Okay, this story is a continueous POV coming from Riku the whole time, so I didn't say that in the story. These are his thoughts and feelings and what happens to him as he struggles to strt over him life in this new place, Destiny Island after moving away from his father with his Mom and two brothers.
Hope you like it!
On Moving, Friends, and Making Out
By: princessOFdarkness
"Mom, why are we here again? Do we really have to live here of all places?" My older brother scoffed, his head falling back against the too short for him headrest. Like me, my older brother Sephiroth was depressed about having to live here of all places. As soon as we had turned into the neighborhood, I couldn't believe we were actually going to live here. I just wanted to scream, 'this is a late April Fools joke right'? It was all so bright, so sunny, so welcoming with the neat cut lawns and perfectly matching cream colored houses. In short, it sucked.
"Yeah, there is no way any of us are going to fit in here. I mean, look at us." I sighed, flipping my hair out of my eyes with a shake of my head. My hair was long, too long as my Mom was always reminding me, but seriously – Sephiroth's was longer. My hair was more silver than his though, Sephiroth's hair was more grey than silver. It made him look way older than he really was, since he's only 21. He should have his own place, I know, but since Dad just picked up and left us he's been around more. I get why though. It's to help Mom and us. "Mom, this place looks like that Stepford Wives place, you know? I'll be dead as soon as I step out of the car."
"See Mom, you killed Riku with sunlight. Told you a good sunbeam would kill him, didn't I Mom." Sephiroth joked, turning in his seat to laugh at me in my discomfort. Sure, it was summer and I wearing a jacket but only because I needed the hood. I was burning up but the need for comfort was nothing next to the need to stay out of the sun, believe me. I pushed my sunglasses down a little on my nose so my brother could see the look in my eyes as I smiled and flipped him of. "Oh, feisty today are we, my dear baby brother?"
"I'm not your 'baby' anything!" I grimaced, pushing my large sunglasses back up on my face. My sunglasses were large enough to cover half my face, good enough for me until I could retreat into the cold and dark interior of own new house, whenever that would be. "Shut your face up, idiot."
Our Mom sighed, giving up immediately and letting us argue. She didn't like to see us fight, but she knew it would blow over soon. And that was only because of the seatbelts we couldn't kill each other properly. Sephiroth and I rarely fought, but we joked and teased each other about everything and anything. Brotherhood – all giggles and lots of love, right? No. It. Is. Not. End of story, have a nice day, come again sometime.
We'd been on the road for about ten hours, and everyone was getting a little cranky and uncomfortable. No one as much so as my other older brother Cloud. Technically, Cloud isn't really my brother. He's my adopted older brother. Cloud's parents were killed when he was only seven in a fire that destroyed his house completely. Mom adopted him and took him in when I was five years old. He had been in the orphanage for a year at that point, and it had nearly killed him. He was all dead inside when Mom first brought him home – all quiet and a loner. I liked him like that actually, never any fights between us, but nothing else either which kind of sucked, like talking to a wall. Since walls obviously don't answer back when you talk to them unless of course you're on drugs, in which case maybe they do. He warmed up to us eventually and accepted us as his new family, but he was still quiet, and a bit of a loner, but less so. Unless he didn't know you, then he just didn't talk to you at all.
Hey, he's old enough to make his own decisions and to drive me around. He's 19 and I'm 16 if I didn't mention that already. Well, now you know. I'm a sun-deprived unbelievably pale 16 year old guy with long silver hair and aqua green eyes. Weird, I know, but it's just how I am. You don't have to like it. You just have to live with it.
"Are we there yet? I need out of this moving metal deathtrap and soon or I'll slit my own throat with a paperclip." Cloud groaned from the seat next to me, pressing his forehead against the cool glass of the window, his eyes closed as he slumped forwards in the seat held back by the seatbelt. "Please, speed or something, I can't take this anymore!"
"I don't need to speed Cloud, we're here." Mom said brightly, pulling into the unfamiliar driveway. The house looked like all the rest, with a neat little lawn and all the trimmings. "How do you like it boys? Isn't it cute?"
All I could think about was putting a big sign with flashing lights on the top that read: 'This place sucks!'
"Great Mom, really I like it a lot, it's spiffy." I lied and she smiled. Making sure my face was covered from the sun before opening the car door and stepped outside.
