Make A Wish

Pairing: Sora/Riku [Chapter One: Friendship; Chapter Two: Romance

Summary: When Sora was eight and Riku was nine, they each made a wish beneath a starry sky. They never told one another what they wished for, but their wishes were more similar than they knew. Six years later, will their wishes finally come true?

After all…you're never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true.

(A/N): Read and Review, please and thank you!

Disclaimer: In a perfect world, I would own Kingdom Hearts and I would have multiple Kingdom Hearts man-character husbands, but seeing as our world is far from perfect, no, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Disney and Sqeenix does. w00t for them.

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might…

The night air was thick with the perfume of summer and ocean salt. The sky seemed a thief, robbing the sea of its dark blue robes, leaving it a shimmering onyx against the faded horizon.

However, thief or not, like the ball gown of a faery queen, the sleeping heavens shone with the billions of glittering celestial diamonds weaved into the untouchable fabric, unruffled by the salty breeze that gently sighed at the sky's beauty. It was a spectacle to behold indeed.

And below this spectacle in the sky, on a tiny islet, sat two young boys admiring the atmosphere with a less poetic perception.

They had made their perch on a tree that was bent at an odd angle, a clump of yellow star-shaped fruit dangling from its greenery. They sat side by side, silent and entranced by the night and its many sparkling eyes, one looking to be about nine, the other, a year younger.

"Aren't the stars pretty Riku?" the younger one murmured in question. He had a roundish face and tanned skin, eyes as blue as the sea he grew up with, and dark, russet hair that stood up in about fifty different directions. His sun-kissed skin and wide, oceanic eyes revealed him to be every bit of the islander that he was. His companion, however, was quite the opposite.

The older boy, called Riku, had the fair skin and feline, wintertide eyes of a frosted seraphim. His face was also boyishly round, framed with shoulder-length snow-water hair.

"Meh…they're okay, I guess…" Riku replied dismissively, not wanting to sound like a girl, when in truth he wholeheartedly agreed.

"They are!" The dark-haired boy insisted, fixing the older child with a doe-like gaze. Riku merely rolled his eyes good-naturedly and turned to look back up at the stars.

"They're shiny and sparkly, and pretty and…" The brunette's drabble abruptly ended, causing Riku to look at him nervously. His unease quickly faded to puzzlement as he observed his friend.

"Sora..." Riku asked tentatively, "What're you doing?"

The boy called Sora, had his eyes squeezed shut in desperate concentration. After a moment of awkward silence, on Riku's part, he reopened his eyes, lashes wet with tears from the force of his tightly closed lids. He had a triumphant smile on his face and a mixture of hope and determination in his eyes.

"I was making a wish, Riku!" he said happily, his voice alight with boyish glee. He began to swing his legs in excitement, humming a sweet tune that made Riku feel vaguely nostalgic. Riku stared at his friend, a small smile on his lips.

"Sooo…" Riku started after a minute, swinging his legs at a less eager tempo than Sora's, "Whatcha wish for?"

"I can't tell you, Riku!" Sora said with a giggle and a gentle shove, careful not to knock him off of the bent tree that dangled over the water.

"And why not?" Riku demanded with a frown, crossing his arms over his chest, "I thought I was your best friend!" He had a hurt look on his face mixed with the envy of not knowing something someone else knew.

"You are, Riku!" Sora quickly assured him, putting his small hands on Riku's arm, his big eyes wide and pleading. "I just can't tell you or else it won't come true!"

Riku didn't meet his gaze. He was trying to hide the smile that was tempting his lips. Okay, so he was teasing Sora.

Riku wasn't stupid; he knew the rules of wish-making, what nine year-old didn't? But it was fun to feign otherwise and test the nerves of his best friend. Besides, the eight year-old brunette was all the more adorable when he was flustered.

"Please don't be mad, Riku!" Sora begged, tears forming at the corners of his blue moon eyes, his bottom lip trembling. He clutched the elder boy's shirt desperately, "Please, Riku, I'm sorry!"

Something akin to alarm darted across Riku's features as he heard the tears in Sora's voice. The last thing he wanted was for Sora, of all people, to cry.

