Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or any characters from any of the games mentioned. I asked them over to play and I'll be sure to get them home before bedtime.
Warnings: Rated M for language, yaoi, and future sexual content.
As always, let me know what you think. If you like it, please review! Thank you!
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Though throughout the night he had been sleeping peacefully without any strange dreams, Sora's first thought of the day was to wonder why his alarm clock had suddenly sprouted arms.
"Sora, buddy, c'mon! Early practice!"
The spiky-haired brunette rolled away from the voice, grumbled tiredly and pulled his blankets tightly around his body. "G'way Riku…"
"Riku? Do I really look like that freak to you?" A hand fell from the sky and slammed down on Sora's back. "Up! Up, up, lazy shit!"
Sora sat straight up in his bed and tried to blink away the sleep from his eyes. He came face to face with a pale skinned teenager with light blue eyes and burgundy hair. The boy grinned and ruffled Sora's already messy hair. "That's enough sleep for today! Time for practice! Game's tonight, buddy."
The brunette yawned and glanced at the clock beside his bed. He groaned. "Wander! It's three in the morning!"
Wander grinned wider and pulled Sora, who was still in his soccer shirt and boxers, out of bed. "Best time to practice. Come on, let's GO!"
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High school life had taken a little adjusting to. Needless to say, hours of monotonous classes and lessons were a bit of a step down from saving the universe. The crowd he ran with was quite a bit different as well.
Wander had become the best of his friends, if not his absolute best. Wander was the captain of the Paopu soccer team, though he often said that Sora would be better for the position. He, along with many new inhabitants of Sora's world, had appeared on Destiny Islands after the defeat of Organization XIII.
Sora walked with Wander to their high school, which had steadily been growing and remodeling due to the increasing population of Destiny Islands. The entire place was starting to seem more like Radiant Garden with its city-like appearance.
"I don't get why you and that Riku kid were ever friends," Wander mused out loud as they walked in the rising sunlight. "He's such a freak, don't you think?"
"I guess…" Sora had to admit, his former friend had gone through a drastic change. He'd never before seemed to care much about his appearance, but lately he had been dressing in black clothes and silver chains and jewelry, and wearing black makeup on his pale face. He had made different friends, just as Sora had, who wore the same kinds of clothes as him and did the same kinds of things he did. They sat at their own table at lunch, sat in the back of the auditorium during assemblies, never attended school sporting events, and once in a while they could be caught skipping classes behind the school smoking funny smelling cigarettes.
"Our relationship was… complicated, I guess," Sora tried to explain. "We'd known each other for a while and we went through a lot together." It seemed so long ago that he'd been fighting alongside Riku in order to save the many worlds he'd been to. He couldn't exactly explain their connection to Wander, who, like so many others, was blissfully ignorant to what had been happening while Sora was busy helping to keep the balance between darkness and light.
Wander laughed and shook his head. "I just can't see it happening. You're so cool, and he's just… well, there's not a word for it, really. Just weird, I guess."
"Yeah," Sora said quietly, the conversation unsettling him. "D'you think our new game plan will work against the Aurochs tonight?" he asked, attempting to change the subject. Wander grinned and went off into a cheerful rant about the effectiveness of their new play and the Paopus' imminent victory. Sora listened intently and, with a great deal of relief, was able to walk the rest of the way to school without any more talk of Riku.
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"Check out the embodiment of school spirit," Dante said, smirking from where he sat cross-legged on top of the lunchroom table. "Can I just say 'gag'?"
Riku looked over his shoulder at the people who had just entered the lunchroom and a weight pressed heavily on the left side of his chest. Half of the Paopu soccer team had entered, all dressed in their uniforms, and trailing behind them, laughing at someone's joke, was Sora. Riku had grown too far apart from his friend in both looks and interests to notice him much, but since Sora's recent rise in the school athletic ranks, the former hero had become a regular topic in his thoughts.
As the soccer group passed their table, Dante turned to Riku and said loudly enough for half of the room to hear, "Wonder goes on in the locker rooms after the games? Do you think it stops at just taking showers, or do they get a little too friendly with each other?"
The boy Sora had been talking to, a blonde teen named Gippal, stepped toward them. "What was that, fucker?" Sora and another of the boys, Kilik, grabbed Gippal's arms and held him back to prevent him from jumping at the white-haired teen.
Dante laughed. "That's an ironic thing to say, Gippal. I heard about that disease you missed the last game to get diagnosed. What was it called again…?"
Gippal's face burned red and he lunged at Dante and Riku, who were now laughing, only to be pulled back by the remaining members of his team.
"Come on, Gippal!" Kilik tried to reason with him. "If you get in a fight now, they won't let you play in the game tonight!"
Sora had a difficult time helping to hold back the blonde. He was distracted by Riku's laughter, and he stared at the silver-haired boy in shock. He couldn't believe that his former friend would find so much pleasure in seeing someone else humiliated. Riku stared back at him, a taunting half-smile on his lips, and Sora felt a strange mixture of anger and pain rising within him. "Let's go," he said quietly to Gippal. "We don't need to waste our time here." With a bit of struggling, and almost no more hesitation, the team managed to drag Gippal away from the lunchroom and the two teens still laughing at them.
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Sora waited near one of the back entrances after school, his face set into a scowl and his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest. As he'd expected, exactly ten minutes after the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, Riku came through the door with a cloud of smoke billowing out behind him. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Sora, his face carefully blank to hide his surprise. The door swung shut behind him, locking the smoke inside.
