Mikenno says:

Wooooow! Chapter 4! (Technically 5! But shh..) We've gotten this far? I have practically no readers but I'm so happy! I'm enjoying my project and I'm glad those that are following along are enjoying it, too.

I feel like because it's a slash fic that so far it's really boring. There's no boy love to keep you distracted and giggly. (Though it will come eventually in the main storyline!) I suppose that's what the side stories are for so you could just skip every two chapters and read the side stories... But please don't! You'll make the rest of the story sad; It may kill itself.

My friend told me I take a lot of time to describe the scene than to put dialogue. It's a good thing Cid is around or there would probably be no dialogue at all! Only Riku talking to himself...

So Riku's gummi ship went down! Crashed! We know our hero isn't dead because then the story would be over but still it's worrisome. You can't help but worry about Riku. I feel bad for making him crash now. Waah!

I don't think this chapter will be as hyper as the last but more revealing for Riku himself. Let's see!

Edit: I just recently discovered the keyblade I designed for Riku... is actually IN KH2! My friend showed it to me after I designed it. Maybe I'm just psychic! Though the keychain is different, of course. And the KH2 design is a lot cooler. But the handle and the blade... Wow. oo It's similar!

Edit Edit: I found this chapter really hard to write and complete. Probably because I've been so busy and tired. BUT IT'S DOOOONE! I guess you'll be able to tell. I'm ashamed. ..

Deep Jungle

"Oh! Daddy, Daddy!" The voice echoed maybe fifty times in my skull before it came to a calm. "He's coming to!" That was only about forty times but my eyes did decide to open. "Green eyes!" the female voice gasped. "I'd have thought blue..."

"At least the picture is in black and white!" chuckled a much more matured voice. Both the speeches were threaded with an accent, one I couldn't recognize. All I knew was my head was sore, throbbing, and there were two voices without faces in the room with me. I forced my upper body to rise and meet their gazes and I met a rather strange place instead.

The house I was in was undoubtedly a tree house. The open window doused in leaves; an enormous, thick branch swirling and spiraling across the center of the ceiling; The flowers plucking through the cracks of the boards; the old man and young woman in loin cloths... Wait. My eyes dropped up and down over their bodies, the girl's chest covered as well as a tapered, torn skirt clinging to her hips, the geezer looking like a sophisticated businessman at a toga party, only short and plump. I locked onto them as they had locked onto me, both of us surprised by the other.

"Uhm..." I wasn't sure what to say. I shook my head and jabbered, "Buh.. Er.. Where the Hell...?"

The deep-shaded red head smiled, blue eyes alit. "I'm Jane, first of all," came the first voice I had heard. "And this is my father." She gestured her hand to the old man. Well, good. At least he wasn't the King of the Jungle and she his maiden. "You're in the deep jungles of an island." I scanned, registered, and paid for it. It was yet another world, just like Wonderland only this place was a jungle. Well, I supposed two people living in the jungle wasn't as psychotic as the Execution-happy Queen and the purple cat, but that changed when a younger man with brown dreadlocks came crashing through the window much more gracefully than I had in the gummi ship.

"Oh, Tarzan!" Jane turned to him with an exasperated huff. "Door!" The man was bent like an ape as he leapt toward the doorway and grabbed the side of it. "Please try to remember using it."

"I'll try next time," He offers to calm her spirits. For a woman in the jungle, she was hell bent on manners. Tarzan let go of the door to approach me and he sat on the bed I had occupied to stare at me. By sitting and staring, I mean jumping onto the bed and shoving his face into mine. Personal boundaries didn't have a definition anymore. "Who are you?" He asked me with a grunt. I gave him my name and he leaned back. "Riku, Riku, Riku..." He mumbled it over and over before standing up from the bed and heading for the door.

"Tarzan?" Jane took a couple steps after him but he smiled back at her and flung himself outside. She cocked her head after him. "That's odd," She muttered loudly. "He normally doesn't do that. Oh, well, I gave up questioning his nature and just going with it awhile ago." She took Tarzan's place on the bed, only she actually sat down and kept away from me. I was getting warm so I pushed the blankets off. I saw Jane's face turn red but I thought nothing of it. "So where did you come from, Riku?"

