Author's Notes: Thanks for reading, guys.

I'm sorry that these chapters are so short - they really should be longer, but considering how this works out, generally I only put about 1,000 to 3,000 words each chapter. Ones like 8 (5,000+ words) are a Godsend. I'll have a long chapter somewhere along the line...somewhere...

Enjoy, anyway. This one was amusing even to me.

Chapter 26

"A Right Time for Changes"

Riku went downstairs a little after Cloud had consumed his desired Aspirin, and saw that Sora was struggling to get out from underneath a pile of giggling children while the teenagers played arcade games. Sora's head poked out from under the masses and he spotted Riku, and smiled.

"Hey…! So how'd it go…?"

"Cloud said he'll shelter us for a while." Riku said. The children proceeded to shriek, scream and cheer; Riku cringed and covered his ears. It was entirely too noisy down here.

"That's great!" Sora cried. "I'm glad, Riku." Riku smiled at him.

"You can't fool me. I know you'd rather be with your family."

Sora sulked as the children all climbed off, and he tried to smile. "You know, I thought about it…and…if you were so worried about me, you didn't have to be."

Riku's face turned grim. "Don't joke like that, Sora. Nobody holds their own against Ansem except me."

"But you did a lot of horrible things just to scrape by with him," Sora pointed out, standing up to talk with him. "And besides—in the end, no matter how well you did, he still had the upper hand."

"That's exactly why I took you with me." As the children all scattered and began playing with their toys (seeing Sora was now preoccupied), Riku stared at the streak of red staining Sora's too-tight army-green shirt. He lifted up a palm and touched it, and Sora looked down. Riku ran his thumb from one end of the cut to the other, never taking his eyes off of it.

"You're lucky that this was all you got," he murmured.

"Whassat?" Sora couldn't hear him over the noise. Riku sighed and looked at him.

"I said, you're lucky that was all you got," he repeated. Riku took in their surroundings and frowned—he sensed there wasn't going to be a lot of privacy here. He took Sora's hand and tugged. "C'mon."

"Where are we going?"

"Someplace quiet." Riku muttered, turning a corner. He found a hallway which had two doors, one on either side, and he picked the one with the door slightly ajar. He chuckled. "Whaddya know, there's bedrooms down here, too."

"Why'd you drag me back here?" Sora asked as Riku turned on the light, and closed the door.

"I can't stand little kids," Riku grumbled. "Way too noisy. Besides, I wanna have a look."

Sora froze as he remembered that Riku was actually gay, and turned a bright shade of red. "H-Have a look at what!" he cried. Riku's eyes rolled.

"Your naked mom." Sora's eyes widened, his face crinkling in instant disgust, and Riku grabbed the hem of his shirt. "I wanna see the cut, stupid."

"I-It's fine!" Sora pushed Riku's hands off. "It stopped bleeding yesterday."

"Just let me see it. Ansem's cut me as deep as an inch before."

"N-No, really, I-I don't think it's that bad."

Riku gave Sora a deadpan stare. "Sora, it hasn't seen so much as a tube of Neosporin since you got it. If it gets infected, it'll be your fault."

Sora pouted. "It…scabbed over…" he mumbled, his face still a little red. Riku continued to stare at him, and Sora shrank back against the wall, squirming nervously. Riku took the hem of Sora's shirt between his fingers.

"Just let me see it. Come on, I won't look at anything else, I promise."

"Y…You…" Sora stuttered over his words, and Riku waited patiently, his fingers never leaving Sora's shirt. The brunet was starting to have a feeling that Riku was going to do this whether he liked it or not. (So protective, he thought.)

When Sora fell silent, which was a relative "okay," Riku carefully bunched up the shirt and slid it up over Sora's torso. Sora nervously lifted his arms and let Riku take it off.

"Would you stop being so tense? It's not like I'm gonna pin you to the wall and eat you." Riku did nudge Sora up against the wall again, though. "We're both boys, here."

Yeah, but one of us isn't gay!

"You're so homophobic."

Sora jumped, blinking. Whoa. Was it possible that Riku could read minds?

"Don't look at me like that. It's written all over your face." Riku imitated a bawling, worried tone. " 'Oh God, he's gay and he's making me take off my shirt! What do I do, what do I do!' "

"I-I'm not homophobic!" Sora whined. Riku snorted and put his hands on Sora's chest, examining the cut. It was clean—long, but clean. Roughly expanding over the whole plane of Sora's chest. Sure enough, like he'd said, it was scabbed over—mostly. The center spots of it still seemed to be an open wound. Riku made a "hrmm" sound as he checked it.

"Not jagged. Not too deep, but…deep enough…" Riku brushed a thumb over one of the open spots. Sora winced.

"Ow!"

"Yeah, that's not done healing yet." Riku's thumb stayed near the spot he'd touched. "I'll ask the model guy for some ointment. Don't know if he has any gauze patch or whatever. That'd be best for a cut like this, but a couple dozen Band-Aids'll do it, too."

Sora was a little surprised. "You're starting to sound like a doctor."

Riku tossed his shirt at him. "One, it's common sense. Two, I had to treat myself a lot."

Sora felt a little guilty when Riku said that. He could now actually imagine Riku patching himself up after a harsh night, dabbing away the blood and wrapping the wounds. Poor guy.

He fought to get the shirt back on over his head, and paused for a minute while Riku sat down on the nearby bed, head hanging a little low. Sora blushed as he went back to the earlier comment about being homophobic.

"…I'm not homophobic," he repeated. "I had a gay friend at home too, you know."

Riku smirked. "Oh, really. Did you know he was gay?"

Sora blinked, and breathed deep. "Aa—" But he stopped. Silence, except for the kids playing out in the basement.

…Shit. That's a good question. DID I know Hayner was gay? Now that Sora actually stopped to consider it, he hadn't said a damn word about Hayner's gender preference until just now. Maybe he just never noticed it before…but then why would he bring it up now?

Oh God, am I actually starting to notice these things?

Sora thought back suddenly on every time he'd spent playing army or biking or skateboarding with Hayner. All the comments and jokes passed his way, the silly entendres that always made him laugh. And then Sora felt his knees go weak. Now that he actually thought about it, Hayner had been making passes at him! No wonder he got upset when I dated Kairi, Sora thought. He frowned. Man. I must've looked like a real jerk.

"I'll take your surprised silence as a 'no'." said Riku.

Sora only pouted and sat down next to him with a groan, frustrated. He sighed and crossed his arms in his lap, gazing at the door.

"…You started smiling," Sora said. "And you're not all violent."

Riku chuckled. "What, you mean I'm not bashing in people's jaws?"

"…More or less," Sora replied. Riku just nodded vaguely.

"It's just…when he hurt you…" he looked at his hands. "I just got so mad. I exploded…and I'm glad I picked that time to hurt him. Or else," Riku glanced at him, "it would have been you instead of him."

Sora nodded. "I understand." He smiled. "It is about time for things to change, isn't it?"

Riku shrugged, looking away. "Maybe. Or it could just be time for things to start."

"To start?"

"Before Friday…before you, even when Tidus was around…I wasn't living a real life." Riku stared down at his lap. "My father hurt Mom a lot. She couldn't stand it—filed for divorce. But she didn't win custody. I only saw her again a few days ago. Then Ansem…it's all just…strung together, one dark chapter following the next." Riku paused.

He gazed at Sora again. "I owe you guys a lot, Sora—and Tidus and Roxas—but mostly you. I want to thank you."

Sora fell silent, but then he smiled, and chuckled a little.

"Heh…you're welcome."

Author's Notes: Yes. You read "Hayner" right.

Bear it in mind.