Author's note: Sorry that this story is such a rip off with really short chapters. I hope page 5 makes up for it. (You'll know what I'm talking about when you get there.) Also, I don't know how well proofread this is. If you find any typos that I missed, don't hesitate tell me.
Insane
Asylum
chapter 7
The next day, Riku headed to the asylum the minute the last bell rang. It was cold and drizzling (with a 60 percent chance of rain), but he didn't pay much attention to the weather, anyway. Earlier that day he had another meeting with the principal to check his progress in school and with his job. His grades, apparently, were looking better and he hadn't been getting into so much trouble, like he had been before.
Plus, now Riku had a place to go after school where Nero and Kai weren't allowed. And, of course, there was Sora...
Maybe this job really had been a blessing in disguise.
When Riku walked through the doors Aeris was there. He hadn't seen her in a while. "You might have to work a bit late tonight," she said. "It may rain, and when it does, the patients tend to get a little unruly. We could really use the extra help."
"No problem."
And now Riku could listen to
Aeris without getting bored out of his wits.
Yet another
personal victory.
When he walked down the hall, he saw Kairi. "Hey," He said.
"Hey." Kairi replied.
"Kairi?" Riku asked, after a moment. The girl looked up at him, but didn't say anything. "Do you want to do something with me this weekend?"
Kairi cocked her head to the side, much like Sora often did. "Like a date?" She asked.
Riku nodded. "Sure. Why not?"
"You jackass!" She replied. "Think about what it would do to Sora." She looked at him for a moment and walked away.
Choosing to ignore the awkward moment, Riku made his way to Sora's cell and let himself in. Something was different today, but Riku couldn't tell what. He was just so happy to see his patient, and felt truly wanted. It was refreshing after his parents hadn't come home that weekend. The feeling made him forget about Kairi and everyone else, though it bothered him when he saw that Sora was already looking worried, or like at any moment he would start screaming.
"Are you alright?" Riku asked, sitting down next to the younger boy. Sora didn't respond for a moment. Riku was about to ask again when Sora suddenly perked up and answered.
"I am now." He said, clutching on to the older boy's arm. Riku nearly melted in his seat.
Something had definitely changed.
The day had gone as normal-- Riku did homework, Sora sat in silence next to him. After Riku finished, the two of them talked. It was all so routine but it didn't feel as if it were the same thing every day. Riku, at the back of his mind, wondered if today seemed different to Sora as well.
Suddenly, Sora's face and voice turned grim. "I think it's going to rain today." He buried his face in Riku's arm. "I hate the rain."
"How come?" The silver-haired asked, his voice gentle. A long time passed before Sora replied.
"Bad things always happen when it rains." He said, finally. "Don't let anything bad happen." The latter came out like a demand.
"I won't." Riku said, unsurely, patting his patient's back. "I won't."
The boys sat like that for a long time, thinking. Riku wondered about why Sora hated the rain so much, and if it were just water in general. Or, water falling from the sky, rather. That would certainly explain why his patient was the only one with a separate bath, rather than a shower...
As for Sora? Well, who knows what he was thinking.
"Riku?" Sora asked.
"Hm?"
"Do you think you'll be staying later tonight? Just out of curiosity." Riku shrugged.
"Maybe, but I'm not making any promises." The older boy then winced, wondering if his wording was harsh. Sora didn't seem to mind.
"But... would you? If it does rain?" He asked. Riku nodded.
"Of course."
--
And it did. A few minutes later it began sprinkling, and a half an hour after that, it was raining.
Sora wasn't totally freaking out...yet... but he was getting close.
"Sora?" Riku asked,
trying to bring up something that would take the boy's mind off the
rain. "Are you sure you don't want to get something to eat from
the crapperteria? Dinner's at seven, right?" They both glanced at
the clock. It was 4:13. "We could get started now and just walk
slow."
Sora just looked at him. "What? What is it?" He
asked, nervously. He didn't too much enjoy the way the younger boy
was looking at him.
