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By now, I have at least one review. My ego is satisfied. Chaptuh two: (and yes, it's R/S shounen-ai)

Moribund

Beautiful Eyes

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Riku hadn't changed much, I thought. For my benefit, he had changed out of the dark clothing he was wearing back at the Lighthouse, and wore something vastly similar to his old Destiny Islands garb. He was just as beautiful as he had been back on the island, with the exception of the fact that he was a bit pale for lack of island sun. But he still had a smoothly muscled body, sleek and flowing with motion. In fact, I thought as I sat in hiding, he was actually pretty sexy, and—

I stopped my mind on the brink of thinking Riku had a nice ass. I could feel my cheeks burning as I realized the implications of what I had been thinking about, and had to turn away to keep him from seeing me. But, thankfully, he was still focused on the Rising Falls. His aqua-green eyes were narrowed from behind the silver strands of hair, searching the quiet falls (or are they rises?) for signs of intelligent life. Heartless were darting about nearby the entrance to the castle, but we didn't necessarily consider them particularly intelligent.

In the months we had taken to heal, I had noticed that more and more of these uncomfortable feelings were cropping up around me. I was growing increasingly nervous to be around him, and I couldn't really figure out why.

Finally he turned to beckon to me, but I looked away just as he did, feeling a hot flush creep across my cheeks again. "Sora," he said softly, craning his neck to see me. I didn't turn, paralyzed with fear and raising my hands to cup my cheeks in the vain hope that this stupid blush would just go away.

A small block of ice hit my shoulder and, without thinking, I turned. Riku beckoned to me fervently. Hoping the flush wouldn't return, I crawled up next to him. "No no, stay down!" he hissed, pressing me against the ice with one arm. My cheeks simmered with the threat of breaking out into a brilliant red. I couldn't think of the last time we had been this close. I hadn't been this anxious...I don't think...

Riku pointed down at the water. "See them?" he asked, looking at me again. My brain stopped working. I stared at his beautiful face, at a loss, and wondered why his lips were moving. He sighed in irritation. "Sora—down there."

Right. Down there. I sluggishly turned my head to look at the two figures conversing under cover of water (and the general fact that no one in their right mind would come here). One of them I recognized as Maleficent, who was supposed to be dead, and therefore was not. That seemed to be one of a villain's little idiosyncrasies, right up there with managing to fail in killing the hero. But next to her was the person I hadn't expected to see ever again in this life. "Ansem?!" I exclaimed, very nearly toppling from the ledge. Almost before I had finished the first syllable, Riku's hand was clamped tightly over my mouth. When I regained my bearings, he released me, and we leaned forward to listen to what they were saying.

Silence. For a moment I thought this was a break in the conversation, but then I saw Maleficent's lips moving. "Riku, I don't think we're close enough," I whispered, realizing then that it probably wouldn't matter if I talked. They obviously hadn't heard my near-shout from before.

"Shhh!" Riku hissed at me, his eyes focused on a Heartless that looked like it was trying to pull on its antennae and hop on one foot at the same time. I watched it for a while, trying to connect it with our current focus. In the process, I got distracted by Riku's eyes, and stayed focused on them for a long time. And suddenly, they were looking back at me. "What're you staring at?" Riku asked me in an undertone, his silver brows lending his beautiful eyes a confused look.

"Uh—nothing, nothing..." I murmured softly, dropping my eyes. Having done so, they landed on his lips, and I had to turn away very quickly as a brilliant flush spread across my face. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like soon the blush would turn into a beacon that would alert Ansem and Maleficent. Realizing this, I had the presence of mind to press my burning face down on the ledge, and felt the ice begin to melt almost instantaneously.

"If you can't quit blushing, they'll see us," Riku told me after a while.

Well, I did say MAYBE it was just me.

"What's up with you, anyway?" From the sound of his voice, he was watching the Heartless again.

"Why are you watching the Heartless?" I asked quickly, bringing my face up from the ledge and hoping that it was no longer burning. It seemed very wet and very numb.

"Maleficent and Ansem are speaking in an archaic kind of language that I can't understand," Riku whispered. "That Heartless is translating for a congregation somewhere."

"What's he saying?"

"He's mentioned a lot about someone named 'Axel,'" Riku explained, frowning.

"Oh." I suddenly felt very proud. "I fought him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. At the end there was a bit of an accident..." I trailed off, touching the tips of my fingers together in mock-guilt.

"That explains a lot," Riku told me, turning back to the Heartless. "Maleficent sounds very angry for some reason."

I concentrated a little harder on the Heartless, as though I could pierce the secret of the language he was speaking. That didn't quite work, so I asked Riku. "What has he said about that guy at the Lighthouse?"

"I think he's the one they're calling 'The Light One with Dark Heart,'" Riku explained. "The name's a little shorter in that language."

This sparked my curiosity. I hadn't known that the Heartless had a language, and I'd certainly never heard it spoken before. Well, maybe I had at some point in battle—but I never knew what it meant. "What's it sound like?"

Riku paused, looking for a moment like he might throw up, and then managed to make a guttural rasping noise. "Something like that," he told me. "My Heartless is a little off—oh crap."

I looked up to see that the translating Heartless and the two figures all looking up at us. I understood how Riku felt, but there were a few other words I might have used in addition to "crap." While I was fantasizing about curse words, Riku stood up; clearly the more intelligent move. He seized my arm and ran for the ship. I kept up as best I could, even though the ice was slick and I didn't always know which direction he was going to take. My heart rang out in my ears, shrieking obscenities as I heard a rush of air from behind us. At any moment, we might be snatched into darkness. What would they do to Riku?

Suddenly, the unthinkable happened.

