Author's notes: Super crappy chapter, just so you know. I'm super ashamed. sigh... but my life's been strangely like hell lately so it's no wonder I'm not good at writing at this time. So, excuse the super long delay and super crappy attempt (notice how much I like the word super? lol) at writing what you want to read...or something.
Anywayz. I picked up the pace! Yay! Not really.... well, a little. It starts out a bit strange. As a little explanation maybe... remember Riku having a fight with his mother at night? He hasn't slept well and hasn't called Sora and generally feels super crappy. So he's not in the mood to talk or do anything and thinks a lot on what TEH B!TCH said. Was she right after all? ...Nah!
but now on with the story!
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The next day Sora and Riku met as usual. It was 7:30 sharp and both had been on time. The only difference was that Riku seemed less enthusiastic than the last few times and Sora was a little worried about that. He had the last Love-Love-Cookie carefully wrapped up and hidden inside his schoolbag so they could share it sometime during lunch or at school when they were alone (which was highly unlikely).
But seeing Riku like this:
The silver haired boy nodded weakly at Sora's cheerful greetings. He barely looked at him when they talked. He didn't even move one bit when Sora tried to take his hand. Riku seemed contemplative for the entire time and it bothered Sora that he didn't want to share his thoughts. So much about friendship.
They were in class when they suddenly had to do group work. Of course, everyone wanted to be in a group with Riku and the charming monster smiled at everyone, shrugging slightly or giving a half nod so that he was answering without really answering.
Kairi knew how uneasy Riku was with all the drooling fans and saved him, along with Sora.
"Group of three? Well, we are three!" She took both their hands and threw them up, showing that they were already together.
Kairi was in the middle, Sora and Riku on either side of her. It looked rather disturbing to most of the girls. The teacher, however, approved of that, since Sora was still considered new and inexperienced with this school and let Riku, the head-student, and the lovely girl take care of him.
Grunts and mutterings followed.
Right now Sora was listening to Kairi talking about something they had to do. Riku was arguing with her every now and then, telling her how to do it better. Sora was just quiet. He watched Riku while listening to Kairi. It got his head spinning and he shook himself a little to sober.
"What's wrong, Sora?"
Kairi had moved closer to him, placing her hand on his forehead. "You don't seem to have a fever but you look kinda sick," she commented while touching his face like a worried mother.
Sora shrugged and hung his head. He didn't feel like talking about his worries right now. Not in front of Riku, anyway. Casting a short glance towards the silver haired boy, he found Riku staring into space. He frowned. This was so unlikely for Riku. Also, he looked strangely pale, even paler than usual. What was wrong with him?
He remembered the afternoon they had spent together. Sora blushed slightly at the memory of that pseudo kiss he'd given him. What had he been thinking? Nothing, obviously. His brain had stopped working the moment they sat together.
"Hmm now you're getting all flushed, are you sure you're all right?"
Kairi's words jerked him out of his thoughts and Sora nodded. Sure he was all right. Everything was all right. Everything except Riku! But he couldn't say it, couldn't ask him because Riku didn't seem like he wanted to talk. Maybe the kiss had been the wrong thing? Could it be that Riku was disgusted and hadn't called because of that? He had seemed baffled when Sora leaned in and done it.
But hell, it wasn't even a kiss! If one could call that kiss…
But then why was Riku acting like that? He was ignoring Sora, wasn't he? He was doing it on purpose! All the fangirls were able to get to him but not Sora. All the girls received those smiles, the boys got their nods, and he even talked to them! Everyone was happy. Everyone, except for Sora. And Riku, of course. Because despite those smiles, Sora knew Riku wasn't really smiling. Riku was thinking about something.
The bell rang and the groups hadn't finished their work. Kairi pleaded with the teacher to give them more time in the next lesson because Sora had been feeling sick during their work. Miraculously that excuse worked, probably because Kairi knew how to use her charm just as well as Riku.
"We'll see each other later then," the auburn haired girl called as she ran off. Sora and Riku were left alone in the hallway, walking towards the door to the school-garden since they had an hour off now.
