Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy XIII...don't sue me.

A/N: Fic #2...W00T! So far I like this one chapter way more than the three I have on my other fic but I'll try to update both. Enjoy!

"They're driving me crazy..." thought 18-year old Riku as he sat watching his two closest friends, Sora and Kairi, involve themselves in thoroughly examining the inside of the other's mouth with their own – seemingly oblivious to his presence.

Riku let out a weary sigh as he tossed back his long silver hair over his shoulder and out of his startlingly green eyes. "I don't think they even realize I'm still here...I swear they get worse every day." mused Riku with a shake of his head which caused his hair to darken his eyes yet again. Sora, the 17-year old boy with bright blue eyes and wild brown hair that spiked in every direction and Kairi, also 17-years old, with her flowing auburn hair and blue eyes that held a slight purplish tint in the iris, have been dating steadily ever since Sora and Riku defeated Xemnas in the World That Never Was two years ago. Since then the two have been inseparable as one could rarely be found outside of the company of the other.

At first it started with them just simply holding hands all the time but, much to Riku's dismay, the relationship quickly escalated. From there it went to deep, lingering hugs as greetings to quick kisses becoming the normal goodbye. It didn't stop there as on Sora's sixteenth birthday the two literally became 'joined at the hip' as evidenced by the extra bounce in Sora's step and Kairi's frequent blushing in Sora's presence in the days that followed. From that point forward, the two became even closer and much more...physical...with their relationship in public. Discreet groping and prolonged make-out sessions like the one currently happening several feet away from Riku have now become commonplace.

Don't get him wrong, Riku is most definitely happy for his friends and wishes them nothing but happiness in being together. After witnessing first hand the lengths that the two would go for the other during their many adventures together – "Or in my case misadventures," Riku thought darkly – he truly felt that the two were made for each other. Sora even stabbed himself with the Keyblade of People's Hearts created by Ans– "No, not Ansem, Xehanort's Heartless," Riku corrected himself – and unlocked the darkness in his heart turning himself into a heartless just to free Kairi's heart which was trapped within his own leaving her body in a comatose state.

Riku felt a fresh wave of sickening remorse and guilt wash over him as he remembered some of the events of their first adventure. He had been so weak, gullible and naïve to let himself be seduced by the bittersweet call of the powers of darkness. First by Maleficent and then by Xehanort's Heartless, who to this day – while suppressed and in no control of Riku's actions – maintains a permanent residence in the deepest and darkest corner of his heart. Memories of fighting and trying desperately to kill his best friend and speaking with a booming voice that was not his own flood Riku's mind and send him reeling into unhappier times.

A 14-year old Sora dressed in a bright red jumpsuit with a white and black jacket and his signature crown chain wielding a sword resembling a giant silver old-fashioned key with a golden base flanked by an over sized dog-creature with a shield and a talking duck with a mage's staff stares determinedly at Riku, aged 15 with noticeably shorter hair, dressed in a skin tight black and purple body suit adorned with the heartless symbol with a piece of white and purple fabric wrapped around his waist like a skirt with the front missing. Riku wields a similar weapon though it is much darker, has different 'teeth' and lacks the silver keychain dangling off the end of Sora's.

There is a brief but intense staredown between Sora's party and Riku before Riku takes the initiative and attacks first by firing several blasts of dark energy at Sora. Sora nimbly dodges them all at the last second and counters with several strong blasts of blizzaga magic. Riku dodges them but is hit with a thundaga spell cast by the duck named Donald, which is quickly followed up with a spinning shield bash from the dog-thing named Goofy, and a blistering combo of lightning fast strikes from Sora's keyblade. Riku staggers backwards and falls to one knee from the strength of the combined assault, but he quickly recomposes himself and retaliates with a wide darkness-empowered slash that his true on all three opponents, sending them flying into the air. Riku puts on his trademark smirk as he sees the helpless positions of his prey and capitalizes on the opportunity by leaping high in the air with enough speed that it looked as if he simply vanishes and reappears 20ft above the battlefield and then smashes all three back to earth with a single downward slash that sends them plummeting to the ground with an almighty crash. After the dust clears, there are three giant craters in the ground with no sign of movement in any of them.

"How disappointing...I thought that they'd put up more of a fight" thought Riku – or as he's been calling himself, 'Ansem' – as he gracefully floated back to the ground. "Oh well, at least the keyblade can now return to its real master now that the delivery boy is dead. It's a pity really, I bet he would've made an exceptional heartless." Ansem-Riku then reached out to summon the fallen warrior's keyblade, expecting the warmth of light to envelop his hand and then dissipate to reveal the silver and gold weapon...to no avail.

"What?!" exclaimed Ansem-Riku in bewilderment. He tried summoning the weapon again...and again...and again, all with no more success than the last. "What's going on?! Why doesn't the keyblade respond to the call of its master?!"

