Title: Memory's Skyscraper: August - Tape I (August 23)
Characters/Pairing: Roxas/Riku, Riku-Sora
Rating: M
Summary: "Evidence of the various fights and encounters between Number XIII and the intruder Riku in the area around Memory's Skyscraper, continuously taped, from first contact to the departure for Twilight Town." – archivist's notes
A/N: Many thanks to my beta, wayya. Part of the Awakenings verse. It can be read as a standalone, but it is recommended you read Said the Spider to the Fly first, or at least be aware that it exists.
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Memory's Skyscraper: August
Tape I (August 23)
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Riku's spent too much time here to have the luxury of regretting things now. Things have blurred and blended in his head, to the point that he's having trouble remembering which pair of blue eyes he wants to get closer to and which pair belongs at the far end of his blade. He blocks and dodges and strikes, both in order to accomplish his goal and because he'd be dead if he didn't. The tentative truce from before, tacit agreement to eliminate the surrounding Heartless at the base of the building, vanished without a trace as the last Heartless fell, and his opponent's white, deadly weapon is pointed at him now. It's only due to Riku catching a Strike Raid in midair that it's not two of those Keyblades attacking him now, but he doesn't have much time to ponder the black Keyblade he now wields in his hand before he's forced to defend himself with it against another flurry of attacks.
As his opponent lunges and slashes with Oathkeeper, Riku tries a block with Oblivion that doesn't seem to do any good – Riku doesn't know how he knows the names of these Keyblades, but there's no possibility that he's wrong – and the other boy sends him flying across the pavement.
"Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?" If what Naminé told him is right, and it feels right, the only person other than King Mickey that's supposed to have one is unable to use it and the reason he's here, fighting. This boy is supposed to be a Nobody, right? So how is it possible?
"Shut up!" The still-hooded boy says harshly, readying his blade for another attack. Riku attempts to retaliate with a blow of his own, but while he is able to stand up and push the other boy back a little, the advantage is short-lived, as another flurry of attacks slowly pushes him until his back is against the side of some nondescript, empty building. The boy's hood flies off, revealing a blond with forceful blue eyes, but it's somehow still Riku that is the vulnerable one here. Riku's an enormous target, brighter, despite his darkness, than any of the glowing, neon signs, a screaming siren as the only being with a beating heart on the entire world. He's amazed that he's lasted this long in the first place, but he barely manages to repel the next barrage of rain-slicked, humming metal, parrying the blade with his own, watching it slide to the side and hit the panel of glass behind him.
The glass shatters into a hundred razor-sharp shards that cover the floor of the building Riku suddenly finds himself in, but he just steps backwards over them in order to prepare an attack of his own. In the building, which has cramped aisles of shelving and appears to be some type of never-used market, it's a mistake, and all he manages to hit with the black Keyblade he somehow still has, for the time being, are boxes off the shelves, before his opponent gets another solid hit in and sends him crashing against the end of one of the metal partitions.
Riku winces visibly and tries to protect the side that was hit as he also prepares to fend off the next barrage, but the blue-eyed boy fighting him notices this and doesn't let up. With another wicked swipe, Oblivion is hit away from him and skitters on the floor before vanishing. Riku plans to summon Soul Eater – a blade that's actually his – now, but Oathkeeper smashes against his side once more and causes his legs to give out, leaving him barely propped up against the end of the shelf and fervently hoping that he hasn't broken any ribs. Oathkeeper changes pointedly into Oblivion and swings deftly one last time, for what the blond boy seems to expect to be the finishing blow, but in a wild, desperate motion – and if Riku was anyone but himself he really would be dead – he catches it by the shaft and tries to wrench it out of the other's grasp.
The other boy doesn't seem like he's going to let go, though, and it appears to be a terrible miscalculation for a moment, before the boy pitches forwards and crashes into Riku, Keyblade dropped in surprise and vanishing from both of their grips. The force of the impact makes Riku's covered turquoise eyes blink hard once, then open wider than he thought was possible as he stares into the bright coldness of the other boy's equally shocked blue eyes inches from his own. Riku can't summon his weapon when their limbs are tangled together like this, the other boy sitting in his lap and pinning his legs to the ground, and his side aches terribly, but all he can do is stare and feel as if he's falling upside-down into an endless blue sky.
