Title: Love On A Rotten Day
Author: Slashapalooza
Disclaimer: If I could just have Riku and Sora pop out of a present for me on Christmas Eve, then I'll never ask for another thing again. Except maybe a yacht. And Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the gameboy advanced. And a gameboy advanced…
Warnings: Riku says there's too much talking in this chapter. Sora says there's too much kissing in this chapter. You decide.
Date Begun: December 13, 2004
Date Posted: December 25, 2004
Date Edited: December 28, 2007
Chapter 5: In Which There's Tons Of Coffee
Kairi berated herself over and over as she took the early bus to school to meet Yuffie and Wakka. Why hadn't she been more careful? What had Yuffie and Wakka been doing that far away from their homes on a Saturday night anyway? Why hadn't she been more careful?
At the very least, she should have had a cover story ready. Perhaps something about how she was just closing up for a friend who worked there or something. Sure, they could probably guess she had no other friends besides Sora, but Kairi's grades in English were proof that she was pretty good at coming up with bullshit.
Except, apparently, when it mattered.
The bus stopped a block away from the school and Kairi trudged off as though she were being led to the guillotine. She wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't prefer that, actually. She dragged her feet as she walked, kicking pebbles and stray soda cans, wondering if Sora would want to know why she hadn't been able to meet up with him before school, wondering what she was going to tell him if he did. She couldn't tell him that Yuffie and Wakka were blackmailing her because he wasn't supposed to know she was working. She couldn't just lie to his face either, though. She and Sora kept no secrets and they never lied to one another.
Kairi kicked a pebble particularly hard. She was so screwed.
There was a lone car in the student parking lot when she walked up, a classic thunderbird that made her all kinds of jealous. Thankfully, only a few weeks separated her from the driving freedom of sixteen, but there was no chance her parents would get her a car, let alone a thunderbird.
Sitting in the driver's seat was Leon, the seat tilted back and a pair of sunglasses on his nose. He appeared to be asleep. In the passenger seat, cradling a Styrofoam cup of coffee and looking more grumpy than usual, was Cloud. Sitting up on the back were Tidus and Wakka with Selphie in between them, dozing on Tidus' shoulder. Yuffie was leaning against the backseat door and she smirked as Kairi approached.
Steeling herself, Kairi met Yuffie's gaze dead on and folded her arms. "So, what do you want then?"
"Ooh," Yuffie cooed merrily. Obviously, she was a morning person. "That's quite an attitude you've got there for someone whose being blackmailed."
Cloud reached over and shook Leon awake while Tidus slid off the back of the car, causing Selphie to nearly tumble off with him. She snapped awake, took a moment to assess the situation, then called Tidus a variety of dirty names and returned to sleep on Wakka's shoulder instead.
Kairi watched Tidus warily as he stepped between her and Yuffie, sizing her up with a calculating stare. The longer he stared at her, the more nervous she got. The ground was like a magnet for her eyes.
"Huh," she heard him say as she studied his Adidas. "Cloud, is that good coffee?"
Cloud, who seemed surprised to be addressed, shrugged. "It's alright. Could use some more cream."
"Where'd you get it?"
"Coffeehouse a few blocks up."
"I think I'd like some," Kairi met Tidus' gaze at last, horrified at what he was going to say before he even said it. "Kairi, go get us all some coffee. I hope you have a pen and paper because we're sort of particular."
He raised an eyebrow at her as though daring her to argue. Kairi managed a feeble, "But I'll be late for school…"
"Sucks," Tidus hopped back up on the back of the t-bird, gently waking up his girlfriend. "Hey, you want a bagel? Egg and cheese, right? I think they have hash browns, too."
"Gonna cut 'em in the shape of a heart again?" Selphie murmured sleepily, apparently having forgiven him for her near-fall.
Tidus glanced over his shoulder at Kairi. "You heard the girl. Cut them in the shape of a heart."
