Aaaand I'm back and no later then I'd promised even! Actually, I think I'm updating this thing quite early. Eh hem. At any rate, I pour my heart and soul out to those of you who reviewed. Thank you so much, you guys really made my day! Special thanks to Aydee for the helpful comments. ^^ They were much appreciated, and yes, it is my first fic. I also got a question about what Ori stands for. The truth of the matter is... I really don't know. It just sounds fun. So you can make something up for it to stand for if you'd like. "Orlando Ravishes.. er... Iggy." Or even better, "Orange-Raping-Iguana." Yep. That's what I am. An O.r.i. *twitch*
In this chapter, as I mentioned earlier, you'll see strikes two and three of Riku's attempts at telling Sora (stupid stupid boy) how he feels. Rules of baseball, one, two three... I'm sure you all understand. -___- Or perhaps I just need more sleep. (The O.r.i.'s I made up are purely from it now being... 4:26 in the morning.)
Oh yes, and the ribbons begin to come in to play here. Pay close attention. It's one of the few plot elements I've got going for me. ...No, the ribbons are not for bondage. T__T Erg.
As always Kingdom Hearts and all its characters = not mine. Nonetheless, enjoy!
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Polka Dots and Ribbons - 'Strikes Two and Three'
The mutual competition never ceased between Sora and Riku. Once one thing was over, they moved onto another, and neither of them could make it through Sora's front door before initiating a vicious tickling match. Riku, of course, didn't exactly mind.
"Mo-om! Riku's trying to molest me!"
"I am not!"
Riku skidded to a halt in the living room, Sora slamming right into his friend before falling onto the floor with a loud 'thud'.
Sora's mother gave Riku a warm welcoming smile and blinked at her son, who had yet to pull himself off the living room floor and stop scaring her poor customer. "Sora, get up. Can't you see I'm working? And Riku is not trying to molest you." She opened her mouth to continue, then seemed to think better of it and closed it again.
Armed with scissors and hairspray, Sora's mother ran a small in-home hair salon, though since it was one of the only ones the small island town had to offer, and since Bryna wasn't all that bad when it came to styling hair, she made a rather decent income. Most of it, however, she friddled away on buying even more supplies for her business, such as random wheels of ribbons the younger girls got for free. Yes, Bryna was a sucker for any small girl who was admiring her new hair style in the mirror and who's face lit up when she was offered to select any kind of ribbon she wanted to put in her hair.
Sora found it all quite sickening to say the least, and generally tried to stay as far away from his mothers 'work room' as humanly possible.
Climbing to his feet, Sora mumbled and rubbed his hip from where it had greeted the thinly carpeted floor when he'd gone crashing down. "Hey mom, is there any--"
"If you're going to ask me if there's any food left over from lunch, which you missed, or dinner, which you also missed, then yes, it's in the fridge. Though I can hardly see why you'd want it anyway! Oh, Sora, where did I go wrong with you? Always out 'til who knows when, up to who knows what...?"
"Thanks mom, love ya."
"Yeah, yeah, Sora. Go ahead and worm your way out of trouble. You and Riku eat upstairs though, I've got some stuff all over the dining room table... Sorry, sweetie."
Opening the refrigerator door, Sora raised an eyebrow and glanced over into the dining room, just for the sake of curiosity. Sure enough, shopping bags were scattered across the large table, filled to the brim with the same old same old. Hair supplies. A shameful amount of hair supplies.
Deciding it would probably be best not to mention the economy's never ending dependence on his mother, Sora plucked two sandwiches and a pair of cold sodas from the inside of the door, juggling the load in his arms and closing the refrigerator door with his hip. Throughout the whole process, Sora never even noticed the small bemused smile on Riku's face and without a second thought promptly led the older boy upstairs to his room. Granted, Riku probably could have gotten there with his eyes shut and hands tied behind his back. It wasn't as though Riku hadn't spent nearly half his life over there anyway.
Shoving the door to his room open, Sora plopped down on his bed, happily opening the sandwich baggy and instantly tearing into its contents. Riku couldn't help but roll his eyes as he made himself comfortable across from Sora on the bed. Instantly, the voice in his mind leaped back into action.
Aha! The perfect chance! His mom'll probably be busy with customers for another hour or so and there's no one here but Sora and me... I can te--
"Sora, I need to..." But Riku's voice trailed off as he looked up at the blue eyed boy across him. Actually, Riku's voice could probably best be described best as trailing off into a small squeak.
One thing to understand about Sora is that when hungry, the boy will tear into food like there's no tomorrow, with generally little care for mannerisms. So it was that a small dollop of mayonnaise was innocently enough to be found ringing Sora's lips as he swallowed one of the last bites of his chicken salad sandwich.
