Alright, so I have two chapters for you this week. And maybe any week from now on. Maybe. What do you guys think? Do you want two chapters a week? Or one chapter a week like I've been doing? It's all up to you my dears :) Also, since I've finished writing Elephant, and I need a new project, I'm going to be working on Something About the Rain, but I need suggestions for chapters. So, if there's anything you guys want to know about the characters pasts, and eventually, what happens to them after Elephant ends, let me know :) So far, I have; How Tifa and Cloud met/fell in love/married, stories about Kairi and Sora before and after Elephant, more about Riku and Ellie, things about Axel's past and how he met Roxas, and... uh... I think some other things, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now

Anyway, like I said, I won't be replying to reviews in my author's notes, as it makes the notes too long unless you guys say otherwise. So, let me know :) I appreciate every single review, however, and I never get sick of people leaving reviews! :D

So, finals are next week... which means I will have a shit ton of time to write :) Won't be posting anything but Elephant, but still... XD

Oh! This chapter is the first one I wrote after my month break, so the writing is still a bit sketchy, but there is a new style :) Let's see if anyone can spot it :)

So, as always, enjoy, please review (the number of reviews I've been receiving has gone down and it's rather annoying me... if you like the story, please, review)

Now then, onto Riku's first chapter :D

Full Chapter Title: There are two theories for arguing with women... neither one works

"We need to talk about this."

"No, we don't."

"Hm... I think we do."

"No, Riku, we don't."

Riku's eyes narrowed. He and Ellie had been arguing for the past thirty minutes, and as far as he was concerned, she was the most stubborn girl he'd ever met. Of course, he already knew that, having figured it out when he first met her, but right now she was being abnormally bullheaded.

At the moment, she had her back to him, pulling her hair into a tight bun, as she prepared to leave for work. Riku watched as she did this, sitting in one of his kitchen chairs. He said nothing as he watched her, a sad look in his eyes and he wondered what was going through her head at the moment. She had seemed so sad earlier.

"Look, Riku, I have to go," Ellie sighed, turning to look at him, "I don't have time for this right now. If you want to talk about it, then later-"

Riku stood up suddenly, knocking over the chair, and grabbed Ellie's arm before she could open the door.

"There never is a 'later'," Riku muttered. "You always come up with another excuse, and I'm really getting sick of it." He pulled her around so she faced him, their faces only inches from each other. "So, I think we're going to talk about this now."

Flushing, Ellie looking down at her feet, which only made Riku more frustrated.

She was going to try and get away again.

"Riku, I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about this," she said, pulling her arm out of Riku's grasp. She looked up at him again, a determined look in her eyes, and she added, "I shouldn't have to explain myself to you."

Clenching his teeth, Riku decided to grab Ellie by the shoulders and shove her against the door, his frustration getting the better of him. She let out a gasp, obviously not expecting Riku to be violent with her. Riku himself was surprised by his actions, but it was too late to take them back now, and he really wanted to know what was going on with Ellie.

"I'm your boyfriend Ellie. Four years. I think I have a right to know why you refuse to move in with me," Riku told her.

Ellie didn't say anything, struggling to move away from Riku, but he held her shoulders tightly.

"Please, just tell me why you don't want to. I'll let it go after that."

Just as Riku finished saying this, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Instantly, he released Ellie's shoulders and moved back, irritation rising at the fact she had just kneed him in the stomach.

"I have to go," she snapped, grabbing the door knob and yanking it open. "Axel's getting out of the hospital today."

Without another word, Ellie stormed out of Riku's apartment, leaving him annoyed and frustrated. He stumbled back to the kitchen, rubbing his stomach, and collapsed in the chair, sighing. All he wanted was an answer. A single answer as to why Ellie refused to even talk about moving in with him.

"She'll probably never talk," Riku muttered, pushing some of his hair out of his eyes. He knew his girlfriend very well, or, more the personality of his girlfriend. What he didn't know, was anything about her childhood.

Who her parents were.

What happened to them.

Where she was born.

When she was adopted.

Why she was so touchy about moving in with Riku.

How she met Axel.

None of these things had an answer, and Riku desperately wanted them to have one. If she was hiding something important about her life... well, that meant she didn't trust him, and Riku didn't like that fact. He wanted to be trusted.

"Why are you sitting next to me?"

