Finally. Sorry I didn't update as soon as expected! I especially feel guilty because of all the super nice reviews!!! Seriously, you guys are the best! o.O I never thought so many people would actually read this thing... But I've come up with a way to thank you readers/reviewers! Too bad you'll just have to wait 'til the end of this story for it. ^^;; It really shouldn't be more then a few days until it's all wrapped up anyway, so not too long to wait.
So here's Sora's shining moment! ....Moments. Practically the entire chapter revolves around him. Longer note at the bottom explaining the oddness of this chapter. XP
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Polka Dots and Ribbons - Chapter Three
'Wave the White Flag'
"Riku, you're not listening to me!" Sora pleaded desperately as he jogged after his friend.
"Really Sora, what is there to talk about?" Unlike Sora, Riku's voice was completely calm and controlled and it was this fact which probably disturbed Sora the most.
The resolve Sora had marched out of the house with that morning was quickly crumbling away to dust as he continued to badger his friend. At least, Sora prayed Riku was still his friend. If he'd lost that friendship, he'd lost everything with Riku, and Sora wouldn't ever be able to forgive himself for that. He was having a hard enough time trying to force his voice into the words that would tell Riku...
Wow, this really is hard to do... Sora winced as he realized this, yet another layer of guilt falling over him.
Finally, Riku squeezed his eyes shut tightly before turning around to face Sora.
"Sora. Please. Can't you just leave me alone? Please?" Riku's voice couldn't cover up his own exhaustion and sadness. His eyes betrayed everything to Sora, though Sora himself wished they didn't. He'd be going on a major guilt trip for weeks all because of last night. ...That morning... However time was figured.
So Sora gave up. Hands in his pockets, he trudged dejectedly back to his house, closing the door behind him with a nearly inaudible 'click.'
As most mothers do, however, Bryna instantly detected her son was home and, having no current customers, happily went to greet him. He'd disappeared with a hurried goodbye that morning, so she naturally wanted to snoop around and see what had been so important that Sora would run off like that.
"Hey there, honey! I-- Aw, baby what's wrong?"
Sora hated that. But the situation being as it was, his mother calling him 'baby' was definitely not such a big deal. He was wordlessly dragged into the dining room, the back of his mind sighing halfheartedly as Bryna flipped the 'Open' sign on the front door to 'Closed' and ushered her son into a chair. She promptly began bustling about the kitchen, the clinking noise of glassware being the only thing he heard for a moment. Then Bryna gently slid a mug full of steaming liquid in front of Sora and sat down across from him at the table, her own mug in her hands.
"It's vanilla maple. I know it's your favorite."
"...Thanks, Mom."
Silence. Bryna took a long sip from her mug. Sora stared blankly at his, now feeling guilty for his mother's efforts to make the tea, when he really didn't feel like drinking it. I don't deserve it anyway.
"...So, you wanna tell me what's wrong?"
"..." Sora bit down on his lip, suddenly very interested in the rim of his mug.
"Come on, Sora..."
Three mugs of tea later, Sora's mother stared at her son in absolute astonishment. By no means was she horrified at Sora's feelings towards Riku, it didn't really surprise her in the first place, but it was how Sora had reacted when Riku had come to talk to him last night. And, although she'd never admit it to Sora, she didn't have the slightest clue what to do.
"So what should I do?"
Hm. She'd known that question was coming.
"...I don't know. I don't think I can answer it for you. What do you feel like doing?" Granted, that advice hadn't come out exactly the way she'd wanted it to, but what better advice could a single forty year old mother give in that kind of situation?
Sora grinned for a second, a flash of his normal self resurfacing. "I feel like shoving the boy against a wall and kissing him the life out of him."
Bryna blinked. "Thaaat was information I probably could've lived without." Smiling, Bryna nodded once at her son. "Well, I think you should do whatever you think it'll take to get Riku back. ...Not the wall thing. But..."
"But?"
"Riku's a proud kid, Sora. It took major guts to do what he did and you didn't even acknowledge his feelings for you. He probably isn't going to listen to whatever you have to say and I don't think he's one to forgive and forget easily." She took a last sip from the mug cradled in her hands before getting up from her chair. "You scarred his self image pretty badly, you know."
