Author's Note: Sorry this took forever for me to update. I've been suffering with writer's block a lot lately, so updates might be kind of scarce for a while. Also, I've decided to start focusing on some original works too, so that will take up a good amount of my time. If you're interested in reading those at all, they will eventually be found on my writing LiveJournal, which I believe there is a link to in my profile.
On another note, I'm looking for a beta-reader. If you're interested, let me know in a review, please? Thank you!
The Starfall Exequies
Chapter Two: "In Bursts of Ink"
His heart was racing, pumping boiling blood and bursts of adrenaline through his aching frame. Sweat beaded on his brow, dampening his spiked bangs and gluing them to his flushed skin as he struggled to pull in breath after breath of stinging, salty air.
Beginning it's descent beyond the horizon, the sun was slowly relenting its tiresome assault on Sora's body, as the teen gathered his strength and lunged forward.
A small wooden sword slashed angrily through the air, the brunette attached to it twisting to dodge invisible monsters and gnashing his teeth.
It was light, this sword, too light, and the worry that he would grow used to its weight plagued him, chewing at a corner of his mind with a satisfied smirk. It was possible for him to train too much, to favor the easy swing of the toy and loose his smooth handle on the Keyblade.
If that happened, if Sora could no longer wield the Keyblade, then darkness would devour everything, and it would be his fault.
But if Sora did not train, if he did not spend hours of his day practicing, he would not be strong enough to fight.
And if Sora did not train, if he did not find anything to distract him from the skies, he would go mad.
When wooden sword was out of hand, Sora did nothing but watch for the streak of smoke that would signal the arrival of the Gummi ship, or he would wait for nightfall, and count the stars that disappeared in bursts of ink.
Growling to himself, Sora sprang forward once more, the slowly growing shadows sneering at him from the corner of his vision.
As his feet shifted through the sand, his body curled through the air and a voice called his name softly.
"I've been looking for you all day," Riku continued, smiling at the brunette as Sora turned to face him, still breathing hard.
Sapphire eyes darting back and forth, Sora took a moment to catch his breath, surveying Riku's expression before speaking.
"Train with me?" he asked, lowering his toy sword and gazing expectantly at his friend.
"What?" Riku replied, brows knitting together in confusion as he stepped towards the boy.
"Please, Riku?"
"Sora," the older teen chided, ruffling Sora's hair playfully, "You have to save your strength. Training will do no good; it will only wear you out."
Pouting, the brunette glanced at the ground, counting the grains of sand as silence fell over the small stretch of beach. There so many little, tiny pebbles in just a handful, and it was impossible to count them all. As soon as it was in hand, thousands of those grains just slipped away.
How many worlds had Sora let slip through his fingers in the last few days?
"I have to do something, Riku. I can't just sit and wait."
The older teen chose not to respond, only standing still, a shadow against the bright horizon. Sora raised eyes to watch him carefully, every second of silence passing like a wave of whips across his spine.
"No good will come of you wasting your strength like this," Riku responded finally, every ounce of playful scolding in the past as he stepped closer to his friend.
An indignant sigh found its way past Sora's lips as his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, flopping backwards to lay on the soft sand.
"Besides, did you ever…" Riku whispered, biting back his words as soon as he heard how loudly they rang through the empty air.
"Did I ever what?" Sora asked, his voice heavy and buzzing with suspicion.
"Did you ever think that, maybe, you're not supposed to defeat the darkness. Maybe it's supposed to be here, coexisting with the light. Maybe you're just supposed to keep it calm, stop people who are misusing it."
"You don't think I'm strong enough to defeat it?" Sora snapped, casting a quick glare at his friend.
"No, Sora. I didn't mean it like that. What I mean is, I don't think anyone is capable of, or even supposed to defeat the darkness."
"I don't think I'm strong enough to do even that," he murmured, straining to keep his gaze from wandering amongst the few stars that were scattered against the sunset sky.
"How could you think that?" the other boy asked, crossing his legs to sit at Sora's side, his argent hair falling over one shoulder to curtain the brunette's world.
The soft hush of shifting sand filled Sora's ears as he shrugged and turned his head to the side.
Riku watched the years flash through his friend's face, a thousand memories playing against sapphire orbs and darkening their depths.
His final sorrow gleamed brightly there, struggling to hide in his mind's eye, yet remaining vibrant and obvious to the older teen.
"Sora, no. I - "
"I couldn't save you, Riku."
Sora's tone hardened and froze as he spoke, his throat drying and his hatred locking in his lungs. Every breath stung more and more as he waited for Riku's gaze to leave him, for the older teen to rise and pad slowly away.
"Don't you ever blame that on yourself, Sora," he ground out through clenched teeth, reaching over to push Sora's face towards him, forcing the younger boy to look at him.
"But I…"
"You did nothing, Sora. None of it was your fault. Iwas the one who was too weak. I was the one who couldn't see the truth, and I was the one who turned away from you."
"But if I had just been able to reach you…"
"Nothing would have changed. Maleficent still would have found me and used me."
"Everything would have changed, Riku," Sora squeezed his eyes shut as he spoke, fending off the hot jab of tears that welled behind them. "If I'd taken your hand, you would have been the Keyblade Master."
Finally, Riku dropped his hand away from Sora's cheek, and the boy took the opportunity to hide his face once again.
"You think I would have done better. You think that the darkness wouldn't have come back this time if I was the Keyblade Master?" The older teen's voice was low, his tone dangerous.
"I think you would have been strong enough."
A long sigh escaped Riku's lips and he threw himself backwards to join his stargazing friend in lying on the sand.
