Sora glared at Kairi as she tried her best to stop giggling, and failed miserably. What exactly she saw amusing with a bunch of flowers was beyond him, and he said so.
"I'm not giggling because it's funny, dumdum. I'm giggling because it's cute!"
Riku looked down, scratching something out on his piece of paper, his hair falling to cover his face. However, Sora saw the slight tinge of pink on his best friend's cheeks.
"It's not cute at all!" yelled Hayner. "It's….disturbing! Stop laughing, Olette!"
"I can't help it," replied the other girl. "It's just hilarious to see how you two are blowing this all out of proportion."
"I am not blowing this out of proportion," snapped Sora. "This is Seifer we're talking about. He's…he's a bully!" His grip on his pencil tightened.
"He did help me," Riku said quietly, not looking at anyone directly. Sora said nothing to this, because he knew that was the truth. Yet perhaps that had been part of his duties at the job, and no real interest in Riku himself. Sora couldn't quite put his finger why the idea of Riku dating Seifer bothered him.
"Sora, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous," said Kairi, no longer laughing.
With a snap, Riku's textbook closed, and he got up.
"I'm getting some air," he said, not giving anyone the opportunity to stop him.
The breeze was just a tad too chilly for his tastes, but Riku decided he would rather freeze than currently return to the room. He felt uncertain of how to react to Sora's rather odd way of taking Seifer's advances towards him. Before, he might actually have believed Sora liked him, had he not rejected him months previous.
Beforehand, he would have been thrilled at the very notion. Now, he wasn't certain how to react.
Kairi sat down quietly beside him, and she took his hand in hers, rubbing some warmth back into the chilled digits.
"I didn't mean to upset you," she said.
"It's all right. It's not like what you said wasn't true. He is kinda acting like he's jealous."
"And that's upsetting you. Do you still love him, Riku?"
Riku thought about this for a little bit. It was true that he still liked Sora a lot, despite being turned down. Sora saved him from the darkness, helped him defeat the evil inside his heart, and never stopped considering him a friend. What they had gone through would never be understood by anyone else, even Kairi. But even before that, they were best friends.
Yet now, Seifer was attempting to push his way into Riku's heart. Riku knew that Seifer had indeed been a big bully when younger, starting fights with Hayner and his gang, as well as aggravating Sora. When Riku refused to date him, he had been certain Seifer would move on to someone else, as he usually did.
Seifer had not. He had kissed Riku's hand and sent him flowers. They had returned to his room to find that a box of chocolates had been left for him as well.
He could not believe that Seifer would put so much effort into something if he really didn't want to, and yet, Riku could not let go of the uncertainty that in the end, he would be used and tossed away.
He sighed. "I guess I still do, but…"
"Seifer?"
"Yeah."
They remained silent, Riku's hand still held by Kairi. To someone who didn't know better, they might have looked like they were dating.
"You gotta admit he's got some nice looking abs," Kairi finally said. Riku chuckled even as his face flushed.
"Yeah, that's true."
"He definitely works out."
Riku coughed to hide his embarrassment, and Kairi giggled.
"Great body or no, if he does anything stupid, I'll personally bash him over the head with my key blade!"
And Riku had no doubt Kairi would do just that.
Seifer watched closely as the color spread across Riku's cheeks, and his over-active mind couldn't help but wonder what Riku would look like during sex. Would he be more red? Would his eyes, now avoiding him, be dilated with pleasure? How would it feel to plunge into his body?
Seifer could feel his own body flush at the thoughts, and forced himself to think of other things. It would not do to try and push the other man. The whole point was the prove to everyone that he could go through with this, that he could take things slowly and stick to it.
"I know you said 'no' beforehand, but won't you at least go out with me once to dinner?" said Seifer. "If you decide in the end to just be friends, that's fine."
"Why do you want to date me so bad?" Riku asked quietly. Seifer thought about this, uncertain of how to respond. He thought about saying something witty, but what came out was the truth.
"I don't know. I want to say that it's because of some obvious reason, but it's not. You're beautiful and strong, but you're not the only one that way either. But nobody else draws me in like you do."
For several seconds, he thought he said too much. He began to think of a few apologies to give, but Riku looked up. His eyes focused on him, and Seifer felt as if he were being stripped down, and examined.
"One dinner," said Riku. "We'll see where to go after that, okay?"
Seifer managed to keep the smirk off his face. "Okay."
