Disclaimer: yadda yadda yadda nothing belongs to me, etc. I think we covered this in the first chapter
Welcome to the next chapter of Ring The Bells, The Witch Is Dead! Although I'm sure you know what you're reading. I hope you enjoy, and leave me a review!
I'd like to thank Kara Heart, Queen of the Insects, mango smoothies, Lack Thereof, and pikazim for their lovely and encouraging reviews! Thank-you muchly, guys. This is very much appreciated! Yeah... the horny guys are from our math class. And yes, I know that most freshmen take algebra 1, but Riku isn't a freshman. I just wanted Riku and Sora to be in the same first period class, and that was the only thing I could think of. Of course, this is implying that Sora is really smart, which kinda conflicts with his cannon image...
OH! This chapter is where the story gets its pg-13 rating, you have been warned!
Riku dejectedly stirred his milkshake with a straw and watched the 'happy couple' coo over each other. When he saw Kairi grasp Sora's hand and lean against his side, he wanted to puke.
Riku scowled. He hated that girl. Why couldn't she just disappear? Yes... that would be wonderful. And then Sora would be terribly sad, and who would be there to comfort him? Why, Riku, of course! And then they could live a wonderful and happy life together, but more importantly - without the red-haired bimbo.
Kairi looked at her watch, then stood up. "Sorry, guys. I have to go, my parents are taking me to see some kinda play or something..." She smiled, waved, and left to a chorus of good-natured good-bye's. Riku narrowed his eyes as he watched her retreating back. He hated that girl.
He hovered over his drink, not looking up, as Sora, Wakka, and Tidus talked about bananas and snow and lessons and a bizarre mix of the three. Naturally, he missed the concerned looks that he was getting from his friends. From the moment that they had entered the Smoothie Hut an hour ago, he hadn't said a word. He fumed as he thought of Sora and Kairi.
"That BITCH!" he exclaimed suddenly. Sora, Wakka, and Tidus's heads turned with a snap to look at him.
"...I guess you could say that... but isn't that a bit extreme?" asked Wakka after a while.
Riku turned to him with a puzzled look in his eyes. "...What?"
Tidus stepped in to answer the question. "Britney Spears... We were just talking about how she got divorced after being married for only a couple hours..."
"..." Riku raised an eyebrow. "I have to go." He stood up and walked regally to the door of the Smoothie Hut. His three friends looking after him in surprise.
Sora stood up. "Riku, where are you going?" he called. Without even turning around Riku raised his hand in a makeshift wave before leaving the building. Sora sat down slowly. "What was that about?"
Riku strolled through the streets with his hands in his pockets. He looked around idly as he walked farther and farther away from the Smoothie Hut. Something caught his attention when his eyes skimmed past the window of a small French restaurant.
Riku found that he couldn't look away from the window. Instead, he drew forward with hesitant steps as his hands left his pockets to press up against the glass. The occupants of the restaurant took no notice. A boy and a girl sat at the table by the window, they were smiling and talking animatedly. Then the boy leaned over and kissed the girl, which in turn buried her hands in his hair to pull him closer.
The girl was Kairi.
Riku gasped. She was definitely not seeing a play with her parents! She was cheating on his Sora! Oh she will pay, thought Riku, oh how she will pay...
"So, Kairi, how was the play?" asked Riku with feigned disinterest. 'The gang' was sitting in their favorite hangout spot, the Smoothie Hut, once again.
Kairi looked startled. "Oh! The play?"
"Yes. The one that you went to with your parents yesterday. Which one was it?"
"It was... Romeo and Juliet." Only Riku noticed the slight uncertainess in her voice. "It really isn't worth mentioning..." Kairi continued.
"Romeo and Juliet...? That's quite impossible. The play that's currently being performed in the Destiny Islands theatre is Fall From Proust."
Kairi looked a little taken back before replying sharply. "Well, it must be possible, Riku. My parents and I saw it."
Riku narrowed his eyes. And now she was lying through her teeth. He smiled one of his seemingly friendly, but totally empty, smiles and dropped the subject with a quiet "Of course." Sora shot Riku a why-are-you-badgering-my-girlfriend look that only made Riku angrier at the red-haired girl. She was ruining his and Sora's friendship. It was at that moment that Riku decided what he would do to Kairi. Yes, Sora would be upset for a while, but it would all be for Sora's own good in the end.
