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Pretty Little Boy'Jump Into My Fire'
'God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through.'
~Paul Valery (1871-1985)
"So... haven't you noticed anything different about him...?"
Kairi sat across from Tidus, cradling her chin in her cupped hands. Almost everyone had filed into homeroom by then, but there were still several people missing even though the bell was about to ring. Sora and Riku were part of that missing several and Kairi noticed. Normally, Sora would have been in the classroom long ago when Kairi and Tidus had first shown up, but ever since...
Ever since some time last week, Sora had just seemed to disappear. The spiky haired boy was still there, but it wasn't the same blue-eyed Sora that Kairi had come to know as one of her best friends. Selphie insisted that Sora just wanted to hang out with guys for a while instead of always being surrounded by girls who wanted to try cosmetic products on him (which Kairi still regretted doing that one time), and that it was perfectly normal. But Kairi just missed her friend.
"Huh?" Tidus blinked owlishly up at the auburn haired girl, still appearing to be half asleep. Kairi couldn't really blame him. Fridays at school always seemed to last an eternity.
"Come on Tidus, even you aren't that oblivious."
"Hey, it's okay for Sora to make some new friends, right?" Not that again! Honestly, Selphie and Tidus must swap brains as well as spit. ...Okay, that was a bit mean, but Selphie was home sick, leaving a rather sulky Kairi to make her way through the day alone. Were Sora still the old Sora, it never would have been a problem. Thus, it was Selphie's fault. And her boyfriend. Damn them.
"Make new friends, yeah, but not to totally ditch his old ones!" Kairi crossed her arms in defense and pouted slightly, frustrated that no one but her seemed to have a problem with the whole situation.
"Oh, don't talk like that, Kairi. Sora's probably just helping Riku get the feel for the island, is all. Cut them some slack, already!"
Kairi sighed, slumping back in her seat dejectedly. "...I just don't know... It feels weird not always having him around, now that I think about it." It was true, really. Kairi never noticed how much fun Sora could be and it was with a rather sorrowful outlook that she realized that no one paid enough attention to Sora. Here Riku was, giving the boy all the attention he could ever want and Kairi couldn't be happy for him. Sora deserved a best friend...
"Yeah, I know what you me--" Tidus was cut off as the door to the classroom swung shut just as the bell rang, Sora and Riku making their way towards their desks, laughing and joking about... something.
"Didn't you see that guy's face though? Christ, Sora, I thought he was gonna shoot you!" Riku laughed harder, running his hands through silver hair, causing a good portion of the class to go glassy-eyed in sheer admiration.
"Aw, come on! Who would ever shoot me?" Sora shot his friend a winning smile, shaking his bangs out of his face as he sat down. Yep, there went the remaining portion of the class, eyeing Sora. Between the two of them there was no hope for anyone getting any work done that day.
"Oh yeah, 'cause you're so sexy and all." And didn't everyone know it?
"You bastard!" The students continued watching the two boys, most of them smiling dreamily, some of them shooting dirty looks for their disruptive nature, while Kairi and Tidus simply sighed and waited for their professor to take control of the class just as he always did. Needless to say, things had turned boring for them when Sora wasn't theirs to cherish.
"Ahem. If it's all right with everyone, I'd like to start class sometime today." There was that dreary voice again. Sora rolled his eyes at Riku before turning to face their instructor, acting as though he really, truly, and honestly gave half a rat's ass about what the old man had to say. Sora would much rather be back downtown with Riku as they had been that weekend instead of...
"Clear off your desks and take out a pencil for your quiz on the first chapter of this unit..." Oh right, the quiz. Sora had completely forgotten. Thankfully, it was on basic things... He at least had a slight idea of what he was doing.
Reaching into his backpack, Sora pulled out a pencil and blinked down at the paper that was now in front of him. Alright, so perhaps he should've studied. Sora simply pushed the thought aside, figuring that it was too late to worry about it now and that he might as well give the questions a try. However, no sooner had he begun working through the equation, Sora's pencil snapped, shards of lead scattering across the paper. Wonderful, just simply wonderful.
