Changed my penname from Cerise Kaitou Phoenix-sama to Kaitou Phoenix, and, figured, just for the heck of it, I'd post up a new story, one that I finished about a week ago but had been to darn lazy to actually get around to putting it up. XD I'm so lazy...
Anyways! This is what I've been working on when I should've been working on End Game, but, oh well...my other computer died the other day too, so Mako Blue hasn't even been worked on, and won't be until I get my computer fixed. OO Stupid thing...
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing, other than a copy of the games, the manga, and a wooden Kingdom Keyblade I made in woodshop last year. Because I'm pooooor...XD
Warnings: None, other than a self-caused concussion-prone Sora, a sarcastic Riku, and an angry Roxas. There's not even any real Soriku here! -gasp- Nope. It's all just...friendship...since it didn't want to be anything else. Mhmm...
He wasn't sure where to start.
Folding his hands together and resting his chin on his hands, elbows on his desk, his bluer than blue eyes stared at the laptop screen in front of him. Well, at the little blinking pink insertion point on the blank Word document with its black background, to be precise. He always teased him about the colors he'd chosen for his computer, even though he'd protested loudly against actually liking the colors, and he had only picked those colors because he wanted the color scheme to match his background. Not that he had listened. He had only continued to laugh, ignoring his steadily weakening protests. Finally, after he'd finally given up on protesting, resorting to silent pouting, he had simply laughed again, ruffling his hair in that way he always did, telling him to stop being such a baby all the time.
That had caused more protesting, and, like always, it had eventually dissolved into the normal routine of their lifelong play, as he had tackled him with a pillow in hand, a violent pillow-slaughter following as they beat each other ruthlessly with the pillows from his bed. His mother never had approved much of having to go and buy him new pillows twice a year, but at least she had eventually learned to stop buying him feather pillows, as, though they hit harder, they made more of a mess when they finally ripped.
Realizing how off topic his train of thought had gotten, he grumbled, still staring at the screen of his laptop. That stupid little insertion point was mocking him, he was positive of it. He groaned, letting his arms drop to his sides, his forehead meeting the solid wood of his desk with a quite impressive bang. He sat like that for quite a while, even after his forehead began to hurt from the force of the impact it had had with the desk, cursing his English teacher the entire time.
A three-page essay on his favorite childhood experience. It shouldn't be too hard, his teacher had said when she had given the class the assignment, which was due that Friday. Everyone in his class had grown up together, playing all day, so naturally for some of the students in the class the paper had been easy to write, and had started on a rough draft immediately. He, on the other had, couldn't decide what to write about.
Maybe I should just be a snot and write about the time I nearly died, he thought, kicking his feet against the legs of his desk. Writing about the time he had been lost in the thick jungle growing on the smallest island and nearly died from dehydration would be more interesting than writing about what he did everyday with his friends.
"You know the teacher will probably mark you down if you write about something negative, so don't even bother thinking about it."
Hearing the familiar voice, he jerked upright, nearly flipping his chair over. Luckily, a hand quickly caught him as he toppled backwards, setting him back upright.
"Jeez, Sora, don't kill yourself. It's bad enough you hit your head hard enough that your mom heard it downstairs." He felt a hand briefly ruffle his naturally spiky cinnamon brown hair, before something cool was pressed to his forehead, right where he had hit it on his desk. He jerked again in surprise, but calmed down after a moment realizing it was just a bag of ice.
"Ice?" he asked, reaching up to hold it to his head, spinning around in his chair. A snort came in response as his best friend sat down on his bed, rolling his sharp aquamarine eyes.
"Your mom was worried you gave yourself another concussion. She sent me up with the ice as soon as I walked through the door," the older teen said. Shaking his head, brushing his long silver hair from his eyes, he smirked, glancing at the laptop behind him. "I see you still haven't changed the colors on your computer…"
"Shut up, Riku!" he snapped defensively, frowning. "Can't you ever not tease me about the colors on my laptop, just once? I'm not changing them until I change the background!"
