Oh look, a story. *Chii rolls her eyes* ಥ_ಥ
It's been forever since I wrote something that just came to me without having to rack my brain for ideas and forcing it (thanks writing projects). And since this is my ultimate ship to beat, I want to begin a oneshot collection for Soroku! YAY!
(Bad idea. Who says I would update this regularly AhAhA StOp. Also I couldn't think of a better collection title woop)
Nevertheless, here's a random Soroku story. I do not own Kingdom Hearts, le cri.
Two Become One (A Soroku collection)
Follow the light and you shall see the path towards the twilight sky... Where nobodies become somebodies and a certain blue-eyed blonde has a thing for a particular happy-go-lucky brunette and vice versa. "Sora, see? That's why it has to be you."
Oneshot 1: Sugar With Your Tea
Summary: Sora remembers his life with Roxas through a sweet cup of love and flavour. Warning for fluff and sadz.
He always knew how to make the perfect cup of tea.
Riku's was plain black tea. Kairi's: jasmine. Naminé settled for a mug of chamomile folded with milk, everytime.
When he first laid eyes on the charismatic brunette, Roxas thought of two words; exactly how the former liked his favourite drink.
Super sweet.
…Or at least, that was what he told Sora. Their meeting was a warm day — trees dancing along to the humid wind, birds melodiously singing the song of spring. Sora sat at a lone bench by the lake at the park, drinking homemade tea and talking over the phone.
Roxas, on one hand, was feeding the ducks. Sora remembers how the blonde would look back every now and then to meet his gaze, ever-so-distracted that he hadn't realized he'd thrown the entire bag of bread into the water. He had laughed over the phone, then. It didn't take Sora long to excuse himself and hang up, if only to accommodate the approaching blonde.
Fast forward to their second date and you'd think they've known each other for three, four, five months now. The blonde didn't think it too straightforward to invite Sora to his home, if only to show off his culinary skills. He was studying to become a chef. And what is a good chef if he cannot make a measly cup of tea to go with dinner?
"It's two sugars, right?" Roxas had asked, brewing exotic tea leaves and fanning the aromas towards himself as he mixed. Sora was beaming when he'd tasted his cup; all full of sweetness, warming flavours and love.
To beat the winter nights, for all-nighters, to cool his temper down during an argument — Roxas would give Sora sweet tea. Although days passed and they've been through so much — from graduation to living together to essentially celebrating one, two, three years of their relationship — there was always that small constant, the perfect brew of tea that was the representation of the blonde's everlasting love and patience.
One Christmas, Sora bought them both matching mugs. He had the camera ready as Roxas tore through the wrapping paper, eventually laughing when he read the pun printed along its side aloud.
"Seriously?" he responded incredulously, "You are my Kitt-tea cat?" Roxas inspected the tail handle and the mug's built-in cat ears, funny whiskers and worst of all, a printed selfie of him over a cat's body.
"Hey, I thought you'd like it!" Sora continued, still recording. It went well with his "My drink has Koala-tea" mug, even though he was the more avid tea drinker in the house. "I want to see you use it everyday at work or at home. It'll remind you of me!"
"Are you serious?" Roxas furrowed his brows, but Sora knew he would do it anyway. In fact, it started the blonde's habit of bargaining for and collecting the most ridiculous novelty mugs, hoping to out-pun his stupid kitt-tea cat mug one day.
Sora drank tea from them all. They had enough mugs around to hold a "Mug of the Week" fiasco, where the brunette would choose among their growing collection on Saturday evenings so by Sunday morning, his boyfriend could prepare breakfast with their weekly winner.
(Nothing compared to the kitt-tea cat mug, as Roxas would soon find out. He still used it, everyday, no matter the circumstances.)
Surely it was no gift to be envied. And brewed tea didn't last long. Like flowers, it spoils and moulds, so it's best to drink it once it's made and appreciate the now instead of the forevermore. What the brunette did look forward to though was watching his lover browse through canisters at the top shelf next to their fridge, taking a pinch of different leaves and ultimately experimenting before pouring a newly heated kettle of water through them to finish the job.
It seemed simple enough. But whenever Sora tried to do the same, his creation just didn't cut it as much as Roxas' does.
A couple of months into their fourth year, the blonde brought home another box of custom-made mugs. Lately, with tough hours at the restaurant he worked and Sora's own job teaching at their nearest primary school, life was busy and they didn't see each other as often. They still ate and drank together, though. Twenty-two is too young to be having a mid-life crisis, but with Kairi and Riku getting married soon and Naminé travelling the world, Sora secretly wished there was more he and Roxas could do together.
He must have wished too hard, because that very day along with a hearty pot of berry-brewed tea, the blonde had surprised him with tickets to a fourteen-day getaway holiday to who-knows-where.
"I just have to get through a few more overtime shifts and I promise we'll go as soon as possible," Sora remembers Roxas saying. "Will you wait, Sora?"
Grinning, he curtly replied, "I will."
It was just a few days anyway. Compared to the lifetime he wanted to spend with his lover, and the several months they've gone through together, what was a week or more?
