Kiss Paralysis
Midday never seemed so untrue until now.
Chapter 4, Lying Afternoon
The island looked utterly austere, like contaminated by the hateful disease known as idleness and boredom. Kairi watched Sora as he watched TV, his mood was exactly like the overcast outside. When Sora watched TV he always laughed at the jokes or make some sort of comment on the show he was watching but today he was so . . . out of it. This wasn't the flamboyant Sora she was used to having around.
"Hey Sora," Kairi poked at him, "Is anything wrong?"
No reply, he just kept his attention on the television.
"Sora, are you listening?"
"Huh? What is it?" Sora finally snapped out of his dream world.
Kairi pursed her lips, "Tell me what's wrong, you're not yourself today."
Sora remained quiet, he couldn't tell Kairi what happened last night between him and Riku, he hated the idea of lying to her, but this was too personal to admit, "Nothing, just a little tired Riku had me helping him all night," he answered giving her a fake yawn and stretching.
Kairi twirled a piece of her hair with her index finger unconvinced by his reply, "Sora you can tell me anything and I'd understand."
He scratched through his thick brown hair, "Yeah, I know," he grinned his goofy grin.
Kairi sighed, "Well I'm going to show Riku the dresses that Selphie and I looked through last night and get his opinion on which one would look best on me," she stated, standing up and picking up the wedding dress magazine off of the coffee table.
"--Are you sure you want to go over there now?" Sora asked sounding panicky, "It looks like it's going to rain."
Kairi lifted her brows and placed her hands on her hips, "Well I suppose I better get there before it starts, what's so wrong about going to Riku's house anyways?"
"N-nothing, just the paint might not be dry yet and umm, never mind, I'm sure Riku wouldn't mind you going over there." Sora responded awkwardly and began flipping through channels.
Sora's fiancé kissed his cheek then walked over to the exit of their house, placing on her sneaker-like sandals, "I'll see you soon, love you, bye."
Once the door closed Sora felt a hollowness spread around their small home. He was positive Riku wouldn't confess about the events that happened last night but Sora couldn't help but be a little doubtful. He glanced over to the window that was half open, causing the sheer pink curtains to slowly dance.
"I think I'll talk to someone about this," he whispered to himself, he wrote a small message to Kairi on a sticky note:
Out to visit Wakka, be back for dinner.
Love,
Sora
He then slipped on his sneakers and walked outside to feel the groggy air. Sora kicked a small rock as he walked down the winding concrete path down to Wakka's house, curiously wondering what Kairi and Riku would be talking about.
Kairi knocked on the wooden door and waited patiently for Riku to answer, "I hope he's not sleeping."
Soon the door was opened and Riku answered with no shirt and boxers on, "Hey Kairi, come in," he opened the door wider to allow her entrance.
She smiled and placed a piece of red hair behind her ear, "I brought a catalog of wedding dresses," Kairi followed Riku into his living room.
Riku sat on the couch and took the magazine from her, sifting through it, and pausing every so often on certain pages, "Did you mark all the ones you liked best?" he asked as he stared at certain dress that had been circled in red.
"Yeah, Selphie and I started looking through some last night."
"I like this dress the most," he pointed at a dress that resembled something like a sundress but it was a bit more elaborate and adorned with pastel pink ribbons.
"Really?" Kairi stared at it, she didn't see that dress before when she was looking through the magazine with Selphie.
He casually ran his hand through his hair, bringing his bangs away from his face, "I think it'd look real good on you."
She smiled, blushing lightly, Riku had always been the more brooding and mysterious one out of the guys so getting complimented by him was very rare, "Thanks."
He smiled slightly in return, "Kairi, I don't mean to get rid of you so quickly but I got to install some of the lights in the house before it starts to rain."
"Oh--alright," she replied, standing up and smoothing out the wrinkles on her light blue tank top, "Before I go, can I ask you something?"
Riku was already beginning to excuse her to the door, "What is it?"
"What did you and Sora do last night?" she asked dismally.
