AUTHORS'S NOTE: Kingdom Hearts characters do not belong to me! This story is YAOI! Don't like, don't read! Rated M for later scenes!
Another thing to note: This is an adult!Sora x child!Riku story so if you aren't into shota, don't read this.
This is my story for NaNoWriMo. I decided to share it on here for anyone who wanted to read.
It was a semi-sunny day in the country named Reildro. Across these vast lands was a wondrous countryside full of farmland and forests of tall, beautiful trees. The day seemed almost perfect. A young boy ran through the fields of one of the many farmed areas; tall wheat that towered over the youngster and was near ready to be harvested, rustled just slightly as the boy rushed past. The boy had silver hair that went down to approximately his neck, had bright blue eyes, and had pale skin. The boy's clothing was rather deplorable, loose strings on the hems of his shirt and shorts and holes littered all about them. Along with that, he wore no shoes, however didn't care about the rough terrain his feet ran on top of. He was determined to get where he was going.
Within a few minutes, the boy had stopped. He reached the end of the golden fields. Now ahead of him, what marked the border of the farm that he lived on, was an old dirt road. Sometimes when he was wandering around the area, he'd see a few carriages roll down the worn path, but had always been a little too afraid to actually watch one of them. At the time, there were no carriages in sight. No sound of galloping hooves, no sound of wheels grinding against the rocky path, no sound of simple shoes treading the ground… perfect. The boy walked across the small road and went to the other side—he had to go there to get to his favorite spot in the world. Just across that road from his farm home was a wonderful, untamed and unclaimed forest. He enjoyed looking at the foliage and the small critters that lived in the undergrowth, but there was one particular thing he enjoyed the most.
"Sora!" The boy called out. Grinning slightly, the boy looked around for the person of which the name belonged. He walked around in a near stalking fashion, like a mountain lion preying on a sheep. He peered around the trunks of trees suspiciously, wondering where his friend could be hiding. "I know you're around here somewhere!" He declared.
After a little while of looking, the youngster was beginning to find it a challenge to hunt around. He made a slightly disappointed pout at the feeling of him losing at the unspoken game of hide-and-seek. "Maybe if I climb a tree so I can see around more…" He mumbled to himself. He walked around for a few moments more, staring upwards as he did so, looking for a good tree to find. Once he found one, he semi-clumsily began climbing up. Rather abruptly, he was snatched off the tree before he could ascend mere feet; there had been a sudden laugh. The person to have plucked the boy from the tree had his arms wrapped around the boy. "I've caught you, Riku!" The person declared. The silverette, Riku, squirmed and laughed, trying to look up at his captor. "Sora, stop it~!" He said.
The elder male, Sora, let out a chuckle and set Riku down on the ground. Sora was dressed in good clothes, entirely the opposite of Riku's attire. He was wearing nothing but a silken red shirt and darker blue pants. The clothing looked rather clashy, but he didn't seem to care. "Have you missed me?" He cooed to his younger accomplice. In response, he received a playfully-mannered shove. "I only just saw you yesterday." Riku told with a giggle. "How could I possibly miss you when it's been onety-four hours?"
"Onety-four?" Sora repeated. "Are you sure you aren't meaning to say, "twenty-four" instead?" He snickered. Riku gave the brunette a confused stare for a moment before fidgeting in embarrassment. "Whenever people say how many hours are in a day, it sounds like onety-four…" His voice trailed off and was suddenly very sheepish about it. Riku's hair was ruffled by a hand. "No need to fuss. I found that real cute~" Sora smiled.
"Can we play hide-and-seek again?" Riku questioned, changing the subject. Sora shrugged in response. "Sure." He mused, despite having no clue that they had even been playing the game previously.
A few hours passed of the two friends playing various games to entertain themselves in the forest, however the duo was now simply relaxing in a nice patch of sunlight that shone through the little canopy of the trees. "Sora, do you have eyes in the back of your head?" Riku was laying right next to Sora on the ground, one arm of Sora's wrapped slightly around him and he himself snuggled close to his side. Sora chuckled. "What kind of a question is that? Of course I don't." He stated. As if to confirm, he reached back with his free hand and touched his head.