Sora glanced up nervously at his teacher, who was seated as his desk, nose buried in a book. Ugh, that professor hated Sora. And Sora didn't even know why! Well, maybe there was that one time when Sora might have talked out during a lesson. ...Maybe twice. Whatever the number was, Sora still had his doubts about the stodgy old man who held Sora's grade in the palm of his hand. If given the chance, he'd probably try and squash the poor thing like a bug.
"Can I sharpen my pencil?"
"No." Well, that was expected.
"...Can I do anything?"
"No." Okay, Sora just thought that was completely uncalled for. He was also becoming aware of the fact that several students were now focused on Sora rather than their quiz. He was so much more interesting after all. And attractive... Sora simply wasn't aware of the wistful sighs which brushed past the lips of a handful of girls, some of them giggling at Sora's childish antics.
Sora nodded slowly, keeping his gaze level with the eyes of his professor, even though the older man refused to look up from his novel. "I see."
"You can do your work."
"Alrighty, so can I trade you for a sharpened pencil?"
"No." Riku snickered along with half of the class, leaving almost no one focused entirely on the quiz before them. All of the students tended to agree that their teacher was a grumpy old man, but Sora was the only one to ever make humor out of the situation.
"Then how am I supposed to do my work?!"
"You would have already had one if you didn't always have to draw attention to yourself, always saying, 'Look at me, everyone, look at me.'" Sora scowled. What crawled up this guy's-- Nevermind. But one thing was for certain. Sora just wanted a sharpened pencil so he could take this quiz and get it over with! Then he could happily return to daydreaming about Ri-- ribbons. Pulling his attention back to the present, Sora rolled his eyes and grinned.
"Look at me, everyone, look at me!" Yes, the classroom was now definitely full of chuckles from students who had put grades and equations far out of their mind for the moment. The man up in the front of the room finally looked up from his book, narrowing his eyes as Sora smiled innocently in return.
"Oh just get up here and take a pencil."
After that, it was relatively easy sailing. Sora settled back down to complete his quiz and after a few moments, once convinced that the amusement was over for the time being, the rest of the class followed suit and focused on the quiz. Once Sora had dropped off his paper at the front of the room, carefully avoiding a glare cast his way by his professor, Sora returned to his seat, propping his chin up on one hand as he allowed his mind to wander.
"Sora." Sora blinked and snapped out of his daydreams, glancing around. It had only been several minutes, so there were still a few people finishing up the quiz. Huh. Sora could've sworn he'd heard something. Oh well.
"Sora." Shaking his head to clear his mind, Sora turned to the side, only to find a small folded paper being held out to him from the girl beside him. She looked nervously up at the front of the room, checking to make sure their professor wasn't looking, before she thrust the note into Sora's hand.
"Who?" Sora whispered. The girl jerked her head over towards the far wall, where Riku sat looking out the window, drumming his fingers against the surface of the desk. Riku tore his eyes away from the window and gave Sora that familiar smirk and one single nod of his head before turning back to the window. Unfolding the note, Sora smoothed out the creases and read over Riku's neat handwriting printed across the surface of the paper.
'After school, come with me. We're going to do something fun.'
The words on the note bounced off the walls in Sora's head, sending the boy through a loop for the remainder of the day. Riku only gave him a sly smile when Sora asked him about it, and would only tell the younger boy to meet him by the flagpole because they 'had to go somewhere.'
Well, it was a Friday. Did Sora really have that much else to do?
That afternoon, Sora found Riku leaning against a flagpole, a bored expression across his face until he caught sight of the spiky haired brunette. Grinning broadly, Riku pushed himself away from the flagpole towards Sora, a brilliant gleam in his eyes.
"Ready to have some real fun, Sora?"
"Where are we going?" Sora was jogging to keep up with his older friend, still confused as hell about the whole thing and slightly annoyed that he was clueless as to what was going on. Riku had been quite blunt whenever he'd had something to say before... So why not now?
"You'll see. What, are you afraid or something?" That definitely pushed a button in Sora, and he pouted, drawing himself up to his full height even though Riku was no longer looking his way as they crossed a busy intersection, moving deeper into the commercial district of the island.
