Desolate: Blurring Realities

I thought about that all night. I didn't dare find Sora that evening, like I usually would have. Sora and I often sleep in the same locations. Sometimes we are too tired to go to one of our houses and we just pass out on the beach.

Usually, though, he just comes to my house. My four brothers aren't home very often. You see, I live without my parents. They're still alive and everything. They just disowned all of us because Sephiroth owns an underground club on the mainland. Harsh, huh? The mainland is also an island, despite its name. It's only called that because it is the only island with an actual city. Our smaller islands are about 800 miles away from the mainland, so I hardly ever see Sephiroth or my other two older brothers. They all work at the club and I'm left here to do all the house chores. Ugh.

Anyway, I was vacuuming and didn't realize that I'd been doing it for about an hour. Mind you, our house isn't big; I just got entirely lost in my thoughts about the dream and then the Kairi incident.

Why? That same word kept repeating in my head in many different ways. Did it ever really happen? I questioned my own sanity for a brief moment when the door bell rang, nearly giving me a heart attack.

Brrr-ing! Brrr-ing! The doorbell made an unusual sound. Pounding footsteps followed and the door was thrown open.

"Ri-ku!" A fist met Riku's muscled bicep.

"Hey there." Riku seemed happy to see Sora, but kind of shifty.

"Eh? What is it? Stomachache?"

"Wha-no!"

"Then what?"

"My period."

"Not funny, Riku!" Sora whined, punching his arm again.

"Ow, would you stop that?"

"Not unless you can catch me!" Sora punched Riku one last hard one on his shoulder, and then took off down the street.

If you continue to talk to Sora, I'll kill you!

Riku hesitated as Kairi's echo went through his head, but then instinct took over and he was darting across the pavement like bat out of hell.

"No fair," Riku yelled as Sora laughed mischievously, " you surprised me while I was busy!"

"Too bad," Sora stuck his tongue out, but he was a lot slower than Riku and less accurate in his jumping.

Eventually, Riku caught up to him so Sora collapsed across the grass of one of the side yards between houses and the road into town. Riku leaned with his hands on his knees, panting just like Sora was after their sprint.

Riku looked up from the spot that he was staring at on the ground. He had been following a line of ants going across the curb with his eyes. Surprisingly, the first thing he saw when he looked up was Sora's eyes. It was immediately obvious that had been what he was looking at because there was only one other thing in the world that shared the same color. A freshly cut sapphire was the only comparison. About three seconds of the starting passed before Riku broke the silence.

"What?" He asked, teasingly.

"I-I…" Sora sputtered, "Well, nothing."

"No, you looked like you were gonna say something. What?"

Sora looked pouty for a second and crossed his arms in mock defiance. "Sorry, Riku. You said that you're 'not a total sap like me'. I'll just save it for Kairi."

"Hey!" Riku exclaimed defensively, "Just 'cuz I said that I'm not a total sap like you doesn't mean that you have to stop being one. That would just be strange…"

Sora laughed, offering his hand to Riku, which the silver-haired teen grabbed and hoisted Sora off the ground. Sora wiped the back of his shorts unnecessarily. They were his precious clothes from his friends in another world, after all. Sora stopped brushing imaginary dirt and smiled at Riku before turning to look at the horizon.

"What I was going to say doesn't really apply to Kairi. Not to say that she doesn't belong or isn't previous, because I could not imagine life without her," Sora paused, closing his eyes and sighing.

`Riku felt a little funny, hearing Sora say something so deep about Kairi. He knew that the two of them held something special in which he could not intervene. It kind of was disturbing because it reminded him of Kairi's harsh words on that day that Riku mentally un-acknowledges. He doesn't want to admit to himself how scared it makes him.

"…But," Sora continued, opening his eyes, "Even though I know that you can take care of yourself—at least more than Kairi can—for two years you worried me sick. And there isn't anyone else that I'd rather have as a best friend either!"

Riku stared. His own words thrown back at him seemed kind of silly because even tough the older boy had meant them, the words had been a way to reassure Sora of their mutual friendship. Still, this was real. It felt real and not like some tv soap opera. Even though Riku knew it to be true before Sora said it, the words still filled his heart with light and pushed out some of the dark jealousy Riku had about others befriending Sora.

Not knowing how exactly to respond to Sora's declaration, Riku turned to his left, facing the town and took a few steps down the sidewalk. His feet tapped with a dull sounding thud.

"Hey. Race ya' to Kairi's place!" The both of them took off, Sora complaining this time about Riku's head start.

The black soles of Kairi's shoes tapped the top of a concrete stair. The fountain in the center of the square bubbled and tinkled, sounding like pieces of life gently colliding with Earth.

Kairi smiled softly, thinking of how she, Sora and Riku had planned to spend the day surfing. None of them were very good at it, except maybe Riku. Though, ironically it was never Riku who planned to go surfing. All three of them always wore their swim suits under their clothing so Kairi was sure Riku wouldn't mind her and Sora planning this without him.

Kairi was forced out of her memories when she heard Sora's playful voice and Riku's soft teasing tone. Not soon after, Riku rounded the corner of one of the side streets, coming to a stop in front of the town hall where Kairi sat on the stairs.

"Hey, Kai," Riku said, glancing at his pretty friend. Perhaps because her heart was pure light, Riku could not help but feel extremely happy whenever he saw her.

When it came down to it, Kairi was always in the middle of Sora and Riku. She could always translate Sora's behavior to Riku if he was confused and somehow she could also read Riku's emotions.

