A/N: *Whistles*

Hiya! I'm back! My dc kick lasted ahem. Longer than expected and while I still love Kon, the rest of the fandom is. Myeh, I guess?

I decided to add Ignis and Vaan as a classmates here bc we really don't know many of Sora's classmates other than Selphie Tidus and Wakka
More ff characters might make cameos but I dont intend this fic to get as much ff focus as some of my other kh fics cough cough Kuja insistently trying to assassinate all Keyblade wielders in another fic seres cough cough, but a few may pop up from time to time

Sora's Heart Squad discord for anyone interested: discord .gg / vJCc9kRAAC

Published: 7/22/2021

Warnings: a child starting to get an existential crisis because Reasons™

Featured Character:

Riku

Supporting:

Sora
Vanitas
Ventus

Antagonist:

None

Chapter 14

Damage Control

Riku, honest to god, was not having a good day.

His bad day had started yesterday when Sora, except it hadn't really been Sora, had wandered into his room in the middle of the night to wake him up. Most nine year olds would have screamed at this, but Riku was not most nine year olds and Vanitas was a familiar sight. That, and he knew, without a doubt, that Shadow would never do anything to purposely hurt Sora.

Maybe at first, when Shadow had first been trapped in there, including that one notable incident where he'd possessed Sora against his will in the middle of class, but not now.

Not now, after all these years, where it had gotten to the point where Sora would willingly let Shadow and Light take him over for short bouts of time so they could see and experience the world through Sora's eyes instead of being stuck in the back of his mind.

Riku trusted Shadow to never purposely hurt Sora. That was not in doubt, not in the slightest.

No, what worried Riku were the other factors involved.

Because, Shadow was worried there'd be something out of his control. Shadow was worried that the choice would be ripped away from him. Shadow was worried that, if it did come to that, Sora and Light wouldn't have it in them to stop him, and Shadow…

Shadow, admittedly, was not wrong.

Sora was a hellion, but he was a loyal hellion. Sora would try to save Shadow, even if Shadow couldn't be saved, because Sora didn't believe in giving up on people.

And, despite how wonderfully Light and Shadow had initially 'gotten along' at the start, four years of being trapped inside Sora had changed their disposition towards each other considerably. Light would fight Shadow, more so than Sora ever would, but he wouldn't strike him down if it came to it.

Riku himself wasn't entirely sure what the concept meant.

Riku might have been smarter and more mature than your typical child, but he was still nine.

All he knew was that Shadow was counting on him. Shadow was counting on Riku if things went wrong, because Light had refused, and Shadow wouldn't ask Sora.

Part of Riku wanted to be mad that Shadow had decided to ask him instead, that Shadow had decided Riku, of all people, would be a good back up for something like this, but, deep down, Riku knew that he wouldn't have wanted this any other way.

Riku agreed with Shadow: asking Sora was out of the question, and so was asking Kairi. Light would have been the best choice, but Light had already refused, and Riku? Riku was the back up plan.

The thing was, Riku hadn't expected for any of this to really matter. What Shadow had described was a potential future that he wasn't even sure would come to pass. While, yeah, the whole thing had thrown Riku for a loop, the concept of something that would happen seven years from now felt like a lifetime away to a little boy that hadn't even hit the double digits yet.

There was, of course, one thing Riku could not have predicted, because one cannot predict the unpredictable, and that was Sora's knack for causing sheer and utter chaos, as proof when Sora decided to loudly shout 'I got it!', before there was a sudden flash of light, and…

Suddenly, there were two teenagers in the room, one wearing a badass looking black and red body suit that clung to the guys muscles so much that it looked like a second skin, and the other has a blond teeanger wearing a mix of whites and black and so many zippers that Riku could not look at it and not take it as some sort of fashion statement.

Shadow, Riku recognized vaguely from all of those years ago when he'd visited the islands.

The other teenager, Riku knew, could only be Light. Shadow's face was concealed by that same helmet he'd had all those years ago, but Light's was on full display, and he took one look around before his face fell into an utterly tired expression.

