FicWad

THE GENERATION BEFORE


DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII and I only own a copy of the Final Fantasy VIII game. The characters are not mine, they all belong to Square Enix (and maybe Disney), so do not try to sue me.

AN: This fanfiction has been labelled as a Kingdom Hearts fanfiction because Sora is the main character, mainly. However the story may not make much sense if you have not played Final Fantasy VII or even Final Fantasy VIII (though I don't think the latter will matter as much). Still I'm not stopping you if you haven't played any of these games, hell I'm not stopping you if you haven't even played Kingdom Hearts (come to think about it the story will probably make more sense if you have played Final Fantasy VII and not Kingdom Hearts than vice versa) this is all just a warning.
Another warning is that this story will contain shounen-ai, which is boy and boy love. Remember I said boy and boy love and NOT boy on boy loving. There will be no extremely explicit sexual scenes in this story because this story is about plot (or I'm hoping it is) and not about sexy bishounen getting it ON, as much as we all like that. However this is a romance-based fanfiction so you'll get a fair and just amount of it, albeit sparse.
I will tell you the pairings because you'd probably want to know (though if it were my choice and not my common sense's than you'd never know the pairings until they happened): Sora x Riku (eventually), Aerith x Cloud (sort of), Aerith x Zack, Zack x Cloud (one-sided, you'll find out which side is which), Squall/Leon x Cloud (also eventually). There are others but they are not as important or integral to the plot.
Thank you for reading this quite long Author's Note and I hope you don't mind how I write, I sometimes think it may be a bit too British for some people.

Love and biscuits from Novem xxx


Chapter One:
In The Attic


'She was a kind and gentle woman,' said the old bespectacled minister as if, at least in Sora's opinion, he were remarking on the weather. 'She was a good mother and a loyal friend.' Sora glanced around at the small congregation, beside him Tifa Lockhart was silently crying. She noticed he was looking at her and she smiled at him and touched his hand, in a way she probably hoped was comforting. 'She will always be remembered on Destiny Island, and she will always be loved by those who remember her. Thank you Aerith Gainsborough, and good bye.'
The minister stepped down from the raised platform and the mourners applauded politely. Sora watched as the coffin that contained his mother's body was lowered slowly into the ground and he felt the prickle of tears, but he blinked them away. He wasn't going to cry, Aerith wouldn't have wanted it.
'Always keep your chin up Sora,' she would've said. 'Don't let your fears conquer you.' Then she would kiss him on the forehead and ruffle up his already ruffled-up brown hair. Then, maybe, she would say, 'Want some cake? I just baked it, so it'll be fresh.' Sora would nod and grin, because he loved Aerith's cakes and-
'Sora,' said a voice from behind him, 'are you okay?' Sora turned to see his best friend Riku's concerned face looking down at him.
'I'm fine,' he said. Riku smiled and helped his friend up off his seat.
'Tifa is waiting for you,' he said, and gave Sora a quick hug. When he let go his eyes were shining slightly with tears, but he blinked them away in a second. Sora had never seen Riku cry in his life (which is saying something since he had practically known Riku all his life) and he supposed that Riku would never let himself be seen crying either; the silver-haired boy was too proud. Sora was glad, however, because he knew that if he ever saw Riku crying, Sora wouldn't be able to stop himself from doing the same.
Tifa Lockhart was waiting for Sora by the side of the road. Her eyes were dry now, though still red and swollen, and, as Sora approached, she smiled. Tifa was now Sora's legal guardian; she had been Aerith's best friend, they were so close that many had mistaken them for sisters, and Sora liked her. Of course she could never replace Aerith's, and Sora would make sure of that, nonetheless he had come to love her as a child would love his favourite aunt. He was going to live with her in her house; it was on the same street as his mother's house so he wouldn't have to move far. His mother's house would also be his property, and he could live there once he was a legal adult. Sora had previously agreed to all of these, for lack of a better word, /changes/, but now he realised that he did not want to leave his home where the flowery scent of his mother still hung about in the air. He didn't want to admit that she was dead, and that she couldn't ever come back. He was now left alone with no family. No mother and no father.
Except that wasn't completely true. He could still have a father. Aerith hardly ever mentioned his father and when she did all she said was that he was a good man. When Sora had asked if his father was still alive she had said that she didn't know. So maybe, just maybe, he would be able to find him. He would find him and ask him why he left Aerith to die, and why, if he was such a good man, did he not ever contact them? Why did he not even go and visit his own son?
'Time to go Sora,' Tifa said as she opened the car door. Sora nodded and climbed into the passenger seat. He waved a goodbye to Riku from the car window and Riku waved back. Perhaps Sora would tell him about his new found mission. It would be like an adventure, the sort that they had when they were young. When they discovered small caves in the woods and cool new climbing trees; just like the old days, when Aerith was still alive.

