Chapter One: Duty

For the longest time, the responsibility of being Sora's Dream Eater did not come with much to actually do. They were all busy, saving the worlds and defeating Xehanort in his many guises. He may have been the true keyblade master, but they all knew that Sora was the hero of light.

When it was all over and done with, and the three of them went back to Destiny Islands, his responsibilities began to change. He was no longer responsible for the protection of the Door To Darkness, or any more Kingdom Hearts. He wasn't really a keyblade master any more – but he was still Sora's Dream Eater.

Sora wasn't the type to let his brain get in the way of his mission—but they didn't have those any more. There was nothing left to distract him, apparently from his own thoughts.

Riku had just moved into his own place. There was an old, run-down cottage by the beach they were happy to hand over to him. Not too far from Sora's family home, which was in turn a few streets away from the family Kairi lived with.

He was trying to find the right location for his lounge when something throbbed through him. His head snapped up, a weird feeling coming over him. It felt like he was part of a tide that was washing out in a sudden rush.

"Riku!" Sora's voice echoed in his head, without ever passing his ears.

Whirling around to try and find his friend, his stomach swooped. It felt like the ground dropped out from underneath him. He tipped back, falling deep and down. His eyes opened, though he'd never had them closed: streaks of light and coloured spiralled around as he passed. He tilted his head back and saw the bright white light he was plummeting (or was he flying?) towards?

It absorbed him and he felt warm, embraced by something that was completely S o r a.

He opened his eyes again, this time into darkness. His pulse thrummed in his ears, but he ignored it, eyes frantically searching. It was a moment before he found Sora. He was writhing and struggling in a mass of what Riku realised was hundreds of heartless.

As he watched, Sora struggled out of their grip enough to free his mouth. "Donald! Goofy! Kairi! Riku! Anybody! Help me!"

Really? I'm fourth? His hand clenched in a practiced movement, a familiar weight settled into his hand. "Sora!" He ran towards the mass. It only took a few slashes to clear them all. Did Sora really think he was that good? Or was it just that anyone had come to save him?"

"Riku…"

He held a hand down to pull him back to his feet. "You were having a nightmare."

Sora blinked at him, then said: "wait… Riku?"

"Yes…?"

"Actual Riku?"

He raised his eyebrows slightly. "Do you dream about me a lot, Sora?"

The brunet blushed and reached over to punch his arm. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm your Dream Eater," Riku reminded him. "You called out to me. Here I am."

"…I guess." Sora's arms moved up to prop his head back. "Thanks, Riku. For chasing away my nightmare."

"Any time." He held his hand out. "Come on. I'll give you something better than that."

For a moment, Sora just stared at him. He thought briefly that the air around himself seemed to glow a little brighter. Then Sora practically launched at him to grab his hand, as if he was afraid he couldn't take it.

Riku remembered, the moment their fingers touched, of the moment that had started the whole adventure. Their world tearing up around them, offering his hand to Sora to come with him. And being swallowed by the darkness before their hands could touch.

Instinctively, he gripped tight. Sora grinned widely at him. "So! Where are we going?"

There was only one place that came to mind. Only one place he really felt at home, at peace.

The darkness flew away like doves. First the raised little island with the curved trunk of the paopu tree, six perfect fruit nestled in the leaves. Bit by bit, the rest of the island emerged from the darkness. The grass and the earth; the rocky cliffs; the wooden bridged and structures built over generations before them; the pristine white sand, dotted along the tide lines with little colourful shells; their little raft, shoddy but theirs; and finally the ocean and the sky, stretching out endlessly until they touched.

"Wow! This old place!" Sora laughed, delighted. "It's perfect! How did you remember so much?"

Riku, intensely aware that they hadn't let of each other's hands, shrugged and looked away. "This place makes me happy. I like to imagine it exactly how it was."

Sora started running then, pulling Riku along by the hand. "When Hurricane Season ends, we should come out here again, clean this place up."