Come Saturday evening, it was Sora's time to choose yet another mug to use for next week. Roxas would use kitt-tea cat as usual, and he had a fresh choice from the box the blonde had recently brought in. He was just about to pick up the cherry red one at the top left corner of the box when the latter caught him by a moment, barricaded him from the box and closed it suspiciously.
"I get to pick for you tomorrow," was his only excuse. "I got one I thought you would like. But it's a secret."
"Oh? Uhm, alright then." Along with a new blend of sweet darjeeling tea, how was he to refuse? He remembers being dragged by the arm so they could watch a late-night movie, as Roxas was finally free from his shifts.
Sora also remembers being served the sweetest smelling drink in a really cute mug with a watch around it first thing in the morning. The blonde was still stirring his own, having just completed decorating their savoury waffles restaurant-style. He hadn't even had a chance to sip from the new mug when the telephone went off, alerting Roxas to a demanding overtime request.
"Pack your bags today, Sora." his lover told him, suiting up. "I'll be home soon. Then we can leave on the first flight to Radiant Garden! Also, do not finish your tea! There's a punny message at the bottom and I want to record you reading it!"
.
.
.
Six, seven, eight hours. Nine, ten, eleven.
The two mugs of tea on the counter had cooled, side by side and next to a nearly empty bowl of sugar cubes. Sora had gone to sleep by then, still waiting like he'd mentally promised for Roxas to return.
…But those mugs would sit on the counter for longer than twelve, thirteen months.
.
.
.
The brunette would cry himself to sleep most nights, the news of a massive fire engulfing the restaurant his boyfriend loved and adored destroying him from the inside out as time ticked second by second. A faulty electrical outlet, one channel had said. Careless staff and the venue rush getting the best of them, another broadcasted. Victims rushed to emergency and intensive care were succumbing to their injuries, their photos on television meant to capture their best assets.
Roxas looked better on the kitt-tea cat mug. They were showing him lies, showing him LIES, Roxas was coming back, HE WAS ON HIS WAY HOME—
He'd resigned from his teaching position not long after, the many days of cooping in their shared room taking a toll on his reputation. It was difficult. He'd missed his best friends' wedding and stopped living; couldn't even bring himself to revive the constant in his life — his love for sweet, perfectly-made tea.
He'd smashed through a few of their novelty mugs when Kairi had come over to tell him to start cleaning out things. How the disgusting smell of moulded tea on the counter was unhealthy and if Roxas was here, he wouldn't be happy with the state of your house; dirty dishes, an unhygienic kitchen the perfect home for bacteria, laundry everywhere, you aren't like this, this isn't the Sora I know.
…If Roxas was here.
Sora doesn't know, really. Lately all he's been doing is remembering, recalling the love they had shared, brewed and cultivated. Rewatching home videos, browsing through their pictures documenting the life they had beyond and ahead of them. The enemy of life itself, a stressor, so much worse than the arguments and fights he and Roxas had over the pettiest things.
He's sorry. Sorry he isn't strong enough to deal with it. Sorry that he's still waiting, and will be waiting for that forevermore, the part that won't last no matter how much more time passes by. Sora knows now is the time to pour away the old cup and start fresh.
His exotic memories of sweetness, puns, and the relationship they had shared will, unlike tea, never be forgotten.
Fourteen months after that one Sunday, Sora takes it upon himself to tidy up around the house little by little. He's applied for another teaching position — this time for online tutoring, so he doesn't have to leave the house so much. Kairi and Riku are expecting their first child. Naminé is coming home before then so they could hang out once more. Sora has long since picked up all the frail pieces of his and Roxas' broken mugs, and promises to the rising sun that he would never throw out or sell a thing from their home.
The mugs, Roxas' clothes, his personalized recipes and cookbooks, his many culinary equipment. They have to stay. Sora visits his lover every three months to replenish the vase of flowers by his grave. Today, he wants to bring kitt-tea cat with him, so they could once again have tea like they always do, regardless of the time of day.
He left the mugs to rot on the counter, hoping deeply that despite the reality Sora was left to deal with, they would last anyway. It was the last thing Roxas made for the both of them. Had it been something more concrete, he could hold it and never let go. "It reminded me of you," Sora whispers to himself, smiling weakly as he drains the foul-looking mugs and cleanses them under hot water and concentrated dishwashing soap.
But something falls out of the mug with the watch, the very same one Roxas told him to wait for him for.
Of course.
It's an engagement ring. Inside, the message, "What time is it? Time to get married! ;)" printed at the bottom in green ink.
…Sora's smile widens by a hundred-fold. A tear rolls down his face when he puts on the ring and he resumes washing the dishes, setting aside kitt-tea cat and many other plates to dry. On their fridge, a list on how to make the "Everything But The Kitchen Sink!" tea is hung up, the blonde's own recipe with detailed measurements of which tea leaves to use and how to brew them.
Roxas always knew how to make the perfect cup of tea.
The only thing he could do better than making tea was making the one he loved happy by making it for him, everyday, even until after he was gone.