-Chapter III
Understanding you-

The last days of summer passed by quickly for Riku and his newfound friends. After Sora shared the dark side of his world, Riku always hung out every of his free moments with Sora even though the boy said that the attacks didn't happen more then once a month but the boy never left Sora's side when he didn't need to. Sora didn't mind at all and expected to see Riku every morning to watch TV and eat breakfast.

The rest of the gang were glad that Riku knew everything and didn't have to keep any secrets from the new kid and quickly got used to seeing him everyday. Selphie started cutting back on her sugar highs and everyone found her weird when she was quiet and kept giving her candy. A calm Selphie wasn't a fun Selphie.

On Saturday, only six more days remained until Yuna Sumner arrives to the city and Wakka was hyped up to the fullest and bought shirts for all of them with Yuna on them.

That day, Wakka arrived at Sora's door with a box full of papers and CD cases and called Riku over. Riku later found out when he was already sitting on the floor, that Wakka was planning on playing to him all of Yuna's songs and the papers were actually the lyrics so Riku could learn some of them by heart. Riku preferred something less pop and more rock but he didn't comment on her songs and just said that she was an amazing singer and Wakka seemed content with that.

After learning half a dozen songs, Wakka released him from this torture of pop blaring music and walked to to the beach together. Kairi and Selphie were sun bathing peacefully and chatting away. They gossiped to Riku about everyone they knew. Later Tidus came with a volley ball and Riku played a few games with him until he noticed that Sora was the only one not there. Kairi reassured him that he was out shopping with his mom for last minute school supplies but Riku didn't like that Sora wasn't here, where he could make sure he was safe. Wakka told him to get used to it since Sora liked to be alone a lot and shut him away from them every now and then for no reason. Riku could only frown and concentrate on beating Wakka at Volleyball.

Then came Sunday...

O-0-O-0-O-0-O

Riku's eyes went wide when he saw it, Sora was cornered and their was nothing he could do. It was the end, their was no escape. Their was nothing Sora could do to protect himself and Riku could do nothing else but watch. He couldn't move. Not yet. Riku felt his heart beat fast and his mind throbbed. He really didn't expect this to happen. Sora closed his eyes and hoped that nothing will happen. Now Riku could do something. He pounced on his feet and picked up a small object.

"Check Mate!" Riku yelled and placed his knight into the winning square.

"I Was hoping you wouldn't notice..." Sora flicked his king down and pouted but Riku was busy celebrating his win to notice the boy's unhappiness.

Both boys played chess all morning since it was raining down hard making it impossible to see through it. Miyo invited Sora's parents over to spend the day since it was far to rainy to go out too far and she hoped to meet the father, which she noticed wasn't around to much and wanted to know why but never asked, not wanting to sound impolite.

A small tropical wind howled inside the house, The windows rattled and the refrigerator kept humming, all this making Yumi uncomfortable as she was used to her more modern house which made all these little things complete strangers in her life. Mr Everheart didn't seem to mind but was distracted by the work he had left at the house and wished his wife didn't make come here, this was the perfect way to waste time to work.

"I'm tired of playing chess." Sora was putting away the pieces wishing he could of at least won one game but he only got close last game but he got careless and exposed his king in hopes of cornering Riku's. He sighed. "Where did you put all your CDs?"

"By my closet." He pointed towards the sliding door and Sora quickly walked to it and slid it open. Once again he noticed all the black clothes and frowned. Didn't he have anything more cheerful? He looked around briefly and noticed the white shirt he was wearing on the day they met. It clashed with the rest of the black and Sora couldn't help but wonder where the white shirt came from. "I said BY my closet."

"Huh?" Sora turned around to Riku who was smiling at him. "Oh, sorry..." Sora gave back the smile but his red flushed red and felt quite dumb.

The CD box was right beside the closet like Riku said and Sora picked it up and set it on Riku's bed and started looking through it. Riku sat down on the other side of the box and looked at Sora discard CD by CD. After a minute, a whole pile of discs were laying on top of each other and none seemed to have caught the brunettes attention. Sora stopped half way through the box, bored.

"I never even heard of most of these bands." He opened a case and looked at the disc. "Who's 'We are scientists'?"

"A band." He replied dryly.

"Oh." Sora sighed. "You okay?" Riku flinched at Sora's concern.

"Yeah." He sighed. "This just reminds me of home. You sorting through my music like like Axel always did."

"Axel?" Sora forgot that Riku came from somewhere else and had a life before this. By spending so much time together, he almost forgot that they only knew each other for less then a week. That made him sad a little. "You must miss them."

"Yeah, I do." He said without any emotion but he quickly turned in a smile. "What happened to that blond girl? You said her name was Namma or something." Riku pushed the box away and look directly into Sora's eyes making the nervous.

"It's Naminé." Sora answered, knowing that their was no way out of this one.

