Thanks to Cheri Berry Keyblade for the prompt. It went a bit off prompt but I like the way it turned out. I hope you do, too.

I'm always looking for more ideas. If you have anything you want to see feel free to PM me or leave a review!

Disclaimer: I asked Santa for the rights to Kingdom Hearts. He got me a pony instead.

"So, psychological manipulation, huh? Some topic to be assigned." Sora sighed as he skimmed through the psychology books he and Riku had borrowed from the library. They had only just returned from defeating Xemnas and their psychology teacher decided to assign them a project that would be worth 90% of their final grade. "I can't believe she would make it worth that much of our grade! It's not like we just got done saving the worlds or anything!" Sora huffed in annoyance, waiting for some sarcastic reply from his best friend. Said silver-haired teen was staring intently at the book in front of him, deep in concentration. 'He must really be taking this project seriously! Well, I guess I better just grin and bare it for now!' Sora thought to himself before going back to his research.

The two teens continued their research for a while in silence. Sora had finished skimming over 3 books, periodically writing down certain pages with topics of interest for the project. He was about to move on to another when he realized that Riku was still on the same book as before. 'Is he reading the whole book or something?' The brunette thought briefly, before noticing his older friend hadn't left that particular page. Walking over to sit closer to the older teen, Sora took a brief look at the words on the page. His eyes widened in a worried shock at the paragraph he read:

"Psychological Manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at another's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative, abusive, devious, and deceptive."

The reality of the situation washed over Sora like a wave on the beaches of the Islands. All at once, the memories of how Riku had acted while he was manipulated by Maleficent came back to him. The witch had used the promise of helping Kairi to manipulate Riku to do her bidding. For once in his life, Sora was left speechless, unsure of what to say to help his friend. He knew that if he said the wrong thing he could end up hurting his friend. So he stayed sitting silently next to the older teen, hoping to eventually get a reaction.

They sat like that for near an hour, nothing but deafening silence between the two. It was starting to become too much for Sora and, without thinking, he placed a hand gently on Riku's shoulder. The reaction was immediate; The older boy snapped out of his trance and tears left previously unshed fell like raindrops. The younger brunette became alarmed at this, pulling the silver-haired teen to him and doing his best to offer comforting words, as Riku always did for him when he was upset. After what felt like hours more, the tears began to subside. Riku turned away from Sora, hiding his face as though ashamed. At this the brunette smiled gently and said "You know, keeping your emotions bottled up like that is bad for you. You shouldn't feel ashamed for crying. That's what you always told me when the older kids would tease me for crying."

Speaking for the first time in over an hour, Riku said in a voice still holding a hint of sadness. "You're probably right. It's just...I didn't really want to remember those things so soon. I know I have to face the truth of it eventually, but for now I just wanted to try and forget for a while. But it seems fate isn't so kind..." He sighed, standing and walking over to a window. "You know the worst part? I let myself be manipulated. I let myself hurt people, convincing myself over and over that it was all to help Kairi. I even let her manipulate me into believing that you cared more about your new friends than me. I was a fool..."

"This may not be very helpful," Sora said, walking over to stand next to his friend, "But the past is in the past. We can't go back and change things that have already happened. It hurts, but we have to accept what is already done and move on with our lives. I...I wish none of that had ever happened to you. But I can't change it...or I would have already." He paused, sighing thoughtfully as he looked over at Riku's still-red eyes. This was the first time he'd ever seen Riku cry, and he was glad that his friend had opened up to him. "But no matter what happened in the past, we're still together, right? You, me, and Kairi. Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka, too. We're all still friends. No one sees you any differently."

"You're right. Though, at times, I think that's what hurts the most. When you do something to hurt others, especially your friends, you expect them to hate you. When you realize they don't, you start to hate yourself, because you feel like you deserve it."

"Stop that! You don't deserve to be hated for anything you did, whether you were manipulated or not! You made mistakes. It's our mistakes that makes us human. If we were all perfect, if we never made mistakes, how would we ever learn. From failure you learn; from success, not so much! So quit the self-pity party already!"

Sora was nearly fuming as he lectured Riku. He was about to continue when the older teen started laughing. In response, the brunette just stared on in confusion at his friend's change of mood. "T-Thanks, Sora." He managed to stutter out, gasping for breath after laughing for so long. "I really needed that."

"Say, why don't we ask the teacher to change our topic tomorrow? We'll say it makes us a bit uncomfortable or something."

"Sure, sounds like a great idea." They began packing up to leave when Sora had a realization.

"Wait! Does that mean I did all that research for nothing?!"

This one is a bit darker than usual to begin with. But the last line is a little comedic. Sora put in all that effort for nothing. And don't you hate when teacher make a project that's worth a huge percentage of your grade? I do!

English class has officially become pointless. We were talking about our essays today, so I wrote this instead.

The little blurb in there is actually from Wikipedia. I do not support using Wikipedia as a valid source for research. I was just too lazy to do actual research. Though I considered it.

This is not really a drabble because it's over a thousand words but whatever. This is officially the longest chapter I've written. And the title is a reference to the Psyche-Lock (pronounced Psy-key-lock not sike-lock) mechanic from the ace attorney games (specifically Justice For All, Trials & Tribulations, and Dual Destinies, though it does make a slight appearance in Apollo Justice).

Thanks to Cheri Berry Keyblade and AbsentSilhouette for reviewing. It means a lot. Really. I mean it.

Edit: I went through this again and realized a mistake so I fixed it. In the line From failure you learn; from success, not so much. I'd put mistakes instead of success. not sure how that happened. But that line is a reference anyway. Bonus points to anyone who knows where it's from.