Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Kingdom Hearts. (The emphasis of this will be placed upon the characters.)
Warning: Shonen-ai not your thing? Then don't read it. No one's forcing you.
"Hey, Sora."
"Yeah, Riku?" the young teen acknowledged as they walked up the steps to their school. They had fifteen minutes until the bell rang, so it wasn't as if they were in a huge hurry. Riku had driven them to school in his old Chevy like he did most mornings. Well, except when one of them had to come early for some random meeting or other.
"You know what day it is?" the older one asked, opening the door for both of them as Sora slipped under his arm.
"'Course, it's Valentine's Day—the guy on the radio only spent five minutes reminding people."
"Weeeeeeeell," Riku began dramatically. "I got a dare for you today if you want."
Sora locked his mischievous eyes on Riku as he grinned, eager for a challenge. "What is it?"
"Oh, nothing much . . . shouldn't be too hard . . . All you have to do is, except when talking to teachers, use these to talk to people," he said, handing Sora a box of little heart candies. They were those hearts that had short messages on them such as CALL ME or MISS YOU and the like. "You can use each more than once if you need to."
"Sounds like fun," Sora agreed, snatching the box from his friend's grasp. "Just you wait—I won't make one slip! Oh, but when is it over?"
"As soon as we're outta the school building—you got anything going on after school?" The brunet shook his head negatively as they reached their locker. Being in a small school, everyone in their grade was forced to share a locker since there weren't enough to go around. However, they could choose their own locker partner. So, of course, being best friends, Riku and Sora had decided to be locker partners. Riku had the top half of the locker—seeing as he was a good six inches taller than Sora.
"Oh, and I suppose you can use basic body language, too," Riku allowed, his friend nodding in agreement.
"So when do I start?" wondered the shorter boy as he stuffed his backpack's contents into the bottom portion of their locker.
"As soon as the bell rings for school to start," informed the silver-haired teen.
Gradually, the hallway filled up with students as friends began conversing and complaining about the previous night's geometry homework. Others were excitedly handing out Valentine cards and candy to their friends. A few were even giving away flowers and teddy bears to those they considered more than friends. Sora and Riku, however, hadn't bothered messing with Valentines. That was more of a girl thing.
BRIIIIIIIING! The bell shrieked monotonously down the hall. Riku grinned at Sora who returned it. It was on.
First period for our hero was just Strength and Fitness, so there wasn't too much talking there. People were too busy jogging as quickly as possible around the track so that they could get back inside from the freezing weather. Winter was still around for another four or five weeks, and the snow was intent on sticking.
Near the end, however, there was one point when Tidus was talking to Sora in the locker room afterwards.
"Man, we ran fast today! I guess sitting by a warm heater is good motivation, huh? And even though I'm always near the front of the line, I was going way faster today and still had trouble staying ahead! Oh well, managed it in the end, so I guess it's ok."
Sora just smiled and dug around in his box of hearts before finding one and handing it his friend. It read: TOP DOG.
Second period was band in which Sora just sat back in his chair and played away on his trumpet. He again didn't talk much; the band director kept drilling these five measures for the drummers. Apparently, the drummers were having problems getting the rhythm down.
At one point, Roxas was teasing Hayner—saying that Hayner couldn't play his instrument to save his life. All three of them had been playing since fifth grade, so it was more of a matter of skill and effort than experience. All were fine players for their age, but Hayner had a tendency to have trouble reading the music occasionally. Thus, he ended up playing the wrong notes. His usual excuse was that the music was too tiny; alas, this was not the case today.
"Sora! I don't suck at playing the trumpet, do I?" he asked, leaning forward on his knees and gazing at the brunet expectantly.
Fumbling through his little box, Sora finally produced one and gave it over to Hayner. It said: UR A TIGER.
Sora grinned. Hayner laughed. And Roxas groaned.