Kairi stared blankly as Leon pushed the sunglasses up onto his head and leaned over, removing a drop of coffee from the corner of Cloud's mouth with his tongue. He licked his lips, indifferent to Cloud's astonishment, and said, "I'll have what he's having."
Yuffie did a backflip and landed expertly in the backseat of the car. "I want a bagel. Nothing fancy."
"I'll take a Red Bull if they have it, ya," Wakka piped up.
Cloud, clutching his Styrofoam cup a little more tightly, looked away. "I'm good. And it's a caramel mocha latte, in case you were wondering, Red."
"Red," Tidus said delightfully. "I like that. I want a chai tea latte, Red. And be quick about it. Just because you're late for class doesn't mean I want to be."
Kairi looked at them all with such loathing it felt as though if she stared long enough they would burst into flames. If only she could be so lucky. Fists clenched at her side, she whirled around and stormed out of the parking lot to the soundtrack of their laughter. Cloud hadn't even told her which direction the stupid coffeehouse was in. She supposed they expected her to walk a few blocks in one direction and then go the other way if she didn't come across it.
Those bastards, she thought furiously. I hate them all.
The caution with which Sora made his way down the hallway would have put James Bond to shame. He felt really jumpy after certain events on Saturday. In fact, he'd had nightmares of Riku crawling through his window and jumping him while he was trying to sleep. Well, maybe nightmare was the wrong word. But Sora still woke up sweaty and gasping, which couldn't be good.
In any case, his game plan was to avoid Riku for as long as humanly possible because he was almost sure that Riku had no inhibitions about jumping him in public and Sora didn't need the whole school knowing that he was Riku's new plaything. Even if he was a good kisser. And tasted amazing. And was amazing.
No. Not in the middle of the hallway. Not where people could see—! Just because Riku had no shame didn't mean Sora had to follow in his example.
Besides, Sora hadn't enjoyed himself all that much. The hickies that dotted his collarbone were a source of shame, not some trophy to be paraded around. He probably should have stopped Riku when his lips had moved from Sora's to nip at Sora's neck, but it had, admittedly, felt very good and he'd been just a wee bit distracted by Riku's roaming hands and the warmth that had flooded his body and made it too hard to breathe…
Sora shook his head. No! That was just his body talking. Just because he liked Riku's kisses didn't mean he liked Riku. Riku was obnoxious and a total jerk. Just because he had something to be obnoxious about was no reason for Sora to lose his resolve to have as little to do with Riku as possible.
He sighed and rested his head against Kairi's locker. She hadn't met him at the bus stop, had called the house to tell him she was going to school early for some kind of meeting. Kairi was involved in too many clubs for Sora to keep track of but any club that had you at school before school had even started sounded like hell to Sora. In retrospect, he should have brought her some discount coffee.
He lifted his head and shifted to his locker, turning the combination lock with care. He was so intent on what he was doing that he didn't notice Riku sneaking up on him until warm breath brushed his ear and an even warmer voice purred, "Hey, Sora."
Sora flipped around and stared wide-eyed at the bane of his existence. Riku looked ruffled, as if he'd just rolled out of bed, but he was working it. Sora was overcome with a sudden, unwelcome urge to lick him and swallowed. His heart pounded in his ears as Riku put one hand on either side of his head, successfully trapping Sora between the lockers and Riku's body. That was so not helping.
"H-Hey, Riku…" he said nervously, trying to stomp down that urge. Riku leaned in until their faces were so close their breath was mingling and Sora had to turn his face away to hide his blush.
"I missed you."
Sora didn't know whether to faint from shock or embarrassment. How could Riku just come out and say things like that? Like it was nothing? "Um… can you, um, let me go? Please?"
"Maybe later," Riku said easily, making a shiver run down Sora's spine. He clenched his eyes shut, afraid to move or breathe for fear his body would betray him and he'd start kissing Riku right then and there. Mercifully, the students that had been lingering in the hall when he'd arrived seemed to be gone. Although, come to think of it, that probably meant they were late for—
Riku's tongue traced the outline of Sora's ear and Sora's brain sputtered and died.
