Author's Notes: Wow, another late update. I apologize for becoming a little spastic. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment, what with now attempting to keep up with my Crazy Kitty Kage comic (check it out at Drshnaps .com; under Comics, my Author name is the same as it is here), as well as a personal project doing a Kuja x Zidane doujinshi. Plus, Eleventh grade is slowly approaching, and summer vacation isn't going to last that much longer, which makes me very sad indeed.
A couple of things. One: I really, really, really love all the support and encouragement you guys have been giving me, and you all left such nice reviews after that one little stinker, and it made me feel ten times better than I was already feeling. Two: I really, really, really hate to disappoint...I swear, I had a lemon scene plotted out for this chapter, but, in the long run, when I looked at it...it just didn't really seem to work. So I unfortunately felt the need to drop it. So, I'm sorry, but there will be no Riku x Sora snogging for this chapter. It'll have to wait just a little while longer.
Now, don't think this means I've lost interest in the story. I think the reason I'm feeling a little apprehensive to move forward is because my knowledge of the courtly ways is extremely limited once you move past Special Victims Unit. So if anyone could lend me a little bit of a hand along the way, it would be greatly appreciated. At the moment, I'm stuck as how to split this trial up, because I vaguely remember trials are split in "parts" ... though I'm not quite sure HOW, and how much time is in-between the trial dates, if they're not all on the same day. If anyone could give me some hints, info or sources, that would be great.
I now have five fanart entries for the contest, from the following people: Asa Hane, Daenis TooShy, Lee, nummy cream puff, and Sica. All are wonderful in their own ways. But I know there were a few others who mentioned they would be giving this a shot, so I'm eager to see if they're waiting for an opportunity so they can spring it on me, or if they're just undecided as to what they're going to do...
Enough talking from me, then. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 52
"Nothing's Ever Better"
Riku was fixing his hair up in a ponytail again on the side of the school when it finally got out. He'd started doing this only a couple of days ago, but he quite liked pulling his hair up. It kept his bangs out of his face for a little while...though, they always fell back into place, thus giving Riku a haphazard ponytail, plus tendrils in front of his ears and shadowy moonlight bangs. But he didn't mind it. He'd gotten a couple of comments on it during the school day—if the fangirls were swooning over it, Sora probably would, too.
He shifted the weight of his backpack and couldn't help a smile. Since Tifa would be working late at the office, he and Sora would have the whole house to themselves...quite tempting, indeed. Riku already had the scenarios running through his head. Different ways that he could approach it; that is, if Sora was feeling up to it. (This he didn't doubt, but there was always a "just in case".)
Right on schedule, the brunet came bounding up to him with a cheeky grin and a shouldered backpack, wearing loose blue jeans and a red shirt with a flaming dragon on the front of it. He had stylish black-and-red gloves on his hands to match it.
Riku himself was wearing opposite colors. Fiery red under frigid blue—ooh, that gave Riku some very nice thoughts indeed. He gave Sora one of his sway-worthy white smiles, and draped an arm around his shoulders. "So, are you ready to get down for a little fun?"
Sora had a light blush to his cheeks and nodded, giving it no notice. "Where's your bus?" He asked.
"That one," Riku pointed to it, "Three-twenty-three."
" 'Kay!" Sora was practically skipping as he walked, which made Riku smile. He wasn't sure if he should shake his head or just chuckle. If Sora had been born the girl, and not Selphie, there would have hardly been a difference.
When they got on the bus, Riku told Sora they should watch out for the third bus stop, which dropped them off about a block away from Riku's neighborhood. On the way there, he and Sora kept up conversation about school and tests—it mostly involved teasing one another about how much work they had missed at Riku's expense.
He felt a twinge in his head at one point and rubbed his forehead, glancing out the window at once. He'd been feeling these more often lately. Riku was getting a little worried, because he sometimes found himself talking to thin air when alone in his room, much like he did when he'd had the Voice. But Riku thought that he'd suppressed that? The last thing he needed to return right now were his schizophrenic tendencies. Riku sighed, shutting his eyes.
This is how you thank him?
That startled him. Riku shook his head and straightened up in his seat, breathing deeply. Focus, focus, focus...
"Riku? You okay?"
Thankful for the distraction, Riku smiled and nodded. "Yeah. It's cool. I'm cool."
Sora tilted his head. "Are you sure? Nothing's bothering you?"
"Nope." Riku shook his head. He leaned over and gave Riku a kiss on his forehead. "Fit as a fiddle."
