Me: I'm gonna do it.
Sora: What, loose your sanity? Because it's a bit too late for that.
Me: no. I'm going to... (takes deep breath) write one more happy chapter.
Digi: Woot!
Angst-fans: AWWW! WHAT A RIP-OFF!
Riku: Why the change of heart?
Me: So I can prove once and for all to a CERTAIN someone that I do like to type happy fluff!
Digi: (whistles innocently) Oh come on, happy is good.
Kairi:...but you don't.
Me: SILENCE!
Readers: (rolls eyes)
Me: Just read damn you.
Riku's Room
It was five o clock in the freaking morning. Why exactly was Riku up at five o clock in the morning? Why didn't he sleep in like normal? Because his best friend was back and he wasn't wasting a second of it.
Turning on icy cold water to wake himself up, Riku slipped under the jet of water coming from the shower head. He tilted his head up and let the water rinse the sleep from his eyes and the hardness from his face that always returned in the morning.
After washing, he stepped out of the tub and let his wet feet hit the floor which was even colder then the water. Slipping a towel around his waste he wiped dripping locks from his face and looked into the mirror.
It was true that he had changed a lot since he last saw Sora; his bright green eyes were darker now and they were narrower in shape. He had grown a couple more inches, supple legs stretching out beneath a muscular chest with finely chiseled abs. (Just to let you know, I'm practically drowning in my own drool over here). His silver hair ran down past his shoulder blades, face taking a more narrow shape then before.
Drying off quickly, he pulled on a loose pair of black jeans, a tight white muscle shirt, a black choker and leather scandals. His feet thundered down the stairs of his empty home; yes, Riku had moved the hell out of his parents' house the moment he could. It wasn't very big, two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom was the entire house contained. But Riku preferred it this way; he didn't like those huge houses where it took forever to get from one place to another.
The wood creaked and the sound of crashing waves met his ears as he stepped outside. The morning sun was just peaking over a orange sky, the water a beautiful greenish blue. The fish were not yet swimming and a single seagull swam through the air, wings' never beating for the breeze was enough to carry it through.
A tiny smile forming on his mouth, Riku slipped off his scandals and picked them up, walking towards the ocean at an angle so that soon, his feet were treading on moist sand.
He loved walking like this; the sand, hardened from the nights tide, was stiff enough so that when you walked on it only few grains of sand stuck to your feet and only a tiny little imprint was left, feet staying on top and not sinking into the rich grainy substance.
Cool waves lapped at his feet and drifted back, new waves literally rolling over them before crashing down, spraying his silver hair with droplets of salt water.
His eyes traveled over the water's edge until they reached the jetty. He had seen this scene, perfect as a picture; so many times he had memorized the shape of the strip of rocks against the sunlight. But this time, he saw a lump in the shadow. A human shaped lump...
Walking closer, he saw the form of a lone figure sitting on the jetty, face turned towards the sunrise. He made out a head of spiky hair; Sora.
Hopping up onto one of the mossy rocks with an agile leap, he stepped across the black until he was standing right beside the brunette. Stepping forward a bit he scrunched his knees together and sat beside him.
Sora did not turn his head to acknowledge his best friend's presence, but his eyes darted to the side for a moment before turning to the sunrise.
Studying Sora's face closely, he saw a tiny tear streak running down his left cheek. Looking at what Sora was staring at, he saw the sun slowly inching above the ocean line. It was beautiful, staining the sky with its light. Riku couldn't imagine not seeing it al least once a week, but Sora hadn't seen it for years.
Understanding his friends emotion at last, Riku smiled to himself slightly and watched the sun rise up all the way, neither speaking a word.
A Few Hours Later
Sora kicked up at the sand and watched it fall back thickly onto the ground. He and Riku were talking idly, wandering down the beach. Sora had imagined
being back here, dreamed of it for so long, that he wasn't even sure if it was real or not. It was this, perhaps, that made him a bit awkward as to what to do now.
"So, what do you want to do?" Riku commented as he watched the brunette continue to kick up the sand.
"I dunno," Sora commented, looking across the stretch of island.
"Hey. Look like you could use somethin' to do, ya?" a familiar, thick accented voice called. Wakka was tossing his blue and white ball form hand to hand, grinning at them,
Sora raised an eyebrow at the blitz ball. "You couldn't beat me when I had a wooden sword, Wakka, what makes you think you can beat me when I have a Keyblade?
"I wouldn't even try," he chuckled. Sora noticed it had gotten a bit battered over the years. Skid marks were here and there, the color was starting to fade and a strip of the substance seemed to have fallen off.