Taking Sora's empty mug from him, she walked out to the kitchen with them in her arms, speaking over her shoulder. "But then again, I'm old! What do I know anyway?"
By the time Bryna had rinsed out the mugs and returned to the dining room, Sora was nowhere in sight. Leaning against the wall, she grinned broadly.
"Go get him, Sora."
~~~
Sora rocked back and forth anxiously on his heels outside of Kairi's house. No doubt she was blaring some pop music or something in her room. Her parents would probably have a hell of a time trying to get in contact with their daughter. He had absolutely no intention of telling Kairi what had happened between Riku and him. It wasn't that the three of them weren't close enough friends. It was simply that Kairi was more then likely to blab something about it to Selphie and once Selphie knew... well, everyone knew. Sora just wasn't sure if he wanted word to get around about it before he was ready. And he definitely wasn't ready.
"Hey, Sora! What's up?" The perky teenage girl bounded down her front steps, coming to a halt in front of Sora.
"Kairi! Okay, I have a huge favor to ask you..."
"...Okay, Sora, already I'm starting to freak out. What is it you want?" Kairi raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips, looking up at Sora.
Okay, possibly not the best way to ask for help...
"I just need you to get everyone you know and have them go over to Riku's house tonight at... um... ten. Yeah. Selphie, Tidus, Wakka, everyone we know needs to be there! Oh, and I also need a ladder. You have a ladder, right? I think your dad used one when he built that tree house a while ago... Oh yeah, origami paper! Need that too! And Christmas lights. Do you have any Christmas ligh--"
"Sora!"
"What?"
Kairi gaped at him, her eyes wide. "What on earth are you planning on doing?? It'd better not be another one of those, 'Let's have a co-ed sleepover at Riku's house while his parents are away' ideas, because my parents were totally furious about that."
Sora shook his head, spiky brown hair waving wildly back and forth. "Nonono! It's not like that... Please, Kairi, I just really need a ladder. If you don't have origami paper, well, that's okay... Just the ladder? Please?" Puppy eye mode: activated.
Never being one who could resist one of Sora's pleading looks, Kairi sighed, shaking her head.
"Well I dunno what you're planning Sora, but... Okay. The ladder's just around back. I'll start getting in touch with people about meeting up at Riku's house. Just don't do anything stupid, okay?"
Sora was already headed towards Kairi's back yard. Looking over his shoulder at his friend, he grinned and waved one hand dismissively. "Stupid? Who ever said I was planning something stupid?"
~~~
So... tired... It wasn't exactly easy walking through town carrying a ladder three times his size, and Sora was also frantically looking around for any sign of Riku. He didn't want to older boy to get at all suspicious, just in case Riku decided he would flat out refuse to see Sora like he planned, in which case all of Sora's efforts would be in vain.
During the walk back to his house, Sora had been mulling over what he was going to do now that he no longer had access to either Christmas lights or origami paper. Granted, he'd known his entire plan was a little far fetched, but it would be worth it. Sora could only hope that it would at least get him one step closer to making things up to Riku. Or making out with Riku. Abandoning the more... 'easily sidetracked' portion of his brain for the moment, Sora turned to walk up towards his house, finally setting the ladder up against the side of the small building, sighing with relief.
Tearing into the house, Sora cursed vividly in his head. He still needed to take a shower and finish his preparations as well as make it across town to Riku's house before nine. He wanted to be there far before anyone else showed up so he would have enough time to get everything ready before people began gathering. Bryna had said that it would probably take Riku a long time to forgive Sora, if he even forgave him at all. No doubt that evening would be... well, it was certainly going to be something to remember.
But if it can give Riku back to me, it's worth it.
"Mom, I was wondering if I could have... ah... some ribbon."
Bryna blinked up at him, pulling herself away from her current customer's hair for the moment.
"Umm, Sora, I thought you hated those stupid things."
"I do! I mean, ya know, I did. There's nothing wrong with them."
