Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Eye of the Storm ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Summary: Slight AU. Years later, most of the KH characters have kids. Several of those kids go to Destiny Gardens, a new training facility that Leon put together with the help of Yuffie. One is special in particular, for she is Riku's daughter. She's never known her mother, but a series of events bring her face-to-face with her missing parent. Some shonen ai and mentions of mpreg

Pairings: Leon/Cloud, Tidus/Selphie, Riku/(secret), and others

Warning: There are mentions of mpreg in this story, so if you don't like that you can either ignore the mentions or not read the story at all. Oh, and some shonen ai. Eventually.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. I do, however, own Nerina, Andrew, Sorika, Skylar, and any other OC's made up for the purpose of this fanfiction.

School is hard. There’s no doubt about that. And it’s suppose to be or else how would you learn anything well? If nothing were to give you a challenge, how would you improve? There are days when Destiny Garden’s motto seems to be, “A school without challenge is no school at all”. Those are the days that Sorika Kagi hates the most.

It’s not because of the challenge, because she doesn’t mind that too much. It’s that every single class decides to be challenging on the exact same day. And it has nothing to do with her staying up late to play a new game with Andrew and Nerina Tillmitt the night before. Oh no.

Okay, maybe it has a little to do with it.

“Riiiikaaaaaa!” Nerina sings cheerfully, using Sorika’s nickname. “Cheer up! We’re gonna have a great day in gym today! We’re starting the Blitzball unit, I’m so excited!”

Andrew, Nerina’s older brother, rolls his eyes. “Rina, you’re worse than dad when it comes to Blitzball.”

“Of course!” Nerina chirps. “And it’s because it’s only the best sport in the whole entire world! In any of the worlds!”

Sorika and Andrew sigh and look away while Skylar Strifehart raises and eyebrow and gives the youngest Tillmitt an incredulous look. “Nerina, what the hell are you on?” She bluntly asks.

Nerina looks scandalized. “Nothing! Why would I purposely do anything that would ruin my chances of being the best Blitzball player in the world?”

“It’s- oh, never mind.” Skylar mumbles.

Ever since their first year at Destiny Gardens, the four of them have been friends, maybe even best friends. Some people find it amazing that such different people can get along without fighting like they do, but they don’t find it unusual at all.

Nerina and Andrew Tillmitt are the son and daughter of Selphie and Tidus Tillmitt. While Nerina takes after her dad with her love of Blitzball, she looks and acts more like Selphie with her light brown hair and blue-green eyes. Andrew on the other hand looks and acts more like Tidus with his calmer personality and blonde hair, although his eyes are an amber color. Both of the Tillimitt siblings are tan and are very active, Nerina’s being Blitzball and swimming and Andrew’s being skateboarding and biking. Nerina is fourteen and Andrew is a year older. The two were born on Destiny Island, although they now live year-round at Destiny Gardens since Selphie and Tidus teach there.

Skylar Strifehart is the daughter of Leon and Cloud Strifehart (don’t ask how, they don’t talk about it.). She’s commonly called ‘mini-Cloud’ by Yuffie because she looks near identical to Cloud with her blonde hair and blue eyes. Her hair even spikes up like his somewhat. She’s sixteen and from Hollow Bastion. She and her parents return there during summers to see her old friends and because her parents take a break from Yuffie, during those 2 ½ months.

Sorika Kagi is the daughter of Riku and… actually, she’s never met her mother and Riku is always quiet when she even mentions anything along the lines of her mom. Sorika has white hair like her dad and sky blue eyes that everyone says she got from her mom. “Everyone” being the adults around her. She’s fifteen-years-old and moved around for most of her life until she and her dad settled down at Destiny Gardens. She does know she was born on Destiny Island.

“Hey Sorika, have you heard anything new regarding your mother?” Skylar asks.

Sorika shakes her head no. “Nothing but the usual.” She says with a sigh.

“So basically all we’ve got is that you have the same color eyes, she’s your height, and…” Nerina taps her chin in thought and then smacks a fist into her open palm when she remembers the last thing. “And you were born on Destiny Island, so she had to have lived there at some point! So that’s… three things.”

“Great, that’s so much to go on.” Andrew mutters sarcastically. “You’ve been looking for nearly seven years now and have only found out that much. Why don’t you give up already?”

“Because she’s my mother!” Sorika exclaims angrily. “All of you know both of your parents and live with them! I’ve never even known mine and I want to find her! Even if it means finding out that she hates me and dad and that’s why she left! I just-” She cuts herself off and clenches her hands into fists. “I just want to know what she looks like. That she exists.”

Andrew smiles. “Exactly.”

All three girls look at the blonde boy with incredulous looks on their faces. Andrew ignores it and looks ahead to try and find a distraction. “Ah! There’s Haruko! Haruko!” He runs away from the girls and toward a pretty 15-year-old girl with brown hair pulled back by a blue ribbon.

“Every time.” Nerina mutters. “He’s completely smitten with her.”

“It makes me ill.” Skylar comments.

Sorika says nothing and instead looks at the ground and shuffles her feet.

“Oh, forget about that idiot brother of mine!” Nerina exclaims. “We have a half hour to kill! Lets go do something!”