"Oh." Riku responded in a slightly disappointed manner. "My mom told me that all adults have eyes in the back of their heads, and she's one of them. It's not fun! It's like, even if she isn't watching me, she's still watching me. I can't steal a little morsel or anything without her knowing." He pouted.
Sora let out a soft laugh. "Your rations are supposed to be limited. You shouldn't have been stealing them in the first place." He said. "But if you really are hungry, how about I bring a little picnic tomorrow for the both of us? It could be a little parting gift." He smiled.
"A picnic?" The silverette repeated. "Oh, boy! I've never had one of those!" He randomly wriggled around slightly to show his excitement. "Can you bring cake? I've never eaten that before, and mama says it's real—" Suddenly, he stopped himself from speaking, and got a confused expression. "… Parting gift?"
Sora nodded. "I unfortunately have to leave." He said. "My family wants me to go to my other home. It's closer to the heart of the country. I haven't a clue how long I will be there, but it is certainly going to be a very extended stay. We won't be able to see each other for a few months at the least." He frowned at the thought of being separated from his younger friend. Not a moment later, though, he suddenly made a happy grin. "But you'll be okay without me, of course! After all, all this practice at hide-and-seek will help you stay away from the monsters that live here." He said.
Riku gawked. "Monsters?" He questioned. He looked around in a slightly panicked fashion. "They aren't here right now, are they?" He asked. Sora laughed, "But of course! They're everywhere!" He said. "Usually during the day, there will be Cyclops looking around. His favorite food is the bones of little boys." He said. "They like eating the kids because grown-up people have rotten, old meat." He explained. "The Cyclops goes to bed right when the sun starts setting, and that's when the dragons come out. They gobble up whole families and still got room for more in their bellies." He grinned.
"Stop telling me that stuff!" Riku exclaimed with a pout. "It's scary. I know for sure that they aren't real, because I never see them outside when I'm at home." He said. "Are you sure?" Was the response he received, making him feel rather uncertain.
Sora reached out and ruffled Riku's hair once again. "Don't worry~" He cooed. "I was just joking. I promise. The only thing that's out there to get you is maybe a couple of mean dogs or some crazy raccoon." He said. Riku just turned away from Sora and onto his side and he covered his ears. "Those are mean too, though! And I know for sure that those ones are real." He huffed. "Stop telling me these things." The silverette crossed his arms and shut his eyes to try and show how displeased he was with his elder.
Sora watched and snickered softly. "Oh well~" He said simply. "Just be careful of them." He warned. "Plenty of monsters would love to have you." He gave a smile to Riku before unwrapping his arm from the boy and standing up, holding his hand out to help the younger one up. "I believe I have to go now. It's getting a little bit late, so you should probably leave too." He said, pointing up into the air. The sky was not dark, however the sun was not in sight. It must have been behind the tree line by now.
"Oh." Riku responded in a murmur, suddenly looking disappointed about Sora leaving and him going home. He took Sora's hand and stood up. "You promise that you'll bring a picnic tomorrow?" He asked. "Pinky promise?" The silverette let go of Sora's hand once he was upright and held his own hand out, sticking only his pinky out towards his friend. Sora smiled and reached out, briefly curling his own pinky finger around the youngster's and shaking his hand. "I pinky promise that I'll bring you a picnic." He said. "Oh, and make sure it has cake!" Riku specified. "And maybe you can come here early too, so we have more time to play?" He grinned. Sora chuckled and patted Riku's head, clearing his hair out of his face and leaning down. Sora gave Riku a small kiss on the forehead before straightening himself again. "See you later~" He cooed before walking away from the boy.
Riku watched the brunette leave. He grinned and waved. "Tomorrow!" He said. He dashed through the forest back to his plantation home, now excited to tell his mother about what he and Sora did. He and his friend had played in the forest so often that he memorized the pathway home and always knew which direction to go in when he was among the trees. Exiting the forest, he simply ran across the dirt road, and back into the field of wheat. On the days that Sora walked him out to that road, he noticed that Sora always began walking down it. His mother had warned him to never go down that path, that there were dangers if you went too far. Riku never understood why; Sora went down that path every day or so and he was never harmed. Pushing that brief thought away, he continued on through the golden crops before reaching his home.