Riku glanced at the strange girl sitting next to him. She was reading a book, most likely one of her textbooks based on the size.

"Cos' this is the only open seat," Riku replied hesitantly, looking around to make sure it was completely true. It wasn't, but the girl was looking at her book, so she wouldn't know that. He honestly just sat down in the first open seat he noticed.

"No it's not."

Riku let out a sigh and began unpacking his things, not really caring that there was something obviously wrong with this girl.

"Do you not want me to sit next to you?" He had to admit, she was rather amusing.

"Nope. Go away," she muttered, finally looking over at him. Riku nearly dropped the book he was holding. This girl had gold eyes. No one had gold eyes. "What?" The girl's tone turned to one of irritation, and Riku noticed that he had been staring at her. Laughing nervously, he looked away from her and began organizing his stuff.

"Nothing," he said, "I just wasn't expecting that eye color." Out of the corner of his eye, Riku noticed the girl roll her eyes.

"Yeah. That's what they all say."

"And 'they' would be..."

"None of your business. Go away."

"Hm... I don't really want to know. What's your name?"

Letting out a frustrated sigh, the girl slammed her book shut and Riku caught a sight of the title; 'The Law of Business Organizations'. This girl was studying to be a lawyer.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"Well, right now I just want to know your name," Riku said, leaning towards her, curious about the girl now. "But maybe later, lunch?"

"Are you flirting with me?"

Riku snorted, pushing some of his hair out of his face. "Possibly. It all depends on how you look at this situation. For all you know, I just want to be friends."

"Go. Away."

"Why do you hate me so much? You don't even know who I am?" Every second Riku talked to this girl, the more interested he became. Most girls threw themselves at Riku, especially since he moved to Radiant Garden. Sluts, college students, even high school girls who thought Riku would give them whatever they wanted. It really irritated him.

But this person told him to go away, even before she saw him. She was definitely someone he wanted to get to know.

"I don't hate you," the girl said, "I just don't want to associate with a guy who thinks he's better than everyone else."

"I don't think I'm better than everyone."

"Yes you do."

"No, I don't."

The girl sighed and turned towards Riku. "You walked in here, looked around, sighed, then walked over to where I was and sat down without even asking if you could. You think you're better than every other person in this room."

Riku snorted. "Looks like someone reads too much."

"We're in a psychology class. I've done my research."

"Weird. Oh well. My name's Riku," Riku said with a laugh, holding out his hand. "I told you my name, now you should return the favor.

The girl smirked. "I don't return favors."

"Oh?"

"Look, Riku, it's nice to meet you and all, but if you don't get out of here right now, you're going to regret it." She was threatening him. A girl other than Kairi dared to threaten him. She was even more interesting than Riku first thought.

"Fine. Tell me your name, and I'll get out of here," Riku said, then added as an afterthought, "for now." The girl cocked her head slightly, and picked up her book again, before showing Riku a slight smile.

"My name's Ellie."

Riku hated his office. Small, dark, disorganized, and annoyingly filled with another person that he honestly didn't want to talk to at that moment.

Especially since Sora had woken him from a lovely nap, where he was having a dream about the first time he'd ever met Ellie, in their psychology class, in his third year in college. Of course, after Riku had gotten her name, he left Ellie alone, until they were paired together for the semester project.

Ellie hadn't been happy about that.

Riku had been ecstatic.

But of course, Sora just had to come storming into his office, interrupting his wonderful dream.

"What do you want," Riku sighed, "I thought you were on until two today."

"Yeah, I'm doing my job," Sora said, looking confused. "Ellie told me to come find you."

Riku sat up, immediately interested. "Ellie told you to come find me? Why wouldn't she just come to me herself?" Sure, he and Ellie had gotten into an argument that morning, but at work the two had to act as though nothing weird was going on in their personal lives. One of Ellie's "rules."

"I don't know," Sora replied with a shrug. "I think she's busy with these two weird people who walked into her office. She seemed to know them, but at the same time looked really uneasy, then asked me to find you."

Intrigued, Riku stood up as soon as Sora finished speaking. Without waiting for his friend to say anything else, the silver-haired man was out of his office and walked down the hall as quickly as he could to reach Ellie's office.

The door was closed when he got there, and any other day he wouldn't have thought twice about it, but when Ellie was frustrated, she didn't like her door being closed. She had definitely been frustrated this morning when she left, and Riku had seen her door open earlier that day.