"Where are the others?" Sora asked curiously, straining his neck to look around Wakka and see if the were hiding behind him.
"We're right here!" Selphie squealed, popping up behind him.
Sora started. "Can't you ever appear like a normal person?"
"Of course not!" she said as if he were crazy. Sora smiled when he saw Kairi trotting up to them, dragging Yuffie along with her.
"Squall says he doesn't wanna play with little kids all day so he stayed at home," she said grinning.
"Dunno what he's talking about," Tidus sniffed. "I am not a little kid."
Wakka poked him sharply in the ribs.
"Ow, what was that for!" Tidus whined.
Wakka snorted. "Sure ya ain't a kid, brudda."
"Um guys, what's that?" Sora asked apprehensively. Listening closely, the others heard a chant. A chant sung by a eerily familiar voice.
"Oh no," Riku groaned. "Not them again."
But Sora beamed. Squinting in the distance, he saw two people walking up to them. One was chanting "PARTY!", doing some random dance moves, while the other watched her carefully, as if afraid she might hurt herself.
Their eyes met Sora's and both grinned. An instant later, wings spread out with a loud SNAP and they both glomped the brunette.
"HI SORA!" they yelled.
Sora rolled his eyes. "You just saw me last week, you know."
Crys blinked. "Oh yeah..." she lifted herself off of him, dragging the other angel with her.
"What are you two doing here?" Tidus grumbled.
Sora blinked in confusion. "You guys know each other?"
"They never leave us alone, ya?" Wakka stated.
"Awww, c'mon, we're not that annoying," Fire stated rolling her eyes. She strolled over to Riku and looped an arm around his shoulders. "Right, Riku?"
"You have five seconds to get off of me."
"Anyway," Kairi interrupted hastily, "now that we're all here, what do you guys wanna do?"
"Hmm..." Yuffie said, fingers curled over her chin thoughtfully before her face lit up. "I know! We can play capture the flag!"
"Why would anyone want to catch a flag?" Crys asked curiously.
"No, no," Sora said, shaking his head. "two teams hide a flag, and the first group to capture the other's flag wins!"
"Oooh, I love this game!" Selphie squealed, hopping up and down in circles. "I call team captain!"
"I call other captain!" Sora exclaimed; no one tried to stop him. "Okay, who gets first pick?"
"Me cause I'm a lady," she said sweetly. "I pick... Kairi!"
Kairi walked over, giving Selphie a high-five.
"Riku!" Sora said. The silver-haired teen walked to his best friend's side, grinning.
"Tidus!" Tidus groaned, condemned to being stuck with the girls.
"Fire!" Fire glomped the poor brunette.
"Wakka!" Tidus had company now, at least.
"Crys!" Her and Fire squealed.
"Yuffie!" Yuffie bounced over.
"Hey, the teams are uneven!" Sora pouted.
"Yeah, but you have three members with wings, so it's even," Selphie quipped happily, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Kairi giggled as Sora continued to pout.
Riku rolled his eyes. "You are such a little kid," he mused, hitting the boy playfully over the head.
"I am not!" Sora protested.
Yuffie rolled her eyes as the two continued to bicker. Reaching into one of the pouches of her shorts, she yanked out two colored ribbons; one red, one blue. She handed the blue to Selphie, red to Sora. "Okay, guys, you know the rules! This island only, nowhere in the water. No spying on the other team while they're hiding their flag and if you're hit with a coconut you're frozen for twenty seconds! And don't cheat by counting quickly either," she added, eyeing Tidus carefully. "Full body contact is, of course, outlawed but who gives a damn! Tackle 'em into the water if ya wanna! You have five minutes to hide the flag and... GO!"
Sora and Selphie raced off.
Five minutes later, they were all standing on the beach again, Sora and Selphie grinning successfully.
"Okay, the game starts in five minutes when Squall blows the whistle!" Yuffie chirped.
"It's Leon," he corrected her calmly. "Why am I here again?"
"To make sure no one dies!" Yuffie said enthusiastically. "Now let's go to
camp!"
"Yay, camp!" Fire exclaimed, skipping off down the sandy beach.
"Why did I pick her again?" Sora asked Riku.
"No idea," he replied, looking at her wearily.
"Oh come on, she won't bite," Crys muttered, pushing the two older (not really) boys ahead of her; oh, this would be fun.
15 Minutes Later
"Okay, Fire, Crys, you two go up in the air and search from there," Sora said. "Me and Riku will go by foot.
"You have wings too, ya know," Crys pointed out, but Sora shrugged.
