A quick note before we get started on this fic:

A) I did NOT write this just for Halloween… but thanks to the powers that be, I just HAPPENED to start writing and publishing this in October, so... yay for spookiness?

B) This was tumblr. This was tumblr. This was tumblr. Keep that in mind for the craziness.

C) I am not 100% responsible for the nonsense this story will turn into… only half of it. 25% if you count muses having a mind of their own. So if you wanna yell at me, give me only 25% of your ire XP Enjoy the crazy ride, and don't think too hard about the plot holes.

On April 19th, 1995, in a small place called Kin Town in Okinawa Japan, a young boy named Sora Haley Arias was born pre-maturely due to health complications in the womb. Given such a tiny, vulnerable state, the doctors manually stopped his mother from finishing her labor, allowing the second twin a better chance of recovery and development. Doctors weren't sure Sora would make it at all, because those born at 24 weeks have such a small, tiny chance of recovery. Barely 30 centimeters long and 650 grams, his parents visited him everyday, forced to watch him through an incubator and unable to even touch him, praying he would recover. Against all odds, he made it.

Still alive by the time his identical twin, Ventus was born, the parents managed to take one picture holding the twins together- the first time the twins were reunited after Sora left the womb. Wanting to be sure Ventus did not suffer any remaining abnormalities from the complications, he was put into observation while his mother recovered that night, his parents sleeping soundly knowing their baby was in good care.

Sometime during the night, Ventus was stolen from the hospital.

His parents were frantic, near hysterical as they initiated the search, demanding answers. No staff could give a clear answer, no security systems looked like they had been tripped. The cameras watching the areas had glitched, having a blip in the systems from the time of the disappearance. One minute Ventus was sleeping soundly, having just been checked over and fed by a nurse, and 17 minutes later with missing footage, he was gone. Sora's father, who was American, was furious, screaming at the staff and police for answers- and his Japanese wife, who would usually reign in his temper, was too hysterical to try to stop him, trying to comfort a crying Sora, who couldn't understand his father's screams.

His mother fell into a depression, the labor aftermath and stress from the state of her children swirling her into despair. Her husband, who had already had paternity leave in place because there were two babies to care for, did the best he could to help around the house, keeping it clean and habitable. The only things he could not do were cook, and feed Sora, since he was bad at cooking, and his wife refused to use formula, afraid it would not give the once premature Sora the proper nutrients to grow.

The father found a temporary job close to home, keeping an income as the parents anxiously waited for any news from the police. But as the months dragged on, and savings dwindled, he decided to go back to being a pilot, becoming a sole breadwinner, so his wife could spend what little energy she had on taking care of their baby. She clung to Sora, and spoiled him, and protected him from practically everything in existence, making him sensitive and anxious and . She even had him sleep in bed with her, anxiety and nightmares of someone snatching him in the night making her unable to sleep otherwise. His father called every day when he was away at work, desperately keeping his son attached to his voice.

He met Riku when he was four years old, and Kairi when he was five. Wanting to impress the cool, strong, older boy (Riku was a whopping one year older) Sora did his best not to cry so much, and start playing more roughly with him. His mother became distraught, to the point where her husband had to reassure her that boys will be boys, and sadly, beating each other up was just a natural part of their existence.

Sora finally moved to his own bedroom, but still grew up knowing about his missing brother. Every year, the day after his birthday, his parents took a picture of him, using it to update Ventus' missing person's file with the police. They sent it throughout all of Japan, having no luck keeping it on Okinawa. After about 7 years, the family stopped talking about him, the pain of acknowledging the missing piece too great. Sora latched onto his friends, using their playtime to distract himself, and viewed his good friend, Riku, like a brother.

So when the boy had to move back to America when his father's marine deployment ended, Sora was utterly devastated. Kairi stuck with him, doing her best to play with him, and try to make him happy. As a result, they wound up doing practically everything together. They watched Disney and kids animes and Sailor Moon together, and played swords and collected seashells, and even rough housed and had tea parties, and did each other's nails.