"Naminé. I'm sorry." Riku apologized but he really wanted to know who she was. Must be a good reason why he hadn't met her yet like everyone else.

"She wasn't very social. But she liked spending time with all of us." He started reciting his memories of her and seemed oblivious to the rest of the room. "She liked to draw and she was really good at it. She always had a pad of paper to draw on." He smiled.

"How come I haven't met her?" Riku started putting away the CD pile as it started to wobble in a threatening manner, warning everyone before its collapse. "Did she move away?"

"Sort of." Sora expression turned sour. "She got sick."

"Oh." Riku never thought it was that bad. Riku now knew why Sora never answered him when he asked before. "Is she alright?" Riku started mentally telling himself lines to say to Sora if he said the worst thing possible.

"Kinda..." Sora got up and started walking around the room while sorting his thoughts. "She is in the hospital most of the time but she gets out every now and then when her condition goes back to normal but even then she has to stay close in case she gets sick again." He crossed his arms and looked out the window. His felt his eyes water but he was to distracted to notice Riku asking him a question.

Through the window, Sora saw his bedroom window. He could barely make it out as the rain blurred it out and naturally completely blocked his view.

Wonder if Riku ever looks up there? Sora smiled briefly, hating himself for thinking of Riku as a pervert. His gaze turned to the willow and tree and he remembered he was sad. He frowned. That tree is so big but yet all it was was a shadow in the rain. Kind of like he felt when he went to see Naminé. Seeing her so lovely and happy but deep inside she was sad and drowning in pain.

"Sora?" Riku was now standing behind the brunette with his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You okay?" The boy was staring at Sora shamelessly.

"Yeah. Sorry got caught up in my thoughts." Sora smiled. "If you want, you could meet her next week. She got sick again but she should be fine next Sunday at the least."

"Sure that'd be great." Riku let go of his shoulder and smiled. "Stop it."

"Huh? Stop what?" Sora looked confused and frowned when he couldn't guess what he was doing wrong.

"Smile." Riku grinned and pulled Sora's lips into a smile. "Now let it stay like that." Sora's lips turned slightly down but remained a half-smile. "Almost." Riku kept grinning and took Sora's hand and dragged him out of the room and down the hallway.

"Where are we going?" Sora let himself be dragged curious about what the white-haired boy was planning.

He led him through the kitchen where their parents were talking quietly and drinking tea. Both families seemed content except for Sora's father who was frowning at something he read on his laptop. No one noticed them walk quickly by and close the door shut behind them.

Sora started to pull back when Riku was pulling him off the rain-protecting porch but then he let himself go as the boy was stronger then him and didn't even feel him pull back. He led the brunette on the driveway and turned around. Sora saw his lips move but the crashing rain muffled it out. Riku placed his hands unto his and held tight. Sora braced himself when he noticed that the boy's weight was increasing. Suddenly he started twirling in a circle with him.

Both boys twirled there, in the pouring rain, forgetting all their cares. Sora laughed loudly and started to feel his grip losing and went faster so they would fall faster. He never felt so care-free or at least in a long time.

Riku laughed just as loud as his twirl partner and smiled for himself, glad he was able to make Sora feel happy. He felt the boy spin faster and he mimicked him. Sora let out a yelp and fell down into the muddy ground and Riku got flung to right over the boy. Both laughed in the rain.

Sora looked at Riku and grinned even more. Riku grinned too. Sora was covered in mud from the ground and was trying to to push Riku away but the boy was lodged safely over him and was looking into Sora's eyes.

He does that alot. Sora smiled and reached his face up to him but Riku pulled back before he got a chance to kiss him.

Riku took his hand and pulled the boy up and smiled. "See? Smiling can be fun." Sora smiled but inside he could only frown.

O-0-O-0-O-0-O

Axel stood in front of the large building and was looking silently around him ignoring the small group of girls who eyed him from a small cafe near by. Marluxia was leaning against the wall staring his friend pace back and forth. Larxene walked up from beside Marluxia and hit the red haired boy behind the head.

"Will you stop that?" She growled and walked back to her initial position on the wall.

"He'll get here when he gets here." Marluxia was now glaring at Axel. "So relax."

Axel gazed at them and took a spot next to the leader and sighed. Riku was never this late. All three stared blankly ahead of them thinking of how the mission would go today. Axel was the only one who wondered why the sky looked so grim today. It was always grim and dark but something didn't feel right about today but he ignored it and passed it off as stress.

"Eleven forty-five." All three members turned around hastily to greet their boss. "Where is Riku?" He sounded angry.

"I'm sure he'll be back in a minute." Larxene lied hoping the boy would show up with that dumb grin of his thinking everything is alright.

