Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do, however, own the copyright for the Struggle uniform. Baby steps, I guess...

Warnings: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.

Chapter 10: Tryouts - Part 1

15:55. Five minutes left. Only five minutes before the beginning of the end.

It was with that kind of spirit that Riku entered the Struggle team changing room.

The moment he set foot in, half a dozen pair of eyes turned to look at him, just immediately before moving away, pretending they had not seen him. Great, that was shaping up to be a repeat of the swimming team treatment.

He shrugged his shoulders and moved towards the most isolated spot he could find, ignoring the malevolent glares he was feeling on him, and taking from his bag the Struggle uniform that he had received that same morning, when he had registered for the tryouts.

He quickly took off his shirt and pants and slid inside it. He felt kind of ridiculous with that armor, which made him look more buff than he really was while, at the same time, with the eight spheres attached on it, it made him look like some kind of Christmas tree. Everything was fittingly completed by the headgear, which added four more balls on his head.

And, just to add insult to injury... who in the world thought it was a good idea to provide him with pink balls?! Seriously, Struggle players had always sported four classical colors: red, blue, yellow and green. Four respectable color. Heck, even brown would have been better than pink.

He was starting to seriously consider the option of giving up and going back sulking in his room, but it looked like fate had other plans in store for him that day. And, apparently, fate had decided to take the form of Sora.

"Riku! Where were you?" the small boy scolded him. "We'll be late and that's not a good idea to make a bad first impression on coach Auron!"

"Hey, Sora..." The boy shut up immediately, clearly not used at hearing Riku calling him by his name. "I don't feel like facing all these guys." Riku said it in a totally spontaneous -so unlike him- way. Sora looked back at him, unusually serious.

"Honestly, Riku... what could happen? At worst, you won't make it to the team. But if you manage to do it..." He snickered. "Can you picture the face that all those idiots who think you're not worth the Struggle team will make?"

Well, he wasn't completely wrong, Riku had to admit it. Actually, he was probably right.

And just before leaving the locker room, Sora winked at him. "And, well, should someone really want to pick a fight, we'll kick their teeth in, right?"

And so, Riku's choice had been made.

Even if it wasn't his choice.

The Struggle field was a grass expanse stretching for sixty feet. Riku was sitting on his green surface, together with no less than thirty schoolmates, many of which he did know. Unfortunately.

Trepidation was palpable in the air, after all Struggle was the most popular sport in Twilight High and it was quite difficult to be accepted on the school team. He looked to his left without turning his head, catching a glimpse of Sora talking with Axel and Saïx a mere few inches from him.

He felt a burning feeling rising inside him. It was similar to rage, a sensation he was quite acquainted with, but he wasn't directed at his two ex-friends -aka the two oni-. Or at Sora. Not directly at least.

He couldn't really put his finger on it, but he was pretty sure that someone could have called it jealousy. Ridiculous: why should he be jealous?

The flow of his thoughts was interrupted abruptly by the arrival of a man carrying a giant backpack from which multiple bats could be seen sprouting. It was difficult to guess the man's age: he didn't look that old, but his face was one of someone who had gathered enough experience for about two lifetimes. Mid-thirties, Riku would have said. A few gray lines occasionally spurted from his black short hair and his left eye was permanently closed, sporting a huge scar across it. He was wearing a blood red suit that looked slightly like a ceremonial dress of sort, kept closed with an old brown belt. Riku got the feeling that it could have been an ancient Struggle uniform.

"That's coach Auron. Just keep your mouth shut if you want to get a chance at making the team." Sora, who had reached him the moment the man had started getting closer, whispered to his ear.

It seemed like that that Auron guy knew how to get respect from his players, considering that the talking buzz ceased immediately. He put down the backpack with a sonorous 'clang' and took a long moment to look at the youngsters in front of him.

"Listen well, because I won't repeat it twice." he started, without bothering to introduce himself. "There are ten spots open to join the Struggle team, which means that if you aren't complete idiots or really bad at math, you should have already realized that there won't be a place for the most of you."

