By Chance
It's incredibly difficult to sleep when you have a lot on your mind, as Sora learned. The brunet had awoken at seven, far earlier than he wanted to. The teenager tried to will himself back into slumber, but in the end it worked to no avail. So now Sora lay on his bed, staring dejectedly up at the ceiling as thoughts of yesterday raced through his mind. The day kept repeating over and over. Essentially, Sora was trying to make sense of it.
The brunet obviously hadn't remembered Riku coming into his room last night.
Someone just didn't randomly offer a truce. There had to be some sort of underlying motive. Perhaps Riku was tricking him? Maybe that was it. People just didn't change overnight. Or during the course of half a day. Especially someone as stubborn as Riku. No, something must have happened for Riku to suddenly try and 'make-nice'.
But Sora came up empty. The brunet had done nothing to make Riku push aside their earlier confrontations and start anew. Maybe Riku was just doing it out of the kindness of his heart. Or maybe Riku was just interested in making a new friend. Or, perhaps, Riku was just trying to make this month tolerable for them.
"It just doesn't make any sense," Sora reasoned as his fingers began playing with the edge of his pillowcase. "Riku wouldn't just randomly be interested in being my friend."
Sora wasn't one to understand human emotion that well. The only friends he had ever had were Tidus and Cloud. True, Kairi was a casual acquaintance (through Tidus), along with a few other people not worth mentioning, but for Riku to actually want to be his friend? Sora couldn't process the thought. Years of ridicule had made the brunet quite intolerable of people like Riku.
People like Naminé, it seemed, were okay in his book. People like her; gentle, kind, and caring. People that didn't insult you and make you do ridiculous things… like cleaning the house in a skimpy outfit.
"Maybe I'm just thinking too much," Sora suggested as his heavy eyes closed. There was no chance that he'd get back to sleep; his mind was working too hard to shut down now.
"I guess he deserves a chance," Sora concluded.
Everyone deserves a chance, right? Everyone deserves the chance to prove to you that they are really a civil human being. So this was Riku's final chance. Sora wasn't sure if this would turn out for the better or for the worse, but the very thought of the unexpected made Sora a bit anxious. Why couldn't he know now?
Pushing aside any more thoughts of Riku, Sora reached under his pillow for the maroon-diary. Sora flipped it open, searching for where he left off. When he reached the page, the teen greedily began to read, as if the writing would somehow vanish if he didn't scarf it up.
This next excerpt, type-thing, is based on something in real-life. I'm not going to waste paper explaining. I mean, I'm the only one reading this so I ought to know. I mean, it does involve me, after all.
Sora sighed helplessly. "Well, I'm reading it and I don't know you…"
It drilled a hole through my heart to hear those venomous words slip from his lips. The lips that I had bruised against mine. The lips that I had dreamt of, the ones I wanted, the ones that before this had been angelic.
He looks at me with concern as he fumbles to collect his clothing from their various placements on the bedroom floor. He won't look me in the eye; I don't expect him to. Instead, he just scurries about, getting dressed in a flurry, obviously ashamed at what had conspired only hours before.
"What do you mean?" I demand. "This meant nothing to you?"
"You know as well as I do that it was supposed to mean nothing," he murmurs. Those beautiful blue eyes won't look me in the eye. Locks of light blond hair falls in his eyes and makes him all the more saintly. But I know that he's not an angel; he's a back-stabber.
"Well, I'm asking you for more! I want this! I want you, okay? Why the hell else would I have had sex with you?" I holler, a bit afraid of my own volume.
"Because you needed relief." He answers my question with such certainly that I momentarily have to rethink my feelings. The feeling subsides.
"Because I care about you!" I correct, arising from the bed.
"You know that I wouldn't risk our friendship on a relationship. Relationships end, you know that. And best friends never really ever are the same after they date. I don't want that for us," he tries to comfort me in a whisper. "I want us to stay friends. I want this to never be mentioned again. Please?"
"You do realize you just broke my heart, right?" I harshly inform him.
"Please don't do this…" he tries to make things right by continuing to whisper pleas. It doesn't work.
"We'll never bring this up again," I conclude, looking away painfully. "We'll never speak a word of this ever again. In return, you promise me that if we haven't fallen in love with someone else by the time you turn twenty-five, that we'll go out."
He gives me a questioning look. "You'll only be twenty."
"Has age ever mattered before? You're freaking twenty-one and I'm sixteen. Can't you see that I'm willing to do anything for you? You've been my best friend forever and I just don't want to lose you!" I snap hoarsely.
