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Arsenic Heart

Chapter 1: Back from Confined Quarters

Friday, the best day of the week (no doubt) was here at last. and 3 P.M., the best time ona Friday, was here at last. And so was another mountain-of-books-piled, brain-wracking, attempt–to-sue-the-school-for-giving-you-so-much-homework-a-week-before-winter-break kind of weekend. And as Riku slung his heavy pack along his shoulder, he lingered at the corner of the school for Sora and Kairi.

He'll be damned to be back in the eleventh grade where his two best friends were. At least they could sit out and sniff the sweet smell of winter's free offers—like no homework for three weeks after next week was over.

He sighed, seeing a paled white cloud of his breath puff out in front of him, evaporating thinly into the air. As much as he hated the incoming cold, he hated waiting.

"Where the hell are they. . ." he mumbled, slipping his burdens off his shoulder to rub it back to life. It ached to hold up fifty pounds more than his usual share of work.

Just after, Riku heard voices: one giggle, and one saying in response to it, "You're so cute when you giggle."

'How lame. . .' thought Riku mildly, turning as the voices grew closer. Obviously, it was Sora and Kairi, who greeted Riku with fresh smiles.

"There you two are," he said, trying not to sound about ready to choke either one of them.

"Oh, hey, Riku. Sorry to keep you waiting," said Sora smiling, who now took Kairi's hand. "We were just, uh, you know…"

"Making out?" Riku finished, raising an eyebrow.

Sora looked embarrassed. "That," he admitted, "and the fact that we were gonna hang out together at the islands tonight, remember?"

"All three of us!" Kairi pitched in, letting go of Sora's hand. "Did you forget, Riku?"

Riku shook his head, but not in response to Kairi's question, picking back up his load. "And did you two forget? I gotta work late tonight. No ice cream for me."

Sora groaned. "Out to your whack job again?"

"Being a part time mechanic isn't a whack job," he retorted, looking cross.

"So sorry, captain," Sora teased, chuckling.

"Can't you take the day off?" Kairi pleaded.

"And not have money to buy any gifts?" Riku replied, then shook his head. "What do you think my answer's to that?"

Sora chucked. "If you can't get the day off, your boss is a-."

"Don't say it," said Riku and Kairi simultaneously.

Riku and Kairi now locked eyes, Riku then becoming slightly flustered. Kairi easily shook it off, but, in the back of her mind, wondered what was bugging Riku.

As the three took their walk—not saying much, for Kairi and Sora shared much of that time rubbing in their love (Riku disgusted as they kissed, snuggled, poked each other, etc.). In a soon ten minutes they stopped just at Riku's house.

"Too bad you gotta work, Riku. We were really looking forward in you coming," Sora said, slightly disappointed.

"Oh, saving the sympathy for now, huh?" Riku grumbled. Not letting Sora have his say yet, he continued, "And what were you two planning on doing?"

"Just what we allusually do," Kairi answered, pierced deep by Riku's sudden anger.

"And what could that be? You two don't get it at all, do you." Riku pointed to his forehead as if to his brain. "Remember: I wasn't born yesterday. I know good and well you two'll do just fine without me!"

With that, he stormed up the stoop, Sora calling after him, but just as he did so, his face met the large wooden door. Apparently, he didn't hear the all part, meaning the three of them.

"Riku. . ." Sora muttered in the door. "You're acting like such an ass. . ."

"You're right," said Kairi, approaching her upset boyfriend, "What's bothering him so suddenly? He got all pouty just as soon as we were kissing and stuff on the way home."

'Could that be the reason?' Sora thought, taking a slow minute to suggest 'yes' or 'no.'

"Sora, you've gotta talk to him."

"Why don't you try?" he suggested, looking at her from over his shoulder. "He might listen to you more."

"Okay, but let's give him a minute to cool off. I'll call you before I go over."

"Agreed," Sora said, smiling, sounding formal. He gave Kairi a kiss on her forehead, stepping backwards up the trail as he was headed towards his house. "See you later."

"Bye." Kairi waved. She went the opposite way, for her house was in that direction.

'Riku. . .I hope you're willing to listen. I don't really get that from you.'Kairi thought, biting her lip in mental anxiety.

Obviously, frustration took over Riku like a cloud of raining needles atop his head. Dropping his bag at the bottom rung of the stairs, he stormed up to his room (like anything else mattered), and jumped face down onto his bed. Although it seemed like a childish thing to do, it felt. . .pretty good. But that relief quickly vanished and his sulking returned. He pounded his fist over his pillow, his head still down, hearing the light pffft of the impact of his fist not damaging the pillow nor his hard-hearted emotion the way he wanted it to. He turned his head so it was facing the curtained window.