"Riku honey, why don't you just go on inside dear? I know how you hate the sun. Sephiroth and I can get the boxes. Cloud, you go on too." Mom said, opening the bag window of the van to unpack the boxes. "You two can go pick out your rooms."
I nodded, looking over at Cloud. He smiled and jerked his head toward the door. I knew what he wanted, and both of us got ready. Cloud had been on the cross-county team back home and had taught me how to get ready for a race and all that stuff. I was fast, but I hate all sports and refused despite his pressuring and bullying to join the team.
"Hey Seph, count it off." Cloud yelled over his shoulder.
"Alright. One, two, three, GO!" Sephiroth shouted, and Cloud and I took off. We raced for the door, elbowing each other as we went. I beat him by a landslide, running up the stairs with him eating my dust. I glanced through all the doors, finding the darkest room I could. It had one of those orb windows with a seat, a walk-in closet, a bathroom right off it, and plenty of room. Plus, it was dark. Yay darkness!
"Are you sure you want this room? It's really dark in here." My Mom said, sticking her head in the door. I sighed, shaking my head as I smiled to myself. My Mom never understood my hatred of the sunlight. I just didn't like it, so what if it meant I was sickly pale looking to everyone in the outside world. In the dark, who could tell the difference?
"Yeah Mom, I love it, it's just the way I like it. It's the window you know, good reading light." I said, trying to act sweet and innocent. She bought it, smiling as she left the room. I sighed, sitting down on the mattress and flopping back against it to look up at the ceiling.
Cloud stuck his head in, looking around the room I had chosen. I nodded my head deafly, telling him he could come in.
"So this is it? You really are weird." Cloud said as he walked in, hands in his front pants pockets.
"Well, you're my brother so you must be weird too!" I said, throwing my sunglasses at him. He ducked and they hit the wall behind him, and turning to look back at me he smirked. Damn, I thought trying to scurry off the bed, he's gonna do it again!
He did do it again too. Smiling broadly he pounced on me, wrestling me down to the bed. Cloud was still smiling, and he spit a loogie right in my face. He smirked, jumping off me and rushing out the door before I could retaliate.
It was then Sephiroth walked in, carrying about six heavy looking boxes in his arms. I jumped off the bed, wiping the spit and snot off my face in disgust, and he set them down.
"These are yours. There's more in the truck coming tomorrow I think, spoiled brat." Sephiroth said jokingly, sitting down on what space was left on the bed. I stood in front of him, confused.
"What does that mean?" I asked. He looked up at me still smiling broadly.
"You heard what I said. You have way more boxes than Cloud or I do, so either you're a terrible packer or you're a spoiled brat." Sephiroth said meanly. "You ARE the baby, so it's understandable you'd be spoiled more than us."
"I as not a baby! I'm 16 already, I have a license! I'm just too lazy to get off my butt to drive myself around!" I shouted, balling my hands into fists. Sephiroth laughed, making me even angrier. "Shut it fag!"
"A 16 year old baby!" Sephiroth said coolly. "Burn, Riku!"
"I also had a job so I could buy my own things and not have Mom do it for me." I sneered at him. Sephiroth could never keep a job for long. Probably because he had no focus whatsoever, no work ethic, and no determination. Unless you meant for girls, dating, and partying like the world was gonna end tomorrow. "Burn, loser!"
"Well you look like a girl with your hair long like that and with the color it is." Sephiroth countered quickly. "Burn baby burn!
"Well, better a girl than a screw up!" I said angrily. He stayed silent, turning and heading for the door. He didn't look back at me as he left, and I knew I had won. "Burn, Sephiroth, burn! Bounce back from that, sucker!"
"Shut it!" He yelled back sticking his head back inside the door. I bit my lip. I could tell I had gone too far with that last one. "Just shut it okay? I get it, I'm a screw up! I know that, okay? You don't have to rub it in. We all know Dad left because of me, you don't have to remind me all the time Riku!"
"Sephiroth, I didn't mean it like that, don't take it so hard! Com back here!" I called, rushing after him. God, why was he getting all touchy all the sudden? And what did he mean about Dad? Did he seriously think our Dad had left because of him, because I knew it wasn't true. Everything was always my fault, Dad had told me so the day before he left, so why was he all upset about it?