Though Sora was really bad at that last part. He was also pretty bad at crafts in general. Seriously, don't expect anything artistic from him because it turns out terrible.

He didn't really like school, but he loved the stories his father told him about on his job. All the cool places he went to, other countries he got to see. His love of Disney and his father's stories gave him a thirst for adventure, making him decide to follow his father's footsteps and become a pilot.

He also e-mailed Riku back and forth for a few years. Both he and Kairi kept in touch- but inevitably, as with all long distance relationships, lives got busy, people grew apart, and the e-mails eventually ceased.

Well, Riku ceased. Sora never found out why.

Sora's favorite Disney movie was The Lion King. Kairi's was The Little Mermaid. Kairi loved the ocean, and beautiful shells, and longed to go deep sea diving some day. And as someone with red hair, who was singled it for it growing up, she related to Ariel, and insisted that "we redheads of the sea need to stick together!"

Sora just thought the lions were cool. \_(ツ)/

Sadly, this turned the both of them into hardcore otakus. While they did love all the Disney movies, and insisted on trying to memorize as many songs as they could, nothing would ever compare to their favorites. Kairi begged her mother to take her snorkeling along all of Okinawa's beautiful coral reefs (with her bringing Sora along too) and practiced swimming properly for the day she would finally be a beautiful mermaid. Sora practiced "stalking" and "pouncing" on all fours, and perfecting his roar, so he could be a proper lion when he grew up. He insisted Kairi wrestle with him, and she insisted he pretend to be Eric in order to save her from a pretend Ursula.

This, combined with their avid love of Sailor Moon, gave him a very specific taste for girls growing up.

As they grew older into their own people, they finally deviated more into their own interests. Kairi got some girl friends, and Sora hung out more with the other boys. Their friends teased them sometimes for being a "tomboy" and a little "girly" respectively, but they could give back as much as they got, and never minded the minor insults. They appreciated each other, and that was all that mattered.

It didn't help that they were both good looking, so were actually quite popular in school.

Well, to be fair, so were Tidus, and Selphie. The whole group was lauded as some of the "pretty American kids".

You see, Sora was technically a "haffu". Both his mother and father were biologically Japanese, and American, with one parent from each respectively. What Sora got were Japanese physical features- a rounded face, slanted eyes, and a small nose- with Caucasian blue eyes and brown hair. It made a unique physical combination that made him look younger than he really was, and made him look almost nothing like his brown haired and brown-eyed parents. It was pretty hard convincing people he wasn't adopted.

Kairi on the other hand was a international adoptee, having been brought to Japan when she was a baby. Her biological father was a famous professor at a prestigious university, while her biological mother had been a student that had gone back for her PhD. Her adoptive mother- the current mayor of Kin Town- had been friends with her biological mother, and when she had seriously considered an abortion, the mayor begged her to allow her to adopt the child instead, having always wanted kids, but with no real timeline of when that would be feasible. Thus, she and the professor willingly gave up the rights to the child to let her adopt her officially, bringing her to Japan.

Her biological father had written her a letter for her to open "when she was ready" which the mayor decided was a few months after she turned nine. In it, the professor explained to her that while she was a lovely child, both he and her biological mother were actually quite old for children, and would not be able to give her the care she needed growing up. So that was why they gave her to someone who could, so that she could lead a happy, successful life.

(This professor was an expert in clinical psychology, so had an understanding of what could be considered appropriate language for a younger child. While adoption was not his expertise, he had heard enough about it to understand that she would need validation of her existence, and assurance that their decision to let the mayor raise her was due to their personal circumstances, not any short comings on her part.

He decided it best not to mention the consideration for an abortion part- at least not in this letter. He left that to the Mayor to decide when to tell her personally, if at all.)

Tidus' father was an American marine. He had been deployed to Kin Town when Tidus was about nine, and enrolled him in the same school Sora and Kairi attended. They became friends because he didn't know Japanese well, and Sora and Kairi by that time were fairly fluent in both, so stuck around Tidus to help him around town.

