Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or anything Disney.
Notes: Um, lots of battle ahead. If anyone has suggestions on how to make future battle scenes better, feel free to give me crit, I'm very iffy about the battles.
Chapter 10 –
Ahead of him, Sora pivoted on one heel to take care of the last Lance Soldier just as his own Way to the Dawn sliced through two Rabid Dogs. No more appeared to replace them and he could hear Sora stomping on. Riku took a moment to collect some dropped munny, letting Sora pull ahead of him. Wasting energy wouldn't help Kairi, and if Sora was going to tire himself out before they even got back to Kairi, Riku would let him. He was more worried about what trap they had fallen into – there was no way that gate separating them from Kairi was an accident.
Part of him wanted to blame Hades for it, but this wasn't the god's style. But he probably did know who had done this. Riku squeezed the hilt of Way to the Dawn, his eyes narrowing and glaring at thin air. They should have known better to dismiss so lightly what Hades said. He should have known better. Sora had battled him, but he had heard his plans as the god talked with Maleficent and he knew that the god never said anything meaningless.
And last on his mind was a worry that was always on his mind. Sora hadlied to him. He had tried to dismiss it, tried to focus on their journey more, but he found himself taking a sharp breath when he stood close to Sora, to see if the smell was back. That scent had come from his boyfriend. A strong scent of darkness had been coming from his skin, even from underneath, inside him. From what he could gather, even as strong as it had been at that moment, the scent had already been fading too.
There were few reasons that Riku could think of why Sora would smell of darkness – and even less reason that he would lie about it. The silver-haired boy had spent most of the few days since then just attempting to think of those reasons and he hadn't come up with anything that made sense. That was when he started changing from being worried to annoyed. He shouldn't have had to be thinking up reasons – Sora should have just told him the truth.
They never had secrets from each other before. At least, not for long. Except of course, that Sora had conveniently forgot to tell him that he wasn't a virgin for the longest time. Despite knowing the two items weren't related it was another secret Sora had kept from him – even if Sora didn't seem to think it was a big deal. He probably wouldn't think whatever he was keeping from him now was a big deal.
Though, maybe he did. Sora hadn't actively kept the fact he had lost his virginity from him, it had just never come up. Riku knew Sora was lying to him this time. There was no way that smell came from Heartless. It would have taken Sora practically being a Heartless himself to cause that distinct of a smell.
There was a yelp from ahead of him and Riku snapped his eyes up from where he had begun glaring at the ground and sprinted forward – only to twist to the side as his spiky-haired friend was thrown toward him. As Sora rolled to his feet Riku turned his attention to the front – and stared, baffled. There were a few dusks, but the other Nobodies – those he wasn't so sure of. They were slow moving, except for their short, flat arms. Actually, their arms were a bit more round than he would have expected.
The slow moving Nobodies – there were four of them – all at once spread their arms wide apart. He saw Sora suddenly dart into a roll and it occurred to him a second too late as Sora shouted a warning that he should do the same. The Nobodies brought their round arms together – and a second later Riku could hear a crash around him, and almost feel the sound waves. He on the other hand was thrown backwards – by one of the four Nobodies who were not so slow moving at all.
The round arms tore into his shoulders and then the Nobody used its leverage to pull itself up into a spin, sending him crashing into a wall as it fell to the ground and went back to its slowly moving pace.
"I think they travel with their attack!" He heard Sora shout as he attempted to blink away the black dots in front of his eyes. That was a wonderful talent for their enemy to have. Really, being attacked at the speed of sound was fun.
He stood up and analyzed the situation as Sora jumped into the thick of it, Ultima making short work of the dusks. Yet even as Sora had begun attacking the dusks one of the sound Nobodies turned and began to crash its arms together. "Sora! Look out!"
Sora turned, but instead of heeding his warning like the – stupid, foolish, idiotic, going-to-get-himself-killed – reckless boy he was, he attacked it. Except at the last second Ultima was turned sideways. Riku never could figure out how Sora suddenly just knew the right way to counterattack, but it was correct this time. The second the Nobody's round arms met the hilt and blade of the Nobody, it's attack discharged – backwards. Instead of the attack carrying the Nobody forward, it sent it crashing backwards. By the shaky way it climbed to its feet, it was obviously damaged.
