Oh! I just love the song Sakura Drops by Utada Hikaru! It's so beautiful. She's the same woman who sang Simple and Clean for Kingdom Hearts. If you're a jpop fan, you should get her CD. Deep River is also good. I'm getting both for Christmas but I downloaded Sakura Drops and Deep River and the music videos that goes along with it off the net. It took like 45 minutes to download though. I just can find the Mp3 for Hikari planet B remix. Damn! Other good artists are Ayumi, Kumi Koda (She did a song for Final Fantasy X-2), and BOA.
Note: all this stuff is in Japanese
Boy was that off topic! Well not really if you consider that Utada Hikaru did Simple and Clean.
Anyway! Never was I expecting to get so many reviews! WOW! I'm truly shocked. One day I had 61 and then two days later I had 70 something!
Chapter 8: Hearts and Faces
The four teens all sat around the living room searching through the various news papers that they had scatted all over the place on a Saturday morning. They had begun looking through them the night before but found nothing so they decided to get an early start the next day. Sora picked up a newspaper and began searching through it.
"Hey Cloud, why don't you get a job at a nail salon?"
The older brother was shocked! Did Sora just tell him to get a job at the nail salon?
"What!?! Sora, when the fuck were you under the impression that I could do nails?"
"Calm down, I was just suggesting. You're a little crabby today."
"You know, you sound like Kairi when she's on PMS." Riku joked around throwing Cloud an evil grin.
Cloud just glared at him. After a moment of silence, Leon spoke up.
"Hey Riku why don't you get a job stripping?" Leon said. "You could make a lot of money."
Riku lifted his head from the newspaper he had and looked over at Leon like he had transformed into Barney and asked him to play.
"Ok, one; what would the principal think if he caught me strip? That's not what I want him to see. Two, I think it's very disturbing that my brother told me to go strip. What kind of an image are you setting for your little brother? Three, I don't want hundreds of women grabbing and clawing at me. It's creepy. I mean- "
"Okay I get your point! You don't have to make such a big fuss over it."
"This is hopeless!" Cloud got up from his seat on the floor and walked over to the coat rack. Picking up a jacket, he walked out the house. The remaining three just looked at the door a little shocked at Cloud's sudden outburst.
Leon sighed and stood up. "I better go too so that I can go look for a job."
"Well I guess that leaves just me and Sora." Riku said and then smirked in Sora's direction.
Leon left the house.
After a few more moments of unsettling silence, Riku decided to make a move.
"So Sora, you got any ideas."
"Nope." Sora replied with his face buried in the paper.
"Well I do. Now that we're alone we can. . . Are you listening?"
"Hmmm?" the smaller of the two looked up clueless
"I was saying that now that we're alone we can-"
CRUNCH"Sora, what are you eating?" the platinum blond asked curiously.
Sora put his face deeper in the paper and hunched over. "Nothing." Came a muffed sound.
"Yes you are, you're eating something. I can hear it."
CRUNCH!"Sora!" Riku bent over and pulled the newspaper out of Sora's face.
"What?" the other looked up.
"What are you eating?"
"I'm not eating anything."
"Yes you are, I heard you crunching."
"No I wasn't."
"Okay, Bob was chewing on something." Riku said sarcastically.
"Who's Bob-"
CRUNCH"OMG! Riku! Someone's in the house!"
"Ssshhhh. Be quiet, Sora! Do you want them to know that we know that they know that we know they're in the house?"
"What?"
"Just be quiet!"
CRUNCH"Come on." Riku grabbed Sora's hand and they both stood up. "Sora, you have a bat any where around here?"
"Yeah under the couch."
Riku bent down and picked up the bat. When he stood up he grabbed onto Sora's hand again and began to walk to the kitchen. As they got to the kitchen the sound began to fade. So the burglar wasn't in there.
"Hey, Riku?"
"Hmmm?"
"Maybe Bob was eating something."
"Who's Bob?"
"You said it first."
"That's not even funny." Riku didn't take that as a joke seeing that 'Bob' could actually be in the house somewhere getting ready to chop them to little tiny pieces and hide them in the walls. That thought didn't really help either.
"Maybe it's upstairs." Sora suggested
"Wanna check?"
"Sure."
The two carefully climbed the steps. Sure enough the crunching noises got louder. They froze when they both heard some loud scratching on the floor then a thump. There could have been a monster up there. Oh my gosh- a monster.
