Disclaimer: Duh- I don't own Kingdom Hearts! Did you seriously think I did?

Pairing: Sora/Riku

Whatever: Okay.... I don't really have anything to rant about, except that I HATE KAIRI- god- I wanna bash the crap out of her! Maybe I should..... hmmmmmm. What do u guys think? Well. I probably will during this chapter! Hehe. Just a little bit though for the Kairi fans out there. *glares at Kairi fans*

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Parting Of The Ways

Chapter 3: You Can Never Tell

Riku woke up to the sound of his mother yelling on the phone to someone. At first he just pretended to be asleep, he wanted to know what this was all about, if his mother knew that he was awake, then she wouldn't be screaming and yelling and having Riku listen to her conversation. She would go upstairs and talk quietly, Riku would never know what the conversation was about. For a moment there, he thought Kairi was over at his house or something. Her voice did tend to carry, rather loudly.

He perked his ears up and listened intently to what his mother was saying. He had no idea what it was about or even who she was talking to.

"Fine! But my son is sick- how will he be taken care of? Do you just expect me to leave him here???" came the shrill and upset voice of his mother. Her voice was ringing throughout the entire house very loudly.

Riku perked up, even more. What's going on here? Why would his mom be leaving? It made no sense whatsoever. Maybe it did thought, she left him a lot because of work, it wasn't anything unusual. She was such a workaholic lately, and it seemed as if work was always more important to this woman than her son whom she cared so dearly about. She couldn't leave him again. Not again.

"Fine! I understand- this has to be done! But... what about my baby boy?" Riku snorted at that remark. Baby Boy? Did she always have to refer to him as that? Jesus he was eighteen now, and it didn't make much sense for her to be calling him that all the time, especially when it always embarrassed the hell out of him.

He was known as her "baby boy" throughout work. Whenever Riku's mother threw a dinner party and made Riku tromp around in his little outfit, they always commented, "Oh so this is your baby boy! Isn't he sweet? Such lovely hair! I want him to meet my daughter!"

That made Riku even more sickened, he didn't like girls- that way. He really had only loved Sora. Sure, Riku had girlfriends; he had even kissed a couple. But, Sora was still always they're being his only love.

He had never thought of those girlfriends more than anything than a friend. He didn't love them, hell, Riku didn't know if he even cared about them period. It was all just one, big, huge cover-up so that Sora wouldn't know he was gay.

A sudden click was heard as the phone was placed back into the receiver on the side table next to the sofa Riku was lying on. "Riku? You're awake? Oh god, honey I'm so sorry! But, you'll have to stay with Sora tonight. There's-"

He cut her off while mentally doing one of his happy dances inside of his head.

"It's okay mom. I'm sure Sora's mom will take care of me fine." Riku was actually for once happy and excited about the fact that his mother was leaving him- it was no surprise, she did it all the time. A bunch of last minute things always happened in her job. How Riku hated that job, it always turned his mother into a workaholic. It pulled her away from him- very much like what Kairi did to him with Sora.

But this time, it was different. He was going to get to stay with Sora for the night. Fun fun fun!

"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to be so understanding- I know I do this to you a lot... but now it's different, because your sick, and I don't want to bother Sora's mom again." His mom stated, while walking over towards her son. She placed a hand on his shoulder and brushed his silvery hair out of his face with a sad expression written all across her pretty face.

Riku sighed and didn't want his mother to think that he wanted to get rid of her or anything like that. That was nowhere near the truth- he loved his mother. But, he also loved Sora.

"Mom, I'm sure they won't mind." Riku was just hoping that his mother would leave so he could spend some time with his crush. It sounded mean to actually want his mother to leave, but it was nothing unusual, and Sora promised to always take care of him.

More thoughts entered his mind of what he and Sora could do. Riku smiled at the images and quickly stopped grinning when his mother commented on it.

"Hmmm... I just get tired of having to rely on them." Her hand dropped off of Riku's shoulder. "Well, I'll get your things ready for you Riku, if it's what you want. I just don't want to have to leave you again. Everything always goes wrong at that damn job and it's always me who has to be the one to fix everything. I wish they would get someone else in there so that I wouldn't always have to be leaving you like this. I'm a horrible mother, Riku."

