Sora's eyes widened and his blush deepened to a dark red as he suddenly realized how close Riku's face was to his own. He could feel the Riku's warm breath on his face, smell the cheese of the Cheetos he'd been eating. Their noses were mere centimeters from touching and he could see those bright seafoam green eyes through Riku's silvery strands of hair perfectly.
"I-I um..." Sora stammered, not completely sure how to respond to him. Riku smiled, a breath takingly rare sight as he continued to stare at Riku in wonder.
"It's alright, you don't have to say anything. I've known you your whole life, you've only known me a mere couple of months."
"It feels like I've known you much longer though." Sora said quickly with a small smile, and Riku chuckled.
"Maybe, but that's fine with me. Being able to be with you like this every day is fine for now, so just think on it for as long as you like." Riku offered, despite the stabbing pain that he felt in his heart from his own words. He wanted Sora desperately for longer than even he himself knew, or could even admit. But regardless, he'd do anything for the young brunet that sat before him, so he was willing to wait and hope that it would all work out in the end.
Sora smiled and laid his hand over Riku's.
"Thank you Riku." He said happily, and Riku shook his head slightly.
"It's not a problem. Now go ahead and get some sleep. You have work tonight remember?"
Sora nodded his agreement then bid Riku goodnight as he shut his window and curtain then crawled into his bed, his mind consumed with thoughts of the events that just took place.
The weird thing is, all I had been able to think about when he told me that was kissing him. Or, him kissing me. But that's a normal thought when your that close to someone right?
I thought really hard about my feelings for him after he had left that day, but I was tired and frazzled from everything I was dealing with. All I could hope for at the time was that I could think things through at work that night
Riku wasn't in too great of a state after that. Not on the inside at least. To Sora, everything seemed fine. He was as stoic as ever, thoughtful and always on alert. But he smiled and laughed all the same as well. Riku was a good actor, or at least that's what he thought. He didn't know if others would agree, but so long as Sora didn't know Riku was upset, that's all he needed.
Inside though... Well, he wasn't really sure what he was feeling. He felt cold, and he at least knew that all he wanted, was to stay around Sora and never leave his side. Because at least when he was with Sora, he felt warm.
"Riku!" A familiar voice griped, startling Sora and causing him to jump and look around frantically. Riku sighed in annoyance as he dropped his head, he didn't want to deal with this right now.
Suddenly, Roxas appeared in Sora's room, making his eyes widen in surprise.
"Oh! Roxas, what are you doing here?" Sora asked curiously as a smile came to his face. They hadn't seen him for two weeks.
"I came to take Riku." Roxas answered. Sora frowned at this, his brows furrowing in confusion.
"Why, is something wrong?" Sora questioned curiously, making Roxas sigh. All the while though, Riku kept his eyes glued to the ground.
"Kind of. He's broken a few rules, and the big man isn't too happy about it. Donald asked me to come get you." Roxas explained, directing that last sentence towards Riku. He shook his head though in response.
"I can't leave." Riku said, confusing the blond. Roxas placed his hands on his hips as he looked angrily at Riku.
"What do you mean you can't leave? You're not looking to leave the angel society are you?" Riku shook his head once more, continuing to look at the ground.
"That's not it Roxas." He said quietly.
"Then... what is it?" He asked, clearly becoming uncomfortable by Riku's current state. He'd never seen him look so... distraught.
"The heartless." He stated, finally looking up at Roxas, his expression a mixture of worry and sternness. Sora was looking off now, seeming a bit saddened as well since he already knew what was going on.
"They're coming every day Roxas, sometimes several times a day. I don't know what to do, I don't understand why this is happening, but I can't... I can't just leave him alone. If something happened while I was gone, I couldn't..." Riku paused, looking down once more and shaking his head slightly.
"I can't risk that..." He said quietly, his voice a bit strained.
Roxas softened at this. He completely understood what Riku was going through. After all, if something were to happen to Namine while he was away, he was sure he couldn't handle that. He'd lose it if something happened to that sweet little girl.
"Alright. I'll let Donald know what's going on." Roxas said, Riku nodding in understanding.
"Thanks Roxas."
Roxas nodded slightly before disappearing, heading back to inform Donald about what was happening.
"Are you alright?" Sora asked, Riku nodding slightly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You should probably go to sleep." Riku suggested, though Sora just continued to look at him worriedly. Riku held back a sigh, smiling reassuringly instead.
"I'll be right outside watching over you okay? I won't let anything bad happen to you."
Sora wasn't really worried about himself though. He knew he'd be fine so long as Riku was there to watch over him, but who would make sure Riku was okay?
Sora looked down sadly then let out a small sigh before pulling Riku into a hug.
"Don't push yourself okay?" Sora said quietly as he tightened his embrace.
