Chapter Two: Memory Lane: Part I

Valentine's Day creeps up on me quicker than I imagine. Since it is a holiday, I don't have to go into work until mid-morning. Plus, the office closes an hour early today on account of everyone wanting to spend time with their sweethearts.

Despite this, I wake up semi-early so that I can cook Sora breakfast and leave the first letter on my pillow. I want him to wake up to it, and I want to be gone by the time he wakes up so that he will wake up to me gone, thereby enhancing the mystery of it all.

I'm extremely quiet about retrieving the bag full of my letters, mindful of waking Sora, though he is a rather heavy sleeper. Luckily, he barely even stirs. I nearly choke on my laughter as I find that he's sprawled over the entire bed, his head has slid down onto the mattress instead of his pillow, and he's drooling onto the sheets. I sneak out of the room undetected, making a mental note to myself that we'll need to do laundry sometime soon.

Since it is Valentine's Day, I make pancakes in the shape of hearts. I even make a Mickey Mouse one just to tease Sora due to his dislike of the cartoon creature. If he doesn't eat it, I will eat it later, perhaps.

The pancakes are lightly buttered and topped with powdered sugar, sliced strawberries, and a scant amount of whipped cream (since whipped cream is one of Sora's favorite dessert toppings). For Mickey, his head is one big pancake. Two smaller ones make up the ears. He gets strawberry slices for the eyes, a whole strawberry for the nose, and a whipped cream smile. I think it looks cute, but maybe I'm just biased. The only things that make it look like Mickey Mouse are the trademark ears.

The heart-shaped pancakes are a bit more decorative than Mickey: I use the strawberry slices to create a frame then sprinkle the sugar, giving them a light coating of the white powder. For the whipped cream, I wait to add it until the pancakes have gone cold—so that it won't melt. I use a can and form words with them. It looks especially good with my "frame".

Sora can eat a maximum of three large pancakes before he starts getting sick of them, so there are only three. They all say different things:

I LOVE YOU

SWEETHEART

and

HAPPY V-DAY!

(And yes, there is an exclamation point on this one.)

Quite proud of myself and even rather smug, I sneer, "Not romantic, huh? How do you like that?" I chuckle, glance at my watch, and put everything away. I need to get going, but I really don't want to leave Sora. I'm torn. However, the least I can do is leave a message wishing him a good day and telling him about his breakfast.

Using a red marker, a black marker, and as much of my artistic talent as I possess (which is very little), I write on our dry erase board.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY,

SWEETHEART!

I made breakfast for you. Enjoy! Love you!

xoxo

I draw a heart with the black then color it in with the red. Next to this, I sign my name in my usual scrawl. With this accomplished, I grab my things and leave, locking the door behind me.

On my way to work, I pause at the little "hot spots," where I hide Sora's clues. This takes especially long due to some of the areas that I have to go. It's why I woke up early.

While driving, I listen to the CD that Sora made me: Valentine's Day 2009. It's filled with a lot of "our" songs, which are mostly just a bunch of sappy, popular love songs. There are two or three different versions of "Can't Help Falling In Love". I happen to be listening to the A*Teens version as I pull out of the complex.

An hour after I start work, I get a call on my office phone. I pick it up and answer with my professional voice, "Thank you for calling News of Destiny. This is Riku speaking. How may I help you?"

I somehow sense that it is Sora the split-second before he speaks; as such, I'm already smiling when he says, "Hey."

"Hey. Did you see the letter and the breakfast?"

"Yeah. I'm eating it. –The breakfast, not the letter!"

I laugh. "Yeah, I figured." We both start snickering at the imagery of Sora eating my letter.

"It's really good. Thank you."

"No problem." Finding that I'm getting glared at for my personal call because we're all here for such a short time today, I quickly and softly utter, "Hey, So. I gotta go. I'll see you later. I love you."

"Love you, too! Happy Valentine's Day!"

Smiling, I murmur, "Happy Valentine's Day." I hang up with a sigh. I already miss him, and I've hardly been away for very long.

Hearing his voice has inspired anew the yearning to be with him, which is why I ache with longing for him right now. I heave another sigh before pushing past it to focus more on my work. When it comes to break time, I eat my lunch (something that Sora whipped up last night in the determination that I have an excellent lunch on Valentine's Day) and muse on what will happen in a few hours.

I imagine that Sora woke up with a smile because it is what always greets me when those blue eyes find me.

That smile quickly fell into a disgruntled expression once he noticed the lack of ME. This disgruntled expression then morphed into a surprised and curious one upon observation of the letter on my pillow. Carefully and tenderly, mindful of the "S.W.A.K." light blue heart-shaped sticker, he opened the letter, tugging it from its confines. The single page would unfold easily, and his eyes would dart across it.

'Dearest Sora,

Happy Valentine's Day 2014! Wow! Makes you feel old, huh? Hehe.