"Sora," he breathes without thinking, almost in a whisper, that name Naminé told him he should know. And Riku hopes that if he can't remember who the sleeping boy is supposed to be other than very important, then this boy, whose eyes tug at something deep in Riku's heart, will know. The boy seems just as shocked as he is in that moment when they stare at each other, but this is evidently the wrong thing to say; the name causes the other boy to grab Riku by the shoulders and slam him against the shelf behind him.
"Shut up!" the boy says, and Riku's head is spinning, but he's glad somewhere that he was able to make someone that's not supposed to be able to feel respond so vividly. Even as he thinks it, though, the concept feels wrong to him, somehow. That man in the red bandages, DiZ, must be wrong in his analysis because there's no way someone with eyes so alive doesn't really exist, the weight of his body pressing forward and down, the warmth of his skin inexplicably seeping through the leather of their coats.
"Sora," he says again, not caring that he's also slammed against the shelf again, strangely thrilled to see the anger in those eyes flare up once more. It must be the pain and adrenaline that's speeding up his breathing like this because he can't comprehend right now what the point of saying the name of a boy he's supposed to know to a boy he's never met before is.
"Stop saying that name!" the boy shouts, angrier than Riku's been told is possible, a pale pink dusting over the blond's cheeks and sending a strange shiver up Riku's spine. His head is still dizzy and he still aches from the blows he's received earlier, but all he wants to do is create another reaction. He doesn't know why he's doing this and realizes that at this point it's probably bordering on suicidal, but he feels like he's started something he doesn't know how or doesn't even want to stop.
"Sora," he just repeats, unable to keep the smile off his face. Those bright blue eyes flash again, and something warm and dangerous pools somewhere inside of Riku. He's ignoring the warning signs and the pain that the other is silently promising, only knowing somehow that repeating the name will give him something good, even if he can't define what that thing is right now.
"Don't call me that!" is the boy's only response, the expected slam against the shelf just as painful as Riku thought it would be. It only causes Riku to smile again, however, breath sharp and uneven, but with an odd sense of elation that causes his own face to flush. He wonders absently if he has a concussion yet. "I'm Roxas, not-" the boy falters for a second, but this only makes him continue again with more fervor, "-not him." Riku has a name for this blond boy, finally, and doesn't know why this piece of information is so important, but revels in it nonetheless. Whatever is gathering inside him, letting this boy with the blue eyes – Roxas, or was it still also Sora? – make his head reel like this and make him welcome the shoves and the pressure and the violent weight, he wants it to carry him to its unknown destination.
Riku laughs without knowing why, jagged and just this side of breathless. The hands on his shoulders grip tighter, fury building up once again in the other boy. Moving his face closer, mere inches from Riku's, pressing all his weight forward and down, pinning Riku's legs and chest, his mouth is almost in a snarl.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" Roxas asks, blue eyes bright and focused. But then his scowl is gone, and the blond's mouth turns down suddenly, in a small frown "Who is Sora?" he whispers next, frustrated and younger than Riku's felt in a long time. A small silence stretches out as Riku realizes just how close they really are, feels the entirety of the other boy's weight on his chest and in his lap, feels the way their breaths intermingle and the heat of their cheeks.
"I can't remember," Riku responds, so quietly that it is barely a breath against Roxas's lips, and slowly closes the small distance between their mouths. It's a little surprising for them both, and Roxas tenses against him with wide open eyes, but Riku suddenly realizes that this is what he'd been unaware of, and so he doesn't back off immediately. It's actually Riku's first kiss, despite all the innocence he's lost over the last year and a half, and it's comforting that it still manages to feel very new. Something whispers in the dark part of his heart that Riku doesn't have anyinnocence left to give to boys with blue eyes, but Riku has his blindfold for things like that, so this is new, this is innocent. The kiss is strangely sweet in contrast to their previous fight, but as he takes the slowly relaxing grip on his shoulders and the closing blue eyes as a sign to move a hand to the back of Roxas's head, he's met with a sudden resistance. The blond pushes back swiftly, eyes searching and face more deeply flushed than before.
"Wh-what-" Roxas stammers, thumbs digging into Riku's collarbone, "-what the hell was that for?" His voice is harsh, but Riku notices that he's not moved completely away and is still resting his weight on Riku's lap.
"It just felt like the thing to do," he replies, a small smile at the corner of his lips. Seeing the only response as a blank expression, his smile becomes a little wider as he tilts his head to the side slightly. "What, you've never done something just because you felt like it before?" One of those hands is moving dangerously close to a pressure point, but he doesn't want to stop when those eyes are flashing at him again. "Guess it's something you need a-" Sure enough, Roxas shifts his weight forward enough so that he can begin to press his fingers into the pressure point.
