Caged Thoughts
Chapter Eight: You're Still You
Warning: This fanfic contains Shonen-ai, meaning male/male romance. Don't know why I'm still putting this up for you guys if you're up to the eighth chapter…
Disclaimer:You want to make me sad? Remind me of what I don't have. Dx Yeah… I don't own the rights to Kingdom Hearts or its characters, etc. etc. etc….
Reviews (lawl, if anyone is still actually here, that is…):
kittylover16: Hahaha, yeah… he is pretty oblivious. xD I'm worried at some points that I exaggerate that too much, seeing how its one of his points that I just love to bother Riku with.
"Hey, Sora, is there a mirror in your pants? Because I think I see myself in them."
"But, Riku! A mirror couldn't fit in my pocket! A mirror is waaay to big, and my pocket is waaay too small, and I don't think…-"
-Sigh-
xD Anyways, I'm glad you're liking the fic so far, thank you. It means I'm doing my job correctly. Kind of. o-O;
Yuki Bombay: I'm happy that you like it so much. 3 And yaoi? Lawl… . ; We'll see. I'm still not too sure about that. It'd be my first time writing anything that extreme… though I could try, who knows? -Shrugs-
Ankaris123: Jeeeeze. XD A lot of the stuff you spoke about here has to do with last year, so, I have few things to reply to. And I could always just talk to you on MSN instead of even typing this, but that would be… slightly unfair, I suppose? o-o; Shhh my name isn't that obvious… Ok… well… maybe it is, but that's… not the point. The Kairi thing? Hahaha, yeah… I'm surprised I haven't killed her in this (coughyet?cough), either. XD I guess it just worked better that she wasn't… a total whore… like she is in our minds.
–CoughACTUALLYIScough-
Yeah… looks like you were right about me taking a long time to update. -;
-Grasps gimme fingers out to take Riku back- ;-;
funkysirius: Jeeze woman, you are just… -Sigh- xD; You ridiculous person, you. Though I suppose I can be worse… Anyways. Curse you for helping Ankaris find me! How dare you! –Huffs- And go away. I do not wear… those things. –Shakes fist-
Riku… the gardener?
Whipp: xD Mmm I dunno… I like vegetables so that wouldn't be too horrible. I could just eat them all. Of course… cookies? NOT THEM! ;-; The human race would not be able to survive without them. Well, I guess Riku's seduction powers is what all of society now relies on to save those delectable pastries. Dx
Glad you like it, though, thank you. xD
Note: Uh… lawl. I'm really not quite sure how to put this. xD A lot has gone on in my life since… a year-ish… ago. -Cough- Good, bad, both, neutral… Yeah. Sorry for not updating. Not sure if any of you who had originally been reading are still even here, as it may be. xD; If so, woah! I'm surprised you're still loyal to this fic (AKA willing to put up with my crap), at all! Really glad to see it, though!
Click.
Door closing as sneakers found their corner, Sora lifted his head.
"Have fun on your little… sleepover?"
Cady sat on a couch, reading. One could almost think nothing had been said, were it not
For him raising his eyes to meet Sora's a moment later.
"Um, yeah, I guess…" Sora responded warily. He began to shrug off his jacket and, hanging it up, grasped the handle on his bag.
Returning to stare at his newspaper, Cady went silent. Why did Sora feel such tension..?
"So, where's mom?" he inquired.
His 'father' didn't give sign of hearing him before replying, "She's out." He flipped a page.
"Alright…" the youngest spoke slowly, while sitting himself on a chair nearby. "So…"
Another page turned.
"Why are you here… dad?" The word seemed to roll uncomfortably off his tongue.
At this, the reading material was laid down, and Cady glanced at Sora from under his brow… almost glowering.
He supplied, "Your birthday's in two days… eighteenth."
"Ah..!" Sora uttered. He had almost forgotten, what with all of the strange happenings… happening lately.
Most of it centered around Riku, as of late, it seemed…
"So, did your… boyfriend treat you well at his place?" Cady sneered.
Sora, confused and a bit taken back, said, "Excuse me..?"
"That one who flipped out on me!" he snapped.
"Um…"
'Riku..?'
Cady stood, approaching Sora with eyebrows pinched together. Flicking a hand to the right, he said impatiently, "That silver-haired on from the clinic! Ah… What did Violet say his name was? Ri…"
"…Riku?" suggested Sora.
"Don't interrupt me!" once again, Cady snapped.
