3.

Sora slammed his bedroom door shut, grasping onto his head. Forgetting the fact that he and Roxas were twins, Sora could only imagine how much Roxas' skull was hurting at the moment. Twin telepathy was not always such a cool phenomenon.

He collapsed on his twin-sized bed, tears dripping from his face and resting on his pillow. After a few moments of lying in a fetal position, the brunet was startled by a tap on his window. Blue eyes jerked up to see a boy literally outside his room.

He straightened up and strode over to the windowsill to let the boy in. "What are you doing here?" A gust of nightly air swept across Sora's face.

"Well a happy hello to you too." Riku smirked from a perched position atop an extending branch and clutched onto the window frames from support.

"Sorry." He shook his head. "Hi. So what are you doing here?"

"'Figured you might appreciate the company. Hey, do you mind?" He pointed inside Sora's room requesting entrance.

"Yeah, sorry, go ahead." Sora stepped aside to let him through. He was a little flustered at his neighbour's presence but chose to ignore it at this point in time. He could still feel that ache in the front of his head. It was a blunt pressure, mainly above his right eye. He jabbed the heel of his palm into that spot.

Riku flipped his long legs over the threshold, not quite so gracefully. "Yup, this is definitely more romantic in movies." Not that he was relating this to any kind of romantic movie gesture; both he and Sora ignored that. "Hey, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Sora squinted his eyes in pain. It was throbbing against his skull and making him dizzy. He was never one with a high threshold for pain, so it wasn't surprising when he felt his eyes water with tears again. "No. I'm not okay." He threw his arms to his sides and began to pace around the length of his room.

"My head has been hurting for a couple of hours. I came home with my dad to hear Roxas and Cloud yelling over how Roxas hasn't been out of this house in three weeks except to go to the hospital –but even after that fact, apparently no one can figure out what the hell is wrong with him!" He said with an aftershock of surprise. "And I can physically feel how bad this is hurting him and.. it's not fun." He died off at the end and panted since he had said all that in one breath. Sora could really talk a mile a minute when he needed to.

"And Cloud is stressed out of his mind and I know he's smoking again." He nodded his head in disappointment with his father. "He hasn't smoked in years. Not since before we were born, that's how long it's been!" He pointed at Riku at the fact before continuing to pace.

"But he's smoking now and he's in the garage a lot, and Roxas is yelling at him because he can't figure out what's wrong with his body and I know it's horrible to call your own father a 'failed parental figure' but he's hurting. He's in pain and I can feel his pain and it's just a LOT of pain!" Frustration, angry, irritation. Everything was oozing out of the small boy.

Riku stopped staring at his friend. As he paused from walking around, the silveret grabbed a hold of Sora's shoulders, pulled him into a tight hug and began to sit them both on top of the bed. Sora continued his rant with a muffled voice from Riku's clavicle. "And I don't even feel everything thing he's feeling. I just started to feel this headache now and let me tell you: for the little time that I've been sharing this pain, it makes me want to smash my head in to a wall just to make it stop." Riku could feel Sora flailing his arms around the sides of their embracing figures.

"No wonder Roxas was throwing things around earlier. If this is what he's feeling, and more, then I can't blame him! No wonder he hasn't been eager to get out and about!" Sora's voice began to crack while Riku could feel his shirt getting damp. "I'm sitting here in less pain than my brother and it's unbearable."

Riku could barely hear Sora through the distorted words. Sora held on tighter. "They've done everything those stupid doctors have told him but nothing works. Advil Extra Strength? It barely cracks the shell to Roxas. But of course, they can't find anything physically wrong with him so they can't prescribe anything stronger. And it's just so stupid!"

Sora finished his speech and continued to cry into Riku's chest. Riku laid the boy down onto the pillows, continuing to support him. Fragile. Sora was very fragile at the moment. The older boy calmly shushed his best friend's cries and held his body closer all the while.

Life really sucks when things happen that you just have no control over, no matter how affected you are.

It was a little while before Sora completely stopped crying. The two just lay there huddled together in Sora's room. Sora's head propped against Riku's chest, Riku's nose buried in brown, paopu-scented spikes.

Just when Riku thought Sora was fast asleep, so he might tuck Sora in and make his exit, he heard a small murmur. "Thank God you're here, Riku." He stared wide eyed at the boy speaking to him with closed eyes. "You were right about me appreciating the company."

'Anytime Sor.' He took another whiff of paopu. "I'm always right." Riku smirked as he felt Sora nuzzling (or just getting more comfortable) against his bosom.

Silence. More silence. Riku didn't know how long after that Sora finally did fall asleep. He was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to hear him start to snore softly beside him. He felt indescribably sad for the boy. Family was not an easy thing to deal with. Not on top of everything he was feeling himself.

He could not for the life of him remember when he had been this comfortable before. He could spare a night to console his best friend, right?

Before he could decide for himself, a knock was heard on the door of Sora's room. 'Shit! Keep it cool, Riku.'

DundunDUUUN... Review? :]

Teehee, Paopu = Herbal Essences' Newest Creation ~!

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