It seems like just yesterday that I was on the receiving end of your letters. Is it strange that I still get giddy when I cast my mind back to then? When I re-read your letters, I still feel the same way I did the first time I read them: excited, anxious, bubbly, glowing, unbelievably tickled…. Did you know that?

Well, since you think that I need to "woo" you, I've prepared a day full of adventures for you, my love. I hope you have fun, and that the effort is worth it for both of us. Haha.

I love you, Sora.

Forever yours,

Riku

P.S. You'll have ten clues; each clue is in public places yet tucked away from the casual observer. Have fun!

I pause in my musings to laugh at my sappiness. I figure that it's okay, though, because Sora loves sappiness. He's a great, big sap himself!

I smile as I imagine him reading over the index card with a…hmm…fond yet amused expression? Yes, I think so.

CLUE # 1:

The place where we first "met".

Sit at our table, and you'll find the next clue.

Getting sidetracked on my imaginings, I instead begin to think about the past few Valentine's Days.

Valentine's Day, 2008: the fateful day where I found that strange yet wonderful love note.

We moved slowly the first few months of our relationship with much hand-holding but shy kisses. We were both shy—downright timid. We had to get used to each other.


The first month featured tentative hand-holding but not much else other than us sitting close to one another. Despite having had our first kiss, we couldn't bring ourselves to kiss again. During Spring Break '08, which was a week in length at the end of March, Sora managed to get one on my cheek; we laughed as we ducked our heads, blushing. We didn't try to go any further; we liked the way things were. We liked moving slowly. It suited us.

March was Heart of Darkness month. Sora was the one to coin it that. I smiled and agreed that it was apt. In mid-March, we had a fifty-question test on it. I still have an e-mail that Sora wrote in my e-mail address from senior year. (I made a new one once I graduated.) He sent it to multiple friends. In it, he bragged.

I'm sending this e-mail to all of you so I don't have to repeat myself. lol.

Today, in AP Lit class (as three of you know), we had a 50-question test on Josepsh Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Mrs. Murphy, our teacher, informed us that period 4 (*cough*yes,yourguys'class*cough*) did astonishingly... horrible. 0.- She said there were a lot of D's and C's... and a few B's. Of course, telling us this freaked us (period 5) out... because we then assumed that if you guys thought it was hard... we would find it hard. I suppose it was rather hard - I had to use my powers of deduction... and a bit of educated guessing... quite often. It seemed not that difficult, though, if one had read the story. lol. Apparently, not that many people actually read it despite the fact that we have that 20-25 page analysis project due in two weeks...? XD (I am not questioning the fact that it is due - I am questioning those that didn't read it. I went back last night and read section 2 and 3 - and I am certainly glad I did! : D)

First of all: What did you two period 4 people (Selphie, Yuna) get? Did Murphy tell anyone their score? She didn't really tell anyone in our class... except for one person.

Murphy said that one person (in your guys' class, apparently) had missed 36 (or was it 39?) out of 50. There will be no "Murphy Math" on this test, true... but even if there were... I doubt it would help that poor soul. -.-

I went back and changed one of my answers... I forget on which question... but I am hoping that I either: changed it to the right answer... or that I didn't change it to the wrong answer. (Yes, I am aware that that is the same thing, basically. XP)

Apparently, out of both classes... someone got an A. 0.0 Mrs. Murphy told this person, who happens to sit near her desk (^_^;), "You got an A," and replied to the question of how many missed with, "Four."

I think she said that this A was the only A in both classes... but I can't be sure. Anyway...

I can't hold it back any longer.... I GOT THE A~! *propels a peace sign forward with his left arm while putting his right hand on his hip and giving the XD face*

I distinctly remember getting a B on this test…and that I called Sora a loser for going back and reading the sections again. He retorted, "Yeah! A loser who got an A!" then stuck his tongue out at me. He then proceeded to be all cocky for the rest of the day. I both loved and hated him for it. Even now, I feel like grumbling.

Just like I'd secretly wished before we'd gotten together, Sora and I helped each other (via Gmail chat) with our monstrous essays on Heart of Darkness. We pulled an all-nighter. We kept each other motivated and on task, surprisingly. To our great astonishment, our papers came to about thirty pages. It was then that I discovered that Sora was an excellent Honors/ AP student with bullshitting skills that I worshipped.I "bowed" to him, and he "grinned" and said, 'Yeah, I know! I'm awesome! Worship me all you please!' This was accompanied by him sticking his tongue out (on the emoticon).

If I were now to say that I worship him, I'm not quite sure he'd remember the real reason behind it—unless I remind him.

When we got to class on Doomsday (as we had nicknamed it), there were some people missing; Mrs. Murphy called it… I forget what she called it, but it had something to do with "flu" and Heart of Darkness—and the fact that the papers were due.