"If I'm as strong as you seem to think I am, I have you to thank for it, Sora," he murmured, raising a hand and splaying his fingers out against the now inky sky.
Sora watched as Riku's digits closed into a loose fist, as if grabbing at one of the stars that hung high and far. Perhaps he, like Sora, was wondering how many worlds were blinking out, how many stars were falling as they sat and talked of idle things.
"When you turn to the darkness, you gain unimaginable physical strength. But…it eats away at you, slowly. You start to break down, to lose yourself. Your body thrives, but your heart starts to…wither," the older boy continued, lowering his hand to his side, where it curled into a tight fist. "You start to feel empty."
Songbird eyes slide sideways, landing on Riku's frame and hating how tense it seemed, how far away the soft breeze of breath sounded as the silver-haired boy faded, passing into a world of his own.
"Riku…" Sora whispered, hoping to draw his friend back, keep him from slipping away again.
This was how Riku had been acting just before it all began.
"Sora, you kept fighting. Even after it seemed like everything was okay, even after Kairi was safe and I'd told you to take care of her, to stop worrying about me, you kept fighting," Riku's words were rushed and barely audible, his beryl eyes focused on nothing that could be found in this world.
"I had to find you," the younger boy murmured back, lifting his gaze to the sky once more and wincing as he watched a star blink and sputter.
"It saved me, Sora. If you'd stopped, no matter how hard I tried, I never would have been able to make it back."
"Riku, I - "
"So you have to be strong, Sora. For me."
As Riku spoke, he rolled over onto his side, planting a hand at Sora's side and hoisting himself up to hover above the small teen. He smiled down at Sora softly, and the brunette could almost here the urgent 'please' that longed to fall from his lips.
"I don't think I can," he answered, a heavy feeling of worthlessness racing through his nerves as he spoke.
Riku blinked, his smile melting away as his mind worked through Sora's words.
"What if I go with you?" he asked finally.
"What?"
"If I fight with you this time, we can be strong together."
Brows furrowing together, Sora stared up at his friend, surveying Riku's delicate features and wondering why the other boy's tone had been so velveteen.
"Yeah, we can," Sora replied, finding nothing suspicious in Riku's expression and allowing a small smile to play across his lips.
The older teen leaned closer then, his mouth hanging in the air above Sora's smile, releasing Sora's name in a gust of hot, heavy air before retreating quickly.
As Riku watched him, Sora made every effort not to let his expression change, to remain smiling and calm and pretend he wasn't frantically trying to figure out what would come next.
And as Riku found nothing to fear in the unchanging expression of the boy beneath him and - feeling ever so slightly encouraged - pressed his lips gently to Sora's, Sora made every effort to pull away, to feel ashamed and sinful and wrong, but he froze under the warm, quick spark of contact.
His limbs felt heavy and he could not lift them to scramble away from the older teen. His head felt dizzy and his heart felt light, and he could not sort through the how and the why of it all. He was breathing fast, and he could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks as Riku's expression hardened, his effort against conveying his anxiety just as tell-tale as if he'd allowed it to surface.
There was not a single sound hanging in the air between them, only the thundering crash of the waves beyond, roaring around them and shutting them off in a bubble of silence and wonder.
Finally, Sora found himself and his arms lifted. He reached behind him to lean on his elbows and attempt to slide out from under Riku, hoping the action would heal his dizzy head, and help his heart to stop floating around inside him.
But it only served to make his heart fly higher and his mind numb as Sora rose and Riku remained still, bringing them closer together, the heat of the older boy's solid frame causing the blood to rise further against Sora's skin.
Before Sora could again gather himself and melt his frozen limbs, before he could manage to slip away, he saw determination set in Riku's features.
A hand slipped into the chocolate strands at the nape of Sora's neck, and the boy sighed, tilting his head into the contact. As fingers brushed against his scalp, tangled in his hair, Sora's heart felt ready to burst, and his mind crashed around in his skull, cursing and screaming.
"Riku," he murmured, pulling away from the comfortable workings of his friend's hand and casting cerulean eyes to the ground.
Sora felt Riku's hand slip reluctantly away, felt the heat of his body recede slowly, and decided it was safe to breathe. But there was no room in his chest for air, it seemed, as his heart fluttered around and his head grumbled silently to itself.
"I'm sorry, Sora," Riku whispered, his voice sounding distant and faded and ringing with sorrow. "I really am, but…'
The brunette nodded absentmindedly, listening as Riku trailed off, his words melting into a breeze of a sigh.
"I…I don't understand," he muttered, leaning forward to cradle his angry head in his hands.
"I don't really understand it either, Sora. But, please, let me try to explain?"
"Riku, I - "
"Sora, please," Riku pleaded, reaching over to take Sora's hands and fold them into his own.
The small teen sighed, lowering his gaze and attempting to work through the situation as his mind and heart buzzed around inside him.
"Alright," he whispered, feeling his hands shake nervously in Riku's.
"For a…Sora, I…" Riku started, his words tumbling over eachother and fleeing from his fractured tongue as he tried to piece his thoughts together.
A foreign voice cut through the air, calling both their names and drawing closer with each syllable.
Riku cursed under his breath and released Sora's hands, rising to slip away towards the water as Kairi came into view.
Sora pushed away the thoughts that had plagued him for the last few minutes, and instead focused on the approaching girl.
"Kairi?" he called, watching as she ran towards them, her face lit up in excitement.
"They're here!" she cried, placing her hands on Sora's shoulders and shaking him lightly.
"What?"
"Donald and Goofy! They're here!"