Le notes: Fist of all, I'd like to that Serenity Denied (Or simply Ser) For being the best beta in the whole wide world! tight hug
T's my first story, originally planned as a one-shot which came out a bit too long I'm afraid ;. So I hope you enjoy your stay bows
Disclamer: I own nothing but a biscuit and a couple of old dreams And Serenity, but that's nothing of ye business ;P!
Dedicated to my dear Serenity Denied, for writing the most beautiful Soriku fiction, and for encouraging me into writing. You rock my socks senseless!
Sora took a final sip from his now empty plastic cup and disposed it in the nearest bin. It was a late afternoon hour, somewhere at the end of August.
His childhood friend's birthday was a mere week away and Sora had no idea at all what should he buy as a present for a teenage girl. Sure- Kairi was fun, and had more interest in playing outside rather than baking cookies (Not that Sora complained, since cookies were food of gods. It's just that baking tended to become quite boring), but the brunette thought that giving her a baseball glove as a present wasn't proper.
Kairi was a girl, and girls had a bad habit of hiding feelings of anger and disappointment; and disappointing Kairi on her sweet sixteen birthday was the last thing on Sora's preference list.
The teen frowned as he passed the alley which held one of those "Friday auctions", where artists and merchants sold their purchase at random prices.
Sora sighed and proceeded further into the alley. The usual stands with all these Hawaiian-like bead jewelry, necklaces with heart shaped pendants etc… The kind of stuff he was sure Kairi is going to have a whole arsenal of at the end of her birthday party.
"Mewt, I said no. We have no time for this, and we are late already! Would you like to miss the bus and walk all the way back home?" A middle-aged lady hissed at her seven year-old son.
"But Mama! I want Papa to have a drawing of us at work! He said he misses us a lot!" Young Mewt protested, stomping his foot. "I want! I want! I want!!" The boy cried out.
"Mewt.. Be quiet or I shall call the police!" The woman hissed again and pulled her son by the arm towards the bus station's direction, face dyed vermillion from shame.
Sora twitched his nose. Were mothers plain cruel or what?
Never mind the last comment. Sora straightened the hem of his shirt and glanced towards the subject little Mewt and his mother were quarreling about. A young boy, around Sora's age, sat on a low stool. His wrinkled shirt was covered in black finger marks smudged all over, and his silver hair was tied with a black velvet ribbon. The boy sighed in defeat and reached out for his nearly empty bottle of water. The paper in front of him was still blank.
The first thing that Sora noted was the mess around the teen. The young artist's sketches were scattered beneath his stool. Sora didn't like the whole messiness, but it actually helped him relax a bit, it was a sighn that the artist would probably not judge him by his outer appearance, since it seemed that he himself did not care as much.
"Oh, excuse me… You do commissions?" Sora scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Regardless of his earlier thoughts, he still felt a strong urge to impress the young artist.
"…Yea." The boy replied after sharing a long, quizzical look with the brunette, probably wondering where the hell Sora popped from.
"I, ugh, I would like a drawing of a friend of mine for her sixteenth birthday." Sora was now playing with the hem of his shirt. Everything about the boy, no matter how messy or dirty he was, practically beamed with perfection. There was an aura around him that simply felt right.
"Well, that can be done. I need a picture of the lucky girl, though." The boy snickered, crossing his arms over his chest. He gave Sora an amused smirk before turning back to face his blank sheet.
"Oh, here." Sora was finally starting to regain himself, while reaching into his bag where he kept a collection of small photographs of the people he cherished.
The silver haired boy took the photo from Sora and eyed it for a long moment, making the other teen shriek with nervousness. He wanted to make the boy look up to him, to make a really strong first impression, it seemed that he was failing big time, though.
"You want it colored with watercolors, pastels, oil, or a plain pencil or charcoal sketch?" Sora frowned at the boy's question. He crossed his arms in front of him, nodding seriously and trying to look as mature as possible.
"I think watercolors will be good. Kairi loves the ocean, so watercolors it is." Sora beamed at the other teen.