It was Friday night and the sky was rapidly growing dark. Kairi was sitting on the paopu tree, waiting. Riku had said that he had something to show her, and to meet him here. She smiled and swung her legs. Now was her chance to rub her and Sora's relationship into Riku's face again. She grinned, and suddenly her eyes went wide, and she fell off the trunk of the tree.
Riku was smiling maniacally as he walked over the bridge to the small island. His shoes made almost no noise on the sand as he neared the slim figure sitting on the paopu tree. Kairi was humming softly, and it made the already wide smile on Riku's face even wider. He had a large, heavy shovel slung over his shoulder.
He moved directly behind Kairi and slowly grasped the shovel tightly in both hands. He raised the shovel over the head of his unsuspecting victim, then swung with all of his might.
The shovel made a dull crack as it hit her head. She made a soft noise, then fell off of the tree. Riku stood behind her, grinning.
He dropped the shovel, then went around the tree. He checked the girl's vital signs. She had no pulse. Riku picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. He then picked up the shovel and headed to the secret place, whistling a merry tune.
When he reached the entrance he dropped Kairi's body roughly to the ground, then bent down so that he could get into the entrance. He reached behind him and grabbed his dead friend, dragging her into the secret place after him. After this was done, he returned for the shovel.
He picked up the shovel and began digging. It didn't take long for Riku to dig a hole big enough to fit Kairi's body into it, she was very slim, after all. He quickly dumped her into the hole, and filled it back in with dirt. He patted the dirt thoughtfully. The witch was dead! Riku clapped his hands gleefully at a job well done. Before leaving the secret place he paused and looked around. His eyes stopped on the drawing of Sora and Kairi giving each other a paopu fruit. He picked up a rock and walked up to the drawing. He crossed out the picture of Kairi, stepped back to admire his work, then moved forward and crossed it out some more. After a while all that was left of Kairi's picture was a white spot. Riku smiled, grabbed the shovel, then left. Riku all out laughed as he put the shovel up on his shoulder again.
Oh, yes. Life would be good without the red-haired bimbo.
On Tuesday, Riku woke up feeling refreshed. He was in a wonderful mood! The witch was dead, and the gang was meeting today, which meant that Riku would finally get to see the now-single Sora. Of course Sora didn't know that he was single⦠but that wasn't such a big a problem.
Riku rolled out of bed eagerly. He padded bare-footed across the cold floor, took a speedy shower, then threw on his usual outfit. As he was walking out the door his hair was still damp, his breath smelled minty-fresh, the air was warm, and the birds were singing.
Yes, he had been right. Life was wonderful without the witch.
It took him some time to walk to the Smoothie Hut, so when he arrived he was a bit late. He sat down across from Sora with the question "...so where's the bimbo?"
"The bimbo?" asked Sora blankly.
"He means Kairi, man," explained Wakka.
"Kairi? Why would you call her that?" Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka looked at Sora as if he was crazy. Apparently Sora was the only one who hadn't noticed Riku's dislike of his girlfriend. "I haven't seen her at all..." continued Sora. He was obviously distraught. He didn't notice that he was ripping open more and more sugar packets over his already-sweet smoothie. Finally Riku slid the glass away and pulled the sugar packets from Sora's fingers. He called a waiter and ordered another smoothie for Sora and a coffee for himself. The waiter nodded and took the ruined smoothie back to the kitchen. After this was done, Riku turned back to his best friend.
"Sora, relax." Apparently Sora hadn't even realized that he was no longer holding the sugar packet. His hands were still performing the motions of pouring sugar into a smoothie. Riku uncontiously counted the number of imaginary packets that Sora was going through. 23... 24... 25... 26...
"But Riku! I haven't seen her since Friday! That's... four days! She missed our date to go roller-blading. She loves roller-blading!" Sora didn't even look up as he said these words, but looked at the table where his imaginary sugar was piling up.
Riku reached over and took Sora's hands in his own, successfully stilling their frantic motions. Sora looked up into Riku's face.
"I'm sure she's fine, Sora. Relax, it's not the end of the world." Riku saw Sora's face soften.
