Second Kisses

disclaimer - don't own it.

warnings - possible KH2 spoilers!

If there was one thing Sora hadn't missed while he'd been off defeating the Heartless and Maleficent and Ansem and the Nobodies and Organization XIII and – right. Long story short, if there was one thing he hadn't missed while he'd been off saving the proverbial "world" in general, it was his parents.

Actually, that was a lie. There had been times when he'd missed his mother so much it had been almost painful, times when he wanted nothing more then to be held in her protective embrace, and nothing Donald or Goofy could say would get him out of his funk. There had been times when things seemed utterly hopeless, when he'd thought there was no chance he'd ever actually find Riku, and all he wanted was some reassuring words from his father, a cuff to the back of his head and a deep, rumbling voice telling him it would all work out in the end.

No, if he wanted to be more accurate, the one thing he hadn't missed while he'd been away was doing chores. And that, by proxy, somehow equaled his parents. Especially when said parents tried to wake him up far too early on the weekends to do said chores.

BANG BANG BANG

Like today, for example. Someone was banging on his door. It couldn't possibly be morning yet, why was somebody bothering him already?

"Sora!"

BANG BANG BANG

"Sora, get up! It's nearly eleven o'clock, you're not sleeping away the whole day again!"

BANG BANG BANG

"SORA!"

"Alright, alright!" Sora moaned, flipping onto his back and throwing an arm across his face. "I'll be up in a minute, mom."

"If you're not out of bed in five minutes, I'm coming in there!" Sora's mother warned.

And then came the dreaded words.

"You have chores to do, young man, don't think you're getting out of them today."

Sora groaned again, and figured he might as well make an effort to get up. He managed to untangle his legs from his sheets and kick the blanket off, but that was about as far as he got before he decided moving too much in the morning just wasn't worth it.

Sighing, he stared up at the faded plastic stars that still decorated his ceiling, relics from a childhood that seemed decades past.

"Sora, are you up yet?"

"Yes!" Sora snapped. "Leave me alone already, I'll be right out!"

He sighed again, tugging off his shirt and tossing it onto a pile of questionably clean but most likely dirty clothes on the ground.

He wondered what Riku was doing today.

& & & &

It had never occurred to Sora that he'd one day be trading in his keyblade for a feather duster.

"And when you're done dusting the dining room, you need to vacuum the living room," he mimicked to himself, scrunching up his nose as he brushed halfheartedly at the glass figurines his mother loved to collect. "Scrub the terrace, sweep the halls and the stairs, clean the chimney-"

"What are you muttering about now?" his mother asked, walking through the room with a basket full of clean laundry in her arms. "Honestly, Sora, I ask you to do two things to help me out – and I'm pretty sure scrubbing the terrace wasn't one of them – and you mope and whine about it all afternoon."

"Because it's nice out," Sora said petulantly. "And you've got me stuck inside all day when I could be out at the island with Riku and-"

"You wouldn't be inside all day if you did what I asked when I asked you to, instead of putting up such a big fuss about it."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Don't use that tone of voice with me-" The phone rang before she could finish reprimanding him, and she left the room with a roll of her eyes, propping the laundry basket up on one hip.

Sora grumbled some more as he turned back to his job, kicking his voice up a couple of notches and squeaking out, "Don't use that tone of voice with me, young man! I've got Ansem's number on speed dial; I can have him over here in a second to whip some manners into your ass-"

"Sora!"

Sora's eyes flew open and he made a startled sort of squawking sound as he spun around, holding the feather duster up to his temple in a mock salute. "Yes ma'am!"

His mother grinned almost reluctantly, waggling the phone at him. "Telephone," she said simply.

"Oh," he said, shoulder's sagging in relief.

"It's Riku."

"Oh!"

Sora was at her side in a second, feather duster forgotten, and he snatched the phone from her before she could say anything else.

"Riku!" he bellowed into the phone. "God, you have to save me! You wouldn't believe what my mom has me doing-"

"Hello to you, too," Riku interrupted dryly. Sora could almost hear him rolling his eyes. "What're you doing?"