"N-no, I'm sorry Sora!" Riku hastily soothed as he turned to face Sora again, "I was just kidding! Please don't cry."

Riku could feel himself wanting to cry. Maybe it was because he was afraid his mom would yell at him and put him in time out during after-lunch playtime the following day if she found out, or maybe it was just because his best friend had started crying first. Either way, he didn't like it.

"I didn't mean to make you cry, Sora," Riku insisted sincerely, wiping his eyes of the tears that threatened to fall "I was only joking, I--"

His words were cut off by a sudden pressure around his back and stomach. He looked down to see the young cinnamon-haired boy suddenly closer, thin arms wound tightly around Riku's middle. His face was hidden, pressed against Riku's body. When he spoke, his words were muffled.

"That was mean, Riku…" He could feel Sora frowning against him, but he could tell everything was going to be fine between them from Sora's forgiving embrace.

"I know and I'm really, really sorry Sora…" he said with the sincerity only a child possessed. His bottom lip protruded slightly and his head hung in shame. He sniffled, willing his eyes to dry.

"Are you crying, Riku?" Sora's voice came, much clearer now, but full of worry. Riku glanced down at him, meeting his concerned eyes. He quickly cracked a smile and ruffled Sora's already unruly hair.

"Of course not!" Riku assured him valiantly, sticking his chin out and looking seaward. "Riku Kurayami never cries!" He glanced down at Sora's cherubim face kindly, gently wiping his tears away, before abandoning the moment of tenderness with a wicked grin. "But Sora Hikari cries all the time!"

"He – I mean I do not!" Sora protested with a huff, releasing his hold on the other boy. He instantly fired up like any eight year-old would. His cheeks, not completely shed of its baby fat, puffed out with his pouting lip and his brows pulled together in a childish glare.

"Do to!" Riku teased in a sing-song voice, smiling mischievously and leaping from the tree onto the sand and hopping away. He giggled as Sora, who was just a little less graceful, scrambled off of the tree with endearing difficulty, renewing his objections once his feet were safely on the ground.

"Do not!"

"Do to!"

"Not!"

"To!"

"Not!"

"Not!"

"To..oh, wait…Riku you tricked me!" Sora whined, toddling after his best friend in his oversized shoes. Riku turned, walking backwards.

"It's not my fault you're so gullible, Sora!" Riku shouted back with the haughtiness of the fact that he had learned a new word. Sora stopped giving chase and wrinkled his nose in confusion.

"What does gull-uh-bull mean, Riku?" he asked, pronouncing the word that was foreign to his limited vocabulary with deliberation. Riku grinned, feeling like a child prodigy. He stopped walking backwards to educate his companion.

"Everyone knows what gullible means, Sora." He said as if it was the most obvious thing since the method of shoe-tying, dramatically rolling his eyes like his mom did when his dad left his pants on the floor or the toilet seat up. "It means you get fooled easily and stuff."

"I don't get fooled easily!" Sora objected, putting his hands on his hips. Riku smirked.

"Whatever, Sora!" Riku snickered, "At least I knew what the word meant. I mean it is written in the sky after all!"

"Where?" Sora asked impatiently, turning his gaze heavenward expectantly. Riku burst into a fit of giggles which soon turned to full-fledged laughter.

"What?" Sora demanded irritably. It was getting close to his bedtime and, when it reached that hour in the day, Sora got cranky.

"Fooled you!" Riku shouted gleefully, pointing and laughing, eyes shut with his mirth. His laughter was cut and replaced with an oof! as the pointy-haired brunette in his clunky shoes tackled him to the ground, pinning him.

"Hey! What was that fo—hey, cut it out, Sora!" Riku's words died out and gave life to a fresh wave of laughter as Sora began to tickle him mercilessly, getting his little eight year-old revenge.

"Pleeeaase, stop!" Riku cried through chuckles, "I'm sorry! You're not gullible! You're very un-gullible!" Well, he was still working on finding out what the opposite of "gullible" was. Who did he look like? Einstein?

Sora, laughing as well, relented, not because he was satisfied with the apology, but because a) he was getting sleepy and b) he had the attention span of a doorknob.

He gave one last tickle to Riku's sides before rolling off and onto the still sun-warmed sand. They were both silent as they caught their breaths and once again stared into the indigo infinity above them.

