My writing feels nOOb like. Must die. But not before I finish this chapter; I'm having too much fun. Gaaaaah, I'm angsting. And this story should be keeping the angst level to a minimum. I'm using this as an outlet to let free all the fluff so I can use the angst for Flickering Light and stuff.

...but that doesn't mean there won't be a bit of angst in here, bwa ha ha...

Tails, You Lose

Heads

His life was so fucked up. It really was.

He was the army's general.

He was the Court Magician.

He was a thief.

He didn't want to stick around to find out the outcome of this little meeting.

"Hey, are you okay?" the knight asked. "Ya look a bit pale..."

"I'm f-f-fine!" Sora said, but it came out more of a squeak then anything. He had to get out of here, and fast! Where there was important people like these, there was bound to be guards. And Sora had the feeling that every one of them had memorized his facial features by now.

"Are ya sure?" Goofy asked, eyes drooping down in worry. "Are you sick or somethin'?"

The duck, however, wasn't being so sympathetic. "What are you doing around here this late?" he asked impatiently.

"Uncle Donald, chill!" the duckling in red said. Sora didn't even bother trying to remember his name this time. "This is Sora! He fixed our toy, look!"

Oh God, they'd given away his name.

They pushed the frog back on the ground and released it, letting it leap at their uncle.

Donald gave an angry squawk as the thing jumped at him. He took a hasty step backward and let the thing plop back down to the ground.

"Wonderful," he muttered, and Sora could tell Donald really wished the frog had remained broken.

"So, ya fix toys, do ya?" Goofy asked, putting his hands on his hips. Sora inwardly groaned; he was back in the spotlight, which was the last place he wanted to be. "Are ya Gepetto's son?"

Sora shook his head. "Um, no," he murmured. He recognized the name and was flattered that they thought him the son of such an excellent toy maker.

"Ya shouldn't be out here this late at night, though," Goofy scolded gently. "People may think you're up to no good!"

"Heh heh heh, imagine that!" Sora said, rubbing the back of his head. Oh God, Riku was right. He did twitch! He was getting nervous and if he wasn't out of here soon, he'd scream!

"Something fishy is going on here," Donald hissed, looking at Sora with narrowed eyes.

Sora gulped.

"What did you say your name was, again?"

"Ummm..." Should he lie? No. Huey, Duey and Louie knew his name. "It's Sora, sir."

"Sora..." Donald murmured, scratching his chin, or bottom of his beak, in thought. "That sounds familiar... now where have I heard it before...?"

"No where!" Sora assured him hastily.

"Now hang on a minute," Goofy said, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Come to think of it, it sounds familiar to me, too."

Sora was starting to sweat. Could he take these guys? Probably not. And even if he did beat them, that would be a much bigger criminal offense then stealing fruit. He'd get thrown in jail for sure.

"I can't put my finger on it," Donald muttered. "But something about this isn't right."

"No, everything's right!" Sora nodded, inwardly hitting himself for the pathetic statement. "Um, I was just... just... out shopping!" He grinned.

"But you came from the market," the duck in green said. "I saw you walking away from it!"

"And you didn't seem to buy anything," Donald said, crossing his arms. "This is pretty suspicious."

"Eh heh..." Sora laughed nervously, wincing, only half a smile on his face.

"Now Donald, that's no reason to be suspicious," Goofy pointed out. "He didn't do anything wrong!"

"And how do we know that?" Donald snapped. "For all we know, he could've been vandalizing, stealing," Sora gulped, "mugging someone..."

"I wouldn't mug someone!" Sora said, startled.

"Uh huh, suuuure you wouldn't!"

"Uncle Donald!" one of his nephews protested. "Sora's nice! He wouldn't do that stuff or steal anything!"

Make the guilt stop damn it!

"Well, we'll just walk Sora home!" Goofy suggested.

The following ran through Sora's head: badideabadideabadideabadidea VERYBADIDEA!

"Um, no, it's okay," Sora laughed, putting a false grin on his face. Maybe he could get away from this unscathed? Very unlikely, but still possible. "I-I can walk home myself..."

"No, we'd like to meet your parents," Donald sneered. "See why they let you out so late..."

"Don't worry, it's fine!" Sora stammered, taking a step backwards and waving his hands in front of him. "I didn't do anything wrong, right? I can get home by myself..."

