Another oneshot written a while back. This is an imagined scene from KH2, for Aoi Nikko, inspired by "Atlantic" by Thrice, and a million thanks goes to Chama for giving me this perfect Riku song.
And Behind Your Eyes, The Sea
-o-o-
Surrounded. Their twisted white bodies twitch and dance around the two boys, but to Riku's tired eyes, they almost seem to multiply and bleed shades of gray into the swirling monochrome backdrop. Exhaustion rules his muscles, and every breath he takes scrapes through his throat and lungs, but he fights anyway.
All he wants to do is sink to the floor and fade away. But he can't give up now, not when they're so close to finishing this for good. He's still needed.
Sora needs him.
Sora's weapon seems to glide as the boy turns, swinging his arm with steady precision, and the blade sings as it cuts into the slender white creatures. Sora moves without hesitation, his attacks graceful and sure, disposing of enemies in single swipes, but he doesn't see what Riku sees. He'd always had problems watching his own back.
Riku doesn't even have to think about it. He reacts without care for himself, his eyes leveled on Sora as he abandons his own fight to help, but his legs feel like they're moving in slow motion—everything does—even his voice as it claws its way out to warn him—
"Sora, look out!"
He sees the whites of Sora's eyes as Sora begins twisting around to see the danger behind him, but the nobodies are already springing to attack. So Riku does the only thing he has energy left for.
"Riku!"
He hears Sora's panicked cry, but Riku's still faster. His shoulder connects with Sora's side, shoving him away, just as three arms spear through him, bringing with the searing pain a moment of crystal clarity.
He can't die.
This must be another nightmare.
I didn't think you'd come, Sora.
"Riku!!"
Good to see you again.
"Riku... Riku, wake up!"
Groaning, Riku presses a hand to his chest where the hint of pain lingers from his dream. He hasn't had a nightmare that vivid in a long time. How long has he been sleeping...? It feels like he hasn't gotten any rest at all.
"R-Riku, please..."
With a wince, he slips his gaze open, glancing up at the window next to his bed, then to the old tin can dangling from a string there. It's a familiar sight.
When we grow up, let's get off this island.
Riku blinks, squinting through his hazy focus, thinking back to when he and Sora had made the makeshift telephone system. It had been a long time ago before their moms had let them have telephones in their own rooms. Sora hasn't used this old tin can in a long time.
Maybe he's feeling nostalgic. After all they've been through...
We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!
Trying to focus past his grogginess, Riku sits up with effort and grasps the edge of the window, heavily leaning his weight against it.
"Riku... Riku, are you awake...?"
He grabs the tin can from the little hook the string hangs on, and he brings it to his mouth. The scent of rust is momentarily overpowering, but he focuses past it, concentrating on Sora. Sora sounds upset.
"Y-Yeah...?" he asks into the can, not even sure why his voice is shaking. It's hoarse, like he hasn't used it in days. His nightmare must have really shaken him up...
You're so stupid, Riku!
"You're there..." comes the relieved response.
Riku shifts on the mattress and peeks his head out the window, glancing to the left where Sora's house sits next to his. Though it's dark out, Riku can still make out Sora's silhouette as he too hangs over his sill to glance in Riku's direction.
"I'm here," he says, watching Sora's spiky hair rustle as a breeze sweeps by both of their homes.
Riku wishes he could see his face. It feels like forever since he's seen it, and he's still getting used to how he looks now... Sora's changed so much since they'd left the island. Then again, so has he... Tomorrow they'd have to meet up during the day, that way the shadows couldn't shroud either of them as they spoke.
"I... had a bad dream," Sora says with hesitation. It doesn't sound like him, for once—he sounds like Riku himself, with a deepened voice laced with faraway thoughts.
Heal..! Damn it...
"I did too," Riku replies in the same tone. But as he tries to remember what it had been about, tries to remember why he had woken up in pain, his thoughts slip away from him. He hardly notices, his mind automatically grasping onto the first thing he thinks about. "You had a lot of bad dreams," he remembers. He's been wanting to tell Sora this for a while, ever since they'd been reunited.
"Huh?"
"On your adventure," Riku says, and for some reason, it's hard to focus again. It feels like the more he tries to concentrate, the world wants to slip away and send him tumbling back into the oblivion of sleep. Sleep sounds good... But he doesn't want to dream again.
Don't give up! I thought you were stronger than that!
"On your adventure," he repeats, watching Sora's silhouette, "you had a lot of bad dreams."
He expects Sora to ask how he would know, but silence comes from the other line instead, leaving Riku to piece together the shreds of what he wants to say. He breathes in the tang of rust again, and sighs.
Isn't... Isn't that what you told me?
"Late at night... on various worlds..." he begins, "...when you and your friends were camping out or borrowing a bed to sleep in..."
