There was something brushing against Sora's wrist.

That was his very first hint of sensory awareness as his mind slowly dragged itself back out of its unconscious haze, warm and content with something that had very little to do with how comfortable he was lying there. He inhaled deeply first, and he noticed that the feathery feeling on his skin paused for only a moment before it resumed again, brushing back and forth across his skin.

"I should take you sunbathing once we get to America."

The softly-spoken comment was tinged with gentle amusement, emanating somewhere close beside Sora's ear, and it brought a lazy smile to the younger boy's lips before he even opened his eyes to meet the shining gaze that was hovering above his. Riku' hair was tousled more than usual, the strands unevenly shoved over his forehead, but his smile was smooth as it tugged the corners of his lips up. His eyes smiled, too, lighting up his face so that Sora nearly had to close his eyes a moment after he'd opened them to deal with the shock of seeing that face so early in the morning.

Even so, his grin turned silly as he foolishly summoned the first words that came to mind and mumbled, "I want to wake up next to you more often." The second that he spoke, alarm sped through his veins and quickened his heartbeat into alertness as he risked a quick glance at the other boy's face, gauging his reaction.

Riku' smile didn't change at all. He only shrugged. "I can live with that," he replied calmly, eyes twinkling in the morning light, and as his teeth momentarily pressed into his bottom lip, turning them white for just a split second, Sora was suddenly transported back into a memory of the night before. He remembered how those lips had closed against the skin of his neck, below his ear, and he could still perfectly recall how he noticed that they were parted ever so slightly. He remembered how Riku had hovered there for a long moment, his lips barely brushing against Sora's skin as he breathed, and how he had wondered, for just a moment, if the older boy was going to continue with anything more than that.

His blood had felt hot and thick as it moved through his veins, beating beneath the pressure that was held against his pulsing throat, and for the first time he had not felt afraid at the thought that Riku would be able to feel it. Almost, he'd hoped that the other boy would notice how hard his heart was thumping; he wanted Riku to feel how much that simple kiss affected him, because even if he hadn't the courage to say it out loud, he wanted the other boy to know just how Sora responded to him. He wanted to convey without words how his skin shivered with the warmth exuding from Riku' body, how the entire world had tipped beneath him because he was leaning over him, legs brushing together and hands touching where Riku was propped up on his elbow.

Sora still remembered that Riku' lips had moved. It was such a small distinction – a tiny gesture, in all actuality, and he knew that if he'd tried to vocalise how much he treasured it; the magic would vanish. His own mumbled attempts at any sort of definition would have ruined the entire night, yet somehow he felt that there was some important in the way that he had felt Riku' mouth shift against the column of his throat, lips parting so that the younger boy could feel the wisps of his breath brushing his sensitive skin.

Though he had no way of detailing how, there had been something in the way that Riku' fingers had just flicked out to rest against Sora's where they were splayed atop the sheets; how his sigh had been slightly unsteady, his position such that his cheek touched Sora's before he withdrew again, leaning back into his place beside the younger boy and lying back down.

And that whispering feeling was there now, too, lingering in the corners of Riku' long eyelashes as he gazed at the younger boy so that even though Sora had none of the sophistication to pin it down to any one feeling, he knew – without a doubt – that something was different. Something had changed between them, unspoken or otherwise, and now he could no longer reach for any sort of casual remark that might have distanced him from the feeling that was swarming his senses once more, overwhelming him while he was left defenceless against it.

He could only lay there and stare into the other boy's eyes for far longer than he should have, noting in the back of his mind that Riku did not attempt to break that gaze. He only looked right back, eyes flickering back and forth between Sora's as a soft smile built in his features. It stretched on to the point where Sora's chest began to ache, but for the life of him he could not bear to rip his eyes away while Riku was looking at him like that, like he could feel the same indefinable feeling stirring inside him the longer that he refused to forcibly suppress it as he should have.

Then, without warning, a very deep breath sighed its way out of Riku' lungs, as if the older boy had been holding it the entire time. The exhalation was slightly shaky, Sora noticed with a start, and the older boy shook his head several times as he visibly tried to control his breathing once more. "God, Sora," he muttered under his breath, and his steady voice was so much deeper than usual that it made the younger boy's heart leap into his throat in response. "You know, you're actually…"

Sora tried to swallow, but his voice was too rough and his eyes too wide as he asked, "Actually what?"

The older boy continued to stare at him for a long time, more silent than he had been in the entire span of their time together so far, but his thumb slowly begun to stroke back and forth along Sora's pulse point as he had done to wake him earlier. His hand was barely balancing on the younger boy's palm to keep that position, and without thinking about it; Sora shifted his hand so that his fingers curled upward to brush Riku' wrist in return, nearly closing around his arm to hold him there.

"Actually what?" he prompted again, when Riku did not speak at all, and those words finally jarred the older boy into speech – but not quite the one that Sora had been expecting.

With another quiet sigh, Riku shifted back to lean on his elbow again, his hand braced against his temple so that his other could remain within Sora's light grasp. Neither made any comment about that gentle contact, or the way that Sora's fingertips were just barely caressing Riku' skin without his permission. "You know, back when I was a kid," Riku began in a low voice, nearly whispering despite the fact that Sora was the only one within earshot, "my mum used to tell us all this story whenever we were afraid of something, about the one time that she went out with her dad. He was a fishermen, you see," he explained softly, "and apparently he'd go out on this trips that could take weeks and months before he ever made it back home, and she'd miss him like crazy."

His voice was that of a storyteller, now, and Sora's smile widened to dazzling proportions.

"And so she'd beg him to take her along, over and over, so that she could be with him while he was out there and make sure that he was okay, 'cause she'd get so scared that he was never coming back. He always said he'd be fine, but then there'd be stories of people drowning, freezing to death, getting thrown off the boat – and so she wouldn't sleep whenever he was gone for even an hour longer than she thought he would. And one day, he turned to her and said that it was okay; that she could come with him, so long as she stayed close and didn't touch any of the lines or the hooks and that.

"So, of course, that was the one time that he ever got caught in a storm," Riku said conversationally, and Sora laughed once, grinning at the light tone of the other boy's voice. "It wasn't deadly – obviously – but she always said that she could just remember how she thought that the boat was going to tip over, and so she was trying to tie herself to the rigging so that she would fall off, or anything. And it was just this massive thunderstorm, lightning flashing all around the boat and rain pouring over the deck and turning it to ice everywhere, and she used to tell us that she could remember staring up into the sky and thinking that she was going to die, she was that terrified – that it made her stomach turn itself inside out, that she thought she was going to scream from it all.

"But," he murmured suddenly, head tilting and voice becoming even softer, "whenever we were that scared, she used to turn and tell us to look again at whatever we were frightened of."

"Why?" Sora asked, just as quietly.

Riku' eyes flitted between Sora's again, and they did not waver as he spoke again. "Because as scary as it seemed… it was also the most beautiful thing that she'd ever seen."

Sora's voice stuck in his throat.

It was only through plain determination that he managed not to let the emotions show in his expression in that moment, because with those words he felt such a crushing wave of resignation that he felt certain it would have had him collapsing into a heap in the covers. In part, he knew that it was only a ridiculous fancy that those words could pertain to him in any way or that there was a purpose in the telling of it – but at the same time, Riku was looking so closely into his face that it was impossible not to read the truth that he offered in those startlingly blue eyes and the barest hint of bashfulness in the very corner of his demure smile, and Sora felt so defeated because if someone like that could look at him like that, if he could speak words such as those with no trace of irony or insincerity anywhere on his person, then everything that Sora had ever thought about himself had just been swept out from beneath him.

