What Little Boys Are Made Of:Alchemy Dream
A/N: Hi! I'm finally coming out of lurkdom to post my little oneshot. I was primarily a Star Wars slash writer, but Kingdom Hearts 2 ate my brain once I started devouring and understanding the blatantly almost-canon tension between Sora and Riku. ;D If you will, visit my userinfo page and track me down on LiveJournal. That's where I post my fanart, which tends to be my real creative medium, haha. I just write fic on the side ;) Enjoy, and remember. Reviews are love.
Just like baby!Riku and Sora, haha. XD
"You've never ever even been to the other side of the island, Riku," Tidus scoffed, that is, if a nine year-old can scoff, as he dug deeper into the ground for the cooler, wetter sand to pack around the new moat.
"Uh-huh!" Riku said defensively, "And there is too a clock tower. It's like, a thousand feet tall and you can go inside it! There's a little door at the bottom, and it leads to-"
"A really really big castle!" Sora squealed, throwing his hands up in excitement. Riku just glared at him.
"No there isn't, Sora," Riku said softly, leaning in closer to whisper in his ear, "Stop that, or they won't believe me." Sora looked a little confused for a moment but quickly recovered, pushing the tiny shells he'd collected into the lopsided castle he'd built.
Each child had a responsibility for the sandy version of Destiny Islands they were building. Wakka, the oldest at 12, was responsible for the town plan. Selphie, at 11, got the next most important part, the town square. Tidus, 9, got the roads (and the moat, of course). Riku, 7, got to make the houses, which were tiny clods of sand with scallop shells topping them as roofs. Sora, 6, insisted that there be a castle on the island, and so to keep from hurting his feelings, there was a castle. Kairi, also 6, wanted to build the clock tower, but Tidus decided she was too young for such an important task. A newcomer? Building the clock tower? That would never do.
"Hey, there little bruddah, you can't keep packing onto that castle, else it'll take over the square, ya?" Wakka smiled fondly at Sora, ruffling a sandy hand in the tiny boy's hair. He gently scooped up a handful of the grand castle, packing it back into the ground.
"That was the bathroom, though," Sora mused, his lip poking out. Selphie roared at this, tossing a little sand at Sora's legs.
"Silly! There aren't "bathrooms" in castles. There are grand powder rooms for the princesses to freshen up!" Riku frowned a little, watching Sora rubbing the sand from his eye.
"Don't throw sand at him!" he commanded, a little too softly for the others to hear. Sora just smiled and began reshaping the castle, his left eye twitching a little every now and then.
This was how days passed, discussing things like the finer politics of sand-town development.
This was the picture of innocence at play. The six children, sometimes four or five, would find each other during the day. Sometimes their mother(s) would come down to the beach, and sometimes, if there were just a few of them, Wakka would watch them. It was a small island, divided into two sections, the west and east end. The west end was primarily residential, the east commercial. It was mostly made up of kiosks and shacks selling coffees, chocolate, and ice pops. There was a school. Or rather, two. Primary and secondary. There was no clock tower.
"I'm tired of building this! I want to do something else," Sora whined. "Can't we go play in the house today?" The "house" was, of course, the tall wooden playhouse with the cloth draped on the wall.
"No, Sora, because every time we go up there, you go to tears because you're afraid to climb down the ladder."
"I do not!" Sora squeaked at Selphie. Wakka chuckled a little bit, standing up and brushing the sand from his pants.
"Why don't we paddle out to the island instead?"
"Why don't we just climb up the bridge to the island, idiot?" Tidus teased.
"Because," Wakka said pushing his best friend down into the sand with a puff, "it's more fun to paddle, little bruddah!" He took off running to the pier to untether his canoe before Tidus could catch up and wop him one. Selphie took off after them both, her sandals flying off her feet as she did her best to catch up. Riku was slightly dissatisfied that the town was unfinished. He hated leaving a project half-done.
"Let's go!" Sora yelled, standing up quickly and adjusting his little white trunks around his tiny hips before getting his surfboard. He was terrible as a surfer, but he was real good at floating on it. Riku scratched at his crotch a little, even though his mom told him not to do it, and watched as Wakka rowed to the island, Tidus sputtering close behind, gulping down sea water, and Selphie simply swimming behind. Sora plopped his board down in the shallow water, and laid down on his stomach, waving to Kairi, who sat at the shore. She wasn't a very good swimmer.
And Riku was kind of glad.