"Fuck this!" Riku exclaimed. "Come on Sora, we're out of here." Riku began to pull Sora down the steps
"But Riku, if we don't check it out the person will come and kill us in our sleep."
"Then we just won't be sleeping here now will we? I looks to me like the four us you will be sleeping at our house."
"But that's only across the street."
"Better there than here."
The two grabbed their jackets and ran out the door.
"Ok, but what about Cloud and Leon?"
"Shit! I forgot about them."
Riku took a minute to think things over.
"Well every man for himself." He shrugged and moved to leave.
"Riku!"
"Okay, ok! We'll go find them and warn them about the killer in the house."
"Thank you Riku!" Sora hugged Riku and then gave him a light unexpected kiss on the lips.
"Come on!" This time Sora grabbed Riku's hand and they made their way down the street to warn their brothers.
"Are you over 18?"
"No."
"How old are you?"
"17"
"So do you have any experience with a cash register?"
"No."
"Have you ever been in this kind of business?"
"No."
"Have you ever applied for this type of job?"
"No."
"Have you ever had any working experience?"
"No."
"Then why should I hire you?"
Leon had walked to the mall and had happened to walk by the video store when he realized they had a 'help wanted' sign up. He needed a job, they needed an employee; it all fit together until the boss decided to be difficult.
"How hard can it be to work a cash register, greet people my saying hello welcome to 'FYE, did you find everything ok?' and then pack their bags?"
"We can't have people with that kind of attitude work here."
"Fine but I need this job." Leon said while biting his lower lip
"Ok, we'll see how you fair."
"Oh, thank you so much."
"You better make sure you come to work daily, on time, and act appropriate. You're being hired on the curve. I usually don't do this but you look like a pretty responsible guy."
"Yes sir."
"And you start next Monday. Oh, and I'm letting you know that one wrong move and you're out of here." The chunky man behind the desk said.
"Thank you."
Leon got up from his seat. 'Well that was kind of easy.' he thought to him self as he walked to the DVD section. He has been looking for 'Signs' on DVD for a while. Then he heard two familiar voices calling his name. Leon turned his head to see Sora and Riku looking around. 'What the hell are they doing here?'
"Hey what are you guys doing here?" He asked, yelling in their direction.
Sora and Riku ran over in his direction.
"Leon-"Riku started but never got to finish because as soon as he was about 3 feet away from Leon, he tripped over his shoe laces and fell hard on top of Leon. Leon fell back and knocked the whole DVD wrack down. All the DVDs; A-G tumbled onto the floor.
"Mr. Leon!" A voice called from behind him.
Leon tilted his head back some so that he could see the man's face.
"I knew my offer was a bad idea. I think I've changed my mind. I think it best for you to find work elsewhere. So you and your friend get out. You're making a mess of the place."
With that quickly said, the manager walked away.
"Nice going dipshit! Do you really hate me that much? I just got a job too." Leon wined
"Oops." Riku got off of Leon. "Look, I wanted to say-"
"No, don't. You have ruined my day enough."
"But-"
"No. I don't wanna hear it." Leon walked out of FYE and into the main part of the mall.
"Well see if I care if you get eaten!" Riku yelled after him.
"Come on Riku, lets see if we can find Cloud." Sora said, grabbing his hand.
"Ok."
The two left to try and find the other said brother.
Sora and Riku had decided to take a break. They had been running around for about an hour trying to find Cloud but were to no avail.
"So, Sora, you wanna eat something."
"Yeah, I'm kind of hungry."
"What do you want to eat?"
"I feel like eating a burger. Well that is if you want one!" Sora began to blush a little.
Riku just smiled at him. 'Man, does he know how cute he is when he does that? Hold up, cute!? Come on Riku; you can find a better word than that! You sound like a girl! Cute? HA!'
"Hello, earth to Riku are you in there?"
"Oh sorry Sora. Burgers sound good to me! How about we stop in Good Burger then."
The two walked into the Good Burger and up to the place that they were supposed to take your orders at.
"We'll be out in a second!" a voice called from in the back. That voice sounded familiar to Sora but he couldn't exactly put a finger on to whom the voice belonged.
Riku turned around to face Sora, catching him off guard. He put both his arms around the other's waist. Sora began to blush in response. Riku could sure make someone blush.
"Riku, you must really have a thing for trying to be romantic at fast-food restaurants."