They hadn't really gone to the islands in years. Since the Mark of Mastery exam, really. They had been too busy. It was probably torn up and trashed, lashing under the half a dozen hurricanes since then. From the window of his new house, Riku can see that the shape of the island has changed since then. Who knew what other damage had been done since then?

He was about to say that it was too much work for just the two of them, but Sora continued: "All of us! Me and Kairi and you—and Tidus and Wakka and Selphie!"

Riku let Sora's hand slip out of his. Dream logic meant it slipped away, no matter how hard Sora had been holding on in return.

They slowed to a stop and Sora turned to look at him, upset.

"I should go," he said. "Let you dream in peace."

"But I want you to stay…"

"It won't turn into a nightmare. I gave you a good one."

"That's not what I meant. Riku…" He stepped closer, taking his hand again. "I want to be here with you."

"…okay," he said, resigned. "I'll stay. But just for tonight."

~v~

When he woke up the next morning, he was half-collapsed over the cushions of his lounge. His muscles burned from the awkward position; and he was exhausted as if he'd been up all night fighting the heartless. He groaned and sat up, trying to loosen up his shoulders and back.

He had meant to set his bed up the previous night. He'd meant to do a lot of unpacking, actually. Damn.

He'd have to get to that later. Right now he needed a hot shower and sleep. He wouldn't get it.

Halfway through washing his hair, the bathroom door busted open. Destiny Islands wasn't exactly the sort of place you locked your front door, and he'd thought the sound of the shower would discourage anyone from coming into the bathroom.

But not Sora. "Riku!" he called excitedly, coming in and sitting himself on the sink counter. "Was that really you last night."

"Yes." He shifted awkwardly, glad he'd gotten the sort of shower curtain that you couldn't easily see through. "Sora, I'm in the shower."

The brunet didn't take the hint. "I know. You better hurry it up or you'll be late for school."

School. He'd forgotten. He was only just eighteen, so he still had to go for this last year. He groaned. "Is it that time of year already?"

For the most part, the Destiny Islands were very lax about what the islander children actually did during the day. The tropical archipelago, eight hour's ferry ride from The Mainland, spent half of the year so oppressively hot nobody felt much like anything. Then, for four months in the middle of the year, it was Hurricane Season. The weather cooled, a little, due to the frequent rain.

The threat meant that they wanted everyone close by and easily accounted for. So anyone who had been seventeen or under at the beginning of the year were shuffled into the school hall and made to learn things. Like reading, writing, local history, basic mathematics and sciences, survival skill—and once a week they had a kendo master come over from The Mainland to teach them different swordfighting. That had always been Riku's favourite lesson.

Before they'd left their world the first time, Riku hadn't stood a chance at beating the master—now it was almost too easy.

"Come on, Riku!" Sora whined.

He was snapped from his thoughts. "I'm getting out. Get off my back, would you?" He reached out a hand to grab his towel. Once he had it wrapped around his hips, he stepped out of the stall.

Sora's eyes roved over his chest with a sort of ambient curiosity. No admiration, or anything of the sort, just something new to look at. A sort of 'that's what you look like without a shirt, okay' gaze. When his eyes caught on Riku's left side, however, an involuntary gasp caught in his throat.

Riku quickly turned away. His side, he knew, was an ugly mess of scar tissue. Xemnas' laser swords may have instantly cauterized the wound, his it had taken months for it to properly heal—and it would probably always be an ugly scar.

"…wow," Sora said, impressed now. "When did you get that?"

Riku glanced behind himself, at what Sora meant. He caught a glimpse of the black ink tattooed on his back. The Dream Eater symbol. "After the Mark of Mastery exam," he admitted. "When you went away."

Sora distancing himself had hurt—and though Riku would never interfere with something that important to Sora, it had been hard to be separated again. They'd only just reunited. So he'd marked himself with the symbol that tied them together.

He was broken out of his thoughts again by a flick to the ear. "Stop spacing out, Riku! We're going to be late."

"Let me get dressed, Sora. Go hang out somewhere else."

"Can I raid your kitchen?"

"You won't find much, but go ahead."

When he came back out, Sora was sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for him, helping himself to a box of cookies his own mother had made. They'd been a sort of housewarming present, but it was some of the only food he actually had in the house.

