Light and Darkness are two sides of the same coin.
Anger, fear, sadness, the negative emotions known as darkness exists in everyone's heart. However, it is because of darkness that we treasure joy, happiness, hope, and the light inside of us will shine brighter.
That is how I become stronger.
Sora wanted to see them again.
The dream eaters that helped him during his journey to wake the sleeping worlds, only for him to fall into a slumber that he almost did not wake up from.
The time he spent with the dream eaters were abruptly cut short, and he didn't even have a chance to say farewell properly. He wanted to do that.
So he set out for the Dream Traverse Town.
At first, he was worried that the dream eaters were no longer there. But a familiar purr behind him told him otherwise. He spun around and found himself with an armful of his most trust companion – meow wow. He staggered backward at the force of the impact, but his back did not hit the hard ground as he expected. Instead, he fell against something squishy and soft, and he looked up to be greeted by kooma panda's kind smile.
One by one, he was joined by the dream eaters that fought alongside him. Soon, the entire square was filled with shapes created by pieces of everyone's dreams.
Looking around him gratefully, he thanked all of his travel companions. But there were two in particular that deserved special thanks.
"You helped Riku out, right?" He set meow wow down and stroke its belly. "Riku told me that you just appeared out of nowhere and stuck with him the whole time. Thanks."
Meow wow rolled around on the ground happily.
"Hey, you are Riku's dream eater!"
Komory bat gave a cheerful chirp of acknowledgement. Sora's laughed as his gaze followed the bat's twirl in the air.
Just as Sora about to reach out his hand to give komory bat a pat, its ears perked up and turned its attention away from Sora.
And started to fly away.
"Hey, what is it?" Confused, Sora shouted before turning his gaze to follow the komory bat's trajectory.
To see Riku standing there, on top of the stairs, mouth slightly agape at the sight of the myriads of colours that were dream eaters gathering around Sora, with what Sora could not decipher was a stunned or awed expression.
"Riku!" Sora called happily at the sight of his best friend. He ran to greet Riku.
Sora's voice snapped Riku out of his stupor. Recovering his composure, he smirked following a quick glance behind Sora. "Looks like you have quite the fanclub, Sora."
Sora turned and saw a number of dream eaters trailing excitedly behind him. Only, the dream eaters were not following him per se – they rushed past him towards Riku. Riku's smirk turned into a look of surprise as he took a step back involuntarily before he was tackled onto the ground by the group of adoring dream eaters. Komory bat chirped happily over Riku's shoulder.
Sora laughed at his friend's predicament. "You're not bad yourself, Master Riku."
"Hey that's not funny!" Riku warned, but did not sound at all threatening as he struggled to pull himself up from the ground.
Sora walked towards Riku with a bright grin, holding out his hand which Riku somewhat thankfully took to pull himself up.
Sora stepped back to survey the picture of Riku trying to extract himself from the dream eaters and utterly failing, at a loss at all the attention and looking, if it's not Riku, almost helplessly around himself, with an Ryu Dragon nuzzling its nose against his hand, an Aura Lion curling itself around him and a Majik Lapin bouncing at his feet.
Sora's grin widened.
Riku sighed and seemed to have decided to ignore what was going on around him. He turned his attention back to Sora, "So that's where you've been slacking off."
"I am not slacking off!" Sora protested.
"Then what do you call this?" Riku raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to see the dream eaters!" Sora protested.
"Are you sure this is not just another excuse to take a nap?"
"Well…" Sora scratched his head, his eyes shifting sideway sheepishly.
Both friends started chuckling.
"Sora…" Riku's expression turned serious and started saying, then trailed off. Sora eyed his friend curiously.
"You…" Riku hesitated before continuing, "were you upset about the Mark of Mastery Exam?" Sora could hear the implied question that was left unsaid: was that why you came here?
Before Sora could reply, Riku quickly added, as if he was nervous, "Considering all that has happened, you should be the keyblade master. You would have passed if that didn't happen…"
If this were one year ago, Sora would have been ecstatic at Riku's words. It would have been inconceivable for Riku to openly praise Sora like that. Now, Sora was concerned for his friend. Sora knew that things were different after they returned to Destiny Island. But he never quite grasped why. More than once, he found Riku alone, lost in thoughts, expression clouded and unreadable. It wasn't until they were summoned to take the Mark of Mastery Exam that Sora learned his friend was still doubting himself about whether he was fit to wield the keyblade.
