Author note: I wrote this for Kupo9089 and his new boyfriend. He told me they met at a Japanese lantern lighting festival. XD I wanted to write a fic for it and he told me to make it a Riso. I did, happily.
Anyway, I haven't wrote anything in a long time, so sorry if its a bit...Off. I don't know how to put that...Anyway, try to enjoy this sorry piece of...Writing.


Sora sighed and tugged at his kimono. The sleeves were to long for his liking, and it was an annoying green colour.
It was something else his parents forced on him.

He didn't want to be here. Where was here?
The Obon festival, or as kids at schooled called it, the bon festival.
It was some dumb old fashioned ceremony they did in his village every year.
You had to light these lanterns and float them down the stream, and then, oh boy, there was fireworks.
Sora hated every minute of it.

He stopped coming here when he was ten.
And for some reason, now sixteen, his parents forced him to go and forced him to wear this dumb kimono.

Blowing his hair from his face he took in the festival.
Living in a such a small down as he did, he knew most of the people.
Teachers, grocery store clerks, old people with tiny dogs he saw on the way to school.
Yup, not a single person his age.
The closest he saw was his little brother Roxas, who was nine.
Or his parents, who were somewhere in their forties by now.

He sighed more, louder this time, as Roxas tugged on his sleeve, "Come on bro! Lets go catch the fish!"
"You can do it yourself," Sora handed his little brother some munny, "You have fun without me okay?"
"Okay!"
Sora smiled as his brother ran and soon tripped over his own annoyingly green kimono.
Hand-me down.
A sick grin creased Sora's face. He was so glad he was a tall little kid.

One of those old people with the little dogs helped him up. He was wearing a red kimono and had blond hair.
He closed his eyes and he smiled, patted Roxas on the head.

The old man walked by Sora, "You should have helped your brother.", as he scolded Sora, his little dog bit the teen on the ankle.

X-X-X-X-X-X

As the night passed on, Sora grew even more tired of it all.
It was getting dark, it must be around six in the evening.
He didn't know for sure because his parents wanted to keep the authenticity of the festival.
No watches, no cell phone, nothing electronic.

He was seated in front of a cherry blossom tree. Another annoying festival that was coming up involved these trees.
There were way to many downsides to living in a small town.

Sora banged his head against the tree, "How much longer is this damn thing?"
"A few more hours, you might as well enjoy yourself." A soft voice told him.

Looking up he saw the voice belonged to a pretty girl with deep red hair, and piercing blue eyes.
She was wearing a light pink kimono.
She smiled sweetly at him, "Wanna play some games with me?"

He shrugged, and she pulled him up, grabbing his wrist she drug him along.
First stop was the fishing game. It was the same one Roxas was heading to when he tripped. And lost five of Sora's dollars playing.
The girl, Kairi, paid the man at the booth enough for her and Sora to each have one go.
She was up first, Sora thought it was the gentlemanly thing to do.

Kairi took her paper net thing, Sora didn't really understand this game, and tried to scoop up a fish.
In his mind, this would hurt the fish, wouldn't it?
How are you expected to keep a fish alive after you flung it out of the water and into a cup?

She got her net under a black fish, and picked it up. The net ripped and the fish dropped back into the tub of water.
"Better luck next time." The boot man told her, "Your turn kid."

Sora sighed, again, and took his own net.
He kneeled down, and looked for the one he wanted.
Spotting a pretty calico Koi, he attacked.
Not literally, but part of him wished he did.

He got the fish cornered between a bigger fish, the wall, and his net.
In one quick motion, he got under it, scooped it up, broke his net, and sent his fishy friend back into the water.

He glared at his broken net, "I thought I had it for sure…".
Kairi patted him on the back, "Better luck next time."

X-X-X-X-X-X

After a few more games and some fattening food, Kairi drug Sora to the watch the big dance.
It was some weird thing they did every year, all these people that were dressed the same got on stage and performed this big dance in a circle.

Sora's parents tried to explain to him what this meant, it was some spiritual thing.
This whole festival was.
But Sora never listened, he didn't care.

After the people finished dancing to the most boring music Sora's heard since he was ten, everyone clapped.
Sora even pretended to clap, to make Kairi happy.

"Wasn't that great Sora?" She asked, a big dumb smile on her face.
He nodded. This girl seemed really nice, he found it odd she couldn't find any of her real friends to hang out with during this.

The question was burning Sora's mind. It had been bugging him all night.
"Kairi…" He began, unsure how to say this, "Can I ask you something?"
She smiled and grabbed his wrist, "As long as you can walk and talk."
She was pulling him along, off to another game or something.
"Oh…So umm…" Sora sighed, he didn't want to ask this, it felt rude, "Why are you here?"

She stopped, "What?"
"Why are you here?" Sora asked again.
"For the festival?" She answered, unsure of what he was asking.
"Did your parents force you?"
"What?" She gasped, and let go of his wrist promptly.

"I mean… You're the only other person my age, and my parents forced me…"
Kairi glared at Sora, "Do you know what this festival means?"
He shook his head, and she was happy to fill him in, "This is a festival for the sprits of people who passed away. We're here to honor them and make sure their spirit is somewhere it should be. Why would my parents force me to go? I want to respect my ancestors."
She finished her rant, and started at him.
Those piercing blue eyes were burrowing into his soul.

When Sora didn't answer, Kairi stormed off.
Sora shrugged it off, she was moody and bossy anyway.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Walking around, Sora didn't see any sign of Kairi. He was happy for this, maybe he would see her at school when it started back up in fall.
Until then, he thought she needed some time to cool off.

The sound of a bell made Sora jump, but everyone else seemed to expect it.
They were all walking toward the river.

