Title: Love On A Rotten Day
Author: Slashapalooza
Disclaimer: I am crying a river of tears so I can build a bridge and get over the fact that Riku and Sora aren't mine.
Author's Note: Oh Ravyn, you make me blush. Oh, and Riku's Heartless Angel? Riku adores you. He was raving about your review for weeks before Sora got jealous and they locked themselves up in my bedroom, leaving me to sleep in the bathroom. For nine and a half hours. Sora, however, would just like me to tell you one thing: 'I am NOT cute, dammit!' Dark Unicorn Shadow? Riku loves you, too. He requests immediately that you and Riku's Heartless Angel start a Riku Fan club. Now. As in right now.
Date Begun: October 15, 2004
Date Posted: October 31, 2004
Date Edited: December 16, 2007
Chapter 3: In Which There Are Some Misunderstandings
Sora's family wasn't rich. They weren't exactly poor, but money wasn't something they could just hand out. Riku knew that from asking around and it didn't make him happy, especially after what he'd just read in the letter.
The letter had been on his mind all day, keeping him distracted during his classes, during lunch, so much so that even Leon had asked who shot his dog. Now, he was sitting beneath a tree in the courtyard, the letter in hand as he tried to decide what to do.
Riku and his mother weren't rich, either, but they had enough money left over after taxes to spring for a used car if they wanted to. Sora, apparently, didn't even have enough money to pay his Dad's medical bills.
Riku's eyes scanned the letter again: Dear Mrs. Harada, We regret to inform you that your husband has fallen into a critical condition that and if it gets worse, we will have to, with your permission, put him on life support. Your medical insurance will no longer cover this. Please send an additional payment of $2500 as soon as possible. We'll see what we can do.
Riku felt terrible. How could he take advantage of a virgin whose Dad was in the hospital? The last thing Sora needed right now was to be deceived and to be publicly humiliated. And what kind of person would Riku be to do that to him, knowing how emotionally fragile Sora was already? He couldn't…
"Whatcha got there, kid?" Cloud asked, pulling the letter out of Riku's hands. Riku tried to grab it back, but Cloud had already finished and was looking down at Riku expectantly. "So, what, you're going to back out just because his old man's in the hospital?"
"Did you even read it? It's more serious than that!"
"Like I said, so what? I thought you wanted to be popular. But, fine, be a coward. Back down just because you care about his feelings. None of us do."
"I'm not a coward."
"Sora's Dad's been in the hospital for over a year so that shouldn't even matter anymore. I think if he wanted to have an emotional breakdown over it, he would have done it already."
Riku looked down, scowling. Cloud totally wasn't helping. Plus, he was totally wrong. Riku's Dad had been gone for longer than a year and it still pissed Riku off.
"Look, just seduce the kid, screw his brains out, and get it on tape. It's not that hard. Trust me, you'll win in the end."
That said, Cloud stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled away. Riku's conscience was nagging at him incessantly, but now it was warring with his sense of pride. Cloud had called him a coward. Cloud didn't think he could do it. And Cloud had hit on the root of the problem—Riku did want to be popular. As silly as it sounded when said out loud, he really did want to be popular.
Seducing Sora would get him in and, after that, he wouldn't need to even look at Sora again. Why should he care about Sora's feelings when he'd only have to put up with Sora for a month?
Riku folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, his mind made up. He'd return the letter to Sora, seduce him, get it on tape, and then forget about him. It really wasn't that hard.
Sora was waiting by the bus stop for Kairi when Cloud approached him. Kairi was in club meetings for about an hour after school and Sora, who had no such school spirit, had gotten tired of waiting in the library for her. He'd dropped by the meeting to tell her he'd meet her at the bus stop and now he was sitting on the bench, trying to figure out who had sent him those flowers.
A tiny part of him, the part that wanted to go to the dance with Riku, was hoping that Riku had been the one to send them. Riku seemed genuinely interested in him and flowers were really romantic, exactly the kind of thing Sora liked. However, that tiny part of him was being silenced by the other, larger part of him that kept insisting he didn't like Riku. An obsession and a crush were two completely different things. Besides, he'd only known Riku for a day, not nearly long enough to develop a crush.