"Yeah... Yeah, I guess you're right," replied Sora.
"Well, guys. We have to go, Wakka and Tidus are teaching me to play blitzball," said Selphie with a wink to Riku.
"What? What are you-" began Tidus before he was cut off by Selphie's elbow connecting with his ribcage. He glared at her before telling Sora to stand up, then sliding out of his seat. Before leaving, Selphie winked at Riku again. "Good luck with him," she whispered. She knew what Riku was trying to do, and supported him all the way. Her boyfriend was stolen by Kairi once, and Selphie thought that Kairi should have the benefit of the same experience.
Once they were alone, Riku turned to the oblivious Sora. "Sora," began the silver-haired boy, "I think that we should talk about Kairi."
Sora looked up into Riku's eyes. "What- Kairi? What about Kairi? Do you know where she is?"
"Yes, I do know where she is. She's buried in the secret place under a foot of dirt."
"I want to talk to you about something that I noticed..." said Riku. He continued as Sora looked eagerly at him, "I noticed that she seemed a bit... distant lately."
"Distant? What do you mean?"
"Well, whenever you two were together, wasn't she constantly looking at her watch?"
Sora blinked. "Well... yes. But that doesn't mean anything." He sounded uncertain, as if he was trying to convince himself with the comment.
"Actually, that means that she's bored and or eager to go somewhere else."
"How do you know?"
"The Books, Sora! The Books! Book seven, page 326, body language." Sora grumbled a bit but then nodded. The Books were never wrong. On his thirteenth birthday Riku received a set of nine extremely detailed encyclopedias, and after that he became rather obsessed with studying them and then quoting passages from them at his friends.
"So what exactly are you saying, Riku?"
"I'm saying that she's... not quite as interested in dating you as she seemed to be a month ago."
"So... do you think that she's avoiding me?"
Riku nodded solemnly. It was only lying if you actually said anything, right?
"I think that you should forget about Kairi, Sora."
"Forget... I-I think you're right, Riku." Riku nodded in approval, and then leaned forward.
"So. Now that we're over that. How would you like to go surfing?"
"I'd love to go surfing!" Sora and Riku stood up and walked out of the Smoothie Hut. "You do know that I can't surf... Right, Riku?"
Riku and Sora were sitting on the Paopu Tree, watching the sunset. Riku was looking distractedly off at the clouds on the horizon. It was Sunday evening, and it was wonderful. Sora had spent most of the week with Riku, and was starting to see something where before he had seen nothing. He started realizing that he was ... attracted to Riku. It seemed to him that his attraction wasn't one-sided. Even now, Sora was acutely aware of Riku's arm resting lightly over his shoulders, pulling him closer to Riku's side. Sora relaxed and leaned on Riku with a sigh.
This was what showed Riku that he was at the last stage of operation "Seduce Sora." He had done it! And now all he had to do was to make sure...
Riku pulled away from Sora and grasped his friend's shoulders, turning Sora gently to face him. "You see, Sora, there's something that I've been meaning to tell you for the past week..." Sora looked at him with questioning eyes. "You see, I really like you..." Riku trailed off, then looked straight into Sora's eyes. "As more then a friend."
Sora sat stunned for a moment, just looking at Riku. And then his sky-blue eyes lit up with a smile. "I like you too, Riku."
Sora blushed and looked down. Suddenly he looked up as he remembered something. "As more then just a friend," he added hastily. Riku smiled and tucked a lock of brown hair behind Sora's ear, but after he did this, his hand lingered on Sora's face.
"So..." Riku's voice was almost a whisper. "Now that we know that we both like each other... How would you like to go out sometime...?"
Sora was blushing profusely now. "O-of course," he stuttered nervously.
"It's a date, then..." Riku's voice trailed off as he leaned towards Sora. The smaller brown-haired boy turned up his face and his eyes fluttered closed. Sora and Riku's lips softly touched-
"Sora, you BASTARD! I was dead for only a week and already you're moving on?"
Dun dun duuuuuun. Has Kairi come back from the dead? Is she angry? What is she going to do? And more importantly, will Sora and Riku survive?
So anyway, sorry about the cliff hanger. -laughs- no, I'm really not... So stay tuned for the next chapter, oh, and please review!
