Good news! I decided on an ending! Yep! I know how to end it now. Not much left now, guys. Maybe 20 chapters, at the most. I'd really like to thank the reviewers for their advice, it helped a whole lot.

Full Summary: In the uncertain world of adults, Sora and Riku attempt to patch together their shaky relationship after almost 5 years apart. It's about love and hate and lost trust, set in a world where the magic has run dry and the boys see each for who they really are. The tension doesn't last for long, however, as both men fall into a routine that they both know very well. Along the way, they become reacquainted with the old qualities that brought them together, while familiarizing themselves with the individuals that each person has become.

Warnings: Language, Amazing Cheesiness On My Part

Disclaimer: None of the characters within this fanfic belong to me. If it did, this would be a full length movie with all smexy-slashy-yaoiness I could legally fit onto a single DVD. Kingdom Hearts is a lovely invention of Square Enix.

Hypervigilance

Chapter 14: Improvement

-

"Where's Kairi?" Riku asked after coming into the kitchen, taking a visual inventory of the small group. Tidus, Wakka, Selphie. No Kairi, no Tammy. Sora was still upstairs, though he had failed to actually fall asleep in the hour Riku had spent curled against him. It reminded him of the first week Sora had come back into his life, and how he wouldn't sleep for the first few days. Apparently, stress affected him in a bad way. Riku just figured giving him some time alone might help. He probably needed the time to sort out his thoughts.

"She went home."

Riku hissed under his breath. He was afraid of that. She was so upset when she left. Riku would have to remember to call her later and apologize, just as soon as everything with Sora was under control again.

"I guess Evann was kind of her friend too." Selphie supplied, and it was the best explanation either of them could come up with. "So it makes sense that she got so emotional."

"Ya gotta admit though," Tidus smirked, earning a chastising look from Selphie as he stretched out in his seat at the kitchen table. "That whole thing was pretty fucked up."

"Eh," Wakka smacked his arm with the dish towel, his face set in stern disapproval. "It's not funny."

"Hey, who's laughing? I was just pointing out facts." Tidus made at face at Wakka's back, turning to Riku with a concerned frown. "Is he okay, though? Really?"

Riku shrugged. He didn't know why, but he was pretty sure no one would've given a damn. Yet, they were all listening intently. "He'll get over it." He said finally, idly reminding himself to check on Sora later to make sure he didn't attempt to drown himself in the bathtub or strangle himself with his sheets or something.

"It's weird. I feel kinda bad." Tidus confided, and out the corner of his eye Riku vaguely recognized Selphie nodding in agreement. There was silence for a second, the only sound was the faint squeaking of Wakka swirling his dish towel on the inside of a glass.

"Don't be. You didn't do anything." Riku pointed out, albeit a bit guiltily, knowing that part of the blame was actually his own. He couldn't help but think there must've been a way to foresee what secrets Sora was going to spill at the dinner table and stifle them before this whole mess started.

"So what now? Are you getting back together?" Selphie, ever the romantic, asked from Wakka's side at the sink, washing a plate absently with her eyes averted and hopeful in Riku's direction. It was nice that they were all so concerned, but answers weren't so easy to give, especially to questions he wasn't totally sure about himself.

"Pshh, of course they're not." Wakka answered for him, putting away freshly dried dishes. "Right?" He looked over his shoulder and the others seemed to follow his example, all watching Riku for some kind of explanation, each for their own reasons.

Riku shifted uncomfortably, staring at the corner of the table with a newfound intensity. "I don't know. It's Sora's decision, really."

"Well, that's not really fair. Everything gets left up to Sora." Tidus frowned, glancing at the other two. This had become some kind of group meeting at some point and Riku wasn't entirely opposed to letting them decide the fate of his love life. They were his friends, right? They would know what was best. "What about you?"

"He's not the one that's married." Wakka explained, and Riku wondered when he had become the voice of reason for every one. They had each caught up in maturity in their own ways; becoming just another thing to get used to. "It's Sora's responsibility."

Of course he had to go make sense.

"Do you think," Riku began and all eyes turned to him which subsequently made him look back at the corner of the table. "maybe it's all a huge mistake?"

"Truthfully?" Selphie asked for verification, curling her delicate fingers around the faded pink sponge and scrubbing lightly at another dinner plate. Riku nodded, figuring that the truth would be best. He didn't want to hear a bunch of nonsense about true love and destiny, as were the default answers he imagined in his head.

"Yeah," Tidus said matter-of-fact. Big surprise. Wakka shared his sentiment with a nod. "Huge."