With that example to follow, Riku charged into the fight as Sora went to finish off that one. All three left were attempting their attacks. Thinking of how the Nobody had reacted with the Keyblade, Riku slid in and shouldered one into the other as their arms clashed together. As he watched, they both went toward each other, but with such a short distance, it was more like they were trying to go througheach other. After a few seconds of the Nobodies hanging in the air, their sharp round arms going through each other, both of them faded away into darkness.
So pleased by this development, Riku hadn't even watched where the last one's attack went but he was distracted from his triumph at the sound of a sharp crack.
He whirled around, Way to the Dawn held high and ready to attack – but there was no need. Sora was rebounding off the wall he had been thrown into and in midair Ultima lifted to point straight up and lightning crashed down around the Nobody.
When the air cleared all that was left was an angry Sora and tattered bits of a Nobody that quickly disappeared. His eyes flicked over Sora, concerned to see him holding one arm at an odd angle. He stopped himself from saying anything, knowing Curaga would clear it up.
Instead of casting his the spell, Sora spun around and started stomping forward again. Riku gaped for a full moment before his eyes flashed in anger and he quickly shortened the distance between them. "Sora!"
"What?" The brunet snapped. Riku tried to put a hand on his shoulder. Sora shrugged it off. "We have to keep moving."
Annoyed, Riku conjured a potion and thrust it at the boy. Despite the fact he had some of his own. He knew Sora wouldn't bother to stop and fiddle with his pockets and take one out. "Drink it. You can walk and drink at the same time."
For a moment, he thought Sora would refuse. But then Sora's shoulders slumped and he grinned a bit. "I'm being stupid aren't I?"
Riku smirked and watched his friend roll his eyes before drinking the Potion. That had gone better than he had thought. Sora was still setting a fast pace – but his arm was healed and his back wasn't as stiff. Riku in turn relaxed slightly. He didn't mind a fast pace – he was worried for Kairi – he just didn't want a pace where they were wasting energy.
"When aren't you?" Riku asked innocently and ducked the fist headed in his direction with a chuckle. He opened his mouth to say something more when he noticed Sora stop and stand stock still as one of the bright balls of lights – Riku had been wondering if they were souls that had lifted from the river – brushed by him. His eyes dilated and he went entirely pale. There was a far away look in his eyes that either meant he was thinking hard – or talking to Roxas.
He assumed it was the latter when Sora shook his head and muttered out loud, "Later," and walked forward again. Riku stood still a moment longer and watch suspiciously as the ball of light did something very out of the ordinary – and tried to float after the boy. Sora's fast pace left it behind in moments.
Riku followed his boyfriend, matching his pace and settling into his thoughts. Sora gave him a curious look but didn't ask yet. He probably didn't want to bring it up either. Sora had been too secretive for Riku's liking lately. There was this, the darkness, and the incidents where he could see Sora toying with a small glinting object. He pursed his lips as they jogged on, and didn't speak, just yet – he left his anger simmer. There was no time for this right now.
"There's a fork here," Sora said quietly, sensing his introspective mood. Riku flicked his eyes from one path to the other and tilted his head to the right.
"We'll have better luck that way – this path has curved to the right slightly and we'll probably come closer to Kairi if we go right and hope it makes a circle." Both of them started down the path and Riku was pleased to see that this one too curved to the right as well – and a lot more sharply than the other one had.
Both had sped up their pace slightly, and Riku thrust down the worry he had that Kairi would be in trouble. There was no point in thinking about it yet – with luck she would be perfectly healthy. That wasn't actually realistic, so better yet, she would at least be only bruised and tired.
There wasn't any warning to what happened. Sora just suddenly flung himself to the side and Ultima smashed into one of the balls of light floating nearby. Riku took a step back, startled at the strange behavior, but Sora was suddenly scampering down the hallway, eyes straight ahead and obviously not wanting to answer the questions in Riku's eyes.
His temper snapped. "Sora! What the hell was that?"
