Silver Moon

I sat out on the paopu tree, leaning back against it like I remembered Riku used to. Only, I wasn't Riku. I didn't have a suave, brooding persona. I couldn't just lean up against a tree base and look positively amazing and handsome. I was Sora, and I had to become the Key Bearer for girls to even look at me that way. Too bad that after that incident I realized I didn't like girls that way.

I looked up at the evening sky, only a few rays of sun still trying to hold on. I grinned, the silver color reminding me of a certain someone's hair. Speaking of which... I looked to my left to see some of his things lying out on the tree trunk to dry because Kairi and Namine thought the prank would be funny. Riku, on the other hand, did not. So, he asked me to watch his clothes for him so the girls didn't ruin it further while he had dinner.

Smirking to myself, I pulled the black eye-cover from its place and pulled it over my eyes, picking up my keyblade as well. It was getting dark, so the cloth and its nearly opaque fabric made it hard to see. I blindly swung my weapon, using feel as my guide. After a few test swings to make sure I wouldn't hit anything, I started goofing off.

"Hey, hey, look at me I'm Riku." I said in a mock deep voice, puffing my chest out and giving a carefree swing of my blade. "I don't smile... ever. I am terribly competitive and I really suck as a friend, but that's okay because I'm so freaking cool." I snorted, pretending to cut through a heartless before tossing my sword over my shoulder confidently. My shoulder slumped after a minute and I kicked the dirt. "And I'm really, really dense." I said lowly, in my own voice.

"Am I now?" Someone utterly familiar and frightening said, drawing my attention. My ears perked to the sound and I sheepishly pushed the cloth up my face to reveal my cerulean eyes to a set of amused, aquamarine ones.

"Ah, Riku." I said, rubbing the back of my neck and ducking my head to hide my blushing cheeks. God, I was so girly, wasn't I? I cleared my throat. "I was just... uh..."

"Parading around in my clothes?" He cocked an eyebrow, striding a bit closer.

I backed up a few steps. "No, just-" My foot slipped downwards and my momentum was thrown backwards. "Crap!" I yelped, struggling to throw myself forward when I was being pulled back. I heard something hit the water, but it wasn't me.

"Sora!"

I looked up, surprised to see Riku's hand wrapped tightly around my upper arms. He pulled me closer until our faces were inches apart. I was blushing. I looked down to see I was dangling above the water. We weren't suppose to swim at night. That's when the strange, flesh-eating fish came out. At least, that's what Riku told me.

"Sora, wrap your arms around me." Riku instructed.

"But, I can't-"

"Sora." Riku said warningly, his voice dropping into a threatening growl as he struggled to hold my weight. I blushed harder, doing as instructed. His arms let go of my upper arms for a second, just to move down to my hips, clasp on, and pull me back up. I was a little dizzy finally standing from the adrenaline. So, when I was oriented, I nearly screamed as Riku began to undress right in front of me. He was furiously ripping at the buttons of his jacket, unclasping them, and tossing it into a pool behind him.

"What are you doing!" I snapped.

He looked at me. "You dropped your keyblade, stupid."

"I'm not-" I was cut off by my new view of his body as he pulled his shirt off and tossed it by his jacket. I was too busy gawking to finish my sentence, my eyes roaming his defined abdomen.

Riku snickered. "We're both boys, Sora. This shouldn't be new to you." He picked up his clothes and sauntered over to me, a confident smirk on his lips. He handed me the clothes. "Hold these for me." Then, he turned and dove into the water. I ran over to the edge and looked for him, but the water was too deep and too black. Luckily, approximately two minutes later, the silver-headed lunatic popped up to the surface, aquamarine eyes searching. He swam over towards me and handed me the wet keyblade. I tossed it aside and then reached a hand out for Riku. He smirked and latched onto it, then started to climb up the arm like a rope until he was dangling by holding onto my shoulders. Embarrassed, I grabbed his waist and dragged him up onto the beach. He collapsed on the ground with a groan, exhausted and breathless.

I knelt over him. "Thank you."

He shook his head. "No need. Wouldn't want you losing that thing." He waved lazily at the forgotten blade.

I took off the black mask of his. "Sorry I was mocking you." I apologized sheepishly.

He grunted. "How am I dense, Sora?"

I blushed. "Oh that? Forget it." I was going to stand up, but he grabbed the back of my hood and yanked me down.

He sat up. "Answer me."

I swallowed hard. "Just... uh... you seem distracted lately."

