Title: The Road to Dawn
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Characters: Riku, Sora, Kairi, et al
Pairings: Sora/Kairi, Riku/Sora eventual
Genre: Drama, Angst, Romance
Rating: M for the maturity of the themes and for strong language
WARNINGS: This story contains slash/male & male/shounen-ai themes! If such things offend you, then please don't read. I refuse to tolerate flames that are caused by the ignorance of the reader.
Summary:
Riku might have chosen the Road to Dawn, but even for a
heart and will so strong as his, the Road to Dawn is no easy task, especially
when the heart is heavy and burdened with horrors unimaginable.
The Darkness will forever be a part of him, but what if he isn't always strong enough to balance the lightness and darkness within? Old feelings he thought he had once buried are resurfacing themselves and he must face them once and for all or risk losing himself to the Darkness again. The only problem is… because he spent so long running away from the past, he doesn't recognize his own nightmares for what they are – as manifestations of a buried past. And how can he confront something which he can't seem to remember?
The Road to Dawn
Prologue
"Sora? Sora, where are you? Sora! … SORA!"
With a hoarse shout, Riku bolted upright in bed, body taut as a wire and mouth forming the soundless syllables of his best friend's name. When he saw where he was, the disorientation faded and the tension in his body relaxed.
"Stupid fucking dreams…"
He scrubbed a hand over his eyes and kicked the covers off and slid out of bed with a 'thump'. There was no sense in trying to go back to sleep now that he was wide awake. He had never been much of a light sleeper in the past, but nowadays… Heh… it seemed that nothing and everything came to haunt his dreams at night and he found himself waking up in the middle of the night with an annoying frequency.
As he checked the time, he snorted and muttered under his breath, "'Least it's morning."
He collected some clothes that were haphazardly draped over his chair and grabbed his towel and padded into the bathroom to take a shower.
As he canted his head backwards to receive the spray of the hot water, the lines on his forehead smoothed out and the tension in his shoulders loosened. But as his eyes closed, the darkness behind his eyelids started cloaking his mind and he found himself an unwilling reviewer of his most recent nightmare.
A flash of teeth, the sound of laughter…
The clanging of Keyblades battling against one another…
More of the laughter…
Then a scream of pain and a shower of blood…
Aquamarine eyes flared wide and open as he clapped a hand over his mouth to silence his own cry of horror.
The fuck!
"God… Sora…"
His backside hit the shower wall as he slumped against it and tilted his head upwards. A burst of copper filled his mouth as he bit his lower lip and his shoulders started to violently shake.
"God… How could I! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry Sora, I swear it wasn't me!"
It was a long while before Riku came out of the shower and he only came out because the water had turned cold on him.
Despite what had happened while he had showered, his face and body language showed no signs of his previous distress. The self-confident half grin was on his face again and behind the grin was a veneer of stoicism.
As he finished toweling his still-damp hair, he stared at himself in the mirror and hardly noticed the lackluster aquamarine eyes that stared back at him, their depths like bottomless pits. He shoved his feet into his shoes while he combed his hair and after a few flicks of the comb, he tossed it onto the counter.
Without so much as a backwards glance, he left the room and shut the door behind himself, not hearing the tinkling sound of broken glass that followed his departure.
tbc in Part I - I Forgot