He sprinted to catch up and resisted the urge to pin the boy against the wall. For one, he simply couldn't without expecting Sora to retaliate and they didn't have time for a fight. It didn't help that intimidation didn't quite work on Sora. Not that it ever really had, but it used to at least make the boy hesitate to anger his friends. Lately that didn't seem to be a problem. Riku had been almost constantly pissed off at him for the last week.
"What was what?" Sora asked, his blue eyes avoiding focusing on anything except the space ahead of them. Riku stared at him incredulously as they ran.
"You can't be serious. I'm not an idiot, Sora." His eyes narrowed and he couldn't resist adding, "I'm not you either."
Sora tensed and Riku was glad a pack of Heartless chose that moment to appear. As they jumped into the fray, Sora snapped, "It's none of your business, Riku!"
"It damn well is!" Riku replied furiously, Way to the Dawn striking down the metal Heartless in front of him, feeling triumphant when his blade took it down when Sora's call of Thundaga hadn't.
"Look, it's nothing to worry about!" Sora's voice floated over to him as hearts flew up into the ceiling. Riku barely noticed that the Heartless were still coming, and almost didn't notice when their claws dug into his skin. He was just intent on destroying them and ridding himself of the anger he felt.
He did notice, briefly, as Way to the Dawn flashed up that the bracelet he had thought was just a trinket had changed colors. Yellow, red, and orange flashed through his vision as he watched it, fascinated, while almost instinctively he killed the nearest Heartless. What had Kairi said? It was supposed to connect him and Sora.
He took a gamble. Sora believed in it, and while normally he could tell Riku's emotions pretty well if he was looking - he hadn't been recently, too focused on finding the path – Riku knew without be able to focus on him, and only hearing his voice, Sora would believe him. He forced his voice to the coldest he could manage on his boyfriend and hoped the bracelet was reacting to Sora – or that Sora at least would think so. "Then why does this bracelet say you're lying?"
Riku honestly had no idea what the colors meant – for all he knew it could just have been reflecting the light strangely. But where there had been the sounds of battle and Sora muttering and yelling at the Heartless, there was sudden silence. The next thing he knew Thundaga was called, three of them directly after each other, destroying all but the magic resistant Heartless, which Sora quickly destroyed. Riku blinked as he did, because for just one moment he could have sworn there were two Keyblades in Sora's hand – and the boy was in his normal clothes.
But when Sora turned to him, there was only Ultima. Riku's eyes flicked to the bracelet on Sora's wrist and saw that it was a murky red with the tiniest flickers of yellow and gray. Red was easy then – anger. He glanced back at the bracelet on his wrist. The red was almost gone, leaving yellow and orange and strange flickers of green. He held it up silently. Sora's flinch was all he needed to know before he hissed, "Stop lying to me."
He hadn't expected for Sora to look at him with eyes that were darker than they should have been a pained whisper that sounded almost afraid, "I don't want to worry you."
"Well you are, Sora," He snapped back. Sora stared at him – and then turned and continued on his way.
He thought the brunet wasn't going to answer and his heart nearly stopped in confusion, hurt, and anger that made his ears roar with sound of his blood pounding in his ears. Then Sora quietly threw over his shoulder, "It felt familiar."
Riku frowned, anger draining away to be replaced by curiosity that brightened his eyes and had him once again matching Sora's pace. Before questioning the boy he paused, trying to connect the phrase to something he had questioned him on. "The light? You've been here before, Sora."
"Not to me. It felt familiar to Roxas." Sora met his eyes and Riku sidled closer. They were walking now – still fast paced, but it was easier to study the brunet while they were going slower.
He opened his mouth, his eyes narrowing in concern and suspicion – and then they turned around a sharp curve, and before them was a cavern – and an unconscious Kairi was at the other end, lying on a ledge. Instantly - before Sora could bolt toward her - Riku grabbed his friend and planted his feet firmly, resisting Sora's initial lunge. "Stop it! We won't help her any if we run into a trap!"
Sora tensed under his grip and pierced him with a fierce glare – but he stayed. For once, he listened when Riku said stop and though he shifted his weight uneasily and held the Keyblade ready, he didn't move. The taller boy sighed in relief and stared at Kairi – and then around the cavern. He couldn't see the closest parts, but he would bet that there was either an enemy waiting on another ledge, or that Nobodies would ambush them the second they stepped inside.