"Well if that's what you think," Riku began to kiss Sora's neck making him halfway moan. "Let's keep the tradition up." Riku then moved his hand down Sora's back.
"Mmmm. Riku. But wh- mmm. Wh-"
Riku let out a chuckle. He could tell that Sora was trying to ask why but could no longer really concentrate. Riku loved the power that he had over the smaller boy. Although they were both 16, Riku was the taller, stronger, and the sexier one. Sora was more so cute. Lets just call Riku the seme of this relationship.
"Are you trying to ask me why, Sora?" Riku helped him out "Well, Sora," He planted a small kiss on his lips. "I want everyone to know that you're mine."
"Aw! That was so cute!" The woman behind the counter saw the whole show. "That's wonderful. I think declarations of love are so romantic."
Sora looked over at the woman who was talking to them. At first he was embarrassed that she had been looking the their little performance, but then his eye turned wide because he knew who this woman was. She has long brown hair pulled into a thick braid and big green eyes.
"Aeris!?!"
"Oh my gosh! Sora is that you? I didn't recognize you. You've gotten so big!"
"What are you doing here?"
"Cloud didn't tell you? This is where I moved three years ago."
"Wow, has it really been that long?"
"Yup, sure has."
"How's your mom?"
"She's fine. How's Cloud been?"
"Like Cloud."
"I see, so he hasn't changed a bit." She giggled
They both began to laugh.
"Sorry to but into your little reunion but it looks to me like I'm missing something." Riku interrupted.
"Oh, Sorry Riku." Sora stopped leaning on him so that he could turn around. "This is Aeris, Cloud's ex-girlfriend and our childhood friend." Sora turned to Aeris' direction. "Aeris, this is Riku. He's my-"
"Boyfriend?" Aeris asked raising an eyebrow.
Riku turned to face Sora to see what he was going to say. 'Of course he'll say yes. After all the kissing I did to him, he'll be mine for sure.' Riku though to him self
'If I say that Riku is my boyfriend, doesn't that mean I beat Kairi? She wouldn't have a chance with him. But am I ready to except Riku as my boyfriend. I don't even really know him. It hasn't even been a week. How can I call him my boyfriend? But it's not like we're getting married or anything. But am I saying it just to get the satisfaction out of beating Kairi? What if I really don't like Riku? I don't want to hurt him.'
Aeris could see that Sora was having an internal battle because of his sudden quietness.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve or something? I just thought that from the way you two were kissing each other, you were an item."
"I did too." Riku said fairly disappointed and walked away.
'How could Sora do that? I thought he would have said yes. He didn't seem to mind the kiss in the mall or the one just now. He even gave me a kiss! What was he doing, stringing me along? Maybe he's not as innocent as he seems.' Riku walked out of Good Burger pushing the door open hard trying to take away some of his frustration and walked down the street.
"What happened?" Aeris asked Sora very confused.
"I don't know." The brunet said sounding fairly depressed.
"You wanna talk to me about it?"
"Sure if you have a minute."
"Of course, anything for you. We have a lot of catching up anyway."
Sora and Aeris sat down at a table. They had a long talk ahead of them.
Meanwhile, Leon was looking for a job,
"What do you mean I'm not qualified!?!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Leon, but you do not have enough experience."
Cloud was nowhere to be found,
And Riku was walking anywhere in an attempt to get lost.
'How could Sora deny me as his boyfriend? I thought he liked me. Was I just wasting my time even thinking about him?'
"So, that's how it is?"
"Yup, I met him a few days ago now we've become really close but . . ." Sora dropped his head. He and Aeris had been talking for a while. He had told her how he met Riku, how he got kicked out of school, how he could get back in, and other various things. Aeris sat there listening to him very intensely. All this was very interesting; it sound like one of her favorite soap operas.
"You don't wanna be his boyfriend?" she asked curiosly.
"No, it's not that!" Sora perked up. "It's just . . ."
"What could it possibly be then? It looks to me like he likes you."
"Yeah but I don't know if I like him enough for him to be my boyfriend. Besides, there's this girl who I think he likes more."
"Sora are you crazy!?!?"
Sora almost fell out of his seat. That really wasn't the remark he thought he would get.
"What?"
"Here you have a great guy, from what you told me, who likes you and you turn him down. How could you possibly not like him?"
"I don't know him."
