Tenacity Takes a Break

Riku looked up from his books as Sora buried his face into his arm, coughing roughly.

Sora just continued to cough, ducking forward to try and catch his breath.

Riku sighed and put his pen down. "Sora."

Sora waved his hand. "I-I'm o-okay..." he gasped.

"How many times have I told you to go to bed?" Riku asked, fluidly getting to his feet. "You need to be resting."

"Stop... stop being s-so fussy," Sora muttered. "'s just a cold."

"That's going to get worse if you don't take it easy," Riku said bluntly. He left the room and came back with a bottle of water. "Here. Go lay down."

Sora swiped the bottle from him. "I don't want to."

Riku sighed. "Sora, if you don't take it easy, you won't feel up to taking your Mark of Mastery exam."

Sora groaned, slamming the bottle onto the floor (and wincing because of the noise it made, because of the headache he had, and wouldn't stop complaining about hourly). "I don't want to take it easy; we should be out there with our Keyblades training," he stressed.

Riku sighed, rubbing at his eyes. "Why am I blessed with stupidly stubborn friends...?" he muttered to himself, before crouching down and hoisting Sora over his shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down!" Sora protested as Riku stood up.

"Nope," Riku replied effortlessly. Sora wasn't exactly feather-light, but rigorous Keyblade training tended to build up upper arm strength, which was all the better for having to drag his ridiculously tenacious friends away from what they couldn't be bothered to stop doing.

"Riku! Now!"

"Not happening. I gave you your chance," Riku replied, tightening his grip.

Sora didn't respond, and he stopped struggling as much; Riku mentally sighed. If he dropped him, he wouldn't have forgiven him, regardless of who's fault it would have been. Did it kill the kid to actually listen to someone else every once in awhile? He was all 'save the world!', but didn't seem to care about saving himself sometimes. Which was good, it was what made Sora Sora, but... sometimes, Riku wanted to clock him (affectionately) for making such dangerous decisions (without him).

"Now, you're going to rest, and maybe if you're feeling better later, I'll bring in the books and give you a pop quiz." He unceremoniously dropped Sora onto the bed.

Sora didn't open his eyes. In fact, his entire face seemed to have gone white. "... Uh huh," he mumbled.

Maybe carrying him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes hadn't been a good idea. Riku paused by the bed. "Sora?" Clearly not the common cold, then. "What's wrong? Nauseous?"

Sora nodded slightly, still without opening his eyes, or his mouth.

Riku sighed. "Alright. Lay down. I told you needed to take it easy."

Sora didn't reply to the not-so-subtle snip, but instead, slowly, curled up on his side and hid his face under his arm.

Riku didn't know if he wanted to sigh again or feel sorry for him, but decided to do a little bit of both. "Now, you are going to get some sleep." He pushed Sora's hair out of the way, palming the brunette's forehead. "You're warm," he muttered, more to himself because he knew the brunnette wasn't listening. "Sora..."

This time he did sigh, long-suffering and ever patient, turning to trudge to the bathroom. Sure, he complained about the kid pulling all these heroic stunts because it was going to get him killed one day, but he, too, had Sora to thank. If it wasn't for Sora, he wouldn't even be here right now. Sora was always his reason to keep going, to keep fighting. Fighting the darkness, fighting the Organization, whatever it took, he would do.

Because Sora was the light at the end of the tunnel. It was as simple as that.

Riku grabbed a washcloth and ran it under the cold water, thinking back to when there had been a day where Destiny Islands was the last place he wanted to be. He had always wanted to get away and see what was out there; he had, now, and he'd realized that there was only place for him: here, by Sora's side, fighting the darkness like his equal, like he had the same solid ground to stand on. Sensationalism? Maybe.

He wrung out the cloth and walked back to the bedroom, gently placing it against Sora's forehead. "Sorry," he apologized when the brunette flinched and those big, blue orbs looked up at him questioningly. "I want to get your temperature and then you can go to sleep, alright?"

"Uh huh."

It took a few minutes to find a thermometer, because the last time either of them had been sick with anything so normal had been way back when they were kids and Riku was almost honestly surprised that they'd remembered to buy a first-aid kit with this stuff. Or maybe Kairi had snuck it in sometime... Just like her to worry about Riku and Sora.

Sora had a low-grade fever and Riku hadn't a clue what was wrong with him - a cold? a fever? the flu? - but prescribed rest and staying hydrated and, if he didn't improve, Riku would haul his butt to the doctor's office, or at least someone more medically knowledgable than him. Sora had laughed at that, only slightly, pulling the blankets closer after Riku had pulled them up around his shoulders.

"Thanks... Riku."

Riku glanced over his shoulder. "How about next time, you try to stay well so I don't have to doctor you, huh?"

Sora smiled tiredly. "Sounds good."

"I'm holding you to that," Riku said seriously, before smiling faintly and leaving the room.

He headed back to his desk to continue his studies when his bare foot caught over the heavy leather-bound book Sora had been poring over. He very nearly went pitching forward, catching his balance at the last seconds with a few choice words before he stooped to pick up the book.

He slipped the bookmark into the page before pausing, fingers halting on the pages. He glanced at his desk again before turning and making back for the bedroom.

Riku settled himself on the other side of the bed, leaning back against the headboard. "Fall asleep if you can," he said, before turning his attention to the book. "'It could be argued that without the X-blade, the Keyblade War might never have been waged; after all, you cannot possess what you cannot find or unlock. It is clear the blade was the inspiration for the human-wrought Keyblades. The letter X can be pronounced both "key" or "kye" and symbolizes the perfect crossing of light and darkness...'"

A platonic SoRiku sick!fic was requested by Arina45, and I'm sorry that I took my sweet time posting it but Sora and Riku don't come as naturally to me as Axel and Roxas do. It's short and sweet and to the point, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! (Sora's so difficult to write... ;_;)

Also, the 'x' in 'X-blade' is supposed to be with swirly tails - I know. Fanfiction doesn't read that type of letter, it just turns to a normal X, so. Whatever. That quote from one of the explanation journals in Dream Drop Distance!

I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or any other Disney-related material. They are owned by, obviously, Disney and Square Enix. Thanks for reading!