Worth It Chapter 10, a kingdom hearts fanfic

A/n: Hey gang, it has been a while, hasn't it

A/n: Hey gang, it has been a while, hasn't it? I know some of you might be a tad bit upset that I took this long but…well. I'm in college now and I was enjoying those few months between being a high school student and a college student. Not to mention that I have a bit of a hard time writing for Riku (he always seems like a giant douchebag when I write him). Excuses beside, I'm really looking forward to writing the next chapter. I've been planning this one for a LONG time, so it should be pretty cool….and you know, have plot.

So please read and review and I'll try to get back to all soon.

Also…maybe another One-shot review raffle in the future? Also also, thanks a million to my good friend Katana for beta-ing!

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, wouldn't be rotting away in a dorm room right now.

There's one thing I do enjoy about being a latchkey kid, and that's the fact that during spring break I am my own master. Lunch isn't sitting on the counter waiting for me, there's no alarm clocks, no warnings that I have to get up, hell, I could probably get away without showering for a whole week if I wanted to. Sure, I had some chores as a form of parental guidance, by all in all; I had seven days all to myself. A glorious week filled with glorious sun all for my enjoyment.

So every day I would roll out of bed around one, and slowly make my way downstairs. If I could get away with it, the next twelve hours would be spent in my pajamas. Rinni, who was unfortunately home from college on break as well, would normally have already claimed her spot on the couch mindlessly watching Hannah Montana. We could stay in that state for up to four hours before one of her friends texted her and she'd be out the door in a flash. There are days when I absolutely hate having sisters, and there are times when I'm too busy being mind-fucked by Disney Channel and wondering how Jackson can look like he's younger then me when he's actually, eleven years my senior.

At this time, if all went well I would have two hours to myself. If things went badly, Sora would show up and force me to get dressed before dragging me out of the house. After the second time he did this, he seemed to write me off as a bad job. The third time he showed up at my doorstep and he gave me a once over and seemed to think of as me as nothing more than a smelly hobo and has left me alone henceforth. By seven my parents would arrive home and I would receive a few withering glares for my state of undress.

"Don't you have soccer practice in the mornings?" Mom would ask over dinner.

"No."

"Shouldn't you be working?" My father would inquire halfway through his daily glass of wine.

"Not scheduled for this week." Lies, of course, I called into work saying I had pinkeye and did the same with coach. I'm a teenager, and perfectly entitled to one week without any extracurricular. Really, one more week of hard work would've put me over the edge. I could've snapped. Seriously, I had a high probability of going bat-shit crazy. ...Really. I was like, one minute away from going over to The Darkness. A second from castrating Sora and throwing his penis into a cornfield. Really.

I would retreat to the basement after dinner and by that time Rinni was normally home with movies from the Redbox. She'd stick in some movie I wouldn't have ever paid to see, and yet again get mind-fucked during the process.

"No, seriously! Look at that little dot on the screen! That's totally where Clover comes from! Rewind it!"

"OH MY GOD! Riku! Riku! Did you, holy shit man! So freaky!"

"Did you know like, Slusho is in all of J.J. Abrams stuff?"

"No way! That's so freaky!"

"This is so well thought out, I can't believe..."

We'd have a mini marathon normally until three of four in the morning. And then the whole process would start over again. Roll out of bed, Hannah Montana, alone time, dinner, movies, repeat. The only time we differentiated from that schedule was to re-watch Cloverfield only to figure out, that no, it really wasn't that great of a movie.

So when the doorbell rang around two, both Rinni and me nearly jumped out of our skins. There was a brief second where we exchanged nervous glances, wondering who was in the worse state of undress. And even though I hadn't even bothered to put a shirt on today, Rinni thought she was too indecent to be seen by a lowly UPS man and sent me to open the door with wave of her hand.

Standing on our welcome mat was Sora, grinning like an idiot and holding a bag in one of his hands. His smile slowly slid off his face, however, when he saw me. He gave me a once over before letting himself inside, shaking his head as he went. By the time I turned the corner, Sora and Rinni were already hugging each other and giggling like schoolgirls. I couldn't stop my eyes from rolling upwards at the spectacle they were making.

"Hey, Riku, maybe now would be a good time to put some clothes on?" Rinni suggested over Sora's shoulder. Sora turned around in Rinni's arms and actually blushed a little before nodding his head in agreement. Seeing this as a momentary escape from the love feast, I quickly hurried up the stairs into my room.

I sniffed a few T-shirts before pulling on the one that I was pretty sure was the only clean one I currently had. Clean jeans were easier to find, though I did have to dig around a bit in the mess to find a ponytail holder. After running a comb quickly through my hair, I pulled it back before brushing my teeth. I only stood in front of the mirror for a few minutes, attempting to buy time and to make sure I was somewhat presentable.