"He has five minutes." The white haired man took out a gum and started chewing on it. He recently quitted smoking for his own sake but he had a nasty habit of chewing three packs of gum daily and did he ever hate the taste but biting down on something felt so good.

"Hey boss." The man turned around to face the young teen. "Sorry I'm late." He apologized.

"Late?" The man turned around to face Larxene who glared at Riku. "Well no matter...We got only thirteen minutes to get there."

"Actually...I can't come..." Riku said slowly bowing his head down. His boss had a terrible temper and he already has hit him for being irresponsible or late.

"You really don't have a choice." The man glared and gave the boy a mock smile. "Now come..." He was just about to turn but stopped when Riku told him the reason.

"I'm moving away." Riku braced himself for a hit but it never came. He dared a peek just to see that his boss was standing still shocked but Riku knew he was thinking very hard. Axel and the rest were whispering to each other wondering why he didn't tell them before. "My mom had everything packed last night when I got home...She never even told me about it or I would of told you." He tried to convince his friends but they didn't seem to care.

"You are abandoning in the middle of the project?" Marluxia growled like Larxene does most of the time but his tone was a lot scarier. He was their leader and made all the decision and was the one Riku owed everything to but he was only taking orders from the boss. He was nothing compared to the boss.

"You said when you joined us that family would not interfere with this." The boss was angry but was surpresing it so much Riku could notice him chewing his gum very hard. "And you even dare leave us during a mission...Fuck! We're late. Move out!"

All three members quickly walked towards their destination without a last glance at Riku. Riku felt like crying but couldn't in front of the boss.

"When are you leaving?"

"Less then an hour, I only came to say goodbye."

"Very well, I knew this was going to happen." The boss relaxed and took out another gum and started chewing. "I got a replacement handy so you are in luck, I won't have to hunt you down." He laughed. "But I'd never come back if I were you and I do doubt the others will protect you from me."

Riku nodded and ran as fast as he could back home. His whole world just shattered today so fast and there was no way to put it back together. He cried and swore this was the last time he'd let himself cry on the outside.

"Riku, honey, what's wrong?" His mother wrapped her arms around him and let him cry. She knew why he was crying. His doesn't wanna leave his friends. "It's gonna be alright. Everything will be alright." She felt like crying to but she knew if she cried she'd get tired and wouldn't be able to drive towards the boat who'll take them away to Destiny Island.

Riku stared at the window and waited for his last connection of his home commence. He smiled when he noticed all the lights in the city turn off at exactly noon, just as planned. But then it hit him. They didn't need him and they'll all forget about him soon enough as the new guy takes his place. He didn't want to leave his friends but it was so much worse knowing he'd be forgotten. He let the remaining tears fall.

O-0-O-0-O-0-O

The boy mumbled as he awoke from his sleep. He tried to shoo away the voice that kept calling his name.

"Riku! We're at school!" Yumi now was yelling from the front of the car. "I hope you won't be this difficult each time I offer you a ride."

"Sorry mom..." Riku squinted his eyes and tried to make sense of where he was when he got out of the car. "Bye mom."

"I'll see you at home, Riku." Yumi was off for a job interview at some business building in hopes of becoming their secretary. She didn't know much about being one but the pay was decent and the job was safe. A unsafe job is what got her in this mess first. She couldn't let Riku know she wanted to go back to Hallow Bastion for he wouldn't understand.

Riku waved her goodbye and walked towards the central doors. He didn't want to be here and hoped to see Zexion next to his locker like usual. Then at lunch, Marluxia would get the car they salvaged together at the dump and they'd all go out for a bite to eat then for Marluxia, it'd be back to work.

But when he entered he only saw unfamiliar faces and walls. He didn't like it and was feeling out of place. Girls and boys turned their heads to eye him or greet him but he just ignored it and started creating a small wall around him.

"Hey Riku!" He took his eyes off the floor and grinned when he saw Sora approach with the rest of his friends.

"Hey guys." Riku quickened and join their forming circle in the hallway. He mainly did it for show so everyone would understand he belongs and he isn't alone and pathetic. Belonging felt good.

"What classes you got?" Tidus asked looking over his list.

"Science, math, French and bio all semester long." He read his schedule and frowned. None of these classes pleased him since they are boring subjects.

"Oh..." Everyone got the same classes but Tidus had French instead of English like everyone else.

"Wait.."Kairi grabbed Tidus' sheet and Riku's. "Riku...You're in grade eleven?" Everyone went behind Kairi to check for themselves and gazed at him after they confirmed it was true.

"From your expressions, I can tell you guys thought I was in grade ten?" He sighed. He really thought they were all the same age but this was bound to happen. Now he had to spend classes with strangers and his classes were already boring enough.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Kairi handed him back his sheet and looked around. No one was smiling except for Sora.

"That is so cool!" He laughed. "You'll be able to drive us and get into bars and..." He wasn't able to talk any longer as the bell went off. "Hm, guess we gotta go. See you, Riku."

