Chapter 3: Meeting the Family

While following Nyx home, the scenery changes from the bustling city to a more suburban area. The houses are father apart, with decent sized yards big enough to run around. Once they reach their destination, they are in front of a peach colored house with a brown roof that oversees a "Y" shaped intersection. It has a bay window on the left side of the house, looking into what could be seen as a living room. The house is situated on its own little hill, with a spacious green yard and a driveway that leads to a two-car garage. The right side of the driveway has a young Japanese maple tree with beautiful red leaves. On the other side of the driveway at the end, three steps lead to a walkway to a white front door on a red brick wall. On the left of the walkway are various decorative miniature trees and bushes. On the right of the brick wall, a sculpture of an eagle over the number 50 hangs.

Nyx opens the screen door and opens her bag to dig for her keys. Upon seeing her struggle, Riku holds the screen for her. As she pulls out her keys, Nyx utters a small 'thank you' towards Riku. Once she opens the door they head inside. Straight across from the hallway lies the stairs that lead up to the second floor landing where the bedrooms and main bathroom are. The wallpaper is a mix of pastel greens, pinks and whites. The living room is to the left, and on the right of the staircase is another staircase going down into the kitchen. Before the living room, there is a small wall on the immediate left that holds a glass ledge and a mirror with crystal flowers swirling through it. The living room held a piano on the closet wall to the hallway, a tan leather loveseat and two couches, an upright bass on a stand, and a brass table on the farthest wall under a grand mirror. Behind the loveseat on the right side wall of the room there was a railing and stairs that lead into another room. While Riku was preoccupied with curiosity, Nyx quickly closes the door. Soon, a black figure on four legs darts out from the left side of the second floor and looks down from the top of the stairs. A black, shiny tail starts wagging, and the four-legged creature flies down the stairs to greet the new stranger. He jumps on Riku, causing him to stagger a bit from the unanticipated attack.

"Shadow get down" Nyx commands. "No jump!" The four-legged creature gets down, but does little jumps in excitement as he puts his weight on Riku. "Sorry about not warning you about the dog, he doesn't bite. If anything he'll try to lick you to death. He just wants you to pet him." Nyx is visibly embarrassed.

"It's alright, I don't mind dogs." Riku shrugs. "What kind of dog is he? His coat is really shiny."

"He's a black Labrador Retriever. He coat relatively stays shiny even through dirt. He's a special dog." Nyx explains this while patting Shadow's head. The dog didn't pay her much mind, as he was distracted by the scents on Riku. "He also likes to sniff a lot."

"I see." Riku pats Shadow's stomach, who's now on the ground belly-side up to give Riku access. 'Such a silly dog,' Riku thinks. "Is your mom here? I should probably speak to her soon."

Nyx sighs. "You'll have to wait for a bit. Her car wasn't in the driveway so she's either doing errands or still at work. In the meantime, would you like something to drink?"

Nyx offers a multitude of drinks. Riku settles on water. While Nyx goes and gets water for Riku, Shadow and him are playfully wrestling. Suddenly Shadow pops up and starts barking, throwing Riku off guard and startling him, though he wouldn't admit it. Nyx comes back upstairs and gives Riku his water when the sound of keys can be heard through the door. Nyx opens the door, and there lies an older, spitting image of Nyx. The woman, (whom Riku presumes is Starlette an Nyx's mother) has a young face but has features of a middle-aged woman. She has dark straightened hair like her daughter, although graying at the roots. Her figure is a lot more petite and dainty than Nyx. She is wearing a black sleeveless dress shirt with flared out gray pants. On her neck lies a small chain with a ribbon of silver shaped as a heart. Her shoes were plain black-heeled shoes.

"Hi mommy." Nyx greets her mother with a hug and a smile on her face. "I have someone who'd like to speak with you." She gestures toward Riku.

"Oh, so you must be Riku. How nice to meet you! I'm Starlette." She greets Riku with a handshake. "Would you like to sit down?"

The group, including Shadow, migrates towards the living room and takes their seats. Shadow, somewhat upset from being ignored by his 'mother', plops down in front of where she's sitting (by the window) to get belly-rubbed. She takes off her shoes to rub him with her feet, muttering the words "silly dog" and "big baby" under her breath. 'For a dog, he's such a momma's boy.' Nyx get up to go upstairs and put her bag away. She comes back down with a handheld electronic console in her hand. She sits on the couch in the corner next to the stairwell. Riku is sitting on the loveseat.

Starlette starts the conversation. "So, as you know, Master Yen Sid sent you here to get the information that we possess. We can give you that, but it won't happen overnight." Riku inwardly sighs. "There's a lot to learn about the history of Kingdom Hearts according to the Lycans. But first, do you know where you're staying?"

Riku didn't think of that. "I honestly didn't think of that. I figured the old abandoned mansion would do…"

"Oh heavens no! We've already made arrangements for you to stay here." At this, Nyx's head shoots up from the game she's playing and stares at her mother with a questioning glance.

