Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters used.

Warning: This story will contain male/male pairing(s).

Pairing: Riku/Sora

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

Dream In Colour

Chapter Two: The River

"Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask."

The sun shone brightly over Riku's head as he trailed toward the school. He was already running late and would probably be late for his first class if his pace did not quicken, but his thoughts were far from school at the moment. 'Why is this bothering me so much? Whatever that boy's condition is shouldn't affect me.' Riku stared up at the cloudless sky. 'Sora.'

He finally snapped out from his day dream and looked down at his watch. Noticing his tardiness, he decided to run the rest of the way so that he wouldn't miss much of his first class. Just as he was about to run, he heard a rustling in the tree next to him. He looked up to see a lone robin perched on top of a branch. The robin was stationary and appeared as if it were also gazing at Riku. Riku continued to stare at the robin, intrigued by its behaviour. At last he shook his head to remove himself from another day dream. 'I really am going crazy if I think a bird is trying to tell me something.' Riku looked toward his destination of the distant school building and began running, temporarily removing any dream-like thoughts.

His first class was art, which he had somehow managed to be on time for. Riku sat down next to his friend Naminé. She was too indulged with her sketchbook to notice his sudden presence, or so he thought.

"You were almost late again. Still thinking about your dreams?" Naminé asked suddenly getting Riku's attention.

"Yeah. I think they just got more complicated too." Riku answered.

"Really? How so?"

"Well…yesterday my dream was sort of invaded."

Naminé stopped working on her sketchbook to look at Riku, silently urging him to continue.

"A boy appeared. He said his name was Sora and he began asking questions as if he didn't know why he was there."

"Maybe he didn't."

"That's a possibility since he apparently has no recollection of who he is or where he's from. It took him like half an hour just for him to remember his name."

"Wow that sounds neat. Did you get to talk to him at all?"

"A little but-" Riku began to say before the teacher interrupted him.

"Everyone take out your sketchbooks and turn to a new page. We will be drawing something from nature today. You can either choose to sketch something from this table," the teacher said while pointing to a nearby table where branches, leaves, pine cones and other things gathered from outside were. "Or you may draw something from memory. That would be a good way to practice memory drawing too, which we will be starting next week."

When the teacher finished giving her instructions, several students went to the front of the class to look for something to sketch. Riku stared down at his blank page. 'What should I draw?' Riku turned towards Naminé. "Hey Naminé, what are you going to draw?"

"I was just going to continue what I was already drawing since it could technically be from nature."

Riku looked at the page Naminé was drawing on. On it was a decent rough sketch of a dove with a small twig in its mouth.

"Why were you already drawing something like that?" Riku asked confused why Naminé would draw a bird instead of her usual drawings of people or inanimate objects.

"Well I have dreams too and every week I have a dream where a dove like this would just fly above me for a while before disappearing. It's not always in the same place though. I can even distinctly remember at time when I dreamt I was in a movie theatre when the dove flew in out of nowhere." Naminé stared at here drawing as if just looking at it helped her reminisced about past dreams. "It always has that twig in its mouth too." Naminé continued.

Riku continued to look at the sketch. "Considering that the dove is the international symbol for peace and friendship I would say that you had nothing to worry about."

"I know." Naminé stayed silent for a moment reflecting upon Riku's words. "You know, if you decipher some of the symbols in your dreams, I bet that you can find hidden meanings in them. Isn't it cool that our dreams can help us understand things better about ourselves?"

"Naminé, you actually believe that stuff?"

"Yeah. Why, you don't?"

"Of course not! Dreams are just visions our brain creates because it doesn't really rest when we're asleep."

"Are you sure about that? Have you ever even tried to decode your dreams?"

"What hidden meaning could dancing pancakes possibly have?" Riku whispered quietly to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Naminé put her pencil and sketchbook aside. "Okay Riku, I'm going to help you find some spiritual meaning for your weird dream. What do you find is most common or stands out the most in your dream?"

Riku thought back to his dream. It was really plain but there was something that did stand out to him as soon as he begun to have the dream.

"The river. It's clear, calm and really deep. Plus I don't think it ever ends."

"A clear, endless river? That's interesting. I say you check what it could mean when you get home. Tell me after what it is too."

Naminé pulled her sketchbook back towards her. She picked up her pencil and began to sketch every detail onto the dove. Riku watched her as she continued to work. Suddenly an idea came to him. He picked up his pencil and began sketching a rough outline of it onto his paper. Riku had a fairly good memory so he was still able to visualize what the shape and form would look like.

Riku was so engaged with his drawing that he didn't notice that it was time to pack up and leave for his next class. Naminé gently poked him on the shoulder, managing to get his attention.

"Come on Riku. You have that science test next, right." Naminé looked at Riku's sketchbook. She could tell he was drawing a bird but the kind it was baffled her. "What are you drawing?"

"A robin." Riku stated.

"Really? Why?"

"It was the only thing I was able to remember from nature by memory. I really didn't feel like sketching a leaf."

"Oh. Well I'll catch you later Riku." Naminé said as she waved and exited the classroom.

Riku quickly packed up his belongings and headed in the direction of his science class. He would never admit it to Naminé but he really wanted to go home and see if his dream was trying to tell him something, even if he still didn't believe in the whole spiritual meanings in dreams.

Riku quickly opened the front door and entered the home. He was greeted by silence and assumed that his mother had gone shopping. He ascended the staircase and opened the door to his right which led to his room. He placed his book bag on his bed and went to turn on his computer. He watched as the computer loaded and quickly typed in his password. When the desktop appeared he clicked the shortcut for the Internet.

'Now where does one go to find out about dream symbolism? I could just ask Naminé but she'd probably lead me to a million websites. Seriously that girl needs something better to do during her free time.'

In the end, Riku decided just to use Google to search for it. 'Great, over a billion sources found.' He settled on just clicking the first site. The site was a dream dictionary in which the user would just input the word of something he or she commonly is, does or sees in the dream. Riku typed in 'river' and waited as the web page loaded. He glanced at the information and then began to read it aloud, "To see a river in your dreams represents that you are allowing your life to float away and it may be time to be more decisive when directing your life."

Riku finished reading the passage and leaned back onto his chair. 'I knew it. Symbolism in dreams is bogus. I'm directing my life just fine! Wait until I tell Naminé her decoding method was wrong.' Riku heard the front door open and presumed that his mother was probably home since his dad would still be at work. Riku exited the Internet window and got up to go sit on his bed. He opened his book bag and took out the homework he had for the evening.

'Maybe he'll be in my dream again. I wonder if he can help tell me why I've been having these reoccurring dreams…that is if he can remember anything at all.'

Riku heard thunder coming from outside followed by the gentle tapping of rain droplets on his window. He gazed out the window only to meet eyes with the same feather-covered creature he had seen this morning. There perched on a branch was a solitary robin only this time it had a small twig placed in its mouth.

I find dream symbolism very interesting. That's probably why I put so much in this chapter.

TheDarkTraveller