So I don't know how long this chapter has been missing or how it got deleted, so sorry about that but here we go!


Almost a month.

Almost another full month which Riku had ignored Sora and Kairi. They had no experience with darkness and what it could do to you. Or what he could do to them if he lost control. They had no idea how to help him. Even if they tried he was worried about hurting them in the process.

Worse yet, he had heard nothing back from the King. There was no one left that Riku could go to. The Keyblade wielder was getting more and more discouraged that help wouldn't come. With the ways between worlds closed he had no idea how he was going to get to Mickey himself.

Riku glanced at the piles of homework that was strewed across his desk. He had none of it done. With his mind being pulled in so many different directions he couldn't focus on homework for more that five minutes. With a shake of his head he grabbed a hair tie and pulled his silver locks into a ponytail and headed into his basement where his workout machines were set up.

He always lost time when he was working out. Sometimes he would be down here for half the day, other times his parents had to drag him out of the basement so he could eat. If not the food would go untouched. He knew that his parents were concerned about him.

He heard the conversations that they had about him when they thought he was asleep. The many times his mother had cried for him. He saw it, he knew how they felt but he couldn't talk to them about this.

It wasn't long before he was all sweaty, he took off his shirt and tossed it aside before continuing to workout.

"Riku!" His mother said opening the basement door. "Sora's here, come out of there and get ready! You'll be late for school if you don't!"

Riku put down the weights he had been using, why was Sora here this early? It can't be time for school already, the last he checked it was only three. He was wrong. It was seven-fifteen in the morning. He had to be showered and dressed and out of the house in 20 minutes.

"Tell him to go to my room! I'll be up in a second!'' Riku said putting everything away. He picked up his shirt and climbed the basement stairs.

Riku practically ran through his house to get to the bathroom and showered in a record time. He ran to his room in only his towel.

"Sorry Sora, I was working out and I just lost track of time." He said getting dressed.

Riku couldn't see but Sora's face was beat red. Yes he had seen Riku without a shirt on but to see Riku come in dripping wet and only wearing a towel was a completely different story. Sora could feel how hot his face was and quickly looked away when Riku was finally dressed.

"If we hurry we'll make it-" Riku said looking at Sora, finally noticing Sora's red face.

"Um...are you okay Sora? Your face is really red are you feeling okay?"

Sora quickly nodded, standing up and walking towards the door.

"Yup! Like you said if we hurry we'll make it!" Sora said practically running down the stairs.

Riku shook his head at Sora's actions. Maybe Riku should be the one worrying about Sora

.


At School

Sora huffed in his seat as the bell rang, he and Riku had different classes in the morning.

He thought it would be a good idea to race Riku to school so he wouldn't have to talk to him about why his face was red. Little did he know just how much Riku had been working out. Riku easily beat him to school. Maybe he should ask Riku to help him work out.

"Race with Riku?" Kairi said from the seat behind Sora.

Unable to properly speak Sora nodded. He hadn't been this winded in some time.

Kairi chuckled. "You should have known that would have been a bad idea with how much he's been working out."

"I...I know. But I didn't know just how much he'd been working out. Besides how did you know? Did Riku tell you?" Sora asked.

Kairi shook her head with a smile. "It's a girl thing Sora. Every girl know he's been working out." She paused, her demeanor changing. "I'm worried that Riku might be doing too much."

Sora turned in his seat and looked at her.

"What do you mean? Riku looks better than ever."

Kairi gave him a look. "Yeah but I heard him talking to one of his teachers and it seems like he hasn't been doing his homework as of late."

Sora thought back to this morning when he was in Riku's room. There were papers scattered across Riku's desk and from what he could tell, everything looked half finished. He also didn't remember seeing Riku with his book bag when they got to school.

"Do you know how long this has been going on?" Sora asked in a small voice.

Kairi shook her head. She was frowning and that was something Kairi never did.

"But from what I hear from teachers and around school, it's been happening longer than what we think."

Before Sora could respond their teacher walked in cutting off the conversation which left a sick feeling in Sora's stomach. He turned in his seat, facing forward. He felt like something was going to happen and whatever it was it wasn't going to be good.


With Riku

He had gone through four of his classes today and in all four the teachers had demanded to see him after class. All the conversations were the same.

'Why haven't you been doing your homework?' Or. 'You aren't this type of student Riku what's going on?' Or his favorite. 'If something going on Riku you can talk to me.'

