A/N: I've been having trouble writing the next chapter in It's Just A Game so I started this mini story to help take away the writer's block. This will probably be about 10 chapters depending if it'll lead where I actually want it to go. But my writing usually doesn't go the way I plan it SO YUP.

Summary: Sora sometimes wishes he could slow time. His life has become tedious and he just wants to get away from it all. Riku decides to help him with that. RikuxSora

"One more problem…"

Sora was tired. Then again, when was he ever not? Stupid homework. Sora used to love history but the homework was a bit stressing. The brunet couldn't help but reread the same question over and over again as he tried grasping the answer.

It was a little bit after 4am. He knew he should've gotten a good amount of rest for his debate that morning but he still had his history homework to complete.

He quickly put his homework in his book bag when he finished the problem, thinking how much faster he could've completed it if he were not about to drop dead. Half-asleep already, he put his uniform ready on his chair. Just as he was about to change into his night clothes, he heard a scurry of footsteps near his door.

"Sora?" The brunet turned to see his little brother standing at the doorway, yawning tiredly. Sora didn't have to ask to know he had another nightmare. He walked over and picked his brother up.

"Would you like to sleep on my bed, Roxas?" Sora asked, still managing a smile despite his exhausted state. Roxas nodded his head while rubbing one eye with one hand, the other clutching Sora's shirt tightly. Sora set Roxas down on his bed so he could change into his nightclothes and turn of the lamp. Letting another yawn slip out, he crept under the comforter, holding his baby brother tightly and brushing his blonde bangs from his sweaty forehead.

"Goodnight, Sora," Roxas murmured, snuggling into his older brother.

"Goodnight, Roxas," Sora whispered back, placing a soft kiss on the top of his head.

Sora could barely keep his eyes open as he walked to school. Two hours was barely enough sleep. His morning was still a bit of a haze. How he managed to get to school was still amazement to him. He quickly changed into his swimming gear and walked outside to meet his teammates.

"Sora, you're late. Get to practice early next time," his coach scolded.

"Yes sir," Sora said, narrowing his eyebrows in frustration. His friend, Tidus patted his back comfortingly.

"The coach just explained we have to do ten laps today. The championship is next Saturday. You ready?" Tidus whispered as the coach started criticizing another kid for not working hard enough the day before.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Sora mumbled. The coach commanded them to go the edge of the pool where they all got into their ready positions and waited for the coach to blow his whistle.

As the whistle sounded, they all leaped into the water, which was always icy cold in the mornings. As Sora was swimming all he was thinking about was how he was going to go to the championship if he was supposed to go to Roxas's Big Sibling assembly that day?

"Hey, Sora, do you want to get some ice-cream with me and the guys after school?" Tidus asked as they were dressing up in the locker-room.

"No, sorry. I have work today," the brunet declined as he buttoned up his school uniform.

"Maybe next time," Tidus said with a smile. Sora nodded as he quickly passed by him to rush to his next class. Tidus sighed and shook his head as he continued dressing up.

Sora cursed as the late bell rang. He was slacking off more than usual. And he had this annoying, major headache. He would have to pick up his pace befo—

"Ow, shit. Sorry, man. Are you okay?" Sora's head throbbed. He wasn't sure if it was the lack of sleep causing it or the crash but he felt faint.

"Here, hold on." Sora wasn't even aware of the hand pulling him up. When he opened his eyes, his vision was still a bit foggy but he realized he was being carried.

"Who…" but he trailed off, too tired to even think.

When he opened his eyes again, he was staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Shooting up, Sora glanced around frantically but regretted it as his head throbbed again.

"Here." Sora looked up to see a stranger holding out pills and a cup of water.

"It's just painkillers," he said, giving a smile. Sora looked at his hand suspiciously and then back at him.

"Who are you?" The stranger smirked and just grabbed his hand, placing the pills on it.

"Let's just take care of that head of yours first," he said, handing Sora the cup. Sora wasn't sure what made him listen to a random stranger giving him pills but he swallowed it anyway and gulped down the water in thirst.

"Can I get more water?" he asked, not realizing how thirsty he was. The teen chuckled as he took his cup and left the room. Sora glanced around. The room was small and narrow, with only the bed Sora was laying on and a small table with a lamp. There were a lot of posters, however, of famous skateboarders.

