Won: Some Riku thoughts! WhoOt!
-With Riku-
'Argh. Fuck, my head's pounding! What happened?...'
Riku's eyes fluttered open. Waves were breaking close by. The silver-haired boy sat up, rubbing his head. He looked around. His four other friends were spread out on the beach around him. They had all washed back up on Destiny Islands.
Four? That wasn't right...Kairi, Wakka, Selphie, Tidus, and...
'SORA!'
Riku looked around again. Sora was no where to be seen.
Then what had happened to him?
"Mf..." Tidus stirred. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and shook his head. "What happened?"
Slowly, everyone regained consciousness.
Kairi started to cry. The rest of them flew to her side.
"I-I can't believe we lost Sora!" She wailed.
Silence fell. Riku felt a weight drop onto his shoulders. He vaguely remembered trying to bring Sora back to the raft. Trying to tug him free...
Riku's hands flew to his eyes, pressing on them. He grit his teeth. 'Sora's gone. I couldn't save him...'
But why were they all back on the island?
Riku thought back. After the fish had claimed Sora, the storm had thrashed the raft, finally breaking it to bits. After that, it was fuzzy. He guessed he had blacked out.
The thought of losing Sora plagued Riku's mind. 'How could I have lost him?' It didn't seem fair.
Wakka cleared his throat. "What do we do, now, ya?"
Tidus tried to hide tears. "I-I dunno." He sniffled and Wakka patted his back.
Selphie dazedly got to her feet. "Well, we could start by picking up this stuff..." She pointed to the things washed up on the beach.
Riku sighed, getting to his own feet. "Yeah. It's all his stuff. We can, you know, hold a ceremony or something for him..." He said, trying to keep his voice steady.
Everyone nodded and started walking down the sand, picking up Sora's things.
Riku didn't find anything too valuable. He was about to call it quits when something shiny caught his eye. The tide nearly washed it away. The silver-haired boy ran forward, diving and snagging the object before it was lost forever out to sea.
He ran it through his fingers, finally looking at it. His heart sank.
It was Sora's crown necklace. The one he never took off.
When Riku finally looked up again, he found himself in the Secret Place. He didn't know how he got there. He didn't care. He sat against the rock wall, pulling his legs up. He felt...empty. Like nothing was there. Not sad or angry or anything. Nothing.
His eyes traveled along the wall in front of him. They stopped.
'I don't remember seeing that there before...'
Someone had carved a message into the wall. Riku crawled forward, squinting. It was a farewell from Sora.
'He must've written this before leaving...'
To Everyone-
I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry. I hate being alone. I took the raft and left. No one was using it. If you want to blame somebody for it, blame yourselves. You can all stay here for all I care.
It's funny, because I still think of you guys as my friends. But if this is what friends are, I don't want any. I'll go find some new ones.
Hope you're happy.
-Sora
Riku sighed, looking down at the necklace. He slipped it over his head.
'I'm sorry, Sora...'
-With Sora-
"Wake up."
Sora groaned. "Five minutes..." He pulled the covers over his head. Someone shook his shoulder.
"Come on. Wake up."
Sora opened one eye and peeked out from underneath the blankets. He blushed. A shirtless Seifer peered at him.
"I've got breakfast." The blonde pressed.
Sora flung the covers off. "That's all you had to say."
Seifer chuckled. "I had a hunch. So, hungry?" He held out a plate. Sora's stomach growled. "I'll take that as a yes."
Sora inhaled the food. He then frowned.
"What? You don't like it?"
"No, I do. I love it. But...what is it?" Sora asked.
Seifer looked at him strangely. "Um..."
"What?"
"Look, everyone here knows what this stuff is. How come you don't?" He felt Sora's head, "I don't feel any knots..."
Sora sighed. "I'm from the islands, remember?"
Seifer stopped. "Oh, right. Sorry." He started explaining breakfast, "These are eggs..."
"Really? Hmm...I've only seen them with the shells on." Sora said, looking at the white and yellow discs.