Riku held up his hands, eyes wide. "Whoa, whoa, chill. I'm just messing with you; you know that."
He huffed irritably, spinning around to face his computer, setting the ice down, rubbing at his forehead where it had gone numb. "Can't you ever just not?" he asked, closing his laptop, putting it into sleep mode.
Riku rolled his eyes, leaning back on his elbows. "You're overreacting again, So-ra."
"Am not," said brunet huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Are too," his friend shot back, and even though he wasn't looking at him, he could tell Riku was smirking. "Just like you always do."
"I do not always overreact," he said, spinning back around in his chair; he jerked in surprise again when Riku was suddenly not three feet from him, and yelped when he felt his chair tipping again. Riku, always the one with faster reflexes, quickly grabbed his arm, catching him as his chair crashed to the floor, the wheels spinning uselessly, suspended in the air. He, on the other hand, had been yanked to his feet roughly when Riku had grabbed him, and was currently rubbing his shoulder, wincing slightly.
"Thanks, Rii," he said, knowing that if Riku hadn't caught him, he'd probably would have ended up with another concussion, as he would have hit his head on the edge of his desk.
"Seriously, Sora, you're going to kill yourself one of these days," Riku said, shaking his head as he set the chair upright. "Gaea, where would you be if I wasn't around…?"
"Probably groaning in agony with yet another concussion…" the brunet muttered, deciding to play it safe, sitting down on his bed. "That would've been, what….the second one this month?"
Riku nodded, plopping down next to him. "Second one this month, the seventh so far this year. And the…twentieth time in the last three years…"
"Somehow, I'm surprised I'm not dead yet," Sora grumbled, lying back on his bed, crossing his arms under his head. "I wonder just how many head injuries someone can have before they go brain-dead or something…"
"Well, don't decide to try and find out anytime soon, since I don't think the teacher will let you off the hook for this paper even if you do manage to go brain-dead within the next three days," Riku said. "It is the final term paper, so you'd better turn it in this time."
"But I don't know what to write about!" the younger boy groaned, rolling back and forth across his mattress, hands over his face.
"Well you better figure out something to write about!"
"And I suppose you're already finished, right?"
"Duh. Otherwise I wouldn't be over here bugging you," Riku said, rolling his eyes as he watched Sora kick his feet uselessly against his bed, growling into his pillow. "And, no, I'm not telling you what I wrote about so you can leech off my idea again."
The brunet cursed a few times, muffled by the pillow pressed to his face, before rolling over and sitting up, crossing his legs. "She did say, our favorite experience, not the happiest, right?" Frowning, not liking where this was going, Riku nodded slowly. "So, technically, I could write about something negative, so long as it's my favorite, even if it's not my happiest."
"Sora," Riku said, exasperated with his best friend. "How in the world could you almost dying from dehydration be your favorite experience?"
Sora froze mid-step, halfway to his computer. Spinning around, arms akimbo, he frowned. "How'd you-"
"Honestly, Sora, it's the most interesting thing that's ever happened to you, the one thing you can describe in the most detail," the platinum blond explained, sighing. "I'm sure you could more than easily type up three pages on that, but I'm pretty sure Teach will mark you down…"
"If she does, I'll just tell her it's my favorite, not my happiest," Sora said in a singsong voice, sitting back down at his desk, opening his laptop back up. "Her fault for not specifying…"
"You're a brat, you know?" Riku said, shaking his head as he lied back, watching Sora typing, snickering slightly when he saw the hot pink text on the screen. Obviously knowing what he was laughing at, the brunet snorted, pausing slightly in his rapid typing.
"Riku, shut up, before I steal your laptop and change all the colors and password lock it," he warned.
"Password lock? There is no password lock," the silver-haired teen shot back; he frowned when Sora laughed, looking over at him.
