Title: Pieces that Fall into Place: Chapter Five
Author: Maho Kiwi
Rating: R
Pairing: Riku x Sora (yes, it keeps toggling back and forth between Riku x Sora and Sora x Riku)
Disclaimer: Disney and Square own all the Kingdom Hearts things. Except my personal copy of the game, my cheat book, and the two-disc soundtrack. However, as these companies always make very clear, that does not entitle me to anything.
A/N: New chapter! Hmm ... the plot has taken another odd turn, how? Why? I'm not telling it to do that. And I'm sure that everyone noticed that, in the last chapter, Sora spoke in thirds a lot. ("How, how, how?" "Why, why, why?" "Stupid, stupid, stupid") I'll try and keep a tighter lid on that this time. The last chapter also tended to ramble. My thoughts were scattered. Must think coherent thoughts. Warning: Last chapter, smut, this chapter; angst. Just a bit, though. I'll get back to the smut in a minute.
***
"Enjoy your shower?"
" ... yes. Very much."
"..."
"Um, can I ask why you came back in?"
another beat of silence.
"I heard the water shut off and I came to hurry you up. It's very boring out there."
"mmm." I shifted a bit in his arms. It seems I had whirled with more energy than I had thought, and Riku, being in mid-step, was ill-prepared to receive me, the result being that we both crashed to the floor, tangled up in each other.
We had been laying on the floor now for some time, for some unexplained reason neither of us felt compelled to move. I suppose after the first minute of the embrace, moving would mean we would have to acknowledge it, and neither of us felt equipped to do so. Now, ten minutes later, this freak accident had really become something of a problem, we couldn't pretend that a loss of balance had caused us to snuggle together for such a long time, but what could we possibly say? He was afraid to tell me and I didn't return the feeling, right? So what was there to say to each other?
His question had broken a rather long silence, which had since returned. I sighed softly, resting my head on his shoulder. For a while I had tried to keep my head up, so I wouldn't look like I was snuggling, but that was before my neck got really stiff and started to ache. This was humiliating, but in a way, comforting as well. The tension that had been building since breakfast was gone now, and I was glad. My antics did happen to make the air around this place rather hostile, and it was nice to sit in comfortable silence for a while. Of course, it would feel more friendly and less like a relationship if he hadn't wrapped his arms around my waist.
As I lay there I thought back on the last two days. This morning had dragged on, and it was because of my game. I was causing the hostility, the uncomfortable presence, the tension. Me, me, me. And just two days ago I had been majorly freaked out by the prospect that my childhood friend might consider me anything more.
"Riku?" Oh well, this had to end eventually.
"Mmm..?"
"Can we get up?" Why did I sound so sad? Was I enjoying this? Maybe just a little. I hadn't gotten much sleep, remember, and he was warm and comfy. There was a beat of silence as he considered my proposal.
"Gee, I don't care, Sora. You /are/ the one on top, after all." he mocked. I felt my face flush. Oh /God/. Had he been waiting for me to get up off him? Was this whole snuggling thing my fault? I sat up.
"You could have asked me to get up." My voice sounded a little colder than I had intended, but my pride had, once again, been hurt. And my pride bites when injured. He smiled in a very self-indulgent way and I mentally slapped myself. He /knew/! He had to! He knew I was playing him and he had started to play back. And I had played directly into it! He was winning my game! Damn him! He ran his hands up and brushed a lock of hair behind my ear.
"I didn't mind" I jerked back, still angry, and got off him. I heard him sigh.
"Listen, Sora ..." No! I was not going to let this end this way! I was /not/ going to lose.
"Well, sorry, anyway. I was afraid of the monsters hiding under the shower mat." I grinned at him and pulled him to his feet. I was rewarded with a light chuckle. I turned and started towards the bathroom door. Okay, good, still a manageable situation, I could still-what the Hell was he doing?!
He had come up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist again. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe ... " he breathed into my ear, gently nipping at the lobe. I shuddered, that felt really ... I pulled away very abruptly, turning to face him, looking (I'm sure) very alarmed.
