Somehow, deep in the sub-conscious where stupid things happen, like odd dreams that never make sense, or things happen that you thought had happened before, Sephiroth realized that his allies were alright. They were not affected by the cold bright substance that would not release him now. They were above, in the warm dark safety of the waking world.
A mirror of himself was watching him as he floated, weightless in space, surrounded by the all-encompassing light. He brought his knees to his chest, wanting to hide, or maybe wait for the moment when he could return to help them. What if the reactor began to collapse? What if Riku - his son, his oddly twin-like flesh and blood - was hurt? Would he have the power to help him and his friends get away?
More or less, he was wondering if Cloud would take the time to draw his body from hell again, like before? Would he know what had happened? Or was he gone, lost to the bright burning Lifestream, taking his soul too?
"I wanted him to free me," the mirror image of himself murmured. He was upside down. No, he wasn't. Yes. Where in the fuck was the sky? He would swim to it, as soon as he figured out where the center of the earth was. Even as he tried to right himself, he knew the effort was futile, having attempted equilibrium before when he was dead. It was infinitely useless to try anything now.
His eyes closed. "Is it finally going to take me now? That unreachable, unprejudiced, all merciful death?" he thought, his mind echoed by the other essence of himself that drifted beside him, arms touching, hair tangling together. It was growing darker. Maybe it was a good sign.
He opened his eyes, finding himself among his allies. But it was still glowing nearby. The shadows spilled from above, while the glowing Lifestream below them bloomed spots of dark green and swirling turquoise that stretched down into the freshly opened chasm from whence it pumped continuously. It took a moment for Sephiroth to realize his bearings. Close by, Cloud was holding his head, shuddering, and puffing out his breath in great gasps as though he'd just gotten done swimming across the Wu-Tai channel. Sephiroth reached toward him, touching his arm, then pulling on it gradually, bringing him closer.
"What happened?" the silver-haired man said. "I was gone... floating. What happened to me?"
"You came floating up out of the water toward the shadows. Before they could grab you, 'he' pulled you out... he nearly fell in himself." said Riku, watching them strangely as the taller man held onto the much shorter, smaller one. The sight struck him as fairly warming. His stomach twitched and eased from its ball of pain. He turned his face to Sora's shoulder, felt his wood-calloused fingers on the back of his neck, hair-raising tingling fanning down his back. They were all huddled by the gaping maw. It stretched by more than 40 feet. No hope of crossing it to the door now, which lay open and dead beyond the stairs.
"We have to get out of here," Sephiroth said quietly. "What has been done is done. There's no use remaining here."
"But the Heartless--" Tifa interrupted, her eyes fixated on the drooping body of Cloud, half-hidden in the arms of the other. She seemed especially ruffled to see Cloud so readily embraced by his once-enemy, but he was not himself, it was obvious. But Sephiroth didn't have to hold him like that...
"The Heartless are gone," Riku informed them. "They're gone." In a softer note, he added, "...I can't hear them anymore."
There was a silence that was heavy. Sora shifted under his arm. The boy's eyes sparkled in the marine-blue light, a mirage of carefree joy there that was definitely for Riku's sake. But belying all that bravado and easy boy-like charm there was a cobalt blue that swam in between the light. Flecks of violet sparked in between.
"Are you okay?" was the question. Not, "You're with the Heartless?" or something dripping with hurt accusation. Riku's arm tightened, his throat and chest brimming with a buzzing warmth that flooded across his shoulders, into his sinuous muscles.
"I'm fine... everyone else will be fine, too. We sealed that keyhole, so we'll be able to go home now."
"Are you sure?" Sora's eyes brightened, suddenly clamoring up into his lap with such fervent excitement that he was like a puppy, almost, tantalized by the promise of a treat. "We can go home!? But how?" His brow creased. Truly deep in thought, but he didn't sink away to consider. Instead he held tightly, rubbing his face into his shoulder for a few seconds before sitting back on his thighs, hands patting over his chest for no reason.
Riku shrugged. He nudged at him, standing up slowly as they faced the exit opposite the chasm and the now vacant room. Everyone's eyes seemed in one way or another trained on the newly opened door, slightly busted ajar. Afraid maybe something, a ghost of an unspoken history, would emerge.
The way down the mountain was easier. Small pin-points of sunlight threw rays down onto the ground, warming the travelers as they passed over them. With light in the world again, beaming from every source imaginable, their steps were less jagged and more natural. Riku's loping gait sent him skipping and sliding like a surfer down a few steps occasionally, catching his balance and stopping at the bottom to wait for Sora, who more or less tried to copy him. This became their game; it was easier to keep their minds busy by this competition. Whatever Riku did, Sora also tried. Sometimes Sora succeeded very well.