"Sora, I'm going to ask you not to fight when we get in there unless it becomes blocked off with one of those barriers. I want you to get Kairi and run and don't come back until she's safe. I can handle myself, but we can't fight if we're worrying about accidentally hitting her, and we can't leave her alone while she's unconscious." He tightened his grip on Sora's shoulder when the boy opened his mouth to protest. "I'll come after you once I take care of whatever did this to her."
"But... Riku..." Sora was cut by Riku spinning him around to face him and kissing him quickly. It was a much more effective way of shutting him up and Sora used it on him as a distraction all the time – turnabout was only fair.
"Trust me. I may not have the same magic as you or those forms, but I can handle myself." He had destroyed that Nobody before, and he had the darkness he could still wield in his dark aura balls.
Sora nodded reluctantly and released Ultima. Riku exchanged a glance and they both crept forward, to the edge of the entrance. He half expected an enemy to jump out then, because they must have been heard – but none did. He caught Sora's eyes and they both nodded. Both bolted toward Kairi, Sora's quick run bringing him to the other side while Riku wasn't even in the middle yet.
There was a sound to his left and he turned to meet the threat – only to find his ears were deceiving him as a shape attacked from behind. He tried to turn and meet the attack but the mistake had already been made and he only managed to deflect it away from his face, a hard metal slapping instead at his shoulder, cutting through fabric and into skin. He slammed Way to the Dawn into the metal – a chain, he realized a moment too late – and had the weapon yanked from his grasp when the chain wielder suddenly pulled back roughly.
He noticed behind him Sora jumping down from the ledge, Kairi in his arms and flicked his attention back to the present, following the chain to its owner. Black hair hung around his enemies face – and he was surprised at the youth he could see there. The Nobody couldn't be much older than him.
"Riku, wielder of Way to the Dawn, the Master of Twilight – or is Dawn? They're nearly the same thing, aren't they?" The man mused as he stared at the Keyblade in his chain. Narrowing his eyes, Riku held up his hand and the chain lay empty as the blade returned to him. He didn't care what titles he was being given now – he was still the same person who had destroyed the last Nobody and he would do the same to this one.
The Nobody didn't look surprised, instead continuing with his own introduction. "I am called Yaxent, and I am afraid that I must kill you."
"Funny how many have tried. I really doubt you're going to succeeded." Riku's voice had lowered alarmingly as he spoke, his aqua eyes intent on the male in front of him. Way to the Dawn was poised high as he bent his knees slightly, ready to lunge at the Nobody.
Yaxent shrugged and the chain lashed out at him again. As Riku was dodging it, he heard the sound of the chain coming back from behind. He didn't know how the Nobody could have done it but he rolled under where he perceived it would be – and found nothing but air just as the chain wrapped around him from the other side and slammed him into a wall. The air left his body suddenly – but he managed to wrap his free arm around the chain and pull. Yaxent cried out as he was brought toward Riku and the boy was reminded of the Nobodies who followed after their sound attacks. He shouldn't have been surprised to see Yaxent grab hold of the chain closer to Riku as he was pulled near and use the grip Riku had on it to flip over, knocking Riku over as he was kicked in the chest.
The chain came away from his grip – but he threw a dozen balls of darkness after the Nobody, who dodged to one side – and used the end of that strangely long chain to flick a few back at Riku. The Keyblade Wielder rolled underneath, coming up shockingly close to Yaxent – by the sounds everywhere he had thought the man was moving farther away.
Reacting quickly, before the Nobody could coil the chain for another hit, Riku lunged forward and struck the Nobody, trying to keep the advantage. Yaxent cried out and Riku pressed on, unleashing a string of slashes and strikes until at the end he struck hard, sending the Nobody flying backward. Panting, Riku took a moment to take out the only item he had on him – an Elixir. He gulped it down, feeling his energy coming back and his wounds healing. Almost immediately afterward he let out a storm of dark aura balls.
He thought he had missed when there was the sound of rustling cloth above and behind him. But his ears had tricked him too many times for him to totally trust them and he only turned halfway, Way to the Dawn up defensively – but once again, there was nothing there, and Riku dropped beneath the chain he knew to be coming – except that it had been aiming for his legs.