If someone like Riku could really exist in his life, no matter the circumstances in which he came to be there, then Sora was prepared to just give up everything because he had finally come to the realisation that he was so hopelessly lost in feeling for that one person that he had absolutely no hope of going back to how he had been before.

"Why are you telling me this, Lou?" he asked in a low voice, his expression arching without his permission as he caught the older boy's gaze and held it fast.

Riku only looked up in pure innocence for one moment, hesitating for the briefest of seconds before he spoke, but it was enough time for Sora to see the look that sparked in his face. It vanished almost instantly, but it had been there; something close to despair and rapture at the same time, it was that helplessness that Sora recognised as his chest gave a particularly painful twinge, almost in agreement.

And then he shrugged again, using his free shoulder to do so while his fingers closed around Sora's wrist and jogged it once. "No reason," he replied casually, blinking several times, "I just thought that it'd be a good conversation starter, that's all."

Sora's heart was beating too quickly, the blood moving slowly around his eyes, but he felt strangely brazen in that moment; emboldened by the certainty that Riku' hesitation had instilled in him. He had rarely felt so bold as he did then, as he turned his fingers to slide them between the older boy's, lifting them off of the mattress as he murmured, "Liar."

"No," Riku protested instantly, swiftly inhaling as his lips twitched with the threat of a grin, "I just assumed you'd be able to identify with that story, because you've obviously never seen the sun in your life. Really, did they never let you out of your dorms back in school?" he asked mournfully, pointedly running his eyes over the skin of Sora's arms – which, admittedly, was somewhat lighter than the comparatively dark tan that layered over Riku'. It was not helped in the slightest that their fingers had mysteriously entwined, letting him witness the contrast with even more ease than before.

Sora's mouth twisted in another grin, making his cheeks ache sweetly, but he did not reply.

"I'm starting to wonder whether they kept you in cages and forced you to come out for formal occasions and exams," Riku continued easily, avoiding meeting the gaze that was so pinned to his face as he looked at Sora's body, instead, ostensibly scrutinising the milky white skin that stretched out over his frame. "It would make a lot of things make sense about you, to be honest."

"Riku," Sora muttered wryly, trying to catch the older boy's attention.

"It's alright," he replied, affecting an earnest expression, "you can tell me what they did to you there. This is a safe space for you to share your secrets." He used their knotted fingers to gesture around the room, deliberately flopping Sora's arm about in the process. "Did they even feed you over there?"

Sora's lips pursed in his efforts to keep from smiling, but he only twitched his eyebrows up expectantly.

Riku sighed heavily, leaning forward so that their faces were hovering very close together, and Sora actually made the mistake of thinking that the older boy might actually have returned to seriousness again before he whispered, "Did they make you use parasols, Sora?"

With that, a startled noise whined in the younger boy's throat and his mouth fell open as Riku jerked back again, stretching his arm far out so that he could leave their hands linked as he rocked back, laughing delightedly at himself. His head touched the pillow as he rolled backward, free hand smothering his sniggers, and so he was still lying on his back when Sora shifted atop him, lifting himself up so that he could press their entwined hands into the covers as he smiled down into Riku' smiling face, shaking his head.

"I can kick you out of here, remember?" Sora reminded him teasingly, teeth scraping over his lower lip before he folded his mouth altogether, raising his eyebrows.

"Is that so?" Riku returned, looking utterly unconcerned by that fact. Sora hummed his agreement – but the sound cut off in a startled yip as the other boy's hand slipped up to hold the back of his head, slicing through his trail of thought in an instant before he competently kicked his legs around Sora's and rolled them both over. He seemed not to share Sora's sudden rocketing pulse as they slid around together, Riku' knees closing around Sora's hips to pin him in place, and he smiled as he shifted to sit atop the younger boy's waist. Their hands didn't break apart once, and Riku' fingers were still trapped within Sora's spikes when he stilled, leaning over him with a blatantly smug look colouring his features.

"Go on, then," he crowed, beaming with unabashed joy at having pinned Sora so easily beneath him. His tongue flicked out to wet his lips once, and his chin jutted out challengingly as he murmured, "Kick me out, if you can."

There was a beat.

Sora slowly inhaled one breath, exhaled another, and in the time that it took for him to come around to breathing in again, the entire atmosphere of the room had changed. The morning light was no longer cheerful and bright as it coiled around them, illuminating the tiniest of dust motes that clouded around the velvet curtain hangings that had parted to let that sunshine into the room. Instead, it was strangely intimate as it glowed against the side of Riku' face, setting of the golden notes of his skin and clinging to the bare torso that was tensed as the older boy held himself braced there. He could see the sheen on Riku' lips as he smiled, and it made something twist in his belly even as he wished that he could have left that particular detail unnoticed.

However, as Sora stared at Riku' mouth, noticing every little shape and line that was being made by his unreserved smile, it seemed that the older boy was noticing him, too.

Riku' smirk faded first, to be replaced by a far more genuine surprise as he withdrew ever so slightly to let his eyes roam over Sora's features. The other boy could nearly feel that gaze caressing his skin as it moved over the lines of his cheekbones, then his jaw, and then finally landed somewhere at the side of his neck as a strange noise broke out of Riku' mouth.

Sora saw the older boy's Adam's apple jump in his throat as he slowly slid his hand out from Sora's hair, letting his fingertips trace a swathe of warmth around his neck as it trailed over his skin, pausing with his thumb pressed over a surprisingly sensitive spot.

He didn't understand the look that was unfurling in Riku' features until the other boy spoke again, his voice oddly breathy and just a little bit stunned. "I left a mark on you last night," he murmured, staring at the tiny red circle that marred the younger boy's white skin, a few inches shy of his jaw. He had not noticed it until that moment, nor had Sora realised that he had put enough force into the kiss to leave that lingering trace of it, but it burned beneath Riku' fingertips nonetheless. "I should probably apologise for that, shouldn't I?"

Before Sora could reply with an overwhelming resounding 'no' to that particularly nonsensical statement, a quiet knock rapped on the other side of their bedroom door, startling to hear within the warm, wonderful confines of that space.

At first neither of them even attempted to move. Then, "You should probably answer that," Riku commented quietly, but his intense gaze was still burning into Sora's with a restrained kind of fervour.

"Probably," Sora agreed, but he still did not try to escape from where he lay beneath the older boy. He shifted only slightly in response to the suggestion itself, but the feeling that assaulted him at the sensation of their bodies pressing together with that movement was more than enough to dissuade him from trying to get away. His fingers only tightened around Riku', tugging gently in a thoughtless effort to pull the older boy down toward him before he could even process what he was doing. His head was swimming, and he could only concentrate on the way that Riku' legs were pressing against his hipbones and his eyelashes were lowered as he stared down into Sora's face, breathing through his open mouth. He watched the movements of Riku' throat muscles as he swallowed again, licking his lips once more, and he—

There was another quiet knock, but this time it was tapped directly onto the outside of his bedroom door, close enough to startle them into breaking that long, heated gaze as they whipped around toward the sound.

Even Sora felt stunned by the rough sound of his own unwilling groan, seconds before Riku lifted himself from the younger boy's waist to fall back into a seated position on the bed with a surprising amount of grace. Every single inch of his body protested against the decision, but Sora slid off of the mattress nonetheless and yanked one of his shirts out of his closet as he went out of habit.

"If that's Roxas…" he muttered inaudibly, shaking his head, and then lowered his voice a little as he looked over at Riku, who had not become less tempting with the greater distance between them. "Don't go anywhere, alright?" he said lightly, smiling lopsidedly, and the tiny smirk he received from the other boy tested his resolve near to breaking point.

"I won't," Riku promised in a fervent voice, and then exaggerated his movements as he settled himself back down again, nodding the younger boy along.