Hm. Mayonnaise. White mayonnaise. ...Gyah! Damn my perverted mind!!
"Mm? What is it Riku?" Sora's pink tongue glided out between his lips, cleaning them of the mayonnaise for good. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly fix things for Riku's own mind...
"I... was saying.... I need to tell your mom what a great job she did on these...sandwiches." Riku struggled to pry his eyes away from Sora's mouth, desperately needing to focus on something else instead.
Sora blinked. "Riku, you sure you're feelin' okay? You've been acting... Don't. Move."
"...Huh?"
Another thing to understand about Sora is his low tolerance of spiders. Any other kind of bug was alright, but spiders just generally bothered the boy, for reasons only he could ever possibly explain.
So it was that Riku was only half startled by the entire situation. For starters, the boy wasn't at all surprise to shift his glance away from Sora, only to find a small spider dangling inches away from his face. He was however, slightly caught off guard as Sora lunged towards him, slapping the spider (whose life was quickly and painlessly over) between two hands. Had the younger boy not had good depth perception and a lot of luck, it probably would have been Riku's face slapped between Sora's two hands. As it was, Sora's depth perception and luck weren't enough to keep him from colliding with Riku and sending both of them toppling over the edge of the bed, landing in a heap on the floor.
Cough. "Errrk... Soraaaa..." Riku's voice was muffled, seeing as he'd definitely gotten the wind knocked out of him from that little trip to the floor. It wasn't exactly as though Sora's bed was close to the ground to begin with, but Sora's body itself was also draped over Riku's chest, making it rather difficult for him to breathe at all.
"Mm?" Sora shifted around on top of Riku, peering over at his face.
Gnawing his bottom lip to attempt to keep himself from doing anything stupid, Riku hesitated only a moment before shoving the spiky haired boy off him. Granted, at any other time, Riku would have died from happiness right on the spot... But not right after the whole mayonnaise incident.
Shifting from his previous position on Sora's floor, Riku rubbed his back irritably. "Jeeze, Sora, don't you ever clean this place? Oww... What the hell did I land on?"
A worn copy of Shakespeare's work, Romeo and Juliet, lay right where Riku had been moments ago. Riku shot his friend a grin and scooped the book up into his hands, flipping through the heavily worded pages. "Oooh, Sora? A Shakespeare fan? Why Sora, I never knew."
Sora narrowed his eyes and took on a pouty look again, reaching for the book, only to have Riku snatch it just out of his grasp. "Hey! I never said I had anything against him!"
"Yeah, I know, it just doesn't seem like you, is all."
Finally getting a hold on the book, Sora tugged it out of Riku's grasp and tossed it onto the surface of his bed. "Well then, maybe you don't know everything about me."
Woah, did Sora just say that? Or maybe I somehow fell unconscious when I got knocked off the bed... That seems more likely then Sora reading Shakespeare, really. And what does he mean, "You don't know everything about me...?"
A shimmer of hope filled Riku's eyes and he glanced up at Sora. Although he didn't quite feel lucky enough to shove his tongue down the younger boy's throat (surely then Sora would have to get the message), Riku could try once more...
"Rikuuuu! Your mom called! She wants you to watch over your little sister for a couple hours tonight and needs you back home," Bryna called up from the foot of the stairs.
Sora let out a long and aggravated sigh, looking over at Riku. "Maaan, can't your sister take care of herself yet?"
Riku smiled and ruffled Sora's hair on his way towards the boy's bedroom door. "Sora, come on, she's only six."
"Oh, right."
As he thanked Sora's mom for the food and stepped outside onto the darkening street, Riku grinned to himself. He wasn't exactly sure of how to take all the things Sora had just said in his room, but if Sora could read Shakespeare, there was a good chance that Riku may indeed not know everything about his best friend. Maybe Sora even...
Well, he hadn't gotten to ask Sora just yet. He hadn't even gotten to bring up the topic. But with renewed hope like that, Riku was willing to wait just a little longer for the opportune moment to come rolling around.
~~~
Sora muttered darkly as he trudged outside with a trash bag several hours later. His mom had probably cut one too many hairstyles that day and had fallen dead asleep on the couch downstairs. Naturally, Sora felt sorry for his mother and decided to clean up her work area for her that night. Okay, so it was more like it was Sora's job to take out the trash anyway. He just added a few things from Bryna's makeshift salon to save his mother the trouble of throwing them out the next morning. Glancing at his watch, Sora sleepily realized that 'the next morning' wasn't really more then twenty minutes away.
Splat.
Sora cursed and looked from his watch up towards the sky, realizing there wasn't a star in sight, all over them being covered with clouds. More thick raindrops began to fall around him as Sora jogged the rest of the way down to the curb frantically searching around for the trash can in the dark. Sora, or more appropriately, Sora's toe, found the side of the trash can (resulting in even more cursing), and the boy hurriedly tossed the bag inside just as the sky above him decided to give and let loose all of its summer rain.
