Ok as much as I like Kairi and would love to see her actually do something other than play damsel in distress, I have no idea what to do with her so for now she's just going to stay with Yin Sid.
Despite Axel's insistent protests, and a few of Roxas', it was really the only idea they had. So in the end they gave Kairi a good bye, promising extensively that if they got in trouble they would call. Her vehement threats on keeping themselves and Sora safe didn't go ignored, she did have a literal sixth sense for it. And then the four boys had been packed into Sora's Gummy ship. Better for the group to keep together than a dark or light portal. Plus, they weren't sure how one would affect Sora while he was awake.
As Sora was the only one of them who knew how to fly one, Yen Sid made sure to lock it into auto pilot. Leaving the boys to free to swivel the chairs around and talk.
"How'd you even get him to come out?" Axel hums. Sora kept rather close to his Nobody since getting on the ship, still giving Riku cautionary glances and a wide berth. Axel he seemed neutral to for the moment, but didn't fail to flinch at sudden exaggerated movements.
"Remember when Demyx showed me those cat videos cause he wanted to see if I could get Shadows to do the same thing?"
"…..No way.. He really fell for that?" Axel was grinning now, full out Cheshire mischief dancing in his eyes. Roxas always thought he looked rather catlike, Axel's fire could even make his eyes glow in the dark.
"Yep! Then again, I'm pretty sure a Shadow is the closest thing this form relates too.. Definitely not as smart as some of the stronger ones."
Riku spoke up quietly, "He was a Shadow… Back when he.. uh, yeah.." the sentence drifted off as the teen looked away at the floor arms crossed across his chest.
"Anyway, what are you talking about, what do cats have to do with this?"
Roxas just grins, Axel ran off to dig in his bag, "Wait for me, I wanna record this!"
Turned out, Nobodies were far more entwined to the element that they're gifted with than the others thought. Roxas being Sora's nobody, gave him the light element. The destiny group had figured he could only use it for Keyblade powered attacks the same way the rest of them could.
Roxas could actually create and manipulate light. Sora was currently proving this by chasing around the equivalent of a laser pointer. It flew around in the open air, as if he had plucked the glow right off of Tinkerbell. Running circles around under and over the teens and stationary objects in the room. Sora would just get close enough for his claws to graze it before it flitted away again.
"He's gonna hate this if I show it too him, isn't he?" Axel chuckles keeping the camera of his deep red colored phone trained on Sora bouncing around the cabin, snorting just as he bunched up and lunged. The fairy light dodged to the side at the last second, Sora rolling into the wall instead.
Cid had been tinkering to improve cross world communications between them all for emergencies. There were still some signal issues to work out on certain worlds but he had managed to get a reasonably working connection into every day cell phones. Come to think of it Rox should get one too, the islanders all already did in case the gang at Radiant Garden wanted to get ahold of them. Those letter bottles were awfully unpredictable.
"You should probably hide that, just remember locks won't work." Roxas pulled the light back to hover in his hand.
Riku watched as Sora followed it, pretty much crawling on all fours to sit by Roxas. The blonde set the light in his Others hand where he seemed contend to just curl up and hold it. "I thought you said he didn't like light like this?"
"I said that light hurts cause of the form, plus he thinks more like a Heartless so it's kind of wired in that way. He's still got his own light under there, just more in an in between state right now." Roxas shrugs softly. "That and he knows that that's my light. He recognizes it somehow, and it wouldn't hurt on purpose."
As if he caught on to being talked about, Sora rolled the glow around in his hands a bit before leaning over and rubbing his head against Roxas' shoulder like a cat, purr and all.
Riku sighs inaudibly turning his gaze down at his feet and closing his eyes. Roxas glanced from Sora over to Riku, then to Axel pointing between the two then intertwining his fingers in question. Axel rolls his eyes and shakes his head, then nods to Sora mouthing 'not exactly being subtle' then nods to Riku and knocks on his own head.
Roxas tilts his head back in exasperation, looking to his Other with a frown. With all the 'gossip' talk Roxas had too listen to and how much more forward Sora's been, he would have thought something had happened by now. And Riku was supposed to be the smart one…
On his part, Sora wasn't sure why Roxas was giving him that look. Opting to shrink up slightly like he thought he was in trouble. The little light Roxas gave him pulled closer to his chest protectively.
…ok.. first step, they needed Sora to trust Riku again. But the blonde still wanted to kick his ass first chance they had.
Roxas plotted to himself for a moment, smirking softly as the light suddenly flew out of Sora's claws. The Shadow gave a wail of surprise and protest. The noise causing Riku to look up just in time for the light to vanish in front of his face and Sora pouncing into his lap after it.
At first all Riku could see was the disappointed pout on the charcoal face at seeing his sparkly disappear. Then it tensed up in fear once he realized who he landed on. Sora kept still, afraid of retaliation. When Riku's shocked face didn't change, he slowly started to back away. Only to find he couldn't as arms pulled him forwards and held him in place.
Sora trembled slightly, he couldn't help it, Riku didn't like him before, didn't like what he was. It wasn't until he felt fingers in his hair and mumbles in his ear that Sora realized he wasn't being attacked but hugged. He couldn't understand what Riku was saying really, words just felt muffled to his brain, but he could sense the emotion in it. Guilt, sorrow, a pinch of fear, and buried under it all was a hidden but strong and fierce protective affection.
I'm sorry. I didn't know. I won't let you get hurt again. Idon't want to hurt you again.
Slowly his tremors eased, relaxing into the hold. He felt tired. Why was he tired? He had slept not long, ago right? It was just for some reason he felt safer than he had for a while. When it was just him and Roxas there hadn't been any danger, no, but Roxas didn't seem to think that. He was always worried and in turn it worried Sora.
Now here, here he felt safe, warm, content, Riku kept murmuring to him, Sora's eyes got heavy, his head softly butts under Riku's chin nuzzling closer. Roxas had walked closer lightly touching his hand on Riku's chest next to where Sora's face was hidden. It pulled away dragging a flicker of light with it. He could hear them talking in whispers, maybe arguing, Roxas just offering the spark to Sora like before.
Cradled in his hand he could feel the difference. It wasn't Roxas' light, it didn't have the white-gold-trace-of-black feeling to it. But it wasn't Sora's light either, his was a blue-silver-smidge-of-red with a small wisp of green-steel-grey-cream that came from the Sleeper. This was Riku's light, it had traces of black like Roxas, meaning bits of darkness, but also silver that matched Sora's and reminded him of Riku's hair. Small bursts of the sunshine yellow he often wore. And snatches of teal, maybe sea-green? That blinked like eyes before melding back in.
Roxas had sat back in his seat, Riku observed Sora curiously while the other studied the spark in his palms. Finally, the Shadow closed his hands around it gently bringing it close to his chest. Snuggling more comfortably in Riku's lap, and nestling his face in the curve of the older's throat with a purr for a much needed, more restful sleep. The spark was his, it came from Riku, same as the one Roxas had given of himself earlier. But now this was his spark and it would stay his. His to hold, his to protect, his to seep in and connect to his heart to link and bond. His to love once Riku finally got over his fears to love him back.
I think its pretty much a given that Heartless are very sensitive at deciphering peoples emotions, especially negative ones. But as a Heartless Sora could be able to see/feel the very aura of peoples hearts. In his eyes Roxas was offering him a piece of himself (and Riku) as a sign of trust. Allowing Sora around something so precious to Roxas, letting him play with it even. It showed how much Roxas trusted Sora to protect him. Of course Roxas has a similar ability to see the colors of ones light, or darkness but it only got to a decent level after he was back in Sora's heart which had more experience when seeking light in others.