"Riku…" he breathed, sliding down the lockers a bit as his knees gave out under him. Riku's arms came down to wrap firmly around his waist, keeping him upright and pressed up against him. Sora felt another shiver wrack his body, watching in rapt fascination as Riku licked his lips and then leaned closer and closer until the bell rang and Sora shoved him off. "We're late for class!"
Sora heard Riku fall to the floor behind him, but he was too busy getting his things from his locker to actually care. He couldn't believe he'd let Riku distract him so much! How was he supposed to explain that to his homeroom teacher? 'Sorry I was late, but I was too busy letting my not-boyfriend molest me up against my locker against my will'?
He pushed his books into his bag, slung it onto his shoulder, then turned to see Riku blinking up at him from the floor. "You're going to be late, too, if you don't hurry up."
Riku seemed too dazed to respond.
Sora shook his head and dashed off down the hallway. Riku was just too weird for his own good.
Riku had never wanted anyone as much as he wanted Sora. At least, that's what his nether regions were telling him. He had no idea how Sora could get him from zero to raging with a kiss that hadn't even happened, but it had taken him an additional five minutes in the hallway thinking about naked girls to get himself back under some semblance of control.
Still, that was only control over his body. His mind was telling him to find some way to get Sora between himself and a surface with good leverage. Like, now.
He scratched his nails across the tabletop in frustration. Across the room, Sora was balancing a pencil on his nose. How he could look adorable and ravishing at the same time was beyond Riku, but it wasn't helping anything at all. He should have gotten in Sora's pants a week ago. Now this whole thing was getting to be like an itch he couldn't scratch. Maybe Sora would like to scratch it for him…
The scent of coffee wafted up to his nose and he glanced beside him to see Leon slipping into his seat with a Styrofoam cup in hand. Leon blew on it, then sipped it gingerly, paying absolutely no attention to the fact that Mr. Highwind had stopped lecturing about biology to lecture about how scalding hot to lukewarm beverages weren't appropriate for class.
Riku raised an eyebrow. "You went to get coffee?"
"Something like that," Leon said with a hint of a smile. "Forgot all about you, though, sorry. You should have been there."
Riku was about to ask where when he caught sight of Sora again. Sora was staring out the window and sucking on the end of his pen. Riku groaned, but couldn't tear his eyes away from the sight of Sora sliding that pen in and out of his little pink mouth.
Sora sensed that he was being watched and locked eyes with Riku, pausing mid-suck. He glanced down curiously, then back at Riku again. Seconds later, he was blushing and pulling the pen out of his mouth. Which was all fine and dandy, but now Riku's hormones wanted Sora more than ever.
Leon chuckled. "Are you always this much of a slut or is Sora just special?"
Sora was doodling something on a piece of paper and his little pink tongue was peeking out of the side of his slightly parted lips. Riku couldn't take it anymore. He stood up, nearly knocking his chair over in the process.
"Mr. Highwind, may I please take Sora to the nurse's office?"
Cid huffed, looking annoyed at being interrupted twice in a row. "He doesn't look sick to me."
"Well, he is. Very sick. Extremely sick. It's a new type of the disease that you need to nip in the bud before it manifests and becomes contagious. I'm not kidding."
Someone coughed weakly. It took Riku a moment to realize that it was Sora and, when he did, he felt gratified.
"Get outta my classroom before you get us all sick, Harada. And Masaki, I expect you back here in no less than ten minutes, you got that?"
Riku didn't waste time with an affirmative. He stormed across the room, grabbed Sora's wrist, and manhandled him out of the classroom. As soon as the door slammed shut, Sora's back was up against a locker.
"So—" Sora managed before Riku attacked. It was a very long time before either of them were able to say anything at all.
Kairi couldn't believe the woman in the front office had actually believed her when she'd gotten to school over a half an hour late with a tray of coffee and two bagels and claimed they were for a teachers meeting. The teachers weren't even having a meeting and Kairi had stuttered her way through the explanation. The woman was just so nice, though, and Kairi felt bad lying to her, especially since she'd winked and excused Kairi's tardiness without question. When Teacher Appreciation Week rolled around, she was totally getting that woman something huge and expensive.