"I wanna keep my feet on the ground for the moment, thank you," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
Fire rolled her eyes. "Whatever. C'mon, Crys, let's see how many coconuts we can hit Tidus with!"
"Hey, wait for me!" Crys exclaimed as her best friend shot up into the air. Her wings shot up and she followed the red-winged angel.
"...You just wanted to get rid of them so they could stop tackling you, huh?" Riku asked, smirking.
Sora grinned. "Duh."
Meanwhile...
Selphie paced in front of her teammates, an army hat jammed on top of her head. "Alright team, here's the plan." She pointed to the blackboard behind her with a stick. "Because we all know Sora is so damn predictable, he must have hidden the flag somewhere in this area." She pointed the stick to a circled area somewhere near the Waterfall.
Tidus raised his hand.
"Yes, cadet?" Selphie asked briskly.
"Why did you draw squirrels and flowers all over the board?"
"Because I got bored," she said, never losing her serious demeanor. "Okay, so what we do is grab a bunch on coconuts and circle around back." She pointed to a line that led somewhere around that area. "We get behind and peg them with coconuts so we don't get caught first. Then we grab the flag and DO A VICTORY DANCE!"
Wakka raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"Do we have to dance?"
"Yes, Wakka, yes you do."
AGAIN with the other Place...
"Find anything?" Sora asked as his teammates landed on the sand in front of him.
"Nope," Crys said. "Couldn't find a blue anything."
Riku and Sora had been searching the island for a full half hour and had yet come across the enemy or their blue flag.
"Damn kid got smarter," Riku muttered, and Sora took it he meant Selphie.
"We'll find it!" Sora chirped.
"Ummm... Riku?" Crys asked, diverting their attention to somewhere behind them. Fire and Sora looked to where Crys was staring nervously. Behind them was a cliff that rose up, and creeping along the narrow edge was Riku, whose back was pressed closely to the rocky wall and his arms spread out.
"Riku..." Sora asked, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Shhh!" Riku hissed in a voice that sounded remarkably like Elmer Fudd. "I'm hunting Heartless!"
"...that boy has finally flipped his lid."
"HHHAAAAYYAAAAAA!"
Sora's head snapped up at the sound of a challenging battle cry. Out popped the Great Ninja Yuffie, pointing a gun at them all.
Their eyes bulged wide.
"Aright, put your hands up where I can see them!" she ordered. "You heard me, put 'em up!"
Sora raised his hands slowly, eyeing the gun cautiously. "Yuffie, it's only a game!"
"SILENCE!" And she pulled the trigger.
Meanwhile
"Hey, where's Yuffie?" Kairi asked, looking around for the dark-haired ninja.
"Probably off bugging Leon," Tidus said, shrugging it off. "Now c'mon, we've got a flag to find, remember?"
Selphie nodded. "That's right, Tidus. First find the flag, and then hunt down the hyper-psycho ninja!"
"Speaking of hyper psycho..." Wakka whispered to Tidus, who sniggered.
Kairi rolled her eyes. "Well, knowing Sora, he probably put it somewhere blandly obvious."
"Like where?" Wakka asked.
"Erm, guys?" Tidus asked, eyeing the sky.
They looked up. "What is it, brudda?" Wakka asked, squinting at the seagull they always saw flying around this same island. "It's just a dumb 'ole bird."
"Look closely at that dumb old bird," Tidus said darkly.
Squinting their eyes in the sunlight, they eyed the seagull and for the first time, they noticed something red clutched tightly in it's feet. Something red with a rod...
"Sora, you bastard..."
Sora's eyes widened even more but quickly shut as a cold blast of water struck him in the face. "ARGH!"
"He shot the captain!" Fire shouted. "GET her!"
But Riku was already on it. He leapt with a graceful jump onto a nearby palm tree and plucked off a coconut. Taking careful aim, he threw it.
"OUCH!" the ninja cried in surprise, rubbing her arm where the said fruit had hit her. "Riku, that hurt you ass!"
"RUN!" Sora shouted. But instead of running, he flew. Flying to his best friend, he grabbed him under the arms and hoisted him into the air with him, flying over their island with Fire and Crys not far behind.
"Man, that was close," Riku murmured, sea foam green eyes sharply peeled for a sign of blue.
"So where do ya think they hid it?" Sora asked as he flapped his wings to keep the bodyweight up.
"Knowing Selphie, somewhere stupid," Riku stated wisely.
Sora nodded; it did sound exactly like Selphie.
"Well, where is the dumbest place?" Fire asked, pulling up beside them.
"Hmm..." Sora said thoughtfully. "I dunno."