'Sora and Kairi must've left,' he suggested, feeling a little lighter of the guilt he had for shooting his mouth off.

Not just his friends, but his frustration left, too; the slight redness in his face of anger had melted away. 'Surprise, surprise', he thought.

Or thought he thought.

'It seems you've let me awaken once again, Riku.'

Who. . .?

How. . .?

No.

It wasn't back.

Damn, it was. In his heart, where his hand now was trembling against, trembling like his chest was a clad armor of ice. He wouldn't let this feeling return, this biting frost, then the stabbing pain. . .

"A-A-An. . .Ans-s. . ."

Yes…?

"Y-You. . .you can't. . .you can't be-!"

'Real? Inside your heart, ready to let the deeper darkness bring it in?'

"Deeper darkness?" he asked after gulping the tremble in his voice.

'Yes, the lower abyss of darkness where I reside. . .Your heart has sunken deeper without you realizing, now, has it?'

"No! You're wrong!" he yelled, standing and readying a fist, but not knowing where to aim it at.

Ansem chuckled. 'Am I? Hm. . .Sadly, your darkness isn't ready enough for my return. So with that, I've discovered. . .ways. . .to claim your still-beating heart. However, I can't take it away easily. . .I will have to make it. . .motionless," he hissed. "So when you die, your heart will be mine.'

"Stop. . .it. . ."

Riku scrunched his fist and hammered it down on his chest. He did so repeatedly, hoping to pound, to bleed, to just take Ansem out, which was not at all working. It only left him panting with a pain of two heartburns. Riku jumped a little at Ansem's sinister cackle, which slowly grew softer, lighter, more distant. . .

. . .until all was quiet.

Riku's icy eyes moved wildly about the room, slowly down to his chest where his hand resumed, feeling a rapid irregular heartbeat: Ansem's "heart," born of Riku's, blending the drums of both. Riku saw this as familiar, reminiscing it back in his previous journeys. He let a sigh escape him as he fell back on his bed victoriously, wanting to reward himself with forty winks. No noise at all; everything was perfect like the volume of the inside of a box. He slowly closed his drooping eyes. Just then, there were knocks at his front door, faint poundings, really. He'd heard it from upstairs from its vast intensity. His eyes sprung open, widening.

Riku cocked his head to the side, grumbling lazily, rising to his feet with slumped knees, trudging as if it took all his strength to approach the door. As he opened it, he mumbled a prepared sentence for whoever could be at the door: "If you don't need five dollars, then go away."

As he focused his eyes on who was at the door, his eyes widened, his jaw dropping just slightly. The color of tiredness left his face and returned to normal, only now a tad bit extra color gleamed his face pink.

He hadn't been prepared for Kairi coming at all!

In fact, Kairi was more properly-dressed than Riku was: dressed in a strapless red top that was frilly at the neck, a long white winter jacket drapped over her shoulders, a pair of long white pants and matching red-and-white boots. She greeted him with a warm smile that faded as soon as she saw Riku putting on a shameful face, for he, on the other hand, was still dressed in his school uniform with a loosened, backwards tie, a wrinkled and untucked button-down, and dark pants that hung loosely around his waist. And being barefoot didn't make his attire any better than how he'd trash it nowadays after school.

"Hey, Riku. . .?" she said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Be right back," he answered quickly, shutting the door and locking it, dashing up the stairs.

'Who knew. . .Sora might've told her to come here,' he thought as he tossed clothes upward out from his drawers, looking to pull out some decency. Using a makeshift wrinkle-release with his hands, Riku threw on a white tee with black line art all over it, a pair of dark faded denims, black socks, and a black hoodie. Dashing down with his new apparel, he tried again. "Hey, "Kairi. . ." he greeted lightly when he yanked open the door, holding back his panting. "Had to change clothes. . ."

"I see. . ." Kairi couldn't help but smile at this silly thing.

Riku stepped aside, allowing her in. As he did, he seceretly watched the way she walked, the way her hips swayed. He took in a brief thought that even her ass was cute. 'The hell. . .' he thought, blinking it off and mentally slapping himself. He shook his head, approaching her as she sat on the couch. "Can I get you anything?" he asked, giving his head a nervous scratch.

Kairi nodded. "Sure, a drink of any kind," she answered.

He stepped in the kitchen, grabbed two large glasses, opened the fridge, and filled the glasses with ice and fruit punch. Going back just as quickly as he was in, Riku handed her a glass. "There you are," he muttered. Kairi nodded kindly and thanked him.

