-Chapter
II
I'll Protect You-
That
night there was no moon or stars but luckily for the two shadows,
there was a thick fog covering a small forest not to far off from
where they were. The short shadow ran straight towards the sheltering
bark and the tallest one stood by the edge making sure that they were
not followed. As soon as he made sure the coast was clear, he started
off to seek the other.
Dang,
seems that he ran in deep. The shadow sighed,
feeling realived that they were safe for the moment.
He calmly started peering through the darkness, waiting to get accustomed to it. He marched a few steps here and there looking behind every tree and bush, making sure the other wasn't there. The fog wasn't helping much and making it harder to look around but he doubted the other would of abandoned him here, all alone.
"Sora?" Riku hollered hoping that the other one wasn't close enough to hear him. "Where are you?"
"Here..." Came a whispery reply.
Riku turned to see the brunette curled up against a tree right next to him. The boy was right behind him and Riku wondered how he missed him there. He took a step closer and sat next to to the frightened boy. Sora was shaking and shivering from tripping into a mud puddle on their run. Riku reached for Sora's face and attempted to wipe some of the mud but the brunette swatted his arm away and looked straight with at Riku with his sky blue eyes and Riku watched him with his jade green eyes.
"Don't touch me!" He yelled and pulled back further and started to cry some more. Riku kept his hand in the air, confused. Sora wept quietly, trying to keep it all in. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna cry."
"You can cry all you want." Riku scooted closer to Sora and attempted once more to wipe off the mud. This time Sora didn't swat it away. He circled his mouth with his thumb and the tear run eyes. "You alright?"
"Yeah..." He sniffed. "We should hide..."
"We can hide at my place." Riku offered.
"But he'll find me!" Sora's tone changed quickly into a frightened one. "We can't leave!" Riku didn't like seeing Sora like this. He looked like a beaten dog.
"Do you really think he'll look for you near your home? I doubt he thinks you'll run back, plus you can stay at my place, you'll be safe there." Riku got up and handed his hand for Sora who took it cautiously and helped himself up.
"Alright, let's go." Sora put up a brave face and made a noticeable effort to stop crying and walked by Riku's side, scared.
O-0-O-0-O-0-O
Sora stepped into the box filled room with a towel wrapped around his waist after coming out of a long, nice hot shower. He looked around for the spare clothes Riku left him while he fixed something for Sora to eat. The brunette peered around for the clothes, eyeing the various objects scattered about. He found music discs laying around of mainly punk and emo bands which Sora never enjoyed listening to. A poster of Rikku from 'Tell Tails', a famous punk band that he and the gang always made fun of.
Passing by the last few boxes containing clothes, Sora found the pile of clothes left for him by the bed. He looked behind him to make sure Riku was still in the kitchen and not arriving into the room and quickly slipped on the black t-shirt and black pants. He then noticed that the two open boxes of clothes contained mainly black clothes and the occasional white shirt.
Maybe he's a goth? Sora pondered when he heard the boy in question call him saying that the food is done frying.
Sora walked past the corridor and into the kitchen and sat down at the table where Riku just finished serving bacon.
"Sorry, it's all we have." Riku turned away to clean up and leave the boy to his food. "Clothes fit you?"
"Yes." He swallowed. "Thank you...For everything."
"What
are friends for?" Riku felt odd telling that to someone he
barely knew and just met earlier today. He felt guilty and ashamed
for forgetting his friends while firework shopping and hoping he'd be
included into Sora's group. How could he forget them? They were his
real friends, not Sora, or Wakka nor Tidus. They are nothing but
strangers. Strangers he liked.
I'm
gonna have to tell him no? Sora thought when
he gazed briefly into Riku's eyes. He's
probably gonna ask me about it soon.
"Don't worry." Riku started, hating himself for playing it safe instead of trying to pry into Sora's personal life. "You don't have to tell me anything...yet." He added with a smile.
"Thanks." Sora smiled, appreciating the thought.
"You wanna go to bed after?"
"Yes, I'm pretty tired."
"Alright. Want some OJ?" Riku said smiling, determined to keep Sora happy and busy and mentally noted himself to call Yumi when he made sure it was safe.
O-0-O-0-O-0-O
BBRRRRIIIIIINNNGGGG!
