Sora was definitely Riku's best friend on the whole of Destiny Islands.
This was in large part because Sora and Kairi (the new girl who he had only met once but who had been super duper nice) were the only ones besides his parents who smiled when they saw him. Today in particular looked like was going to be a lonely day for Riku. Sora hadn't been waiting for him like he usually was when Riku had arrived bright and early, super excited because today was the day he was going to be old enough to row them both out to the small island on his own. His Dad had said so. That was the best part of turning 8 years old when your only real friend was so forgetful he couldn't even remember your birthday.
But Riku didn't mind. He knew he had gotten up early today. In fact the sun hadn't even turned its usual yellow/white color yet. Currently, it was still a peachy orange color and so low in the sky that Riku felt like he might actually be able to climb on top of it, if he could only get close enough to reach it before it got any higher. He would have to remember to talk to Sora about this new adventure idea when he found him.
Ever since the man from the outside world with the big key-sword-thing had told Riku his secret, Riku hadn't been able to stop thinking about what adventures existed on the other side of the sunrise and what people were like outside of the islands.
Both the secret man and the blue haired woman had been kind like Sora. Though unlike Sora, they had both been from the outside world.
That must mean people from the outside world were nicer.
Kairi was also from the outside world and had arrived shortly before the secret man and blue haired woman. She didn't think Riku's hair was scary either. She even told him she liked it when she asked him if they could be friends too (Sora had already asked her if she wanted to be friends with him). Riku hadn't answered yet because she was a girl, but inside his head he already considered her a friend.
The outside people wouldn't give Riku weird looks that lasted way too long and made him squirm.
They wouldn't whisper about him and tell their kids not to trust Riku or be his friend.
They wouldn't push him down the stairs or tell him he couldn't come in by himself when he went to the ice cream shop without Sora or his parents.
Sora and his family were the only ones from Destiny Islands who didn't think Riku was bad or scary just because he looked like the boy who had left a long time ago.
Riku had never seen the boy. He had left waaaaayyy before Riku or even Riku's Mom and Dad were even born. But people were always whispering about how he had the same color of hair and so must be the same kind of person. All Riku really knew was from the day his parents sat him down and told him about his ancestor. That sometimes people in their family had silver hair instead of black. That this wasn't a bad thing but people on Destiny Islands were still scared because the last person to have the silver hair had been really mean before he suddenly left, never to be seen or heard from again.
Riku had learned to ignore the stories by now. But it still hurt whenever the kids at school would ask him if he had killed any animals yet or when he was going to lock them up and do scary experiments on them. Or worst, tell him to just disappear already before he could cause trouble like the last boy.
And today was no exception from the nervous, angry, or disappointed looks and skirting out of his path even the adults gave him as he walked down Main Street looking for Sora.
Well, kind of looking for Sora. In reality Riku did his best to keep his head down and his eyes on the ground. He even hunched his shoulders to try and make himself look smaller. His most recent growth spurt seemed to only have given people more reason to be scared of him.
He really was just trying to get to the other side of town where Sora's family lived, to see if Sora was awake yet.
That was when he heard someone call his name. He couldn't help the instinctive jerk of his head toward the sound, even though if it was being shouted at him, it usually was accompanied by someone telling him to stop being so creepy or something.
Instead he was greeted with the smiling face and dark red hair of Kairi.
"Good morning Riku!" She yelled, her hand waving above her head so vigorously her whole body rocked with it. She took off from her place beside the Mayor and ran over to Riku, seemingly oblivious to the looks of astonishment and concern people were giving her.
Upon arrival to an arm's length in front of Riku, Kairi jumped to a halt, feet burrowing slightly into the loose sandy soil of the island.
"Morning Kairi." Riku murmured in response, feeling all eyes on the two of them, and painfully aware of the heavy silence now having fallen across the street.
"Sora said your birthday was today! So I made you something. I found these shells and they looked like your eyes so I turned them into a bracelet for you. I have to go now. Mr. Mayor is going to take me up to the school today so I can get signed up for class. I am going to be in the same grade as Sora! Isn't that exciting? Sora says you are one grade above us. Lucky! Well anyway, happy birthday Riku!" She said all this in one excited go, without so much as slowing down for breath to give Riku a chance to respond.
In fact, it wasn't until she was already running back to the shop the Mayor was in front of that Riku noticed she had already tied the bracelet around his wrist.
The teeny, aquamarine shells were shaped kind of like clam shells and they had even tinier holes poked through their centers so that when they were strung together with what looked to be a piece of fishing line, they fit snugly into each other, inside to outside, each cupping the next.
Yep. Kairi was definitely his friend too.
Riku hadn't realized how long he had been standing there, transfixed by his new treasure, until he got shoved to the ground by a body larger than his passing by just too close and too roughly to have been an accident.
Looking up he saw Wakka, the neighborhood tough kid (aka. the Mayor's son) give him his signature smile. The one that made it impossible to tell if those on the receiving end were being welcomed or made fun of.
"Hey freak. Hands off the new girl. Just cause she's a weirdo too doesn't mean you can let it go to your head. But she's my responsibility now so just don't go all psycho on her and we'll be cool, alright man?" He said, his tone switching from mocking to threatening at surprising speed.
"Yeah. As if I'm the one she needs protecting from. I'm not a monster, okay? Yeesh." Riku retorted as he stood up and tried to wipe the sand from his clothes, ignoring the sting from the new scrapes across his palms, knowing it was no use and that he would be shaking the miniscule grains from his clothes for the rest of the day.