The boy's home was unlike what the country to be considered normal people. In this place, and in most of the world around them, there were but three classes; the slaves, the commoners, and the wealthy. Riku's small family was among the 'slave' class. He was too young to work by the country's law, but was getting dangerously close to the proper age to do so. His mother had already been working for quite some time on the plantation. The home that they lived in was in a rather deplorable condition, looking like it was made completely by hand, as if the constructionists used no tools to aid them. There were no windows or running water in the home and the floor was made of dirt. Due to Riku having known nothing else, he believed his house to be perfectly good living quarters. In fact, he'd never been inside of an actual house at all.
Riku had slowed to more of a trot while locating his own home. There were rows and rows of them on the plantation that many slaves all lived in, and all looked nearly identical. Once he found the correct 'house', he smiled happily and went up to the door. He opened it and stepped inside. "Mama, you'll never guess what Sora told me today~!" He exclaimed happily to his mother, whom of which had been cooking over a small, also-hand-made looking stove. The woman had dark brown hair and matching brown eyes, obviously not traits that Riku picked up for himself. She chuckled softly. "What did he tell you?" She asked.
"Well, first when I went to the forest, me and him played a lotta hide and seek." Riku explained. "It was real fun. We got tired after a while though so we just laid down on the ground and talked about stuff. He said that tomorrow, he has to leave for a long time, but before he leaves, he's gonna come here early in the morning so me and him can have a picnic. I told him that he's supposed to bring me cake, so hopefully he does." The boy grinned happily in anticipation to hear his mother's reaction.
"That's nice!" His mother responded with a smile. "Save me a little snack from that picnic, okay~? For right now, though, dinner is nearly ready." She stated, glancing briefly at the little pot that was on the stove. The food inside was some kind of broth; not one of Riku's favorite meals, but he had been taught to eat when he could. "Maybe tomorrow when I play with Sora, he'll give me enough food to be full for the rest of the day." Riku said.
"Hopefully so." His mother murmured. She was now more focused on cooking. In all honesty, she truly hadn't believed that Riku's friend even existed. From her observations, Riku had never played with any of the other children on the plantation and seemed content to having none of them as friends. Almost all he ever talked about was Sora. She could recall someone telling her about how young children usually had imaginary friends, but Riku wasn't all that young; he was nine years old. Perhaps it's just a thing of his that will blow over in a few more months, she thought.
A little while later when the broth had finished cooking and had been eaten, Riku had started becoming anxious to go outside again. "Please, can I go?" He looked up to his mother expectantly. He hated being cooped up inside for long periods of time. He was immediately disappointed when his mother shook her head. "It's dark outside now. You can go out tomorrow morning."
Riku huffed and crossed his arms. Deciding to not have that small discussion with his mom anymore, he went over to the one bed in the single-room house and laid down, curling into a fetal position on just the corner of the bed and closest to the wall. Both he and his mother shared the one bed. Usually he was comfortable sleeping next to her, but he felt that tonight wouldn't be fun. He tugged the thin, tattered blanket over himself tightly and let out a puff of air and he hoped that he would be able to fall asleep before his mom even went to bed. Luckily for him, he did.
The next morning, Riku was up at the crack of dawn. Despite waking so early for his age, it wasn't early for anyone else. All of the adults on the plantation went to work before the sun rose. Riku was much too excited for the picnic Sora promised him, quickly running a very old and used comb through his hair before hurrying out the door of his home and going to the forest. Usually when he was out early in the morning, he wasn't allowed to go through the field, because people would be working there. He could see a few people beginning to cut bushels of wheat, but nothing else. He went right through the field to save him the time of walking all the way around it.
Once the silverette got across the road, he navigated his way through the trees with some degree of expertise. It took him a few minutes to find where he would usually see Sora at; this time, however, he went to the small clearing that he and Sora had been at the night previous, before the both of them had to go home. "You lay down blankets when you have a picnic, so this place is perfect." He grinned a bit to himself. He didn't see Sora anywhere around, but didn't mind having to wait. He sat down on the dew-coated grass and decided to watch the clouds for a little.
