Chapter 6: Hide and Seek

where are we?
what the hell is going on?
the dust has only just begun to form

The sunlight was just beginning to peek above the horizon, casting pink and orange streaks across the ocean waves. Riku was sitting on the dock of the Island, with his knees pulled up to his chest. He was watching the sunrise, keeping careful control of his thoughts. His eyes gazed down at the sparkling water, picking out images as they flashed across the surface and disappeared. His eyes remained fixed on a single spot, concentrating completely on every picture that flashed by. If he let his focus slip for just a moment, memories of the day before flooded his mind. Then he'd scowl, and one by one, force each of the images back out of his mind until all that was left was the sunlight flashing on the waves once again. The sun rose gracefully up over the hazy horizon line, the sky fading from vibrant pink and purple and gold, into a smooth white blue. Far off in the distance, at Riku's back, bruised clouds rolled ever closer, but still too far away to be a worry in anyone's mind yet. And never once did Riku move, never once did he let himself be distracted, until a loud thud behind him made him aware of the presence of another.

"There you are," Kairi sounded winded as she spoke. Riku twisted around to watch her as she busied herself with tying her boat up. He took in ever detail of what he was seeing, from the exact shade of her skirt, to the type of clumsy knot she was tying; not so much because he was interested, but more because he needed to focus completely on something as to keep from being inundated with images from the previous day. As the thought occurred to him, those very images once again flooded his mind. He lowered his head and frowned. Never before had he felt so close and so exposed to anyone in his life. He had always carefully shielded himself, never allowing himself to be completely revealed to any one person. But Sora, Sora tore down that shield effortlessly by simply being near.

"Riku? Are you alright?" Kairi was standing over him, looking concerned.

"What? Oh, I'm fine," he mumbled in reply, getting to his feet. Kairi crossed her arms, smirking. Clearly, she didn't believe him for a minute.

"So, what exactly was it that happened yesterday between you and Sora?" she asked casually. Riku frowned, stuffing his hands into his pockets and walking with her across the beach.

"What time is it?" he asked, instead of answering.

"Almost noon. And don't avoid the question," she replied, nudging him. He sighed. They were standing on the beach now, close to the bridge. He looked out over the ocean, spread out before him.

"Well, what do you want to know about yesterday?" Riku asked, feeling stupid. It was painfully obvious that he was still avoiding the question. Kairi giggled.

"Everything, of course! I know something important happened; you're acting all funny, and I know Sora's the reason."

"I wish…" Riku sighed. "I wish that I could still just act like I was Sora's best friend, like the way we used to be. We could do anything together, and we could tell each other anything. I'm hiding stuff from him now, and I'm always distracted whenever he's around me."

"Oh…well, what kind of stuff are you hiding from him?" Kairi asked, unsure of just how to console him. Riku narrowed his eyes at her.

"How about the fact that I have a crush on him?" he replied flatly. Kairi frowned, falling silent, slightly hurt by the edge in Riku's voice. Riku sighed, pushing his fingers through his hair. "Sorry, I know you're trying to be helpful,' he said quietly.

"Well, do you want to tell me what happened yesterday?" she asked slowly, confident that if he talked about it, he might feel a bit better. Riku sighed again, and spotted driftwood floating against the beach. A moment later, he had his keyblade in his hand. He dug the tip of it into the sand beneath the driftwood, and flicked it into the air. The driftwood sailed upward, high above his head, and he smashed the keyblade into it. The driftwood shattered, the pieces flying out into the ocean and landing soundlessly into the water, creating ripples that collided with each other in a dizzying pattern. Riku looked down at his hand wrapped solidly around his keyblade. The weight of the weapon was comforting and familiar. Kairi was quiet, not wanting to push. Riku suddenly began to speak.

"I don't even really know what happened. Sora was being Sora, so I threw a pillow at him. We got into a pillow fight, and ended up…" he trailed off, blushing furiously. "Anyways, I fell off the bed and –"

"Wait," Kairi interrupted, "what do you mean, on the bed?" she asked suspiciously. Riku scowled at her.

