This was randomly inspired by an RP my girlfriend and I have concocted long ago. I suppose you could just say it's an AU Slash fic on a different version of Kingdom Hearts. I have a good feeling about this. XD Albeit scary as well.

Here we go.

It was December.

RIKU!

I remember it clearly. Serenely. Perfectly.

Sora! SORA!

If only it were as optimistic of a time as the words I used to describe it.

Riku...

Even as I curl my hands up to talk about it, gesture to each spoken expression in a precise manner as if it were merely casual conversation, I still can feel my throat clench.

Let him go! STOP!

Because that was the day I lost him.

Sor - Agh!

That was a day that I could never forget.

Thud

The day had started out rather plain, as most days do. You wake up, maybe get a bite to eat, dress, and go do what you have to do that day. Or maybe nothing at all has to get done so you take that opportunity to enjoy a day of pristine relaxation. Very rare indeed. If you live a care-free life, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. That's alright. If you continue to listen to my story, you'll understand. Maybe.

I got dressed. My attire wasn't out of the ordinary. If anything I blended in pretty well. My silver hair, a color most unnatural for my age (Unless I'm albino, of course, which I am not.), was probably another story but I set it off with distracting clothes so it all broke even in the end. That particular day I had decided on a pair of camo-khakis, a warm, marine-emerald hoodie, and black boots to trample through the snow and get to my destination in one piece. A silver ring in my ear, blends of gold and silver-colored steel swirling around my neck like licorice, half a crown hanging off from it.

Anyone who knew Sora would recognize the crown immediately. Or at least the half I beared on that chain. A chain I never removed since the day I loaded it up on my neck. You see, Sora and I realized what we thought we had to find in this world was a reason to live. We were half right. Life itself is a reason to live. It lies under the simple fact you only have one of it. It's the only thing that everyone in the world has in common and the only thing in the world that anyone can just as easily take away. Every part of the being is fragile. The most fragile being the mind. When the mind is driven with the knowledge of pain and suffering, the heart grows weak. When the heart releases, the spirit is defeated.

The trick to surviving is to find someone to live your life with. A friend, a pet, family, a lover. Life is a beautful thing to have but a shame to not share. Life does not blossom until you've allowed someone else to try it on with you. We realized that when one heart begins to waver, the other's will be there to guide it back again. Sora and I found this without words. We found it silently within each other and nothing was done of it until Sora finally said, "Let's find a jeweler."

The same day we had the crown Sora always wore seperated and it became similar to those half-heart necklaces you'll see young girls wearing every now and then. Upon request, Sora's half got an R and mine got an S. And upon selective reflection, Sora looked wonderful that day. He seemed much younger than he normally had. I envied that face. Mine is so mature and serious that I'd swear I was born with the personality of a bitter old man. But never Sora. His was too busy flashing goofy smiles at everything he graced past to think of anything damaging enough to the spirit. Sora was pure. His heart was an untappered goldmine of ignorant bliss. I still wonder if people thinked the same things I often did.

Don't mistaken the seperation of the crown, the carving of initials, and the way I amplify every good feature about him. We weren't in love. Far from it. While people would think a deep-in-your-veins-burning friendship is well close enough, it never is. Never will be. It's not even half a world close. Despite this, Sora meant everything to me. I wanted to protect him. He wanted to protect me. No words could begin to describe the face I'd make when I'd look at him in his eyes. An ocean of life, sparkles of small fish bursting from the roof tops of their home with every embarrassed laugh or designated Sora smile. The boy had his own definition of smile.

We found ourselves staring out over the ocean. Kairi had gone home, as she was getting sick with a cold and didn't need to be near the water to stare at an island we couldn't get to. It made her more miserable and Selphie dragged her home before she killed herself with pneumonia. I was warm, as I had planned to be when I got dressed that morning, and Sora seemed partially offguard. Which was strange for him, considering he had a fuzzy white scarf on that his mother had knitted for him long ago to top off the long, bubble-red coat that sunk below his knees. It was almost ridiculous for him to be freezing. He must've had another pair of pants on under the baggy black jeans.

"The snow's kind of harsh today," Sora commented moreso to himself than his only company. I nodded, my silent agreements not even looked at anymore. Sora seemed to always know what I was feeling. Not that we felt the same way about everything but he knew. I know he did.

"I kind of wanted to go to the cave again," I said just to join the small talk. It was the only reason between us to even bother going over there this time of year. The statement was unnecessary but it was an oblidging gesture for conversation. "Kairi didn't see it, right?"

"Right," Sora replied quickly. "Maybe we should go anyway? I don't think the water - "

"We shouldn't risk our lives over something we probably thought we saw," I answered to quickly deny the request. "Are you really that dense?"

I laughed to see Sora's cheeks puff up like a threatened blowfish. I laughed even more to see him narrow his eyes in offense to the previous laugh. He wasn't helping me stop. When his soft cheeks fluffed back down, the red hue of his skin blared even moreso, thanks to his flesh stretching and the blasting cold air of the unforgiving sea decorating his face like a porcelain doll's. The wind caught his wild brown hair, blowing locks against his young face and giving him such a dramatic effect. It was lovely.

"I know I saw it," Sora sighed. "I saw a door."

