Love Love Contest! Fight!

Disclaimer: Don't own KH characters or rights.

Warning: shonen-ai (boy x boy romance), crude humor, language, SoraRiku below.


Chapter six: The value of trust

Previously…

I'm… in love with Riku.

----

So the day of the fourth elimination came, indicating the end of the semester vacation. People were seated in their chairs like always. Riku was at the front, looking solemn and serious. Sora sat shyly, biting his lips as he glanced over at the silver-haired teen from time to time.

"Here's the list of contestants that will remain." Axel said languidly and straightforwardly. "I read according how much Riku likes them."

Sora's finger fidgeted.

"Number eleven, Number two, Number one, Number eight and Number four, Number nine, and Number Six." Axel continued. "Congratulations. Now get over there."

Everyone reacted three seconds slower. Naminé was no longer the first on the list. Sora had drowned out all following conversations for he was too astonished to react. Riku didn't look his way, but that didn't keep Sora's heart from beating fast. What a wondrous feeling it was…

----

They made it safely back to Radiant Garden without further significant events. Sora was able to heave a sigh of relief, what with Kairi by his side and all the giggles and talk about him getting first place in the contest now. School would start; everything would be back to normal. The idea appealed to Sora quite well. No more competing with the boorish girls, no more taking glares from the jealousy-ridden contestants.

Hm…

"Welcome back to Radiant Garden, everyone." A familiar voice made Sora perk his eyebrows up as he and the rest arrived at the arrival lobby. The president of the Riku fan club was standing before her two sidekicks, welcoming the group.

"I am sorry to bother after a long trip, but let me inform you briefly before you depart for your homes." The girl continued. "Tomorrow is the first day of the second semester, and also the start of the second phase of the Love Love Contest."

Sora dropped his jaw.

"After the first four eliminations, I'm sure you all have accustomed to the procedures of this contest. Now this contest will move on to Phase 2: School Battleground." The two sidekicks stretched out a scroll with the title on it. "I am sure the contest will be more and more interesting now with school as a factor. Currently, the competing contestants are… Number one, number two, number four, number six, number eight, number nine and number eleven. Please keep it up."

After she left, everyone else began moving to find some way to get back home. Only Sora didn't budge. Kairi stood beside him, wondering what happened to the brunet.

"Sora!" Kairi shook him. "Let's go."

"This thing… isn't over?" Sora let out quietly.

"No duh." Kairi rolled her eyes, grabbing the handle of her luggage firmly. "There were only four eliminations, right? You've still got six more to go."

Sora sulked. This semester would be a really long one…

----

Along the hallway at school, Riku walked obliviously to his locker. No one dared to advance to him, though, for Naminé was behind him, her dangerous aura of innocence blocking out everyone else's slightest attempt at looking at Riku. She hastened up a few steps.

"Lord Riku."

Riku's footsteps halted at her voice. She stepped to stand directly in front of him. Riku gulped.

"Naminé…"

"Don't worry; I'm just here to ask a question." The blond girl said with a gentle voice. "What… makes you like Sora better than me?"

"Huh?" Riku hummed out. "Well… there isn't exactly a reason. It's a contest, isn't it?"

"I see." She sighed. And as she did, tears began to well up in her eyes. What a torture it was for her that Riku was doing this. She always had to chase him, run after him. And now, he's adding more burden to what she already had. She's tired.

"Riku… do you mind going to a walk with me?" She asked. The boy nodded slightly, unsure of what she intended to do.

She brought them to the park, the one they used to go to when they were young. Everything was still the way it used to be. The picnic tables and chairs, the green grass sometimes layered with yellow leaves. Naminé began to reminisce the memories they had together, from Riku's first birthday party to the day they first kissed under that apple tree.

"I never thought much about it, you know." Naminé smiled sadly. They were sitting under that precise apple tree. "It just happened. Mom and Dad expected it, so I did it. I'll follow you everywhere you go." She chuckled, "Now that I think of it, it's kind of creepy."

