Somewhere along the way, the person who mattered most to me betrayed me. He left me when that girl came, when Kairi came. Kairi was the intruder on our childhood bliss, not that I minded her, but there was already someone who I wanted to eat a paopu fruit with, someone very important to me. Sora...somewhere along the way, we lost where we were going, and so I wanted to fight you for Kairi, because if I won her, she couldn't have you, and then I'd take you for myself. The logic seemed clearer when we were kids, but then we got a little older... We're old. I liked Kairi when we were kids, but when we grew older, I knew she was there to intrude.

Even my dreams aren't peaceful.

"Riku."

Drifting...drifting...

When I dream, everything's dark. When I dream, I forget you gave everything to her instead of me, and I feel at ease, drifting in the silence. I really make the perfect bad guy, now if only I could forget my fickle emotions.

"Riku, are you awake?"

Your voice, Sora, is truly the most people when it calls my name...

"Riku...wake up! You said we could be together all day today!"

I opened my eyes. He was there, smiling. Those other friends of his, those strange animals, they weren't there. When I looked around, I couldn't see anyone else, not even Tidus. We were...truly all alone together...

"Where's Kairi?" I asked him in a daze, though I was too tired to really bother thinking on it too much. I trusted him well enough, even in my dreamscape, but there it wasn't as scary to think about being alone. If he left me, it wasn't the real Sora, so it didn't hurt nearly as much.

Smiling, he replied, "Who is Kairi? You look sad today, Riku... Come on, we have to get paopu fruit before tonight."

Is that...why I'm so insecure? That's right. He left me, and so I was terrified I'd never see him anymore. It got dark, cold, but still...even though I hated him for leaving me, I was still so unstable, because I want Sora in my life. It was just like when Kairi came. We'd all play together, but in the end, someone always has to be left behind. I was, in the end, left behind. She took him away.

"Sora...why are we going to get paopu fruit together?" I asked lowly. I felt my own worries surfacing, and I knew if he was anything like the real Sora, he probably wouldn't notice. Sora's so kind he doesn't notice other people's feelings.

Sora...left me.

"So we can share it, of course! Riku... You're acting really weird... You were really excited about it yesterday, but are you having second thoughts? Do you want your destiny to be tied with someone else? Because...I thought this way we could be part of each other's lives forever, since you always say you want to go away..."

Who would ever want to leave him? I wanted to go away with him when Kairi was here. I wanted to leave Kairi, but then...Kairi wanted to come too, and it became a natural thing to say. Kairi...

I hate Kairi. He would give her his heart, and so I hate her for taking what's rightfully mine. Sora belongs to me. She...is in the way... I wanted to take her from him so he'd know exactly how it felt when he turned his back to me.

"Riku..."

"Let's go, Sora. I want our destinies to always be weaved together, because, Sora, you're the most important person to me."

He smiled at me just like my Sora used to, and then he grabbed my hand and pulled me along. Together we ran out of the tree house, across the bridge, and all the way, far away, finally to the paopu tree. We stood on the curved slump together, and then, just as he reached past me, we reached for the same fruit and picked it. It was strange, looking at him like that, looking at his calm smile.

Sora pressed me against the trunk of the tree, holding the fruit between us. "Okay, Riku! Let's eat it before something happens," he called warmly, and he pressed the fruit lightly to my lips. Not knowing what else to do, I took a bite of it, sticky sweet. I ate it, and at the same time, with that same smile, Sora ate as well, the seeds of no consequence to us.

"Sora..." I remember mumbling, only to have him look up at me with a small smile. Smiling...he was always so happy as I fell apart.

"Come on, Riku, there's only one bite left."

His voice was low and soft, strange coming from his lips as he pressed our lips together, and in the same gesture closing the distance between us, but when I saw out of the corner of my eye, a sight familiar to the real Sora glaring at me for getting so close to my fake, dream version of him, I sat upright. I bumped the fake Sora's hand, and at the same time, the fruit fell from his hands, falling all the way down into the water. It wasn't long until I watched it drift out to sea, but the taste of the fruit, I could taste it on his tongue.

Sora stopped and looked at me with hurt eyes. "Riku... We can't be together forever now..." he whispered as though I had broken him, when all along it had always been the other way. He was just a fake, but as I loved my Sora, I had deceived myself into believing I felt similarly towards this one.

"I love Sora. He'll always be part of my life."

Even if I have to kill everyone precious to him, Sora will be mine, and because of this, our lives will always be intertwined. I don't need a stupid fruit...

"Riku, I love you, so...let's be together forever, okay?"

In my dreams, we'll always meet and always part. Drifting...down...

Notes:

Hello, again. Karo here...again. Haha, I haven't written fics in such a long time (like a year...) since I've been so busy with digi-ka (shameless plug time)...which isn't saying much since our first comic was dropped, but we're starting a new one currently which is half cyber-punk and half fantasy, so it's pretty cool. Lets me put all that biology stuff they teach us to use, haha. Oh, also haven't written anything cause I've been busy with original crap (which, though I call it crap, turns out a hell of a lot better than fan fics. Creepy...)

In other news, Hanel and I are setting up RP forums, but we're in our beta stage, so we're looking for people who would like to join us. If you'd like to check it out, we have a short app we ask people to fill out (since 1. We'd like to keep it to a very literate RP group to start while we're tweaking the board, code, etc... and 2. We're uhh...desperate, but not that desperate. Haha.), so please join us if you'd like to RP with our Hanel puppy and Karo panda.

Check out my profile for the URLs, if you'd like Thanks in advance.