Darkness shifted, uncomfortable, pressed against by the severe weight of the light on its shoulders. Light teasingly shifted with it, growing larger, boasting, shifting all its weight onto the darkness, bearing down…
Darkness needed to grow, if the balance was to be maintained.
The closer you get to the light, the greater...
Sora checked the mirror one more time; made sure his sleek, black shirt had no sign of anything but cool, inky blackness, dusted off his leather pants, made sure his hair was nice and spiky. He'd saved up for MONTHS to get to this one night. To buy the expensive outfit complete with leather shoes, to pay for the dinner at the ritzy French restaurant, to cover the two backstage passes to the concert of the year…there was no way he was letting even the smallest detail get away from him. Even if that detail was one tiny speck of dandruff on his shirt.
High school was finally over, stupid hell that it had been. Sora, before all his adventures, had been a straight-A student. Sure, he was a little slow, but he had a good work ethic and that had gotten him through junior high. It was very good for him that he had been such a great student, because he had missed the better part of his last year of junior high, and the school had wanted to leave him behind. Luckily, instead of that not-so-wonderful alternative, he simply had to make up tons of work. Sadly by this time, Sora was already too tainted with his knowledge of the other worlds, and his desire to do well in school waned, so his high school grades were no reflection of the wonderful student he'd once been.
Riku had gone through the same deal, only his father insisted that he attend the top business university on Destiny Islands, so he was forced to keep the top grades he'd always had.
The last school year had been a bit lonely for Sora, now that Riku was already off in university, meaning no one to play the practical jokes on the stupid jocks with (though Riku and Sora had both been on the wrestling team), and no one to have intimate guy talk with after school. Of course, even this cloud had its silver lining, because the lack of Riku made perfect space for Sora and Kairi to finally get together. With the pretty brunette on his arm, Sora was twice as cool, twice as manly, and twice as popular as he'd ever been when Riku was around.
Not that Riku wasn't still his undisputed best friend. That was why they were double-dating tonight.
Perfect. He looked absolutely perfect. He snatched the keys for his house, and headed out the door to pick up Kairi. The two of them were supposed to meet up with Riku and Selphie at the concert.
Riku, to say the least, was a rich boy. His father was the CEO of the company that owned the overdeveloped ferry system on the islands. He did expensive things like this all the time, and both girls and boys were attracted to his hair and his money. Who wouldn't? Riku was nearly out of puberty and had finally grown into that oversized chest of his, had a great body courtesy of his overpriced gym membership, and was tall. The piercing green eyes were just the icing on the cake. He always had some girl on his arm, sometimes two or three, but in the end, without fail everytime, he came back to Sora, pissed off cause some broad wanted him to buy her a diamond necklace.
That was the biggest reason why Riku's popularity never took off very far among the guys. There were always rumors about his sexuality, rumors about who he REALLY preferred. Sora had heard them, had kicked his fair share of asses for anyone who dared even hint that Riku and him were together, and had quelled at the very least the rumors about himself with Kairi.
Speaking of Kairi, he was at her door now. Kairi didn't live too close to him, but lived close to Riku. Rich parents had a tendency to stick together, though neither Kairi's nor Riku's parents minded Sora in the least. In fact, he often got really nice Christmas presents from them, video games his parents didn't want to get him, or a shiny new bicycle that they couldn't afford. Sometimes his parents felt embarrassed, but Sora was never singled out amongst the three of them for it, and that was all that mattered.
Sora practiced his smile a bit before knocking on the door. Should he give her a sexy smile? A goofy smile? A 'Hey, I'm too cool for this whole date thing' smile? He went with what he knew best, and threw his goofiest smile on his face, and knocked on the door.
Kairi came to the door within seconds. She had been waiting for him, her hands shaking in excitement. Times with Sora now were always like this. She was comfortable with him, but sometimes…he just made her feel way too special. And we all know how girls like to feel special. She was lucky to have him. Real lucky.
She greeted Sora with a sweet smile and a kiss. Sora could taste the lime lip gloss on her lips. He loved when Kairi wore lip gloss, because the taste would last for hours and he could just replay each kiss over and over in his mind. And she always chose the cool flavors. Like lime. It was sassy, like her. Not boring shit, like cherry and strawberry. Mmm. Kairi-lime. He slid his arms around her waist, still too shy to deepen the damn thing.
"Hey," she said after they parted.
The goofy smile returned on its own. "H-hey…" God, he could be such a dork around her, sometimes. It was part of his charm, Kairi thought. They took the next few moments to not quite look into each other's eyes, before Kairi finally said "I guess we better go find Riku and Selphie."
"Ye…Yeah." The stupid grin again. He loved the way he could just be himself around Kairi. He'd tried to date other girls, but they all made him feel stiff and stupid. When it was with Kairi, though he was shy, he knew she wasn't judging him at all. She was used to it. Oh. He should probably start a conversation.
"Since when does Selphie like Riku, anyway?" Sora began. Kairi couldn't help but laugh.
