Okay it is chapter 2 time of my new story that is for MerMay! Thank you to those who followed and favorited, I am glad this story is interesting to you guys. There will be fluff of SoRiku in this chapter. Not explicated, just nice fluff stuff.

Ch.2

Sora's eyes shot open and he let out a large gasp. He sat up and found himself in his room, right on his bed. Sora let out a small whimper as he rubbed his hands against his face. He wanted to cry over the fact he had that same nightmare again, but he knew it would get him nowhere. Crying to himself or thinking about it all alone never helped him.

Nine years later and he still had a nightmare from that time. He almost wanted to think he was pathetic for having a nightmare like that, but he again had to remind himself not to think that. He knew better than that at least after all this time.

He glanced to his window and looked outside, seeing that the waters above were still dark, meaning it was still the late hours of the night. There was that and as well as the fact that the village coral lights were still off. The lights were to better light the village as the sunlight from the surface could only do so much since the the village was deep under water. Sora while knew it was late at night and that everyone would be asleep, he knew he had to just get out of the house for now. And there was only one place he knew he would go.

He saw out of his open window and headed through the quiet village, only focused on getting to his destination. Eventually he reached it, just half way through the village. He swam up to one of the windows and peered inside. There he saw Riku fast asleep on his bed. Now nine years later, Riku had grown out his hair more. It now flowed half way down his back, and more of his bangs flowed his face.

Sora breathed in slowly as he swam into Riku's room and looked over at him. He only waited a minute before he poked Riku in the shoulder. "Riku… Hey Riku…" he whispered quietly so he wouldn't wake up anyone else in the house.

Riku stirred after a moment and opened his eyes, blinking them a few times until he focused on Sora. "Hm.. what? Sora? What are you doing here? Isn't it… still night time?"

Sora averted his eyes as he let out a sigh. "Just wanted to check on you…"

Riku sat up slightly, taking note of Sora's expression. "Something's bothering you, right?"

Sora nodded, but chose not to look back at Riku. He felt a bit uneasy from what had happened before and wasn't sure how long he could currently look at Riku without breaking down. But he knew at least he could tell Riku. "I had the nightmare again… about that day."

Riku frowned slightly. He had expected the reason to be that, but he wasn't upset at the fact that Sora had dreamt about it again. He was sad to see how much it still hurt Sora. How much it seemed to weight down in his heart was obviously from his expression. Carefully Riku placed a hand on Sora's arm, hoping to once again do whatever he could to comfort his friend.

"Sora, it's been nine years since then. Everything that happened is long in the past. Besides you know I survived, I'm right here to prove it."

"But it's still there though… the permanent reminder of that time…" Sora said, only slightly moving his eyes to look up at Riku.

Riku gently ran his other hand over his tail, glancing down at it. "It's only a scar… could have been a lot worse. It healed though, that's what matters."

Sora finally had enough courage to look at Riku's tail, though a uneasy feeling formed in his stomach as he did so. While the harpoon had not fully struck Riku, it did deeply cut into the side of his tail, just below his thigh. There had been a lot of blood loss, but Sora had managed to get Riku back to the village just in time to save him. But even though the wound was healed, it was not left without a scar. A large jagged scar now was on the side of his tail, and was no longer any scales in that area, only a light and faint purplish color. It was rather noticeable due to the large size of it and how off it looked to have a patch without scales on his tail.

"But… your tail. I ruined your beautiful tail… it's my fault…"

Riku started to gently rub Sora's arm as he shook his head. "You didn't ruin anything. Come on Sora, stop blaming yourself over this. You know nobody blames you for what happened. My parents don't blame you, they thanked you for bringing me back as quick as you could."

Sora lowered his head again, trying to contain the emotions that were building up inside of him. "But I blame myself. If I had just listened to you… if I had not been so stupid…"

"Stop it Sora!" Riku shouted in a whisper, trying not to raise his voice too loudly. He leaned forward and grabbed onto Sora and pulled him in close. "Stop bashing yourself over this. I hate seeing you depreciate yourself like this."

Sora let out a shaky sigh as he rested his head against Riku's chest. Slowly he wrapped his arms around his friend and closed his eyes. "B-But why? Why don't you hate me? I screwed up back then… You could have died… I could have lost you."

Riku started to rubbed his hands across Sora's back, shushing him softly. "Relax Sora. You know I would never hate you. You were only nine years old, you didn't know any better. What does matter is that we are both still alive. We're right here together, and I am not ever going to hate you. You are my best friend, even if you are a bit of a dork sometimes. I love you Sora, so there is no way I could ever think of hating you. You got that?"

Sora sniffled as he listened carefully to each and every word Riku had to say. Though he could feel his cheeks warm up from the compliments, he ended up letting out a small sob of relief. "Th-Thank you Riku. Thank you so much."

Riku closed his eyes as he nodded. "Of course. I'm always here if you need me."

There was a pause before the two let go each other and looked into each others eyes. Sora sighed happily as he knew that Riku would never look down at him or hate. Sora had just lost himself there for a moment in his own doubt and fears. It had happened before, but his mind was clear now and he remembered how much Riku cared for him.

"Do you wanna stay for the rest night?" Riku asked after a moment. "If you still need some comfort that is."

Smiling back, Sora leaned forward and rested his forehead against Riku's. "Yeah, that would be nice."

Riku smiled back as he chuckled. He wrapped his arms around Sora once more and pulled him into a hug as he laid back down on the bed. They laid down on their sides as Riku, who was the taller of the two, rested his head gently on top of Sora's head. Their tails gently brushed up against each other as they both relaxed, slowly giving back into sleep.

"I love you too Riku. I'm glad you still do care for me," Sora whispered to Riku as he could feel his eyes growing heavy.

Riku moved one of his hands to place behind Sora's head. He gently ruffled Sora's hair as he smiled. "I always have and always will care for you."

So yeah this is a SoRiku type story. Hope that is good and all. I don't normally do to much in the way of shipping, but for this story it is needed. But this was a chapter to show the relationship that Sora and Riku have in the story. Hope you all enjoyed though! Let me know your thoughts!