Sora grunted as he was torn from his dreams. He was surprised he was having a nice dream instead of a nightmare. He stretched and looked around him trying to remember where he was. Wearily, he looked at the clock which posted 9:00 in bright red letters. Sora didn't like waking up early but he supposed it'd be impolite to sleep in no matter what happened last night, crazy man chasing him or no. He got up and realized he was still wearing Riku's clothes and that their owner was no where in the room. Sora hoped he hadn't slept on the sofa but nothing said otherwise.
Sora walked down the hallway, passing what he guessed was Miyo's room which he found disturbed and smiled knowing Riku also got a good nights sleep. He steered himself towards the kitchen when he heard bacon sizzling.
"Mornin'." Sora let out a yawn and scratched his head not noticing it wasn't Riku in the kitchen.
"Well, good morning Sora!" Let out Miyo as she saw the sleepyhead walk in looking surprised to see her.
"Oh, hello...Where's riku?" He asked, noticing that his friend wasn't here.
"He went to the bathroom for a shower a few minutes ago." She turned and smiled. "It was nice of Riku to invite you for a sleep over. Bacon and eggs?" She asked handing him both platers, unaware of what really happened last night. Sora told himself to thank Riku for making something up and not calling the cops or anything.
"Thank you." He grabbed his fork and scooped up some eggs and bacon hoping to not appear greedy.
"Riku! Breakfast is ready!" She shouted over the bathroom door. "Sora's up!" With that said, she went back into the kitchen and grabbed herself some bacon.
"Take as much as you want, dear. His fault for being so slow." She laughed a little. "Hope you boys didn't mind me not being here, last night. I had to go pick up a delivery downtown and I got caught in a traffic jam caused by some idiot driving truck driver. Apparently he ran out of gas." She gave him a look saying that she was sure that that was far from the truth.
At that, Riku walked into the kitchen with his white hair dripping wet. He took a seat in front of Sora and grabbed the few pieces of bacon left.
"RIKU!" Miyo got up, shocked. "Your hair is still soaked! I'll go get a towel." She got up and rushed for a towel in the bathroom.
"Mom...Don't embarrass me." Growled Riku, unhappy that Sora had to see this but the boy was smiling and that's what mattered for now. "I called your mom last night after you went to bed." He said when Miyo was out of earshot.
"Oh, thank you...Thanks for keeping last night a secret." He thanked and smiled at Riku.
"You are most welcome." Riku said smiling and feeling proud of himself but that was before his mother came back with a towel and started rubbing his head with it. "Ow! Mom!" Riku complained but smiled in the inside seeing Sora give out a little laugh.
"Now, see Sora how much work it is to dry off all this hair? I keep saying he should keep it short because he always complains that it's to much work to dry off so I have to do it for him or he'll catch pneumonia or something horrible!" She kept drying the hair off and seemed quite content doing it. She was one of those mothers who loved taking care of their child no matter how old and what kind of dumb things they kept from their childhood. "Sometimes I wonder what he would do without me."
"I
don't know, mother." Riku joined in the fun hoping to make the
other boy laugh louder which worked as soon as he started making
faces.
Ding-Dong!
"Sora, be a dear and answer that please." Miyo asked, not stopping to rub the towel round and round on Riku's head. Sora quickly got up and answered the door, convincing himself that it wasn't him but his mom.
"SORA!" Kairi pounced on him and held him tight against her. "We were so worried about you when we heard that he wa..." She stopped as Sora was signing her with his face to keep quiet. "Err..was working late and forgot your dinner date you had planned." She made her best effort to appear as if it was the truth.
"Well I'm fine, Kairi." Sora grinned, and almost laughed at the obviousness of her voice. Even though he hates thinking of it, he can't help but laugh around it with his friends sometimes. Kairi and the rest of gang helped him out when it first happened, two years ago. And since then, he learned to laugh off his fear when he is around them. "But I was disappointed when he didn't show up." He quickly put on a sad face for a second to look sincere.
"Are they your friends, Sora?" Miyo scooted over next to Sora and eyed them all, smiling. "Well make yourselves at home and eat some bacon!" She exclaimed and turned around and started frying more before anyone could protest but Tidus didn't seem to mind and sat at the table.
"Thank you Ms Darkhem!" Tidus thanked and waved to Riku with his puffed hair. "Nice hair." He snickered and the others joined in when they noticed it too.
"Shut up..." Riku stood up and walked into his room.
"Good job, guys." Sora walked quickly toward Riku's room, feeling bad and leaving the rest of his friends to look at their shoes except for Tidus whose mind was set on the bacon.
"Riku?" Sora knocked twice lightly on his door and leaned against it on his side. "You okay."