Even though we'd been going out for almost a year, I still felt horribly self aware in Sora's presence. I know I shouldn't be, I mean, we use to run through sprinklers together back in the day. That whole pesky boyfriend thing, with the even peskier long-term relationship status still freaked me out a bit. Of course, Sora took it all in strides, and never seemed to act any differently around me. And while I was pretty sure I was getting better at this whole 'dating' thing, I still felt the need to look somewhat decent in his presence.

Which might explain why I almost committed seppuku when I had opened up the door. And why I hadn't been able to talk while my sister was manhandling my boyfriend. Or that could've been some weird jealously thing. I mean, Sora doesn't normally greet me in a big fat bear hug. I mean, when he saw me all he did was shake his head. Well, that might've been more of a reaction to the fact I was lounging around in my boxers and had a rat nest in my hair.

Or...it could be that I'm somewhat afraid Rinni is going to drag him to Vegas, force him to get married to her by an Elvis impersonator and then proceed to produce adorable offspring, which would force me to become Uncle Wiku to hundreds of children while I slowly descend into crazy-cat-persondom.

Okay, maybe I'm just a tad bit paranoid.

Rinni was only two years older then I, as compared to my other two sisters who were already out of college and shopping for rings. Being the only boy I always received a certain amount of attention, but Rinni... Well, I would really hate to say my parents have favorites. That's not going to stop me from saying it however. Rinni is the wonderchild. Straight A's, good athlete, won scholarships left and right. My oldest sister had the same achievements under her belt, but Rinni had the personality. She was bright and cheerful, always ready to go out on an adventure. She was hilarious, incredibly witty and friendly. My second oldest sister was funny as well, she had a great sense of humor, but was often awkward in social situations. Rinni could brighten up a whole room with her mere presence.

Where as I was pegged for my 'cold' personality and my inherent good looks, Rinni really did have what it took to be popular. I've gotten my fair share of attention, but I don't think I really deserved it. Sure, I helped to get our soccer team to the play-offs last year, but Rinni had won an essay contest, which resulted in a brand new sound system in our gym. The senior gift that year couldn't have hoped to compete with Rinni's prize.

So, the whole paranoid thing came from the fact that Rinni drew all attention onto herself. She stood out in the crowd, whereas I tended to blend in. She had dated a good few guys back in the day, but even then most girls feared losing their boyfriends to her. Right about then I was ready to run for the hills. Sora had always gotten along with Rinni a little too well. I know I've been jealous of her on more then one occasion just because she had distracted Sora from hanging out with me.

This natural distrust of someone so perfect, even though she was my sister, was, only natural. I had never had to worry about her before...and now.

I rounded the corner and saw the too happily gossiping on the couch, talking about how so-and-so was allegedly pregnant, and how what's-his-face was flunking out of school. And while this most likely would've looked completely harmless to anybody but the not-so-sane of mind, I was totally thrown for a loop. Yes, I knew they were friendly, and yes I knew Sora considered Rinni a close friend of his but...

Why the hell did Rinni have to look so intrigued, why did she have to lean in so close to him and get so wrapped up in their conversation. I would never say I'm prone to jealously. Never ever in a million years would I say I hated anyone of my sisters. Occasionally dislike, sure, but never hate.

In that one instance, I wanted nothing better than to strangle my sister. I didn't want her near what was rightfully mine, I wanted her gone and out of the picture. And she's my fucking sister, and I really shouldn't get angry about her having a stupid conversation about Erin Smithe getting knocked up, but here I am, fists clenched, teeth gnashing together, and a vein attempting to pop right out of my forehead.

"Riku?" Sora was looking at me, his smile slowly slipping off of his face. He looked back at Rinni, then me again. In that mere moment I was able to calm myself down, and Sora took another double take before obviously writing it off as a trick of the eye. I sat myself in the recliner; eyes fixed on the both of them as they struck up conversation again.

"So, how's everything? What have I missed in the last three months?" Rinni asked enthusiastically, giving me a little covert smile before directing her full attention on Sora. I had no idea what that was about. Was she happy I was friends with him? Did she think I had called him over so they could have a nice little chat?

"Ah, everything has been fine. You know, senior year. Can't really complain about much." He shrugged and grinned as he started to drill her. "How about you, any new man in your life?" She snorted before attempting to wave him off.

"No, no. The whole romance thing has been put on hold. I mean, I thought boys would magically evolve into men once I got to college, but no, still pigs." She laughed as she noticed the look of hurt on Sora's face. "Okay, there are two expectations to the rule, and I'm a very lucky girl to know both of them." She gave me a little wink. "How about you, found a lucky leading lady yet?"