Kairi grinned at Riku as she combed his hair. She knew that Riku was already nervous about the date, so she made sure that she was the only one there. She didn't want to leave Riku alone with his thoughts since she knew that he often came to the wrong assumptions, but she certainly didn't want Sora's scowl to darken the mood.
She had helped Riku chose something simple for tonight: a simple pair of comfortable, black slacks, and a black turtleneck, both items that flattered his figure but did not cling to him like a second skin. He didn't wear any jewelry, though she kinda wished she could convince him to get at least one earring. Her pestering had not paid off yet.
When the doorbell rang, the two of them jumped.
"I'll go get the door first! Gimme just a minute with him," she said. Riku gave her a look that questioned what her plans were, but he did not say anything.
When she opened the door, she made sure that a huge smile was plastered on her face.
Seifer, she had to admit, was quite handsome. He had chosen a short-sleeved silk, blue dress shirt, with the first few buttons opened to show just a bit of his chest. His dark blue slacks were simple and not too tight. Kairi would have killed him on the spot if he had worn anything too tight for a first date.
He raised an eyebrow.
"I'll give you a quick warning before you take Riku out," she said softly, not wasting any time. "If you hurt him in any way, I will find you and make sure you're always the bottom in a relationship. Got it?"
Seifer's mouth fell open, then turned to look as Riku walked out of the bedroom. Riku's eyebrows raised, and he looked at Kairi, who was still grinning.
"You two have a great night out! I'll lock the door on my way out" she said, practically pushing them out the door.
"You've got scary friends," she heard Seifer say. Kairi laughed.
Somewhere in the back of Riku's mind, he knew that Seifer had money. Seifer usually always wore the trendy clothes, had expensive items and his own apartment. He just didn't think that they would go to one of the most expensive restaurants in the area. The waiters didn't need to say anything for Riku to get the feeling that they were pompous.
"The attitude's a little lacking," whispered Seifer, as if reading his mind, "but the food's awesome. And in case you're wondering, I had to come here a few times with my parents."
Riku wondered about this last part. It didn't sound like Seifer enjoyed the times he spent with his parents, but he didn't know how to bring that subject up. He figured eventually they would talk about it if they began a relationship.
It was then that Riku realized how little he really knew about Seifer's personal life.
"You know," said Seifer, after helping Riku into his seat, then taking his own, "you think way too much."
Riku colored at this statement. "It's in my nature." Quietly, the ordered before returning to their conversation.
"So, what were you thinking about this time?"
"How little I know about you," Riku admitted.
"Hm. Well, I'm Seifer Almasy, the son of the well-off Senator Almasy and his 'lovely wife.' Seifer rolled his eyes. "They're both a bit too much into making themselves look all first class and crap. That's why I decided to work with my cousin, Rufus Shinra."
"He's the man who owns Dark Nation and Forgotten City?"
"Yeah, that's two of his clubs. Anyway, I work mostly at Forgotten City, though he sometimes makes me rotate."
"Do you really want to keep working at those clubs?" asked Riku, a little uncertain what to make of them. Seifer waited for their food to arrive before continuing.
"It's…complicated. At first, it was to piss my dad off. But, you know…over time you start to know people who work there. They do this stuff for one reason or another, and you start to care. And you think 'hey, these people need to be protected, too.' You start to see that even if people don't want this stuff, it's not going to go away. There's always people who are going to pay for sex, but the workers need protection too. And that's our job. It's not something that's necessarily glamorous, but someone's gotta do it."
Riku nodded his head, a little surprised at Seifer's answer. "You saved me that day."
Seifer rubbed the back of his head, realizing that their conversation had taken a far more serious tone than he had intended. His wish had been to enjoy the evening, not to bring up painful memories.
"Well, you know I always wanted to be a knight," he said. "When I was a kid, I would dream of becoming one and saving the world."
"Seriously?" asked Riku.
"I'm serious. Didn't you have dreams like that?"
For several seconds, Riku said nothing, but finally said, "Yeah. My dream was to leave the Islands and find power to protect my friends."
"This has to do with how Sora got to Twilight Town years ago, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Seifer studied Riku for several seconds, debating whether to ask his next question. He knew that it would make things awkward, but he figured that the date hadn't really gone as planned anyway.
"I don't suppose you'd tell me what happened?"
"I don't think you'd believe me if I did," said Riku.
"Well, I guess you'll never know if you don't try, right?"
Riku said nothing at first, merely poking at the remains of his food. Then, he looked up, and quietly, began to tell Seifer of Kingdom Hearts.
Notes: There was supposed to be more romance here...instead they got serious. What's up with that?