&&&

Tifa Lockhart carried another cardboard box into the back of her car, which was already so full that she thought she wouldn't be able to get the car up and running. Sighing she squished the box as best she could and, with a lot of effort, she closed the door of the trunk with a thud. She went back in the house, Aerith's house, to find Sora.
'Sora,' she called from the landing, 'if there's anything else you want to take then we'll have to come back another time because my car looks like it's going to explode.'
'Yeah,' shouted a muffled voice from somewhere above Tifa's head, 'I'll be down in a minute. I'm just checking some stuff in the attic.'
'Alright,' Tifa shouted back, 'I'll just be outside by the car.'
Sora didn't bother to reply. Instead he continued to shuffle his way through the dusty attic. He wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for, maybe some clues as to the identity of his father. Though he didn't precisely know what these clues would look like. He did find his birth certificate a while ago but all it said under the name of 'Father' was 'Unknown', which Sora didn't think was any particular help.
After a few minutes of random crawling, crouching and sneezing at all the dust, an old chest in the corner of the attic caught his eye. It was wooden with a metal clasp, like the treasure chests in the days of pirates but smaller. He crawled his way up to it and was glad to find that the metal clasp was left unlocked; he gingerly opened the lid and looked inside. Once the dust cloud had cleared and he coughing fit had subsided, he found a collection of old photographs and books neatly stacked in the small chest. He picked up one of the photographs and held it up to the faint light coming from the attic window. It was a picture of his mother, only here she was younger, around sixteen, and she was smiling. There were two other people in the picture as well, a tall boy with dark, long and very spiky hair, around eighteen years old, who was grinning in a very cocky manner that reminded Sora very slightly of Riku, and a younger, smaller boy with light hair, perhaps blonde, though the picture was sepia toned, that was just as spiky as the older boy's but was shorter. The second boy was not looking at the camera, but instead up at the older boy; Sora couldn't tell whether he was smiling or not.
Sora shoved the picture into his back pocket and picked up one of the dusty leather bound books. It looked like an old diary and, as he quickly riffled through the pages, he found out that it was. And not just any diary, Sora thought, it's my mother's. He went to read the first page, and then stopped. It was his mother's diary, which meant that he could be intruding into her life if he were to read it. It could be something private, something that Aerith did not want him, or anyone, to read.
He debated reading the diary or not for quite a while until an impatient horn beep and Tifa's shout of, 'Did you fall asleep up there or something Sora?' snapped him out of his reverie. Deciding that he might as well take the diary, even if he was not going to read it, Sora climbed down the ladder, out of the attic and onto the second story landing. He could see Tifa waiting at the bottom of the stairs, her arms were crossed and she was wearing an annoyed yet amused look on her face. She ushered him to hurry up as she got her key ready to lock the front door. Sora rushed down the stairs, taking two steps at a time, and inhaled a big lung-full of his mother's scent before he left the house.
'What's that in your hand?' Tifa asked when they were both in her car.
'A diary.'
'Yours?'
Sora didn't feel like telling Tifa the truth. He didn't know why, it just was a feeling that said that Tifa didn't need to know, not yet anyway. 'Yeah,' he said, 'it was mine when I was young. I'd almost forgotten that I had one.'