Riku saw some strange things in the clouds. One of them either looked like a mountain lion with a sword in its mouth or a very long tongue. And it only had three legs. He stared at that particular cloud with curiosity before looking at a different cloud… the next one just looked like an indistinguishable blob. He continued on for a few minutes, watching the clouds roll past and deciding what they looked like as they moved overhead. The wind up there must have been moving fairly quickly, because he didn't have to wait for long for another cloud to show up. A little while later, some grey clouds started showing up, all bunched up into one big cloud and signifying that it might rain. The sight of that disappointed Riku. He looked around in the hopes of Sora suddenly appearing, but he didn't for quite some time. He really hoped that the picnic wouldn't be rained out.
Riku let out a sigh. How early in the morning did Sora mean, exactly, when he had said the picnic would be before he left? Perhaps Sora lived a long ways away, and was travelling there right at that moment. Sora had never told Riku where he lived; when he did ask, he only received a response that he lived in another town. The silverette had lived on the plantation his entire life; he'd been to the nearby market just a few times, however had never gone anywhere else other than there, if he didn't count the forest and the plantation as places he'd been.
Approximately thirty minutes passed before Sora finally arrived. The sun was not shining whatsoever anymore in the sky and the entire world above was covered with dark grey clouds. "Finally!" Riku pouted at the sight of Sora, whom of which had no picnic basket or any food on him. "I was worried that you'd get here and it'd be all rainy. What took you so long?" He asked.
Sora snickered lightly. "What are you talking about? It doesn't take me too long to get here." He said. "How long were you waiting here?" He questioned. "A million hours!" Riku insisted. "Now, can we get to eat? Did you bring cake like I wanted?"
"Relax!" Sora laughed a bit at Riku's exaggeration. "Rain was already sprinkling when I left home. Do you perhaps want to eat inside of the carriage? It isn't too huge, but we can still eat in there." He stated.
Riku suddenly let out a gasp. "Really?!" He asked in sudden excitement. "I've never been in a carriage before! Is it fancy?" He asked. He jumped up from the ground; he had still been sitting beforehand. "Let's go, let's go!" He said, grabbing Sora's hand and tugging on it.
"Alright~" Sora replied, laughing once more at Riku's excited manner. "It's a pretty good carriage, but it isn't the greatest. I don't typically use the best ones I have because I don't want to attract robbers of some sort. The best ones are only for when I want to make an appearance of some sort." He said. Riku stared, now in somewhat confusion as he and Sora began to walk out of the forest. "You have more than one?" He questioned. Sora nodded. "I have five." He said in response. "Wow, you must be rich!"
Upon reaching the carriage, Riku was amazed. It was much fancier than any carriage he had seen before. The carriage was built out of a beautiful red-colored wood, shiny silver metal outlining the edges and corners of the vehicle. The wheels had positively perfect looking spokes, each one of them undamaged and expertly crafted. All of the spokes seemed to be exactly evenly spaced between one another. The wheels looked to be made of some black metal, so the person to have built it would have had to possess many skills. Leading the carriage were two beautiful, solid black horses. Their hooves were unable to be seen, covered by long, neat looking feathers. Each equine's short fur shone without the need of sunlight, showing that the two were well cared for.
Quickly distracted by the horses instead of the carriage its' self, Riku went over to the two curiously. "Can I touch them?" He asked hopefully. Once he saw Sora nod in response, he went to the closest horse and petted it somewhat gingerly. Despite living on the plantation and having seen plough horses from afar working on the fields, he had never touched or interacted with any of the four legged giants. The horse blinked and snorted softly , causing Riku to draw his hand away in hesitation and pausing for a moment before reaching out once again and touching the horse's muzzle. He smiled at the feeling.
"They're Friesian horses." Sora said, watching Riku with somewhat interest, curious to see his reaction towards the equines. "The one you're petting now is named Duchess. She's very friendly." He said. He stepped closer to Riku and lightly patted Duchess's rump before pulling his hand away. "Their fur looks clean, but it may have gotten a bit dirty coming over here. Don't pet her too much, so you have clean hands for eating." He said.