During the second month of our relationship—which was mostly April and the beginning of May—we worked more on snuggling and getting comfortable in each other's arms. Unfortunately, we had very little time near the end of the year because we had work piled on us.

We had a novel analysis due at the end of April. For it, we were given a list of things to choose from, and we had to choose a book that we hadn't already read (or, in my case, that I'd never done anything for in a previous class). I chose Pride & Prejudice. I don't remember what Sora did.

This reminds me of the end of February when Sora and I were frantic because we procrastinated (as we were wont to do) on a "literary analysis". There were a lot of stipulations to this project, one of which being that we needed "critical commentary"—commentary from important people. We'd had at least a month to do it, and we waited until two days before to even start our research. (As Sora would say: 'Everyone knows that AP stands for "Advanced Procrastination"!')

At this point, we didn't have each other's contact information. (That happened after we got together.)We made a point of not mentioning the project so as to keep from stressing too much (which we left to do at home, on our own time). Together, we were easygoing and focused on trivial things; separately, we stressed over this stupid thing until we were sick to our stomachs. It's funny to recall that, amidst this madness, I was getting love letters from him.

I wonder if Sora might have been using them as a way of relieving stress—or at least something to focus on that wouldn't give him an ulcer. Well, he'd get nervous writing them, but he was usually more excited than anything—since I'd been responding well—at least, this is what he's told me. I really have no reason to doubt him, though.

We had so much to do in April and May. There was a lot of essay-writing in April in preparation for the AP exams (which were in May). We had a marathon of it, actually: three days in a row of in-class essays. We'd read a passage—usually a short story—and then we'd respond to the open-ended prompt of our choice. Sora and I trudged out of the room, mentally drained, our hands crippled. I nearly giggle at the memory of how he slumped against me, making it difficult for me to walk. "Mush!" he commanded jokingly but with a tired air to his voice. I tried to shake him off, but he clung to my backpack, relying on my strength to get us through the crowded hallways—indoor and out.

Come to think of it, I still have my high school portfolio somewhere, filled with folders from each year, which, in turn, are filled with all of the tests and essays I did. Sora has his as well. I don't know why we've kept it; neither of us plans on looking back at them.

Anyway, those of us who registered for the AP exams (which Sora and I did) were having cram sessions from March to the very beginning of May. I remember really liking March and April because Sora and I spent a lot of time together—a lot of time dedicated to schoolwork, but a lot of time nonetheless. We both participated in the group of six people (out of a class of twenty) who were going to take the AP Japanese test.

I think one of the things I love most about Sora is his tenacity with work—especially schoolwork, when he had it. It's no wonder he was a superb student: he studied like no one's business and worked his butt off!

In a way, our classes seemed to define us in high school. I only had two AP classes, but I think Sora had more. (I don't remember his schedule, though. It's been too long.) We were the "smart" kids, and our AP classes contributed to our personalities. Our teachers and classmates had an impact on us. We had fun. We took Japanese because we loved it; we did English because we liked the challenge. In general, I think we took AP and Honors classes to challenge ourselves. We've never been the types to do things halfway. We fight, and we fight hard.

In May, we had a unit on poetry, which led to more essay-writing. We even had a group project. Sadly, Sora wasn't in my group; somehow, though, I ended up in a group consisting of (literally) the smartest kids in our grade. I tried to contribute in the process of creating our analysis, but they ended up re-doing everything that I wrote. I just read off of the paper they gave me.

Oh, wait. That was for the project on Hamlet back in December.

Truthfully, I never read the play. I don't remember which came first: the final essay for Hamlet or the project. Either way, I crapped out some bullshit. I remember that I was reading over my essay at lunch when I discovered an egregious typo in it. It was so bad that it potentially revealed the fact that I hadn't read the play. Hence, I didn't turn it during fifth period; I promised that I'd turn it immediately after school. It was at this time that I was grateful for not having a sixth period. Amazingly enough, I got a C plus on that essay. (For once, I was glad for such a "good" grade.)

When I told Sora this story, which was probably back in March of that year, he laughed and laughed at me. I don't know why he found it so funny. I assume it has to do with the fact that, despite his habit of procrastination, he was generally a good student. He always did the reading.

For the Hamlet project, we did a puppet show to summarize our allotted act. Since we had the very last scene in the entire play, we got to make our Popsicle-stick puppets "die" by throwing them aside. We got a lot of laughs—and I was glad to hear that some came from Sora.

I can't remember what Sora's group did, unfortunately. I didn't even pay attention. I think I spent his presentation staring at him, not bothering to listen to his words—just his voice. It's funny to think that that was first semester, and that we didn't know each other then. It's just so strange because, by now, it's hard to remember a time when I didn't know Sora.

As I stare at my lunch, I realize that I can't remember what I was thinking of in the first place. But now I figure I might as well continue reminiscing about AP Lit. It might bring my point back to me. So, I eat my food and head back to my sweet memory lane.

