Title: Growing Up

Pairing: SoRiku

Rating: PG; mentions of underage drinking

Word count: 570

AN: This one's not song-inspired! Instead it is very, very, very loosely (seriously) inspired by OwlPostAgain's "It Had to Be You," which is on this site and highly recommended. (Though TBH if you're a fan of KH pretty much everything by OwlPostAgain is highly recommended).

You've just turned thirteen when you realize something about your best friend is different. Well, not really, but you can't help but feel that there is. It's something small, inexplicable. You're not even sure that it's anything he's doing. But lately when he's around, things just seem different about him, and about how you react to him.

Like last week when you ran into him and his mom unexpectedly in the mall and your palms got so sweaty you had to go find a bathroom to wash your hands.
Or the other day when the two of you were watching TV and he crawled into your lap to grab the remote and you had to get up because you thought the way your stomach turned over meant you were going to be sick. But you weren't.

And how you've always liked making him laugh, but suddenly it seems like the most important thing in the world because when his eyes crinkle up at the edges and he smiles that uncontrollable smile right before he breaks into hysterical laughter you swear, just for a second, that you could fly.

Or how sometimes you want to make him laugh so bad but you look up at him and he's not looking at you so you can look at him, really look, and you see how blue his eyes are and the way his mouth parts slightly when he's not talking (which is a rare occurrence) and suddenly his mouth is all you can think about and you're so tongue-tied all of a sudden that when he looks at you and laughs and asks you what you're doing you can't say a word and you pretend you hear your mom calling in the hopes that if you leave now he won't see how your face is suddenly burning for no reason at all.

You don't know what's changed, since he's still the same old Sora, really. A year younger, can't match his clothes to save his life, and constantly preoccupied with besting you at something: Blitzball, play-fighting, swimming, racing, video games, anything really (but like that's ever going to happen). But sometimes when you answer the door and he's standing there and you can feel your heart beat faster in your chest just from seeing him, you know that there must be something different.

It doesn't make sense to you until the day Sora steals a six pack of beer from his parents fridge on a dare, to prove to Tidus that he isn't chicken, and while you're all sitting out on the dock, each drinking one, Sora already tipsy off of half a beer, he throws his arm around you and presses a sloppy kiss to the side of your cheek, saying you're the best friend he's ever had and he loves you and your stomach drops and your heart stops and your palms are all sweaty again and in that moment you could fly if it wasn't for the cannonball you just took to the gut.

Oh.

And suddenly you're peeking at him out of the corner of your eye as he falls over laughing on the dock and remembering what you learned in fifth grade about growing up and S-E-X and you're prayingprayingpraying that maybe, just maybe that next year, when Sora turns thirteen, that he will start looking at you the way that you can't stop looking at him.

Yeah, so. As mentioned, this was inspired by OwlPostAgain's wonderful "It Had to Be You," (if you haven't read that, what are you still doing here?! Go, rectify that immediately!) specifically the line "I've been a done deal since I was thirteen years old."
My. Poor. Heart.