Title: This Way
Author: Page of Cups
Pairing: Cloud Strife/Riku
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Rating: R
Theme: #09 Dash

Disclaimer: I wish, okay? It's all lies. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, I don't know anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts, and I'm not affiliated with anyone who is affiliated with anyone who owns Kingdom Hearts. I think that about covers it.

Author's Note: I have no explanation for why the prompt 'dash' made me think of this scenario other than the image of running comes to mind. Yeah. It's all up to interpretation, right? Heh.

"I think we need to talk."

Six simple words spoken and it's then that you realize words can be more powerful than actions from time to time. Cloud had known this was coming. He stared down into the open duffle bag on the bed half-filled with clothes, glanced to the barren walls. He noted the emptying room as he turned to face Riku and dropped on his bed.

"I know."

When Cloud first enrolled at Mitsuki University he expected a lot of rich, snotty kids who had no idea where they were going and enough arrogance to convince the gullible that they did. He thought he'd feel old. His college entrance was delayed for three years after his father's death until all household affairs were in order and he was sure his mother wouldn't sink into depression while he was away. Cloud tended to keep to himself and the thought of rooming with a bratty teenager almost kept him from enrolling at all—especially when he'd be over three hours away from his best friend with benefits, Leon, who was especially drool-worthy. They had a perfect relationship—sex without attachments and a friendship that the aforementioned didn't threaten. How was he ever supposed to make a friend that even came close? Leon made a lot of jokes about Cloud finding a real boyfriend, but he doubted that would happen. Doubted he'd find anyone even close to how perfect and attractive Leon was that he wouldn't want to bitchslap the second the fucker opened his mouth.

In the long run, he was right. When Cloud arrived at Mitsuki University, he settled into his dorm, and then Riku walked in. He was gorgeous, but then he spoke, and within the first ten minutes Cloud alternated between changing rooms and homicide.

Riku was everything he'd feared. Spoiled, rich, little brat that was so cocky when he spoke even Aerith would want to dropkick the son of a bitch halfway across the Pacific. Since homicide was largely frowned upon at Mitsuki University, Cloud took his problems to Campus Housing. His options were limited. They couldn't change his room until the following semester in January, and until then he could find someone to switch rooms or grin and bear it. He didn't know many people yet, and anyone willing to trade came with prospective roommates worse than Riku. Cloud eventually settled to grin and bear it.

Until Riku staggered in one night in October after a post-midterm frat party, climbed into Cloud's bed, and professed his "extremely sincere" attraction for him. Because apparently Riku was gay. And looking in his direction.

Cloud let him ramble for six or seven minutes about Cloud hating him, feeling tortured, and erections before he assaulted the boy. He had to actually tell Riku the following morning—to his dismay—that they'd fucked the night before because the kid was too smashed to remember, but it all worked out all right. Riku tripped over his words a bit, Cloud found it endearing that he could make the self-absorbed brat speechless, and they fucked again. When he went home for winter break, he didn't have sex with Leon, and instead told him everything there was to say about his new boyfriend. By the time January rolled around, Cloud told Campus Housing he didn't need a new room anymore. For Valentine's Day, Cloud set up a romantic in-dorm date, and he worked up the nerve to say "I love you" by the end of February.

Then it fell to shit. These things so often do. The worst part was that Riku didn't seem to notice.

Cloud was in love with the fucker. Deeply, emotionally, uncomfortably in love with Riku. But as the end of the year and the semester drew closer, Riku talked more about his hometown, Destiny Islands, and his best friend, Sora Harada. Riku professed that he'd been in love with Sora for as long as he could remember. He had never told Sora he was gay, much less that he was interested, but he planned on telling him about his sexuality when he returned home for the summer. He said there wasn't another option anymore now that he had a boyfriend.

It was unsettling to Cloud, hearing Riku talk this way. The emotion and pain of unrequited love in his voice was heartbreaking. Though they continued to go on dates and fuck, it started to feel like little more than that. When Riku said "I love you," it never sounded the way he said it about Sora. Riku's attention was no longer focused on their relationship and school, but on the third party best friend that he missed so much and held so dearly. Cloud wished he could strangle the little brat.

He tried to pretend nothing changed. When it came time to fill out housing applications for the following August, Cloud listed Riku as his top roommate choice. They spoke of the upcoming summer as if they'd visit—meet the other's friends and family—and Cloud believed it would happen. He focused only on last-minute term papers and test preparation as finals rolled around. Packing to leave for summer vacation's only sadness would lie in being apart until they met up again. There would be no real loss.

It wasn't supposed to go like this.

Cloud, however, wasn't the best pretender. As the room emptied, Cloud felt a gaping hole form in the pit of his stomach. His desk cleared; Riku's things came off the wall. By tomorrow this room where they'd met and fallen in love wouldn't be theirs anymore. New students—freshman full of promise and hope—would move in when August came. They'd have no idea of the special history this room held for Cloud or of the heartbreak when Riku turned as the last of his things disappeared in cardboard boxes and nylon bags.

Part of his life slipped away. Perhaps part of his heart, too, as Riku met his eyes.

"I think we need to talk."

He turned to face Riku, dropped on his bed, and nodded.

"I know."

Thus concludes another edition of my Thirty Kisses prompts. Please feel free to check out the sequel (I've worked very hard on it) called 'Farce: An Experience In Idiocy.'

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In short, let me know what you think if you feel up to it, and if you don't . . . Hey, I'm a bad reviewer myself. I won't threaten you.