They walked in complete silence as the noises of the usual school-life passed by. Not even once did Riku try to take his hand and Sora inwardly fumed at this. He tried to ask why Riku acted like that but he found that he couldn't. He couldn't when he looked at the silver haired boy, couldn't when his eyes met those deep enigmatic pools of green. It seemed every time Sora turned, Riku was pleading with him to go away. It seemed that way.
A little frustrated, Sora began to stomp ahead, a little faster than before to put some distance between them.
Riku tagged along, though and soon they were side by side again.
Even more frustrated, Sora snorted and began to jog, so he could get away from Mr. I'm-too-perfect-to-talk-to-you. Riku however, managed to catch up again.
Was the boy intentionally bugging him? Sora wanted to scream and he remembered how much he'd hated Riku at first. Well, he hadn't really hated him but there was this strange feeling inside him. On one hand he liked Riku, a lot, and he wanted them to be friends but on the other hand there was always this feeling of competition. No matter what Sora did, Riku felt like a rival. And no matter what Riku did, Sora wanted to beat him at it. Not that that was possible, Sora added. Riku could do everything and he could do everything so perfectly.
This thought sent Sora into a fit of rage and he stormed through the hallway, wondering just how frigging long this hallway was. He just wanted to reach the door to the outside. In his rage, he didn't notice the book lying on the ground and tripped over it, most ungracefully, and landed straight on his face.
Some girl came running to him and quickly picked it up, apologizing hurriedly before running off again.
Sora swore. He swore and cursed, using words he hadn't even known he knew.
And the worst thing of all was that Riku was suddenly behind him, then in front of him, then over him.
He was scowling and Sora was scared of it because he'd never seen that face before. Riku scowled his darkest scowl, or so the brunet thought, and yanked him up to his feet.
"What's your problem?!" Sora snapped, violently jerking out of the grip.
Riku growled and raised his arm to punch him, which he did not. He lowered it again and resumed scowling in silence.
Sora noted how his vision blurred due to some tears but he wasn't crying. He was just frustrated with that stupid boy that it brought tears to his eyes.
"You know what, just go to—"
A group of their schoolmates suddenly stormed towards them, girls screaming and kicking about how they had seen Kairi and Tidus together, Kairi, who was supposed to be Riku's girlfriend.
"RIKU DEAREST! WE WILL SAVE YOU FROM THAT WITCH! COME HERE!" The mass grew until the whole hallway seemed to close in on the two boys.
Riku paled visibly because even though he could evade most girls, a horde of them was not very promising.
Sora clenched his teeth and balled his fists. These fans were highly annoying. And he was highly aggressive right now. One wrong move and he would kill them. He really would.
But then he felt this hand on his arm again and he glared, trying to pull away.
It only occurred to him that Riku was a thousand times stronger than him and he was helplessly stumbling after him as Riku pulled.
They ran through the only open way and there was only one door.
Sora rolled his eyes. It was, of course, not the door to the garden but instead there was a tag saying 'Janitor'.
Yes, Sora thought, how absolutely fitting. They would just hide in this little crap room and beat each other senseless. Right.
But the screaming mass of monsters was catching up and the only way was in there.
Sora looked up. Riku was staring at him.
Nodding, the boys pushed through the door and slammed it shut with a loud bang.
Silence. For one second there was complete and utter silence. The loud noises of screams and feet trampling around dimmed down as they hid inside the little room.
It was dark, too. Sora felt around for some kind of light switch. He had hidden in a janitor's room before with Riku, and it had been quite the same situation, but this was a different room. The school was big and they had a janitor's room on every floor, which would make three.
"Here," Riku murmured, taking Sora's hand to guide it to the switch. Sora blushed and cursed as the light went on. Riku let go and leaned against the door with closed eyes.
At least he had his eyes closed, Sora thought, ceasing his swearing. It would be more than embarrassing to be seen with this blush.
However, Riku opened his eyes at that moment and stared directly at Sora. He stared with an unreadable expression, unnerving Sora somewhat. He didn't know whether he should punch him and scream at him or just try to be gentle.