"What's her favorite spot, then?" Crys asked.
"Don't know that either," Riku said simply. "All I know is she likes really romantic stuff."
"A cliff!" Fire shouted randomly.
"Yes, Fire, there are cliffs around here," Riku said, rolling his eyes.
"No, I mean that's the most romantic spot!" Fire huffed. "It's perfect to watch the sunset."
"I guess that could work," Sora said slowly. Looking down, he asked the young adult, "What'd ya think?"
"Worth a shot," Riku said, shrugging his shoulders only slightly, since Sora still had a firm grip on him.
The rest, however, weren't having any luck at all.
"Here, birdy birdy," Wakka called to the seagull who was currently perched on the top of a tree, far out of reach. "Come on, now. We just want the flag, ya?"
While Wakka was busy 'distracting' the 'stupid' bird, Tidus was slowly crawling up the other side, hoping to catch it off guard.
"Here, little seagull. We won't hurt ya," Wakka said, thoroughly annoyed at his job of baby talking the seagull. "Oh get the hell down here you stupid pigeon!"
The seagull took off at that pigeon remark, wings fluttering madly. Tidus coughed, his mouth full of feathers.
Of course, the seagull didn't leave without saying goodbye. He dropped Wakka a little gift... right in his hair.
"Awwww, man!" Wakka groaned, disgusted.
Tidus promptly fell from the tree, pointing at Wakka and laughing his ass off as Selphie and Kairi laughed with him.
"I'm going home! I need a shower, now," Wakka growled, stomping off to the docks.
Tidus wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. "Oh man, that was great!"
Setting Riku down on the edge of the cliff, Sora said, "You look around the edges, I'll look along the side."
Riku raised an eyebrow. "How can Selphie crawl down a cliff?"
"This is Selphie we're talking about."
"Oh yeah..."
Riku peaked into the bushed, under and between the rocks, and up on top of the trees where she may have stuck it.
"Nothing here," Sora shouted form below having just finished expecting the rocky ledge.
"Nothing here, either," Riku said as he double checked everything.
"Fire, get anything yet!" Crys yelled.
"Yeah!" she squealed happily.
Exchanging looks, the three rushed over to where the brunette was kneeling. "Lookit!" she exclaimed.
"Fire..." Crys said hesitantly, "those are ducks."
"But they're cute ducks!" she insisted, gazing fondly at them.
Sora rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
Riku sighed. "Okay, this is getting on my nerves," he growled. Ignoring the confused looks of his companions, he stalked away from the edge of the cliff and towards the direction of the tree houses.
"Hey Riku, where're ya going?" Sora asked, trotting to catch up.
"I'm gonna find that stupid little... whatever she is... and force her to tell us where the damn flag is."
"Isn't that cheating?" Fire asked, raising an eyebrow; Crys had stayed behind to continue looking.
"No, it's forceful persuasion," Riku corrected her. They had reached the piers now and he was looking around. His expression darkened with understanding and he stalked to the hut.
"You're right, he has flipped his lid," Sora whispered to Fire quietly; the silver-haired man took no recognition of these words, and if he did hear he pretended not to.
The door creaked as Riku disappeared form view for a few moments. He pulled out with three colorful objects in his hands.
"Uhhh, Riku, are you okay?" Sora asked apprehensively.
Riku didn't answer. He threw a red water gun into Fire's hands, a blue one into Sora's and kept the green one for himself.
Sora shook his water gun; it was full. "And what, may I ask, are we going to do with these?"
"Watch and learn," Riku said with his usual boastful tone. He took aim at a bush and squirted.
Sora was just about to see if Riku needed to go see a doctor when he heard a high-pitched squeal.
"How'd you know I was in there!" Yuffie snapped, jumping from the bushes with a pout sketched on her features, tank top soaked.
"You scare me sometimes, Riku," Tidus sneered, jumping from behind a tree while Kairi walked out from a crouching position behind a large boulder; they all held water guns.
"I somehow knew it would come to this," Sora mused, raising his water gun to point it at Selphie, who jumped down from the leaves of a palm tree, a tiny yellow squirt gun held in her hand.
Riku raised an eyebrow. "What good's that little thing gonna do you?"
"Oh, it's not full of water," she smirked. Pointing it at Riku's chest, she squirted. But water did not come out. Instead, a pinkish liquid did, getting him square beneath his neck.
Riku sniffed. "GAH, PERFUME!" he yelled.
"I shall avenge you!" Sora cried heroically. He shot Selphie with an icy blast of water.
"You dare shoot a girl?" Kairi asked, squirting her boyfriend in return.