Everything seemed to slow down suddenly. Sora's head was slowly, ever so slowly turning towards me. It seemed to take minutes for him to shoot me a look that borderlined on hurt and rage. As soon as I received the brunt force of his attack however, time instantaneously resumed its normal flow and Sora was laughing and scratching the back of his head.

"Nobody comes to mind. Though I suppose it would be nice to have a somebody." I had to leave. Rinni was already giving Sora a consoling noogie and reassuring him that there was 'somebody special' for him out there. He just continued to laugh as I slammed the door to the garage behind me. It didn't take to long until I was out on the black top of the driveway, not really planning on going anywhere, just standing there melting slightly in the heat. With a long sigh I sat myself in the middle of my driveway and stared out down our street.

For the most part it was empty, just a few kids here and there riding past on scooters and bicycles. A few moms sat together on a porch a block or so down, all nursing a martini glass. I could see Olette Orson washing her little green Aveo in her own driveway; she gave me a little wave before returning to her chore. Overall a peaceful day in suburbia, and I just couldn't bring myself to blend in.

I mean, I know it must've hurt Sora. He obviously didn't have any idea that my family didn't have any idea about us. Still, to hear him confirm a story I'd never confirmed or denied was a bit too much. Maybe he thought he was just playing along, but it had really felt like all those stupid things I'd been worrying about had come to life. Which I know is stupid and childish, but it hurt. Just plain old, knife-in-the-gut hurt. So while I wasn't sure that I couldn't know all the motives behind that statement, it still felt like a direct attack on our relationship.

And really, our relationship has never been on real steady ground.

I'm still struggling with this whole transition from best friends to boyfriends. I knew that it'd almost been a year, only two months away from being a year, but the whole 'being together' thing hasn't really changed anything. So now our rough housing got a little physical in a different way and losing at Super Smash Bros. had a different type of implication. All in all, the fundamental relationship had stayed the same, and I was happy with it. At the same time, while it stayed the same, it meant things could possibly change back to the way they where easily. Or even worse, get warped into something neither of us wanted or could deal with.

A car honking at me snapped me out of my reverie. A large red minivan stared right back at me as it attempted to pull into the garage. My mother was home early, one hand up in the air, clearly driven there by exasperation; the other, clutching onto her cell phone for dear life. We stared at each other for a few tense seconds before I casually picked myself up and dusted off my pants. I couldn't stop the hand that shot up to my hair to run through it, a bit of a nervous habit, before I entered the garage and went back inside.

Sora and Rinni were now standing at the kitchen island, sharing a spoon covered in chocolate batter. Behind them I caught the distinct smell of thunder cake, yet another recipe my mother had stolen from her teachers. Sora popped the plastic utensil into his mouth before returning it to my sister, who in turned licked it. I half expected them to pass me to the spoon, only for them to remember that I was lactose intolerant and couldn't have dairy products – which, unfortunately, included most forms chocolate. Of course, they'd laugh it off and continue to make out via spoon right in front of me.

Or they could just plain old not offer me any and ignore me all together.

Mom was already through the door and sniffing the air as she set down her bag next to Rinni. She swooped down and placed a kiss on top of her daughter's head before repeating the action to both Sora and me. It really didn't surprise me that she decided to kiss Rinni first, I'm pretty sure Rinni is her favorite.

"Hello Mrs. Abe." Sora greeted, already washing off the spoon in our sink. My mother loved this about Sora - the fact he cleaned up after himself and was always willing to be the last one home after a party to make sure there were no abandoned pop cans left over in the basement. If she left Rinni and me alone for two whole seconds, chances are we'd die after being crushed to death by our own garbage.

"Making thunder cake?" She asked, though she obviously already knew the answer as she checked the crock pot. Sora nodded as she rounded on me. "Remember you can't have any Riku. By the way, I've noticed that the ice cream carton has been a little light lately. You know I bought you that soy stuff for a reason. And don't even bother saying it wasn't you, because you're the only one who scopes from it that unevenly. You know if you leave it like that it'll get frostbitten." I'd heard all of this before of course. I've bee hearing it for the last eighteen years of my life, and I'm sure I'll be hearing for the next forty or so as well.

It was a bit surreal seeing them all there, staring straight at me. Right at my crumpled up shirt and dirty pants, my tussled hair. I had three sets, two blue, two green and two brown burrowing right into me. I couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. Standing there being chastised for doing something as trivial as stealing a scoop or two of ice cream. On top of that it right before my favorite and least favorite people in the entire solar system. Even though I knew my mom wouldn't be all too pleased with my behavior, I had to get out of there and simply turned around and walked out of the room.