"Yeah...See ya." Riku waved quickly and hoped he remembered the way to his first class. He was glad Sora didn't mind him being older since the others didn't seem to enthusiastic about it. He sighed sorrowfully as he beached the door frame that he suspected was his science class.

As he entered, he noticed that everyone had turned their attention to him. Even the the old teacher seemed interested in him. He heard a group whisper about him and a pack of girls giggled in the corner of the room. He liked attention but this wasn't the kind he preferred. He liked when people listened to him and were interested in him but this was just spooky to him. Now he even felt more out of place.

"Heya..." He waved when he reached the first front desk and walked to an empty spot in the middle. Everyone watched him sit down and get his things out.

"Class!" The old teacher yelled harshly and everyone turned to him immediately. "This is our new student, Riku Darkhem. His from Hallow Bastion and ya'll better not pick on him." Everyone nodded knowing their was an 'or else' hidden in his last words. Riku felt embarrassed that the teacher said that and wondered if he looked like a kid who'd let himself be picked on. "I'm Cid Highwind and you are to call me sir, got it?"

"Yes, Sir." Riku replied and tried to focus his attention on the chalkboard.

"Good." He smiled and turned his face towards the people in the back. "Leonhart!" The boy in question opened his eyes slightly and stared at the blond man. "You better stay up during my classes this time for I'm making them extra hard this year just because I'm such a nice guy." He grinned deviously.

"Whatever." The brunet commented and sighed. The rest of the class grumbled and Riku guessed that Cid actually meant what he said.

I shouldn't take this teacher lightly. Riku noted and decided to be on his good side.

"Open your books to page ten." Cid darted out and started talking about the wonders of atoms and chemical fusion.

Riku looked around lazily hoping to find someone doing something distracting but most students seemed to be paying attention and examining their books. Riku he figured he should too but he never cared for science.

Riku eyed the brunet and examined him. He stood out for he wore black leather and everyone was mainly in blue jeans and he was the only one who had his head supported in his hands and seemed to be sleeping.

"Squall!" Cid randomly yelled. "Open your bloody eyes or I'll tape em' open!"

Squall opened them but closed them as soon as the science man stopped looking at him but the same incident kept happening over and over again and the words kept getting harsher until the teacher started swearing and explaining why everyone who acts like him will probably be very unsuccessful in life.

BBBRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGG!

The bell rang during a yelling and no one dared to move unless Cid said so but Riku took the risk and got up. Eyes stared at him as he made his way passed the desks and a blond boy mouthed him to sit back down but Riku ignored it and walked passed the door and turned around to stare at Cid. The teacher stared back with a furious look and Riku smiled then turned it into a grin and walked away.

Everyone stared at their teacher, just waiting eagerly for him to explode but what happened next was something they all thought would only happen during a blue moon and when hell froze over at the same time.

"I like the kid." And then he dismissed the rest of the class who wasn't sure how to react and if the teacher didn't just flip. He never complimented any of them.

O-0-O-0-0-O-O

In grade 10 English class, Sora and his friends were sitting in the back of the room and whispered jokes which the teacher didn't find quite amusing. The blond woman eyed them and decided that it was enough.

"Selphie," The whole class turned their attention to the small brunette. "What in the world can be so amusing? Please, share it with us." She smiled to herself knowing it would put an end for it at least for the next few minutes.

"Nothing, Ms Brooch." Selphie quickly turned her attention to the front and put on her serious face but everyone thought it was a comical face since her face got all wide and stretched out.

"How about you Kairi? Would you like to share those delirious comments with us?" Ms Brooch kept smiling at the small red haired girl who just looked down upon her book. "Or may I continue?" Both girls nodded and the teacher went on about how Jack was a symbol of chaos. This month they were reading 'The Lord Of The Flies' and apparently a rock was also a symbol.

Sora had his head between his crossed arms and lazily laid on his desk hoping something interesting would happen. He eyed Kairi from the corner of his eye and noticed she was still looking down.

Guess Ms Brooch'strick worked. He closed his eyes and thought of Riku.

He thought back of Sunday, when they were dancing in the rain. It was more like spinning but it had a certain dance feel about it. He thought about the way he felt and how quickly Riku seemed to have changed it all. There was, however, one thing that he couldn't forgot about that night. The moment where he was going to kiss him.

Sora didn't think he was gay and couldn't understand why he would of done it. Besides, he liked Kairi not Riku. Riku is nice and seems to always be there for Sora even if they only knew each other a short time.

He did feel weak, though. Maybe that explains it. Riku was so understanding about Sephiroth and did the craziest things to make him happy again that he decided to trust him and he mistook it for attraction.

It all makes sense. Sora thought and smiled, trying to catch up with the work everyone has already started doing.