Tidus had rapped her lightly on the forehead for being so late with the coffee, but at least some of his friends had had the decency to say thank you before shuffling off to class. Selphie, for one, and Leon had muttered something that might have been "thank you" or "go die". Kairi wanted to think it was the former.
Still, she'd missed Biology with Sora and so hadn't seen him all morning. That just made her mood all the worse. Even if she couldn't tell him all the details, she needed to talk to her best friend and have Sora smile at her and make everything better like he always did. She needed to talk to someone who didn't want something from her. That'd be a nice change.
She sighed as she waited outside the cafeteria for Tidus and his friends. Yuffie had told her that they might need her to run some errands for them during the lunch period and Leon and Cloud had gone off to find Riku, which left Kairi with nothing to do but wait and feel sorry for herself.
At least, until she heard the moans.
Around the corner, someone was moaning and laughing breathlessly. Someone else, or maybe the same person, whispered something she couldn't make out and then the moaning began again. Curious, but wary, Kairi went to take a look. Her eyes widened.
Riku had Sora pinned up against a locker and was practically devouring him in a kiss. They seemed totally oblivious to her presence and Kairi was trying hard to forget that she could only see two hands: Sora's.
Incidentally, it was Sora that spotted her first. His eyes widened as well and then he shoved Riku back onto his ass and made a futile attempt to look like they hadn't been macking on each other in a school hallway.
"Uh, hey, Kairi!" Sora said with a sheepish smile. "Um, where have you been?"
Sora was obviously sidestepping the issue at hand, which gave Kairi plenty of opportunity to do some sidestepping herself. She feigned surprise. "Since when are you and—"
"I can't help it that I'm so irresistible," said Riku, standing and brushing off his clothes. He seemed to have regained his composure. He, at least, looked half-way presentable. Kairi wondered if that was genetic or if he was just born lucky.
"Shut up, jerk," Sora snapped before turning concerned eyes on Kairi. "Where have you been anyway? You said you were going to school early, but then you weren't in homeroom or Biology. Plus, I haven't spoken to you since, like, Saturday."
"Saturday," Riku said with a devilish grin. "Sora came over to my house and—"
"Shut up, Riku!"
"What were you doing at Riku's house, Sora-poo?" Kairi asked, happy for any opportunity not to explain herself. Sora flushed and mumbled incoherently. She could barely suppress a giggle. "What's this? Sora is incapable of speech?"
Riku beamed. "See what I do to people?"
The glare Sora shot Riku would have fooled anybody but the two people present to witness it. Behind the irritation, Kairi could see something that looked a lot like affection. Sora was sporting a crush on Riku. It was adorable. When she didn't have to watch, of course.
She opened her mouth to tease him about that, too, but then Leon rounded the corner with the whole crowd in tow. For one wild moment, Kairi considered hiding in one of the lockers, but, for one thing, she didn't have the combinations and, for another, they'd already seen her. Oh, and she wouldn't fit.
"Riku," Cloud said with a frown, although that was his typical expression. "You're making us late for lunch. What were you doing?"
"Teaching Sora why lockers make good leverage."
Kairi expected some sort of indignant retort from Sora but he seemed as incapable of speech as she was. In fact, he seemed as though he'd rather be anywhere but there. He lifted his head to look at Riku and the expression on his face was so sad it made her heart ache. She lifted a hand to console him, then stopped halfway. Now wasn't the time.
"Didn't we tell you to wait by the cafeteria?" Wakka asked, folding his arms. "Who gave you permission to move?"
Kairi turned away from Sora's questioning glance. "I-I was waiting, but then I remembered that… that, um…" Something. Anything. Aha! "Sora and I have to work on our plans for the dance. Don't we, Sora?"
"Um, actually—"
"Of course we do. So, um, unless you want a crappy dance, we should go do that. Right, Sora?"