Like the ocean, sloshing towards the shore that is Riku, but at the same time being pulled towards the sky that is Sora. Riku honestly felt like he never wanted that notion to leave. That is why, when Kairi didn't say anything in response to Riku's greeting, his stomach felt like a handful of spiders were trying to escape from the inside.

Sora was catching up to where they were when Kairi stood and looked down at the ground. Her mouth turned into a line and her hand reached for her pocket. Riku seemed to be frozen to his spot on the cobbled street. It was almost as if his legs were stopped in time compared to how fast the red-headed sweetheart seemed to move.

A glint of silver left her pocket, intimately pressing against her thumb. The dull slate color contrasted with her peach skin. Suddenly, it was gone. As if time was lagging again, it took almost ten seconds for Riku to see the red and another ten seconds to feel the fold sting of the gash in his bloodied arm.

The ground 'plinked' as red drops of ruby fell to the ground and made rippled circles against the pale stones. Riku didn't remember falling to his knees. But he did remember Sora flinging his arm around Kairi's shoulders and looking at her in a comforting way, before turning to glare at Riku. The dark fire in his eyes was the last thing Riku of thought of before everything went black.

The portal to darkness opened again. The one I that I had heard the mysterious voice come out of in my last dream. Dread filled me. My last dream wasn't exactly a good one. This time, I was on my favorite broad-trunked paopu tree on the play island. The sky was dark and rainy. I was vaguely reminded of the night I left to the darkness two years ago. I shivered, not wanting thoughts of guilt and pain to fill me.

"Riku…" The voice seemed hesitant.

"I'm here. But…just who are you, anyway? Trust me, I'm not going to hurt my friends again by becoming a heartless. My darkness is—"

"Bigger than it has ever been before!" My aquamarine eyes widened. " 'The stronger the light, the bigger one's shadow becomes.' Do not forget this, Riku. Especially not—"

His voice was cut off. The portal began to close and I tried calling out to him, asking who he is. No response.

I felt an involuntary twitch in my hand. It happened again, but I didn't see my hand move .That must mean my physical body was waking. In the distance, I heard a familiar voice.

"Ri-ku!Ri-ku!"

My stomach lurched and I felt myself shoot in to the waking world. The voice came from Sora's lips in the same exact way the rotting, zombie-Sora from my last dream had spoken.

Riku's head collided quite painfully with Sora's as he sat up abruptly from Kairi's bed. He had been in Kairi's rorom many times before and even slept over, so this was no surprise to Riku. The two friends' skulls retracted from each other and they both grabbed their heads in pain.

"Ow, ow, ow! Geez, Riku. At this rate I'll have no brain cells left!" Sora exclaimed, referring to when he fell from the paopu tree earlier and just now, when they cracked their skulls together.

Reminded of the incident, the silver-haired boy looked down to Sora's legs. Scabs remained from the bark scraping them. Sora grunted and shifted his weight uncomfortably under Riku's stare. Riku looked up and Sora started speaking.

"Riku, that was no way to treat Kairi! You ran into her! We're not racing next time if you're gonna blow up in Kairi's face when you run into her!"

Riku stared. His palms got sweaty and he trembled a bit, bringing his fingers to his right arm. He jolted when he felt nothing. Sora stared and so did Kairi, who was standing awkwardly near her window at the end of the bed. She looked a bit…scared? Certainly not of Riku…right?

"You fell on the concrete stairs and got scraped a bit. I am glad that at least you made Kairi land on top of you. She didn't get scraped at all," Sora answered Riku's confused expression.

The silver-haired boy looked at his arm, only to see a scratch that barely even breached the surface of his skin. It was about two inches long, not six. Also, it was white from the scraped up flakes of skin.

Riku got up off of the bed and walked towards the window. He didn't remember. Not at all. He had yelled at Kairi? He had knocked her down?

Aquamarine eyes peered out the window to the steps that led into the town hall. No blood. No red. And no gash on his arm from a box cutting knife.

"I-," Riku started, "I fainted from a scratch?"

"Did you not hear what I said?" Sora demanded, holding out his arms to try and catch Riku's gaze. "Don't get mad at Kairi again! Got it?" Sora searched Riku's eyes, which had now turned to face him.

"S-Sora," Riku said in a daze, "I am gonna go to the mainland today. Gonna visit my brothers, okay?"

"But Riku," Kairi cut in, "Sora and I made plants to go surfing today…"

"I'm sorry to ditch on you guys…" Riku said, gesticulating casually with one hand. It seemed too normal. "…But Loz called this morning and said that Kadaj was driving him crazy. Sephiroth said that I had to come or he was going to go mad. Lord knows what happens when my oldest brother 'goes mad'."

Sora and Kairi chuckled nervously just thinking about it. It wasn't exactly an easy battle for Sora the last time Sephiroth got angry.

"Aww, that's too bad Riku," Kairi responded.

"Yeah," Sora nodded, "You had better say 'hi' to them for the first time since we have gotten back, anyway."

Riku nodded, completely numb. Sora and Kairi walked him out of town hall. Just as he was about to get on his skateboard to go to the dock, he grabbed Sora's shoulder. Riku's hands were big and completely covered his friend's shoulder blade. Leaning down, he whispered, "I really need to talk to you. Can you meet me at the secret place at sunset? It's best Kairi doesn't know, right Sora?"

Sora nodded and grinned as Riku took off down the street on a blue skateboard. Inside, Sora was extremely worried.

A/N: If anyone totally hates Sephiroth, Loz and Kadaj in the story, I'll change it. Since I don't have many reviewers, I can cater to anyone's wishes who wants to review!

I realize this is kind of dark. If you don't like it, don't worry. It'll get normal again soon.

Review!? I love you!