It was so difficult, this friendship thing. How was he supposed to know how to act when Riku was the one behaving strange?
Riku lowered his head again and moved his arms up as well as he could, since the room was really small, and wrapped them around Sora.
His eyes widened as he was pulled against Riku's chest and when their bodies made contact, Sora automatically closed his eyes.
It was silent.
A deep but unsteady thumping made his way to his ears and he frowned for a moment, wondering what it was. He noticed that he was resting right against Riku's chest and that the sound he heard was his beating heart.
Unsteady?
Sora wanted to pull away and look up, but Riku wouldn't let him. The rhythm was still unsteady, getting faster and then a little slower, then faster again. Was there something wrong with him?
Then, all the little things became obvious to him. Riku's chest was rising just as unsteadily as his heart was beating. He was breathing faster than usual and he his body was trembling slightly. It couldn't be from nervousness, could it? Sora was getting more and more worried.
"It always happens when I feel bad," Riku murmured, slowly loosening his arms around Sora.
The younger boy was allowed to look up then and tentatively reached a hand out to place it on the boy's cheek.
"It's nothing, though," Riku continued, taking Sora's hand by the wrist to guide it from his cheek down to his chest. "I've had it since I was a child. Whenever something happens that makes me worried or depressed I get like this…you know…like I'm gonna faint every other second."
Riku finished with a chuckle and then sighed, leaning his head against the door.
Sora felt bad now. He felt guilty for making Riku worried and depressed. It was his fault, wasn't it?
Of course it wasn't, but Sora couldn't know. Sora didn't know about the incident with Riku's mother, of the sleepless night Riku had had then.
The brunet shuddered and curled his fingers into Riku's shirt, leaning in to rest against his chest again. There was the thumping sound. When Sora listening closely, he could make out a faint rhythm no matter how unsteady it was. Maybe it was calming slowly? Sora listened closer, a familiar heat rising up in him at the closeness of them. He had felt it when they had sat together. It was the same feeling.
Riku opened his mouth, trying to take deep breaths as well as he could. Sora could hear that he was not succeeding, though. What could he do to help him? What could he do to make up for what he had done?
"I know!" Sora suddenly piped up, tearing himself away from the embrace.
Riku frowned and panted softly, rubbing his throat a little.
Sora bit his lip and slowly reached out to pat over the silver hair. "I'm sorry," he whispered, stroking over the ear.
He thought he saw a faint smile on Riku's pale lips and it encouraged him a little.
Putting down his schoolbag, which he had been carrying all the time, he dug into it to find what he had hidden in the morning. Now was the best time, right?
His fingers brushed against something and he knew it was what he was looking for. Grasping it, he pulled it out to reveal something wrapped up to Riku.
Sora grinned.
"I'm sure it will make you feel better in no time." His words were much more confident than he actually was. In fact, he wasn't even sure if it would work at all. But it was worth a try.
Carefully, Sora unwrapped the little present and threw away the paper as the cookie was revealed.
"The last one," he remarked as he raised his hand to Riku's mouth.
"And we'll share it as we are supposed to," he added with a smile. If only he could be as sure as he sounded. Inside he was shaking and if he had had a bad habit of biting nails he would have bitten off half of his fingers by now.
Nevertheless, his hand moved and the cookie touched Riku's lips. The silver haired boy seemed a little confused and only slowly parted his lips to let it slip in. When it was halfway through, Sora let go and took a deep breath.
Riku stared in bewilderment as Sora grasped his arms and leaned up, taking the other half into his mouth.
There was an incredible sweetness and it wasn't from the cookie. Sora felt the softness against his lips, not quite touching but still. It was near enough and brushed against him with ease in a timid motion.
It still wasn't a kiss, Sora concluded, but it was all he wanted. He loosened his grip on Riku's arms and felt the other boy take his hands to guide them up to his shoulders. Sora obliged and his hands came to rest around Riku's neck, feeling the tender flesh beneath his fingers.