Selphie rubbed at her bangs with her forearm and Wakka smiled, quietly asking if she wanted to switch chores. The moment they shared was private and unnoticeable and made Riku long for the upstairs and laying his arms around Sora and just listening to him breathe while he slept. The two switched places, Wakka washing and Selphie drying now, and Riku pretended that he wasn't watching them.

"I think that you should do what you feel, Riku." Selphie said finally, her voice soft but certain, and a quick exchange of glances told Riku that she was still rooting for him and Sora. "If you love him that much, then you'll know for yourself if it's a mistake or not." She waved her hand dismissively at the other two men, who were rolling their eyes, Tidus more blatantly than Wakka. "You don't need their opinions."

Riku smiled weakly. "Thanks, Selph."

"Don't listen to her." Tidus scoffed almost immediately. "What the hell does she know?" He waved his arms emphatically over the table, receiving one of the dry sponges to the side of the face.

"Eh, manners, boy." Wakka said this in a scolding older brotherly type voice, as he often did with Tidus, easily dodging the weightless sponge as it was thrown back his way. "That's my girl you're talking about."

"So?" Tidus hissed, ignored for the time being.

"Mistake, man." Wakka reiterated in Riku's direction, raising his eyebrows pointedly. "Think about it."

–

Riku woke with his hair plastered to the side of his face, able to clearly feel the indents the pillowcase left on his cheek. His arms were woefully empty, the bed oddly cold on the half opposite him. It was dark outside and the moon filtered in through the blinds like silver sunlight, making the walls glow with a otherworldly tinge.

He had returned to Sora's room shortly after the conversation in the kitchen, only to find that he hadn't moved since he left. Sora was still curled on his side, drawing patterns on the bedspread with his finger next to his face. Riku simply slid back into his original position, spooned behind him and somewhere along the line, apparently fell unconscious.

"Sora." His voice croaked and he cleared his throat, feeling mildly guilty for falling asleep when Sora needed him. The light to the bathroom could be seen through the crack between the door and the floor, running water just loud enough to shake the cloudiness off Riku's brain and forced it into a state of more adequate awareness.

"Sora?" Riku repeated, swinging his legs over the bed to the floor.

"Yeah." Came a quiet reply, almost too low to hear over the bath filling. The pipes creaked and shuddered and the water stopped. The door was unlocked, thankfully, when Riku tried the knob and he let himself in.

"You okay?" Riku asked, shutting the door silently behind himself, snapping the lock with his thumb, if only for the reassurance that they would have privacy. Not that he expected anyone to come in anyway.

Sora sighed, sinking down in the tub until his chin was just under the water's surface. His red-rimmed eyes blinked wearily at his toes, but he otherwise said nothing. Riku kneeled beside the bathtub, settling on his knees on the bathmat.

"You'll be alright." He promised, lightly brushing back his damp bangs with his fingers. Sora grabbed his hand and held onto it, squeezing slightly as he continued to stare forward at the tiled wall that seemed to hold more answers than Riku could give him.

The water was warm on Riku's knuckles as their intertwined hands sunk under, and he leaned forward until his chest pressed against the side of the tub and lightly kissed Sora's temple. Sora spared him quick glance, eyes much too sad and lost to belong to him.

"Do you ever think about them?" Sora asked suddenly, inexplicably. "All the people we met, that we'll probably never see again?" He finished, making it more clear what he referring to, who he was talking about. All those friends Sora had made on his travels. Riku didn't really have many people like that, so, no, he can't say that he did think about them.

"Why are you bringing that up now?" Riku inquired, sitting back as Sora's damp hair began to tickle his nose.

Sora lifted his shoulders in a heavy shrug, sinking as if boneless, farther down in the water. "Everything was just...easier then. I want to be, you know, that again. Young. And stupid, and happy."

"You are young, Sora." Riku supplied, to which Sora scowled sarcastically. "And let's face it, you've made some stupid choices." He sat back on his heels, slouching until he could comfortably rest his chin on the lip of the tub, his other other arm folded under his jaw. "And it doesn't take a whole lot to be happy."

"Yeah, right."

Riku smiled a little, rubbing the long, thin bones of Sora's hand with his thumb under the water. "You know, this is the same kind of stuff you used to say to me." He pointed out, his eyes wandering a little ways downward, becoming oddly aware there Sora was very much naked in front of him, as if he hadn't known this fact already just from common knowledge. "Funny how things change that way, huh?"

