Love Love Contest! Fight!
Disclaimer: Don't own KH characters or rights.
Warning: shonen-ai (boy x boy romance), crude humor, language, SoraRiku below.
Chapter three: Prom Queen
Previously…
"Do you understand now? Love is not a game. You cannot manipulate people into loving you. True love will only exist when both sides of the party are willing to give themselves up for the other."
Sora cocked his eyebrows, mumbling under his breath, "Who are you to say that…?"
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The day on Destiny Islands couldn't get any hotter; the sun was blazing in the sky, the seagulls hawking over the ocean, fleeting their ways to shade and rest. Sora sat under an umbrella, his skin sheen with sweat just sitting in the hot air of the beach. The world looked so undisturbed to him, even though on the inside he was chewing himself out.
Someone plopped down next to him and handed him a bar of sea-salt ice cream. "Here."
"Oh, Tidus." Sora offered a smile, taking the treat uncertainly.
"Don't worry, I won't poison you." Tidus chuckled, biting off his own ice cream. Sora sniggered, and nodded.
"How nice…" Tidus pursed his lips enviously as he watched Riku and a few others surfing on the waves of the sea. "I want to surf too…"
"Why don't you go then?" Sora asked, licking at his ice cream bar.
"I don't know how to surf." The boy shrugged. "Besides, there are rules to this contest."
"Rules?"
"Hm-mm." Tidus nodded, "See, why do you think no one interrupted Selphie's date with Riku last time at the Star Festival?"
"…Ah." Sora's jaw slackened. "You're right… There were other contestants there, but they didn't go drag Riku away from Selphie… Why?"
"It's because there are rules to this contest." Tidus held up a finger. "This isn't just based entirely on who Riku likes. There are a few… 'scoring methods'. Firstly, once a contestant has asked Riku out on a date, no one else can stop or interrupt them for any reason other than for life-threatening emergencies, except in the case of a contestant threatening to kill himself. If that happens, the fan club will take care of it, and Riku will remain undisturbed in his date.
"Secondly, there are three ways you can compete in this contest to make sure you stay through the eliminations: one, you can talk to him; two, you can ask him out on a date on your own; and three, you can ask him out on a date to one of the island's events.
"Talking to him is the most inefficient way to do this. One, many other people do it too all the time, so it doesn't really give you enough credit to stay. Two, you can easily get interrupted by a fellow contestant, and that would only irritate Riku, actually. So you're left with dates. Asking him out on a date should be good, just like those girls that are surfing with him right now. But make sure you know what you're doing with your date, 'cause it would really suck if you go do something that you don't like, or don't know how to, or will mess up in front of Riku. Like that girl over there, she obviously doesn't know how to surf, and you can see that Riku's having more fun with those who do than with her." Tidus pointed at a girl who was trying to stand up on a surfboard but kept falling down flat on her chest or into the water.
"I see…" Sora mumbled. "Eh? But wait. You said a date cannot be interrupted, then how come all those girls are surfing with him?"
"That's because they agreed on a group date." Tidus explained. "Those girls kind of 'teamed up' and agreed to 'share' Riku between them for the day. So no one else except those girls can surf with Riku right now, which is why I'm here…"
"Oh so that's what it is…"
"Well, yeah." The blond shrugged. "And then there's the date to the special events. These dates score the highest place, supposedly. I don't know what happened to Selphie, but she did the right thing last time by asking Riku to go to the Star Festival with him. She should've been secured for the first round of elimination… I wonder what really happened…" Tidus tilted his head confusedly. "Maybe she really messed up big time during the date."
"I see..." Sora's ice cream was finished, and he sucked on the wooden stick. "Thanks, Tidus. I learned a lot."
"No problem." The blond grinned back at him, hugging his knees.
"I've got a question though…" The brunet frowned a little. "What would happen if you don't follow these… rules?"
"Well firstly, you'd really lose points in front of Riku." Tidus rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Secondly, if you really cross over the line, the fan club will take action. Do you remember last time when Selphie got eliminated, she got dragged away? I have no idea where the fan club officers come from, but just know that they are watching."
"Eh…" Sora's lips twitched. "That's kinda… scary."