"I…"
What was it that was boiling such rage in Sora's once-was father? He had heard stories from his mother… times when he could get out of hand, but there had to at least be a reason as to why he was acting this way. What did he mean by-
"Boyfriend?"
"Girlfriend?"
"Yeah, you know, Wakka… a partner, mate, lover, companion…" Riku muttered, then shrugged.
"What about boyfriend, ya?" Wakka grinned.
"Ah-" the other expelled, a bit surprised, "I didn't know you had one."
"Nah…" he almost seemed to sigh, "but, I've got mah eyes on someone, if ya know what I mean." Wakka smiled warmly, continuing to move step-by-step along the sand. Shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand, he gazed out towards the horizon.
"Hm…" Riku thought, pausing in his footsteps alongside his friend.
The two had decided to keep walking the stretch of sand after having taken Sora home; their fun at Riku's being finished.
Wakka snickered, "You askin' me out, ya?"
The silver-haired one rolled his eyes over-dramatically and placed both hands on his hips. "Oh, please," he exasperated. "This," he started, and displayed by moving a hand across his chest, "is only open to those I see fit."
Laughing, Wakka responded, "Ya, o' course. And I wondah who that'd be."
"Hm…"
A sigh.
"You should just tell 'im, ya?"
"How about no, ya?" Riku mocked.
Wakka glared, somewhat frustrated. His friend just stared on skeptically.
'It seems Kairi hadn't exaggerated about who knew…'
"Well… i's your choice… still don't think i's tha best, but…" The redhead turned his back on his friend, looking down the beach. "Y'know his birthday's coming up soon… ya?"
"Hm… wai- WHAT?!"
He had not forgotten. He couldn't have forgotten.
"Jeeze," Wakka snickered, "not tha best secret admira'."
He had forgotten.
"Shi-… how could I forget? Aghhh…" Riku clutched his head in what one would think to be mock-agony, but at that moment he was worried enough for it to be the real thing. "With everything going on, all of these distractions…" Another breath of air escaped his throat as he tried to calm himself.
Suddenly, his head rose, and he made a connection of eyesight with 'their' play island… Specifically fazing at a certain, separated part, housing a certain tree.
"But maybe…" Riku disconnected his precious line of sight; replacing it with a one joined to his open, outspread palms. He clenched them. "…I should."
"Wha'..?"
"I should have known…" the elder muttered darkly.
Sora looked up at his father worriedly, apprehensive. "What..?" he questioned.
Almost seeming to inspect the shorter for a moment, Cady then spoke, "You're…"
A pause.
His son scrunched his face up in confusion.
He shook his head. "Hn. Never mind."
And with that, he left the room.
Watching as his father departed, Sora's confusion soon branched off and mutated into full-blown curiousity. What was under and crawling beneath Cady's skin so horribly that had caused him to behave in such a way?
Such things were better left unprovoked…
"Tidus… even I am coming to terms with all of these relationships. You have to at least admit that-"
"No! Really!" exclaimed said teen. He rambled, "I think you're looking into this too much; it's nothing! Hahaha… I mean, you've probably… over evaluated the… situation… not that there is a situation! I mean…"
The redhead, gazing skeptically at her friend as he tripped over his words, stopped in her step as he began to literally do so over his feet.
"Let's have and intervention!" Selphie supplied suddenly.
"From the deal Tidus seems to be making this into, it almost feels like one already…" mumbled Kairi, shaking her head in a negative reply to the suggestion.
Not quite catching all of what her companion had muttered, as it was, the hyperactive girl shrugged and skipped ahead.
"You just must be thinking about it too much-"
"Tidus." Grabbing his shoulders and turning him to face her, Kairi stared at Tidus intently. "I think you are thinking too little about this."
Breaking eye contact, the blonde turned to concentrate on gazing at the path below him.
"No… no… that's not true…" uttered Tidus, shrugging off his companion's hands as he exhaled tiredly. "I've thought plenty about… 'this'. A lot, really. I just… well, I don't really…"
Kairi smiled warmly at her friend, comfortingly. "It seems as if you're timid about facing it."
"I…" the boy glanced upwards, delicately wide-eyed, and blinked. "I guess so…" he sighed, once again drooping somewhat. "Just… it's…. I think…"
"See, that may be a part of your problem."
"What?" Tidus quirked, unexpectedly moved out of his train of thought.
