The day was ending. Bathed in the glow of the evening sun, he knew dusk would soon set in. It was a time when the island had a welcome respite from the heat, and one could rest their weary eyes.
However, at this moment, none of those memories seemed to comfort his racing thoughts.
Riku was sitting outside, overlooking the cliff which the wizard's home dwarfed. It was a place they had frequented recently, in anticipation for the coming battles. They. Riku let his mind settle on the word.
He sighed, forcing darkness to his thoughts, breathing in the welcome respite from their noise.
"No more thinking," he quietly announced to himself. "It's finally the time for words."
He opened his eyes to a familiar, but unexpected, smile, far too close and far too suddenly to not react to. He gasped audibly, nearly falling back from the surprise.
"Heheh," the other boy couldn't help but chuckle at his old friend's reaction as he pulled away and stood up. "Hey, Riku."
"Sora," Riku annoyedly responded, pausing for composure before going on. He smiled slightly, realizing better than admonishing his friend's actions. "Hey."
Sora didn't wait for further interaction, and took a familiar spot at Riku's side. "You were talking to yourself, so it looks like I got here just in time to save you."
Riku didn't move. "Save…?"
"From the insanity of loneliness, of course!" Sora chuckled.
Riku returned the action. "My hero," he smiled.
He felt both comforted and restless at Sora's physical closeness, knowing the time had come.
Sora was silent for a while, seemingly content at the state of things, nonchalantly overlooking the sea.
"Sora, um," Riku tried to begin, turning meekly to his companion. "Don't you want to know why I asked you to meet me here?"
"Of course!" Sora turned to him with an almost theatrical exasperation. The brown-haired-boy resumed his typical smile, his voice calming to serious. "I just wanted to let you get to it in your own time."
Riku nearly groaned outwardly. This is exactly why this is so difficult. "I..."
"Take your time," Sora responded, turning his face forward, relaxing his position, leaning back onto the balls of his hands.
Riku tried looking forward too, facing away from him. That might make it easier. "I wanted to talk," he offered dryly.
Sora only offered a quiet, "Mhm" in reply.
"I, well," he exhaled deeply, forcing himself forward. "Before everything changes again, I just wanted to tell you a few things."
Sora turned his face in his direction, and Riku couldn't help but return the action. He almost couldn't breathe when he saw how serious his face had become.
Sora leaned forward, his hands supporting him.
"Sora?" Riku worriedly asked.
"You're being serious," Sora replied. "So I have to be serious, too."
"Oh." He's being supportive.
And that was the breaking point.
"That attitude of yours is exactly why this is so difficult," Riku hurriedly blurted out, letting his calm facade fade.
Sora didn't move, so Riku continued on.
"You're always like that. You're this, this..." Riku paused, searching for the right word. "Beacon." His voice started to crack.
"You're a beacon of hope, this determined light that will never go out. You..." He didn't want to continue on.
"You were unapproachable." His face fell, but he couldn't stop now. "I never wanted to hurt you. I never-"
He paused when he felt warmth streak down his cheek, quickly moving to brush it away.
"Riku," Sora quietly spoke. "I'll listen but, you know I've already forgiven you, right?"
Riku shook his head. "Of course I know. But I need to say these things, before we move forward." He lifted his head, resolutely matching Sora's gaze.
"If I do this, we can finally be in the same world again."
Sora looked confused at his statement. "But Riku, we're already-" He reached his hand out to touch his shoulder, slowly kneading the spot to comfort his dear friend.
"For a long time. For as long as I could remember, you were beside me. You and me. We did everything together." Riku weakly smiled.
"Every adventure in the book, we had it. No matter what went wrong, you would always be there… smiling that smile of yours."
He breathed.
"I was restless. All of our adventures just reminded me that we were stuck on the island. We might be there forever. And, the thought of that scared me." He bit down. "It scared me so much."
"But, isn't it funny? Somewhere along the line—I don't know when—something shifted. I longed so much for change, but were happy even if things didn't change."
"That almost made me angry. No, it made me angry. And bitter. And resentful. And yet, I still cared about you in that messed up way."
"Even if I wanted everything else about my life to change, I never once wanted you to. Isn't that stupid?"
Sora didn't react.
"You remained the same existence, but, I—I, I… I became disgusting, blackened. I wanted to protect you from the blackness inside me."
"So, we would still spend time together, but, all those nonchalant physical means of affection, those talks we used to have? I slowly cut them out. You seemed to kick up a fuss about it, at first, but eventually, you gave up."
Sora finally spoke up. "I never gave up on you, Riku—Not for one moment did I doubt our friendship. I had support you in the way that made you comfortable."
"I want you to know, I was never comfortable. I wanted to go back to the way things were between us, but the rift felt further and further," Riku stretched his arms apart, emphasizing the distance.
"Until we were in different worlds," Sora quietly responded.
"At first, of course that was metaphorical, but little did I know that it would become literal." He looked down again, grimacing.