"Because you're not its master and you never will be!"

Ansem-Riku whipped his head around to see the source of the voice and saw, to his amazement, Sora, Donald and Goofy standing in their battle-stances staring at him with determination and rage written across their blood-stained faces. Before he could react, Ansem-Riku was hit with an incredibly powerful thundaga spell followed up with a spinning shield bash so strong that it conjured up a small tornado and sent him flying high into the air while being repeatedly pummeled by the shield as well as by various debris picked up by the tornado. As Ansem-Riku lay suspended in midair, he saw a glowing form fly past him faster than anything he had ever seen moving in his life.

All he remembered before the darkness overtook him was Sora's voice yelling "LIGHT!" followed by a searing white-hot pain in his midsection and a menacing laugh that came from somewhere inside him with a voice that wasn't his own...

"Hellooooo...Earth to Riku!"

"Huh?!" Riku snapped out of his unpleasant memories at the sound of his friends' voice. He looked up from his usual position on the Paopu Tree on the kid's island to see both Sora and Kairi looking at him with kiss-swollen lips and flushed faces full of contentedness but laced with worry for their friend. Riku quickly jumped off of the tree and turned to face his longtime friends with his usual smirk gracing his face.

"Yo...what's up?"

"Riku, are you okay man?" answered Sora with a bemused grin yet with genuine concern in his eyes, "We've been sitting here calling your name for like five minutes and you were just all zoned out with this dark look in your eyes...like a zombie or something..." Sora then decided to mimic this in an absurd fashion complete with a zombie imitation which drew quiet giggles from Kairi.

Kairi, standing with her hands folded out in front of her waist, chimed in while trying to stifle her laughter at Sora's antics,

"Yeah, you had us worried you know..."

Riku had to think of an excuse fast. He didn't want his friends to know that he was still dwelling on his terrible actions while he was still under the influence of the darkness and Ans– I mean, Xehanort's Heartless. They would just worry about his mental state for worrying about events that've been resolved for over two years, but no matter how many times they said that they forgave him he couldn't find peace because he could never forgive himself for all the things that he did to them in the past...

"Nah, I'm alright. I was just thinking, that's all." responded Riku with his right hand scratching the back of his neck while his eyes remained clouded with his dark thoughts, "Besides," Riku's eyes light up and his smirk widens, "you two looked kinda busy so I had to think of something to do until you guys decided to come up for air."

At this Sora and Kairi's raucous laughter came to an abrupt halt and they both blushed several shades darker while Sora put both arms behind his head in his unique way accompanied by a sheepish grin while Kairi just giggled quietly into her hand.

"What's the matter Riku, jealous?" teased Kairi while putting her hands on her hips with amusement flashing in her eyes, "You know you should find yourself a girlfriend of your own and maybe you'll have something to do instead of staring off into space all day!"

Sora roared with laughter as an angry vein made itself apparent on Riku's temple.

"How many times do I have to tell you guys," strained Riku through gritted teeth, "there's nobody that I like that way on the island...I mean honestly, you guys've tried to set me up with almost every girl on the island. Will you give up already!"

"Nope." replied both Sora and Kairi at the same time.

"Gee, thanks guys..." retorted Riku with a slump of his shoulders and a sigh, "Is it too much to ask that I worry about my own sex life while you two busy yourselves with your own?"

"We're plenty busy with our own but we're great multi-taskers, Riku." said Sora with a wink and a grin.

"I figured as much," replied Riku with his eyes slightly downcast while a blushing Kairi punched a laughing Sora in the arm for his remark about their sex life.

"Oh, and Sora..."

"Yeah Riku?"

"If you ever wink at me again I'll shove Way to the Dawn so far up your ass that it'll take a trained surgeon to get enough of it out for to breathe properly."

While Kairi laughed at Sora's surprised and slightly fearful reaction to his words, (because Riku would actually try to do it if Sora pissed him off enough), Riku returned to his thoughts and pondered Sora and Kairi's words. Maybe Riku did need a girlfriend, but after all he's been thorough in his relatively short life he can't relate to any of the girls living in their safe little island bubble. Sora at least has Kairi who was heavily involved in their adventures and understands the burden of being a Keyblade Master with her status as a Princess of Heart. She's even a capable fighter now after excelling in the magic lessons that Sora and Riku gave her, being highly proficient at healing and support spells while being a viable offensive threat as well.

Riku will never be able to find someone like that on the Destiny Islands and he would never dream of trying to take Kairi from Sora...not only is it wrong but he loves Kairi as a sister and not as anything more. "Oh well, I guess I'll find someone when it's time for me to...no use in dwelling over it now when it does nothing but make me feel depressed." thought Riku as he exited his personal thought bubble – just to be greeted by a shrill shriek from Kairi and an excited yell from Sora as they both took off to a spot across the bridge connecting the Paopu tree with the rest of the play island.