Now this island was just an island we played on the majority of our summers. We had started to build a raft to sail off and find new worlds. You know, things kids are supposed to do. Great adventures, defeating evil, saving the princess? Precisely. But to see something as outlandish as a door inside a cave is just absurd. At least that's what I would've thought until I swore I had seen it, too. Then doubt and inquiry came to mind and that was that. However I wasn't about to throw myself at an endless ocean to get to a normally easily accesible island on a solid winter day that wanted to kill anything it came across. That just wasn't going down.

But Sora's will was relentless. I could see it in his deprived eyes that he was going to go with or without me. Better with than without, I suppose. I just swallowed anything I had to say about it and silently followed Sora as he made preparations to sail out.

The ride there was enigmatic. Normally we'd make some sort of verbal exchange, even a glance would've sufficed, but not today. Sora's determination was in stone and it was a hard stone to crack. But why it would cause Sora to suddenly cave in and fall silent was a good question. One I don't think even he could answer. Was he trying with all his might to use his unexplainable mind powers to make sure that door knew we weren't coming? Enter with stealth and catch it offguard so it doesn't disappear before we can pry it open. With Sora's personality and mind frame, I wouldn't doubt that train of thought for a second.

The arrival was just as obscure as the departure. For once I could not tell for the life of me what was on Sora's mind. In fact, his eyes looked rather blank and distant. I had never seen the boy concentrate so sincerely on something. Was the door, which was probably a hallucination, really that big a deal? Well, I wasn't allowed to argue with him. I was just there to make sure he didn't hurt himself trying to punch the wall open.

We climbed our ramps, jumped over ledges, swung on vines and dashed downward toward Hell. Well, the cave. Sora squeezed himself through carefully and I followed solemnly silent as ever. I kept forgetting we were growing up and the cave was bound to start feeling smaller than it used to. I just felt it moreso now than ever before. I gave it a quick glance before grabbing Sora's arm.

"It's not here," I hoped he'd believe me before he even bothered. "Let's go back."

"Riku..." Sora's voice floated upward. It was soft, surprised. My hunched shoulders forced my head to swing back toward him and give him my undivided attention.That included ignoring the annoyed ranting that took place in the deep, dark corner in the back of my head. "Look."

To be blunt, I nearly crapped myself at the sight that lied before me. It was a pink door with a white frame, intricately designed to give it some sense of style. Bad place for it, here in this cave!, I thought. I couldn't believe it. The door was right there. This apparition had taken it's time to say hello again just for a good laugh. I let go of Sora's arm and we stood side by side, neither of his making any move to get closer to it. It may have had rabies.

"So," I started, keeping my eyes on it in fear that blinking might've allowed it to go somewhere. "There's your door. Go open it."

Sora leaned closed to me and began effortlessly shoving his arm into mine, trying to push me forward to do it for him. He must've been out of his damned mind that day. "You go do it. You're braver than I am."

"Since when?" I now gave my attention to him again, which he didn't seem to want anymore as he was trying to avoid looking back. "What happened to all those speeches about you being a great hero, you jerk?" Sora growled in reply. It was a sheepish subject to try and use against him. We had said some extreme things in much earlier days.

Sora, with a frustrated breath, caved into it anyway. The moment he took a step forward the door quickly camoflauged back into the cave wall. Sora dove forward the second he saw it starting to fade but wasn't able to grab it. "Damn!" He snorted and hit the wall with his fist in revenge. I chuckled a little at his futile efforts to catch the leaping frog but I was terribly nervous - for good reason! A door appearing in a cave out on an island that was inhabited by who knows what before we came and made it a play place? What was I supposed to think; It was routine for nature to do this?

"Forget it, Sora," I said annoyingly. He was too hell bent on this illusion toying with us to actually listen to my words anyway, let alone the tone of my voice, so I didn't feel so mean. "It'll never - " I spun to leave but that was when...

"RIKU!" Sora cried out. I turned to see dark-misted figures curling their limbs around Sora, ripping at his neck and clothes to keep him in their bind as tightly as they could.

"Sora!" I started to run forward but it was then I found myself in the same being's grasp, unable to tear myself away from it's brute strength. "SORA!" Instantly, I saw something that threatened the support beams of my heart. A quick snap and I saw Sora's eyes blankly widen. For a second I thought they had broken his neck. That was it. Sora had just been murdered right before my eyes and there wasn't anything I could do to save him now. Luckily, that had not been the case.

"Riku..." Sora whispered, the shadow's needle-thin finger nail jammed through his neck like a pin cushion. Well, his head hadn't been twisted off but that certainly wasn't any better in this situation.

"Let him go! STOP!" I struggled toward freedom, Sora my goal. I had to save him but the locks of charcoal mist that had me held down wasn't letting me go anywhere. I couldn't even budge arms - my feet weren't functioning. I strained my muscles till I could feel them tearing beneath my skin, burning with the intensity I had to try and keep them from hurting him anymore.

Sora passed out when he tore his nail out and the mysterious door suddenly appeared behind them. I heard distorted whispers between the two shadows and, for a moment, I swore I heard them say:

" Sora is the only one we need."

Might've just been the delusional state I found myself in when I concluded I was completely helpless. "Sor - Agh!" The rest was a blur. The painful bite to my neck, or so it felt like one, vibrated and rattled my brain before I could make any hypothesis on what was going on. My body slammed into the floor with a hard i thud /i before I fell unconcious. It was a frozen sleep, save for Sora's scarf resting beneath the palm of my hand. All that was left of my dear friend.