Riku seemed a little confused by needing to keep his hands clean to eat. On the occasion, he'd rinse them off if they were entirely covered with mud or some other substance, but he never had truly eaten with 'clean' hands. He pulled his hand away and stared at it for a moment. "It looks clean, though…" He said.
Sora just made a little smile. "They do look clean, yes, but they aren't. For now, you'll just have to wipe them off on a cloth. It should be clean enough afterwards." Sora then went over to the door of the carriage and opened it up for Riku. The door of the vehicle had a window centered close to the top of it, and on the inside part of the door there had been a curtain protecting it from sunlight shining through and prying eyes from trying to look through.
Riku looked towards the door and was again interested by the carriage. He grinned and walked over to Sora, hopping up into the carriage once he was close enough to the door. "This is cool!" He said happily when inside. There were two black plush seats on the right and left side of the carriage, just about large enough for Riku to lay down on comfortably, and three little drawers underneath each seat. On one of the seats sat a large picnic basket.
Sora stepped into the carriage and shut the door. "Do you like it?" He asked with a smile. He sat down on the seat with the basket, opening the two-part lid and unraveling the blanket that had bundled the food all together inside. "You can sit on the floor and use the seat like a table, if you want." He told Riku. He pulled out a plate and held it out to Riku. "Choose what you want to eat." He smiled.
Riku took the fancy-looking plate and looked inside of the picnic basket with a grin. "Is there cake?" He asked with a grin. Sora chuckled slightly. "That's not an actual meal. You can eat it for dessert." He said. "There should be a sandwich in there for you." He said.
Riku reached into the basket and dug around for a moment. He could see plenty more food than just a sandwich. "I can eat more than just that, right?" He asked. "Of course~" Was the response he received.
Riku first pulled out a green apple from the basket. He set it down on his plate, but due to how Riku was holding the plate, it was rolling around and was dangerously close to falling off of the china. To prevent that from happening, Riku simply sat his plate down onto the unoccupied seat behind himself. He turned back to the picnic basket and looked through the foods inside of there for just a little bit before finding what he was looking for; the sandwich. He picked it out of the rest of the foods and sat that down on his plate as well. There was some kind of meat between the two pieces of bread, along with some cheese. It was a fairly simple sandwich, but Riku was happy to have it. Finally, he had taken some crackers from the basket.
"There's some jam and biscuits, too." Sora said as he reached into the basket and grabbed some silverware for Riku and held it out to him; a knife, a fork, and a spoon, despite the food being eaten at the time had no need for silverware to begin with. Riku took the utensils and put them on his plate as well, however simply grabbed his sandwich and took a fairly large bite out of it. He hadn't eaten in a little while, and had suddenly realized how hungry he was once he had gotten when he had food. "Ths ih guuh!" His words were nearly indistinguishable.
"Don't speak with your mouth full." Sora said. He grabbed the same things that Riku had taken from the basket. Somewhat oddly, when he placed the sandwich on the plate, he used a fork to cut into it and eat a small, perfectly square shape of it. He received a somewhat strange look from his younger accomplice. "Aren't sandwiches finger foods?" He asked once he had swallowed the large bite he had taken. "It's cleaner." Sora responded simply with a shrug.
Riku narrowed his eyes. "You're so fussy about clean things." He huffed. "Have you ever played in the mud at all or anything like that?" He asked. "I have!" Sora responded with a short frown. "I just don't like getting my hands dirty right before eating." He explained. Riku randomly gave Sora a suspicious stare for just a moment before taking another bite of his sandwich. "Wahever yuu say." He spoke with his mouth full on purpose.
The slightly tense feeling subsided while they had been eating their food. Once the pair were finished eating, Sora put the plates back into the basket. "I should probably be leaving now." He said with a slight frown. "The place I'm going is very far away from here. By this time, I'll probably be there way past nightfall." He reached over and gave Riku a short pat on the top of the head, his frown turning to a smile. "You'll be fine without me for a month or two, though, right?" He asked.
Riku made a frown. "Do you really have to go…?" He asked. He crawled over to the seat that Sora was on and sat next to him. "I don't want you to." He said. He leaned close to the brunette and hugged him, closing his eyes and snuggling close.
