Note to the readers: Writing this chapter honestly felt like writing a script or something. There is a LOT of dialogue. Practically the entire thing is nothing but dialogue. Hopefully the emotion or whatever still makes it through.

It's short and yet it was still a major pain in the ass to write. ...Fear me, for I bring you corniness.

(x) (x) (x)

Pretty Little Boy

'Epilogue of a Happy Story'

Three years later...

Sora smiled, breathing in the warm air around him and grinning broadly. A year away at college and still nothing had changed. Destiny Islands remained its beautiful and pure self, glowing with sunlight and the tanned bodies of the people who lived there, laughing, joking, and just plain living. If anything, it was even more perfect than Sora remembered.

"Sora!" a familiar voice called out. Kairi and Selphie stood waiting for him at the corner of the street, waving enthusiastically as Kairi called out, "We're heading to the mall, you wanna come?"

"No thanks! Ms. Trepe asked me to take care of her dog." It was only and excuse really. As much as Sora loved spending time with his two best friends, there were moments when their own girly tendencies just became a bit too much. Besides, they were finally home for summer. Sora didn't feel like spending that precious time cooped up in a mall somewhere.

He smiled softly to himself as Selphie and Kairi disappeared around the bend, just like they used to do when all still lived on the islands. It was strange, really... Even after they had all graduated and gone off to college, they could still manage to be brought back together there on the islands and act as though nothing had changed. But the more Sora thought about it, the more he realized that nothing had truly changed all that much.

As with any friendships, theirs had certainly had its fair share of trials and petty squabbles, but even those had begun to die out as all three grew out of that stage. They were still friends and that was all that mattered.

And yet still...

Sora gently shook the thought from his head, the smile he'd worn moments ago slipping from his face. The dog... he had to take care of the dog.

x x x

Riku glanced up at the sky, cocking his head to the side. Earlier in the morning it had looked like it was going to rain, but... With a shrug, he forgot about the weather, once again turning his gaze to the ocean. There wasn't much else to look at from the long stretch of beach he'd picked out, far away from the usual crowd of sunbathers, surfers, and family crowds.

Picking up a twig nearby, Riku idly began to swirl its pointed tip around in the sand, making meaningless scribbles and lines, his mind drifting further away from him with the turning tide.

Pretty...

Tossing the stick to the side, Riku allowed himself another glance at the sky. The sun was just going down, though it looked as though the moon had decided to claim the sky its own already, glowing softly above the ocean like a fading pearl. If Riku was any sort of artist or photographer, he would have tried to capture the image forever. As it was, he simply tried to lock it into his memory. But part of him knew that it would fade away, slip away, just like so many things did with time.

Letting out a small sigh, Riku slid his eyes shut, the picture-perfect scene still outlined in his mind, though, as expected, fading quickly. And the moment I open my eyes again, it'll all be different... And it won't be so pretty anymore, will it? Opening his eyes slowly, all Riku caught was a glimpse of orange before he suddenly found himself pounced upon, lying face down in the sand.

Coughing and sputtering, Riku swore loudly as the demonic creature so commonly referred to as a 'dog' tackled him once more, frantically licking his face and neck as though Riku were the best thing the four legged fur box had ever gotten hold of in its entire life. Distant footsteps were heard drawing closer, sand spraying out around the shoes as they fought to carry the person forward, desperate apologies shouted out in a torrent of words.

And an oddly familiar voice...

"I'm so sorry! I-I... He's usually not like this it's just that he just... he... he..." Blue eyes widened in recognition as Riku's face came into view, the silver-haired boy holding the slobbery beast on top of him back with one arm, struggling to hold himself up with the other... and gaping at Sora as though the boy had sprouted a second head right there on the spot.

"...Riku?"

The dog, sensing the sudden tension hanging in the air, clambered off of Riku's trampled body, merrily making his way towards the shore, wagging his tail and no doubt thinking that humans were fools for ever allowing emotions to play with them the way they did. After all, with dogs there was just unconditional love or hate. Love for their masters, hate for the cat next door. It was plain and simple.

