Wise men say, only fools rush in. But I can't help falling in love with you.

-Elvis Presley

--

It's 3 AM in the morning and I can't sleep. My eyes feel like daggers have made a home in them and my head is pounding from lack of sleep. I haven't slept in a day due to the time change here in Beya Wing Bay City and I feel like I'm about to go insane from it all.

The time difference isn't really the problem here, though. I guess I'm exaggerating. You see it really has nothing to do with me be up so late suffering. It's actually something much worse.

I have fallen in fucking love.

I haven't felt this feeling in a long time, and the way it snuck up on me like a cat to a mouse is what is really frightening. It's really horrible, this feeling. But, it's so good too. I can't really explain it; I just know it's a problem. It seems so wrong to love someone only to know they love someone else.

Well I don't like to give people good credit because it's not in my nature to commend others, but I'd be a damned fool if I said Sora hadn't made last night the best night of my life. I wouldn't call it a date, because that would be a lie, but it definitely felt like it.

Upon entering the stadium, Sora had told the ticket checkers that I was with him and we headed to his front row seats which unfortunately happened to be directly across the stadium from Kan and Shen. Since my silver hair is a rarity, my brother immediately noticed and started screaming from across the way to get my ass over there before he'd beat the muscle out of it. Of course I ignored him. We then proceeded to watch three hours of the ridiculous sport known as freestyle BMX. Sora was so into it he could barely keep his butt on the bench. And I was so into watching Sora's butt leave the bench…that thought aside Sora's annoying and possessive boyfriend made the semifinals like the crowd expected, and thus the night of BMX ended and the hoopla about the finals began.

Axel immediately went to doing interviews and signing autographs and Sora told me he wouldn't be seeing him again that night because Axel liked to hang out with his teammates after tournaments. So instead, we were going to hang out. I should've felt used, but thinking back I just felt happy to have Sora to myself.

As he mentioned in the trailer, I thought we were simply going out to coffee. But Sora being Sora had thought up of something else more 'exciting.'

"Come on; let's go to this hobby shop in the village square." Sora had said as we exited the stadium and into the VIP walkways.

"Hobby shop...?" I asked him with a confused frown. "Isn't that like…a toy store?"

"Yeah." Sora said simply, like it was normal for two eighteen year old guys to go to a toy store together.

"Okay…what are we gonna do there?" I asked him as we continued to walk in the direction of his trailer.

"Look at the stuff, of course." Sora said with a laugh.

"Uh…but isn't most of the stuff there kiddy stuff?"

"Some of it, but there's a lot of interesting things there too."

"Okay, if you say so." I said, not knowing what else to say. Thirty minutes later found us walking the busy streets of the Village Square. During the events, most of the city shops stayed open 24/7 as did the residents stay awake. There was music playing and paper lanterns of every color imaginable swaying softly in the night breeze. The smell of sugary food and popcorn wafted through the air as did the voices of excited people and the sounds of water falling from the numerous fountains lining the sidewalk. All in all, it was a great moment to be alive.

Because it was after dark, not many people noticed Sora who had tied his spiky hair back into a high ponytail and changed his clothes before we left. Granted, there were a few love struck girls who stopped us asking for autographs and inquiring what sport I was participating in (Which unlike my usual self, I told the truth and said I was a fan) but pretty much the whole night we were left alone.

"Here we are." Sora said eagerly and stopped us abruptly in front of the brightest looking store I had ever seen. There were so many lights on this building I feared it would cause a shortage in the city. Paper lanterns of so many shapes and sizes decorated the outside of the building but they couldn't match the blaring lights of the many light up toys in the shop. I swear I've never seen so many playthings in my life.

When we stepped inside, Sora's demeanor immediately changed to that of a child and started bouncing around the store excitedly looking at everything. I watched him in fascination as he felt soft things, turned automated toys on and off, bounced bouncy objects, squished squishy objects and laughed at cute toys. It was odd they way he acted and I voiced my thoughts, as I usually do. His answer made me immediately regret it.

"Why are you so excited over simple children's playthings?" I had asked with an amused chuckle.

Sora had glanced at me and I could see his grin waver for a second. "I don't know." He started, stroking a stuffed animal. "I guess it's because I never had this stuff when I was little."

I immediately felt guilty. Of course he hadn't had these things. He had no parents to give him these things and nobody that cared enough about him to give him these things. The only 'toy' I had ever seen him with was his beat up skateboard that he had found in a dumpster. That's probably why he's so good at what he does now, that skateboard was his only plaything.

"I'm sorry." I told him, sincerely. "I didn't mean to make fun of you."

"It's fine." Sora said with a smile. "I was probably better off without these things anyway."

