Forbidden
A Kingdom Hearts Fanfic
Chapter Thirteen
Riku's eyes slowly opened as the television in front of him blared loudly. Even with that, the first thing he did was just close his eyes again and pull a pillow over his head. He was lying in his small apartment on the only couch he had right in the living room-kitchen, which was the first room to see as soon as anyone walked in.
He tried to ignore everything and just go back to drifting, but now all he could focus on the sound. With a groan he forced himself to sit up, feeling a small strain in his back from sleeping on such a rugged sofa. He reached for the remote right next to him and turned off the television as soon as he found the right button. Finally, some silence.
'Sunday,' was his first thought, next picking up the digital clock and checking the time. '7:00. God, it's way too early.'
Everything he needed on a daily basis was right there on a tiny table in front of him. It had a busted leg, one that needed to be propped up with a book to match the height of the others, but at least it still worked. He barely had anything that was in complete working condition; on his salary, he felt lucky to be able to afford anything at all.
Right on cue, as if someone knew when he was going to wake up in the morning Riku heard a loud knock. Instead of answering it he laid himself back on the couch and shut his eyes even tighter, pretending to be asleep this time so the intruder would go away. At the same time however, he knew it wouldn't work. This person was one of the most persistent of any people he knew. "I'm not home. Go away."
He heard a small laugh from the other side of the door and as the knob turned, in walked Sora with a grin on his face. He seemed to do this every morning now, since Riku refused to go anywhere near Sora's house.
Riku never wanted to go over to that house ever again. It wasn't Cloud, or Aerith, or even Sora that bothered him. It was their mother. She reminded exactly of what he would have felt like had he been allowed to stay back home so he could feel that gauche, unsettling tension in the air every single day. There was no way he was going to walk right into something like that again, especially if he could see everyone he actually liked in other places.
"Come on," Sora said as he leaned his stomach over the arm of the couch, balancing his body as he tried to purposefully shake Riku awake. He knew he was annoying the older of the two by doing so, and it only amused him more. "I thought country bumpkins had energy so they could work in the fields."
"Bite me," Riku retorted coldly before pulling the covers over his head.
Things were hard to get used to after that. At first whenever he looked at Sora, mainly when he either delivered the paper or came by after school to the post office, all he could think about was everything that happened to him all at once. It was something not easy to get used to at all. But at the same time, Sora never brought it up or even acted like Riku knew. He would always just smile and wave, or somehow get caught up in a conversation that would have them arguing like normal.
'Still,' Riku thought, at last shoving Sora off the side of the couch and stretching his arms above his head. 'It's been over a month since then . . . I guess things are fine. I feel fine.'
He really felt okay.
Sora stuck out his tongue as he caught his footing on the ground and pulled a newspaper -the last one- out of his large pants pocket and threw it on the table with the rest of Riku's things. There were four other papers from the days before, all wrapped perfectly and untouched. Instead of getting annoyed by it he went to the side of the room that was the kitchen and pulled out two cups of Instant Ramen along with two glasses, not even bothering to ask since he had done it before. Quickly he filled the two glasses with water and put them both in a small microwave at the same time, setting them to heat for a few minutes.
"So, anything new?" Sora asked, leaning against the tiny kitchen counter. It was more like an old dresser someone threw out. "Can't say there's much going for me."
"Me either," Riku replied nonchalantly, acting as if he were barely paying any attention to the conversation. He leaned forward and pushed the five newspapers on his floor and picked up a small brochure, holding it up in Sora's direction to make sure it caught his eye. "This is the only thing exciting."
Sora squinted his eyes to read the title, then he pouted. "'Golden Life'? That place for people who are messed up in the head? Cloud and Aerith have been trying to get me to go there for years."
"That's why I have it," the older of the two replied, flipping through the small pages and scanning through it. He shrugged and grinned. "I'm supposed to 'enlighten' you. Convince you to go."
"You know those places are full of shit, right?"
"Why do you think I haven't gone to one?"
"Why would you need to go to one?"
Riku paused, drawing in his breath and keeping it. For a while he was being careless, a little too friendly. He did trust Sora; he really did, or he trusted him more than anyone else. But still, no one around this place had any business knowing his past or why he was in the city in the first place, just as he had told himself over and over again.
Finally he sighed, lightly closing his eyes and smiling a bit. 'I almost really slipped . . .'
Sora decided to ignore Riku's actions. For the time that he had known him, he had come to the conclusion that Riku was just plain weird in all aspects. It was probably what drew himself to like him so much, as a friend more than anything. Because he came from the country knowing nothing of whom he was or how others generally treated him, he found a sort of comfort in coming to him.
'Of course, he knows all that now,' Sora thought, turning around as he heard the beeping sound for the microwave. He turned around and pulled out the glasses, then he opened the two Ramen cups to pour the water in. He grinned. 'Still, he's not acting any different. He's been an asshole ever since I met him, but probably the best asshole out there at the same time.'
Glancing over to another part of the small apartment, Sora found two doors hidden in the back corner. One was tightly shut, but the other one had a crack in it. Looking back at Riku and confirming that he went to lie down again ('Lazy,' Sora thought he snuck over to the two doors, just pushing the one that was already open enough to slip inside.