"I wouldn't call it funny, but yeah." Sora managed a solemn, if not grim smile, laying his head back against the tiled wall of the shower. Riku had no idea that he could actually comfort Sora, much less make him smile this soon. "I'm sorry."

"Hm?" Riku hummed, his submerged fingers lightly brushing Sora's thigh.

"For, um, doing that in front of everyone." Sora grimaced, speaking in the direction of the ceiling. "That probably wasn't the best way to," He clenched his fingers around Riku's one last time before letting his hand go. "you know. I feel terrible."

"It was...unpleasant." Riku remarked, finding that a bit of an understatement. It was mortifying, if anything. Humiliating and degrading and terrifying. For Riku and Evann alike.

"I think I was kind of scared. That I would never tell him." Sora chuckled humorlessly, lolling his head to the side to regard the space beside Riku's head. "I wonder when I became such a coward."

"You're not a coward." Riku assured him. "You just made some bad decisions with no easy way out. It understandable that you would feel scared."

Sora blinked at him, slowly, his expression shifting from one of bitter resentment at himself to something stuck between confusion and understanding. Riku just hoped that he wouldn't ask him if he was speaking from experience. "I don't think I ever wanted to be married." He said eventually, and Riku relaxed just a little.

Riku frowned. "So, why did you get married then?"

Sora breathed in deep, and let out a long sigh through his nose. "I was eighteen; I didn't know what I wanted—Not long term anyway." He looked at Riku who said nothing and listened, leaning in close so that his hand was nearby. In case Sora wanted to hold it again. "We got engaged. I said yes because I wanted to make him happy. We moved in together, and that made me happy. We had a wedding—to make our families happy." Sora snorted, frowning in contempt for Evann, for himself, maybe for Riku, who, even indirectly, still carried a small share of the blame. "It just feels like I went to sleep and when I woke up, I was married. Married. Forever."

Sora shrugged. He licked his lips and continued, glancing at Riku who was adamant to stay silent until he finished. "But it was kind of easy." Sora admitted, curling his fingers in the cooling bath water. "And when I didn't think about it, I liked being married. I liked someone sleeping next to me every night. I liked going out and talking, and cooking together. I liked washing dishes and mowing the grass, and being a loving companion to someone who actually appreciated it. And it's real easy playing husband to someone who never asks for anything."

Sora paused for second and Riku took this second to really get what he was trying to say, that he didn't want to be married because it was...easy? That hardly made any sense. Wouldn't that be a good thing? Wouldn't you want a relationship to be effortless?

Unless effortless meant...boring.

"I love you," Sora began again, sitting up a little so he could better face Riku. "because you tell me when I'm being an asshole. And you tell me when I'm being immature and stupid and selfish." He smiled slightly and Riku felt his heart jump in his chest, warm, giddy and terrified, all at the same time. "You tell me the truth. And you don't treat like I'm too broken and fragile to handle it." Sora brought his hand up, wet and dripping, and affectionately ran his fingers across Riku's cheek. "I love you because you push me, and you piss me off, and you drive me fucking crazy." Sora laughed and Riku felt himself smile too. "I love that." He said, softer, the pads of his fingertips lingering near Riku's jaw, his thumb briefly ghosting over his lips. And Riku couldn't help but the notice the sudden shimmer to his eyes, and fought to ignore the warmth and blurriness in his own.

"I don't need perfection," Sora sniffled, all the emotion and desperation and anxiety from before starting to show again, only it was different this time. Like it was dulled by something much more positive. Like there was just this tiny, little, inextinguishable light shining just underneath all the darkness. "I just need, real. And you're real, Riku."

"So I chose you." Sora said finally, needlessly. Because it was pretty obvious that Riku was the right choice, and had been the right choice all along. But to see that, even later in the future—whatever that future would hold—it would take work. And it would always take work.

But they would manage.

"I'm glad." Riku smiled, leaning forward, intending to lightly kiss his cheek, but Sora turned his head at the last moment, catching his lips with his own. There was a small moment of surprise, where Riku was taken briefly off-guard. He was deliberately avoiding anything too physical; he didn't want to seem like he was pushing him, but Sora apparently didn't mind as much as he thought. If the warm sweep of tongue across his bottom lip was any indication, Riku should've been kissing him hours ago. It probably would've helped more than sleeping.

Still warm and wet from bath water, Riku curled his fingers in Sora's hair who let him deepen the kiss, let him pull his head to the side, let him slide his tongue over his perfectly rounded teeth. A quiet breath of sound came from Sora's throat, low and needy and still a little scared. Riku made to sit back on his legs, hand stretched across to the opposite side of the tub to steady himself before he fell in the bath with him.