"Well, see… when you think a long time, a long good time on things… wanting to or not…" She took a breath, and tapped her chin in consideration. "…You're given the time to think about everything. Including the not-so-great stuff, if you know what I mean."
"Uh-"
"And," she interrupted, "It's not the good things that worry you, right?"
"Well-"
"Sooo…" she exhaled, once again interrupting her friend. "You focus on the bad. The stuff that does worry you, and… eventually, your mind wraps its way around alllll corners and crannies of that bad."
"Ahhh well-" Tidus tried to continue before, again, being cut off.
"Well? Well…" laughing lightly and throwing her hands up to the air, Kairi glanced over towards the rarely-quiet Selphie, before pocketing them. "It's easy to blow things out of proportion, Tidus. And, however cliché it may sound, it's true that, things aren't always as bad as they seem."
Eyes grazing along beneath him, the blond scuffed the heel of his shoe, scoffing, "Pfff… 'always.'" He looked back at her from out of the corner of his eyes, skeptical. "Well maybe this is one of those times where it is."
"Oh come on, Tidus. You know that isn't true. I can even tell you know that it isn't from your reaction," stressed Kairi to the teen, agitated.
"Gah," he simply stated. "Yeah, well… you suck," he, afterwards, added.
Selphie blinked, amused, with some sort of twinkle to her face.
He crossed his arms, seemingly cross himself.
"Oh?" Kairi also seemed amused alongside her female companion. "And why would that be?"
"Just as I'm about to use a line like, 'It's complicated,' you go off and explain perfectly why it isn't! Stopping me in my tracks!" A foot was stomped to demonstrate his turn of phrase. "So… yeah. You suck." Scowling, Tidus then blew a raspberry at the offending 'sucker.'
This, in turn, only caused her and Selphie to laugh. "I love you too, Tidus." And, 'too,' just like him, she stuck out her tongue.
"It's silly," Selphie inputted, joining in on the fun by also protruding her tongue.
The other two blinked.
Tidus opened his mouth to say something, but Kairi grabbed the opportunity first: "What is?"
"Mmm, just…" she teasingly trailed off, tight-lipped grin gracing her face as she skipped once, twice, three times forward. Then, poised graciously upon a ledge, she glanced back impishly at Tidus. "You" A finger was raised to be pointed. "In all of your talking…" It then lowered itself as the girl clasped her hands together innocently in front of her. "Haven't directly mentioned him even once!" She then clapped them, finished explaining, and with a satisfied look on her face, trotted off without her friends before a response came.
"WAKKA?!" Tidus spilled, finally realizing what Selphie's teasing implications had meant. His face then housed a flourishing blush at the way the topic had been brought up, once again.
"Well… hm… she's right, believe it or not, now that I think about it," the now only other person near him admitted, smiling thoughtfully to herself.
He spluttered, still red, "You're no help!"
"Ya know, ya'd probably be o' more help to me if ya were less vague about things…" Wakka muttered, eyes rolling.
The person in front of him twisted their head around to smirk almost prepensely. "We all know that if I didn't help you with exercising that intellect of yours, it'd disappear like that.
Riku's fingers snapped.
CRASH!
Two pairs of eyes darted in shock towards different directions, seeking out the source of noise.
Wakka quickly quipped, "I didn't do it…" while at the same time looking back over to Riku. His humor brought no reaction.
"No…" Riku, almost absentmindedly, uttered as he stepped forward. His thoughts intently focused elsewhere, his feet led him on an attempt to fulfill his curiousity's desire. "Isn't that…" Riku started, "didn't that come from…"
"Ooh haaay you're right. S-"
"Sora's house."
There was a moderate silence between the two boys as they both waited, wholly focused on listening for anything beyond what they had heard.
"I think we need to go check," anxiously, Riku said.
"Hm…" Wakka resounded, "well ya know how clumsy he can b-"
"I know, I know," dismissed the other, "but even if it was him…" He began to stride forward, not bothering to check if his friend did the same. Upon realizing he was being left behind, Wakka skipped a few steps forward before catching up, and had to keep doing so at random intervals to keep in pace. Riku finished, "…He might have hurt himself after that loud noise. There's no harm in checking."
"Yeah…" Wakka acknowledged, trailing off as they both strode up the wooden staircase of Sora's porch, "I guess not."
Raising his folded fist to rap upon the weathered wood in front of him, Riku decided against it a moment later and reached instead for the doorknob. The motion of his fingers rotating the oblong object was soon interrupted, though.
THUMP!
