I'm not certain why you're doing this?
"I told you. I'm not sleeping on the dirt again." RiRi adjusted the mattress on his back with a grunt. He was in his male form, so not only was it heavy, it was simply too big for him to handle easily.
It was the dead of the night, and he'd stolen this stained, somewhat broken mattress from a dumpster. It was going to require a bit of cleaning, but it would have to be more comfortable than the dirt. Tatiana seemed mystified by the whole concept.
But dirt is comfortable. I admit, a few cushions and a blanket are nice, but don't you feel a connection to the All Mother?
"No. I feel aches and pains in my back from sleeping on dirt." RiRi sighed as Tatiana lapsed into a hurt silence. "I'm sorry. Riku's not an elf, and neither am I."
I know. There was such a deep regret there that it make RiRi pause, thinking. He didn't know anything about elves… but maybe he would like to know. They were sort of his family, in a way. And Riku would definitely want to know when he finally found out about Tatiana and his own biological history.
"Maybe you could teach me about it?" RiRi grunted as the mattress tried to slide off his shoulders. "Ow!"
I would be glad to. RiRi, why don't you assume my form? It would be much easier. The female body was much taller, and not only that. RiRi had discovered that despite the superficial delicacy, the elven body was very strong and agile. Much stronger than his fifteen year old male body. Maybe that would change when he was nineteen…
"If anyone sees us, I don't want them knowing who I am." Even in the dead of the night, there was a chance some insomniac would spot them and try to figure out what was going on. It was much better to not take any chances, even if it made carrying the mattress a pain.
He had no idea how correct he was.
Sora yawned, rubbing his eyes. He'd gotten to sleep, but something had woken him up. Likely his supper… the ribs had been great going down, but weren't so pleasant at three in the morning.
"Ow." Sora muttered, sliding out of bed and blinking as he heard something. He had his window open, to catch the breeze. "…?" Glancing out of the window, he saw someone with silver hair rubbing his back for a moment, before picking up a mattress. "Riku?" Sora tilted his head, mystified, as Riku made his way with the mattress on his back. It was like watching an ant at work, carrying something twice its size back to the nest. But why would Riku be carrying a mattress on his back in the wee hours of the morning?
"I have to find out!" Quickly throwing on his clothes, Sora hurried out of his room and down the stairs. Soon he was outside, and walked up behind Riku as quietly as possible. The silver hair didn't hear him, probably because he was quietly swearing at his burden. And also talking to himself.
"Stupid heavy piece of junk. What? Someone's behind me?" The mattress turned around, and Sora tried to peek underneath to see Riku, but couldn't without kneeling. He was bent over pretty far.
"Hey Riku, what are you doing? Its three AM you know." Sora pointed out helpfully. There was a brief silence from the mattress.
"I'm not Riku. I'm… animate furniture. It's the newest thing. I clean myself during the night." Sora laughed. Riku sounded amazingly sincere, but he would have recognized the voice anywhere… even if it was a little strained with the effort.
"Come on Riku, I know it's you. What are you doing with the mattress?" Sora poked it.
"I'm on a mission from Glod." Sora blinked, confused. "Nevermind… fuck it." The mattress was dumped to one side, and the silver haired boy was standing there, glaring at him. Sora stared. It was Riku but…
"How did you get so short?" Sora was actually looking down a little into his friend's eyes. That was totally not right. And Riku's hair was shorter, spikier than it was these days. In fact, it was just the way he had worn it as a child.
"When did you get so tall?" Riku returned, then suddenly stepped forward, touching Sora on the neck. Sora didn't have time to react before a jolt of power knocked him off his feet in a searing moment of pain. "Sorry about this." He vaguely heard Riku say before he fell into unconsciousness.
A mission from Glod? Tatiana questioned as Riku tried to pick up Sora, swearing again at the weight. And what are you doing now?
"I'm putting him to bed. If he wakes up in the morning with a headache, he'll probably think this was just a dream. But if he wakes up in the middle of the street he'll know it wasn't. What was that, by the way?" The force that had knocked Sora out had come from Tatiana.
The Vulcan death grip.
"Oh bullshit!" Riku paused as he slipped into Sora's house. "Wait, how do you know about Vulcans?" He carefully kept is voice down to a whisper, not wanting to wake Sora's mother.