"That actually hurt," Yaxent stated mildly as the chain wrapped around Riku's ankle and threw him into a wall. "I was before contemplating the idea of feeling sympathy for having to kill defenseless children – but neither you nor Kairi are defenseless."
"You don't feel," Riku gasped, and aimed another storm of dark auras at the Nobody, who was forced to pull the chain back to defend himself – but not before twisting it as he pulled. Riku hissed in pain as he clearly felt his ankle snap before the chain slid off.
He forced himself to sneer as he noticed that as quick as Yaxent had been, the time he had taken to injure Riku had allowed the dark energy to hit him and he only managed to deflect the last few. He lifted aqua eyes to meet gray ones and spat, "You can't feel sympathy – but I guarantee right now you're feeling pain."
"No wonder she would rather talk to me than be outside with you," The Nobody said, confusing Riku as the male put on a slightly malicious smile and the chain sped at him. "We had quite a nice chat in the Coliseum."
"Liar!" Riku yelled as he slashed at the chain and lunged forward, ignoring the pain from his ankle. Quickly, Yaxent pulled part of the chain back to hold it taught in front of him. His eyes seemed oddly focused for a moment and they slipped to stare behind Riku.
"It's not a lie," he heard Kairi say and in surprise Riku jumped back and turned – but there was nothing there. Nothing except a chain sliding around his middle and tightening, enough that he was sure his ribs were breaking.
"Sound," He managed to gasp and glared, raising a hand to throw dark auras from – only to have his wrist grabbed from behind.
"That's right. Sound," Yaxent murmured and the chain tightened further. Riku turned Way to the Dawn around and stabbed backward – and felt triumphant at the resistance it met – until he heard the metal clinking against the blade. "I do believe you're in a bit of a bind."
"Fuck you," Riku snarled, and ignored how tight the chain was becoming and the fact he could barely breath in favor of lunging backward, knocking into the Nobody. The chain loosened slightly and Riku slammed his elbow back in the general area of the Nobody's stomach. That produced much more satisfying results as he heard Yaxent choke and there was a sudden weight on his back. The chain fell away and Riku turned, ignoring the spots in front of his eyes in favor of unleashing both Way to the Dawn and a storm of dark auras onto the Nobody. His magical energy was low, there wasn't enough to conjure a potion, so instead he focused on destroying the Nobody before he was killed.
This time when the Nobody was flying backward, Riku followed. Yaxent fell against the wall and took much more time getting up this time. Riku savored the fear he though was in his eyes – until he realized it was faked as the now-familiar chain wrapped around his legs and he saw Yaxent tighten his grip on it and pull sideways. Riku had no idea how he controlled the chain as he did – but there he was, once again being slammed into a wall. This time, when he fell, it took longer to get up. His broken ankle wouldn't hold his weight and both his legs had been cut into heavily. His ribs shrieked in pain and for a moment all he could see was black – and then he forced his arms to push him up and he jumped backward and caught the edge of a ledge before the chain could come for him again.
"Silly of you to fight it. It won't be long now," Yaxent's voice whispered in his ear – and he flung Way to the Dawn to the side before he thought about it. A chain wrapped around the Keyblade and let it go. Cursing he focused on Yaxent's real position as he used the last of his magic to send more dark aura balls toward him and then called the Keyblade back to him.
As he lifted the blade, a chain wrapped around his neck. He forced his legs to move, trying to push back – only for the chain to stay where it was and his legs to slip from beneath him as the chain held him in place. Cursing while he still had breath he slashed at it with the Keyblade, desperately hoping for just a bit of his magic to come back faster, enough for an attack – or even better he wished for Sora's magic.
There was a flash of blue from the side, a sense of cold in the air as he felt his vision going dark – and then the chain was being ripped from his neck harshly. He gasped, choking and managing to roll over and get a better look – and saw only pink now. "Open up, Riku."
This was the real Kairi. Smell, touch, and he could see her worried eyes as she forced an elixir down his throat. His ankle healed itself, his ribs were unbroken and the blood from numerous wounds stopped staining his clothes. "Kairi. Sora was..."