It was several moments before Riku spoke. "What's that face for, Sora? Where's your team spirit?"
"What the hell happened to you, asshole?!" Sora burst out suddenly. "Since when do you laugh at other people when they're being made fun of?"
Riku shrugged. "I don't know. Because it was funny?"
"Why did you change so much, Riku?" Sora strode forward and grabbed a fistful of Riku's black jacket. "Since when did you start dressing like this, and hanging out with those jerks, and blowing off classes every damn day?!"
"Not everyone can be perfect, Sora," Riku said calmly. He pushed Sora's hand away and started to walk off. "People change, okay? I'm just not the guy you used to know. End of story."
Sora stared with a pained expression as the other walked farther away. Finally he found the words he'd been meaning to say in the first place. "I miss being friends, Riku."
Riku stopped and glanced over his shoulder. For a moment it seemed like he was going to respond, but he simply turned away and kept walking until he had rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.
Sora stood staring for several minutes at the spot where Riku had last been. He felt numb, as though the other had slapped him across the face and the sting had not yet arrived. After a while he heard a voice calling out his name.
"Sora!" Wander came running around the building and Sora, blinking out of his stupor, jogged to meet him halfway. Wander bent over and panted heavily. "I've been looking… everywhere for you!" He said in between breaths.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked, studying the worried expression on his friend's face.
"It's… Gippal!" Wander said, still out of breath. "He got… in a fight… and he's at the hospital!"
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"That goddamn white-haired fucking freak!" Gippal ranted for the umpteenth time. The bandages over his eye were starting to slip because of the sweat on his forehead. "What the hell did I ever do to him?!"
"You threw the first punch, Gip," Kilik informed him, exasperated. "What did we tell you about fighting? We lost the game 'cause you weren't there."
"Yeah…" Gippal said, wincing guiltily. "I'm still sorry about that. I wanted to go, but they wouldn't let me out of here with this arm. How stupid is that? You don't need hands to play soccer."
"I think it was the fact that you'd spilled so much blood you could've painted the whole school that made them keep you here," Wander observed dryly. "For a freaky-deaky guy, Dante's stronger than he looks."
"Ugh, stop saying his name," Gippal complained. "It's making me sick."
Kilik laughed. "Are you sure it's not overwhelming shame about getting the shit kicked out of you by a guy who wears makeup that's making you sick?"
"Shut the hell up," Gippal growled and winced in pain when he tried to reflexively lash out with his injured arm.
Sora watched them all from the doorway of the hospital room, torn between laughing at their conversation and straying further into his thoughts on Riku and Dante. He knew that thinking too much wouldn't be healthy in the long run. His team's failure against the Aurochs had been partly because Sora had been distracted with his thoughts. Still, Riku was never very far from his mind, and he couldn't figure out why.
As though the teen knew exactly where the brunette's thoughts were directed, at that moment Sora saw the telltale flash of silver hair and black clothing disappearing into an elevator. Without realizing it, Sora had started to run toward the closing doors and he forced his hand in at the very last moment. When the doors slid open, he saw Riku leaning against the wall of the elevator with an expression of utter surprise.
"Well, if it isn't Mr. Perfect," Riku said with an overwhelming lack of enthusiasm.
Sora stepped into the elevator and leaned against the opposite wall as the doors closed and they started their descent. "Why are you here? You're not here to see Gippal, are you?"
Riku let out a short, sharp laugh. "Blondie? Hell no. I'm checking up on Dante. He got his nose broken by your so-called friend."
"Seems a bit more fortunate than what Gippal's got," Sora growled, suddenly feeling defensive. "A concussion, massive blood loss, and a broken arm."
"He started it," Riku muttered, as though that were all that mattered.
"Who cares who started it?!" Sora burst out suddenly. "They both got the shit beat out of them, and now we've got some kind of group war going on between us and you guys, and why the hell should it matter who starts anything anymore?! We're all guilty anyway!" Sora looked away, realizing that what he'd said made little sense, and wasn't what he'd meant to say at all.
Riku studied him carefully, then slammed the button for the emergency stop on the elevator. The lights suddenly went out, leaving them in a dull glow. Riku's green eyes glittered as he pressed close to the other boy. "What is this really about, Sora?"
Sora froze, intimidated by the darkness and their solitude. "I don't know," he said quietly, blinking. "I guess… I don't really want to be your enemy." He froze nervously as he felt Riku's hands on his waist. "Uh, why are you so close…?"
"I'm tired of you pushing me away, Sora," Riku replied. "If you don't want to be my enemy, you'll have to get used to having me close by. And you'll have to get used to the new me, and stop talking about what things used to be like."
"I…" Sora inhaled sharply. He could feel Riku's warm breath against his face. "I don't know anymore, Riku. I'll have to think about it."
Riku sighed. "Fine then," he whispered. "Have it your way." He pulled away suddenly and hit the button on the elevator to get it running again. They stood in silence for the ride down until Riku reached his floor and left. Sora stayed on the elevator, once again watching him go, and hoping that he wouldn't have to watch him leave again with the same painful, awkward feeling in the pit of his stomach anytime in the future.
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A/N: Super extra bonus points for anyone who can name all of the games the characters are from. Again, please review! Me lovies the reviews! Thanks to anyone who sat through this entire thing. I know, there was no sexyness this time. Please be patient. I hope to have a second chapter done soon, and I promise something then wink wink Thanks again!