Alright you people, you'd better like this chapter, cause I do!(Grins) Yes, that's right, we get to the good stuff. If you don't like the SoraXRiku pairing, you'd better stop right now! You will notice that I upped the rating. That's because...well, I want to cuss dammit(laughs nervously)! And I guess cause the SXR stuff, the fact that Kuramasgirl keeps pointing out certain sentences that have meanings different from what I was thinking(and that this chapter has ones that are supposed to have underlying meanings...heh) and if the next chapter doesn't have anything worth making this story pg-13 then the last one better! I'm sorry if the strange amount of alliteration annoys you(I know it does for me) but it just turned out that way so...yeah. I thank Chrono for the review and I'm glad you think that the last chapter was good...though I still don't. Anyways, please read and enjoy, you should cause even my holy-Christian, guys-only-go-with-girls friend said she liked it O.O!
Chapter 5: Mixed Colors
"Now, this spell's only going to last for a day, so don't be surprised to suddenly find yourself back here. And, you should know that the Heartless will still be able to sense you, so there's no stopping them from taking you hearts." Merlin looked down at Sora and Riku with a very serious expression. Sora nodded, acknowledging what the wizard said and confirming that, even though his heart could be stolen, he was still going to go through with this. He turned his attention to Donald and Goofy, "Are you sure you're not going to come?"
"If the Heartless can still take your heart, we'll be here to make sure they don't." Goofy said, both him and Donald nodding in a triumphant manner, and the duck added in, "Besides, we're not the ones who ran off and got hurt."
Sora laughed and smiled gratefully at his friends. It was good to know they cared. He turned to Riku and grinned, "Guess it'll just be you and me then."
Riku smirked back, confidently stating, "Good, that means no one to get in my way of beating you at everything again." Sora's grin was traded with a smirk and a competitive flare sparked between them.
"Well then, go sit down somewhere so we can begin; preferably the bed, we don't want you falling asleep only to hit you thick skulls on something on the way down." Aerith removed herself from the mattress to be replaced by the two. One boy took one side and the remaining space was taken by the other.
"Alright then, your island home is where you want to go, right?" Sora nodded and, after a moment of unresponsiveness from Riku which Merlin just figured was because Sora had already answered for him, he pulled out his wand. He muttered a few words under his breath and the stick began to glow. A river of golden sparkles emitted from it and surrounded the two boys. Almost instantly Sora began to feel the effects of the spell and he stared at the gold flow with half lidded eyes, looking as if he were under some medication that had caused him to get drowsy. Riku's stubborn nature wouldn't allow him to go out like Sora and for a moment it seemed as if the spell wouldn't work, but eventually he submitted to the magic and both were sleeping soundly soon enough.
The sun was blaring overhead and gulls cried softly as they sat in the sky, gentle zephyrs caressing their wings and keeping them airborne. Two pairs of eyes slowly opened to meet their matches; a sky of the purest blue and a sea of a beautiful aquamarine hue. So they were back on Destiny Islands.
Riku found himself propped up against the base of the crooked Papou tree with Sora right next to him. The younger boy's face turned to him, his eyes hazy like he'd just woken up, After a moment he smiled brightly and in the cheeriest of tones chimed, "'Morning, Riku." He smiled back and gave a nod in his own for of a greeting.
The wind picked up slightly, tugging at their hair and carrying with it a salty ocean scent. Riku was amazed at how much this place resembled their home; every detail was in place, the seaside shack, the dock, the lonesome waterfall, he could even make out the vines decorating the entrance to the secret place. And yet, though it might have looked like home, he knew it wasn't because it didn't feel like home. He wondered if Sora noticed; that they were the only people and, even though the aura of the whole place was pleasant and serene, it lacked the usual cheeriness the island always had before.
The brown haired boy stood up and stretched, yawning widely before looking over the scene around him, "Wow, it really is home, isn't it?" He gave another famous smile and Riku thought he would due then and there. Seeing the happiness radiating from Sora's face made him feel like he was in an endless bliss. He felt like he was keeping his promise for once. He stood up and stretched a little himself, feeling small twinges of stiffness, and nodded, "Yeah, it is." He smiled lightly and his eyes lifted to the azure sky above.
