Chapter 5

Riku is enjoying the peace of the day when his calm is pierced by Sora screaming and right on time, he comes flying out of the house to jump on him, Axel following behind laughing. "Axel, will you stop fucking scaring him all the time?"

"Maybe he should work on toughening up, he makes it too easy. I'm not a bad demon, I can't help how I appear."

"That's debatable," Riku mutters.

"Also, I'm still getting my revenge for him nearly searing my skin off."

Sora adjusts until he's on Riku's back putting Riku between himself and the demon. He points an accusatory finger, "If you weren't using your dark powers to pop up invisible and torment me, I wouldn't be scared!" He squeezes Riku tighter, "Why are you even friends with a demon?"

"Why indeed," Axel raises his eyebrows imploringly.

Riku sighs, "He's….helpful."

"I'm sure I could be more helpful to you than he is."

"You probably could."

"But alas," Axel shrugs, "too bad the little seraph has to go back home soon. He can barely stay awake most days anyway, so he's not doing much good here anyway. Guess Riku will be left for the demons." He glances over at Sora, "Feel free to fly home anytime, the sooner I can steal his soul."

Riku feels Sora tensing up in anger and before he can stop him, he's already materialized his wings and he's after Axel like a shot, taking him to the ground where they'll fight each other to exhaustion, if the past is any indication. He sighs and looks up as Roxas comes out of the house. "What's up Roxas?"

"Hey." He sidesteps the two on the ground, "You're not going to break them up this time?"

"Nah, Sora should pass out any minute, it'll resolve itself. How's training?"

"I'm doing a lot better, now that Axel is actually around. He's still keeping me hidden though and won't tell me why." Roxas gives Riku a questioning look.

"Not a chance. That's between you and Axel. Not my place."

Roxas scoffs, "You're so loyal, it pisses me off."

"And you're not?"

"I don't know yet. Did you make a contract with him or something? What did he give you?"

"Seems like Sora's rubbing off on you. Our connection isn't important, I'm sure you'll find out the truth sooner or later anyway if you stay with Axel."

"You're just as secretive as him."

"That's good," Axel interrupts, "loyalty is rare, so stop trying to pry information from him. Here Riku," he dumps Sora's unconscious body in his arms. "I won, he couldn't handle me."

"Don't think I didn't see him pass out in the middle of throwing a punch that you had zero chance of dodging."

"Anyway! Go put him down, so I can talk to you." Riku raises an eyebrow. "Classified."

Riku shrugs before heading inside to the living room and placing Sora on the couch. His fingers stroke slowly through the brunette's hair and he sees him give a small smile in his sleep. Riku really will miss him, but it looks like the situation about how to return Sora's affections will resolve itself.

It turns out his constant need to sleep now after being here for several months is because his energy is almost completely exhausted. Earth doesn't have the seraphic energy he needs to sustain himself. Sora's energy will continue to drain until there's nothing left if he doesn't get back to his own world soon. Axel did a bit of digging to find out and Riku was surprised to learn it, but it does make for an ideal solution.

He stands up, no use thinking about the inevitable, better go see what Axel wants. Riku arrives back outside to see an increasingly annoyed Roxas on the receiving end of Axel's relentless teasing. He swears when Roxas gets more experience, he'll be the only one who can reign Axel in. Axel's not having as easy of a time with him as he'd thought, Roxas' naturally cautious and distrustful nature combined with his reserved, but temperamental personality make predicting his actions a challenge, an obstacle that Axel's struggling with.

"So, what's up Axel?"

"Riku!" He glances at Roxas before gesturing them away, much to Roxas' annoyance.

"You know, you'll have to trust him more eventually."

"I know, but now isn't the time. He has no loyalty yet and I have no clue how he thinks."

"Seemed easier when you were just stalking him, huh?" Riku smirks.

"Much. But, what I really wanted to talk about is the situation in hell. There's…unrest. A power shakeup is coming and soon things will change."

"What happened?"

Axel shakes his head, "It's not a something, it's been building up for a while, several decades in fact. But soon enough, it may come to a head."

"….And then what's going to happen?"

"Well, of course, those with the most power will take over and usually a great amount of mid-level demons get killed."

"Why mid-level?"

"The weak ones go into hiding and they're no challenge so no one worries about them, the highest leveled ones take over, and well the ones in the middle have the potential to get stronger so they're usually wiped out."

Riku looks surprised, "I take it you're a mid-level demon."

"Exactly."

"So….what is it that you want me to do exactly?"

"It's not what I want you to do per say. I just want you to be aware of what may come in the future, so you can protect yourself."

"You think I may be affected?"

