Short, but the beginning. Nothing to it.
XChapter
The First
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Riku was never a jealous person. As a kid, if he ever saw another boy with a toy truck, he would never demand the boy to give it up. He would never ask his parents to get him the exact same looking truck with the exact same looking scratches and exact same missing left front wheel with the exact same dirt and mud splashed all over except only better. No, Riku was always considered a nice and well-mannered boy who would never let greed, or even envy, envelope him. At least, he was before he met Sora.
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Riku Utarou. At the young age of four, he was considered one of the most mature of his play group. Of course since his group consisted of ditzy Selphie, hot headed Tidus, and slightly of a sloth Wakka, it would have been a sad and slightly frightening of a future if he wasn't.
Selphie would always bounce around, her legs still too young to uphold so much energy, while Tidus tried engaging Wakka in a sort of battle or fight 'where only men win!' as Tidus had once told him. It would mostly end the same, with Wakka making no effort to show he was even listening to Tidus while the short blond fumed and sprouted up a storm of childish obscenities that he had most probably heard from other, much more childish, kids. 'Poop-head! Sh-shut up! Chicken wings!'
Other times he would beg just right and Wakka would mock fight him, too sleepy to go the extra mile and actually try. Tidus didn't mind as long as he won. Pride was always something Tidus never tired from.
These were the people that Riku surrounded himself with. He was never too picky either, so he didn't mind having a girl playmate at such a young age. The life he led was a life Riku enjoyed, always reminding himself that he would never, ever, trade it for anything in the world. Unless, of course, it was a new imaginary best friend. His imaginary pet Xemnas, an animated black and white magical pencil, was getting too 'childish' in his opinion. So one day he told himself, right before his mother came in to tuck him into bed with a warm smile and tight hug, he looked out his window to the outside world, which was sort of hard since most of it was covered with his plain white curtains, and whispered out, to whoever was watching the defenseless, under aged boy that night for a new imaginary best friend. One that didn't tell him that it was a-ok to ram headfirst to a cliff wearing skates. Good thing Riku was caught before he was able to try it out.
The whole point of the matter was that Riku did not deem his friend safe and proceeded to lodge him in-between some old crayon shavings and a rice krispy wrapper. All in all, Riku had thrown his best friend into the trash can.
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Sora Kayaki. Slightly slow yet smart. Proud yet shy. The boy was a contradiction to himself in every aspect. Sora never had real friends. The six year old was so scared of being physically and emotionally shunned by his peers for his imperfections that he wouldn't doubt if not even half of his class knew what his name was, much less exactly who he was. He was mostly the ghostly boy that did nothing except stare off into space. He considered himself the young boy that admired Riku Utarou. Minus the 'young', for Sora Kayaki was a very old and matured boy. In his mind at least.
Sora Kayaki didn't want just any friends, he wanted Riku to be his friend. Anything else didn't matter to him. Sora watched Riku and his group of friends play outside during lunchtime. He lived close to the other side of the small island they inhibited. The opposite of Riku, who lived just down the street from the small elementary school they went to.
He never questioned his feelings.
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"Hey guys! Guess what?!" At Tidus' suddenly loud appearance everyone turned to him. "Oh! Oh! OH! Did-" before Selphie could finish her sentence Tidus smirked, "Better!" That got everyone's attention, for what could be so gossip worthy to such an energetic boy that got bored of everything not adventurous? The answer…
"We got a new neighbor!"
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"Mommy! Why'd we hafta move? I liked our house!" Sora pouted, hanging off of his mother's arm like a monkey. On the inside he was glowing, he finally lived close to Riku!
"Oh honey pots! You know that house isn't ours anymore darling. It's your father's house now. Now, chin up and legs straight. You won't have to wake up so early to go to school now, will you? Aren't you happy about that?" His mother led a good point. His parents had just suffered a divorce, leaving Sora to his mom and the house to his dad. They couldn't well impose on him anymore. 'Sides, he loved his sleep.
"Fiiiine!" And with that she knew he was going to be alright.
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Two pairs of kids ran to a community of houses. Tidus leading the way with Riku, who was just as fast the blond boy.
"Come on! Come on! Come on! Hurry up slow pokes!" Tidus shouted as he ran, as if the longer they took, the more and more chance of his neighbors disappearing.
"Which house?" Riku panted, tired after all the running.
"The blue one! Next to mine!"
At this, the silveret sprinted faster, wanting to 'meet the neighbors' before everyone else.
This is where the jealousy undoubtedly started.
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Knock knock
The sound of knocking almost made Sora fall from his seat, which was an unpacked cardboard box full of sappy romance novels courtesy of his mom.
"Ack! I'll get it!" he grunted as he regained his balance and jumped to his feet. Jogging to the front door, he never expected the person on the other side.
"R-"
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"Hey! Welcome to the neighborhood neighbor!" A pair of boys chorused. Both slightly panting and sweating like there was no tomorrow. The taller of the two seemed to radiate superiority for a second. The other boy seemed slightly put off with the first.
"Um, hi guys?" Sora answered meekly; face heating up at the hearty welcoming from Riku. His lips unconsciously formed a weak smile.
"Hey, hey, hey! What's your name kid? How old are you? Where you from? Huh huh huh?" Selphie shouted enthusiastically, her and Wakka finally catching up to the first two.
Sora was a contradiction to himself in every way. But one thing that never contradicted him was his temper.
He promptly slammed the door in their faces with a hurt look in his eyes.
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"Did he just…?" Riku stuttered as he turned to observe his friends. Wondering why the shy looking brunet had just done that.
"He's Sora, ya. He's in our class." Wakka yawned, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oops!" Selphie chuckled nervously, realizing her mistake.
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Tears glistened his eyes, the reason? Riku. The one boy he admired like no other didn't even know he existed. Such a reason wouldn't have burdened Sora if it was someone else. Anyone else other than Riku.
As the spiky haired brunet sat on the floor, back resting on the door that had previously been open, his eyes stung with the raw need to heave and sob and break down. For without a father figure, Sora had no other male he could have turned to easily and admired.
"Sora? Honey pots? You alright?" The boy lowered his head and promptly ran up to his mother, enveloping her in a hug.
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"What was that Selphie?! How couldn't you know Sora? He let you have his pudding when you dropped yours two days ago!" Riku seethed, mad at losing his chance to befriend Sora, the shy boy that never played with the rest. The group of friends still stood on the porch.
At the shouting directed at her, she did the only reasonable thing a six year old girl would do in that situation.
She cried.
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"Oh dear, what's happening now? Be right back baby, I'll go check on what's wrong outside. Can't give a bad impression now, right?" Sora's mother smiled, petting the aforementioned boys' head. She walked up to the door, the source of all the noise that had befallen that day so far.
As she opened it, she was surprised to see a group of boys trying to calm a young female. When they heard the door creak open, hoping it was Sora so they could apologize, they promptly turned to stare at a person older than they had hoped for.
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The group of kids stared at the adult. By that time even Selphie had stopped crying. They were sure that they were in trouble for offending Sora.
None of them expected for the older female to pick up Selphie and ask her in a heartwarming voice what was wrong. Of course, Selphie had her revenge then and there in the worst possible of ways.
"Riku is a real big bully!" Complete with pointing of the finger and an increase of tears on Selphie's part.
She placed blame.
The lady turned to the three boys, two of which swiftly jumped back and pointed to the silver haired boy. Both of them sporting looks that shouted, 'It was him! I had nothing to do with it!'.
The silver haired boy at least had the shame to look guilty.
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