Title: Hidden Beauty.

Author: Namassuki.

Genre: Romance, Humor, Angst.

Rating: PG-13.

Chapter 1: Sleepover.

Day: Friday.

'Annoying…' thought one young man with silver platinum clear hair and aqua eyes as he stepped into his college. He swung his bag over his shoulder, closing his eyes as well as his ears if possible to keep his eardrum from breaking due to a loud impact of sound made by all the girls around him. 'Very annoying…'

"Riku! Riku! Riku!" The girls around him squealed, raising their arms that had pompom in their hands. Riku sighed, he pushed back the hairs over in front of his eyes to back in ever so mighty cool way, sending the girls to squeal louder and some were even fainted. He ignored them and continued to enter the college building to his first class.

He was greeted by another squeal from the girls in his first classroom; Biology and as usual, he just smiled genuinely at them, causing the girls to swoon and the guys snorted. He sat down on his chair, which approximately at the center of the room and took out twenty centimeter thick Biology textbook, opening to the page his teacher told them to.

He grimaced when he see yet another full words with no any pictures of diagram on the book just like yesterday which mean he will have to read all the sentences like usual. Mumbling under his breath, Riku looked at the front of the class to see his Biology teacher was writing very long sentences consisted of words sex, genders, sperms, ova and reproductive. Riku snorted.

'Some words are meant to be together and cannot be separated…' thought Riku, placing his elbow on the table, he rested his chin on his palm and stared blankly at the board that slowly being filled with long sentences and a few diagram of some circle thingy.

"Pst…" Riku turned his head to his right to meet his eyes with blue eyes and blonde-brown-haired young man around his age, maybe younger, grinning at him.

"What?"

"My dad left for mainland tomorrow night so I have my house all to myself which mean, I'm going to have some party with the boys. Want to come?"

"Nah……I'm too lazy," replied Riku.

"Come on Riku. I have invited some girls there too," said the young man.

"I'm not in the mood to have fun, Tidus," said Riku.

"Aww Riku. Come on. It's not that bad. I know you haven't forgotten last year's party where you accidentally blow up my whole---"

"Okay, I go if it can make you happy and not bringing that incident up anymore," said Riku. Tidus grinned; he patted Riku's back before he returned to scribble something on his notebook. Riku snorted, he slump his face into his crossed arms on the table and fell asleep.

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Day: Saturday.

Riku felt heavyhearted. He didn't really wanted to go to Tidus's house considering he didn't want to blow up his house anymore because last year, he had blow the house up when they were playing Chemical Explosion which was supposed to be a small explosion than can only make their face turned back covered by smoke instead of destroying some wall of Tidus's room.

Riku shuddered when he remembered Tidus's father's expression when he went to see them.

But really, he's not in the mood to sleepover in Tidus's room. Aside from the blowing up incident, the reason he didn't want to go there also because of Tidus's friends. They were all so loud and annoying especially that Selphie girl who did nothing but squeal all the time and that Kairi who always crack laughing until she no longer had voice to do so. Also that Wakka who always throw his Blitzball across the room and breaking some vases in the process.

This made Riku wonder how come Tidus's father never scolded Wakka.

Then again, some of Tidus's friends aren't so bad especially Leon who never speak more than ten words and Axel who happened to be also his best friend, perverted best friend who talked nothing but cute boys in his college. And also there's Zell and Irvine whom he really acquainted to because they're funny and much mature compared to the first four friends he thought before.

Riku was deep in thought that he didn't realize he was already standing before the door of Tidus's house until someone opened it and startled him. Riku blinked as he stared at tall, tough-looking man with big muscles around his body, looming over him. Riku gulped and smiled coolly. "Hello."

"Humph. Tidus! Your explosion-friend is here!" The man shouted, causing Riku to wince.

"Riku!" Tidus appeared behind his father and waved him to get inside. "Come in. Everyone's waiting for you," said Tidus. Riku bowed respectfully at Tidus's father before he took off his shoes and entered Tidus's house. "Dad, you're going now?" Riku heard Tidus's asking his father.