"Fag!" Screamed a cheerleader girl on the bus. Sora sent her a withering glare.
"Can it, Lana!" Riku snapped. The girl leered at them both with fierce green eyes.
"So how'd you do it, Sora? Finally bunked with a boy 'cuz you couldn't get a girl?"
"It's because he already is a girl!" Giggled one of Lana's friends. Riku jumped up out of the bus seat before Sora could get a word in edgewise, and walked over very tensely to where Lana and her posse were sitting, and gripped the seats so hard they cold hear his nails scratching the rubbery material.
"Listen up." Riku snarled. "You best keep that mouth shut when you think to talk."
Lana merely found amusement in this. "Oooh, someone's getting testy!" She snickered. Riku's eye twitched and he thrust a foot forward, stepping on something hard.
The cheerleader screeched and wriggled her foot away, clutching it. "OW! You QUEER!"
The smile Riku had on his face was nasty and fanged. "Whoops. Foot slipped. Road's really bumpy, you know."
Lana glared at him, rubbing her foot. She turned her attention to Sora. "So Sora, has he broken out the psycho abuse on you yet!"
Riku blocked Lana's view and leaned in uncomfortably close to her face. "I'll be abusing you in a minute if you don't turn your attention elsewhere, bitch."
Lana and her friends all stared at Riku for a few moments. But when they finally couldn't take anymore of his frightening stare, they turned and started mumbling to themselves. Riku let off and went back to sit with Sora, an exasperated sigh escaping him.
"Fucking dikes," he grumbled.
Sora had a worried frown on his face. "Riku?"
"What?" He snapped. Sora coiled back a little, pursing his lips. He licked them briefly, and cast his eyes down to his lap, scooting a little closer and twining his fingers with Riku's.
It made Riku twitch slightly, letting his hand rest tensely in Sora's before he finally sighed and squeezed it back. The tension melted out of him, and eventually, he slackened against the seat and rest his head on Sora's shoulder with an arm around him. He felt a little spent after that wrathful display, and besides, he knew from the brunet's reaction that he'd scared Sora. The least Riku could do was to give him a little reassurance.
Sora wasn't feeling very reassured. Even over the roar of the bus and the students riding it, he'd heard what Riku said to those girls, and seen how he'd coupled it with his intimidating force. Briefly, Sora remembered how Riku had behaved when he'd heard Cloud's boyfriend talk about Ansem. He'd cried—Sora couldn't forget that. But then there was when Leon said they would take them back home. The teen hadn't taken it lightly—in fact, Sora could probably classify that as a minor relapse.
This reminded him frighteningly of that time. And, if Riku was really experiencing relapses, then that meant he wasn't completely better yet. What if he was still thinking that he had to depend on Ansem for things? Maybe not that, per se, but Sora still couldn't sit by and let it pass him without notice. Riku might need a counselor. Sora pondered this on the bus ride and short walk to Riku's house, sparking conversations to cheer up the older teen.
"My mom gave me this all overly-righteous speech about being responsible," Sora sighed. Riku laughed.
"No kidding? Mine too. What is it with moms, anyway, are they psychic or something? Because, like, they're always thinking on the same brain waves and stuff."
Sora giggled and hugged Riku's arm as Riku walked him up the steps to the quaint little place where he lived. He bent down, and lifted up the welcome mat, producing a house key and using it to get inside. Riku shut the door behind Sora.
"Go on and get comfortable, I'll be with you in a minute. Need to pee."
The brunet laughed, "Okay," and set his backpack down on the kitchen floor. "Hey, you have any of that pineapple stuff from last time?"
"In the fridge!" Riku called, making off down one hallway for the nearest bathroom. Sora went straight for the refrigerator and produced a carton of pineapple-orange juice, which he'd discovered he enjoyed from his last brief visit. He had to search around the many cupboards to find the one with the glasses, but once he did, he got his hands on one and poured it full of the stuff and put the carton back where he got it, pulling himself up at seat at the table to drink it. He drummed his fingers absently on the tabletop, and couldn't stop himself from being a little giddy. All alone with Riku—oh, the possibilities!
Sora giggled silently and occupied himself consuming his glass of juice, thinking of what could go down while Riku's mom was out of the house. He had a cheesy smile on his face when Riku returned from the bathroom, who smirked at him and ruffled his brown hair.
"Whatcha thinkin' about?"
"Nothing!" Sora swallowed another sip of the juice. "Hey, you wanna watch a movie?"