Just before he reached the door, Sora was struck by the sudden, intense fear that he was about to be confronted by his father on the other side, and so he found himself squeezing through the smallest gap in the doorway as possible as he slipped out into the airy chamber beyond, his shirt still dangling from his fingertips. He was prepared to affect a voice roughed by vomiting or to pull his body into a lethargic slouch to try and further the lie that he had been ill lately, but when the door thumped safely closed behind him and he stepped out into the larger room, he found that it was not a stern, middle-aged egotist standing before him after all.

"Kairi," he exclaimed in surprise, his voice strangling only slightly at the comparatively welcome sight of his 'wife-to-be' standing in the centre of his suite, made up to perfection and draped in a ridiculous amount of dress cloth as she stood there. It was barely noon, he knew, and yet Sora found himself wondering if she'd already dressed herself for the evening function as he scrabbled with his shirt and tried vainly to tug it over his shoulders without much measure of success. "I wasn't expecting you here, otherwise I would've been wearing—well, something, for one. I'm sorry."

He drew himself short with that last phrase, just as he finally slid the fabric to cover his singlet-clad torso, and it took him a brief moment to figure out why those familiar words sat so strangely on his tongue: he had not said them for the entire day. He had repeated that inane, meek phrase over and over throughout his childhood without any measure of sincerity, and yet somehow they now felt so strange as they left his lips. For the first time, he wondered why it was that he was apologising for something that wasn't his fault.

Kairi seemed not to share his incomprehension; in fact, her chin lifted haughtily, as if she had felt slighted by the fact that he had not expected her unannounced, unscheduled, unwanted arrival. "Yes, well, I can only hope that you're a little more formal tonight, I suppose," she commented, eyes sweeping coolly over his body once in a scrutiny that looked not unlike a critic surveying an unsatisfactory piece of artwork. Her gaze didn't even change once as she returned her gaze to his face, smiling. "Actually, that is the reason that I came around here – to discuss tonight," she clarified, dipping her coiffed head ever so slightly.

"Oh?" Sora tried to feign surprise. "What is it that you wanted to know? Did you want to look over my suit beforehand?"

She seemed not to notice the sarcasm dripping in her tone, or at the very least pointedly overlooked it. "No, I'm sure that your family managed to pack you something appropriate before we set off, that much I'm certain of. No, more specifically," she began again, brightly, "I'd very much like it if you could sit beside your mother tonight, and very happily inform her that you'd like nothing more than to marry me the second that we make it across to America. She seems to be having some doubts about the whole endeavour, and since she actually mentioned that she was considering giving the decision over to you, I'd rather we just assured her that this was the best plan for everyone involved."

Sora actually had no breath to respond for several seconds. She spoke those conceited words with such easy nonchalance that he was suddenly mired in the firm belief that she was completely and utterly insane. Her eyes were colder than usual, devoid of the usual vapid haze that left her looking more than a little bit moronic most of the time, and she stared directly into Sora's face.

"Um," he said slowly, too stunned to manage anything other than that particularly tactless response, "no?"

For as much as he was taken aback by her suggestion, Kairi looked just as bewildered by his reply. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, with a very thin veneer of politeness. Her gaze was sharpening with her displeasure, and almost, Sora thought that she glanced over his shoulder to the door of his bedroom before it flickered back to fasten onto his.

Sora cleared his throat once, uncomfortably. "I think I mean 'no'. As in, 'no, I'm not going to do that', thank you. I don't want to dissuade my mother from giving me free reign over my life, just like I don't want to marry you the second that we arrive in America. And I think you know that I don't, so why would you even bother asking me to do that? You had to have known that I'd say no."

"I did," Kairi acceded easily, without shrugging. Her laced shoulders never shifted from their perfect posture as she stood and vacuously gazed into his consternated expression. "I never told you that you had to be sincere in the words, just so long as you gave them, and I certainly never expected you to actually want to do it. Just that you will, so that this marriage can go ahead as it's supposed to; like my family wanted, like your parents want, and like it should have been from the beginning if you'd not been caught up in the middle of this endless horror of a journey." She even affected a shudder at the words, while Sora stared, dumbfounded.

"No," he repeated again, loudly and clearly, and a frown tugged his brows into a firm line. "No, I'm not going to do that. I can't make it any clearer than that. I'm not going to marry you."

"You will," she returned, just as surely.

Sora's mouth fell open, and he floundered for words before he demanded, "What could possibly make you believe that?!"

"Because if you don't," Kairi replied calmly, "I'm going to go your father's room, join him in the sitting room, and while he's pouring me a cup of tea I'm going to quietly inform him that his only son and progeny has been bumming a serving boy in his spare time on this ship."

A choked noise escaped Sora's mouth.

"And a stowaway, no less," she added in a thoughtful tone, pursing her lips in a reproachful expression as she tutted beneath her breath. She shook her head ruefully. "Do you think that he'd make it to America once your father found out about that particular crime, or would he just be locked up down beneath the gulley until he starved to death? Either way, I can't imagine that it's going to be a fair price to pay considering it's hardly his fault that you won't agree to a very simple arrangement."

"A very simple arrangement?" Sora shot back, caught between incredulity and disgust. "You're blackmailing me into marrying you, when you know as well as I do that neither of this actually wants to do this. You don't even like me, if you care to remember, so why does it matter? Why do you want this?"

This time, she shrugged; daintily lifting both gloved hands in the air as her head cocked to the side. Her expression had smoothened out into nothingness once more, though. "Money," she stated blandly, after a moment's consideration. "A house. Stability, security, safety – a husband. See, unlike you, I do keep my promises when I make them, so when I agreed that I would marry you I take that as something that I'm actually going to follow through with. There are only so many people left in the world that could make such an offer to my family, and you aren't going to ruin this for us just because you've got some sort of tryst happening with that boy in there. Yes, I know he's there," she added in an undertone, voice lowering nastily with disdain, "you've hardly made it difficult to notice. Really, I should just tell your family the truth regardless of what you want – or who you want – because it's wrong to keep lying to them about this. If we do this my way, you can fuck every single boy from here to America and smile while you're doing it, so long as I get that ring on my finger."

Sora startled again, both at the use of the curse and of the words that surrounded them. He was reeling unpleasantly with the sickening idea being thrown up into the air, and suddenly the peaceful movements of the ship beneath his feet felt far more unwelcome than they did soothing.

"How does this make sense to you?" he asked, once he had regained his voice, and his query was completely genuine in his incomprehension. "How can you hear what you're saying and not realise how wrong that is?"

"What would you suggest for me instead?" Kairi replied. "That I should wait for another wealthy family to come along and claim me – or better yet, wait until I've aged enough to the point where any offer would either be one of scandal and pity? This is how things work in families like ours, haven't you realised that yet? I don't have the option of running away with the first staff member with a pretty smile, so forgive me if I don't feel the need to indulge your fantasies while the reality is slowly unravelling around us both."

"It's a marriage," Sora burst out, shocked, "not slavery. They can't sell you!"

"You've clearly not had enough experience with the inner workings of the elite, Sora," Kairi told him, with a strange kind of pity in her tone and her deadened gaze. "I don't care whether you keep going with him, but your family has already agreed on your behalf – you know they have. You can't have expected that you'd really be able to get away with that, could you?"

Sora didn't respond; he had.

Kairi's voice softened a bit into a tone that he had never heard before as she murmured, "It's not as if there's anything new, here. You already knew that this would happen eventually, didn't you? It's why we're even on this trip. And I'm not going to insist that you leave… him alone," she said, gesturing vaguely toward the bedroom once more. "I couldn't have less concern for whatever your preferences are. I might even prefer it this way. But you are going to do this; you are going to tell your mother what we both know that you have to, and you're going to do to it with a smile on your face. Keep whatever bedroom habits you want until we arrive, just so long as you know that you've a responsibility waiting for you when you do."

