The sun streamed through the glass of Sora's windshield while the wind whipped his brown spikes this way and that. The car swerved around the edges of the glistening lake at the slightest movement of the brunet's fingers on the wheel. Roxas let out a holler and unbuckled his seatbelt, standing up in Sora's parent's convertible so that the wind attacked him aggressively and he could shout to the sky. Sora's face split into an undeniable grin at his new best friend's call for adventure.

The pair was on their very first road trip heading to Rox's cabin for the weekend. It was the summer before their sophmore year of college and they had every intention of partying as hard as they could before school started the next week. They were planning on meeting their friends, Leon and Cloud, at the cabin, and Blaze was coming the next day with Kairi in tow because they couldn't get the whole weekend off of work. The blond and the brunet didn't mind, though, because it gave them an excuse to spend time together, which had become their new favorite thing.

They had been friends since their freshman year of college when Sora accidentally walked in on Roxas in the shower room and the two collided into a slippery and embarrassed heap on the floor. Lately, though, they had found that they were growing fonder of each other's company. That's what college was for, after all. Many think the four years is for an education and the gain of skills you can later use to nab yourself a career and a future, but Roxas thought of college as a far more social experience.

The sun continued to stream as the radio changed songs. Sora didn't recognize the tune by the first few chords. I don't think I've heard this before, he thought to himself, as the guitar part picked up after the first synthesized notes. He cringed, though, when he heard the words.

Sunday morning at the door, you were coming back for more, we were kicking it all around. I was looking in your eyes, you thought it was justified. You said, mo-m- mo-mo-mo-more!

"Oh man, I love this song! Turn it up!" Roxas whooped and returned to his seat just to fiddle with the volume. He then bolted upright and back into the air, clutching to the frame of the windshield as he joyfully beamed into the strong wind.

Don't stop, don't change, stay beautiful. One life, today, you're irresistible. Get up, get out, stay wonderful. All this time is waiting for you, don't stop, don't change, stay beautiful.

Sora would have closed his eyes if he could, but he was driving and needed to pay attention. He hated hearing the familiar voice that used to sing to him over the phone, and through the window, and while in the car driving around just as he was doing now…

One more, day like this. One more, poison kiss. One more, hand to fist. I will run to you. Always, first in line. Always, on my mind. Always, doing fine. It will come to you.

The brunet slammed his palm onto the power button of the stereo and practically broke it with how much force he used. Roxas swung himself back down into his seat and gave his friend a puzzled look.

"Dude, what the hell? I love that song!" Roxas complained while reaching for the power button.

"Don't!" Sora snapped when he noticed his friend's hand. Roxas instantly recoiled and Sora sighed heavily. "Please… just don't turn it back on."

"You don't like The World That Never Was?" Roxas asked earnestly. Sora could have cried the idea was so humorous to him.

"Not very much, no. Let's just talk, okay?" He asked, trying to get this friend's mind off of the song and on to anything else.

"Okay. Well why don't you like them? They're my favorite band! They're so fresh and new." Roxas snuggled into his seat and kicked his feet up on the dashboard. He was right, after all. Riku's band had just signed their record deal a year before. They had been pumping out new music like crazy, though, and teenagers and young adults were scooping up those songs like they were candy. They practically were like candy to the ears, anyway. The tunes were always catchy and entertaining; Riku was a fabulous musician and Axel wasn't too far behind.

"Roxas… we're friends, right?" The brunet asked, hesitant.

"Of course, Sor-rah." Roxas scoffed, as if the question had nearly offended him. Sora took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. He tightened his grip on the wheel and tried to convince himself h wasn't crazy.

"I need to tell you a story…"


Riku stormed into his hotel room and locked the door behind himself, effectively keeping Axel trapped behind the wooden slab. The red-head knocked valiantly, but his efforts were in vain. Riku wasn't letting him in no matter how hard he tried.

"Riku, we need to talk about this!" Axel gave up trying to pound his fists against the frame and instead rested his forehead on the slab. He knew it was useless to try and get Riku to talk. His best friend had never been one for deep conversation, especially when he wasn't in the mood for chatting. But Axel knew that what had happened in the conference room was something that couldn't be avoided.

"No, we don't! Go the hell away!" Riku screamed from beyond the door before furiously walking away. Kida, confused as to why her normally lovable master was in such a fit of rage, pranced after the silveret as he stomped his way to the bathroom. He locked her outside the door too, though; when he slammed it closed and padded his way across the bathroom tile.