"That's not it… I understand why you would do that." Riku said, playing with a pen. "I guess we just needed to realize that it wouldn't work."

"I know it wouldn't." Naminé replied, looking far out beyond the horizon. "I know you don't like me. It's just… I never stopped loving you."

Riku looked over at the girl. Somehow he felt guilty for all of this. It may be that Naminé was manipulating him again, but everything she said had been the truth. He had liked her once, kissed her even. How it ended, he couldn't remember. What was before his eyes couldn't be short of anything Sora might have.

"But that's not what I came here to tell you, Riku." Naminé turned to him, "I want to tell you that I'll-"

She couldn't finish the sentence before her mouth was muffled by that of Riku's. She widened her eyes, blinking without the ability to compose a response. This wasn't what she expected at all. She was to… to…

----

Two days passed and Sora hadn't seen Riku at all. Unlucky him, he did not have any classes with Riku. He had heard other girls bragging about sharing the class with Riku, doing this, doing that. He had sighed at every one of them. If he continued like this, he would lose his position as number one.

"Hey, hey, hey! Did you hear?" One of the girls sitting far off in the cafeteria gossiped. "…Yeah I know! That's so unfair! I wish I could kiss Riku too."

The water Sora was drinking was spat out mercilessly. K-Kiss… Sora gulped, how did they find out…?

"I heard they kissed under a tree!"

Tree…? The boy frowned, stopping midway to the trashcan with his tray of finished food in hand. I didn't… He tilted his head confusedly; too dense to figure out what was happening. After disposing of the trash, he walked towards his locker, intending to get his books for the next classes.

When he opened the door, though, there was an envelope that slipped through the vent into his locker. Perplexed, he picked up the white, a little stuffed envelope and stared at it, flipping it around.

For: Sora

This is what I have discovered and photographed the past two days. None of it is made up.

From: Someone who knows why you entered the contest.

His heart felt like it was in his throat when Sora finished reading the short message and moved his wobbly fingers towards the lip of the letter. The envelope was stuffed abnormally, really, compared to normal letters. The brunet could easily assume that those were photographs inside. Photographs of what?

He opened it and, as expected, took out a stack of photos. He blinked a few times before he could make out what was in the picture. His jaw slackened, and his hands trembled even more. He flipped through the pictures faster and faster, until he finished the stack and the photo returned to the first one. The world suddenly felt so distant from him, the hallway stretching and spinning him into vertigo. He dropped onto his knees along with a bead of tears.

----

The doorbell chimed its way into Sora's mother's ear, making her turn off the stove and hurry out to the front door. Finally, rescue was to come, she thought, as she grabbed the round doorknob and opened the door.

"Thank goodness you're here, Kairi." The woman welcomed the dark haired girl into the house.

"No problem." She smiled. "Is he still…?"

"Yeah." Sora's mother frowned worriedly as she led the girl upstairs. "I don't know what to do. He just wouldn't get out of his room. I was cooking dinner, and I thought he might be hungry so he'll come out. But he hasn't left his room at all!"

"Oh gee." Kairi mumbled.

"I'm sorry to bother you about this." The lady stopped before Sora's bedroom door, placing her hands at the girl's shoulders.

"Not at all." Kairi shook her head, knowing full well that she was the cause of all the troubles for Sora's mother. Nodding slightly, she turned towards the door, and raised a hand to knock on it.

"Sora, sweetie? Kairi's here."

"Leave me alone!" Sora's muffled voice replied.

"Sora, if you're not gonna be nice to your friend, you're gonna get it." Sora's mother warned irately. They heard a sigh coming from the other side of the door.

"The door's not locked."

The two females exchanged glances, and Kairi slowly turned the doorknob, opening the door.

"Have a good talk with him, okay?" The older lady placed a hand on Kairi's shoulder one last time. The girl nodded and went into the room. Sora was a slump on the bed, his back facing Kairi. The girl slowly ambled up to the boy, timid and uncertain of how to handle the situation.