Sora had just arrived at Wakka's house and already he could feel a slight drizzle upon his face. Before he could knock on the door it swung open, catching Sora a bit off guard.
"Hey man, we we're just about to go fishing." Tidus greeted with a handful of bait.
Sora averted his eyes to Wakka who held the rest of the fishing equipment, "We got an extra rod, so come wit' us, ya?"
"It's about to rain though," Sora replied holding out his hand to catch some of the precipitation.
"It's gonna be just a little mist, so come wit' us," Wakka closed the door behind him and patted Sora on his back.
Tidus handed some of the provisions to Sora, "Stop being such a pansy and go."
Sora chuckled, "I'll go with you guys."
Since Wakka lived just around the corner from shore it didn't take but three minutes to get to the beach by foot. Sora knew Tidus was going to make it a competition between them so he figured he'd better get the best bait before Tidus got to it.
"Why aren't you with Kairi? Shouldn't you guys be doing all that wedding planning stuff?" Tidus asked as he began to cast his line.
"She went to see Riku about what kind of wedding dress she should get," Sora answered lazily, casting his line too.
Wakka gave Sora a strange look as he placed a piece of fish on his hook, "You aren't worried about her?"
"Why would I be?"
"Riku is a pretty good looking guy," Tidus answered, "Don't you ever hear Selphie talking about him? I don't really think he's that cool."
"Riku has been more distant than usual," Wakka added.
"Listen, I don't think Riku is the kind of guy to do that kind of thing," Sora defended.
"Yeah, well . . . you never know that's all I'm saying," Tidus began pulling back his line.
That was always a thought that lingered in his head whenever they were younger teenagers. Riku and Kairi being together was an idea that always scared him. He didn't want to be the one left alone. Losing his best friend would just be . . . wait, shouldn't he be concerned about losing Kairi? Sora shook his head in a futile attempt to rid himself of his thoughts. Already he could hear a storm brewing from afar.
Riku could feel the intensity in Kairi's violet eyes as she waited for a response, "We were working on my house."
"Riku--you wouldn't let Sora lay a hand on this house before," her reply sounding trenchant.
"I changed my mind," he answered curtly.
Kairi sighed, "I'm going to find out one way or another so you might as well tell me," she was deeply hurt that her soon-to-be husband and childhood friend were keeping her a secret from her.
Riku placed a hand on her shoulder, "Honestly Kairi, Sora was just helping me paint the rest of my house," a flicker of untruthfulness seemed to light up in his eyes as he tried to convince Kairi his fib was real.
At this point Kairi knew that Riku had created a bulwark around his lie and was determined not to let her pass through, "Alright," she replied timidly, turning away, "If you need any help I'm always around."
Riku nodded, "I'll stop by your house sometime."
Kairi felt tears sting in her eyes as she left, "Bye Riku."
Unfortunately, Riku didn't notice the tears that fell down her cheeks or the shakiness in her voice as she left, instead he rashly went back to work on his house, installing the lights before the thunder and lightning began to roll.
Nearly four hours had passed since Sora had arrived home from his fishing trip with Wakka and Tidus. He had continued watching TV once he got home and didn't notice how long Kairi had been gone till he finally looked at the clock to check the time. The storm had started about three hours ago, she must've lost track of time while at Riku's house and decided to wait for the storm to slow up before she went back home. He sprawled on the couch, his head hanging off the arm of the loveseat, and he began to doze off when he heard the phone ring. He perked right up and went to the kitchen to answer the phone.
"Hello?" he asked.
"--Sora, Kairi is--" a roar of thunder distracted Sora from hearing the rest of the sentence and before he could return his response the electricity cut out.
He was alone, in the dark, with anxiety, a familiar feeling that he wasn't too fond of.
A/N: This chapter was boring . . . sorry about that. There will be yaoi-ness, so don't stop reading! I'd like to also thank the few loyal reviewers I have, I don't usually stick with a story too long if there aren't that many people reviewing but you guys write good reviews and you really let me know how my writing is, I appreciate stuff like that! Please keep reviewing!
Disclaimer: This fic wouldn't exist if I owned Kingdom Hearts.
