AN: Well here's the second installment. It's actually up before I wanted to post it. Normally I won't post a chapter until I feel it's been edited to the best of my ability and I have a solid outline for the next part. Well, it's been edited, but not to where I'd like it, and I haven't started the next part, but oh well. It was begging to be released. I hope you enjoy and thank you very much to my 5 reviewers! It's been a long time since I got 5 reviews on a beginning chapter.
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own the characters. No money being made here, at least according to the debt collectors.
Chapter Two:
It had only been a week when Riku began noticing the subtle changes in his and Sora's friendship. The morning after he and Sora had slept together he dreaded that Sora would ask him questions about what had happened the night before. He had been sure by the way that Sora moved that there was no way that Sora wouldn't be able to figure out what had happened, but to his surprise Sora hadn't asked him any questions. Instead he had acted like his normal, cheery self, but with a hangover and a limp. Riku assumed that one of two things was running through his friend's mind: That like him, Sora didn't want to bring up the issue, probably because he was worried about the consequences that it would bring. Or somehow miraculously Sora didn't realize exactly what had happened. He knew that Sora could be dense sometimes, but he couldn't be that dense, could he?
Riku had been fine with the normalcy his friend was showing, surprised at how easy it had been to make it seem like what they had done was just a part of their friendship, or that he could delude himself into thinking that it didn't happen. It lessened the guilt he had in his heart for taking advantage of his friend, because by the way Sora was reacting, their encounter hadn't bothered him. Of course, Riku was only guessing about the whole thing, since Sora hadn't brought it up. Things continued on as they had been before that night, at least at first.
After just a week later though, he noticed that Sora came around a little less often and was quieter than normal in a group setting. At first he assumed that Sora was just having a set of bad days, it wasn't the first time that his best friend had a few quiet days in a row. Usually it happened when he got a bad grade on a test or something similar to that nature.
So Riku didn't press him. He was also busy himself trying to make amends with Kairi, which wasn't going all too well. Even though he had taken back his words and apologized, she refused to forgive him. Which in turn just kept creating more arguments between the two. It was like his relationship with her, or lack thereof, was at a stalemate. It didn't bother him as much as it should have though, so he was questioning himself as to why he was even going through the motions of fixing things. It was as if part of him knew that things wouldn't be fixable, but the other part was telling him not to lose what he had going with her.
It wasn't until he stopped trying so hard to get back together with Kairi and looked around him that he realized exactly how much his group of friends had changed, while it seemed that he remained stagnant.
True, for many of them it was their last year of high school, and many of them were trying to get into college, or into a trade school and it did eat up a lot of their time together. It amazed him though that he hadn't realized it was happening. Their normally rambunctious table in the cafeteria was quieter these days, with usually one or more of their normal group not being present. It disturbed him that so much could change so quickly, until he came to the realization that it hadn't changed quickly, he had just been so self absorbed that he hadn't noticed.
Perhaps Sora's quietness and mysterious absences could be attributed to the fact that they were just growing up, but that wasn't something that Riku was just willing to accept. It was one thing to gradually move apart over time, even though they had promised each other as best friends that they wouldn't. Also, it didn't account for the fact that while Sora had been a bit more distant this year as opposed to how he normally was, he had practically been a ghost over the last week.
Riku wasn't sure what to do though. He didn't even know if it was something that he should attempt to fix between them. Perhaps it was best to part ways, to make a clean break of it, instead of trying to work past things that had happened. His brain told him that was the route to go, that things had changed and were unfixable and to accept things the way that they were now. However, his heart told him to do such a thing would quite possibly be the worst mistake that he would ever make in his life. While his heart told him those things though, it didn't tell him why.
He would have to go about repairing their friendship gradually, he thought. If he rushed into it, he might scare Sora away even faster, especially since he wasn't sure what was wrong. If he went too slowly though, Sora would just slip away, he knew that. Trying to find the balance would be difficult, but it was something that Riku was willing to accept. He had to try; he knew that, even if it didn't make any difference in the end.
So he started slowly, making it seem like Sora wasn't his only objective. Sora was his main objective, he could admit that to himself, but he also wanted to do something about his friends drifting apart from each other. They had been together their whole lives, and now it seemed as though no one wanted to take the effort to keep things they way they had always been. Or perhaps they had been like him, too busy trying to keep their lives normal that they didn't notice what was happening around them.