"All well then. I'm Riku, by the way." The older teen slipped the smiling photo of a certain redhead into a plastic pocket inside his portfolio and rubbed his hands against his already dirty with paint knees.
"Sora." Sora smiled, reaching out his hand for a friendly shake.
"Well, nice to meet you Sora. May I have your phone no' please?" Riku grinned and tilted his head to the side, clearly amused by Sora's attempts to make a good impression on him. The fact that the younger boy was trying to seem special flattered him quite a bit.
"Huh?" And so, Riku earned himself an inquisitive look from the dumbstruck Sora, who in turn, clearly did not get the right meaning of the rather agitating request.
"Just in case I finish the portrait and I want you to come over and take it." Riku shrugged, the playful grin still decorating his handsome face.
Sora chuckled uneasily and reached out for the pen Riku was offeringhim.
"Here" Riku twirleda small square of paper between his index and middle fingers and offered it to the brunette. His oceanic look lingered a couple of moments on Sora's facial features, memorizing every detail he found special or plain attractive.
"All done. When are you going to finish it?" Sora shoved the small piece of paper with his phone number scribbled on it into Riku's hand.
"Three days or so. I shall call you when I'm done." Riku placed the phone number in his jeans' pocket and returned his gaze to Sora.
"Alright. Can I get your phone too, then?" Sora rubbed the bridge of his nose, placing the other hand on his hip. Getting Riku's phone number was a very wise thing to do, in Sora's opinion. Just in case something really critical happened and he needed to meet Riku in person and discuss… Kairi's birthday drawing, of course. Riku shrugged and quickly reached for a home-made business card with his phone number and address, handing it to the younger teen while starting to pack his portfolio with his other hand.
"Well, now that we're clear, I should really get moving. Don't want to be late for dinner. Call me if you want to ask something urgent." Riku saluted and picked up his drawing stable, pulling it under his underarm. Soon enough, Riku was on his way, waving a last goodbye towards Sora. He smiled to himself, Sora was quite a charming person. He possessed the magic of a young boy, filled with vigor and playfulness, yet mature and calm when needed. Sora's mission was successfully accomplished, he had managed to impress Riku big time (even though Riku refused admitting it, and tried his best hiding the fact from the brunette).
Sora let a small sigh of relief escape his lips. He waved the distancing boy a goodbye before relaxing his tense body and heading in his own home's direction. He couldn't wait to meet the silver haired artist again, Riku just seemed to have the strong character Sora was drawn to.
Sora was lazily sprawled over his bed, head buried in a pile of pillows. A day passed since he met Riku, and now he was in his room next to the sitting Kairi, doing nothing.
"Well, that's nice. What do we do next?" Kairi frowned, leaning her head backwards so it rested on the bed's mattress.
"Next you tell me what you have dreamed of last night." Sora leaned his head on his left arm.
"I didn't dream of anything." The redhead frowned, pulling her head up and intertwining her fingers idly. Sora sighed in defeat, why was he the only person that actually had dreams? This was clearly frustrating. Ever since Sora was a little boy, he had the habit of dreaming about people that interested him, or drew his attention, both positive and negative ways.
And so it came to pass, that the young brunette spent the last night dreaming about Riku painting a blindfold over his own eyes, then drawing a pair of aqua-green eyes over Sora's closed eyelids, before he woke-up with a sharp pain digging in the back of his skull.
"What do you suggest we do then?" Sora frowned, lip curving in a tiny, barely noticeable pout.
"Go to the beach." A huge grin was spreading all over the teen's face
"Do we have to? You know I don't like the beach." Sora was now supporting himself with his elbows.
"You only hate the sea, not the beach itself." Kairi stated, sticking her index finger up in the air, "Besides, I bet that this new guy that moved in last week doesn't have a girlfriend yet. And he spends almost all day at the sea, drawing the ocean and stuff."
Sigh. Sora collapsed on the bed once again, face buried in the pillows. Kairi was the worst when it came to boys.