I caught up with him, tackling him from behind and forcing him to the ground. He's way bigger than me and I still don't know how I did it. Next thing I knew he had flipped me over and was straddling my waist, holding my wrists above my head. "Look, I'm sorry all right? I was just joking around with you back there."
"Well, you took it too far." Sephiroth said roughly. "That was way below the belt Riku. We all know why Dad really left, because of me."
"Dad didn't leave because of you moron! I'm sorry I said that, okay?" I moaned, gasping through the pain I was feeling. Sephiroth isn't fat or anything, but for my skinny waist it was like having a dump truck sitting on top of me. "Sephiroth, please get off me, you're too heavy!"
"Oh, so now I'm a screw up AND fat, I see how it is!" Sephiroth said, quickly changing his position so that he wasn't straddling my waist anymore. Instead he was sitting in the center of my chest looking the other way away from my face, arms crossed stubbornly. "Now say I'm fat, go on. Say it, I dare you."
I would have said it, just to annoy him, but I couldn't even breathe so bad was the pressure he was exerting on my lungs. I was slowly dying due to lack of air, I could feel it, and if Sephiroth had had any idea he would have jumped off by now. He's a jerk at times yes, but when it came down to it he was a good guy who would never suffocate his own younger brother.
Unless of course he had no idea he WAS suffocating me, like now for instance. Damn, I thought, this is the worst possible way to die. That and being thrown into a volcano or something. With my now freed arms I attempted to shove him off me, but it was no use, my muscles had failed me. Thank God Cloud was walking by at this exact moment. He looked over at us, first at Sephiroth who waved cheerily at him from my chest and then to me. I was tuning pink in the face by now I was sure, and I waved my hands at him, telling him deafly to push Sephiroth off me. Cloud's eyes got real big as his mouth dropped open and the next thing I knew he was charging down the hall and plowing himself into Sephiroth with his shoulder.
Sephiroth tumbled off me with a grunt and a cry, not understanding why Cloud had suddenly tackled him out of nowhere. I mean, that was MY job after all, I was the one would randomly attacked Sephiroth and Cloud while Cloud usually sat there and watched television. I think Sephiroth finally grasp what exactly was going on when Cloud helped me up into a sitting position, smacking me a little too hard on the back as I coughed and gagged, still pink in the face.
"Damn, Riku! Was I really hurting you?" Sephiroth cursed, kneeling in front of me. I nodded, still unable to talk just yet. "You could've just told me I was suffocating you."
"You can't talk when you're being suffocated Seph, duh. Be a little more careful next time." Cloud said sternly, helping me stand up. Sephiroth looked a little put out. Muttering he was sorry under his breath her walked off to his new room, shutting the door. "Come on Riku, you should lie down for a while."
Cloud helped me over to my bed and I lay down, closing my eyes. I heard him walk across the room and opened my eyes. He hadn't left the room, just walked away from the bed to sit on the floor near the end of it.
"Thanks a lot Cloud, you really saved me there." I whispered to him. He smiled and said it was nothing. Even if it wasn't, it meant something to me. What a glorious way to be welcomed to the neighborhood! Yeah right.
The next day when I woke up I had no idea where I was. It took me a while to remember the day before. Moving in, picking my room, and getting strangled and so on. You know normal moving stuff, nothing too important.
My room was filled with boxes, boxes, boxes, and more boxes. The moving truck must have come while I was asleep. I smiled to myself, knowing exactly why no one had woken me up. Sephiroth was still feeling guilty about yesterday and damn it, he should feel guilty about it! He nearly killed me after all.
I opened the box at the foot of my bed looking through it and smiled, it was full of the books I had read back home. Jumping off the bed, I picked up the two book shelves one at a time and moved them to where I wanted them across from the end of my bed in the corner and started putting the books on it. I know, normal 16 year old guys don't carry bookcases by themselves, but I did. So there.
The next box was books, and the box after that was filled with my books as well. Well, I'm a bookworm, what can I say? So what if I am? When you have no friends like I did back home, you tend to pick up hobbies like obsessive reading or working out in the weight room after school a lot. Both of which I did everyday just about, since I always had a lot of time to myself obviously.