"Sora used Curaga and woke me up. When I told him about Yaxent's powers and urged him to come back – well, it didn't take very long. Um, don't yell to him or anything, okay? I told him to ignore all noises." Kairi was peering at him worriedly as he stood and he smirked at her.
"Thanks. See you in a few minutes." He jumped down, darting back into the fight. He shared a brief, confident smile with Sora – and then they were fighting, and he felt a wave of excitement as they matched each other. When one stumbled from Yaxent's attacks, the other was there. The Nobody didn't seem to quite know a strategy for both of them – probably why he had wanted to separate them in the first place.
When the chain was throwing Sora into a wall – which wasn't a good idea as Sora was adept at using magic while flying through the air and Thundaga seemed to hurt a lot – Riku was jumping forward for a few lightning fast strikes with his Keyblade, jumping back when the chain turned toward him. Sora leapt back into the fight, and his heavier hits with Ultima had Yaxent stumbling onto his knees. Sora was faster on his feet, but swung the Keyblade slower and heavier – Riku was nearly the opposite. They worked perfectly together – when they wanted to.
Riku ignored the sounds that sometimes came from behind him, even when the chain had managed to send him far enough out of the battle that he lost sight of Yaxent. Sora must have been doing the same, though somehow Sora seemed to just rebound off the walls, catching himself in midair and flipping back into the fight. Riku desperately needed to learn how to do that.
Once both of them were in the battle, it was short work – especially with a few well-placed Light Flares from Kairi. He felt guilty for not giving her Keyblade to her, but he didn't want her in this fight – she hadn't fought next to them long enough that she could slip her own style into theirs. Her style wasn't developed enough that they knew hers either. The magic from the background was better.
"It won't matter, in the end," Yaxent gasped as he slid to the ground after Sora had sent him flying into the edge of a ledge protruding from the wall. "You don't know what our leader wants. You can't stop us if you don't know what we're doing."
"Maybe we can't stop your leader," Sora said grimly, Ultima slamming into the Nobody's middle.
"But we can stop you," Riku snarled, and Way to the Dawn stabbed into and through the Nobody's chest. There was a clap of electric sound, high pitched enough that it nearly drove Riku down to his knees – and Yaxent faded away.
Riku stared at the spot where the Nobody had been in frank surprise. It had seemed so easy once Sora was there. The noises hadn't been distracting when he knew that his friend was keeping an eye on the Nobody when he could not. But a part of him wondered what the Nobody meant – if they killed all the ones they came across, of course they could stop them.
"Hey, what's that?" Sora stepped to where Yaxent had been and crouched down, picking up something – a thread. "I wonder where this came from – oh."
He saw Sora's eyes go out of focus as the thread began to glow. In a confident move, Sora jumped back a pace and swung Ultima up and toward the now floating thread. A bright light was emitted – and there was a distant click in Riku's mind and a hint of clouds in his vision. Then Sora put Ultima away and grinned at him. "Guess what?"
He cocked his head, raising an eyebrow in inquiry. That had just been odd. Kairi was coming up to them now as well and looking at Sora curiously. She was the one who voiced the question. "What was that?"
"We can leave now," Sora chirped, picking up the string and putting it in his pocket as he began to walk out.
"What? What do you mean? We still have to open the path." Riku demanded, quickly catching up to his boyfriend, who grinned at him. It hit him a second too late and he blinked, and then his eyes flicked to Sora's pocket. "Is that what that sound was?"
"What sound?" Kairi asked, and Riku looked over in surprise – just as Sora stared at him.
"That's the first time anyone has been able to hear it," Sora murmured, and his grin softened into a warm smile. Riku tilted his head and shared a confused glance with Kairi – who hadn't had her question answered – before shrugging and letting Way to the Dawn fade away. At least they could get off this world now.
Riku stared out of the screen. They had hidden the gummi ship in a cloud in space, off the main path. The new world couldn't be much farther – but they were all tired. Despite Sora have healed them all after the battle once more, Riku could feel phantom echoes of some of the injuries - and Curaga and potions could never totally get rid of exhaustion. Sora seemed to still be fine, running on his own inner energy, but he and Kairi had demanded a stop. Kairi he was especially worried about.