"These are cooked." Seifer said, "This is toast."
"What's the yellow stuff on it?" Sora said, licking his fingers.
"Butter."
Sora took another piece of toast. "I like it."
Seifer chuckled. "Yeah. Bread and butter tend to go together."
"Bread? But you said it was toast." Sora questioned, cocking his head.
"They're the same thing. Toast is just crispier."
"Oh." Sora shrugged. He bit into the toast. "Mm..."
Seifer pointed to the slabs of red, steaming meat. "Bacon."
"Now that is good stuff." Sora stated, "What's it come from?"
"Pig."
Sora shrugged. "Whatever that is..."
Seifer chuckled again. "I'll show you when you can walk again, if you want."
Sora nodded, smiling. "Sounds great." He wolfed down the rest of the piece of toast.
"And this is orange juice." Seifer finished, holding up the glass of yellow-orange liquid.
"Tangy." Sora admitted. He swallowed the rest of the juice, "I'm starting to like the mainland."
Seifer grinned. "Good, because you might be here for a while." He leaned over and grabbed a first aid kit from the side of the bed, "I have to change your bandages."
Sora nodded, pulling the blankets away from his leg.
Seifer unrolled the bandages from the kit, laying them out. He soaked a pad in peroxide and set that aside, too. He reached out and eased the wrappings off Sora's leg.
The brunette winced and looked at the bite. "Owch."
"Yeah, owch. They got you good." Seifer started pressing the medicine to the bite. "This should help, though."
Sora hissed. "Well, it hurts, now." He watched it bleed through the pad, "How deep is it?"
Seifer frowned, looking under the pad again. "Um, maybe an inch or two..." He pressed the pad down harder. Sora whined. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry!" Seifer pulled away, "Sheesh...I'm done, all right?" He snagged the bandages, winding them tightly.
Sora sighed in relief when he was finished. "Thanks..."
Seifer shook his head. "Don't thank me yet; I've still got to change the ones on your stomach."
"Joy." Sora raised his arms over his head, "Hurry up."
Seifer nodded once and went to work. It took a little longer then Sora's leg because of the bite marks on his back. Sora had to hold the medicine soaked pad to his stomach while Seifer held another one to his back.
"Ah..." Sora grimaced, "This stuff does more then sting..."
Seifer glanced at him. "Could've been worse. They could've bit parts of you off all together. I think," He replaced the pad to a different puncture wound, "that the sharks realized you were human and let you go. Like they made a mistake."
Sora snorted. "Um, yeah. In case you haven't noticed, they have tiny brains. I doubt they can have intelligent thoughts like that."
"Don't scoff. I didn't mean they were smart. It's our blood. They sense it and realize what they've grabbed a hold of isn't their usual prey, so they let go." Seifer removed the medicine pad, "I guess we just taste like shit."
Sora snickered. "I guess we shouldn't be complaining, though."
"Nah. Just because we taste like crap doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Sure did save you, anyway. Here, you can give that to me, now." Seifer took the pad away from a relieved Sora. He grabbed more bandages and wound them gently around Sora's waist.
When he was finished, Sora fell back onto the sheets. "Much better..." He sighed, "I wish I could get up and walk around, though. My back's killing me..."
Seifer stayed quiet for a moment. He then scooted over further towards Sora.
"Turn over."
"Wha? Why?" Sora asked, confused.
The blonde rolled his eyes. "Just do it."
Sora, frowning, did as he was told, rolling over onto his sore, bandaged stomach. He set his head in his arms. "What's all this about?" He grumbled. At once, he felt a pair of very warm hands on his shoulders, rubbing them.
"Feel good?" Seifer asked softly.
"Mmn..." Sora's blue eyes closed. Yes, it felt good. It felt extremely good. Sora was in heaven.
Seifer moved his thumbs between Sora's shoulder blades, below his neck. "How about that?"
"Great..." The brunette sighed. He yawned.
"Falling asleep, now, are we?"
Sora frowned. "Don't stop."
Seifer chuckled. "I don't plan on it."