"We weren't doing anything. Or, well, I wasn't doing anything. And he didn't mean to do anything; he didn't realize what he was doing to me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look, I ended up getting him pinned to the bed, and, well…" he trailed off again. Kairi started to giggle helplessly. A smirk passed across Riku's lips before he could stop it. Chuckling, she put her hands on her hips and leaned towards him.

"And well what?" she asked, now thoroughly curious. Riku's eyes flicked down and he turned bright red, mumbling.

"And well, Sora tried to push me off," he answered vaguely.

"And…?" Kairi pressed, grinning madly.

"And it didn't work very well, and he was…squirming…" Riku mumbled, his face matching a tomato. Kairi's mouth opened very wide as the implications slowly dawned on her. And then she sat down hard on the sand, laughing uproariously. Riku tried to frown at her, but she was laughing so hard that it was contagious, and he found himself joining in her laughter. Kairi wiped away that tears that had gathered in her eyes from laughing so hard, and Riku sauntered along the beach towards another piece of drift wood, flicking that one up into the air and smashing it into a million little bits once again.

"So," Kairi began, standing up and wiping the sand off of her skirt, "when are you going to tell him?"

"Huh?" Riku asked, not paying much attention. "Tell him what?"

"That you like him!" Kairi answered incredulously. Riku gaped at her.

"I'm not going to," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kairi scowled at him.

"Why not?!"

"Because no matter how I feel, he's still straight," Riku stated simply. Kairi pouted at him for a long moment, before changing the subject entirely.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" she asked, pointing at a lone piece of driftwood floating towards them. Riku stared at her.

"Do what?" he asked dumbly.

"Break the driftwood like that," she answered. Riku grinned, tossing his keyblade high into the air, letting it spin end over end a few times before catching it gracefully. Kairi grinned and applauded.

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Sora docked his boat, watching Riku and Kairi standing on the beach. Riku was shaking with laughter, and Kairi was laughing so hard that she collapsed onto the sand. Sora stepped out of his boat. There was a certain jealousy welling up inside him, but it wasn't what he expected. It wasn't jealousy of Riku, it was something more intangible, something he didn't understand. He could see it, he was sure: Kairi had always been more interested in Riku; he was older and more mature. It had always been there, her attraction to him, but Sora had been blind to it before now. And there, the way Riku looked at her and smiled at her; he was falling for her, too. He watched them carefully. He wasn't jealous that Kairi returned Riku's feelings. It was simply that there was something there for them that he didn't have. He had his friends – they would always be his friends – but he didn't have someone to hold, not like the way they did now. But then, Riku walked a little ways down the beach, away from Kairi, and further from where Sora was standing. Kairi got to her feet and followed Riku, but there was a strange distance between them now that hadn't been there a moment ago; suddenly, Riku was preoccupied. That passed in a moment, too, and Riku tossed his keyblade high in the air, and Kairi applauded him. Sora decided that now was a good time to join their little party. A plan formed in his mind, and he grinned evilly. He would surprise Riku, he decided. He would sneak up on him and jump on his back, and scare him out of his wits! He let out a quiet laugh and began his sneaky approach. Both Riku and Kairi were too absorbed in what they were doing to notice him. He crept up behind Riku, letting the adrenaline rush through his veins and he prepared to jump Riku. His legs tensed and he crouched to pounce. In that moment, he lost control. The adrenaline became too much, and he wasn't prepared for instinct to take over so forcefully. It knocked the breath out of him. He knew what was going to happen next. He couldn't jump Riku now, but it was too late; his body was tense to strike. With his last ounce of control, he forced himself to jump up higher than he had originally intended: high above Riku's head. A strangled scream invaded his ears, and he landed, cat-like, on the sand. Only, he wasn't himself anymore.

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Riku moved slowly, showing Kairi step by step, just how to flick the log in the air.