Riku looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was slightly tangled because he hadn't brushed it after waking up. His face was screwed up into a thin grimace that set his normally attractive features into the realm of anger. There was a blaze of fire behind his aqua eyes. He glared at his reflection and whirled away from the glass. Ripping off his clothing, he practically dove into the shower and turned the water on.

The cold water startled his skin into goose bumps at first. He let it fall on his face and trail down the rest of his body until it turned warmer. He stepped out of the spray and sunk to his knees on the cold tile of the hotel bath.

How could this happen to me? He thought angrily.


"The Riku Docken? Like, the famous bad-boy lead singer for The World That Never Was?" Roxas stared at his friend, dumb-founded. Sora nodded.

"You don't believe me, do you?" The brunet asked. The blond was speechless for a moment.

"I want to believe you, because you've never lied to me before… but it's just insane, dude." Roxas shook his head.

"Look in my wallet." Sora sighed and handed the black leather over to the passenger side of the car. Roxas took it hesitantly and opened it up. Sora wallet was always filled to the brim, but he figured it was just full with stupid fliers from around school or with wads of cash from holidays. When he truly took a look inside, though, he found something far different. The large amount of paper in Sora's wallet consisted of a dozen or so letters. All of them were in the same hand-writing and signed by the same person.

"Holy shit… These are all of the band's most popular songs. And they're signed! Signed by Riku himself!" Roxas exclaimed while inspecting each little folded up sheet as closely as he could.

"I know. I wasn't lying. He and I… we used to date." Sora bit his lip and waited for the rejection from his friend. Being gay wasn't allowed. It wasn't right. It was dirty and sick and wrong.

"He loved you, didn't he? These songs are all about you. The song we just listened to, there's a letter right here for it. Is that why you turned it off?" Roxas asked, avoiding the fact that Sora had just came out to him. The brunet tried not to over-think the lack of reaction from his friend.

"We didn't exactly break up on the best of terms." Sora blinked back tears while thinking about that fateful night that had crushed every single one of his high-school dreams.

"You loved him too, didn't you? I can hear it in your voice. Oh, Sora, I'm so sorry." Roxas comforted the brunet as tears spilled down his cheeks. Sora kept his eyes focused on the road and the sunset and forced the memory of that night out of his head.

"Yeah… I loved him."


"I told you once and I will tell you again, I am not taking you off this project, Sora." Tifa sounded exasperated as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and rolled up the window to her car. The brunet watched, horrified, as she put the car into gear and drove away from the hotel. Roxie clasped Sora's shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.

"Come on, Sor-rah. It won't be that bad. You'll have me there the whole time!" Roxie exclaimed, trying to comfort her best friend. The author shook his head as they started walking back to the Rusty Stallion.

"'It won't be that bad'; Riku Docken ruined my life!" Sora closed his eyes and placed his hand over his lids, frantically trying to rub away the start of his headache. The pair climbed into the car and shut the doors, sealing themselves into silence from the bustle of the city outside.

"So you had a bad break-up? Oh well! You're getting married, Sora. You can't let what happened between you and a high-school boyfriend ruin your entire career. This could be your big break!" Roxie tried to explain as calmly as she could, but calm wasn't exactly the blonde's strong suit.

"Well, it won't be anything if Riku doesn't consent, and from the way he screamed 'Take your damn biography and shove it', and then stormed out of the room, I highly doubt he's going to consent." Sora recalled the silveret's explosive response to Sora being the author he was going to have to work with for the next six months.

"Maybe you should try talking to him…" Roxie mused.

"Excuse me?" Sora scoffed. There was no way in hell he was going to talk to the man who broke his heart and ruined his ability to trust people.

"Look, if you're going to do this book you have to be on good terms with him. Didn't you tell me that he sent you letters filled to the brim with song lyrics all about you?" Roxie crossed her arms.

"Well, yeah. But that didn't make it any better!" Sora cried out.

"And didn't those songs go on to become some of the band's most famous hits?" Rox asked, trying to pull the right answer out of the brunet.

"Of course they did. But that doesn't mean anything, Rox. Why are you bringing this up?" Sora became irritated with his over-intrusive friend.

"Because Riku owes most of his success to his break-up with you! If he hadn't have gone through that he'd have nothing to write about, wouldn't have all those hit songs, and he wouldn't be the front-man of the most popular band in the entire world right now!" Roxie seemed proud of herself for coming to the conclusion, but it didn't sit right with Sora.

"So, essentially, you're trying to tell me that he owes me this book? Because I made him famous?" He raised an eyebrow and quickly switched lanes to get into the parking lot of their apartment building.

"Yes! Now you get it!" Roxie beamed. "Talk to him. He ruined your life, Sor-rah. You deserve this book."


