Have you ever taken a year-long holiday, or moved countries and then come back? Everyone's a bit curious and wary at the same time, and your school's completely unamused. Unless you've actually got the marks and school certificates to prove it you're probably going to be kept back a year; in fact, it's completely unavoidable if, say, you've been formally missing for a year and a half.
Which meant one Riku and one Sora, bearers of the keyblade, vanquishers of Xemnas, the heroes of light, were now one year behind Kairi.
Fat lot of 'able to swing long weapon around with a fair amount of precision' did for them.
Still, they'd been kept sharp by being on their toes all the time; they kept up with the course work with relative ease (Sora always lagging behind by a tad), and still hung out with their old friends after class. They'd never be able to truly tell them their adventures, but just being in their presence was enough.
Kairi often came in to bother them during class. She was in second year, while they were firsts; some second years would tutor the 'younger' ones so it wasn't unheard of.
One Wednesday afternoon she scooted into the classroom, sitting down sideways on a chair in front of Sora.
"Hey!" she said, looking at the two boys, who always sat next to each other.
"Hey Kairi, sup?" said Sora, giving her a cheerful wave. "You look happy."
"You guys signed up for any of those extra-curricular activities?" she asked, and Riku nodded.
"My homeroom teacher says if I can keep up with my current grades and extra coursework along with an extra-curricular activity I can go back to my regular class level…provided we don't get whisked away again."
"I'm not fussed" said Sora, leaning back in his chair. "Can't think of what normal job I'd have anyway."
Riku shrugged, before looking at Kairi. "So what did you sign up for?"
"Fencing!" she said, grinning widely. "Thought it'd gimme some 'long object swinging' skills."
Yes, Sora had actually used that terminology while being interviewed for his proper class level.
No, it didn't go down well.
"I'm doing martial arts" said Riku. "Movement and flow are a crucial part of magic use, and it's one of my weakest areas."
"Did you seriously both sign up for something to help with that kinda stuff?" said Sora, making a wave movement with his arms.
"Yeah. You didn't?" said Kairi, raising an eyebrow. "It's the only thing you're good at."
"Exactly! I'm already good at it. I don't need to be honing or training anything except keepin' limber" snorted Sora, tapping his own chest. Riku put his head in his hand; Sora's cocky nature was getting the best of him more often of late.
"I signed up for the school production, because I'll have you know I am an excellent performer."
"Oh, we all know that" retorted Riku sarcastically, and Sora stuck his tongue out.
"I'm also awesome at blitzball these days but that might be because I was a merman for a period of time" he said casually, leaning back in his chair. "A merman performer! I got singing lessons from a lobster."
Kairi and Riku looked at each other. Sometimes, Sora's stories really did stray into disbelief territory, even for them.
Auditions for the school production were held about a week later. Kairi and Riku bid Sora good luck, and he headed in, whistling brightly.
"What is the school production this year anyway?" Kairi asked. "He hasn't said."
"I'm not sure" said Riku, rubbing his chin, and someone nudged him. He turned to see Tidus, who gave him a friendly wave.
"You wouldn't believe the amount of shit people had to go through to get this production approved. It's going to be the first one to disallow younger students unless they've got a guardian with 'em."
"What, seriously? What play is it?" said Riku, and Tidus gave him a dark grin.
"'Sweeney Todd'."
"Holy shit" said Riku, staring at the gym door. "Who the hell is Sora auditioning for?"
"No idea" said Tidus. "Think it's that guy in love with Joanna or something."
Riku sighed. They were standing outside the gym door- auditions were inside- which was connected to the art building. The noisiest sections of the school were disconnected from the classroom. The gym backed a fairly large theatre, which was where the production would be held, and the gym was able to be used as a dressing room, make up area, back stage storage, etc. For a few weeks leading up to the production every year, the gym would be closed off to non-production students, and gym classes would be held outside on the basketball courts, with students who had gym allowed to show up in their sport uniforms to ordinary class.
"I can't think of anyone who'd play a good Sweeney" said Kairi. "But no wonder Sora's auditioning…he loves this play for some sick reason."
"Yeah, there's a few weird things on Sora's 'like' list, i.e horror movies" Riku muttered. "He dragged me along to see Saw 3 since I look older than he is. I don't even like horror movies."
