Chapter Three. Wake Me Up, Make Me Beautiful. This is Riku's Story.

"So, where are you from Sora?" Riku asked as he walked alongside this strange boy. He had to look down to see him, which was a change from Axel who was about Riku's height. Tall. Sora skipped ahead a few paces, turning around to face Riku while walking backwards, his arms folded behind his back.

"A tiny island far away. It's very hot there, but it's nice." Sora thought about what he said before scrunching his nose up, as if disagreeing. "Well, it was nice when I was growing up. I couldn't have asked for a better childhood. But I would never ever in a million, trillion years want to grow old there." He stuck his tongue out and shuddered, as if it was unimaginably horrid.

"Aw, come on now. It can't be that bad!" Riku said with a chuckle. Sora's eyes widened in fear.

"Oh, it is. There are no colleges there so all the men are forced to be fishermen for a living and do physical labor. All the women are forced to cook and clean and make babies. I'm telling you it's like something off of National Geographic!" Riku was full on laughing now, and people who knew him were beginning to stare.

"So I say to Roxas; 'Roxas, I don't want to be a fisherman. Let's go to the city!' So that's what we did after graduation, a.k.a now."

"So, you're what? Seventeen? Eighteen?" Riku asked as he lead them over to an ice cream stand and took out a few dollars from his pocket. "What flavor do you want?"

"STRAWBERRYSTRAWBERRYSTRAWBERRY!" He jumped as high as he could up and down and clapped his hands happily like a two year old. It was cuter than it was embarassing.

They sat down on a brand new fountain in the center of town. It had curling tendrils that spewed water in thin squirts. The red and blue lights at the bottom made the water look colored and glimmer in the sun.

Riku licked the vanilla ice cream in circles around the edge before it started dripping all over the place. He should have been paying attention to the long drop on the side of the cone that was sneaking past his glance, but the older teen was too busy staring at his strawberry-covered companion. Sora didn't seem to care about making a mess all over himself, all he cared about was devouring the delicious pink cream as fast as possible. He had large drops on his nose and cheeks, and pink raced down his fingers, barely escaping before he licked it up.

Now if you're sitting there listening to water falling behind you watching an irresistably cute boy lick pink cream from his fingers, while large droplets and smudges covered his face and lips, it would be incredibly hard to contain yourself. Riku was having a hard enough time trying to cover up the growing buldge in his pants without seeming suspicious.

No no, this is not happening.

But it was happening, and the situation was only getting worse with each dip and lick of Sora's cute pink tongue.

Okay Riku, deep breaths. Think about Axel. Think about a few hours ago. Think about how he screamed and moaned and cried as you pounded him into the mattress. Okay well, that didn't really help but at least now I'm thinking about my boyfriend and not some underage kid I barely know.

"Seventeen." Riku shot his eyes open as he heard Sora's voice.

"What?"

"You asked me how old I was earlier. I just a few days ago turned seventeen." Sora had finished his ice cream and was now rocking back and forth by his hands, placed between his widely spread legs. "You gonna finish your ice cream? It's melting like crazy." Sora licked his lips hungrily as he stared at the half-melted vanilla cone. Riku almost gave it to the kid, but then remembered what color vanilla was and decided against it. He chucked it in the nearest trash can and Sora gasped.

"You waster! That's wasting! I would have eaten that!"

"Nah it tasted funny. Must have been a bad bean." Riku said mindlessly before staring up at the neon clock tower. "Gotta go, kid. Work."

Sora pouted, but stood up and started walking in the opposite direction. Riku didn't watch him go, just shrugged and turned to walk away.

"Is that it? No 'goodbye' or, 'nice meeting you'?"

Riku turned around and saw Sora glaring at him impatiently.

"We live across from each other, idiot. It's not like I'll never see you again."

Sora's eyes lit up and a wide smile spread across his face. "So you want to see me again!!"

Riku felt a headache coming on and pushed his fingertips into his forehead.

"Did I say that?"

"Y-you mean you d-don't…?"

Oh. My. God.

It was unlike anything Riku had ever seen before. Sora had put on the most heart-wrenching puppyface he'd ever seen. It was enough to make you get on your knees and cry and apologize, but it was also somehow very seductive. Sora's way of trapping people in. Riku felt his face heat up.

Am I…blushing..?

"Go home kid." It wasn't as good as a proper goodbye, but it was good enough for Sora. For now, at least.