But human love must have been different, for as Sora and Riku stared numbly at one another, questions raced through their minds at top speed, not a single question lingering long enough for either boy to process it into the proper words. Finally, Sora managed to shake himself away from his troubled thoughts.

"I... thought you had moved."

"I did." Riku rubbed at his face with the back of his hand, brushing sand away from his cheek. He was slightly paler than Sora remembered, hair slightly longer... And without a doubt, the once-beautiful boy Riku had been had easily become the now-gorgeous teen that sat on the shore before Sora. "...I came back after high school... got a job and everything." A dry chuckle escaped through Riku's lips, though his eyes failed to convey anything even remotely resembling humor. "I guess... I sort of hoped... you'd still be here, Sora."

Riku came back... looking for me?

Guilt streaked down from Sora's brain, shooting through his spine and constricting around his heart with a brutal force. All those years he had fought so hard to just forget about the other boy... But apparently Riku hadn't forgotten. If anything... it was as though he'd been fighting to remember.

But an old fear slowly crept back into Sora, cautious at first but growing stronger by the second. He still had every reason to be afraid of Riku, for he still felt like he had every right to be in love with Riku. Nervously, Sora backed away a step, though he was completely unaware of doing so.

"Sora, wait!" Desperation seeped into Riku's usually smooth voice, causing it to shiver and churn, fear sitting just beneath its surface. "I... Please, just... wait a second. I haven't seen you in so long... Do you think... Is it okay if we just talk? Just for a little while?"

"I... have to take care of the dog..."

"Sora, the dog's fine! Please!" Riku pulled himself up from the ground, sand clinging to his clothes and skin. "I just want to talk. That's all."

Sora swallowed hard, trying to destroy the lump that seemed to have formed in his throat, but not succeeding. The problem was that he wanted to talk with Riku. More than anything he felt himself wanting to just be around the other boy. That thought in itself, that feeling... It was just enough to make Sora worry that Riku still had some hold over him. Even after all these years.

"...If you're not going to say anything... it's okay," Riku said. He fidgeted, nervous and anxious and worried, all rolled into one, Sora noticed. Riku fidgeted. Since when did that happen? "But I'd... I'd just like to talk to you. If it's okay... It's why I came back in the first place, but... you were gone."

"So... you waited?"

Riku nodded slowly as though the fact was slowly becoming clear to him as well. "I didn't want to leave off where we did. I didn't want to move and I didn't..." Riku frowned slightly, trying to piece together his thoughts in his head. "I didn't want to leave you thinking that I didn't care."

Sora found himself blushing unintentionally, instantly doing his best to hide his face without being completely obvious about it. Instead, he turned towards the ocean, looking out at the sky intently. "I know you cared," he said.

Rather than following Sora's gaze, Riku stepped back a few paces away from the brunette, putting some more meaningless distance between them. The last thing he wanted to do was make Sora uneasy or skittish. He just wanted to talk... so that was what he was going to do.

"I was really, really fucked up back then. I mean... you know that. I... When I first saw you, all I could think about what how beautiful you were, Sora." Riku instantly became glad he'd put distance between them, for he noticed that Sora's shoulders suddenly tensed up, alarm pouring off the boy in waves. Still, Riku continued, beginning to pace back and forth across the sand.

"I honestly don't know what I was doing when I convinced... when I dragged you into all this shit with me. I guess I was... I don't know... Maybe I was testing you or something stupid like that. It was like... you doing all those things for me, with me... it meant that you cared about me. And... I'm sorry I betrayed that. Because you did care for me, but... I guess I didn't care enough in return.

After that night... when you fell off the dock... I was so fucking scared, you have no idea. I was thinking... 'How could I have let him down like that? How could I have almost lost him like that?' I was bawling like a fucking baby and... Ugh, it felt like I was going crazy. So I went to your house... and..." Riku's voice tapered off into silence, his eyes riveted to the sand beneath him.

Did he have words to describe it?