Oh great, now she was going to make him feel guilty. Another wonderful characteristic of Kairi! "Mom! You're the best mother in the world. I'm really glad that your "my" mother." He hugged his mother; she was on the verge of tears. I guess she really didn't want to leave her "baby boy" Riku. He continued on talking as she trembled in his arms. "Your job is more important, I understand completely. Don't worry I'll go pack my things up myself, you don't need to be bothered." Riku stood up and walked upstairs towards his room, pushing the door ever so slightly to peak in first.

Riku let go of his mother and looked at her. She looked a lot like him. Breaking his thoughts, he remembered that he needed to go pack up his stuff. He wasn't even going to let her finish whatever it was that she was going to say. He didn't want her to protest and make him feel even guiltier than she already had just then.

Riku walked quietly up the stairs and into his bedroom. Same looking as always.

He stuffed all of his underwear and shorts, shirts, and anything extra into his duffle bag, then paused at a picture of him and Sora together when they were little hanging on the wall. It was during the time Kairi had come, and right after they had taken the photo, she came barging in wanting her picture to be taken. "What a little bitch she can be..." those words escaped from Riku's mouth.

Riku smirked, it was fun calling Kairi a bitch. "Bitch, bitch, bitch!" He laughed and pointed to her in the picture.

Riku was still a little bit sick, although doing much better than before. He sneezed when walking down the stairs and fell into his mother's warm arms, she was hugging him tightly. "Sweetie, I know your sick, but DON'T YOU DARE misbehave, although I know you won't, your a perfect little angel! And you even look like one too! Oh your beautiful hair!"

His mother took this time to run her hands through her son's hair and placed a couple of kisses onto his head briefly before letting go and looking at her son for a moment. "Just remember what I said now. Behave yourself, you naughty boy."

Riku almost died with laughter- although he was laughing in his head. Did his mother know how possible perverted she sounded at times?

Oh if only she knew the dirty little secrets he had and the dirty thoughts he stored away in his head. The dirty thoughts of him and Sora- together, alone, not with anyone, by themselves, without any- okay- I guess you get the point now.

She had part of it right- his mother had called him a naughty little boy. Riku ran back upstairs into his room so that he could laugh uncontrollably for the remaining time that he was at home.

~~~~~

"Sora, baby, Riku's coming over tonight. His mom had to go somewhere! Sora? SORA? Where in god's name is he?" Sora's mom walked over to his door knocking. "Sora honey? Are you in there?" She kept on knocking, this time even louder than before.

"Yeah mom, I heard you." He leaned back in his chair next to his writing desk and spun around carelessly.

"Then, why didn't you answer me? Look, clean this room up right this instant! The house is filthy! You don't want your friend coming over and seeing how we live!" His mother pointed to all of the crap littered on the floor.

There was everything that you could possible imagine scattered all over the floor in there. Clothes, books, schoolwork that he needed to finish up before he had to go back. There was a bunch of junk he had left there since god knows how long, and even some molding food. His mother made a face as she noticed the horrible smell produced from all of this junk.

"And it smells horrible in here! Jesus, Sora. Get to work- NOW!" She tossed her head over towards a rotten apple sitting on his bedside table and scrunched her nose up. "Let me go get you about seven large sized garbage bags." She walked out of the room at a brisk pace.

(A/N: This is how I clean my room, lol, I use garbage bags- don't ask, I have too much crap in my room too. Lol, although its nothing like rotting food. But I can imagine Sora being a total slob.)

"Whatever." was the amazing response Sora gave her. True, he was excited about Riku coming over, partly, although he had told him this morning that he would take care of him, and that scared Sora. He knew how demanding Riku could be, not to mention his little "I get anything I want, so you better give me whatever I want- got it?" attitude. Riku is such a mystery, you can never tell with him.

He picked up one of his pairs of shorts and threw it in the hamper located in his closet. "Wow! So that's where my candy went!" His room was disgusting looking. "And I thought that I would never find you again!" Gross, Sora was getting emotionally attached to the candy he had lost about three weeks ago under his shorts.

His mother came back briefly with a vacuum cleaner and seven large sized, heavy duty garbage bags- just like she promised.

"Now, I want your bed made up, this junk all thrown out, dirty clothes in the hamper, clean clothes folded and placed neatly in your dresser, everything dusted- I don't want Riku sneezing. Put clean sheets on your bed, and that's about it. Wait," She picked up an empty glass of water. "Bring all these zillion glasses of water into the kitchen so I can wash them. Throw that nasty crap you call food out and try to make yourself looking somewhat presentable."

Sora rolled his eyes, he never cleaned his room. The last time his room had been cleaned was probably when his mother first got back to the island after the events of Kingdom Hearts and finding her baby boy not safe at home with her. She had cleaned his room and washed all his clothes as if he were still there and was coming home.

Kairi had told her about his promise to her, he was coming back. He just needed to find Riku first.

This was going to be one interesting night for our dear Sora.

First, Sora piled all of the clothes that were on the floor onto his bed and sorted them- whether they were clean or dirty. Then, he just randomly threw the garbage away. His mind was elsewhere. The boy was really thinking about Riku instead of focusing on cleaning up. He had been acting differently. If you could put it that way. Something about him was just- different.