That revelation hit Riku in the face like a car truck: only ten spots?! That meant that two thirds of them would not be able to make it. Even worse: the team already counted eight members, which reduced the places even further up to the ridiculously small number of two.

"That said, I want all of you to remember that the fact of having already a place on the team doesn't guarantee you a reconfirmation for the next semester." Auron added immediately after, as if guessing Riku's thoughts.

Well, that meant that there were effectively ten spots, but the fact that he was competing with people who already knew how to play Struggle put him at a clear disadvantage. After all, he had never taken a Struggle bat into his hands before.

Auron kept on talking, apparently unaware of the buzzing that his last affirmation had caused. "The tryouts will take place this way: we'll start with three individual trials to test, respectively: your speed, strength and endurance."

From the corner of his eye, Riku caught sight of Saïx mouthing to Axel the words: 'pay up' while extending his hand, palm open.

"Then it will be time to test your effective ability at Struggle with multiple matches against each other."

Axel distinctly snickered.

"But first, we'll start with a quick tour of your names, just so that I'll know who I'll be yelling at." It sounded like a joke, but the man's face was dead serious, enough to persuade Riku that it would've been better to take the guy seriously.

People started to introduce themselves, complete with their name, age and hobbies. At least until Auron cut them short by shouting that that wasn't the drama club and that he wasn't interested in their personal life. After that, people started to simply saying their name.

"Vaan" "Balthier" "Seifer"

The list of names kept on flowing, getting closer and closer to him.

"Nooj" "Shuyin" "Gippal"

Damn, in a moment it would have had to make his presence known to everyone. Well, it was just a matter of time, anyway.

"Axel" "Saïx" "Sora"

"Riku"

A silence ensued. He was the last of the line, of course, but he couldn't help but feel, once more, cold gazes on him. And then someone from the first row screamed: "Struggle is not for sissies!"

A few people laughed. For three whole seconds, maybe, stopping immediately when Auron started talking again.

"Who said that?"

He asked it in a such authoritarian tone that none dared to reply. His right eye darted through the crowd for a few more seconds, before talking again.

"Very well." He started again calmly. "You, you and you. Stand up." After a moment of hesitation, three guys in the front row reluctantly obeyed.

"I don't know who said that, but I know you three were finding it very funny." Auron kept going, looking them up and down. The three boys, clearly embarrassed, were staring at the ground.

"Get out of here!" he finally proclaimed, causing a multitude of surprised looks. When the three boys didn't move, he repeated it, slightly harsher.

Riku looked in awe at the boys leaving the grass field and disappearing back into the changing room.

"This would serve as a warning for everyone else." Auron resumed in a perfectly calm and controlled tone of voice, like nothing had happened at all. "Out of here, you can do whatever you want and, frankly, I couldn't care less. But while you're in here..." He paused for a moment, adjusting his small glasses on the nose. "In here you are a team, and as a team you'll need to learn to cooperate and respect each other. Which means that stuff like ethnicity, gender or sexual preferences doesn't matter and are not something to make fun of. If you're not okay with that, you can get your ass out of here immediately."

None moved, so Auron started to explain in depth how the tryouts would have taken place. Riku discovered himself smiling.

Everyone was watching closely, as the first four competitors were lining up on the starting line of the speed trial. Nothing particularly exciting, but Riku recognized that 100 meters dash was a simple and effective way to test how fast the participants were indeed.

And then coach Auron blew his little whistle and the tryouts officially started.

Riku's confidence was getting a quick boost, as he observed the first series of competitors scoring times well over 13 seconds: he was pretty confident that he could manage to go under the bar of the 12 seconds: after all he had always been pretty athletic and, without false modesty, definitively the fastest swimmer on his ex-team.

Then, finally, the coach called his name, along with three more people, one of which happened, of course, to be Seifer. Riku wondered if fate had a grudge against him.

Then again...

Sora's words echoed in the back of his mind.