Shaking his head, Sora looked up as a pair of boots entered his vision and he came face-to-face with Cloud Strife. He looked amused. "Sora."
"Hi…" said Sora suspiciously. Why was Cloud talking to him? Cloud didn't talk to anyone but his friends and none of them more than Leon. This had to be some kind of joke. It was one thing for Riku to want to talk to him. Riku was new. Cloud had been popular for long enough to know what talking to Sora would do to his reputation. There had to be someone hiding in a bush with a video camera ready to scream, "GOTCHA!"
"How are you?"
Sora's eyes narrowed at the sorry attempt at small talk. There was definitely something wrong here, but he'd be damned if he was going to bring it up first. He shrugged. "Fine."
"That's good."
"Yeah."
"Great."
"Mhmm."
"Listen…" Sora leaned forward on his seat, ready for Cloud to finally get to the point. Cloud paused hesitantly, as though unsure whether or not he should continue, then cleared his throat. "Riku found something of yours today."
"Really? What?"
"A letter…"
Sora's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, his stomach sinking. "A letter?"
"A letter. He wouldn't let me read it, but he read through it and he looked so amused. I figured since he wouldn't tell me, maybe you would." Cloud was starting to sound like he couldn't care less about it anymore, but Sora's heart was pounding. Surely he couldn't mean…? Riku couldn't have—
He quickly dug through his bag and confirmed that, yes, the hospital's letter was gone. But that didn't explain why… "A-Amused?"
"Yeah, like it was really hilarious."
The fear was slowly warmed over by anger. Sora clenched his fist. There was nothing hilarious about that letter. How Riku had even gotten it was—he must have dropped it at some point and Riku thought—
Sora had been feeling guilty about yelling at Riku and Kairi like that, but now he was just infuriated. He and his mother didn't have the kind of money to pay for that sort of thing. They could probably raise something in the hundreds, but the thousands? Everybody knew Sora's family wasn't exactly rich and everybody knew his father was in the hospital, but thinking it was funny…
Riku was such a bastard!
"I just wanted to get to know you a little better. That's all. I saw you in Geometry and just couldn't keep my eyes off you. You're very cute, you know."
Lying bastard! When Sora got a hold of him he was going to—to—to do bad things to him! Very bad things!
Sora was so angry that he didn't noticed when Cloud wandered away with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
What it really came down to was a choice. Sure, the choice was a tough one. They always were. And Riku's conflicting emotions weren't helping. He could feel it eating away at him, tearing at his very soul, until he didn't think he could take it anymore.
Finally, he just closed his eyes and pointed at the basin of chocolate ice cream.
"I'll take two scoops of that, please," Riku said politely to the girl behind the counter. Sora's letter was tucked safely into his pocket and, rather than thinking about that, he'd decided to go out and get himself some ice cream instead. To ensure he wouldn't run into Sora, or, worse, Cloud, he'd gone for the ice cream shop as far away from the school as one could get without leaving Radiant Garden.
He looked up when his ice cream was handed to him, surprised to see that Kairi was one of the waitresses working there. Wait a minute. Kairi? He raised an eyebrow at her. She was only fifteen. She wasn't allowed to work.
Kairi stared at him in panicked shock before she practically crawled over the counter and clasped a hand over his mouth. "I know what this looks like, but please don't tell anyone how old I am! I need this!"
Riku tried not to snort at how dirty that sounded. He nodded until Kairi relaxed and got off the counter, removing her hand from his face.
"Ahem," she said with as much dignity as she could. "Thank you for coming, sir."
"Does Sora know about this?"
Kairi lowered her gaze. "I can't tell him. I need the money for him and his—his family."
"How long have you been working here?"
"I just started today."
Riku nodded as he put two and two together. The letter had fallen from Kairi's bag, not Sora's. She'd gotten a job to help Sora raised the $2500 and didn't want Sora to know because then he'd know she'd read his mail. Riku considered sharing his suspicions with her, but then she'd know that he had Sora's letter and he wasn't prepared to deal with the backlash from that just yet.
"That's really noble of you," he said at last. "Our little secret, then."
