I apologize in advance for the absolute crap-eth of this chapter…
Riku: Butterflies
I looked back over my shoulder. Sora ran after me, calling out my name. I smiled.
"Come on Sora!"
I took his hand, feeling his soft skin underneath mine. I began to run, pulling him with me, running by the lake, the sun beating down hard, and reflecting from the water's surface. I rolled onto the grass, pulling Sora with me. We rolled to the weeping willow tree and stopped at its base. The smile on my face beamed. Nothing could happen today that would put me in a bad mood.
"Hey Riku… what's gotten into you? You seem happy"
"I am happy dearest Sora!" I said in my sweet voice, standing up and dancing around the tree. I leant down next to his face and grinned. "Wanna know why?"
He gave his legendary pout and nodded.
"Because…" At this point I stood up and twirled to the lake edge, getting my shoes all wet. "…because my Uncle finally got what he deserved."
"What do you mean?"
I felt his arms encircle my waist and his head bury itself into my back, nuzzling it softly. I took hold of his arms and pulled them so they were holding me even tighter. We swayed for a moment or two, the breeze floating around us, fluttering our hair and making our shirts flap. Sora wore the traditional white school shirt, whereas mine was black, with icy flames up the sides.
"I mean… he's been sentenced. Attempted murder and assault." I couldn't keep the smirk from my voice. "He'll be spending seventeen years in jail before he even gets the chance to appeal."
"Why so long?"
The question angered me. He tried to kill my best friend. He hit my lover across the head. He tried to kill my lover's brother's lover. I wasn't making any sense…
"Because he was a General. Devoted his life to protecting the people. Then he turned on them."
"He'd get longer if you told them what he did to you."
The atmosphere grew thick as I stood, still as an icicle, reveling in shock of what he had just said. I turned around, so I was facing him. I tried hard not to shout. If I shouted, I'd scare him away.
"I can't do that…" My voice sounded unsure. Could I? No. No matter how much I loathed my uncle, I couldn't turn on him. Could I? So many questions…
Flashback
"Sephiroth… why do you hurt Riku? He is not like one of you. I do not wish for you to carry on with this regime."
My Mother's words carried through to the present day. My uncle stared at her hard before opening his mouth.
"He WILL be a man."
"How does this turn him into a man? I don't want him to be in the army and kill people! If you want him to join your army, then I don't want him to be a man! He's just a child!" She cried, desperately trying to stop me from the beatings. I hadn't finished the dishes in time. Instead, I had been knocked to the floor, and smacked across the kitchen, because the dishes had to be done to a high standard, as everything did. I couldn't meet those standards.
My uncle raised a hand and roughly backhanded my Mother across her perfect, flawless skin, leaving behind a harsh red mark.
"Do not speak so frivolously of things you cannot understand."
"Mummy?" I had wandered into the room, to see my Mother's face red, and my uncle with a raised hand.
"Sephy… don't hurt mummy!" I had shouted, my face going red. He had hoisted me off the floor with my t-shirt, pulling me up meet his face, and he had smiled in approval at the growing bruise on my temple he had given me earlier.
"Riku... do not call me that."
"Sephy? Why not?" For that I received a punch straight across the face, the force snapping my head back, and he dropped me on the floor, where my elbows crashed against the black and white tiles.
"Get out of my house.." My Mother said, shaking with rage. Instead, he just ignored her and went out into the garage to meet my Father.
"Riku…" My Mother swept me into her arms and held me tight. "Someday Riku… someday we'll be free."
End Flashback
"Why not?"
I unwrapped Sora's arms from around me and slumped down onto the mint coloured grass. I heaved a sigh and closed my eyes, waiting for him to say something else. When he said nothing, I opened my eyes and looked behind me. He was looking at me with a strange and worried expression, his mouth slightly open, as if he was about to say something, but had thought better of it.
"What is it?" I asked, concerned. His head fell a little, and his mouth immediately closed.
"Sora?" I was a little more than worried now. I knew he was keeping a secret.
"Riku… I have something to tell you. I wanted to tell you from the first moment I found out, but I was scared of how you'd react."
"What is it? You know you can tell me anything. Right?"
"I found out… about your family."
I froze. Mostly at the word family. It brought up so many memories, so many nightmares. It dragged my Mother up from the dregs of my past and put them all in front of me. I stared for a moment or two whilst he kept his head hung, biting his cherry flavored bottom lip.
"What… What do you mean?"
He sensed my hesitation, flinching a bit. I cupped his cheek in one palm, feeling the heat in his skin rise.
"I… was walking Shadow, when you wanted me to look after him... And he ran off, so I went to find him, but we came to this clearing and…"
I stopped listening. He knew. He knew about my Mother. What did this mean… for us? Would he trust me? Would we be able to carry on the way we were?
I smiled. Now there were no secrets between us. At least from my side. Maybe, with that out in the open, I could convince him to open up about his own Mother. I took his hand softly and started to run again, heading for the clearing that was all that much familiar to me. I knocked branches aside, occasionally catching my shirt and pants on thorns and wild overgrown bushes, but I didn't care. The sun was melting down on the little bleached tombstone, and I slowed my pace, so we were walking towards it.
I stopped. Sora looked up at me in a questioning manner. I knelt down, running my fingers over the stone and pulling Sora down the meet my eyes.