The other boy's hands travelled over his waist and Sora stumbled a little when Riku gave him a little push, closer to him.
Their lips were locked.
The cookie was getting soaked with saliva and even though the boys were breathing through their nose, they were getting short on air. Forced to breathe, the boys tore apart, gasping and chewing at the same time, not quite comprehending what they had just done.
Sora swallowed his half of the cookie and suddenly his mother's words wouldn't leave his mind.
He raised his eyes slowly to look at Riku and what he saw was the most beautiful scene he'd ever seen. He couldn't quite describe it, for Riku was too beautiful to be described with words. But his lips were damp and the tip of the pink tongue was running thoughtfully across the lower lip, his expression seeming as though he was trying to figure out the taste on his lips. His hair was a little disarrayed, probably because Sora had moved his hands into the strong locks without noticing back then.
"I don't know…" Riku suddenly murmured, frowning a little.
Sora blinked and cocked his head.
"What don't you know?"
Riku then smiled a little and leaned in to Sora again, bumping their noses.
"What you taste like. I can't figure out what it is," the boy whispered, smiling.
Sora pursed his lips and looked up at the ceiling to think. Then he grinned.
"It's just Sora!" he declared, grinning proudly.
Riku laughed and hugged the boy, inhaling deeply.
"Then I want everything to taste like Sora…" he murmured, tightening his arms around his friend.
Sora smiled and tilted his head.
He closed his eyes and felt the lips descend on him again, meeting in heavenly tenderness. A million thoughts ran through his mind when it happened. A million of them but none were coherent enough to grasp. He wasn't worried about getting caught – no one could come here during class. He wasn't even worried about the fact that he was currently kissing Riku, his friend, a boy, someone he had been angry with a few minutes ago. He also wasn't worried about what others might think about it because for all he cared, they could go to hell. The only one he wanted to care, the only one he needed to care was Riku himself.
Sora sighed and Riku's lips moved, creating such a sweat sensation and friction. Riku, obviously, did care.
Their arms assumed their former positions, Sora's on Riku's neck and in his hair, Riku's on Sora's hips, around his waist, and they moved closer with every moment. It seemed impossible to get even closer and the maddening heat made Sora's head spin.
He never thought kissing someone could be like this.
He never thought—
"AND WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" a voice suddenly screeched as the door was torn open, ripping the boys out of the beautiful oblivion.
Sora and Riku both pulled away in an instant, staring wide-eyed at Ms Gainsborough, their art teacher and Mr Strife, the new P.E. teacher.
They gulped.
"To the headmaster's room. NOW!" Ms Gainsborough commanded, sending the two boys a threatening look. Despite her gentle and calm nature she could be quite scary when she wanted to be.
Exchanging a look, Sora and Riku hung their heads.
"You heard her," Mr Strife murmured, giving them sympathetic looks. He knew Riku was looking at him with suspicion and shrugged to say he didn't want to answer.
The boys trotted along with their art teacher, towards the headmaster's office. There they sat, watched by the secretary.
The two teachers left without a word and Sora and Riku waited in utter mortification. What would happen now? Were they going to be suspended? Thrown out of school? Were their parents going to be contacted? Riku paled at that thought. He couldn't let them know about Sora! He just couldn't have them know about him! He didn't want to lose Sora…
"It's all their fault," he muttered, heaving a long and irritated sigh.
Sora blinked in his adorableness and cocked his head. "Whose?" Was he really that clueless?
Riku snorted and crossed his arms.
"Gainsborough and Strife. Everyone knows Aeris and Cloud have a thing for each other. They were probably going to make out in the janitor's room so that's why they…caught us…"
Sora blinked again and then pouted in thought. He remembered Kairi telling him about the newest gossip. Two teachers were supposedly sneaking away during class to make out. Sora hadn't really believed it, after all gossip was just gossip. But if that were true…
"Makes sense," he mused and Riku nodded.
Now he cursed them just as much as Riku did.
The door opened, revealing a man with shoulder length hair.