"All right," he agrees.
Somehow, I know that if we dated now, that it'd spell trouble. He's five years older than me, true. And right now I'm not even legal. Perhaps waiting is for the best. I just hope that he doesn't fall for anyone else in these four years.
"Friends forever?" he suggests.
"Yeah…" And it takes everything in me not to cry in front of him.
Sora stared at the entry for a long moment, as if contemplating what the words meant. After a quick reread, Sora's lips ghosted a few words of praise. The brunet's mind began to spin and spin as it worked out the details to this story. After a moment, Sora sprawled out on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.
"The author of this fell in love with his best friend and whoever it was didn't return his feelings," Sora said quietly. "That happens a lot, nowadays," he murmured, flinching a bit.
"I feel so bad for this guy," Sora whispered into the safety of his room. "I… want to meet him," Sora decided as he nodded his head vigorously in confirmation. "I want to meet him and talk to him. He's been hurt and I… think that maybe I can help him?"
Sora laughed at this. "Oh yeah, right. Me, help somebody. Wow, that'd be the day."
Sora sighed and then placed the notebook under his bed for safe-keeping. The story remained fresh in his mind. Right now Riku seemed significant compared to the unsettling excerpt. His problems with Riku seemed so trivial…
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Riku yawned as he made his way through his kitchen in search of some cereal. It was odd. He never ate breakfast. In fact, the idea of breakfast was absurd in his mind. It was just another time of the day to pack on the calories and pounds. And quite honestly, Riku enjoyed his slender form. Although his thoughts may not be correct, they were to him and that's all that mattered to the nineteen year old.
Riku sat down at the kitchen and slipped into deep thought. The entry of Sora's that he had read earlier talked about how worried Sora was towards Cloud, and how the brunet wished his older brother would just be honest with him. It made Riku feel sick to know that Cloud hadn't told Sora so many things. And one important fact, Riku knew for sure, that Cloud had never shared with his younger sibling.
"He deserves to know," Riku mumbled and then paused. "Though… it really has nothing to do with him."
Riku groaned when he realized, mentally, what he was doing. "Don't tell me I've turned into one of those people that confides in people they barely know. Like the pain will go away that way. Riiight."
"Uh… Riku? What are you talking about?" Sora asked as he lingered near the entrance of the kitchen.
Riku was quite caught off guard. It was eight in the morning and Riku had figured Sora was still fast asleep. That's what summer was for, after all. Sleeping late. So why was Sora up? Aquamarine eyes flashed over to the brunet's slim body as he wore a confused look. Both males, in fact, had the same identical confused expression.
"You were eavesdropping?" Riku asked emotionlessly.
"I'm sorry," Sora murmured automatically as his gaze dropped to the floor as it usually would. "I just figured that maybe I could … talk with you? I mean, I-"
"Sit," Riku instructed as he motioned to the vacant chair beside him, to which Sora was surprised because usually Riku made the brunet sit across from him. Beside him was a nice change.
"Okay," Sora replied simply as he slowly took the seat. When the brunet felt the intensity of Riku's eyes upon him, Sora looked cautiously up at the taller male, as if awaiting a conversation to start.
"You wanna know why I'm so spiteful, sometimes, towards Cloudie?" Riku inquired gravely as he tilted his head to the side to get a better look at the brunet.
Sora vigorously nodded. "Yes, please."
Sora's manners surprised Riku. So he really did have manners. Surprise. "I'm not going to go into details because it's just pointless to do such. All I'm going to say is that he betrayed me."
"How…?" Sora asked and then added in, "Err… generally speaking."
Riku sighed melancholically. "He broke my heart. We had a one-night stand. The end."
Sora's eyes widened briefly before he looked at the table, finding it quite interest. His brother had slept with Riku? And how did Cloud break Riku's heart? Did he cheat on him? Or did he take advantage of him when he was drunk? Sora's mind went into over-drive trying to figure out the reasoning to Riku's grudging.
"We're still friends," Riku explained. "Crushing isn't really a good reason to end a friendship. Neither is sex. It's not like we killed each other. I just came to accept that Cloud didn't want anything more than friendship."
Riku was being vague. If he hadn't been … perhaps Sora would have realized that Riku's story met identically to the one in the secret notebook. "I'm sorry," whispered Sora a bit compassionately.