"Chores," Sora spat. "I'm cleaning. You'd think most people would be grateful when you come back home after saving the world – no, multiple worlds, the universe even! But what does my mom do? She hands me the vacuum!"

"Sora, that was months ago," Riku said, chuckling. "When do you think you'll be done?"

Sora shifted a glance toward his mom, but she was already shaking her head.

"You'll be done when you're done," she said simply.

Sora cringed. "Save me, Riku!" he groaned into the phone.

"Suck it up," Riku said helpfully. "I did all my chores already. Then again not all of us sleep till noon like you do."

"Oh, thanks a lot," Sora said. "That's just what I wanted to hear. Really."

"Tell Prince Charming his can come over for dinner," Sora's mother said, holding out her hand as an indicator for Sora to wrap up the conversation. "Because at the rate you're going, you won't be finished until then."

Sora frowned. "Mom says you can come over for dinner," he muttered.

"Did she just call me Prince Charming?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sora said loftily.

"Whatever. I'm coming over in an hour, so you'd better be finished by then!"

"Sure, sure. An hour. Gotcha. Gotta go!"

"See ya."

"He's coming over in an hour," Sora said, handing the phone back to his mom.

"You'd better hurry up then."

Sora groaned.

God, he hated chores.

& & & &

For most of the world, when a person is annoyed there are several signs they employ that help make their mood more obvious. Crossed arms, furrowed brow, pursed lips. These sorts of things often serve the purpose of setting warning bells off in the heads of everyone in the general vicinity.

So when Kairi showed up on his front steps that afternoon sporting not one, not two, but all three of the aforementioned signs, Sora knew this particular visit was not off to a good start.

Plus she was tapping her foot, which meant that she wasn't just annoyed with him, but very, very annoyed. Very, very annoyed, as in reduced to standing on his front porch with crossed arms, a furrowed brow, pursed lips, and a tapping foot, annoyed. That had to be, like, The Ultimate Case of annoyance.

And Sora just happened to be the target.

Lovely.

"Uh… Hi, Kairi," he said nervously, and then promptly winced when she pulled out yet another sign from the How To Tell A Person Is Annoyed With You book and glared at him.

"Uh, hi, Sora," she said sarcastically, uncrossing her arms and instead propping her fists up onto her hips.

"Erm… Is this important?" Sora asked, glancing back into the house. "Because I've got chores to finish and Riku's going to be here soon and-"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kairi said slowly, still tapping her foot. "Wouldn't want to get in your way when Riku's here. I mean, I'm not your girlfriend or anything!"

Sora sighed. "Kairi…"

"You've been avoiding me, Sora."

Sora blinked, his eyes going wide. "What – I have not!"

"Oh yeah?" Kairi snorted lightly. "Then how is it that even though we're in all the same classes, I haven't spoken to you all week? And how is it that even though you haven't missed a day of school and you're perfectly fine when you're playing blitzball with Tidus, you're somehow sick every time I call? Don't lie to me, Sora!"

"I'm not…avoiding you, Kairi," Sora said, scuffing his foot and looking at anything in the nearby vicinity that wasn't Kairi. "I just…" He chewed on his bottom lip slightly.

It took a few seconds, but Kairi finally sighed, dropping her arms and stilling her foot. She turned and plopped down onto the steps leading up to Sora's house. "Are you breaking up with me?" she asked softly.

Sora shifted his weight from foot to foot, feeling out of place for some reason. "I can't break up with you when I never asked you out in the first place," he pointed out finally, sitting down beside her.

Kairi frowned. "I wish you would have said something. I mean, I knew you never really liked it, but you kept going along with it so I didn't try to stop anything. I guess I thought you would warm up to the idea…"

"Kairi, you're one of my best friends. I'd kind of like to keep it that way."

"So…you are breaking up with me." It wasn't a question.

Sora nodded. "Yeah. I guess I am."

