A Fostering Relationship

By RedBlackandWhite

RBW's Amazed Drabble: Holy crap! After having chapter 2 posted for 5 hours I got 8 reviews! Why do you like this so much? Hmm maybe because it's a new subject, Sora being a foster kid. I'm soo happy! Here's chapter 3!


Ignore the A/Ns. I fixed this chapter a lot. I mean a ton. It's loads better now.
Alysa and Doug don't belong to me.
The rest of the weekend passed without anything of interest occurring. Meals consisted of talk centered around Sora, still shy and who looked at his plate when not spoken to. When he did look, those orbs stared at you with heart-breaking frailty.

On Sunday the family had gone to the park. Alysa tried to teach Sora to rollerblade while Riku just slept in the grass. The sounds of wheels on the concrete for only a mere 10 seconds was always followed by a spectacular crash, resulting in Alysa's voice laughing to the heavens, while Sora groaned.

On Monday, the family went to the bowling alley, which Sora had little difficulty with, the only problem being how much the ball weighed.

And now it was Tuesday, the first day without the parents.

Riku awoke at the usual 6:30 to the retreating darkness and the awakening of the birds, as he did each and everyday, despite his inability to sleep. He put on jeans and a shirt found from the bottom of his closet and walked downstairs, to find Alysa up and bright as a daisy, as he did everyday. This, once again, solidified his thoughts that Alysa was some sort of hybrid vampire/mailperson.

"So where's the kid?" he asked, pulling out orange juice.

"Tsk tsk Riku, you shouldn't be the one to call him a kid, you're only a month older than him." She mocked him, but not as energetically as usual. Her sugar hype was over for the week.

"You got his birthday?" inquired the silver-haired teen, as if it were all a CIA mission.

"Yeah, and you would've too if you'd spent more time with him." She retorted. "And on that note, I'll be leaving you with him for 2 hours today because I have to meet up with a guy named…"

she pulled out a slip of paper.

"…Doug. Seems he's my co-counselor for that camp next year, I hope he's not the bookish type."

Riku almost dropped his glass as a cold sweat came over him.

"What? You're leaving him with me?"

"Yes, Riku, I am." She said.

"You two need to get to know each other better. Needless to say he's already frightened of you."

Riku smirked inwardly at this comment.

"Don't worry, I don't leave for another hour. Oh and please don't accidentally kill him; I don't think that your parents would appreciate that." Alysa continued.

"Why don't you go wake him up?"

Riku opened his mouth to protest, realized the irony of doing such a thing, and went to do so, mumbling certain things not appropriate for anyone to hear.

He walked into Sora's tidy and unhomely room to find him dead asleep. Well, not him per-say, all that had surfaced from the sea of sheets was his unruly hair. A sea urchin floating in the water.

Riku poked him once.

Twice.

Three times.

"SORA!"

Silence.

Riku stormed out, not wasting anymore energy on this summer-ruiner.

He stomped down the stairs, passed his cousin and said "I can't get him up."

"Pushover." Was all he heard as Alysa ran upstairs.


Halfway through eating a bagel he heard a loud thump from above.

Then he heard Alysa screeching.

Then the shattering of a vase.

Wait, a vase? They didn't even have a vase in that room.

Finally Riku heard an unfamiliar voice, which could only belong to Sora.

"AHHHHHHH!!!"

Alysa came downstairs a few minutes later, looking extremely pleased with herself.

"What happened?" he asked, but only out of morbid curiosity.

"Oh well, lets just say Sora doesn't wear enough to be thrown out of his bed."

"How can you live yourself?"

"It's called wine hun. And scotch." She replied.

Sora came down a bit later in a shower robe, hair wet and sticking to his face, blushing as if he was coming off of a fever high.

Alysa chose this time to break the news.

"Hey Sora, I have to go out for a few hours, why don't you and Riku go to the ice rink?"

Sora stared at Alysa as if she were leading him to a guillotine, while Riku just hit his head against the granite of the countertop.