"Oh, I know how to password lock it. It's possible; Axel showed me how. You just have to mess with the computers DOS prompt script a bit. Pretty simple, really."
"Axel? What were you doing hanging out with him?" Riku asked, eyes wide. Sora waved a hand at him dismissively, continuing to type his paper.
"He came over a while back; him and Roxas had to work on a project for one of their classes. While he was here, mom made Roxas run to the store to pick up something since I was either sick or had just had another concussion at the time, and Axel, bored, showed me how to password lock anything I want on a computer," he said, shrugging. He ignored Riku's muttering about his twin Roxas' choice in friends, focusing on finishing at least a rough for his paper.
"Where has Roxas been, anyways? I haven't seen him around lately," Riku asked; Sora rolled his eyes, fingers hovering over the keys, sighing huffily.
"He got sick of getting crap from the teachers all the time, so he pestered mom until she transferred him to a private school. He's been complaining about that place now, too, so I'm pretty sure he'll be back in Destiny High with the rest of us soon. He's not home much anymore, though. He gets out pretty late, since he doesn't have to go in until sometime around noon…"
Falling silent, Sora stomped on the floor a couple times, hollering, "Roxaaaaas! Are you hooooome?" Riku only chuckled, knowing Roxas' room was directly below Sora's.
Moments later there was a loud thud from below, followed by, sure enough, an annoyed shout from the brunet's blond twin, telling him to shut up and leave him alone unless it was important. Looking satisfied, Sora nodded, going back to working. "Yup, he's home. Probably going to try killing me in my sleep again, though."
Riku snorted, rolling his eyes. "Oh, yes, I can just feel the brotherly love here," he said, quite sarcastically, barely dodging the plastic pencil case Sora lobbed his way.
"Shut up, you. I'm trying to work here," Sora grumbled. "Anyways, you and Seph aren't any better."
"For your information, we have never tried to kill each other in out sleep, thank you," Riku said, rolling his eyes yet again. "Try to inflict bodily harm in other ways, yes. Main reason why I'm thankful Sephiroth moved out a few years ago; he's a lot bigger and a lot stronger than me, and I'd rather not get another broken arm from him."
"How'd that happen, anyway?"
"I pissed him off."
"Ah. Figures."
Sora was silent for a bit, the only sound being his rapid typing, followed by a series of clicks as he edited his paper quickly. Riku, who'd by then begun to doze off, jumped slightly hearing scuffling noises, and turned his head to see Sora attempting to plug his laptop into the printer on his desk, managing to do so after a few moments. Dropping back into his seat, he clicked print, looking very satisfied as his paper printed.
"Done already?" Riku asked, sitting up, straightening out his mussed up hair. Sora nodded, pulling the three pages out when they were done printing, stapling them together, handing it to the platinum blond.
"Yup! Whaddya think?" Riku read the entire paper quickly, before snorting as he handed it back to the brunet.
"I think you're going to get marked down, but, hey, at least your spelling and grammar are okay. And you remembered to double-space it in 12 point Times New Roman this time too," he said, getting up as Sora grinned, stuffing the paper into a folder in his bag.
"Cool. Wanna go play some video games or annoy Roxana now?"
Riku raised a single brow as he followed Sora out of the room, down to the living room. "Roxana? Who-"
"Roxas calls me Sara," Sora grumbled, rolling his eyes. "So I call him Roxana. Mom says we're both being immature, but, hey, it's fun to watch him twitch when I call him that…'specially when Axel's around. Then it's freaking hilarious."
Riku couldn't help laughing as they passed Roxas' closed door on the way to the living room, Sora knocking on it as they passed. "Isn't that right, Roxana?"
"Go to Hell, Sara!" Roxas yelled through the door, the sound of something hitting it following swiftly after. The younger twin simply laughed, before yelping and dashing for the living room as Roxas' door swung open, a size ten shoe flying out to hit him in the back of the head. Riku merely sighed, shaking his head as he followed Sora, lazily waving at Roxas as he walked past, the blond glaring in the direction his twin had gone.