This time she gave him a look that told him very plainly not to argue.
Sora scratched the back of his head and turned his smile on the group of kids in front of them. "Right. See you guys later."
Kairi gratefully grabbed his arm and put on her brightest smile until Wakka shrugged and Cloud rolled his eyes.
"I'm still hungry."
Riku smirked, leaning over and pressing a lingering kiss to Sora's cheek. "We'll continue where we left off later."
"There's nothing to continue!" Sora snapped with an edge to his voice that hadn't been there before. "Stop molesting me!"
"You seem to enjoy it," said Kairi and Riku in unison. They exchanged glances and laughed. Rather than dignify that with a response, Sora dragged her down the hallway and away from all of them. Kairi watched Riku watch Sora's ass until they turned a corner and then she began to match Sora's pace.
They stopped outside the library. Sora immediately headed inside and it was only when Kairi had pulled out her notebook that he finally asked the question that must have been burning in his mind.
"Alright, Kairi, what's going on? I didn't know you were friends with those guys. I mean, it's okay if you want to be, but you could have at least have told me or something. Were you half-skipping school with them this morning?"
"How do you half-skip school?"
"Kairi."
She fiddled with her notebook, trying to come up with a better excuse than the one he'd given her, but, for the moment, it suited her needs. The thought of being friends with any of them made her a little nauseous, but for now…
"Y-Yeah," she paused, then pressed on. "I thought it'd make you mad. Since, um, they don't really… really like you."
Sora was staring at her and, for a moment, Kairi cursed her stupid habit of stuttering when she lied. He was going to call her out on it. He was going to be pissed. He was going—to grin at her.
"Of course I'm not mad, silly! I was just worried, that's all."
Kairi sagged with relief and guilt. "I'm fine. It's fine."
"Cool," he grabbed a pencil from his bag and tapped a nonsensical beat on the table. "So, since you wanted to get away so badly, how about we do some actual work on the dance—"
A loud rumble from the direction of his stomach cut him off.
Kairi giggled. "After you eat."
Riku loved taco day. The cafeteria didn't make half-bad tacos and he was starving. He needed to replace all the calories he'd burned off trying to help Sora find his tonsils. A small smile found his lips as he thought of Sora, though he kept his thoughts strictly G-rated. Anything more than that would have him dumping his friends to go hunt down Sora and press him up against a table.
Okay, that wasn't very G-rated, but Riku's mind wasn't very pristine.
Leon's shoulder knocked into his and Riku looked up to see the pride in Leon's eyes. "You've gotten farther with Sora in a week than Tidus has in ever."
The boy in question choked on his taco. "Asshole."
Selphie, in the middle of a self-help book, absently clapped him on the back and murmured something about properly chewing his food. Tidus awkwardly swallowed the bits of taco in his mouth, then winced and rubbed his shoulder blade. Selphie either didn't notice or didn't care.
"More importantly," Leon continued as though the whole thing had never happened. "How far have you gotten?"
Riku lifted the kid-friendly block on his thoughts. "Upper body groping? Something like that. How much time do I have left?"
"Well, we'd like to set this up before the spring dance," Yuffie said, stealing a spoonful of pudding from Wakka's tray. "Which gives you back the week you lost and then some."
"I'm thinking we play it on the television in whatever classroom they choose as the coat room," Tidus said speculatively. "I could probably set that up myself."
Cloud and Wakka gave their input and how and when it should happen while Riku fought the rise of something like guilt in his stomach.
"You're not having second thoughts or something, are you?" Leon asked low enough for no one else at the table to overhear. Riku glanced at him in surprise, but that small bubble of hope burst at the indifference that radiated off Leon in waves. He shook his head and went back to his food. "Good. I don't think Tidus would take too kindly to you backing out now."
"If the two of you are done with your private conversation," Cloud interrupted, acid in his tone. "Maybe you'd like to help with the actual plan?"