Riku blinked in surprise, but a soft smile soon made it's way across his face.
"I won't. I promise."
I didn't get much sleep that day. Believe me, I tried, I just couldn't seem to manage to get past that point where you're in between being awake and being asleep. I believe lucid dreaming is what you would call it? But I'm not sure. Either way though, it wasn't pleasant, and it only made my night that much worse. Though, that was the least of my worries.
Sora sighed as he went to the dressing room to grab his jacket. It was nearly lunch time and he was getting ready to go get Leon when Roxas suddenly appeared, looking rather saddened.
"Roxas? What are you doing here?" Sora asked curiously.
"Sora I..." Roxas trailed off, he didn't know how to properly go about giving Sora such shitty news. Though Sora just continued to wait patiently for Roxas to say what he needed to.
"I felt like you should know. You won't get to see Riku for a while." Sora's eyes widened considerably in shock before his expression turned incredulous.
"What? Why not?"
Roxas sighed, running a hand through his hair as he looked off to the side.
"Apparently he's got himself in a lot of trouble. He's supposedly broken a lot of rules as of late, and Donald and Mickey are none too happy. As punishment, he's not allowed to see you for five months." Roxas explained.
"What kind of punishment is that?!" Sora snapped, making Roxas shake his head slightly.
"I don't know. Doing that to a guardian... It's absolutely tortuous. He must have seriously fucked up." Roxas said, looking down pensively. Sure, he didn't get along too well with Riku, but he felt for him. He knew what this felt like, how awful it felt to have those alarms going off in your head as every fiber of your being screamed for you to go help that person, the person you're supposed to protect, but you can't. Whether it be as punishment or simply the fact that it's their time to go. Roxas knew all too well.
"Why is it so bad?" Sora asked curiously.
"Think of it like an alarm going off in your ears while someone taps on the back of your head. And all the while, the alarm gets louder and louder and the tapping gets stronger and stronger. And the more you don't help, the worse it gets. And then, it suddenly stops. And you don't know if they're alive or dead. Then all you can do is wait. Wait and see if that alarm will go off again." Roxas explained, leaving Sora stunned for a moment with the information.
"That's awful." He whispered, making Roxas nod in agreement.
"Can you..." Sora started, trailing off as he looked down.
"What is it?" Roxas urged curiously.
"Can you keep an eye on him for me? Please? I just-"
"Of course." Roxas said, interrupting him. "Just do both Riku and I a favor, and stay out of trouble."
Sora looked up in surprise, but smiled widely in return as he saw Roxas' small smile.
"Yeah, definitely."
Riku stood before Donald and Goofy, awaiting the news from up top.
"Riku, as punishment for breaking our sacred rules, you are forbidden to see Sora for a year." Donald announced pompously as Goofy looked apologetically at Riku.
"You can't do that!" Riku yelled incredulously as Donald announced his suspension.
"Mickey can do what ever he wants, he's the one in charge here." Donald sassed in his nasally voice.
"But I haven't done anything!" Riku argued. Donald gave him the most deadpan look he'd ever seen as the shorter male flipped one of the papers on his chart.
"You have not only revealed yourself to your human, you have revealed what you are, told him about our world, how things work, fought demons in front of him and even forced another angel to show himself to the boy. On top of that, you have not returned our messages, calls or even returned here for weeks! All of which are against the rules! Do you want to become Fallen Riku? Is that it?" Donald said, looking sternly at said male.
"That's not it! The rules have exceptions Donald, and I have good reasons!" Riku countered.
"Oh? And what would this reasoning be? We'd love to hear what you have to say." Donald said sarcastically, frustrating Riku further.
"Well for starters, him being able to see me is your fault because you're supposed to make sure that everyone is cloaked, not me! And I didn't tell him anything about myself or our culture, he figured it all out on his own and I only confirmed it. As for the demons, I can't help it if they're appearing in front of him and trying to attack him! That's not my fault, all I can do is protect him from them. And it's Roxas' own fault for just flying up like that! And I haven't been back here because I'm now on a round clock watch for demons because they're suddenly coming around every day, several times a day and attacking Sora head on. So what the fuck are you doing up here all day, cause you're certainly not helping my ass any!" Riku said, steadily getting more and more pissed.
"Don't you use that kind language in here!" Donald snapped, though Goofy placed his hand on Donald's shoulder, stopping the shorter from continuing this argument.
"We didn't know that obviously, but we can't just let you off the hook this time Riku. So due to the circumstances, Donald will take partial blame and punishment. But you still can't see Sora for five months. That's the best I can offer you." Goofy said sadly as Donald suddenly became incredulous over having to take punishment himself.
Riku sighed, five months was still a really long time, but it was better than a year. Plus, Goofy was really trying to help him out with this one, he was doing him a major favor, so he couldn't really complain now could he?