"There you are!" Sora said, jumping of. "If we hurry, we might catch up with Kairi!"

Chapter Two: Count Your Lucky Stars

Riku had hoped the nightmare was a one-time event. Sora was as carefree and happy-go-lucky as he always had been. But at night, when Riku was his most productive, Sora called out to him in his nightmares—and he had to go save him.

He was exhausted, looking like he hadn't slept in a week, falling asleep during class. He was realising, quickly, that when he went into Sora's dreams, it didn't mean he was asleep at the same time.

As the week moved on, he tried falling asleep first—in the bed he had finally gotten around to setting up. But it was no use. As soon as Sora called out to him, he was jolted awake, and then dropped down into Sora's dreams.

They were usually the same. Sora, somewhere, alone, being overwhelmed by heartless, or sometimes nobodies, or the Organisation XIII. Once, even Xehanort himself. It was the same—Riku came in, summoned his keyblade, got rid of the danger, and took Sora back to their island. From there, Riku would try to leave but with just a few words, Sora would have him agreeing to stay.

Monday came around again. Riku had gotten some sleep over the weekend, lazing around in a patch of sunlight like a cat. But school came again. By the time Sora had, gleefully, let himself into the house, he was already dressed and ready to go.

"You're ready!" Sora said, surprised.

Riku grunted, tucking the straps of his bag up over his shoulder and holding the door. Sora kept giving him looks as they walked past Sora's place to head on to Kairi's, and from there to the school hall. Riku was too tired to even try and consider what the looks meant.

"…your hair is getting long again?"

"Huh?" Riku said, turning to look at him.

"Your hair. It's growing out."

"It does that." He reached up to tug at the fringe locks that were hanging in his eyes.

"See, it's all in your eyes!" Sora laughed.

The brunet reached up to push the hair out of his face. Riku managed out a frantic "wait, don't!" before it was too late.

Sora hissed through his teeth, staring. His eyes, wide and blue as the ocean, stared at the purple and green lump on Riku's forehead.

The former keyblade master stepped away, batting Sora's hands off of him. "It's nothing."

"Riku…" He sounded upset—concerned. "What happened?"

He didn't want to answer. But he knew Sora would just keep pestering him about it until he fessed up. He sighed, resigned. "When you called out to me on Friday night, I fell and hit my head."

That, at least, had Sora staying quiet until they got to Kairi's house. But he doubted that would be the last of it.

At lunch, when Kairi was handing out everyone's lunches, Sora dropped down to sit directly next to him, their thighs pressed right up against each other. "So, I've come up with a solution."

Riku raised his eyebrows. "Did you?"

"I can't have you injuring yourself because you're surprised by me calling out for you. You need to know when I'm going to sleep, and probably when I'm starting my nightmare too."

That did make sense. In Sora's own sort of way. "What, are you finally going to stick to a bed time?"

Sora pulled a face at that. "No!" He grinned, and said (loudly): "obviously, we have to sleep together!"

Kairi, who had at that moment reached them with their lunches, laughed. "Welcome to flawless Sora logic." She sat down on the other side of Sora. "I hope you take him out to dinner first, Riku. Be the gentleman."

"Does letting him raid my kitchen first count?" Riku deadpanned. She laughed.

"Hey!" Sora protested loudly. "Who says I'm the girl?"

"I think the point is that neither of you are a girl," Kairi pointed out. "Anyway. Why are you and Riku finally consummating your gay love for each other?"

Riku pulled a face at her over Sora's suddenly loudly protesting head: "I'm not gay!"

"Sora's having nightmares. He needs me to help." He looked away.

"Sora!" she scolded, worried. "You didn't tell me you've been having nightmares."

"Riku's been helping me out. I didn't want to worry you." Sora sounded uncharacteristically hesitant.

"But you don't mind worrying Riku about it," she pointed out, giggling.

"It's my duty," he interrupted, before Sora could start yelling about things again.

"Right." The three of them were silent for a long, awkward moment. "So, you guys are going to have a sleepover? For Sora's dreams?"