"You just... you looked so small and... not helpless. Lifeless, I guess. Like everything you had in you before was just... gone. I couldn't believe it. I mean... I'd seen you so happy and lively and... just so you. Just that night. Just at the beginning. But you just lost it all and it was my fault, Sora. If I hadn't dragged you along with me, you never would've had to go through all that." Riku's voice quickened its pace as though he were worried that Sora would disappear any moment. He'd waited so long already, what if Sora left before he could finish everything he'd started?

A conclusion was all Riku wanted from Sora. It was all he thought he could ever deserve and it was all he thought he could ever give the boy in return for everything that had happened between them.

"But I wasn't that worried. I thought maybe you were just... feeling a little sick or something. A side-effect, you know? But then when I went and... I found... all these pills and..." Riku closed his eyes tightly, not wanting to even look at Sora's feet, much less the rest of him. If Sora was gone when his eyes next opened, then so be it. Riku never deserved him in the first place.

"I'm not an idiot, Sora. I may do the dumbest shit sometimes, but I know how the world works. And I never ever wanted to push you to that point. I swear. I would rather die than know that I hurt you so badly that you would ever even consider doing something like that. I can't say 'I'm sorry' enough to ever make up for it, but if it'll make it any better then I'll scream it and yell it until I pass out! I know I don't deserve it and you can feel free to just... walk away or... I don't know.

"...Your brother caught me that night, when I tried to get out of your window again... I told him... everything. But since then, I realized that all I'll ever want and need in life... I can't ever get it. Because you're all I ever wanted, Sora. You and your forgiveness."

Riku let out a shaky breath he hadn't even realize he'd been holding in before chancing a glance up at Sora.

If he had earlier thought that the sky had been perfect, the sun and moon sharing the same space in the same time... Riku found that he had been dead wrong. Silhouetted against the fading sunlight, Sora stood there, calmly watching him with those brilliant eyes of his, ocean breeze rustling unruly spiky locks of hair. Sora was what made the scene perfect and without him the sky would surely cry itself to sleep every night, knowing just how incomplete and wrong it really was.

When Sora spoke, his voice was soft and unsure, though his eyes held firmly onto Riku's own, refusing to break that contact he had with him, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant it was.

"I guess... we always had this one thing in common. I mean, we're both different and everything, but it's almost like both of us ended up... suffering 'cause of some stupid little domestic war our parents had going on, right?" Sora studied Riku's eyes, wondering if he'd guessed correctly after all those years. "It's sort of like... I found you to settle my score, I guess... I mean..." Sora sighed, raking his hands through his hair and pouting, unsure of how he could put it.

"Cloud told me one time that you looked like our dad. And I guess you do, really. ...Really... a lot, really. I just missed him so much... so when I first saw you... It was sorta like I was maybe getting another chance with my dad. I just wanted to be your friend back then." Sora hung his head slightly as his own admission became clear. He felt Riku had a right to know. Perhaps it might even help to make him feel less guilty... knowing that he wasn't the only one with false intentions.

"It didn't stay like that, though. I mean... I did really like you, Riku. But it was too much... way, way too much. It was almost as though my mind told my heart that if I lost you too, I wouldn't get another chance or something. So... I just gave you everything. I gave you anything I thought you could want from me... everything, Riku..." Sora scowled at the tiny grains of sand beneath his feet as though all this mess was their fault in the first place. Years and years of anger were finally coming to surface, sparking and setting aflame a fire in Sora that he long since thought he'd been able to put out.

Riku couldn't help but wince and jerk his gaze away from the smaller boy when Sora looked up from the ground at last, tears shimmering in those brilliant blue eyes, threatening to spill over as Sora cried out, "Isn't that enough of me for you? You already took everything, Riku! I don't know what more I could ever have to give you!"

Both stood silent, studying one another silently, still trying to put together puzzle pieces that had been missing from the picture. It was slowly coming together, bit by bit, but it only seemed to make the picture more jumbled than it had originally looked. In a way, Sora had used Riku as Riku had used Sora. The only difference between them was a small thin object, falling somewhere in between a narrow crack and a mile-wide gorge, threatening to split even wider and engulf both of them forever.

All it would take was one more mistake.

"I told you, Sora... I just..." Riku licked his lips nervously, trying desperately to read Sora's expression, but getting nowhere. "I just want your forgiveness. We both know I don't deserve it... that's... okay. I understand. But please... just know that I'm sorry."