"Hah, yeah right." The two continued in relative silence, Riku merely smiling to himself as it became obvious that Sora was still trying to figure out where he was being led to. Heh, he'd never be able to guess. At least, not in this lifetime... probably not the next one either. Riku couldn't hold back a chuckle as he gently pushed open the door towards one particular building situated on the corner of a rather bleak looking part of town.
"What the-- Riku?!" Sora gaped at the building his friend was about to enter, not needing to look at the name of the building to gather exactly what it was. In the windows hung charts of designs, prices, and piercings, many of which Sora would never even have dreamed of thinking up. Intricate spirals were depicted tattooed across tanned skin, silver studs sported on tongues, bellybuttons, noses, ears... There was absolutely no way... Riku was not serious. He just couldn't be.
"I thought you said you weren't afraid." Riku looked over his shoulder, a taunting smirk gracing his mouth as he gazed levelly at Sora. "You don't have to get anything done if you don't want to."
Scratch what Sora had thought earlier. Riku really was serious! "What do you mean? What are you getting done here?!" Sora couldn't keep the horrified expression from slipping onto his face as he addressed Riku, hoping he could talk the silver haired boy out of what would no doubt be a highly painful experience.
Riku shrugged, not letting the small smile fall from his face as he flicked out his tongue with a snicker. "It'll look wicked. Trust me." And with that, Riku turned away from Sora, stepping into the tattoo/piercing parlor, leaving the door to swing closed behind him.
Sora was instantly left with a rather bothersome problem. He could follow his friend and allow Riku to get some insane thing done to himself... Or he just turn and walk away. Follow Riku... Walk away... Sora did have to admit... Those shiny silver earrings were mighty attractive... He didn't even bother asking himself when he'd started thinking that impaling oneself with some narrow metal object was the hip and trendy thing to do. But if it had to do with Riku, chances were that Sora was in on it.
"Hey!"
"Hey what?" Riku turned to look back at Sora once again, a knowing smirk forming across his face. Sora was so predictable. But Riku had to admit... He was pretty damn cute, even if he was gullible.
"I'm here... So now what?" Sora looked visibly uncomfortable as he eyed the booths set up along the inside of the parlor, a large wheeled tray of equipment standing off in the corner. Needles, dye, piercing guns, a small icebox, gauze, disinfectant, water, and more needles... Ugh, just the sight of so many sharp and pointy things was practically enough to leave Sora's knees buckling and threatening to cave under his own weight.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Sora's grown a spine!" Riku laughed and clapped for Sora mockingly even as he made his way towards the counter situated in the front of the small parlor.
Sora narrowed his eyes, sticking his bottom lip out into a pout. "Shut up."
Riku turned back to the man behind the counter, shooting him a brilliant grin. Diving into his 'I-can-get-anything-I-want-because-I'm-gorgeous' mode, Riku began to discuss terms with the burly looking man behind the counter. The burly looking man... with a brilliant green mohawk and more piercings than Sora could count on both his hands combined. Creepy.
Turning back to Sora with a triumphant smile, Riku walked back behind the counter, depositing a fistful of munny on its surface as he did so. "Well, Sora, let's see how long your backbone lasts, ne?" Sora couldn't do much else other then follow his friend, not wanting to leave Riku alone. It was strange, really. Even though Riku seemed perfectly capable of looking out for himself, Sora still felt he had to be there... Just in case anything went wrong.
"Riku..." The silver haired boy rolled his eyes as the green-haired employee motioned for him to sit down in a chair and Riku willingly complied. Sora wasn't going to talk him out of this. But no one would force Sora to do anything he didn't want to. As instructed, Riku stuck out his tongue, allowing it to be swabbed with gauze and holding it out as the man next to him readied his supplies...which nearly had Sora keeling over on the spot.
Almost as if acting on instinct, the brunette's hand reached out for Riku's as the cleansed needle was being lowered to the boy's mouth. Riku shot him a glare as though snapping at him for acting so ridiculously childish, but as the needle pierced through his poor tongue, Riku's sea green eyes widened in a mind numbing combination of pain and surprise, his grip tightening around Sora's hand.