"I've put it behind us. But ever since I've never really respected Cloud as much as I used to. I just didn't want you thinking that your brother was a perfect angel and that I was just spiteful or jealous," grumbled Riku, his eyes tightly shut.
"I'm taking a guess… and it's probably wrong … but is that why you hate me so much?"
Riku's eyes snapped open and fell upon Sora. "Who said I hate you?"
"I just figured that…" Sora trailed off, not really being able to convey what he was trying to say. Right now Sora cursed his inability to work wonders with words.
"Listen; at first I held a grudge against you because of Cloud. And you being a snob to me didn't really help. But I'm over it, okay?" Riku said as he eyed Sora intensely.
"So… everything's forgotten between you and me?" Sora wondered nervously, blue eyes meeting sea-green.
"Not forgotten, just forgiven. Never forget, Sora. Just learn to forgive," Riku muttered quite poetically.
"I like that," Sora answered with an honest smile. "So does that make us… friends? Or do we have to work on that still?"
"I dunno," Riku replied with a shrug.
"Let's just have breakfast and talk and stuff," Sora suggested as the smile remained. The brunet was trying his best to be friendly. Sure, he had his anger-issues (when it came to certain things), and he, of course, had his secrets, but right now befriending his host seemed to be in his favor. You get more bees with honey, after all.
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Breakfast went by without a single curse muttered from Riku. It surprised the silver-haired male that he could actually hold up conversation with Sora without wanting to wring the brunet's neck. Now that Riku got to thinking about it, perhaps he had misjudged Sora. The diary, on the other hand, showed Riku Sora's true side. The side that Sora was slowly slipping into.
And if Riku hadn't have read Sora's diary, he wouldn't have been so kind and offered a truce. So, in essence, finding the diary was the best thing that happened in the past three days.
"Hey Sora," Riku said as he lingered near the entrance of the kitchen.
Sora, who was staring out the window in the living room, turned his head to glance at Riku. The brunet was still a bit nervous about speaking with Riku, afraid that he'd slip up on his words and make Riku enraged. But Riku had shared a piece of his past with Sora. Riku had trusted Sora and opened up to him. And for that, Sora was willing to give a little bit back in their efforts to form some sort of bond.
"Come here," Riku instructed as he made his way towards a smaller hallway that Sora hadn't been down before. Curiously, Sora followed suit.
This hallway was considerably smaller than the one that contained the bedrooms and office, and had only two doors. One was closed and another was open. The right opened up into a small room that was bathed in the late afternoon sunshine; a single wall was completely made of glass which provided an excellent view of the outside world.
Sora followed Riku into said room and blinked in surprise when he saw a few bookcases, sofas, and more importantly a piano nestled in the corner.
"This is really nice, Riku," Sora commented softly as Riku made his way over to the piano bench.
"Thanks," Riku murmured as his fingers rested in G position, not the generic C position that little children are taught at first.
Sora bashfully sauntered over and stood behind Riku, awaiting the music to begin. When Riku didn't begin, Sora tilted his head to the side. Only when did Riku remove his left hand to pat the area on the bench beside him, did Sora understand. With a weak smile, Sora sat down beside his new 'friend'.
"My mother taught me how to play," Riku explained as he placed his hand back onto the ivory keys.
"Was she good?" Sora asked without really thinking about the answer. Logically, she must have been good to teach.
"She was," Riku answered with a swift nod. "She still is. Sometimes when Dad visits her, seeing that they're still friends, even after the divorce, she plays for him."
"That's sweet," Sora commented coyly, not really thinking about his deceased family.
"Yeah. When Dad moved out, we spent a lot of time together. So she taught me how to play. It was… fun," Riku concluded as he began to play an elaborate, and yet slow and peaceful, piece. It seemed like he had the piece committed to memory because Riku's eyes had slipped shut and there was no music sheet.
"What is it?" Sora asked as the notes engulfed him.
"Dearly Beloved," Riku answered in a relaxed whisper as a few fingers stroke sharps and flats. Those dexterous fingers danced along the scales, sounding chords and quarter notes and everything else in between.
"Did your mom teach you that song?" Sora felt compelled to ask.
"Yep," Riku answered nonchalantly, still in a quiet voice. "It was her lullaby. She couldn't sing me to sleep, because I wouldn't have any of that. So, instead, she played the piano to get me to fall asleep."
Sora smiled at the newly acquired information. "It's really pretty."
The tempo sped up and Sora just sat in awe. It was amazing how a human being could create something as wondrous as music. Sora watched in envy as Riku continued to play, his eyes remaining shut all the while. That surprised Sora even farther. Riku must have memorized the keys, notes, and feel of the piano.