"Sora does not strike me as the type" said Tidus, looking surprised.
"Guess who's Sora's favourite movie character?"
"Erm…Jason Bourne?"
"Nope. Chucky. Friggin' Chucky. He owns a Chucky doll somewhere in that trashpile he calls a bedroom. He sneaks it into people's houses."
"Seriously? Who got him into horror movies anyway?"
"Dunno" said Riku with a shrug. "He came over to my place when we were five, and brought Nightmare on Elm Street. Loved every second of it while I hid behind the couch. Gave me nightmares for weeks, Sora wasn't allowed over until he apologised."
"I think he uses it for some kind of stress relief" said Kairi, shaking her head. "He's a good kid all the time, so I guess horror villains are like…his dark streak."
"Just so long as he doesn't start attacking me in my dreams" Riku muttered, before the entire group froze. A manic, spine-tingling laugh had just echoed out of the gym, leaving all the hairs on the back of their neck standing erect.
"Wow" said Kairi. "I wonder who that was."
"Sweeney Todd" said Riku, turning on his heel from the gym. "Bell's gonna ring in a minute, we should head back."
"Really didn't think anyone in our school had that kind of laugh in them" said Tidus, raising his eyebrows.
"I guess" Riku murmured, looking worried.
"I got the part I wanted!" Sora shouted at them that Friday, as they were about to head home from school. "They just posted the cast list for the production students! They want us to keep our roles a secret so people are more enthralled when we perform!" he said gleefully, almost dancing. "Wahoo! I'm gonna give this my all!"
"Nicely done, Sora!" said Kairi, clapping her hands together. "How was the audition?"
"Great!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "The drama teachers were kinda iffy about the role I was going for, but one of them LITERALLY FELL OFF HER CHAIR once I started performing! It was incredible! Gah, but I thought maybe someone would've undermined it a little, or maybe I didn't have the right look…but nope, part's mine! Whoop! I'm shouting you both sea-salt ice-cream and we're watching Sweeney Todd tonight at my place!"
"Oh, come on, do we have to?" asked Kairi.
"I guess we should support him" said Riku, rubbing his fingers through his silver hair. "You're not going to tell us who you got?"
"I wanna surprise the shit out of you" he said with a cocky grin. "But nevermind! Ice-cream and people pies, away!"
Sora basically skipped out of the front gate.
"I'm almost thinking he's playing Mrs. Lovett" said Kairi, raising her eyebrow.
"That'd be the day I fall off my chair" said Riku, folding his arms.
The next few months, if Sora had a spare moment, he could be seen pouring over a script, mouthing his lines. If someone tried to peer over he'd immediately pull it away, giving them a mildly annoyed scowl before continuing to read away from them. He still kept up with his school work, though his teachers were finding Sweeney Todd-related answers in some of his homework, leading Riku to check over anything he was about to submit before he did so.
"Thanks, buddy" he would say, before going back to the script. He had a paper copy, and it was scrawled with notes upon notes. Every time he looked at it, even for a second, he'd get a sinking feeling in the pit of his gut. Eventually, though, Sora stopped bringing the script, and he'd just be muttering lines to himself under his breath, occasionally tugging other production members out of anything and everything to bring them aside and breakout into some kind of scene or musical number.
It wasn't until Sora was pulled out of classes in the lead up to the production that Riku finally realized why he was getting that feeling.
Sora's script only had a few pages where he hadn't written notes.
Which meant he was in almost every scene.
Sora found them a few days before the opening, handing them two tickets.
"One for opening and one for closing" he said cheerfully. "Free of charge."
"Wow, really?" said Kairi. "How'd you get them free?"
"Well" he started, before stopping himself. "You'll find out."
Riku tugged on his sleeve once Kairi had waltzed away, giving Sora a very serious look.
"I think I've figured out who you're playing, but I'm having an internal argument about it because how the hell would you get that part?"
Sora raised his eyebrows, before shrugging, and leaning in close.
"A bit of jiggly pokery, a bit of drawing upon my horror villain knowledge, and one good insane laugh" he whispered, before giving him a cheeky grin and disappearing around a corner.
Riku blinked in surprise, before his jaw dropped.
"No way" he muttered. "There's no way that laugh was him."
