title:
The New Publication
series: Kingdom
Hearts
challenge / words: blame / 554
warnings:
boys love, Sora/Riku, AU, humor, incarnation
notes: For DM.
You must read Happily Ever After first to understand.
The last page was blank.
It wasn't the fact that he liked to keep his books in perfect condition; and it wasn't so much that he had used the last of his paycheck to purchase the novel; and he could even live knowing he had waited in line for two hours just to snatch a copy.
No, all those things he could find the will-power to tolerate. It was the notion that he would never know the ending- that's what made him the most angry.
Long-boned fingers slid into silver locks, pulling raggedly as he glared down his nose at the offending object. A part of him, the rational side, was whispering that no matter how long he blinked stupidly at the empty page it would always be blank. Another part, most likely the pissed off persona, told the other voice to promptly shut the hell up.
The waitress passed in a disturbance of cool air, and Riku found himself unable to focus on her soft words and faint clink of a coffee cup.
Because damn it, the last page was blank.
His livid swirl of thoughts began to drift, and he found himself wondering just how the last page had come about without content. It would be his luck, he decided, that even though the number of copies had been threatening to spill from the shelves, he would pick the faulty production.
The air around him shifted again, and Riku squeezed his eyes shut as someone slid onto the café stool beside him.
Sure, he could waste even more money to buy yet another copy, but it was the principle of the mat-
"Good book?"
Riku's head slid from between tense hands, his forehead hitting the counter hard enough to ignite sparks of light behind tight eyelids.
"I wouldn't know." He was in no mood for small talk. His disposition was steadily lurching into the angst-zone.
There was a jingle of jewelry and a rush of warm air as the stranger crowded his personal space like how. Tanned fingertips skimmed curiously over the blank page.
"But it looks like you've finished it. How could you not-"
"Because the last page is missing," Riku interrupted that particular line of thought. "You can't really finish a book if you don't know the entire ending." His voice was muffled as he spoke into the marble bar top. He imagined he sounded unsociable. He hoped he sounded unsociable.
The waitress scurried by, the stranger beside him calling out his coffee order to her retreating backside. His unwanted bar-mate shuffled, and Riku's ears picked up another faint click.
This was not the click of a coffee cup.
Riku lifted his head slightly, watching as darkened fingers and a black pen scrawled along pristine white. Messily, a sentence took form over the blank page.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Riku's eyes darted to the stranger for the first time, drinking in the sight before him. He must have looked accusatory, because the teenager grinned sheepishly, excusing himself with a soft, "Sorry. My fault. I thought you-"
"What's your name?"
Azure eyes crinkled with a smile. "Sora." A silver necklace chimed as he extended his arm.
"Riku."
As he shook Sora's hand for the very first time, something inside Riku told him to forget about the book's resolution.
Climaxes suddenly seemed much more interesting.