Let's see…. We started off the year with the summer projects. We did one book from a list she gave us and then we did—Aww! Owen Meany! I should remind Sora about it!

I never much liked the book, A Prayer for Owen Meany. In fact, I thought it was greatly boring when I first read it the summer before senior year. The more we analyzed it, though, the more I liked it. I think I only hated it in the first place because I procrastinated and, therefore, had to read it in only two long sittings—and it was a thick book! I didn't care about the older John's ramblings of his youth until we discussed it in class—and then it became interesting.

Sora loved the book, though. He was crazy about Owen. He thought he was hilarious. He admitted to crying at the end. (I didn't—probably because I wasn't that emotionally attached due to the way I ploughed through the book.) Surprisingly enough, Mrs. Murphy admitted to crying every time she read it. Sora and I had a hard time imagining the sturdy woman crying even though we kept in mind that everyone's human.

The thing I hated about the summer project was that, aside from essays, it required artistic ability. When school started, we were assigned a project to do a shield with some emblem on it or something.

Wasn't there something about an epitaph? I can't remember. I don't even remember what I drew for the Owen Meany portion—the shield. I think I drew grass and things that vaguely resembled human shape for whatever the artistic project was for our optional book (mine was Wuthering Heights). I think that was the one with the epitaph, which was easy for me since there were multiple dead people in my book. I think there was something having to do with a minimum on the words written on the back of the picture, but whatever. What I remember about my Owen Meany project was that I drew horribly. I think I drew a baseball or something—among a couple of other things. Everything looked like something a five-year-old could have done.

Sora, though… Oh, Sora! He drew the infamous red dress upon the sewing mannequin. I can see myself standing in Room 107, practically up against the wall, all so that I could stare at Sora's amazing artistic talent. I wished I could draw like him as I regarded it. And then I started thinking, 'His hand touched this paper….' It made me want to reach out and touch it.

I freaked myself out at that point and forced myself to leave the room.

We did King Lear for a while after that, going into great detail. I remember when we watched a film version of it, and the room was dark, Sora had moved closer so he could see the TV at the back of the room (since his seat was by Murphy's desk, which was in the opposite corner, he was the furthest from it). He sat just a couple of seats ahead of me. I nearly asked Demyx to trade seats with me as the lucky bastard sat right behind my crush.

Instead of paying attention to the movie, I imagined myself in a darkened movie theater, the armrest up so that we two were snuggling. I was so caught up in this that I jumped in my seat when the lights came on. Everyone laughed at me, assuming that I'd been asleep. Sora, though…regarded me with interest. It was almost as if he knew that I hadn't been sleeping. I couldn't keep eye contact; I was too embarrassed. I scurried on out of the room as quickly as possible. Thank God it was a Friday!

At some point, I forget when (it might have been January), we had a book report. We chose our book from a list. Both Sora and I did Amy Tan books: I did The Joy Luck Club, and he did The Kitchen God's Wife. I got a B; he got a B plus…the bastard!

We did a lot of poetry during the year. I hate poetry with a passion, which is why I've never ever bothered to write any for Sora. He actually liked our unit on poetry that was during first semester. Since he knew that I hated it, he'd always tease me, requesting that I write him love poems. I never did.

I never got the hang of all the terminology. The most I understood was "iambic pentameter"—and I barely grasped that. Analyzing literature—plays and novels, really—I am good at; analyzing poetry…I fail miserably.

Ah! Now I remember! For that project near the end of the year, we did a scrapbook for some poem about an urn, and my group of three procrastinated until the day of. They skipped fourth period and lunch to be able to tie it all together.

…Wait. That was a different project, too! That was the one that we did just before Winter Break.

The presentation I'm thinking of was where my group read off our note cards, analyzing some other poem. I don't even remember what it was about.

I can recall that I was nervous. We all stood in a cramped line along the front of the room (I forget why). I think it was that everyone had been assigned a little snippet of some sonnet, and that the class was being graded as a whole. I definitely remember that that guy Jeff had everyone pissed at him for reciting an answer he got off a text message.

See, the friend that text messaged him his answer was in the period before ours and had asked Murphy; she gave a false answer to the person; the person texted Jeff; Jeff actually used the incorrect answer. The entire class was pissed while Murphy, with her Hispanic wizened face and her bushy brown hair, grinned with great, gleeful amusement. Her eyes big, brown eyes were open wide, shining with it. I can't remember if or how much she marked us down, but I do remember that Sora was greatly amused. I can still see his grinning face; that gleam in his eye lingers in my mind.


A/N: One clue down… nine to go. Riku's trip down memory lane is a long one, so be prepared for more memories of their time in high school together. I like their younger selves better than the older ones, but shhh! don't tell them that!

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Kagome-chan