"You know his name?" She asked looking him straight in the eyes.
"Yes." Sora said looking at he back. Of course he knew his name.
"You know how old he is?"
"Yeah."
"You know where he lives?"
"Yup."
"You've been to his house?"
"Yes."
"Then you know him! Are you gonna let some bimbo who has a chance steal him?" Aeris said standing up with enthusiasm.
'What am I thinking? I know I like Riku. Actually, I think I love Riku. What the hack am I sitting around here for? Oh my gosh! What if thinks I don't?'
"NO!" Sora thought out loud.
"That's what I thought now go out there and get your man!" She yelled as she pointed to the door.
"Right!" Sora said with a new passion in his eyes. The flame of determination burned deep within him.
Everyone in the Good Burger began to clap their hands at the display before them.
"Thanks Aeris! Be sure to stop by our house sometime!" Soar yelled back at her as he ran through the doors of the Good Burger.
Aeris sighed as she looked at the door. "They grow up so fast." She said out loud to herself as one tear rolled down her cheek.
Riku walked down the street going nowhere in particular.
'I've fallen in love with someone who doesn't love me back.' He kicked a can down the street. 'Why, Riku? Why? I've fallen and I can't get up.'
"Arrg!" Riku yelled trying to let out some of his frustration that had built back up.
"Wow, Riku. You must be pretty angry." A voice said from behind him.
Riku turned to the direction of the voice.
"Kairi?"
"Bingo!" Kairi walked over to Riku with a slight but noticeable switch. She went over to him and started to walk at his pace.
"What's up?"
"The sky." Riku was agitated at the moment and really didn't want to have to literally drag Kairi around. She was like a hangnail: very annoying and hard to get rid of.
"Wow! Touchy aren't we? You care to tell me what's bothering you?"
"No."
"Keeping it a bottled up never helps."
Riku didn't respond but just kept walking.
"Yes! You really mean it?"
"Yes this job is perfect for you Mr. Leonhart. It's a starter job plus it's good for your age."
"Well, when do I start?"
"Since tomorrow is Sunday, I can have you start in Monday."
"Thank you Ms. Kasara."
"Mm-hm." The grocery store manager smiled at him. Leon had almost given up until he walked pass a grocery store in need of an employee. It was his last hope and it worked. He got the job and everything. There was just one problem though; it was all the way across town. It would take him 45 minutes to an hour to get there. He would have to take the bus.
Leon walked out of the grocery store and started on his way home. Now he knew why older people looked so . . . old. They had to go through this tiring crap all the time. Leon stretched his arms out behind him and then walked over to the bus stop. When he got home he was going to take a nice hot shower and then go to bed. That sounded nice.
'Damn where is he? I can't believe he just walked out like that!' Sora had been looking for Riku for the past 20 minutes.'How far could he have gotten?'
Sora walked until he came to a sports store.
'I know! I'll tell him I'm sorry by picking him up a small gift.'
He walked into the store. There were all different types of sports equipment everywhere. 'What would Riku want?' He browsed the store until he saw the track section. 'Didn't Riku say he was on the track team?' Sora looked all around. There were shoes, sweatshirts, headbands, wristbands, arthritic medicines, Icy Hot; everything you need for running but Sora walked right pass all that stuff; he was looking for something a bit unique although he didn't know how unique you could get in a sports store. He continued to walk until he saw what he was looking for. 'Perfect! This is just what I was looking for!' he picked up the item and walked up to the cashier. 'Now all I need is a card.'
"What do you want Kairi?"
"Just to talk. I really need to talk to you about something."
"I'm not in the mood Kairi." He growled at her
"Look Riku, I don't bottle up what I feel like you do-"
"Then why don't you talk to Selphie?"
"Because it's about you and Selphie's not you."
Riku looked at her for a few seconds. She was really serious. He could tell because she wasn't hanging all over him like she usually does; actually she looked a little nervous.
"Okay Kairi, we can talk but not in the middle of the street."
"Thank you, Riku."
The two walked into an antiques shop that had various items all over the place. There were dolls, figurines, bears, crystals, and any other type of small collectable trinket you can think of. They both stood in front of the large window of the shop.
"So what's on your mind, Kairi?"
She bit her lip and closed her eyes as if contemplating on what to say. After a few moment of silence, she began to speak. "When I first met you, I used to wish we could be friends forever. As a few years went on, your feelings toward me grew but mine stayed the same. You remember the day you asked me to go out with you and I turned you down?"