He stared at me hard before smirking and releasing me. "You're bad at lying, you know. And hiding things. You really should clear history on your laptop if you're going to search up things like that." He told me, standing up and stretching.

I cocked my head. "You were on my laptop?"

He shook his head slowly, little bit of water falling down his back. "Nope."

"Then, who-"

"Kairi and Namine made a bet a while back which, of course, they clued me in on because it involved me, sort of. The bet was revolved around you. Anyways, Kairi was snooping as she always does, and got into your laptop earlier this morning. Her and Namine came running to me with the evidence to see if it proved the winner or not. It did." He pulled something slowly out of his back pocket. It was a piece of printer paper, with something I wished I'd never seen in his hand. He flashed me the picture, which was some of my art. Since Namine had taught me the basics of drawing, I haven't stopped. And my drawings all center around my emotions and frustrations. One was my frustration over the fact I'm gay and Riku – as far as I know – isn't... and I loved him. So, he was holding a picture I had scanned into my laptop for safe keeping. It was Riku sleeping on my floor one of the nights he had stayed over because he knew I didn't like storms. Both his presence and drawing him had calmed me down greatly. I had drawn him, and put little, subtle hearts in the corners before righting a small message:

I know love just by looking at you. I may be your best friend, but you are my love. In my heart, where the light shines on you. ~ Sora

I gaped at the drawing, my face growing red.

He snickered. "It's funny how shocked you were when I took off my shirt, because you drew the exact same thing... I don't even remember taking off my shirt when I slept." He folded the paper back up after looking at it thoroughly in the moonlight and then tucking it back in his pocket.

"Uh... You, you didn't. I-I imp-improvised, I guess-s-s." I kicked the dirt, avoiding his eyes.

He started to walk closer, so I made a break for it. That ended bad, as usual. He caught the back of my hood and jerked me back. Normally, he'd spin me around to face him so he could intimidate me into confessing. This time, I collided with his bare chest, the water on his pants and skin soaking into my clothes. One hand clasped over my mouth, silencing me. The other sat on my hip, but it didn't stay there. It slithered around to the hem of shirt and found its way up. I screamed, startled by the contact of his cold, wet fingers on my warm, bare skin. Of course, it was muffled by his hand. "You're so jumpy." He chuckled, his lips brushing the shell of my ear as he spoke.

I shivered. "Riku." But my voice was muffled.

"Hmm... I do remember you being ticklish, Sora. But... you've never been so jumpy and twitchy." He chuckled, his forefinger running up and down the middle of my torso, then tracing the ribs, the bones, my naval, before running up until his hand could grab my jaw. He tipped my head back against his shoulder and breathed on my neck. I shivered, pressing my lips into a line.

"I'm not ticklish." I huffed, my face flaming.

He smirked. "Okay." Then, I felt something wet touch the side of my neck briefly. My heart spluttered and my breathing stopped; his tongue. "I'm really not all that dense, Sora. You are pretty bad at hiding things, like your feelings. How long has it been now? One year? Two?"

I grunted. "Since what?"

"Hmm," He sighed, his free hand fingering my waistband and tracing the muscles of my torso. "since you fell in love with me." He whispered deep in my ear.

I jerked away from him suddenly, turning on him. "What?"

He smirked at me. "You've done a good job at making it obvious, Sora."

I blushed profusely. "I am not in love with you, Riku."

He snickered, putting a finger under my chin and making me raise my head to meet his eyes. "Aren't you? Rejecting both Kairi and Namine? Always hanging around me? Sneaking glances? Drawing me without clothes? Brightening up when I come around?"

I swallowed hard, moving out of his reach. "Oh."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

I nodded, lowering my head again. Tears were coming. "I, uh... I didn't mean..." I sniffed, trying to casually wipe my face so he wouldn't notice. "I didn't mean to be so obvious, Riku. I didn't. I wanted it to be secret: my sexuality. Because I know you like girls. So you couldn't like me. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I disgusted you. Just... just don't leave me, Riku." My voice crackled a few times before completely breaking. I reached out for his hand and sunk to my knees, sobbing. "I know it's weird and gross! I didn't want to feel this way, it happened! I don't want us to change! I don't want you to leave me because of this! I can hide it, put it all away. I can bury this and move on, I promise. I'll try as hard as I can if you can promise you'll stay my best friend, please." I crushed his hand in both of mine, demanding the feel of his skin on my skin, desperate for some kind of connection between us.

He pulled his hand out. "No."