"Eat from the what?" Sora just asked, incredulously.
Riku repeated what he had said to Sora a few times before he caught his mistake. "The cafeteria!" He said. "Eat from the cafeteria."
The younger boy kept looking at him. "You're weird." He said, finally.
Once it got close to five, they really did begin to make their way towards the cafeteria. Sora, as usual, got enough food for an army. And, also as usual, Riku got nothing. He figured he'd be heading home in a few hours, despite the rain.
"Are you sure you don't want part of my sandwich?" Sora asked. "It's tuna... I think."
"...I think I'll pass."
"Are you really sure? Really?"
Riku could see that this wasn't going to end anytime soon and chose to take half of the sandwich. Unfortunately, eating it didn't confirm what the substance between the pieces of bread was.
"I can't wait until I can eat real food." Sora said, suddenly.
"Why can't you?" Riku asked.
"You know how we're kind of split into groups
judging on our health?"
Riku nodded, and Sora continued. "I'm
not healthy enough to have foods like chicken, or beef. I don't
know why they do it that way, and as far as I know, no other place
does it. I think it's for safety. Like, I should have things that I
won't choke to death on or attack someone with if I... if
I..."
Riku nodded so the younger boy wouldn't have to finish.
"Why do you?" Riku said, keeping the question vague. He knew Sora would get it. "I mean, what causes it? And why?" He chose to ignore the image of Sora attacking someone with a turkey leg that instantly sprung into his mind.
Sora looked down. "Can we talk about it later? After we eat?"
"Of
course."
Sora smiled and quickly changed the subject.
--
After
they went back to Sora's cell, they fell quiet. They had talked
through dinner and while they walked away from the cafeteria, but now
there seemed to be nothing to talk about. Sora brought up small,
light topics.
"How's school going?" Sora asked.
"Good."
"How's your family?"
"Good."
"How was the sandwich?"
"Good. Now, why don't you tell me about the stuff I asked about while we were eating?"
Sora looked down and shrugged. "I see things." He said. "Really horrible, scary things. Little black creatures, crawling everywhere. I get horrible nightmares and the most vivid dreams... when it's good, it's great and I'm sad when it's ended. But when it's bad I feel it and those feelings are the ones that last the longest. And I hear a voice. Not a lot, just one. But it tells me to be brave. It's not one of those little voices at the back of your mind, and it's not my conscience." Riku always forgot that Sora could really sound intelligent and mature. And he could really, really talk. "It's not schizophrenia." The young boy concluded. "It's real."
"Sora?" Riku asked after a moment. The boy perked up upon hearing his name, as he usually did. "You always change the subject when I talk about you or… this place. Do you hate talking about it?"
Sora cocked his head to the side. "Do I? Well… I don't hate it, but I really like hearing about you."
"Why do you hate rain and stuff?" Riku asked. He wanted to get that question in before Sora decided he wanted to quit talking, should that happen. He didn't know how willing his patient was to talk about his illness.
"That's when it all starts."
"What, your illness did?"
"No." Sora said, and left it at that.
Thunder crashed, and Sora squeaked and flew onto his
bed. "Thanks for...you know, distracting me from the rain." Sora
said, his voice uneven. "But I like to know when it starts
pouring."
--
Later, at eight o'clock, Aeris came in. "Riku, it's storming hard out." She said. "I'm sorry, you may have to stay here the whole night. It's dark, the roads are slippery. I just wouldn't feel right having you at there at a time like this."
"I won't be driving." He assured her. He knew he couldn't leave Sora, but he felt like clearing that up, anyway.
"You could catch pneumonia." She answered. "Besides, I just heard on the radio that two cars have already slid onto the sidewalk. There's a spare bed I can get for you. Please, stay." Riku thought he heard Sora murmur, 'just listen', but he wasn't too sure.
"I'll stay." Riku said, to both Aeris and Sora. "Don't worry about it."