"Yeah..." The door answered.
"They didn't mean to be mean." Sora sighed. "It's just a joke."
"I know!" Riku now sounded furious. "It's just..." He turned around to notice that Sora decided to walk in to catch him naked. "HEY!" Sora quickly turned around and laughed.
"Bad day for you." Sora laughed and turned around soon after he heard Riku zip his pants up. Riku contented at glaring at Sora.
"I don't like being made fun of." He stated sharply.
"We weren't..." The boy started sheeply.
"Yeah yeah..." Riku didn't seem interested in Sora's reasons and put on a black t-shirt and walked out quickly without a second glance.
"Hey.." Sora followed him but he stopped when his friends were looking at him confused. "I think I upset him." His friends didn't say anything, knowing they caused it, even though it was unintentional. Sora just pouted and chewed on a strip of bacon and eyed Tidus who seemed to not have noticed anything.
Doesn't he have any bacon at home? Sora stared at his bacon eating machine of a friend.
O-0-O-0-O-0-O
The white haired boy walked fast and aimlessly past the neighborhood. He didn't know where lead to where but he just wanted to get away from where he came from. He wasn't angry nor upset. He felt disgust and hate for the gang. He didn't like being made fun of, even if it was a friendly joke.
Bunch of immature idiots...Riku felt so embarrassed about letting Sora see what his life was at home and hated himself for forgetting about his real friends and getting his hopes up. They don't understand. But how could they as he never told them anything about his life in Hallow Bastion.
Riku was walking quickly by his locker when he heard laughing voices behind him.
"Where ya going Riku?" The tallest of the group called but Riku walked even faster, "Common, you used to be so cool!"
"Yeah, remember back when you were normal, we used to have so much fun."
They
eventually caught up with him and hit him and kicked him in the ribs.
Laughing and throwing an insult here and there. They hated him.
That
happened 2 years ago but it didn't stop there.
The memories flooded back quickly, each flashing through his mind quickly and soon leaving place for another. He yelled at the air and forced himself to think of a happy memory. An image of Sora came to his mind. He was wiping away the mud from his face.
How the hell is that happy? He looked like he just ran from death. He thought angrilly and did his best to forget that image of Sora.
Riku sighed and
looked around. He had no clear where he was or how to go back for
that matter. He felt like an idiot for rushing off like that. It just
triggered so many unwanted emotions. He picked the route that looked
more familiar hoping this one was the one he came through.
I
gotta put the past behind me and start anew. Hopefully they don't
think anything weird about me. He decided he
couldn't be closed up forever and he couldn't leave Sora with
whatever that was last night. He was now a part of it somehow.
He was starting to worry about going the wrong way when he saw something familiar. More likely someone.
"Sora!" Riku ran quickly towards the boy and hugged him tight. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright." Sora hugged him back, glad he found his new friend.
"I acted so stupid..." He started to apologize.
"Wanna talk about it?" Sora pushed himself away and stared in green eyes.
"I don't know..." Riku wasn't sure if he wanted to say anything about it, ever.
"I'll tell you everything you want to know about last night." Sora bribed him.
"Well..." He really didn't want to tell him anything but he was dead curious about it and he would bet his life that his friends would never tell him anything about it. "Sure." He sighed.
"Great!" Sora seemed a little too cheerful for making such a deal. Most people wouldn't be smiling when they have to swap bad stories around.
Riku walked with Sora at his side who led him into a beach not far off from where Riku started to come back from. The beach was nice and it was a cool day so the sun didn't scorch as much as yesterday.
"Do you want me start?" Sora asked looking glum. Riku guessed he didn't really want to talk about his but their was no turning back now.
"Back home, at Hallow Bastion, I was liked by everybody. I went to the martial arts classes and played sports. I was nice to everyone and had loads of friends." Riku didn't smile when he said it. He despised those false days of happiness. "But once they learned my secret, they all hated me and I lost everything." He fell quiet.
"You said you had good friends..." Sora wasn't sure the secret was but he was curious about his friends.
"Yeah...They were the only ones who didn't care and helped me everyday to get away from everyone else. School there became hell."
"You said it was nice there." Sora said, he really didn't understand any of this at all.
"It is but my life was kinda trashed back there." He looked at Sora. "Your turn." Sora pouted since he didn't get to hear the secret but he understood why he wasn't saying it. What if he and the guys reacted the same way as his other friends?
"It all happened two year ago..." Sora started.