"I won't do it." Sora wanted to sound certain, but instead he suppressed a wince at the petulant tone of his protest. He felt like a child digging his heels into the carpet – and yet at the same time, he didn't care how it came about, so long as he wasn't doomed to the fate that was written all over Kairi's painted face. "I can't do it."

"And I can't not do it," she countered simply, as if it were already settled. "So either you talk to your family about this, and reassure them that it's all going according to plan, or I'll talk to them, instead, and you'll lose whatever incentive you had to leave in the first place."

Sora's mouth moved without sound several times, his lips brushing together as he fought past the overwhelmingly lost feeling that had cascaded over him in those unbelievably short minutes. He tried for some sort of rational argument or defence that would let him disprove her in that moment so that they could both escape, but instead he landed upon, "Why are you doing this? To both of us?"

Kairi was quiet for a long moment. Then, "Just tell your mother what she wants to hear from you, and then return to whatever happy holiday that you're having on this godforsaken ship; that's all there is to it."

With that, the pretty girl gave only an empty bowing of her head in farewell before she fixed her gave onto the exit and swept her skirts up around her ankles as she walked away. Sora watched as her expression smoothened out into the icy, lofty mask that he recognised from their time together and wondered why she bothered making herself so miserable.

"I think I actually liked you better when you were pretending to be an idiot," he commented aloud, his voice low, and Kairi paused with her hand gracefully perched on the brass doorhandle as she tipped her head toward him.

"I usually like it that way, too," she replied quietly, and then she was gone.

Sora didn't specifically mention how much that conversation had affected him, but in the hours that followed he had the suspicion that Riku knew how troubled he was – if only for the fact that he didn't immediately climb on top of the older boy's tempting body the moment that Kairi left so that he could taste every inch of visible skin there.

Riku didn't push the issue at all, though, and he simply chatted easily in the time before Sora had to prepare for the ball; taking away the younger boy's responsibility to contribute to the conversation as he calmly kept him entertained with every topic under the sun. They both stayed in the rooms that day without venturing out at all, preferring to lounge on the sofa together with Riku' feet in Sora's lap as they continued to waste the sunlit hours on soft smiles and even gentler gazes. And though he never mentioned it, either, Sora was grateful.

When the time did come for him to prepare, the other boy did take a strange glee in being able to watch as he donned the waistcoat that had been provided for him and the bowtie that was only of the only articles of clothing that he had chosen willingly.

Riku even helped loop it around his neck for him, and even Sora's petty attempts to cling onto his bad mood faded in the wake of the small, private smile that ghosted over the other boy's lips as he stood between Sora and the full length mirror behind him, absently twirling the slip of material around itself into a neat little bow that nestled into his collar.

He smiled his satisfaction once he was done, looking more than a little bit pleased with his efforts. "There. That doesn't seem so bad, now, does it?" Riku pressed gently, leaning forward just enough for him to catch Sora's eye with a quirk of an eyebrow and a lopsided smile. "You've got nothing to be afraid of. I can't imagine that anyone's going to notice a thing if you step on her feet, or something. In fact I encourage that; I think it'll make the whole night more fun."

"It's not that," Sora told him softly, shaking his head, and Riku fell uncharacteristically silent. "I doubt anyone's even going to be looking at me, but when they do… even my father doesn't see a thing about how much I hate it all, or how much I don't want to be there. He thinks that I'm just doing it to rebel against him, or something. He doesn't see that it's not… who I am. That I'm not who he thinks I've been all these years. He doesn't see me at all. I'm not sure anyone out there does."

It was true enough, even if he did choose to omit the fact that he was choosing to further a lie that would almost certainly keep them apart in the future.

Riku' eyes were kind and gentle as he stared up into Sora's face, his expression softening to the point where Sora's chest ached as he looked at it. Those eyes were so filled with understanding that he actually found himself believing it as Riku edged a tiny bit closer and murmured, "I saw you, Sora."

Sora's eyelashes fluttered slightly. There was a soft kind of despair in his voice as he quietly asked, "Did you?"

"Right away," Riku affirmed, with a very sure nod of his head. "You were the only one that wasn't scurrying away from the terrible sun before we boarded, and I noticed you right off. I can't say I expected that I'd actually end up…" The older boy's voice trailed off to nothingness, stuttering to a stop that seemed as unexpected to Riku as it did to the boy that he was addressing. His lips parted with a silence that gave the words more meaning than they had a moment ago, filling it with a significance that was unbearably heavy as it hung in the air between them before Riku finally finished, "… here… but I did see you there. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't, to be honest, and now that I am here…" He paused, giving a strange half-shrug of his shoulders as his lips turned up at the corners. "I quite like it."

Sora was still hearing those bright words playing over in his mind, drowning out the other voices that droned on in the background of the function hall. Roxas was seated with his family for this event – for which he felt a wave of sympathy for his friend – but they were on opposite sides of the table, preventing any real communication beyond polite pleasantries and requests for the salt.

He was pulled onto the dance floor not long after he and Kairi crept their way into the ballroom, urged on by his parents in a fit of new cruelty, yet even as he took the time to appreciate the music that flowed around them and the band that was performing, he could only resent their presence for allowing the closeness that meant his clear memory of Riku' voice was continually interrupted by Kairi's running commentary as they dance stiffly in the middle of the dance floor, his fingers barely grazing her as they turned.

"I heard that she actually tried to seduce one of the bellboys when he came into her room with fresh towels," Kairi whispered with a strange kind of delight, gesturing with her chin to one of the other dancing couples that were revolving around them. The woman she indicated was wearing far too much powder on her face, ineffectually hiding the very slight beginnings of wrinkles around her eyes, and her entire demeanour seemed to be devoted to hiding her age. It was odd to witness when, in Sora's opinion, she truly wasn't old enough to merit such manic dedication to disguise.

Kairi leaned a little closer as they turned again, feet moving in steps that they had both long since memorised, but it was not out of intimacy; it was only so that she could continue gossiping without being overheard. "He came into her room at about four o'clock in the afternoon, apparently, and he left at only five minutes past when he realised what was going on. She is married, after all, and that's her husband dancing with her right now. I can't imagine why she thought that she'd be able to get away with such a ridiculous affair while everyone's trapped so closely on this tugboat."

"It's the largest liner we have," Sora pointed out in a dull voice, and then instantly regretted contributing to the inane conversation. He hurried to continue before she could start up again. "And do you have to act like that now? I already know that this is all pretence to get what you want, so can you drop it while we're out of earshot, at least? I'm already here."

The girl in his arms glanced up into his face once, scrutinising his empty expression, and her tone was dubious as she asked, "You'd rather we danced in complete silence, instead?"

"I wouldn't mind it, no," Sora admitted, sighing slightly. He felt wearied by his own moroseness just by listening to that pitiful sound, but he could not help it as he stared around the glittering ballroom and longed to return to his own room so that he could pretend this wasn't where he was destined to be. "I'm already doing what you asked, alright?" he said in a strained voice. "So, please, let's not pretend that this is anything other than what it is and just admit that we'd rather be elsewhere."

"Alright," Kairi agreed readily, and for a time they were quiet.

They had two more dances after that, each one done with precision and a dutiful attention to footwork as Sora's parents looked on with a strange mixture of pride, concern and cold criticism all at the same time. Roxas's expression was worried, too, but it was for the look on Sora's face rather than his own fears about the boy; he only saw the present misery that was etched across his friend's features as he danced and wondered what had transpired that would cause such dejection.