"Let's go see what Mom has." Riku suggested, nudging his head in the direction of the living room. As Sora followed him in, he hovered over Riku's shoulder while he browsed through the video collection, compiled of both VHS tapes and DVDs, and with no particular order to them at all. Riku would be looking at a comedy one minute, and the next, an old swashbuckler or a horror flick. Eventually, after a lot of picking and choosing, they settled on Independence Day. Cuddled up on the couch, watching it, Sora was more focused on the way he was leaning on Riku than the plot of the film. Also, his mind was still stuck on Riku's threats to the cheerleaders on the bus. The brunet looked up at the one above him at one point.
"Hey, Riku?"
"Hmmm?" It was a little obvious that Riku was engrossed in the movie.
"About those girls..."
"On the bus?" Riku glanced at Sora. "What about them?"
Sora crinkled his brow, nose wrinkling like a little rabbit's. "I don't know...umm..."
"Look, just don't let them get to you," Riku told him, looking back to the movie. "They're cunts. They can't understand the way we are because they're too brainless to accept it."
The brunet sighed. Yeah, but that's not what's bothering me, he thought. Instead of voicing this, he said quietly, "I guess so."
Another brief silence passed, Sora watching the movie with Riku, before he blurted out, "Are you sure you're okay?"
Riku turned his eyes down to Sora. "Are you still worried about me?" He rubbed the boy's arm affectionately. "Don't be. I'm fine; trust me." He grinned, adding, "If there was anything wrong with me, I'd tell you."
"Hope so." Sora mumbled. Riku nudged him.
"Yeah, I'll bet—so you can start nagging me about my health, right?"
"No!" Sora pushed back playfully. "So I can help you, duh!"
"Aren't we forgetting something?" Riku pointed out haughtily, "I don't need help." Sora laughed.
"Yeah, sure you don't!" He pushed harder. "You're not that grown-up!"
"Really! I don't!" Riku grabbed Sora in a bear-hug and roughly nuzzled his head. Sora yelped, a smile cracking on his face. "But I bet I could probably help you with a few things!"
"You probably wouldn't know how!" Sora giggled.
"Ooh, testy, testy!" Riku started to push Sora down onto the couch, still hugging him tightly. "Someone's got a mouth!"
"Mine's not as bad as yours," laughed the brunet, pushing against him. Riku snickered.
"Oooh, that's right, I've got a dirty mouth!" He bragged, suddenly surprising Sora with tickling fingers. Sora burst into fits of hysteria and kicked his stocking feet, arms flailing. Riku snickered and continued the hilarious assault, quickly discovering that Sora's sides and neck were extremely sensitive.
"Sto-hop! Stop! Stop—AAH! N-Not fa-ir!"
"You sound like a girl!"
"Sh-Shut up!" Sora twisted around as Riku made his muscles jump and screamed again, trying and failing to get Riku to stop. He started to kick at the other's side, but Riku didn't let up.
"Stooop, STOP! I can't breeeathe!" It was quite true, too, because Sora wasn't able to end the bubbling laughter that continued to spill out of him. Riku grinned maliciously.
"What's that? I can't hear you!"
"You ASS!" Sora shrieked, flinging his arms and legs about wildly, trying hard to stifle his hysterics. Finally, when he could hear the beat of his own heart in his ears and feel it in his chest, Riku stopped, and Sora's giggles began to slowly die down—although now, he was laughing because it had been so funny.
"Owwww, my siiides," he whimpered through snickers. Riku reached up and snaked his fingers through Sora's hair, mussing it up and pushing Sora's shirt up over his stomach.
"Sides hurt?" He asked. Sora was still snickering when he nodded weakly, looking into Riku's eyes. Riku smiled and lay down on top of him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Well, that was fun."
"You're such an ass," Sora groaned. Riku nuzzled him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't have to tell me twice." He shifted so that the two of them lay down on the couch, spooned against each other, alternating between staring at the T.V., and each other.
"Are you nervous about the trial?" Sora asked suddenly.
Riku got a concerned expression. "I'm...I don't know." He admitted. "I've got mixed feelings. We'll see what happens when the thing starts." He rubbed Sora's arm and looked down at him. "My fate's in Lulu's hands, so I guess I'll just have to trust she'll know what she's doing."
Sora smiled up at Riku. "You know we'll be watching from the audience," he said. "Me and Selphie will cheer you on."
"Hope so." Riku replied. "I think I might need a little bit of that cheeriness you're so chocked full of."
So that I can keep my mind off my own problems, Riku thought dismally.