Riku skidded into his seat at the diner the next day, trying to fix his hair and late beyond all belief. He had woken on time; his blaring phone had made sure of that. Usually, on the day of these monthly meetings, Axel's alarm clock would wake him up, and they would get ready for their day, kissing briefly before they parted ways. However, Axel didn't have work until noon that particular Saturday, and although he hadn't set his alarm clock, he had still woken with Riku.
Riku had been, to say the least, distracted. And this distraction had caused the need for a shower, which he also had been accompanied by Axel. That wasn't very helpful either. Forget drying his hair, he dressed and left before Axel had coerced him into even more distraction.
He looked at his friends, still trying to fix his damp hair. Kairi gave him a knowing look, her face just begging to comment, while Sora gave him a wild-eyed look of shock. He looked between the two blandly, asking, "What? I woke up late."
Kairi grew a face-splitting smile and said innocently, "So did I."
He gave her a light glare, still running his hands through his hair so it would lay properly when it was dry. Finally satisfied with it, he put his hand on a glass of water that had been waiting for him getting ready to take a drink. He asked them beforehand though, "Have you already ordered from the menu?"
Sora wasted no time in answering, "Yeah! I was about to eat the table!"
"You've eaten worse," Riku said with a small shrug, setting his glass back down on the table after his sip of water. When his drink was on the table again, he received a light shove from Sora, who always seemed to sit right next to him, with Kairi sitting across from the two of them. He heard a muttered, 'jerk,' from the little brunette, and smirked at him.
Kairi broke up whatever faux argument they were about to embrace themselves in. "How were your finals, Riku?" she asked looking at him intently, much reminding him of his mother at that moment. It always made him feel like he and Kairi should have been related. His mother hadn't called him in over three weeks, and she sure as hell didn't care about his grades. She wanted him back home. Kairi wanted him home, to be sure, but she mostly wanted him to succeed and escape from their hometown where the best degree of work was a fish merchant.
He granted her a small smile, saying, "I don't really know. My last class final was yesterday. I think I did well, though." He went over the tests in his head. "There weren't many questions on many of the tests that I didn't know the answer to."
She smiled proudly then nodded her head towards Sora, "He passed all of his classes with flying colors. Apparently, a certain girl helped him study for his finals."
Riku looked at Sora too, a sly smile gliding onto his face. "Sora, you little devil," he said deviously, "you and Namine had 'study sessions'?"
Sora flushed, ducking his head to stare at the table. "She was studying anatomy at her college! We agreed that it would be good for both of us to study together."
Kairi's eyes became as huge as her smile. "You 'studied' anatomy together? You didn't tell me that part!" she all but squealed.
Sora's blush spread from just his cheeks to cover his face and move down his neck. "Not like that!" he screamed. "Out of a textbook…Fully clothed!"
Riku smirked. "Right, Sora. Because that's how every straight guy studies anatomy when a totally hot girl is with him."
"That's how this straight guy does it!" he snapped, finally picking his head up to glare at them both. Riku and Kairi both settled him with a steady stare, Riku's face completely blank and Kairi sporting a small smile. For his part, Sora did his damnedest to keep the glare in tact, but looking back and forth between his two friends it quickly morphed into a pout.
Riku ruffled the brunette's hair, "We're sorry, Sora. We know you're sensitive about your unrequited love."
He whipped his head around to look at Riku and said nonchalantly, "Who said anything about my love being unrequited?"
Kairi's eyes grew big as saucers, her mouth falling open and reminding Riku of a fish. Then an ear-splitting squeal emitted from her lips, causing the entire restaurant to stare at her as she screeched, "Sora, you asked her out!?"
Sora was shrinking further and further into his chair, his face red as a tomato. He was hesitant to answer the question, more cautious about the people in the restaurant with them. He put his hand over his face, trying to recapture anonymity. Kairi was so eager to hear the answer she was gripping the table, leaning halfway across it so there wasn't a chance in hell that she wouldn't hear his answer.
Riku also stared at his friend curiously, leaning over in his chair to see his best friend's face. Finally, Sora muttered out a quick, "Yes."
"Oh my god! Sora!"
Kairi was suddenly out of her chair and on Sora, yelling for the entire world to hear how proud she was. Sora fell further and further into his chair to the point he was practically eye level with the table top. Riku threw in his congratulations, but he was not going to make the scene that Kairi was by sitting on him and kissing the crown of his head repeatedly.
Sora pushed her off of him blushing so hard his was purple and staring at the table as if for all of him he wanted to escape.
"That was so unnecessary," he breathed in a shell-shocked manner. They didn't look around to see who was looking at them now. Kairi was too busy bouncing on her toes and waiting for more information about Sora's hookup. Sora was too embarrassed. Riku…well, Riku could give a damn less who was looking at them.