"Alright. Thank you Goofy, I really appreciate it." Riku said, smiling at the older male.
"Ah-yuck, aww shucks. It's the least we could do for Donald's screw up." He said bashfully as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"What?!" Donald snapped, but Goofy just placed a hand over his mouth as he started to rage, making Riku chuckle.
"See ya later Riku!" Goofy said cheerfully as he dragged Donald off.
"Yeah, see ya." Riku said with a nodded before stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking towards his home.
"Five months... What the fuck am I going to do for five months?" Riku muttered to himself.
It had been three and a half months since I had last seen Riku, and frankly, I had been missing him more than I thought I would. My chest ached so bad and I didn't know why. I just wanted to see him again at that point. I kept dreaming about him, but every time I woke up, all I could think about is how my memories, my imagination, didn't seem to do him justice.
I didn't know how much longer I could deal with not seeing him. And it was starting to make me irritable.
Sora huffed as he flopped back on his bed. It was his day off and he was spending it with Vanitas at the moment, but all he could think about was Riku. He missed him like crazy, and he couldn't help but think how much more entertaining Riku was than Vanitas.
"You're boring." Sora stated miserably as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Well gee thanks, I like hanging out with you too." Vanitas said sarcastically as he tapped at his laptop keyboard, playing some random space age game.
"Wish Riku was here..." Sora muttered poutily as he turned over to watch the TV. Vanitas rolled his eyes at Sora's words. He'd heard quite a bit about Riku, but even at that, he still didn't really know him. He knew his age, and he knew his name, but beyond that, Sora had only ever spoken of the time they spent together rather than any details of the man outside of the obvious. So of course, Vanitas didn't trust him, nor did he like him. Though when he tried to tell Sora and tell him that he didn't want him hanging around the other boy, he suddenly became Mr. Backbone and turned on him so fast, it kind of scared him.
"So why don't you just call him over? I'd love a chance to talk to him. Maybe punch him..." Vanitas said, muttering the last part, but that didn't stop Sora from hearing what he'd said.
"Piss off!" Sora snapped, smacking Vanitas in the back of the head.
"What the fuck?" Vanitas said, spinning around to look at Sora angrily, though he was already glaring harshly at Vanitas.
"Leave Riku alone already! He's a good person and he'd never do anything to hurt me! He only wants to protect me!" Sora argued, though Vanitas only rolled his eyes at this.
"Yeah right Sora, you're just as blind as ever." Vanitas said as he turned back to his game.
"And just what the fuck does that mean?" Sora asked, sitting up and looking at Vanitas incredulously. Vanitas sighed, rubbing a hand across his face.
"It means you're too trusting. All you see in people is the good, you never hunt for the bad, and that's why one of these days you're going to get yourself hurt. I'm just trying to make sure that doesn't happen, Sora."
Sora narrowed his eyes.
"You know what, fuck you! I have a better understanding of people than you could ever dream to have, and my trust only goes into those that are absolutely worthy of holding it. Those that I've watched and tested and known for a good long while! I know who to trust, and if anyone's blind here I'd say it's you! After all, look at your record with girlfriends!" Sora yelled angrily.
"Oh here we go again!" Vanitas threw his hands in the air in exasperation.
"No." Sora stated firmly, baffling his brother. Vanitas looked at him confusedly, but Sora simply shook his head, climbing off his bed and slipping on his shoes as he grabbed his jacket.
"No, not this again. Not ever again. If you can't accept Riku and understand what a good person he is, if you're going to look down on me and treat me like an idiot..." Sora trailed off for a moment as he tugged on his jacket and moved towards the door.
"Then you can just leave me the fuck alone, because if that's going to be the case, then I don't want anything to do with you." He then swiftly exited his room, slamming the door and heading for the front door of his house. Luckily him and Vanitas were the only ones there, so he didn't have to worry about telling his mother where he was going or what him and Vanitas were yelling about. Not that she wouldn't have been capable of hearing with their thin walls, but she would, of course, want a family sit down so they could try to repair this.
Sora hated those family sit downs. He didn't want to explain his side, he didn't want to talk it out, because in the end, his family just always some how made him out to be the idiot because he couldn't properly voice his feelings and thoughts. On top of that, his mother enjoyed bringing up his mistakes of the past in all arguments, acting like that had something to do with the current situation and trying to guilt him into making up.
Sora huffed as he walked away from his house, stuffing his hands in his pockets and stomping down the street. Though as he got to the corner of the street, the wind suddenly picked up, blowing harshly against him. He squinted as he tried to see through the wind, but he could hardly open his eyes from the harsh winds. Though what startled him most was the ground rumbling and the ear piercing screech heading straight for him.