"Riku!" After receiving a nod from the green-haired man, Riku took the hand-mirror offered to him and opened his mouth, revealing the glimmering silver stud embedded in his tongue... And he grinned, all traces of the previous pain completely gone. Thanking the man beside him, Riku stood up from the chair, smiling smugly at Sora.
"Your turn."
~~~~~~~
"Owww..."
Several hours later, Sora and Riku could be found in Sora's small bedroom, the younger of the two wincing as he stuck out his tongue, peering at his reflection in the mirror. Riku lay sprawled across Sora's bed, cradling his chin in his hands as he gazed at Sora and his reflection. Honestly, one would think the brunette had never seen himself before the way he was staring at the mirror. Riku rolled his eyes and got up from the bed, walking up behind Sora and looking in the mirror as well.
"Oh, grow up, Sora. Check it out." Riku flicked his tongue out at his mirror image, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Can't say that doesn't look sexy." He then smiled contentedly and rested his chin on Sora's shoulder. And he'd thought Sora wouldn't go through with it at all... Perhaps the brunette was full of more surprises then he let on.
Sora cocked his head to the side, still focused on the full-size mirror portraying Sora and Riku in a rather relaxed and comforting position. To think that only several hours ago Sora had been experiencing the most excruciating pain he'd ever felt in his entire young life. Sensing Sora's mind beginning to wander, Riku smirked and spoke again, a mocking tone lacing his smooth voice.
"So I was thinking about tattoos next. Whaddya say?"
"Riku!!!" Sora snapped out of his thoughts and wheeled around to face the older boy who was bursting into laughter.
"Kidding, kidding. Lighten up, Sora. You're no fun when you're serious..." Riku leaned forward, bumping his forehead lightly against Sora, causing the brunette to blush instantly. Hah, just as Riku had thought...
Sora gulped, blinking up at Riku. This was rather awkward... But at the same time, Sora really couldn't think of a half-decent objection to the entire thing. Now if only he were a bit closer to the silver haired boy. "...Riku?"
"Mm? Something wrong?"
"N...No."
The two were suddenly interrupted by the bang of the front door as it swung shut followed by a familiar voice ringing out through the house. "Hey, Sora, I'm back!"
Riku turned his head to face the bedroom door, a curious expression across his face. "Who's that?"
"My brother, Cloud." Sora made a mental note to skin his older brother the first chance he got. It just figures that the blond would have to get out of work just when Riku was starting to be really nice. ...Or whatever it was that Riku was being... it didn't matter now, though. Sighing, Sora raised his voice to holler back, "I'm in my room!"
"Oooh, Sora, you didn't tell me you had a brother. What's he like?" Riku grinned devilishly at his friend, who simply rolled his eyes. Great, just fucking great. No way was Cloud going to take Riku from Sora! Argh! Sora couldn't possibly have hated Cloud more at the moment even if he had wanted to. It didn't help when, moments later, Cloud opened the bedroom door a crack and poked in head in.
"Mom said we co-- Oh, sorry, I didn't know you had someone over." Glancing at Riku for a moment, Cloud returned his gaze to Sora as he continued talking. "Uh... Mom said we could order a pizza since it's Friday and she's gonna be working late. Is cheese okay with you?"
The last thing Sora thought he would be capable of doing was eating. How was he supposed to eat with an earring on his tongue, which, mind you, was definitely starting to hurt like hell. But Sora didn't exactly want Cloud to know anything was out of the ordinary. So, doing his best to keep Cloud from getting a good view inside his mouth, Sora mumbled an answer. "Uh... yeah. Cheese is fine."
"Cool. Uh, nice meeting you..?" Cloud was looking at Riku again, obviously eager to close the door and disappear. There was something slightly unnerving about Riku's gaze, but Cloud couldn't quite place it. It was as though Riku were sizing him up and comparing him to... something.
"Riku."
"Nice meeting you, Riku." Pulling away from the door, Cloud addressed Sora one last time before closing it and disappearing into his basement room. "I'll order pizza in a couple hours, Sora. Don't blow your room up or anything."