"Yeah!" Sora said eagerly. "It'll be great. We'll stay at Riku's new place."

"You should probably check with your mother first," Riku pointed out.

Sora huffed at that, and Riku understood. They had been across the worlds, to the realms of darkness, and back again, fought in a war with the fate of all people in the balance—and now he had to ask permission to stay overnight. Well. There was a reason Riku had gotten his own place.

"Maybe Kairi can come over too!" Sora's eager voice broke him out of his thoguths.

"…would that be okay, Riku? It is your place after all."

He nodded, glad she had asked. Sora had always treated everything that was Riku's like it was his own. "Of course. We're all friends after all."

She smiled. "Well. I'll ask. I probably won't be allowed to stay the night, but I'm sure I can come over for the afternoon."

~v~

Sora came over with a huge bag of stuff, and a casserole from his mother that they could both have for dinner. She was aware of how much they both ate, and hadn't felt right about forcing Riku to provide for her son.

Kairi did come over—with a giftbasket of local fruits as a housewarming gift. She stayed until the sun was setting and then stood, straightening her school skirt. "I should go. Riku, would you mind walking me home?"

He sat up straighter and gave Sora a confused look. Why was she asking him? "Uh. Yeah. Sure."

They were halfway there before she spoke, her voice soft and hesitant. "Riku… are you okay?"

He blinked, confused. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You look exhausted – you've been getting worse this last week. You keep falling asleep in class. I'm worried about you."

"Oh." He bowed his head, fringe covering his eyes as he looked down at his feet. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

"…this is about Sora's nightmares, isn't it?" She guessed. He just sighed and looked away. "Riku, if it's hurting you…"

"No, it's nothing like that." He shook his head vehemently. "It's just exhausting. And I don't get any sleep while we're together in his dreams."

She sighed. "Well. Maybe it'll be different when you two are sleeping with each other."

Remembering the awkwardness of their conversation at lunch, he felt his expression screw up before he could think to stop it.

She gave him a long look. "Riku… you love Sora, don't you?"

He hung his head. "Of course." He paused. "We're best friends."

"No, I mean…"

"I know what you mean," he said quietly. "But we're best friends. You heard him. He's not gay."

"I don't know if it's as simple as that."

But it could be. "You're his most important person." Simple and clean. Kairi loved Sora—Sora loved Kairi. It wouldn't be long before they stopped dancing around each other and got together.

She sighed, and gave him a pitying look. "Whatever makes him happy, right?"

He nodded. "Exactly. And that's why I have to keep helping him with his nightmares."

She nodded, and then fixed him with a stubborn glare. "If it gets bad, I'm not going to keep letting it go."

"Deal."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. When he got back to his house, Sora was hanging over his fence in the front yard, chatting to the elderly neighbour. "Riku!" he yelled eagerly, nearly overbalancing as he waved frantically.

"Careful," he warned, grabbing him to make sure he didn't overbalance. "Let's head inside." He needed to turn on the lights before he got too dark.

"Okay. Bye, Old Lady!" He trotted after his friend. "So! What are we going to do now?"

It was late for Sora by the time they actually called it a night. He was yawning, leaning heavily against Riku.

He chuckled and nudged the brunet. "Come on, sleepyhead. Let's get you in bed."

It was a squat little house of only one storey. The bedroom came off the sitting room, the soft light of a table lamp illuminating a twin bed pushed up against his window that suddenly looked very small.

"You go to bed," Riku said quietly. "I'll make sure everything is turned off."

Sora yawned and shuffled off into the bedroom. Riku closed the lights off, leaving the curtains open so the moonlight into the rooms. It left deep, dark shadows that made him shiver. He hurried over to the window, bathing himself in moonlight He looked up at the stars, naming the ones he knew to make sure they were all accounted for.

"…Riku?"

He turned, startled, to see Sora standing in the doorway, wearing pyjamas and a confused look. "What is it?"

"What are you doing?"

"Looking at all of the worlds," he admitted softly.

"Making sure none of them are going out?" Sora guessed.