"I'm a girl." Roxas blurted out.

"Um, what? No you're not. I've seen you naked. Remember how we met?" Sora wiped tears from his cheeks and smiled in fondness at his best friend. The blond shook his head, though.

"I mean it… I like to dress up like a girl. I don't know why, but I always have. I go out to clubs sometimes by myself, and I don't let anyone know I'm going… and I just dance. I dance and I have a good time and no one knows I'm not actually Roxie." The blond explained, sheepishly hiding his face from view.

"Oh…" Sora tried to process the information he had just received.

"And I like men, too. Even if I feel like a girl sometimes liking men makes me gay. I know that it's supposed to be wrong. I know that most everyone thinks it is. But… I think that love had no boundaries, Sora. If you loved Riku then you loved him. And I'm sorry that whatever happened between you two happened. I want you to tell me about it someday, though. I know how lonely it is, never being able to tell a soul who you really are because you're afraid they'll hate you for something you can't help. But you and me… we're two in the same now. We're inseparable. We're unique."


Riku stayed in the shower for an hour. He didn't wash himself or shampoo his hair while he was inside, though. He stayed completely still, leaning against the wall and hanging his head between his knees.

Of all the people in the world it could have been, it was Sora West. It was the brown-haired, blue-eyed, pouty-lipped Sora who had been haunting him for the past decade. He knew that Sora had wanted to be a author, but he never thought the brunet would actually do it. Sora's parents had wanted him to become an engineer, hadn't they? Riku tried to remember, but it was all so long ago. Ten long years…

He had written thousands of songs about Sora in that amount of time. Some of them were good, some of them were bad. He had sent a hundred of the good ones to the brunet himself before he changed his address and fell off the face of the Earth. Riku had the resources to find him, sure. Yet, he couldn't help but think that Sora didn't want Riku to find him. The silveret promised himself he'd start storing the letters instead and never again try to send them to his ex-boyfriend. It was difficult, but he had managed it.

But now Sora had been standing in front of him, flesh and blood, and Riku couldn't believe it. He had no intentions of ever seeing Sora again in his life after making that promise. It used to be all he dreamed about, years ago, but he had given up on that hope when he turned twenty-one. Three years of Sora never replying to the letters wore him down and turned him bitter. He started to hate the boy with brown hair, blue eyes, and pouty lips. So now, to see him standing there so vividly alive and well with a blush on his cheeks and such a timid entrance, shook the silveret to his core.

He remembered the brunet as being the most beautiful and genuine person in the world. He had been bright and practically radiated warmth like the sun. Sora's smile could bring someone back from the dead, and it had worked on Riku a thousand times. He was desperate to know everything about Sora, actually. He wanted to know the brunet's favorite food. He wanted to know if he still loved hot showers or if his ankles still cracked every time he went up the stairs. Ten long years had made the once love of his life a complete stranger. Riku was parched for knowledge and had no way of quenching his thirst. The brunet was supposed to be finding out his life story, after all.

He was disgusted with the idea of someone prying and poking at his personal life, but for it to be the lover he had lost so long ago? He couldn't manage it. There was no way in hell that he could be in a room with Sora for more than five minutes without screaming or crying. Too much had been left unsettled between them and the brunet had made no effort to fix it while Riku tried desperately. Hadn't Sora felt the same way about him? They were each other's first everything. First date. First kiss. First love. First time. That had meant something to Riku. It had to have meant something to Sora.

Of course it did, idiot. That's why he hates your guts. You abandoned him. Riku thought to himself with a toxic mix of guilt and bitterness. It wasn't his fault, though. The band needed him one hundred percent and they couldn't have a gay front-man. There would have been no chance in hell of their record deal going though if Xemnas had known Riku's dirty little secret. Loving another man was practically illegal. The silveret could have kissed his fame goodbye if the world found out.

Knowing he "had to do it" didn't make it any easier, though.


"So was he any good?" Roxas asked while sucking on his sea-salt ice cream. The brunet had allowed him to purchase it at the gas station only after covering the passenger seat with napkins in-case the blond spilled.

"What do you mean?" Sora responded, confused.

"Like, in the sack." Roxas replied casually while his best friend sputtered and choked.

"Roxas! That's crude!" Sora's face blushed bright red and the blond laughed giddily.

"That means yes! Tell me all about it!" Roxas turned in his seat so he could watch his friend's facial expressions better. Sora didn't normally open up to people about these sorts of things. Well, he had actually never opened up about this kind of thing. Roxas was the first person he had ever told that he was gay.

"…Okay. But you have to promise to never tell a soul!" Sora demanded.