"Umm… I don't know how…" he murmured.

"Don't worry! If you're about to fall, just make sure you land on Riku! He's nice and cushy like that." She said, beaming.

Sora blushed and Riku was shooting daggers into Alysa's back that said, "burst into flames, burst into flames…"

"Riku, you make sure to teach Sora how to ice skate. I'll meet you two at the rink when I'm done with Doug. Then we'll come back and have some fun!" she said, waving her arms like a rainbow.

She snatched her car keys and vacated the area.

The two teens stood there in silence for a few seconds, the only sounds coming from water hitting the tile around Sora.

"Well go get dressed and we'll leave in 20 minutes." Riku muttered.

Sora quickly nodded and sped upstairs, the awkward silence was still lingering.

After a minute or two staring at the countertop for condolence, Riku cleaned up the kitchen and trudged upstairs.


The pitter-patter of the shower hitting the glass, the muffling sounds of a towel, and the indescribable sounds of putting on clothes dropped into a monotone as Riku dwelled on the thought of spending an entire day with Sora. With no rational reason to hate him, he felt as if he still had a right to do so, but had to think of a good reason quickly.

Running out of thoughts to think, as one often does, Riku looked at himself in the mirror, noting how black his outfit seemed to be. A little too black for his liking actually, but laziness wins over fashion sense nine times out of ten, so Riku left his room to wait for the other.

Sora rummaged through his newly furnished closet with mild frustration. He had no idea what he was doing. After going to the park on Sunday, everyone had gone to the mall. Alysa insisted that she need new pants and that Riku would be shunned from Western civilization if his wardrobe wasn't updated soon by her, though after a while Sora knew it was just to get him clothes. Alysa could only accidentally find nice clothes that fit him perfectly so many times. And she had locked him in that dressing room for so long, but just for this last thing. And the parents hadn't contested a single item.

Trying his best, he found a black t-shirt and a blue sweater that fit him snugly, and thick, dark denim jeans to cushion his imminent falls.

He looked into the mirror, decided that it was pretty passable, and turned to leave.

Riku was grabbing the car keys as Sora's footsteps caused him to jerk his head up.

Sora stood there, having cleaned up nicer than Riku had expected, and was completely silent, staring at the floor.

Riku grabbed the keys.

The cold metal on his fingers reminded him of something.

He couldn't drive without Alysa in the passenger seat, since he still only has his permit.

"Crap." He muttered.

"Wha-what is it?" piped Sora.

The initial shock of Sora's voice passed quickly and Riku answered.

"I only have my permit; we need someone to drive us." He said, running a list of people through his head who he could ask to drive them.

Cloud…he hates everything…Yuffie is Alysa's twin…Aerith is out of town…there's…that's a stretch…


"Hey Leon, what's up?" Riku asked, the phone having been picked up at the second ring. "What do you want Riku?"

"I'm hurt Leon, why do you think I want something?"

"Because you're sounding like Yuffie when she wants me to do crap for her."

"Well, now that you mention it, I need you to drive me to the skating rink."

"And why should I do that?"

"Because Alysa is making me go and if I don't she's going to be super pissed at you, and you can bet she'll get back at you for it."

"…"

"Leon?"

"I'll be in your driveway in five minutes."

"Sure."

Click.

Four minutes and 57 seconds later, Leon pulled up in his black Saab, the lion's emblem shining in the summer heat. Riku could see Leon's scowl through the windshield, leaning on his hand against the wheel. Riku got into the passenger and Sora silently sat behind him.

Leon eyes followed Sora's figure through the rear-view mirror while he got in.

"Is this the new kid?" he asked, glancing at Riku and acting as if Sora didn't speak English.

"Yup, his name's Sora."

Leon held out his large hand to Sora, who nervously took it, obviously intimidated by him. Sora's hand was almost crushed.

"Name's Squall Leonheart, but don't ever call me that, call me Leon, call me Squall and you won't see straight for a week." He said with such normality that it seemed he said this to everybody.