It was during a particularly uneventful ballroom number when Kairi spoke again, her voice sharp with impatience this time. "Can you put some effort into looking like you're not about to give up on your life?" she asked pointedly, tightening her grip on his hand to catch his attention – which, admittedly, had wandered to a very different set of hands and a very different waist beneath his fingertips. "No one is going to believe this pretence of ours if you don't at least look remotely interested in your surroundings. You can go back to your boy in a few hours, no harm done, and then you can enjoy him for the rest of the trip; just give me one night to convince them, that's all."

"I'm trying," Sora replied in a tense voice.

"You look like I'm stomping on your feet constantly!"

"Maybe you should, so that we can sit back down again," Sora suggested swiftly. He lowered his voice even further so that no one would catch those irritable words, but his ire vanished almost instantly as he was struck by the memory of his attempt to teach Riku to dance, resulting in that stumbling fall that was so utterly pathetic that it still managed to bring a smile to his face as it surfaced again in his mind.

Kairi must have noticed the look on his face, because her frustrated commentary quietened for several long moments until Sora finally came back to reality and blinked to find that she was watching him with an odd look on her face.

"What is it?" he mumbled self-consciously, straightening beneath that unfamiliar scrutiny. She rarely paid so much attention to him at all, not that he was ever going to complain about that phenomenon, and so it was mildly disconcerting to have those sharp, unemotional eyes trained on his own without her looking away or making a vapid comment that would repulse him all over again.

"Do you love him?" she asked with incredible bluntness, her gaze unwavering.

Sora managed not to squeak in response to that bold question, but it was a very near call as his throat seemed to close without warning. His heart pounded once, hard, and he had to swallow past the crushing sensation that he had been trying to deny all night, as his thoughts continued to stray back to his room and the wonderful person that was still trapped there.

"I've only known him a couple of days," Sora replied, once he had regained control of his voice, and he was relieved to hear that he sounded vaguely casual as he spoke. "You know that."

She still stared. "That's not an answer, and I don't remember asking you how long you've known him."

"Does it matter either way?" Sora returned suddenly, before he could stop himself. His voice was deepened with frustration for the first time, as he let his gaze roam the length of the hall rather than returning to Kairi's curious face. "Does it make a difference to you either way? If I do, or I don't, will that change the fact that you're still going to take him from me if this doesn't turn out the way you want it?"

Kairi had the decency to look mildly ashamed as she replied, "No, it won't."

"Then I don't owe you an answer," Sora told her, his voice returning to its usual pitch once more as he released the irritation that had flared inside him. "It has nothing to do with you, and as far I see it I'm doing more for you than you are for me."

It seemed that she had no worthy response to that particular argument, because they finally lapsed into the silence that Sora had so yearned for. Kairi did not speak for the next few minutes, allowing him to remove himself from his surroundings for a little while as he replayed moments that finally manage to convincingly lift his expression into that of an enchanted boy, standing in the arms of the one he loved with bright lights shining down around his head. The fact that none of it was directed toward Kairi was of little consequence to either of them.

Sora might have fallen into the belief that the dancing portion of the evening would have been the worst to stomach, had it not been for the fact that he could feel his father's disapproving glare before he even crossed out of the dance floor to return to their table, Kairi hanging from his arm with as little contact between them as they could possibly manage.

"That was absolutely beautiful," his mother commented as they approached, eyes lighting up at the sight of them. Her smile was wide yet cautious as she looked into his face with earnest affection, and Sora hated that the expression was a familiar one. "I always said that you did so well with your lessons, it's wonderful that you have a chance to be together as a couple for now, isn't it? You looked stunning, dear," she added to Kairi, with another careful smile to the girl at his side.

Sora pulled out Kairi's chair as he was supposed to, pushed it back in and waited a moment before sliding into his own place, waiting for the inevitable criticisms to fall.

"She's right, you both did wonderfully out on that floor."

He shot a sharp glance in his father's direction, momentarily forgetting that he should have not displayed open surprise at praise from a parental figure while in public, and he felt a strange relief upon noticing the waiting staff that was hovering at his father's elbow. Somehow, he was glad to know that it was only an act put on for the witnesses around them, because the alternative was so much more disconcerting.

Though he actively regretted it as he spoke, Sora couldn't stop himself from replying, "Thank you, sir, I'm glad that you think so. Perhaps you can join in the next set."

He felt a sick vindication at how false his father's laugh sounded in the next moment, as he pretended to boom out a chuckle that visibly startled the man serving oysters from a silver serving platter. It was someone that Sora recognised from his brief forays into the kitchens with Riku, and he received a small smile before the man continued shovelling crustaceans onto his father's plate. Sora could only hope they were poisonous.

"No, I think I'll leave that for the young men, tonight," his father chuckled, wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "There are some things that a man simply no longer does at a certain age, and as it happens the waltz does seem to fall under that— Don't you ever disrespect me like that again." The waiter had moved a sufficient distance away from their table, out of earshot, and the napkin in his father's hand slammed into the table within his clenched fist, heavy enough to make the cutlery rattle around his plate. "After the debacle that you've already caused over the last few days and the insolence which with you've neglected your responsibilities, you should be kissing the soles of my shoes and thanking me for not punishing you."

Silently, Sora questioned whether or not this particular night should have counted as punishment in itself, but he said nothing as he listened to his father continue.

"But I do understand that you're a young man yet," he allowed magnanimously, straightening in his chair, "and so I am willing to excuse your behaviour up until this point. But from now on you will do what I say, when I say it and if you make a single hint of complaint about that fact, verbal or otherwise, I will cuff you to the sink in your rooms and you can remain there until I deem you fit to converse with regular society, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

The man to his right huffed an approving note through his nose, nodding once or twice. "That's an improvement, at least. Perhaps this time next week you'll actually be something approaching a useful member of this family once again."

"Yes, sir."

He paused where he had been about to reach for his knife and fork, and then let his hands fall to rest on the edge of the table as he asked, in a controlled voice, "Are you mocking me?"

"No, sir."

"I'm sure that he's just tired," Sora's mother put in gently, looking between the two men in her life like the mediator that she would always be in their family. "He's been very ill, haven't you? Hasn't he?" she pressed, glancing to Roxas almost in desperation as no one else made any comment to break the tension that was already twanging in the air, discordant and uncomfortable around the head of the table.

Roxas startled at being addressed so directly, having become accustomed to sitting quietly during such family squabbles in his time with the Styles family. "Oh, yes," he blurted instantly, rising to the occasion with a heartbreaking amount of effort into his defence of his friend. "I'm surprised that you've even made it this far, actually, considering how bad it was the other night. I wouldn't be shocked if it comes back again later, actually – not that I want to bring anyone down, or anything, but I've heard they don't just go away this easily.

"He'll manage."

Sora watched the sadness blooming in his mother's face, and he caught her gaze so that he could send her an encouraging smile, even as his father bit out those clipped words and continued with his meal. He also made sure to shoot a grateful glance in Roxas's direction as his friend lapsed into a discomfited smile that rivalled the concern that was showing in the face of the woman beside him.

The rest of that course passed in a horrible kind of standstill, as each of them participated in their own kind of falsehood. Sora's mother did not address the fact that she had been intended to discuss the marriage options and Sora's contribution in that regard; Kairi did not mention that she knew of those plans as she took Sora's hand and laid them both on the table, wrapping them together in a parody of affection that was clearly visible from all places on the table; Roxas did not cease in his efforts to keep Sora's escape wide open and available for later on in the night; Sora pretended that he didn't want to trade his father for another model, and his father did the same with Sora, he knew.

It only became startlingly obvious as, when the brandy began to circulate and the mentions of a smoking room were suggested for the men, his father clapped a hand on his shoulder and forced him to sit in place as they continued nibbling at the desserts laid out in front of them.