After seeing Nyx's reaction, Riku asks "Are you sure it's alright?"

"Yes of course. School is about to start in a few days. You're attending Sky High to train during your stay here. My daughter is a senior there. What better way than to go together?" Nyx rolls her eyes at her mother's enthusiasm. "Another reason why you're staying here is to go back to school. Seeing how you've been missing for a good period of time. You'll also train at school. It'll give you a chance to hone your skills some more." 'And to help my daughter out' Starlette reflects inwardly.

Riku thinks for a bit. "Sure I'll stay. Staying here would be much better than staying in the old abandoned mansion. It's pretty dusty there."

"That it is. Are you hungry from your travels?" At that moment Riku's stomach growls in reply. Riku blushes in embarrassment. Starlette giggles, "Alright, I'll start cooking dinner."

Starlette leaves the room to go downstairs to the kitchen. This left Nyx and Riku alone in the room. Nyx is making an effort to focus on the game she's playing as she doesn't know what to do social wise. Riku makes an attempt to talk to her.

"So, what's Sky High like," Riku inquires.

Nyx lowers her game and looks at him. "It's a big floating school. It's not a world, more like a hub. It connects to multiple worlds, and only people who know that other worlds exist and are supernatural or work with the supernatural go here."

"That sounds cool."

"Yeah…" An awkward silence fills the room. Nyx speaks up again to kill the silence. "You'd fit right in there. A few years back, the curriculum was based on whether or not you're a hero or sidekick judging from a person's power. Now, it doesn't matter and you take both hero and sidekick classes. It's not you're average school, though regular academics are the same."

Riku became excited in the inside. 'Maybe this won't be so bad after all.' "So, you're a Lycan right?"

Nyx replies with a smile, "Yes."

"Do you have wolf ears?"

At the question, Nyx's smile falls. "Yes we all have wolf features, but I can't transform. We're not allowed to use our powers."

Riku found this odd. By judging from Nyx reaction the topic was a touchy subject. He buries his curiosity for now and tries to change the subject. "Sooo…"

"Sooo…" Nyx copies. The two stare at each other for a moment. Then suddenly they both start laughing. "So, you have a Keyblade," Nyx asks when her laughter dies down.

Riku calms down a bit. "Yes, do you wanna see it?" Before he finishes his question, Nyx's eyes grow big and wide in curiosity. He took her reaction as a yes. He stretched out his hand, and his Keyblade materialized. If he thought Nyx's eyes were wide before, they were small compared to how big they are now. "It's called Way to the Dawn."

Nyx is examining the weapon very intensely, looking at every detail. "That's a cool name, it's fitting. Can I hold it?" Riku, knowing that Way to the Dawn would immediately come back to him, hands her the weapon. Nyx eagerly accepts the Keyblade and tests a small, slow swing. "It's a little heavy," Nyx notes.

Riku is watching the girl with amusement. He then notices that her eyes change back to that amber-yellow color that he saw earlier. He is hypnotized by the glow that it produces, the radiance that resonates from her irises. Nyx senses him staring and looks at him with a questioning glance. "Is something wrong?"

The question brings Riku out of his stupor. "No, nothings wrong" he replies. " It's just that, your eye color changed. It's yellow now, like when I bumped into you before."

With this, Nyx immediately gives Riku back his Keyblade. "Oh it um, does that sometimes. Let me show you to your room." She walks upstairs and takes a right. Riku follows. At the end of the hall there are four doors that lead to bedrooms. Nyx's room has a door with her name on it at the very end. She stops at a door to the left. "This is your room. Make yourself comfortable, I'll go check on dinner." And with that she ran down the stairs in a mad dash towards the kitchen, leaving a confused Riku in her dust.

Nyx makes it to the kitchen, panting heavily as if she ran a mile. Her mother turns away from the pot she's cooking with to give Nyx a questioning glance. Before she could ask her daughter about the current state she's in, Nyx starts to speak. "Why didn't you tell me," *pant* "that he was coming here," she asks.

Starlette ponders for a moment. "I didn't tell you? Whoops, I meant to tell you." She turns back to the pot to mix the contents inside. "I thought it would be a good idea. The Keyblade Masters would get information that would help them. And to reverse a mistake that I made…"

Nyx pauses for a moment. "We can't tell him anything, or give anything away purposefully. How is he going to remember?"

"The curse that was put on him acts as amnesia. There can be a way that his heart can remember without us doing anything. And don't forget about Namine. Her actions may have weakened the curse."

Nyx sighs in frustration. "That still doesn't help me. How am I supposed to help him remember?"

Starlette stops stirring. "That's something that you will have to figure out yourself, Pumpkin Pie."

"I can't deal, I'm going outside right now." Shadow perks up at the word outside and follows Nyx to the family room to go outside. She opens the glass door and goes out onto the deck, closing it once Shadow came out. Starlette zones out on the space her daughter once occupied, then goes back to cooking.