I started sifting through the many boxes, looking for my posters and the photographs in my frames and albums. This room was really boring, with its white walls and all, it was in a serious need for some color. And what better way to make it fit for human habitation than with posters of my favorite bands. Up went my Pink Floyd poster along with my All American Rejects one, Blink 182 even though they broke up, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Bowling for Soup, the NBA poster my Dad had got me in an attempt to make me like sports, and a few other posters I had saved from home. My pictures in the frames went on top of the book shelves and the dresser by my door while the albums I placed in the drawer of my desk, which I had pushed into the corner by the window fro lighting purposes.
"Unpacking already are we?" Mom asked, sticking her head in the door, smiling broadly as ever. I smiled back, and this time I didn't have to fake it. I was actually happy at that moment. Who knows how long that could last though, knowing how I am and all with my cheery disposition towards the world. Well, I'll just enjoy it while I can. "I have to go to work now, so you boys have fun together today okay? Go explore the neighborhood with Cloud when you're done unpacking and settling in, since Sephiroth has a job interview today it will just be you and Cloud later on. Meet the neighbors and stuff, make some friends. Well, bye then."
"Bye Mom, good luck." I called after her. Hanging my clothes up in my closet, I bumped up against the wall with my elbow and knocked a board loose. Light peeked through the hole and intrigued I pulled the boards all the way off to find a window, in my closet wall. It was a normal sized glass window, strange only because it had been boarded up and that it was in my closet. "Why would anyone want to board up a window? Oh well, it's not their problem anymore."
I opened the window up and smiled as the light breeze skimmed over my face. Looking down, I saw a small group of four kids talking with my Mom and Sephiroth as Mom got in her car. Mom drove off finally, but the people stayed talking to Sephiroth, who seemed to enjoy the attention. Typical Sephiroth, an attention hog as always, nothing had changed. My brother seemed to be motioning to the house, inviting them in.
"Hey Cloud, come here and look at this! I found a window in my closet we could use for sneaking out or something." I yelled as he walked past my door and he came in my room, looking out the little window with me. "What do you think Sephiroth is doing down there with them?"
"Well, inviting them in it the house looks like, probably to meet us." Cloud said, straightening his collar and running his fingers through his hair. "I'd get dressed quick, unless you want to meet everyone in your Hawaiian surfboard boxers."
"I don't want to meet anyone at all!" I said as Cloud walked off, well aware he was laughing at me again, as always. Nothing had change with my brothers then. Maybe it was just me that wanted to start over completely. So what if I was in my boxers, it was our house not theirs and it's not like I asked to meet any of them anyways. Still, I rummaged through my boxer until I found the ones that had my other clothes not already in my closet in them and got dressed – baggy faded blue jeans with slashes in the knees and my white polo shirt. It made me look even paler than normal, but it would do for now, just meeting the new neighbors. I fixed my hair, brushed my teeth with my recently found toothbrush, and pulled on my socks and black skate shoes. "I'm not going down stairs, if they really want to meet me for some strange demented reason of their own they can come up here to me."
I began putting things away again, opening up more of the taped boxes, breaking down the empty ones and sticking them in a neat pile on the floor of my closet. I bushed the boxes with my clothes in them in the closet, thinking I could unpack them later when we didn't have company. I shut my closet door, thinking about how embarrassing it would be if one of my neighbors came in and saw my bowers or something weird like that, better safe then sorry.
"RIKU! Come downstairs already, we have COMPANY! Our neighbors are here to see you!" Sephiroth called up the stairs to me. I scoffed, continuing to unpack my things. I heard him muttering about something to the general assembly downstairs waiting for me I suspected before I heard Sephiroth climbing the stairs. "Riku, you awake? Don't tell me you didn't hear me shouting at you from downstairs, come on! There are people downstairs waiting to meet YOU! Scary, I know its weird people actually want to meet you, but it's true. Come on."
"Sephiroth, I hate humanity remember, what makes you think I want to meet anymore of humanity than I already have had the misfortune to meet at my last school?" I asked, joking with him. I was far from hating humanity, but I had hated everyone from my high school back home and I was pretty sure none of them cared for me either. I was that weird pale kid from down the street, the guy who aced every test the teachers threw at him, the loser who didn't have ant friends at all, that cute snob that had turned down the hottest girl in school when she had asked him out. That last one had been why everyone had hated and feared me. I'm sure the others had something to do with it, but it was defiantly the last one over all. "Do I have to meet them?"