"Well…" Tidus shrugged. "All this is done for Riku…"
"Tidus, do you really… love Riku?" Somehow Sora had trouble asking that question.
"Well... How should I say it?" The boy chuckled a little shyly. "I wouldn't say it's love. It's just… I've been paying some extra attention to him since long ago."
"Hm…" Sora hummed. "When's the next big event?"
"Thursday night, 8pm. It's the Midnight Dance."
"Oh… How do you know all this stuff?" Sora asked in awe.
"It was on a card on the stand next to the door of our room." Tidus looked at the brunet as if Sora was supposed to know. "You didn't notice?"
Sora blushed, scratched his head sheepishly, and sighed. I'm definitely going to lose if I keep this up…
"BOTTOM TWO?!!!!" Kairi shouted into the phone, making Sora wince and pull his cell away from his ear. "How can you get that low?! Honestly, Sora, you're not thinking of quitting now, are you?"
"No, but…" The brunet whined as he spun in his chair inside his and Tidus' room. "I don't know what to do! That girl tricked me! I honestly thought she was telling the truth, but it turned out that she was lying to me!"
"Why am I not surprised?" Sora could so tell that Kairi was rolling her eyes. "So what are you going to do now? How did you even manage to get through the first elimination?"
"Well…" Sora started like an intellectual, then stopped when he couldn't come up with a reason. "I don't know."
Kairi almost crashed her face into her desk. "God… You're hopeless, Sora."
"Sorry…" If only Kairi could see Sora's pout.
"Anyway, tell me what the next event is."
"It's the Midnight Dance." Sora sat up, "But Riku's already taken that night. Apparently a girl named Naminé – I think she was Number one – already asked Riku out."
"Another lose, huh?" Kairi heaved a sigh.
"It's not really a loss yet…" Sora pouted, arguing a dead argument. "Plus, even if I asked Riku out, I don't know how to dance. I can't impress him. He must think that I'm a weirdo after all these things happened."
"Impress, huh?" Kairi echoed dumbly before an idea came to her. "Hold on. Sora, you said there was a card that told you about the dance?"
"Yeah… That's right." Sora murmured into the phone, flicking the card in between his fingers. "What?"
"On that card… does it say that you cannot change partners in the middle of the dance?"
"No… It doesn't say." Sora read the card over repeatedly and could not find such a statement. "So?"
"I have an idea." The infamous mischievous grin was plastered on Kairi's face. "Wait until next morning and you'll see."
The next thing that greeted Sora was the beeping sound of a hung up call. The brunet was getting a really bad feeling about Kairi's tone, but what else could he do in an unyielding situation like this?
Tidus came back into the room next morning after breakfast with a box in his hands. It looked sort of heavy, as Tidus trudged over to the desk. Sora widened his eyes and stood up, asking his roommate what it was.
"It's a package for you." The blond placed the box onto the desk with a thud. "The lobbyist gave me it."
"For me…?" Sora raised an eyebrow, staring at the sticker. It was from Kairi. Sora winced immediately, wondering what the girl could be up to this time. Tentatively, he moved his hands to tear out the tape that concealed the box. The flips were opened and Sora could see an assembly of smaller boxes, each from different brand and of different sizes. He picked out the uppermost box, a cream-colored broad one, and opened the lid.
Both of their mouths were left agape.
Lying in the box, over a fragile piece of paper vellum, was a dress. A long, ankle-length, crystal sapphire blue, ruffled, strapless prom… dress. With a trembling hand, Sora picked up the card place on top of the dress.
"'My Dear little hopeless dumbass friend, here is all you will need to impress Riku with one look. All you have to do is to make sure you find the right time to coax Riku into changing partners with you. That shouldn't be too hard to do, right? It is a dance, after all. Your brilliant gorgeous clever friend, Kairi.'" Sora read with increasing difficulty.
"Well, that certainly would catch some attention." Tidus commented as he rummaged through the boxes. "Your friend surely is thoughtful… and has some seriously good taste." He said as he took a look under the lids of all the boxes. "A dress, a wig, make-up, accessories, a pair of gloves and… oooh, limited edition of Highwind High Heels Model 13 made directly in RG?" The boy looked at the pair of shoes with sparkling eyes. "Do you know how much these things cost?"
