JUU-CHAN SAYS, Oh hey! Lookie what I found. This thing right here is pretty dang old. I think it was...April-ish, shortly after I'd lent my game to Morgan. 8D;; Behold the drabble of doom.

"You've gotten better," Riku aknowledged with a grunt, grinning as he parried a blow from Sora's keyblade. A metallic ring filled the air. Riku backed off and tossed silver hair from his teal eyes, jumping up, his weapon- a metal bar- lifted high over his head. "Yaaah!"

Sora threw up his keyblade just in time to catch the otherwise fatal blow. His arms shook from having to catch nearly Riku's entire weight. Though Sora tried his hardest to remain on his feet, his knees gave and he fell. Riku immedietly backed off and dropped his weapon to help his friend.

Sora trembled visibly from fatigue. It had been a long fight-- longer than nearly any fight he'd had since his journey began. Still, he lost in the end. He growled frusteratedly, his blue eyes narrowing. He swatted off the hand that Riku offered, got to his own feet and slung the keyblade into his belt. "You win again, Riku. Good job," he muttered grudgingly, spikey brown hair shadowing his eyes. He turned and left; a perplexed Riku stared at his retreating back.

"Was it something I did?" Riku turned and picked up his weapon.

Sora pushed through the leaves shrouding a hidden opening at the back of the coast area. He walked down the tunnelway in semidarkness. The youth was getting so tall now that he had to bend over in order to avoid hitting his head.

Riku...

Sora punched a rock.

Riku was still better. Riku was still stronger. It irked Sora to no end. How could Riku be envious of someone so much weaker than him...? Sora recalled the words that were said on the dark beach after beating Xemnas. Riku had always admired him? Sora slid down to the floor. The rocks, detailed with so many pictures, brought meager comfort. He strayed to the corner when the door was. Next to that door was a rock. A pretty obvious conclusion, seeing as the place was covered in them (not to mention made of them). On this rock were drawings made by Sora and Kairi when they were little. The drawings were of eachother.

Sora remembered, blushing, of the day he'd come in here and added a paopu fruit to the drawing. It all seemed so silly and childish now, but he could never get over the fact that she'd drawn a paopu fruit for him, too. Sora wondered if the legend was really true.

More time for that later. Sora leaned against the rock and proceeded to sulk his anger away.

Riku was wonderful in every aspect of the word. He had looks, brains, and ambition. Sure, his attitude could be very snobby, given the situation, but Riku was someone Sora should be glad to be friends with, no matter what.

So now that he was angry at Riku, what would he do?

Sora froze as the scuffle of sand underfoot echoed down the long tunnelway to the Secret Place.

"Sora? You're off sulking in here, aren't you," called a feminine voice. A violet-eyed, red-headed girl appeared in his line of sight. Kairi grinned at Sora, plunking down right across from him. "Riku said you looked peeved after losing a spar. I knew you'd be fuming here, so I went to get you. Are you mad at Riku?"

He stared at Kairi. What was she doing here?

"Don't wanna talk about it?"

More staring.

"Obviously not," Kairi sighed. "But I'm not leaving until you do want to talk about it." Redheads were always the difficult ones. Kairi stared back at Sora for the longest moment. "Do you want me to make him apologize?"

"He can apologize with his weapon," Sora grumbled, pulling his Keyblade out of his belt.

"Or you could duke it out like typical hard-headed men," Kairi sighed as Sora got up and made his way out of the Secret Place. She picked herself up off the floor and followed him.

"A fight to settle a fight? Interesting," Riku laughed.

"So," Sora stepped back two or three paces and fell into an offensive position with his keyblade.

"So," Riku mimicked Sora.

"First one to their knees loses. Winner gets bragging rights for three days," Kairi said, backing off and waving her hand to signal "go."

The fight ended rather suddenly; not five minutes later. As they fought, exchanging blows and blocking, they'd held a discussion. They finally decided to fall on their knees at the same time. Riku and Sora both did so with gratitude. They were huffing and puffing, not fully revived from the earlier spar.

"Even," asked Riku.

"Almost," Sora gasped.

Riku laughed. Sora grinned.

Maybe Riku was stronger. It didn't matter anymore.

They were friends.