"Yes, we'll be in the kitchen." Sephiroth said, lowering his voice to an excited whisper. "They brought us food and stuff as a housewarming present! One girl brought us a cake! Chocolate cake with the little swirl icing flowers!"
"Oh, well if there's chocolate cake!" I smiled, chasing him out of my room. I didn't really feel like cake, but I had thought about what this meant for me as a whole – the move and all. I could start over and do things right here, get some real friends and stuff. I mean, I had had no friends back home when I had left there. At one point I was the most popular person in the school, but then everything had changed when I had turned down Heather Carmichael the hottest blonde haired blue eyed supermodel wannabe girl in our high school. Everyone said there must be something wrong with me if I could turn someone like her down, like I was mental or something like that. It wasn't that I was metal, but I had my reasons. They stopped talking to me after that. I had officially become socially dead after that with no chance of revival.
"Here he is then, my other younger brother!" Sephiroth said as I walked through the door and into the kitchen. There was Sephiroth and Cloud, sitting at the kitchen table cutting a large chocolate cake into slices and putting them on dessert plates. The other four people crowded around the room must have been the neighbors.
The girl closest to me had long brown hair pulled back by a large pink ribbon tied in a bow on the back of her head. She had on a long pink dress that matched her ribbon perfectly. With her large brown eyes she seemed kind of shy. The girl blushed scarlet when she realized I was looking at her.
"Hello." She said softly, looking down at her feet. Why wouldn't she look at me? Maybe if I talked back to her or something like that...
"Hey." I said back kindly, not sure what else to say. Did I scare her or something? Already? That must be a new record, it usually takes over five minutes or so at least before somebody admitted to being scared by me.
"That's Aerith, she's shy like that." Another girl said, bounding forward to get right up in my face, smiling broadly at me. I took a step back to look her over. Her hair was short and black, and she was dressed up like a ninja or something in a Halloween costume. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie! Nice to meet you! Welcome to the neighborhood my friend!"
"Okay, hi 'great ninja.'" I smiled at her, and she giggled, jumping up and down.
"I like him, he's fun!" Yuffie giggled, bouncing around the last of the girls, who looked up at me kindly.
"I'm Tifa, nice to meet you." She said brushing her hair out of her eyes as Yuffie jumped on her back suddenly. Apparently Yuffie wasn't kidding about the ninja thing! She was quick!
"Nice to meet you too." I said, nodding in her direction, stifling a laugh as she struggled with Yuffie.
The last person in the room was a taller, older looking guy with brown hair. He looked kind of forbidding, like he was silently daring anyone to talk to him. I highly doubted that he had come here of his own free will. Unless his free will happened to be named 'Yuffie' that is.
"That's Squall. He's a loner!" Yuffie said, gesturing at the grumpy looking male.
"That's Leon!" Leon said gruffly, glaring at her. He turned back to me, sticking out a hand for me to shake. I took it, and he shook my whole arm.
"Hey everyone, I'm Riku. Thanks for the welcome." I said, waving at them all. They all smiled back kindly.
"So, do you want to come with us and meet everyone else?" Yuffie asked. The others grumbled in disagreement. No one sounded too thrilled at the prospect of having Yuffie dragging them around all day.
"I have to go home and baby-sit. You know how it is Yuffie." Tifa said, dragging on Leon's arm. "Leon, walk me home, would you?"
"Okay, I'll go." Leon said quickly, waving goodbye as Tifa ushered him out the door. I couldn't blame them, but I hated to see them go. Less people between me and Yuffie's spastic energy shifts.
"Aerith, do you want to hang out here, with me? I have a book I think you might like." Cloud asked quietly, walking over to her. Aerith looked up at him eyes wide. She nodded, taking the hand Cloud offered her. They headed for the stairs that led to Cloud's room together.
"I have to go now, job interview." Sephiroth said, heading out the door. That left me with Yuffie. Damn it, how did this always happen to me!
"Let's go then Riku! The rest of the group awaits us!" Yuffie said, grabbing my arm. She dragged me towards the door and I panicked. It was bright out there! I could see the sunlight showering in through the window and I dreaded going out in it.