"Oh no you don't!" Donald snapped. "Something is wrong here and I wanna know what it is!"

Where should he start? The fact that people were starving in the shadows of their Castle's perfect kingdom? Or that they've been stealing to live for the past nine years? Or perhaps that every guard in that homey little castle of theirs was on the search for him and Riku this very moment?

Sora went for none of the above.

"Everything's fine, I swear!" Sora insisted. "I was heading home right now..."

"To take home the imaginary groceries?"

"Yea... I mean, no!"

"Young man, if you don't tell us what's going on right now, we'll have to take you up to the castle!"

FUCK! Sora was trapped... he either let them take him home to his and Riku's base or he was forced to go to the castle where they'd immediately recognize him and throw him in jail. Or worse...

...make him tell them where Riku was.

Grim faced, Sora opened his mouth...

"Ethan, there you are!"

Sora was immediately swept into a great bear hug from a strong someone behind him. Thin, yet extremely masculine, arms were wrapped around his chest as he was pulled hard into a rock-hard chest behind him. He saw a stray lock of hair spill over his forehead and in front of his eye.

Riku!

"Where have you been?" he heard his best friend scold harshly. He was spun around and he saw Riku standing there. The dark rings under his eyes were even larger then normal, but you could barely see them in the dark. How had it gotten so dark so quick? Riku continued, "I've been so worried about you, Ethan! I told you to never run off!"

"Um, I'm not Ethan..."

"Don't worry, you'll be all right."

Had Riku flipped his lid?

"Ahem," Donald said impatiently, not at all affected by the reunion. "Not to be rude, but who the heck are you?"

Riku's eyes snapped up as if he had only just noticed Donald and Goofy standing there. "Oh, I'm sorry," Riku said innocently. "Was my little brother being a problem?"

"Little brother?" Goofy questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"But you two don't look anything alike!" Donald snapped.

"We have different mothers," Riku said simply. "Dad divorced and got re-married."

He was saying this so casually that Sora was concerned for his sanity. But then it hit him; Riku was just acting! Real smart, Sora.

"Oh," Donald murmured, expression softening a little bit.

"Yeah," Riku said, shrugging. "But was Ethan bugging you guys?" He gave 'Ethan' a reprimanding look.

"Ethan?" one of the nephews asked. "I thought his name was Sora!"

Riku sighed dramatically. "It's sad, really," he said. Letting go of Sora, he walked a bit closer to Donald and Goofy and whispered, " He keeps saying his name is Sora. He's a bit touched in the head!"

"Hey!" Sora snapped, glaring. "I am not!"

"Don't worry, Ethan," Riku said reassuringly, walking back to the brunette and patting him on the head. "You'll be all right."

"Well, we're really sorry for all this," Goofy laughed. "Donald was just over-reacting again."

Riku laughed back. It's no problem," he said. "And I'm sorry for Ethan, sir. He gets a bit out of hand, sometimes." To Sora, who was now pouting, he said, "You ready to go home?"

Lower lip jutted out, Sora muttered, "Whatever, Riku."

"'Riku' is the name of the dog, Ethan," Riku said gently, patting Sora on the head again. Sora batted Riku's hand away, now absolutely sulking. Riku chuckled, and held his hand out to Goofy, who shook it. "Sorry about this," he apologized. "I'll just get him back home now. We were starting to worry; our mother was about to call the guards."

"Are you sure you don't want some company?" Goofy asked, frowning. "It's a bit dangerous out here at night..."

"Nah, we'll be fine," Riku assured him. "We don't live that far away. But thanks for the offer."

With a final nod at the others, Riku looped a hand around Sora's shoulders and turned him around, leading him away and back towards the market.

"See ya, Ethan!" the three nephews shouted, waving. Who cared if he was insane? Insane people were cool!

Sora waved a hand in farewell. Riku pulled on his shoulders harder and said, in a rather loud voice, "C'mon, dinner's on the table."

They walked in silence for five minutes. The moon was now out, shining and lighting the way down the dark, deserted streets. A few houses and candles burning in the windows, but others were pitch black, meaning their occupants were asleep.

Sora gazed longingly at the houses. He'd heard about other teenagers his age who risked being grounded just to get out of those houses. But if Sora were them, he'd do his best to never leave. Having a nice window that you could stick your head out of to just look at the sky, a comfortable bed, a mother to tuck you into it every night, a dad to ask you to help him fix things around the house, a pet to greet you every time you entered the door...