The door to the cockpit opened. He didn't have to look to see Sora. Almost off hand he glanced at the bracelet, the gem swirling with blue, green, and hints of gray. He frowned at it – the gray seemed to be ever present. Then his eyes flicked up to Sora who was leaning on one panel to stare out. "I used to sit here sometimes when Donald and Goofy needed rest and nudge the gummi ship. Just, ya know, a little. There's a certain amount of time that I could get it going at a low speed before the engines really started making enough noise to wake them up."
"Were you in that much of a rush?" It didn't seem like a Sora thing to do. He must have been exhausted himself, considering that those friends of his weren't exactly lazy either.
Sora shrugged and gave a slightly brittle smile. "Yeah. I lost the two of you. Twice."
Riku was forced to look away at that, feeling the guilt well up – and then a hand was pressed against one of his. "You're not going to start brooding over that, are you?"
His eyes met Sora's blue ones and he had to smirk at the worry shining in the brunet's eyes. "Nah. Not my style."
Sora's jaw dropped and for a moment his eyes widened. Then they narrowed into a glare. "Not your style? You brood at everything."
"Oh yeah? Prove it," Riku challenged, waving a hand to the side and tilting his head as he grinned down at his boyfriend. Sora's mouth opened and closed soundlessly – and then he pounced, one arm wrapping around Riku's neck for a headlock. The taller boy laughed and kicked out at Sora's legs before the smaller boy could mess up his hair by giving him a noogie.
That brought them both crashing to the floor. There were a few moments of struggle and then Sora reluctantly gave in. Riku grinned, his hands pinning Sora's wrists to the floor. "Look what I've got."
Sora glared back, his lips twitching suspiciously. "What do you have?"
"What do I have?" Riku pretended to look thoughtful before his eyes raked Sora's body. It had the desired effect of making Sora blush as his eyes crawled back up to stare at his eyes – and then his lips. "Something that I think needs to be a little less tense."
Sora nodded slowly, but Riku didn't like the grin he was failing to hide. "You know, you don't truly have something unless you can hang on to it."
Before Riku had time to process the sentence, Sora was twisting out of his grip, his legs shoving at Riku's. The taller boy fell to the side and scrambled to his feet just as Sora did the same. Sora crouched low and Riku bent his knees, both of them in their classic battle positions, though they kept the Keyblade out of it. Sora shifted forward – and then stopped as something fell out of his pocket and to the floor with a metallic jingle.
Riku narrowed his eyes as the boy's demeanor changed and he scrambled for the tiny object, flushing bright red. The anger he had though gone flared up and his hands curled into fists. He recognized that as what Sora had been working on since Agrabah – the thing he kept secret and sometimes came away from with bleeding hands. "What's that?"
His low voice should have warned Sora not to lie. But Sora's eyes darted away from his own. "It's just something I've been working on. Forget about it, okay?"
"Sora!" He snapped. "Damn it, why do you keep lying to me. I can tell you know. You lied in the cave, you're lying now, you lied about why you smelled of fucking darkness and why don't you just stop! Just tell me what that damn thing is!"
Sora took a startled step back – and then returned his anger in kind, his hand fisting around the metal. He didn't even seem to notice when he began to bleed. "You want to know what it is? Fine! It's a present, Riku! Your present!"
The shorter boy lifted his hand and threw, his palm opening. Riku blinked as the piece of metal hit his chest and he barely managed to keep the metal that had been dyed blood red from falling to the floor. He stared at it, the stem shaped metal with two little leaves and an overly large thorn somehow all synthesized into a silver and green combination with a black chain. A black chain that would fit perfectly on Way to the Dawn. He forgot all about the other lie, and about darkness, and looked up with regret in his eyes – only to find the door sliding shut.
Riku stared at the keychain in his hand and sat back in one of the chairs heavily. It wasn't even his birthday. His eyes closed at the thought – and then opened swiftly. It was almost Sora's birthday. He could find a way to make it up to him. Riku smirked. He would make a present that topped anything Sora could even imagine.
End Chapter
And Sora still managed to actually avoid the topic. Anyway, new Disney world next chapter, Sora's birthday – if I can fit it in, etc. Feedback please!