Unsure of how I should respond, I tried to be partially honest. "Another island." She nodded. "Uhm.. I can't really remember it very well."

"Oh, my," She placed a delicate finger against her plush skin. "Amnesia, maybe? That crash of yours was pretty nasty." I gave a quick 'Yeah, sure' and found myself looking around again. I felt pretty cold for being in a jungle. Breezy. I flipped my legs off the bed and stood up with a wobble and a stumble for balance. Once I found my equilibrium, I started to walk.

I lifted my arms to cross against my chest and they most sincerely did. I felt my skin on my skin and something told me that was a rather suspicious thing to feel, considering I had a hoodie on last time I checked. Before I even looked down, I told myself to be prepared. It could have very well been Wonderland all over again and if my clothing had indeed decided to change, I was more than likely going to be completely and utterly offended with what there was to offer.

But it simply wasn't fair! Did any of these weird-ass changes happen to Sora or was I the only one parading around in a loin cloth! With an inescapable blush I sighed and let myself have it. No wonder Jane had given me such an embarrassing look, I realized. By the time I noticed the scarf was hanging off my hip - holding my skirt in place - and my gloves were still on - fingerless and all - It really didn't matter anymore. I was pretty much naked and there wasn't anything I could do about it. At least the company I had was good for this attire.

I lowered my arms to my side in fitful security and continued moving about the house. It was cozy and welcoming despite it's rural nature and most definitely warm and entrancing. I felt molded into its structure rather than an outcast and I think the clothing helped with that a bit. Pictures hung on the wall just on paper rather than frames and they were all hand drawn. A scribble with what seemed to be a "J" at the beginning stood out on the corner of each which left me to assume Jane had drawn them. She was really good.

Her father in more social clothing, some gorillas eating scrumptious piles of what seemed to be fruit, a patch of bushes that looked like beds, a giant tree that seemed full of life and energy, Tarzan hanging on a vine by his toes (Talk about strength!), A key with a... Something about the key had made me stop. For one, it was a strangely designed key. And two, why would a picture of a key be relevant enough to put on her wall? I felt as if I should've asked but I felt too embarrassed to directly start questioning her. Why? Might've been the fact I was half naked in front of the woman. Anything was painfully abashing to accomplish.

"Jane," I turned to her with a sweeter voice. At least as kind as I could make it without squeaking. "Did you draw these?"

She rose to her feet, lacing her fingers together. "Ah, yes. I draw all my memories when I can," She runs a finger across Tarzan's face in the one image and chuckles. She moved on between the giant tree and the key. I tried to get in her way of the other pictures and force her toward the key. It seemed to be working when she tried to be courteous of my gawking and move on by herself. Sure enough after staring at another picture of Tarzan just off to the left of the silently-inquired drawing, she came to it and stared thoughtfully. I walked up beside her.

"I remember how interesting that key was," Jane began to mutter. Whether to me or herself was pretty irrelevant but I wondered how much I could get out of her if she was talking to herself. As long as she didn't grumble too low, I was fine with it. Her voice began to lift as she recalled it further. "A giant key. A boy was carrying it awhile back through here. Before I moved in with Tarzan, yes!" She padded away from it and I quickly chased her. She opened a large basket with a creak and inside I noticed was a huge collection of art books and papers, supplies and the lot. She pulled out a book and flipped it open and through some pages before finding another picture of the key at a different angle. This one was sideways at an angle; the one on the wall was a flat drawing. My attention was drawn to the chain at the end of it with three silver circles on it. A large one and two small ones on top. I didn't recognize it as anything then.

She dropped the book back inside and stood up. "I need to go find Tarzan," She told me and looked toward her father. "Daddy, I'll be back in a bit." With that she went through the door and grabbed the nearest vine to swing off.

Left sitting on the floor from staring at her picture book, I found my curiosity, well, growing like a well-fed cancer. I turned toward the wicker box and began to lurk through the images. Jane had a serious talent that seemed wasted in a place like the jungle. Her art was accurate and extraordinary and could take her down many paths in her life. But she chose this jungle. My guess is because of Tarzan. Just the way her eyes glowed at just his picture made me realize she had a deep love for him. It was sweet and made me jealous, so I ignored it once I thought about it.