"Weaker demons found you before. It's not out of the realm of possibility that if stronger demons decided to start hunting around Earth, they may stumble upon you too."

"Well shit."

"I'm just saying it's more important now than before to stay low. Having a seraph with you could potentially make you an easier target. You said demon hounds found him when he was here, right?"

"Yeah…"

"So, it's for the best he's leaving. One mistake and they could find him and it'd lead them right to you. Trust me, if you were captured, it wouldn't end well."

Riku nods, "Thanks for the warning." He turns to meet Roxas' glare from across the yard. "And Roxas?"

"He's a survivor. He doesn't feel me owes me anything, I wouldn't put it past him to ditch me in a second to keep safe."

"Don't you want him safe?"

"He knows too much. Plus, I stole him because I wanted him with me, not for him to run off. Kind of defeats the point of taking that risk."

Riku concedes his point, "Let's go back. This probably isn't helping your relationship. "

"Are you done keeping your stupid little secrets?" Roxas practically spits at them when they come back.

"If they're so stupid, why are you so mad?"

"Shut up Axel. Can we go now?"

Axel ruffles Roxas' hair and he's swiftly brushed off, "Fine impatient, we'll leave." He turns to Riku, "We'll be back tomorrow to say goodbye to Sora."

"Sora's leaving tomorrow?" Roxas questions in surprise.

"It's stupid, remember?"

"Axel, quit being an ass!"

"See you later, Riku." He grabs Roxas and they disappear.

Riku watches the spot where they disappeared a little longer, it's going to be hard readjusting back to his old way of life and even worse now that he'll have to keep an eye out for danger. Sometimes, he thinks it'd be easier just to be human.

"Where'd they go?"

Riku looks up, "They left. Sora..."

"Yeah?"

"It'd probably be best if you left tomorrow."

"What?" He takes a step toward Riku, "Why?!"

"Because your strength is really draining and things are getting bad in hell. Axel visits here and that makes this place a potential target," Riku lies.

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine. I'm just a human. It's you who'd be in danger," Riku lies again.

"I…understand."

Riku sighs, he hates lying to him, but soon it won't matter.

~~~~~
Sora kicks the ground and Riku can see him fighting back tears. Unfortunately he can feel his distress too. Though, he still hasn't figured out why it's only Sora's emotions he can feel.

"Isn't this heartbreaking?"

Riku ignores Axel and reaches out to cup Sora's cheeks in both hands, raising his face to meet Riku's gaze. "Hey, it'll be okay." He places a quick kiss to Sora's mouth, "We'll probably see each other again." Sora shakes his head. "Well, not if you think like that."

"No, you don't understand. By the time they let me come back here, you'll probably be dead."

"Huh? I thought you said no one minded where you were."

"That's kind of true, but we can't just go spend months here. That raises a lot of questions that I can't tell the truth about or they may come after you. The leaders will assume the worst and I'll be banned from leaving."

"But…how will they know?"

"I have almost no energy, they'll know."

Riku feels his heart clench and the despondency coming from Sora doesn't help either. Sora's been clingier the past 24 hours, but that seemed to hurt more than resolve his feelings on leaving. He never actually planned on seeing him again, but knowing there's no chance still hurts. He does the only thing he can think of and hugs him tight. "It'll be fine," he says even though he knows those are hollow words.

Sora nods and steps back, extending his weeks. "Bye guys. Riku, thanks for letting me stay and taking care of me and putting up with me and….everything. Axel, I guess you're not an awful demon. You could be worse." Axel smirks and nods. "Roxas, you're nice. Don't turn into Axel, be more like Riku." Roxas gives him a quick hug and with a final look back, Sora takes off.

Riku watches him go until he feels Sora's emotions grow fainter and fainter, then they're gone completely.

"Will you be okay? You guys got pretty close."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I don't have a choice."

Axel looks back at the sky, "He was less glowy now."

"Huh?"

"Maybe you don't notice because you're always together, but he glows. It must be a seraph thing. When he's happy, he glows and it's always when he's with you. So, I guess you wouldn't notice a difference. But, when he was leaving, he was dimmer."

"Oh." There's nothing Riku can really say to that, he'd never noticed and now it's too late.

"Well," Axel claps him on the back. "That part of your long life is over, look towards the future!"

"Axel, you're terrible at cheering up," Roxas comments.

"I'm trying."

"Seriously guys, I'll be fine." They nod and bid him farewell before leaving and Riku takes a seat on the steps, stares off in the distance, stops holding back his feeling and finally lets himself admit that Sora really did mean a lot to him. After all, there's no one around to see him now.