"No, every kid deserves to have toys." I said quickly and firmly. It didn't seem right for a child to go without such basic and simple things as play toys. It was just wrong.

Sora smiled and fingered the ear of a stuffed tiger. "That's sweet." He said softly.

I hoped to god I wasn't blushing, but I'm sure I was. We walked around the store in silence for a bit before Sora's eyes lit up as we reached a display near the center of the store.

"I love these!" He said, rushing up and grabbing a handful of white sticks. I picked one up and couldn't hold back a smile. Glow sticks.

"I remember these." I said, looking around for the store owners before snapping one. A bright green light suddenly flared up at me and Sora giggled like a child. He's way too cute for his own good.

"I want some of the long ones." He said, grabbing around ten skinny foot long glow sticks. "I want to braid them."

I grabbed some as well, not wanting to be left out. We wandered around the store some more, Sora randomly picking up little gadgets and asking me what you did with them. Simple things that I assumed all kids had seen and played with Sora had no clue what they were. He was especially confused by the game Jacks.

"Hey Riku, what are these little spiky things?" Sora had asked me, picking up a Jack game in a netted bag.

"Oh, those are jacks." I said picking up a similar bag.

"What do you do with them?" Sora asked, cocking his head to the side in curious matter.

"You spread the spikey things out on the ground and bounce the ball. The object is to gather up as many jacks as you can before the ball bounces a second time."

"Oh." Sora said softly. He studied the bag in his hand before raising his eyes to meet me in a shy manner. "Would you teach me how to play?"

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, of course."

With that, Sora and I headed back towards the front to purchase our items. Once purchased, we headed outside only and started walking down the cobblestone streets, enjoying the sights and smells. I decided that this was the perfect time to apologize for my past actions and was determined not to let anything or anyone interrupt.

"Hey Sora?" I said as we neared a large fountain with children playing around it.

"Yeah?" He said perkily while snapping one of his glow sticks.

"I wanted to…well I need to…I…" I started, mumbling and stuttering and feeling like a fool. Sora stopped playing with his glow stick and gave me his full attention. That only made me more nervous.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry. I…I treated you wrong back home and I need to apologize." As soon as I had said it, something in Sora's eyes lit up like I'd never seen before. It was a combination of shock, sadness, happiness but most importantly, forgiveness.

"I…" He started softly, fiddling with the glow stick in his hand. "Thank you for saying that." I nodded, not sure what to say to that. Your welcome would only be cocky and stupid.

"Not many people have said that to me, so…thank you. But just so you know, I forgave you a long time ago, Riku." Sora told me with a soft smile.

"I don't deserve it." I told him, looking him straight in the eyes as I said it. As hard as it was for me to admit my wrong doing, I wanted to show him I wasn't lying and that I was honestly sorry.

"Yes you do." Sora said, touching my arm. I almost melted at the touch. It still amazes me that such a simple touch would make my heart feel like it was dropping several stories. "Now come on, we're friends now, so let's have fun."

And with that, Sora pointed to a nearby candy stand and bounced over to it with excitement. I followed behind him, the words "we're friends" echoing through my head. Sora must have the biggest heart in the world, no doubt. If I were in his shoes, I would've laughed at my apology. I could never be as forgiving as Sora.

As I caught up to him, Sora pushed something skinny and hard into my hand. "These things never taste really good, but for some reason they make the world seem a little brighter." Sora told me as I observed the swirl lollipop in my hand. It was true, swirl lollipops (as distasteful as they were) had always been eye catchers and made me and little kids alike smile in happiness.

Sora was special. He noticed everything.

We continued down the streets, talking about nothing in particular and generally just enjoying each other's company. He told me about his tournaments, I told him about my last basketball season. He told me about his favorite subject in school, English, and I told him about my least favorite subject, English. We talked about animals, children, cars, boats, beaches, ski slopes, food, music and so on.

Eventually, when our conversation finally tapered off, we found ourselves near a high school a ways off from the village square. We had somehow entered the residential park of the city and had no clue where we were.

"Sora I think we're lost." I told him, stupidly stating the obvious.

He nodded, looking around himself in thought. "I'll just call my driver and tell him to pick us here." He said, after reading the name of school on a nearby entryway. He quickly dialed his driver's number and told him our location.

"He'll be here in about an hour." He told me, as he put his cell phone back in his pocket. "There's a lot of traffic downtown."

"Crap, we shouldn't have talked to so much." I said with a sigh.

Sora only shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I was having fun and I think you were too, so it was worth getting lost."

He was right. I was having the most fun I had had in years with him. Plus, when I thought about it, being lost with him might not be so bad. Actually, it was really good.

