I feel so baaad. TT_TT I'm so slow. I'm sorry. BUT! I have an excuse. XD There's been plenty of family drama, shall I say, going on for the past month... Ehh.

DREAM DROP DISTANCE IS OUT AHHHHHH. IT'S SO GOOD. TwT I want a Dream Eater in real life.

Chapter 3 - Proper Relations

Riku's POV

"Hey, let's go get Wakka!"

"Good idea, maybe Selphie will want to play to."

"Yeah, c'mon!"

Damn, I cursed silently, is he ever alone?

I watched Sora and Tidus playing volleyball together on the beach- from a distance of course. I was leaning against a coconut tree and making sure he didn't see me… because then he would've thought I was creeping on him.

Which, more or less, I was.

It wasn't that I was spying to see what he was doing, though; I was just trying to talk to him alone because I was worried about him.

Ever since the night he'd stayed at my house due to the storm, it seemed like he'd been ignoring me. Every time I tried to approach him, he was usually surrounded by people and pretended not to see me and then left. And, even though I'd been trying to stop being friendly to him and give up on him, getting a mirrored reaction from him freaked me out a little.

"Wait a sec, Tidus, I should find my necklace… I don't know where I put it. Go ahead and get Selphie and Wakka, will you?" I watched as Tidus nodded and jogged off in the other direction to go get the others.

He's finally alone. Go ask him what's going on.

Quietly as I could, I emerged from my hideout behind the coconut tree and approached Sora, who was searching around in the sand for his necklace on all fours.

He didn't notice me right behind him, and my first instinct was to yell and scare him, but I decided that would've been immature.

"Sora," I started as he spun around, a panicky look on his face.

"O-Oh, Riku it's… It's just you. You scared me," he said with a quiet nervous chuckle.

I held out my hand to help him up, but he only looked at it and then stood on his own.

"Listen, Riku, I, uh, should go catch up with Tidus and Selphie and-"

I cut him off. "What about your necklace? You can't leave yet."

His eyes got big. "How do you… Were you… watching me?" he asked in dismay.

"No," I lied, "I was just walking by here and I stopped when I saw you because I need to talk to you."

"About what?" he asked with a frown. "Make it quick, please."

I sighed. "You've been avoiding me lately."

No response.

"Sora, if there's something bothering you, I have no idea what it is. Just tell me, please? You know you can tell me anything."

He stared intently at the sand for a while without a word.

"Sora," I repeated, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Without looking at me or saying anything, he turned around and started running the same direction Tidus had gone earlier.

"S-Sora, wait!" I yelled after him. "Sora, you're scaring me, stop running for a sec, please!"

He stopped abruptly about a few yards away from me. "…What..?" He asked, not turning towards me.

I strode over to where he was standing and returned the comforting hand to his shoulder.

"Quit it," he muttered and swatted my hand away.

I sighed deeply and he turned around.

"What do you mean, 'I'm scaring you?'" he inquired, crossing his arms and I could see tears welled in his eyes.

"Really, Sor. What's the matter? Why are you crying and why do you keep ignoring m-"

I stopped talking mid-sentence when a certain flashback from a few nights ago came back to me.

I was kneeling next to the couch. I was bringing Sora a blanket and- and I'd told him that I love him.

Maybe he heard you… Maybe that's what this is about.

"Y-You heard me… didn't you? You heard what I said," I whispered, unable to resist bringing my hand to his cheek and wiping the tears away gently.

He didn't question what I was talking about, and thankfully he didn't push my hand away this time.

"Sora," I said quietly before kneeling down in front of him so he was taller than me.

His sapphire eyes stared into mine and I could tell he was still upset.

I knew I had to say something, had to lie about this so he wouldn't be upset at me.

"You misunderstood," I started, still kneeling, "I think you took that the wrong way.""H-Huh?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

After thinking for a second, I spoke again. "I didn't mean that I love you like that."

He scoffed. "Well, what else could you have meant?'

"Sor, I've known you forever and you're my closest friend."

"I don't get it," he said, blinking slowly.

I sighed again. God, I hated lying like this.

"I didn't mean that I love you, like… romantically, I mean it in the sense that I love you as my best friend in all the worlds," I said before faking a smile and standing up again.

"Oh," he murmured, a blank, unreadable look on his face- which was unusual because it's normally really easy to tell what Sora's thinking.

I coughed nervously and we stood for a minute in awkward silence. "So, yeah… Sorry about that weird misunderstanding there."

Sora was the first to speak, crossing his arms behind his head in his trademark fashion. "Yeah, sorry I, uh, overreacted."

"Forgive me?" I asked and he gave me one of those adorable grins.

He nodded and hugged me. "Of course, Ku."

My heart sank a little. Well, this wasn't making things any easier… at all.

I glanced down at him and couldn't help chuckling.

So cute.

"Well, I'll help you find your necklace and then hopefully Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie will be back soon so you guys can carry on your volleyball game," I said, roughing up his hair.

"Hey," he started, tugging at my t-shirt, "how about you and your lovebird join us?"

"Alright, I'll go tell Kairi to join us then."

He nodded, still smiling. "My necklace will turn up somewhere when we're playing."

"Kay, go find Kairi and I'll go try to figure out where the heck the others are," he said playfully.

His tone of voice changed. "By the way… Sorry again for… all of that misunderstanding," he mumbled.

"That's alright." It did make me happy knowing that at least Sora and I were on good terms again.

"Meet us back here then!" he shouted over his shoulder and ran off again.

"Okay!" I yelled back, heading towards Kairi's house, figuring that's where she would be.

So, now it's back to normal. It's back to the way things are supposed to be… Just friends.

I knew I was the one that was wrong for loving him. But… I couldn't help but to want to see those eyes look at me a little differently, or hear his voice calling my name in just a different tone, or to feel his hands touch me with a different meaning.

It was out of reach, and it always would be, though. This was the normal way for things to be- the way things were supposed to stay.

Why else would Sora have reacted the way he did to what I said? He figured that I was in love with him, which would mean I'm gay. And I think it would freak anyone out to find that their best friend is a homosexual who is attracted to him. His reaction obviously meant that he did not feel the same things for me. Not that I didn't know that already.

Before I even realized it, I was approaching Kairi's house. I knocked on the door sharply a few times and waited for someone to come out.

This is how it's supposed to be… I repeated in my head.

I WILL do better from now on. No more family troubles. Anyway, review and all that good stuff. It makes meh happy!