"It seems like… I did something stupid…" Kairi winced while scratching the back of her head sheepishly. Sora didn't reply, nor did he move. Seeing as he wouldn't budge, Kairi went around the bed to take a look at the boy.

Damn were his eyes red.

"What happened?" Kairi asked nervously.

"The pictures." Sora's lips barely moved.

"Pictures?"

The brunet's eyes drifted just a tiny bit downwards, over where Kairi was stepping. The maroon-haired girl blinked, and looked down at her feet. She didn't realize that she was stepping onto some sprawling photos, spread out in the way cards would when you throw a deck of them onto the table, stretched in a linear but slightly parabolic way. She knelt down and gathered them, holding them closer to look clearly.

To her horror, the photo depicted a tree and two people kissing under it. Naminé and Riku. The picture was one of those traditional film-originated ones, with a small row of orange numbers at the right bottom corner to indicate the date of the photo taken. There was no way these could be fakes. She shifted to the next photo, and it shocked her even more. It was no longer Naminé who Riku was kissing, but another girl, one of those in the contest. She flipped through the stack, all of them contained Riku kissing with every contestants still remaining in the contest, and all of the dates were printed clearly as of only over the last two days.

"Wha…" Even Kairi couldn't muster coherent words.

"I thought I was special." Sora whispered emotionlessly. "I actually liked him. And now…"

"That jerk..." Kairi climbed up to her feet and stormed out of the room. Finally, Sora moved and jumped out of the bed, following behind her with great effort.

"Kairi!" Sora ran behind her. "Where are you going?"

The girl merely continued running. They ran across streets and turned corners and just when Sora thought he couldn't catch up with Kairi anymore, she stopped at the doorsteps of a house. She rammed on the doorbell button furiously, almost as if she intended to break the device.

The door was opened by a pleasant faced lady. Shockingly though, Kairi pushed her out of the way and barged into the house. Sora widened his eyes and went in after her.

"Kairi!" She ignored both him and the lady who was yelling at her about not being allowed to come in. "I'm sorry!" Sora apologized hastily to the lady before running after his friend.

She was already upstairs. It was clearly a large house, one of those only affordable by the rich. The girl came to a stop at a door after turning two turns.

"Kairi! What's wrong with you?! This is somebody else's house!" Sora whispered harshly. Kairi only looked over at him, and then back at the door.

Then she kicked at it with all her might.

The poor wooden door gave way with a whine. The occupant of the room immediately jumped in his chair and looked around. It was Riku, pulling down the headphones from his ears. His eyes were full of shock, until he glanced beside Kairi and saw Sora.

"You…" Kairi said through gritted teeth.

The lady of the house came by and started screaming incoherent things, trying to drag Sora and Kairi away.

"Mom! Let them go." Riku stood up from his chair. "They're… my school mates."

"O-Oh." The woman slackened her hands. "Well you should've told me that you will have friends over today. I was so surprised… She just crashed inside."

"Sorry…" Riku apologized halfheartedly, more occupied with the death glare Kairi was sending him. His mother waved it off and left the teenagers to their business. Kairi went into the room, dragging Sora, who was quite unwilling, by the arm.

"Is there a reason for this upheaval?" Riku asked, his voice colder than he intended.

"Look at what good things you've done." Kairi stepped up to him and threw the stack of photos onto his desk. Riku blinked as he stared at them, then looked back at the other two with a stunned face.

"W-Where did you get this?"

"Somebody sent it to Sora." Kairi answered hazardously.

Riku snapped his head to the brunet who looked away with hurt written all over his face. Riku didn't know what to say; what was he to say, anyway? He had no way of denying this, with the photos complete and obvious.

"I…" He stuttered, at a loss of words.

"Kairi, let's go home." Sora pulled at the girl's wrist, whining quietly.

"No. We're not going back until we hear what he has to say about this."

"Well what do you want me to say?!" Riku howled out. "This is a contest. This is how they play it. What else was I supposed to do? Push them away?"