Sora's arms came up immediately, wrapping around his neck, dripping wet and slick with water. He sat up taller and shivered as the bath was practically cold by now, and Riku was forced to stay in place, gripping both sides of the tub and getting relatively lost in the kiss. His head was fuzzy with incoherence and happy warm thoughts, thoughts of taking Sora back to their home and getting him into bed as soon as possible. Hell, they could break in the new couch while they at it. Just as long as there was more of this. More touching and kissing and--

Oh, um...

Riku blinked, his thoughts torn asunder the moment a broken little sound came from Sora, muffled by their lips and sent echoing of the walls after Riku pulled away, feeling a foreign wetness on his own cheek. A quick survey of Sora's face found that it was a tear, showing up much too late for the initial breakdown, straggling behind in what little remnants of mourning Sora had left.

"Sorry." Sora mumbled, sniffling, his arms dropping from Riku's neck and back into the water with a dull splash.

"It's okay, Sora." Riku assured him, softly rubbing his bangs. There was no one around to see him this time, just Riku. And he didn't ever want Sora to feel like he couldn't be vulnerable around him, because, if anything, he was one of the few people who could see Sora at his lowest and never change any of his feelings about him.

"I just cried in your mouth. That's not okay." Sora declared, his word holding a certain amount of self-deprecating disdain. He stood up, draining the tub and Riku got off his knees to get him a towel. There was tense moment where Riku attempted to give him some space, but the bathroom was so small, he ended up backing himself into the door, making it nearly impossible for either of them to actually leave the tiny room.

Another tense moment, where Sora had to lean against the sink just so Riku could get the door open. Really, it was a bathroom made for only one person, and it wasn't until now that that little architectural fact was actually working against them.

Once out and back in the room, Riku shut the door behind himself, so Sora could finish up in private. Riku figured it was pretty clear they weren't ready for all that just yet. The wound was still fresh, and maybe they were pushing each other too far by acting like a couple now. He wasn't sure why he just expected everything to just fall into place now that Evann was out the way. Life, regrettably, was never that simple.

It take some time for Sora to get used to it, but soon enough, things would get better and then everything would be natural between them again. Until then, Riku would just have to be more careful about the way he acted around Sora.

–

After his bath, Sora had changed his clothes and crawled right back into bed. And he didn't care how counterproductive that was.

Riku was over by the window, the curtains parted still even though it was completely dark outside. The tell-tale sound of what resembled gravel rolling across the roof told Sora that it was raining again. Hard.

He looked fatigued, Riku did, from the way he stood to the shadows the streetlights coming in through the window were creating on his face. Sora figured if Riku looked that bad, he himself must look like hell.

Riku sighed and uncrossed his arms, glancing briefly in Sora's direction. His melon-colored eyes blinked slowly and for a second, they both just stared at each other.

"I'm going to get something to eat from downstairs. You want anything?"

Neither of them had really touched their plates at dinner, and the lonely aspirin in Sora's stomach was making him queasy. But still, he just shook his head, curling on his side with his back facing the door. Riku sighed again and Sora was sure he was going to preach at him about starving himself, but instead he just said, "Fine," and the door closed. And then, silence.

This sucked.

Now he was mistreating Riku.

Sora was little more than a wave of destruction, killing and maiming what little happiness he had left in a whirlwind of crashing waves and eroding sediment. First Evann. And it wouldn't take Riku long to grow sick of the dark, pathetic thing Sora had become. It was always only a matter of time. Sora could talk a good game, but talking only took them so far. He was chickenshit.

Sora shifted up higher on the bed, his pillow damp from his hair, frowning at the dark suitcase sitting like huge boulder on the opposite side of the mattress. Sora honestly didn't know how he was going to get that back to him. Going back to their apartment wasn't an option right now. Which meant going to work wasn't an option either. If Evann was there, well, Sora just wasn't going to be in the same place. Not for another week or so, in the least.

Coward.

Laying there for a long 15 minutes, Sora wasn't surprised to hear a knock at the door, lifting his head just enough to see the door and who was opening it. Even less surprised to see that it was his own mother. He briefly wondered if it was just a coincidence that Riku had just left the room, and now here she was.

She came in and sat down on the edge of the bed soundlessly, smoothing down the folds of her robe in the front. Sora laid his head back down, snuggling into the pillow and prepared himself for a long disappointed speech.