Bryna smirked, giving a quick apology to the man in the chair in front of her, moving over to her vast collection of ribbon spools. "Okay, Hun, how much do you need?"
Trying to act innocent, Sora looked around the room. "Erm... An entire... you know... A whole package of it?"
"...You want an entire spool of ribbon."
"Yes?"
"...I'm not even gonna ask." Sighing, Bryna rifled through the selection before coming to the most simple and yet most 'interesting' ribbon she owned. She snickered as she pulled out the roll of ribbon and placed it in her son's waiting hands.
Dark blue. With white polka-dots. It was, without a doubt, the most tacky looking ribbon Sora had ever set eyes on. But at the same time, he whole heartedly believed that it was absolutely perfect.
"It's great Mom, thanks," Sora said with a grin before darting upstairs, leaving Bryna to finish her hair cut in peace as well as leaving her to ponder what exactly it was that her son was planning.
An later, Sora was out of his shower and frantically running around his room looking for an apparently missing blue tank top. As it was, he was wandering around his room in a pair of black shorts, completely and utterly shirtless, and he didn't exactly have the time to go through a more thorough search of his room for the missing garment. Thankfully, Sora let out a delighted squeal as he pounced upon the blue fabric sticking out from under his bed. The poor thing had probably fallen under there shortly after Bryna had placed a clean load of laundry on his bed.
Tugging the tank top over his head, Sora sifted through masses of other clothes strewn across his bed to find the ribbon his mother had given him earlier. Next to the spool of ribbons was an old box Sora had managed to dig out of the garage labeled 'paupu' in large bold letters.
When Sora had found the box, he'd been nearly unable to contain a dance of joy. What were the chances that his mother had once upon a time collected paupu trinkets as a hobby and just happened to have an entire box of the old things lying around in the garage? ...Not very good chances, but somehow Sora had managed to get his hands on them anyway! Who needed paper cranes when Sora could have paupu ornaments? It wasn't exactly like Sora was gifted when it came to paper folding anyway.
Stowing the spool of ribbon in the box and tucking said box under his arm, Sora hopped down the stairs two at a time, nearly tripping himself up on the last few steps, but nonetheless landing upright when he hit the bottom. Checking the clock in the hallway, Sora smiled. It was only 8:10, giving him plenty of time to make the twenty minute hike up to Riku's house. Looking over into the living room, he wasn't at all surprised to find his mother lying asleep on the couch. Or at least, he'd thought she was asleep.
Reaching for the handle on the front door, Sora heard his mom speak, able to tell she was smiling even though he couldn't see her face.
"Good luck, Sora."
"Wha??" Sora blinked back over at the couch in surprise.
"I said good luck, you dummy."
"O-oh. Thanks... Thanks, Mom. Really."
"Anytime. Just turn the light off on your way out or I'll stop letting you use my girly shampoo."
"What?!" How had his mother been able to know he'd been using the cucumber melon shampoo for the past three months? Well... Alright, so the untouched bottle of his own shampoo might have been a good hint. It wasn't Sora's fault he liked the smell of the other shampoo.
Muttering to himself as he turned the light off in the living room and headed out the door, Sora wondered what kind of shampoo Riku used. Whoa. Better back up. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Sora walked around to the side of the house and blinked at the ladder before letting out a loud sigh. Walking this thing to Riku's was going to be just so much fun.
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Whoo! Okay, this is officially a really bad chapter. -__- I just thought I needed to go and point out everything it was that Sora did so that when I made the jump from point A to point B, I wouldn't get so many weird looks. Oh well, looks like this chapter only managed to raise more questions. I myself am still wondering what exactly Sora is planning on doing with the ribbon, and I'm the writer! ...Just kidding. Haha. Yes.
So I know this chapter seemed rushed and jumpy, but I sort of wanted the jumpy part. It's supposed to start making you wonder what the hell Sora's up to, but I don't know if it really worked out. But to make up for the icky way this chapter was written, I decided not to leave everyone confused and just write out the next chapter and post them at the same time! Yaaay. The next chapter is much, much better. And pulls everything together. Finally.
~Ori