When he realized what just came out of his mouth, it was too late.

The previously begging Sora shut up and swallowed, looking at Riku with pain in his eyes. He was never the kind of sappy guy who'd like to say that his heart was broken into a thousand pieces, but right now his heart was broken into a thousand pieces. The world around him seemed to tear itself apart. He stared down and realized there was nothing he could do but fall. Sniffing his tears away he ran, back towards the door and out of the house and down the street.

"Ugh! You're a fucking asshole!" Kairi yelled at Riku before going back to the door. "Sora's forfeiting from the contest!"

----

Sora decided not to go to the fifth elimination. He would have nothing more to do with this contest, this horrible thing that almost consumed him. Kairi didn't stop him; in fact, she stayed at his house the whole night listening to him cry. She felt awfully guilty, for she was the one who dragged the brunet into this. If only she knew that Riku was such a person, she would never have pulled her friend into it.

Tidus called, asking Sora where he was. The brunet replied disinterestedly about his forfeit and, without explaining, hung up.

And then there was another call; Sora growled, thinking that Tidus hasn't given up yet.

"Tidus, I said I'm not going to the elimination! I'm forfeiting!"

"You are?" Came a girl's voice. Sora stopped.

"Um… who is this?"

"Oh, hi, Sora. I'm Naminé." Sora blinked. What could she be calling him for? "Why are you forfeiting?"

"Oh… It's a long story…" And you're one of the reasons.

"Please don't." Naminé persuaded wholeheartedly. "Please continue in this contest. You have to win. There's no one else more suitable than you."

"What…?" Now Sora was starting to get confused. "Why are you saying this all of a sudden?"

"Well… Sora, I called to tell you that… I'm forfeiting." Naminé confessed uncertainly. "You were right; I didn't love Riku the right way. You told me that you would change that; I believe in you. So please don't leave this contest. You must win this. Please be there and protect Riku until the very end."

"I-It's not just like I'd do it just because you asked me." Sora chuckled nervously.

"I know you might not, but I'm begging you." The blonde girl said. "I was… to say the least, tired of loving Riku. I'm sick of it. I'm not the right candidate to do this. But I believe that you are. I know that you are."

"But I'm not!" Sora insisted. "Riku doesn't even like me. He kissed me and then he went kissing all the other girls! You were one of them!"

"I'm sorry about that. Indeed, Riku kissed me. But I assure you I have no more feelings for him!" Naminé still tried to convince the boy. "Or maybe it doesn't matter that I have no feelings for him, huh? Maybe you are worried that Riku is the one who wants to play around? Well… if that's the case, won't you change him and prove it to him that he was wrong? Won't you wait for him until he realizes that you're the one for him?" She paused a little, as if to think of something to add. "Don't you love him?"

Sora's tongue was caught. What could he say against that statement? He could not deny it. And yet loving Riku was giving him all these kinds of pain and torture. Like drugs that slowly kill you despite the fake pleasure they give.

Naminé repeatedly called his name to make sure that he was still there. Sora didn't reply, though, merely putting the phone back into the charger. He turned to Kairi who had been curious since the phone call started but could only wait for him to tell her what happened.

"I'm going to the elimination."

----

Sora was three minutes late into the room. Riku was utterly shocked by the brunet's presence, while Tidus hurried Sora to his chair. Naminé smiled at Sora.

"Um… Concerning the elimination this week…" Roxas said, standing up. "There is a contestant who wishes to fall out."

He looked over at Naminé, and the girl nodded, standing up.

"Thank you everyone for the experience so far." She bowed down at the surprised crowd. "I will no longer participate in Love Love Contest."

"Ehhhh?!" Everyone except Sora said.

"Well, since a contestant has already dropped out this time," Roxas continued, "There will be no eliminations of the remaining contestants. Now let me summarize who's left here: Number two, Number four, Number six, Number eight, Number nine and Number eleven."

Sora was… still in.


A/N: Naughty Riku.... \ _________ /