Something was up.

But, instead of just barging in, like he wanted to do, Riku knocked calmly on the door. No one answered. Confused, Riku knocked again, but there was still no sound, so, he opened it.

Ellie looked up at him immediately, a look of helplessness appearing in her eyes.

"Riku! There you are. I sent Sora to look for you a while ago. Where have you been?" She asked, standing up. Riku then noticed the two other people in the room, both of whom were staring at him strangely.

One guy.

One girl.

Both had blue eyes, and both were watching Riku like he was a strange monster or something.

Riku found this to be rather unnerving.

"Uh, Sora just found me. I don't know what took him so long, but-"

"Doesn't matter anymore," Ellie said, standing up. "Riku, I'd like you to meet two of my friends from high school." Completely confused, Riku opened his mouth to tell Ellie he was too busy to meet people from her high school, but there was a desperate look in her eye.

"O-Okay?"

The girl smiled, and stood, extending a hand. "My name's Aqua," she said, and Riku was tempted to laugh. Aqua, water, blue hair. It fit.

"As Ellie said, I'm one of her friends from high school. Or, more particularly, one of her only friends," Aqua continued with a smile. She didn't even seem to realize how horrible that sentence sounded, and how irked Ellie seemed to be.

"And I'm Terra," the guy said. "Also a friend."

"Alright," Riku laughed, shooting Ellie a quizzical look, "Um... can I talk to you, outside?"

Ellie nodded eagerly and shot out from behind her desk, grabbing Riku's arm as she dashed out of the room. When the door had closed behind them, Ellie let out a deep sigh and rested her head against Riku's chest.

"Thank God you showed up...," she breathed, "If I had to be alone with them for an entire day, I would probably kill someone." She shook her head as Riku wrapped his arms around her. "Namely Terra."

"Okay, Ellie, who are these people, and why are you acting so... so..."

"Weird?"

"Yeah."

Ellie sighed and pushed away from Riku. "It's kinda a long story..."

"I don't care, tell me anyway."

"Fine," Ellie muttered. Riku was shocked. Ellie was actually willing to say something about her life? It was strange and unusual. He figured that he was going to regret this slightly. "See, when I first entered high school, a bunch of guys I barely know decided it would be fun to try and... do things to me, in order to piss Axel off. They all hated him, you know, thanks to him being a genius, gay, and five years younger than them, but they couldn't get at him, so they got at me. I didn't care, but Ansem flipped when he found out and-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Riku said, placing his hands on Ellie's shoulders. He grabbed her chin and pulled it up so she was facing him. "Things? What do you mean? What the hell did those bastards do to-"

"Oi, shut up, or I'm not telling you the story," Ellie threatened, raising her eyebrows. Immediately Riku shut his mouth, but the anger continued to rise. "Anyway, Ansem made me transfer to a new school, a boarding school, and there I met Aqua, who was my roommate, Ven, a kid who followed me around wherever I went, and Terra, an upperclassman who was in charge of showing me around the school. They became my only friends, because I didn't really want to talk to anyone else, and I kinda had... um... a crush on Terra."

Ellie laughed nervously, then looked up at Riku, most likely trying to gauge his reaction, but Riku was still fuming about about something bad happening to Ellie, that he barely noticed her other comments. Or, he didn't until Ellie mentioned that she and Terra started dating when she was a junior, and he was a senior.

"Whoa, what?"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Typical of guys. Only coming into a conversation when he hears something about his girlfriend's old boyfriend."

"Actually," Riku said, "I really don't care that you dated someone before. I'm more surprised you agreed to go out with him."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, look at him," Riku said, gesturing through the window, where he saw Aqua and Terra talking to each other. "He's really attractive."

At first, Riku thought Ellie was going to murder him. Of course, she misunderstood what he meant by that. Ellie had refused for an entire semester to go out with Riku, and her reasoning; "You're good looking. All the girls must be throwing themselves at you and that's irritating." However, Ellie's initial look of anger, turned into one of frustration.

"Uh... Ellie? Are you okay-"

"Do you know how annoying it is to date a guy who's bi?"

Riku had to laugh at her outburst. Then he realized exactly what she said and his eyes became wide.

"Excuse me? Where did that come from?" He didn't know what was going on, or why Ellie had said that. She must have just been kidding...