"Tell me what happened…" He whispered, almost inaudibly. I should have seen that coming. I slumped again and pulled him into my lap, so his face was looking up at me. I stroked his hair, softly, the brown clashing with my pale skin. I opened my mouth and sucked in a tiny breath before thinking of where to start.
Where TO start? From when I idolized her in every way? From when the stuff with my uncle began? From when she…
"Well… Me and Mother were really close." I started, slowly.
And I told him, everything about my Mother, everything about my Uncle and my Father. He listened intently, his eyes brimming with tears at some of the more disturbing things he heard. When I had finished, I avoided his gaze, preferring to look at the butterflies scouring the grass, searching for tiny pollen particles. Their wings beat rapidly to keep them afloat, but they still stayed in the air. They stayed in the air because they tried so hard. The colours merged into one as they fluttered and soared way over our heads.
Acting on impulse, I reached up and held out a finger, the sun making me seem as pale as a vampire. A curious cream and orange butterfly flapped its wings at a slower pace and touched down on my skin. Upon closer inspection, I saw that its wings were tipped with a tar like black. They tried so hard. They never let everything go. If they did, they would tumble to the floor, wings crumpled beneath them. They never gave up, fighting for that tiny spark that allowed them to ride the air currents. That little spark that could destroy them, or give them something new. The power to fly.
They were the lucky ones. They could fly far away and leave everything they once knew far behind. They could pack up and go, anytime they wished. All they had to give, was a flap of their wings. They could leave everything in the blink of an eye. Emotional bagged meant nothing to them. They were, in one word, free. No chains holding them down. Nothing to stay for. Nothing to stand in their way. No hard decisions to make.
"Riku?"
I snapped out of my daze and looked down at him. He was as pretty as any of these butterflies. I smiled warmly and held down my finger to him, showing him the perfect creature. He blinked for a minute, until curiosity bloomed like an unruly flower on his face. His sapphire eyes widened, and he reached out a timid finger, coaxing the butterfly towards him. It left my finger with a beat of its contrasting wings and landed softly on his index digit. He seemed a little shocked at first, but I took hold of his wrist, lightly and reassuringly. He giggled as the butterfly turned around, its legs tickling Sora's skin. It blinked in front of his big blue eyes, and then Sora extended his hand, stretching his fingers and lifting it up to the sky, where the butterfly took flight, leaving the warmth of Sora's body for the cool breeze. It flew far up high, joining a group of the same type of butterfly. They danced together, timidly forming a little cloud of cream, orange and black.
"Sing a song for me."
"Huh?" His face was sincere. He reached up with both of his hands and took my face in them, pulling me down onto him, so our lips touched. We stayed like that for a few seconds before drawing apart. If Sora wanted me to sing one song for him, then I would.
"Sing me a song you wrote yourself"
I paused, searching the archives of my mind for a song I had written, that would not be loud. I wanted a soft song. It clicked, and I had just found it.
I leant back a little, so Sora was further up my chest.
"We'll do it all…. everything… on our own…"
I closed my eyes, feeling the breeze run across my bare arms. Sora's thumb was playing across my knuckles.
"We don't need…. Anything… or anyone…"
I knew without a doubt that Sora had closed his eyes too. We swayed, and I thought about it a lot. It had been a long time since I had sang like this, with no guitar in the background. Just me and my voice, paving the way.
"If I lay here… If I just lay here…. Would you lie with me… and…. Just forget the world…"
It wasn't a question. Sora's hand in mine grew tighter.
"I don't quite know… how to say… how I feel…"
I let out a breath, gathering my thoughts, a lone tear slowly starting to creep up in the corner of my eye. It had been so long since I had originally written this song.
"Those three words… are said too much… are not enough…"
I refused to let the tear fall.
"If I lay here… if I just lay here… would you lie with me…and… just forget the world…Forget what we're told… before we get too old… Show me a garden that's… bursting into life…"
I closed any gap there may be between Sora's hand and my own.
"Let's waste time…. Chasing cars… Around our heads… I need your grace… to remind me… to find my own…"
The tear fell, splashing onto Sora's face, causing him to open his eyes, but I didn't stop.
"If I lay here… if I just lay here…. Would you lie with me… and … just forget the world… forget what we're told… until we get too old… show me a garden… that's… bursting into life…"
I smiled.
"All that I am…. All that I ever was… is here in you're perfect eyes… they're all I can see… I don't know where… confused about how as well… just know that these things will never change for us at all…"
I hugged him close. He was everything I had left. I wanted to hold him like this for the rest of eternity. For the rest of our lives. I'd build a bubble so strong, no one could get in. We'd be free. Just like the butterflies.
"If I lay here… if I just lay here…" I leant close to his face, brushing his lips with my own. "…Would you lie with me…?" I smiled when he faintly nodded, entranced by my words.
"…And just forget the world?"
A more cute chapter than anything. At first I thought… forest sex! But then the butterflies came into it… and yeah…
Thanks to all those who have put up with me so far:P
Sorry about the wait… I'm not too well. –Sniff-
The song is 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol. I just thought it went really well with the chapter, and it is an uber perdy song. :D
-Cookies, Roses and Riku's kiddy photo album to all reviewers!
Please review!
XD