"I don't." Sora's mouth was still open and he barely moved. "I wouldn't."
"Well, they cost a fortune." Tidus carefully slid the lids back on. "It's already 6. Should we start?"
"Start what?" Sora turned to the boy, still dumbfounded.
"Start preparing!" Tidus exclaimed, and took the dress out from its box. "Hurry, we haven't got much time!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Sora blinked and held Tidus' hand. "You can't be serious. I'm not dressing as a girl to the dance."
"Yes, you are." Tidus patted the other boy's hand. "Your friend went through all this trouble to get you these things. It would be a waste if you don't use them!"
"B-But I don't even know how to use them!" Sora whined.
"That, my friend, is not a problem." The blond smiled. "You are lucky."
Half an hour later, Sora found himself sitting in the chair, in the dress, necklace, earrings and gloves put on, with Tidus combing his hair behind him. He looked at himself, and still couldn't believe he actually did it. The dress felt comfortable, but was direly troublesome when he had to sit. His head hurt a little when Tidus pulled the hair back to tie it all up, but he made no sound, scared that it would disturb the working blond.
"Tidus, how do you know all this stuff?" Sora found himself asking the same question twice. "I mean, even how to wear a dress?"
"Having three sisters helps sometimes." He laughed, putting on the wig over Sora's head. Then all of a sudden Sora was not looking at Sora anymore. He gasped, his gloved fingers reaching his lips.
"Cute, right?" Tidus grinned at Sora's reaction. Indeed, Sora was a chocolate-haired, mysterious yet beautiful girl.
"I… look like a girl…" The brunet – or rather, brunette – blinked twice, still unbelieving.
"That's not all." Tidus continued to mingle with something around the edges of the wig where it met the scalp. It took him another good half an hour to fully secure the wig onto Sora's head. And then he moved onto make-up, where he took fifteen minutes powdering Sora's face, adding very, very light blush, lining and shadowing his eyes, and put on a thick coat of gleaming strawberry cream colored lip gloss.
Then came the part when Sora had to put on his final instrument: the high heels. For the first time in his life, Sora could understand the pain women felt while standing onto nothing but two square inches of surface area. Tidus even coached his walking, which took quite a while before he could finally walk without stumbling or needing Tidus to catch him.
"Oh, one last thing!" Tidus snapped his fingers. "Hang on for a second, I'll be right back." He said before snooping into the bathroom. Five minutes later he emerged, in Tux and haired gelled and all.
"A lady needs an escort." He shrugged with a smile. Sora let his jaw drop again.
"You took 5 minutes while I took two hours?!" He exclaimed. Tidus laughed and bowed, a hand held out in front of Sora. The brunette hesitantly placed his into Tidus', standing up.
"Let's go!"
They ended up being forty-five minutes late into the party. The location was somewhere in the mountain on the island and therefore required vehicle transport, and there were quite a lot of people. Nevertheless, they arrived. Two doormen opened the door for them, and they walked through a long corridor with two turns until they reached the door that would lead directly to the dance floor. Both Tidus and Sora gulped, exchanged glances, gave nods to each other, and let the doormen open the doors.
Someone was making a speech up ahead at the stage, everyone else seated around dinner tables. The couple's entering interrupted the speaker, and one of the spotlights was thrown upon the two. Sora narrowed his eyes, clinging a little more to Tidus. It was this reason that he couldn't see the silver-haired boy at the very front table, staring at him like he'd never seen a woman before. People at the tables started murmuring, and Naminé leaned closer to Riku.
"Isn't that… Sora?" She asked curiously.
"I don't know…" Riku replied, somewhat stupefied. "If it is… I don't know what to say…"
But in truth, he did. He knew what he would say; he just wouldn't say it in front of Naminé. It would hurt the girl's feeling, to know that Riku found a boy dressing as a girl to be much more attractive than she was.
The speaker wittily excused the couple, letting them to be escorted to their seats, and continued on. Much to Sora's disappointment, dinner had already been served. The dance session was going to start just after the speech. It wouldn't be soon before he could eat.