The only ones sitting at their lunch table were Yuffie, Wakka and Tidus, but it was a way to start. Perhaps they would be able to spread the word to the others, if they could get anything going.
He cleared his throat and waited for the attention of the other three to focus on him. He didn't want to seem too eager; it wasn't his style at all, so waiting for them to acknowledge him was the only way to do it.
It took about five minutes for their attention to finally focus on him, and somehow now that it was he was kind of nervous. "What's everyone doing on Friday night?" he asked, trying to act nonchalant.
His friends gave him blank stares for a few minutes before Yuffie responded, breaking the ice. "I'm not doing anything, why?"
"Well, I was thinking that it had been a long time since our group hung out, together." Why did he feel so embarrassed saying something so simple? He hadn't realized that he was such a self conscious person before.
Yuffie raised her eyebrow and got a thoughtful look on her face, while Tidus and Wakka exchanged equally confused expressions.
"What do you mean?" Tidus finally asked. "We were at the party the other week."
Riku wasn't sure if he could explain it, but luckily Yuffie, surprisingly perceptive Yuffie, came to his rescue.
"He means just our group, you dork. Like how we used to go to the beach together, play blitz ball together, just randomly hangout."
"Oh," Tidus said, scratching his head.
"It's a great idea, Riku," Yuffie said, her eyes gaining an excited light to them. "It's been forever since we've done something like that in a group. I think it would be great for everyone to just take one day and relax together. I know you seniors are practically having hemorrhages from all the studying that you have to do!"
Wakka made an agreeing noise before saying, "She's right, yah? We could use a bit of a break."
Riku silently thanked Yuffie for being so supportive of the idea. He knew that if she wanted to do it, Tidus would, and if Tidus did, then Wakka would. Those three were almost as inseparable as he, Kairi and Sora had been, even if Wakka was a senior and they were juniors.
"Do you think we can get everyone to come though?" Tidus asked doubtfully. "I mean, with you and Kairi on the fritz and with Sora disappearing left and right, it might be hard to get everyone together."
Before his brain had time to catch up with his mouth Riku blurted out, "I thought I was the only one who Sora was pulling the disappearing act on?"
Seeing the other three shake their heads, he waited for one of them to explain. He thought it would be Yuffie, but to his surprise it was Tidus.
"I don't know what's going on with him," Tidus said shrugging. "I mean, he's been getting scarcer and scarcer over the last few months, but in the last week I think I've only seen him once or twice. Every time we get near him he just seems to disappear. For months now he's been drifting away and only hung out with you."
Riku frowned hearing that. It was one thing if Sora was ignoring him - that was to be expected if what he suspected was correct. However, if Sora was ignoring everyone then there was probably something bigger than just them that was bothering Sora. He hadn't even noticed that he was one of the only people that Sora had been hanging out with for months. Apparently he really had been in his own self-involved world.
"Well, Kairi and I are still talking," Yuffie said, "How about we agree where to meet up, and then whenever you see someone from the gang, let them know about it. If by Thursday night we can't find some people, we can start making phone calls, or just randomly appearing at their doorsteps!" She seemed oddly eager at the thought of just popping out of nowhere and surprising people.
They all agreed to that plan and chose their destination for Friday. It was something they all enjoyed doing, so that wouldn't be an excuse, and even better, it wasn't that expensive. All they would need to do was get everyone together. Which turned out to be more difficult than any of them had realized.
Riku looked at the list that Yuffie had given him in despair. They hadn't been able to get a definite answer from anyone, and no one had been able to get a word in with Sora. Cloud apparently had a date already that day, so he had backed out, Kairi told them that she just wasn't sure if her schedule would permit it, and Sora was still being elusive.
Riku had had enough of Sora's elusiveness. Yuffie said she would get a definite answer from Kairi by that evening and Riku decided that it was time to stalk Sora. Sora couldn't hide forever and Riku was bound and determined to get in touch with his friend and make him face them. Calling hadn't worked, Sora's mother kept saying that he was either sleeping or not at home. He constantly came in to class just as the bell was ringing, so Riku couldn't catch him then, and he left class before Riku could even gather up his stuff.