From underneath his clasped hand, the door rattled for a split occurrence before settling once again within its frame. Even without the felt vibration, it was obvious to at least Wakka's eyes that it had, indeed, moved.
Riku, his worry now increased ten-fold, frantically twisted the knob open and ripped the material it was attached to towards himself. He was then rewarded with a person tumbling back from a sitting position to in front of his feet.
"Nnn, ow…"
Brown spikes shifting against Riku's legs, Sora whined and reached up to rub his head. Suddenly stopping halfway to flinch, his eyes rose to look almost feverously in front of him.
"Sora!" his support shouted, frightened for his well-being.
Said person glanced upwards, features loosening extensively in relief as his shoulders also slackened slightly. Riku bent down to tend to the boy, but Sora quickly gazed forward again; his fear returning as he wiped away what seemed to be moisture from his eyes.
Wakka, still standing by the two, followed Sora's train of sight. His eyes narrowed.
"Are you alri-"
"So you decided to bring that bastard over to defend you?!" a voice yelled. "How bitchy of you," it seethed.
Looking up, Riku noticed a newspaper laying by a shattered mirror to his downed friend's right. He also noticed the single, long cut adorning Sora's left shoulder blade, upon leaning back to inspect what was leaking through his shirt. It was easy to put two and two together.
Growling low in his throat, he stood and approached the offender inside.
"Me? Bastard?!" he spat. "I could see why it would be difficult to tell by looking in that mirror over there…" He gestured to the object with a flick of the wrist. "That you're describing yourself!"
Wakka also stalked forward, and though his thoughts were similar, his intentions were elsewhere.
"C'mon man… he's not worth ya time…" he whispered.
"Why you little son of a bitch! How dare you desecrate me like that!" Cady raged, baring his teeth angrily.
Breathing deeply to calm himself while clenching his fists until his knuckles were white, the silver-haired one shook with his own rage.
"Let's just get Sora out of here…" Wakka continued to goad, eventually reaching his right hand up to rest on his friend's shoulder. "For him, ya?" He squeezed it.
Riku let his head turn back to the shivering Sora, who was at the time clutching the back of his shoulder, and then let it drop in front of him. He did the same with the matter at hand.
For the time being…
Cady took an intimidating step forward, still in the mindset that a battle was in motion.
"You…" He gazed over the shoulders of the two in front of him, glaring beyond at his biological son, menacing. "…You should have never been born."
Sora looked away.
Riku looked up.
"You!" the lattermost screamed and lunged forward, upper limbs raised offensively. He would have, most likely, done a decent amount of damage, but his friend held him back. "You didn't even deserve to be born! He!" He slung an arm around over Wakka's grip, jabbing a finger in Sora's direction. "Is the only benefit from your existence!"
"How dare you! You're going to be so sorry..!" retorted Cady after compiling his slip of fear.
Desperately struggling to hold the also struggling one back, Wakka stuttered, "C-c'mon, man, let's just-"
Riku stilled. He spat at Cady's feet.
"The only thing I'm sorry about is having to dirty your amazing, wonderful son's floor to give you the only thing you do deserve," he finalized.
And with that, the only coherent things heard were his feet striding over calmly to Sora, leaning down to steadily pick him up, and taking him away from the household.
Lingering for a few seconds was Wakka. Having been pulled to the side when Riku had wrenched away, he swiveled his head back to Cady. He snarled, then followed the other two's suit. All that tailed him was a glare.
Beyond him, Riku continued to walk with Sora quite literally in hand.
"Riku… Riku… I… I'm…" Sora hiccupped, tears threatening to swell over his lashes, "I'm sorry…" He buried his face into his saviour's chest, trying to contain himself as he sniffed.
"No, no Sora… you have no need to be…" Riku consoled, holding his treasure closer.
"Just, but… he called you a…" The younger paused, and lowered his voice a slight bit, almost ashamedly. "A… fag." Sora continued to hiccup, gazing up with tears streaming down his cheeks.
Riku was slightly taken aback, and mentally sighed, but decided Sora was more important… especially during that moment.
"But Riku…"
"Mmm..?" the mentioned asked, almost warily.
"I stood up for you. He… he was out of line. And I… I don't think you're a fag." The word seemed crude in his mouth, and it felt good to get over saying it.
Again, Sora hiccupped.
"You're just… you're just Riku, Riku."
Riku's eyes watered, and he sighed, tightly squeezing them shut.
"Oh, Sora…"