Sora didn't really know how to dance; he just followed Tidus' steps, listened to his commands and tried to learn. Learning with an empty stomach made it particularly hard. Soon he was stumbling more often than he made a step, and Tidus could tell that Sora would spring his ankle if they continued any further.
"Let's get something to eat, Sora." He led them out of the waltzing crowd, bringing the brunette to the food stands. There Sora finally had some fulfillment, as he tried to eat as lady-like as possible while listening to Tidus' chat.
Riku saw the idly standing couple as a chance. He hastily ended his steps with Naminé, who was immediately waltzed away by another man, and made his way to the couple. Both of them were immediately alerted by the teen's presence. The three of them stood for a moment, two of them confused and expectant, one of them thinking of only one thing.
"May I?" Riku bowed down before Sora, and held out his hand. Sora gasped silently, eyes glancing over to Tidus. The blond smiled at him and nodded, approving the partner change. Sora gulped, blinking nervously as he slipped his hand into Riku's. Instantly they twirled into the crowd, following the rhythm of the music gracefully. Well, at least Riku was. With the silver-haired boy's hand holding his, and the other hand on his waist, Sora felt like he was lifted off from the ground and had no trouble following Riku's steps.
"You look beautiful tonight." Riku whispered with a smile, gazing into Sora's cobalt eyes.
For some reason Sora began to blush involuntarily. "T-Thanks."
Riku's smile grew at the boy's reaction, his hand sliding down to hold Sora's waist with both hands. The brunet naturally placed both his hands around Riku's neck as the music changed into a much more soft, more modern-pop melody.
Tidus was watching them with uneasy content when someone approached him. She greeted him, yet he couldn't recognize her for a moment. When she chuckled and revealed her identity, Tidus was shocked to the core. Yuna, his childhood friend, has grown so much since them met last time. And what a coincidence it was that they could meet again after all these years. But then again, Destiny Islands was Tidus' hometown; it would only be natural that Yuna would be here.
"Mind to have a dance with me?" She asked. Tidus nodded and held her hand, leading her into the crowd.
After the music ended, Riku suggested that they go to the beach for a walk. Sora agreed but first wanted to use the restroom. Riku nodded, smiling gently as he watched behind Sora with dreamy eyes. The corridor was dimly lit, like all the other ones in this mansion. And to Riku, Sora was the shining light.
Distractions were always present, though. Somewhere to his left in the distance he could hear moaning sounds. Ever the curious one, Riku perked his ears up and walked down the hallway, peeking around the corner.
There against the wall, their proximity intimately close, were one man and one woman, almost sucking each other's faces off. Riku was first embarrassed, then turned into doubt and then anger.
"What is this?" He mumbled, successfully interrupting the making-out couple. They both gasped and turned to Riku's direction. The girl looked confusedly at Riku, wondering who he was, while the boy stammered and tried to find something to say.
"Riku… It's not what you think…"
"You're one of the contestants, aren't you?" Riku asked the blond and tanned boy coldly.
"Yes, but I can explain…"
"What do you think you're doing?!" Riku bellowed, "This is an act of betrayal to me."
"Betrayal…?" The girl echoed, then muttered quietly to the blond, "Tidus, what is he talking about?"
Sora came by just in time, and his smile dissipated when he heard Riku yelling. He rushed quickly down the corridor, turning the corner only to hear…
"You're disqualified." Riku declared to the blond boy icily. Sora widened his eyes at the three people before him. Riku turned around, caught Sora's eyes, then grudgingly walked away.
"Wait… what's going on?" Sora asked, hoping to get an answer from anyone on the scene. "Tidus, what happened?"
Tidus bit his bottom lip, looking down at the ground shamefully.
"Wait for me here." Sora gave the boy's shoulders a firm squeeze before running after Riku.
"Hey, wait up!" Sora called after the trudging Riku. "Where are you going?" He arrived in front of Riku, preventing the boy from going forward. "What's going on? What do you mean he's disqualified?"
"I mean what I said." Riku crossed his arms in front of his chest, "He's disqualified."
"Why?"
"Because he betrayed me, that's why!"
"Betray…?"
"He's in my contest but he went to kiss another girl." Riku rolled his eyes. "A person that betrays so easily has no right to love someone."