"What girl doesn't like Riku, really?" Kairi thought Riku and Selphie were kind of cute together, and Selphie definitely wouldn't be all over him for his money. "Even I…you know…he grew really well. But so did you." And she twirled her fingers in the bottom of his shirt.
Sora had almost been upset. Almost, not quite. Kairi knew how to make him feel like the biggest man on the planet, even if Sora pretty much already felt that way thanks to the Keyblade and all its glory feeding his ego. He blushed faintly. They started walking for the dock, to catch the ferry over to the larger city where the concert was being held.
"I think this is going to be good for Riku, you know, if they started going out. He's had so much trouble with dating, you know…" Kairi nodded slowly.
Sora agreed. "Yeah. Selphie'll be good to him."
The two of them felt a little bad dating each other and leaving Riku out, even if he did always have some new fling. But that was all they were, flings, never anything serious. Riku hadn't been too surprised though, returning from college on summer break, to see Sora and Kairi together. The only part that DID surprise him was the fact that it hadn't happened until he was away at college. According to Riku, it should have happened right after they returned to Destiny Islands. But, as I mentioned before, Sora is slow on the uptake.
They chatted all the way to the concert area, and began to look for Riku and Selphie.
Sora spotted Riku, but Selphie was nowhere in sight. "They're over---", he began.
Who was Riku with? Cause it seriously looked like he was with a---
"Hey! Sora, Kairi!" Riku grabbed his date's hand and walked over to the couple. He opened his mouth to say more, but Sora interrupted him.
Kairi was looking at Riku's date with wide eyes. Well…that was certainly unexpected.
"Where's Selphie?" Sora nearly snapped.
Riku scratched his head and blushed slightly. He knew it was coming. "Ahhh, you know the Girl Code of Honor. Gals before guys. She totally dumped me tonight for a friend that couldn't go. But, I got lucky tonight and uh…got another date. This is…Hiruma. I met him at college. Hiruma, this is Sora and Kairi, my two best friends." He gestured to the boy next to him.
Hiruma flushed deeply and reached out for Sora's hand. "Nice to meet you." The brunet froze up, and just stared at the hand. This wasn't happening. This COULD NOT be happening.
Upon seeing Sora freeze, Hiruma winced and turned to Kairi. "Nice to meet you," he repeated. Kairi blushed and took Hiruma's hand before giggling sweetly and nudging Sora back into their dimension.
Sora let out a laugh that was just a little too loud. "That's funny, Riku. I almost believed you. So where's your real date, huh?" Both Hiruma and Riku frowned immediately.
"What do you mean, my real date? Hiruma is my real date." No way. Sora wouldn't say anything rude, would he? I mean, granted, it was probably a surprise to the younger boy, but Sora was still Sora. A nice kid. Riku couldn't help but let a warning edge into his voice, though.
Sora was incredulous. Unbelieving. Impossible. Riku on a date with a guy. Right in front of him. After all the ass he had to kick to keep that off the mouths of his classmates. It made Sora angry. Angry and hurt and a lot of other emotions he couldn't really explain or understand at the moment.
So he blew up.
"You're a FAG now?" He really didn't mean to say it. Not like that. Sora just didn't like things that didn't go his way. Being the Keyblade Master and saving a bunch of worlds and getting praise from each and every one gave you an ego, and when you had an ego, you didn't like it when things went the other way.
Riku narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to Sora, getting in his face. "What was that, punk?"
Sora didn't stand down. "I said, 'you a fag now?'"
Kairi let go of Sora's arm. What the hell was Sora saying? "Hey," she said in an annoyed tone. "Quit saying that word already."
Riku began to laugh softly. He took one step back, turning away from Sora, still laughing.
Then he turned back around and caught Sora in the eye with his fist.
A cop was already rushing over when Sora retaliated by socking Riku in the jaw.
Bending forward, Riku rushed Sora and practically headbutted him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the shorter boy. Sora began to punch the back of his head, trying to get Riku off of him. Then suddenly Riku WAS off of him. And in the hands of the cop.
"You kids are out of here. NOW."
And just like that, all the money he'd spent on the concert was gone. His parents were going to murder him.
"Sora…" Kairi whispered as they walked away from the concert hall back toward the ferry. "Have you been drinking anything?"
"What? Of course not." Then why was he weaving back and forth as if he had? He definitely hadn't, far as he remembered.
"Is your eye okay?"
"It's just fine, alright?" Sora didn't mean to sound so snippy, but he was upset. And in pain.
Ugh. What was that strange feeling in his chest? As if someone was ripping his heart in two. No…no, it really felt like someone was digging their hands into his ribcage and prying his heart open. Sora fell to his knees, his vision fading in and out. His chest was on fire, he couldn't breathe, couldn't hear Kairi calling his name, he could only feel the horrible tearing sensation…
When he finally came to, he was lying on the cold concrete floor of the sidewalk, something warm and large slumped over next to him. Sora opened his eyes…one first, then two…and saw…blond hair?
"…oh, Sora…" Kairi whispered, in absolute shock.
Lying next to Sora was stark-naked Roxas.