"Riku ..." he was staring at me with an expression of complete shock written on his face, his arms still out in front of him. I blinked. He ... didn't. He didn't know. About the game, that was. He thought I was ... that I had been ... and now. Oh craptacular.
"Ri-Riku, um ... I-"
"Forget it." He stormed past me, and I moaned, tilting my head back. How was I going to deal with this? Riku had (correctly) thought I was flirting with him, and had assumed (incorrectly) that I was interested. If the situation had been tense this morning, I was sure that it would be increased tenfold now. I trudged out of the bathroom just in time to see Riku return from downstairs, holding my jacket out to me.
"C'mon" he pulled his own jacket on and started down the hall towards the stairs.
"Where are we going?" I hurried to catch up to him, jacket hanging loosely off my arms.
"Kairi's"
***
The next half hour stands out in my mind as one of the most awkward I have ever lived through. We spent the entire time sitting in Kairi's living room, drinking hot cocoa (which she had thoughtfully made us) talking about nothing at all, much to Kairi's confusion, ("hi guys, what's up?" "Nothing. Can we come in?" "Uh, sure, Riku. Sooo..."). What made this half an hour so humiliating though, was that Riku was flirting madly, every ten seconds he'd reach out and touch her arm, stroke her hair, smile this odd, flirtatious smile. I was embarrassed, not for myself, but for him; he was making a fool of himself, and for her; she had no idea what had brought on this sudden storm of Riku-attention. Soon, though, it became obvious that none of us had anything left to say (not that we had really had anything to say in the first place) and that Kairi was silently willing us to leave. I think she felt as awkward as I did. So we bid her goodbye, Riku giving her a rather long and affectionate hug, which prompted a brief and humiliating hug from me, then we were off, back to Riku's house, or wherever.
"Sooo ... " I started, intending to quiz him about this sudden attraction to Kairi
"Yes?" His answer was quick, challenging.
" ... Where are we going?" I changed my mind. I would just leave it alone. If he wanted to overcompensate and confuse the Hell out of Kairi, well, that was fine with me. Stupid-head.
He slowed a bit.
"Uh ... " he scowled.
Oh, good. Something had to change here. I had a possible six days of the business end of a hissy fit facing me, which did not sound appealing at all. Some sort of apology, or otherwise conciliatory action was in order. I looked around, we had wandered into the shopping district of town. I had an idea.
"Okay then, come with me" I grabbed his hand and tugged him along behind me. I could feel him resisting, and I couldn't blame him for being mad at me. I had been a total tease this morning, and had completely humiliated him in the bathroom. But my plan had changed. The same thing that probably made my flirting annoying could be my saving grace here. I would use my obliviousness, my power to be a complete ditz, to my advantage. I would ignore our bathroom incident and treat it like it never happened, saving both Riku and myself.
About five minutes later we had reached my favorite place in town: the ice cream store. Okay, so it wasn't really my favorite place anymore, but had been when I was small, so I could still call it that. I dragged the still- unwilling Riku in after me.
"Sora, it's freezing out, why would you want ice cream?" I cursed myself. Oh, right. Be cool, be cool ...
"Riku, have you even known me to not want ice cream?" Ooo ... good recovery. I gave myself a mental high-five. There was a deep silence from his half of our little parade. Then:
"Sora?" Yes, my moody little buttercup?
"Yes?"
"You're a complete dork. You know that, right?" Yes, but that's why you love me, right?
"Yes, but that's why you love me, right?" he regarded me with a very cold look. Oh, right. I shouldn't have said that last part. We were all pretending that Riku loved Kairi. Right. My mistake.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot, you love Kairi now." What the Hell was /I/ doing?! Trying to piss him off? Why couldn't I keep my mouth from saying these things?
He blinked at me, then pulled me forward by our still-joined hands to the counter.
"Were you going to order something, or not?" I blinked, a little dazed, and placed my order.
"Did ... you want something?"
"No."
"You sure?" he looked at me.