'Kick their teeth in'.

How many times had he dreamed to do that to Seifer during last year? The prospective of humiliating the blond boy by defeating him in a fair challenge was more than enough to give Riku the extra-motivation he needed. He took his place at the second starting block, just next to Seifer, paying particular attention not to dignify his presence with a look.

Grave mistake.

Auron whistled and Riku instantly got ready to propel himself through the running track. His left foot leaped forward... and he brutally landed on his face, finding himself eating turf while his competitors stopped running realizing what had happened: Seifer had grabbed his leg the moment the race had started, making him trip clamorously.

With an immense effort, he managed to suppress the urge to get back on his feet and punch his bully, being pretty sure that such a reaction could've costed him the tryouts. None was saying anything and an icy silence was surrounding them. Then, with his face still on the ground and his fists firmly clenched, he heard a scream that made him look towards his aggressor.

"What did I just say a few minutes ago?" Auron was asking calmly to Seifer. His calm voice contrasted with the fact that he was holding the boy by the hair, effectively suspending him from the ground. Seifer screamed again and Auron put him back on his feet, keeping to look at him and clearly still waiting for an answer.

Seifer was glaring back intensely, but he didn't dare to do something more than mutter: "I'm sorry, sir."

Auron smirked. A vicious smirk that made Riku realize that the man was someone not to be underestimated. "You think you're smart, uh? I know that look, don't even think for a second that you'll have a guaranteed spot on the team just because you were in last semester."

Even at a few feet of distance, Riku could hear Seifer swallow noisily. He knew that Struggle was one of the rare things Seifer had ever shown an interest in. One of the others was bullying him.

"I'm not kicking you out immediately just because you're one of the strongest players in the school." Riku's smile dropped instantly, pretty much at the same speed at which Seifer's resurfaced. "You three, get back on the starting line." he then said to the other competitors.

"As for you, Seifer..." he added when he saw the boy getting back to the starting line. "Even if I'm not kicking you out of the tryouts, you'll get a penalty for the trial: I'll add... let's say... ten minutes to your time."

If looks could kill, Auron would be dead. Seifer was glaring at him so ferociously that just the fact that the man didn't back off was impressive. Instead he just smiled at him, that little smirk still lingering on his face, defying him to just go on and give him an excuse to throw him out of the tryouts for real.

Even someone as slow-minded as Seifer would have realized that, and so he took his place without a word, not stopping to glare at the man until the moment he whistled the start of the race.

A few minutes later, the last four competitors were lining up, Sora included.

Riku observed interested: he was pretty sure that Sora had to be pretty fast; after all, he had seen him in action during the Struggle match the day before. That, and he had just that kind of lean body that screamed: 'look at how fast I am'. For a moment, the memory of Sora walking shirtless in his room popped into his mind, but he quickly shook those inconvenient thoughts out of his head.

Anyway, no matter how fast the boy was, he couldn't possibly top his time: 11.8 seconds was a really good time, even in competitive settings.

And then Auron's whistle resounded one last time and Sora started running, leaving Riku open-mouthed: the boy was impossibly fast, to the point that by the half of the track, he had already left an overwhelming gap between him and the other competitors. Finally, he crossed the finish line.

11.3 seconds.

An amazing time which -Riku didn't miss to notice- put his really good 11.8 seconds to shame. Even Auron patted him on the back.

And Riku's feeling of jealousy came back, all of a sudden. He realized that he had started to forget why he hated the small boy that much: he had replaced him, stolen his place and taken from him everything he had ever cared for.

And when Sora got closer to him, he couldn't help but turn his head the other way, pretending not to have seen him.

End Notes: This was originally a far longer chapter, but in the end I decided to cut it in two chapters and add a few more... things (mainly in the second part). Well, hope you enjoy it.

Preview: The Struggle tryouts keep going on! Competition is tough, but Riku is determined to get a spot on the team. More than that, he is dead set on defeating his rivals. Sora included.

Next Chapter: Tryouts - Part 2