"You're the one who have no right." Sora blurted out indignantly. "Do you even know his name? You don't. Why can you determine whether or not he has the right to love someone? To be honest, aren't you just being afraid? Afraid that the people around you won't like you? Afraid that they won't do as you say, as you want them to? You're scared that they will leave you, so you have to be the first to leave them. 'Cause this way, it's always their fault, their wrongdoing; this way, you will be safe. Am I wrong? You didn't even listen to his explanation!"
"Say…" Riku's breathing became labored with anger. "Why are you protecting him? He's your enemy, your competitor. Why are you helping him?"
"Because he's my friend." Sora replied firmly, eyes sparkling with determination. "He is my only friend here. I'm stupid, and clumsy; I didn't tell you this, but last time, Selphie cheated me. She lied to me, and betrayed me. I, too, thought I shouldn't trust anyone here. But then, Tidus was there. He taught me things no one cared enough to tell me before, and helped me when I had no idea what I should do." Sora paused. "Therefore… Therefore, I believe he must have a reason for what happened. Please believe in him!" He bowed down.
"Sora…" Tidus was at the door of the mansion, and arrived just in time to see the boy begging his crush to let him stay. When Sora straightened up, he saw Tidus, and gave him a nod with a reassuring smile.
Next morning, Sora sat in his bed anxiously, fingers fidgeting with the blanket. Tidus sat down at the edge of his bed, handing him a cup of tea. They stayed silent; the only sound coming to their ears was the birds' chirpings. Sora sighed. He never thought that there would be a point in the contest where he would actually want to stay in with someone. Tidus saw the brunet's anxiety, and patted his shoulder, giving a nod.
"Let's go." He smiled sadly. Sora hesitantly nodded.
Everybody has already arrived at the beverage store, seated. Sora and Tidus sat in their respective seats, and Roxas stood up.
"So it has come to the second elimination." He announced. "This will be all the eliminations for the week, and you can enjoy the weekends without worries."
As if they wouldn't start worrying about the second week… Sora pulled his face long at the comment.
"The following numbers I read will be the contestants that can stay in this competition." Roxas said, taking a list out, "And I read according to the attraction Riku feels towards them. Number one, Number four, Number eight, Number nine, Number three, Number five, Number eleven and Number six."
Sora widened his eyes.
"Congratulations. Please come over here." He opened his palm to the space where the called contestants, including Sora, went. Sora looked back at Tidus uncertainly, while the blond just simply gave him a nod.
"Both Number seven and Number two, please stand up." It was between Tidus and the girl who did not know how to surf. "A word from Riku, 'This week, several significant things happened. For once, my actions were raised into question; my decision was rejected. So I had to start from scratch, to look back at the beginning, and choose two candidates from that. We have here, a girl who tried to get to me, but had failed considerably, and a boy who didn't try anything, but rather turned the cards on the table on me.
"'I had a hard time deciding, and someone said something to me that really made me think, that really impeded my judgment. I was left in a situation of doubt, where I must choose to believe. I must give up my faith first, before I could see the results.'" Roxas exhaled. "And that's all from Riku. Now, the number that I will call indicates the person that can remain in this contest. The person whose number is not called will be sent back to Radiant Garden.
"The contestant that will remain is…" Sora's hands were fisting at his side, digging his nails into his palms. "Number two."
Tidus' breath caught, and Sora cried into the air "Hooray!" while punching his fists into the air.
"We did it, Tidus!" Sora pulled the utterly shocked boy into a hug, as Tidus' face slowly changed from wide eyes and big mouth to relieved laughter. "Hooray!! C'mon, everyone! Let's scream 'Hooray!'" Sora brought everyone into a circle. At first they were tentative, thinking that Sora was such a weirdo. But Sora's heated vigor was contagious, and soon everyone was shouting happily.
"You kept the one who betrayed you?" Axel smirked, placing a hand onto Riku's shoulder. "How unlike you."
"Well…" Riku drawled out, eyes fixed on one particular energetic brunet. "I just thought that… maybe I can believe in his words this time."
A/N: Yayyyyyyy so the whole point of this story is to share with my readers some of the morals I discovered for my life. I hope I have done a good job delivering the concepts~! Now I'm off to Florida!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
