It's around three in the morning when a loud ring interrupts Riku's sleep. He groans as he reaches a hand up and clumsily grabs for the stupid phone - he mentally curses Sora and Kairi for forcing him to get a cell phone - before he presses "talk".
"What?" he groans, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He frowns at the soft whimpers coming from the other end of the phone and sits up slightly. Did Sora have another nightmare? He knew it happened a lot but he never called in the middle of the night anymore. Or morning. Maybe this was a really bad one again…
"I-I um…" Sora breathes shakily into the phone and Riku winces. "I need you to come over."
Riku lets out a slow groan, flopping back onto his bed. He checks the time on his phone before pressing it back to his ear.
"Are you sure?" He asks, yawning while he speaks. "It's three in the morning. Just go back to sleep." Sora's breath hitches and Riku swears he hears a shriek.
"I-I can't just-just go back to sleep!" Sora hisses into the phone, making sure to not wake up his parents. "Please, just- please?" He begs, even whines a little. Riku takes a moment to think - is he really so attached to this boy that he's willing to paddle all the way over to his house just to calm him down?
Yes. Yes he is.
"Fine," Riku sighs and shoves his blankets off his legs. "I'll be over there in ten." He's pretty sure there's a squeal and a string of 'thank you!'s on the other line as he hangs up, but he's too tired to really register the noise.
He quickly pulls on a shirt and puts his shoes on before heading outside. He'd leave a note but this has happened so much in the past it didn't really even matter.
Riku sighs as he sets up his boat, pushing it out into the water and quickly climbing inside. He paddles silently, though his mind races back to the first nightmare Sora had experienced back home. It happened like it had tonight; Riku is dead asleep but woke up to the sound of an annoying ringing, ragged breathing on the other line brought him to his feet and when he came over, he pulled Sora into a tight hug. He didn't stop shaking for another hour, though. Riku mentally smacks himself for even hesitating. If it were as bad as it had been that time, he shouldn't have hesitated. It sounded just as bad.
He looks at the moon, slowly descending along the horizon, and shakes his head. He starts to paddle faster, and soon enough hits the sand by Sora's home. He climbs out, getting the bottom of his pajama pants wet in the process but he barely notices that as he quickly, albeit begrudgingly, heads up the path to Sora's house.
How his parents never woke up to the sound of Sora's shrieking, Riku will never know.
He knocks on Sora's door politely, frowning and opening it quickly as a loud shriek sounds once again..
"What, what?" He demands, stepping inside and squinting at the light pouring in from the window. He vaguely registers another girly shriek as Sora points at a spider crawling slowly on his bed. Riku narrows his eyes and leans against the door as he closes it, before crossing his arms.
"This is why you called me over?" He asks, his sleepiness slowly going away as a smirk spreads across his cheeks. God damn, Sora was such a dumbass sometimes.
"Kill it! Kill it with fire!" Sora shouts, desperately trying to back up further from his perch on his dresser. The bug dares to jump forward an inch or two and Sora lets out another shriek. Riku snorts.
"Seriously, Sora," He mutters, staying put. "You can take on a giant wave of one thousand heartless, but you can't kill a tiny spider?" The arachnid crawls underneath Sora's sheets and he whines.
"Riku!"
"It's more afraid of you, than you are of it, you know." Riku continues to lean against the door, though he eyes the tissue box by Sora's bed. He'd get rid of the intruder. Eventually.
"Come on, Riku! Please!"
"You know, maybe I'll keep it as a pet."
Another loud whine.
"No, no, please!"
"Or maybe I'll release it into the wild. Did you know they have really good memories? Like elephants." He's totally lying at this point - at least he's pretty sure it's a lie - but he figured it was good compensation for waking him up at three in the morning. Sora leans down into a crouching position, eyes flitting about his bed in search of the spider. He lets out another shriek and jumps back up as it comes back out from underneath his blankets.
"It'll remember you, is what I mean. It'll come back for revenge." There's a mischievous look in Riku's eyes and Sora bets a million dollars no one would blame him if he summoned his keyblade right now.
"Riku, come on!"
Pushing off of the door, Riku grabs a tissue or two and quickly squishes the intruding arachnid in between the two-ply sheets, before throwing it in the trash. When he looks back at Sora, he's met with a cold glare and Riku rolls his eyes, grabbing the discarded tissue with the deceased creature, and heads downstairs.
He returns a moment later and Sora bites his lip.
"Would you, um…" Sora starts, still perched on top of his dresser, though he was less tense. "Would you look for more? Just in case?" He asks quietly, running a hand through his spiky hair.
Riku lets out a breath and shakes his head, but starts looking - very halfheartedly, like when he fought off monsters from underneath the bed with Sora's old wooden sword - along the walls and in the corners and briefly inside the closet.
"Alright, you're spider free." Riku says, before flopping onto Sora's bed. Sora stares at him quizzically as he carefully gets down from his perch.
"What are you doing?" Sora asks. When Riku doesn't reply, he adds, "That's my bed." Riku snorts and nods, putting his hands behind his head.
"Yeah, I know," He says, and yawns for a moment. "But I paddled all the way over here to kill a spider. At three in the morning."
"So?"
"So, I'm commandeering your bed." He says simply, and Sora pouts. Riku grins. "What? There's room for two." He pats the space beside him, smirking as Sora gives up and slides in.
"You're an ass, you know that?" Sora says, still brooding about his teasing.
"Yeah, but I don't wake people up at three in the morning to kill a spider."
It's silent for a moment before Sora speaks again.
"Kairi hung up on me."
Riku laughs the loudest he has since he woke up, making Sora smile slightly. He turns and lays his head on Riku's chest and Riku pats his back.
"Go to sleep. Don't wake me up until noon."
Sora gins and flicks his nose lightly, before falling asleep, safe from any spider intruder.