"What is with you? Fine." he turned to the lady at the counter "Chocolate." back to look at me "Are we happy now?" Ohhh he was angry alright, and starting to annoy me. He was definitely Raining on Our Parade.
Our ice cream came and he dug his wallet out of his pocket. Hoping that I wouldn't lose my arm in the gesture, I put my hand on his and handed the counter lady the appropriate amount. He regarded me with another one of those angry/confused looks I had been getting about every three minutes for the last hour.
"You're paying for mine? What, are we on a date or something?" he sneered in my general direction.
"Maybe."
I could see him reeling. Mentally I was doing the same. What was this? Was I really that cruel? Couldn't I just be happy with how much I had humiliated him already? Did I have to keep building him up to tear him down?
'Oh, but look how sweet your victory is going to be' my Shoulder Devil hissed into my ear. I seriously doubted that at this point anything about this situation could be sweet. Except my ice cream. I licked at it distractedly, watching my poor tormented friend. He glanced over at me, and got a very pained look in his eyes. What? What now? I took a moment to survey myself. Oh. Oh ... /oh/. The Damn Ice Cream. I had been licking it. But, I supposed, not in the innocent way one normally licks ice cream. I would have glared at my Shoulder Devil if I could. How did he control me without my knowledge?
"Can we go home now?" Riku pleaded quietly, he sounded completely defeated, broken, and I was sad.
Riku ... I never meant ...
Oh /Hell/. Yes, I had.
Well ... no point in stopping now ... this was what I wanted, wasn't it? I knew it would hurt him. That was the point. It was all in fun. That's right, just a bit of competitive fun.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.
"Sure. Let's go home." For once, I would be the winner.
Then why did I feel like such a loser?
***
Do you know that, in total, my story is about 30 pages now? That's crazy. I've never written that much in my life. I have now been doing this writing thing for approximately six hours, and I think the family is about to watch Fellowship of the Rings, so maybe I'll join them. Perhaps I will get another chapter banged out tonight and make you all very happy. What do you think? The story has veered completely out of my control, so I deny responsibility for odd/crappy chapters.
Author: Maho Kiwi
Rating: R
Pairing: Riku x Sora (yes, it keeps toggling back and forth between Riku x Sora and Sora x Riku)
Disclaimer: Disney and Square own all the Kingdom Hearts things. Except my personal copy of the game, my cheat book, and the two-disc soundtrack. However, as these companies always make very clear, that does not entitle me to anything.
A/N: New chapter! Hmm ... the plot has taken another odd turn, how? Why? I'm not telling it to do that. And I'm sure that everyone noticed that, in the last chapter, Sora spoke in thirds a lot. ("How, how, how?" "Why, why, why?" "Stupid, stupid, stupid") I'll try and keep a tighter lid on that this time. The last chapter also tended to ramble. My thoughts were scattered. Must think coherent thoughts. Warning: Last chapter, smut, this chapter; angst. Just a bit, though. I'll get back to the smut in a minute.
***
"Enjoy your shower?"
" ... yes. Very much."
"..."
"Um, can I ask why you came back in?"
another beat of silence.
"I heard the water shut off and I came to hurry you up. It's very boring out there."
"mmm." I shifted a bit in his arms. It seems I had whirled with more energy than I had thought, and Riku, being in mid-step, was ill-prepared to receive me, the result being that we both crashed to the floor, tangled up in each other.
We had been laying on the floor now for some time, for some unexplained reason neither of us felt compelled to move. I suppose after the first minute of the embrace, moving would mean we would have to acknowledge it, and neither of us felt equipped to do so. Now, ten minutes later, this freak accident had really become something of a problem, we couldn't pretend that a loss of balance had caused us to snuggle together for such a long time, but what could we possibly say? He was afraid to tell me and I didn't return the feeling, right? So what was there to say to each other?