"Sor-rah, I just told you that I'm a tranny with no doubts at all about whether or not you'd share my secret, and you're worried that I'm going to tell everyone you've had sex? You're so silly sometimes." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Okay-okay. I get it. You're not going to tell." The brunet laughed and bit his lip, wondering where to begin. "Should I start with the kinky shit?" Sora asked. Roxas squealed with delight.


Riku had left the bathroom and was now snuggled up in bed with Kida. He had no plans on moving from this spot for any given amount of time in the foreseeable future.

"You know, girl, sometimes I miss sharing a bed with more than a dog." Riku muttered under his breath. His sudden and unexpected run-in with Sora had pushed his loneliness to the surface of his pool of emotions. It was swirling around on the top, demanding to be paid attention to, and no matter how hard the silveret tried to ignore that gnawing feeling in his chest, he just couldn't. He was lonely. He hadn't been in a relationship since his senior year of high school. He hadn't slept in the same bed with another person since Xemnas had screwed up their hotel arrangements and scored Riku and Axel a room together. He hadn't had sex in ten years. Sora was his first and his only. It made a little more sense as to why Riku was so obsessed with the brunet. He didn't have anyone else to think about.

Riku had gotten Kida as a gift from his mother five years before. He had thanked her and tried to get rid of the little husky puppy that very afternoon because dogs were a nuisance and he had no time to be bothered with things like regular walks and feeding schedules. Kida proved to be a blessing, though, when the tiny bit of routine began to run Riku's days. He'd make Xemnas schedule events around the dog's life. He began to ruthlessly fight to bring Kida with him everywhere and never left her at home for more than a few days. He refused to sleep without her, too, because otherwise the beds in all the hotels were just too damn strange and too damn big.

Nights were the hardest when he wasn't busy with concerts or tour buses or after-parties. Night was when the cold crept underneath his covers and attacked his bare skin because there was no warm body next to him to keep it at bay. There was no soft skin to caress, no blankets being stolen, no soft breathing of another person. Riku was alone. Utterly, and completely, alone.

He missed companionship and he missed sex. Seeing Sora had brought these faults in his life right in front of his eyes so that he could do nothing but stare at them. He remembered what it felt like to hold the brunet. He remembered what it felt like to have soft lips upon his own. He remembered how it felt to have indescribable warmth encase him and have Sora so close they were nearly one being…

Had it really been ten years since he had gotten laid? How pathetic… most famous man on Earth and you can't even get it in. Riku was bitter, but he knew the true reason. He couldn't sleep with anyone because they could leak to the press that he was gay. He sacrificed a love life for the life of fame and fortune. Mostly, he didn't regret it. But sometimes he wondered if it was worth it all. He wondered if the riches, the parties, the reputation… he questioned if it was worth going to bed every night alone.

The silveret was a man of reason. He was normally so controlled and it took quite a bit in order to get him to feel something more than indifference. Music was one of the only things that spoke to him on an emotional level, which may have been why he loved it so deeply. The other thing that had been able to crack through his shell was Sora, and the love that came along with the brunet. But that love was gone and now there were only haunting memories of how Riku used to feel. The grief was enough to tear through his rough exterior that normally kept him protected from pesky things like emotions and feelings.

He hated that just the sight of Sora was able to break him.


Roxie and Sora walked into the apartment and noticed the rancid smell coming from the kitchen almost immediately. The brunet turned to glower at his friend.

"I told you to take the garbage outside!" Sora complained while running into the tiny kitchen area. There sat the garbage, miserably leaned over onto the floor and expelling one of the foulest odors the brunet had ever encountered.

"I didn't know it was urgent! You said we had to go!" Rox made reference to Sora's haste that morning. The brunet huffed angrily and then began to hold his breath. He threw the trash bag at Roxie and turned around to clean up what it had spilled onto the tile floor. He heard a soft scream come from behind him, though, and immediately whirled around.

"Oh, shit! Rox, I'm so sorry!" Sora burst out in-between a fit of giggles. The trash bag was over-stuffed (as usual, since both the men were too lazy to take it down stairs, outside the building, and all the way to the garbage) and had burst on contact with the blonde. She stood with a horrified expression on her face as trash juices and assorted decomposing food bits soaked into her clothes and ran down her skin.

"You're going to pay for that, West!" Roxie roared and kicked off her heels so she could chase Sora around the apartment. The brunet was much faster in pants than his friend was in a skirt, though, and effortlessly avoided the blonde's attempts to kill him. He laughed as he slammed his door closed behind himself and locked it. Roxie pounded on the door in anger.