Who would ever want to leave a place like that? They'd have to be insane! Speaking of insane...

"...why the HELL did I have to be insane?"

An odd expression crossed Riku's face for a moment. There was a pause... and then, throwing his head back, he started to laugh.

Sora felt a grin tug at the corners of his lips as he watched his friend let out shouts of loud, pure laughter that rung in the air and through the dark night. It was contagious, really, and soon, Sora found himself laughing, too.

Tails

"Tell me a story."

Riku blinked in surprise, his heart beat increasing a bit in shock. He had thought his friend was asleep. Obviously he was mistaken.

Twisting his waist, Riku saw that Sora was sitting up. It was pitch black in the room, not a single light shining, not even the moonlight. They had doused the torch for the night and Riku was now sitting in front of the door like he did every night. Because of this, he had excellent night vision, much better then the normal human.

Then again, Riku wasn't like most humans in a lot of other ways, too.

"What?" Riku said in disbelief. "You want me to tell you a story?"

He heard the rustle of cloth and he watched as Sora picked himself up out of the sheets and covers. He could hear the soft padding of feet as Sora made his way across the small room to the silver-haired teen before sitting down on the floor next to him.

Stretching, Sora smiled. "Yeah," he whispered. "I want to hear a story."

Riku sighed, running a hand through his silver tresses. "Now?" he asked. "I thought we quit your insane act."

"You're the only one who was ever acting like I was insane," Sora pointed out.

"That's because I wasn't acting." Riku sighed and rolled his eyes and, even though Sora couldn't see him, the brunette knew that he did so. "It's late," Riku pointed out. "You should be getting some sleep."

"And so should you," Sora said stubbornly, poking his best friend in the arm.

"We shouldn't be going through this every night," Riku said in exasperation. And even though he did his best to fight it down, a yawn escaped from his lips.

Sora frowned. "You're tired," he said quietly. "Didn't you take a nap today?"

Riku shrugged. "Nah," he said. "Didn't feel like taking one."

"You were worried about me, weren't you?"

Riku didn't say anything to this accusation, partly because it was true, partly because he was afraid that if he opened his mouth again, another yawn would escape him. He just shrugged.

"You were." This wasn't a question; it was a statement. "Riku, you know I can take care of myself."

Riku still didn't say anything.

After waiting a moment or two for a reply, which never came, Sora said in an even quieter voice, "It's because something's happened, isn't it?"

Riku sighed. "Nothing's happened, Sora. Everything is fine."

That set Sora off. "What do you mean everything's fine?" he snapped, loud voice cracking like a whip in the tiny, silent room. "We're living day-by-day off of stolen food, we live in a tiny little stone hut with no light whatsoever, and the only air is coming from little holes made by the rats! Guards chase us down every day, not even caring if we die in the chase or not, and we can't go ten steps without someone muttering about us and talking about finally turning us in! And you're saying everything is FINE? Bull shit!"

Riku was stunned. He would have said something, but he was too shocked. He was amazed Sora had said all that to him, but what really got him was... that every word of it was true. They were living off of stolen goods. They were trapped in a Hell Hole for a home, they were being chased constantly by the Royal Guards, they were being talked about...

"Sora, I..." That's as far as Riku got. He wanted to tell Sora everything was all right, but he couldn't. Nothing had been right for the past nine years. But he wouldn't admit that, not to Sora. He'd gotten them into this on his own stupid, foolish pride, and he'd get them out of it. Sacrificing whatever he needed to.

"You're right," he finally said, staring down at his hands which, he now noticed, were curled tightly in his lap. "Everything isn't fine. Is that what you wanted to hear? That the guards are going to come in here and set this place on fire? Or that we're going to starve?"

Sora was silent for a moment before saying, "It'd be better then lies. At least I'd know what was going on..."

The silence gnawed through their heavy minds for a few moments. It was cold and stuffy in here, constricting their lungs. Suffocating.

Sora blinked when he felt a strong arm wrap around his shoulders and he was tugged firmly to his best friends side. He could hear Riku's heart beat. It was... so fast. So quick. Dangerously fast. He thought he felt a jolt every now and then. And when Riku spoke, it was in a raspy voice.

"Once upon a time," he whispered. "There lived two little boys. Everywhere around them was grassy plains, smiling faces, and a happy home."