"Yes. I'll bring you some souvenir once I finished the game," said Tidus's father.

"Oh, don't forget to get me some of your friend's autograph, Jet!" A spiky headband young man said as he poked his head from the corner.

"Yeah! Yeah! I hear ya! Now take care of this house and down blow it again," said Jet, glaring at Riku.

"Promise I won't do it again," said Riku as he raised his hand to his shoulder level and vowed. Jet humph'ed before he went to his Porsche car and drove away. Tidus closed the door of his house and dragged Riku into the living room where he could see seven young teenagers were sitting in circle on the floor. Upon seeing his arrival, they smiled while one of them squealed and hugged him.

"Rikuuuuuuuuu!" The smallest girl among the two kissed his cheek repeatedly and bounced up and down happily. "You're here! You're here! You're here!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Selphie calm down! I'm not your punching bag, you know!" said Riku, gently pushing Selphie off his body and sighed when Selphie returned back to her spot next to Kairi and Zell.

"Sit down Riku," said Zell. Riku nodded, he put down his bag on the couch and sat down next to Zell and Leon to his left. He looked around the living room to find it was clean compared to the last year where everywhere covered by dust and black spots before he looked at Tidus who was grinning wide at him.

"So, what do you guys want to do? See some movies while eating some popcorn? Play some video games and be humiliated because surely you will be beaten by me? Or do you want to play Chemical Explosion again?" Tidus asked, grinning wider.

"Please…no more Chemical Explosion. I have enough of getting your father's glare every time I come to this house for two months," said Riku.

"Hehehehe! Despite your handsome look, Riku, you sure don't know about Elements," said Kairi.

"Aww shut up Kairi," Riku snorted. Kairi giggled more.

"Okay, so Chemical Explosion is to be removed from our fun lists today. What do you guys want to play?" Tidus asked. Everyone closed their eyes to think of the possible fun games they waited to play except Leon and Riku who didn't even bother to think at all. Another minute passed by yet there's still no suggestion from each of them. Tired, Tidus sighed. "Aww man…don't you guys have any idea what to play? I mean, come on! This is supposed to be a great party!"

"You're the one who suggested for this party so you should be the one who think of what games we should play from the very beginning," said Wakka.

(Sigh) I don't have any great games right now and I'm sure all of you don't want to play it," said Tidus and he frowned when everyone nodded. Honestly, Riku thought, playing video games with Tidus is worse than playing games with some kid who bounced up and down and started to throw colorful papers around the room when he won. "Oh wait! Maybe he had some great game!" stated Tidus.

"Who?" Wakka asked.

"Wait here!" Tidus said before he stood up and reached for the phone on the small table near the sofa. He dialed some unfamiliar number for Riku and firmly held the handset close to his ear. After a while, Tidus grinned and, "Hello! Hey Sora, this is me, Tidus! Hey, I just want to ask if you have any new game. What? Online Sky Diving? Oh hell no! That's like new game and had not yet released! Huh? Really! Cool! Okay! Okay! I'll wait! Thank you!" Tidus squealed (he did?) and put down the handset on its place, grinning widely at all of them.

"Who's that?" Irvine asked.

"Oh, it was just Sora, a boy who lived next door to me," replied Tidus as he walked pass them to the door. They heard the door clicked open, presumably by Tidus and Tidus's exciting squeal. They heard someone's voice whom they presumed was Sora. At this moment, Zell decided to go to kitchen and grabbed some drink. He returned but before he reached the living room, just opposite of the kitchen, he took a glance at Tidus's guest outside.

Everyone blinked when Zell's eyes widened and had complete wide O-shaped mouth before he snapped and scrambled towards them, giggling ferociously as he buried his face to Irvine's chest. Riku blinked, wondering what the hell Zell is giggling for. Then they heard two footsteps echoing in the living and all of them except giggling Zell turned to see Tidus and his guest.