Once it seemed as though nothing more would ever pass between them other than silence and empty looks, Riku decided it was finally over. There was nothing left for him to say and nothing left for him to do. Absolutely nothing. So he did the only thing he could think of; the only thing he ever seemed capable of doing around Sora.

He turned around and left.

Though he hadn't even gotten three yards away from Sora before the boy's voice once again pierced the quiet surrounding them.

"Jeeze, Riku. You're acting like both my parents now. You leave like Dad, but you're disappointed like my mom, aren't you?" Turning slowly back towards Sora, Riku nearly fell over right there on the spot when he saw the small smile that had crept upon Sora's face. If it were possible, Riku certainly would've flung Sora straight up into the sky along with the moon, just so the entire world could see just how beautiful this boy before him was.

Of course, Riku would then promptly ensure that he had a spot right next to Sora, for he never wanted to walk away from him ever again.

Sora simply let out a small laugh, cocking his head to the side as his took in the awestruck expression Riku now wore on his face. "...I know you're sorry. You told me that before you left, remember? I've been so mad at you all this time, but I guess I never really made anything of it. The whole thing was... really unresolved. I mean, you left me without explaining anything or giving me a chance to do the same..." The smile wavered a bit, Sora's mind trailing off towards the nights he'd spent during the past three years, sitting alone in the dark and idly wondering about the silver-haired boy that seemed to just have fallen off the face of the earth altogether.

"But you know, I was serious when I told you I gave you everything. You still have everything of mine, Riku. ...I don't... really want it back though. And my heart's still screaming at me that I can't lose you, so... whether it's right or wrong... I should listen to it, maybe. Just once, right?"

And all Riku could do was nod dumbly. There were absolutely no words that could ever express ever little emotion that was suddenly crashing down upon him, cascading from space and sky all in one fraction of a moment, even as Sora laughed and attempted to kick sand at Riku, only ending up toppling over and laughing more.

"Aww come on, Riku! I pour my freaking heart out to you and you don't even say anything!"

"I..." Riku started lamely.

I am still so fucking sorry.

I don't get you at all.

I can't believe how amazing you are.

I'll never be good enough for you, you know?

I love you like crazy.

He hoped that all those went without saying, for all Riku found himself capable of doing was throwing back his head and bursting out into laughter as Sora threw him that famously adorable pout, sprawled across the sand before him and trying as hard as he could to keep from laughing himself. It was classic, it was cute, it was completely and unmistakably Sora.

Stumbling blindly over to the brunette, Riku happily stretched out his hand, reaching down to pull Sora to his feet. Almost as though on cue, the large shaggy dog came lumbering back towards the pair, tongue lolling from the side of his mouth and tail wagging lazily back and forth. Sometimes it looked as though even humans were capable of doing some things right.

Once their laugher had died down, Riku cautiously turned towards Sora, one thing and one thing alone still needing clarification.

"So... are we just forgiving and forgetting, or what?"

"...Forgiving... of course. ...But maybe we shouldn't forget. Not just yet."

"Okay... Where's a good place to start off?"

"Start from the beginning. That's always the good part."

Laughter. More real than the clap of shoes as they slam against a wall, more comforting than the moan of the dial tone as it shuts you down once again. The one noise the world will never grow tired of.

"Hi, I'm Riku."

"Sora. Nice to meet you!"

And maybe as Riku and Sora walked away from the beach, the horizon line blurred just enough so that the sky could finally kiss the earth and both of them could possibly, even if just for a moment, be happy. After all, they might pale in comparison to the two boys walking arm in arm on the shores of Destiny Islands, but hey. Nothing is perfect after all.

(x) (x) (x)

Nyahaha! It's OVER. Finally! XD There shall be a huge party at my house celebrating the completion of this fic-from-hell. ...Well... not really. But I'm damn happy in case you couldn't tell. All that's left to do this summer is complete One for the Band. ...In one week. ...Soooo, keep your eyes focused on the band, because I assure you that you're going to see a heck of a lot of it during the next seven days.

--Ori