"You have to get the angle just right. It's just a little steeper than 45 degrees. Like 50 or so," he was saying to her. She was watching him, interested, but amused at how seriously he was taking it. He felt uneasy for some reason. It reminded him of how he felt in the presence of darkness. And then, as if on cue, Kairi let out a scream and a shadow soared over his head. He gripped his Keyblade, watching as the Heartless vaulted over him and landed neatly on the sand. Instantly Riku struck out at it. He was surprised by the speed at which the thing reacted, jumping backwards and watching him tensely from a safe distance away. Riku stepped sideways, putting himself between the thing and Kairi. He and the creature stared at each other, with paramount suspicion. Heartless were always offensive creatures, attacking with no thought to their own lives, if they had what you could call lives. This one stayed out of the range of his blade, moving from side to side, watching him with disconcertingly intelligent eyes; calculating its next move. Riku returned the gaze, suspicious. No Heartless had acted like this before. Never with strategy like this. They watched each other for a long time, Riku swinging the keyblade in front of him, the creature shifting its weight back and forth on its two feet. It was trying to stand, but it's inclination to walking on four legs made it hunch over. Kairi was standing behind Riku, peering over her shoulder at the creature.

"I know you…" she murmured. The creature froze, its eyes flickering from Riku to Kairi and holding her gaze. There was a moment of complete stillness, and then Kairi grabbed at Riku's sleeve. "It's Sora!" she cried out. The Heartless loped forward. Riku pointed his keyblade at it, watching it warily. The adrenaline that came with an attack was beginning to pass; the dizziness that came with the presence of darkness began to take hold.

"How…do you know?" he asked slowly, swaying on his feet. Kairi's eyes were trained so entirely on the antiSora that she didn't notice.

"I saw him in Hollow Bastion…when he gave his heart to save me," she whispered, her voice hoarse with fear and surprise. Riku wasn't convinced. The presence of darkness was threatening to make his black out, but he fought the darkness eating away at the edges of his vision, knowing that he had to protect Kairi if it wasn't Sora.

"Are you sure?" he asked gruffly, trying to shake off the overwhelming dizziness. Kairi nodded.

"Close you eyes," she ordered. Riku did has he was told, widening his stance to keep from loosing balance. From within the blackness behind his eyelids, he could see a figure forming from in the place where the creature stood in from on him. The figure was Sora. It was exactly like Sora recognizing Riku in the World That Never Was. Sora was crouched, close to the ground, and glancing carefully around, clearly terrified. He seemed to be ashamed of himself, ashamed of the creature that he had become. Riku reached out towards him. He wanted to tell him that he shouldn't feel guilty, that everyone has darkness and that he doesn't need to be ashamed. He wanted to remind him that it's not the darkness itself that's evil; it's the things that lurk within it. He wanted to tell him that he was a good person, because even in a form consumed by darkness, he would not give into his nature and hurt his friends. And most of all, he wanted to tell him that everything was okay, and not to be afraid. That Riku wouldn't ever leave him alone in the dark. He tried to step forward, but lost his balance, and then his consciousness, falling into a heap on the sand. The antiSora rushed forward, the darkness evaporating. By the time he reached Riku's side, he was back to himself.

"Riku! Riku! Wake up! I'm sorry!" he begged the unconscious figure desperately. He laid his head on Riku's chest, clutching at Riku's shirt. "I didn't mean to scare you," he murmured. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please wake up."

"It's okay, Sora, he's fine," Kairi whispered consolingly, putting a comforting arm around him. To be honest, she had no idea what was happening to Riku. "Let's…let's get him home. At least give him a bed to lie on instead of the sand," she suggested, her voice shaking. Carefully, Sora and Kairi worked together and carried Riku's limp body steadily in the direction of home.

I'm SO sorry that this update took so long! School ate my soul, but now I'M FINISHED HIGH SCHOOL! So updates will start coming much faster now. Promise! Review please!