Before that, however, Tidus met Wakka at the beach and became friends. The story went that he tried to play volleyball with Wakka and his family, but they wouldn't let him. He and Wakka ended up in a fight, and they all ganged up on him and punched him until he went to the ground. He got up, went back to his house for his toy sword, and went back and in turn beat them all up. They were so impressed with his strength and awesomeness, they decided to let him play and became friends with him.

(The real story was actually much, much worse. But Sora and Kairi wouldn't learn the truth until years later.)

Wakka was Ryukuan, an Okinawan native that had inhabited the islands long before Japan had annexed it several centuries ago. While some preferred to simply be called Japanese, he was proud to call himself Ryukuan. He was older, already in middle school, and had an older brother in highschool. He was super into sports, and played with Sora and Tidus often. Playing against the older boy made Sora and Tidus try and play that much harder. They got desensitized to facing kids bigger than them, and he ended up learning more about America and it's good qualities.

Selphie was the daughter of a fisherman, and moved to the islands when she was ten. Her father, sick of the freezing temperatures of the northern seas, moved his wife and young daughter to the tropical waters of Okinawa. He was still away from home most of the time, but in his opinion, suffering heat and humidity was still better than being freezing all the time.

Apparently Selphie had learned to defend herself. A little too eagerly, one might add. She was a little too eager to join in their games and beat up the boys when they were dumb. Which was unfortunately a lot.

… Actually everyone in the group was pretty dumb. It was a miracle they all survived, really.

Anyway, point was, for some unfathomable reason, not only were they all of American blood, the four had good genetics and were all really good-looking kids, and gravitated together due to circumstances. It made them stick out quite a bit (and garnered quite a few crushes and secret admirers).

But their novelty wore off after a couple years when people realized they were human beings and just as normal, flawed, and dumb as them.

And then they hit middle school.

The first year of middle school, the kids wound up in the same class. Because, as it happened, not only were they all (mostly) Caucasian and good looking, they were all equally lazy and just skated by studying the bare minimum, so their scores were all, predictably, barely passing.

...Well, Sora and Kairi were lazy, poor Selphie and Tidus just couldn't read or write kanji well enough, so they didn't want to bother.

They spent lunch and breaks together, sharing music, talking about shows and their last games, and of course complaining about school. Though they all went to different clubs, having different interests. Kairi joined a crafting club, and Selphie joined volleyball. Tidus joined water polo and Sora eventually decided on track. If only things could have stayed the way they were. They could have been sweet, innocent kids just skating by in life, without a care in the world!

But alas, they all had to face a teenager's worst nightmare.

Puberty.

Tidus shot up like a weed. Finally getting his father's genes and filling out with his water polo club, he quickly became popular among the girls. With his oh so cool hair and golden summer tan, he quickly became the star of the school, making the water polo games like a concert.

Selphie didn't grow all that much- she was still pretty short, and truthfully had a small frame even as she got older. But she had bright, brilliant green eyes and held her hair in a classic upsweep. With her small frame and bright disposition, she was seen as "cute" and "adorable", and she wore that title with pride. She didn't care if she wasn't the prettiest! Everyone still treated her nice since she was so cute. She would take what she would get- which was the admiration of a lot of boys, .

And Kairi…. Oh Kairi.

Everyone already knew about the mayor's foreigner daughter. She was polite enough, and her red hair was enough to stand out in any crowd. She really only liked hanging out with her close (foreigner) friends, and was known as a bit of a tomboy.

But once she hit middle school? Oh man.

She was gorgeous. Her frame filled out as she grew taller, making a perfect hourglass figure, and she let her hair grow out from it's short cut. Her skin was clear and perfect, her eyes the most breathtaking violet blue. Already the source of admiration of many, she became the target of practically everyone, a source of love for boys, and envy for the girls. Everyone thought she'd pick the handsomest boy in school to be her boyfriend.