"Whoa, hold on Yuffie!" I said, grabbing onto the edge of the table. She looked at me, confused. "The sun's out. I can't go out there."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"I hate the sun because it's so bright and all, so I don't go outside when the sun's out. It hurts my eyes and I burn easy." I explained to her. She nodded in understanding – I think anyways. Who could tell with Yuffie? "I mean look at me, I'm more than a little pale if you didn't notice already."
"Oh, I guess you're right about that." Yuffie said, dropping my arm. She pouted for a moment, thinking intently. If Yuffie's brain could handle thinking intently that is because I wasn't so sure at this point. "Hey, what if I bring everyone to one place, like for a party tonight?"
"A party? Where would you do that?" I asked. Not here, that's for sure. We still had to unpack.
"At Kairi's house of course! She's loaded!" Yuffie said happily, jumping up and down. "I'll go talk to her about it and come over tonight to get you and your brothers for the party! Bye then Riku!"
I watched her run out of the house and down the street in confusion. A party, for us? And all because I refused to go outside in the sun? This was too good to be true!
"What's with this place?" I asked myself, flopping down at the kitchen table, reaching for the slice of cake Sephiroth had cut for me.
"You get used to it, after a while." My head jerked up, looking over to the door. Standing there in the door was a little boy.
Well, he's not really a little boy. He was defiantly shorter than me and less buff. He was skinny, with brown hair probably styled by a porcupine or something, a great tan I could only dream about, and the deepest crystal blue eyes I had ever seen. In short, I was in like with him. I can't say it was love, I don't believe in love at first sight, but he was defiantly hot enough.
"Oh really, that's good to know." I said, standing up. I walked over to him and extended a hand, which he took. "I'm Riku."
"Hey, I'm Sora." He said, smiling broadly. He had a nice smile, unlike Yuffie – her smile gave you a feeling like she was going to jump you the next second or do something crazy and unexpected. "So you just moved here huh?"
"Yeah, yesterday." I said, going back to my cake and shoveling a bite in my mouth. I choked. It was terrible! I ran over to the trashcan and spit it out. I hated to gag in front of Sora, but it was that terrible. I felt like I was going to puke.
"Oh, Yuffie baked you a cake, didn't she?" Sora asked, looking at the cake with disgust. He poked the top of the cake with one finger, licking the icing off it. "She's a terrible cook, but no one tells her. It would only upset her, you know."
"No one told me either. Someone could have warned me not to eat it or something." I moaned, throwing the rest of the slice of cake away. "Well, my Mom, two older brothers and me just moved here from California."
"Wow, all the way from California? Destiny Island is really far from there. How long did it take you guys to get here?" Sora asked, sitting down beside me, propping his head up on his hands, his elbows on the table. He looks so cute like that, I smiled to myself. You just want to hug him.
Okay, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm gay. I just couldn't say yes to Heather when she asked me out because I don't like girls that way. Everyone found out about it after that and stopped talking to me at my old school.
"Well, a few days. Mom doesn't like to drive at night and she didn't want any of us too either." I said, staring at him. He looked up into my eyes for a second and I had a sudden urge to grab his face and kiss him hard against the mouth. I restrained myself though, looking away from Sora with a difficulty. I wanted Sora to be my friend, not to run away and tell everyone I was a gay pervert who had tried to assault him and force him to make-out with me. But the making-out with him part did sound like fun...
"Have you unpacked yet?" Sora asked, twiddling his thumbs.
"A little, but not everything. I still have a couple of boxes left to open." I said, looking up at him again. "Why?"
"Well, how about I help you." Sora asked, standing up and heading for the door. "I could help you unpack and we could talk and stuff. You know, get to know each other. It's nice to have another guy on the island around my age finally! All the other guys are like, three years older than me and stuff. Everyone but Roxas anyways, but he's all wrapped up in his relationship with his boyfriend Axel and doesn't have time to hangout with me anymore really. He used to be my best friend."
"Alright." I said, standing up. He followed me through the house and up the stairs to my room. He looked around at what I had done already to it and smiled.
"I like your posters." He said, looking around. "I like all those same bands and stuff. Really cool."
"Cool um, yeah." I said, opening a box. It had my laptop and school stuff from last year in it. Sora helped me arrange my things on my desk and hook up my computer, afterwards sitting on the bed and talking as I bounced my basketball against the wall.