Everyone speechless as they stared at a young boy around their age, probably younger than that standing behind grinning Tidus who was holding wide large box in his hand. But everyone wasn't paying attention to the great game; they were all staring at the boy with the very same O-shaped wide mouth over their face. They could hear Zell's giggling harder either because of their priceless expression or because of the boy.

Riku examined the boy behind Tidus intently, wondering if he just imagining it but no, he was seeing the real thing. The boy wore simple blue shirt and long black trouser with a very beautiful crown necklace, too beautiful for the boy since the boy…isn't fit with the necklace at all. His blue eyes wide thanks to large and thick round glasses that looked really ridiculous due to the presence of small, tiny itty-bitty ribbon at the lock.

No wonder Zell acted like that, thought Riku.

"Hey guys, this is Sora, my neighbor," said Tidus, grinning wide. Riku wasn't sure if Tidus was grinning because he finally got the game or because of the way Zell's giggling. He and Sora walked towards them and flopped next to Zell, with Sora next to Riku. Tidus nudged giggling Zell, instant making Zell stopped giggle and coughed in pretend. "Sora, these are my friends."

"Hello!" Selphie chirped happily, uninfluenced by Sora's appearance. "I'm Selphie!"

"Nice to meet you, Sora. I'm Kairi," Kairi said, smiling. Sora nodded blushingly at Kairi's cute smile no surprise there though since Kairi was known to be the cutest girl in the college.

"Hello man. I'm Wakka, Blitzball fan," said Wakka.

"Leon," said Leon in one word, like usual.

"Uh…hi, I'm Riku," said Riku at Sora. Sora blushed again. 'No surprise there. I am after all the most perfect guy in Destiny Island.'

"H-Hello," said Sora, for the first time since he arrived and grinned, showing his full silver braces around his teeth. Everyone stared at him for a long, long time as if he was an alien coming from the sky and claimed he was a human…Maybe he is alien, thought Riku.

"(Cough) A-Anyway guy, Sora's going to join us playing. You don't mind, do you?" Tidus asked everyone, giving each of them especially Zell I-will-kick-your-butt-out-of-this-house-if-you-laugh-look. Of course, knowing Tidus who no less could be as grumpy as his father, the very famous Blitzball player, nodded instantly. "Great! Sora has brought one famous, not-yet-released game: Sky Diving! Lookie!" Tidus squealed again and showed the box where there are many pictures of various types of characters.

"So…how do we play it?" Wakka asked.

"Easy! Just defeat some monsters using your weapons!" replied Tidus.

"And exactly how are we going to play it?" Riku asked.

"Let see…This game had one large board with hundreds of box of different color, Monsters Cards, Special Ability Cards and ten character models. Each box contained its own color for example the box with red color mean there's monsters and you have to pick Monsters card from the center of the board.

It said here that you choose one character from the provided characters and rolled a dice provided. Your character had their own HP, Ability and Weapon and with these, you will have to defeat some monsters on each box. Keep in mind that once your character HP turned zero, you are lose," said Tidus, reading the instruction from the box. Everyone stared at Tidus in confusion as Tidus scratched his head sheepishly.

"So…how are we going to play it again?" Riku asked.

"It's like Monopoly," said Sora. Everyone turned to look at him. "When your model stopped on red box, you picked one card form Monsters Cards to find what Monster you had and defeat it as well as checking your model's HP," said Sora, smiling.

"I don't get it…" said Wakka. "But it sound fun."

"I don't care! I want to play! Now, who want to play?" Tidus asked. Sora raised his hand instantly, Tidus grinned. "All right, which character does you wants, Sora?" Tidus asked, showing ten model of different character cartoon on his hands.

"Um…I want Black Mage," replied Sora, smiling, his lips purse slightly due to the braces. Riku saw Zell tried hard not to laugh.

