Disclaimer: not mine
Pairing: Riku/Sora
Summary: "I found you, Riku, just like I promised I would."
WC: 1944
Rating: T
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"So-ra," Riku whined, crossing his arms and looking as intimidating as he could for all his eight years. "Your mom says that we have to wash up or we can't eat! I'm hungry, so come on!"
Sora only glared right back, not intimidated in the least. Instead, he seemed even more determined to stay dirty just to spite the older boy. "I'm fine! 'Sides, baths are dumb," he proclaimed, brushing back a few brown strands of hair that fell in his face with dirty little hands. What was the point of baths anyway- you were just going to get dirty again, so why would someone want to bother with taking one to get un-dirty?
Very nearly stomping his foot in irritation when his stomach gave a growl of disapproval for not being fed instantly, Riku tried again. "Soraaaa." There was no response other than the huff from the younger boy, and a moment later a petulant pout was present on his face. "If you clean up and we eat really quickly, I'll get us some ice-cream from my house. Does that work?"
Appeased instantly at the prospect of ice-cream, Sora nodded and scrambled up, grasping Riku's hand with his own dirty one, grinning up at the silver haired boy.
--
"Found you!" Riku sang, poking a green bush that had somehow grown enormous yellow shoes. "Nice try, Sora, but your shoes are huge and really hard to miss."
The bush sighed heavily, leaves rattling as a small brown-haired boy crawled out from it, pouting. "C'mon, Riku, you always find me, let's play something else." Sora blew a few strands of hair out of his face, finger combing the rest of it to get any stray leaves or sticks out. It was true, Riku was the best at playing hide-and-go-seek, both hiding and seeking. Tidus and Kairi had each found him once, something they were very proud of because no one else had managed to do it. "Everyone else went in?"
"Yeah, Tidus' mom called him in first, and Selphie said that there was no reason for her to stay so she went home too." Riku shrugged, reaching out to pluck a twig from the brunette's hair. "Kairi got mad at Selphie and went home too- she said she'd see us tomorrow, probably. You know I had trouble finding you, right?" The older boy smiled at the grin which had appeared on Sora's face at those words.
"You did! Even...even with my shoes?" Sora scuffed a shoe into the earth, making a little trench that quickly filled with sand once more.
"Yeah, you're getting better at it. At least you don't just jump out when you see someone now," Riku teased, referring to how when they were younger, the brunette didn't quite get the gist of the game like everyone else. He would run and hide, but when he saw the person who was trying to seek them, he would just run back out and ask if he had found a good hiding spot. Sora opened his mouth and then closed it once more; any protest he might have had dying on his lips, because it was the truth. "Hey, come on. Let's go bug my mom for some cookies or something before dinner."
Sora grinned and followed the taller boy, content with the promise of dessert before dinner especially since Riku's mom always managed to make the best cookies. "One of these days," he said seriously, "I'll find you."
Riku tossed an agreeable smile back to the brunette, "One of these days."
--
Hollow Bastion was eerily silent late at night, or rather, early in the morning. What time was it? Four, maybe, Sora wasn't quite sure. He had been wandering around the city for quite a while now, killing any Heartless that he encountered with quick efficient swipes of Oblivion. It was becoming habit now, sidestep thrustswipedone and with every Heartless he took down it got that much easier to kill the rest. That part scared him- the fact that it was becoming so easy to kill the little black shadows, his movements mechanical, but they weren't alive in the first place so they weren't really being killed. At least, that's what he hoped because he didn't want to think about what it meant if they were really alive. 'I really need to stop thinking so much about it.'
Snow crunched under his shoes, leaving behind grooved footprints which were quickly covered up by the flakes that drifted down, melting in the brunette's hair, weighing the spikes down ever so slightly though he didn't notice. Something or someone was out there; he could feel it like a vague tickling right in the back of his head, even if he couldn't place what it was at that moment. Oblivion had been humming lightly in his hand for the past few hours, which was part of the reason- all the more reason to go out and try to figure out what had shown up in town.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flicker of color, not a flame from the light post as he had initially thought; it looked like a person was out walking around as he was. It was probably Leon- the older man had the same habit of wandering around to try and calm his mind and keep his thoughts organized- but that couldn't be Leon, could it? Leon was taller than that, Sora was sure of it so maybe it was just someone else who was wandering around…in the middle of the night…?
Sora frowned, deciding that he might as well walk over and see what the person was doing wandering about, most of the people who lived here knew that it wasn't quite safe to be out and alone unless you were trained in magic or you knew weapons well enough to defend yourself. "Hey," Sora called just loudly enough so the other person could hear him, speeding up his pace to catch up, "are you lost? Or new?"
The figure stopped dead just as Sora was a few meters away, obviously stiff but whether it was because of surprise or the fact that he had just been caught doing something, Sora wasn't sure. "Um…are you lost?" he asked again, uncertainly, tilting his head to the side as if it would help him see under the black hood that was blocking him from seeing who the stranger was. The brunette couldn't stop himself from jumping a little bit when the other person turned slightly- he hadn't really expected him to move and he sure as hell didn't expect him to speak.
"…S-sora?"
Sora swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry, throat clenching because he knew that voice. The hood was pushed back by a shaking, black leather covered hand, revealing shockingly silver hair and a black blindfold tied securely over his eyes. Riku. It was really him who was standing right there in front of Sora, looking worn and thin -too thin- but it had to be Riku. Hesitant, Sora reached out as if to touch the taller boy but then jerked his hand back quickly. What if it wasn't really him? What if it was a trick and he was just imagining this- it wouldn't be the first time, after all. "…Riku?"
The taller male flinched at the name but to Sora's surprise, turned around, keeping his chin down. Convinced- who else had silver hair like that? - the Keyblade master took another step forward and touched the worn black leather. "Riku," he began, swallowing hard. What was he supposed to say? What did someone say at a moment like this, after everything had happened? "Riku."
"Yeah." A shadow of a former bitter little smile curled Riku's lips ever so slightly and before the older teem knew it the brunette was launching himself into Riku with a soft noise, his arms sliding easily around a thin waist. He'd lost weight, too much weight but that could be fixed after some sleep and some food from Aerith because no doubt she'd be willing to help in any way possible. Head buried under Riku's sharp chin, Sora's cheek rested against a sharp collar bone, feeling real, warm flesh- though he hadn't quite know what he was to expect. Heartless had cool, wet looking skin but it was oddly enough a type of slimy without getting your hands wet- almost like a snakes but it was Riku and Riku wasn't a Heartless. The silver-haired teen shivered, stiff as a corpse as if he were just now realizing that it was really his younger friend hugging him as if he'd just melt away into the shadows.
"What- what happened? Riku, where have you been when- no, no," Sora shook his head, his breath sliding over Riku's barely bared skin in a deep sigh. "I'm sorry. Come on, let's go to Aerith's, she'll feed you and be glad that I found you, and maybe let you clean up a little." Sora grinned a little rubbing a thumb across a small smudge of dirt on the tip of Riku's aristocratically pointed nose, erasing it easily. "I found you." Sora murmured with a slow, tentative smile, nudging the other boy's hand.
It took a moment for those few words to click in Riku's mind as hesitantly linked fingers after Sora's pushy movements. When they were little that had been one of the running jokes, Sora could never find Riku and finally the younger had promised that he would sometime find him. Oddly enough, it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would as he followed the younger teen, feeling more home then ever before.
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Ahaha, edited for suckage. I'm really sorry about the previous quality- but when I reuploaded it, half got cut off. That makes me very sad, but C&C is welcome, as I've said.