He liked Kairi just fine. And he liked Sora a lot. But he preferred to like them one at a time. He looked back to the rock face, where Sora's mom sat on a towel reading a book and watching the kids. He looked back at Sora, who was awkwardly paddling on the humongous board towards the others. He was always the last to get there. Riku's competitive side came out again, and he began a full sprint to the water, his legs fumbling through the tide to where Sora was, and leaped, yelling, onto the back of the board, submerging it and himself, and flinging Sora about four feet into the air and back down into the ocean. Riku giggled at this for a minute, before he began fishing his best friend from the shallow water. Of course, Sora came up crying. Wailing. He hurriedly rubbed the salt and sand from his eyes, his board floating back up and out to sea. The shorts were barely hanging on. Riku kept giggling, hoping that in doing so, Sora would realize too how funny it was.
"You should have seen your face!" he said, pointing at Sora, who frowned at all the kids laughing at him from the island. His cheeks were pink with embarrassment. Suddenly, long, graceful tan arms reached down to pluck Sora from the water.
"I'm surprised you could see his face, Ri," Sora's mom said, hoisting her squirming, dramatic little boy up against her hip. "Stop wiggling, Sora, you're getting so heavy!" Riku looked down, suddenly ashamed. He hated it when Sora's mom sounded mad at him.
"We were just playing," he offered weakly. Sora's mom brushed the water and sand from her baby's face, smooshing her lips into a chubby cheek before looking down with a tender smile.
"I know, but you play too rough, honey." She offered her hand to him, and the three walked out of the water onto the beach. Sora's mom picked up her beach bag and gathered up the boys' clothes, a signal that the day's play was over and it was time to go back to Sora's house until Riku's mom got off work.
The sun dried them as they walked home.
"Did you know there's a clock tower on the other side of the island?" Riku said, fully recovered and swinging the young woman's arm as they walked. Sora held her other hand quietly, sipping juice from his little blue cup with the spout. Her arms swung in different directions, a tiny wet hand in each of hers. She smiled innocently.
"No, I didn't know that! What does it look like?"
"Oh, well it's about seventy-thousand-"
"You said one thousand before," Sora noted. Riku peered around the woman's thighs at Sora, glaring a little. But only a little.
"Well, it's really seventy-thousand feet tall, and there's a little door at the bottom that takes you to a secret lab! I think that's where they make the canoes or something," he said quite seriously. Sora's mom stifled a giggle, her light brown bangs falling into her eyes.
"Well, that's really something, Riku. Have you been there?"
"No ma'am, but I'm gonna go tomorrow, I think." She laughed at this. Riku was precious. He always had a grand idea about exploring this or that, and fortunately, he usually ended up toting her little boy around with him on his wild adventures. He was a good friend.
They reached the door of hers and Sora's little two story house, and dumped the swimming gear on the welcome mat to dry. The late sun stained the face of the house orange and red, and you could see the ocean from the porch at the height of the island. Riku loved coming here. It was so different from his family's house. It was much smaller, with lots of boards needing fixing (Riku had pointed them all out to her one day, and even made a little map of all the squeaky ones with red crayon), but it was home to him. With renewed vigor, Sora bounced into the house, leaving wet sandy footprints everywhere on the wooden floor. Sora's mom stepped into the kitchen, taking the boys' wet shirts and clothes they'd changed out of on the beach and popping them into the wash.
"Mom, can we have a snack?" Sora asked, doing his best to peer over the kitchen counter.
She knew that he and Riku were always hungry after a day's swimming. Riku walked into the kitchen behind them, sliding around on the tile, grabbing Sora's hand and slinging him around with him. Sora's mom pulled her long brown hair into a bun, and smiled, pulling the loaf of honey bread out of the breadbox, and the peanut butter from the cupboard.
"What do you want, sweetie?" she said, preparing the sandwich.
"Peanut butter!" he shouted, as Riku held his hands, doing a silly dance that involved lots of wiggling. They both snuck up to the counter, Riku just tall enough to look over it to make sure she put enough peanut butter on it, and most importantly, that she drew a heart in the creamy spread with the knife when she finished. That was Riku's favourite part. His mom never did that. She then cut the sandwich in half, and put each one on a saucer.
"Ri, what do you want to drink? We've got lemonade, juice, milk..."
"Milk!" Riku said, watching Sora bouncing up and down on his feet to reach his cup of juice. She handed Riku a frosty cup of milk, and retrieved Sora his cup. Both boys grinned and thanked her quickly, before racing upstairs to Sora's bedroom.
"Don't run, gentlemen. You'll drop your sandwich and step on it like last time," she said without looking, and immediately heard calmer footfalls.
She loved her boys.
"Riku, can I have some of your milk?" Sora asked, his mouth wide open and full of peanut butter.
"Gross, Sora. Close your mouth," he said, handing the smaller boy the cup. "Hey, don't drink it all!"