"Shut up, already," Roxas says again, digging his fingers in. "Why did you even come here to this city, anyway?" Sharp pain shoots through Riku's body, and he grits his teeth to keep from crying out. It's hard to think when Roxas's fingers are pressing like that, but Roxas's weight in his lap is stirring something that's making it hard to think in an entirely different manner. His silence only causes Roxas to increase the pressure; he has to do something before the situation spirals completely out of his control.
"Don't you even want your heart?" he blurts out, words almost covering the cry of pain that comes out right before. Roxas releases the pressure from his hand immediately, and Riku gasps involuntarily, taking in air he didn't know he needed so badly. The other boy is staring at him as if he's expecting Riku to say more, though. "Not like what the Organization's been telling you, your own heart." Roxas shifts his weight back, now that he apparently no longer needs to get at the pressure point; although he is silent, the blond clearly seems to be listening. Riku's glad that Roxas isn't going do that to get him to talk again, but all of Roxas's weight is now resting in his lap. Riku is walking a very fine line right now, and more of his wits are leaving with every small movement that Roxas makes.
"…How?" Roxas asks, seeming to scrutinize him. He shifts slightly, and Riku has to bite his lip, hoping that his face isn't getting as pink as it feels.
"You let me take you off this world," he says, trying to think quickly, "and I'll bring you to your heart." The blond looks surprised for a moment, but quickly narrows his eyes in suspicion, leaning forward a bit and causing Riku to inhale sharply. He tries to think of something else to say, something that will get Roxas to listen to him without giving away what's really going on with Sora; the situation is moving swiftly downhill, and he won't be able to stop it as long as Roxas keeps moving like that.
"How do I know you-" Roxas stops abruptly, apparently confused. He moves back a bit to look at Riku critically, and Riku has to bite his lip again. Agonizingly slowly, almost calculatingly, Roxas shifts in his lap again, blue eyes not leaving his face for a second. Riku can feel his face heat up even more, and as he holds his lip in his teeth like a lifeline, he can see the flash in those blue eyes that tell him he's been caught.
"Wait-" he begins, but is immediately interrupted.
"This is what you really want, isn't it?" Roxas snaps. "This is what you want fromhim." Riku opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again when he sees Roxas's harsh glare. "You'd try and fight me, you'd lie to me, just like everyone else, just for him." He presses down again, intentionally, punctuating each emphasized word with his hips, and Riku finds it increasingly difficult to hold in the meaningless sounds his throat wants to make, let alone make a convincing argument against Roxas's accusations. "You're so pathetic, Riku."
"What-" and that word really is said with a gasp, "-what's that supposed to mean?" He's not pathetic. He's not.
"I've heard a lot of things about you, Riku," Roxas says nonchalantly, moving one of his hands to toy with the bottom zipper on Riku's coat. "I heard that you couldn't get the Keyblade because you chose the darkness instead, and ended up destroying your world." This conversation is… not going the way Riku had expected it would, in more ways than one. "I heard you started working for Maleficent and the Heartless and got in over your head and possessed." Roxas slowly begins to unzip Riku's coat upwards, but as uncomfortable as the blond's words are making Riku, he can't bring himself to protest against them. Now that Riku's coat is open from his torso down, Roxas pulls his gloves off and leans forward to whisper in Riku's ear. Riku bites his lip again, and his face feels a lot warmer than it probably should.
"I heard you were in Castle Oblivion a year ago," Roxas presses on, slowly snaking one of his hands underneath Riku's shirt. "I heard you were the one who killed Lexaeus," the tip of a finger barely brushes across a nipple, and this time Riku reallydoes let out a quiet, embarrassing noise, "and that you helped kill Zexion, too." Roxas's breath has been hot on the shell of his ear, but it abruptly leaves as he moves away a bit, to look at Riku's face once more. "And then you just vanished…" the blond says, almost disappointed, fingers slowly dragging back down his stomach and resting deliberately against the front of Riku's pants, "…until I found you." He smiles wickedly and presses his hand forward into Riku's crotch, causing his hips to jerk and a little whimper to leave his mouth.
"And not an hour after you've met me, even after I beat the shit out of you, you let me do this to you. Because of him." There's that angry flash again. "It's pathetic." But Roxas's face is still pink, and though the blond appears to be trying to seem only disgusted with him, Riku notices that he, too, has begun to breathe somewhat unevenly. And his hand is still on Riku's pants.