And Sora… well, Sora…

It wasn't that he was ugly. He did grow, just like all kids, but compared to Tidus's 175 centimeters, his measly 160 centimeters paled in comparison. He had picked track club, not a muscle-building sport, so although he had a lean frame, he wasn't buff in comparison. And sure, he had the exotic foreigner features, but his hair was still brown. Not flashy like Tidus's blond, or Kairi's red. That was boring in comparison.

And his ears. Oh jeez his ears. They were big and stuck out like a monkey's- so dorky and uncool. Compared to his friends, he just wasn't that impressive.

Thank goodness he was at least taller than Kairi and Selphie, though. If he wasn't, he'd have died.

So he began to study.

Not actually study of course, because that was boring. He meant studying men's fashion. At the time zippers were all the rage, and a more punk-like aesthetic was sweeping the places like Tokyo. He ditched his boyish shorts and adopted cool pants, with a layered jacket to fill out his slim frame. He bought thick sweatbands and a few accessories to help, mostly silver since those were neutral for most of his outfits, while still making him stand out. And of course, the coolest shoes he could get that his parents could afford.

Sadly, as he quickly realized, this didn't actually help him in school. They had to still wear uniforms /

Okay, time for part two: his hair!

He couldn't dye his hair any wild colors- it was against school rules. Plus his mom would kill him. So he begged for some hair gel, mousse, and spray, so he could begin to experiment.

His liked the way Tidus' hair swept out to the sides to make his ears look smaller, and Wakka's pompadour went up to make him look even taller, but he couldn't use either of those! He needed to stand out! Not copy someone else's style!

He wrote to Riku asking what he thought would look good. But like always, Riku never replied. (He had stopped answering last year.)

Sora dove into magazines, online pics, and watched kpop and jpop concerts religiously to try to get ideas. He experimented with his hair everyday after school for different styles, taking pics and sending them to his friends to get their opinions. But nothing really stuck to him for a while.

(One hairstyle he thought he would like was an undercut. But when he begged his mom to take him, she said no, horrified at the thought of her baby boy looking like a literal hooligan.)

But finally, after four months of getting things just right, he found it.

The one.

… then he went to school, and everyone made fun of him, and he went back home and changed it again.

Then he found the one he was looking for, and all was well with the world.

Tidus and Wakka often teased Sora that he was basically like a girl because of all the stuff he did with Kairi. Of course, this was usually just to goad him until he beat them up, but it was a running joke in their group. Though this was just a tease on their part, Sora did understand the elusive female culture a lot more than his male counterparts because of it.

Because Kairi had grown up comforting Sora from his loneliness as a kid, he didn't have a problem crying in front of her when a sad scene came up in a movie. Since he was already used to Sailor Moon, he didn't mind watching the occasional shojo series she and Selphie were watching- or any of the other female classmates for that matter. And although guy's fashion didn't translate to girl's fashion, he knew basic color theory, and the secrets of silhouettes, so could offer the occasional bit of advice. As a result, he was allowed into the girl's gossips and conversations. His mother spoiled him, but she also encouraged him to be kind and gentle- forbidding him from watching violent cartoons (which did nothing since he still beat up his friends) and only allowing Disney in the household. Something the already sensitive and empathetic boy took to heart.

Unfortunately-

"O-oh, Sora, I… I'm so flattered you like me, but… I really like talking to you, and I wouldn't want to lose you as a friend! Let's just stay friends so we don't ruin anything."

This happened every time he tried to confess to a girl he had a crush on. Every. Single. Time.

He already knew Kairi didn't like him romantically. He had already confessed- but unfortunately, he was "like a brother to her" so nothing ever came of it. After about an awkward month of avoiding her, Sora eventually came to terms with it and moved on, sliding back into their familiar friendship.

Though he would be lying if he said a part of him wasn't still in love with her.

But, he tried to find love elsewhere, and as a result, wound up getting rejected elsewhere too. Such was life.