Kairi chuckled, but there wasn't much humor in it. "You're lucky I came over, then. The way you were handling things, we'd have been married with kids before you finally spoke up."

Sora scratched the back of his sheepishly, grinning. "I didn't know how to tell you! Riku told me to just confront you…but you took care of that, so I guess I don't need to now, heh."

"Riku, Riku, Riku," Kairi said, propping her chin up wither hands. "If he wasn't a boy, I might be worried."

"Er…" Shit. Sora felt his cheeks burn and he tried to casually turn away, praying Kairi didn't look over at him anytime soon.

"…Or maybe I should be worried anyway," Kairi said, her eyes widening a bit as she did, indeed, glance at him. "Sora!"

Dammit! Crap crap crap!

"What?" he asked quickly. Play it cool, right? Just pretend nothing unusual was happening.

"Don't what me! What's going on? Spill it!"

"I don't – There's nothing to spill, you're – you're imagining things!"

"Oh yeah?" Kairi asked doubtfully. "Am I? Selphie asked me the other day if I was alright with you hanging out with him all the time-"

"He's my best friend! I don't need your permission! And anyway, it's none of your business if I want to hang out with him-"

"It's my business if you were cheating on me!" Kairi interrupted.

Sora spluttered. "I – I wasn't – No! I wasn't cheating on you; we were never really going out so you can't count it-"

"Oh my God!" Kairi screeched, flying onto her feet. Sora frowned, and then realized an infinity too late that he'd probably just condemned himself. "You – you and – and Riku? What…what…"

"No, Kairi, I…" Shit! Sora tried to keep from panicking. There had to be some way to salvage this. "Look, Kairi, it was just a one-time thing, nothing happened. Well, I mean, we kissed, but nothing else happened!" There, that should do it.

Wait.

Kairi turned slowly, giving Sora a bug-eyed look. "You…you kissed? You and Riku? Really?"

Sora hesitated. "I… Yes?" Kairi continued staring at him. "Please don't hurt me," he added quickly.

"Oh, shut up," Kairi said offhandedly. "I can't… You guys really…? But – but Riku seems like such a – a – a… Well. He's always… Well, okay, he hasn't actually had a girlfriend in…well, never. But. I mean." She looked at Sora, who shrugged helplessly.

"I started it?" he offered helplessly.

Kairi blinked. "You did?"

"Um, sort of. You have to understand the situation. I was just making fun of him because he'd never kissed anyone, and then-"

"Wait, he's never kissed anyone?" Kairi repeated.

"Well, he has now," Sora pointed out.

"You."

"Yes."

"Did you…like it?"

"Huh?" Sora could feel his face coloring again. "Well, I mean I guess…"

"Did he like it?"

"Um… I said I started it but he…continued it."

"Oh my God."

"Kairi…" Sora winced. "Look, it only happened last weekend, and nothing's happened since. We've barely even talked about it again."

"Do you want something else to happen?"

"What?"

"It's just…you sounded so dejected right then."

Sora's brow furrowed. "I…I did?" Kairi nodded, staring thoughtfully at him. Sora rubbed his neck. "Well…maybe…"

Kairi propped her fists up on her hips again, tilting her head to the side a bit. "So, you're gay now?" she asked curiously.

Sora's eyes went wide. "I – what? No, I'm not…gay. That's – I mean – no," he spluttered.

Kairi blinked. "But you kissed Riku."

"Well…yeah, but-"

"And you liked it."

"I…yes, but still-"

"So you're gay."

"No! Kairi, he's my best friend!" Sora exclaimed.

"Who you liked kissing," Kairi reminded him.

"That doesn't mean I'm gay!"

"Riku's a boy, isn't he?"

"Yes…"

"And you liked kissing him, right?"

"…Yes…"

"Well, generally, when one boy enjoys kissing another boy, he's often referred to as gay," Kairi pointed out. Sora moaned, hunching over and burying his face in his hands. Kairi patted him sympathetically on the back. "Not that it's a bad thing," she added. "I still like you. Mostly. I'm a little bit annoyed at the moment, but I'm sure it will pass."