"Psh, tell that to Yuffie." Said Riku, who was staring out the window.

Leon glared at him.

Sora was utterly confused at this point and resolved to make himself as small as possible.

The car ride was fast, surprisingly controlled, and showed Sora exactly how much contempt Leon had for doing Alysa's errands merely by the car's engine noises.

The car pulled up to the curb with ease, and Riku started to get out, Sora following suit after catching Leon's glare in the mirror.

"Thanks Leon! You're a doll!" said Riku, turning and waving, attempting to be as Alysa-like as possible to get the maximum annoyance out of the brunet.

"Whatever."

The car sped out of the lot.

Riku turned to Sora, having changed back to his I-still-don't-like-the-fact-that-I'm-dragging-you-around mood. Sora wouldn't have expected any less.

They walked in and rented some skates from the cashier. Rica strapped his skates on in record time, only to see Sora severely struggling with his. Only out of want to get it over with, Riku tied them for Sora, receiving the most miniscule of thanks.

Riku staggered towards the rink, keeping a firm hand on Sora. He stepped onto the ice, recovered from the first step, and felt a hard tug as the boy behind attempted the same.

Turning his head, he saw utter fear on Sora's face, and sighed at how hard this was going to be.

Riku turned to face him, grabbing his wrists and leading him.

Sora skates moved forward, lessening the fright on the boy's face.

Riku let his grip up just a tad, and the effect was instantaneous.

Sora fell violently, being caught by the wrists tightly enough so that he was leaning against Riku's chest, smothered.

Riku pulled him up to his feet again, seeing his red, and still frightened, face.

"Okay, let me help you." Riku said, knowing that not helping Sora meant disobeying Alysa, and disobeying Alysa is scary. Nothing but scary.


2 hours elapsed, those 2 hours filled with shaky movements and numerous falls. Lots of falls.

Damn Alysa and her predictions.

But overall, Sora had improved as much as any person could in those time restraints, and a small smile could be seen if you looked hard enough. Riku wasn't smiling, but was stressed and exhausted, the worst of it over.

They took off their skates, both of them flustered and red-faced.

"Well, well, well, had a fun time did we?" said an all-too-familiar voice licking at the back of their necks.

Alysa was leaning against the rink wall, obviously extremely pleased with herself.

"When did you get here?" asked a surprised Riku.

"Eh, about 4 falls ago." She said, waving the question away with her hand.

Sora blushed and found immense interest in untying his skate.

"I thought you said you were going to be 2 hours! That was only 1 hour and 20 minutes!" said Riku, getting quite angry.

"Yeah, Doug's fun and all, but he's all 'let's follow rules'. Total by-the-book guy. So I cut the meeting short and came here, but why should I stop you two from having your fun?" she said slyly.

"Whatever." Said Riku.

They left and got into Velma the Van.


Velma was, and would always be, the car you would hate if it was given to you, but over long hardships and engine fires, would grow to love it. Alysa liked engine fires anyway, so she loved it doubly so. Riku wanted to throw a barrel of nuclear acidic waste on it, it was just that disgusting. Especially during the summers, because Alysa drove him most places.

She was driving in silence for once, right hand on the wheel, left supporting her daydreaming head. A skill, perfected by her, that mortified Riku. Amazingly, her control rivaled Leon's.

By the miracle of God, Sora decided to speak.

"Uh, Alysa? Y-You said after this we were going to 'have some fun', what did you mean?" he said, his voice hinting the fear of an answer.

Alysa's eyes beamed through the mirror.

"Oh, we have a sharp one here! Well my little duckling, when we get home we're going to play a fun little get-to-know-each-other-game." Replied Alysa, looking at Sora through her rear-view mirror.

"Something I played in college when we first arrived. Oodles of fun."

Riku did not like where this was going.

"And what would that be?" he asked.

"Why, my darling, that would be TWISTER!" cried Alysa.

Riku wondered if jumping out the window at this speed would maim him badly enough.


Review, s'il vous plait, the author took his sweet time to fix this up all nice a pretty.