Disclaimer: Still don't own any Kingdom Hearts stuff, darn.
A/N: I think I managed to update a little quicker this time. I can't believe how long this story is so far. Thanks for all the support you guys!
Much Love
Don't Question Reality
"So where are we headed?" "Outside. I want to avoid my room for a little while. Cloud doesn't seem too happy at the moment." Riku stuffed his hands in his pockets, choosing not to comment on Axel's lifestyle. He was sure he didn't want anything to do with whatever it was that went on between Axel and Cloud. "I never really thought things would work out the way they did. I kind of hoped they would, but never thought it would happen." "Yea, life's weird that way." "After all this time he finally notices me."
"Seems a bit edgy to me. He's not one for the spotlight is he?" Riku had to laugh at this. "No, I don't think he would go out in public at all if I didn't drag him around all the time." Riku found a spot on the ground, and proceeded to lay down. Luckily the clouds blocked the sun out of his eyes. He had somehow managed to leave his favorite pair of sunglasses at his house. They were probably setting on his nightstand gathering dust.
"Back on the island we would hang out. Just me and him. He never really cared for the large crowds. I guess I wasn't too fond of them myself. We would always hang out on the far edge of the beach where no one bothered to visit." Riku squinted his eyes as the sun tried to shine through the clouds. "It was nice that way. Only sometimes some of the others would come down to see us. It's not that I don't like them, but they always distracted Sora. I know this is probably going to sound stupid, but I've kind of always wanted to have Sora's attention all to myself."
xXx
Silence. "Axel?" No response. Riku looked over to find Axel laying on the grass with his eyes closed. His arms were behind his head, effectively ruling out the need for a pillow. Riku couldn't believe it. He was finally talking about the stuff that was in his mind and Axel had fallen asleep.
He felt a mixture of irritation and relief. He was a little irritated at the fact that he was trying to talk about something serious, and Axel had fallen asleep. The relief came from Axel not hearing what he was talking about. The fact that he said all those things seemed to help a great deal too. He couldn't very well tell Sora that he didn't want him to talk to anyone except him. That sounded a little possessive even to Riku.
In the end, Riku figured it didn't really matter if what he said was heard. Just saying it seemed to be enough for the moment. They always say not to let stuff bottle up. Little insignificant things can build up over time, leaving a mess of things for your mind to sort through. Often misinterpreting things along the way.
xXx
Riku halfway wondered what kind of life Axel lived. Where did he live when he wasn't at school? Did he hang out with his friends over the summer and go to movies like everyone else? He didn't really strike Riku as the sociable type when they first met. He was almost positive that Roxas must have been a major changing point in his life. How much change Axel went through or was willing to go through was a mystery.
Riku closed his eyes imagining the island. He could almost feel the warm tropical breeze on his face. He could see Sora setting next to him on the sand, drawing little stick figures in the sand. Sora brushed over the sand with an idle hand, wiping out the stick figures. He then proceeded to draw an arrow. Riku didn't understand it at first. Then he looked up in the direction the arrow was pointing to. It was the little piece of land off from the beach a little bit. Swaying in the wind the leaves of the paupu fruit were visible. Barely visible was a strange yellow fruit. Riku smiled as Sora sat there staring at him with a big grin on his face. "The paupu fruit."
xXx
"Didn't quite catch that." "Huh?" "You said something about some kinda fruit. It had a weird name...like pampay, prayprah, boubrew or something. What was it?" Riku realized he must have been talking in his sleep. If Axel was asking about fruit, he couldn't have said anything bad. "Ah...the paupu fruit." "Yea, that sounds like it. What kind of fruit is this exactly? I don't think I've ever heard of it before."
"That's not surprising. As far as I know it only grows on the island I come from. It's just a fruit shaped like a star, nothing special." "Does it taste any good?"Riku started plucking up a few pieces of grass. "I dunno. Never actually tried it." Axel scratched his head. "Oh...well I thought maybe it would be good since you were talking about it in your sleep." Riku continued to shred the grass that was in his hands. "You just looked sort of...happy. Why have you never tried it before?"