"It's good!" he gulped, making a show of smacking three or four times. The fourth smack was kind of a yawn. "Sleepy..."
The two sat on the big blue rug in the middle of Sora's room, which was remarkably uncluttered with the exception of his laundry everywhere. Sora only ate part of his half of the sandwich, before laying it on the ground and standing up to stretch. He walked over to the lowest drawer of his chest of drawers, sitting on his haunches and pulling out a pair of white drawstring pants. He stood a bit out of sight behind the foot of his bed and changed into the dry sleep pants. Riku's eyes curiously followed him, and then darted away, confirming again that they were identical. They were comfortable with each other.
"Do you want some?" Sora asked, offering dry pants, adjusting himself immodestly in the pants. It hadn't escaped Riku that Sora often forgot to put on underwear.
"No," he said simply. Sora climbed into his bed next to the window, and fidgeted with a stuffed bear on the windowsill as the sun bumped closer to the horizon. Humidity and warmth filtered into the room from the window, and the sweet smell of trees and water and wind coaxed the little brunette towards sleep. Riku quickly finished nibbling his sandwich and, with one last swig of milk, climbed up beside his friend under the blankets. Sora smiled contently, and closed his eyes. Riku watched as Sora's eyelashes pillowed against his cheeks, and his tiny, sun reddened chest rose and fell. Riku shifted a little in the bed, the sound of Sora's mom's favourite ukulele cd drifting through the house. He snuggled closer to Sora, kicking at his warm feet. Sora subconsciously curled his fingers around Riku's hand, and they fell asleep in the sandy, gritty bed until his mom came.
Which was always too soon.
She would step in Sora's room carefully, nearly missing a half-eaten sandwich, and quietly nudge Riku, or Sora. It was hard to tell who was who with them flopped together like that in the waning lavender light.
"Hey, baby, I'm here. We gotta get home," she said quietly, and he whimpered a little, hugging Sora tighter. Sora would sleep through the whole thing. She finally got irritated, and extricated her boy from the other one, and he kicked at her weakly, sleepy and panicky.
"I don't wanna go home!" Riku whispered angrily. Once he was out of the bed, she walked around trying to find his clothes and shoes and towel and squirt gun, finding everything but the shoes.
"We've gotta go, Ri, your daddy will be home soon." Riku frowned. He knew what that meant. His daddy didn't like him staying at Sora's house, because he and Sora changed clothes in front of each other, slept in the same bed and shared their drinks. And he really got mad when they held hands. His daddy didn't think it was right for him and Sora to do those things. Those were bad things for boys to do together. That wasn't what little boys were made of.
"Mama, I don't wanna leave! Can I spend the night?" he whined, tears threatening to fall. Sora's mom came upstairs, and he turned his pitch to her. "Can I spend the night? I'll be good, and I'll go to bed right now and," Sora's mom smiled and put a hand through his shortish silvery hair.
"If your mom says yes," she said. Riku's mom rolled her eyes, glaring a little at Sora's mom. She averted her eyes from her son's matching sea green ones as he waited expectantly. Make me the bad guy, why don't you...
"Baby...maybe this weekend, okay?" she said, sweetly. Riku's eyes fell to the floor as he stomped his foot.
"You and dad always say that," and the tears began to fall. Sora's mom looked away sadly, and then at Sora, who had shifted to hold a big stuffed bear, sucking on his thumb. His mom led Riku by the hand, hiccuping and whining down the steps and out the door.
"I'll call you," his mom said, running a cool, comforting hand over her son's pink, sunburned face. They both looked at him, as he looked away chewing on his top lip. Sora's mom nodded, understanding, and handed her his cleaned clothes. She bent down and pecked Riku on the cheek, brushing off a tear.
"I'll see you tomorrow, won't I? And you'll tell me and Sora all about the clock tower?" Riku grinned despite himself and nodded, wiping his nose. "Good."
She watched as the family walked hand in hand down the hill, disappearing into the low sun, folding her arms against her chest until everything was out of focus. She wished Ri's papa would let him sleep over. It would shake their house up a little, and Sora would be thrilled for his best friend to sleep over again.
But he didn't like she or Sora. He scowled at her for letting the boys change at the beach together behind a towel. She snorted a little, turning to go inside. As if nudity was something to be ashamed of at seven years old. He especially hated it when Sora came over to their house and thought he could get away with the same behavior. He had decided long ago that just because Sora didn't have a father that he would grow up to be too girly. His solution was to give them wooden swords and let them fight each other.
Because that was what little boys were made of.
End.
Love it? Hate it? Let me know. It's my first one.