"You're really good," Sora said as he felt a light fatigue overcome him. Slow songs did that to people.
Riku paused and opened his eyes. Aquamarine eyes glanced at Sora. Riku seemed to be weighing his options for a prolonged moment. After a moment of deliberation Riku offered a very small smile and then asked, "Want to try?"
"I don't know anything," Sora mumbled a bit shamefully. "We don't have a piano at my place."
"Here," Riku said as he motioned for Sora to put his hands in the placement that Riku had his.
"Are you sure it's okay?" Sora wondered nervously as he did as he was told. Doing such caused the brunet to lightly lean his body over Riku's in a twisted sort of way. If he were to lose balance, he would fall lengthways into Riku's lap.
"All right," Riku began as he placed his own hands an octave higher. "Just copy what I do."
Within a few minutes, they were playing the basic beginning melody. Sora echoed Riku's melody, creating an identical harmony to accompany Riku's.
"This is relaxing," Sora whispered as he began memorizing the pattern of the keys and the exact time to hit them. Never before had Sora attempted to play an instrument. This was a bit exciting to him. What was even more endearing was that Riku had taken the time to teach him and show him a part of his world. A part that wasn't flirty and cocky.
"Who knows, maybe if you get good enough you can play with me at the café," Riku suggested as a wry look crossed his face.
"As if," Sora laughed as his fingers continued to press the notes committed to memory.
"You're really pessimistic," Riku remarked as his hands ceased their playing. Sora's hands soon followed afterwards. It appeared that now was time for conversation and not playing.
"Riku, you've been playing for years. I've been playing for a few minutes. I'm not going to be able to do anything worthwhile," Sora reasoned as his fingers slid off the keys, at once missing the feeling.
"Whatever you say," Riku hummed as he rolled his eyes.
Sora mirrored the action and crossed his arms stubbornly. Silence overcame the pair once again.
"So, seeing that I shared a part of my life with you, why don't you enlighten me regarding something about you?" Riku questioned as he brought the cover over the piano keys. The silver-haired male then proceeded to lean his side against it.
"My life is boring," Sora grumbled stubbornly. "I'd bore you to death."
"You're either pissed or depressed," Riku stated with a chuckle. "Can't you find a happy medium?"
"Well, you're either all sensual or cocky," Sora argued.
"Sora… I wouldn't really use sensual," Riku tried to correct Sora. Does he even know what that words means? "Pensive would be a better word."
Sora frowned at his own mistake. "Oh fine, be cryptic."
Riku didn't even bother correcting Sora this time, because, in essence, he was quite mysterious. Therefore, Riku didn't waste his breath on suggesting another, and more fitting, adjective. Instead, he asked, "Gonna tell me something about yourself or not?"
Sora sighed, thinking that he had avoided the subject all together. "My best friend told the entire world that I was a flaming homosexual, in his words."
Riku was not expecting that. "He did that?"
"Yeah… right before school ended this year. I'm glad I graduated… at least now I won't have to face my classmates. It'd just be another reason for them to pick on me," Sora grumbled quite angrily.
"And you're still his friend?" Riku asked, obvious disbelief drenched in his smooth voice.
"Well, you're still friends with someone who broke your heart!" Sora said with satire in his own defense.
Riku chortled with mock amusement. In reality, he was laughing at the irony. "Are we that desperate to hold onto the friends that we have?"
Sora's anger faltered as he gave serious thought to what Riku had just said. "… I suppose."
"Other than Naminé, Cloud is my only real friend," Riku murmured honestly. "Losing Cloud would mean that I only had one true friend. And that'd just be pathetic."
"Well then, I'm pathetic," Sora replied desolately.
"And that only friend stabbed you in the back," Riku stated the obvious and then laughed again, shaking his head. "I'm surprised. We've both been stabbed in the back and yet we don't hold any ill will towards them. We really are desperate for human contact."
"…the kids at school hated me, Riku," Sora whispered with hurt echoing in his small voice. "They made fun of me, insulted me, and randomly beat me up… I never really bothered to tell Cloud because I didn't want him to make a big fuss over it and have them hate me even more."
"You let people boss you around?" Riku asked with surprise.
"I guess," Sora sighed. "That's why when I came here…. I told myself I wouldn't let myself be bossed around. So I tried to be rebellious, and look where that got me: in stupid fights with you."
"I see."