His question had broken a rather long silence, which had since returned. I sighed softly, resting my head on his shoulder. For a while I had tried to keep my head up, so I wouldn't look like I was snuggling, but that was before my neck got really stiff and started to ache. This was humiliating, but in a way, comforting as well. The tension that had been building since breakfast was gone now, and I was glad. My antics did happen to make the air around this place rather hostile, and it was nice to sit in comfortable silence for a while. Of course, it would feel more friendly and less like a relationship if he hadn't wrapped his arms around my waist.
As I lay there I thought back on the last two days. This morning had dragged on, and it was because of my game. I was causing the hostility, the uncomfortable presence, the tension. Me, me, me. And just two days ago I had been majorly freaked out by the prospect that my childhood friend might consider me anything more.
"Riku?" Oh well, this had to end eventually.
"Mmm..?"
"Can we get up?" Why did I sound so sad? Was I enjoying this? Maybe just a little. I hadn't gotten much sleep, remember, and he was warm and comfy. There was a beat of silence as he considered my proposal.
"Gee, I don't care, Sora. You /are/ the one on top, after all." he mocked. I felt my face flush. Oh /God/. Had he been waiting for me to get up off him? Was this whole snuggling thing my fault? I sat up.
"You could have asked me to get up." My voice sounded a little colder than I had intended, but my pride had, once again, been hurt. And my pride bites when injured. He smiled in a very self-indulgent way and I mentally slapped myself. He /knew/! He had to! He knew I was playing him and he had started to play back. And I had played directly into it! He was winning my game! Damn him! He ran his hands up and brushed a lock of hair behind my ear.
"I didn't mind" I jerked back, still angry, and got off him. I heard him sigh.
"Listen, Sora ..." No! I was not going to let this end this way! I was /not/ going to lose.
"Well, sorry, anyway. I was afraid of the monsters hiding under the shower mat." I grinned at him and pulled him to his feet. I was rewarded with a light chuckle. I turned and started towards the bathroom door. Okay, good, still a manageable situation, I could still-what the Hell was he doing?!
He had come up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist again. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe ... " he breathed into my ear, gently nipping at the lobe. I shuddered, that felt really ... I pulled away very abruptly, turning to face him, looking (I'm sure) very alarmed.
"Riku ..." he was staring at me with an expression of complete shock written on his face, his arms still out in front of him. I blinked. He ... didn't. He didn't know. About the game, that was. He thought I was ... that I had been ... and now. Oh craptacular.
"Ri-Riku, um ... I-"
"Forget it." He stormed past me, and I moaned, tilting my head back. How was I going to deal with this? Riku had (correctly) thought I was flirting with him, and had assumed (incorrectly) that I was interested. If the situation had been tense this morning, I was sure that it would be increased tenfold now. I trudged out of the bathroom just in time to see Riku return from downstairs, holding my jacket out to me.
"C'mon" he pulled his own jacket on and started down the hall towards the stairs.
"Where are we going?" I hurried to catch up to him, jacket hanging loosely off my arms.
"Kairi's"
***
The next half hour stands out in my mind as one of the most awkward I have ever lived through. We spent the entire time sitting in Kairi's living room, drinking hot cocoa (which she had thoughtfully made us) talking about nothing at all, much to Kairi's confusion, ("hi guys, what's up?" "Nothing. Can we come in?" "Uh, sure, Riku. Sooo..."). What made this half an hour so humiliating though, was that Riku was flirting madly, every ten seconds he'd reach out and touch her arm, stroke her hair, smile this odd, flirtatious smile. I was embarrassed, not for myself, but for him; he was making a fool of himself, and for her; she had no idea what had brought on this sudden storm of Riku-attention. Soon, though, it became obvious that none of us had anything left to say (not that we had really had anything to say in the first place) and that Kairi was silently willing us to leave. I think she felt as awkward as I did. So we bid her goodbye, Riku giving her a rather long and affectionate hug, which prompted a brief and humiliating hug from me, then we were off, back to Riku's house, or wherever.
"Sooo ... " I started, intending to quiz him about this sudden attraction to Kairi
"Yes?" His answer was quick, challenging.
" ... Where are we going?" I changed my mind. I would just leave it alone. If he wanted to overcompensate and confuse the Hell out of Kairi, well, that was fine with me. Stupid-head.