"There is this legend on the island about the fruit. It says that when two people share one, their destinies will be intertwined. They will be a part of each others lives no matter what." Axel started laughing. "Sounds like some kind of magical fairytale fruit to me. Do you actually believe it?" Riku shrugged his shoulders. "I gave one to Sora one time. I don't think he understood." "Maybe you can try it out when you go back home then?" "Yea..."
xXx
"He would probably share one with you after this year. So how was that kiss anyway?" Riku smirked. "Short." "It's probably good to start out slow though." "Unlike you and Roxas?" "Hey, he made the first move. I just went with it." "He's not the shy school boy I met when I first came here." Axel smirked. "Works good for me." "I'll bet. Hey do you wanna walk to the ice-cream stand?"
xXx
Sora followed Roxas to his room. When they entered he noticed it had kind of an empty feel to it. It looked like half the stuff was gone. He looked over at his roommates bed to discover that it no longer had covers on it. This was odd...he had never seen Roxas' roommate before, but his stuff had always been there. Roxas seemed to notice Sora's train of thought.
"They sent him home. This wasn't really the best place for him, I guess." "Oh...I guess it can be hard living away from home..." "Hey you should spend the night over here sometime, just the two of us. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff I'm missing out on. Liiiiiike you and Riku for instance. When did you two get so close?"
Sora had to refrain from hitting himself in the head, he should have saw this coming. "I don't know..." Roxas crossed his arms waiting for a better reply. "Come on you can tell me. We've been able to talk about this stuff from the beginning." "Okaaay. Yesterday...Riku kind of figured out that I liked him somehow." Roxas sat down on the edge of his bed, waiting for Sora to go on.
xXx
"He asked me what I thought about you and Axel being together...if it bothered me that you guys were gay. I told him no...Well I don't really know what happened really. It must have been the dance...I don't know how he saw..." Roxas was now grinning from ear to ear. "He saw you drooling over his body, and you didn't deny it." "I couldn't lie..." "Because you wanted him to know!" "You've changed." Roxas started laughing. "So have you."
Sora leaned back in the chair. He had changed. Maybe it had something to do with going to a new school...or maybe he really wanted things to change. It didn't really matter, things seemed to be going well enough. He hasn't dropped out of school yet or anything. His parents really would kill him if he did something stupid like that.
"You know, I guess I've always liked Riku in way. I mean I've always kind of admired him. He just always seems better at everything than me." "He can't be better at everything. He probably avoids doing things he's not very good at." "Yea, maybe. And he always seems so cool and confident about everything..." Roxas jumped down off his bed. "Look I'm sure he has his own insecurities. He did take a really long time to ask you out. Maybe he was afraid he wasn't good enough for you."
xXx
Sora smiled. "How did we get ourselves in this mess anyway?" "I dunno, we're just lucky I guess." Sora put his arms behind his head, leaning back in the chair. "I like his hair." "What?" "I like Riku's hair. It always looks so perfect, and he hardly runs a comb through it." Sora closed his eyes for a moment, imagining just how Riku's hair looked. He couldn't quite figure it out. "It changes colors. Sometimes it looks silver. I think it's blue sometimes too..."
Roxas nodded his head. "Yea, his hair is a bit unusual. I can't imagine what he puts his hair color down as." "What do you like about Axel?" Roxas bit down on his lower lip for a moment. "Abs." Sora sat up so the chair wouldn't fall over. "His abs? Really?" "Yea...you should see what is under his shirt...I think he must work out."
Sora started laughing. "What's so funny?" "Nothing. It's just that I never thought I would ever be having this conversation with anyone. Especially about Riku's hair, and Axel's abs." Roxas joined in on the laughter. "Yea, but it feels good doesn't it? Having someone to like you back." "Yea...I can't believe I got my first kiss today."