That would be why he found himself standing outside Sora's door at 6 am Friday morning. He knew that with such little notice there would be no guarantee that Sora would even be able to go with them, but just asking was worth him freezing his ass off in the barely brightening sky.
He had a couple options as to what he could do at that point. He could stand there for the next hour and a half until Sora emerged for the day. He could knock on the door and hope that Sora's mom let him in, and that Sora didn't give him the slip realizing he was there. Or he could hunt for the key that he knew Sora always kept hidden (since the brunette had misplaced his own key so often). Weighing his options he finally decided to root around for the key.
It took quite a bit of guesswork to find it; Sora had a unique mind for where he hid things. It wasn't in all the obvious places such as under the doormat, on top of the door ledge, or under the potted plant. Nope, Sora's mind worked in weirder ways than that. In actuality, if Riku hadn't tripped over the loose brick in the walkway, he never would have found it. Luckily, that was exactly what happened, and Riku silently thanked whatever god was on his side that morning.
Inserting the key, he opened the door quietly and listened for any noises coming from the house. Hearing noises from the kitchen, he quietly went to investigate and saw Sora's mother in there, cooking a hearty breakfast.
He cleared his throat from the entranceway, and gave a slight wince as she whirled around, clearly startled. Before she could even ask what he was doing there, he put his finger to his lips indicating that they should be quiet, knowing that Sora's mother had a tendency to be loud.
Raising an eyebrow she regarded him quietly. "What's with the sneaking in," she asked in a quiet whisper.
Riku chose not to answer that question yet, instead asking one of his own. "Is Sora awake yet?"
Surprised that Riku had evaded her question, but not making a deal of it she shook her head. "He shouldn't be awake for another thirty minutes at most. Why are you here so early?"
Riku avoided her eyes when he responded, "He keeps avoiding us for some reason, so we agreed it was time to hunt him down and find out what was wrong. Besides, we're having an outing today and I'm not letting him slip away before I can ask him if he can go."
Sora's mother pursed her lips and looked at him. "So he's been doing it to everyone?"
Riku couldn't keep the surprise off his face. "He's doing it to you too?" he asked in surprise. He never thought he'd see the day when Sora would avoid his own mother; they had one of the closest bonds that he had ever seen.
"He's been skipping breakfast for a while, I thought that he was just growing up and didn't want to spend time with his mother anymore," she said smiling sadly. "I didn't realize that it could be anything more."
She made a shooing motion with one of her hands at him. "Go on up and talk to Sora. See if you can get him to come down to breakfast." Her sad smile took on a look of fondness, "You're his best friend. If he'll listen to anyone, it'd be you."
At that moment, Riku sorely doubted that statement, but he did as he was bid and headed towards the stairs.
When he reached Sora's door he was slightly surprised to see it closed. For as long as he could remember the only time Sora kept his door closed was when Riku was staying the night, because Riku didn't like the idea of anyone seeing him sleep except his best friend. He didn't even stay over at Kairi's house for a whole night, not that he hadn't tried. He just couldn't make himself do it.
Firming his resolve, he silently pushed Sora's door open and peered inside.
His breath caught in his throat at the site that met his eyes, though he couldn't fathom for the life of him why. He'd seen Sora asleep a million times before, and it had held no affect on him whatsoever, but for some reason it now held a temptation for him that it had never possessed before.
The room was barely lit, the rising sun's light just barely making its way through Sora's drawn curtains. However, it seemed as if the sun itself wanted to not light up the room, but just Sora. The small beams of light seemed to fall solely on him, illuminating his slumbering figure, almost making look like an angel with its resplendent glow. His covers had mostly been thrown off him, as he lay curled on his side. He had slept in warm sweat pants and sweat shirt that Riku vaguely remembered giving to Sora for a Christmas present a few years ago.
Almost as if another force was pulling him, he found himself beside his friend's bed, his hand reaching out unconsciously to push brunette locks out of Sora's angelic face.
Realizing what he was doing he snatched his hand away, his heart beating loudly to his own ears. He had no idea what was coming over him, but right now it didn't matter. He had a whole different objective to accomplish this morning, figuring out just what was going on inside his own mind could wait.