He gave a slight, sad smile. "Yeah. I guess."

"You know… there's an even better view from the window in here…"

"Oh." He blinked. "You want me to… Well. I was going to let you go to sleep first. I didn't think you wanted me around when you were trying to get to sleep."

"I do," Sora replied quietly. "Please."

"Okay. I mean, I'm going to end up there anyway, aren't I?" He followed the brunet back into the bedroom. Sora settled into the bed while he changed into a pair of loose pyjama pants.

He thought it might be uncomfortable, the two of them settling together in his little bed. But they fit together easily. Sora lay on his back, Riku on his side beside him, looking over him and out the window to the sky.

"Traverse Town," he mouthed to himself, wanting to keep silent so Sora could sleep. "Wonderland, Deep Jungle, Land of the Dragons—"

"You forgot Olympus," Sora said through a yawn.

He glanced down to see Sora watching him. "I was getting back around to it," Riku replied.

"Mhm. Sure you were. Land of the Dragons?"

"Beast's Castle," he went on, aloud now. "Radiant Gardens, Twilight Town…"

Chapter Three: The Eye of the Hurricane

Sora didn't have a nightmare that first night. He stopped having them night after night—or at least the times he stayed with Riku in his bed. Every night at home sparked nightmares worse than the others.

Then the first bad storm had hit. Across the island, storm shutters were bolted shut, sandbags were piled, everything liable to be blown away was fastened down. Dark clouds obscured the sky day and night. There were no stars to count, no moon to shed light on the darkness, and Sora's mother kept him locked up in the family home.

The first night, Sora's nightmare rocked them both to the core. It was the first night again—their world being torn apart by darkness. No matter how much Riku shouted Sora's name, he couldn't be heard over the howling wind.

Sora frantically searched the island, screaming for him, for Kairi. The ground in his wake tearing up and falling into the black hole in the sky.

Riku's own fear must have been hindering him—the faster he tried to run, the slower he moved.

Finally, Sora collapsed at the base of the paopu tree, clutching what was left of the trunk; with the smallest patch of sand and grass to kneel on. He screamed Riku's name, his voice hoarse, almost burned out.

He reached him then, dropping onto his knees and clutching him tight. "Sora," he said. Or tried to say. There was still no sound to it.

Sora gripped his arms, shaking with terror. "Riku!"

The Dream Eater squeezed his eyes shut, took a deep breath and tried to absorb everything about the nightmare. He struggled for a moment to think of where else to send him, instead of back to the island that had just disappeared.

His own memory answered for him, and before long they were clutching each other and shaking in the middle of the rising falls of Hollow Bastion. Before it had become Radiant Gardens again.

"Sora," he said again, glad that he could speak now. "I'm here now. The nightmare is over now."

"Riku," Sora repeated, clutching him tightly. "Don't leave me alone again. Riku. Please."

Riku stayed wth him all night, holding him tight; murmuring anything and everything that came to mind. He didn't top until the brunet faded from his arms, the sure sign that he had woken up.

The rest of the dream faded, the sounds of the strange gravity of the rising falls fading into the wind and rain lashing against his house. His candle was burning low and he rushed to light another before the shadows swallowed the room.

For three days and nights, it went the same. Sora had the same dream when he slept, but every night, Riku got quicker and quicker at catching him, comforting him and taking to Hollow Bastion where the sounds of the storm made a different kind of sense.

On the fourth day, exhausted, he stood in the middle of his sitting room. The eye of the hurricane had just crossed them. Eerie stillness, too quiet—nobody daring to make a sound. The deep breath before the rage of nature started again.

Five minutes in, just as he was expecting the wind and rain to flare back to life, there was a frantic knocking on his front door.

What the hell?

"Riku! Riku let me in!"

Swearing, he went to the door. "Sora, what the hell are you doing?" The bolts of the door were heavy and slow to move, but when he had them open, the door yanked outwards and Sora forced himself in. "Sora, it's the middle of a hurricane! What the hell were you thinking? What if the wind had started again while you were on the street?"