I browsed the gallery she had to offer and one book caught my eye. It was red with gold lacing on the edges and looked worn and used yet well pampered regardless. I open the cover once it found its way into my hands and flipped page after page of people. The first few pages were a woman that reminded me of Jane, probably her mother, and a few of her father before it quickly shifted into Tarzan. After about ten pages of her jungle lover I was getting fed up. Childishly I was about to throw the book when the next page quickly changed from Tarzan to a different person.

Wild hair. A tight black shirt. An attachable hood with a zipper to keep it on your neck. The chain. The half crown. There was no mistaking it.

It was Sora.

Despite nearly crapping myself at the sight of seeing some form of Sora in another world, the picture immediately became disturbing. The expression he carried in the image was blank. Sora's face didn't so much as hint a smile and his eyes looked like giant canyons rather than endless oceans. Maybe it was just a bad sketch, I thought. I flipped the page.

Sora.

He was sitting with the same key from the other art pieces on the ground, looking toward the sky. Same expression, only more beaten and defeated. Next page.

Sora.

Next.

Sora.

And after that.

Sora.

I kept flipping. And flipping. And turning. And slapping pages away.

Sora.

Sora.

Sora.

Sora.

Sora!

Then finally I flipped it again and it changed. It was an older man this time with long locks of hair flowing down his back, some stuck out on the sides of his face and on the top of his head, as if cut short too soon without control. He was dressed differently but I closed the book and threw it back.

Jane had met Sora. This was more than obvious after what I had just witnessed. But despite the shock of Sora's interpretation being completely wrong, I found myself laughing. Jane's father walked over, foot steps loud and disorderly.

"You alright, M'boy?" I kept laughing. I was clutching my head and was howling at the ceiling. I was so happy. I was vomiting so much joy I was losing my mind. "Riku?"

I took a deep breath and let out a long sigh to deepen my voice again. I looked toward him and grinned. "Sorry. Just... Sora was here. I finally found a trace of him that lets me know I'm on the right path! Concrete evidence!"

"And what would that be?" I showed him the book with the images. He smiled sadly before just frowning and handed the object back. "I see. I remember Sora." He didn't sound very enthusiastic to remember him and that was another disturbing way to react to someone as wonderful as Sora. "A friend of yours?"

"Most definitely," I replied. He seemed surprised so I had to ask. "What's that look for?"

"Well..." He sheepishly picked the book up once more and opened it to the section Sora resided in. He turned each page slowly after close examination. "By the way he acted, I wouldn't have believed he had any friends at all." My heart froze. That... That couldn't have been right. That was stupid. Sora wasn't anything like that!

"Why do you say that?" I asked, trying to resist my urge to snap at him about how sweet and loving Sora was with everyone around him, strangers or friends alike. Strangle him till he understood it, to boot.

"He was mostly quiet. When he spoke, he didn't say much beyond a few words. He looked rather beaten up, as if he hadn't slept in years." I listened with a great fear burrowing inside the bowels of my stomach. I quickly felt ill with each word. "I recall him saying, 'No one is coming to my side.' once. When Jane drew this, in fact." The picture of Sora sitting on the ground. It was the most miserable of all the pictures she had done. A beautiful display of flowers and clouds, a perfect, warm, sunny day and a corpse sitting in the rays trying to enjoy himself.

Something inside me began to burn. It felt the same way as it had in Wonderland, just before the keyblade the Cheshire Cat was rambling about appeared in my hand. I felt my nails tearing into the pages of the "photo" album.

"Riku? Why are you crying?" I heard Jane's father ask. I couldn't look up at him to give him a "What the Hell are you talking about?" look. It really didn't matter by then because I knew what he was talking about when I found wet plops smacking into the paper beneath me. At some point my eyes took over and were just waterfalls of misery and suffocation. I felt helpless to see Sora in such a manner and not understand why or what I could do to make it go away. I had to drop the book before I tore the pages out, I was shivering so furiously.