"Kairi!"

"Well it's not my fault you decided to have a sexual identity crisis right in the middle of our relationship!"

Sora threaded his fingers into his hair, gripping tight. "But…that doesn't make sense! I can't be…that. I don't like boys, I-"

"You just like Riku," Kairi finished for him.

"No…" Sora said uncertainly. Did he? He'd never really thought about it before. Of course he liked him. That was sort of a requirement of the whole 'best friends' thing. But…as something more?

Kairi sighed, sitting down beside her friend again. "Look, Sora. It's not…well, there's not really anything wrong with it. At least, I don't think so. Others… Well. You're still my friend, and you always will be. You and Riku mean more than the world to me, so if that's what's going to make you happy…" She paused, looking up and giving him a soft smile. "I want you to be happy, Sora."

Sora's brow furrowed and he continued staring at the ground. "This is so weird," he said after a minute, gritting his teeth and tightening his hands. "I – I can't…" His breath hitched in his chest.

Kairi patted his knee a couple times, and then let her hand rest there. "You'll be alright."

"My dad would kill me."

"Not if Riku's dad kills you first."

Sora groaned.

"Who's my dad killing?"

Sora's head jerked up and he felt Kairi's hand fall from his knee. "Riku!"

"Yo," Riku said, holding up a hand and grinning. "What's up?"

Neither Kairi nor Sora replied; they only sat there staring at the other boy, Sora with eyes wide open and cheeks red, and Kairi with a narrowed, more thoughtful look.

Riku couldn't help fidgeting after a moment. "What?" he asked warily.

"Uh…" Sora said helplessly.

Kairi grinned. "Sora and I just broke up," she said simply, standing and brushing the invisible dirt off her skirt.

Riku blinked. "Really?"

"You don't have to sound so excited," Kairi said, snorting lightly. She crossed her arms and lifted her chin a bit. "Sora's interested in someone else, so I let him off the hook."

"Kairi!"

Riku frowned. "Oh yeah?" he asked, his brow furrowing. He glanced at Sora. "He didn't tell me. Then again he doesn't tell me a lot of things, nowadays."

Sora stood up, hands closing into fists at his sides. "That's not true-"

"Well, apparently he's found other things to do with his mouth besides talking," Kairi said flippantly.

Riku opened his mouth to say something but was brought to a sudden halt. He blinked a couple of times before shifting his eyes to Sora.

"Um." Sora put a hand behind his head, laughing in a very loud and completely phony way. "Uhh, I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about!" he exclaimed. His flushed cheeks gave him away, though.

Riku swallowed. "Did you…?" He glanced at Kairi, who smiled widely. If it had been in any other situation, Sora would have laughed at the way Riku's face was slowly going pink.

"Well, I really must be going now," Kairi said cheerfully, stepping onto the path. "Lovely talking to you both."

"Bye," Sora said distractedly, eyes still on Riku who was beginning to tense up and clench his jaw and make fists out of his hands.

"Oh, Sora." Kairi turned and walked backwards as she spoke. "I need some help with that calc assignment whenever you get the chance."

"Yeah, sure."

"I'll call you. Bye!"

Riku didn't say anything until she'd disappeared around the bend. "Thought you hated calc?" he finally said, not a little bit tersely.

"Huh? Oh. I do." Sora scratched the back of his head, frowning in the direction Kairi had gone. "That's weird; I wonder why she asked me for help."

Riku gritted his teeth. "Sora!"

"What?"

"Did you tell her?"

"Tell her… Oh!" Sora blinked, backing up a step. "Ahaha, about that…"

"Sora!"

"It might have accidentally slipped out," Sora said, looking shifty-eyed. "I told her you'd never kissed anyone before-"

"What!"

"And then I told her what happened with, you know, you and me-"

"What!"

"She seemed pretty shocked."

"You told her I kissed you!"

"Shhhhh!" Sora said frantically, lunging towards Riku and clamping a hand over his mouth. "Shut up shut up shut up! What if someone hears you?" Riku's cheeks went an even deeper pink under Sora's hand, but Sora didn't notice. "And anyway, I kissed you, not the other way around."