Such a simple word to shatter my heart. I swallowed the pained grunt. I could literally feel my heart breaking. I could feel the pain in my chest, contracting and expanding beyond the limits to cause me something past discomfort. "Oh." I said simply, my voice somehow back to normal, but the tears falling faster. I didn't sob, or cry, or scream. I was numb, but at the same time in pain. It was like living in a glass body. I couldn't make it express, but I could feel everything inside with a straight face. "I see." I stood up, but my knees threatened to buckle.

"Sora?" Riku looked at me with concern.

"Bye, Riku. Sorry this... happened." I had to whisper the last part before turning around and walking towards something.

He yanked me back. "Where are you going?"

"Home." I stated listlessly.

He hooked a thumb behind him. "Wrong way."

I blinked. "Oh."

Riku smirked. "Sora, you're so stupid."

I frowned at him, still numb. "Why?"

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up." He took both my wrists, pinned them to the base of the paopu tree that was level with my head and pressed his lips to mine. I was shocked, to say the least. His eyes closed, but mine were opened. His thumbs rubbed circles over the pulses in my wrists, and his left knee was pushed in between mine so he could press closer to me.

I broke away for air. "You... huh?"

He slid his fingers up to twine with mine. "I won't stay your best friend forever, Sora."

I narrowed my eyes on him. "Then... what else-"

"Don't be stupid, Sora." He said, leaning forward to let our lips brush. "What do you call two people who do these kinds of things?"

"A couple." I mumbled.

He grinned. "Good. And in that couple is a?"

"Girlfriend and boyfriend."

"Or boyfriend and boyfriend, in our case."

My eyes doubled in size. "You... you want to be my boyfriend?"

He smirked again, pulling back and dropping our hands. "I want us to be a couple, yes."

Tears pricked my eyes again. I slid my hands out of his, staring at him. Then, I smacked his chest – hard. "You idiot! I thought you meant you hated me and were disgusted with me! I just felt my heart break! Why would you do that? God, you scared the shit out of me, Riku!" I yelled at him until my face turned red. Then, I calmed down and wiped away my tears. I put both my hands on his shoulders and dipped down to kiss his chest, right over the angry, red mark I made. I stayed there for a minute, letting my lips absorb the coolness of his ocean-soaked skin and the feel of his heartbeat. "But yes, I'll be a couple with you, Riku."

His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer as he rested his chin on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for my words to get you that bad, Sora. I'm sorry." He placed gentle kisses on my neck, then just rested there.

"It's getting late." I stated.

He sighed. "It is."

I pulled away from him. "So, where does this leave us?" I asked him cautiously.

He gave me a blank look before pulling me into a sweet, soft kiss. When he pulled back, he kept our foreheads touching. "This," He gestured to my body. "is mine. You," He put a finger to my lips. "are mine. My boyfriend. My other half. My love. Mine. You got it?"

I nodded wordlessly.

He smiled genuinely. "Good. No one is taking you away from me, eh? No matter what, you'll always belong to me." He nuzzled my neck affectionately.

I wrapped my arms around him. "And you'll always belong to me."

He grinned against my skin. "I like that." He took my hips and pulled them against him. "So, do you feel better now?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Much."

He smirked. "Good. Let's go night swimming."

I gaped at him. "It's late!"

"It's only ten o'clock Sora! Lighten up."

"B-But the fish-"

He sighed. "I only told you that so no one but me could talk you into skinny dipping or so you wouldn't go night swimming by yourself."

I frowned at him. "That was mean."

He winked. "C'mon. If you don't take off your shirt, I'm going to take off everything and we'll go skinny dipping." He was already unbuckling his pants.

My face turned crimson. "Nope! No! You are not taking off your pants." I put both my hands over my eyes, shaking my head and trying to fight away the blush.

"Fine, I'll take off yours." I heard and felt my own zipper go down and felt his hands working off my belts. I jumped away from him onto the titled tree trunk.

"No, Riku." I said stubbornly.

He frowned at me. "Don't you trust me? I'm not going to do anything to you that you wouldn't want Sora, honest. You know me. I'm not that bad." He reached up onto the trunk and pulled me down in front of him. "Just get dressed, goof." He smirked, ruffling my hair and stepping back a few steps before turning his back and working off his own pants.

I tugged sub-consciously at my shirt before taking off my clothes, leaving me in my boxers. I was beyond crimson, and I was doing everything to try to hide my body from his wandering eyes. I was sitting in the ground, hunched over, with my arms crossed to hide my skinny chest.