The main reason he loved hanging out here: things were never boring around the Hadara twins.
"Sora, could I have a word with you, please?"
Said brunet stopped, looking back at his and Riku's English teacher, looking slightly puzzled. "What is it, Masaki-san?" he asked, Riku standing by the door, waiting for him.
"Your term paper," she said, frowning slightly. "I asked you to write about your favorite childhood experience, not your least favorite."
At this, Riku barely contained a snort, and Sora grinned. "But, Asuka-san, you said favorite, not my happiest. And that just happens to be one of my favorites, since nothing else is really interesting."
"What about when you first met Riku?"
"I wrote about that, mom," Riku said, smirking. "So Sora couldn't. And he's right; you did say favorite, but that doesn't mean it has to be the happiest."
Their teacher, Asuka Masaki, also known as Riku's mother, sighed, rolling her emerald green eyes. "You two are such pests. Fine, you're right, I admit I should have been more specific, especially when dealing with you two hellions." Fixing the two with a stern look, she motioned for them to leave. "Go on, shoo. The bell's going to ring in a couple minutes, so get to class."
"So I pass?" Sora asked hopefully. Asuka sighed, nodding.
"Yes, Sora, you pass," she said, ignoring the brunet's whoop of joy. "Now, both of you get to class, before I give you both detentions for being late!"
"Aw, you wouldn't do that, Asuka-san," Sora said, grinning widely. Asuka narrowed her eyes, tapping her fingers on her desk.
"You want to bet? I'll call your mother after school too and let her know you were being insubordinate again…That should get you grounded for, oh, say a week or so…"
"See ya later, Asuka-san!" the brunet said hastily, bolting out the door, Riku close on his heels. Rolling her eyes as soon as the two were gone, Asuka looked back down at the paper in her hands, flipping to the last page, eyes falling on the bottom half of the paper, a small smile appearing on her face as she read the final paragraphs.
"I'm still not sure just how long I was lost out there, because my sense of time was a bit out of whack from me being dehydrated. I know I wasn't out there for more than four days, because if I had been out there any longer without water, I would be dead. Lucky for me, I've got a friend who's just as crazy as I am, and decided to come looking for me after the second day I was missing. Of course, Riku had the sense to bring along a canteen of water when he went to find me, which ended up being a better idea than he'd though it would be.
According to him, he found me on his second day of searching, passed out against a tree. I can't remember a thing from right before I passed out. I eventually came to after Riku somehow managed to get some water down my throat, far thirstier than before, but he stopped me from drinking anymore of the water he had, not wanting me to get sick. It was a long, difficult trip out of the jungle and back home, since I could barely stay conscious, much less actually walk on my own. Afterwards, I spent a week in the hospital, and had to stay at home for another week after that.
Despite all of this, this actually is one of my very favorite experiences. Why? Because it taught me two things. One, always take water with you when going into the jungle on the smallest island for anything, and, two…I've got the best, best friend in the entire world, and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here writing this. I'm lucky I've got a friend who cares so much, even if I am a loud, annoying and clumsy brat three-fourths of the time. And anyone would be lucky to have a friend like him.
This is why, despite how horrible it was, this is my favorite childhood experience. And I hope I never have to go through something like this ever again."
Leaning back in her seat, Asuka skimmed over the entire paper once before, before taking out her pen and marking a grade at the top, smiling. She remembered when her son had dragged the brunet home, more than half dead, openly panicking as she called Sora's parents and 911, and had absolutely refused to be left behind when they took his friend away in an ambulance, riding all the way to the hospital with him after actually bursting out in tears when they had almost not let him go.