"You've never been kissed?" "Nope. When was your first kiss?" Roxas scratched his head, trying to think back that far. "I'm not sure, I think it was in the fifth grade. Some girl came up to me giggling. She said to meet her under the bridge of the playground." "And she kissed you?" "Yea...it all seems kind of silly now."
xXx
"You know, it's kind of weird that you and Riku have all the same classes." Sora shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno, he's the one that signed up for everything." "He would have had to of planned it out a year in advance. No one gets every class they sign up for..." "He just asked me this summer...You don't think he had this planned all along do you?" "Seems like a massive plan to get closer to you, if you ask me."
Sora turned his head as he heard knocking on the door. Roxas walked across the room before opening the door. He didn't even bother checking to see who it was. Riku and Axel stood on the other side of the door, holding two popsicles each. "Thought we would try something a little different today."
Roxas' eyes lit up as he examined the wrapper of the ice cream Axel just put in his hand. "This is sea-salt ice cream." Sora took his, not sure if he wanted to try anything that had salt in it's name. Riku shrugged as he took the wrapper off his own ice cream. "They didn't really have any normal flavors. Axel said this one was good..."
xXx
"Are you kidding? It's only the best ice cream ever!" Everyone stared at an overenthusiastic Roxas, before sampling the product themselves. Sora smiled as he continued to eat the ice cream. It wasn't like anything he ever had before. It was salty, but sweet at the same time. "This is good." Roxas nodded his head as he continued to lick his stick.
Sora wrapped his arms around Riku for a short hug, after throwing the wrapper and stick away. "Thanks Riku." Riku let out a slight chuckle. "Maybe I should buy you ice cream more often. You seem to treat me like royalty when I do." "I love ice cream." Axel shifted his weight a little on his other foot. "Does he never get ice cream or something?" Riku shook his head. "I don't let him get it too much. Especially when I'm living in the same room with him. He'll be up till dawn now." Sora stuck his tongue out at Riku. "I can't even stay up that late." Riku crossed his arms and made a sound that sounded slightly like, "pfht."
xXx
Sora looked down at his watch. "It's already dinner time?" "Guess so. Still hungry?" "Yea...but I haven't even started my homework yet. I usually have half of it done already..." "Relax, we will get it done. They didn't really assign much today anyway. We'll get it done in an hour, two hours tops." Roxas nodded. "It's no big deal. Axel always puts his work off till the last minute, and he always gets done."
"Yea I guess so..." "It will work out. Have I ever steered you wrong?" "Do you really want me to answer that?" "Your call." "Hmph." Sora grabbed Riku's hand like it was second nature before walking towards the door. "You know you don't have to hold my hand all the time if you don't want to." "I know. I want to. It just feels right somehow." "Did you hit your head by any chance?" Sora proceeded to scratch his head with his other hand. "Come on, I'll race you." Riku pulled his hand free with ease, before getting a head start.
"No way! That's not fair!" "Life's not fair. Better hurry up if you wanna beat me!" Sora took off running down the hallway, hoping that no one would be monitoring the hallways at the time. Axel just looked over at Roxas with a questioning look. "You know, sometimes I don't get those two." Roxas locked his door before walking down the hallway himself. "Maybe they were deprived as children..." "They are interesting, I'll give them that."
xXx
That was how Riku found himself eating dinner with Sora once again. It was just like any other time, but this time it seemed meaningful somehow. Sora hadn't tried to avoid him any, despite all the torment he had put the boy through.
It had been an unusual day, Riku had to admit that. He wasn't particularly sure what was real anymore. Earlier he had fallen asleep, but everything seemed to be muddled together in one big mess. Which parts were real? What was a dream? It was so confusing.
In all the time that he and Sora were together, he was afraid that he would wake up to find that it had all been a dream. He halfway wondered if it would be wrong to ask Sora to write his feelings down on paper. Just to have something solid, something that proved this was real.