He suddenly felt himself hit the ground and a light weight pinning him to it by his shoulders. He looked ahead of himself and a baffled expression crossed his face when his eyes found Sora's face hovering over his. The younger boy grinned childishly as she shouted, "You're it!" then jumped up and ran off. Riku sat there staring at the sky dumbly. You're it? What did he mean? He sat up and looked questioningly at Sora, who had stopped running half way across the bridge to the main part of the island.
"What, don't tell me you've forgotten hot to play tag. We haven't been away from the islands that long." There was a mocking smile on his face and amusement played in his eyes. Tag, that's right, they used to play it all the time. The confused look on Riku's face slowly curled into a smirk and he swiftly jumped off the ground then lunged himself into a sprint after Sora. The other gave a yelp, not expecting his friend to recover so quickly, and ran into the shack. Riku was amused by Sora's attempt to escape him and, after he crossed the bridge, leapt down onto the beach below then waited in front of the shack's other door for Sora.
The door swung open and Riku jumped through with arms reaching forward in hopes of connecting with Sora, but they didn't. And because Riku had been relying on Sora's weight to be there and hold him up, he stumbled into the shack. He managed to gain his balance before all his dignity was lost as he heard snickering behind him and the other boy now heading for the stairs to the shack's upper door. But he was stopped as a hand slammed against the wall behind him on either side. Sora squeaked reflexively, though he was laughing playfully, and his arms went up in front of his face, awaiting the tag that would proclaim him 'it'. When his giggles finally stopped and he was still waiting for the tag, he noticed Riku's slightly heavy and quickened breaths sounded rather close. But they weren't heavy and quick just because of the short chase, as Sora figured. It was also because Riku had realized the situation he had put himself in and how vulnerable Sora suddenly was. He wanted to do something, but what he didn't know; the feelings were so similar to something he'd felt before, but it was much stronger and all too confusing.
When Sora had gotten tired of waiting for Riku to tag him, he raised his head and moved his arms only to catch his breath in his lungs and push himself up against the wall, a light pink flush coloring his cheeks. Their faces were so close he could feel Riku's suddenly very loud breaths against him face. He suppressed a startled squeak as Riku slowly moved closer and though he tried to back up, he was already as far back on the wall as he was going to get. Their foreheads met first and the older boy pushed the younger's face up so that their noses were now connected too.
This entire time Sora had been unable to see Riku's face because his bangs were in the way, but now that they were so close he could see right through them and he wasn't sure how to feel about what he saw. Those so unnameably colored eyes seemed so empty, yet at the same time full of strangely gentle expressions; serenity, repose, and love...Was there really love? There was also confusion, like he wasn't sure why he was even doing this and Riku felt a pang of regret as he saw the startled and just as equally confused look in Sora's eyes, but he couldn't resist; it was like he had no control over his actions and at the same time, he wanted this to happen.
Once again the younger boy's face was lifted up and this time their lips met. It wasn't anything special or passionate, their lips just sat on top of each other for a moment before Riku broke away with a very slight smirk on his face, which made him look menacing with his hair hiding his eyes again.
"You're it." He muttered in a whispered voice. He hadn't even meant to say it, it just slipped and right after it did he was mentally cursing himself for it. Sora would have laughed, if it hadn't been him, that is. All he could think about right now was that his legs were starting to give in under him and having Riku right there breathing down his heck wasn't helping at all. To his relief, Riku pushed away and Sora thought he saw what looked like a blush trying to be hidden behind long silver bangs. Riku turned his back and went to the door, muttering a stuttered, "I'm sorry." before walking out.
Sora collapsed to the floor, finally able to breathe and his face burning from the immense blush on his cheeks. What had happened? It must be some kind of side effect from the spell or something; that just seemed too out of character for Riku. And at the same time, it felt right, or in the least comfortable. Sure, he had been as scared as a cornered prey animal, which he essentially was, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the way it had felt just a little. He soon found himself shaking thoughts from his head about what might have happened if that had gone any farther. This wasn't right! It felt right, but it just wasn't!