~~~~~

Riku laid, sprawled out on his huge bed. One arm draped casually over his stomach, the other hanging loosely over the side of the bed. He was just calming down from what his mother had just told him and was once again in his usual serious mood.

"God damnit." Riku muttered to himself. This meant he would be with Sora- on a hot summery night. Which meant, no long fuzzy, flannel sleeping pants. What this did mean though, was no shirt and just a loose pair of boxers. Jesus Christ, that would drive him insane if he was going to have to look at Sora like that. Shirtless.

Sure it would be a nice sight. That would be a very nice sight indeed for Riku to drool over for hours on end. But still, wouldn't Sora notice if Riku was staring at his bare chest 24/7?

"I'll just have to control myself." Riku voiced his thoughts aloud, and mentally slapped himself. That's harder than it sounds.

Still, he didn't think that he could control himself from getting a little bit "aroused" near Sora. Sora shirtless. Sora in nothing but boxers. Sora's hair framing his face with all those damn sexy, brown spikes. Yes, Riku controlling himself wouldn't be an easy thing to do.

The silver haired boy took the time to run his hand down his chest. Damn he was hot- and he knew it too. Why shouldn't Sora love him? There was nothing not to love about him. He had always been gentle and nice to the boy- minus the brutal duels on Paopu Island, minus the abandoning of him during Kingdom Hearts.

But now, Riku was the nicest to his dear friend. They were best friends once again, all was forgiven for their mistakes. Sora apologized for leaving Riku, and he apologized for leaving Sora. They had just wanted to put that past them and forget about those times when they didn't have each other.

Those were the worst times in Riku's life, the years he lived inside of Kingdom Hearts without Sora. He dreamed constantly of the boy and how one day they would both be together one day, without all this confusion or misery.

Then, the day came where Riku heard Sora's beautiful voice flow through to him; calling his name out. And they were together again. Riku had Sora and Sora had Riku. That's the way it should be.

Then, Sora had broken down into tears for finding Riku. And all that the silver haired boy could remember was looking into the other's sapphire eyes and holding him tightly as the boy clinged to him. Then, Riku could remember nothing else as to how he and Sora got out of there and back to Destiny Islands. But the point was that they were there and that was all that mattered. Sora and Riku had promised each other to never let go of one another and that they would always be best friends.

Riku struggled to get out of bed as he checked himself over in the mirror. He brushed his silvery locks out of the way. His hair had been growing a lot lately, and he wanted to get it cut. Kairi had been teasing him about being a pretty girl a lot.

"Maybe I'll get mom to do it when I get back from Sora's tomorrow."

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Like it? Hate it? Bored with it? Review for it? Come on, you know you want to! If you have a problem with it or something- then tell me so that I can fix it. Usually, I try fixing it. Like this is a newer version of this chapter. It's a lot longer because I've fixed it. I love reading long chapters- not the short little ones. It's April 13, 2003 that I have changed this chapter around. Please don't be angry if you like the older version better- but I feel like I need to have long chapters and this one was just unacceptably short. This one jumped around a lot more. Is that okay or should I fix it? It wasn't even half the amount of my usual chapters and it was a complete embarrassment for me. I'm planning on re- doing most of the early chapters, if not all of them. I didn't revise them well, and so I feel as if I should go back over them!

Oh yes, and again, I must say: Thank you, all of you, whoever you wonderful people are for reading and reviewing for my fic. I know a lot of people don't review for my fic, and yet, they have this story under their favorites list. That's okay as long as you like it. So it doesn't really matter, as long as I know you guys are enjoying it.