"I made it, didn't I?" He replied, tugging the door bolt into place and effectively sealing himself in.

"It was stupid and reckless! You could have been killed!" His anger gave out, and relief flooded through him. He grabbed Sora tightly and yanked him close in a fierce embrace. "Thank the light you're okay."

Sora pulled back enough to give him a bright grin, then pressed back into his chest. Before either of them could speak again, the wind roared back to life. Sora shivered in his arms, but only for a passing moment.

"Come on," Riku said, leading him over to the coffee table with the candle. "I have a deck of cards. It'll have to do."

The storm lasted another four days. They slept together in the middle of the living room, Sora clinging to him and snoring. The dreams kept happening, but they seemed to be much less severe. Sora murmured the names of the words into his chest in a strange order, though there were no stars to count.

"Do you think Donald and Goofy are okay? And the king?" He asked on their second night.

"I'm sure they're fine," Riku replied. "Maybe they'll come to visit soon."

"I hope so…"

When the rain finally stopped, and the sun came out, Sora's mother was at his door within the hour. She was furious at him for running out into the storm, and dragged him home by the ear.

~v~

Sora was afraid of being alone. Once he figured that out, he felt like an idiot for not realising it before. It became easier to do his Dream Eater duties after that.

If Sora was staying with, as he did a few nights every week, he could leave him in a good dream with a friend or more to keep him company. Most often Kairi, but sometimes Donald and Goofy, or the friends they'd made in other worlds. Sora would sleep the rest of the night through, and Riku would manage to get his own sleep.

He'd tried it on the nights Sora slept at home. But the tests ended up causing him to have multiple nightmares in the same night and leaving them both completely exhausted the next day. So he always stayed all night with Sora when he was away.

Hurricane season went on. Many more smaller storms, but only a couple as bad as the first. The two of them clung together—Sora would always appear on his doorstep if the stormclouds gathered. Sora's mother stopped being so angry about it after the few times, coming around to the fact that her son was safe somewhere at least, even if it wasn't with her at home.

As the weeks passed, Kairi's concerned looks started getting more and more angry.

"You need to talk to him!" she said, over and over again.

"It's fine. We're working on it." But not really. Riku still had to go into his dreams every night he was away, and half of the nights they were together.

He knew Kairi's patience with him had a threshold. But he did not account for what she would do when she crossed it.

Chapter Four: Home

"Sora!"

He turned, an eager smile on his face. Seeing Kairi always made warmth bloom through his chest, and butterflies flutter through his stomach. She was his most important person. Just having her around made everything better.

"Kairi," he greeted, once she was close enough.

"Will you walk me home?" She asked, smiling. "There's something I want to talk to you about. Something important."

Sora's heart skipped a beat. Was this it? Was it time? "Yeah, of course!" he said eagerly. He was nervous now. Was he ready for this?

He knew things between the two of them were going to change. Expectation was heavy about it, had been for years. But he just wasn't sure if he was ready for their relationship to change yet.

His eyes slid past Kairi, locking on Riku standing on the other side of the school hall's cloakroom. But then his best friend gave him that smile—the one that made him feel like he could do anything.

"Let me grab my bag and we'll go."

A moment later, it hit him in the chest. He glared at Riku, who was turning away with a slight smile on his face.

"I guess we can go now then…" Kairi was walking away, and he had to hurry after her. "Hey, what's the hurry?" He asked with a nervous laugh.

She glanced at him, but didn't slow down until they'd turned into the next street. "Sora…" She began hesitantly. "You've been spending a lot of time with Riku lately…"

"I have?" He asked, confused. "I guess so?" He tapped the side of his head, confused. "Is that… bad?"

"Well, no." She gave him a concerned look. "Sora… You love Riku, don't you?"

He blinked at her, his mouth hanging open. "Of course!" How could she even question that? "He's my best friend!"

She gave a strange little huff of breath at that. One he didn't really understand. "…if something was hurting Riku, you'd do anything you could to help him. Wouldn't you?"

His face screwed up in confusion. "Yeah. Anything at all! Anytime!"