Riku resisted the urge to say 'mood' out loud.

"Sora, why are we in your class?" Light asked, and Riku could tell the guy was trying to go for a patient tone, but it just came out more exasperated than anything else.

"'Cause I figured it out and didn't wanna wait, dummy." Sora told him bluntly before jumping at him. Light oomphed as Sora knocked him back down, little arms wrapping around him as Sora hugged him.

Shadow, on the other hand, took one look around, eyed the teacher who was looking at both him and Light with fright in her eyes, and then decided to be the utter asshole everyone knew him to be by cackling evilly while summoning dark hellfire in his hands.

A few kids screamed.

Riku, personally, really wanted to learn that hellfire trick already.

Light shot a look at the teacher while still holding onto Sora, who was happily nuzzling Light's chest because Sora.

"Er. I can explain?" Light attempted.

Miss Trepe responded by switching her gaze back to Shadow, who still had the hellfire in the palm of his hand, and fainting.

"Vanitas!" Light snapped, shooting an angry look towards Shadow.

Shadow sighed, letting the cackling flames die in his palm. Around them, several of their other classmates scrambled away in fear.

It wasn't every day that two grown teenagers just materialized out of thin air in the middle of class. Just as Riku was about to stand to admonish Shadow, because someone had to do it to restore a bit of order and Light doing it wouldn't really do much to help the scared kids around him, someone else beat him to it.

Shadow titled their head, looking down to the sight of Kairi kicking them insistently.

"... Little Sea, is there a point to you doing that?"

"Was there a point to you scaring Miss Trepe half to death?"

Shadow seemed to consider this for a moment. "I suppose not, but really, what do you expect me to do after being cooped up for so long?"

Before Kairi could respond, Tidus' voice interrupted them. "Who are you?"

Shadow craned his head in the direction of the other boy, who was… Holding a stick out defensively, despite the way his hand was trembling.

"That's my friend Shadow!" Sora supplied helpfully.

Selphie shot a look back and forth between Sora, Light, and Shadow, and let out a sigh. "There's never a boring day with you around, is there Sora?"

"Is this why Riku always looks so tired?" Wakka added in.

Several heads turned to stare at Riku. Riku stared at them right back.

"... Yeah, probably," Tidus said.

Shadow turned to look at the boy and Riku could practically see the squint through the helmet. "Are you sure your name isn't Shuyin?"

Tidus blinked.

Then, his eyes narrowed before widening in realization. Pointing a finger wildly at Shadow, Tidus exclaimed, "Wait a second! You're that weird personality Sora occasionally gets where his eyes change col- Oh wow, we've been stupid, his eyes have literally been changing colors on us, how did none of us notice that?"

Beside him, Ignis huffed, pushing up his glasses a bit.

"Speak for yourself," the older boy said. "I noticed immediately,"

"Yeah right!" Tidus laughed. "You're just pretending you did because you don't like that you got tricked with the rest of us!"

Ignis looked like he was resisting the urge to leap over his desk and attack Tidus. Tidus' laugh, oddly enough, seemed to have that type of effect on people.

"Can we please discuss the fact that Sora was apparently hiding two teenagers in - er. Where. Where was he hiding them, actually," Vaan turned his head to squint at Sora.

"In my he-"

"He wasn't hiding us at all," Light interrupted. "We're Sora's cousins on his dad's side and we can turn invisible because we know a few magic tricks and er- Sora's eyes change color like that sometimes because he has magic like us but hasn't learned to use it."

Riku raised an eyebrow. Using Sora's absent dad as a scapegoat? Well, considering Sora's dad would show up occasionally every couple of years and then vanish off the face of the world, it could work, but its not like their classmates were stupid.

Ignis leaned forward, resting his head on his palms, far calmer now that he had been at the beginning of the discussion. "Can you prove it?"