"Please," Riku whispers, though he doesn't know exactly what for.
"Please don't," Roxas asks, eyes bright and arrogant once again, "or please do it again?" Nevertheless, he presses again, and Riku moans softly, before he can restrain the noise.
"Please," he just repeats, breath heavy now. He can't believe he's even saying this. Roxas seems to deliberate for a moment, studying the boy pinned under him critically.
"I want to see what your eyes look like," The blond says finally. Riku blanches.
"I can't," he protests, "that's impossible."
"Of course it isn't," Roxas scoffs, reaching to remove the blindfold himself. Riku attempts to twist away, but Roxas has made very sure not to let him be able to move. The other boy starts to press closer to him once more, fingers playing with the edges of the blindfold.
"Don't let a monster out if you're not prepared to fight it," Riku warns, turning his head away, and he's uncomfortable again, having this boy talking about his blindfold.
"Monster, Riku?" Roxas laughs, and not very pleasantly, either. "You're just a lost little boy who doesn't know what he wants." Riku can think of a few things he wants very badly right now, the first to put as much distance between himself and this boy as much as possible, and the second to remove as much distance as possible. He has no idea what to do.
"Pl-" But with that, Roxas interrupts him with another, swifter kiss. Riku's surprised at first, and had been steeling himself for something very different, but now he can't help but try and respond earnestly. He finally allows himself to move his hips upwards in order to find friction again, and is glad to realize that Roxas has been affected by their conversation in the same manner he has; the small, muffled sound the blond pushes into his mouth is just one of those signs.
And as Roxas moves his tongue into Riku's mouth, Riku finds himself arching closer and hesitantly trying to respond in kind. But there's no room for hesitance here, and Roxas completely overwhelms him as his boots are removed for him, his pants being pulled off before he even completely realizes that Roxas has moved his hands there again, until Roxas breaks off the kiss and Riku finds himself in only his boxers from the waist down. The blond is apparently fishing out a Potion bottle from the pocket of his coat, which has been unzipped only up to his waist, his pants underneath also unzipped but underwear still covering any skin for now. Not that Riku really expected anything other than pure functionality from this boy, but it's still a little disappointing.
Roxas pulls Riku's boxers off, and then, sitting between his legs, uncorks the bottle and dips a few fingers in. Riku wonders for a second what Roxas has to put the Potion on his fingers for, but his question is quickly answered when the other boy brings one of them to Riku's ass and starts to push it in. Riku inhales sharply, and…oh, that stings a bit, doesn't it? But if it's Roxas – and Roxas is still Sora, right? – then it's okay. Roxas lifts an eyebrow at him, but soon pushes the rest of it in and attaches his mouth to Riku's neck.
Roxas's mouth, kissing, licking, combined with the finger slowly stretching him from inside – which is strange, but something he's slowly getting used to – is getting to be kind of amazing. It's actually making it really hard to think anything other thanoh god, but when Roxas slowly scrapes his teeth across this one spot on Riku's neck, he can't help but let out some nonsensical sound from the back of his throat and tighten the grip he has on the front of Roxas's coat.
"Heh, masochist," Roxas chuckles, breath puffing on Riku's neck. Did he just say what Riku thought he said?
"Ah… what?" That had sounded a lot more intelligent in his head. A lot less breathy, too, but Roxas has been doing things to him, and – Roxas abruptly puts a second finger in none-too-gently. "What's th-aaaahh…"
"Masochist," Roxas smirks triumphantly. Riku's too busy panting and oh god-ing to really argue at this point, so he just settles for letting Roxas shove his tongue down his throat again. The blond is apparently quite good at multitasking, and it's only a few more shoves of his fingers until they brush up against a spot inside Riku that's less oh god and more oh fuck, please do that again. And Riku moans embarrassingly loudly into Roxas's mouth and he rocks back on Roxas's fingers when they brush up against that spot again, probably looking utterly ridiculous and shameless the whole time, but none of that really seems to matter because Roxas is pressing closer and those fingers are still moving inside of him. Roxas quickly adds a third finger, and it's just starting to get really good when the other boy just… takes them all out, for some reason.
Riku wants to protest this, and he even makes a little disappointed noise when Roxas breaks off the kiss and moves back, but then he sees Roxas push his pants and underwear down to his knees and reach for the Potion bottle again, and any urge tocomplain leaves his thoughts entirely. Watching the other boy dip his fingers into the bottle and then coat his erection with the contents only makes Riku's own member ache more in response.