Third period brought along English. Both Kairi and Namine were waiting to talk to him when he entered the room. Settling himself in his desk, he turned around in his seat to face the two girls. Both were surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly, depending on your point of view) dressed in reds, pinks, and whites to celebrate the holiday for love.
"Sora! I put some candy in your locker, ok?" said Kairi.
"Did you make any Valentines, Sora?" Namine inquired curiously.
The brunet shook his head apologetically.
"Aw, but Sora! I gave you candy and here you don't have anything for me?" Kairi wailed teasingly.
Again, Sora shook his head. Waving his arms around, he somehow managed to get the message across to them.
"So you do have something for me? What is it?" Kairi questioned, perking up.
Picking a heart, Sora handed one to her. It said: MY LOVE. Looking up, the receiver saw the giver sticking his tongue out at her playfully.
"Your love?" she scorned. "What good is that gonna do me? I already got a boyfriend, you know."
Namine giggled. "Maybe he wants you to break up your relationship and go out with him."
At that, Sora waved his arms wildly in a horizontal motion. The blonde laughed as he raised his fist next to his head and let his head fall to the side—imitating a noose being pulled around his neck.
Then the teacher started class. They had to be quiet after that.
Fourth period was art, so all Sora did was concentrate on his piece the entire time. The instructor didn't like a lot of noise anyway. If anything, the brunet figured he'd get a good work grade.
Lunch came around at last. Getting into line, Sora once again found himself waiting with Kairi and Namine. They were talking about going on a diet. Sora just rolled his eyes and handed both of them a little heart reading: UR A 10.
The girls still ended up getting salads anyway.
After accepting his tray of the school's idea of food, Sora sat down at their usual table near the window. Riku and Wakka were already there.
"So Sora, how's the dare going?" Riku wondered, smirking. He hadn't seen his friend since first period. And even then, they hadn't been able to hang out much.
Riku received a heart that said: AWESOME.
Most of the lunch period was spent by talking about who got what from who and the significance of it. Well, that's what it was like for the girls, anyway. The boys just ate the 'food' while Wakka and Tidus discussed the basketball game last night.
As for Sora and Riku, well . . . Those two ate their 'food' and made comments every once in a while on the others' conversations. And occasionally—if one observed carefully—one would notice the brief glances from Riku to Sora and vice versa although their gazes never met.
The rest of the lunch period went by uneventful, but as Sora headed back to his locker, he noticed Larxene, Axel, and Demyx sneaking into the teacher's lounge—each with a bottle of spray paint clutched in their hands. Now, Sora admittedly wasn't great friends with those three though they were on good terms.
Dashing over to them nervously, he held out a heart to Larxene. The blonde blinked owlishly for a moment before taking the heart and reading it.
"What's it say, Larx?" Demyx asked.
"Says: BE GOOD. Haha, don't worry about us, Sora. It's only illegal if you get caught, remember?" she asked, grinning maliciously.
Sighing and shrugging his shoulders in a defeated manner, Sora left the troublemakers to their business. They weren't going to listen and he certainly didn't want to get caught at the scene of the crime.
Sixth period was study hall. Having stayed up late the night before (doing absolutely nothing worthwhile, too, unfortunately), he hadn't exactly finished his geometry homework. Half of it remained; working furiously, he managed to finish it before the bell rang.
Seventh period was biology. This was one of the few classes he had with Riku. Luckily, he was also partnered with his best friend, so labs were generally fun. However, today they had to dissect owl pellets.
Sora rolled his eyes. Owl pellets: thrown up gunk from an owl's insides. Joy.
As they picked through the pieces of bone and bits of fur and other random junk, Riku eventually found what he was positive was a mouse's brain.
Making a face, Sora gave him a heart that said: HOW NICE.
About forty minutes later, they both made their way to geometry. In this class, they happened to be at almost opposite sides of the room. The first time they'd gotten the seating arrangement, both boys made a dramatic display of the agony of being separated from one another. When the teacher couldn't handle it anymore, they calmly took their new seats and grinned at each other.