Soaked. That was the only word possible to describe Sora. In two seconds, his entire body was totally drenched. The warm rain wouldn't have bothered Sora at all were it not for the fact that he was just tired and didn't feel like going to sleep soaking wet.
Sora yelped loudly as a hand suddenly descended on his shoulder, jumping a foot in the air and spinning around to face... Riku?
Riku was barely visible through the downpour now surrounding him, but the snicker following Sora's surprised outburst definitely flagged the person down as Riku. Wiping sopping wet bangs away from his eyes, Sora peered up at Riku, having to raise his voice to be heard above the falling rain.
"What are you doing here, Riku? Jeeze, you think you could at least give me some warning or some--" Sora went silent as he felt one of Riku's fingers pressed against his lips. Not only was Sora surprised by Riku's sudden yet gentle action, but he was also equally surprised by the way his brain reacted and his heart speeded up to feel like it was running overtime.
"I need to tell you something..."
There was a long moment of silence between both of them, Sora's mind racing, trying to figure out what on earth it was that Riku could possibly have to say that would be so important. The older boy had, after all, though it was so important that he had to come all the way to Sora's house not only in the dark, but in the pouring rain as well.
"I've sorta been trying to tell you all day... Even weeks before now. Heh, practically an entire two months, really. You were always around someone else, like Selphie, Kairi, or Tidus... Either that or whenever I did get you alone, something would happen and it'd just... well, it'd ruin the moment. Honestly Sora, I've been dropping as many stupid hints as I can, but you probably don't get it, huh?" There was a tinge of sadness to Riku's voice that Sora did however pick up. What could possibly be wrong?
"I don't know if you could ever really think the same way, or even feel the same way... But..." Sora heard Riku gulp, even over the dull roar of the rain hitting the ground around them.
And suddenly Riku's mind went into a state of absolute panic.
What am I doing here? It's nearly midnight, Sora's already scared out of his mind because I surprised him so much by even showing up... He's completely lost and confused and doesn't even have the slightest idea what I'm talking about! Hell, even I don't know what I'm saying anymore!
"I... well..."
"What is it, Riku?" Sora asked, looking pleadingly up at his friend.
Oh hell.
"Well, ah... you like me, right Sora?"
This brought a small laugh from Sora before he got around to answering. "Of course I like you Riku, you dork."
"Well I... um... I don't like you..."
Sora's eyes widened and he almost felt like screaming. Surely Riku wasn't mad about the whole water balloon thing?? Sora had even told Selphie and Tidus that Riku seemed kinda hurt the last time they'd used Sora as bait to bombard their older friend with water balloons, but they didn't listen! And now it looked like Riku hated Sora!
"I sort of... more then like you..." Sora could hardly hear Riku over the rain now, but he still managed to hear that. Eyes widened, Sora also definitely felt Riku's arm encircle his waist, pulling him closer to the older boy. After getting no verbal response from Sora, Riku assumed the stupid little boy still didn't get it, so he gritted his teeth and winced before making another effort and declaring his feelings.
"...I love you, Sora."
That did it. There was no way Sora could not understand now. But understanding was the entire problem, wasn't it? What if Riku had completely misread Sora, and his best friend was simply disgusted with his feelings, not understanding Riku at all? That thought alone was enough to again plunge Riku's mind into icy panic, though his body dimly realized that Sora was not only an ideal height for kissing (his lips weren't very far from his own, really), but the boy was also very warm and, well, comfortable. Unlike the day's earlier events of having Sora landing on top of him from the fall off the bed.
Sora jerked his head up to look into Riku's face, completely at a loss for what to say. Could what Riku be saying really be true? But that would mean... Riku would be...
Letting out a small gasp, Sora jerked away from Riku in surprise at the realization. Riku was gay? And what's more, Riku loved Sora? But why?
Riku's eyes froze over, his heart feeling like it had just been ground to powder. That was it, Riku had totally messed everything up. Obviously Sora didn't harbor any of those kinds of feelings towards Riku like he had been hoping for... Like he had dreamed of for so long. And now everything just... hurt.
How could I have been so stupid?
Sora stepped away from his friend, still not breaking eye contact with him. But Riku ended that abruptly.
"You're--" But Riku didn't let Sora finish.
"I'm sorry, Sora. I'm sorry."
Sora heard Riku turn around quickly on the asphalt, his sneakers sliding over the already wet surface with ease. Riku wanted to go anywhere, get anywhere, just to be away from Sora. Sora, who he'd just told everything to, hoping he would feel the same way, if not at least understand him. But it looked like Sora could do neither.