"Sora." The brunet turned at the sound of his name. The stranger walked in the room and closed the door behind him. He smiled before handing him the refilled cup of water. Sora took it and gave his murmur of thanks as he gulped it down. The teen watched him with his bright green eyes, making him feel a bit uneasy.

"How do you know my name?" Sora asked, fingers idly playing with the cup in his hands.

"Who doesn't know your name, Mr. Top of the Classes?" the boy smirked, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"We go to the same school?" Sora was surprised that he never saw this person before. He would've remembered someone with silver hair.

"Yeah," the boy said, not offended at all, as if knowing Sora wouldn't recognize him.

"Sorry…I don't remember seeing you," Sora mumbled. "What happened?"

"Ah, sorry, I skated into you while you were dazing off." Sora nodded as he faintly remembered being crashed into. He then wondered what the heck was someone doing skating in the hallways. He wanted to ask that but all that came out was a different question.

"What's your name?" The teen was taken aback. He thought the brunet would just leave by now.

"Riku," he answered. Sora nodded as if trying to commit it to memory.

"Well, Riku, it was nice meeting you all but I have to get back to school," Sora said but a sudden realization hit him. "Oh, no!" Sora threw back the blankets that covered the lower half of his body and nearly flew out of his bed. Just as he was about to reach the doorknob, an arm blocked his way.

"You're actually gonna go back to school?" Riku asked, eyebrow raised. Sora stared back and then narrowed his eyes.

"Yes! You made me miss my debate!" The silver-haired teen raised both eyebrows this time.

"Oh no, whatever shall I do to repent?" Riku said, mockingly putting a hand over his forehead and fell back against the wall. Sora rolled his eyes and tried leaving again. This time, Riku grabbed his shoulder.

"Come on, it was obvious you're overworking yourself. Why do you think you fainted?" Sora glared at him and shrugged the hand off his shoulder.

"Because YOU skated into me and knocked me out!" Sora said, jabbing a finger into his chest.

"I didn't bump into you that hard. Your head was probably already hurting before that. Am I wrong?" Sora rolled his eyes and pushed him out of the way.

"Thanks for everything but I really have to be going," Sora said with a finalizing tone and left without another word. Riku sighed and stood alone in his bedroom, now bored. He'll just have to make sure he sees Sora again soon.

"Sora, what happened to you during U.S.?" The brunet turned his head to the side to see his best friend, Kairi, staring at him with worry as she sat down next to him on the lunch table. "Ms. Bella was really worried. It was the first time you were absent."

"Are you sure it was only Ms. Bella that was worried?" Sora asked, giving Kairi a smile. The redhead blushed and shoved his shoulder.

"Stop teasing. Of course I was worried. So what happened?" the girl asked, scooting a bit closer to him, voice laced with curiosity.

"Nothing, I just had to go to the nurse because I was feeling a bit of a headache. How was the debate?" he asked, poking at his salad.

"Boring," Kairi giggled.

"So I'm your nurse now?" Sora snapped his head up to see Riku grinning down at him, two hands resting on the lunch table. Kairi looked at him, up and down, with suspicion.

"And who are you?" she asked.

"Riku," the teen replied simply, inviting himself to their table as he sat down.

"Aren't you the kid that skipped school for a whole year so you could travel?" Kairi asked, widening her eyes.

"Ah, so I'm famous. And it's not kid to you since I'm a year older than you both. Kiddies," Riku teased. All this time, Sora didn't speak at all. He just tuned them both out as he continued poking at his food. Riku noticed and frowned at the lack of attention the brunet was giving him. "What's up with him?"

"He must just be tired," Kairi said. "I'm Kairi by the way. Um…how do you know Sora?" The brunet mentally shot both of them in the head with laser beams. He just wanted to be alone and yet here these two were, having a conversation about him as if he wasn't there.

"I was the one who rescued him. You see, Sora was under the stress of being the perfect human being that he is and I decided to rescue him before he killed himself from working too hard. But I didn't even get a kiss goodbye before he rushed out of my house like a madman."