Riku wasn't prepared for this at all. He found it very awakward that she'd come. Nervousness ate him up for a long time, worse now. What was she doing here, exactly? (For he's clueless right now)

He sat down on a recliner in front of Kairi, refusing to meet her cobalt eyes. He took hold of his glass and slowly, shakily, brought it to his mouth, the ice rattling noisily against the sides of the cup as this happened, and he took a light sip of his juice.

Now in the deep silence, he wondered who should've had the first say. The silence was almost hypnotic.

And it took time, but he finally inhaled as deeply as he could, but exhaled lightly, mustering, "What thingforced you to come here, Kairi?" all of the sudden unamused, expressionless, even, which didn't surprise him at all. And by thing, he offensively meant Sora, alert that it was he who might've made her to come.

The first thing Kairi did at this question was laugh under her teeth. "Riku, I insistedalong with him. No forcing was involved." She leaned forward towards his body directly in front of him and slapped his leg playfully, grinning. "Truly, honestly. " She sat back. "I came here to see if you were okay."

"'Okay' how?" One eyebrow rose.

"The way you mouthed off at us. You were a big jerk, you know."

Riku stared at his feet, trying to gather up the words that spilled onto the floor. Kairi then thought she'd hurt his feelings. "Then again, you felt. . .strange with me and Sora," she corrected. "I saw it when we walked home, Riku. Can you tell me what's bothering you?"

Riku snorted off a sigh, vanishing his gaze from her more. "Okay, I'll just come off clean. I'm plain, downright jealous of you. You have Sora, and it feels like you have everything. Sora sure makes you happy, seemingly, all the time. . ."

Kairi giggled secretly. "Are you mad because you don't have him for yourself?" she teased, holding back a burst of laughter.

Riku finally gave a look: one about ready to do some ruthless damage. " I'm straight. So shut up."

"I'm just kidding, Riku!" She nearly laughed her head off, however.

'It's not that way, it's the whole other way around. I want to take Sora's place in your heart, Kairi. . .' he thought, but knew it was just fantasy. That thought sounded envious of him. Riku hadn't ever thought this way before, but really just wanted Kairi to be in love with him and—heaven knows how—out of love with Sora.

"But, uh. . ." Riku began again, shuffling his feet but looking at her, "I took a little time after school and called my boss. . .I can have the day off and spend it with you guys." He stood, holding Kairi by the chin gently, making eye level distance, "And I'm going. You two being so lovey-dovey isn't gonna stop me."

"Yes, sir," Kairi mumbled sarcastically, looking slightly pouty.

"Good." He sat back down.

Just then, a buzzing sensation swept through Kairi's pocket—her cell. She picked it up and flipped it open, and it was without a glimpse of doubt Sora. Riku sighed, rolling his eyes and slumping back against his recliner, assuming then that she and Sora would spend the whole evening chatting away.

"Hello?" began Kairi.

"Hey, you," Sora answered gleefully.

Kairi giggled, the cute way she always did (Riku thought this). "Hey, back. What'cha doin'?"

"Just called to remind you to stop by my house so we can go out together."

"Oh," Kairi stood up, walking a few steps away from Riku, her back towards him. Her voice diminished to a bitter whisper. "I forgot to tell you Riku will be joining us."

"Oh, great," Sora mumbled in glad sarcasm.

"Just deal," Kairi fizzed lightly. She rose her voice so Riku was able to hear, "We'regonna meet you at your house at seven, Sora. That okay?"

Sora drew back a sigh, saying, "Yeah, sure thing. Oh yeah, it's gonna rain late, but we should be okay until then."

"Okay." Kairi's tone changed to a flirty attribute, "Bye, Sora…"

"Love you. Bye."

Kairi set her phone back in her pocket, spinning on her heels back to Riku, who ripped his gaze away from her, his emotion swimming to decide either to deal or bail out on them. But he wasn't a quitter in something that stupid, so he let it go mentally.

"So what time're we going?" he asked randomly.

Kairi tried to study Riku's expression, but it was illiterate because his head was off to the ground, so it caused her to generally look at him, answering utterly, "I said at seven."

"I just wasn't paying attention," he lied.

"I could see that."

Riku held his head in his hands, taking a slow cast at Kairi. She met his eyes, holding the gaze, but it didn't affect her, embarrass her, as it did himself. Why was he so freaking nervous whenever he even smelled Kairi? Her scent always was welcoming to breathe in, and he never resisted it when it was present for a while, like a bottle of perfume waiting for a test of appeal.

Riku's distraction died as Kairi sat down again, sipping down the rest of her juice. Riku followed after, chugging it down almost to the point where he'd choke. Pretty much the two were silent as they waited until seven, which was only a good thirty minutes away, so Riku, being as cool as possible in avoiding a shaky conversation, turned on the TV. Kairi gave him an agreeing look as to this being a way to kill half an hour.

