Pairing: Riku/Sora, but not at all.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Square-Enix, whom I am not affiliated with. No profit made.
Notes: Naturally, there will be KH2 spoilers contained within.
. . .
Once it started bleeding, it never stopped.
It wasn't a wound of the flesh. The blood wasn't red, and the skin never cut. It was a wound in the heart. Whole pieces were missing, torn out by the darkness. Riku had them back now, but he had no idea how to fit them. Things had changed, and his heart had changed with them.
He'd have to reshape the missing pieces, figure out how to staunch his heart-wound, plug up the wounds. Only it was trying to decide which pieces to reshape that confused him. The designs that came to mind weren't what they should be.
Maybe it was the way the sunlight glinted off Sora's hair, or how he looked when lying on the sand. He would come out of the ocean soaking wet, but his hair still managed to thumb its nose at the laws of gravity. It could have been how blue his eyes looked in the moonlight, or that when Riku grasped his arm, the skin was smooth and soft over firm muscles.
Riku would sit on the curved tree and watch while Sora and Kairi played, the wound in his heart aching more than ever. His seventeenth birthday approached, and as it did so, time seemed to mock Riku for taking so long to understand what had happened to him. Every time Kairi crossed off a day on the calendar with her big red marker, he heard its cruel laughter in the squeak of the felt tip on paper.
He'd never really wanted Kairi for himself. He'd only wanted her to keep her away from Sora. That skinny little boy – no matter how old he got, he'd always be a boy – with a grin that would do Goofy proud and hair that could make a stylist run away in mortal terror was rightfully his. He'd given Sora the paopu fruit not for Kairi, but for himself.
Kairi mattered only so long as she mattered to Sora. Riku was single-minded in that regard. Once he had chosen someone, everyone else in the universe ceased to exist.
Sometimes Axel would show up, leaning against a rock inside the Secret Place, the islet's cave, a smile as sharp as a Keyblade on his face. He'd remind Riku of how Roxas had belonged to Naminé, how Sora belonged to Kairi, but neither would ever belong to him. Riku knew he was dead, but he also knew a Nobody could never truly die – Axel had never truly existed in the first place, so how could he cease to?
"Doesn't that mean Roxas never belonged to you?" Riku would demand, slamming the side of his fist into the cave wall. Dust and dirt would shower to the ground, and blood would soak the side of his glove. The pain felt good.
Axel would always shrug, his eyes filled with a fire that no Nobody had a right to possess. "Nothing ever belonged to me, chum. And I belong to nothing. Just like you."
And then Riku realized that the pieces of his heart didn't fit anymore, because there was no heart for them to fit into. Instead, all he had was a hollow space inside of him where it belonged.
Xehanort's Heartless had taken it from him nearly two years ago.
He walked out of the cave, tossing his dreams to the side. Who needed pieces of a heart that had long ago been stolen?
Riku never spoke of his feelings, because they weren't real. They were echoes of the real Riku, of Sora, of Kairi. He would walk behind his two friends – who really weren't his friends, because a Nobody couldn't have anything – and watch them laugh and talk, and play in the water. They would ask him to play with them, but he never would.
"Kurix," Axel would say, when Riku would come back to the cave, "you never should have stolen Riku's life. You never should have lied to them. They'll figure it out, eventually."
Kurix. Number XIV. The Deceptive Shadow. Riku – no, he was Kurix – remembered now. He remembered what he'd tried to forget. What he'd made the King promise to never tell. He'd been the first to leave the Organization, and he was the only one left alive – if one was to call this living.
"What do you want from me?" Kurix would always ask. He couldn't stop coming to the cave. The darkness was comforting.
"What we both want." Axel would gesture at Kurix's chest. "You hold Riku's Keyblade – with the power to unlock people's hearts. You know what to do."
Yes. Kurix knew what to do, but he also knew what it would cost Sora.
Axel would disappear through the doorway, walking through it like a ghost, leaving a small rush of black wind in his trail. And Kurix would be left to sit in the dirt and stare at Sora and Kairi's cave drawings.
. . .
Sora had just turned sixteen. The party was over. The songs had been sung, the candles blown out, and the chocolate cake eaten. They'd gone back to their islet to play in the water. Or, rather, Sora and Kairi had gone back to play. Kurix had gone to watch.
The sun hung low in the sky, turning the water golden in its dying light. Sora and Kairi splashed each other, playing a game of tag in the spray. Their laughter danced on the wind, twirling past Kurix's ears until it was snatched away to parts unknown. He leaned against their tree and felt the hole where his heart was supposed to go bleed more profusely than ever before.
It was just a little kiss, a passing flirtation. Kairi's eyes lit up, and Sora grabbed her face, kissing her with all the passion that lay in his boy's heart before pulling back. She blushed and swam out a little farther into the ocean. Sora, apparently understanding he should pull back for the moment, waded out of the water and towards Kurix.
He grinned up at Riku, his face brighter than the sun when he did that. "Hey, buddy. You okay? You've been so quiet lately."