Riku looked to see what the couple was running to and his eyes almost bugged out of his sockets! It was a gummi ship and standing outside of it was Donald and Goofy, (who just got jumped into a dogpile by a not-so-little-any-more Sora while Kairi watched), King Mickey (who was waving earnestly at Riku urging him to come over), and quite possibly the most beautiful woman that Riku had ever seen. She was tall and athletic with smooth muscle showing in her revealing yet functional outfit of a white vest with a short, sleeveless brown turtleneck underneath, light armor plating on her left shoulder and various armbands and fingerless gloves while wearing a deliciously short mini skirt with various storage packs attached and thigh high boots. Her hair was a soft pink that spiked out on her right side and trailed down to pass her shoulder on her left side. She had serious green eyes much like Riku's own that looked like she had seen much and as she turned a bit, Riku could see a long red scarf-like cape flowing out of her left shoulder and some type of weapon in a pack hanging by her long, slender legs. This woman was a warrior! Just like him!

Riku's legs had moved of their own accord to the group by the gummi ship and he very distractedly returned everyone's greetings. His eyes were fixed on the gorgeous newcomer.

"Uh Riku..." warned Sora nervously as the mystery woman's eyes narrowed in the face of Riku's unabashed stare.

Riku couldn't answer. He was lost in the beauty of this strange mysterious woman. He didn't even notice her reaching her right hand behind her back...

"I don't think she likes you staring at her like that...I wouldn't either...it's kinda creepy..." tried Kairi as she looked to Sora and to the King silently asking them to do something before this got out of hand.

Riku was still lost in the stranger's beauty and was vaguely aware of a tightness in his baggy cargoes that he felt before but can't remember it ever being this strong. Unfortunately for him, the mystery woman looked down and saw the bulge in his pants – as did everyone else. Kairi put her hands to her mouth in surprise with a slight blush on her cheeks, and Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey all became very interested in something or another on the surrounding landscape with awkward looks on their faces. The mystery woman had the lightest, most discreet blush slide across her delicate yet strong features for about half a second before she looked back up with pure rage in her face.

Before anyone could react, she had pulled her hand from behind her and brought out a semi-automatic rifle...which to the amazement of everyone but King Mickey, transformed in a whirring of gears into a very sharp and deadly looking sword – which she promptly placed against Riku's neck after tackling him to the ground with her knee in a warning position against his groin. Riku – not to mention everyone else – was stunned. Not only was this woman breathtakingly beautiful, but she was strong, fast enough to take Riku down off guard, and had a decidedly vicious side to her. She appealed to both Riku's light and darkness at the same time and it was causing a rather powerful reaction that she was unknowingly cultivating with her position on top of him...

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all rushed forward to get the woman off of Riku but King Mickey stopped them.

"Let's see how this plays out fellas." Mickey passively ordered the three warriors behind him while keeping an intense watch on the woman on the ground and Riku.

The woman shifted and brought her face inches away from Riku's while keeping her odd gunblade steady at his neck. Then in a cold whisper that dripped with malice yet sent pleasant shivers up and down Riku's spine, she asked him,

"Do we have a problem, kid?"

Riku, whose normal personality had come back in the shock of getting tackled, put on one of his famous smirks and looked the woman straight in the eyes with no regard whatsoever for her gunblade and said,

"We might if I don't get your name, beautiful..."

The woman's eyes flashed in anger at his response and she raised a hand to give the odd perverted boy beneath her a powerful slap for his insolence when, quite suddenly, he was no longer there...Instead the roles were reversed with the woman on her back with Way to the Dawn pressed against her neck while Riku changed things up by holding both her hands over her head and pressing his forehead against hers.

"I'd still like a name, beautiful..." Riku whispered to her.

The woman wrenches her forehead from Riku's and looks away from him while blushing furiously – and this time it didn't go away – before answering simply,

"Lightning."

"Lightning?"

She nods while still looking away, deciding to focus on the setting sun in the distance instead of the man currently on top of her.

Riku gently grabs her chin and moves her so that green eyes are looking into green eyes.

"Hello Beautiful Lightning. My name is Riku." he says before bringing one of her hands from above her and giving it a chaste kiss before releasing her from his hold on the ground and leaving Lightning (and their audience) stunned and her entire face as red as the setting sun on the horizon.

A/N: This is NOT a one-shot, I plan on continuing this. I just sat here for six hours straight writing this, damn right I'm going to continue this story. Oh and while you're here, be sure and review while I try to get some sleep. It'll make me feel all warm and fuzzy when I wake up...