January, 2012
A/N: The original chapter upload date must have been mid-March of 2006, because I was all giddy about Kingdom Hearts II. Man, what nostalgia. That being said, enjoy this. I think this is possibly one of the most embarrassing chapters I wrote. You'll… you'll see. Just laugh and move on. (face palm)

Cinderfella

Chapter 7 - Stupid People, Stupid Things

Now the house feeling empty again, Riku sat on the ratty loveseat. That stupid question was gonna bug him all day. How could Sora have possibly been cold? The house was like a frickin' furnace! And even more suspiciously, his shaking had become sudden... he had seen it! It wasn't anything he did, was it? All he had done was laugh...

Riku groaned outloud as he heard a car pulling in the driveway. He knew quite well that his parents weren't coming back for some time: they had just left on a business trip a few days back. The teenager had enjoyed his past few days in solitude, but now he knew it was all over. He was relieved Cloud had come a few minutes earlier—his temporary guardian had an early arrival as well.

Knowing full-well he was going to have to face that bastard sometime, he took it like a man, his ass remaining planted on the couch and eyes searching for the remote. As he found the remote on the floor tucked halfway under the couch the door swung open.

"Riiiiiiku!" The voice chimed in a rather annoying tone, making the addressed teen cringe. "I'm baaaaaaaaaack!"

"Shut the hell up!" Without thinking, he stood up and walked out in the living room. He jumped in startlement when two arms gripped him tightly, giving no room for escape... or air in Riku's lungs.

"Riiiiku!" the man squealed once more, squeezing the younger boy even tighter.

"Gah... Sephi... roth..." he managed to voice. "You're freaking... killing me." but his grip kept its strong hold. Riku swore that he was going to be murdered if Sephiroth hugged him much longer.

"I missed you, brother!" If it was possible, Riku would have cringed. "How long has it been since I last saw you?"

"You flew in this summer to visit, remember?"

"Oh, but it seems much longer!" One more squeeze... Riku began to see stars. "Have you grown, wittle bruddah?"

"I.." He didn't managed to finish his sentence, he was too busy gasping for air. As if God decided to spare him, Riku found himself falling unto the floor. He wondered how much longer he was going to be like this...

"Anyway." The elder brother cleared his throat, suddenly changing moods. "How have you been?"

"Are you finished being an idiot?"

"Quite. I hate being serious all the time, you know that."

"Yeah, well, I was fine until you attempted to kill me."

"It would have been an accident, I assure you."

"Seriously, are you sure you're not bipolar?" Sephiroth only shrugged. "Okay, then. I'm gonna go grab myself some food." He began to walk towards the kitchen, limping slightly.

"You want to go out?"

Riku turned around. If his eyes could shoot lasers, Sephiroth would have been the equivalent of a fish stick. Although Riku had a remarkably cool nature most of the time, his older brother really knew how to push all of the wrong buttons…

"...what's that look for?"

"You don't just go out to see a movie or shopping, you go out to get screwed. So I'm going to turn down your offer."

"You're a sore sport now, but if you would just get laid once by a man, then you'd think differently."

"Who said I was gay?"

"You're my brother, plus you look like a girl, equals you gotta like boys."

"You suck with equations. No wonder you failed math."

"You don't find any allure in men?"

Riku rose a silver brow. "No."

"You will one day, Riku, you'll see. There will be a pretty boy that catches your eye... and you'll see." The image of Sora popped into Riku's head suddenly, but he dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. "But in any matter, let's have some brother bonding time. Just the two of us, promise."

"The last time you made a promise, you promised to take me with you to Harry Potter. You made out with another guy, and I couldn't tell if the kids were screaming about the dementors or you."

"The demen-- what?"

"Exactly." He shook his head as he opened the fridge door. "...oh no."

"What?"

"There's no soda." He closed it again. "I must have had the last can yesterday. What am I gonna drink now?"

"Water would be ideal, and good for you too."

"If I don't have a soda, I'm gonna have a headache."

"Are you addicted to soda?" Sephiroth crossed his arms and leaned against the kitchen counter.

Riku shot him a look bred between oddity and stupidity. "How the hell do you get addicted to soda? It doesn't have any alcohol."

"Not the actual soda—the caffeine, brother. Caffeine is a drug."

"When did you get so smart?" He pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and began to pour himself a glass.

"I've always been smart. You've always been too dumb to see it."

"And I guess that's why you barely passed school?"

"It's more wisdom than remembering what a quadratic equation, my dear brother."