Standing out in the pouring rain, Sora was dimly aware of the fact that it was probably well past midnight by now. Sleep, confusion, and painful sadness at what had just happened had all came falling down on Sora in the blink of an eye. And much like the rain, Sora couldn't protect himself from it all and soon found himself practically drowning in his own thoughts.
Turning on his heel, Sora sprinted back into his house, nearly slamming the door behind him on his way in before he noticed his mother still fast asleep on the couch. Bryna! What would she say about everything that had happened? Sora could hardly even manage to keep himself in check, so naturally he didn't have the slightest clue how his mom would react if he told her what had happened, nor was he eager to find out. Closing the door behind him, Sora made his way up the stairs and into his room, mindlessly sitting on the edge of his bed.
What was he going to do?
Mm... Riku.
Sora opened his eyes and looked around. He'd been dozing on the beach again, but he could have sworn he'd heard Riku's voice just a moment ago. But looking around, all Sora saw was the same old sight. The pure white sand, sparkling clear water... But no Riku. Usually his friend found him here eventually, but judging by the way the sun was hanging so low in the sky, something must have come up.
Wait!
Turning back to look at the shore more closely, Sora realized that Riku was right there, standing out in the water.
Sora leapt up from his relaxed position in the sand and ran towards the water's edge, wading in up to his waist before he finally reached Riku. His friend had turned around upon hearing his approach and now had a sad smile on his face.
"Do you hate me, Sora?"
Sora shook his head violently, brown spikes waving everywhere. "No! I could never hate you, Riku? Why would you think that?"
"You don't love me though..."
Sora opened his mouth, but couldn't find the words to say. What did he feel for Riku? Even Sora was completely at a loss.
But looking back up at Riku, Sora instantly remembered everything about his best friend. His best friend who, for the first time in his life, was really showing that kind of strong emotion to anyone.
The same Riku who had always stuck up for Sora when they were so much younger. The Riku who was always joking around with him, always messing up his hair... If anyone else ever ruffled his hair like that, Sora would go ballistic, but for some reason it was okay when Riku did it.
Riku... who was always looking at Sora differently, though Sora had never really been able to explain it before.
So what did he feel for Riku?
Kairi and Sora, sitting up in the tree house when they'd only been ten years old.. The memory suddenly flittered back into Sora's mind..
"Hey, Sora, aren't you going to kiss me?"
"Hehe, no, of course not."
"What? How come?"
"...I dunno. It'd just feel weird."
Why would it have felt weird? Because he knew Riku? He'd always admired him but...
"Sora, what the hell were you doing last night?"
Sora's eyes shot open, only to find his mother standing over him, hands on her hips, glaring down at her son.
"You're going to get sick as hell wearing those clothes!" She paused, then smiled softly and added as an afterthought, "But thanks for cleaning up downstairs, you really helped me out." Again, switching gears, "But get out of those clothes right now! Honestly Sora... And take a hot shower while you're at it. I wouldn't be surprised if you got pneumonia from sleeping in those clothes."
Sleeping? Glancing over at the clock on his bedside table, Sora winced. 8:17. Yep. Sleeping.
So his dream... Everything had happened last night, though Sora found himself desperately wishing it hadn't. How was he supposed to tell Riku about his dream? About why he hadn't kissed Kairi so long ago? Riku probably wouldn't even speak to him, let alone understand...
Glaring at the ceiling, Sora let out a disgruntled sigh. He had to find some way to get Riku to understand.
Why hadn't he had this dream the night before?
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Okay, sort of an odd place to leave off, but I promise I'll get the next chapter done later today. It, being Christmas Eve and all, will probably drag itself out forever, so it's not like I'll have much else to do. ^^;;
Quick note before I beg for reviews... Actually, a couple. First of all, I named Sora's mom after some random girl I knew in second grade (She moved to Florida. Quite tragic, really.) thus the name 'Bryna' doesn't sound at all Japanese. Not the slightest. I only named the character that because I couldn't think of anything else. -__-
Second note is about the whole Shakespeare thing. That was totally necessary and I wasn't just being random, I swear! Ehhh... maybe I'm pushing myself too hard for my first fanfic. *ponders* Oh well!
And the last note is just a little bit of randomness. While writing this story, I fell asleep on my laptop (thankfully, I didn't drool on the poor thing) and had this crazy dream. It'll probably evolve into a huge story later on, but... Not for a long, long time. I'm still totally foreign to ff.net and I really want to wait for Connie or Becca to return from vacation to (hopefully) beta whatever I write next.
In the meantime, consider this your holiday present from me! Eh-whoo. o_o
And your holiday present to me can be a nice juicy review! ...But of course I'm not demanding or anything... _ Only if you want to, ya know.
~Ori