Riku let out a pained yell as he slid on the ice, seizing his left ankle with one hand and pounding the ground with the other. His teeth gritted with pain as I bent beside him. "Can you walk?" I asked him, glancing back nervously at our pursuers.

"I don't think so...bone must've snapped. Go on, I'll make it back to you," he told me.

That could not happen. If Maleficent got Riku again, I knew he would be forever out of my reach. Riku knew that too—I could see it in his eyes. "Don't lie to me, Riku," I told him. I felt unusually scrawny and helpless, but if I couldn't get him out of here, I didn't want to leave. With another fervent glance backward, I slipped one hand under his knees and another around his back. I braced myself and, with some struggling, lifted him from the ice. I almost whooped with joy. Riku, although he was heavier than I was, was not so heavy that I couldn't get him out of a tight spot.

I started running, and found that inertia actually made the job easier. My uncommonly large yellow shoes pounded against the ice as I ran, and more than once I almost tripped because of them. "Oh, dammit..." I muttered finally. "Go to hell!" I kicked one of them off, sending it careening down the ice. There was a gratifying scream from Maleficent. The next one drew a collective screech from a few Heartless. I resisted the impulse to look back and see exactly what had happened to them, instead imagining Maleficent standing still with my yellow shoe stuck over her fat, horned head.

It was truly an endearing sight.

But another problem was peeking over my shoulder in the guise of Ansem shooting flames at us. This melted the ice, and that was a problem. I was already looking at frostbite because of my lost shoes, and if we fell into icy water now...I shivered. If we fell, we'd get caught, and that was the end of it.

Another unthinkable thing happened.

I let out a shout as my uncovered toe crashed against an icy rock. Riku flew out of my arms, sliding down along the ice, and I followed on my stomach, reaching out to him. By some stroke of unbelievable luck, we slid right through the open doors of Crasher. Riku slapped the button to slam them shut seconds after I was inside, and I rushed to the control panel. I had never been so happy to see a Gummi ship before. "Riku, I think we're safe," I called back to him when we were off the ground. Below us, Maleficent and Ansem were staring upward, their faces like ripe lemons.

"Great. Now where's the sick bay?" Riku replied, the pain evident in his voice. I set the ship on autopilot and came back to where he was resting next to the door. With my remaining strength, I lifted him again and brought him to the medical ward. Once there, I took out the necessary Potions and braces, and (with difficulty) pulled the bone back into place. It took a little while though, and there were several times when Riku was almost crying due to the pain. "Thanks," he said to me when I was finished, relaxing. He lay back against the cot, closing his eyes. "I never expected that kind of thing from you, Sora," he said slowly. "It took a lot of courage to stick by me, and I appreciate that." He smirked without opening his eyes. "Not to mention the strength it took to get me all the way here."

I smiled. "It was nothing, Riku. You would've done the same for me," I told him, placing a hand absently on his arm.

His smirk faltered a bit, and he reached up to grasp my wrist. "I wish I could believe that."

"Mmm..." I mumbled uncertainly, feeling a flush dart across my cheeks again. I was glad Riku wasn't watching me, because this time I knew he'd recognize my nervousness for what it was. The question was, what would he do about it? The answer frightened me. For all I knew, he'd feel uncomfortable around me after that, and our friendship, void of attention, would eventually dissipate. I didn't want something like that to happen. So the answer to what I would do about it was simple. I'd smuggle these feelings away, hold them deep in my heart, and never let him know they exist.

I jumped as Riku let out a soft moan, but then I realized that he'd fallen asleep. I gently extricated my hand from his, and hesitated. He was beautiful when he was sleeping, and his soft pink lips, turned slightly up in the remnant of the smile he'd shown me, were making my heart sing. My own lips were begging me to lean down—just a little peck, it couldn't hurt—

Just then I realized what I was doing. I stood up, backing away quickly. Again fear stole across my heart. If this happened when I was around him, then I couldn't be around him. But if I stayed around him, he might find out, and then I wouldn't be able to be around him. Whatever I did, it looked like it would lead to the eventual end of our relationship. I sighed. I'd have to sort this all out in the morning—it was just too tiresome.

I turned away and clicked off the light as I started out the door. " 'Night, Riku," I said to him, pausing in the doorway. I heard him shift from behind me, and turned to look at him. Two beautiful green eyes were slightly open, glowing softly in the light from the door.

"Thank you...Sora..." he said softly, and then closed his eyes again.

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A/N: My egotistical self has more than one review. You're too kind!

Riku: -- You just know he's aching on the inside because he expected three hundred. He's already got a swelled head—

Dai: SHUT UP!

Riku: (punch)

Dai: --; I hate my life.

(BTW: Draw a picture of Maleficent with Sora's shoe over her head and I'll kiss you. XD)

Review Replies:

Yin Yue: I don't understand why no one has reviewed yet. I think you've gotten Sora's character spot on, and I love the fact that you decided to turn Blondie (whom I dislike quite a bit) into Sora's Shadow. :D It's a very nice touch. I look forward to seeing more of this from you!

Dai: (is humbled) Yah, I don't really understand either (reviews), but I'm trying to keep my ego down. waves flag of humbleness Blondie was more or less a spur-of-the-moment thing, because I really didn't know what I wanted to do with him. But, yeh, I think it worked out. I hope I won't disappoint you!

Taunting: Hi there! I don't usually read stories written in first person, but I couldn't resist with this one. haha, love the way you portray the interaction between Sora and Riku. Would be interesting to see how you develop the story!

Dai: Sorry, I just have an overwhelming compulsion to write in Sora's POV. And yeah, I'm trying to make the interaction kinda natural and believable. The manly scar will return! XD