Riku got up, standing straight and proud while Sora just blinked in bewilderment. Who was that guy? Wearing leather and three belts and that chain, he noted, a chain that was quite similar to his own one.
"Get in," the man said in his monotonous voice and Riku obliged. Sora trotted along, coming into the headmaster's office. The man sat down at his desk, looking extremely bored, or was it angry? Sora couldn't figure it out because that half-scowl was kind of unreadable. He did notice the huge scar on his forehead though. What was up with that guy? He couldn't possibly be…
"Now, as the headmaster I need to restrain you for your actions."
Sora's jaw dropped. No way.
"Of course," Riku answered with a slightly edgy tone. "But you should think of restraining those teachers first," he snapped, gesturing towards the door. "Gainsborough and Strife are..."
The man merely gave him a look, again with that unreadable expression. Sora watched as he reached his gloved (what the hell?) hand to massage the bridge of his nose. Sighing, he let the hand slip and looked down at his desk.
"Whatever."
Riku smirked. For some reason he'd always liked Mr Leonhart, also known as Leon. He was a funny person with all his strange habits and rather un-headmaster-ish appearance.
Sora scampered back into his chair, for he had fallen out of it at the man's response.
"I will have to call your parents about it. They will take you home for today. Think about your actions and behave normal tomorrow."
Riku's smirk faded. Not good. Not good. Calling his parents? Definitely not good.
"Um, could we scratch the parent-call-thing? My parents are busy and they have no time…"
Leon raised an eyebrow, seeing Riku's obvious uneasiness at the mention of calling his parents. He remembered meeting Riku's parents once and he couldn't say he liked them. Of course he liked almost no one but that was a total different story.
"Well, I need to call someone," he concluded, not really enthusiastic but you could never tell with him.
Sora frowned. "Will it do if we just call my mom? She'll pick us up and bring him home," he offered, casting a short glance at Riku to see his surprise and probably relief.
Leon shrugged.
The boys both smirked.
"Whatever,"
the three said in unison and Leon blinked, then scowled at the boys. He stood up and pushed the boys out of the room, moving them towards the secretary.
"Give her your mother's number and have her pick you up."
He gave Riku a look, then looked over at Sora and nodded.
"Dismissed."
The boys couldn't help chuckling when their headmaster strolled back into his room, closing the door.
"Sooo, what have you done to get a meeting with the living icicle?" Ms Kisaragi, the secretary, asked.
Sora and Riku shrugged, not feeling like telling some stranger about their… whatever happened.
"Just call my mom and tell her to pick us up," Sora muttered, handing the woman (who couldn't have been much older than himself) a number, the number of his mother's workplace.
"Right away!" the woman, or was it girl, cooed. "I need your name, though," she grinned, looking at Riku.
"Not yours, I know our super student."
Sora sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sora."
The girl nodded and began to dial.
It took half an hour for Ryoko to arrive and she was in totally disarray when she stormed towards the headmaster office.
"Oh no! What happened? I came as fast as I can?? What's up?"
Sora jumped up and calmed her, pulling her so he could whisper in her ear. He didn't feel like telling the whole incident to that strange secretary. She was dressed like a Ninja or something. Weird people in this school were normal, he supposed.
When Sora had finished telling his tale (he decided to call it tale because, really, things like that were just ridiculous) his mom smiled kind of proudly, almost smugly and eyed Riku.
"Such a nice boy, too," she added, grinning at Sora.
Her son was visibly humiliated by her reaction because he knew what she had in mind again. But then, he was happy that his mother was understanding and would not throw a tantrum about how to behave in school. Actually, they had got away pretty easily. Both his mother and that weird Leon headmaster hadn't been too strict. Lucky!
"Okay boys, let's go home," she announced, pulling both of them on their ears to follow her.
***
It was still early and Riku decided (after a lot of pursuing from Ryoko and Sora) to stay at their house until school was officially over so he could go home. Ryoko understood the situation well and made sure Riku's parents wouldn't know about it.
The three of them sat together, Sora's mom had taken a few hours off from her work to spend time with the kids. She had left work, saying that it was a real emergency, and having a nice boss, she was allowed to be away for three hours.