When seven hit like an alarm clock in Riku's head, he turned off the TV, saying to Kairi, "We should get going, right?"

Kairi stood up, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, let's go."

Taking a little jog to Sora's house, Kairi and Riku waited by the front door. In no time, Sora poked his head through the door, saw them, and opened it wide. "Hey, Ka—guys," he greeted gingerly, remembering the third wheel at hand. Sora was dressed in a black tee, a red and white hoodless jacket, black pants and black-and-red shoes.

The three walked to the island's shore, Riku separating the two love birds he called his friends by standing in the middle. Secretly, they stretched their hands behind Riku and held them for a short time. They rowed the mile-long way across to the islands, where then they sat on the fresh, frigid sand, deciding what the first thing on their agenda was to do; this was quite an easy one as they all laid back and watched the evening sun sink behind the waves, the light chill in the air becoming more brisk.

"So, Riku, you enjoying this?" Sora asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Where'd that come from?" he asked. He laughed a little when he saw his friend's expression. "I'm just joking. But, yeah, it's great that I get a little sense of time…you know, with you guys." He made the mistake of looking directly into the sun and shielded his eyes now, easing the heavy weight pressing over his eyelids. He looked over to his right to see Sora's back towards him, and as Riku sat up giving a peculiar stare, he noticed that Kairi and Sora were taking the advantage of Riku's presence as they were kissing each other. Riku figured that he might as well be burning his eyes off looking into the sun. "And you guys are my friends, so if you two get the hint, then just stop kissing." Riku's voice was shrill and tense now. He really was starting to hate themas a couple, especially shoving it right under Riku's nose. Sora and Kairi stopped, giving Riku a concerned look, but he'd turned over on his right side, chewing irritably on his upcoming anger. He knew if he didn't let it go, it'd only get Ansem to come nearer. . .

After cooling down, Riku and Sora had a brief talk over the still of the waves, laughing lightly and conversing more—this was a way, Riku hoped, to give Kairi somespace. (In sense, he actually wanted Sora away from Kairi) Nighttime flew in like a black hawk, and possible rain clouds were coming in. Within those flown minutes, Kairi finally stood up. "I've gotta get ready to leave. I was going to do some early shopping tomorrow, really early, so, I'll see you two later."

"Okay," Sora said, pulling her in and kissing her deeply, and after that, when she turned, he slapped her ass gently. She giggled while giving him a wry expression, leaving this time, waving.

Riku silently waved also. Mentally, he figured Sora went too far with his good-byes at times, but never said it to his face.

Kairi rowed a few feet away. When that happened, Sora and Riku stood. "Wait, Riku," Sora began, breathing a short laugh in suspicion, "I'm getting a sense that you wanted Kairi to stay longer."

"No, it's fine; she can leave," Riku said truthfully.

"Yeah. . .You haven't grown to like her, have you?"

Riku looked up sharply, stuttering a bit, then cringed, saying, "No. . .psht. Where'd you get an idea like that?" He hid his expression in the shadows, hoping that Sora was unaware that his cheeks were flushing deeply.

Sora's grin widened and he, either ignoring Riku's still-pink face or not, pointed at him teasingly. "You like her."

"I do not!" A pitch of anger as well as embarrassment was upon Riku now.

"Lighten up, Riku! I'm not mad, I'm just. . .uh, a little bewildered, I guess. I've known it for a long time, so you don't gotta hide it."

"Since when?"

"Like when you said you wanted to share a paopu fruit with Kairi? Yeah, it was a joke, but I could tell you were serious, especially when I beat you!"

"I went easy on you. I know you aren't that fast."

"Heh. Wanna prove it?"

"You're on, Tortoise."

About to break in a run to race, suddenly, Riku's leg jerked back, pain prevading it. He fell to one knee, looking down to see no broken bones or torn skin, rubbing his ankle dominantly. Seeing this, Sora turned, kneeling. "You okay?" he asked, worried just as fast.

Riku nodded, "Yeah, probably just a cramp. . ." He tried to stand, but couldn't.

"What's up with your leg?" Sora asked, his anxiety rising.

"I don't know. . ."

Just then, a teardrop fell from the darkening sky, glistening under the disappearing moon. Then more and more fell by the second. It was now raining—not normally. Rain came down hard and fast as if a storm had been on for twenty or more minutes, but the rainfall just barely begun. And with each pitter of the rain timbering against the nearby dock, Riku heard soft laughter, which grew in volume with each gallon of raindrops hitting against every hard surface. Riku covered his ears, screaming just slightly.

"Riku, what's wrong?" Sora shouted over the deluge.

"Don't you hear it! Ansem is back!"

To be continued