Light turned towards Shadow expectantly, who was currently engaged in a thumb's war with Kairi. Despite having much larger hands, the little girl was not only winning, she was basically slaughtering her opponent. If it was any teenager other than Shadow, Riku would assume they were letting her win. As it was Shadow, Riku assumed Kairi was just that good.

Wait...

Riku squinted. Despite clearly winning, Kairi was looking increasingly frustrated as the match went on.

... Vanitas was letting her win.

Shadow: I might go bad and slaughter you all against my will :(
Also Shadow: *Adamantly refuses to beat a little girl, even in something as simple as a thumb war*

Despite himself, Riku felt himself relax. It was such a silly thing, but it did make him feel better. Shadow was wrong: there was absolutely nothing to worry about. No matter what happened, there would never be a time where they'd have to fight each other to the death.

(Several years later in a potential future, Riku dodged blow after blow, resisting the urge to cry. He couldn't cry, because then he wouldn't be able to see properly, and a single moment would be all it would take for this twisted broken version of Vanitas to take his head off. Sora and Ventus had already made that mistake, and- No. He couldn't think about it. He just had to fight. Fight or die, because there was no running.)

"Ahem," Light said, causing Shadow to look up just as Kairi managed another victory.

"What is it, Venny? Can't you see I'm currently busy engaged in mortal combat with this heaven-spawn?"

" ... Do you think he meant to say hell spawn?" a voice whispered.

"I said what I said," Shadow snapped.

"Vani dear," Light practically sang. "Can you please take off that helmet of yours? Don't you know, it's rude to wear those indoors?"

Shadow huffed. Only Light could really get away with calling Shadow 'Vani!

"You know I don't like taking it off," Shadow whined. "My eyes are better than yours and you wouldn't believe how bright shit can be."

Light squinted at him. When he realized he clearly wasn't going to get another response, Light turned to Sora.

Riku knew exactly what was coming.

"Shadow?" Sora called, and Shadow, poor pitiful Shadow, turned his head.

Sora's pout hit him full force, making Shadow practically stagger under the weight of it.

Sora's pout was to be feared. Sora was not only cute, he damn well knew it and knew how to wield it too. Even a demonic entity created out of pure darkness was not immune, apparently, because Sora™.

Shadow let out a hiss, letting go of Kairi's hand. "Fine!" the self proclaimed demonic entity grumbled, lifting up his hands to reach out towards his helmet.

Why, Riku wasn't sure, but-

"WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE SORA?" Riku couldn't help but exclaim as the helmet melted at Shadow's touch, revealing a face that undeniably looked like an older version of his best friend, the only difference being that Vanitas' hair was darker and his eyes were molten gold.

Shadow turned and shot Riku an unimpressed look.

"I'm clearly older, so it's the other way around: Sora lucked out in the genetic lottery to look as amazing as me," Shadow declared, bringing his fingers to his lips before blowing out a kiss. "Perfection."

Riku was starting to understand why Light liked hitting Shadow.

"As you can see," Light spoke up, drawing attention back to himself. "Vanny-poo-"

Shadow let out a snarling noise that was ignored as Light carried on.

"-and Sora are clearly related. We're all cousins, and Van is my fraternal twin," Light lied.

"I'm technically your so-" Shadow began and Kairi, bless her, kicked him.

Light smiled widely, pretending Shadow hadn't said anything. "Any questions?"

It took only moments for the classroom to explode in chatters and demands and voices trying to shout over one another and Riku? Riku responded by letting out a tired sigh, folding his arms on top of his desk, and resting his head there.

"Wake me up when they calm the fuck down," the nine year old muttered, and willed himself to sleep.

As it turned out, Light lying and stating that he and Shadow were Sora's cousins who knew a little bit of magic, surprisingly, did actually work.

Magic was rare, but people did know about it, and despite his mad cackles, the second people saw Shadow looked like Sora beneath his helmet, they calmed down slightly because a) it was a familiar face and b) it was a familiar friendly face, because Sora really was a the kind of kid who liked running around all over town and helping little old ladies cross the street because Sora.