Kairi pulled her chair from around the table to sit as close to Sora as was humanly possible without sitting on him again. "I want to know everything!" she said seriously, her eyes boring into Sora's.
Sora looked into her eyes for a second, fear practically radiating off of him. He turned his spiky head around to look up at Riku, begging silently with his big blue eyes.
Riku simply shrugged. "She wants to know everything, Sora."
Sora huffed, like a prissy huff, not an annoyed huff, and said, "Fine!" He turned back to Kairi, taking a deep breath, because once you got Sora rolling he was hard pressed to even take a gasp. "You wanna know what happened so badly? We were sitting in my apartment, talking about her art class. She was saying something about her favorite painter, who I can't even pronounce his name, okay?" Kairi nodded, totally entranced with this story. Sora sighed, "Well, she makes an offhand comment about the art gallery opening up in Traverse, and said how she had studied a lot of the artist who had their work being displayed there. Anyway I asked her if she wanted me to take her."
Kairi sucked air in through her teeth, her smile so big her eyes were little slants. "Sora, that is so sweet!"
He snorted. "It isn't that sweet. She said no," he said, picking up his caffeinated drink.
Kairi's face crumbled immediately, falling instantly into despair. Riku watched his friend closely, seeing the edges of his lips quirk upward as he took his drink. Kairi may be gullible, but Riku wasn't.
"But…" Riku coerced, a smirk playing his own lips as Kairi looked confused.
Sora put his drink down on the table, his smile growing as he looked at Riku. "But she said if I would take her to the zoo that would be really sweet," he said laughing as Kairi's features immediately morphed into understandable betrayal. Sora never lied. "She said she had an inkling that I would be bored to death looking at a bunch of paintings that really held no appeal for me. If we went to the zoo, she said, at least it would most likely be interesting for both of us."
Riku looked over at Kairi, who still wore an expression of gob smacked. "I told you, he's becoming more and more human the longer he stays in that town." He looked back at Sora, "I'm really proud of you, Sora. I'm happy that she saw how awesome you are." He ruffled Sora's hair affectionately. "When's your date?"
"It was last Friday."
Kairi, now released from her shocked state, asked, "Why didn't you call either of us?"
Sora shrugged, looking fairly guilty. "I just wanted to surprise you guys. You know…have it be a face to face celebration instead of a cold, over the phone conversation."
Riku smiled softly at him, feeling the distance they had put between themselves sneaking up on him. Apparently they did too. Their faces grew somber as they looked at one another, and their eyes turned somber.
Thankfully, though, the waitress came with Sora and Kairi's plates, setting them down in front of the two of them.
"I'm sorry," she said to Riku. "What would you like to eat? Have you decided? How long have you been here waiting?"
Riku gave her a blank look, feeling a small bit of sensory overload with all of her rapid fire questions. Finally blinking himself into action, he answered, "Don't worry about the wait. Good company." He gave his friends a meaningful glance before returning to her. "I'll just steal from my friends' plates. Don't worry about me." She nodded to him, taking the menu out from in front of him and making her way to the back again. Sora, already seeming to know what was going to happen, pushed his small bowl of applesauce to Riku while Kairi halved her vegetables onto her bread plate and handed it to him, bread and all.
He smiled at them. "Thanks."
They nodded and tucked into their lunches, staying quiet for a few moments before Kairi asked Sora, "How was the trip to the zoo?"
Sora, between a mouthful of his chicken much to the other two's dismay, said, "It was a lot of fun. She's so smart. She seemed to know everything on every single animal that caught my attention. I saw a hummingbird"—Riku rolled his eyes—"and she started telling me about how the migrated. It's really cool. They actually burrow into the feathers of bigger birds, like geese, and they hitch a ride to their destination point! Isn't that neat?"
Kairi smiled at him, nodding since her mouth was full.
The rest of the day was passed in much the same manner. They spoke a little on Kairi's slowly developing relationship with Tidus, and how her sister, Selphie, was doing. They briefly glanced further into everyone's home life—Sora's roommate, Roxas, had apparently been even more surely this past month. They asked Riku how he was, about Axel.
They left not too long after they had all finished their meals. Kairi had an appointment with her doctor at four and Sora had to help Leon out with a project he was doing for the community. It made them all sad to leave each other again, summer time always being harder on them that the other three seasons, mostly for the reason that it had once been their time and their time alone.
They would only see each other twice this summer as they had for the past two summers. It was sort of upsetting.
A/N: So this one was still about Riku, but focused on Sora…it was sort of confusing for my brain. I was like…huh? This was going to be longer, but it's been so long since I updated this story, for which, I am super sorry. Life has not only gotten harder this summer, it's decided it likes mopping the floor with me. Yeah…I hope you enjoyed this at the very least.
Please review my lovely little muffins.
InnocentGuilt