Aeris smiled. "I'll go fetch the spare bed." She shut the door with unnecessary force as she left.
"You're staying." Sora said, smiling. "You're staying."
After Aeris got the spare bed and the two boys set it up, they figured they'd best get to bed.
The lights were flickering and dimming constantly.
"Riku?" Sora said quietly. He didn't need to speak very loudly; Riku's bed was pushed next to him.
"You okay?" Riku asked.
"I think so." Sora replied uneasily. Right after, lightening flashed and he buried himself under the covers.
"Are you sure?" After no reply, the older boy tried again. "Sora?" Riku saw his patient nodding from under the covers, and the lights shut off.
Sora instantly began to freak out, along with some of the other patients, in the other rooms. Riku could hear the muffled sounds through the walls.
"Sora?" Riku asked, trying to pull the covers down to get to Sora. "Come on, Sora. Come on." He was beginning to speak more to himself than to the younger boy. After a lot of searching, the older boy found his patient. When the lightening flashed again, he could see that the younger boy was huddled against the wall, curled up, shivering. Whether it was from the cold or not, Riku couldn't tell. Either way, the sight of Sora like that bothered him immensely. "You're okay." The older boy felt around to try and find his patient's shoulder. He found what felt like Sora's plush dolls before finding the shoulder. "You're okay." He repeated.
"No I'm not!" The boy shouted. "Bullshit!"
Riku was utterly shocked. When they had first met, Sora had been extremely childish. He never thought he'd hear Sora talk like that.
And the second shocking event was when he pulled the younger boy up and kissed him. Neither of them know where this sudden spark of--lust? Affection? Infatuation?-- had come from… but that didn't mean they fought against it.
Sora clutched onto Riku's shirt as Riku gently began to run his hands across the younger boy's face and back. For one awkward moment they stayed like that, lips touching and nothing more. Riku pulled Sora even closer and they kissed deeply. Somehow, Riku ended up on top of Sora. Sora opened his mouth, allowing the older boy to slide his tongue in. Curiously and timidly at first, they explored each other's mouths.
Sora was the first to pull away.
"Riku…" he said. "This is so…"
"Weird." The silver haired replied, beginning to kiss the younger boy's neck. Sora nodded.
"But," he continued, "it's also really…"
"It's really good." Riku finished. He took Sora's face in his hands and kissed him, quickly, on the lips. Sora was about to open his mouth again, but Riku had gone under the covers, kissing his patient's neck again, chest, and stomach. Once he came up again the two boys shared another kiss and began to explore each other's mouths once more.
The lights flashed back on, and, against all the white in the room, were positively blinding.
"Stupid inconvenient lighting…" Riku muttered, covering his eyes and sliding under the covers. Sora burrowed under the covers as well. He didn't make a sound. "You awake?"
"I'm awake, RiKU." It had been so long since the younger boy had said Riku's name in that way-- he had sounded so much like a child that, for a brief second, Riku felt like a cradle robber.
"Yeah," He said, after a moment. "Well…" He didn't continue though, for Sora had fallen fast asleep.
--
They woke up the next morning, Riku sprawled on top of Sora's bed, and Sora curled on top of Riku's bed.
And for the awkward morning-after-the-first-make-out-session , they were both faced with a difficult question: cut to the chase and talk about what had happened the night before and what it meant for them, or make some lame small talk about how they somehow switched beds?
"God, Sora, how did you end up in my bed?" Riku asked, forcing a chuckle. Sora nodded and forced a laugh as well. "So…" he added, after a while.
"So." The younger boy agreed.
"Feeling better this morning?" Riku asked, lamely.
"Yeah."
"That's good."
"Yeah. I think so, too." They were quiet for a long time, until Sora spoke up. "Are we supposed to talk about yesterday now? You know… last night?"
Riku shrugged. "I guess we should."
They were quiet again.
"I liked it." Sora decided.
"Me too." Riku agreed.
And that was that.