Sora could feel Riku tremble slightly. "Riku...?"

But he went on. "But sometimes..." he whispered, "things went wrong. They had their foes. Huge men in white turbans showed up at their houses. The two boys were scared, but they kept on. They still had their grassy fields, their smiling faces, their happy home."

Sora definitely noticed the shuddering in Riku now. Was... was he crying?

"And one day," the older teen went on, "their fairy tale ended. The men in white turbans came back to their house." Sora shuttered, closing his eyes tightly. "They burned down their house... and they burned their grassy fields, their smiling faces, their happy home..."

The arm around Sora's shoulders tightened and Sora pressed his face into Riku's shoulder, a tremor coursing through his thin body.

"So they left it all," Riku murmured. "The one boy had made a promise, and they looked after each other. They did what they needed to. They left their friends. They left their old lives for something new, something no one liked. Something no one understood. And they'd never know... that all the boys wanted back was... their grassy fields..."

"...Riku..."

"...their smiling faces..."

A sniff.

"...and their happy home..."

Sora felt something wet slide down his cheeks. And although his eyes were beginning to burn, he knew he wasn't crying... it was Riku...

"I'm so sorry, Sora..." Riku murmured in a shaking voice, bending his head low. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you... I made a mistake... I'm so sorry..."

Sora was too confused. The whispered apologies came out in a thick, quiet stream. They got quieter and quieter until it was only a dull murmur in the cold, dark night. The silence was deafening, the arm around his shoulder relaxing it's grip. He felt a head loll onto his shoulder; Riku had fallen asleep.

Shaking slightly, Sora carefully put his arm around his best friends back and slowly lowered him to the ground. He ran a hand over his cheek and was shocked to find it was wet from tears. Biting his lips, Sora felt his way across the room to their makeshift beds. He pulled out a blanket and pillow and made his way back to the sleeping Riku.

He settled the pillow under Riku's head, lifting it gently and slowly putting it back down. He threw the dingy blanket over his friend, frowning when he heard a crinkling.

He let his fingertips guide him to the source of the sound, shifting the blanket so he could hear it. Finally, he found a rolled up piece of parchment sticking out of the silver-haired teens pockets.

Frown deepening, Sora gently pulled it out. Once it was tucked safely in his grasp, he let the blanket slide over the rest of Riku's torso. Then, quiet as a mouse, he walked over to the spot where he knew he would find the emergency matches. This wasn't exactly an emergency, but Riku was crying. And that scared him far worse then the guards, worse then the truth of the story his best friend had just told him.

Finding the small box, he slid it open gently with his fingers. Reaching inside, he pulled out a thin, wooden match. Putting the parchment carefully on the ground beside him, Sora brought the match to the gritty side of the box and slid it down roughly.

FLASH!

A bright light erupted from the tip of the match, blinding Sora momentarily, no matter how small the light. Blinking a few times to get used to the new light, Sora looked around. Finding the tightly rolled piece of paper, which was beginning to unfurl, he picked it up. It was pretty big, looking like some sort of poster. Sora frowned, wondering what was so special about it. Laying it on the ground. he spread his hand to uncurl it slightly. Using the palm he held the match with, he held it in place and unfolded the rest, holding it down with his right hand.

Using his knee to keep the left side in place, Sora rose the match to look at it properly. He took one quick moment to look it over. It took another moment for his heart to stop beating. And it would take a lifetime to forget what he was seeing.

The match dropped from his hand in shock, immediately setting the piece of paper aflame. He watched with eyes twice as wide as normal, breath coming out in painful gasps. The headline read WANTED, and it was slowly disappearing in flame.

The two pictures took longer to burn, along with the amount of money on the bottom. He looked at the pictures, shaking from head to foot. He couldn't breath. He felt so sick. The rest of the poster burst into flames, the fire dancing tauntingly before his eyes.

Oh God... Oh please, please, no...

And he watched as his and Riku's pictures burned to ashes. Just like their grassy plains, their smiling faces, and their happy home.

End Chapter

All done! Hope you all enjoyed it! (nodnod) This was for my friend DieChan, the tiny bit of shounen-ai. But this fic is not shounen-ai! I just did it for DieChan 'cause she likes it so much XD.

Well, you finally got a bit of their background. It was very brief, but you'll find out the details later. Well, until next week, see ya!