"Wisdom." Riku chuckled with sarcasm. "That's new." Without another word, he walked out of the room with the glass and sat in front of his computer. He knew Sephiroth was going to follow him, and there were few things that could drive the pest away.

But he did have one thing at the moment...

He sniggered as Sephiroth walked in. Surprised, the older brother rose a brow. "Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, nothing..." Riku tried to suppress his laughing as he flipped up the music player on the computer. He scrolled down about halfway through his playlist and clicked on a upbeat country song. As soon as the fiddles began, he could see Sephiroth jump a few good inches in the air.

"Dear God, Riku! How can you listen to this crap?" It must be working. Riku turned up the volume. "RIKU! THIS IS DEATH TO MY EARS!" Louder... "AUGH!" He was gone.

Smiling in his victory, he turned the music back down. "Thank you, wonderful country music."He went back to his beloved Heartkey.

The internet was a universe away from his own world. Here, he could go anywhere he wanted, be anybody he wanted to be.

It wasn't that Riku was depressed. Okay, maybe it was. He still couldn't get his mind off Dora. He sat back for a moment, and wondered where she was now. Probably at home, considering the sun was almost down past the horizon. Even still, how was she? Did she still think about him?

Then he thought about Sora to drive the thought out. How long had it been since he'd had a friend? Maybe if things kept going this way, they could become good friends. Best friends, even. Something he hadn't had in a long time. He was still broken up after what happened between him and—

No. He wouldn't think about it.

He was about to continue his adventure of endless possibilities when exhaustion gripped him. He yawned so wide it brought tears to his eyes, and with that he decided he should go to bed. He closed the windows and dragged himself towards his bedroom. He was so sleepy that he didn't even want to go to the bathroom at all, not even to brush his teeth.

Hmph. Who really cared? One skipped night (or two, or three...) wouldn't give him any cavities.

Crawling into his bed sleepily, he didn't bother to turn out his light. The clock flashed 6:21, but he paid no attention to time.

Cinderfella - Stupid People, Stupid Things

Riku found himself waking up to complete darkness with a nauseous stomach. He peered over at the clock. 4:03. Oh god.

He rolled himself over on his other side. Wait, hadn't he fallen asleep with the light on? Sephiroth must have turned it off. He rolled a little more until he lay partially on his stomach. The feeling of nausea got worse. Flipping on his back, the ill feeling in his stomach was still there.

"This can't be happening. I'm trying to sleep..." It got even worse. Feeling as if he were going to heave, he got up and clumsily walked towards the bathroom. He sat down on the tile floor and held his stomach as it growled angrily. Deciding to sleep in the bathroom, he laid down on the rug on the floor.

But he still felt too sick to even do that. He sat up once more.

He found himself rolling all about the bathroom trying to find a comfortable place to lay, until about a half hour later when he found the previous day's lunch coming back up.

Cursing as he hung his head over the toilet, he decided his stomach was finally done heaving his contents. His body trembled, and cold swept over him. He sat down on the floor once more before he forced himself up and back to bed. It must have been something he ate.

At 6:11, he woke up again and repeated the same thing from two hours ago. He shuddered on the bathroom floor. He heard a door open from the hallway and decided he wanted to vomit a third time as Sephiroth came in.

"Hey, you all right?"

"Yeah, I just threw up everything in my stomach again. But thanks for asking."

"Here, get yourself back to bed." He offered a hand, and Riku gladly took it. Stumbling back in, he dared not decline Sephiroth's offer. "You're definitely not going to school today."

"Hmmm... sounds like a plan." He rolled over as he shivered. Even three comforters and a bedsheet couldn't keep him warm.

He heard Sephiroth muttering to himself as he walked from the room, "That hurricane Kate is coming here, anyway, and it's supposed to rain pretty badly..."

Screw Kate. He just wanted to sleep. He heard Sephiroth come back in. "I'm going to set a bucket here for you, so you don't have to get out of bed next time."

"Thanks," he groaned.

Two hours later, he had made his bed on the couch. The DVD player was playing Heartkey, and his one favorite song was playing as his stomach emptied itself of its own acids. "This is sweet," he thought sarcastically, setting the bucket back down. He stopped the music with the remote just for a second to listen to the rain tap lightly on the roof. It was a comforting sound. Heartkey stay silenced as Riku fell asleep to a different, soothing melody.

January 2012
A/N: Sephiroth is so OOC that it's really embarrassing. I changed a lot of Riku's bad dialogue (rolls eyes).

That's what I got.