He slowed a bit.
"Uh ... " he scowled.
Oh, good. Something had to change here. I had a possible six days of the business end of a hissy fit facing me, which did not sound appealing at all. Some sort of apology, or otherwise conciliatory action was in order. I looked around, we had wandered into the shopping district of town. I had an idea.
"Okay then, come with me" I grabbed his hand and tugged him along behind me. I could feel him resisting, and I couldn't blame him for being mad at me. I had been a total tease this morning, and had completely humiliated him in the bathroom. But my plan had changed. The same thing that probably made my flirting annoying could be my saving grace here. I would use my obliviousness, my power to be a complete ditz, to my advantage. I would ignore our bathroom incident and treat it like it never happened, saving both Riku and myself.
About five minutes later we had reached my favorite place in town: the ice cream store. Okay, so it wasn't really my favorite place anymore, but had been when I was small, so I could still call it that. I dragged the still- unwilling Riku in after me.
"Sora, it's freezing out, why would you want ice cream?" I cursed myself. Oh, right. Be cool, be cool ...
"Riku, have you even known me to not want ice cream?" Ooo ... good recovery. I gave myself a mental high-five. There was a deep silence from his half of our little parade. Then:
"Sora?" Yes, my moody little buttercup?
"Yes?"
"You're a complete dork. You know that, right?" Yes, but that's why you love me, right?
"Yes, but that's why you love me, right?" he regarded me with a very cold look. Oh, right. I shouldn't have said that last part. We were all pretending that Riku loved Kairi. Right. My mistake.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot, you love Kairi now." What the Hell was /I/ doing?! Trying to piss him off? Why couldn't I keep my mouth from saying these things?
He blinked at me, then pulled me forward by our still-joined hands to the counter.
"Were you going to order something, or not?" I blinked, a little dazed, and placed my order.
"Did ... you want something?"
"No."
"You sure?" he looked at me.
"What is with you? Fine." he turned to the lady at the counter "Chocolate." back to look at me "Are we happy now?" Ohhh he was angry alright, and starting to annoy me. He was definitely Raining on Our Parade.
Our ice cream came and he dug his wallet out of his pocket. Hoping that I wouldn't lose my arm in the gesture, I put my hand on his and handed the counter lady the appropriate amount. He regarded me with another one of those angry/confused looks I had been getting about every three minutes for the last hour.
"You're paying for mine? What, are we on a date or something?" he sneered in my general direction.
"Maybe."
I could see him reeling. Mentally I was doing the same. What was this? Was I really that cruel? Couldn't I just be happy with how much I had humiliated him already? Did I have to keep building him up to tear him down?
'Oh, but look how sweet your victory is going to be' my Shoulder Devil hissed into my ear. I seriously doubted that at this point anything about this situation could be sweet. Except my ice cream. I licked at it distractedly, watching my poor tormented friend. He glanced over at me, and got a very pained look in his eyes. What? What now? I took a moment to survey myself. Oh. Oh ... /oh/. The Damn Ice Cream. I had been licking it. But, I supposed, not in the innocent way one normally licks ice cream. I would have glared at my Shoulder Devil if I could. How did he control me without my knowledge?
"Can we go home now?" Riku pleaded quietly, he sounded completely defeated, broken, and I was sad.
Riku ... I never meant ...
Oh /Hell/. Yes, I had.
Well ... no point in stopping now ... this was what I wanted, wasn't it? I knew it would hurt him. That was the point. It was all in fun. That's right, just a bit of competitive fun.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.
"Sure. Let's go home." For once, I would be the winner.
Then why did I feel like such a loser?
***
Do you know that, in total, my story is about 30 pages now? That's crazy. I've never written that much in my life. I have now been doing this writing thing for approximately six hours, and I think the family is about to watch Fellowship of the Rings, so maybe I'll join them. Perhaps I will get another chapter banged out tonight and make you all very happy. What do you think? The story has veered completely out of my control, so I deny responsibility for odd/crappy chapters.