She smiled. "Yes! Now get out of here before I have you arrested for loitering."
"I'll take you down with me for visual molestation."
Riku headed out of the store, licking his ice cream cone with a little smirk, leaving a red-faced Kairi in his wake. He'd forgotten to factor Kairi into this equation. Sora may never want to look him in the face again after the tape got out, but Kairi seemed like she'd be very violent on his behalf. Was being popular really worth the emotional turmoil that both of them would suffer?
Surely, Sora will get over it. I mean, if it was me, I'd never recover from having someone as sexy as myself do me the honor of sleeping with me just so he could show it all over the school. Well, okay, maybe I wouldn't mind that part so much, but—argh!
Fed up with his thoughts, Riku tossed his ice cream into the nearest trash bin and started heading for the park, his hands jammed in his pockets. To his surprise, Sora was sitting on the bench there, head down and bangs cover his eyes.
"Ah… Sora?" Riku asked tentatively. Sora seemed like he wanted to be alone although, even in misery, he was still as adorable as ever. Sora slowly lifted his head and he stared Riku straight in the eye, his eyes flashing with so much anger and humiliation that Riku took a surprised step backwards. "Sora?"
"You!" Sora launched at him and proceeded to try and beat the crap out of him. "How dare you!"
Riku blocked every one of Sora's attacks, flipping them over and pinning the boy's flailing limbs to the ground. "Sora! What the hell has gotten into you? Stop that! You might hit me in the face!"
"You deserve that and every other thing you get, you dirty, stupid… evil… person!"
"Right. What exactly did I do again?"
"Give me my letter now!" Sora demanded, struggling until Riku's grip. "Give me my letter and get out of my face! You think that's funny? There's nothing funny about it! Just because my Dad's in critical condition doesn't mean you can laugh! He could die! Is that funny to you, you heartless—mmph!"
Since Riku's hand prevented Sora from saying anymore, he glowered intensely. Riku gave him a cool look. "Sora, what the hell are you talking about?"
The glower intensified.
"I don't know why you think I found your letter to be funny, but you're wrong. That was the last thing I thought when I read it—which I'm sorry about, by the way, but I didn't know what it was before I opened it."
"Mmph mm mph mmph mm mhmm!"
Riku sighed. "Actually, it made me feel pretty bad. My old man abandoned me years ago and I thought I had it bad, but you…"
Sora was still glowering at him.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you probably don't want my pity, but, hey, I'm extending the hand of friendship here. Accept it." When Sora showed no signs of doing anything but glaring at him, Riku smiled. "You look even cuter when you do that."
Sora deflated like a balloon, his eyes getting watery as he looked away. Throat tight, Riku removed his hand from Sora's mouth. "I'm sorry. I'll try to stop calling you cute."
"That's not what I want," Sora said softly.
"Then what do you want?"
The glower returned. "I want to kill you and drag your lifeless body where no one will find it. And I want you to get off me. Please."
Riku laughed and did as he was told, helping Sora up and pulling the letter out of his pocket. "I think this belongs to you."
Sora snatched the letter out of his hand as though convinced Riku was going to play keep-away with it, sticking it in his bag. Riku placed his arms behind his head and stared up at the sky, half-expecting rain. "So, what do you plan to do?"
"None of your business."
"Ever think of actually asking someone for help?"
"Leave me alone."
"Are you always this stubborn?"
Riku sighed and looked at Sora helplessly in the silence that followed. Sora obviously wanted him to leave, but Riku had been hoping to at least get to talk about the letter. It'd be a lot easier to get a sap like Sora into bed if Sora felt like they could talk. Like friends or something.
"Look," Sora said at last. "Just forget about it, okay? Thanks for returning my letter before someone else found it, but I can handle this myself. I'm fine. And if you tell anybody, I'll kill you and then drag your lifeless corpse where no one can find it."
"I'll remember that."
"Later." Sora began walking away. Riku watched him leaving, hoping that Sora would look back, but he didn't. He felt like he needed to say something else, anything else. Something sentimental and lasting that would make Sora want to look back. He had to look back.