"I'm fine," Kurix choked out. He kept his face as still as stone, but inside, he ached. He didn't have the right to do this, to steal Sora's happiness, to tear him away from the girl he loved.
But he was going to do it anyway.
"Hey, you can talk to me. We're best friends, remember?"
Simple, sweet Sora. He was Riku's best friend, not Kurix's. But Kurix only smiled. "I'm fine. Really. Why don't we stay here for the night? It's warm, and we can sleep in the little house."
"Sure. Why don't you come out in the water with us just this once? You won't melt, I promise."
So beautiful. So innocent.
Kurix forced himself to smile. "Maybe tomorrow."
Sora nodded and padded back into the water; he always knew when to back off. Kairi let him kiss her twice more.
. . .
Time, instead of mocking Kurix, simply crawled by. He waited until he could hear both Kairi and Sora asleep, their breath even and steady before he rose. Moonlight shone through the open spaces between the slats of wood.
As Kurix approached Sora, fast asleep on the tiny orange couch, his heart pounded so loudly he could hear nothing else. It wasn't his real heart – this was only an organ in his body, pumping his blood. His other heart was long gone, taken by Xehanort's Heartless.
Sora's skin looked silver in the moonlight. His shifted in his sleep, eyelashes fluttering against his skin like smudged shadows. The grip of some dream held him tight; Kurix hoped it was a good one, as it would be his last. He was the most beautiful thing Kurix had ever seen.
The Way to the Dawn felt heavy and hard in Kurix's hand. He stared down at Sora. He should be feeling regret, fear, guilt – something other than the overwhelming sense of loss that a Nobody always felt in place of real emotion. He couldn't fool himself into thinking he felt those feelings anymore. His powers of deception lay in tricking others, not himself.
Kurix pointed Riku's Keyblade at Sora's chest. He let the energy surge through him, a fire in his soul, a shard of ice in his mind, the darkness of his body. Non-light burst from the Keyblade's tip, purple and black, slamming through Sora's body and into his heart.
Sora's eyes flew open, but he made no sound. It all happened as if the sound had been turned off but for the pounding of Kurix's flesh heart. The power he unleashed made him tremble with pain. He wasn't just unlocking Sora's heart – he was destroying it.
Lying on the sofa where Sora had once been lay Roxas, spiky golden hair in disarray, and electric blue eyes wide open. They fluttered shut, and he settled back against thin blankets Sora had been sleeping on. He was sweet as an angel, though Kurix knew that whatever angelic qualities Sora possessed, he had not passed to Roxas.
Kurix picked him up; Roxas was light in his arms. His strong muscles were so compact, as was the rest of him. Kurix glanced over at Kairi's sleeping form. She'd not stirred at all. Her auburn hair spilled across her pale face, and her delicate hand lay perfectly still, draped over the edge of her hammock. He wondered if she would ever forgive him for his sins.
It didn't take long for him to reach the Secret Place, even with the burden of Roxas in his arms. Axel was there, a wide smile on his sharp face. Demyx stood next to him, his blond mullet making him looked washed out in comparison to the vibrancy of Axel's red hair. In the distance, behind the door, Kurix could see other Nobodies. Most were Dusks, with their swaying white bodies and zippered faces. Some he recognized, some he didn't. The founding members of the Organization were not present, but then they wouldn't be. Whatever non-place they'd gone to, it wouldn't be where Axel and the others had gone.
Kurix stood Roxas up, dropping his feet to the earthen ground. He rubbed his elfin face and opened his eyes, blinking once. He trembled a little in Kurix's arms, his gaze fixed on Axel, Demyx, and the others beyond the Door to Darkness.
"Why did you bring me back?" Roxas asked. Unlike Sora, he didn't waste his time with stupid questions. There was no innocence in him.
Kurix paused before answering. "Because a non-life with you is better than a real life without," he said truthfully. Veracity was a rare thing from him, but he had no falsehood to offer. Roxas would see through him in any case; unlike Sora, his gaze could pierce the darkness.
Roxas pulled away a little. He stared at Axel for a long time.
"Do you remember me?" Axel asked. "Even a little?"
Roxas looked away. "I remember everything. Everything."
Axel grinned. "Good. Let's go, Roxas. Kingdom Hearts awaits us."
"Welcome back, Roxas!" Demyx cried, bright as ever.
Axel and Demyx disappeared through the doorway, leaving it open for Kurix and Roxas. The darkness beyond it pulsed with its strange non-light, its landscape as harsh and unwelcome as ever.
Kurix reached out to touch Roxas, but Roxas grabbed his hand, staring up at him. "If I had a heart, I would hate you for what you've done."
Freeing himself, Kurix stroked Roxas's cheek. It was soft as silk under his bare fingers. "I know. For what it's worth, so would I. I'm so sorry it came to this."
Apparently satisfied with this answer, Roxas headed through the doorway, a fresh rush of black wind sending his hair and clothing fluttering. Kurix followed after a moment, walking the march of the damned.
His non-heart had bled itself dry.
End.