"Tell me the truth now, Kairi," he said clearly, addressing her around Sora as if he were merely an inconvenience. "How soon would you like your wedding to be once we arrive? Would you like to find a dress while we're there, or would you like the engagement to be prolonged as possible so you can flash a diamond around town and make all other women wild with jealousy?"

Even Kairi looked slightly taken aback with the bold wording, but she recovered quickly. "It makes little difference to me, I can assure you. I have no problem with enjoying the country without worrying about—"

"Don't you think that we should discuss this more privately, dear?" his mother interrupted delicately, speaking with a forwardness that she rarely dared while out in a public setting such as this one. She was staring at Sora's father, who slowly turned his head to meet that pointed gaze with only incredulity showing in his own. It was not a pleasant surprise. "Perhaps we should look over the details of his arrangement before we start planning for the future while we've over there. Not that we're not delighted by you," she added quickly, glancing at Kairi, "but there are other details that need to be sorted out before we can do anything else."

His father blinked, his brow furrowed, and just one word was snorted out of his lips. "No." The dismissal was nothing more than that, swift and harsh, and he somehow managed to capture a disdain in that one syllable that seemed to state that it was obvious that she should have no input. He turned to face Kairi again, but he was cut off before he could begin again.

"I really think that we should consider this more carefully," she said emphatically, holding her napkin tightly in both hands, as if trying to smother angry tremors in those fingertips. "For one thing, I don't think we've ever thought to ask Sora what—"

"Because his opinion doesn't matter in this," his father snapped coldly. "And neither does yours, for that matter, so please sit back and shut your mouth before you embarrass yourself – and me. It's already settled."

This time, it was Sora that interrupted his father's renewed attempt to converse with the girl that was now sitting very still at his elbow, her fingers splayed on her lap. Roxas looked likewise immobilised as he listened to the new note in Sora's tone. "Don't talk to her like that," he murmured in a very low voice, slowly letting his gaze travel to meet that of his father's. "That's my mother you're talking to, and you owe her more respect than that – I expect you to give it to her."

His father was quick to move from shock to anger, as he leaned forward to hiss, "You don't have the right to expect anything from me. After what you've done with the life I've given you, it's a miracle that you've even been offered a marriage in the first place – though it's even more of a phenomenon that someone as lovely as she would even agree to consider someone like you."

"It's a marriage I don't want," Sora muttered hotly, but that was all he managed before his father was speaking again.

"It's a marriage you should be grateful for. You can have a career, a business, everything and anything that we can offer you – and still you have the nerve to sit and question me for it. When was my son replaced with this snivelling, whining brat?" he asked, waving his glass in the air agitatedly. "Did the change occur straight from the cot, do you think, or was it a defect from birth? Perhaps this is what you were meant to become; so wasted and absorbed with your own fate that you can't even begin to appreciate what you've been given. You have a beautiful girl at your side now. You have wealth, comfort, luxury – what more would you ask from me? What more could we give you that you don't already possess?"

"Freedom?" Sora suggested quietly, glowering at his father as his hands clenched into fists. "Have you ever considered the thought that I don't want what you're offering me? Take away the wealth and the luxury – I don't care! I don't it!"

"You ungrateful—I have been nothing but good to you this evening, why did you have to ruin that with your insane insolence once more?"

Sora's mouth fell open with a stuttering noise the moment the word 'good' broke into the air, but he managed to push past that instead to address the real issue at hand. "It's not insolence to try and explain why I'm not the person that you want to be! It's not insolence to ask you to have some sort of manners while addressing my mother, and it's not insolence to try and impress upon you the unbelievably simple truth that I don't want to be your son!"

His mother gasped at the latter sentence and Roxas's lips tightened into a grim expression, but it had no effect on the man to which it was directed. "Well, you don't have a choice in that," he informed Sora, voice lowering nastily. "Just like I didn't have a choice with you, and like you don't have a choice with this. You're going to marry her, and you're going to treat her with all the generosity and kindness that she deserves, and that is final."

There were people beginning to stare at them from the neighbouring tables, and that attention was not turned aside as his father suddenly smacked the edge of the table with the palm of his hand in emphasis. It wasn't a particularly violent gesture, but as people began to rise from their seats it caused more than one head to whirl in their direction, and Sora found that his cheeks were beginning to flush with heat. It wasn't with embarrassment, though; he was finally finished with feeling ashamed of himself, after years of sitting by and letting the derision flow over him in tides of misplaced disappointment.

His hands were shaking, but his voice was even as he stated, "No, it's not final."

"You are—"

"I'm gay." It wasn't entirely the truth, if he was being honest with himself, and his voice cracked on the word that should have been steady and strong – making it sound more like a challenge than the assertion that he had hoped it to be – but it had the desired effect as his father cut off mid-syllable, his lips pausing around that shape in what should have been a comical expression. Sora could feel a spasm in his jaw as he clenched his teeth, grinding them together as he stared and waited for the realisation to hit.

When it did, it was not what he expected. His father only blinked, loosened his posture once more, and he actually had the audacity to shrug as he turned to his son, looked him in directly in the eye and asked, "And?"

"And?" That squawk came from his mother, her voice pitched higher in what sounded suspiciously like relief rather than hysteria. "You can't expect this marriage to work if—"

His father silenced her with a look, but Sora quickly took advantage of that quiet.

"I won't do it," he stated, calmly.

"You will, or I'll take away your inheritance," his father returned, and his voice was so confident that Sora nearly burst out into laughter as he watched the man lean back in his chair like there was no possibility that Sora would dare risk that challenge.

In fact, Sora did snort once as he replied, "Alright."

That made more of an impression than his admission had, and Sora felt that there was something seriously wrong with his father that he could be more moved by the matter of finance than his son's sexuality. "I'll disinherit you completely, leave you out of the family will."

"Please do."

"We'll write you out of the family!"

"I thought this was meant to be a punishment, sir," Sora cut in coldly, managing to find his usual, contemptuous drawl just in time for his father to finally catch up to the realisation that he was being completely genuine in his acceptance of those statements.

"You'll have nothing," he added, as if Sora had somehow missed the meaning behind the concept. "You'll be destitute, and if you think that I'm going to take you back once you've been run into the ground, then—"

"Then I'd be as ignoraint as you are for actually thinking that I'd want to come back to you once I've left." A moment's silence burst around the table with those icy words, and Sora found that he was standing from his chair, looking down into the stunned face of his father. "If you know nothing else about me, at least believe that I'd be smart enough to stay away as soon as I've had the chance to escape. Keep that in mind. Oh," he added, as he turned aside, "and I've also been consorting with criminals recently, which is what your sweet girl is going to tell you once I've left."

Sora's footsteps were obnoxiously loud as he walked around the table to stand beside his mother, before he leant down to press a kiss onto her cheek, lingering there for a moment with his arm around her shoulders and their heads close together as he murmured, "Good night, mum. I love you." Her hand rose to hold his arm around her, and she rested her temple against his for just a short moment before he pulled back again, his straight posture barely managing to conceal how violently his hands were shaking at his sides or how wild his pulse was with stress. No matter how much satisfaction he gained from those words, there was still blind panic ringing in his ears as he looked around at the table, knowing that he had irrevocably crossed a line that he had never neared before that night.

Fearing that his voice would shake if he used it again, Sora only managed a nod around the table and a loaded look in Roxas's direction that brought his friend to his feet before he turned and walked straight for the exit of the ballroom, feeling dozens of eyes drilling into his back as he went. He then felt Roxas's comforting hand on his shoulder, though, guiding him through the crowd – and it was enough that he managed to beat back the dizziness that sparkled in his vision as he continued walking.