I stood up and stepped away from the entire basket before I kicked it out the window and down the tree, the outburst of emotion turning it's tide and quickly subsiding. I wasn't very good with all that to begin with so it wasn't something to last very long. I wiped my arm across my eyes and looked toward the door. "I have to go talk to Jane." With that I ran outside into the smoldering heat and snatched the first vine I saw. Hoping it wouldn't snap on me, I clutched tightly and swung off the platform.

I didn't get very far by the vine but at least I had gotten to the Earth, which was all I needed. I began to run in any random direction, letting my heart lead the way. I found that to be a mistake pretty quickly when I realized a heart at loss wasn't going to help me find anything in turn. I slowed down in my step and sighed to catch my breath, hoping maybe Jane or Tarzan would be flying overhead or maybe just casually walking by. To no avail.

Every tree suddenly looked like a tombstone. A place beneath which I could lie down peacefully and melt away into the dirt. Rot into the soil and retreat into a place of bliss where Sora would be with me forever. Sora and I, our friends... It was chilling. I kept thinking dark thoughts without even realizing it and the more pain I felt, the more frequent I got. The closer I seemed to Sora, the farther my happiness became. It didn't seem accurate for my feelings to be turning so erratically.

I did sit down under a tree, knees up and elbows resting upon them. I slapped my legs down when I recalled what I was wearing, despite having no one to giggle at anything near by. What on Earth was I doing with myself? I flung my very life into the stars in search for another, whether I lived or died, and suddenly I was having doubts? It was disturbing. It was a very unnerving predicament to be in.

"Riku!" Tarzan's body swung down in front of me, man still on a vine and hanging by his feet. So he really could do that! I jerked away from him as the leaves and broken twigs began to fall around me, afraid maybe he'd come down, too. Tarzan was skinny but he damn well looked heavy as an ape. "I knew I remembered your name."

"My name?" He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet; I obliged hesitantly but I didn't have much of a choice regardless. "How could you remember someone you never met?"

"I did!" He cocked his head in thought. "Sort of."

I felt like a princess being carried away by a white stallion. Tarzan wasn't so much a prince as much as he was just a horse dragging me by my waist into the night. However my mood was so apathetic that fear wasn't available for purchase. I was just letting myself be slammed through a labyrinth of trees and mossy branches to an unknown destination. Was there a goal or was Tarzan just playing around with me out of boredom?

Trees began to go astray; the sky seemed more upfront; the sound of running water trickled into my ears; Bark became rough, dry rocks and that became wet, slippery stones. When I paid attention, I found him and myself at a waterfall. We carried on around the descending falls and slipped into a cave behind them. He had been carrying me long enough, I thought, and he read my mind and put me down on my feet. A cave behind a waterfall. It was suspicious and I thought he was about to kill me for sure. Who would look here for my body?

To soothe my cynicism, Tarzan grunted for my consciousness and swung his head to follow him. I did. We climbed more rocks and jumped more stones and graced across slabs and hurt our feet on rubble. On and on till Tarzan finally tugged himself into another crack in the cave. I peeked inside with a frown and found it to be a wrong accusation. My face quickly shaped itself into a proper emotion: awe.

I noticed everything but was what out of the ordinary first: The vines tangling in beautiful swirls on the walls, the flowers blossoming and crossbreeding into new flowers with arrays of colors and smells, butterflies fluttering around the small puddles and sleeping in their beds made of petals... and a giant keyhole. It blended into the room, considering, but it was hard to miss a giant hole in the wall - I just happened to have missed it while staring at everything else. I thought it was what Tarzan had wanted to show me, but it had no relevance to me. A giant keyhole wasn't any of my business.

"Riku," I turned to his bellow with a jump only to meet a calm face. The cave had an echo issue, to say the least. I walked over to him and he pushed some moss and vines out of the way. My heart fell at my feet. It was merely stone but with distinct carving embedded into it. It had the innocence of a child but the deeper meaning of a turmoiled adult, the chalky images of my head and Sora's. I could just tell it was us, mostly because of Sora's style of drawing his own hair and I just looked like a palm tree. Despite what Jane had been drawing, Sora looked happy in his version and in his wiggly hand was his half of the crown. It was a huge version of it but I could clearly see an "R" scribbled on its corner. I had the other half with a respective "S" in the same fashion.