I've been watching Riku for some time. Star Trek is the one TV show he watched, until his parents switched to satellite. I admit, I don't understand most of it, but I got the Vulcan death grip. Actually, that was just a variation on the light force I hit you with yesterday, when you were playing with my tits.
"Oh, I see." Now that she mentioned it, he remembered Star Trek. RiRi grunted and suddenly switched to the female form. Sora was just too tall to carry in his male one. "That's better." Pretty soon he had Sora safely in bed. The boy was still dressed in all of his clothes, but that couldn't be helped. RiRi was not about to undress him. "Hopefully he'll think it was a dream."
He probably will. A mission from Glod indeed.
"It's a quote from a book. I'm a literary nerd, sue me." RiRi hoisted the mattress back up, grunting as he assumed his male form again. Tatiana watched over him as he went back to the spring…
You have it?
"I think so." RiRi watched the water intently, a wooden spear in one hand. Tatiana had showed him how to fashion it, but let him do the actual work. Now she was doing the same for the spear fishing. It wasn't easy, but in the end, he was guaranteed a meal… if necessary, Tatiana would take over and she never missed. He didn't want her to, though. He wanted to master this for himself. "Alright!" He grinned as he finally caught a fish. It twitched and spasmed on the end of his spear as he climbed back out of the water.
Small, but it will do. RiRi nodded, and took out a knife he'd grabbed from Sora's house, using it to scale the fish. His parents would never notice it was gone, and if they did they'd think it had simply been misplaced. If that were an elf knife, it would be made of copper.
"Elves aren't big on technology, are they." RiRi observed, gutting the fish and cleaning it, then spearing it on a stick and holding it over the fire.
No, not at all. Copper is the most complicated thing we work. We don't even make glass. We use wood for almost everything… even some of our blades are wood, but they have to be enchanted to hold an edge. RiRi blinked at that.
"That sounds… limited… do you have books?" RiRi couldn't imagine a life without books. Riku was very active, very much a jock… but he was also a rabid reader and RiRi had the same love of books.
Not exactly. We cure hides and make ink to write on them with. So we use scrolls. They're only for very important matters, though… like religious things. Religion is very central to our lives.
"Worshipping the All Mother?" RiRi bit into the fish. It wasn't very good, still a little raw, but it would do. It was certainly fresh.
Yes. Her name is Amalisha, the Mother of the World. There is also her consort, Vara, Father of the Elves. He convinced her to birth us in the beginnings of the world. They also have a son and a daughter… Nala the gentle handed, who escorts the deceased to their place in the light and darkness, and Kaluisha, the knowledge bringer. He taught us the arts of reading and writing and fire making.
"Interesting. The light and darkness? That's a bit odd." RiRi was a bit hazy on it… Riku's parents weren't really religious… but he'd heard the afterlife mostly described as light, not darkness.
Indeed. It is our belief that all hearts, except for the Princesses of the Heart, are pulled from both the darkness and the light. This is not good or bad, simply part of the balance of all things. And when we die, the parts of us that are light return to the light, and the dark returns to the dark. And so we are reborn. Except for the Princesses of the Heart.
"And what about them?" RiRi was fascinated. He hadn't really thought much about it, but it seemed that elves really weren't much like humans at all. They had a completely different culture, for one… he wondered what else about Tatiana would be surprising.
The general belief is that a Princess of the Heart is born as a balance, a check to the darkness. If so… I was a poor check…Tatiana fell silent for a moment. Or my people were weak. I had no keyblader to rescue me.
"Is that why you didn't go back to your people when you escaped? You were afraid he would kidnap you again?" That seemed logical to RiRi, but Tatiana seemed to think about it for a moment.
Yes… and no. With warning, my people could have laid powerful protections on me. There was more. She hesitated a moment, then continued reluctantly. Please don't think too harshly of my people, RiRi. They would have thought they were doing what was best for me. But… bearing children is hard for elves at the best of times. I was scarcely thirty summers when he stole me. To my people, that is like a child of twelve… barely nubile. Immature organs do not carry a child well. They would have rid me of the babe.
"Without asking you?" RiRi frowned at that, and the sadness in Tatiana's voice.