It felt nice to Sora when he was hugged. "I do." He said. "I won't be able to visit, either… if I came here at a reasonable time for you, I'd have to leave before the sun rose. Then we'd probably only get to play for an hour before I'd have to leave again so I could get home before midnight." He said. He hugged Riku back. "A few months really isn't that long…"
"I want to go with you!" Riku declared all of the sudden, opening his eyes and looking up at Sora with a halfway pleading, halfway determined expression. "I wouldn't be missed at all. None of the other kids on the plantation want to be friends with me." He said. He grasped at Sora's shirt and made a slight whimpering sound. "P-please?" He stammered slightly.
Sora stared at the child for a few seconds before his facial expression softened. "You…" He went silent for a moment, trying to decide what to do. He made a soft sigh. "You can." He stated. It was uncharacteristic for the elder to agree to something so quickly, but Riku didn't care at the time. The youngster immediately grinned happily and hugged Sora tighter. "Thank you~!" He said cheerfully.
Sora had a slightly displeased expression, as if he didn't know what to truly think of the sudden change of situation. He was simply wordless for a few moments. "… Would you like something to drink?" He questioned; neither of them had drank anything after their meal.
Riku nodded vigorously. "I'm thirsty!" He responded. "What is there to drink? Water?" He asked. He was confused when Sora shook his head and laughed softly. "Why would I bring water?" His elder questioned. He pulled open the middle drawer; inside were a few wine glasses and an unlabeled bottle with a dark red liquid inside. The brunette pulled out both of the glasses and gave one to Riku.
Riku held onto the glass incorrectly, gripping it with his full fist around the little column-like part of the glass and using his other hand to hold the actual cup part of it. "This looks fancy…" He murmured. "What is that?" He asked to Sora curiously as the brunette pulled the cork out of the top of the bottle. Immediately upon the container being opened, the small room was suddenly filled with the scent of strong alcohol. "It's wine." Sora stated as he poured Riku's glass about halfway full.
Riku studied the liquid curiously for a few moments. "Oh. Cool~" He said. He brought the glass up to his lips and suddenly swallowed all of the contents of the glass. "Don't do that!" Sora said quickly, abruptly taking Riku's glass away from him, leaving Riku with a confused expression. "What's wrong?" He asked.
Sora made a sigh. "You're not supposed to drink this all at one time." He said. "You wake up with a nasty headache in the morning if you just gulp it down." He frowned. "I can fetch you some medicine in a little while to help ebb the pain, I suppose." He said. Riku looked rather startled by what he was told. "R-Really!? It isn't too bad of a headache, right?" He whimpered pathetically. "How come you didn't tell me at first?" He whined.
"I didn't know you were going to drink it like that!" Sora huffed. "You can't blame me for that. You are your own undoing." He said. He decided to put the glass that Riku had back into the little cabinet drawer, however had kept his own glass out. He poured out about the same amount of wine that Riku had had in his glass. He then took only a sip of it. "You should probably have more watered-down wine from now on." He said.
"Yeah…" Riku responded. He was surprised at how immediate the effect of the large intake of alcohol had been. His vision was slightly blurred. He leaned against Sora and let out a soft huff of air. "I wanna nap." He mumbled into Sora's side.
"You can, if you want. I won't stop you." Sora randomly made a little snicker and petted Riku's head. "You can lay on the other seat if you'd like. " He said. Riku gripped onto Sora's shirt tighter and shook his head. "You gotta be my pillow." He mumbled tiredly.
Sora was quiet once again for a moment. "… Alright." He said. He looked down at Riku for a moment before giving his head a little pat. "Are you positive you don't want to lay down, though?" He asked as he used his free hand to move the picnic basket onto the floor, allowing for more room on the seat the two were on at the time. He shifted to the end of the seat to give Riku as much room as possible.
Riku quickly laid down on the seat once there was more room. He put his head on Sora's lap and closed his eyes. "You're a good pillow." He mumbled with a little grin. "You're a good blanket." Sora responded simply, glancing down at Riku once more before taking another sip of his wine and deciding to relax since he'd most likely be stuck in that one spot for a few hours, listening to the sounds of the light rain pattering on the roof.