Once he was certain that Sora's older brother was out of earshot, Riku turned to Sora and snickered. "Whoooa. Is your whole family hot or something?"
Sora's eyes widened as he gaped at Riku. "What?!"
"So both you and your brother are sexy? Do I sense competition?"
Riku had to duck to avoid a head on collision with the pillow Sora chucked at him. "Aw, cut it out, Riku!"
Riku was all out laughing now, sitting on the bed once again as he glanced at the rather peeved Sora who stood in front of him, scowling moodily. "I was just saying... Can't get mad at me just for making a simple observation or two." Casting Sora another wicked grin, Riku asked, "So what's your dad look like?" This was, of course, following by a suggestive licking of his lips as Riku raised a silver eyebrow inquisitively.
"EWW! RIKU!"
"I'm just kidding! Seriously, though, what's he like?" Sora plopped down on the bed next to Riku, dangling his feet over the side and looking at them as though pondering his own answer before he allowed the words to leave his mouth.
"Uh, he doesn't live with us anymore. He's kind of... a bastard. You know."
"I do." Riku nodded understandingly as the two sat in silence a moment after. "It's cool though."
"What is?"
"Your family."
Sora smiled softly, lying back on the bed to stare up at his ceiling. "Riku, you don't even know them that well. Cloud can really be a jackass sometimes, and my mom's... Well, she's just something else all together."
Mimicking Sora's actions, Riku fell back onto the mattress looking up at the ceiling above them as well. Just what was so interesting about it, anyway? Sora needed to put some posters on his ceiling or... something. Maybe he could paint it black. "It's still cool. You can tell they care about you, right, Sora?"
Sora chuckled as though Riku as just asked the most ridiculous question in the world, which, in a way, he had. "Yeah, of course, I know that."
"...That's good." Riku seemed to switch gears after another few moments of companionable silence, turning his head to face Sora. "So guess what happens next weekend?"
The brunette rolled his eyes and laughed. "I dunno, I'm drawing a blank. Help me out, here."
"South Coast up on the mainland... A huge new club is having its opening night. You up for a little Saturday night dancing?"
"Don't we need IDs to get in?"
Riku laughed at this, sitting up at looking down at his friend. "Come on, Sora. I wouldn't be me if I let a little thing like that get in my way, now would I?"
"No. I'd be shocked and appalled if you couldn't get us in, Riku."
"Mm, I know you would."
"You know I'm kidding, right?" Sora really wouldn't be all that upset... They could always spend their Saturday at the movies or the mall like normal kids their age. Did they really have to go out clubbing and possibly getting caught and arrested for having fake IDs? The idea wasn't quite as appealing to Sora as movie-theater-style popcorn and a good, cheap movie.
Riku, however, switched conversation tracks again, placing his hands behind his head as he strolled over towards a stack of CDs, running his finger along the spine of their casing and mentally reading the titles. "So what is there to do around here anyway? I mean, you've got awesome vintage stores, yeah, but what else?"
Sora sat up on the bed, thinking a moment. "Well... I used to go to the beach a lot when I was little. Tidus and Wakka play blitzball... Kairi and Selphie--"
Riku chuckled, still browsing through the music selection. "Kairi and Selphie? You still hang out with them?"
"Yeah..."
"Why?" Riku turned to look at Sora over his shoulder, pausing from his search for a CD. "They're no different from everybody else, Sora. Just the same old boring girls who are obsessed with the first good-looking guy they come across." Sora had to admit… that did sound an awful lot like how his two friends were at times. But he was sure they could be fun most of the time... They weren't always ogling over some guy. "You and I are different, Sora."
Sora blinked. "Really?"
"Yep. Kairi and Selphie probably wouldn't understand. Heh, just think of what they're gonna say when they get a nice look at your tongue." Sora hadn't exactly though of that before... Riku snickered and thought for a moment before continuing, "Though I doubt they'd ever get a very nice view of it."
"What?"
"Absolutely nothing." Riku laughed before looking at Sora again and then rolling his eyes. "Oh, honestly, Sora! Do you not have one cell in your brain capable of thinking in a less then sparkling clean way?"
"Ummm...."