Yes. And even if they had, by some miracle, let me risk my life to birth Riku… mating outside the elven race is strictly forbidden. The offspring of such couples are outcaste. I was of low caste to begin with… most likely it would have been demanded that I expose him on a rock. RiRi's mouth dropped open at that. Please, don't think too harshly of us. There is good reason for the prohibition. There are… almost elves in my world. Not humans, something else. Mating with them produces a debased subrace that is very dangerous. Humans are unknown in my world, so my people would have treated Riku like one of those hybrids.
"Good grief. I can see why you didn't go back." RiRi stood, changing over to his female form and frowning at the sundress. "How is this thing still clean?"
Magic. The default clothing on both your forms will always be clean.
"Oh… uh, neat. But I better go pick up some other things as soon as I have some money." It would start looking very odd if he went everywhere in the same sundress. For now, though, there wasn't much choice. RiRi started walking towards the general store run by Riku's father, and smiled. Riku no doubt thought he would have to teach RiRi everything… not knowing that he had all the memories of helping his father in the summer for years.
It was going to be easy.
"I am so jealous of you Riku!"
"Huh?" Riku wiped off his forehead before glancing at Sora, who was eating some salty sweet ice cream. "You're jealous of stacking boxes?" That made no sense whatsoever. Riku was carrying in new inventory at the moment. He didn't expect Sora to help… Sora wasn't getting paid… but jealousy still made no sense.
"Not that. You get to be around her all day! Look." Sora gestured furtively with the ice cream, and Riku turned to look… and choked back a laugh. RiRi was up on a ladder, putting some of the larger items in place, and her sundress was clearly letting them see her green panties. It was a lovely sight. "I don't suppose your dad is still hiring?" Sora looked at Riku with pleading eyes, and Riku shook his head with a smile.
"Not likely, Sora. RiRi's working out really well." In fact, it was amazing how well she was fitting in. She claimed to have worked at another general store on the mainland, and she certainly seemed to have all the paperwork and the register down pat. That was odd. The convenience store was independent, so the systems shouldn't have been the same. But Riku's father wasn't going to question good, cheap help. "And if we did hire someone else it would be to give RiRi and me time off."
"Oh, ptth. Forget it then. I'll just hang around." Sora polished off his ice cream and tried to grab another, but Riku put his hand over the refrigerator door.
"You better be paying for those. And we don't take IOU's or monopoly money." He said firmly, and Sora sighed, fishing out his munny. "Thanks. Dad's gotten a bit mad about the shrinkage on those things."
"It wasn't me!" Sora protested, a little shamefaced. "I think. Maybe I forgot." Riku shook his head with a grin.
"You've got the attention span of a gnat, Sora." Riku watched as Sora's gaze traveled back to RiRi's fanny, and decided to conduct a psychology experiment. "And I'm the empress of Turkestan and my mother is a tray of jelly tarts."
"Cool." Sora said, and Riku smiled, shaking his head. It took a good ten seconds before Sora's gaze sharpened. "Wait, what did you say?"
"Nevermind." Riku ruffled Sora's hair fondly, before turning back to his stacking. He had plenty of work to do, and never enough time to do it.
"Oh, Riku, you know what was odd? I had a weird dream that you were hauling a mattress down the road. Only when I went to talk to you, it wasn't you. I mean, it was you but you were fifteen again. You were even wearing your old clothes and hair and everything." Sora licked his ice cream, and Riku couldn't help but notice how cute that made him look. "The weirdest part, though, was that I woke up in the morning in all my clothes and a blinding headache. So strange!"
"A sign you should lay off the ice cream. It's clearly giving you nightmares." Riku said sagely, and hauled in the last carton. "Now…" He pulled out an exacta-knife just as the door tinkled. RiRi scampered down from her perch to man the register as Riku started slitting open the boxes. "If you're not going to make yourself useful, scram. I'm going to be putting these away for hours."
"Okay!" Sora bounced up happily. "Just come down to the beach after work Riku, and bring RiRi."
"I know who you really want to see," Riku teased him gently as Sora grinned and scampered off. Riku smiled to himself as he began unpacking the stock. Strangely, Sora's fawning over RiRi didn't bother him much. He wasn't sure why that was… was he getting over Sora? It almost felt like it, but… Riku frowned down into the boxes. If he was going to date RiRi, he really needed to work out his feelings about Sora. And soon.