"So do you like sports then?" Sora asked, pointing at the ball as it bounced back to me off the wall.
"No, I hate sports actually. I only kept this because Dad gave it to me for my birthday last year. It was his way of telling me I wasn't good enough. I never was like Sephiroth or Cloud, you know?" I said, my voice getting quiet as I caught the ball. I didn't feel like talking anymore especially about Dad.
"Oh, I see." Sora said, patting me on the shoulder. "Well, at least he tried. My Dad was never around at all. He left as soon as I was born. It's been just me and my Mom ever since."
"Sorry." I said, not looking at him.
"Aw, it's okay Riku. I'm probably better off without him around, just like you with your Dad it sounds like." Sora said, standing up. Things were silent and creepy after that. Sora finally broke the silence with some rather depressing news, for me anyways. "Well, I have to go. I promised Yuffie I'd help set up for the party tonight at Kairi's."
"So she was serious about throwing us a party then?" I asked, stuffing the basketball in my closet on top of the broken down boxes before turning back to Sora, who nodded.
"Yeah, and you need to find a date." Sora said, laughing. "You can't show up without one! One of Yuffie's crazy party rules."
"I don't know anyone really, so I can't get a date." I said, shrugging as I shuffling my feet in the carpet in discomfort. "Well, you're the only one really. You're the person I'm closest with so far."
"Well, I'll go with you then Riku! You can be my date to the party!" Sora said brightly, smiling as he took my hand in both of his. I gagged, staring at him. Did he just say what I think he said? Someone shoot me, I'm hearing things. "How 'bout it Riku? Will you go to Yuffie's party with me tonight then?"
"Um." I said, unsure of what to say. What he seriously asking me out to a party with him? This was nuts, like something had jumped out of Sephiroth's brain and into my room. This might all be a prank, and I wasn't going to fall for it and say 'yes'.
Even though I really wanted to.
"I'll take that as a yes then!" Sora said, dropping my hand and heading for the door. He stopped at the door and looked back at me. "I'll come by to pick you up around eight o'clock, okay? Put on your party clothes Riku!"
"Yeah, um okay I guess. See you later then Sora." I said quietly, still unsure about what was going on. Sora beamed still brightly, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.
"Okay, it's a date then!" Sora said, running out the door and down the stairs. I stood in complete shock in the middle of my room until Cloud walked in on his way down stairs.
"Aerith just left, she had to get home." Cloud said his face a bit pink as he said it. He looked at my face, still unmoved and came over to me, waving a hand in front of my face. I blinked, looking at him. He laughed, kindly smacking me in the forehead. Notice I said kindly, meaning he didn't knock the wind out of me. "What happened to you?"
"I got asked to go with someone as their date to Yuffie's party." I said, still a bit dumbstruck. Cloud laughed harder.
"So? I'm going with Aerith, its no big deal to get asked out." I looked at him, and he shrugged. "She asked me and I said yes. She's nice and kind and – I don't know, I just like her, okay?"
"Yeah." I mumbled. "Okay Cloud, except I've never been asked out before. Except that one time by Heather and we all know how that turned out, do we not?"
"So who asked you? Yuffie?" Cloud asked, sitting down on my bed. "Oh and who was that guy I saw leaving your room?"
"He's Sora." I said, sitting down next to Cloud. "He was helping me unpack my things. He's the one that asked me."
"What?" Cloud asked, shocked. He knew I was gay and all, but no guy had ever asked me out before, just as I had never asked any guy out. I just looked at other guys and wished I could ask them out, and here was adorably hot little Sora – asking ME out!
"And I said yes, sort of. I mean, I'm going to the party with him." I said quickly, figuring like with a band-aid it would be easier to get it over with as soon as possible. Cloud made a weird noise and fell of the bed and onto the floor in a heap. If that's how my own adopted brother reacted, I couldn't wait to see how everyone else at the party acted when the new guy would was exceptionally pale 16 year old with aqua green eyes and silver hair showed up as Sora's date. This was gonna be a night I would never forget, one way or the other, for better or worse.
How about that for Riku's first two days? Running form the sun, being smothered by his brothers, and getting asked out by strange boys to parties at people's houses he doesn't even know! What an experience!