Sure he could talk to them about everything right? The voice that would keep him awake at night and telling him...lies? He could tell them about his nightmares of Heartless ripping his heart out. About that ever growing darkness he felt and saw in his nightmares…

Yeah they would understand.

He couldn't tell them anything. They would call his parents and probably recommend that he get some form of therapy. And he knew all too well how that would end up. A voice pulled him out of that dark pit.

"Riku you ready for lunch?" Sora asked, leaning against the lockers beside Riku's.

Riku felt lost. How did he get to his locker? Wasn't he just talking to one of his teachers? Did he just walk out of his classroom while his teacher was talking to him? A hand waved in front of his eye's.

"You in there Riku?"

Sora was getting scared by the vacant look in Riku's eyes. It reminded him of how Kairi looked when she lost her heart.

With a deep breath Riku nodded.

"Yeah, just spaced out for a second there." He said with a smile. "Didn't get much sleep last night. All that homework you know, kept me up late."

"Riiiight…"

Sora felt hurt. Riku had just lied to him. Again! Yet he kept his hurt quiet. He wouldn't confront Riku about. Not yet anyways.

"Any ways, ready for lunch?"

Riku nodded and shut his locker without putting anything in it or taking anything out of it. He followed Sora to the loud and crowded cafeteria.

"You go and get some food Sora...I'll find us a table."

"But what about you aren't you hungry?!" Sora pointed out, but was blown off as Riku turned and sat at their normal table.

Sora hurried through the lunch line and over to their table where he found Riku half asleep, his head in his hands. Sora's shoulders fell when he saw the dark circles around Riku's eyes. Why wouldn't Riku just talk about what was going on with him.

Sora, as quietly as possible, sat next to Riku. He took a closer look at Riku's face. He could tell what Kairi meant about him working out too much. While muscle wise Riku looked great, but the dark circles stood out against Riku's paling face. His hair looked like it hadn't been washed or properly brushed out in days.

"You know if you keep staring at me like that soon there will be rumors about us getting together." Riku said, scaring Sora. Which made Riku grin and chuckle.

Kairi pulled up a chair beside Riku and sat with a huff. She pulled her lunch out of her bookbag, noticing the lack of food in front of Riku.

"I didn't think I would ever make it out of that class without starving."

"Teach hold you after again? Let me guess he got too caught up in teaching and enriching the minds of the youth to hear the bell." Sora remarked.

Kairi nodded and pushed her apple in front of Riku who pushed it back with a 'not hungry'. Yet she persisted and pushed it back in front of him, which in turn made him push it back to her.

Kairi grabbed Riku's hand which exploded in light. Riku shouted and pulled his hand out of hers, his hand now covered in darkness.

"Alright Riku it's time to tell us what's going on with you!" Kairi demanded.

Riku shook his head, looking around to make sure that no one saw his hand. Yet everywhere he looked, eye's stared back at him.

"It has nothing to do with you two! You guys wouldn't know what to do to help me anyways! Just let me handle this!"

Kairi put her hands on her hips. Riku just prayed that Kairi would lower her voice. He really didn't need all of this extra attention right now.

"Handle it? Well it doesn't seem like you're doing a good job of it! First you stop doing your homework, then you avoid us when we want to help you. Now this!" She said, referring to the darkness that covered Riku's hand.

"I said I'd handle it!" Riku shouted at her, standing. And Kairi swore she saw Riku's eyes flash yellow before turning back to normal. Now she was scared.

"Hey don't yell at Kairi!" Sora shouted back.

Riku whipped around, looking down at Sora. Sora almost backed down from the look Riku was giving him.

"Why do you always defend her Sora! She doesn't need to know every little thing that happens to me!"

Sora stood facing Riku, where was this anger coming from?

"She's just worried about you Riku, is that so bad?" Sora said. "You don't have to make at her feel bad because of that!

Riku's shoulders fell, yet the rest of his body was tense.

"Oh so you're more worried about her than me? It's always been that way hasn't it Sora."

Sora was confused, when did he ever say that?

"No Riku that's not-"

Riku pushed past Sora, he should have known that nothing was going to change.

"Forget it. Just leave me alone."

Sora and Kairi looked at Riku's retreating figure before looking at each other and wondering what had just transpired between the three of them.