"You go then, I'm gonna stay here and get some sleep." The brunette crossed his arms and placed his chin on top of them. Kairi sighed and slowly got up, dusting her pink dress off.
"Party pooper." Kairi muttered under her breath before making her way out of the room.
Sora chuckled and shifted his head so now his cheek was resting on his right elbow. His eyes traced lazily over the window's frame. The sun was already setting outside, so the whole island was colored with various golden shades of orange. The boy smiled faintly, closing his eyes. He liked the sunset a lot; he liked dawn better, though. Dawn was calmer than sunset, dawn was something pure and private for each and every person. Sharing the view of dawn with someone was the ultimate way of showing affection in Sora's eyes.
His daze didn't last for long though, the cell's ring forced him to worm his way towards his desk and pick it up.
"Sora?"
"Maybe." The boy forced back a chuckle, sliding down the nearest wall into sitting position on the floor.
"It's Riku, the one that you ordered a painting from."
"Oh.. You." Sora's gaze went back to the window, "I thought the drawing will be ready in only two more days." He frowned and scratched his ankle.
"I did, but I want you to see the sketch so I don't have to re-draw the whole piece if you don't like it. And I want to talk about payment too."
"Ugh.. Sure." Sora rubbed the back of his head, glaring thoughtfully at the warmth of the sunset colors outside his window.
"When will you be able to meet me?"
"Well, I don't have anything else to do, so I guess anytime would be a decent answer." Sora smiled to himself and placed the earlier mentioned hand on his lap
"Great. Meet in 20 minutes near the old parlor where you can see the little island from?"
"Yeah." Sora yawned and hung up, sliding his cell into one of his pant's many pockets. Kairi would hate him if she found out that he went to the beach to meet some boy he barely knows, but rejected her offer, her, his oh so very dear childhood friend!
It took Sora a minute before he was able to catch his breath again. A planned quick five minute shower turned into fifteen, so the boy was forced to run all the way to the meeting spot in order not to be horribly late.
"'Sry…" The brunette huffed, dragging himself to Riku's side.
Riku shrugged nonchalantly, pulling a scroll of paper out of a long plastic cylinder, "Here's the sketch. You like?" The boy rolled the scroll open and held the edges with the tips of his fingers. The sketch itself resembled smiling Kairi, playfully holding a huge butterfly between her hands.
"Yeah.. A bit too gentle to actually be her, but she'll like it." Sora crossed his hands, examining the drawing with a wide smile. Riku smiled back and rolled the drawing back into his cylinder.
"Now, about the payment." Riku hung the plastic cylinder over his shoulder before approaching Sora.
"I prefer cash, and I prefer it as soon as possible." He straightened the black strap that was stretched from one side of the cylinder to another, smirking smugly all the while.
"Cash is no problem." Sora pushed his own hands into his pockets, digging his own shoe in the shore's sand.
"Great. 500 munny would do the job." Riku smiled, hanging a single hand on one of strips that were meant for the belt.
Sora gulped nervously, 500 was a tad too much for him to pay.
"I.. Uhh.. Don't think I can raise that kind of money by that time.." Sora took a deep breath, shoe kicking the sand in a stressed manner. He only had 180 to spend. Sure, he could land some from Kairi, but that would just be plain stupid to ask her money he would spend on her own present.
"That's fine.. I wanted to ask you a favor, actually." Riku smirked and shifted his weight from leg to leg, "You have a very unique expression. I want to try and catch that expression, you don't mind, do you?" He examined his hand, glancing at Sora's direction once in a while. Sora smiled and nodded eagerly. This would kill two birds with one stone: it would get him the money he needs to pay for the drawing, and it would be a good way to pass the time; much better than lying on his bed and doing nothing, anyway.
"Alright. First session will be tomorrow morning at nine, same place. Suits you fine?" Riku straightened his pose and crossed his arms over his chest, looking directly into the younger boy's blue-lace eyes. Sora nodded again, crossing his arms behind his head and grinning widely. Riku sure was an interesting person.