Riku remembers how lonely he had been on his journey, trekking through snow and covering Sora's path in China, or watching Sora from the rooftops of half-built homes in Hollow Bastion, or sitting at the clock tower while watching Sora skate through the streets of Twilight Town...
"...and when Donald or Goofy had fallen asleep during their watch., and you were also sound asleep..."
And Riku remembers how many times he had come so close to giving in, to approaching Sora, even in Ansem's form, just to be at his side, just to let Sora know that he was there to back him up, that even though Riku had his own path to travel and his own problems to take care of, he was still there for Sora, that...
Don't leave me alone like this...!
...that he wishes Sora would forgive him for everything he had done...
"...I would watch you... and sometimes, when you were caught in a bad dream, you'd look pained..."
...that he wishes he could be as strong as Sora,
"...and I would reach out..."
...that he envies Sora for always following his heart...
"...touch your lips..."
...that he'd always loved him...
"...and almost as if you knew, you'd murmur my name..."
H-Heal..!
"...and that always gave me the strength to carry on."
As Riku finishes and lapses into silence, he slowly blinks, his drowsiness returning. He tries to focus on Sora's form again, but there is no silhouette there against the moonlight.
"Sora...?" he asks.
The rust is getting overpowering, making his eyes water.
Riku, come back!
"Sora, where'd you go...?" he asks again, searching Sora's window for his figure.
Had he left?
Had he abandoned Riku?
Did he not care?
"Sora, please..." he begs, his fingers trembling. As he shifts his grip on the tin can, a sticky warmth covers his hand, redder than rust. Gasping, he drops the can, watching it bounce against the sill once before slipping into the darkness outside his bedroom window.
Above him, the heart-shaped moon is laughing.
Pressing his wet hand to his chest, he squeezes his eyes shut, drawing in a shaky, burning breath. The window sill under him is moving, and the shadows of his room twist and converge, swallowing him.
Riku...
Cold fingertips press against his cheek, and crystal clarity returns to him again.
He'd never gotten home in the first place.
Riku, wa—
"Sora...?"
"—ke up!"
Riku winces as the cry rings through his ears, but he doesn't dare open his eyes, his senses slowly returning to him as the darkness retracts from his mind. His thoughts reorganize themselves, and he begins to understand where he is and what has happened.
Sora's holding him. A wrist presses against his shoulder because Sora's arm is cradling his back, holding him close. That same hand is clutching his weapon, its metal body feeling warm against Riku's cold skin.
Riku's chest is throbbing, and his clothes are matted against him with blood. It smells.
"Nngh..." he groans, shifting slightly. Even the littlest movement sends pain searing through him again, making him shudder violently against Sora, whose other hand is suddenly clutching his cheek. A soft gust of air brushes his face, and it smells like potion. Sora's..?
"Sora..."
"I-I'm here," Sora speaks up hurriedly, reassuring, sounding full of relief at the same time. Riku realizes that Sora has been talking to him this whole time.
He feels Sora's hand slip away from his cheek and grasp his leg instead, gently tugging him closer. One of Sora's knees is touching his waist, and the other is under him. Sora's cradling him.
Sora.
Riku remembers how he'd felt when he had found Sora in Traverse Town so long ago, after all of that looking... And then again, in Castle Oblivion, when he'd seen Sora fast asleep in Naminé's memory pod...
Each time he had thought to himself the same thing.
"Is that... really you?"
"It's me, Riku..." he answers, his voice hoarse, worried. His hand draws up Riku's arm, comforting. "Y-You're awake..."
"Awake," Riku murmurs, trying to decipher what had been a dream all along. "Do you... remember..."
"Yeah? Riku? Keep talking... please..."
"Remember... the tin cans...?" he asked.
"Y-Yeah... I do..." Sora says, touching his cheek again. "At home... connecting our houses."
Riku slowly forces his eyes open, shifting his gaze upward towards Sora's voice.
But when Sora's eyes are there to meet his, his breath escapes him at the sight of tears there, a shimmering blue intensity, as if the sea itself were in his gaze. It feels like another dream, but Riku can see his eyes this time.
"Y-You're going to be okay," Sora reassures. Almost as if trying to convince himself, he presses a hand to Riku's wound. "Riku..."
Warmth spreads throughout his body, a tingly familiarity that he recognizes as healing magic. Sora must have exhausted most of his resources already, because Riku hardly feels a difference from it.
"Yeah..." Riku agrees, keeping his gaze on Sora's face, watching those eyes continually study him as if he'd melt into shadow. Though they're both lost in a world in between nothing and everything, and though he doesn't have the strength to move, he knows Sora's right. He'll be okay. They'll be okay.
Here, broken and cradled against Sora's arms, with those eyes on him and only him, Riku already feels at home.