axel said nonchalantly, brushing the teen's hands off of his collar and straightening it thoughtfully. "I've merely been sent to you as a messenger… his highness, King Sephiroth, has him in custody and challenges you to a battle over him."
"Sephiroth! I'm going to tear him limb from limb… that good for nothing bastard!" Riku tore away from Axel without even listening to anything the man had said, racing down the hallway and taking the stairs via the banister.
"Here he comes Marluxia… but I wonder, can you handle him?" Axel muttered under his breath grinning softly.
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The suspense is killing me. XD
rozukitsune
