Warning: This story has mild shounen-ai content - boy/boy kissing, etc. If that's not your thing, don't read it.

Sora stopped just a few steps onto the beach. Looking over towards the island, he could make out a familiar silhouette. Riku was sitting in the same place he always used to, perched on the trunk of the paopu tree, looking out at the ocean. For a minute it was like nothing had changed: no time had passed, no storms or Heartless or desperate battles against Darkness. It was just the two of them, and the island, and a horizon.

He didn't bother with the stairs in the seaside shack, just ran towards the wooden bridge and jumped. It was easier to reach now, to grasp hold of the wooden edge and pull himself up. He was taller now, having grown while on his journey. So was Riku: taller, more muscled, so that he still felt he was playing catch-up. The silver-haired boy had always seemed just that little bit more capable, so that he was afraid if he didn't try his hardest, he'd be left behind. Strange, how simple it seemed looking back. And how desperately confusing it had been back then.

Riku briefly turned his head at the sound of his steps, then back to the horizon.

Sora leaned against the trunk and stared in the same direction. "How far do you suppose a raft really would take us?"

Riku gave a startled laugh. "Far enough to run out of food and water, maybe. Or far enough to be caught in a storm, and have it break apart underneath us. I don't think our boatbuilding skills have improved much, and they weren't that impressive to begin with."

"I'd definitely pack a lot more provisions," Sora admitted. "All those jokes about teenage boys and their appetite aside, I really do need to eat more than a few mushrooms and a seagull egg."

"There were coconuts, too. And fish."

"Yeah, but still. Do you see that lasting past lunchtime the first day with both of us onboard?"

"Guess not."

They both fell silent. Finally Sora asked the question he really wanted to. "Riku? Do you still want to leave Destiny Islands? To be somewhere else? Now you know what's out there -"

"No. I won't find what I'm looking for in other worlds. I'm over that particular fantasy." There was no missing the self-mockery in the words: they had an edge to them that made Sora frown.

"What were you looking for?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" Riku looked towards the top of the tree, and the fruit that hung there. "Have you done it yet? Shared a paopu with Kairi?"

"No. Not going to, either."

For the first time since the conversation begun, Riku looked him directly in the eyes. "Why not? The legend -"

"It's just a legend. I don't need a piece of fruit to keep my friends close to my heart; they're already there. Besides," Sora shrugged, "the legend says you share it with the one you love, right?"

"But -"

"There's something I should show you." Sora grabbed Riku's hand and tugged. The older boy tumbled backwards off the tree, twisting and catching himself at the last moment.

"Careful!"

Sora grinned at him. "Or what? You'll challenge me to a fight? I'm pretty sure you're still ahead by a couple of points."

"Wouldn't that be a laugh, oh high-and-mighty Keyblade Master?" Riku snorted, but he followed anyway. "You'd probably kick my ass."

Sora shrugged. "You always kicked mine plenty, and it never stopped me from challenging you. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, either. I recall you being able to pull off some fairly impressive moves with a keyblade yourself, so I think we're probably fairly evenly matched. You might even kick my ass again." He cocked his head to one side thoughtfully. "I wonder if those wooden swords are still around here somewhere."

"It's been a couple of years," the silver-haired boy pointed out. "They're probably driftwood on some other island by now, or rotted through." The musty smell of the seaside shack seemed to bear out that particular idea.

"Or maybe some other kids picked them up to have practice battles with."

"Always the optimist."

"Always the pessimist," Sora returned.

Riku looked away. "Somebody has to be."

"And it has to be you?" asked Sora, his footsteps loud on the rickety stairs.

"Things don't always turn out the way you want them to."

"And sometimes, even though it's not what you thought it would be, it's still okay." Sora shrugged. "You can't make the world perfect by sheer force of will, Riku, although sometimes I think you'd try anyway."

"That's not true."

"Hn." Sora gave him a sideways look as they emerged back onto the sand. "You know, I met a lot of people while I was travelling, but none of them matched your perfectionist tendencies, and some of them certainly gave it their best shot. Such an overachiever."