Tifa smiled and ruffled his hair, something that she seemed to do a lot lately. It reminded Sora of Aerith, everything reminded him of Aerith.
'I used to have a diary once,' Tifa said, 'I wrote about a year's worth of entries in it then I stopped.'
'Why?'
'I don't know,' Tifa answered, and then she laughed, 'I guess I was just not the diary-keeping sort of girl.'
She pulled into the driveway of her small home, and Sora's new home, and switched off the engine of her car.
'Alright Sora,' she began, 'let's get these boxes out of the car. Then we can go back to Ae- your house again to get some more stuff.'
'I think I've got all I need for now,' Sora said.
An hour or two later of unpacking Tifa decided that they were done for the day, and Sora agreed. His back ached from all the lifting and he was beginning to get quite hungry. The room he was going to be living in was smaller than his old one, but Sora didn't mind, he didn't have a lot of things to put in it anyway.
'I'll make something to eat,' said Tifa in the midst of a stretch and a yawn. 'That was definitely my workout for the day.' She looked over at Sora who was sat upon his new bed. 'What do you want to eat?' she said.
Sora shrugged. 'I don't mind.' he said, 'whatever's fastest.'
'Pasta it is then.' Tifa grinned at Sora and left his room. 'It'll be ready in ten minutes,' she called as she went down the stairs.
Sora got up off the bed, his bed, and went to look out the window. However his short voyage was ended when noticed an old photograph lying on the bed. It was the one he had found in the attic of his old house, he had almost forgotten about it in all the hubbub of unpacking. It must have fallen out of my pocket, he thought, but where's the diary?
Sora panicked. Where could he have put it? He had it in his hand when he came in and then he must have misplaced it somewhere. Suddenly the doorbell rung and Sora practically jumped out of his skin.
'Sora,' he heard Tifa call, 'It's Riku.'
'Tell him to come up,' Sora said back. He searched under the bed for the diary but could see nothing but dust bunnies. He looked on the shelves, and in the drawers, he hadn't even registered that Riku was in the room until he heard somebody clear his throat. Riku was sat on the bed, and he was smirking.
'What are you looking for?' he asked once Sora had stopped rummaging.
'A diary,' Sora said.
'This diary?' said Riku, holding up a leather bound book in his right hand.
'Yes that dia- What?' Sora went over to Riku and looked at the diary in shock and amazement. 'How-Wha-Where did you find it?'
'It was rested on the end of the banister, Tifa said it was yours.' Riku laughed. 'I never knew you kept a diary Sora.'
'It's not mine, it's my mother's,' Sora blurted out before he could stop himself.
'Oh.' Riku had stopped laughing; he now looked concerned.
'I found it in the attic,' Sora continued. He thought that since he began he might as well finish. 'I thought it might give me a clue as to who my father is.'
'Has it?' Riku asked, almost cautiously.
'I haven't read it,' Sora said. 'I don't know whether I should or not.'
'Let the gods of fate help you decide.'
'Huh?'
Riku smirked, his trademark smirk, and took a coin out of his pocket. 'Flip a coin,' he said. 'Heads says you read it, tails says you don't.'
'Um, okay,' Sora took the coin and threw it up in the air. He caught it and looked.
'Well?' asked Riku.
Sora looked up at his best friend and smiled. 'Heads,' he said.

&&&
&&&


AN (again): I hope you like it. I'd very much appreciate some opinions and reviews. I know that not much happened in this chapter but I promise that more will happen in later chapters.
So who do you think Sora's daddy is? Who do you think the two boys in the photograph are?
Sorry for leaving you with a partial cliff-hanger. I just couldn't think of another way to end the first chapter.

Review me Foo'
Love and Tabasco Sauce from Novem xxx