He'd find out on opening night, anyway. But still…
Riku and Kairi arrived in neat casual dress the night of the opening. The gym windows had been covered with black cloth, so they couldn't see inside or the actors in costume, and many of their other friends were gathered there, ready for opening night.
"Sora got us a few tickets, but he said he used up his 'ticket tokens' on getting Riku and Kairi closing night tickets as well" said Selphie with a pout, chatting idly to Wakka.
"Ey, I had to pay for my ticket, ya? Stop complainin'" he retorted. "I challenged that fish boy Sora to blitzball and he walloped me and Tidus somethin' fierce. Boy's part mermaid."
Kairi started giggling quietly, and Riku elbowed her, before turning to the group. "Have any of you guys figured out who he's playing?"
They all shook their heads, and Riku sighed. Kairi looked at him, surprised.
"You know?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think so" Riku muttered. He didn't look pleased with the knowledge, however.
A few minutes later, the marketing crew ushered them into their seats, confiscating phones and telling everyone to refrain from chatting during the show, no matter how tempting.
They took their seats, a low rumble of chatter being emitted for a little while. The seats looked down on a stage, which currently had the curtains drawn. People were still shuffling in, filling red seats, a small pit, filled with the school's band, practicing and tuning their instruments and flicking through sheet music.
Eventually, though, the seats filled, and the room went silent, as the band began the eerie Overture.
The curtains opened, and smoke billowed out, as a figure walked out on stage, beginning to introduce the piece in rhyme. Gradually, more figures walked in, which Riku recalled to be the Ghosts of those who Sweeney would murder. As the song reached its crescendo, a spotlight came on, revealing the figure of Sweeney Todd.
The make-up was impeccable. His hair was insane, defying gravity in twisted spikes, taken to with black and purple hair spray save one twisted spike that was white. His face was deathly pale, the shadows of his cheekbones intensified, along with the shadows of his eyes, one of which had a yellow contact in it, contrasting against the other, oceanic blue one.
And as the play continued, as the scene was switched to the ship coming into London, and Sweeney Todd spoke, Riku had no doubts any longer.
Sora was playing Sweeney Todd.
And he was enthralling.
Each word he sang and spoke, every step, every tiny movement, was concise and embodied Sweeney Todd to a tee; he could almost feel the stunned looks of the people around him, the longing to break out into whispers of who is playing Sweeney Todd?, but Riku knew. Damn, Sora probably picked out that eye contact; it was the exact shade of yellow Ansem had.
The play continued, and somehow, Riku became sucked into Sora's performance. He forgot- at least for the most part- that his usually gullible, naïve young friend was playing the vicious demon barber. Some of the other actors pulled him out for a moment as he recognized them or they stumbled over their words, but the memory was quickly wiped over and gone the moment the titular role took the spot light again. He hadn't been joking about his performing ability, and he wasn't a bad singer either; he had a difficult time appreciating it fully, though, since the deeper, angry tone Sora had employed for the part continually left goosebumps running up and down his spine. As Sweeney Todd sang viciously about how everyone deserved to die, the cold in the room left Riku shivering, the goosebumps refusing to leave.
Madness and 'justice' were a terrifying combination to behold.
At intermission, as everyone was eating complimentary bake-club cookies and drinking terrible coffee, there were two words on their lips: Sweeney Todd.
"Holy cow!" said Tidus, running up to Riku and Kairi. "Did you see that Sweeney? Who the hell is that? He's scary as heck!"
Tidus ran his hands up and down his arms, shuddering a little, as Wakka and Selphie joined them.
"He must be a student with a lot of dark things in his past" said Selphie. "His performance is so convincing."
Riku sighed, biting his lip. Sora did have some dark experiences, but he'd never seemed the type to draw on them for anything…though, it was supposed to be one of an actor's strongest suits.
"So, anyone know when we'll see Sora?" said Tidus. "I haven't seen a peep."
"Yeah" said Kairi. "It's weird. He had so many notes on his script…"
Riku cleared his throat awkwardly, taking a bite of a choc ripple biscuit.
"Sora…is…" he murmured, before taking a deep breath. "Sora's playing Sweeney Todd, guys."
Four jaws dropped open at the same time, along with everyone else who a) knew Sora and b) was close enough to hear Riku say it.