He knelt down so that his face was level with Sora's and reached out, shaking the brunette gently. "Sora, Sora it's time to wake up," he said softly.
To his surprise Sora's eyes snapped open, almost before he had finished his soft request. Usually it took forever to get Sora to wake up, but for some reason not today. Even though the brunette was awake, Riku could see from the slight glaze in his eyes that he wasn't quite aware.
Blearily Sora looked at Riku, "What're you doing here?"
Riku smiled at his friend's disheveled look and removed his hand. "I came to pick you up for school today."
"Hmm? Why?" Sora asked yawning, his eyes drifting back shut.
Riku debated on what to say and finally decided that he should start with the truth. "You've been avoiding me. I decided to stop it."
That woke Sora up completely, as his eyes opened again and he regarded Riku with guarded eyes. "I have not."
Riku rolled his eyes and stood up. "You have to. You do realize that this is pretty much the only thing we've said to each other in almost two weeks?"
Sora shrugged, his eyes darting everywhere but at Riku. "I've been busy."
"I know, so have I. It doesn't mean that I'm going to let things continue like this though." Riku said in a stubborn voice.
Sora bit his lip. He had hoped that Riku wouldn't notice how he had started to distance himself before it was too late, or before he had finally gotten his emotions under control. He wasn't ready yet to face Riku, or the truth of what had happened, which put him in a touchy predicament. He could try and go back to the way he was before the night he spent with Riku and have his heart break a little at a time, slowly destroying him, or he could step back like he had been doing and have that destroy him in the same painful way.
Biting his lip he glanced over at Riku and softly said, "Sorry."
"Don't apologize for it, Sora, fix it."
Sora glared up at Riku in anger, "You know it's not entirely my fault you jerk." He pushed his blanket the rest of the way off of him and stood up.
Riku watched Sora rummage around the room getting ready for school and digested his friend's anger. Perhaps he shouldn't have said the last bit, since he knew it wasn't entirely true. Giving in to his conscience he responded, "I'm sorry. You're right of course. It isn't entirely your fault, it's partly mine too. Can't we just fix things? Can't you tell me what's wrong?"
Sora didn't look at Riku as he pulled his school uniform on, "There's nothing wrong. I've just been busy."
Riku knew that Sora was lying, since Sora had never been able to lie to him. However he chose not to press the matter at this point. "Your mom is cooking breakfast and has requested your presence," he said stiffly before turning and leaving the room.
Sora sighed once Riku had left. He should have known better than to try and lie to Riku, Riku was one of those people who could smell a lie a mile away. However, it still didn't mean that he needed to disclose all his secrets to his silver haired friend. After all, he still wanted to have a friend.
Hopefully over time things would get back to the way they were, but until then Sora knew he was just going to have to try and learn how to deal with the pain. He wondered in the back of his mind why his life was turning out to be so complicated.
Trudging downstairs he slipped into a seat at the table as Riku and his mother happily chatted about small things.
He ate only a small portion of the food his mother placed in front of him, saying that he had a stomach ache and wasn't hungry. It was hard to ignore the disapproving looks that he felt both his mother and Riku give him. Choosing to ignore them for the most part he sulked as he ate slowly, nodding his head occasionally to make it look like he was listening.
Vaguely he heard his mother say, "That sounds like a wonderful idea Riku. I'm sure Sora would like that."
He snapped to attention and looked between the two warily. Both were wearing equally satisfied smirks on their face. "What?" he asked, his wary expression not changing.
"You're going to the amusement park today with Riku and the others Sora. Isn't that great?" his mother asked enthusiastically.
"I'm what?" Sora asked, his voice raising slightly, holding a slight edge of panic to it.
"You're coming with us, Sora," Riku said logically. "Next time you should pay attention before nodding your head to whatever you're asked."
Sora scowled and stuck his tongue out at Riku, falling back into a more normal routine for him without even realizing it.
Noticing the genuine grin that Riku had just given him at the action Sora felt his heart beat a little faster. He quickly looked back down at his plate before pushing it away and rising. "I'm leaving now," he said grabbing his school bag.
Riku rose and waved goodbye to Sora's mother and both of them had trudged out of the house. Riku swore that he would find out what was bothering his friend by the end of the day.
End Chapter Two.