"Straight guys don't call other men, 'attractive,' Riku."

Riku had to bite his lip to keep from laughing his ass off. For ten years he'd been trying to hide from his two best friends that he tended to be attracted to both girls, and guys. The first time he really realized this was when he was seventeen, and he noticed that he was kinda, sorta, maybe in love with his best friend.

With Sora.

He moved to Radiant Garden to get away from those feelings.

Neither Sora or Kairi ever noticed, but Ellie did, and she only knew him for a couple of years.

Amazing.

"Ellie-"

"I don't care, it's irritating but not the point of this." She took deep breath, glancing back at her office to see if Aqua or Terra were listening. "I broke up with Terra a year later after he had a psychotic break."

"Psychotic break?"

"Well, I didn't actually break up with him. More, he tried to kill me and I vowed never to see him again."

"He tried to kill-"

"Shut up Riku."

Riku clamped his mouth shut, but was still fuming. That guy shouldn't be in the office. He should be in a mental hospital.

"Anyway," Ellie continued, leaning against her door. "A few years back, Aqua got in touch with me and said that she was taking care of Terra, and that he'd been medicated and what not, so I decided to talk to him again. Then he, and Aqua, and Ven all showed up here and-"

"Holy shit!"

Sora's voice could be heard on the other end of the floor, and then there was a thump, followed by extreme laughter. Ellie and Riku exchanged quick glances, before Riku took off, wanting desperately to know what was going on with Sora.

When he reached the place where he heard Sora's shout come from, he saw a very peculiar scene.

Sora was leaned over, laughing so hard he wasn't breathing, or even making a sound, and standing over him was Roxas, only, it wasn't Roxas. Sure, he had the same hair color and style, the same eyes, and similar clothing to Roxas', but he didn't have a cast on his left arm, or random cuts and bruises that still covered his body from the car accident.

Plus, Roxas hadn't been back in the office since he was hospitalized, pretty much staying with Axel the entire time. Or, he was always in the hospital room whenever Riku visited he red-head. The two of them had been acting strange recently...

But another strange thing about this boy, was how terrified he looked to see Sora laying on the ground laughing. When Riku showed up, the guy glanced up at him, then down at Sora, then back up at Riku.

'Help me,' he mouthed. Riku guessed he probably would have screamed it if the guy hadn't been so scared his voice had died on him.

"Dude, Sora, stop laughing. You're scaring the guy."

Taking a deep breath, Sora managed to sit up, still giggling madly. "But, he looks so much like Roxas. It was so funny to see him not in the hospital."

"H-hospital?" The strange guy whispered. "Wh-what?"

"Ven!"

Ven? This was one of Ellie's friends from high school, and he looked exactly like Roxas... Riku wondered what Ellie's reaction was when she first met him. It was probably a "WTF" moment.

Ellie was next to Riku before he knew what was going on, and she looked like she was on death's door.

"Every time... every time I talk to these three, insanity happens." She sighed, "I'm just glad Axel isn't here to see this. He would so be entertained..." Riku snorted. There was no doubt Axel would be extremely amused by what was happening.

"Well, that was a very amusing day," Riku laughed as he drove him and Ellie back to his apartment. She seemed so tired after sending Aqua, Ven, and Terra and out of the office, that Riku offered to take her back to his house and made dinner for her. She was so grateful for this offer she quite literally glomped him in the middle of her office, something she'd never done before.

"Please don't remind me," Ellie moaned. "I don't want to talk about it." She glanced over at Riku, pouting. "I don't think I'm going to talk to those guys any more." She looked sad, yet also relieved when she said this.

Laughing, Riku said, "You know, friends are a bit odd sometimes. But they're still your friends-"

"They're not my friends," Ellie muttered. "Not anymore."

Riku glanced at his girlfriend as he pulling into his apartment's parking lot. When he turned off the car, he reached over and stroked Ellie's cheek.

"They seemed to be your friends. And it was just Terra who hurt you, right?" Riku asked, not sure why Ellie was so hurt by the three of them. Terra, he got. Almost being killed by someone didn't exactly seem like something a normal person would get over very quickly, but what did that Ventus guy and Aqua do?

"It's nothing, never mind." Ellie brushed Riku's hand away from her face before opening the car door. "Come on. You promised me food."