Riku could recognize jealousy when he saw it, but he had no idea what Cloud was so jealous about. Riku would sooner date an electric eel in a bathtub than he would Leon. He wasn't sure who it was Cloud had a crush on, but he hoped it was him if only because Leon didn't seem like a very love-friendly kind of guy. Then again, he hardly knew Leon. Or Cloud for that matter.
"We're done," Leon said evenly, though the corners of his mouth were curved up. "What's the plan?"
Seiya calmly sipped her coffee, staring at the woman sitting across the table from her. "So, how are we going to do this?"
"Well, they've kissed already," Ayumi said, setting her own cup down on the table. "I've seen that much, unfortunately. This is a very delicate situation."
"Indeed. One false move and Sora will go running off like a scared little rabbit."
"And Riku will act like the ass that he is."
"As I said, this is very delicate."
"Yes, delicate."
There was a long pause during which both women stared at each other expressionlessly. Seiya's lips twitched with the effort of not laughing, but then Ayumi let out a little snort and she couldn't hold it in anymore. They sank down in their chairs, laughing uncontrollably.
Fate was just too good to her sometimes, so good that Ayumi Masaki—Riku's mother—had walked into the grocery store during her shift to buy a box of Trojans. Seiya had experienced an awkward moment when she mistook Ayumi for Riku and asked her if she was planning to get lucky tonight rather than the weekend, but Ayumi had taken it in stride. As soon as they'd recognized each other, Seiya had taken her lunch break early to talk. Luckily, they'd hit it off.
She held her sides as she finally regained control of herself. "For a minute there, I thought we were in a soap opera or something!"
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Ayumi snickered. "I'm your mother's brother's twin sister's ugly stepsister twice removed. And also I'm pregnant. It's not yours."
"I should hope not."
Ayumi sipped her coffee again, a few giggles escaping her mouth. "Anyway, back to business. How do we get Sora and Riku together before I'm too old to tease them?"
"They've kissed, you say?"
"Oh, yes. Right in my kitchen Saturday night. Riku even managed to get Sora's shirt off. I could hear Sora whining before I turned up the stereo."
"Young love," Seiya sighed, remembering her own high school days. At Sora's age, she'd been caught in broom closets with boys much less respectable than Riku. And in leather. Whoo, boy, had she been a sucker for leather. "They're so cute together."
"An undeniable fact. What surprises me, though," Ayumi said, momentarily serious. "Is how well-suited they seem to be. Riku's arrogant, Sora's modest. Riku's a jerk, Sora's a good kid. Riku's experienced, Sora's—"
"More naïve than a baby lamb," Seiya finished for her. "Sora can learn and Riku can change. Together, they're something beautiful."
"Exactly." Ayumi's eyes were bright. "I was worried about how Riku would adjust to this move, but I'm glad he's found someone like Sora. He really needed to."
Seiya couldn't help but smile. Finally, someone was on the same page. Her jobs kept her too busy to make some real friends outside of the workplace, but if this wasn't a potential friendship then she didn't know what one was. She glanced at the clock.
"I'm no good at planning. We'll just improvise when they get here. In the meanwhile, I've got a half-hour before I have to go back to work and Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD. You in?"
"Hell yes!"
"You know what your problem is?" Aerith asked as she mixed a pitcher of lemonade. Cloud stared at her miserably. "You're kind of a coward, Cloud."
He felt as though he should be indignant, but he couldn't muster up the energy. Cloud had never hated anyone more than he hated Riku. He'd thought that he and Leon were finally getting somewhere that morning when Leon had—Cloud blushed—licked him, but then he'd spent lunch looking for Riku and talking to Riku and generally being Riku's coolest fanboy. Cloud really couldn't understand what was so great about Riku that Leon could so easily ignore Cloud for him. Sure, the silver hair was interesting, but plenty of people had silver hair. None that Cloud could name, but there were probably plenty of silver-haired people back on the Islands.