"Are you sure?!" Kairi spluttered, before covering her mouth. "Oh, my god. Of course…that's his hair! Oh wow…"
"Yeah" Riku muttered. "I guess that laugh back at the gym was him, too."
"Holy balls" Tidus exclaimed. "Who knew he had it in him?"
Riku's eyes looked dark, his hands closed tightly in his pockets. Roxas, Sora's Nobody, would've been capable of this kind of performance. But seeing Sora actually express that side, like a mirror image, had left him feeling uneasy.
The intermission ended, and they all returned to their seats, eager to continue watching. He could hear Selphie nattering on about how she'd pick out some flaw, some evidence of Sora, in his rendition of Sweeney Todd, but Riku grimly knew she'd fail the task; Sora was devoted to this role, and he'd play it as fervently as he could.
And oh, did he.
Again they were sucked into the performance, seeing only Sweeney Todd and not the cheerful young man they knew as their friend. The demon barber of Fleet Street, all vicious growls and maddened looks, as he descended so far into the pits of hell he couldn't recognize his own wife.
As the play closed, as the curtains were drawn over Sweeney Todd dead and bent over the body of Lucy, the entire theatre stood up and broke into thunderous applause and whistles. Stunned, amazed, enthralled. Riku couldn't believe it.
But at the same time, in some twisted, dark, icy part of his stomach, he could, too.
It was a few hours before the cast and crew were released for the night. Sora came out with hairspray still in his hair, leaving it dark, but the contact was missing and he was wearing more comfortable clothes.
"Did you guys wait for me?" he said curiously, blinking innocently. His neck was still stained a little with fake blood- it'd probably be either gone or covered up for the next night's performance anyway.
"Of course. Have to give the Demon Barber of Fleet Street his proper entourage" Riku mocked, bowing. Sora feigned a manic grin and bowed back.
"I can't believe you didn't tell us you got the lead role" said Kairi, putting her hands on her hips.
"It would've ruined the surprise!" Sora said indignantly. "D'ya think we'd have gotten a stand ovation if everyone knew who we were?"
"Sora, that standing ovation was for you" said Kairi with an eyeroll. "And yes. That performance was incredible. Who knew you could be so grimdark?"
Sora grinned widely, beaming with the praise. "That was my warm-up performance. Wait 'til closing" he said cheekily, and Riku raised an eyebrow.
"If that was a warm up you'll have people running for the door at closing" he drawled, and Sora chuckled.
"Waddya think? Next time we go fighting and I summon my keyblade, should I shout 'Finally, my arm is complete!'?"
"No" said Riku shortly. "And don't get any ideas that Sweeney Todd's escapades are 'justice'."
Sora raised an eyebrow, before shrugging, and the three began to walk home.
Kairi's was the first house, so the two boys bid her farewell as she ran up to the neat home. They walked up to the path leading to Sora's front door and stopped.
"Riku" said Sora, his hands in his pockets.
"What?" he said.
"I destroyed every member of Organization XIII bar three, one of them being my own Nobody. I destroyed Oogie Boogie on two separate occasions. Ursula on two separate occasions. Trapped Jafar in a lamp on two separate occasions. Aided in killing a man named Clayton. Destroyed Maleficent. So, in that respect, how are the definitions of justice any different, besides the lack of gore and madness, hm?"
Riku blinked, stunned by the admission. He'd never heard Sora's battles summed up that way before, or even thought of them that way."
"Sweeney Todd shouldn't have killed as many people as he did. His targets should have been the Judge and the Beadle, no-one else. So yes, Sweeney Todd fell into his own darkness and suffered for it. But the Sweeney Todd we meet at the beginning- the man just barely free of the name Benjamin Barker, before he's consumed by Mrs. Lovett's ideas and his own dark heart- that Sweeney Todd's sense of justice was in the right place. We've both fought and destroyed others to protect those we care about, Riku. It's how using the Keyblade works."
"This is probably the most serious I've heard you."
"Playing this role lets me stray a little too close to the things I don't like to think about. But hey, all over at closing; might as well give it my all, yeah?"
Sora feigned a cheerful grin and ran home, leaving Riku standing outside, mulling over Sora's words, and slowly realizing how little he knew about what kinds of demons plagued his friend.