Roxas moves closer and positions himself, but then he just stops and stares at Riku. He can feel the tip at his entrance, but the other boy isn't moving, isn't doinganything, is just looking at Riku like he's trying to see past the blindfold again. And Riku's still kind of panting, and he's so hard he can barely think straight, and he really wishes Roxas would just move, or something, already. Why isn't he doinganything?
"Please," he finally says, like he can't help it, and it sounds so needy, but Roxas finally pushes in. Riku suddenly becomes aware of every single bruise on his body from the fight, and that… okay, that kind of hurts a bit. And it isn't really like Riku expected anything different, so maybe he's lucky he's become some sort ofmasochist, but it's Roxas, so it's Sora, so it's okay, everything is okay. Roxas doesn't really bother waiting for him to adjust, but that's alright because now isn't the time for gentle, so Riku makes do and tries to get used to it as quickly as he can.
Roxas spends a little time trying to find the right angle, and when he finds one that rubs against the spot in Riku that makes him arch and cry out, he doesn't waste much time getting to a faster pace. One of his hands is gripping onto Riku's thigh and one of them is tangled in Riku's hair, and Riku holds onto the shelf behind him for leverage and pushes back just as hard as Roxas is pushing into him. Roxas's head dips into the crook of Riku's neck again, and Riku tips his head back like it's the only thing in the world he can do. As they keep going, it slowly becomes less mouth and more teeth, breath stuttering hot on his skin, and that's almost better, somehow.
With Roxas pressing close against him like that, shoving into him with that kind of force, Roxas's tongue and teeth – and he's probably got bruises on his neck now, too – Riku really doesn't think that he's going to last much longer. And Roxas is starting to make these little noises into Riku's collarbone, and then he bites down, and it's only a few more sharp thrusts before he's coming fast and hard and hot, with a low moan on his lips as his vision dissolves into static. That seems to be what pushes Roxas over the edge, right behind him, and even as he clutches close to Riku and mutters something unintelligible into his neck, Riku can feel Roxas coming inside him, but he's so high right now that it doesn't even occur to him to think anything of it.
And then they just stay like that for a while, Roxas draped lazily on Riku as they slowly get their breathing under control, and even after Roxas pulls out, it's only to collapse on Riku once more, chin resting on his shoulder and hand still absently on his hip. It's so quiet compared to just a minute ago, but this is kind of nice, too, Riku supposes. Even just listening to Roxas breathing is nice, and Roxas's weight is the warmest and most comfortable thing Riku's felt since he left home, and he smells sofamiliar that Riku can't help but close his eyes and sigh inaudibly. He's so content and at peace, with the other boy laying on him like that, hair tickling his nose, that he's already finished saying it before his brain even registers that he's opened his mouth.
"Sora," he breathes into Roxas's hair, in an almost-whisper like the first time he said it here, and as Roxas starts and pushes away from him, it's still the wrong thing to say.
"Is that really what you've been thinking this whole time?" Roxas demands, at once offended and furious.
"Wait, So-" He was going to say Sora again, damn his mouth, and Roxas's eyes flashing tell him that the other boy knows it. Riku doesn't even remember anything about what Sora's like.
"Did you think that if you let me fuck you, that I'd suddenly turn into him?" His voice is so sharp, and he wipes himself off with one of Riku's discarded socks before putting himself back into his pants and zipping himself up, once more glaring at Riku.
"No, I-" He reaches for Roxas, but the blond just pushes him back into the shelves.
"You're so pathetic," Roxas says one last time, and stands up and leaves. And Riku just sits there and watches him. His back is sore and his sides are sore and his head is starting to throb again, and Riku supposes he's going to have to take a Potion for all that later, but right now, it's mostly a different part of him that feels bruised. Like he really expected a Nobody – even Sora's Nobody – to feel anything, to do anything different. So stupid.
And Riku knows that even after all this, he still has to get up and go and fight Roxas again because Sora is still asleep and is going to stay asleep until Riku brings Roxas to Twilight Town, but right now, he just doesn't want to move very much. And when he thinks about everything, it makes him pull his coat around his legs and scrunch them up to his chest, even though he's still sticky and only has one sock now, because his legs are getting cold. And Riku wraps his arms around his knees, tucks his head in his arms, and takes the time to silently fall apart a little bit because he just realized that he really has used up the last of his innocence and that there isn't going to be any left for Sora when he wakes up.