"I'm so pathetic," Sora confessed as he lowered his head, his hair falling off to the sides of his head as he hung his head low. "I've never had a real kiss or a girlfriend, or boyfriend for that fact. I let bullies push me around. I forgave Tidus for telling the world my only secret. And here I am, confiding in someone who probably could care less…"
Riku frowned at this. "You've kept all of this inside?"
"Who else could I tell? The kids at school would use it as fuel. Cloud, as I said, would try to protect me and that would get me into even more trouble… and Tidus just really was my friend because I was … I was always his friend so he figured we'd stay friends no matter what." Sora shut his eyes tightly, refusing to cry. Other than writing this in his diary, he had never brought up high-school.
"I may not be the greatest or moralist person in the world, but I've been told I'm a pretty good listener," Riku said with a reassuring smile. Hell, I was definitely too quick to judge him. This kid has more issues than I thought he did. He's a wreck…
Sora figured that Riku couldn't use this information against him, so he just continued in a ramble, hoping that getting it out would help him in the end. "I'm ugly and I don't have any special talents. I'm attracted to boys, and they never like me back… and I'm making my brother's life miserable."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," Riku murmured as he cautiously placed his hand on Sora's shoulder as a reassurance. "You're not ugly, you're beautiful." He wasn't aware of how strong his compliment was until after he had said it.
"Don't say that," Sora whispered hurtfully under his breath. "Lying makes it worse. Especially coming from a stranger."
"Sora," Riku reasoned as he turned the brunet so that they were facing one another on the bench. "You're beautiful. Beautifully broken, at that." Riku frowned when he saw a single tear leak from Sora's left eye. "You just had a hard life. I don't blame you for being so hard on yourself. But you…"
Why the hell am I telling him this? I'm no better. I've spent three years trying to forget what Cloud did to me. I've spent three years keeping to myself because I thought being left alone would help. And here I am, pretending to be a motivational speaker. God, I am such a hypocrite, Riku thought weakly, giving himself a headache. Why was it so easy to give advice and so hard to think of what to do for yourself?
"I'm sorry," Sora whispered as he pulled away from Riku's touch. "I didn't mean to randomly dump this on you. I'm sorry," Sora apologized again, shaking his head.
"Everyone needs to vent," Riku reasoned with a gentle smile as Sora's cloudy blue eyes opened. "It's not healthy to keep it in."
"You're not going to judge me because of this?" Sora questioned weakly, his voice straining to make words.
"No," Riku replied simply.
"Thank you, Riku," Sora whispered as Riku nodded slowly. "Can I… be alone for a few?" Sora requested as he bit his bottom lip. "I'll be fine in a bit… I just need some time to… think."
"Sure," Riku said as he arose from the bench, complying to the other's request. "I'll be out in the living room. If you need anything, just call for me." Sarcasm and empty flirtatious statements were not welcomed or needed right now, so Riku kept them to himself.
Maybe now that he got all that off his chest, he'll be able to make new friends…? Wait… am I going to be one?
This was going to be hard, Riku concluded mentally. Riku just didn't like people close to him. And that was that.
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"Cloud, are you feeling all right?"
Cloud groaned as he held his stomach. A stomach ache, no doubt. The blond was resting on his bed in the hotel. His usually tranquil blue eyes were now fastened shut in slight pain. The blond mumbled something under his breath as his brunet boyfriend took a seat on the bed beside him.
"Food poisoning?" Leon suggested dryly as he extended a hand to gingerly place it on top of the blond's.
"Maybe," Cloud answered in an exasperated sigh. "Does my phone have any missed calls?"
Leon reached over to snag Cloud's phone. With a quick flick of his wrist, he flipped the device open. Nothing was displayed on the screen so Leon rapidly shut it and placed it back where he had found it. "Not even one. You need to start relaxing. Your brother's fine."
"Leon…"
Leon was at once worried when he heard his name spoken with such desperation. "Cloud, what is it?"
"I'm worried that Riku's going to turn Sora against me," he confessed as he held his stomach. Perhaps this pain was caused by guilt and not bad seafood. That seemed like a logical reason.
"Why would he do something like that?" Leon drawled, as if uncertain what Cloud was getting at.
"Leon…" Cloud sighed and shut his eyes once more. "A few years ago I had sex with Riku. It was one of those, this means nothing, pure lust, sort of deals. But Riku took it seriously and wanted a relationship. I couldn't date him… I had no interest in him as a boyfriend. I broke his heart and I don't think he's forgiven me."