"Sure, how can I forget? You were my first love, Kairi but I got over it." Riku said a little pained at the hurtful memories.
"That's the problem. I thought I had done the right thing but as time went on I began to like you even more. Then when Sora showed up my feelings got stronger."
"Why when Sora showed up?" he eyed her suspiciously
"Because I could tell from the way you looked at him and the way you smiled at him, he was stealing you away from me." The brunette hung her head as a few tears escaped her eyes.
"Kairi, how can you tell all that within a few days?"
"I've known you for so many years, I think I know when you're attracted to someone, Riku. Now that you like him, I don't know whether to smile at the fact that I got my wish for us to be friends forever . . . or to cry when I think about that's all we'll ever be." More tears made their way to the surface of her eyes. She tried to hold them back but failed to do so. With just one blink the tears came spilling out. Riku just stared at her. She was one of his close friends no matter how much she got on his nerves and he loved her in a friendly sort of way. But he could not deny the fact that he had fallen in love with Sora in a different way. It wasn't the same kind of love he felt for Kairi; it had passion and romance written all over it.
"Kairi I don't know what to say." He said trying to show her a little sympathy. He walked closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She laid her head down on his chest and Riku felt his shirt become wet with her tears.
'Come on where's Riku when you need him?' Sora was still looking for Riku.
He looked through every store window and down every street. 'It's hopeless.' Sora almost thought until he came to another street that he knew he hadn't been down before.
"This is my last hope." He said out loud to himself. He almost didn't bother going down it because he thought it would be no different from the rest. Instead of going with his first negative thought, he decided to follow his second more optimistic one that said Riku would be down this street.
The teen walked down the street looking into various store windows until he came to a little antiques shop.
"Riku?" Kairi said as she began to lift her head
"Yes Kairi."
"I love you."
Kairi lean closer over to Riku until their lips were pressed together; it had all happened too fast. Riku hadn't seen it coming and he was too shocked to respond. All that he knew was Kairi was kissing him and he wasn't stopping her.
'What is she doing?' Riku thought to his self. 'Wait a minute, what am I doing?!' Riku quickly reacted to his thoughts and pushed her off of him.
"Kairi, what the hell do you think you're doing?!?!"
Riku happened to look out the antiques shop window trying to do anything but look at Kairi when he saw Sora looking right back at him through the window.
"Sora." Riku said, almost a whisper.
Riku saw a single tear roll down Sora's cheek.
'What have I done?'"Sora!" Riku yelled as he made his way for the door. He stopped when he was right in front of him.
"Sora, I can promise you-"He began but was interrupted
"Oh um . . . I just wanted to find you so that I could um . . ." Sora looked down at the box he was holding. "Give you this. I know it's kind of dumb but I picked it up on the way here and I thought you might like it." Sora handed Riku the box and wiped his eyes trying not to cry. "I'll um, be going now so I guess I'll see you later." He gave Riku a fake smile and began to walk away. When he was behind Riku, he broke into a run trying to get away as fast as he could.
Riku was speechless. He knew Sora had seen him and Kairi; the boy looked like the weight of the world had fallen on his shoulders. Riku looked down at what Sora had handed him. He took it out of the paper bag to find plain brown box. He opened the box and dug his hand in all the tissue paper in it. When he pulled his hand out, he found a crystal figure of a runner on a track. Riku looked at the figure and smirked. 'So he remember I was on the track team.' Riku tilted the box down and a card fell out. He bent down and picked it up. When he opened it his smirk turned into a sad smile. The card read: 'Hey Riku, sorry about the thing in Good Burger. Hope you forgive me. I was a bit confused at the moment but now I've finally come to my senses. I hope you like the gift but if you don't that's ok; it was kind of last minute so it's a little of crappy. Well anyway I just have two things left to say: I'm sorry and . . . I think I've fallen in love you. Wait, I know I have. Forever yours, Sora'
What the hell was I smoking when I wrote this chapter!?!?! This is not an angst fic! It is a humorous romance between four hot bishonen! I shall fix things and make them happier soon! XD
Revisions 11/10/04
Ok, what am I doing? Shiva has put two chapters together once again. Why you may ask? I say because I want my story to have a little fewer chapters. 20 are a big number and I want to shrink that. Besides, these chapters are better as one than two.