The farther Sora got without glancing behind him, the worse Riku felt. He wanted to be remembered and wanted. How Sora could stand to ignore him so easily when every fiber of Riku's body was screaming for anything other than that was beyond him. He couldn't take it anymore.
"Sora!" He called out. Sora stopped and looked back, which made Riku so happy that he forgot what he was going to say. Instead, he smirked. "You have a really sexy ass."
Sora's face turned a deep, deep shade of red. "Pervert!"
Riku couldn't help but laugh as Sora pouted cutely and started storming out of the park with his hands behind him to cover his butt. He liked seeing Sora blush. And seeing him pout and smile and laugh and try to glare. It was amusing. Sora was so open with his emotions—though perhaps not with his words—that it was refreshing. Especially to someone like Riku who spent most of his life bottling them up.
Riku turned and started walking in the opposite direction, feeling much happier than he had in awhile. That had been some good ice cream. The ice cream. Right.
Sora quietly pushed open the door to his house, hoping that his mother wasn't home so that he could safely dispose of the letter without her knowledge. This wasn't the first letter Sora had gotten from the hospital. His mother hadn't seen the last one because he'd been hiding them. Sora knew everyone thought he was naïve but he could see things.
Things like the fact that Seiya worked part-time at a daycare center and at the local grocery shop and as a nightshift nurse just to pay for the hospital bills, the house bills, Sora's school fee, and anything else Sora might need. Sora never asked for anything, but his mother had always liked to shower him with gifts.
She always tried to love him as much as his father would, had he been conscious.
It hurt Sora to have to do anything that would hurt his mother who already worked so hard for him. He'd spent many, many days agonizing over it, but Kairi had been the one who'd pulled him out of a month long depression and convinced him that all he could do was be his usual happy self and his mother would be happy, too.
So Sora did. No matter what, he was always happy or goofy or doing something to put a smile on someone else's face. Sora was hardly ever sad. He couldn't afford to be sad.
Then stupid Riku had to go and read his letter and see him being so dejected in the park. Sora felt horrible for attacking Riku and saying the things he had, but he'd just been so angry. Angry that Riku had found out his most shameful secret so quickly. Angry that Riku had seen him sad. Angry that Riku had been there. He wouldn't have blamed Riku if he had been laughing. Sora's life was pretty pathetic.
Sora heard someone rummaging around in the kitchen and plastered a grin on his face as he walked in and hugged his mother around the waist. "I'm hungry!"
"I ordered out. Look, there's pizza on the table for you," said Seiya, laughing and ruffling his messy hair. Sora pouted both at her words and at her actions.
"Why'd you order out? You could have had me cook!"
"Yes, but it's been awhile since we ordered out and I had some extra money so I just figured—"
"Alright," Sora caved before his mother started rambling for an hour and a half. He grabbed a slice of pizza and ate in large bites. "'anks mm!"
Seiya laughed again. "Anything happen at school today?"
Sora swallowed his pizza and shook his head.
"Nothing? Not even anything with," she pretended to be sleeping, snoring in between every word. "Ri… ku… rikurikuriku… Ri-hee-ku…"
"Mom!"
"What? I was just asking a question."
"I didn't say anything about Riku in my sleep last night! How do you even know about him?"
"I'm a mother. It's my job to know. Plus, you so did."
Sora's cheeks were on fire again. "I didn't even like Riku! He's so… Riku-ish!"
"Uh huh. I always say the names of people I hate in my sleep."
"I'm going to my room!"
Seiya's laughter followed him up the stairs and, as soon as he was out of eyesight, Sora couldn't help but smile. Bad financial situation or no bad financial situation, his mother had always been more like his best friend than his mother and Sora was thankful for it.
He reached his room and got out a match, burning the letter and blowing the ashes out the window.
Well, there was no other option now. Sora may have been the laziest person ever, but if he had to get a job to save his mother from overworking herself then he would. He briefly considered telling Kairi and asking for her help, but he didn't want to put her to that kind of trouble. She worried about them enough.
It was all up to Sora. It wasn't that hard to lie on a job application. He'd get a job and raise enough money to help his father. Then, hopefully, his father would get better and get released from the hospital and all would be right with the world again.
"Okay," Sora murmured, bracing himself. "A job it is."