As soon as he saw it, he had known it was Riku's actually room, the one he was supposed to be sleeping on. It was completely messy, and even after over a month and a half moving boxes were still piled haphazardly everywhere and there wasn't a bed set up for him to sleep him; only an old, worn out mattress.
"Wherever he came from, it couldn't have been much worse than this," Sora muttered as something on the mattress caught his eye. On top of a single pillow was a large, thick album, already opened with pictures pressed in and hanging out all over the place, as if Riku were still working on getting them all in place. The room was dark and Sora wasn't going to risk turning it on, but he could see well enough.
He sat down on the mattress and pulled the photo album on his lap, suddenly looking at the pictures in admiration. The very first thing to get his attention was a young, ginger-haired girl with smiling violet eyes and creamy white skin. Every photo had her in it, sometimes with a group of others laughing and grinning, but without a doubt she was the main focus of them all.
'Wow,' Sora thought, turning the page backwards towards the beginning the album and finding more of the girl. 'She's really cute for a girl . . .'
One picture I particular slid out of its place as he turned the page, the first one that Sora saw with both him and a much more cheerful looking Riku. He had his arm around the young girl's neck as if pulling her into a sort of friendly hug, and she was holding out a cell phone towards the camera. Sora turned it over and found writing on the back.
'Happy 13th Birthday! Kairi's new cell. Better take care of it, 'cause I paid a lot of money for it!'
"Kairi," Sora whispered, the name rolling off his tongue. On the lower corner of the picture was an actual number, one he assumed was for the cell phone. 'I wonder who she is.'
X x x x x
Yeay! Sora's seen Kairi. :D Now the story will start to shift more towards Riku, his past, and all that great stuff. Hope it doesn't turn out too dorky. XD I'm trying! Oh, and the way he's making the Instant Ramen (Maruchan! XD) is the way I make it . . . I dunno if there's any other way, actually.
And I don't blame Riku for being so lazy on a Sunday. I always am too! XD Sora's the kind that gets up at 5:30 and wants everyone else to get with the program too. :D Hmmm . . . what do you call those places where people get treated for things like self-mutilation? I'm not sure, and I made up the name of the place too. XD lol!
Sooo . . . not very eventful, but leading up to stuff. Hope you enjoyed this!
Kage-chan- Thanks so much:D Hope you like this chapter and more of your questions get answered as time goes on. Keep on asking different questions, too- It might remind me of something I forgot all about! XD
MeiHikari- Ack, same here! XD I'm like one of those people who sees an abandoned kitty on the street and can't stand to leave it there. It always makes me happy to help people who are sad or are in need. XD lol! –Hugs Sora like he's a plushie- :D
LiLi-Sama- Thanks a lot:D Yup, Cloud and Aerith both know everything while their mom is completely oblivious. XD Evil lady, evil lady! But Cloud and Sora have a weird relationship, since Cloud is a homophobe. XD But he obviously cares of Sora a lot!
lol, Kairi really is angsty in this one . . . I made her so OOC. XD But it's fun to make her that way! Her old goody personality should come up soon though; maybe in a couple of chapters! Look out for that. –Hugs- Thanks for the compliment on Aerith! She doesn't come up as much as I'd like her to in this story (Hugs Aerith fan! xD) so when she is there I try to put her in as much as possible. Plus, she's Cloud's world! And they're having a baby! Yeay! –Dances- :D
Kia Saphia- A cliché? Like in the story, or in real life? I really have been centering it a lot around Sora on purpose though. XD I want to get 'his story' out of the way first, to sort of set the relationship boundary between him and Riku. They're not actually closer because of it or anything, but it's more on the slow development on Riku because he's sort of being forced to know the life of another person, and even more so an unusual and some would say 'disturbing' life. :D See what I mean? Oh, I hope! XD I'm no good with describing stuff. Lol!
No worries. It's not happening immediately, but Riku and Kairi will be reunited. :D What's gonna happen then though? I can't say. XD I'm still figuring out the details myself!
BLACKSHEEEP- lol! –Hugs back- Thanks a lot! I hope you continue to read this story!
Griever Weapon- Continuing! XD
Sky-Pirate-Tat- -Hugs- Thanks so much! XD Ack, I can't stand it when that happens. Especially when you think it's something really important and it's on the tip of your tongue:D Kairi will have support from someone later on the in the story (Well not later . . . actually, really soon!) so no worries. :D She'll finally find someone to lean on so she doesn't have to angst. XD Yeay!
Ack! Me? A pro Writer? –heart- Gosh, have I ever! I dreamed of being a writer, but unfortunately I can only think of fanfictions to write. XD I like thinking up my own stories, but sometimes I think they're too 'manga' stylized. I actually wanted to take this story here and re-do the names and some parts as a real story, but at times I think it's too corny. XD Like General Hospital corny! Lol!
akuma-river- Yeah, I know. T.T Poor Kairi! She's gonna get help, now worries. :D But from whom? Dun-Dun-Duuun! That's the secret! XD Truth be told, I actually was considering taking her down the same path as Sora and Leon, to sort of make a rhythm, but then I thought that'd make the story too much about cutting. XD And as one reader said, I've already focused on it enough! Know what I mean:D
SimpleNClean92- -Hugs- Thank you:D And of course I'll read your story. You've been a constant reviewer for this story, and it makes me so happy! I'd like to see what you have.