“If it has anything to do with helping out Mr. Cid with weapon cleaning again you can count me out.” Skylar says. “That is the one thing I never wish to do again.”

Nerina and Sorika laugh at the statement and then surround Skylar and link their arms with the older girl’s.

“Come on Sky, we’re gonna do something fun!” Nerina exclaims cheerfully. “After all, this is our last week together before summer break arrives! When it comes you’ll be heading off to Hollow Bastion like you do every summer and Andrew and I are going to Destiny Island this year for some fun in the sun! And Sor- oh…”

Sorika gives her friends a fake smile. “I’ll be fine here guys. There’s always something to do, you know?”

Nerina nods unsurely while Skylar looks away, not at all knowing what to do or say.

There’s silence for a moment as the three continue walking along the cobblestone walkway at the school.

“Hey, hey, lets go do something fun!” Nerina exclaims. “We can go get a pizza and have a game night or something!”

Sorika shakes her head. “I can’t, you know that. Dinner is one of the few times I get to see my dad. Seeing as how Yuffie sends him off on missions all the time.”

“Ah yes, Yuffie’s infamous mysterious missions.” Nerina nods. “I can’t wait until we graduate and are able to help out! It’ll be fun!”

Skylar raises an eyebrow. “Fun? You think that going out to fight things and track down psycho’s will be fun? And what happened to your Blitzball career?”

“It’s still there and it’s going nowhere!” Nerina exclaims. “First I’m gonna excel at playing while I’m here at school and become captain! Then I’ll teach Blitzball here at school for a while and train on the side until I’m as good as my dad! No, better than my dad! Then I’ll re-enter the Blitzball field as the first professional female Blitzball player! Yatta!”

“Good to see one of us knows what they want to do and is enthusiastic about it.” Sorika says. “So back to our plans of doing something fun, how about we go do something after dinner? We could go to the arcade or drive out to the beach.”

“Ooo! The beach! Let’s go to the beach!” Nerina cheers.

“I take it you want me to drive.” Skylar states. “Since neither of you can drive and there is no chance of convincing our parents to do this last minute.”

“Please and thank you!” Sorika and Nerina say in unison.

Skylar sighs when the two laugh and wonders why she always gets the crazy people as her friends. Both in Destiny Gardens and back in Hollow Bastion she has crazy friends.

Sorika and Nerina take the blonde’s sigh as a yell and pause in the middle of the walkway to grab each others hands and spin around singing, “We’re going to the beach! We’re going to the beach!”

“Children.” Skylar grumbles, stopping to wait for the younger girls. “You two! Act your age, not your shoe size!” She barks.

“Aww,” Nerina pouts. “I hate it when you go and start acting like your dad’s on us. It’s no fun.”

“Poor you.” Skylar replies. “Someone here has to be mature and keep you two in line. And since Andrew isn’t here to help, I have to do it myself.” She walks around until she’s behind them and places a hand on each of their backs, giving her friends a push forward. “Now lets go. School’s over and there’s no way I’m staying her for any longer.”

---------------

A half hour later, ten minutes after saying goodbye to Skylar and Nerina, Sorika arrives home and opens the door and steps in calling, “Daddy! I’m home!”

“Welcome home!” Riku calls out. “I’m in the kitchen! Why don’t you go and change. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.”

“Alright.” Sorika agrees. She quickly slips off her shoes and sets down her schoolbag and slides her feet into her sky blue slippers before she walks past the kitchen, which is on her right, and to the end off the hallway where she pulls down the attic door and heads up the stairs to her room.

In her room Sorika quickly removes her white skirt that has blue stripes going around it, the blue vest and tie, and then the plain white shirt that makes up the school uniform. She stretches, raising her arms over her head and arching backwards, making her back pop a little. She gives a small wince and stands straight, letting her arms fall to her sides. Then she picks up her school clothes and tosses them into the laundry basket sitting in a corner of her room and goes over to her dresser to grab a shirt. Not paying any particular care to what she’s chosen, Sorika slips the shirt over her head and heads over to the closet. Grumbling something about herself being an idiot for forgetting to do her laundry again, she takes the only pair of pants left hanging up and slips them on, fumbling with the yellow belts hanging off of it for a moment.

Sorika walks across the room to her small wooden “make-up” table that Yuffie gave her for her thirteenth birthday and grabs her brush from the table and runs it through her hair to smooth the unruly locks of white hair. She sighs when it begins to poof up like it usually does. ‘I bet if it were shorter it’d actually spike up like Sky’s does. Maybe worse.’

“Sorika! Dinner time!” Riku yells up to her.

“Coming dad!” Sorika yells back, grabbing a random hat off of the corner of the mirror before she runs out of the room and back down the stairs. She pauses at the bottom to put the stairs back up into the ceiling and then continues to the kitchen, but not before tossing her hat down the hall where it lands near her favorite pair of shoes. “Score!” She whispers with a grin, before entering the kitchen and taking a seat at the table across from her dad.

Riku raises an eyebrow at her choice of attire while blinking back tears at the familiarity of her clothes. “That’s an interesting outfit.” He comments, hoping his tone sounds indifferent.