"Go take a shower so we can go to work! We've got one hell of a night ahead of us." Sora sighed in happiness at the childish display from Roxie and began changing his clothes. He listened as the blonde muttered under her breath, hit the door one last time for good measure, and then headed for the bathroom.

Sora had stripped down to his boxers when his phone began to ring. He picked it up and grinned into the speaker.

"Sora West, CityRise Publishing." The brunet hadn't bothered checking the caller ID, so he figured he should answer professionally just in case.

"Ouch, I got the professional answer. Did I do something wrong?" Kairi laughed on the other end of the line.

"No, no! Of course not, Kai. I just forgot to check, that's all. How was your day, snuggle bug?" Sora pulled on his work uniform while he and Kairi chatted about their days and the events which had taken place. She entertained him with a story about how her time was spent with boring clients and old people looking at condos, since she worked in real estate. Sora made up a story about his day. He figured that leaving out the "I ran into my ex-boyfriend who broke my heart and swore me off of men even though I'm gay" part would be in both of their favors.

"Well, I'm glad you had such a great day, honey. Do you want to grab a bite to eat later? I might be in the city for a bit…" Kairi used her sexy voice that implied she'd be in the city for very specific reasons, and one of them happened to be attached to Sora. The brunet panicked, though, knowing that it was Thursday.

"Nope, sorry! I have to eat at my parent's house." Sora blurted out while throwing on his shirt.

"Really? You're always there!" Kairi whined, hating how often Sora spent time in his childhood home outside of the city. Little did she know, Sora was actually going to be at the farthest place from his traditional Italian house-hold.

"Sorry, Kai. I really need to go home. I'll chat with you later. I love you." Sora dismissed her complaints and quickly ushered her off the phone so she couldn't ask more questions. He breathed a sigh of relief as he ended the call and set the phone down on his comforter. He stood fully clothed in his work attire. He frowned at himself in the small mirror he had attached to the side of the dresser and quickly threw on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie to cover up the uniform. No need to scare anyone out on the street.

His phone began ringing again within seconds of him hanging up. The brunet frowned and quickly picked up the call.

"When I say no, it means no! We'll fuck another night, okay?" Sora snapped into the mouth-piece. The other line remained quiet for a moment.

"I'm sorry. I must have the wrong number. I'll try again." The line went dead. Sora became tomato red when he realized he recognized the voice on the other end of the line. This time when the phone rang he answered as usual.

"Sora West, CityRise Publishing." He cringed as the man on the other line let out a soft chuckle.

"I knew I didn't get it wrong. Long time no see, huh, Sora?" Riku asked huskily from the other end of the call. Sora could have fainted right then and there from embarrassment.

"How did you get my number?" He asked hastily, remembering how he had cut off all contact with the silveret right after they broke up.

"I asked your manager, of course. She offered me contact information on both the publishing house and you, since you're going to be the author of this biography and all." Riku spoke coolly and calmly. Sora never knew just how nervous the silveret was, but, then again, Riku was a master of manipulation. He did it for a living, after-all. He changed people's thoughts and feelings with sounds and words in the form of music, why couldn't he do it in person, too?

"I thought you didn't want the book?" Sora questioned.

"I don't. But—" He paused, "I'm willing to make you a deal." Riku mentioned casually.

"What?" the brunet wondered whether or not his long lost lover was joking.

"A deal, West. I'm willing to cut you a deal."

"…what's in it for me?" Sora hesitantly wondered.

"Well, seeing as I can't find a single published book of yours on public record, I'm imagining this one would make you fabulously wealthy and famous. That's what you want, isn't it? Fame? Fortune?" Riku pondered over the phone line. Sora could vividly remember the way he used to ask multiple questions like that years ago. He would tilt his head ever-so-slightly to the left and stare you down with those gorgeous aqua eyes. The brunet shook his head to rid himself of the image and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"If I remember correctly, you're the one who wanted fame and fortune." The brunet couldn't help the small amount of venom in his words. "What's in it for you, though? Why the sudden change of heart?" Sora regretted his diction immediately.

"I have all the money a man could ever need and all the fame a man could want. I need neither of those things from this novel." Riku scoffed.

"Then what do you want from me? I don't have anything to offer you…" Sora sat down on his bed and tried to work through all the thoughts buzzing around in his head.

"It's a secret…" Riku whispered. Sora's body felt the immediate reaction to the sultry voice.

"What?!" Sora exclaimed before he heard a faint click and the call was over.


Authors Note:

I don't own Kingdom Hearts, the characters of Kingdom Hearts, or the ideas from Kingdom hearts.

I also do not own any music lyrics used in chapters.

Music this chapter

Stay Beautiful- The Last Goodnight