Disclaimer: KH and all it's characters are the legaly owned property of Square-Enix/Disney. I own nothing but this story.
It's the third funeral in twice as many months, and Roxas has had enough. Axel went down screaming, Leon went out with a bang and Sora...oh, gods..Sora. His twin brother -older by two minutes so hah!- is gone. He couldn't even think when Namine came running into his quarters, the phone nearly falling from her hand as Kairi screamed and cried on the other end, all he could make out being "Sora's gone!" Riku's stale, choked explanation half an a hour later doesn't give him much in the way of comfort, but it does answer things Kairi didn't know.
Sora, his loveable, goofy, goody-two shoes brother, had stormed the enemy stronghold with nothing but his Keyblade and a handful of Potions, made it all the way to the top...and had blown himself up, taking Xemnas with him.
No note, no letters, no voicemail, no calls, no video left behind, no nothing. Not even a body to bury. And since he'd taken out the castle with him and Xemnas, there's no way they'll find enough for a funeral pyre. So here they stand, all of Sora's friends and allies, as a pretty young woman does what she calls a sending. It's some complicated dance held as close as they can safely get to the Nobody stronghold, and Kairi is the first to go down sobbing. Namine is at her side in less then an instant, and Cloud not long after. Roxas watches as he holds his little sisters close, tears in his own eyes. Everyone else holds strong, but Riku, standing next to Roxas, is shaking.
The second the sending is over, he bolts into the city. Kairi tries to give chase, but Roxas is faster-he's not the one in a skirt-and he catches up with Riku at the Skyscraper. The older boy is on his knees just in front of the building, bowed as if in prayer. But his shoulders are shaking so hard that Roxas wonders how long he's held this in, and the sobs coming from him are raw and heart-wrenching.
Roxas keeps his distance, his own tears much quieter. He thinks of what Sora would do, and he walks to the other man. Riku has to know he's there, but he doesn't look up. Roxas crouches next to his dead brother's best friend, puts his arm around his thin, shaking shoulders, and pulls him into a hug. Riku doesn't stiffen or tense, like every other time Roxas ever touched him, and instead goes boneless. His head falls to Roxas' shoulder as he cries, and all Roxas can do is hold him. All he can do is hold this broken down man as he looks up at the stars and wonder how things ever got this bad.
Random, I know. But with a 20 gigabyte file downloading, I've got nothing else to do but brush up on my writing. So, random ideas and rewrites of older stories, here we are. All I can say is thank anything out there for download resuming.