Riku gave him an irritated glare. Sora didn't think it was the kind of look that was supposed to make him want to grin in response, so he tried to keep a straight face. "None of the people I met were as . . . as -"

"Charming? Gorgeous?" Sora dropped his voice and leered suggestively. "Amazingly sexy?"

The expression that last remark left on Riku's face was somewhere between astonished and incredulous. It wasn't terribly flattering, Sora thought, but he couldn't help laughing anyway. After a moment, Riku gave a small smile.

"Overwhelmingly self-assured, perhaps."

"Maybe I got your dose, too." A bit more seriously, Sora admitted, "It always surprised me, that you never saw it. How everyone looks up to you."

"Huh?" Riku stopped in the middle of the path. "You're joking, right?"

"No."

"You, maybe, but not me -"

"Yes, you!" Annoyed now, Sora whirled to face Riku, a fierce scowl on his face. "All of the kids who used to come here and play with us, they'd go on and on about 'Riku did this, Riku did that,' like you'd hung the moon or something. You were always smarter, faster and stronger than the rest of us, and most of the boys – even some of the girls – dreamed of someday being as good a fighter. Add in the way you so often kept to yourself, and any attention from you was something they prized."

"I – That's – Well, I doubt they feel that way now!"

Sora smirked. "Don't count on it. Kairi says you've got the whole 'bad boy vibe', and that she has girls she's never met before coming up to her in school and asking if she'd introduce them to you."

Riku looked away. "It's not something to be proud of. Don't they know what I did?"

"It's not something you have to be so ashamed of, either. Geez, Riku, we were kids! You're allowed to make mistakes!"

"And mine had some pretty damning consequences -"

"Yeah, because even screwing up, you're still an overachiever. Riku, half of them don't really know what went on while we were both out there risking our lives and more, and they don't care. They do know you're one of the reasons they have a home or even a life to come back to, and don't you dare say you had nothing to do with that!" He was yelling, he realised with a start, but Riku's refusal to just let himself be happy made him angrier at the other boy than anything else he'd done. They had their home and their lives back; they'd fought bad guys and won; now they were supposed to get their happy ending.

"You were -"

"Do you really think that if you hadn't opened that door, it would have stayed closed? How many worlds did the Heartless destroy before they reached this one, huh? It was just a matter of time."

Riku stared at him, eyes wide. "I'm sorry -"

"What the hell are you apologising for?!" he yelled.

"Uh -" He gave Sora an uncertain smile. "For making you angry?"

For a moment, Sora just gaped at him. Then he laughed. He was a little relieved when the anger just drained away, Riku's uncertain smile and even more awkward laugh chasing it away like it had never been. One thing he'd found when he was travelling was that he had a lot of rage inside, more than he'd thought possible, and he didn't want to show that side of himself to Riku. Although, he supposed Riku had already seen it; not just now, but when he'd been Roxas, and anger was the one feeling he remembered, the one constant in his odd existence. It made him laugh even harder, because Riku was the one who thought he had to be perfect to be loved. But Riku was smiling at him, and maybe it didn't matter.

"Come on!" He grabbed Riku's hand again and pulled him towards the cave.

"If you're talking about the cave, I've already seen it." Riku's words were cool, his footsteps slowing as they reached the entrance. As Sora stepped inside, he came to a complete halt. A moment later, Sora was jerked to a stop by his lack of movement.

He turned, and there was something there, in the expression on Riku's face. A kind of sick dread, like whatever lay ahead was too awful to face. Memory struck him. 'This world has been connected . . .'

"It's not there anymore."

"What?" Green eyes blinked at him.

"The door. It's gone. There's nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not -" The objection was almost automatic, but Riku faltered before he could say it. "I -" He swallowed and looked away, towards the island from which they'd come. When he looked back, there was a stubborn set to his chin, and he met Sora's gaze head-on. "You said you had something to show me?"

Sora squeezed his hand gently, and took another step into the cave. This time, Riku followed. "Do you remember, just before we left? You challenged me to a race, and said that the winner would share a paopu with Kairi."