Riku was responsible enough not to try anything too dangerous. When it seemed Sora was getting used to it, he started to do slightly harder feats, jumping longer distances. He would always wait, and in the next second Sora would land panting beside him, grinning as he swung about with a triumphant yell. "Huah!"
"Oh, you're good," Riku said cheerlessly. He was smiling, an expression old and forgotten and nearly as foreign as this world. It felt good to smile again, especially with Sora.
"Oh, yeah?" Sora stuck out his lip, puffing out his chest, standing before him as the adults paused to watch them. They were just above the township, near the old mansion.
"Yeah." Riku swept a hand against the grain of his hair, putting it up in awkward spikes, looking like an outlandish bird with bright blue eyes. "Better than me. Always."
"That's not true."
"If I try anything more dangerous, I'm almost afraid you'll do better than me," he lied easily, before he bit his tongue. That wasn't true. He wasn't afraid of that at all. It was his old habit shining through. Sephiroth led Cloud away to the hospital and he watched them with a mixture of remorse and deep regret. 'I can't let this lie continue,' he thought sadly.
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That night, the boys slept easy. Riku gazed at Sora in the room Tifa had let them borrow. She had dragged up the extra bed and mattress from the basement, dusted it all off for him, and now Riku slept on it while Sora took the good bed. It was not a matter of win or lose. Riku was going to have the old bed, and no ifs, ands, or buts.
The sandy-haired youth was somewhat half-asleep. They slept in clean bed-clothes, soft cotton that teased his senses, his belly full with as much food as he could eat. They had an on-going pea-flicking war, not at all Riku's doing, across their small end of the table until Tifa kindly but firmly advised them to cut it out just before they went to bed.
He started forgetting to think. Just as he began to remember how he loved to listen to Sora's breathing when he slept, he began wondering about how they would get home. And then he thought about Sora again, when they kissed each other in the moonlight. They never even got a chance to talk about it yet. Pretty soon he was falling asleep, soothed by the absence of the ever-constant gnashing of Heartless teeth in the distance.
Minutes later he was disturbed a profound squeaking noise and a body settling itself against his hip first, before the shift in weight rolled his body toward the source, which accommodated instinctively and one smooth hand rubbed the back of his neck lightly.
The scent said 'Sora'. Riku's skin buzzed at the touch and he wordlessly nosed his way under Sora's arm to breath deep. Soap and slight traces of his own aroma mixed. He trembled a little, and the two tangled themselves together in a harmless manner. In a minute Sora moved a little, stroking his hair and laughing.
"Why don't you just get up and we'll share the better bed? And, since we're both half-asleep, we don't have room to argue with each other, so just do it."
"Oh... you're so dominant, Sora!" Riku sat up, his fingers twined with his. He squeezed his hand and took his blanket with him as Sora pulled him lightly across the cold, wooden floor to the bed. They crawled into it, Sora bouncing on top of the blankets before diving into them. He seemed to be affected by the cold the most, and he buried himself underneath so much that Riku dug to find him, his hands encountering something soft and smooth and warm, which he recognized as Sora's back.
He slid underneath and wormed his way closer to him, smiling at him. He could almost see in the brittle shadows the smile that was returned. This close, Riku could almost hear his heart in his chest. It was a good sound. He wondered if his own heart was beating just as clear.
You're so brave, he thought. Sora was staring at him while his thoughts tumbled again, down a churning runway that led to a glowing, gently rippling pool. You fear nothing and hold nothing against anyone. Your sight is always in the now, never worrying about what's ahead... and you forge on so quickly as a result, not thinking that you'll get tired, not at all sure that you're going to die. You'd do anything.
"Just wanna sleep," Sora mumbled as he rolled and simultaneously pinned Riku's body underneath him, flopping like a fish and Riku could feel his little smirk against the side of his shoulder. He held him tight, wrapping his arms around his narrow waist and squeezing him until the brown-haired boy squeaked.
"That's what you get," Riku affirmed, rewarded with a sudden nibble that set his nerve-endings on fire combined with numbing ice. When feeling returned again, pleasure followed on the heels of heat that spread down across his stomach and wherever Sora happened to be touching.
Shortly afterward, Sora fell asleep again, lashes fluttering occasionally against his skin. Riku didn't disturb him, and let him sleep on top of him for the night through.