Sora's return to the suite was not dignified, controlled or even particularly sane in any normal definition of the world. He did not bother hiding his haste as he broke off from Roxas's side, hearing his friend's muttered explanation that he wouldn't need to be staying in their rooms anyway, and then hurried through the maddening halls of the ship in search of the one door that would bring him the one person that he needed most of all in that moment, above every else that he could remember passing through his life. He could feel the urgency that was pounding in his steps, the beats of his heart and even the manic breaths he drew as he sprinted toward his rooms.

Riku was already inside, waiting for him, and when Sora fell over the threshold it appeared that the older boy hadn't been doing much of anything at all. He was standing braced against the edge of the love seat, his expression curiously blank and still, and even though he could barely think straight past the pounding of alarm and adrenaline in his blood, Sora wondered if perhaps he had vastly misjudged Riku' obliviousness after all. There was something too pensive about his drawn look that made it seem as if he knew exactly what Sora had been put through for that evening.

It quickly flickered into alarm upon seeing the younger boy, though, and he straightened the instant that the other boy pushed through the door. "Sora?" he asked worriedly, striding forward to meet him halfway. His hands caught at Sora's forearms, and the younger boy did the same as they stood in place, gripping each other so tightly that Sora could feel his hands losing feeling. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Do you really mean it?" Sora murmured despairingly, ignoring the questions that were turned upon him so that he could demand his own. He swallowed again, struggling to find even breath once more, and he stared too hard into Riku' eyes as his fingertips slid over the other boy's wrists to find his hands, desperate for that contact. "All of what you've said, about America and us and everything else – did you mean it, or was it just – Did you mean it? Do you really want me to come with you like you say you do?"

There was no hesitation in Riku' reply, or in the hands that turned to hold Sora's, squeezing his fingers reassuringly. "I do. Of course I mean it." He paused for only a split second before he added, more quietly, "Of course I want you."

"And you're not just saying that because we're here now, or because—"

"Sora, I'm not going to leave you," Riku interjected, with a quiet intensity that bled through every part of him in that moment. His sincerity was plain in the set of his mouth, the plaintive note in his voice and in the way that he stepped forward to grip Sora's hands more tightly than before. "I swear, I'm not. When I say that I want you to come with me in America, it's because I can barely stand the thought of being where you aren't – not ever. And because if I can feel that way after a few bloody days then I can't even imagine what it's going to be like if I get more time than this with you. And because I want to go see the Statue of Liberty with you, and… get you a tan on the rooftop of whatever seedy hotel that we end up staying at, and because I wouldn't want anything for you that you don't want for yourself; so if I have to row you out of here with my own two hands, then I will."

A broken laugh escaped Sora's lips at those last words, but it quickly faded to be replaced with a sigh.

Riku waited until he had Sora's full attention again, ducking his head to catch the younger boy's gaze as he lowered his voice to add, "And when I say that I want you…" Sora's breath stopped short. "… it's because I've barely managed to stop thinking about you since that first time that you smiled at me, out on the wharf."

Sora's reply strangled somewhere in his throat, combined with the rioting that was occurring in his midriff, but Riku took mercy on him as he brushed past the non-existent reply to lean forward instead, wrapping his arms tightly around the younger boy's frame. Though he could feel something shattering inside him to do so, Sora turned into that embrace and hugged Riku so tightly that his face pressed into the older boy's neck and he could nearly wrap his hands all the way around his slim waist. Riku never complained, though, and it seemed that he shifted impossibly closer so that there wasn't even one part of their bodies that wasn't pressed flush together in a silent offer of comfort and closeness.

Sora could feel each rise and fall of the breaths that were lifting Riku' chest, so close were their bodies in those achingly long moments, as neither of them moved to separate again for some time. He had never felt anything as painfully tangible as the emotions that were swirling within him then. He could feel every swell of the longing that was making his eyelids slip closed again, breathing in the fresh, clean scent that clung to Riku' skin, and his eyelids were shifting with the same tremors that were quivering in his fingertips. He had never felt so close to anyone in his entire life, yet at the same time it was not enough to just stand there and feel the weight of Riku' body leaning into his own with a warmth that actually seemed to hurt. His chest was aching all over again, but that crushing sensation was only spreading throughout the rest of his body as they lingered in that drawn-out embrace.

He thought that he just might suffocate on it, and he did find that he gasped softly as Riku set his hands on Sora's shoulders to withdraw. No matter what reassurances the older boy had given him, Sora still felt a surging of doubt and rejection as he felt Riku pulling away from him again – but then those fingertips curled around his neck, thumbs pressing beneath his jaw. Although he did pull back from that clutching hold, that enduring sense of closeness remained unbroken as he shifted back so that his face was hovering directly in front of Sora's, his eyes unbearably vivid with feeling from so close.

A shaky sigh sighed out of Riku' lungs, inhaled with Sora's unsteady gasp a moment later.

"Riku," he began, his voice keening, "I—"

He stammered to a stop as Riku' fingers touched his cheek, silencing him with a profoundly simple caress that slid from his hairline to the edge of his jaw as the other boy's hand moulded itself to the side of his face. His thumb continued to stroke back and forth across his cheek, beneath the hollow his eye, and it did not stop even as Riku turned to press a soft kiss onto the younger boy's temple first, leaning up so that he could hold that simple pressure for several seconds. His lips moved to Sora's cheek next, close to his ear, and the younger boy didn't bother to hide how he shivered and sighed at those gentle touches.

Riku' hand was still cradling his face, but his fingertips gradually stilled as his mouth pressed those small kisses all the way down to the edge of Sora's mouth, hovering there without closing the distance as if he was unsure as to whether he could continue.

Absently, Sora found himself wondering how he had ever considered hesitating before this moment, because as Riku' lips turned to his own with such painful tentativeness, he suddenly knew that he should have taken every single moment they had together and used it as he did in that moment – as he shifted to let his mouth brush against the other boy's, just barely letting their lips touch without closing them at all. He was holding his breath as he did so, too afraid to jar Riku into uncertainty, but he felt how the older boy suddenly relaxed in his arms, beneath his touch. Sora felt it as Riku' fingertips slid into his hair, combing upward from the nape of his neck to tangle within those spikes before he simply closed his lips around Sora's where they had been separate before, eliminating that last trace of doubt that had been tugging at them both.

Sora's eyes closed instantly, but it was not out of habit; it was because as Riku' mouth met with his own, the dizzying feeling that swept through him left his vision sparkling and blurring out anything else that he could have seen, rendering his eyesight useless. All that mattered in that moment was that he could feel Riku' lips gently dragging at his own, shaping around Sora's as he kissed him with a striking amount of tenderness. His mouth was warm, and somehow distinctly a part of the boy himself even though the sensation was so new that Sora's hands were shaking as they slid up Riku' back, pulling him closer. There was something of his mischief in the hint of teeth that grazed Sora's bottom lip, or in the smile that bent his mouth as he did so, yet at the same time he moved so slowly and carefully, gauging every move so that he wouldn't startle the younger boy.

When they did finally separate, it was only so that Riku could let his eyes flicker over Sora's expression once, instantly reading the look there so that he seemed to gasp ever so slightly before he offered his mouth back to the younger boy's.

The minutes that followed were so achingly surreal that Sora had a hard time really letting himself believe that it wasn't a dream as he carefully walked the older boy through those beautiful doors. This time, as the mattress sunk beneath their combined weight and Sora's body flushed with desire, there was no knock to pull them out of their daze; the only sounds left were the frantic beats of Sora's heart in his ears, the soft noises that his lips made against Riku' skin and the even quieter noises that left both their throats as their bodies moved as one, legs tangling and hands twining together over and over as they lay there, enjoying every moment that they could.