She looked upset. In fact, she looked like she had a raging headache, but she was quiet for a long moment, and Sora was either forced to acknowledge her or suffer her staring at the back of his head for the rest of the night. Maybe for the rest of his life.

"I know." Sora mumbled, his voice coming out much lower in his pillow. "It was stupid. You don't have to say it, because I know."

"I wasn't going to say that." His mother spoke softly. He could practically envision the face she making, the tired, resigned one, like the time he had sprained his ankle jumping out of the tree house when he was eleven. Except it wasn't so much that he jumped as that Riku pushed him, but she didn't need to know that.

The last thing she needed were more reasons to dislike Riku.

"I'm just...trying to understand." She said evenly, and Sora couldn't help but think he was doing the same thing. Trying to understand. When he had said it—confessed having an affair with Riku at the dinner table—he wasn't thinking much of anything at all. He wasn't imagining the consequences, or even how breaking it off with Evann would affect him. He didn't think about any of that until it had already happened and there was no way to stop it. Until he was crouched on the floor crying, and he realized for the first time that he was panicking at the thought of losing him.

Of losing both of them.

Sora managed a tense shrug, curling his arms under his chest, his stomach kind of aching in protest. To hunger and fear and the dissolving aspirin in his gut.

"Is this what you really want?" She asked, just like Sora knew she would, scrunching his nose because he thought it was pretty damn obvious that it was what he really wanted. If he wasn't sure, he definitely wouldn't have said that right in front of every one.

"Yes." Sora answered tightly.

"But...Riku?" She said, and Sora felt vaguely offended. "Are you sure that's a good—" She stopped as Sora looked back at her, revising her approach. "Sora, I know you're an adult now, and I can't tell you how to live your life, and I can't tell you what choices you can and can't make. But I can tell you that, just from the way it started off, your relationship with Riku is not going to be the same." Sora could hear her picking at her fingernails behind him and he really wished they weren't having this conversation right now. He didn't want to discuss his relationship with Riku, especially not with his mom. "And maybe you've already noticed that. But I just want to make sure that you know, that it's not going to be easy. You can't take any of this back once it's already done."

"I know that." Sora projected, holding her eyes for a minute, in hers was all the concern and love and helplessness of being a mother to a son she could no longer hold in her arms and rock and make all his problems go away with a few joyful sounding soothing words. "I know."

His mom leaned forward, brushing a palm over his hair and straightening the edge of his shirt, poking and prodding until she could find nothing else to adjust on him before finally lightly patting his shoulder.

"My baby." She said eventually, her voice warm and sweet as honey in fresh tea. The bed shifted as she stood and Sora felt just a little thankful that she stopped in to talk to him, even if all the things she said were things he knew already. Somehow, they just meant that much more coming from her.

–

Sora came downstairs finally. It was early, just a little after 8 AM when he wandered into the kitchen, taking Riku off guard as he sunk into the chair at his side. He even went as far as moving the chair closer, angled in Riku's direction as he rested his head on Riku's shoulder.

Riku tensed for only half a moment, his fork stopping an inch or so from his mouth. His eyes shifted to the right, only to see that Sora was leaning half-asleep against his shoulder. Only a minimal strip of blue showing under his eyelid, Riku wouldn't be surprised if he didn't sleep at all the night before. It was like that first week all over again. Whenever Sora stressed, sleep apparently became nonexistent to him.

Riku kissed the top of his head, briefly burying his nose in his hair. He relished the smell of the clean scent of shampoo, smiling as he finished up his breakfast. Sora was nice and warm against his side and it wasn't a totally unwelcome feeling, especially not on a chilly morning like this one.

He was restless to get home. He woke up restless to get home, at half past 6 in the morning, up already and taking a quick shower. As much as he missed Tammy's house, and was so, so appreciative that he was actually invited back, he missed the privacy of his own place. And he needed Sora to be there with him.

They needed this time to be alone.

"You hungry, baby?" Riku asked, his voice quiet enough that only Sora could hear him, cuddled against his side, the warmth of his breath tickling his neck. Only vaguely recognizing him nod tiredly into his shoulder.

"Here, eat something." Tammy fixed him a plate and slid it across the table, her eyes briefly regarding them both. She smiled, fatigued, but at least it was a smile. Sora thanked her quietly, still leaning against Riku's side as he tentatively picked at his scrambled eggs.