"Yeah, I remember." The reply was rather subdued.

"I knew the legend. Somebody told Selphie, and she'd been harping on the topic for the whole week, maybe longer. But I'd never really given it all that much thought, you know? It just wasn't all that important to me yet. Then you said that, and I was upset, though I couldn't figure out why." They emerged into the cavernous space at the end of the tunnel. Sora paused a moment to allow Riku to see for himself that where the door had been was now bare rock wall.

It was the space beside it that Sora was interested in, though. Some rather crude drawings were scratched onto the wall with a lighter coloured rock. He felt a momentary flicker of embarrassment – the awkward scribblings were barely a step up from stick figures, although both were somehow recognisable.

"Kairi and me – we drew these back when we were kids, not long after she arrived, I think it was. Anyway, that day I came here. I was thinking about what you said, and I drew this." He crouched down and traced the outline of the paopu fruit that his scribble-figure self was offering to Kairi's.

He drew his hand back, only to have it replaced by another; longer fingers, one still slightly crooked from where it had been broken in an accident with a wooden sword many years ago. Riku rested his hand there, covering the middle figure so that the paopu disappeared as if it had never been. When Sora looked at him, his expression was shuttered. There was a tension to the way he stood, shoulders braced as if waiting for a blow.

"I stared at it for ages when I was done, and I couldn't work out what was wrong with it – besides my lack of artistic skill, that is." Sora gave a breathy laugh, wondering if he could really do this. "I didn't work it out for a long time after, either. What it was that was missing." He hesitated a moment, then placed his hand over Riku's. "It was that you weren't there."

"I – Well -" Riku broke off as Sora laced his fingers through his, looking startled. "Are you going to draw me in now, then?"

Sora sighed and shook his head. Standing, he tugged the other boy around to face him. "And you say I can be slow to catch on. The thing that was bothering me that day was that I wanted to be the one to share the paopu fruit . . . with you." Feeling daring, he stepped closer and pressed his lips against Riku's.

It might have been a chaste kiss, but Riku's lips were parted in surprise and Sora wasn't above taking advantage of that, just in case he never got to do this again. His mouth moved over the other boy's in a firm caress, his tongue slipping out to lick at the opening offered. The flesh beyond was unexpectedly soft and warm and yielding, a contrast to the solid edges of teeth; then it seemed to open up as if in surrender, and Sora found himself rising on his toes to wrap his arms about his friend's neck as the kiss deepened. He stroked his tongue across Riku's and teased it until it tangled about his, until Riku was kissing him back.

It was perfect.

When the kiss finally ended, his eyes were closed, and he waited a moment before opening them, just savouring the taste of Riku on his lips. Green eyes stared down at him with a searching look, and he held his breath. It escaped him in a soft exhalation of delight when Riku's head dipped towards his, and they were kissing once more.

Somehow, they ended up on the floor in a tangle of limbs. Riku had his arms wrapped about Sora as if he'd disappear if he let him go. The grip was uncomfortably tight, but Sora didn't mind.

"You really want me?"

The question was whispered into his neck.

"Yes," Sora answered with complete assurance. "I spent two years looking for you, Riku. I just didn't always understand why. But I found you, and if you have no objections, I'm going to keep you." Even if he did have objections, Sora had no intention of letting him go. He'd just have to try something different. "So . . . does this mean you want me back?"

His own question was asked boldly, as if the answer didn't have the potential to change everything. And despite the way Riku held him, he wanted to hear it, to know for sure that he'd found what he was really looking for.

Even though he couldn't see it, he could feel Riku's smile. "Yes."

Sometime later, Riku asked a question. "How did you get to be so good at kissing, anyway?"

"Huh?" Sora blinked sleepily. They were both sprawled on the floor of the cave, and he'd found a rather comfortable resting place for his head against Riku's shoulder. "Oh. I asked some friends to teach me." He giggled. "Did you know when Cloud blushes, even his ears turn red?"