Sora looked up at Riku as he searched frantically in his mind for something to say to cheer Riku up, but didn't see any hint of the shadow that was on his friend's face before. He only saw Riku's gaze trailed to the side, expression uncertain with concern and just a hint of awkwardness.
Sora considered his friend's question for a moment.
"I'm not upset." Sora shook his head.
When Master Yen Sid declared Riku as the keyblade master, Sora was ecstatic for his friend. But the fact that he didn't become one never bothered him at all, even if Donald had been teasing him about it.
"That's weird." Sora crossed his arm, pretending to be deep in thought. "I wonder why."
Riku knew.
He recalled Sora said that there was no need for them to take the exam because he had already proven himself.
And having obtained the title of a keyblade master, Riku understood. It wasn't that he was not happy about becoming a keyblade master. After the stunned realization and the congratulations from his friends, there was no intense joy of accomplishment, only a sense of quiet peacefulness that he had never quite felt in his life. All along, he had been looking for ways to leave his own world, because of a promise of strength that will allow him to protect what he holds dear. And he found it. It wasn't the title that gave him this power. It was the power and the confidence that led to the title. The title of a master seemed insignificant in the face of that power and that self realization.
Sora, who until now had simply be following his heart and found strength simply because he wanted to protect his friends, never needed that reassurance.
Riku hoped Sora never has to change.
"Where is the Sora that would start whining about having a rematch?" Riku's tone was teasing, but the edge of competitiveness that used to accompany similar remarks was missing.
"Hey!" Sora protested. "I will catch up to you and become a keyblade master in no time. Just you wait and see."
"I am looking forward to it." Riku smiled.
It was a kind, quiet smile that Sora has never seen on his best friend before. Sora thought it was weird to describe it this way, but the smile looked so grown up and beautiful, so much so that Sora blurted out without thinking, "Riku, you should smile more!"
A look of surprise crossed Riku's face.
Sora blushed profusely and started stammering to explain himself, but all he managed to choke out was, "I really hope that you can continue smiling like that."
Fidgeting in nervousness and embarrassment, Sora didn't realize Riku's gaze turned inward for a moment as he considered Sora's words.
"What's with the sap?" Riku teased. But his expression turned serious as he looked at his friend.
"It seems like I have worried you." He ruffled Sora's hair with more force than necessary, and Sora growled at him in response. "But I am fine now. Thanks, Sora."
Sora beamed.
Komory bat whined at being ignored by Riku for long. Absent-mindedly, Riku stroke its furry head and it purred contently in response. Sora smiled at the scene.
"What are you grinning like an idiot for?" Riku asked in mocked annoyance.
"Nothing." Sora smiled innocently back.
Riku gave Sora one last look.
"You know what, I am surprised no one has come to tell you off for making such a huge ruckus." Riku gestured to the dream eaters. "I guess Shiki and her friends are no longer in this world."
"Oh yeah!" Sora exclaimed, having completely forgotten about Neku and his friends in his excitement of seeing the dream eaters and Riku. "I wonder how they are doing. Did they make it back to their own world alright?"
"I hope so."
"I wonder what their world is like?"
"I wonder." Riku echoed. "You know, we have already been to so many worlds, but there are still worlds that we don't know about or haven't seen. I guess the world is a lot bigger than we thought."
"Someday, when this is all over," Riku continued, turning his gaze towards the night blue sky where the keyhole connecting the worlds would have been, "Let's go on an adventure to the outside worlds. Not because we need to fight heartless or nobodies, or fight the keyblade war or save the world, but go see the worlds for real."
Sora turned to study his friend's face. Riku was looking into the distance with a faint smile, his eyes no longer clouded by the past events but alight with anticipation of what is to come.
He followed his friend's example and looked skyward at the shining stars that were countless other worlds.
"Yes. Let's."
Author Note: Not my best fic but I was replaying KH3D and just want to write a fic about Riku. I didn't like Riku in KH1 or KH2 but fell completely in love with him in KH3D. I guess this fic is really all the reasons why I fell in love with him (including, and in particular, his short hair).
This is supposed to be gen but would have no objection if you decided to read more into it. I love Riku and Sora as a pairing. I just don't know how to write them as one.
BTW, I stole a couple of ideas from the KH3D novel (like, the intro). Just want to put this out there.