Hours passed by slowly. By the time Sora was back home it was already dark and the moon was almost at the middle of the clear summer sky, since the brunette decided to take the long way. He needed time to organize his thoughts that Riku seemed to misplace. Mostly, the thoughts Sora wasn't sure about were thoughts that regarded Riku himself; the boy was practically a walking mystery since the spiky haired teen could not read him at all.
Sora decided to skip dinner that night and headed straight to bed, dismissing his frustrated mother with an apologetic smile and a quiet yawn.
Plopping face down on the bed, he tugged his arms under his chin and looked outside the window. His eyes lingered on the big, round moon, inspecting it with tired eyes. He tilted his head to the side and smiled. If he woke up early enough tomorrow, he would be able to go to the beach in time to see the sun rising up.
Too bad that by the time the brunette was finally up, the sun was already shining vigorously. It was about 8 AM.
Sora groaned, but got up nonetheless. After completing all his morning procedures, he went down to the kitchen in order to eat a really quick breakfast and head to the old parlor, where he was supposed to meet Riku for his modeling session.
By the time Sora was approaching the beach, Riku was already there, scribbling some notes as he bit his lip thoughtfully and added a couple of guidelines to the horizon in the drawing. Sora carefully closed the gap between him and Riku, cautious not to draw the silver haired boy's attention, and poked him in the shoulder. Riku's hand made a sharp move, angling from it's the original course and drawing a thick, ugly line.
"Sora." The older teen exhaled slowly and turned his head to face the brunette.
"Riku." He replied, flashing Riku a wide, cheeky grin.
"You're early." The artist closed his sketchbook and placed it on the wooden planks that made the old parlor's floor, gesturing for Sora to sit beside him. Riku's feet hung over the edge, where the wooden platform was crushed by a vicious storm quite a long time ago, along with the wall facing the seaside.
"I had nothing better to do, so I thought that waiting for you might be a good way to spend some time. And why are you here?" Sora sat beside Riku Indian style.
"Sharpening my drawing skills." Riku chuckled and straightened his sore arms and fingers. The brunette made a small 'oh' sound before turning his gaze back to the sea. A couple of moments, filled only by the boy's silent breathing, passed before Riku decided to speak again.
"You know, we should really start our session, while the weather is nice and the lighting is good." He smirked and got up on his feet, reaching his hand for Sora to take in the process.
"Yeah yeah, sure. What do I have to do again?" Sora flashed the older teen a wide grin before taking his warm hand and using it as an aid for him to stand up.
"Well.. Lets start with just you sitting there and looking at the sea.. Try to pull a longing expression while we're at it. Imagine you miss something that's really far way, across the sea even. I want to capture that feeling of need." Riku pointed at the corner of the parlor which was broken, and gestured for Sora to take his sitting spot near the edge. The younger teen obediently nodded and sat on the wooden floor, leaning his back on the wall and turning his eyes towards the sea, head hung loosely. His hand was resting on his folded knee, while the other idly lay on his lap; his other leg was straightened on the floor.
Riku smiled and sat on an old box, placing his notebook on his lap as he started drawing the guidelines to Sora's face. It took him a while before he finished the sketch, finalizing the last details and repairing wrong proportions. He then got a bigger sheet of paper which was pinned to a large, polished wooden board, and marked the basic four lines, both on the big sheet and on the sketch.
"Don't you dare move a finger." Riku growled, eyes sharp and intimidating, making Sora gulp and hold his breath.
"Now that's better." He smiled smugly and turned his attention back to the drawing.
Sora imagined himself laying lazily on the soft sand and cooking under the summer sun, maybe with Riku by his side, serving him a raspberry smoothie. Yeah. The role of butler suited Riku just fine from Sora's point of view. The brunette's lips curled into a tiny smirk as he continued soaking in his daydream.