Sora finally looked up and glared at him. Kairi looked between the two of them, feeling uneasy.

"Um—" she started, raising a hand to calm the brunet.

"I didn't ask for you to take me back to your house. I didn't need to be rescued. You messed up my attendance because of that." With that, the angered teen stood up and threw his tray in the nearby garbage can and stalked out of the cafeteria.

Kairi smiled apologetically at Riku.

"I'm sorry. He's usually not like that. Maybe if I talked to him…" Kairi was just about to stand up when Riku held up a hand.

"It's fine. I'm sure he's not like that. I'm the one who got him angry so I should talk to him." Without waiting for her to respond, Riku chased after Sora out the cafeteria.

"Hey, wait up," Riku yelled but Sora ignored him and continued to walk. Riku quickly reached out a hand and pulled the brunet's arm, dragging him to the bathroom.

"Let go of me!" Sora gritted out, trying to pull away from his grip. Riku picked up Sora by the waist, making him yelp in surprise, and set him down on the sinks. Sora crossed his arms and glared at the older teen. "What do you want?"

"Hey, why are you so angry?" Riku asked. Sora held his glare for a second before dropping it and letting his arms flop back down at his sides.

"I'm not. Why are you bothering me anyway? Don't you have any other people to go annoy?" Riku chuckled.

"All my friends already graduated," he said, amused at Sora's pout. Sora suddenly remembered that Riku took that year off of school.

"What made you do that?" he questioned. Now Riku was the one confused.

"Do what?"

"Leave school. For a year," Sora said as he started to swing his feet back and forth.

"I dunno. I just felt like it. I was tired of everything. School was boring, my life was boring…I just thought 'Fuck it' and I left."

"Didn't your parents say anything? Didn't your friends tell you not to?" Sora asked, hands gripping the sinks' end tightly.

"I don't have a dad. My mom could care less and my friends thought I was crazy but I didn't really care. What's with all these questions? I feel like I'm being interrogated," Riku asked, amused. Sora loosened his grip on the sink and sighed. He jumped off and turned around to stare in the mirror.

"I guess…I'm kind of tired of it all too." Sora stared at his reflection, lifting up a hand to touch the bags under his eyes. His blue eyes looked dull and his tan skin looked pale. When was the last time he ever had a good night's sleep?

"Hey, come with me," Riku said, nodding towards the hallway. Riku gave a small smile before leaving the bathroom. Sora followed a few seconds later.

"Where are we going?" the brunet asked as Riku led him down a hallway he had never been to before. Riku didn't answer as he walked up the staircase. Sora looked at it hesitantly.

"Are you sure we're supposed to be going up there?" The smiling teen just pulled Sora's hand and led him up the stairs. Opening the door wide, Sora's eyes widened at the beam of light.

They were on top of the school roof.

"We're definitely not supposed to be up here," he whispered. However he found that he didn't care as he soon as he felt a refreshing gush of wind. Sora sat down next to Riku, who was laying down on his back.

"Why did you bring me up here?" Sora asked looking down at Riku who had closed his eyes in content.

"Because of reasons."

"What reasons?" Riku opened one eye to look at Sora and laughed.

"Do I need a reason for everything?" Sora scrunched up his nose at that question. "Don't think too hard, knucklehead." Sora frowned but didn't ask any more questions as he laid down next to the silver-head. The sun blaring down at him made him feel comfortably warm.

"Do you always come up here?" Sora asked. He bit his lip as he realized Riku might start getting annoyed with all his questions.

"Well whenever I come to school and I just feel like taking a break, I would sneak up here," Riku answered, not seeming bothered by his questioning nature. "I feel at peace, you know?"

"Yeah," Sora said, smiling as a soft gust of wind blew by. Soon it was getting really warm and the brunet couldn't help but tug open the tie that felt considerably tight around his neck at that moment. He opened the first few buttons in his shirt and finally relaxed, oblivious to the wandering green eyes beside him.

"Hey, Sora?"

"Yeah?" the brunet asked, turning his head to face his new friend.

"I'm glad you're the first person I met while coming back to school." Sora looked at him with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

"But…there's nothing interesting about me," Sora said as if it was obvious. Riku just chuckled as he stood up.

"You're interesting to me."