When he didn't respond, Aerith simply rolled her eyes and continued stirring. Cloud was glad things weren't weird between them because it was times like these that he needed her guidance. Nobody, with the exception of Cloud, knew Leon better than Aerith, which made sense since she was his little sister. And nobody, with the exception of Leon, knew Cloud better than Aerith, because they'd been a couple until a little over eight months ago.
They'd been a pretty popular couple, he supposed. They'd gone everywhere and done everything together and Cloud had pretty much thought Aerith was the cutest, sweetest girl ever. However, the more time he spent with Aerith at her house, the more it became obvious to him that he was using her as a brick wall between him and his feelings for Leon. Unable to maintain that façade for long, Cloud had dumped her.
Aerith, known for being perceptive, had taken it well, wished him luck with Leon, and had never treated him as anything other than one of her best friends since the breakup. She was like a younger older sister, if not a mother, to him.
Leon and Tidus had taken it upon themselves to drive Kairi to work (probably to force her to give them free ice cream), which left Cloud free to ask Aerith the Guru for advice. He was kind of getting sick of Leon's shit.
Aerith laughed when he said as much. "What shit are you talking about exactly? Leon hasn't been acting any differently to me."
"It's not Leon, it's Riku. This kid from the Islands comes out of nowhere and starts moving in on my territory and I keep waiting for Leon to tell him to get lost, but it never happens," Cloud explained gruffly. He hated discussing his feelings even if he was sure Aerith wouldn't mock him or use it against him at some point.
"Well, did you try asking Leon who he's in love with?"
Cloud flushed, quickly turning his head away so Aerith couldn't see it. "No…"
"Like I said, you're kind of a coward," she poured the finished lemonade into two glasses, then put the pitcher in the fridge. "You're Leon's best friend. I'm sure if he was in love with someone else he would have told you. As for why he hasn't declared his undying love for you, well… you're being kind of an idiot about this, Cloud. You might be getting on his nerves."
Cloud hated when she made sense. Cheeks still a humiliating shade of pink, he admitted, "He licked me this morning."
"Where?"
"Where do you think?" Cloud asked, looking at her oddly. "That's kind of sick, Aerith."
Now her cheeks were the ones stained red. "I didn't mean it like that! Anyway, are you staying the night? What do you want for dinner?"
Cloud chuckled, taking his lemonade and gulping down half the glass. Aerith was right. He had nothing to worry about until Leon came out and said he did. Until then, he'd just have to deal.
"I don't care," Sora said flatly as he opened the door to his house. Riku had followed him home like a lost puppy and it was only that analogy that kept Sora from kicking him and slamming the door in his face. "Just because you had me up against a locker today does not mean I'm going to sleep with you. It just means you have no self-control."
Riku looked as though he might argue that point, but they were still in the doorway and Sora still had the door in hand. He smirked, raising a challenging eyebrow.
"Oh, come on," Riku said, not taking the bait. "You can't tell me you didn't enjoy that. I can make you feel so much better."
Sora rolled his eyes and let Riku in, shutting the door behind him. "Now you're just being pathetic. You really think I'm just going to sleep with you? Just like that? Whatever happened to dinner and a movie?"
Riku grabbed his hand before he could head to the kitchen, pulling Sora close. His voice was low and husky. "Sora, will you go out with me? We'll have dinner at a nice restaurant and then go see a movie of your choice and then—"
"We'll end up alone and naked in your bed?" Sora finished, shoving Riku away. "No thanks."
He was well aware that he'd more or less cut off all of Riku's options, but he found something quite satisfying in seeing the amount of trouble Riku was willing to go to on his behalf. While Riku fell silent behind him, Sora called for his mother, but heard nothing but some giggles and shuffling upstairs.
Sora turned to look at Riku suspiciously, but he was equally confused. Riku pressed a finger to his lips, then, sweeping Sora behind him, began to creep up the stairs. Sora followed unnecessarily close, getting a whiff of Riku's cologne. Why did he always have to smell so good? And how far gone was Sora that he was thinking about that when there were robbers in his house?
"It's coming from over there," Riku whispered, pointing to the end of the hall. The stairs to the attic were down. Sora hadn't been up there in forever.