"I swear, what are Akayame and me going to do with those two…" she muttered, setting the essay down on the corner of her desk, picking up the rest of the essays, settling back to read and grade these during her free hour. She smiled fondly as her eyes flicked up to land on one the pictures on her desk, a small one of Sora and Riku, the two waving at the camera, happily perched atop a Coco Palm Tree, both grinning ear to ear. She shook her head, starting to read the top essay on the stack. "Boys will be boys, I suppose…"
"Whooaaa, I actually got an A!"
"Really?" Riku asked as he leaned up over Sora's shoulder, eyes growing wide seeing the large A+ written neatly at the top of the page in his mother's handwriting. "Holy crap, you did!"
"Yay, my first A," Sora chirped happily; Riku rolled his eyes as he sat back down in his seat behind his best friend, jumping when his own paper was set down in front of him. Seeing the plain A on the top of the page, he looked up at Asuka, looking slightly confused.
"You had a few spelling and grammatical errors, Riku," she explained, handing back the next essay, the student being right behind Riku, but winked at her son as she passed him. "Forget to use the spell check on your computer?"
"Apparently…" he muttered, but smiled as he put it away in his folder. Sora spun around, cerulean eyes wide.
"I got a better grade than you, Rii?" he asked, eyes growing wider than before as Riku nodded, Asuka having already walked away to finish handing back the rest of the graded essays. "Holy…The apocalypse must be coming. Holy crap!" Riku snorted, rolling his eyes as the brunet had a short, small spazz attack in his seat, before jumping and smacking his knees on the bottom of his desk when Sora somehow managed to flip his chair.
"Sora!" he exclaimed, arm snapping out to, once again, catch the boy's chair, preventing him from hitting the hard floor. Huffing irritably, he scowled at his best friend, who laughed sheepishly as he set his chair right, sitting back down. "You know, seriously, I think you'd be dead by now if I wasn't around."
"Probably," Sora replied, looking over his shoulder at Riku. "So, thanks for saving my life countless times."
Riku blinked in surprise, thrown completely off by this. "…huh?"
Sora just grinned in response, turning to face forward as Asuka made her way back to the front of the classroom. "You heard me. Love ya, Rii."
The platinum blond just smiled, shaking his head. "Love ya too, 'Ra."
He couldn't believe he'd tripped again! Sniffing softly as he fought to hold back his tears, the small brunet cradled his right wrist, biting his lip to keep himself from crying out in pain as he tried to move it, pain lancing through it. However, try as he might, he couldn't keep a small whimper from escaping his throat, testament to his pain. His skinned knees were of no concern of his; he skinned his knees frequently, and, as such, had become used to it. A sprained wrist, on the other hand, was something totally new to him, and hurt a lot more than any scrapes or scratches he'd ever gotten.
Wincing, he used his left hand to push himself off the ground, slowly staggering back to his feet. Shaking his head, he started back down the street towards him house at the far end of the road, right on the beach. Nearly to his house, a slightly taller boy barreled into him suddenly, sending both tumbling to the ground to land in a painful heap, the already injured brunet being unfortunate enough to land on the bottom. His hurt wrist was pinned under his body at an awkward angle, and he whimpered softly again as he tried to get out from under the other boy. Almost seeming to sense his discomfort, the other quickly rolled off, sitting up, his aquamarine eyes wide.
"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, getting up, helping the smaller back to his feet. He frowned lightly, noticing how the cerulean-eyed boy was holding his right wrist, keeping it close to his body. "Did you hurt your hand?"
The brunet shook his head, eyes closed. "I just fell again."
He jumped slightly when he felt the other boy gently wrap his fingers around his hurt arm, pulling it away from his body with the utmost care, and laying the lightest of kisses on it. The brunet blinked in confusion, and seeing his expression, the other boy, who he just noticed had pure silver hair, smiled lightly.
"That's what my momma does when I get hurt," he explained. "I'm sorry for running into you."
"S'okay," the brunet said, once again holding his hurt wrist close to himself. "Thanks…"
"I'm Riku," the silver-haired boy said, smiling. "I just moved here."