Riku rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything as his mouth was still under the assault of Sora's hand.

"Come on," Sora said after a minute or so had passed and no angry parents wielding pitchforks had come jumping out of the bushes. They crept silently pass the kitchen so that his mom wouldn't hear them, and then rushed up the stairs. Sora let the door shut softly behind him, and leaned back against it with a huge sigh of relief.

"Where's your dad?" Riku asked when the silence got to be too much.

"Out fishing with your dad, isn't he?" Sora asked. He frowned. "No, wait, maybe he's with Wakka's dad today. Who knows."

Riku shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets and glaring at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked, brow furrowing.

Riku snorted. "What's wrong?" he repeated skeptically. "What's wrong? I can't believe you told her!"

Sora rolled his eyes. "Riku."

"Was it any of her business?"

"Seeing as how she was sort of my girlfriend at the time, yeah, I'd say it was."

"Weren't you the one who kept insisting she wasn't your girlfriend?"

"Geez, Riku! It's just Kairi, what're you so embarrassed about?"

"I'm not embarrassed!" Riku said, immediately on the defensive despite the way his face went pink again.

Sora grinned. "Yeah, you are."

"Well. Well, I don't see why you had to tell her, is all," Riku said sullenly. He sat down cross-legged on Sora's bed, propping an elbow up on his knee and resting his chin on his fist.

"Oy, get your shoes off the bed! My mom will throw a fit if she sees you like that!" Sora exclaimed, moving towards him.

"Che," Riku muttered. "Your mom loves me, she wouldn't care." He kicked his shoes off anyway and then threw himself onto his back, crossing his arms behind his head. "When are you going to take those stupid stars down?"

Sora looked up at his ceiling. "We used that rubber cement stuff to put them up there, remember? I doubt they're coming down anytime soon." He glanced back at Riku, and then before he could change his mind he was climbing on top of him, one leg thrown on either side of the other boy's hips.

"Sora!" Riku said, startled. "What-"

"Why are you acting so funny about this?" Sora demanded, crossing his arms.

Riku shifted his gaze to the side. "It's weird, isn't it?"

Sora rolled his eyes. He leaned forward and pulled Riku's hands out from underneath him, instead pinning his wrists above his head, and shoved his face so close to Riku's that their noses were practically touching. "Weren't you the one who said it was okay?"

"It was okay until other people found out about it!"

"It's not other people, Riku! It's Kairi! It's not like I told Selphie or something!"

Riku was breathing heavily now, eyes narrowed on Sora. "You were the one freaking out last time," he said softly. "What changed your mind?"

"I don't know," Sora said simply. "I just…" His gaze lowered, landing instead on Riku's mouth.

"You want to do it again, don't you?" Riku sounded amused.

Sora snorted. "Are you telling me you don't?"

There was a sudden flurry of motion as Riku sat up, keeping his arms above his head so that Sora ended up pressed flat against his chest. "I wouldn't mind it," he said, smirking.

Sora ran his tongue over his lips before tugging the bottom one into his mouth in an attempt to stifle his giggles as Riku slowly pushed him back against the bed.

"Are we really going to do this?" Riku asked after a moment, tucking a strand of hair that had come loose from his ponytail behind his ear.

"I think so." Sora grinned.

"Wakka's going to give me so much shit about it," Riku said, laughing a bit breathlessly. "He's been trying to get me to go out with this one girl in our class."

Sora tugged one hand free from Riku's grasp and grabbed the front of his shirt instead. "She can't have you," he said. "After everything I went through to get you back – you're mine."

Riku's eyes widened. "Sora…"

Sora just tugged him closer so that their noses were touching again.

They stayed like that for a moment, then Riku swallowed and Sora burst out laughing.

"Why are you so nervous?" he asked through his giggles.

"I'm not nervous!" Riku spluttered.

"It's not like we haven't done this before."