"Let's go sit on the bleachers." Sora said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I turned to where he was pointing and nodded. The high school football field was off in the distance, its glaring lights like a flashlight leading us in the right direction. I noted that this high school must be a wealthy one because the field was just a bit smaller than a pro field.

When we reached the bleachers, Sora seemed to have suddenly changed his mind and instead ran out into the middle of the field laughing like a little kid. I followed him at a slower pace, not sure if I should join in on his fun.

"You know what would be fun?" Sora asked me as he stopped in the middle of the field.

"What?"

"If we played glow stick tag." Sora said with an excited grin. I swear his grins are contagious because I couldn't help but grin back at him.

"It's too light, though." I told him after a moment's thought.

"We can turn of the lights, I'm sure there's a switch somewhere." Sora said, heading towards the entrance of the field. I followed him, and sure enough there was a switch to the lights near the team bleachers.

"Snap all of the glow sticks first." I reminded him, before we were to be encased in darkness.

"Oh right." Sora said, snapping his glow sticks and braiding them together to get something that resembled a wand. I did the same with mine.

"Alright, ready, set, go!" He yelled, switching off the lights. Suddenly all I could see was two glowing sticks. And then one of them took off running. It almost felt surreal, running around in the dark of night with only glow sticks and a billion stars to light our world. All I could hear was Sora's laughs, the sound of the grass under our shoes, the wind blowing softly and my own heart racing from both running hard and the love I suddenly felt for Sora. It came so suddenly I collapsed in the grass, my heart refusing to stop hammering.

"Tag! Sora yelled, before falling over me. "Gotcha!"

My heart which was hammering fast before now was beating a mile minute. Sora had his arms wrapped around my waist and I had to resist the urge to wrap mine around his. Sora quickly realized our awkward position, and pulled away before it could get any more awkward.

"Uh, sorry." He said quickly. I could hear the blush in his voice and wished I could see it.

"It's okay." I said quickly. Sitting up on my elbows. Sora sat next to me and fiddled with his glow stick. We were silent for several minutes, both enjoying the darkness, the stars and the quietness of the world right now. I can honestly say that in that moment everything seemed right. I was with Sora, he didn't hate me and we had just done some random things that were more fun than a coffee date could ever be. It was almost perfect.

"I had fun tonight." He said softly, making me glance in the direction of his voice.

I smiled widely, glad for the darkness that masked my face. "So did I." I told him honestly.

Sora didn't say anything for a moment and I almost thought I had said something wrong when he spoke up again. "Are you staying till the end of the tournaments?"

"Yeah, I believe so. I'm with my brother and his friend and they want to see everything."

Sora was quiet again, but I could tell he was thinking hard about something because he kept batting his glow sticks in a nervous manner. "I skate in my next tournament tomorrow, will you come watch?"

"Of course." I told him without hesitation. He was the reason I was here in the first place, I wouldn't dare miss him skate.

"Really? Great!" Sora said, as if he didn't believe I would come. I felt a little saddened by this. "We should probably try and find an exit. My driver will be here soon." Sora said, standing up. We stumbled around in the dark for several minutes trying to locate an exit without ramming ourselves into the bleachers. Eventually we found our way to an exit, switched on the lights and headed out just in time to see Sora's limo pull up.

Sora's driver dropped me off at my hotel, Sora telling me to come hang out at his trailer in the morning and wishing me a good night's rest as I stepped out of the car. I rode the elevator up to my room in a lovesick haze, Sora's smile on my mind and a lollipop and glow sticks in my hand.

I ignored my brother's angry yells and Shen's annoyed grunts as I made my way to my separate room. I couldn't think of anything but Sora as I got ready for bed. Nothing else mattered but Sora.

Which is why I'm lying here in bed, unable to fall asleep because of my feelings towards said boy. I want to spend more hours talking about nothing with Sora, I want to know his feelings and his thoughts, I want to be his best friend and much more. I want Sora.

But the truth of the matter is I can't have him.

He's Axel's boyfriend.

And that's why my eyes won't close tonight. That's why I can't sleep. I didn't think I'd fall so hard for him. I thought it was only a crush but now I know I'm so wrong. Now it's something much worse than a crush. It's much worse than the scary feeling of being in love. Oh, the worst thing in life must be what this is. Unrequited love.

So I won't sleep tonight. My heart is beating too hard and dropping too fast to let me.

--

A/N: Another chapter. Yay. This is my ideal date, everyone. This is my idea of a great date. I would love to go out to a hobby store and then run around in a field in the middle of the night with glow sticks. Anyway.

Hope you enjoy, and I hope to update soon.

Review please!