Breakfast wasn't much of an event. The others showed up one by one, ate, made small talk. Riku was just glad that the recent events hadn't really affected their family dynamic much. There were a few awkward questions regarding Evann, but for the most part, the conversation strayed far away from him and the topic of divorce.

All in all, it wasn't a bad morning.

And everyone got packed up eventually, sometime in the afternoon, after spending a few lazy hours watching TV, and Riku felt some of his restlessness ebb away once he was gathering his own bags and loading them into his trunk, making room for Sora's things. Now he just needed Sora himself.

The other suitcase was still sitting by itself in Sora's old room when Riku went upstairs to get Sora's bags for him. He wasn't really expecting Sora to be sitting on the edge of the bed, hands curled helplessly in his lap and nudging the dark case with his shoe.

Sora looked up when Riku leaned against the doorway, a little lost and confused like someone rearranged his room while he wasn't there and he was just trying to figure what was moved. "What do I do with this?"

"Nothing." Riku answered evenly, picking up the dark green suitcase right next to it. "He can get it himself."

Sora frowned, clenching his jaw as if he should be protesting. He tensed when Riku touched his arm and there was an unspoken reassurance that passed between them; Sora's body deflated with a sigh and Riku rubbed his hair, softly, fingertips trailing down the side of his neck, over the map of stars that disappeared beneath his collar.

"Come on, Sora." Riku offered him his hand, which was regarded with an indiscernible look before Sora curled his fingers around his own, abandoning the suitcase with some reluctance. Riku shifted the weight of the bag in his hand, giving Sora's hand an encouraging little tug, because he was barely moving and Riku knew how hard it would to leave something like that behind. "Let's go home."

–

The good-byes were bittersweet and felt a little rushed, though it was understandable. Everyone had to get back to their own lives eventually. Riku received hugs from basically everyone; one that questionably long from Tidus, and one that was disguised as an expertly dodged headlock from Wakka. And the hug from Selphie was soft and warm and gratefully not as bone-crushing as her boyfriend's.

"Keep in touch, okay?" She said, folding her arms over her chest to shield herself from the chilly wind that blowing in from the nearby shore. "You too, Sora."

"Sure. Bye, guys." Riku told the space over her shoulder to the others hanging out on the other side of the porch. It wasn't a totally bad weekend. Considering.

It was raining again as Riku pulled out onto the street, easing slowly into the sparse traffic. Riku concentrated on driving, occasionally glancing over at Sora, who slouched in his seat, staring out his rain coated window. The traffic light painted his face in red as they pulled to a standstill.

Riku slipped his hand into Sora's as he waited on the light to change, squeezing his fingers consolingly. Sora offered him a smile, pulling both of their hands into his lap and turned back to watching the paths of water on his window.

The light changed, but Riku kept his arm stretched across the seat, glad he could drive reasonably well with one hand, because he really had no intention of letting go.

–

"Did you miss us, Pudge?" Sora yawned around his words, rounding the kitchen counter and retrieving a small orange bottle of fish food as soon as they were in the door. Their little bubble-eyed goldfish wasn't so little anymore, so Riku was forced to buy an actual tank for the ugly thing in which it lived by itself, eating and growing more and more into its name by the day. "Think we should get another one? You know, to keep him company?" Sora asked, his face distorted from the other side of the tank.

Riku scoffed. "It's a fish. It doesn't need company." He dropped his keys on the counter beside the tank, eyeing the 8 inches of black wiggling matter inside. How they had managed to keep the thing alive from more than three months, Riku would never know, but he had heard from the man at the pet store they could live up to 15 years. Nice gift, Sienna. "Besides, this one is big enough already."

Sora shrugged, defeated, shaking brine shrimp in the top and watching poor Pudge wiggle his fat self over to eat.

This was normal. The conversation, even the way Sora moved was normal. More relaxed. More of the self-confidence that was typical for him. It was a good sign, one that made Riku watch him genially over the fish tank. And for the first time in months something felt right, just for once. The hurricane in his head had long since been settled with Evann's absence and there was a small glimmer labeled Hope on the horizon. The door was shutting behind them.

And once the door had been shut behind them, there was nowhere to go but forward.

–

Ooh, I got that feeling! I'm so eager to finish this story, it's not funny. Not that I don't like it, but I really just want it to end already. I have the ending all nice and written and set up and everything, just everything leading up to that point needs to be settled.

Ugh, this chapter was annoyingly short. So I'll try to get the next one out faster to make up for it. I have no excuse.

P.S. Wanna know my secret for angsty scenes? I listen to sad love songs. Yep, I admit it.