"Riku," Tarzan hit the wall a couple times. I turned to see what he wanted and actually saw he was reading out loud. My name was on the wall. "He wrote this."

"Sora did?" I asked. Tarzan nodded and took some steps back to let me investigate. I did approach the letters and narrowed my eyes. My mind was disarrayed with questions. Why would Sora draw this here? Why would he write my name? I looked around the chalkboard of stone to see if I could find anything else he may had written. There were some other chalk marks but nothing legible, if even meant to be. That was all Sora had left for me. That... idiot, I thought.

The night had come and eaten the afternoon away, leaving not even a warm, cozy cloud behind. The sky lush with stars more than made up for what was missing but I couldn't help but feel that the light loss wasn't worth it. There was a kind memory for comfort, however: The sun always rose the next day.

"Riku!" I looked up to see Jane's father waving his boney arm at me. Tarzan made his way over to a beckoning Jane. Beside the geezer was the gummi ship. It didn't look damaged whatsoever, which was surprising. I ran to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me.

"My ship!" I stumbled to a stop before it. "I thought... I thought it was - !"

"Kid!" I gasped at Cid's voice floating toward me. "You're alright! Good ta see ya alive!"

"Cid!" I laughed and hit the canister. He flipped away from me and floated back toward the old man. "I get it. It was you."

"Well, I certainly couldn't have taken care of this contraption myself," He explained with the wipe of his brow and the younger of the two old men returned to the machine in his anti-gravity manner. "But you can head home now, yes?"

I couldn't reply. There was no heading home, now was there? I knew the moment I pushed myself through the doorway that I wasn't going to ever be able to go home. Home grew more and more pointless as the year progressed and finally, on that day when I saw the light inside the frame, I didn't even know what my bedroom looked like, or what birthdays I had missed. I had no idea who moved in and out, who died and who was born. I could barely remember what a girl looked like. I gave up my life to save another and I had known the consequences when I told Sora I would protect him. It was all or nothing and I wasn't about to run away.

I smiled at him. "Not yet. I have to find Sora, first. I'm his friend, old man." He stared at me before giving a crooked smile.

"Riku," Jane walked toward me. "Please. Save Sora. He saved us, even though he looked - "

"I will." I didn't want to hear her description - I saw her art. "I don't know what he did for you but I..." I what? I laughed it off. "I'll save that dumb kid!" I quickly snapped my front away and ran for the ship. I climbed inside and didn't look back till I took my seat. My clothes bursted back onto my body, much to my relief, and I nodded to them. They all ran back out of the way and I charged the engines to ready take off.

I was grateful to have crashed there. I was a nice rest after the fight in Wonderland and, aside from that, I learned that Sora was really alright. Well, within reason. The look on his face, the marks he left in the cave... None of it made sense. Did something happen to him? These thoughts could not be purged by the beauty of the universe around me. They consumed me; Engulfed me. I was doomed to think of those "clues" until something new came up. I didn't respond when Cid's voice rang through the cockpit, alerting me of an approaching world a few hours later. I had awoken from a dream.

A dream where Sora's hand was merged into my flesh, gripping my heart. It didn't hurt, even though I could feel his fingers tightening around the muscle like an eagle's claw on its prey. My body kept fading in and out, white and black. Sora's eyes widened, shoulders hunching and upper body beginning to twist away. He looked so pained, as if he were causing his own misery by squeezing my insides. He bared his teeth and started screaming, mashing them together as tears rained out the windows on his face. The chain around his neck slowly began to grow smaller and smaller till it was pressed into his skin. It began to choke him as he tightened his hold inside of me. Stop, I would try to say. I couldn't talk. Stop it, Sora. Stop. You'll die. Sora. Sora.

"RIKU! Help me! Riku!" His voice was scarred and torn apart. His fingers dug into my soul. "HELP ME! SAVE ME, RIKU!"

"...ku! Riku! A world is approaching! ... Riku? You alright?"

"Fine." I looked out the window, rubbing my eye to clear it of any discharge. "Just fine."

Sorry that took so long. I like the ending to it. SIDE STORY TIME! Yay! Shounen ai!