Riku made no complaint when Sora's questing fingers found the edge of his shirt as he reverently ran his touch down the ridges of his side, and even though the younger boy had not dared to ask; he pulled his mouth away from Sora's with a small sigh before he simply sat up so that he could strip it from his back completely. He eagerly divested the other boy of his clothes, too, when Sora shifted to do the same, and his mouth felt almost too wonderful as it slowly worshipped the torso beneath him, leaving Sora to struggle with his breath as those soft lips dragged over his sternum, tracing new fire into his skin.

He had hoped to keep some control over his actions, but he still lost himself to a noticeable shiver of pleasure when Riku' lips brushed his lower stomach, but above the waistband that was still firmly in place – and for the first time, Riku stopped.

Vastly misinterpreting the response, the older boy was swift to lift himself back up to a safe distance, resting his forehead against Sora's for a long second. "I'm sorry," he breathed, shaking his head as if Sora had been anything less than euphoric with the knowledge that the older boy wanted him in return. "We don't have to do anything tonight; we have all the time in the world. Just this…" His fingertips were even gentler than his voice as he touched Sora's lips against, painting his touch against that peachy skin. "…this is still going to be the best night of my life."

"No," Sora replied hoarsely, and he could see how the other boy was confused by that word until he closed his hands around Riku' beautiful face and drew him back completely, stealing another long, lingering kiss from him before he spoke again. He held that gaze as he fought back the heady sensation that threatened to ruin his efforts at speech, so that he could murmur, "No, I want you – all of you. You have to know that, that there isn't anything that I don't already love about you, not even one. I care more about you than any other person that has ever meant anything to me, and I know it won't make any sense, but I do."

His voice muffled as Riku kissed him again, seemingly unable to stop himself from doing do, and so Sora's words were spoken straight against the other boy's lips as he whispered, "I want you to—" He broke off softly, closing his eyes, and when he opened them he could only trust that Riku would understand as he repeated, "I want you."

By the grace of every moment that they'd been granted together so far, Riku did understand. His hands slid into Sora's spikes once more, holding him in place while he kissed him again – and this time, he didn't stop. Sora's blood soared happily as his arms closed around Riku' waist, pulling the other boy on top of him completely while their bodies aligned with stunning ease.

He expected the brief pain that came with it, as he had always been prepared for a sting whenever something good happened to him, but it was barely noticeable before a very different feeling began inside him, thrumming within his blood like a taut wire even as he couldn't pay attention to anything but the feeling of Riku' body moving with his, pulled so close that he could barely distinguish between them anymore. His throat hummed tiny moans against Riku' mouth as he kissed him, ecstatic in a way that was more to do with how Riku was murmuring his name than just the pleasure that was sparking inside him; he could feel the smile that lingered in Riku' kiss, even then, and it made his skin dance with warmth as he pulled the other boy ever closer.

And, in the midst of it all, Sora could hear waves.

Outside and within, he could hear every break and swell of the waves that crashed through him and against him; spreading over his skin and washing through his blood as he arched his body into Riku'. With his eyes closed he forgot about the room around them, or even the bed beneath his overheated, writhing body. The blackness of his eyelids sparked into dozens of different hues, but his senses were too full to see them; consumed by the heat of Riku moving inside of him, and of the intangible, seizing pleasure that rose and higher inside him with every second. It, too, came in waves, but they were gradually melding together so that there was barely any pause between each new crippling sensation that had his hands clinging to Riku' shoulders as he breathed into the older boy's neck, rocking his hips up to avoid breaking any of the glorious pressure that was building between them.

It was almost too much to bear, but when Sora opened his mouth to say that, he could only manage a broken moan that hitched in his throat and made his lips quiver. He was nearly panting against Riku' skin, and the hoarse sounds of the older boy's breath did nothing to make him feel better; it only made his toes curl behind Riku' back as he listened to those heavy sounds falling against his ear, knowing that he was responsible for the noises that broke out of the other boy.

The warring sensations brought a stammered protest to Sora's lips, and he strangled on it as he clutched the older boy's body closer, chanting Riku' name under his breath. He was barely aware that he was doing it, and he had no idea as to why, but he could not stop. Not even as his mouth sealed over Riku' neck and brought a heavenly groan to the older boy's lips could he drag himself down from the surreal high that made him mumble Riku' name against that perfect skin, over and over.

And then Riku was kissing him again, and not even that name was enough to break the pressure anymore. Sora's voice quietly shattered with the tiny moans that escaped him, but he couldn't hold them back as a searing mouth covered his own and coaxed more fire from him with each gentle stroke of Riku' tongue. He could barely return that kiss as he struggled to inhale, tilting his head back into the covers. His nails lightly scraped down Riku' back as they dragged across the length of the older boy's spine, and Sora seized those hips with both hands; destroying the gentleness with which Riku tried to touch him as Sora's legs tightened around his waist.

The waves were back in Sora's ears again, this time in the form of the uneven breaths that coursed out of Riku' lungs with that same, deep rhythm. It felt as though Sora's veins were knotting and twisting inside him; spiralling together with an impossible feeling that made his entire body shudder with the force of it. Still, it continued building until he could feel it thrumming in his abdomen, hard and fast. He couldn't even tell if he was still breathing anymore. His vision was sparkling like he had forgotten to inhale, his heart was pounding, but he didn't even care that he could have been suffocating as he arched his hips up again, feeling the sensation rising even higher than it had a moment – and then his mind was swept clean as a truly dizzying amount of pleasure burst inside of him without warning.

For just a split second the intensity was actually too much for him, as it seemed that there was going to be no promised release as he had expected; but then it broke, and he felt bliss shoot through his body. It scoured through him from head to toe and raced through every other inch in between. His mouth parted with a groaning sigh as he came, feeling a white-hot, crackling sort of sensation searing through his skin and bones, and Riku groaned hotly against his neck as new warmth joined the first.

Beyond that blinding static that made up his thoughts, Sora found the will to close his arms around Riku' body and hold him close in those last moments of gasping breaths, heaving chests and trembling fingers. Their bodies were still rocking together, driving new moans out of his mouth as his blood spiked, and he openly shivered as the older boy's hand slid into his hair in response, kneading against his scalp.

The pleasure slowly began to ease away as they lay there together, still holding onto the final moments of that release, but it did not fade completely. Instead, Sora's mind felt pleasantly numb and his skin was still dancing with heat as he finally managed to open his eyes again. He rolled over so that fingers slid into place around Riku' jaw, and he had to hold his breath once more as he moulded his mouth around the other boy's and kissed him until his lungs ached. He drowned in the feeling of Riku leaning into his body, gripping him with such incredible need that he almost spilled out every single thing he felt in an instant upon pulling his lips free from the other boy's, letting out a hoarse noise that he had not known he was capable of until that moment.

Riku' eyes shone with an unfathomable amount of feeling as Sora leant back, and abruptly he found that it no longer mattered that they had not known each other for long enough to rationally explain the feeling that was tightening in his chest, or that his family was going to separate them, because they were there and he had never been more sure of anything in his life than he did as he looked into the older boy's face, seeing every emotion he felt mirrored in those flawless features.

His lips parted again, his hands tugging Riku closer so that their foreheads rested together, but he never had a change to confess what he so longed to.

There was a deafening, groaning screech of metal that reverberated through the walls around them, slicing through his ecstatic daze with a precision that bordered on sharp pain, and both boys shot up from where they lay at that unending shriek that carried on for far longer than it should have. The bed lurched beneath them, yanking their bodies forward in a sickening way, and Sora's heart was pounding dangerously with a whole new sensation when the crushing sound finally cut short, leaving them both panting in the quiet that followed.

It was not quite silent, though; Sora could still hear the rushing of waves echoing in his ears.