Behind me I could hear Sora mutter some type of feeble excuse. I was already climbing up the stairs to my room when I heard him behind me. Not quite sure what he had it mind, I kept to the plan of shutting myself away in my room until I had to go down for dinner. Obviously that wasn't Sora's plan, because as soon as I reached the top flight I found myself being steered into a closet.

Above my head a single light bulb clicked in life as Sora pulled the overly elongated chain. It was overly long so that once upon a time, we would've been able to reach it by ourselves when we were kids. Nobody had thought to update the lighting fixture seeing as how anybody hardly even entered this small closet to begin with. I stared up at the colorful boxes on the shelves which I had remembered being much larger. The game closet hadn't seen much action in recent years.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"You know!"

"Sora, just let me -"

"No, I don't want to hear it. I come over, you're not dressed, it looks like you haven't bathed in days, and you didn't look thrilled to see me. So, strike one, feelings hurt. Just a tiny bit, but hurt. Then there's Rinni wondering why the hell I don't have a girlfriend. Strike two, feelings more then hurt. Like, feelings devastated that it's fucking boyfriend can't tell his family that he's dating a guy."

"Sora...you know how they are."

"You know how my family is! They're all crazy! Literally, I mean, have you seen Squall lately?"

"I thought he wanted to be called Leon."

"That's my point! Batshit crazy! So don't use your family as an excuse. Because my whole family knows, and they didn't take it well. Well...my grandma might not, but that's beside the point. Oh yeah, and strike three. You have the nerve to storm out on me. You don't make conversation, you force me to lie to Rinni and I'm fucking hurt and you feel the need to just skedaddle your way out of there? You don't get to pull this shit anymore Riku. We've almost been dating for a year!"

"I'm sorry. You know how I am."

"Your mom invited me to stay for dinner."

"Okay?"

"You're telling them then. If you don't." Sora opened up the closet door, and gave me one last glare. "Shit is going to go down." Already stomping down the stairs, I had no choice but to quickly follow after him. Halfway down I caught his arm.

Of course I felt bad. It was really hard not to feel bad. I mean, I lied to almost everybody about 'us' for the last ten months. Sure, my friends knew; but it was hard to deny those facts with Sora standing two feet away from me. Not that I would, it's harder to lie to them then it is to my family. I, of course, was more worried about my parent's reactions. My mother's parents are essentially hippies, and my father's mother hates visiting us. My father was an only child, and my mom only has a brother. So they had wanted a nice big 'normal' family. So, they had four kids. Three girls, one boy. Michelle, Dawn, Rinni, and finally me. Somewhere between Dawn and Rinni, my mom took an interest in her husband's side of the family. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not really Asian. In fact, I'm only 25 Japanese. Of course, we all look like we just flew in from Tokyo (minus my mom).

At the end of the day, I'm the one carrying on the name. My dad with...I'm not even sure how to put this correctly. Him having a son, a typical boy, was a pretty big deal to him. I mean, I've had a lot of girlfriends, I play soccer, I'm pretty popular at school, I get decent grades. Perfect son, Riku Abe. So... suddenly springing a boyfriend into the mix... I'm not sure how he's going to react, and somehow I can't help but feel like I'm going to let him down.

I'm not really sure what's going to happen with Sora and me. I'm not even sure if we're going to the same college yet, it's the last semester of senior year and we still have to talk about it. We've always talked about it, but there're a lot of scholarships being thrown around at me, and my parents still have to get Dawn and Rinni through school. So, I can't help but feel like I'll be causing them extra stress if I throw a grandchild-less future at them. Especially since for all I know, Sora will end up dumping me for some other guy and I'll revert back to girls, or you know. Become a crazy cat person.

Sora looked sad, upset, angry, and a whole other assortment of attitudes all at once that I could never name or emote if I tried. This is one of the reasons I love Sora. I might not really understand what he's feeling, or why; but I know there's something always there for me to grasp at. I've had girlfriends who just...I don't know. They just stop feeling anything towards the end. So knowing Sora cares enough to be pissed off at me can defuse the situation for me in a millisecond.

I know its not going to make things magically all right. No fairy godmothers, any magical little mice with cheery dispositions, or animated broomsticks. So when I grabbed his hand, and slide our fingers together where they interlocked perfectly I knew it wasn't going to make what I'd done all right. But when he smiled at me, it gave me plenty of reasons to tell them. And even if they were appalled, or didn't care, or whatever, I knew just making sure that Sora's smile would never leave his face would make it all worth it.

A/n: Review! Review! Review! Seriously, without those there's no point to all of this. So if you liked it, review; if you didn't review. Hopefully you'll be seeing another chapter up in about a month!