Of course, he remembered this from his childhood.
This was one of the last things of the night. You had to light a candle and float it down the stream.

Like a sheep, Sora followed the crowd.
Everyone was in a heap around a booth, he guessed it was were you got your candle and boat like thing.

He himself stood in line.
He got a small candle, a match, a little wooden boat, and a paper lantern to cover it with.

Heading to the stream, he saw Kairi again. She was with a boy in a dark green kimono, who had spiky dark blond hair.
They seemed happy together.
She moved on fast.

Luckily for Sora, she was on the other side of the stream, and probably couldn't see him. Just to make sure, Sora found a spot near the bend, where he was out of her sight.

He sat himself on the ground, light his candle, covered it.
Smiling, he sent it down the river with a prayer. No one would know that he was actually participating in this festival, so he didn't care.

Watching it float away, the person next to him caught his eye.
Well not so much the person, but what was nestled in his lap.
The beautiful Koi that Sora tried to get in that dumb game, in a little baggy, swimming happily.

"How did you get that?!" Sora demanded, pointing at the fish.
Once the words escaped his mouth, he caught sight of the owner.
Shoulder length silver hair that shined in the moonlight. It looked like it sparkled.
He had pale, creamy skin.
And the best part, his eyes were a wonderful blue-green, the same light colour as his kimono.

"I caught him. At the fishing game…" The man told him.
His voice was soft and low, and he smiled shyly.
Sora blushed, he didn't now what to say.
"Did you see it? It was the booth right over-" The man was pointing off at some booths, Sora interrupted him, "What's your name?"
"Pardon?"
"I-I'm Sora…"

The man processed the information for a moment, "Oh! I'm Riku, nice to meet you Sora."
He held out his hand to shake.
Sora grasped it, and shook.

His skin was soft, and his hands were bigger then Sora's.
His palm was warm, and Sora didn't want to let go.

The two sat there, hands locked in a shake until Riku let go.
Sora groaned a bit at the loss of it.
"The fireworks are starting soon, would you…" Riku blushed a bit himself, he looked away to cover it, "Like to watch them with me?"
Sora nodded, and the two strolled off to the main park, following the group.

X-X-X-X-X-X

The rest of the festivals people were seated all around the park. On blankets and some children in trees.
Riku and Sora picked a place near the back, where there weren't any people.
The sat with there backs against a tree, just big enough so that if they sat shoulder to shoulder, they could both fit against the same tree.

The fish, who Riku called "Shiro", which means white in some language, got its name from its mostly white body. It had splashes of black and gold on it.
Sora thought someone like Riku deserved such a pretty fish like Shiro.

Shiro's bag of water was seated in Riku' lap.
Sora blushed at the thought of how lucky Shiro was right then and there.
He quickly shook these feelings away.

"Look." Riku pointed to the sky, just as a brilliant blue star was exploding in the sky.
Sora smiled, and caught a look at Riku from the corner of his eye.
He was watching the firework show with such intensity, he was smiling a bit to.
So very pretty…

Sora shook away the feelings again.
As they watched the show, Sora felt a hand slip under his, and fingers lanced with his.
Soft, warm.
He looked over, Riku was staring at him. Smiling even more then when they met.
Even more then when he was looking at the fireworks.

Sora studied his face. The explosions in the sky were lighting it up.
His face was lit up blue, "Sora?"
Then it faded, and quickly was lit up by green, "Can I ask you something?"
The green faded but was replaced by a red, which made his eyes seem even more blue.
Sora nodded, "Yeah, anything."

Riku leaned in, his face was lit up by purple this time. He was closing his eyes, "Can I…"
Sora leaned with him, was he going to tell him a secret?

Just as Riku's face was being lit up by a bright blue, their lips met.
Sora closed his eyes, leaned in.
Riku's lips were soft and warm, just like his hand.
The two stayed like that for a moment, savoring the kiss.

Riku broke it, not opening his eyes he said, "Sorry."
"What for?" Sora asked, his eyes opening.
Riku smiled, "Stealing."
"Stealing what?" Sora wondered.
"Your heart, what else? But to be fair, you stole my first…"

Riku opened his eyes, and pulled Sora into a warm hug.
Shiro's bag of water and Shiro fell off Riku's lap, rolled across the ground.

Sora smiled, "Look." he mimicked Riku, pointing to the sky.
The end of the fireworks show, a grand finale of purple stars and green flowers, even orange and blue circles and squares. Red streams of light, exploding into blue, raining down green.

The two boys left the festival, hand in hand.
Shiro was being carried by Sora, a present from Riku.

At the door to Sora's house, Riku kissed his forehead, "Take good care of my fish. He better be alive next time I visit."

They hugged one last time, kissed, and Riku left Sora with a warm feeling and a pretty fish.
"NO fair!" Roxas opened the door, screaming.
"Sora got fish and a boyfriend!" Roxas quickly slammed the door in his brothers face.

Sora was really glad he went to the dumb festival.
He was even looking forward to the cherry blossom festival, and school starting.
He smiled at Shiro, and told him, "Its going to be a good year buddy."


Author notes 2: XD Those fish...Grrr Sora is wrong, they live. They live well. I have four of them that are about to celebrate their 3 year birthday and are getting so big they almost need to be moved to a pond. (Mine are goldfish.)
So before today I knew nothing of this Japanese festival, I just kinda...Wikipedia'ed it. XD Sorry if I got anything wrong.

Yes I know, Kairi serves no purpose other then showing what kind of time Sora had at the festival, and yes, it IS convenient that Sora and Riku happened to like each other. You know, the world works like that sometimes...So shut up.
I know! Riku saw Sora and liked him then caught Shiro for him! Yeah, that works. Pretend that happened.

Anyway, I'll shut up now. Please review, fav and author alert!