He pushed past Riku and over to the stairs. The shuffling was definitely coming from up in the attic. He felt more than heard Riku approach and, exchanging a final glance with him, went up the stairs to the attic. He turned on the light as Riku crawled up, giggling when Riku had to tilt his head a little to avoid hitting it on the ceiling.
Sora looked around. "There's no one here."
And that was about when the hatch to the attic slammed shut.
Sora and Riku stared blankly at the stairs now sticking out of the floor, then at each other, voices coming out in a simultaneous rush.
"Did you—"
"Of course not—"
"What the hell—"
Sora got down on his hands and knees, banging on the stairs in a futile effort to open the hatch. "Hello? Hello? Hey, you can't just leave us up here, robber-man! Please don't leave us up here!"
"Sora-poo!" said a voice sounding suspiciously like his mother's.
"Riku, darling!" said another voice sounding suspiciously like Mrs. Masaki's.
Sora was completely confused until he heard a little sound and turned to see Riku rubbing his hand over his face. "They set us up. I can't believe this."
Suddenly, it all fell into place for Sora. That was exactly the kind of thing his mother would do. And, considering how Mrs. Masaki interacted with Riku, it was highly likely she was getting a kick out of this, too. They were all in on this sick plan to have Riku deflower him. Was there no justice in this world?
"My pants are staying on," he said firmly, getting to his feet. There was no point in banging on the hatch when he knew now that it wouldn't open. "And you're staying on your side of the attic!"
Of course, Riku's response to this was to bend down and kiss Sora's cheek like he had earlier. Sora's face burned at the memory, though he wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or humiliated that Riku had kissed him in front of his popular friends. There had been something like triumph in Tidus' eyes when Riku had kissed him and that made him nervous. Why did Tidus want the two of them together so bad? Why had Riku been so affectionate when his friends had come around? He hadn't ruled out the possibility that this was some kind of joke.
His breath hitched as Riku kissed the corner of his mouth. "Stop thinking so much. Go out with me."
"I… I don't want to," Sora said shakily, his lips brushing Riku's face with every word. He wanted to turn away, but found he couldn't move. He was shaking from the intensity of his conflicting emotions.
"Except you really do. Come on, Sora. I know this club we can go to. It'll be fun, I promise."
His cold fingers were under Sora's shirt again, making it hard to think clearly.
"I-I—"
"I promise."
Sora's resolve shattered into a million pieces. He leaned forward and kissed Riku soundly, shocking both of them. He was blushing when he pulled away. "Fine, we'll go on a date. But, so help me, if you use this as an opportunity to get me into bed—"
"Damn," he heard Ayumi mutter below. "He's figured out Plan B."
"Do you mind, mother?" Riku snapped, drawing Sora closer as though afraid he'd use the opportunity to run away. Not that Sora would. He was done running—for the moment, anyway.
The hatch opened and the two heard giggles and footsteps fade away. Sora assumed the mothers had gone down to the kitchen, but then Riku was kissing him again and Sora let himself forget for a minute. Forget that he was kind of supposed to be at work in a few minutes. Forget that Kairi had left school with Leon and Tidus and Sora hadn't known until someone from her student council meeting had told him she'd left. Forget that Riku had practically treated him like a trophy lover to parade around in front of his friends. Forget everything but Riku's hands on his face and Riku's teeth on his neck.
"A-Aah, Riku, you're—you're gonna leave a mark."
"That's sort of the point," Riku murmured, nibbling with single-minded determination at Sora's neck. "I want everyone to know."
"Know… what?"
"That you're mine."
Sora froze in Riku's arms, silent except for the sounds of his heavy beating and erratic heartbeat. "What?"
Riku froze when he did, releasing him abruptly and stepping back. He and Sora gaped at one another in silent astonishment and then Riku was brushing past him and running down the stairs. Sora felt unexpectedly cold without Riku's arms around him. He hugged himself, gazing around the attic in confusion.
"What was that about?"