"Which star did you wish on, Sora?" Riku asked after a bit, tiredly rubbing his eyes.

"That one riiiight there!" Sora announced proudly, pointing at a barely visible star.

Riku snorted. "That little runty ball of shiny stuff? Good luck getting that wish…" Riku searched the sky for a moment before speaking again. "You shoulda wished on that one!" He told him with confidence, his finger indicating the brightest star in the sky.

Sora was unperturbed and continued to smile. "Every star is special, Riku." He murmured serenely, "And no matter how big or small, they can make your wish come true."

Riku was momentarily stunned. He wasn't used to hearing Sora sound so smart. The kid wasn't stupid, just a bit…naїve. It was usually Riku who said the intelligent (to an eight and nine year-old at least) things. Well, he supposed Sora had to have his moments too.

He quickly recovered from his slight disbelief with a fond smile. He could always count on Sora to include everyone and everything, seeing past their shortcomings and finding what really made them shine. It was a quality Riku both envied and admired.

"So you still won't tell me what you wished for?" Riku asked quietly, changing the subject that had the potential to amount to another one of their juvenile debates, his mind becoming tired.

"Nope!" Sora promptly answered in his ever chipper voice. His eyes, however were beginning to droop and a tiny yawn escaped his lips.

"Not even an itsy-bitsy spider hint?" Riku hedged. Curiosity was one of Riku's more dominant traits, so it was no surprise that he was hellbent on getting something out of Sora on the subject of this clandestine wish.

"Sorry, Riku," Sora giggled, "But this is a special special wish."

Riku frowned. "And why is it so special special that you can't tell me? You told me about the wish for a new boogie board last week!" He said this in triumph as if he held the ultimate trump card; Sora had desperately wanted that boogie board in time for the summer waves making that special, so, in Riku's mind anyway, his argument was invincible.

"Yeah, but this wish is the one I really, really hope to come true. I want this so much, so I can't tell you…" Sora whispered, rolling onto his side to face Riku. He closed his eyes, sleep starting to take its hold on him.

"…Will you ever tell me?" Riku wondered aloud, not really expecting an answer, for he was slowly succumbing to sleep himself.

Sora smiled and murmured, "Maybe someday…" as he stood up and stretched. "Come on, we should go home now." He held out his hand with a smile, patient and serene, signaling he was close to dropping and snoozing right there on the spot.

"You mean you'll tell me?" Riku asked not letting the subject go, but taking his friend's proffered hand and standing, brushing the sand from his hindparts with his free hand.

"Maybe…or maybe you'll tell me." Sora whispered, sounding very mysterious and very…un-Soralike. He didn't let go of Riku's hand as he pulled him towards the main island and home, a secret smile on his face.

Riku's face twisted into a mask of bewilderment. "Whaddya mean I'll tell you? It's your wish, so how am I 'posed to know wha--" He was abruptly silenced by a soft shush from Sora, who had stopped.

"What?" Riku asked in confusion, seeking Sora's eyes only to find him hypnotized by the sky again.

"Make a wish, Riku…" he murmured.

"What?" Riku asked, following Sora's gaze.

"Make a wish."

Riku was about to say something sarcastic, always wanting to be the grown-up one, but the hopeful look in Sora's eyes silenced him. With a long-suffering sigh he had picked up from his mother, Riku searched for the tiniest star he could find, and closed his eyes.

He envisioned Sora and himself in his mind. Together.

Together, experiencing an emotion that was still a mystery to them at their ages of eight and nine. He bit his lip, a blush creeping into his pale cheeks before he smiled.

I wish I may, I wish I might…

(A/N): So what did you think? Not exactly how I wanted it to turn out, but hopefully you'll find it enjoyable until I can spruce it up a bit again. I'll post the second and final chappie of this ficlet (such a cute word :3) as soon as possible, but three reviews are required if it is not too much to ask. That isn't too much is it? No, didn't think so.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my ficlet! Peruse my profile to see what's coming next (so far all Kingdom Hearts) and other fics I have written. Thank you so much!

With love,

Starlight

PS – I have many nicknames so I may sign as something different next time. Depends on my mood :3