Hearing that, the brunet's slight confusion at not remembering seeing the boy before vanished, a bright grin appearing on his face. "I'm Sora!" he chirped, as Riku tilted his head. "It's nice to meetcha, Riku!"
"Where do you live, Sora?" Riku asked, looking in the direction Sora pointed, indicating his two-story house at the end of the road, which was only a few houses down from the one Riku had shot out of moments before.
"Right there!" he said, bouncing on his heels, his injured wrist all but forgotten. "You wanna come hang out for a bit?"
"Sure!" Riku said, but cast a wary eye at the brunet's wrist. "But, what about your hand…?" Blinking, Sora looked down at his wrist, before shifting his gaze back to the older boy, smiling.
"I'll have my momma fix it for me," he said, shrugging. "I get hurt a lot." Still smiling brightly as only he could, he took Riku's hand with his own uninjured one, gently tugging the silver-haired boy in the direction of his house. "C'mon, you've gotta meet my brother!"
"You have a brother?" Riku asked, following Sora, allowing the younger boy to tow him along.
"Yup!" Sora chirped, nodding. "His name is Roxas. He's my big brother by five minutes, or at least that's what he says."
"Wait…" Riku furrowed his brows lightly, looking slightly confused. "You have a twin?"
"Mmhm!" He looked back at Riku, the two of them now approaching his house. "Do you have any brothers or sisters, Ri-ku?"
Smiling, said boy nodded. "Yeah, but he's way older than me. We don't get along very well."
"That's too bad," the brunet said. "My momma says it's a shame when…" He paused for a moment, trying to remember the word his mother had used. "…'siblings' don't get along. Me and Roxas fight a little bit, though she doesn't mind too much."
"Me and Sephy fight all the time," Riku said, shrugging. He fell silent as they walked up the steps to Sora's porch, the brunet turning the doorknob, swinging the glass storm door open.
"Momma, I'm home!" he called as they entered. Sora stopped in when he felt Riku entwine his fingers around his, glancing at the older boy while carefully pushing his shoes off with his toes.
"Sora, where have you been?" a slender brunette woman asked as she walked into the foyer, hands on her hips. Upon seeing Riku standing next to her son, a surprised expression crossed her face as she straightened up. "Oh! Who might you be?"
"Riku Masaki, miss," the platinum blond answered without batting an eye.
"Oh, you must be the son of the couple who just moved into the house down the street!" she deduced, smiling. "Well, I'm Akayame Hadara, Sora's mother, but you can call me Akayame-san if you like. How are you liking the Destiny Islands so far, Riku?"
Said boy smiled, nodding. "It's nice here! A lot warmer than where I lived before!"
"Well, I hope you like living here. It's usually pretty nice out, until it gets to be winter. Then it just rains a lot for a couple months, but that's generally the worst the weather gets here, aside from the occasional typhoon."
Riku looked startled by this information. "Typhoon?"
"They're not bad, Ri-ku!" Sora said. "It's just a lot of rain and wind." Looking up at his mother, he tiled his head. "Is Roxas home yet?"
Akayame shook her head, "No, he's still over at Demyx' house with Axel. I think those three are having a sleepover or something."
"Oh." Sora looked slightly crestfallen, but quickly brightened up again. "You'll just have to meet him some other time, Ri-ku! You wanna go play video games?"
"Sure!"
"We'll be upstairs, mom!" Sora said, leading Riku up the stairs to his room, as, down on the landing, Akayame noted with amusement that the two were still holding hands, something she hadn't mentioned when they'd come inside. Smiling and shaking her head, she walked back into the kitchen to finish preparing dinner. Sora needed some friends of his own…and it looked like he'd finally got one.
"Maybe…" she said softly to herself. "Maybe, just maybe…this is the start of something…" She paused, tapping the knife she had been cutting vegetables with against the old wooden cutting board, before nodding slightly. "Yes. I think it is…the start of something good…"
-Owari-