Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
Explanation: This "story" will be a set of prequels and missing scenes from Vagabonds. In response to getting one hundred and fifty reviews, I'm posting the first two I have finished now, with more to come when time allows – eventually, there may even be after-Vagabonds stories here.
Note: Kairi is only missing because she has not appeared yet – she appears nine years before KH, making Sora five and Riku six, and Riku is not yet six.
Read: If you remember, when they were in Agrabah, Riku remembered an incident involving Sora climbing and seagulls attacking. This is just a cute little expansion on that.
Vagabonds Prequel: Big Boys Don't Cry
The children watched the confrontation with wide eyes as the most spirited boy and the strongest boy faced off. Riku was the strongest of them, the one who was always getting challenged or challenging, always in something physical. Sora was the one who could cheer anyone up with his determination and smile. Usually the four and five year old were the best of friends, but that day, there wasn't a four year old and a five year old. Sora had just turned five years old, and Riku had apparently decided after much pointing out by Sora that they were the same age and now they were bothbig, that Sora had to prove that he was on the same level. Nevermind that in a few months the difference in age would change again. That was much too far in the future for them to think about.
"You don't," Sora snapped, pouting as the silver haired boy shrugged at his response.
"Don't care. I don't need to. All them know I'm better. And that you can't do it." The silver haired child was grinning smugly. The tree next to them was tall and a seagull's nest was at the top – but getting to the top was nearly impossible. He could do it, of course. But Sora wasn't him.
"I can too!" Sora actually didn't even know what he was being challenged to do. Riku had been taunting him for... He didn't even know how long! The other child just hadn't bothered to specify what he was doing yet, and Sora was getting angry.
"Okay. Do it then. Get a bird feather from that nest!" Riku pointed straight up, smiling wickedly as Sora's gaze followed the direction. He wouldn't do it. It was a tall tree. It had to be ten times their height! Possibly an exaggeration, but it didn't matter. It was really tall, and Sora was a skinny, short kid.
"That's it? Sure!" Sora was overjoyed. Climbing a tree wasn't hard at all! It was all a matter of speed. If he went too slow it would give the bark more time to break. And he would need to watch his hands and feet, but his mother always said he was good at climbing trees.
In a moment, Sora was going up the tree like a weirdly shaped monkey and Riku gaped from the ground. Behind, he could hear Selphie and Tidus gasping and Wakka murmur something about it not being a good idea. Riku didn't care, he was too busy watching his friend zoom up. Its not like they could get in trouble for climbing trees. Besides, Selphie's older sister was supposed to be watching them, and she had wandered off.
The wild shrieks of seagulls was the only warning any of them had. Sora was at the top, his head hidden by the wide leaves and one hand reaching up through the leaves to grab at something. Riku's eyes widened as the white monsters tore from the sky to attack his friend. "Sora! Get down!"
Sora flinched as the birds dove, their shrieks a warning – but they weren't actually attacking yet. He reached forward, his eyes on a feather. "I almost got one!"
"Sora!" All four children shrieked together as the seagulls came back around. Sora yelped and Riku froze in horror as he saw his friend jerk back from the tree, the hand holding him to the trunk loosening and his feet slipping. He yelled something, but it did no good – Sora fell, landing right in front of him, his head and arm impacting the hardest. Later the boy would swear he heard the brunet's arm break, but back then all he could do was stare.
"Hey, is he alright?" Tidus asked fearfully. Riku stood rigid, unable to even lean forward and look. Sora wasn't moving.
"Selphie, go find your sister," Wakka ordered as he ran into the shack. A few moments later Riku was joined on the platform above the shack by Wakka, who apparently had none of his problems with movement as he had crouched down by Sora within moments.
"Is he alive?" Riku whispered, nearly trembling with the effort it took to ask. Had he just killed his friend? He had been the one to tell him to get a feather.
Wakka turned and made a face Riku had never seen on him before. He wasangry with him. "Don't know."
"What?" Riku snapped, unable to help himself. He could take a step forward or a step back and if Wakka didn't know how could he decide which he was supposed to do?
There was a low groan from beside Wakka and Riku let his eyes drift down. He almost cried in joy when he saw Sora's blue eyes open blearily. Then the brunet was crying out and his arm was held at a funny angle. Riku immediately stepped forward and crouched opposite Wakka, trying to look at his arm. "Does it hurt?"
Stupid question. Riku almost backed off at the watery gaze Sora turned on him. Then Sora smiled, weakly, and Riku knew there would be no tears falling because Sora was determined to be strong, like he was. Except Riku didn't feel strong then and he could already see his parents' disappointed eyes and everyone labeling him as a bad, stupid boy. "Darn it, Sora, you should have come down!"
"You shouldn't say that word!" Tidus squeaked as he trotted forward from the exit of the shack. Riku's lip curled slightly. He had heardreal swears and not the baby ones, but he was sure all of them would have died right there if he had said one of them.
"Didn't wanna," Sora muttered, apparently ignoring Riku's bad word and Tidus scolding him.
"Oh, damn! Sora, what the f- What happened?" Selphie's teenage sister was scrambling up, jumping onto the roof instead of using the stairs.
"Riku told him to get a feather, an' Sora fell." Tidus supplied, his eyes round as he stared in awe at the girl looming there.
"Tattletale," Riku and Sora hissed together. Riku smiled, pleased that Sora wasn't angry.
"Sora... Riku... Oh, never mind! When it comes to you two, there's no point. I'll let your parents handle it. Come on Sora, I'm taking you to the hospital. Selphie, you come too." And the girl dragged Sora to his feet.
But she hadn't managed to get him to budge before he was struggling in her grasp. "W-wait! Riku, here!"
Riku blinked as something was thrust at him. He grabbed it automatically and stared at Sora's grinning, triumphant face. He glanced at the other two boys. Tidus still looked shocked and even a little awed by the events that had taken place.
"You're stupid," Wakka stated, and left it at that. Riku ignored the two as they left, almost petting the object in his hand. He didn't feel stupid, not really. He felt something not nice. It hurt.
He looked at the long gray feather in his hand and resisted the urge to break out into tears. Sora hadn't cried, because big boys didn't cry.
Riku threw a temper tantrum the next day, and many days following as he found out he was grounded – and that even after he was grounded he was effectively banned from seeing Sora until further notice. "Further notice" meant until they stopped being mean.
Big boys didn't cry when their arms were broken or when their best friend had to go to the hospital – but Riku decided as he sat on the paopu tree and stared, waiting for a familiar spiky head, that it didn't count as crying if there was no one to see it.
And Sora was the only one who ever came up to him while he was on the tree.
When no one had come and teased him about crying, and his tears had dried out, Riku curled up underneath the tree and pretended he felt better.
There was a gray feather clenched in his fist.