Sorika shrugs. “I forgot to do laundry again so this is the only pair of pants I have left. I think Skylar got them for me last summer when she was in Hollow Bastion but they were a little too big then. I’ll do laundry tomorrow.” She promises quickly, noticing the look her dad gives her. “Promise!”

Riku sighs and nods, turning his attention to his food for a moment. “So, I take it you have plans for the evening?”

Sorika nods. “Yeah. Skylar’s driving Nerina and I out to the beach and we’re going to hang out there for a while. That’s okay, right?” She asks before taking a bite of chicken.

“Yeah.” Riku replies. “Just be back by nine and not a minute later!”

Soriku giggles. “Of course.” She takes another bite of chicken and looks over at her dad, a thoughtful frown on her face. “Dad, aren’t you hungry?”

Riku looks up, a surprised expression on his face. “Huh? Oh, yeah. I was just thinking, is all.”

“‘bout what?” Sorika prods.

Riku says nothing for a moment and instead pokes at his food, as if trying to decide whether he can trust his own cooking or not.

“Dad?”

Riku looks up and gives his daughter a fake smile. “It’s nothing you need to worry about, Sorika. I’m fine.”

Sorika frowns, getting the feeling that all is not well, but she lets it go and hurries to finish eating so she’ll be ready when Skylar and Nerina arrive at 5:30.

The rest of their dinner passes without either of them talking. The room would be silent if not for the gentle clinking of the silverware on the plates as Riku pushes his food around his plate, not feeling all that hungry anymore.

Sorika finishes eating and puts her plate in the dishwasher just as Skylar pulls up in front of the house and honks the horn of her jeep. All thoughts of her father being upset fly out the window as she rushes from the kitchen to put on her yellow-orange and black Converses and twist her hair up into a bun so she can put on her hat.

Riku abandons his food in favor of following her out to the hallway to see her off and leans against the wall to watch her get ready and to make sure she has everything. “Don’t forget a jacket. It’s suppose to be chilly tonight since there’s a rainstorm coming in.” He reminds her.

Sorika nods and slides open the coat closet. After rummaging through the different coats she pulls out a dark blue and white jacket that has yellow belts that match the ones on her pants.

Outside Skylar honks the horn again, starting to get impatient.

“Sounds like Skylar’s getting impatient already.” Riku comments.

Sorika laughs as she re-bundles up her hair and puts on the brown hat she brought downstairs, momentarily wondering why she chose a brown hat when it doesn’t even match. “Yeah, she probably thinks I’m trying to tame my hair again.” She turns around to face her dad and smiles and Riku is struck by how much she looks like someone he once knew. “I’d better get out there. I’ll see you later daddy!” She blows him a kiss before she opens the door and runs out, yelling at Skylar to be quiet.

The door closes on it’s own, leaving Riku alone in the house.

Riku trembles a moment and then lets all of his weight rest on the wall as what was left of his composure is lost. “Damn it.” He whispers, blinking back tears. “She- she looks-” A hiccup escapes as Riku slides down the wall, the damn holding back his emotions breaking completely as tears start rolling down his face. “They look so alike… so much…” One hand reaches up to clutch a locket he keeps hidden under his shirt. “I wish you were here…. Then you could see our daughter…” He raises his knees to his chest and rests his arm on top of them, making no move to wipe away his tears.

A second hiccup has Riku crying even harder as he buries his face into his arms, lost in old memories. He curls further into a ball as images of haunting blue eyes, a moonlit sky, and a sandy beach flicker through his minds eye and as whispered promises and proclamations of love echo through his mind, repeating over and over. Old feelings of desire, love, and heartbreak coarse through him and he can almost feel the touch of his love again.

And then, just as suddenly as they came, all of the feelings are gone leaving Riku shaking and feeling hollow inside.

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Shiro: Well, here it is. My very first Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. (even though I haven't even played the game yet. T.T) And I'll warn you now, it'll probably be a while before I get the next chapter out. I was planning on waiting until I finished my Yugioh road trip story, but now's as good a time as any. So, anyone want to take a stab at who Sorika's mother is? I'm trying not to make it too obvious... is it working?

Bast: Aww, it's fine hikari. And look! You're starting to include more emotional feeling in this one! (glomps Shiro) I'm so proud!

Shiro: (sweatdrops) Ahhhh.... Please don't do that.

Bast: (blinks) Why not?

Shiro: Because it makes you sound like a certain white-haired thief called Bakura.

Bast: Oh... yeah, that's not good.

Shiro: No, it's not. Now, back to where I was before Bast interrupted me... There's going to be more Kingdom Hearts characters in the next chapter. Cid's in it for sure and I may stuff Yuffie and Cloud having a conversation in there somewhere. Oh, and we get to see Skylar interacting with her parents, so Cloud and Leon will be in there somewhere. And I sort of introduce a few KH2 characters. Fun chapter, yes? Alright-y then! Please tell me what you think. Good? Bad? Okay? Interesting? Horrible-never-want-to-read-it-again? Reviews are food for plot bunnies! Help to keep the plot bunnies alive! (is attacked by plot bunnies) AHHH!!!