Riku pulled me to my feet. "You're so cute."

I grimaced. "Don't say that."

He smiled at me. "Don't be so self-conscious then. I wouldn't want a guy with a better body than me, anyways. It'd make me feel intimidated."

I glared at him. "Thanks! And I am intimidated."

He smirked again. "Good. You should be, seeing as I'm the one wearing the pants in this relationship." I was going to argue, but it was fruitless. We both knew that. "Look, Sora. I'm attracted to your body, as in I think your body is absolutely beautiful. Don't be ashamed in front of me. I'm not looking to judge, I'm looking to admire. You have no faults in my eyes." He brought a hand up to caress my face, then took one of my hands and kissed my open palm. "Just like you're admiring my body, I'm admiring yours. You don't see me being shy."

I sneered at him. "When are you ever shy?"

He smiled. "Besides the point, just relax."

I took a deep breath and stood up, keeping my arms at my sides, letting him look over my body. He smiled and moved behind me. His arms wrapped around my waist and he placed a soft kiss on my shoulder.

"Gorgeous, Sora. You'll probably never see yourself how I see you. A shame." His hands began to wander, one sliding down my thigh and another running up my chest. "You're not too skinny, and all your muscles are lean. Your skin is so soft, mm, I could just-"

"Ow!" I whined.

"Bite you." He finished with a chuckle.

"Enough, Riku. Let's get in the water."

He sighed with discontent and moved towards the edge of the peninsula. He looked out for a minute, preparing to jump in, but I went ahead and pushed him. He spun around, trying to catch his balance with a sharp look of surprise before falling down into the black water with a loud splash. He came up to the surface looking pissed. I was already putting on my pants.

"Yeah, again, not swimming. But at least you had your fun, right, Riku?" I smirked at him from the edge of the peninsula.

He smirked too, so I frowned. "What are you-" I stopped to shriek as he jutted up out of the water, grabbed my ankles and made me lose my balance so I tumbled forward into the water with him. It was warm, but the impact startled me. I looked up to see the moon, telling me to swim that way. I broke the surface gasping for a breath. "Riku! Where the- hey!" I jumped, something soft caressing my foot. It felt up my leg to my waist, and then back down to my jeans. I felt them begin to be tugged off. "Riku!" I struggled away, searching out his body and then pushing on his shoulders.

He broke the surface. "Stop struggling. I'm getting them off before you completely ruin them. The salt in the water is going to make them stiff."

I grumbled. "I can take off my own pants."

He smiled devilishly. "Too bad." Then he went back under to finish the job. When they came off, Riku came back up and threw it to have it land on the paopu tree.

"Good throw." I commented.

"Thanks."

It was nice, swimming with Riku. Even if we were now a couple, having somehow skipped the whole "dating" thing, we were still somewhat the same. We still competed with each other, but the winner got to kiss the other. Riku still teased me constantly, but pacified my complaints or mockingly hurt emotions with a kiss or caress or hug. It was like we were still best friends, just with a few romantic actions and emotions thrown in to make us closer. I loved it. My boyfriend was my best friend and my best friend was my boyfriend. Life was perfect.

Our night consisted of swimming contests, playful and harmless advances from Riku, a make out session on the shore, and a long ten minutes of redressing each other. We didn't go further than our make out on the beach, and I was happy like that. Riku knew my limits. He knew when the advances started to make me uncomfortable, where not to touch me, and what not to take off my body. He seemed to know exactly what to do with me, and seemed content that way. Sex could wait. We were fine just discovering how to be a couple.

It was almost midnight when he decided it was time for us to go home. We were on the paopu tree, staring at the moon and the horizon. He was leaning back against the tree like usual and I was laying on the trunk, my head on his shoulder.

"We should get going." He sighed.

I looked at him. "You wanna stay the night?"

He looked at me. "Are you comfortable with that?"

I turned back to the moon. "You have control, Riku. I know that you know where to stop and what lines not to cross. I trust you completely. It's not like we've never shared my bed before."

I could see him smile from the corner of my eye. "I love you, Sora."

I looked at him again, and smiled back. "I love you too, Riku."

He leaned forward and kissed me, soft and gently, holding the moment at his fingertips like they caressed my cheeks. When we broke apart, I hopped off the tree trunk and let him take my hand. We walked back to my house in silence, went to my room in silence, changed in silence, and even cuddled in my bed in silence until we fell asleep.

We didn't need to say another word. That's all we needed from each other.

I love you.