Stars
By: Etern
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, sheesh!
Pairing: Sora and Riku
When I'm lost choose a star
and name it after me
that you may know
I have not abandoned
or forgotten you.—unknown
It has been too long, for the both of them. They are both weary as they lift their faces up to the sky, through the rare openings in the darkness, through the rare time they actually get to be alone.
It is silent as together, on other worlds, on different sides, they think of the same story.
It is silent as they search the heavens only for each other.
"Hey Riku, the skies are so lovely tonight…"
"Yeah." He is not talking about the sky, the stars—only the boy next to him as he gazes on with unseen wonder. "Yeah."
"What do you think the stars are made of?"
He snorts into the warm night air, forcing his eyes away from his best friend's small frame. The stars really are lovely. "What do you think they're made of, Sora?"
He can see him furrow his brow, as though he really is thinking about it. And he is, he really is. He is thinking back to all the stories he had been told by his grandmother, thinking back to her fragile strength and always smiling blue eyes. Long ago, she had told him a story. Long ago, he remembered it.
"I think that they're made up of happy thoughts; made up of one persons love for another."
The laughter is a swift blow, and Sora stares sadly up at the stars, so far away and yet so close. If he could reach out a hand and touch one. As if he ever could.
"Who told you that?"
Sora bites his lip until it hurts, and does not say a thing. He can't because the stars are drawing him in.
"…Sora?"
He does not know where it comes from, or even when it had started in the first place. But suddenly all Sora wants is to be close to his best friend. Sure he has insulted him over the years, and sure they've had their fights, but it still stands—Riku is his best friend.
It's only natural that he curls his little body around his, his thin arm, not yet touched by muscles, falling over the other boy in a loose embrace. His eyes never leave the night sky, so he does not see his best friend's flush.
"S-Sora…?"
He does not reply with words; instead he holds the other closer, a silent reassurance to continue. But what is there to say?
The stars are spinning above them as Riku reaches up to grab hold of the hand across his chest, shyly interlacing slim fingers still soft in childhood, not yet hardened by the trials of life. For now, there are no trials, just the stars and Sora, the stars and Riku. They seem to gleam just for them.
"Hey Riku? If the stars really are made up of the love of one person for another then…well, I've created a star in the sky for you."
It could not have been simpler. They were little kids; they were just starting to know their hearts. Love declarations meant very little in the light of their friendship on that starry night.
"Hey Sora?"
He might not believe in the other boy's idea on the stars, but how can he deny him? In his heart, a part of him is aching for it to be true, so it is so. There is little to think about with Sora in his arms.
"I think there's a star up there for you, too. I'll look for it every night."
Every night had never been enough. Eventually they had grown, and eventually they could not hold onto that starry night promise anymore as life got in the way. With Kairi came competition, and with competition their stars seemed to fall out of the sky. They crash and burn.
In the coming of the darkness, there are no stars left to see. All the love is gone, their arms have been unwound.
Some nights, Sora thinks that sky is falling.
Some nights, Riku wishes the sky really will fall.
Nothing is like before.
Perhaps that's why they suddenly find themselves searching the heavens again. Maybe they just want to see something they remember again.
Or maybe, just maybe, they want to see if their love for each other is still there.
Maybe, just maybe, wishing upon a star had preserved something, maybe there was hope after all.
And maybe, Sora can see Riku's star, the brightest of them all, burning back at him. Still glowing brightly despite the end of the world.
And maybe, just maybe, Riku can see Sora's star, shedding light on his dismal world, a beacon he wishes he could follow.
Close your eyes now, on the eve of something great.
Close your eyes now, and feel your heartbeat.
It is not alone.
Wish upon a star.
It's all you can do.
Aqua and blue, burned into the dark, meeting.
Aqua and blue, the distance is not so far. The memory is there.
Wish upon a star, and see.
I love you…