"Everyone—Our home. Kairi—We lost all of it at once. But the one, miniscule silver lining was that it gave me the chance to bridge the gap to you. I offered you my hand, and together-" He had to stop.
Sora could only look on, not knowing what to say.
"I know now that your way was the correct one. Losing myself to empty promises of power…" He chuckled dryly. "But, at the time, in my mind, it was finally my chance to become close to you again. If darkness was the only way to save everyone, then, then it was okay if being around you would cause you to darken as well. It was for the good of everyone! What had been rotting inside of me was no longer something to fear! I didn't have to fear tainting you! I..."
"I hated you more than anything else." Riku looked up, his bitterness carved into his features.
"I hated you, Sora. For leaving me alone. My final, untarnished light had abandoned me. The moment I finally tried to connect with you again, you rejected me. Without you there, the blackness hidden inside of me absorbed me entirely. I was so lonely."
"I was lonely without you too," Sora said solemnly.
"You know it wasn't to the same degree. That time I finally saw you again, and thought that maybe there was still a chance, they were there."
"Goofy and Donald..."
"Yes. Of course now I realize that friendship isn't so exclusive a thing, but at the time, I felt completely replaced. Everything we had known had been turned around, and while I was miserable and alone, you… You were still smiling. You found others to share your heart with. You..."
His voice raised in intensity.
"You were always better than me! Even saying that makes me feel vile and so below everything you could be. In the face of overwhelming darkness, you will always overcome it. Someone like that..." His voice fell from a yell to a quiet shadow of a whisper.
"Someone like me shouldn't be allowed to be around someone like you."
They were both quiet for several seconds, each moment stretching for a painful eternity. Riku was looking down, afraid to face the culmination of his words. "That's how I feel," he weakly spoke.
It was Sora's turn to speak.
"Someone like you?" Sora's voice was mildly bitter. "Tell me, what is that supposed to mean? And if you think I'm strong, I don't know what to tell you. I feel sad too, but what else can I do but smile and depend on others? I don't want anyone to feel bothered. I want everyone to be happy, so we can smile together—But, how do I do that? Don't you understand? All I can do is try and smile. If I don't do that, I don't deserve to be near you!"
He panted, catching his breath in deep gulps of air from his tirade.
Riku's eyes were open in shock. "Deserve to be near me?" was all he could utter to make sure he hadn't misheard.
Sora's hands moved to his shoulders and his eyes turned resolute. "Who do you think I always looked to for strength? You idiot..." his eyes were wet. "To say you're weak or that you're wrong, just because you have darkness inside of you? Riku, you're the strongest person I know!"
Riku's continual surprise urged Sora to continue. "So you were overcome by darkness, right? Look at you-" Sora stopped and smiled. "You overcame it, didn't you? You're still that same Riku I've always loved. You can beat anything!"
Riku gulped. "Even now, with darkness inside of me?"
Sora half exhaled and half laughed. "The fact that you're using darkness and not the other way around should speak volumes to you."
"Why can't you see-"
The world slowed.
"Just how amazing you are?"
Riku's features shifted to that of a soft, content smile.
"That's what I was trying to tell you."
"Heheh," Sora beamed in response, removing his hands from Riku's shoulders in order to dramatically collapse onto his back. His exaggerated sigh as he looked up at the now-visible stars had calmed him.
Riku quietly and slowly moved to his back as well, his hands at his sides.
"It's been a while, huh?" Sora supplied.
Riku smiled. "Yeah."
"Was this what you thought would happen?" Sora asked curiously.
"It was what I was hoping would happen," Riku replied.
"Riku, you know everything!"
"Well, obviously."
"Ah, that reminds me," Sora realized.
"Hm?" Riku looked at his best friend.
That was when Sora practically tackled him.
"Gah!" Riku grimaced as Sora's weight was upon him.
He opened his eyes to see Sora had enveloped him in a close embrace, now letting himself roll back to Riku's side but never breaking the hold.
"Since we can have talks like we used to, I assume we can also do stuff like this again," Sora spoke nonchalantly.
"Y-You… We're not kids anymore, you know. Some things need to change," Riku tried to annoyedly reply, but couldn't fully hide his embarrassment.
"Not us," Sora quipped, tightening his grip.
"Ahh, you're going to choke me," Riku chuckled as he pretended to die.
As Sora laughed at his horrible acting skills, Riku returned the hug.
The two relaxed against one another, newly content.
Two splintered worlds, separated by a seemingly-infinite divide had once again joined skies.
In the coming days, the skies may pale or bleed, falling victim to difficulties.
But if their two inhabitants could walk the same path, side-by-side, then, regardless of the warnings of battle-
The future shouldn't scare them at all.
Nothing is like before.
Afterword:
With KHIII just around the corner, I figured what way to celebrate than what I know best: hurt/angsty fiction!
Please let me know if you enjoy my stories, or what you would like to see more of. My self-motivation is garbage, but if I know people want more, I will have to force myself.
I hope you enjoyed the cuties.