"It was only the one time and that was different."

"How was it different?"

"It – You – It just was!"

"Because I kissed you first?" Sora asked. He grinned widely when Riku pursed his lips, watching as his cheeks went pink. "Bingo! Thought so. Heh, well, I can do that again." And then he pulled Riku down to meet him, still grinning against the other's boys lips when they met.

Riku made a muffled sound of protest, but Sora didn't let him go. He didn't put up much of a fight for long, and soon enough he was relaxing into the kiss again, tentatively opening his mouth against Sora's and letting their tongues meet. Sora moaned contently and let the hand wrapped around Riku's shirt loosen and slip underneath the shirt instead. He could feel the way Riku's stomach tightened, could feel the slight shudders running through him. His hand trailed down until he was fingering the top of Riku's jeans.

Riku suddenly went still.

"Sora…" he said softly.

Sora's fingers dipped beneath his waistband, and he began fiddling with the button. Riku's eyes widened and he sucked his stomach in. "What?" Sora asked.

"What're you doing?"

Sora shrugged. "Kairi tried to do this to me once, but I sort of panicked and ran out of her house."

"Tried to – wait – what?"

Sora unclasped the snap. Riku blinked. Twice. Sora smirked. "What do you think?"

"I thought you said you'd only kissed?" Riku asked steadily, eyes focused somewhere on the quilt beside Sora's ear.

"We did. Well. Plus maybe a teeeeny bit of fondling," Sora said, holding up his free hand and bringing his thumb and forefinger very close together. "Mostly on her part."

"Then…what-"

"I'm sixteen, Riku, you think I don't know what goes on in the bedroom?"

"No, that's not…"

Grinning, Sora slowly lowered the zipper.

"You – you can't be serious," Riku said, twisting Sora's bed sheets in his grasp.

Sora hummed thoughtfully, chewing lightly on his bottom lip again.

And then footsteps sounded on the staircase leading up to Sora's room.

"Shit!" Riku exclaimed, his eyes going wide as he tore himself away from Sora, hands flying to his crotch to redo his jeans.

Sora started laughing at the look on Riku's face, but then his door opened rather forcefully, nearly giving him a heart attack. He squawked, rolling away from Riku and therefore off the bed, falling onto his knees and jerking his panicked gaze up to see who it was.

"Sora, I certainly hope you don't consider the living room a job well done, because it doesn't even look like you started in there!" his mother was saying as she dropping a basket of clean clothes on his floor. "The vacuum is right where I left it. And look at the mess in here! How many times do I have to tell you to keep your clean clothes in the closet – Oh!" She glanced up, finally spotting Riku kneeling awkwardly on the bed while her son stared up at her from the floor. "Riku, I didn't even realize you were here yet." She narrowed her eyes at Sora. "Somebody didn't bother to tell me."

"H-he's only been here for a few minutes, mom," Sora said shakily, pushing some hair out of his eyes. "We were going to come down…"

"Sorry I didn't stop in," Riku said. Sora hoped his mom didn't notice how red Riku's face was. "Sora said he had something to show me."

His mother nodded. "Just wanted to get out of the rest of his chores, no doubt." She sighed, rolling her eyes. "Well it's not happening. I expect the living room to be dusted and vacuumed before dinner, you understand me?" She leveled a glare on Sora, smiled cheerfully at Riku, and then left the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

Sora frowned. Chores, chores, chores. God, he hated-

Riku put a hand on Sora's head, messing up his already tousled hair. Sora looked up to find Riku grinning down at him.

"Come on," he said, walking towards the door. "I'll help you out. And then after dinner we can go to the island. Maybe no one will be there."

"Riku…"

"I'm not dusting, though. I hate dusting." Riku turned at the door, glancing back at him. "Well come on, what are you waiting for?"

Sora grinned and stood up. "Right, right. Coming."

Well, maybe chores weren't really so bad, now that he thought about it.

But only if you had someone splitting the work with you.

FIN

H'okay, so I lied. There might possibly be more to this series. ;)

-Maxine