"Yeah you li-" Tidus was cut off as Fire sprayed him from close range. "Ahh! Why you little...!"
The war waged on, Selphie using her little squirt bottle of perfume. Riku was hunting her relentlessly, shooting her with a full pressure gauge, flames lighting up his green eyes.
Crys walked calmly down the beach, a blue flag clutched in her hand. Turns out the squirrels had the flag. She distracted them with some strawberry pocky and grabbed it before they could bite or use their little sling shots. She shuddered; damn squirrels.
She halted at the scene in front of her. Had it been real guns there would be blood, but instead there was laughing people everywhere, except for Riku who looked like he was on a killing spree.
She peered down at the flag in her hand. A second later it was thrown to the ground as she rose into the air and started shooting water spell at everyone.
Eventually, everyone with the ability to use magic resulted in doing exactly that; using magic. Water spells shot everywhere as the others hurried to refill their water guns. Who cared about some dumb flags when you had water guns? And very shiny Keyblades?
A Few Hours Later
Ozen had come by earlier to collect Crys and Fire; they still had jobs to do. Sora and the others sat in a circle in the tree house, toasting marshmallows on a little fire. How did a little fire get in there without burning down the tree? New trick Donald taught him. Oh the wonders of portable fire...
Sora slurped on a melted marshmallow, listening to Tidus' haunted toaster story.
"So this Amityville toaster," the blonde continued, "was found by a squirrel on a tour at the Amityville manor. If you put in regular bread, you get wheat toast. Put in wheat toast, you get pumpernickel. Put in pumpernickel, you get a blueberry muffin! Put in a bagel, you get pork chops! The salesman warned the squirrel not to put in waffles. But he did! And what popped out? A TOASTED HAND!" Tidus waved his own hand around wildly.
"Tidus, that was the dumbest scary story I have ever heard in my entire life," Riku said calmly. "And I hang out with Sora."
"Hey!"
"Okay, let's hear one of yours!" Tidus challenged.
"Alright," Riku said smugly.
Sora leaned closer; Riku always had good ones.
"A mother and her child were walking down the street," he started. "The child was bored and he soon wandered off. His mother looked around for him and found her son staring at a side stand. On it were crummy, broken toys, but in the midst of them was a clown doll, smiling brightly. It was adorable, she thought, although the grin was a bit peculiar. He held up two fingers in what looked like a peace sign.
"The woman asked how much the clown doll was, so she could give it to her son. The man told her no, he was not for sale. But after insisting she needed it for her son, he caved in and told her she could have it... for free."
He took a moment to pop a marshmallow on the stick to toast before continuing. "The man told her she could have it on one condition; no matter what happened, no matter what the emergency, never leave the child alone in the room with the clown doll."
Sora gulped.
"So they took the doll home. Later on that night, the boy was playing with his new toy when the phone rang. The woman knew she was told not to leave her son with the doll alone, but that was probably so he wouldn't choke on any small pieces. But her son was old enough to know better, so she went into the kitchen to answer the phone.
"After she was done, she went in to check on her son." Riku smirked. "She never found her son, he wasn't there. Only his shoes and baseball cap were there and she heard no slamming of the door if he got out; the door and the windows were locked. The clown doll was smiling up at her with a creepy grin. But instead of holding up two fingers, he had up three now. And on the corner of his mouth ran down a small, thin trail of blood. The end."
Riku looked up; everyone was staring at him with wide, fearful eyes.
"Th-thanks a lot, R-Riku," Sora stammered. "Now I won't be able to go to sleep!"
Done
Me: I just loved that scary story told by Riku, didn't you?
Sora: (will be having nightmares later on)
Riku: (smirks)
Digi: How is that scary? O.o It's stupid…
Me: Before Sora decides to commit murder, or suicide, I have a vote you need to take! If you want the plot to move on, more angst and darkness, then say Choice A! If you want another chapter on happy times at Destiny Islands, pick Choice B!
Kairi: See, typing happy was nice for a change, right?
Me: Yeah, maybe I did like typing happy for once. But I'm not feeling very good right now. I'm covered form head to toe (literally) in bruises. And to make matters worse, my Aunt is missing. Her son, Kyle, told her he hated her (he's 11) and told her he wanted to live with his dad (parents are divorced). So I'm in emotionally turmoil at the moment, sorry if it wasn't very happy.
Digi: (hugs Wish in an attempt to cheer her up)
Riku: Review to cheer her up.
Me: Yeah. Ja ne, people. Gotta go take all four types of painkillers. (mutters something about suing Tylenol company)