She's hiding something from me. Again, Riku thought, sighing. Why does she keep all of these secrets from me? Even though Ellie was already at Riku's apartment door, unlocking it with her own key, Riku didn't move from his spot.

Yes, he had offered to make Ellie dinner so she would calm down, but it was also a way to get her to actually answer his questions. Meeting those three people, three people from Ellie's past made Riku even more desperate to figure out what was going on in his girlfriends life. Were there more horrible things that Riku didn't know about?

Was Ellie suffering alone?

"Riku, why are you bringing out wine?" Ellie asked, smiling. She was much calmer than earlier, having had dinner, and time to relax. But Riku was still convinced she had something close to a stick up her ass.

"Because," Riku said, pouring a glass for the female sitting on the leather couch in the living room, "you need to loosen up a bit. You're a twenty-six year old woman who's the only active lawyer in a huge ass company, plus you're an orphan and you're best friend is...well, Axel." He laughed. "You never just relax."

Handing the glass to Ellie, Riku sat down next to her, a drink in his own hand, and pulled a blanket up over them. Ellie laughed. She leaned against Riku, snuggling up close to him, her eyes sliding closed.

"You're such a sappy romantic, you know that, right?"

"I am not!" Riku protested, but Ellie just continued laughing, and Riku placed his drink on the table next to him so he could wrap his arms around Ellie's small body.

"I never said it was a bad thing," she muttered.

Riku smiled, leaning down to kiss Ellie gently on the top of the head. He knew she would be embarrassed by that gesture, but he loved seeing her turn bright red. However, the nice evening couldn't last very long, and both Riku and Ellie could sense that. After a few more moments of the peace, Ellie pulled away, taking a sip of her drink before placing the drink on the coffee table.

"Riku."

"Hm?"

"Why do you want to know about my childhood so badly?" Riku didn't know how to answer that, and all he could do was watch as Ellie looked down at her hands, shaking. "Can't I have my privacy? A few secrets that I can just keep to myself and-"

"We've been dating for four years, almost five," Riku interrupted. He stood up suddenly, his back to Ellie, not really wanting to see her reaction after he said what was really on his mind. "Ellie, I really, really love you," he added after a moment of hesitation. "But if after four years you don't trust me enough to even tell me why you were adopted," he took a deep breath, "then I don't think I can continue being your boyfriend."

He could hear Ellie stand up, and she seemed to be lost for words, something that never happened. A dark feeling rose in the pit of Riku's stomach as he walked away from the couch.

"I'm sorry, Ellie-"

"My parents were murdered."

Riku stopped in his tracks, eyes widening. Slowly, he turned back around to face Ellie, and was completely shocked to see that she was crying, her hands were clenched, and her entire body was shaking. The only other time he'd seen her like this was right after she got the call from her uncle about Axel being in a coma. She was really upset.

"What?"

"When I was four. My parents, and my sister were killed. A robbery." Ellie shook her head violently, then wiped the tears from her eyes. "I came home and found them... I didn't know what was going on, but they weren't moving, and then there were gun shots, and-" she choked on her words, and Riku walked tentatively over to her.

He slowly pulled her into a hug, not sure what to say, or even how he should be feeling. It was twenty-two years ago that this happened, and Ellie was having so much trouble talking about it. It didn't even sound like she was the one speaking, her words were so disjointed.

"Every one I love or come close to," she muttered into Riku's chest, "I lose." She pulled away slightly and looked up at Riku, her eyes slightly puffy from her tears. "I don't want to lose you."

And then, Riku leaned down and kissed her before she could say anything else. When he pulled away, he muttered;

"You won't lose me, Ellie. I promise."

"I only have one more question for you."

"Hm?"

"Axel, you know him really well, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I went onto his computer one time, searching for some kind of record he didn't give me, and I found an open file talking about a guy who looks a lot like him... he came back in before I could find out the name though, and he said it was just someone he was looking for. Who?"

"... I'm not supposed to say."

"Oh come on!"

"What? He and I are best friends. I'm supposed to keep his secrets."

"Yeah, but from me?"

"Riku..."

"Come on."

"Alright, alright. He's... he's looking for his father."

So... what did ya think? Interesting, ne? :) REVIEW!

I had to edit this... one of the section breaks was removed... sorry to all of you who've already read this chapter and were confused by the ending!)

~Sunechirei