On the flipside, Kairi had the opposite problem. Thanks to her time with Sora, and in turn the other boys, the more she became privy to the male culture, the more attractive she became. She understood boys! She wasn't offended at the talk of other girls! She was basically like a guy, but super pretty !

But every time someone tried to confess to her-

"Sorry, but you're not my type."

Rejection. Every. Single. Time.

Of course she complained to Sora every time a boy tried to ask her out. Not because they liked her, but the dumb stuff they would do to try to "impress" her. It was part of the reason he had braved confessing to her in the first place. He already knew what not to do, so surely he wouldn't do something dumb to annoy her! But alas, "feelings" played a part as well, and it still didn't work.

It hurt his poor, romantic heart. But he still hoped to find his true love someday, and continued to plan and daydream about all the romantic things he'd do with her once he found his true love.

Wakka was a "native" Japanese- that meant he had a complicated history with the modern Japanese government- and in turn, the American military. In fact, when he and his family first met Tidus, he had beat him up because of that reason.

To Wakka and his family, Tidus was the enemy. So they let out their anger and frustration at the American boy to show him who was boss. So when he returned- not with officers or soldiers, but a literal toy sword to beat them all up- they were shocked and impressed. Mostly since he was still bruised and bloody and had the strength to even go right back at them.

It was when they met each other at the beach again that Wakka apologized for attacking him. And told him how many marines in the past had committed crimes against his people, but had never been held accountable.

Tidus understood. Because his dad was the same way.

"Wait-" Sora gaped. "That's why you guys fought? I thought you were just mad about the net or something!"

"Wakka!" Kairi gasped in disapproval. "What if you had really hurt him?"

Wakka just laughed. "We did! And he still came back!"

"It wasn't too bad," Tidus shrugged. "My dad hits worse."

"You're lucky you weren't killed!" Selphie added.

It was Sora's first exposure to the complicated history of his town, and in turn, his country. When people wondered, in later years, how Sora was so accepting of those that looked and acted differently than him, he'd chalk it up to Disney, claiming it was thanks to all the different places in their stories, and the messages of seeing past appearances to the people within.

And while that was certainly part of it, it was also thanks to the realities of the people he happened to know. Almost like fate decided he needed to know how the world really worked.

But he wouldn't think to hard about that right now. He just wanted to get through school work, and get along with all his friends.

Now every teen liked music of course- kpop and jpop were the major contenders in their school (and country) but Sora and Kairi seemed to have a special knack for rhythm. Maybe it was all those Disney songs growing up, but they learned musicality fairly easily, and excelled both in singing and dancing. Because Sora had family in the states, and a dad who could get flight discounts, they traveled frequently to see his grandparents and cousins. There he discovered hip hop songs that hadn't made their way onto Japanese mainstream radio. As a result, he got to enjoy 15 minutes of fame every time he came back, sharing the cool American music he brought back. He learned some moves and was coordinated enough to learn a couple cool break dance moves- but they were basically party tricks. He wouldn't be going head to head with a professional anytime soon.

But both he and Kairi loved pop music, and they practiced routines from their favorite idols. Kairi's favorite was Girl's Generation, while Sora's was actually BOA, but for dancing he just took routines from a few male idol bands- primarily Bangtan Boys. (He always joked he looked just like Suga- which made his friends think he was stupid and delusional.) But their all-time favorite artist was a goddess on the music scene: Utada Hikaru.

Utada was an American-born Japanese artist that had major hits in both Japanese and English, and was well-known in both lands. Though she had hits in America, in Japan she was a sensation, and the teens all loved her to the moon and back. Kairi was absolutely in love with Hikari. And before Riku stopped e-mailing, he confessed he really liked Sanctuary more than Passion. So you could imagine the devastation when Utada decided to announce a haitus in 2010.

Truly, they understood, but that didn't make the pain any less grievous. Truly it was a sad, sad day for them. Nothing could possibly compare to this devestation.