Sora was whistling a jingle from a jello add he saw on TV while picking out a new shirt at 'The Palace' where he buys most of clothes. He noticed with the corner of his eyes, a white haired man staring at him from the adult size section. He quickly turned away his gaze to pretend he didn't notice and put back the shirt he was going to buy. The man never took of his gaze off him.
He quickly walked out of the store to look for his mother who was supposed to be waiting for him at the entrance, but she must of found something interesting for she wasn't there. He looked behind him to watch the man exit the store and look straight at him.
Sora panicked and ran out. He ran a few blocks panting and sweating from such a fast run. He was still adjusting his mind to where he was when he heard a car drive up from behind him. He saw, in the drivers seat, the white haired man.
He took a quick sprint and ran towards his house as he remembered that his house was to the left to blocks after the turn. He ran for it for safety. He noticed that the car drove past him and take a wrong turn towards his house. He felt relief.
When he reached his house he tried calling the police but before he could dial, someone pressed on the button that turned off the phone. He looked at the man; Tall, white-haired, tanned and he wore a black suit and tie. He already knew where he lived for he couldn't of come here before him without following. That was why he passed him when he ran. He dropped the phone and ran towards the kitchen drawers hoping to find a knife but when he opened it, it was empty.
"Good thing I hid those sharp and pointy objects." He said with a voice a mocking parent would use on their child. "Sora could have hurt himself."
Sora backed up against the wall and felt the man place his hand under the boys white shirt and started caressing his chest.
"You are as amazing to touch. Just as I imagined." Sora felt like gagging when he heard those words. He was going to get raped.
"And those lips..." The man bent down to kiss him but as soon as that mouth came to close to him, Sora bit the tongue that was sticking out at him.
The man backed away yelling in pain, crouched down. Sora took the opportunity to grab his cell phone which he left on the kitchen table before he left and ran towards the front door. He turned the corner and darted towards Kairi's house for it was the closest. On his way he dialed his mom's number and told her quickly what was happening. At first she didn't believe him but quickly turned very worried when she realized how scared Sora really sounded.
He told her to call the police and dad while he ran to hide in Kairi's home. He hung up and kept running. When he turned the corner of his house block, he noticed the man's car parked there. He must of dropped the car there so Sora wouldn't notice that he was at his house.
When he reached Kairi's house and explained everything he called his mom again and told her he was safe and she told him that his dad and the police where going over to Kairi's house and their house immediately.
Later, after Sora gave his statement and gave them as many details about the man as he could, the police let a guard stay there to make sure the man wasn't planning on making a second attempt after they left.
The next day, the police called to explain that even from all the DNA the man left, there are no records of him found anywhere in their system.
Sora took a small breath and continued the story.
"We got Nana a few days later, she takes care of me and makes sure I am never alone and checks up on me every now and then."
"They never caught him?" Riku asked.
"No, he seems to leave no trace and somehow manages to keep getting in and out of the house without anyone noticing or triggering off the alarm."
"So that's why your mom was so weird the day I came." Now it all made sense.
"Yeah, the plan was that mom was going to distract him while Nana cleared the way for me to get out the front door but you rang and he was already getting in position to stop me from exiting that way so I had to go up the window. Then my mom decided to entertain you while Nana did her best to stop him. She has a black belt and a bunch of other fighting skills, main reason she got hired."
"Do you know who he is?" Riku swallowed some saliva as his throat became very dry from having his mouth open during the whole recitation.
"Just some random man who fancies me...But for some reason he never breaks or hurts anybody. Whenever I see him, he seems to be only interested in me and no one else. Once Nana jumped on his back but he just pushed her off and ran for me. It's like I'm the only thing he can see... He never tries at night for some reason, but I'm glad for it." Sora got quiet indicating that was the whole story. Riku noted that the boy was shaking and seemed to look around with the corner of his eye.
"I can't imagine how it feels..." Riku looked down, scared for Sora. "But I'm glad you told me."
"Yeah...Me too!" Sora smiled and felt that he was getting close to Riku.
"Plus, I know martial arts." He stated and made a noise and kicked in the air. "I'll protect you."
"Really?"
"From anyone and anything." Riku smiled feeling dumb but he was happy when he saw the brunette smile widely and hug him tightly.
"Thank you, Riku." The boy let out a small sob of joy and fear for making Riku part of this unpleasant life he led. "I'm sure you'll tell me your secret too, when your ready."
"Promise." He stared into his blue orbs and smiled. Dang...He is pretty.