"Yeah yeah. Whatever, psycho. Just mind your own business." Wakka declared, signaling the definite end to the conversation.
Riku turned to walk away, but used his bangs to hide the fact that he was keeping a cautious eye on the older boy as he tried to put distance between them. He was surprised to find that unlike the usual glares of disgust he got from Wakka, instead today's stare was replaced with one of wary curiosity. Maybe it was Kairi's doing? Riku didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't want to push it and risk another "lesson" from the kid like last time.
"Hey freak!" Wakka shouted right after Riku had figured it safe to return his gaze to the ground.
Riku didn't say anything. He just resigned himself to the fact that he had not, in fact escaped in time like he had hoped and, mustering up what dignity he could, turned to fully face the older boy and look him straight in the eye. If there was one thing Riku knew for certain, now more than ever, it was that the friendships he had weren't wrong, and he wouldn't willingly give either of them up without a fight.
But Wakka wasn't moving toward him like he had expected. He was just standing there, same curious expression on his face.
"You're heading the wrong way, ya know. Sora said he was going to look for you down by the pier." Then, with a nod as if to assure himself that he had done right, Wakka turned on his heel and bolted off down toward the gym.
Now Riku was just as confused as ever.
But this birthday was turning out to be surprisingly good. Though the day was still early, he reminded himself.
Deciding to hope that his luck would hold out, he chose to trust that Wakka's suggestion was genuine and that it was indeed Sora, and not a trap waiting for him at the pier as he turned to head back the way he came.
On the walk back, he kept catching himself looking up and around more, and at his own feet less than he had grown accustomed to. Which was in equal parts a curse and a blessing. This meant that he actually had to watch as people purposefully avoided him. But this also meant that when he got within sight of the pier, he could see Sora's spiky brown hair running around back and forth, popping in and out of view on the other side of the sandbank that lined this side of the island.
Riku didn't say anything as he approached, and, seeing as his clothes were already sandy, he opted for just sitting and watching as Sora apparently wandered in windy circles back and forth across the beach. Stopping every so often to draw on a piece of paper with the crayon in his hand or to rub some sort of pattern in the sand.
This went on for a good five minutes before Sora, finally having stopped and was now just surveying his apparent handiwork, noticed Riku.
"RIKU!" Sora shouted, tripping over his own feet and tumbling to the sandy ground in Riku's direction before hopping back up, paper still unscathed and smile still as big as ever.
"Good morning Sora." Riku spoke, trying and failing to stop the chuckle from escaping him at his friend's expense.
It was okay though because Sora was laughing too.
"Happy Birthday to Riku!" Sora shouted at the top of his lungs, arms bolting into the air, his voice going even higher and squeakier than it already was.
"Heh. Thank you Sora!" Riku returned, standing up, his smile widening at the look of excitement from his best friend. "Wanna go out to the small island? My dad says I am old enough now to row the boat on my own!" Riku's fists clenching in excitement as he met Sora half way.
"Uh-huh! But first you must find your present!" Sora half sang, causing Riku's eyebrow to raise in curiosity.
"Here's your map! I made it all by myself! Now go find your treasure! My dad helped me make that." Sora explained.
Who wouldn't want to use a treasure map to hunt down their very own treasure? Riku's face lit up and he couldn't help the very un-grownup sounding giggle that slipped out in his excitement as he took the map from Sora's outstretched hand.
It was great. Even if all of the "landmarks" were stick drawings in the sand, and the location of the treasure was obvious from the get go thanks to the singular, unnatural looking mound in the sand, with the suspicious pile of branches crowning it. But none of that mattered, because, with Sora on his heels, Riku carefully studied his map and made sure to visit every landmark so as to properly earn his treasure.
Once he reached the mound, Sora couldn't stand the excitement any longer and shoved a key in Riku's hand before dashing in front of him to toss away the branches, revealing the top of the small trunk Sora kept in his room. Together they dug it out of it's mound in the sand to reveal a lock that had been put on it. Riku, with as much pomp and circumstance he could muster (which he figured was only slightly less than what the occasion called for) ceremoniously unlocked the trunk and opened it.
And what was inside was better than gold. There, just barely able to fit longways in the box were two, handmade wooden swords.
Sora and Riku were always playing pirates, which was probably how Sora knew to make a treasure map in the first place, but they had always just used whatever sticks they could find when it inevitably came time to swordfight.
Gingerly, and without so much as a word, Riku leaned in and withdrew the swords. He admired them for a long moment. Their beautiful (basic) craftsmanship and high quality materials (leftover wood from when Sora's dad had fixed the bridge between the two smaller islands) left Riku genuinely speechless.
He just looked from the weapons to Sora and back again, unsure of which he wanted to look at more. He was kind of worried that Sora would be upset by his lack of thanks but he really just didn't have the words.
Thankfully, Sora knew Riku well enough to understand the extra sparkle in his eyes and the unconscious biting of his bottom lip and as they stood there, Sora's smile just grew into a grin.
After a bit, Riku's world sprang into motion again and he launched into action. Tossing one sword to Sora, he bolted toward the awaiting boat, calling to Sora over his shoulder.
"Race ya! Last one to the boat has to walk the plank!" He yelled through his now giddy laughter. Riku didn't have to look to know his best friend was where he always was, only one step behind him the entire way.