"But you remained friends?" Leon wondered with sincere curiosity.
"Surprisingly," Cloud answered with a wavering laugh.
"I'm sure Sora would understand that," Leon pointed out as he tilted his head to the side. "At least you didn't give Riku false hope and agree to date him. You would have hurt him more doing that."
"I know," Cloud replied. "That's why I told him the truth."
"Life's… quite complicated," Leon made known as he edged himself into a laying position beside the blond. Relaxed eyes looked over at Cloud as he interlaced their free hands together, as if to bring silent comfort to his worrying boyfriend. "Sora's your brother; nothing's going to change that. Stop worrying so much."
"I'm trying. And I'm doing a horrible job. Ha… I'm so pathetic," Cloud grumbled disgustedly. "I sound so whiny."
"Everyone worries," Leon said before craning his neck to capture Cloud's lips into a lingering kiss. "Some more than others," Leon murmured the words into the kiss as his arms encircled the slightly shorter of the pair.
Cloud's worries seemed to melt away. It was as if his brunet boyfriend was kissing away the anxiety. And right now, only this moment existed. Cloud smirked into the kiss, his free hand pulling Leon by his collar, closer. The kiss deepened, both having no intentions of stopping any time soon.
And thus, they continued.
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"Feeling any better?"
Sora gave a shaky nod as he took a seat beside Riku on the couch in the living room. Sora had remained in the small study-like room for half an hour, sorting out his troubling thoughts. Eventually, Sora mustered up the courage to talk to his friend again, hopefully about something other than their previous topic. Sora glanced shyly at Riku, noticing how different Riku seemed to be overall when he was being kind and not malicious.
"So, Sora, tell me…" Riku leaned his back against the couch and crossed his arms behind his head. "What's your favorite color?"
Sora blinked. "Green, why?"
"Just curious," Riku chuckled and shook his head. "You know, just trying to get to know you better."
"Oh," Sora said with a smile leaking onto his face. "What's yours?"
"Either grey or blue," Riku replied, as if he had answered this before. Perhaps he had. He wasn't quite sure. It didn't matter, though. As long as he was getting somewhere with the brunet.
"I like blue," Sora concurred as he smiled gently at the silver-haired male.
"Hm… Coffee or tea?"
"Coffee," Sora automatically said with a grin appearing on his features.
"I sort of like tea myself," Riku said with a thoughtful look. "Especially the raspberry white tea kind."
"I never tried it," Sora answered, scrunching his nose up at the thought of a white tea.
"It's good," Riku explained and closed his eyes. "Hm … beef or chicken?"
"That's a hard one," Sora responded with a laugh. "I'd have to say beef, though."
"Same," Riku concurred and then sat there for a long moment, not really in the mood to ask trite questions. "Wanna do anything today?"
"Like what?" Sora questioned, finding it oddly comforting to talk to Riku.
"Go out looking for hot guys?" Riku suggested, arching an eyebrow, despite the fact that he had his eyes closed. Riku was just talented like that, as Sora was discovering.
"Heh…" Sora blushed a bit and looked down at his feet. "I'll pass. I'm not looking for a relationship or a date."
"Same here, Sora. Same here," Riku said in way of amen. "Maybe one day, though. Right now they don't really interest me. I haven't met anyone that's worth giving it a swing at, with."
"Same," Sora agreed quietly. "Though … maybe if you weren't so cocky all the time you'd meet more people." Sora then stuck his tongue out at his new friend.
"Ouch. Did you just insult my personality? I'm offended, Sora. And here I thought that my cunning wit was quite a turn on."
Sora cleared his throat. "I'm…"
"You're?" Riku cracked an eye open and stared at the brunet beside him.
"I think that you're just a weirdo," Sora said and stuck his tongue out for the second time at Riku.
"And you're an immature brat. But know that I'm saying that with love," Riku said with a chuckle, rolling his eyes as exhaled. Sitting and talking like this was peaceful. It was like now that Sora had gotten that weight off his chest, the brunet was much more willing to have a mutual conversation. Riku liked that.
"Wanna go play an online game?" Sora suggested with a grin. "I bet I can kick your butt!"
"On, you're so on," Riku said, loving a challenge.
And that's how the rest of the day was spent. Online gaming and casual conversation. This could be, perhaps, the start of a beautiful friendship, as quoted from Casablanca. At least, the both hoped they would continue to get along.
It would make things a lot easier … right?
Thanks to all reviewers. Review please?