Soon enough, Riku's sketch was finished, all main details present, but small ones still missing. He then took out a small box with long black sticks used for drawing also known as charcoal, and started tracing wide stripes of color over the walls in the sketch, covering them with a cloud-like pattern in different hues, glancing from time to time in Sora's direction to define where there were supposed to be shadows, and where there were supped to be highlights.
The pleasant breeze and relaxed atmosphere made Sora sleepy, and in the matter of a few minutes, he was already struggling to keep his eyes open. In five minutes more, he was already fast asleep.
A few hours passed before Sora felt a gentle hand shake him back from dreamland, where he was a merman ruling the wide sea, accompanied by a miniature white shark that answered to the name of 'Riku'.
"Hey, Sora, wake up, it's already 3:30." Riku chuckled, hand still resting on the brunette's shoulder.
"Ungh?.." Sora slowly raised his head, staring blankly at Riku for a couple of seconds before murmuring something about Riku being his pet shark a mere moment ago.
"I said, It's 3:30 pm, sleepyhead." He sat near Sora, hands resting on his folded legs. His eyes flickered over the drowsy boy's figure for a second, giving him a rather adoring look. Sora had a healthy young body, and unlike Riku's, his muscles were slim and delicate, even though they were quite developed.
"It is?.." Sora blinked, rubbing his eyes and forcing back a yawn.
"Yes. You were sleeping for the last five hours, so you owe me ice-cream for falling asleep in the middle of your job." Riku crossed his arms over his chest, giving Sora a smug look.
"What? Blech! It's not even fair! Modeling is boring, you can't expect me to stay up and not move at all for five hours!" Sora exclaimed, feeling wide awake now.
"Well, that's what you get for falling asleep on duty." Riku nodded and stood up, reaching his hand towards Sora. "C'mon, We'll share the ice-cream so the price won't be too high." He pulled the younger brunette up and dusted his clothes. Sora was ready to protest, but when he felt Riku pull him up, he decided not to say anything. Well, he had enough money for ice-cream anyway, and sharing one with Riku didn't sound that bad, so Sora let it slide and just sighed in defeat.
After a short walk, both young males stood at the entrance of a cheap coffee house, eyeing the neon sign as if waiting for something.
"Well. We're here." Riku frowned and ran a hand through his hair while holding his drawing equipment with the other.
"Yeah…" Sora's reply came a few moments later, followed by a quiet sound of a rubbery sneaker sole batting the asphalt.
"So what are we waiting for? Let's go inside and get our ice-cream." Riku snickered and stuck his hand in his jeans' back pocket. A mere shrug came as a response from Sora. "Well then, let's go in." Riku frowned, feeling a bit uncomfortable about Sora's uncharacteristic quietness.
Sora simply nodded and made his way inside, pushing the door a bit stronger than necessary in order to leave it open long enough for Riku to follow without having to pull the door open, and simply for the fact that he didn't want it to slam in the silver haired teen's face.
"You seem awfully quiet lately. Something happened?" Soon after Riku and Sora entered the coffeehouse and took their raspberry-chocolate ice cream from the counter, they took a seat facing the sea and slowly setting sun. That was when Riku asked his question, poking Sora's spoon with his own.
"Nothing.. Just thinking." Which was not a lie, actually, regarding the fact that Sora was indeed wondering what was it that made the older teen so attractive in his eyes. From Sora's point of view, he had nothing interesting in his character; He wasn't an angsty, mysterious person girls were drawn to, neither was he elegant and sophisticated, nor rich. Sora was this weird mixture between a normal boy, to a nature-loving freak, as Kairi often liked to call him. Other than that he was also studying Riku and trying to compare the young artist to himself, in which he was ungracefully failing at, because of the simple fact that Sora barely knew the boy in front of him.
"Say Riku.. When did you start drawing?" The brunette seemed to snap from his thinking trance, since his eyes were once again shiny and wide, instead of hazy and drooping.
"Weeeeell, now that you ask.. I dunno, really.. I remember myself drawing all the time. I think I even have drawings from the age of three back in my parent's house in the mainland." The silver haired artist tapped his plastic spoon on the edge of the cup the already half-eaten ice-cream was in.