"Have you ever kissed anyone before?"
That seemed sort of sudden. What was Sora supposed to say? Riku had probably kissed and made out with so many people before... "What?! Riku... I... Er..."
"You're kidding." Gulp.
"Ri-ku..."
"You've got to be kidding me! You haven't even kissed someone? You little prude!"
"Hey!"
"Okay, okay. Well have you ever touched someone else?" Oh yeah, like Sora had ever touched someone if he hadn't kissed them.
"...I don't suppose that holding Selphie's hand when we used to cross the street counts... Does it?" It was worth a try.
"...You are so pathetic." Or not.
"Wha-at? I'm sorry I
haven't exactly snogged up half the island!"
Riku laughed at this, finally settling on a CD and pulling it away from
the others, opening the jewel case and sliding the disk
into Sora's nearby stereo, searching for the 'on' switch. Sora spoke again after several moments. "Riku?"
"Mm?"
"Why'd you... You know... What made you call me?" It had been on Sora's mind for days, really. Riku had seemed so... mean when he'd given Sora a fake number. And for some time after that, there had been that period when neither boy seemed willing to really interact with the other. Sora just wondered what it was that had changed Riku's mind and had the silver haired boy standing at his locker that one afternoon.
"When you gave me your number, why didn't I just 'forget' about calling?" Riku didn't look up as he skipped several tracks on the CD, seemingly focused entirely on the task at hand.
"Yeah."
"You're interesting," Riku responded in a very matter-of-fact tone.
"No, that's not all. I'm serious, Riku." Sora's eyebrows knitted together in frustration. Why was Riku being so difficult? It was a reasonable question. "What's so special about me?"
The metallic twang of a guitar picked up from the speakers of the stereo as Riku chuckled and turned to look at his friend. Standing up, he walked over towards Sora, tweaking the younger boy's nose playfully. "You're so nosy, Sora. Maybe we should get that big nose pierced next?"
"Hey! Riku!" Sora pouted and rubbed his nose with one hand, batting Riku's hand away with the other.
"Hm." Riku smiled after a moment. "Seriously? You want to know?"
"Yes!" Hadn't Sora had it clear enough?
"After this song is over. Then I'll tell you, okay? Promise."
"...I'm sitting at the unemployment office waiting on my loser of a case-worker in one of those nasty chairs when from out of nowhere, this total stranger walks right up to me, sits down, then leans over and says something like... 'This is gonna sound a little obsessive..."
"This is gonna sound a little obsessive. This is gonna sound a little bit strange. I have one thing to say before I turn and I walk away. This is gonna sound a little impulsive. This is gonna sound a little insane. I know you don't know me yet, but you and I, we will be together someday. Someday..."
Perhaps Riku really had meant to tell Sora just what it was that had drawn him towards the younger boy. Whether that was his intention or not, the thought had slipped from Sora's mind as the CD played on an on, singing of love at first sight, happy endings, and everything anyone could ever want.
…………………………………………
Sort of a weird ending to this chapter, I know, but things are aaaaaalready starting to build up. You will eventually find out what it was that drew Sora to Riku and vice versa, so don't worry! There is a reason behind this relationship. And I'd like to also take the time to pose the question, is Riku really evil? *grins*
Now then, switching gears, tomorrow is my birthday! Yaaaaay! I spent Saturday at a wedding up in Annapolis (naval academy there) and got totally inspired from the beautiful stained glass windows there (I stopped listening to the ceremony when the speech moved to something about God having specifically making man to love a woman and no one else, blah blee blah…), but overall, it was a beautiful wedding, though not my ideal birthday-weekend activity. Today was my party (where I received inspiration needed to finish chapter 12 of OftB shortly, in which there will be crossdressing. We watching To Wong Foo.)
So yes. All I ask of you guys as a birthday gift is to think about my earlier question of Riku being evil. ^^ Thanks to everyone for always being so kind! I wish I could update more often, but I do the best I can. Spring break will hopefully bring a beautiful stream of updates for everyone to chew on, I hope. As always, thanks for reading and just holding interest in my little writings! Hopefully this story won't break anyone's heart…. __
~Ori