The Secret Place. It was the most obvious place to look for Riku, but knowing Sora, it would be the last place he'd think f. Which was why Riku now sat in the center of the small cavern, legs pulled to his chest and his head sitting on his knees. He didn't think Sora would come looking for him, not after what had just happened, but he wanted to be in the last place he's check, just in case he did come looking. And besides, he wanted to be here, the sounds of the wind whistling through holes in the roof and the waterfall echoing through the tunnel and into the cave were soothing his confused thoughts.
Why had he just kissed Sora? That was the question he was struggling to find the answer to. Sora was a guy and his best friend, if there was any love between them it was a brotherly love...So then, this was an incest too?
He sighed loudly in frustration and pulled his hands over his head, grabbing at hand fulls of his silver locks. It was aggravating to try and figure this all out and he wanted to stop thinking about it, but he couldn't. He couldn't stop thinking about having Sora's lips on his own, or how wonderful it was to be so close to Sora he could feel the heat radiating from his body, of the intoxicating scent the younger boy had. No matter how wrong it seemed and how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about it
He couldn't just sit around, he needed to be doing something, like running around or swimming of beating the ever-living-crap out of some poor, innocent tree, just something. He could look for Riku, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to find him yet, so he'd just look. He would go look for the other in all the places he was most likely not to be first so he wouldn't fins him, besides it's probably what's expected of him.
So Sora stood up on somewhat shaky legs, still recovering from the recent incident. He looked at the two doors of the shack and thought of where to go first. The dock. He didn't know why, but that seemed the best place to start, maybe because it was out in the open and too obvious. Then he'd go to the platform where Tidus would always practice his sword, then the tree house, then the other side of the island. He went through the list of all the places for him to check as he exited the shack and headed for the first place he was to look until he thought of the last one; the Secret Place. On his way to the dock he glanced at his final destination and sighed; hopefully by the time he was done looking he'd be ready to go in and find Riku.
A hand brushed across the old, childish drawings, bringing memories of early childhood. Riku had always known that he was happier before Kairi came along, before then he had Sora all to himself and, though she was a friend, when it came down to it she was just something to get in his way. His eyes crossed the little picture by the handleless door of Sora and Kairi and he didn't mean to glare at it when he saw the papou between them, but it made him so angry. He should have been happy that Sora had found someone he wanted to share his life with, but instead he was jealous; he wanted to be that person. Then the thought crossed his mind that Sora didn't know about this, that it was Kairi's own fantasy and his face grew more stoic, but the thought that this wasn't just Kairi's work still nagged at the back of his mind.
He decided not to look over at that area of the cave, so instead he looked at the rest. It was almost impossible to miss the similarity between the drawings and recent things, such as; there was one that looked like the duck that always traveled with Sora, only disfigured a little, then one that resembled a graveyard in that Halloween place, and a castle, which could have every well been the one Sora's two comrades came from, but to Riku, it looked more like Hollow Bastion. That one he had to turn away from as well; that place would always house only bad memories for him, And when he did turn away, he locked eyes with the person he was trying to avoid, but seeing Sora's face made him indescribly happy at the same time. Riku had been so deep in thought he hadn't even noticed him walk into the cave.
The younger boy had an odd smile on his face, like it didn't belong there, or it was just strange to make. It only made him irresistibly cuter though as he stepped deeper into the cavern, "They're kinda funny, aren't they?" He took up Riku's previous task of looking the wall art over, "You know, I was thinking about them not too long ago. It was almost like we knew what was coming without knowing it; like these pictures held our very fate in them." Sora had just echoed Riku's thoughts and, though this was an awkward attempt tp push back the all too current happenings, Riku nodded. He wanted to act like that had never happened, not forget it, just pretend it was all something like a bad dream. That's what it really was, in essences.
Riku sat back in the center of the cavern, only pulling on knee to his chest this time, and stared at the blank wood door in front of him. Sora walked over and sat down next to Riku staring at the door too for a moment before letting his head fall onto Riku's shoulder, mixing messy brown spikes with silky silver strands. A stray smile found its way onto Riku's face; well then, perhaps they wouldn't pretend...If that's what Sora wanted.