"Okay, I'll choose Double Blade then," said Tidus. "Anyone?"

"Nah, we'll just watch," said Kairi and Selphie.

"Are there any Blitzball player character?" Wakka asked.

"No, Wakka. This isn't Blitzball game," said Tidus, frowning. Wakka sighed.

"I choose Axeman then," said Wakka.

"Swordsman," said Leon.

"I think I choose Archer," said Riku.

"Here's your character with the lists of your ability," said Tidus, giving everyone each their own character and their own paper that had lists of ability. Riku could see Sora's character had a lot of Ability compared to his considering Sora had chosen Black Mage. "All right then! Let's play!"

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After like three hours, it was very obvious that Sora had played the game before since he had defeated most of the monsters found in each red box without any problem or any HP lack and that he had won the game after he defeated the Boss on the large red box. Tidus was frowning badly, everyone knew why since he used to win all the time.

"Um…are you mad?" Sora asked Tidus.

"Yes, I'm mad. You have played this game, haven't you?" Tidus asked as he crossed his arms and glared at Sora.

"Y-Yes," replied Sora, bowing.

"Aww Sora! Why aren't you inviting me before?!" Tidus suddenly wailed.

"Hehehehe. Sorry Tidus but I really want to play and it's midnight that time," said Sora, grinning as well as exposing his braces teeth. Tidus pouted cutely before he looked at the clock hanging by the wall.

"It's still early. What do you guys want to do?" Tidus asked.

"I don't know. It's your party, dude," said Wakka.

"Hmm…" Tilted his head slightly, Tidus closed his eyes and pursed his lips to think. At a second, he frowned then he smirked but back to frown and this process happened repeatedly. While everyone was staring at Tidus to wait for his idea to burst out, somehow Riku turned his head to the boy next to him and found him staring into wide blue eyes behind the glasses.

Sora startled when Riku looked at him and quickly bowed, blushing redder than before. Riku arched his eyebrow, wondering what the hell the boy was blushing for. Then again, maybe it was because of his handsome place. Oh well, no one never blush before whenever they looked at him, especially girls minus Kairi and Selphie of course.

"Hey Sora," Zell broke the silent. Sora looked at him. "How old are you?" Zell asked.

"Um…sixteen," replied Sora.

"Really? Wow, I thought you are fourteen," said Zell and got nudged by Tidus.

"That's okay. Everyone think that when they first met me," said Sora, smiling.

"So uh, which college you attend to?" Wakka asked.

"I'm…still in high school," said Sora, blushing.

"Eh? You mean you're one year behind?" Zell said and got nudged again. Zell wanted to shout at Tidus but decided not to when the house-owner glared at him intently.

"Aww…that's too bad. Selphie thought you're studying in the college like us!" Selphie sighed.

"If he was indeed studying in our college, I would have saw him," said Zell and got another, rougher nudge. Riku could see from the corner of his eyes that Sora bit his lips.

"Um………I gotta go," said Sora suddenly and stood up, running out of the house. Everyone stunned, even Tidus as they stared at the corner where Sora had gone to. There was a long silent in the living room until Zell broke it.

"What's with him?"

"Shut up Zell! You're hurting him!" said Tidus, punching Zell on arm.

"Ouch! I didn't mean to, okay?"

"Well, you sound like you mean to!" Tidus hissed. He then sighed. "Honestly, I hope Sora will still like to be with me," said Tidus.

"You're weird to friend with someone weird," said Zell. Tidus glared at him. "Right…I'm weird to friend with you too."

"You know why he was one year left behind?" Riku asked Tidus.

"No, I don't," replied Tidus. "I just know he's a game freak who had all collection of games and a nice boy who lent all his games to me until now when this Zell said about his face!" Tidus shouted.

"All right! All right! Stop yelling at me, okay?"

"(Sigh) I hope he's not mad…" said Tidus though Riku doubted Sora will be mad at Tidus. Why? He just knew it.

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