Once the lesson had been explained, the students began working on their homework assignment—attentively watching the clock and willing the remaining fifteen minutes to speed up. Sora, however, couldn't for the life of him understand one of the problems. He stared blankly and helplessly at the paper until Olette was kind enough to lean over and give him the much-needed assistance.
When she was done, Sora made an 'O' shape with his mouth. Grateful, the boy stuck a heart on her table that read: ANGEL.
"Psh. Yeah, whatever, Sora. Thanks for the candy though," she replied, popping the heart into her mouth.
And Sora—bless his heart—he tried to work on the rest of his geometry assignment as hard as he could. But the numbers and their importance for problem seventeen just kept scattering in his mind. As soon as his brain almost had the information lined up neatly in a row for it to make sense, the image of someone kept interfering with his thinking process.
Said someone was also interfering with his eyesight. Why—oh why did the person have to be in the same room on today of all days?
BRIIIIIIIIIING. A flurry of students rushed out the door—eager to escape the building intent on giving them a proper education. (Of course, some argued that if the teachers wanted to give them a proper education, they'd instruct them on how to blow things up. Then again, they already did some of that in chemistry, and Axel didn't need to practice the art of making a bomb.)
By the time Sora made it to his locker, Riku was already waiting for him with his backpack on his shoulder. Hurriedly, the brunet shifted materials between his backpack and locker as necessary while the hallway swiftly emptied.
Shutting the locker door, Sora nodded to his friend—signaling that he was ready to go.
"Soon as we get out that door, you can talk again, Sora," Riku said as they paced down the hallway. "How'd the dare go?"
The shorter one flashed a thumbs-up to the elder, smiling. However, as they neared the doors, Sora began to look a little uneasy, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.
Cocking an eyebrow, Riku asked, "Something wrong, Sora?"
Sora made mixed gestures—one moment he was explaining one thing with his hands while the next moment he was off on a completely different track. At least, that's what it seemed like to Riku.
The silver-haired teen stopped them. "Sora?" he asked. "You ok?"
Sora opened his mouth to say something before abruptly shutting it. This action happened a few more times until he just shoved a candy into Riku's hand—his head facing the floor to hide his reddening face.
Confused, Riku read the message on the heart.
I LOVE YOU.
"Er . . . Sora, I love you, too. We've always been friends, of course I love you," Riku replied dumbly.
Smacking his forehead, Sora took out searched around for another heart before thrusting it towards Riku.
BE MINE.
Riku gaped. "S-Sora," he choked. "A-are you serious?"
Sora lifted his head and pointedly rolled his eyes before glaring and motioning at his furiously red face. Would Riku just get with it already?
A grin broke over Riku's face as he laughed. Bringing Sora into a hug, he managed to whisper, "Yesyesyes, IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouI'vealwayslovedyou!"
Sora's glare softened, his mouth forming a relieved smile. As Riku finally let go, Sora tugged on his sleeve and pointed at the door. He gestured to himself and then him speaking to Riku.
"You got something to tell me, but we have to go outside first?" Riku checked.
Sora nodded, grabbing Riku's hand and leading them quickly outside.
Shivering, Riku said, "Ok, Sora, it's cold. What'd you want to say?"
Face turning a bright red again, Sora smiled and asked quite simply, "Be my valentine?"
bah. i should've been in bed 45 min. ago, but oh well... had to finish this and get it up before midnight -.-; i suppose it's kinda late for the Valentine's day spirit, but i don't care anymore... i'm tired
EDIT: Ok, so a bunch of you know I put this up before and wasn't quite happy with it. In the end, not too many changes were made if you noticed. Mostly, I just added in more hints so that Sora's confession at the end didn't seem so darn sudden (which was the main thing bothering me about it). Besides, I realized that I didn't have the disclaimer before. -.-; Shouldn't forget that, should I? ...Oh well, it's there now. Square and Disney can't sue now. :P (...right?)
reviewers get candy hearts! (yeah, it's not too original, but i'm sleepy...)