However, she noticed how the boys wanted to be alone and retreated to her bedroom with a smile.
"Have fun, boys and don't do anything naughty on the couch," she added before vanishing behind the door.
Riku blushed. For some reason he was completely transformed in this house. They were sitting on the couch again but Riku wanted to be in Sora's room. No matter how small and uncomfortable Sora said it was, Riku liked his room a lot. It was the total opposite of his own room and it was a million times cosier.
"I'm sorry for making you worry and all…" Sora murmured, still feeling slightly guilty for causing Riku to feel bad.
Riku, however, got up and pulled Sora with him, walking into his room without answering or showing any kind of acknowledgement. Sora almost thought he had done something wrong again.
He watched the silver haired boy as he ducked into the (not made) bed, patting the spot beside him for Sora to sit down with him. The boy obeyed.
"It's not your fault at all," Riku then said, finally sounding like himself again. Sora's hope rose at the tone in his voice. Riku was finally talking to him again! Sighing, Riku gently took Sora's hand and began to speak.
"Last night when I came home, my parents weren't too thrilled with what I'd done. There was a lot of screaming from my mom and we had a fight. So… it's not your fault I had this…whatever it is. It's my mother's fault. It's always her fault."
Riku absently stroked over the back of Sora's hand with his thumb while he spoke.
"It shouldn't affect me like that…but when I fight with my mother it's always like that. I can't breathe, I get dizzy and then I sometimes throw up. It's like she makes me sick…"
Sighing suddenly, Riku threw his arms around Sora, hugging him as close as possible.
"…but you make me feel better…" he murmured almost inaudibly. "You're my cure."
A smile touched Sora's lips and he felt his heart jump at the words.
"Your cure…?" he quietly asked, a little uncertain of the words but smiling nevertheless. He couldn't remember why he had been angry with Riku before. He couldn't imagine how he could have wanted to get away from him because there wasn't anything better than being with him. So close to him.
Riku pulled away and kissed his forehead, then tilted his head to lean his cheek against it. He smiled, too content to say anything else. Sora was satisfied with the response, though, and smiled too, leaning into the embrace with all his heart.
So the Love-Love-Cookies had worked their magic, hadn't they?
Ryoko stood by the door, smiling silently at the boys as she peeked in a glance. The first step had been made. But what hardships would they have to overcome?
She frowned slightly and her eyes swayed to the picture on the wall, of Sora, her late husband and herself.
"You'll help our little boy, right?" she whispered to the picture. She then smiled and shook her head, walking to the front door.
"Sora, Riku, I'm leaving now!" she called, trying so sound as inconspicuous as possible.
Sora's smile broadened, for he knew his mother had seen them. Nothing she did could get past him or vice versa.
Riku chuckled as he heard Ryoko slamming the door shut to announce her absence.
"She saw us," he murmured, a little amused though he didn't quite know why. Something about Sora's mom just caused him to smile a lot. But it made sense, somehow. After all, she was Sora's mother and they were alike.
Sora hummed and snuggled closer.
"Let me cure you some more," he whispered, nuzzling into the crook of the silver haired boy's neck.
Riku felt a tingling sensation spread through him and placed a kiss on top of his hair, smiling as he remembered the taste on the boy's lips. Sora. Everything should taste like Sora.
– To be continued –
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Ending notes: Suuper crappy, wasn't it? Though I liked it a little... argh I don't know. I hope it came out all right, it's the best I could do. Considering the things going on lately. Seems like everything's getting worse and worse *grr* but I won't complain. Not here :P
But see? Things finally start to develop! I didn't want them to kiss at first but I guess ten chapters of nothing deserve at least one little step, right?
sigh...let's see what'll happen next. They don't seem to be ready for the love-of-my-life-crap so there will be some more stretching it I guess. More fluffy friendship with hints of being in love. THE CUTENESS! Yes. If I can write that, that is.
For now just review, please? Pretty please? Super pretty please? Thankies!