"Oh.. That's cool." Sora managed a small smile to his face, leaning his chin against his palm and taking a spoonful of raspberry ice-cream to his mouth.
"Yeah right." Riku chuckled and took a spoonful of chocolate ice cream with a tiny spot of raspberry on the side.
"No, really! Artists get to express themselves through drawings!" Sora huffed angrily and waved his spoon in a threatening manner at Riku.
"Sora, they don't really express themselves. True artists try to capture a moment, whether it's abstract or realistic, and try to insert a point of view, like the break of dawn.. A good artist should be able to express the feeling of a morning chill through the colors he chooses to paint with.." The artist's marine gaze moved to lovingly look at the almost empty cup of ice-cream. "I'll get another one, my treat.. You want raspberry or something else maybe?" His gaze moved to look in Sora's eyes, possessing a shimmer of passion and anxiety long lost. Perhaps too long lost.
A simple nod came from Sora's direction as the boy tried to figure Riku's words. 'insert a point of view in a drawing..' The words were still rather foreign to the brunette, but he thought that he was just starting to get what Riku was talking about, to capture a special moment and to be able to show the rest of the people just what was so special about the it. That was pretty easy to understand and accept, wasn't it?
A couple of minutes later, Riku was back with a raspberry and banana ice-cream.
"Heh, figured a lighter flavor would be more fit." The silver haired teen chuckled as he set the cup in the middle and dug his spoon in the pink and yellow mass of cold sweetness.
"Mmhm." Sora smiled cheerfully, actually very happy with being able to understand Riku's earlier words.
"Hey, earlier you told me I have a special face.. Does that mean I got the magic of dawn or sunset or something else really pretty?" Sora licked his spoon from the last traces of raspberry and banana ice-cream.
"You can put it that way I guess.. Yes Sora, you are special and you posses a young boy's magic." Riku leaned his elbow and pulled his chair closer to the table.
"Wow, that's totally great! I mean.. I always thought my face was really boring and stuff.. Why.. What is there in my face that makes it so special?" A wide grin was smudged all over the younger teen's face as he unconsciously lifted up from his seat and tucked a leg under his butt in order to allow him to loom over the aluminum table and pull himself closer to Riku.
"Hmm.. Let's see.. First of all, you have this heart-shaped face, a very delicate jaw, a pair of puffy baby-cheeks, beautifully shaped eyes, a simply amazing eye color, and a slightly pug nose, with a perfectly round tip. Good 'nuff?" Riku chuckled playfully as the younger teen slumped back into his seat, nose wrinkled and cheeks puffed out.
"You make me sound like some pretty girl.." Sora gulped and crossed his arms, leaning back grumpily.
"Well, had you been a girl you'd be very pretty, but no. You don't look like one, more like a little boy.. You remind me of myself, only your facial features are softer.. Warmer I'd say." Riku smiled in response and watched Sora return back to his normal sitting position eventually, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck.
"I guess it's okay then.. Having a delicate jaw or whatever.." Sora shrugged and leaned forward once more, now studying Riku's face, and concluding the boy was not too manly looking himself, though his eyes were much sharper than Sora's and his jaw line rougher, his lips were fuller, delicious looking almost.
Riku was silent for a couple of moments while Sora was studying his face, quite flattered by the fact that the youth had interest in him, actually. It was kind of rare for a person to be interested in Riku, being the loner artist he always was; but the company of a boy about his age was a most welcomed addition to his otherwise boring life.
Notes:
Basic four lines- Lines you use when copying a small sketch on a large canvas/page/whatever. One horizontal, dividing the page into two, one horizontal, and two diagonal. Same lines are drawn on the smaller sketch to aid the artist in keeping the original proportions.
Ah.. I hope you enjoyed this chappie.. I know this may be a bit crappy, but I promise to try my best and refine my not so l33t writing skills.
Thank you Again Serenity! I owe you my life, my soul, and a quite a few drawings.