She sighed and gave him a long, silent look. "Haven't you noticed, Sora?"

"Huh? Noticed what?"

She sighed his name again, frustrated. "You're exhausting him. Every day, almost, he looks more and more tired. I've talked to him about it so many times, but he won't stop."

"Riku…"

"Sora. You know he'll do anything for you, no matter it does to him." She turned and grabbed his hands, holding them tightly. "You have to do something, Sora. For Riku."

He lowered his head, looking at their joined hands. "I… I didn't realize." He'd been so grateful to have his best friend around he'd been ignoring what was happening. "What has he told you?"

When he was walking back to his own house, he thought everything over. He still needed Riku—his nightmares weren't going away by themselves.

So he tried to remember—those times when Riku woke up easier in the mornings. Obviously, those nights when Sora didn't have any nightmares at all. When Riku by his side was enough to chase off the terror, the two of them safe and close together. Riku's voice lulling him to sleep as he named the worlds in the sky, his breathing smooth and even to keep him company when he wasn't awake to notice it.

Other than that…

There were those nights when Riku chased off the nightmare and left him in a dream—with friends for company. But that only worked properly when they were together as well.

By the time he reached the kitchen, his mother busy at the stove, he'd come up with the only viable solution. "Mom," he said, determined. "I want to move in with Riku."

She paused in the middle of stirring, then continued after a moment. "That's out of the question, Sora. You're still sixteen."

"I'll be seventeen in a couple of weeks," he argued.

"Then in a couple weeks and one year, we can have this discussion again," she replied, her voice calm. "Can you set the table?"

"Mom, please. I'm being serious."

"You are still a child, Sora. You can't live on your own."

"I wouldn't be on my own. I'd be with Riku."

"You're too young," she insisted.

"Mom… I'm not a normal teenager. Three years ago, I was out saving all the worlds from being destroyed! Last year, I battled in a war to save everyone from plunging into darkness."

"Well, if you had asked me, I would have told you then that you weren't old enough!" she snapped, slamming down her wooden spoon.

"Mom…" He crossed over and took her hand. "Mom, please look at me." She did, her sky-blue eyes wet as they looked up at him. The same exact colour as his own. "I'm not leaving again, going off into danger without knowing when or if I can come back. I'm going a few streets away—to stay with Riku." He gave her a hand a squeeze. "He needs me there, Mom. And I want to be there with him."

She took a shaky breath and bowed her head. "Let's sit down and talk about this.

~Λ~

If Riku had expected anything, a few hours after Sora and Kairi had 'walked home together', it had been the brunet busting into his house to tell him excitedly how they were finally together.

What he could not have predicted was opening his front door to see Sora and his mother there with bags full of stuff. Sora's eyes pleaded with him to 'just go with it' and promised an explanation later.

He just opened the door wide for them to come in. "I've just cleared space in the study, where you can put all the stuff."

Sora's mother fussed. She filled the sparse kitchen with home cooked meals, and scolded Sora that he would have to do his own chores. "And no putting Riku out of his bed before we get yours in! You'll have to put up with the couch!"

They agreed to that, but shared a look. But they both knew they'd end up sharing the bed. Like they had been doing for the past few months.

When she finally left, Riku turned to Sora and silently raised his eyebrows.

Sora gave him a sheepish grin. "Um… I'm moving in?"

"And you didn't think to ask first?"

"Well…" Sora sighed and looked down at his feet. "I talked to Kairi earlier. Or really, I listened while she yelled at me for putting you in danger."

"Oh." So they hadn't gone off to…? She's only gone and told Sora all they'd been arguing about for months. "And that made you decide to become my roommate?"

"Riku…" Sora said, stepping closer to him. "I need you. But I won't hurt you while you help me. You use up too much power when I'm at my Mom's house—but if I'm here with you all the time, it won't get so bad."

He just groaned and covered his eyes. "I'm too tired to yell at you right now."

"See!" the brunet said victoriously. "You're just proving my point!"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's heat up the food your mother brought and eat dinner."

He suspected Sora was grinning at his back as they went. He didn't need to look behind him to see that.